Zhang Xuecheng was a Qing Dynasty

Qing Dynasty

The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....

 historian, writer and thinker. His magnum opus is On Literature and History (《文史通义》), which was published posthumously in 1832. In Zhang's view, the Confucian Way developed over time in response to the concrete needs of the people for social organization. This developmental view contrasts with the view of the Neo-Confucians that the Confucian Way is the expression of timeless "principles" or "patterns" that are inherent in the human heart. Zhang's most famous quotation is that "the classics are all history" 六经皆史. This means that the canonical texts of Confucianism are not to be understood as repositories of timeless wisdom, but as records of the actions and words of the sages in response to specific historical contexts.

Further reading

• Ivanhoe, Philip J.
  Philip J. Ivanhoe
  Philip J. Ivanhoe is an historian of Chinese thought, particularly of Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism. He is a professor at the City University of Hong Kong...
  
  , trans. (2009). On Ethics and History: Essays and Letters of Zhang Xuecheng. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-6128-0.