王樵稟承家學,得第早發,《尚書日記》為治經心血結晶,但讀者反應內容龐雜,不利閱讀記憶,因此又著《書帷別記》。此書選列考題,指導辨識題目、闡釋義理、解讀字句,展示《尚書》命題趨向與應試技巧,但未建立更嚴謹的應考知識體系。而為應舉所需,指示守經遵註,又刪除罕見命題的篇章,透露出治經與應舉的兩難,雖能指導舉子熟玩經傳、發明先聖之言,引領舉業之正途,卻也難以擺脫為考試服務的窠臼。
Wang Chiao was born in a learning family. He studied hard and succeeded in the imperial examination as a Jinshi at his young age. “Shang Shu Diary” was his all-out efforts work of studying “Shang Shu”, however, its contents were numerous and junbled for the candidates to prepare the imperial examination. So he wrote another book, “Shu Wei Bie Ji”, which collected the exam questions from “Shang Shu” and guided the candidates to identify the topics, explain the contents and interpret the words and sentences. But he didn’t establish a rigorous examination studying system, only explained casually. For the purpose of the examination, this book followed the instructions of “Shu Ji Chuan” by Tsai Chen and deleted the rarely proposition passages, and tried to carry forward the classics of the ancient sages and guided the ethos of the imperial examination. But it’s difficult to get rid of the stereotype of serving for examination.