Studies Of The Four Books Literature In The Republic Of China

The Four books, e. the Great Learning,the Mean of Doctrine,the Analects ofConfucius,the Mencius, went a long way from being existent as individual texts tobeing collected,noted and published together in one book. During the long journey inMiddle Ages and modern China till being removed from official philosophy, its riseand fall played an important role together with other parts of the culture in thevariegated historical course of the evolutional process of civilization.As a crucial period of the traditional culture's change in succession in modern times,culture of the Republic of China containing cultures of domestic and foreign, ancienttimes and nowadays, were carrying forward the old on one side and inaugurating thenew on the other side. The philology ,as an important branch of this, also showed sucha characteristic which can be seen among the catalogue,the distinguishing betweentruth and falsehood and the research of literature. It can also be seen from the seekingback and discovery of some rarely books. A new stream of research was brought intobeing in the help of newly found sources of the discovery of DunHuang SIBU Booksand rarely books'seeking back from Japan which had disappeared a long time inChina.Coming to look a little more concretely, while Qing Shi Gao Yi Wen Zhi compiledduring the Republic of China followed the same traditional categorized method asMing Shi Yi Wen Zhi and Si Ku Quan Shu Zong Mu since Qing Dynasty, the later XuXiu Si Ku Quan Shu Zong Mu divided the Four Books kind into five specific genera of"the Analects of Confucius","the Mencius","the Great Learning","the Mean ofDoctrine"and "ZongYi", reflecting the new development in book's classifying.Judging from sources of that time, it is found that this kind of classification shouldhave been influenced by categorized methods of Japan's academic circles.The distinguishing between truth and falsehood of the Four Books in the Republicof China, a succession of the Qing Dynasty's, had put its logic starting point on it bothin content and methods. People's emphasizing of Cuishu's achievement in theAnalects of Confucius and the mass existence of the phenomenon of distinguishingfrom different standpoint of Study of Confucian classics were its visible exhibition.Among the distinguishing in the Republic of China, both the remains of New TextConfucianism and Old Text Confucianism included, the activities of the Ancienthistory Conforming School best represented the new characteristic of this in thatperiod, which acted as an explanation of the Four Books transforming from Jing toShi and Zi.