The ideological content of ancient Chinese historical philology is rich, and there are many things to study. To sum up, there are two main parts: First, ancient philologists (including historians, thinkers, etc.) understanding, and the second is a discussion of philological activities and work.
First, the understanding of the document itself. That is, ancient philologists’ views on the object of their research - as an objectively existing literature and classics. This part of the content mainly includes understanding of the meaning and function of documents, understanding of the value of documents and historical materials, understanding of the importance differences between documents, and understanding of the external form of documents (including document carriers, compilation genres, styles, formats, etc.) understanding, etc.
Literatures and classics are not only descriptions of the natural world and human society, but also the crystallization of human thought. Therefore, the ancients had a very clear understanding of the social significance and role contained in documents. Documents and classics not only play a role in social significance, but also play an academic role, that is, they have historical value and contain various information about historical things. The ancients had rich views on this. From today's perspective, there is no question of who is important and who is not important among documents. The value of all types of documents is equal, but for different research objects, some documents and historical materials are of higher value, and some historical materials are of higher value. It is lower, but ancient Chinese philologists have very clearly pointed out the importance differences between classics, histories, zi, ji and other documents, which is thought-provoking. In terms of the external form of documents, the ancients have incisive discussions on the analysis of the changes in the ancient and modern carriers of documents and classics, the evaluation of different compilation styles, the comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of various genres, and the understanding of the value of various editions. The insights in this area are extremely rich in content and complete in system, and must be carefully summarized.
Second, a discussion of philological activities and work. There are two main aspects. One is the understanding of the value of document collection work, including the purpose of document collection work, the principles of document collection, the attitude of using documents, the cultivation of philologists and the thoughts of philology history, etc.; It is an understanding of specific philological work, that is, a theoretical understanding of the sub-disciplines of philology, namely bibliography, editions, collation, forgery, anonymity, exegesis, etc. Specifically, it is to explore the ancients’ understanding of each A theoretical explanation of the purpose, principles followed, methods and methodology used of this literature branch.
Ancient Chinese philologists have never organized documents for the sake of organizing documents. They always have high goals in organizing documents, in order to promote the holy way, promote education, and apply them in the world. They may have different political opinions and different opinions on governing the world, but "examining documents and evidence" is all for the purpose of governing the world. In the process of compiling documents, the ancients always did not forget to reflect on the work of their predecessors, sum up their experiences and lessons, and move forward on the basis of their predecessors. The study of ancient Chinese documents is a process of constant reflection, accumulation, and advancement, which is worth cherishing. The ancients also had rich and insightful discussions on the attitude of using documents and the cultivation of philologists, forming an excellent tradition.
After thousands of years of development, ancient philology has become more and more rich in content, and the division of labor in document collection has become more and more detailed. Many branches have emerged, such as document collection, classification and narration, textual research and forgery identification, and version collation. , annotation and interpretation, etc., which are today's bibliography, bibliography, editions, collation, forgery, anonymity, annotation and other document branch disciplines.
When the ancients were engaged in document work such as catalogues, editions, collation, forgery identification, compilation and annotation, related ideas, principles, methods, etc. also emerged and became important treasures in the treasury of philological thoughts, which require modern people to carefully explore and Interpretation