Pi Xirui 皮錫瑞

Pi Xirui 皮錫瑞 (1850-1909), courtesy name Lumen 鹿門, style Shifu Xiansheng 師伏先生, from Shanhua 善化, Hunan, was a philosopher and Confucian scholar of the late Qing period 清 (1644-1911). Despite his early efforts in the local examinations and his acceptance as a tribute student (gongsheng 貢生) in 1873, Pi Xirui failed to pass higher examinations and, therefore, became a private scholar.

He was a lecturer at the Longtan Academy 龍潭書院 in Guiyang 桂陽, Hunan, and at the Jingxun Academy 經訓書院 in Nanchang 南昌, Jiangxi. In 1898, he became head of the Southern Studies Society (Nanxuehui xuezhang 南學會學長). Under the influence of China's defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, he ardently supported the reform initiatives of Kang Youwei 康有爲 (1858-1927) and Liang Qichao 梁啟超 (1873-1929). To promote reform, he argued that "Western knowledge or teachings originated in Chinese teachings" (Xixue chu yu Zhongxue 西學出於中學). Because of this, the adaptation of Western teachings would require first understanding the true meaning of Chinese teachings. The consequence of this argument were his studies of the Classics and traditional commentaries on them. After the failure of the Hundred-Days Reform (wuxu bianfa 戊戌變法) in 1898, Pi, as a supporter of the reform movement, was taken away his juren degree and was not allowed any more to teach in institutions of higher education.

In his studies on the Classics, Pi concentrated on the New-Text teachings (jinwenxue 今文學) that were common in the Former Han period 前漢 (206 BCE-8 CE). This Confucian school introduced the idea of strictly adhering to a teacher (jing shi 經師, i.e., Confucius), which somewhat conflicted with Pi's support for the Reform Movement, and also contrasted with Kang Youwei and his reformist school (weixin pai 維新派), who regarded Confucius himself as a reformer.

Pi was skilled at bringing order to the various traditional commentaries on the Classics and published two books on the history of Classical teaching, namely Jingxue lishi 經學歷史 and Wujing tonglun 五經通論.

Apart from these two overviews, Pi Xirui wrote many studies on the Classics corpus and on individual texts, like Shengzhenglun buping 聖證論補評, Liuyilun shuzheng 六藝論疏證, Zhengzhu shuzheng 鄭注疏證, Hanbei yinjing kao 漢碑引經考, Bo wujing yiyi shuzheng 駁五經異義疏證, Jiuzheng qianshuo 九經淺說, Shangshu dazhuan shuzheng 尚書大傳疏證, Jinwen Shangshu kaozheng 今文尚書考證, Shangshu zhonghou shuzheng 尚書中侯疏證, Guwen Shangshu yuanci pingyi 古文尚書冤詞平議, Guwen Shangshu shuzheng bianzheng 古文尚書疏證辨正, Shangshu guwen kaoshi 尚書古文考實, Xiaojing Zhengzhu shu 孝經鄭注疏, Lu Li diqia yi shuzheng 魯禮禘袷義疏證, Wangzhi jian 王制箋 or Shifutang Chunqiu jiangyi 師伏堂春秋講義. They are assembled in the series Shifutang congshu 師伏堂叢書 and Pishi ba zhong 皮氏八種. Apart from these scholarly books, Pi also compiled the collection Shifutang biji 師伏堂筆記 and the diary Shifutang riji 師伏堂日記.