清代小學極其昌盛，第一流的學者對小學均多所研究。乾嘉學術名家王鳴盛也將小學視為至關重要者，其子學和史學代表作《蛾術編》、《十七史商榷》中含有豐富的文字考證內容，包括對語言學史上重要的人物和著述的精闢論述。他善于用發展的觀點對文字、音韻、訓詁等語言學現象作歷史的考察，進而總結出富有理性色彩的重要認識，值得我們重視。

　　　　　Philology prevailed very much in Qing Dynasty and especially many top-ranking scholars ever studied it at that time. Wang Mingsheng, one of the most famous Qianjia School scholars in Qing Dynasty, also considered it to be most important. He not only had examined characters closely in Eshubian and hiqishishangque, which were the two major works of his magnum opuses, but also had touched on the outstanding philologists in the Chinese philological history. With the developmental method and in the historical direction, he examined characters, phonology and explanations of words in ancient books and concluded plenty of rational conclusions which have been attached much attention to up to date.