In Defense of History:
Zhang Binglin's Interpretation of the Zuo Commentary

Young-Tsu Wong
Virginia Polytechnic and State University

The revival of New-text Confucianism in Qing China set the stage for another round of debates about the authenticity of the Zuo Commentary (Zuozhuan ???). Two great scholars in late Qing, Kang Youwei ??? and Zhang Binglin ???? also known as Taiyan ??? each took a side of the debate. Many recent scholars consider Kang and Zhang rekindled the old fashion Old-text New-text controversy in the Confucian tradition. Such view, however, tends to obscure their respective contemporary concerns. In an earlier article, I have discussed Kang's special interest in using Gongyang Confucianism in the New-text tradition for political reforms. In this paper, I shall focus on Zhang, Kang's rival, and the intellectual concern of his own. In dealing with Zhang, I propose to look at how did he engage and defend the texts of the Zuo Commentary? How did he rebut Liu Fenglu's ?e^? attack on the commentary? How did he evaluate the principles of interpretation laid out by his predecessors? How did he articulate his interpretation of the Zuo Commentary? My hypothesis is that having shifted his interest from the Classics to history, his prime concern was authenticity of history rather than orthodoxy of any particular school of Confucianism.