古今論者對傳世本《老子》三十二章「始制有名」一語主要提出了兩種詮釋：一是政治活動的詮釋，一是語言起源的詮釋。這兩種詮釋既言之成理，亦有很強的文本根據，無論循義理還是文獻的角度看，皆為可取的理解方式。有別於此，拙文嘗試指出，若扣住某些詞語如「始」、「有名」在《老子》中的特殊用法及相關文句段落，復結合晚近數十年來相繼重現人世的簡帛《老子》中的異文來看，我們或可將「始制有名」一語和老子之「無為」思想連繫起來進行理解，從而為「始制有名」提供一更合理、更融貫的詮釋。

In interpreting the phrase “shizhiyouming” in chapter 32 in the Laozi, almost all of the scholars from the past to present hold either a politic or a linguistic view, which are generally regarded as being so logical as well as textually rigid. However, this article attempts to argue that, by putting the phrase in the context of Laozi’s philosophy of wu-wei (action without acting), which at the same time connects with an investigation of special usage of some technical terms such as shi and you-ming, and with certain sentences occurred in different versions of Laozi mainly excavated from graves in the period between the warring states and Han dynasty in past several decades, it will be able to offer a new interpretation of what shizhiyouming means, an interpretation that is much more reasonable, and even coherent, than the two main perspectives mentioned above.