錢新手且教授的著作是具開創性的，它打破了美國儒學研究中人文詮釋學向來具有之影響力。錢氏將西方現象詮釋學引用到儒學研究，強調陸象山及朱熹對漢學之章句白II詰持同樣態度，認為漢學是膚淺，不足以理解道。朱陸兩人主要之差異在「心作為認識主體與理作為認識客體這兩者之闊的關係」。陸象山弦調閱讀主體與理之一致性。陸象山這種形而上之一元主義，對以後戴度的思想有很大毒草響，而這命題是美國漢學界向來忽視的。

Professor Edward Ch'ien's book is a vanguard research in America's study of Confucianism which has been under the influence of humanistic hermeneutics_ By a comparsion of Neo-Confucian and Western phenomenological hermeneutics， Ch'ien suggests that both Lu Hsiang-shan and Chu Hsi reject the lexical glossing of Han philology as superficial and inadequate to the task of approhending the Tao_ They differ only over “the relationship betweenmind as the knowing subject and li or Nature as the object to be known_" By stressing unity between reading subject and li， Lu's metaphysical monism leaves a crucial imprint on Tai Chen， an issue which is unexplored in American sinology.