Variorum Edition Of The Four Books And The Theory On The Four Books In The Southern Sung Dynasty

"The Variorum Edition of the Four Books and the theory on the Four Books in the Southern Sung Dynasty" is a topic on learning devoted to the study of the Confucian Classics. And it is the second the collected works after the Five Classics in Han Dynasty. It was written in the Southern Sung Dynasty. It was Zhu Xi who gave notes and commentaries to the Great Learning, the Doctrine of the Mean, the Analects , and the Book of Mencius with the ways of proper division into chapters and sentences, and the ways of Variorum , and set up the system of the Four Books that takes the classical text of the Four Books as an object , and takes the style of chapters and sentences and variorum as explaining substance."The Variorum of the Four Books "has led to a great mass fervor in studying "the Four Books"and "The Variorum of the Four Books" after it had come to be published. "The Variorum of the Four Books "and the theory on the Four Books in the Southern Sung Dynasty led the Confucian learning devoted to the study of the classics from explanatory note of chapters and sentences to principle expounding, and opened up a path for the Confucian ideology that from intuition to speculation. "The Variorum of the Four Books" and the theory on the Four Books in the Southern Sung Dynasty is the result of classical learning under the guidance of Neo—Confucianism. And the Neo— Confucianism endowed the Great Learning, the Doctrine of the Mean, the Analects, and the Book of Mencius with new principle and significance.The system of the "Variorum of the Four Books and the theory on the Four Books in the Southern Sung Dynasty" consists of the following parts:(1)The society of the Sung Dynasty was very poor internal and weak external , was eager for intellectual support and called for refoming . All the conditions of the Dynasty greatly aroused the scholar class.(2) The Analects, the Book of Mencius, the Great Learning and the Doctrine of Mean gradually leapt forward to classics from ancient books, and what Si Ma Guang did about the Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean, and Cheng Yi arranged the four books in order had laid the foundation of the Four Books.(3) Zhu Xi had a clear and definite concept in his annotations: first, the " Variorum of the Four Books advocated to carry the Confucian orthodoxy of teachings forward; second , the Variorum held a view that scholars should make themselves clearly with the present situation in their era and the society, and adopt proper ideas and action; third, the interpreter and the Variorum paid more attention to transforming the custom and conception of the people and the society.(4) There was a rational characteristic in the relationship between the classics and the explanation: first, Zhu Xi applied the style of chapter and sentence to the Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean, and the style of Variorum to the Analects and the Book of Mencius; Second , Zhu Xi looked after both sides of the traditional keeping and the present expounding.( 5) The philosophical temperament that contained in the Four Books, and the orders of the Analects, the Book of Mencius , the Great Learning, the Doctrine of the Mean that arranged had constituted a carrier for Neo —Confucianism through the "Variorum of the Four Books".(6) Neo — Confucianism is the new appearance of the traditional Confucianism. The scholars in the Sung Dynasty who devoted to the study of the classics with a philosophical approach. They made a great contribution to the Confucianism: first, ontology moved toward the cause from plurality; second > the expounding mode moved toward annotation itself from the style of chapter and sentence.(7) ZhuXi and Lu Jiuyuan represented each of their own school . The divergence and argument between the two schools had promoted the learning of the Neo—Confucianism, and the political measures of the Dynasty encouraged...