Research On Zhou Bingzhong's "Four Books Allusions: Mencius"

Since the Han Dynasty,scholars have devoted themselves to the study of Mencius.The number of works on Mencius in the Qing Dynasty has surpassed that of any previous dynasty,one of them is Mencius in Zhou Bingzhong's Four Books and Allusions Discrimination.Zhou Bingzhong(1738-1801)lived in the period of Qian and Jia Dynasty,and was in the transition period of classical studies,from emphasizing righteousness and rationality to emphasizing textual research.His Four Books and Allusions Discrimination is a Book of notes,including University,The Golden Mean,The Analects of Confucius and Mencius.In Mencius,Zhou Bingzhong,in accordance with the order of the chapters of Mencius,makes an entry with the text to explain the important allusions in Mencius.On the basis of summing up the relevant achievements of Zhao Qi,Sun Shi,Zhu Xi and other predecessors,he discusses the relevant issues of Mao Qiling's Four Books' Analects,Four Books' Correction and Yan Ruoqu's Four Books' Interpretation Places,and refutes them reasonably.It has a great influence on Jiao Xun's writing Mencius Justice.There are 172 textual criticism notes in Four Books Allusions Discrimination.Mencius Justice by Jiao Xun quotes 52 of them.The book Mencius,which deals with the meaning of words,historical figures,historical places and ritual system,has abundant citation materials and extensive coverage.It has good evidence for textual research.It can treat the views of Sun Shi and Zhu Xi,scholars of Song Dynasty objectively,choose good and obey them.It fully embodies Qianjia's academic spirit of seeking truth from facts and not respectful.Of course,Zhou Bingzhong sometimes has some problems in the process of textual research,such as inadequate argument,false textual research,misunderstanding of classical annotations and so on,but generally speaking,the merits of his textual research are the main ones,which are still worthy of reference for today's Mencius scholars.Through the analysis and combing of Zhou Bingzhong's Four Books and Allusions Discrimination,we can understand his Mencius thought on the one hand when there is little information about Zhou Bingzhong's people;on the other hand,we can evaluate his academic status in the study history of Mencius in the Qing Dynasty,and promote people's understanding of the research status of Mencius in the Qianjia period.