Reinterpreting The Kang Gao,Jiu Gao And Zi Cai Chapters Of The Shang Shu In Light Of Excavated Texts

This thesis,focusing on the Kang gao,Jiu gao and Zi cai chapters of the Shang shu,tries to reinterpret certain characters and words and discuss the punctuation of certain sections in the text of these three chapters based on materials gleaned from both received and excavated early Chinese texts.In doing so,to gain a more reliable text of these chapters and make it more understandable to scholars who need it for further research.This study consists of three parts.The first part,i.e.the introduction,includes a brief review of the research history of Shang shu's exegesis,an introduction to these three chapters and several examples of former scholars' research of this kind.The second part,which includes the first to the third chapters,is new interpretations of certain characters and words and new punctuation of certain sections of the text based on both detailed analysis of former scholarship and information gleaned from received and unearthed materials.More than twenty words and sections are offered new interpretations,and new punctuation are given to several sections.The third part,i.e.the conclusion,summarizes main research findings of this thesis.In addition,the appendix provides revised text of these three chapters.This study abides by those rules and principles governing the fields of traditional Chinese textual criticism,exegesis of Chinese classics,phonology,paleography,study of excavated manuscripts,and so on.All the extant studies on this subject have been collected and referenced clearly.Relevant materials from other pre-Han texts are regularly used to compare with the studied object.As the first step of a larger project of reinterpreting the transmitted Shang shu in light of unearthed documents,this study is done with the intention of not only promoting the understanding of the text of these three chapters,but also providing an example of conducting new study of old classics based on both received and excavated early Chinese texts,especially the latter which has not been available before.