Abstract: The 'stage division' of Dai Zhen's thought has been widely accepted.However,this argument placed great obstacles in comprehending DAI Zhen's thought as a coherent system.In section Ⅰ,the paper argues that the 'division' overemphasizes on the differences between Dai Zhen's thought in early years and in afterlife,splits Dai Zhen into a philologist and a philosopher,and makes it impossible to comprehend his thought as a whole.The argument in section Ⅱ shows that the 'division' originated from the c...