Looking back at the history of Confucianism, as scholars during the Song Dynasty did, the mainstream before the Sui and Tang Dynasties was Kunkogaku ("xunguxue" in Chinese), which emphasized the readings of characters and exegetics (interpretation of words) of Confucian classic writings.
宋代の学者に従って儒学の歴史を振り返ると、隋唐以前は経書の音訓（音読）や訓詁（単語の意味）を重視した訓詁学が中心であった。