A Study Of Lv Zuqian’s Contributions To Philology

Lv Zuqian is one of the most influential scholars in the eras of Qiandao and Chunxi of the Southern Song Dynasty. He is knowledgeable and productive, with millions of words as works in his whole45-year life. His thoughts have also been very influential so far. Probably only Zhu Xi can be comparable to him then.This thesis summarises the characteristics of Lv’s study on Philology and also evaluates his achievements, by observing Lv’s relevant research activities. So it can be divided into four chapters:Chapter1analyses the influence of family learning upon Lv’s works and thoughts by studying the traits of the Lv family. The Lv’s family has a strong tradition in making contributions to scholarships, covering many fields such as literature, history studies and philosophy. For Lv Zuqian himself, he inherited the philosophy and methodology of his Family Learning, and made great achievement by combining historical studies with literature and the Confucian classics. The other trait of his family learning is to absorb knowledge from different schools, thus helping to broaden Lv Zuqian’s own horizon.Chapter2mainly examines Lv’s achievement in hermeneutics of the Confucian classics as well as related traits. The main focus of this chapter is on the book Du Shi Ji. Firstly, it reviews how this book was written and became popular, analyses its main purpose/academic background/origins, as well as summarises his contributions to the annotation style. By using textual analysis, this chapter shows Lv’s achievements in character annotations, investigations of naming system, as well as interpretations of poems. The book Du Shi Ji can be comparable to Classic of Poetry, playing a vital role in the history of scholarships.Chapter3investigates Lv’s contribution to the literature compilation-which can be seen as an indication of his academic objectives. It also shows how Lv made contributions to the development and communication of scholarly cultures in the Southern Song Dynasty. The book Da Shi Ji, for example, is one of his compilations in historical studies. This chapter fully examines the style, origins and achievements of this book, as well as its methodology used in historical studies. Chapter4evaluates Lv’s role in the development of Philology from the perspective of academic history. It compares his achievements with that of Zhu Xi, in terms of1) the annotations of Classic of Poetry and2) the literation compilation.