A Brief Discussion of the Textual Research on Mencius in the Qing Dynasty

The textual research in the Qing Dynasty reached the time of great booming in the history of China, converging into a trend of thoughts as a mainstream in that period. What the scholars in the Qing Dynasty textually researched dealt with broad fields like Mengzi himself and his family background, the date of his birth and death, his touring time and places, the monarchs he served and the disciples he had during his tour, the author of Mencius and the arrangement of chapters, diction and thoughts, things and their names, textual exegesis and historical institutions. Such an extensive and thorough textual research on Mencius in the Qing Dynasty had a really wide-spread influence upon the history of learning in China.