The Study Of Su Yu' Chunqiu Fanlu Yizheng

Changzhou Gongyang School was fond of using Confucius classics politically, and Kang Youwei gave strained interpretations by adding western political ideas"equality"and"civil right"to used them as a theoretical base for reforming movement. Wang Xianqian and Ye Dehui had opposed thoughts of Kang and Liang in the 1898 Reform Movements, however, it is the book Chunqiu Fanlu Yizheng, has thoroughly and really opposed their thoughts on the basis of academic theory.Chunqiu Fanlu Yizheng, achieved a lot tremendously in classical study, could be regarded as the master book in the Qing Dynasty on the study of Chunqiu Fanlu. It returned to the true color of Dong's thoughts and made a historical and faithful textual research on different versions of Chunqiu Fanlu. However, it's not total negation of Changzhou School, rather he managed to absorb and quote their ideas reasonably. The book has conspicuous features of study for Confucius classics that obsorbed other excellent thoughts, both Guwen and Jinwen views about Confucius School, both Hanxue and Songxue, both Books for Confucius school and Books for Wei, if reasonable and fair, were all obsorbed. Though Su believed that there are same principles between Jinwen and Guwen, he emphasized on the use of Gongyang Study and applied Guwen occasionally. However, he did not copy but reasonably analyzed their thoughts, criticized Guwen , and commented Changzhou Jinwen properly. He collated version of the book revealed that it contained in it all the versions that could be seen at that time and gave a good or bad contextual analysis, thus this book, indeed, is"the most complete work"that we had ever seen.Chunqiu Fanlu Yizheng has conspicuous trace of Ritual. The book writes that The Spring and Autumn Annals originates from Ritual, which is a criterion of right and wrong and benevolence is the basis of establishing and practicing Ritual. It also deems that Ritual is used to suppress people's greed, and when it fails, and then law comes out to impose it coercively, so Ritual and law is not contradictory. Like Kang's opinion in Dong Zhong-shu s Study of Spring-Autumn, the book proposes that the biggest ritual for the emperor is to reform. As for the particular contents and purposes of reform, their ideas vary a lot. Su thinks that reform is just to conform destiny and tell the masses that dynasty has changed, which means that calendar and dressing are changed and was not concerned about"Reform Under the Cover of Antiquity" and"the Uncrowned King's Reform". Whereas Kang holds that reform, which is connected with political institution, is to give civil rights, to establish constitutional monarchy, to overthrow traditional moral principle.What we also need to see is the influence of social environment and personal experience. Su's classical interpretation is not perfect. Effected by Gongyang scholars, his interpretation of classics is inevitably strained. In addition, he scrupulously abides by the moral principles as the three cardinal guides and the five constant virtues, which is out of time.However, we couldn't judge that Su is culturally conservative and totally opposed to Kang. In Chunqiu Fanlu Yizheng there lies rich reforming thoughts, and he believes that reform, suitable to morals, institutions and times, begins materially and promotes gradually. Historically speaking, his reforming thoughts are more likely to tally with actual situation and more reasonable and careful.