My aim in this dissertation is to offer a new understanding of the intellectual tradition of learning the Classics and historiography as a whole via a study of Wang Fu-chih’s approach to interpreting Confucius’s Spring and Autumn Annals in light of the development of the classical hermeneutics of the Annals. Wang’s exegeses of its classical significance are quite original. His way of explication, however, is mainly based on the hermeneutical theory developed during the Sung dynasty; this intellectual tradition calls for combining both classical and historical scholarship in the study of the Annals. I argue that Wang’s approach needs to be explicated along two dimensions: the first is the intellectual tradition of learning the Classics and historiography taken as a whole; the second is Wang’s reflection and analysis of the fundamental issues of classical hermeneutics, such as the effectiveness of the premise, the logic and reason in hermeneutical activity. Although the Classics and historiography are classified into two different categories after Sui and T’ang dynasties, they are traditionally regarded as a closely related whole, for the intellectual ideas and practical approach of the two disciplines tend to converge rather than to run against each other. Now, the new hermeneutical theories of Spring and Autumn Annals, which are founded after Tan Chu(724-770AD.) and Chao K’uang(?) in T’ang dynasty, are the achievements of remarkable scholars’ endeavor of combining both of classical and historical scholarship. On the other hand, the new hermeneutical theories are also an essential constituent of the self-continuation of that tradition. Wang’s reflection and analysis of fundamental questions of classical hermeneutics also prove that the tradition is the most important driving force of the self-innovation in the hermeneutics of the Annals. Wang’s new exegeses are innovative and persuasive because he reveals that the historical way of thinking is integral to the meanings of the classics. This new territory in the study of classics to which Wang devotes himself is, however, the least understood area of his classical hermeneutics. In addition, the way he addresses the difficulties in the interpretation of classical significance, and the concepts he employs—such as Ming Shi (name and reality), Jing Yi (essence), and Quan Heng (weighing the pros and cons)—to address the issues of classical hermeneutics both adhere to the idea that the Annals is both a classics and history in nature and the learning of Classics and historiography are not two but one.