朱熹不僅是宋代理學的代表人物與集大成者，同時亦是宋代經學的集大成者。借用庫恩的「科學革命」理論，朱熹對於傳統經學的發展亦可謂一場「革命」。其意義主要不是對漢唐經學個別觀點與方法的改進和拓展，而是對治經範式的全面更新。在經學研究的根本目標上，朱熹主張超越傳注，直求聖人本義；在基本方法上，主張義理與訓詁相結合；在核心典據上，主張以四書代五經，並以四書之義理統帥五經及其解釋，從而建構起系統的四書體系與道統譜系。朱熹創立的這一經學範式是經學與理學相結合的產物，達到了當時經學研究的最高水準，對於後世經學在不同方向上的發展演變亦產生了極為深遠的影響。

Zhu Xi is not only the representative and master of the Song Dynasty’s Neo-Confucianism, but also the master of the Song Dynasty’s Confucian classics. Using Kuhn’s “scientific revolution” theory, Zhu Xi’s reformation for traditional Confucian classics can also be called a “revolution”. Its significance is not to improve and expand the individual viewpoints and methods of Confucian classics in Han and Tang Dynasties, but to comprehensively update the paradigm of researching Confucian classics. On the fundamental goal of the study of Confucian classics, Zhu Xi advocated to transcend the original annotation and seek the original meaning of sages; in the basic method, he advocated the combination of the elucidation of philosophy and exegesis; in the core classics, he advocated replacing the Five Classics with Four Books, and interpreting the Five Classics with the philosophical thoughts of Four Books, thus building a systematic Four Book system and the orthodoxy. The paradigm of Confucian classics founded by Zhu Xi was the product of the combination of Confucian classics and Neo-Confucianism, which reached the highest level of the study of Confucian classics at that time, and had a profound impact on the development and evolution of Confucian classics in different directions.