A Study On Xu Shen's Confucian Classics

Xu Shen appeared in the Eastern Han Dynasty as a master of the study of Confucian classics,but his academic origins were both from the Old and New Text Schools,which was praised for the time as a unique five Confucian classics scholars-Xu Shuzhong.His book Shuo Wen Jie Zi examined the glyphs,cults,and ethics.It was not only the classics of Chinese linguistics,but also had the profound meaning of Confucian classics,which reflected Xu Shen's thought of classics.This thesis focuses on the differentiation and analysis of the literal meaning of the book Shuo Wen Jie Zi,and systematically studies Xu Shen's thought on the Confucian classics.The whole thesis will be divided into three chapters:The first chapter analyzes the background of Confucian Classic of the era of Xu Shen,and pays particular attention to the comparison of the academic features of the Old and New Text Schools.The New Text Schools was gradually weakening because of its own tediousness and theology.The Old Text Schools emerged in response,with their own principle to increase the use of Confucian classics to meet the needs of current politics.The Old Text Schools criticized the falsity of the New Text Schools with the truth of text exegesis,and guided by the spirit of "seeking truth from facts".They rectified the inaccuracy of the scholars of the New Text Schools because of their ignorance of the character interpretation,in order to conform to the saint's way and safeguard the royal politics.It is against this background of Confucian classics that Xu Shen wrote the Different Explanations on the Five Confucian Classics and Shuo Wen Jie Zi.The second chapter discusses Xu Shen's thought on Confucian classics in the interpretation of the meaning of characters in Shuo Wen Jie Zi.First of all,in Xu Shen's view,the character was made by sages which is the expression of the saint's thought and the carrier of the implementation of the emperor's government,and it has the great signification of enlightenment.Paying attention to the truth of the character means to maintain the performance of the holy king's way.This is the ideological basis of Xu Shen's interpretation of characters.Secondly,Xu Shen also adopted the New Text Schools which was a thorough understanding of the important theories of Confucian classics such as the "Gua Qi Theory",the Yin-Yang & Five Elements thought of the Gongyang Theory,the Crown and Throne Theory,thedivination Theory,and the Rituals System Theory,in order to show his academic thoughts.The specific aspects are as follows: First of all,it absorbs the thought of Meng Xi's "Yi" which called "Gua Qi Theory",and the radical arrangement style uses "starting with YI and ending with HAI" as the framework,which reveals the influence of the thought of the endless,cyclical universe.Secondly,the basic feature of the classics in the Han Dynasty is the combination of Confucian classics and the Yin-Yang theory.Xu Shen's explanation,which combines some numerals,the five elements,ten heavenly stems,five colors,and five internal organs,is just a full prove on this feature.Thirdly,Dong Zhongshu put a good use of Confucianism by interpreting the Gongyang theory of Spring and Autumn,and established the political view of "great unification",the theory of Wang Dao,the induction of heaven and man,and the ethical norms of the discipline,which was jointly recognized by the Old and New Text Schools.Xu Shen took the maintenance of kingcraft as the guiding ideology of Shuo Wen Jie Zi.Fourthly,Xu Shen absorbed the thoughts of divination when he interpreted characters.By applying thoughts of divination,Xu Shen found more exegetical basis for explaining the meaning of characters,and had certain value in explaining the characters in richness and comprehensiveness.Fifthly,when Xu Shen explained the characters in Shuo Wen Jie Zi,Zhou Li and Zuo Zhuan were often cited as evidence.By contrasting with Different Explanations on the Five Confucian Classics,it can be found that Xu Shen's point of view has changed before and after,the textual interpretation of the text increased.Through the above analysis of the meaning of related characters,we can see that Xu Shen's thought of Confucian classics is open and inclusive.The third chapter expounds Xu Shen's position and influence on the history of Confucian classics.First of all,the Eastern Han Dynasty was a period when the Old Text Schools flourished and gradually gained the upper hand.Xu Shen was a pioneer in the integration of the Old and New Text Schools.His Shuo Wen Jie Zi and the adoption of the New Text Schools has already embodied the spirit of harmony,and his Different Explanations on the Five Confucian Classics has laid solid foundation for this fusion.Secondly,Shuo Wen Jie Zi ran through the development of Puxue during the Qing Dynasty and was in an important position in the study of ConfucianClassics in the Qing Dynasty.In particular,the advent of Duan Yucai's Annotation on Shuo Wen Jie Zi represented the highest achievement of the study of text exegesis in the Qing Dynasty and has a profound impact on academic field.