Studies and Pedigrees of Shangshu in China in the First Half of the 20th Century (1900–1949)

Abstract

By the 20thcentury, Shangshu studieshad divided into three main schools: scholars of the traditional school whose research methods remains traditional ways took Zhang Taiyan as the center of this group. The “Xin-zheng” school, Wang Guowei as the central figure of it, attached great importance to the unearthed literature. The “Ku-shih-pien” school centered on Gu Jiegang, which examined the authenticity of ancient Chinese historical documents and used modern subject knowledge to interpret the text of Shangshu, achieved great results. In addition, scholars from Anhui, Sichuan, Hunan and other places also contributed. On the one hand, on the basis of fully absorbing the outstanding achievement of predecessors, systematic studies of Shangshu have been launched in different schools. At the same time, the debates between them also have further promoted the research progress. On the other hand, the contribution of the Shangshu research in modern times lies more in that has brought together a large number of outstanding scholars and has covered many different fields and academic ideas. For this reasons, it sets a perfect example for the research of the newly unearthed bamboo and silks documents and extraterritorial literature.