陳祥道的《論語全解》是荊公新學派詮釋《論語》的代表作, 反映了該學派的《論語》學思想。他一方面博采儒家學說尤其是禮學以作佐證, 同時還征引老、莊學說特別是《莊子》之學以詮釋《論語》, 這充分反映了王安石所倡導的新學學派注釋儒家經典的特點。陳氏這種援老學中合乎“義理”的部分以入儒的作法, 使得儒家學說中的義理大爲豊富和充實, 從而也就把儒家的地位提高到佛道兩家之上。這也適應了北宋時期的儒佛道三敎融合, 三敎歸一的大的歷史發展潮流。另一方面, 陳氏注重義理解經, 注重闡發圣賢經典中所直含的性命之理和道德之意, 成為《論語》學由“漢學”過渡到“宋學”的中間環節, 在《論語》詮釋史上占有重要的地位。

As a representative work of the school of Jinggong, Chen Xiangdao’s Lunyu quanjie broadly reflects the school’s understanding of the Lunyu. On one hand, Chen widely adopted Confucianism and was especially reliant on the teachings of lixue 禮學 (learning of rites) to support his claims. Chen’s frequent use of passages from both the Laozi and the Zhuangzi to explain the Lunyu provides an outstanding example of the annotation methods of what was at the time a new school led by Wang Anshi. Chen also utilized Taoist ideas which fit into Confucian teachings to enrich the Confucian doctrine of righteousness and attempted to put Confucianism over Buddhism and Taoism. This attempt reflects the trend of the Northern Song Dynasty in which the three traditions of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism were deeply correlated to one another. On the other hand, however, Chen’s interpretation of the classical Confucian texts focused primarily on expounding their moral implications, which reflects the shift of interpretative focus from that of the Han learning to that of the Song learning in interpreting the Lunyu. [Article in Chinese]