The issue of current or old edition of Da Xue was an extraordinarily important discrepancy between neoConfucianism in the Song Dynasty and that in the Ming Dynasty, which accounted for the discrepancy between Zhu, Lu and Wang and that between Wang Yangming’s school and Zhu Xi’s school. They differed in classical interpretation of Da Xue just by taking different editions as their theoretical bases. Their discrepancies didn’t result from the classic itself or from some specific historical reasons like classical classics but from different means of study, different choices and different interpretations. Therefore, a comparison and reinterpretation of the current and old editions of Da Xue and the argumentation of the old edition under circumstances of modern academics can certainly clarify the argumentative structure of the old edition and reveal the true features of the old edition of Da Xue as a Confucian classic to play its proper role in recognizing Confucian soul in the preQin times.

the current edition of Da Xue; the old edition of Da Xue; NeoConfucianism in the Song and the Ming Dynasty; argumentation