摘 要：古代中国思想主张文明与政治秩序是圣人有意制作的结果，太平的达成，也有赖于圣人改制。但孔子有德而无位，未能身致太平，以及王莽有圣人之名而改制失败，都让儒者开始怀疑圣人改制致太平观念。中唐时期，柳宗元主张封建秩序是自下而上自发演化而成的，与圣人无关，且非圣人所欲。这威胁到了封建的典范性，但唐宋以降，理学家仍隐蔽地接受了柳宗元的观点，默认圣人只能因循世运。这意味着圣人改制论的衰落与文明演化论的兴起。晚清今文学的素王改制论，更多受西方基督教思想影响，而进化论甫一传入即引发巨大影响，一个原因即是唐宋以降中国思想本身已趋向于文明演化论。
关键词：圣人改制；文明演化；柳宗元；理学
From Creation to Evolution：The Decline of Sage Reformation Theory and the Rise of Civilizational Evolution Theory Since the Tang and Song Dynasties
Gao Bo
Abstract: Ancient Chinese thoughts advocated that civilization and political order were the intentional creations of sages, and the achievement of the great peace also depended on the reformation of sages. While Confucius had virtue but no position, failed to achieve the great peace, and Wang Mang failed to reform under the name of a sage, all of which made Confucians begin to doubt the concept of sage reformation leading to the great peace. During the Middle Tang Dynasty, Liu Zongyuan advocated for the spontaneous evolution of feudal order from bottom to top, which had nothing to do with sages and was not desired by them. This threatened the exemplary nature of feudalism, but since the Tang and Song dynasties, Neo Confucianism scholars have secretly accepted Liu Zongyuan's viewpoint, assuming that sages can only follow the fate of the world, which means the decline of the sage reformation theory and the rise of the civilizational evolution theory. The theory of emperors of populace’s reformation in the Up-to-date Classic Writing Study in late Qing is more influenced by western Christian thought, and the theory of evolution has had a huge impact since it was introduced to China, one reason is that the theory of civilizational evolution has spread in China since the Tang and Song dynasties.
Key words: Sage reformation, Civilizational evolution, Liu Zongyuan, Neo-Confucianism