Discovery or Invention: Modern Interpretations of Zhang Xuecheng

Zhang Xuecheng was an ordinary scholar in eighteenth-century China.But in modern times he was recognized as an extraordinary historian.His remark that "the Six Classics are all history" was especially praised as a remarkable breakthrough or distinct paradigm.This study, however, argues that the rediscovery of Zhang was in effect a modern invention."The Six Classics are all history" is actually quite an old concept.At least from the sixteenth-century, Wang Yangming had already set a precedent for Zhang, whose version of the dictum was quite similar to his predecessors as well as contemporaries.Zhang filled in little, if any, new wine in the old bottle.