| The study of Shang Shu is in fact the hermeneutics of Shang Shu in the Zhou and Qin periods. It includes not only the annotation of Shang Shu made by the people in the Zhou and Qin periods, but also the re-annotation made by the contemporaries to the annotation in the Zhou and Qin periods. Without the effort made by the people in the Zhou and Qin periods, Shang Shu could have been no more than a pile of unintelligible documents; without the effort made by the contemporary scholars, the important role played by Shang Shu in the flux of the Zhou and Qin periods could have been lost, and the classification process of Shang Shu could never have been fully known.Shang Shu and the study of it can be traced back to the Zhou and Qin periods, which has been considered as the incontrovertible truth. However, the long-lasting secular idea that many sections and chapters of Shang Shu are written by the later generations has made people doubt and negate the value and development of the book. And then it has made the classics in Shu and the ways and thoughts of annotation become water without a source. The purpose of our research into the study of Shang Shu is to deal with various annotations in the Zhou and Qin periods and to make a thorough review of them. We do not deny the previous researches made by many other scholars, and we do not deny the embarrassing fact that most of the data about the study of Shang Shu are scattered.Shang Shu becomes classical in the process of continuous annotations. Guided by the principle of"statement without practice,"quotation, annotation and application of Shang Shu were always the custom popular among the middle and upper classes. Sometimes they quoted the Shang Shu in the court; sometimes they explained it in the questioning and answering between teachers and students; sometimes they applied it in writings; sometimes they selected and deleted the documents of it and created many means of annotation and presented multi-directional forms of annotation. The study of Shang Shu in the times of the contention among the Hundred Schools of Thought was only at a negative stage in the classical development of Shang Shu. And it is the re-annotation of the traditional study of Shang Shu made by the Hundred Schools of Thought on the basis of rationalism and in the spirit of humanism. The tradition of applying Shang Shu in compliment, teaching a lesson and instruction has settled the keynote of the development of the study of Shang Shu. And the study of the book in the Han dynasty is only the outcome of the selection and annotation made by the Confucians, living in the Spring and Autumn and the Warring States Periods and the Qin and Han periods, who aimed to annotate the original meaning of Shang Shu and the Confucianism and to safeguard the orthodox views and values.The study of Shang Shu in the Zhou and Qin periods should begin with a particular review and analysis of the scattered data. Our research into the Shang Shu in the Zhou and Qin periods is in fact the re-annotation of these data; and all the arguments presented in this dissertation are founded on the solid documents. This dissertation first puts emphasis on the literature and documents, and makes a full review and analysis to the information of the conceptualized and the shaped Shang Shu in the unearthed and ancient documents. And then the research on the development of Shu is larded with the review and analysis of the quoted documents, and the whole interpretation of the study of Shang Shu or the annotation of Shang Shu is larded with conclusions of the review and analysis of the book.The compilation and the edition of Shang Shu in the Zhou and Qin periods experienced a long and complex process. Shang Shu is not written by one person at a certain time. It has been edited and amended several times. The main body of Shang Shu was edited by the specialists in historiography who lived from the early to the late Western Zhou dynasty and who preferred to learn from the Shang dynasty. And Shang Shu characterized as"for speech"coexisted with"Odes,""Rites"and"Music"in the Spring and Autumn Periods. In Zuo Zhuan, Zhao Shuai, living in Jin State in the 27th year of Duke Lu xi, had once mentioned"Odes, Shu, Rites and Music"which were also mentioned by Duck Qin Mu in Qin Commentary Section of the Historical Records. These records show that the popularity of"Odes, Shu, Rites and Music"is earlier than the time that Zhao Shuai lived. Since the literature styles and formulas were not mature until the middle and late Western Zhou dynasty, the earliest edition of Shu might have been the outcome of the efforts made by the specialists in historiography in the end of the Western Zhou dynasty who collected the previous data and learned from the history. Shu was not exclusive after the first edition. The popular latter Shang Shu is shaped after the edition and polish of the Confucians during a long period.The development of the study of Shang Shu covered various stages in the Zhou and Qin periods which are critical to the elementary articles and documents kept in Shu and which are also important to the initial formation of various influential ideas about the study of Shu. The tradition of making use of Shu to compliment the policy, teach a lesson, instruct students and record the history has already come into being. In the Warring States, the supportive and the disapproval school of Shu repelled each other and developed together. The study of Shang Shu in the Zhou and Qin periods developed and functioned at various stages and periods in history. The specialists in the Western Zhou dynasty wrote Shu and made use of it as a tool of compliment; Le Zheng rearranged Shu and settled the tradition of making use of it to educate scholars; the gentry classes in the Spring and Autumn Period quoted documents in Shu as lessons and Confucius and the latter scholars argued the importance of Shu; the scholars in the early Warring States period made use of Shu to participate and discuss the government affairs; the scholars in the early Qin dynasty made use of Shu to intervene the government affairs; and Emperor Qin Shi Huang prohibited the study of Shu and only allowed doctors to keep Shu for consultation. It can be concluded that the study of Shang Shu experienced four successive and intersectional categories of specialists'study, aristocrats'study, scholars'study and doctors'study in Qin dynasty successively.The pre-Qin Confucianism about the study of Shu is the core of the annotation of Shang Shu in the Zhou and Qin periods. Many thoughts of the initial Confucianism originated from the reflection of Shu, and they inherited and developed the national spirit presented in Shu. So it can be concluded that Shu is one of the most important origins of the Confucianism and the Confucians really have done profound reflection and collation of Shu in their own interests. Confucius developed his thoughts in the process of absorbing, editing, instructing and quoting the thoughts in Shu. Meanwhile, all of his efforts settled down the keynote of the direction of Confucianism's study of Shu. The carved lacquer helped to spread Confucius's initial thoughts of Shu in Cai State and Zi Zhang transmitted the Confucius's later thoughts of Shu in Chen State. And both of them became the centers to spread Confucius's thoughts of Shu in the south. In the north, Zi Xia in Wei State, and Zi Si in Lu State also transmitted Confucius's latter thoughts of Shu respectively. That Mencius and his students did write a preface to Shu, is another important event to make Shang Shu Confucianism after the efforts made by Confucius. To some large extend, Mencius's thoughts of Shu were influenced the style of study in Qi State which can be best shown by the skepticism that Shu does not always provide right answers to everything. Xun Zi was the key man in the transition of the isolated studies of Shu in the early Qin dynasty to the systematic and classical studies of Shu in Han dynasty. On the one hand, he inherited the traditions of Confucianism which respect Shu and made Shu become the classics, on the other hand, he integrated and developed reflections made by Hundred Schools of Thought, and put forward many creative opinions such as"sometimes the documents in Shu are impractical and unreasonable,""the students should honor the rituals and rites and belittle Shi and Shu"and so on.The thoughts of Shu presented by other schools except Confucianism are also important contents of the annotation of Shang Shu in the Zhou and Qin periods. Though Mo-tse, the representative of other schools, also inherited the traditions in the Spring and Autumn Period to quote documents in Shu as arguments, he preferred to treat Shu as historical records rather than put emphasis on its moralization. And Mo-tse became the pioneer who started to reflect on the adoration to Shang Shu. Taoism annotated Shu with the guidance of nihilism which considered that Shu cannot express all the intended meanings clearly. Taoism treated Shu with a passive and negative attitude. Legalism annotated Shu with the guidance of thoroughgoing utilitarianism with a radical, extreme and negative attitude.The Qin dynasty is at the transitional point when the style of the study of Shang Shu was about to change. The policies enforced by Emperor Qin Shi Huang to burn Shu and forbid the study of Shu almost ruined the prosperous study of Shang Shu in the pre-Qin periods, which caused irreparable loss to the study of Shu. More importantly, the study of Shang Shu in Qin dynasty was not only the inevitable sequence of the competition and development of the supportive and negative thoughts of Shu, but also the activator and preparation to the classical study of Shang Shu in Han dynasty. From the fatality standpoint, the scholars in Qin dynasty who studied Shang Shu accelerated the improvement of the study of Shang Shu which was transited to praise the present in the name of Shu in the fields of the determination of the name of the emperor and the religious activities.Shang Shu played an important role in the early literature history and the creation of literature theories. The production of the documents in Shu in the Western Zhou period was the important symbol for the materiality of Chinese essays, and it became the mainstream in the development of ancient fact literature. The articles in Shu, which always remained the mainstream in the ideas of pre-Qin issues and the creation of essays, have exerted an important influence on essays in the form of quotes, political essays and historical essays. Moreover, both the artistic ideas of Shang Shu itself and the series of artistic ideas formed in the process of annotation made by the Confucians in Zhou and Qin periods had once been the core in the creation of Chinese ancient literature theories.
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