Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/135

Rh ardent promoters of the new critical study of the classics, Tai being a guest in the home of Chi Yün for a number of years after 1760. As editors of the Annotated Catalogue of the Ssŭ-k'u ch'üan-shu they lent their sanction to and crystallized the views of the century-old School of Han Learning (see under ) with its covert attack on Chu Hsi and other Sung and Ming philosophers. In later years Chi composed a series of fables and anecdotes designed to point a moral or to satirize the pedants and hypocritical moralists of the prevailing Sung philosophical school. These anecdotes which appeared in five series during the years 1789-98, were published in 1800 under the collective title 閱微草堂筆記 Yüeh-wei Ts'ao-t'ang pi-chi. They have been popular ever since. Perhaps Chi realized that an allegorical presentation would find a wider circle of readers than a serious work. Except for these pi-chi, the Ssŭ-k'u Catalogue, and various official documents which he edited, Chi Yün did very little other writing. His collected essays and poems, each in 16 chüan, were published in 1812, under the title 紀文達公遺集 Chi Wên-ta kung i-chi. He was a collector of ink-slabs whose designs and inscriptions he had copied into a volume which was reproduced in 1916 under the title Yüeh-wei ts'ao-t'ang yen-p'u (硯譜). He edited, for the use of younger students, under the title 史通削繁 Shih-t'ung hsüeh fan, a condensed edition of the well-known critique of history, 史通 Shih-t'ung, the latter completed by Liu Chih-chi 劉知幾 (661-721) in 711 A. D. Chi Yün also edited a collectanea of ten works, entitled 鏡煙堂十種 Ching-yen t'ang chih-ch'ung―after the name of a studio in the Educational Commissioner's residence at Foochow, where Chi Yün stayed from 1762 to 1764. Presumably this ts'ung-shu was printed at Foochow about this time. Some of the items consist of anthologies and others are treatises on rhyming, poetic criticism, etc. Among the anthologies is the 庚辰集 Kêng-ch'ên chi, 5 chüan, comprising the Court poems written by members of the Hanlin Academy who had been admitted during the cycle, 1700–60. It was edited by Chi himself and was annotated by his disciples, among them Li Wên-tsao (see under ). Chi included in the collectanea his own Court poems, entitled 館課存稿 Kuan-k'o ts'un-kao, 4 chüan.

In later life Chi Yün held the following posts: president of the Censorate (1785–87, 1791–96), president of the Board of War (1796), and president of the Board of Ceremonies (1787–91, 1797–1805). On his eightieth birthday, in 1803, he was given special honors by Emperor Jên-tsung. In 1805 he was made an assistant Grand Secretary, but died a few days after taking office. He was cannonized as Wên-ta 文達.

Chi Yün was afflicted with short-sightedness–a defect once referred to by Emperor Kao-tsung. He was a humorist, and many anecdotes are attributed to him, some perhaps fictitiously, on account of his fame. He was an indifferent penman, and the pieces of calligraphy that bear his name are said to have been penned by his disciples.

[1/326/6b; 3/31/1a, 補錄; 10/23/20b; 13/6/1b; 20/3/00; Wang Lan-yin 王蘭蔭, 紀曉嵐先生年譜 Chi Hsiao-lan Hsien-shêng nien-p'u in 師大月刊 Shih-ta yüeh-k'an, vol. I, no. 6 (1933); Hsien-hsien chih (1925); 辦理四庫全書檔案 Pan-li Ssŭ-k'u ch'üan-shu tang-an (1934); Bulletin of the National Library of Peiping, vol. VII, no. 5 (Sept.-Oct., 1933); 文淵閣藏書全景 Wên-yüan ko ts'ang-shu ch'üan-ching, containing a copy of the Chien-ming mu-lu (1935); Jên Ch'i-shan 任啟珊, 四庫全書答問 Ssŭ-k'u ch'üan-shu ta-wên (1928); Mayers, W. F., "Bibliography of the Chinese Imperial Collections of Literature", The China Review, vol. VI (1877–78), pp. 291–99; Goodrich, L. C., The Literary Inquisition of Ch'ien-lung (1935); 摛藻堂四庫薈要目 Ch'ih-tsao t'ang Ssŭ-k'u hui-yao mu (1933), p. 21b; 內務府古物陳列所書畫目錄 Nei-wu-fu ku-wu ch'ên-lieh-so shu-hua mu-lu, 2/48b; Ichimura Sanjirō 市村瓚次郎, 四庫全書と文淵閣とに就いて, Shigaku-zasshi, 史學雜誌 vol. XIII, nos. 7, 8, 9.]

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CH'I Chou-hua 齊周華, 1698–1768, ca. Jan. 26, executed for offending the emperor by his writings, was a native of T'ien-t'ai, Chekiang, and a second cousin of. He became a licentiate in the district school and achieved fame as a writer, but in the Yung-chêng period gained notoriety for being involved in the case of. In 1731 Emperor Shih-tsung required all licentiates in the empire to express an opinion on the question of Lü's punishment as a traitor. Like many other licentiates Ch'i at first agreed that the conviction of Lü was just, but ventured, on second thought, to write a memorial expressing the view that Lü's descendants should be absolved. When the local authorities declined to submit the memorial to Peking Ch'i went in 123