Research On Zhao You's "Four Books Wengulu Mencius"

In the Qianlong and Jiaqing period,the wind of textual criticism flourished.The interpretation of Mencius’ s thought by the scholars of the Qing Dynasty is not limited to the category of Neo Confucianism in the Song Ming Dynasty.They tend to pay more attention to the textual problems in the book of Mencius.Zhao You was a scholar of the Qing Dynasty who began to study Mencius in this environment.Zhao You’s academic on the basis of full reference to the achievements of Zhao Qi,Sun Shi,Zhu Xi and other scholars in the research field of the text of Mencius,to interpret the book Mencius and to explain the noun things in the book.He also questioned the flaws in previous commentaries and errors,analyzing their gain and loss,bring forth the new through the old.These are all embodied in his major work-Chinese classic review in Mencius part.Zhao You’s Chinese classic review: Mencius whether in the interpretation of micro-specific issues or in the interpretation of macro abstract issues has a profound influence on Mencius exegesis practice of later generations.Many of Zhao You’s arguments are still admired by scholars.As a kind of reading notes,when compared Chinese classic review with normal sparse body,this book has many shortcomings,such as lack of sufficient evidence in some parts of the explanation,but one flaw cannot obscure the splendor of the jade,his research work is still remarkable.Zhao You’s achievements in textual research are beyond doubt,but he is not confined to the category of textual research.The uniqueness of Zhao You’s scholarly research lies in his transformation of scholarly research methods,from pure textual research to the academic tendency of taking the right sense into consideration.The study of Zhao You and his academic achievements is helpful to correctly evaluate Zhao You’s position in the history of the study of Mencius in the Qing Dynasty.