Confucian Classical Studies in the Sui Period and the Fate of the Northern Exegetical School (4th Century AD – beginning of the 7th century AD)

Confucian Classical studies during the Southern and Northern dynasties period, as well as during the short period of the rule of the Sui dynasty, are often considered as a decline of traditional Classical scholarship. In the North, Confucianism acquired an instrumental function as a guide to ritual practice and, in general, took a course towards preserving the Eastern Han scholarship. By the end of the 6th century when China, finally, was reunified after centuries of political disunity, a struggle between different political and scholarly factions began. Confucian exegesis of this period rarely receives special attention, since it looks like a transitional phenomenon that did not last long and only preceded the exegetical reforms of the Tang period.