Study On The Change Of Fang Bao’s Academic Image

Fang Bao方苞,whose ancestral home is Tongcheng,was born in Shangyuan(Nanjing,Jiangsu)in 1668(the seventh year of Kangxi)and died in 1749(the fourteenth year of Qianlong).He was famous for the articles in his early years,but later turned to the study of classics and history,and wrote many Confucian classics on Chunqiu and Sanli.He took Chengzi and Zhuzi as the criterion and classics as his ambition all his life.To today’s people,however,he is just a litterateur who is known as“father of Tongcheng articles”.The image changes of Fang Bao is related to his own academic experience,while it’s equally important and thought-provoking that the tension between“litterateur”and“scholar”and the construction of the interaction between the later times and academics.Focusing on this,this paper studies the changing process of Fangbao’s academic image,which can be divided into four stages: “Fang Bao”in the eyes of the former,"Fang Bao" in the eyes of Qianjia scholar,“Fang Bao” constructed by Yao Nai as“father of Tongcheng articles”,and “Fang Bao” in the transformation of the Republic of China.These four periods,as the key nodes,clearly show the evolution process of Fang Bao’s image from“Confucian scholar”to“litterateur”.The task of this paper is to outline the main vein of its image change and try to explore the internal reasons leading to his image change.Therefore,it is found that the change of Fang Bao’s image has profound factors of eras and schools,which cannot be separated from the academic environment of each era and the intentional construction of later generations.It led to the transformation of Fang Bao’s image from “Confucian scholar” to “scholar”that sinologists’ criticism of Fang Bao’s academic work during the Qianjia period,Yao Nai’s recognition of fang Bao’s identity as the “father of Tongcheng articles”,and the Tongcheng school’s transformation from “school” to “literature” and the conflicts between the old and the new during the Qing Dynasty.Following the change of Fang Bao’s academic image,the ideological trend of returning to The Classic in the early Qing Dynasty,the “conflict between Han and Song” in the middle of Qing Dynasty,the nature change of Tongcheng school in the middle and late Qing Dynasty,as well as the new and old transformation in the late Qing dynasty and the Republic of China are all displayed,which can also reveal the development and change of Qing academic.