A Study On Wu Rulun’s Exegetical Exegetics In Shang Shu Gu

Wu Rulun was born in Tongcheng,Anhui Province.He is a representative writer of the later period of the Tongcheng School.He once worked under Zeng Guofan and was one of the four major disciples of Zeng Guofan.Under the influence of Zeng Guofan,he was good at exegesis and focused on interpreting classics.As the ancestor of political documents and the source of historical document,Shang Shu records the history from the Xia Dynasty to the Zhou Dynasty.Because of the incomprehensible language,the works of annotating Shang Shu emerge in endlessly.Wu Rulun felt that Shang Shu had no perfect edition,and scholars at that time like JiangSheng,Sun Xingyan,Wang Yinzhi and Duan Yucai did not annotated Shang Shu very well,so he wrote Shang Shu Gu.Shang Shu Gu takes 28 jinwen articles as the research object.The preface of Shang Shu is attached at the back of the book.Fifty eight chapters of Shang Shu are attached to the preface.Its exegesis style is as follow:Firstly,Wu lists the original text of Shang Shu,and then he quotes Shi Ji or Han Shijing for comparison.If there is no such article in the Shi Ji,no comparison will be made.Later Wu cites the articles that former scholar have annotated about Shang Shu.Finally,Wu lists his own comments,refute the previous statement,supply the previous statement,or propose a new solution.This paper is divided into five parts:The introduction mainly introduces Wu Rulun and Shang Shu Gu,summarizes the research status of Wu Rulun and Shang Shu Gu,and then discusses the significance and methods of the exegetical study of Shang Shu Gu.The first chapter is the exegetical content of Shang Shu Gu.It is divided into six categories:The first section identifies characters,mainly from three aspects:interchangeable characters,ancient and modern characters,and variant characters.The second section explains the meaning of words,discussing the modal particle,lianwen and lianmian words in Shang Shu.The third section explains the rhetoric and analyzes the two rhetoric in Shang Shu,namely the duiwen and metaphor.The fourth section clarifies the meaning of the text,and discusses from three aspects:sentence reading,sentence meaning and principles illustration.The fifth section collates the documents,and analyzes the yanwen,tuowen and error in the Shang Shu.The sixth section discusses utensils,systems,and geography in Shang Shu.The second chapter is the exegetical method of Shang Shu Gu.The first section quotes handed down documents for exegesis.This paper studies the types of documents cited in Shang Shu Gu,and discusses Wu’s specific practice of quoting handed down documents for exegesis from two aspects:referring to yiwen and seeking meanings from other exegesis.In the second section,jinshi documents are cited for exegesis.It studies the types of jinshi documents cited in Shang Shu Gu,and discusses the specific practice of using jinshi documents to exegesis.The third chapter is the commentary on the exegesis of Shang Shu Gu.The first section summarizes the four characteristics of the exegesis of Shang Shu Gu:quoting from various sources,arguing substantial;daring to query,and striving for innovation;citing Shi Ji and Shijing for exegesis;disobeying the teacher’s opinion,basing on hanxue.The second section is about the lack of exegesis of Shang Shu Gu,discussing from four aspects:circuitous argument;inconsistency;exegesis in error;lack of material proof.The fourth chapter explores Wu Rulun and other scholars of Tongcheng School’s Shang Shu exegetical concept.This paper preliminarily analyzes the ideas of Wu Rulun,Yao Nai and Dai Junheng in exegesis Shang Shu:Wu is the based on hanxue,Yao respects songxue and belittles hanxue,and Dai thinks that hanxue and songxue are equally important.