The Achievement And Deficiencies Of Koko Takezoe’s Zuo Shi Hui Jian

In researching the history of scholarship on Confucian canonical works, scholars have long conducted research into The Zuo Commentary, as it is one of the Confucian classics. This thesis has selected Zuo Shi Hui Jian, compiled by Japanese sinologist Koko Takezoe, as its special research topic, focusing on the annotative portion of that work, with a particular focus on the achievement and deficiencies of its exegetical interpretations.Takezoe selected the Kanazawa Bunko edition of Chunqiu Jingzhuan Jijie as his working master copy. This edition of Chunqiu Jingzhuan Jijie is a Sui and Tang Dynasty scroll manuscript edition of The Zuo Commentary transmitted to Japan during the Tang Dynasty; it is also the oldest and the most complete version of The Zuo Commentary existing in the world. Takezoe also used many other texts, such as four kinds of Song Dynasty block printed editions of The Zuo Commentary, the Tang Dynasty Shijing, and the Jing Dian Shi Wen, to emend the scroll manuscript edition. In this way, not only did he refine the Sui and Tang scroll manuscript edition into an edition of superior quality, he also produced a more reliable edition of The Zuo Commentary. This thesis organizes and examines the emendation notes written by Takezoe, attempting to extrapolate the emendation values and emendation methods of Zuo Shi Hui Jian, and thereby observe Takezoe’s achievement in producing The Zuo Commentary. This is the content of the first chapter.Takezoe was among the set of Japanese scholars strongly influenced by the academic style of the Qian Jia Textual School, and so the traces of Qian Jia scholars’ simple textual criticism can be observed in the exegetical interpretation method Takezoe used in his annotations. Therefore, using Takezoe’s annotations as a basis, this thesis attempts to extrapolate the special qualities of Takezoe’s exegetical interpretation method from his exegetical interpretations of words and analyses of sentences. In respect to the exegetical interpretation of words, Takezoe focuses on using the pictographic form of words and their phonology to determine their semantic meanings, as well as distinguishing between different semantic meanings, to reveal the content of characters and words. Takezoe’s method is scientific, and even engages the concept of shizi huoyong (literally,"the flexible use of the notional word"). His methods can be said to have greatly benefited the modern study of the history of Chinese grammar. As regards the analysis of sentences, besides the methods used by previous Confucian scholars of determining sentence and phrase endings in a given text and differentiating function words, Takezoe also distinguishes between different sentence types, interprets the meaning of sentences, and expounds the rhetorical significance and diction of sentences, making his sentence analyses unique. Therefore, through analyzing Zuo Shi Hui Jian, it is possible to observe the influence of Qing Dynasty Confucian scholastic research methods on extraterritorial scholars, specifically demonstrating that Takezoe’s exegetical interpretation method developed from the soil of Qing Dynasty Confucian scholarship. This has great significance as a reference concept for research into Chinese and Japanese scholarship of Confucian canonical works. This is the content of chapter two.As Zuo Shi Hui Jian is an important academic book for research into The Zuo Commentary and extraterritorial sinology, this thesis will focus on an analysis of its "nearly true" exegetical interpretations. The scroll manuscript edition of The Zuo Commentary selected by Takezoe only includes the text of The Spring and Autumn Annals, The Zuo Commentary, and Du Yu’s Notes, so Takezoe annotated the text of the Annals, the Commentary, and the Annotations separately, with his annotations being located directly beside the text on which they comment. In form, Takezoe’s annotations looks similar to Tang Confucian scholars’ Zheng Yi, but the difference is that Tang scholars often tend toward a pattern of shu bu po zhu (i.e., to strive for consistency with previous annotations), but Takezoe’s annotations are less are more critical. Where he believes Yu’s Annotations are not mistaken, he affirms them, and where he believes Yu’s Annotations are problematic, he contravenes the existing annotation and offers a new explanation. At the same time, Takezoe excels at discovering problems in places unsuspected by his predecessors, and he attempts to resolve the problems by citing extensive sources. In view of this, this thesis attempts to conclude that Takezoe breaks away from the content of Yu’s Annotations, and then evaluates the status of Takezoe’s exegetical interpretations as being "nearly true." This is the content of chapter three.Despite its achievements, Takezoe’s Zuo Shi Hui Jian exhibits shortcomings. Although its defects do not obscure its overall excellence, there’s no need to "maintain taboos with regard to the things of a sage", and in fact only by not maintaining taboos is it possible to better understand the value of Takezoe’s work. The thesis offers examples to discuss problems in Takezou’s exegetical interpretations in Zuo Shi Hui Jian and then attempts to then try to trace the origin of these problems in order to discover where Takezoe’s limitations lie. This is chapter four.The writing of the thesis is derived from reading the Confucian classics; the main method used is the method of exemplification; and the main work of the thesis has been the collation of materials and exposition:all in order to make a modest contribution to research in the history of scholarship on The Zuo Commentary.