MUZIChinese Matrix
Scholars › Philosopher / Thinker
Qing philologist from Xiuning who served as a compiler for the Four Treasuries and argued in his commentary on Mencius that moral principle must be grounded in ancient texts
Mural of the event “Compilation of Siku Quanshu”, which this person took part in.
At the height of the High Qing era, the Qianlong Emperor ordered an exhaustive collection of imperial and private libraries to compile the definitive compendium of Chinese literature.
Also known as Zi Shenxiu · Zi Dongyuan
Dai Zhen, courtesy names Dongyuan and Shenxiu, came from Xiuning in Huizhou and studied ritual, astronomy and phonology with Jiang Yong of Wuyuan. Moving to Beijing to escape a feud, he won the friendship of Ji Yun, Zhu Yun, Qian Daxin and Wang Mingsheng. He passed the provincial examination in 1762 but repeatedly failed the metropolitan one; when the Four Treasuries office opened in 1773 he was recommended as a compiler, and in 1775 the emperor granted him jinshi status and a Hanlin post. In the office he collated the Commentary on the Water Classic and recovered seven mathematical works, including the Nine Chapters, from the Yongle Encyclopedia. Holding that meaning must be reached through script, sound and glosses, he wrote studies of rhymes and dialect words and, in his Evidential Commentary on the Meanings of Terms in the Mencius (Mengzi ziyi shuzheng), attacked Song Confucians for judging people by abstract principle. He died in Beijing in 1777; his pupils Duan Yucai and Wang Niansun became leading philologists.
Qing
Took partage 49Compiled over eleven years under the Qianlong emperor, the Siku Quanshu assembled 3,503 works in 79,337 juan as a vast imperially sponsored collection.
Literature · Prose8Literature · Sayings1The Draft History of the Qing says Dai Zhen's learning sought word meanings through sounds and characters, and sought the underlying meaning through word meanings. His works include the Shijing ernan buzhu in two chapters, the Mao Zheng shi kao in four, the Shangshu yikao in one, the Kaogong ji tu in two, the Daxue buzhu and Zhongyong buzhu in one each, and the Mengzi ziyi shuzheng in three.
