Cui Shu zhixue de wenhua huanjing.

Cui Shu (1740-1816) was a renowned philologist in China during the during the Qianlong and Jiaqing periods. However, not much of his scholarship has survived. His official career was deemed a failure and he was not personally acquainted with the well-known scholars of the so-called evidential studies (kaozheng) school or Han Learning movement of the time. This article examines Cui Shu’s achievements in cultural and textual scholarship. The first part of the article discusses Cui’s unique perspectives on the classics in history. The second part discusses the broader cultural environment where Cui could not establish himself, and the narrower environment where he found support from close friends and family. The third part is an analysis of Cui’s scholarship in relation to his predecessors and contemporaries.