ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with three sets of questions: how change was justified in terms of a hermeneutical system; what strategies were used to accomplish these sanctioned changes; and how these strategies and the hermeneutical system functioned to define the Confucian canon. The Confucian canon from the very beginning had a porous boundary, as any text can be endowed canonicity through various linguistic and textual strategies. Compared to most canonical traditions, the Confucian canon was notable "in the extent to which it remained open, resisting final fixation or complete closure." The path of the hermeneutical moments of the text Ta-hsueh shows how various discursive strategies were used to deploy a text inside and outside the intellectual tradition of Confucianism. The emergence of a new set of works in an intellectual tradition is an integral part of the development of a new hermeneutical system.
