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Abstract Hui Dong was an academic pioneer from the Qing Dynasty. He was the first one to raise the banner of Han Learning and his work covered a wide range of scriptures. While existing studies of Hui Dong’s thought focus on Han Learning and its characteristics, little attention has been paid to the process of its formation. By examining the differences and similarities between the known texts and the newly discovered marginalia of his Maoshi Zhushu, this article presents both a clear vertical narration from marginalia to the existing manuscript and then to the engraved version, and further clarifies a gradual evolution of Hui Dong’s thought on Han Learning. The first stage, the marginalia from his early years, is haphazard and lacking detailed and rigorous analyses, referring to a large range of books. This building on an extensive collection of materials, indicates that Hui Dong had not yet developed firm and specialized academic thought. As he progressed in learning, he began to doubt, deny and criticize the scriptures from after the Tang and Song dynasties. He started to examine a great variety of ancient commentaries of Han Confucianism, identifying relevant characters, and scrutinizing their phonetics. By doing so he argued that the ancient characters were similar, and he was thus able to correct errors in the sources. In this process, a tendency towards Han Learning became apparent and Hui Dong’s thought on Han Learning began to take shape.
The origin of Hui Dong’s thought on The Book of Songs was on the one hand closely related to his family education, such as his inheritance of his family’s faith in the Shi Xu, the rejection of the learning of the Song and Ming, and the idea and tradition of “talking about the scriptures in terms of rites”. On the other hand, the origin of Hui Dong’s thought on The Book of Songs was deeply influenced by Chen Qiyuan’s Maoshi Jigu Bian. He followed the custom of restoring the ancient thoughts that had existed in the Wuzhong region since the middle and late Ming dynasty, and also emphasized the importance of the ancient meanings of Han Confucianism, by exploring the ideas and methods of scriptural interpretation by Han scholars. In this he completely abandoned the scriptures formed from Tang and Song dynasties onwards. In addition, Hui Dong attached more importance to the concept of “inheritance” and “imitation” in Han Confucianism, which were rarely discussed by his predecessors. Moreover, he bridged the scriptures of Xun Zi and Mao Gong, pointing out that the similarity between the meanings of Maozhuan and Xunzi was due to the ways of teaching, and that only by understanding the commentaries of Han Confucian scriptures can one trace back to Confucius. This shows that Hui Dong was undoubtedly more self-conscious in his search for ancient implications, and his intention to seek the past was more obvious. In the past, scholars have talked about Hui Dong’s early thoughts and his relationships with his family, but have failed to clarify the reasons for this. This is an important issue that should not be ignored when interpreting the academic history of the Qing Dynasty.
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Published: 23 April 2022
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