Kaozheng
Kaozheng (; "search for evidence"), alternatively called kaoju xue (; "evidential scholarship") and Qian–Jia School (), was a school and approach to study and research in the Qing dynasty of China from about 1600 to 1850. It was most prominent during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor and Jiaqing Emperor (hence the alternate name "Qian–Jia School"). The approach corresponds to the methods of modern textual criticism, and was sometimes associated with an empirical approach to scientific topics as well. History and controversies. Some of the most important first generation of Qing thinkers were Ming loyalists, at least in their hearts , including Gu Yanwu, Huang Zongxi, and Fang Yizhi. Partly in reaction to the presumed laxity and excess of the late Ming, they turned to Kaozheng, or evidential learning, which emphasized careful textual study and critical thinking. Rather than regarding "kaozheng" as a local phenomenon of Jiangnan and Beijing areas, it has been proposed to view it as a general trend in development of Chinese scholarship in light of contribution of Cui Shu (1740–1816). Towards the end of the Qing and in the early 20th century, reform scholars such Liang Qichao, Hu Shih and Gu Jiegang saw in "kaozheng" a step  towards development of empirical mode of scholarship and science in China. Conversely, Carsun Chang and Xu Fuguan criticized "kaozheng" as intellectually sterile and politically dangerous. While Yu Ying-shih in the late 20th century has tried to demonstrate continuity between "kaozheng" and neo-Confucianism in order to provide a non-revolutionary basis for Chinese culture, Benjamin Elman has argued that "kaozheng" constituted "an empirical revolution" that broke with the stance of neo-Confucian combination of teleological considerations with scholarship. Influence in Japan. The methods of "kaozheng" were imported into Edo-era Japan as "kōshō" or "kōshōgaku". This approach combined textual  criticism and empiricism in an effort to find ancient, "original" meanings of texts. The earliest use of "kaozheng" methods in Edo Japan was Keichū's critical edition of the "Man'yōshū". These methods were eventually used by the "Kokugaku" to argue that modern science was indigenous to Japan; they also contributed to the "Kokugaku" critique of Buddhism.