A Study On Xi Dong 's "Laozi' S Settlement"

Notes of Ancient Moral Classics’ by Fuyi, ‘The Variorum of Moral Classics by Laozi’by Fan Yingyuan, ‘Moral Classics’ Notes’ by Wu Cheng, ‘The Variorum of Lao-Tsi’by Xuehui, ‘Proving meaning of Laozi’ by Gao Yandi, ‘Reading notes of Lao-Tsi’ by Yi Shunding, ‘Emendation and Explanation of Lao-Tsi’ by Ma Xulun, and son on.There have been lots of research works to annotate and study ‘Lao-Tsi’,a piece of philosophical work by Laozi who was a sage with outstanding wisdom in Pre-Qin Age, since ancient times. Among them, the representatives are also innumerable, such as ‘Lao-Tsi Chapters’ by He Shanggong, ‘Moral Classics’ Notes’ by Wangbi, ‘TheAt the beginning of 20 th century, the studies about Lao-Tsi become relatively less as a result of turbulent domestic situations. ‘The Variorum of Lao-Tsi’by Xitong is concerned about Lao-Tsi’s versions,emendation, explanation and phonology with the methods of emendation and explanation and taking advantages of his spacious knowledge of histories and literature in order to restore original ‘Lao-Tsi’. The thesis starts with the messages of the preface from the research work, in which Xitong negated others’ explanations of ‘Lao-Tsi’ and insisted on the political ideas that only modesty and honest be able to give the country peace and prosperity, and analyzes the emendation, and explanation of the work on ‘Lao-Tsi’,and discusses Xitong’s political ideas. In addition to the conclusion and appendix, it is composed of five parts.Part One:The author introduces Xitong’s life and his academic achievements,then about the background of ‘The Variorum of Lao-Tsi’ so as to better understand the writing objectives and meanings about the research work. The guidance idea that the country’s peaceful situations are frequently turned into turbulent ones, thus only to change can we accommodate to the circumstance went throughout the work. Besides,this work paid so much attention to emendation, phonology and explanation as well as illumination on the argumentation of ‘Lao-Tsi’ that it was regarded as the excellent spiritual findings under the macroscopic academic conditions.understand the arguments of ‘Lao-Tsi’ by reading through others’ opinions on‘Lao-Tsi’.Part Two: According to quotation of the work, the author divides the books quoted into the researches on ‘Lao-Tsi’ and other negative ones, and then explores the characteristics of the work and sources of Xitong’s thoughts on ‘Lao-Tsi’ by analyzing the number of the two kinds of books. The author finds that the work by Xitong attached importance to emendation as well as illumination on the argumentation. In regard to them, Xitong was good at absorbing other’s best and quoting their opinions.Not only the classics quoted covered all ages till his but the great efforts were made toPart Three: In the terms of emendation, explanation of words and illumination on arguments, the author chooses typical cases to analyze the work’s contents so as to show its academic value.Part Four: The author start with the two moral qualities of passive inaction and being humble to analyze Xitong’s political ideas in the work. He thought that rulers must largely emphasized common people’s interests and humble themselves at home.Meanwhile, they must worship the qualities of water and overcome hardness with gentleness at abroad. Only in this way can the rulers ease the warfare and give the country peace and prosperity.Part Five: Make some discussions about ‘The Variorum of Lao-Tsi’ by Xitong.