Research On Kong Guangsen's Lixue Zhiyan

Kong Guangsen is a famous QianJia scholar of the Confucian classics in the Qing Dynasty.Kong,along with Duan Yucai,Wang Niansun,Ren Dachun,are known as the four greatest disciples of Daizhen.He is proficient at the study of ritual.His achievements of ritual study are reflected in his famous work named Lixue Zhiyan.This book is his masterpiece,which has always been appreciated and praised by Sanlixue experts.Kong Guangsen was born in the Kong family which keeps tradition of courtesy.He accepted the edification of rites in childhood.He passed the imperial examination when he was nineteen.He studied in the capital where he made friends with many scholars and learned from Dai Zhen.Lixue zhiyan was written in Qianlong period of time,when the trend of textual research prevails in the society.This paper mainly studies and analyzes the textual research achievement of Kong Guangsen's Lixue zhiyan,further summarizes its ritual thought and research methods and evaluates its academic significance and contributions.Three main achievements of Kong Guangsen's Lixue zhiyan are outlined below:First is the topical study of ritual and its textual research,including the study of palace in The Ceremony,the explanation of the “Mingtang”,the study of the Zhouli's ceremonial dress and the investigation sacrifice of the “Di(?)” and “Jiao(?)”,etc.In his study of palace in The Ceremony,he studies the system and the structure of the palace and the location of each part of the palace in detail,such as gate,court,step,and bedroom.In the explanation of the“Mingtang”,Kong analyzes the structure and the scale of the Mingtang palace and distinguishes the difference of the Mingtang palace in the three dynasties.He presents many new evidences to prove what Zheng Xuan notes about sacrifice of the“Di”and“Jiao”.He finishes the textual research of Emperor's five gates,explains in detail the name,order and function of the five gates and discusses the three courts(??)of the Emperor.Kong Guangsen advocates the view of seven temples,opposes the view of nine temples and refutes Wang Su's viewpoint to defend what Zheng Xuan claims.Second is the research achievements of the Sanli Zayi(??????).Kong Guangsen interprets the entity noun,etiquette,measurement in The Rites of Zhou,The Ceremony and The Book of Rites.He also reiterates what Zheng Xuan notes and Jia Gongyan explains,rectifies their mistakes and covers the deficiency in their works.Third is the research achievement of Zhouli Zhengzhu Mengan(????????).Kong Guangsen demonstrates how Zheng Xuan compares the events of Han Dynasty with those of Zhou Dynasty in his note of The Rites of Zhou,which serves as a supplement to the lack of WangYinglin's Hanzhi Kao(?????).Worshipping Zheng Xuan's knowledge and the Han school is an obvious ideological tendency in Lixue Zhiyan.The main research methods in this work includes the exegesis of scriptures,using classics to prove ritual classics,using history book to prove the rites,using mathematics or reasoning and logic to prove rites,etc.Seeking truth from facts is the main search characteristics in his work.His study is very broad and profound.There are lots of innovative ideas in his research.His academic influence is mainly reflected in the citation,appreciation and criticism of three books in Qing Dynasty,which separately are Sun Yirang's ZhouliZhengyi(??????),Huang Yizhou's Lishu Tonggu(??????)and Hu Peihui's Yili Zhengyi(??????).From these books we can see the influence and value of this work.