The "mao", "zheng Jian" Exegetical Term Comparative Study

Terms are an important symbol in determining whether the system of a discipline is standard or not. The correctness and the usage of the terms can clearly reflect the development stage of a discipline. Exegesis terms are not an exception in this point, which also reflect the development stage of Chinese Exegetics. Han Dynasty is an important period in which the Chinese Exegetics had made great development and progress. In this dynasty, many monographs whose exegesis just for special books appeared. These monographs are the clear reappearance of the ancient scholars' exegetical practice, among which Mao Zhuan and Zheng Jian are the typical work. Through the reanalysis of the exegesis terms in Mao Zhuan and Zheng Jian, this article reveals the connotations, the usages and the characteristics of these exegesis terms in the two special dynasty, i.e. the Western Han Dynasty and the Eastern Han Dynasty. On the basis of former scholars' study, this article makes a careful study on the exegesis term system. It probes the origin and development of these terms and tries hard to find how these exegetical scholars explained the text with terms. With the comparison with the contemporary terminology, it also finds the characteristics of the traditional exegesis terms. From an isolated point to a whole area, this article reflects the visage of the exegesis terms and the rules of their alternation from the Western Han Dynasty to the Eastern Han Dynasty. The conclusions are that from the Western Han Dynasty to the Eastern Han Dynasty, the exegesis terms also developed from its first stage of not being so systematic to the stage of having a more complete system, and the classification of using the exegesis terms explain the text was becoming more and more thorough. The exegesis terms also develops with the area, of which some terms' function was expanded, some terms' function was reduced, and some terms' connotation changed. In the generation period, these exegesis terms are commonly lack of monosemy and be used randomly. Based on the method of statistics, the article classifies and analyzes all the cases of applying exegesis terms. Combing the study of period with the study of history, the statistics with the illustration, the author describes 31 exegesis terms in Mao Zhuan and Zheng Jian, not only including their usages, their frequency of emergence, but also including the subjects they are fit for, then makes a contrast analysis and draws a conclusion. So the outcome of this research is detailed and accurate.