Zheng Zhen’s Study On Philology

Zheng Zhen was a famous philologist and poet in the late Qing Dynasty.However,the academic research on Zheng Zhen is mostly focused on his poetry creation,and there is no comprehensive and in-depth investigation and research on Zheng Zhen’s achievements in philology.On the basis of a comprehensive review of Zheng Zhen’s philology works,this thesis selected “Shuo Wen Yi Zi” and “Shuo Wen Xin Fu Kao” as the main research object,compared this two books to the contemporary studies on the same fields with some characters as example,summarized Zheng Zhen’s methods of philology research,excavated his thoughts of philology,and made a relatively comprehensive investigation of Zheng Zhen’s study on philology.We believe that Zheng Zhen’s “Shuo Wen Yi Zi” and“Shuo Wen Xin Fu Kao” represent the highest level of the study of missing and new attached characters of “Shuo Wen Jie Zi” in Qing Dynasty,Zheng Zhen’s methods of philology research is an indispensable and important link in the reforming history of philology research methods,and Zheng Zhen’s philology thoughts should have a place in the history of modern philology.This thesis consists of six chapters.Besides the introduction and conclusion,the main body of this thesis includes three parts.The first part is about the study of Zheng Zhen’s philology writings.Chapter two and chapter three separately classified and investigated the characters of “Shuo Wen Yi Zi” and “Shuo Wen Xin Fu Kao”,and conducted a contrast research with “Shuo Wen Yi Zi Kao” of Zhang Mingke and “Shuo Wen Xin Fu Kao” of Niu Shuyu,and made an relatively objective evaluation of academic achievement and historical limitation of these books.The second part is about the study of Zheng Zhen’s philology research methods.In chapter four,we systematically discussed Zheng Zhen’s philology research methods in the aspects of structure,pronunciation and meaning through Zheng Zhen’s research practice on searching missing characters and studying new attached characters of “Shuo Wen Jie Zi ”.The third part is about Zheng Zhen’s philology thoughts.In chapter five,we collected and sorted out Zheng Zhen’s philology thoughts scattered in“Shuo Wen Yi Zi” and “Shuo Wen Xin Fu Kao”,and summarized his understandings on language and characters,character structure and character evolution.On the basis of previous studies,this thesis has obtained the following innovations:First,it is the first comprehensive and in-depth study and comparative analysis of Zheng Zhen’s philology works,which is conducive to the scientific definition of Zheng Zhen’s position in the history of modern philology.Secondly,it is the first time to classify and summarize Zheng Zhen’s research methods of philology,which is beneficial to the improvement of the reforming history of the philology research methods,and the reference and study of subsequent philology researchers.Thirdly,it is the first time to systematize and summarize Zheng Zhen’s philology thoughts,which is helpful to supplement and enrich the development history of modern philology thoughts.Fourthly,we made a breakthrough in the interpretation and analysis of the characters such as “免”(mian).