On Proofreading Of Songs Of Chu

The study of documents of Songs of Chu is the basis of other researches on it, among which studying its content is the most important. It is more than 2000 years since Songs of Chu was born, so it's impossible to avoid errors from perspectives of incorrect words, derivativewords, missing words, punctuations and so on, which makes it rather difficult to read it. However,the study of Songs of Chu became a science subject since the Han dynasty and attracted scholars' attention of almost every generation. As a result of their efforts, many puzzling questions have been settled. Yet there are still a great many problems to be solved. In the 21st century, research materials and methods are different from the former generations. Based on traditional research methods,such as written language,oral language,explanations in ancient books,etc.,triple evidence law,computer retrieval, on-line information and other new technological methods are applied in this research,related materials and research achievements on Songs of Chu collected,such as important documents,notes,novels, explanations,written and unwritten information,and other proofreading achievements since Qing dynasty,aimed at solving some puzzling questions and presenting its original version.The article is devided into five parts. Preface is the first part,including the academic history of explanation for Songs of Chu,the main idea of this paper and its academic meaning,researching principles,materials and methods,and related explanations about this research. Introduction is the second part, in which it pointed out that the spirit of combining the information inside and outside the documents is of great benefit to research on Songs of Chu. The spirit emphasizes that the content of the songs is the centre,which allows researchers to absorb as many as fruits made by former scholars in less time and benefit the forming of academic history. Meanwhile enough attention should also be paid to information outside the songs. Related information contributes to discussion and judgement about the discovery of universal laws of how different editions coming into being. Quotations can provide evidence for the source. It can inspire us to study in new fields,get a better understanding of Wang Yi's explanations and sort the history of academy. Besides,it may provide more information for research on Songs of Chu.The main text of this article has three chapters. The first chapter is about proofreading of Quyuan's works,including one hundred and sixty one clauses from Lisao,Nine Songs,Day asked,and so on;the second chapter is about corrections of works of writers in the late Chu,such as twenty seven clauses from Song Yu,twenty clauses from Tang Le, five clauses from Jing Cuo, etc.;the third chapter is about proofreading of works from writers in Han dynasty, one sentence from Advice to the recluse,thirty seven clauses from Admonition,eleven clauses from A Lament to the Fate,nineteen clauses from Sighs,nine clauses from thoughts etc.,including eighty two clauses. There are 295 clauses in total, covering explanations and meanings of characters,criticism and discussion on important academic matters. Among them proofreading of characters is the main part,and new suggestions can be found-such as in Lisao"I'm afraid that the matchmaker's words are not enough to tied the knot","the matchmaker's words should be "favorable comments";in The God of the Sun,"the long arrow" should be "the crooked arrow"not only meaning an arrow,but also standing for the name of a star;in Day asked, "I told Du Ao that it would not last long", "I" is an incorrect character and it should be "Yan" here meaning "words,news". In addition, it proved that some predecessors' corrections are right. For example,Wang Shulan,Liu Yongji's correction of the sentence from Lisao-I asked Lingfen to foretell my future,is right. They changed the character "zhan"to"bu". Meanwhile it pointed out some mistakes of the previous statements. According to the ancient documents,the character"min"was often used instead of "meng"meaning "sprout",but Wen Yiduo's explanation of the sentence from Day Asked-There are omens before everything sprouts,is wrong. The conclusion is about ideas got by writing this article,summarizing six different editions of Songs of Chu,seven sorts of their forming reasons,and seven kinds of methods to collate different editions of it.The appendix is enclosed 37 clauses of corrections of Songs of Chu,as reference for contemporaries,mainly listed Wang Yi's mistakes.