A Critical Study of "Guoyu (part 1)" in Wang Yinzhi’s Jingyi Shuwen

Abstract

Wang Niansun (1744-1832) and his son Wang Yinzhi (1766-1834) of Gaoyou (in modern Jiangsu province) were both representatives of the Qianlong-Jiaqing (mid 18th to early 19th centuries) intellectual school. Their expertise in philology enabled them to read the classics with unprecedented insights. Their Jingyi Shuwen (General Exegeses of the Classics) marks the highest accompilshment. Although the book is highly influential, it is not free from errors in the comprehension of texts, and in etymological and syntactic analyses. This essay focuses on some such examples taken from the chapter on the Guoyu (Discourses of the States) (part 1) and discusses the nature of these problems.

高郵王念孫、王引之父子，爲乾嘉樸學的代表人物。二王以其深湛的小學修爲，出入於經典之中，屢有創獲，其《經義述聞》更是經學名著，影響深遠。然而，在辯解疑難之餘，亦偶見未安之處，如文義的理解、字形的掌握或語法的分析等，均有值得商榷的例子。今就《經義述聞．國語上》，擇其可議之處，加以檢討，以察其問題所在。