SOURCE: “Chu Hsi's Reading of the Ta-hsueh: A Neo-Confucian's Quest for Truth,” in Journal of Chinese Philosophy, Vol. 10, No. 3, 1983, pp. 183-204.

In the following essay, Gardner investigates Chu Hsi's fascination with the shortest text in Confucian canon, the Ta-hsueh, reviewing the evidence of Chu Hsi's “endless” revision of his commentary on it. He argues that Chu Hsi's intensive study of the text resulted in an understanding of it that challenged the traditional reading of the Ta-hsueh.

The Ta-hsüeh^a is the shortest text in the Confucian canon. With its scant 1747 characters it can be read, even memorized, in a matter of days. Yet Chu Hsi^b spent more than forty years engaged in the study of the text, producing by the end of his life a commentary on it that would soon become authoritative.

Prior to the Sung dynasty (960-1279) classical studies tended to be principally exegetical...