Title

Lü Zu-qian’s Inheritance and Innovation within the History of Studies on the Book of Songs

Author

Huang, Chung-shen  

Genre

Article  

Pages

45-77  

Download

PDF

Language

Chinese  

Key words

Lü, Zu-qian 呂祖謙, Lüshi Jiashu Dushi Ji 呂氏家塾讀詩記, Zhu Xi 朱熹, Han School of Book of Songs, Song School of Book of Songs

Abstract

        Lü Zu-qian’s 呂祖謙 Lüshi Jiashu Dushi Ji 呂氏家塾讀詩記 from the Southern Song Dynasty is a masterpiece of the Shi Xu 詩序School, adopting the style of “collecting various annotations.” Lü gathered interpretations of the Book of Songs by many scholars from the Han Dynasty to his time. His understanding of poetry was based on Shi Xu, but he had his own valuable reconstruction of the Book of Songs. However, modern scholars are polarized in their views of Lüshi Jiashu Dushi Ji. Some criticize Lü’s comments on the Book of Songs as being too conservative and not breaking away from Shi Xu. Some, on the other hand, believe that Lü not only opposes Shi Xu, but also that his interpretation represents a breakthrough compared to Mao Chuan 毛傳 and Zheng Jian 鄭箋, and therefore Lü is certainly not a traditional scholar who sticks to conventional studies of the Book of Songs. This paper explores the inheritance and innovation of Lü’s Lüshi Jiashu Dushi Ji within the history of these studies; it also argues against these opposing views of Lü’s book using statistical data combined with a dynamic development of the history of Confucian studies. The paper points out that Lüshi Jiashu Dushi Ji not only captures the thinking of Lü’s era, but also gives an epochal significance to the three hundred poems in the Book of Songs.