The Read And Collation Of Interpretation Of Historical Records Written By Wu Guotai

The Interpretation of Historical Records(Shiji Jiegu,hereinafter referred to as Jiegu)was written by Wu Guotai,a modern scholar.Wu thought that among all the history books only Shiji was the most ancient records,covering extensive and profound texts with lots of interchangeable words.Although the “three ancient annotations” were good at explaining,sometimes their misunderstanding was still inevitable.Wu’s book was based on the idea that "the ancient people’s speech should not be hidden and obscure,and the later scholars could also follow the former arguments,so that they would not be mocked because of their single-faceted understanding of the texts.For the sake of clarification and correction of the “three annotations”,and also supplementing the missing interpretations of what the predecessors could not understand about Shiji,Wu created this book.This paper is presented as a detailed reading and collating note of Jiegu,analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of the book from the aspects of exegesis,collation,punctuation and textual research.It is divided into three parts.The first chapter includes the reasons for the topic selection and the current research situation,Wu Guotai’s life and his works,as well as an overview of Jiegu.The second chapter makes a concrete read and collation of Jiegu in the order of Shiji,and points out the value and shortcomings of Jiegu.The third chapter briefly comments on the characteristics of Jiegu: first of all,the exegesis of Jiegu was mainly relied on Shuowen,through interchangeable words to explain the meaning of characters.Starting from the origin of characters,it put forward many new ideas,some of which had the significance of supplement and revision to the “three annotations”.Secondly,in addition to the annotation of the main body of Shiji and the “three annotations”,there were also some collating entries in Jiegu,which helped to dredge the general idea of Shiji.However,there were also some obvious shortcomings in the book.For instance,some explanations were too emphasized the interchangeable words,but neglecting the extension meaning of the words.And some other mistakes existed caused by improper understanding of the contexts of Shiji.To sum up,Jiegu,as a general interpretation of Shiji and the “three annotations” by the modern scholar,the correct items in which can provide a reference for the contemporary annotation work of Shiji,and the annotation method of "clarification of the interchangeable words " can also be used for reference.