The Han Philology Thought

Literary documents are the records of the material and spiritual civilizations of the human society, and the documentation science refers to scientific studies on these documents. Basic documentation concepts and methodology took their origins from the documentation activities throughout the Zhou-Qin period, and gave birth to the documentation science. In the Han Dynasty, the documentation science became a specialty science based on heritages from the Zhou-Qin period and drawing nutrients from the era. It achieved substantial development due to the strong support from the government and hard studies by scholars, and created a self-disciplined academic ideology and related theories. The documentation science in the Han Dynasty took the forms of Jiao Chou (校雠学),Study of Confucian Classics (经学) and Literature Discrimination (辨伪学), and used various academic approaches such as "categorize documents to trace the sources of different sciences" (辨章学术,考镜源流), "justify by consulting all references and keep unanswered questions for future study" (多闻阙疑,无徵不信) and "promote and consolidate various sciences" (崇广道艺,融会和合). Influenced by the cultural climate of the era, the documentation science in Han Dynasty also features such ideological characteristics as "great unification"(大一统)" and "correspondence between man and universe" (天人感应). In the meanwhile, it encourages people to play active roles in the national affairs and serve the ruling class. The biggest defect of the documentation science in Han Dynasty is its submission to politics. The documentation science in Han Dynasty and its ideology provided the basis and direction for the development of the documentation science in China, and exerted a far reaching influence in the academic history.