The present special theme of the Frontiers of Philosophy in China is devoted to research on the recently excavated texts from Chinese antiquity.The importance of the new materials for the study of Chinese philosophy and for the intellectual history of ancient China has been recognized and emphasized in numerous publications.The philosophical study of the new materials,however,also tremendously changed aims and methods of the philosophical inquiry into ancient Chinese texts.A special field of academic research of considerable breadth grew out of the studies of the excavated materials.Within it,philological methodologies and historical considerations play a great role.We may say that a separate field of research in the field of Chinese philosophy has been established.