On Chu Ci Shi By Wang Kaiyun

Wang Kaiyun, who concentrated on the study of Kung Yang Chuan and pursued to discover the deep meaning of the Confucian classics, is the representative figure of the School of New Text Studies in the late Qing dynasty. In his Chu Ci Shi, he annotated Chu Ci by the similar method used in the annotations of Spring and Autumn Annals, Which is to express the author’s own opinion by using the doctrines in Spring and Autumn Annals. His opinions are often quite different and bizarre, which shows the characteristic of New Text Studies.The dominant clue of “being very unsystematic” and the invisible clue of “being very static” tangle and separate, which shows not only the characteristic of Chu Ci Shi in the history of the study on Chu Ci but also Wang Kaiyun’s sense of value and cognition. Official System of Zhou, as the rules of governing a peaceful society, and Spring and Autumn Annals,as the maneuvers used in times of disorder, can hardly be integrated. However, Wang Kaiyun inosculated them very well in Chu Ci Shi. He expressed his opinion on political situation of the society in the late Qing dynasty by adhering to the idea of “compensating speech ornament with plain expressions” throughout Chu Ci Shi. From the macroscopic perspective,Qu Yuan’s military and political ideas on restoring the Chu State, as well as the weirdness of the image of Qu Yuan show the core value of Confucianism, which is “being a inner sage in order to rule the outside world”; from the microscopic perspective, the opinion of admiring Qu Yuan and depreciating King Qing Xiang of Chu State, expresses “the cardinal principle in Spring and Autumn Annals”, which is to respect the virtuous officials and degrade the fatuous rulers.In the history of annotating the classics in East Asia, a scholar often annotates the classics with his own spiritual experience. In this process, he reflects his own spiritual experience in the outside cultural or political world. Thus, he is confined in his own opinion and influenced by some outside factors from the society, culture and politics when expressing his innovative opinions. Wang Kaiyun expressed his idea of “humanistic pragmatism”strongly when annotating Chu Ci under the influence of the change of political, cultural,social environment and his own experience in the late Qing dynasty. So Chu Ci Shi has the marks of personal opinion and the times. With their confinement, Wang Kaiyun interpreted Qu Yuan excessively and distorted his original meaning. For example, “ using historical facts to interpret Li Sao” is a false presumption on Qu Yuan, which shows his biased opinion.As Wang Kaiyun has great literary achievement and abundant linguistic knowledge, his work, Chu Ci Shi, has some creative explanations and opinions agreed and inherited by late generations. Chu Ci Shi is not the best annotative version of Chu Ci, nor the biggest mistake in the history of the study on Chu Ci. It is the representative work of the study on Chu Ci by the scholars of New Text Studies in late Qing dynasty. Its method and items of annotations show the typical style of the scholars of New Text Studies in late Qing dynasty.