Sun Yirang's Academic Achievement

In the narrative of academic history in late Qing Dynasty,the revival of the New Text school is specially emphasized.Liang Qichao and Qian Mu both wrote a book titled the Academic history of the last three centuries,which spread widely and shape people's impression on the academic history of Qing Dynasty.In the books of Liang and Qian,Sun Yirang is almost nobody,and can be neglected easily.However,Zhang Taiyan regards SUN highly as Number One of great scholars of Qing Dynasty,and matchless during the last 300 years.According to the judgement of Zhang Taiyan,SUN is apparently undervalued,so we should pay more attention to him and reevaluate him properly.Sun Yirang(1848-1908),who was also called Zhong Rong or Zhou Qing,was born in Rui An county of Zhe Jiang province.He is the master of Philology,and achieved a lot in many fields including Confucian Classics,the Pre-Qin philosophers,epigraphy,gloss and emendation and bibliography.He wrote many masterpieces,such as ZhouLi ZhengYi,MoZi JianGu,GuZhou ShiYi,QiWen JuLi,Ming Yuan,ZhaYi and WenZhou Jing JiZhi.In the early years of SUN,He traveled across both sides of the Changjiang River following his father who was a Court official.After his father's retirement,they went back to hometown until the end of life,where SUN threw himself into researching and writing.Stimulated by the defeat in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895,SUN began to generalize new type schools in Southern Zhe Jiang Province,which made him an educator besides a distinguished scholar.Since SUN was a child,his father Sun Yiyan taught him to read and write.As a Jinshi and official,Sun Yiyan provided well-off conditions and introduced many first-class scholars to his son.With Sun's smart and perseverance,he became an excellent scholar who wrote piles of books.SUN had sincere belief in Qian-Jia school,appreciated Wang Niansun and Wang Yinzhi,and achieved a lotin epigraphy,collation and annotation of Zhou Li and MoZi himself.ZhouLi ZhengYi is a masterpiece which took SUN more than 20 years.The book summarizes relative researches over the last 2000 years,and no book is its match even today.Besides exegesis and ritual study,SUN points out clearly that The Eight Method of Tai Zai is the guiding principle of Zhou Li.Through the analyse of cooperation among officials,Zhou Li becomes a book with a clear thread running through,making SUN's book surpass annotations of Han and Tang dynasty.The same as Zheng Xuan and Jia Gongyan,SUN hold the idea that Zhou Li was the way through which The Duke of Zhou established the ideal society.His academic background and standpoint,inevitable self-limitation,and the fierce controversy over Confucian classics in versions in ancient and modern languages during late Qing dynasty,are all influential factors of his viewpoint.We cannot blame him too much on the issue,but must pay adequate attention to it.MoZi JianGu is also a book which is the comprehension of researches of many scholars.Sun rewrote the book three times before the final manuscript.Besides the gloss and emendation work,he also put forward his opinion on MoZi and Mo-hist school.MoZi JianGu is the milestone in the research history of MoZi,which influenced greatly afterwards and laid the foundation for the revival of Mo-hist school.Generally speaking,SUN is a scholar who lived during the former period of academic transformation from classical to modern.SUN's research is traditional mostly,and also has the characteristic of transition period.Defeated by Japan in 1895,the Qing authorities was faced with great crisis.In this situation SUN began to establish new schools to cultivate useful students to rescue the country and people.Under SUN's leadership,The Education Branch of Wen Zhou and Chu Zhou promoted the start of many schools in Southern Zhe Jiang Province with great effort.SUN subscribed many sorts of new books and magazines to follow the currentpolitical situation.He advocated political reform,and put forward to start a Community for the revival of Confucianism in 1895.When the Qing court began to start the New Reform,Sun wrote a suggestion on reform,clarifying his viewpoints systematically.SUN got acquaintance with Zhang Taiyan in late years,and showed sympathy to revolution apparently.SUN was a rigorous scholar with many books,but also an educator who endeavor to change the society in person,achieving the unity of knowledge and action.