Gao Heng’s Study Of Book Of Lord Shang

Book of Lord Shang is considered one of the representative works of the legalist school. But because of its disorder in spread and difficulties to understand, there are less scholars’research on it. Since the late Qing dynasty, with the development of Reform plan thoughts, the studies on Shang Yang and Book of Lord Shang become more prosperous in this period. In the 1970s, with the development of "Examining Legalist Theories and Censuring Confucianism" movement, Shang Yang and The Book of Lord Shang were carried to a very high level and all kinds of related works emerge in endlessly, but overall quality is not high. Annotation and explanation of Book of Lord, written by Gao Heng was also published in this period, but different with others, it’s a serious and aggressive composition.Gao Heng had inherited the spirit of textual criticism of Qianjia School in the Qing Dynasty. His research methods on the basis of rigorous textual criticism, based on phonology, philology, and exegesis and summarized the formers’ achievement. While he was brave in breaking through old sayings and setting up original research.so he can come up with his own ideas on the controversial issues on Book of Lord Shang which has been disputed for years.This paper is based on literature review to make a comprehensive and systematical summary on Gao Heng’s study on Book of Lord Shang, among which it concludes originality and achievements, while there are also some questions need to be questioned. So this paper expects to make a contribution to today’s academic research.This paper is divided into five parts:The first part is preface, which conclude two respects. Firstly, it briefly introduces Book of Lord Shang and its history of research. Secondly, it introduces the life of Gao Heng as well as his scholarship.The second part primarily introduces Gao Heng’s study on the basic questions of Book of Lord Shang. Its concludes the authenticity of the book of Lord Shang, Gao Heng’s summary and evaluation about Shang Yang’s reform act, as well as the supplement to the collation and annotation edition that embodied in the Book of Lord Shang.The third part basically summarize Gao heng’s study on the text of Book of Lord Shang.it is divided three parts:collation, annotation and vernacular translation.The forth part primarily introduces the biased and negotiable views in Gao Heng’s study on The Book of Lord Shang, and briefly analyses the reasons.The last part is epilogue, in which the paper summarizes the achievements and insufficiency that Gao Heng’s study on Book of Lord Shang and makes an objective evaluation.