Research on Cheng Yichuan’s “Reading View” and “Classic View”

Cheng Yichuan’s “reading concept” has two main characteristics: one is to emphasize that books do not need to be read more, but need to know its core ideas, and the other is to emphasize that the main energy of life should be devoted to studying a few classics. Closely related to his “reading view” is his “classic view”. In his view, the role and meaning of “classic” are to contain “Tao”, which is the true basis for measuring “classic” as “classic”. The “Four Books” were a new system of classics extracted by Zhu Zi, on the basis of Yichuan’s “classical view”. As early as the middle and late Northern Song Dynasty, Yichuan had tried to replace the dominant position of the “Old Five Classics” in Confucianism with the “Four Books”. From today’s perspective, both Yichuan’s “reading view” and “classical view” have had a huge impact on intellectuals in the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, and even have certain reference significance for our “reading” today.