On Zhu Xis Approaches to Reading the Book of Songs

Zhu Xi has made greater achievements in his study of the Book of Songs than his predecessors because of the difference in their approaches to reading and interpreting it. Zhu Xi took a literary approach, claiming that the Book of Songs should be deciphered by first reciting its temperament and attention then should be given to the styles and techniques in presentation, while the scholars in the Han and Tang Dynasties referred to a Confucian approach. He breaks up the interpreting of the Book into three stages --- carefully read the Book once and again; understand the names and description of things and exegesis in texts with reference to all the notes available; deduce and reason through appreciation. In other words, the aim for reading the Book of Songs is to work out the rationalist structure intended by the poet based on the correct understanding of its original ideas. This literary approach to reading the Book of Songs is inevitably confined within the bond of rationality, for which his goal of making an exhaustive inquiry of ration of everything should be responsible.