"said The Ancient Kao Examination

Shuo wen jie zi (Shuo wen for short) written by xu-Shen in the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220) is an academic masterpiece in the history of Chinese Philology. The book gradually lost its original feature by copying and engraving from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, so textual research for Shuo wen is an important field in the Qing Dynasty. Many scholars worked for it and many research works published for it. In so many works, Shuo Wen Gu Ben Kao (Gu Ben Kao for short)written by Shen-Tao (1792—1861) in the Qing Dynasty is a special work whose aim at recovering Shuo wen's original look. However, for a long time the evaluation on this book doesn't come to an agreement and is always in dispute in the academic field. This dissertation aims at further investigating Gu Ben Kao's right and wrong, merits and demerits. On the one hand, this study attempts to give Gu Ben Kao a objective evaluation and on the other hand, the study also attempts to make little contribution to the collation of Shuo wen jie zi by this opportunity. The dissertation is divided into five chapters.The first chapter is an introduction, including six segments. The first is Shen-Tao's life and learning, by outlining his life experience, introducing his teachers and his research interest, the author considers that Shen-Tao's Gu Ben Kao is a result of his teachers'effects and his personal hobby's effect. The second, Gu Ben Kao's writing background, by summarizing the academic atmosphere of textual research in the Period of Qianlong and Jiaqing, unfolding Gu Ben Kao's writing background, author also considers that Shen-Tao's Gu Ben Kao is a result of academic atmosphere at that time. The third is Gu Ben Kao's version and spreading. Author introduces many versions and spreading on Gu Ben Kao and at the same time author shows this dissertation's text. The forth is the review on predecessors'research. At first, the author considers that Gu Ben Kao is a disputed book by collecting predecessors'evaluation, and then the author affirms predecessors'research result. The fifth is the dissertation's research motivation, objective and method today. After evaluating predecessors'deficiency the author considers that if you want to evaluate Gu Ben Kao objectively more variant characters on Shuo wen should be used. On the basis of this understanding, the author points out that his research will adopt the method of combining textual research of literatures with character research. The sixth is data introduction to textual research of literatures. The author mainly introduces many data which couldn't be used by Shen-Tao in order to show this research is feasible.ChapterⅡ, the textual criticism of Gu Ben Kao, is the main part of this research and also the substance on which next chapters are based. This part aims at recovering Shuo wen's original look by investigating Gu Ben Kao's right and wrong, merits and demerits item by item on the basis of using many variant characters data which couldn't be used by Shen-Tao. Gu Ben Kao makes its textual criticism in note form, so in this chapter the textual criticism is made according to Gu Ben Kao's form. If relevant variant characters can be found the new note follow by Shen-Tao's and if not the text of Gu Ben Kao be copied directly.ChapterⅢ, an analysis of Gu Ben Kao's textual research regulations. On the basis of textual research, this chapter emphatically analyzes and evaluates Gu Ben Kao's textual research regulations in order to provide reference for Shuo wen's collation from now on. In this part,some regulations such as "zhuan wen lian zhu du"(篆文连注讀),"hu xun"(互训),"yi yue"(一曰),"yi zi"(逸字)are analyzed and evaluated and at the same time, some collation parlances such as "yi de Hang long"(義得两通),"hou ren ju jin ben gai "(後人據今本改)also are analyzed and evaluated.Chapter IV, Gu Ben Kao's study on Character relations of Shuo wen's variant characters. Gu Ben Kao had studied many Character relations of Shuo wen's variant characters, including "su ti zi"(俗體字),"bie ti zi"(別體字), "tong jia zi"(通假字)"gu jin zi"(古今字),"tong yong zi"(通用字)and "fan jian zi"(繁简字)On the one hand, Shen-Tao's aim of the study is for his collation, so his study is highly beneficial to Shuo wen's collation today and at the same time, his study can provide some references and guides to understand variant characters in ancient books and records. On the other hand, Shen -Tao's study expressed his opinion to thought of philology and also has its certain philology value.Chapter V, some other discusses. Including two aspects, at first making an overall evaluation on Shuo Wen Gu Ben Kao, the paper considers Gu Ben Kao has its advantages and also has some disadvantages. Its citation of Shuo Wen's variant characters is abundant, so its literature value is obvious. The study abides by regulations and some results are correct. Accordingly, its disadvantages are also obvious. Because of not checking citation and stickling regulations, mistakes are made. The second aspect, the paper summarizes some attentive problems for Shuo wen's collation by variant characters. Collating Shuo wen with variant characters should understand literatures'style at first and make effort to grasp allover contents on one book, after comparing and analyzing numerous and complicated characters decide the variant character which tally with original feature of books. When there is no way to judge what is right characters the question should be left open but not judge constrainedly.