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A Dedication to Classics Scholarship 43

4.2 Key Points and Significance of Classics Scholarship

2
Classics scholarship began with Confucius, so did the history of Confucian
learning. Classics scholarship is in fact a repository of cross-disciplinary learnings.

3
4.2.1 Xiaoxue or Philology
Classics scholarship studies must begin with primary training in philology,
which includes lexicography, phonology, and etymology. Zhang Zhidong (张之
洞 1837–1909) in his Bibliographical Questions Answered (《书目答问》)
mentioned:

Those pupils who have moved from the study of philology to Chinese Classics have a better
grasp of classical learning; pupils who studied historiography before moving to classics
scholarship have a better grasp of historical studies. Those with a foundation in history
and the Classics who go on to study Neo-Confucianism (理学) have a better understanding
of the subject. For those who study metrical composition based on historiography and
classics scholarship, their literary skills are more functional. Those who study states-
manship based on history and classics scholarship will attain great accomplishments.
(Zhang, 2010, p. 219)
The first interdisciplinary subject of classics scholarship is Xiaoxue (小学), the
primary study of philology. Though the study of classics scholarship does not
cover all aspects of philology, the study of the latter involves the former. Er Ya
(《尔雅》), for example, is one of the philological works that ranks among
“Thirteen Confucian Classics (十三经).” In the “Bibliographic Treatise” of The
History of the Han Dynasty (《汉书 · 艺文志》), Xiaoxue is included in classics
scholarship. Since then, it has been treated as a sub-branch of classics schol-
arship in all the catalogs of later bibliographies.

2 Scholars used to hold divergent views on this issue. Some credit it with Zixia (子夏 507 B.C.E.–?),
some took Xun Zi as the source, still others believe that it came into existence late in Han Dynasty
(206 B.C.E.–220 C.E.). I would take the view that Chinese classics scholarship began with Con-
fucius, which is also embraced by the late-Qing-dynasty scholar Pi Xirui (皮锡瑞 1850–1908), the
Japanese sinologist Shigeyuki Honda (1882–1945), and Cheng Yuanmin (程元敏) of China’s
Taiwan Province.
3 Xiaoxue is a subject that studies ancient Chinese language and characters, including phonology
(interpretation of sounds), philology (interpretation of forms), and exegesis (interpretation of
texts), and is traditionally a subject of classics.