Abstract: YAO Ji-heng was a scholar who lived during the reign of Emperor Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty. A Comprehensive Study of the Spring and Autumn Annals represents his achievements in the research of The Spring and Autumn Annals and The Commentary of Zuo. Influenced by the trend of "criticizing and discarding Neo-Confucianism", A Comprehensive Study contains many defects, which unfortunately haven't been deeply examined in the academic circle. From the perspective of "historical Aesthetics", that is, examining history and historiography with the wisdom of Aesthetics, this paper analyzes A Comprehensive Study and finds out many defects in YAO's comments on Mencius's discussion about The Spring and Autumn Annals, his criticism of DU Yu's analyses of examples in The Commentary of Zuo and his criticism of The Commentary of Zuo. Such a critical examination of YAO would establish an example for today's academic research.

Key words: YAO Ji-heng, A Comprehensive Study of the Spring and Autumn Annals, historical Aesthetics, The Commentary of Zuo, The Commentary of Gongyang