The New Text School focuses on the philosophical and metaphysical meaning of the Confucian texts, using an apocryphal and prognostic approach to the reading. This was criticised by the rival Old Text School as superstitious, as the Old Text School favoured reading them from a historical perspective. The New Text School viewed Confucius as an uncrowned king (
su wang) while the Old Text School viewed him as a teacher of ancient knowledge.
Qing dynasty The scholar Zhuang Cunyu (1718–1788), a secretary to the
Qianlong emperor, was the pioneer of the
Changzhou New Text School revival. Dissatisfied with his apolitical colleagues in the
Han learning movement, Zhuang published studies based on the New Text literature, aiming to interpret the writings of Confucius' as prescriptions on government, especially with regard to the corruption and lawlessness of his contemporaries. Using the evidential research methods of Han learning, this school of thought sought to interpret moral and political lessons from the Confucian classics, so as to create a legitimate framework to combat the political corruption of the time. • Downplaying the role of
Mencius, as a sign of opposition to Confucianism during the Song dynasty. • Much attention paid to the
Gongyang Zhuan as the text revealing the true wisdom of Confucius. The reading of
Chunqiu therein had prophetic overtones, which the opponents of the school condemned as superstition. • High esteem of the work of
He Xiu (何休), the Han dynasty author of the commentary to the
Gongyang Zhuan (春秋公羊解詁). • Attacks on the
Zuo Zhuan as a purported
Liu Xin's fabrication intended to overturn the
Gongyang Zhuan. By far the most important feature of the New Text as political movement was advocating reform (
Zhuang Cunyu,
Liu Fenglu), drawing from the
Gongyang legalist-style ideology of "weighing the circumstances". The reforms were seen necessary since the
Heshen-related crisis of power. According to
Wei Yuan 魏源 (1794–1857), ::
"The ancients had what pertained to the ancients. To force the ancients upon the moderns is to misrepresent the moderns. To use the moderns as the standard for the ancients is to misrepresent the ancients. If one misrepresents the present, then there can be no way to order [the contemporary world]... If one read the [medical] works of the Yellow Emperor and Shennong, and used them to kill people, one would be labelled a mediocre doctor. If one read the works of the Duke of Zhou and Confucius and used them to harm the empire, would one not be labelled a mediocre Confucian? Not only would such [incompetence] bring no benefit to any particular age, but in addition it would cause people no longer to believe in the Way of the sages." ==Scholarly genealogies==