“The Collection of Korean Classics”, as an important document for foreign sinology research, has received much more attention in recent years, but most of the attention mainly focuses on the “Book of Songs”, the “Book of Changes” and the “Four Books”. On the contrast, the “Spring and Autumn Annals” seems to be ignored.
Pondering upon the reasons, in addition to being influenced by the prosperity of idealist philosophy during the Joseon Dynasty, one of the reasons is that the “Spring and Autumn Annals” is, comparing with other classics, difficult to understand. This thesis has dissected the reason and divided it into three points: First, it is influenced by history. The “Spring and Autumn Annals” itself is both a study of classics and a study of history, so it is necessary to understand the relevant historical events of China and South Korea before understanding the motivation why the Korean Confucians study it. Second, each commentary of the “Spring and Autumn Annals” has its own preference on argumentation; furthermore, with the influence of neo-confucianism, all these factors lead the study of “Spring and Autumn Annals” in Korea to a complicated scenario, and also make it difficult to be quickly understood. Third, the mutual agitation between the Korean “heir of China” thinking and the “Sinocentrism“ in the “Spring and Autumn Annals”. The problems raised by these three points run through the entire “Spring and Autumn Annals” study of Korea, and it is worth exploring.
In recent years, the research method of “digital humanities” has become more and more prosperous. During the period of doctoral study, I am lucky to have the privilege getting a glimpse of the “digital humanities” under the guidance of my advisor, Professor Liu Wen-Qiang. Thus, I am also using, in addition to traditional historical and documental analysis, digital text analysis, spatial analysis, social network analysis and other "digital humanities" research methods to further strengthen the research on “Spring and Autumn Annals” in “The Collection of Korean Classics”. It is expected to demonstrate the characteristics and true color of Korean study of “Spring and Autumn Annals”.