A Study on Qian Shi's Rongtang Shujie

This study dealt with the book Rongtang Shujie(融堂書解) which is the commentary on the Shangshu(尙書) by the Song Dynasty scholar Qian Shi(錢時). Since the study was conducted based on Siku Quanshu(四庫全書)'s assessment of this book, it is possible to get a the viewpoints of Qing dynasty scholars on Song dynasty Confucianism. They said that the tendency to interpret the scriptures during the Tang dynasty was mostly to stick to the old interpretations, Song dynasty scholars liked to come up with new theories, so they was inevitable that their interpretation would be disjointed. However, their evaluations of Qian Shi were different, he did not absolutely believe in the theory of a particular school, as he was not blinded by distorted theories with his own thoughts, it is rare among the interpretations of the scriptures by scholars of the Song Dynasty. Therefore, this study was conducted to prove that these evaluations of Qian Shi's “Rongtang Shujie” are credible, which is he respected the old interpretations, but did not only rely on the old theories, moreover developed a new interpretation obtained by himself.