卢文弨对《白虎通义》的校勘与研究

Abstract

Lu Wenchao is one of the most important scholars and emendators of the time. There are more than 250 books he emendated in his life. His way of checking and collating was to collect different versions what we can get and to choose the best of them. In 1777, Lu Wenchao and other scholars proofread Comprehensive Discussions in the White Tiger Hall and published it. It’s called Baojingtang Edition(抱经堂本), one of the most important editions of Comprehensive Discussions in the White Tiger Hall, which gave the scholars at that time a good edition to read and study. Until now, it is still one of the most important editions of Comprehensive Discussions in the White Tiger Hall. At the same time, Lu Wenchao put forward his opinions in several prefaces about the study of the book, such as the Concept of Yin Yang and Five Elements which were sharply criticized a lot at different times before. He insisted that, not like us, there’s not so much tradition to study and the Heaven is what our ancestor learns from. So the Concept of Yin Yang and Five Elements is a way of knowing the world. It should be the premise when scholars read and research the book. Not like all those oversimplified criticisms, his opinion is more objective and rational, which is still inspiring to us nowadays when we look into Comprehensive Discussions in the White Tiger Hall again. As we can see, Lu Wenchao is quite a distinctive man in the publication and study history of Comprehensive Discussions in the White Tiger Hall, who deserves our deeper understanding.