本文主要討論兩個相關主題。第一、藉著檢視陳確（1604-77）和李光地（1642-1718）兩人詮釋《大學》的文章，揭出儒家傳統詮釋學根本上是一種道德哲學。一般而言，經典的詮釋往往是為了表達對社會規範、社會價值以及其他人類學相關問題的看法，而將道德哲學嵌入詮釋學中，表示這樣的詮釋學基本的動機並非要建構或應用認知的理論，而在於追求並確認真理的存在。 其次，本文還說明儒家詮釋經典時，就如同其他的閱讀行為一樣，都受制於詮釋律令的威權之下，亦即遵循著那所謂不言自明的原則，認為所有的思想都涉及了詮釋，都和當下特定的歷史因素－特別是詮釋者的先期理解有關。再者，由於在詮釋和閱讀行為中會創造出一種文本與讀者間的對話，而在這樣的關係中，理解是一個必要的因素，因此儒家詮釋學的本質極適合與當代的理論，特別是高達美的詮釋學理論參照來思考。本文主張，終究高達美說明了西方哲學傳統，傾向將現實的處理化約為對一種分析方法／理論的追尋，而儒學相對的在意圖及實質上都是後設實踐的（metapractical），對現實此一整體做本體論式的處理時，大體而言是哲學性的。

This essay has two related contentions. First, by examining two early Qing exegetical works on the Great Learning, one by Chen Que (陳確 1604-77) and another by Li Guangdi (李光地 1642-1718), the essay reveals that Confucian hermeneutics was essentially moral philosophy. Exegesis of the classics was an occasion for speculative thinking on the normative, the axiological, and the anthropological. The embedding of moral philosophy in hermeneutics meant that it was animated by the search for and affirmation of truths, rather than by the construction and application of theories of understanding. Second, it argues that Confucian engagement with the classics, as with all acts of reading, is subject to the tyranny of the hermeneutic imperative, the self-evident priciple that all thoughts involve interpretation and are relative to the contingent context of particular historical forces and factors, especially the interpreter's preunderstanding. To the extent that the acts of reading and interpreting inexorably forge a dialogical relation between the text and the reader, and since understanding is a universal element in this relation, the nature of Confucian hermeneutics may be fruitfully and comparatively pondered with reference to some contemporary theories, Gandamer's in particular. This essay contends that in the final analysis, Gadamerian hermeneutics exemplifies the Western philosophical predilection to reduce engagement with reality to the search for an analytical method/theory, whereas the Confucian counterpart is metapractical in intent and substance, broadly philosophical for its ontological confrontation with reality as an integrated whole.