A comprehensive scholar of Chinese classical philology in the Han dynasty, Cheng Hsuan played a decisive role in the development of the exegetics of Han dynasty and later times. I li chu by Cheng Hsuan has been regarded as an exemplary work of philology since the Han dynasty. The book is rich in its materials and impressively consistent in its methods. Starting with a thorough cataloging of the exegetic terms in I li chu, this article classifies and analyzes Cheng's exegetic principles and operations in his annotated commentary to the I li. Through deep analysis, we strive to grasp the method of concise interpretation through Cheng's application of exegetic terms and the resultant glosses. This article sheds light on the characteristics of Cheng Hsuan's commentaries on the Chinese classics.