A Study On Wang Kai-yun's Thought Of His Studies Of The Spring And Autumn

The thought of learning appeared the currents of Han learning declining and the inosculating of Han learning and Song learning and Western learning to orient owing to the changing of Chinese traditional culture of learning and society after the Qianlong and Jiaqing periods. Thus another learning treadency of"JingShiZhiYong"(经世致用) rose quickly and vigorously. Its purpose was that scholars had rebuilt national culture for saving the nation from extinction and enriching the nation. Without question, the revival of the New Classic Learning that initiated from the Changzhou School during the late Qing Dynasty had provided academic guidance for traditional intellectual's studies and politics. Wang Kai-yun whose studies of the Chinese classics especially the Spring and the Autumn Annals played an important role in the changes of learning thought during the late Qing was a famous scholar in the native place of Hunan province. He expatiated on a lot classical books and written nineteen pieces of the Chinese classics (discovered up to the present). He studied in the Chinese classics mainly on the Spring and Autumn Annals and followed toward Gong-Yang School, advocated the opinion of "Notifying and Applying Ancient Classics", and he devoted all his life in the Chinese Classics interpretation and education, and both studies of Confucian classic and politics were his concerns of life. Therefore, we shouldn't forget that Wang Kai-yun played the role of a Confucian classics scholar.This paper mainly discusses the thought of Wang Kai-yun' s studies in the Spring and Autumn Annals. Based on some studies and explanations of the Wang Kai-yun' s Confucian classic books, this paper talks the changes of learning thought during the late Qing and all his life as the entrance, first discusses his basic attitude upon the Spring and Autumn Annals and "Three Zhuan(传)"(Zuo-Zhuan,Gong-Yang-Zhuan and Gu-Liang-Zhuan). Then, it takes his three pieces of literature about the Spring and Autumn Annals as the center and takes the text-unscrambling as a point of view, to analyze his characteristic of classics unscrambling and the trend of his thought much more entirely and deeply. The main thought and the Yili(义理) keystone of his annotation upon the classics and Zhuan in the Spring and Autumn Annals in were concluded,discussed and reflected finally. Discussed with the main line of his characteristic of classics unscrambling and his trend of thought, this paper took the comparison that went through in length and breadth, to find out the inner logistic venation of Studies of the Spring and Autumn Annals and moreover to open out the sense in the learning history and the historical value.Being traditional clerisy, Wang Kai-yun was very active in the pragmatism and society. He still believed that the Chinese classic literatures could be active in society, namely, Five classics could cause a good political situation and the Spring and Autumn Annals could get rid of disorder. Therefore he called for the theory of "Notifying and Applying Ancient Classics". In the late Qing, he became much aware of the change of the society, which was very different from the ideal that classical sage wanted to seek for, so he knew that the urgent affair was that they must get rid of disorder and turn to a right direction. The function of"Applying Ancient Classics"in the Spring and Autumn Annals was regarded highly, and he thought that it was a"classic"rather than"history", and"sense"instead of"things"existed. Moreover, he thought that among the"Three Zhuan", Gong-Yang-Zhuan was suited most to the sublime words with deep meaning of the Spring and Autumn Annals, Gu-Liang-Zhuan could build up the"sense"according to it, and Zuo-Zhuan was a book that kept a record of events.Gu-Liang-Shenyi is his first monograph about his Studies of the Spring and Autumn Annals. It was the consciousness upon the study followed by the book Gong-Yang-Zhuan and the opinion of"Notifying and Applying Ancient Classics"that reflected his early characteristic upon his studies. Especially what proposition he brought forward in the book——Gong and Gu were"different might as well"and"no harmful to theory", is more likely to be treated as the theory mean that he carried through the lections after, though it seems that it protected the lection annotation for that book. This meaning can be well displayed in his following two pieces of literature. He broadened the ranges of lection explaining, brought forward some attitudes that were different form what He Xiu's book Jie Gu wanted to hold, and sometimes oppugned the legends in the book Gong-Yang-Zhuan, even treated his own opinions as right sometimes. It clearly displayed that he preferred to abandon the legends for getting and regressing the original lection. And this situation had been almost verified in his continuous modifying to Chun Qiu Lie biao(《春秋例表》) in his old age. That way had make influence to Liao Pin and Kan You-wei's way to lection studies and thoughts of being doubtful to ancient Chinese classics. Get to the bottom of it, besides that Wang Kai-yun absolutely accepted the Spring and Autumn Annals and that his experiences of learning and his style of the inosculating of Han learning and Song learning and his style of without division between nowadays and ancient days, there was something to do with the stimulation that the current political situation brought to him. In addition, he was diligent to seek the way that the studies of Gong-Yang used"case"to give definition to lection, and especially he paid much attention to use"season-month-day cases"to exert the sublime words with meaning of the Spring and Autumn Annals. Therefore, he didn't care too much about the current or ancient Chinese literature and the debate between Han learning and Song learning in the history of the studies to the Chinese classics, and he neither paid much attention to the annotation of the studies of the Spring and Autumn Annals in the past dynasties, he just discussed freely——"chapter and verse"and"members are explanations of words in ancient books". But it still could be considered that, though Wang Kai-yun was a scholar standing between the lection junta and the political comment junta, he laid particular stress on the former in the studies of Chinese classics during the late Qing Dynasty. The same conclusion could be proved by his two other recently-discovered books of the studies to Chinese classics.Through the analyses to the characteristic of Wang Kai-yun's study in the Spring and Autumn Annals, this paper tries to figure out that his Yili keystones in the unscrambling of the Spring and Autumn Annals were"Wang Lu Saying","Three Generation Saying"and"Yi-Xia Distinction Saying". These three factors, he theory of"Notifying and Applying Ancient Classics",the thought of society evolution in proper sequence and the ideal of peaceful world in the future, related tightly together to compose the logical venation and the whole frame of his thought. In his opinion,"Notifying Ancient Classics"was armed to"Social Practice", and"Society Practice"should be begun with"self-Administration", and"self-Administration"could be understand by two angles——taking oneself to justice one person inside and guiding wildness men outside, both of which finally were unified into"Rite". For further he thought that "self-Administration" couldn't accomplish in a moment, but a slow process to move forward in proper sequence. Therefore he advocated the opinion of"politicizing in proper sequence"and"learning outside of China to orient in proper sequence". Without that the society couldn't be humorous and the world couldn't be peaceful. Thus it can be seen that, the three facets of his thought to the studies of the Spring and Autumn Annals are in a whole of interrelation: the thought of "Notifying and Applying Ancient Classics" is what his thought started, the thought of society evolution in proper sequence is what way that the thought of "Notifying and Applying Ancient Classics" achieves to, and the world being in peace is the end-result of his thought of "Notifying and Applying Ancient Classics". By all appearances, that kind of thought that focused too much in the traditional culture resources reflected the struggle of traditional scholars and the changeable current political situation. But in the choices between tradition and modernity, what was the same with other scholars in the late Qing is that his thought of studies of the Spring and Autumn Annals also got into the inevasible culture trap. That is to say, they reached the same goal by different ways.