Revisiting Qian Daxin's Academic,Spiritual And Living World

Confucianism centers on fostering moral virtues and revisiting classic works.The heyday of wendao(???)in Confucianism came along with the rising of Qianjia textology in the Qing Dynasty.Unlike Confucians in the Song and Qing Dynasties,who were obsessed in metaphysics,Qianjia textologists were aimed to obtain the objective knowledge from the empirical world,so they regarded shishiqiushi(????)as their highest principle.Though sharing the same pursuit,each of them had their own definitions of Shi and attitudes towards its objectivity,but all guided by the Confucian beliefs to which they adhered.So Qianjia textology is not merely the evolution of research methodology,but also the embodiment of Confucian beliefs.We may consider this combination of beliefs,values and methods as a paradigm(??).The paradigm of Qianjia textology combines Confucian beliefs and values such as hangjingudai(????),liujingzaidao(????).with the research methods of textology,as is required by the principle of shishiqiushi.Judging from the level of Shi's objectivity,Qianjia textology can be divided into three successive phases:the Han-Learning School,studies of Confucian classics,historical researches of Qian Daxin and Zhang Xuecheng.It is important to note that the complete paradigm of historical researches only exists in logic thinking;In reality,however,the theory of Zhang Xuecheng's liujingjieshi(????)and the practice of Qian Daxin's historical textology went their separated ways,which means historical textology made little progress in the third phase.So it can be concluded that the study of Qianjia textology is a dynamic developing process,the three phases of which Qian Daxin just went through completely.Qian's academic journey is the epitome of Qianjia studies.Through his interactions with Hui,Dai and Zhang,we may gain an overview of Qianjia textology.Therefore,the three phases mentioned above will be elaborated on the basis of Qian's academic activities.Meanwhile,the development of textology never runs smoothly.There were always twists and turns during the whole process,which is caused by the tensions and contradictions between textology and Confucianism,or,more precisely,between the methodology of textology and the Confucian beliefs.So there have to be hesitations and doubts among textologists like Qian Daxin.Aiming at explaining this phenomenon,we have to take a step forward to explore Qian Daxin's spiritual and living world,and to decode what he thought and went through.Qian Daxin's academic achievements were mainly within the field of textology.Confined by the confucian belief dao(?),he had no choice but to resign himself to the moral principles.As a textologist,Qian Daxin belongs to the academic field of shi(?),instead of jing(?),so he faced the conflicts between the pursuit of shi(?)and the belief of liujingzaidao(????)· The resolution he took was to seek a middle ground between these two ends in his spiritual world.This dilemma also existed in his living world.One of the most distinguishing features of textology is respecting knowledge,and Qian Daxin himself also regarded the pursuit of knowledge as his destiny.Even though bound by the shackles of two confucian traditions,zuidengxing(???)and jingshizhiyong(????),Qian Daxin along with other textologists no longer had to pursue knowledge for any practical goals.They pursued knowledge for its own sake.In conclusion,Qian Daxin was like a professor of modern times while devoted himself to the traditional beliefs of weidao(??).That splits his life apart.From his neutral spiritual world and divided living world,it can be found that reverses of Qianjia academy and textological studies are unavoidable.This is just like a general rule of a chess game,namely,wan(?)moving within while always enclosed by pan(?).