荀子生卒年新考--以“生命活跃期”为视角

摘要

由于荀子生平资料较少且矛盾较多，不少学者通过调和各条材料的关系来考订荀子的生卒年，从而得出荀子“高寿”的结论。这种方法是有问题的。跳出“调和式”考证的藩篱，从“生命活跃期”这一视角出发，应该能够得出更为妥善的结论。通过五条较为可靠的材料，证明荀子的生命活跃期在前266年左右，而从《史记》本传所载的荀子于齐襄王时以五十之年游齐，得出荀子于前266年在49—63岁之间，与一个人生命活跃的年岁符合。以此为基点，可以证明《盐铁论》关于愍王末年“孙卿适楚”、《韩非子》关于“燕子哙贤子之而非孙卿”的记载都不可信。最后，可以大致推定，荀子生年约在前328—前314年间，卒年约在前238年或稍后，寿约77—91岁。%The data about Xunzi’s life is very few and confused, so scholars have to reconcile the material to study Xunzi ’s birth and death, from which they made the conclusion that Xunzi had a very long life. This method has some problems. Jumping out of the“reconciling method”, from the“active life period”, we may make more reasonable conclusion. Depending on five data we can know the “active life period”of Xunzi is about 266 BC;furtherly, from related record of shih chi, which said Xunzi went to Qiguo at fifty, we know Xunzi was about 49-63 years old at 266 BC, which is consistence with his “active life period”. From that basis, we can prove than the related record of Yantielun and Hanfeizi are unbelievable. At last, we can know that Xunzi ’s birth was about between 328 BC and 314 BC., and the death was about 238 BC or few later, total life about 77-91 years old.