The work of Song Xiangfeng can be discussed as part of Changzhou scholarship, and it can also be considered from the standpoint of studies on the Gongyang commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals. However, it appears that neither of these is sufficient to explain the characteristics of Song Xiangfeng's scholarship or his place in the tradition of new text studies of the late Qing. This paper will put forth two new viewpoints. The first is a discussion of the key role of Song Xiangfeng in the transmission and dissemination of late Qing new text scholarship. The second is to use the concept of weiyan dayi (subtle language and profound meaning) to examine the characteristics of this linguistic context, and the way in which it opened up a scholarly debate in the Changzhou school's Han Learning textual criticism. This will permit a more complete consideration of this important direction in scholarship, and it will also add to our understanding of the rapprochement that was achieved in the debate between Han and Song Learning following the Qianjia reign period.