Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/153

Rh nomical work, entitled 恆星說 Hêng-hsing shuo, 1 chüan, and two literary works: 艮庭詞 Kên-t'ing tz'ŭ, 3 chüan, and Kên-t'ing hsiao-hui (小慧), 1 chüan.

A son of Chiang Shêng, Chiang Liu 江鏐, who was also a scholar, died before his works were published. He was one of the chief assistants of in the compilation of the Shih-san ching chu-shu chiao-k'an chi (see under ). A grandson of Chiang Shêng, Chiang Yüan 江沅, was a serious student of the Shuo-wên, on which he wrote the following works: Shuo-wên shih-li (釋例), 2 chüan, studies in the pronunciation, the meaning and the form of the characters; and Shuo-wên chieh-tzŭ yin-yün piao (解字音韵表), 17 chüan, lists of all the characters in the Shuo-wên classified according to their supposed original pronunciation, with critical notes. The former was completed in 1811 and printed in 1851, and the latter was completed in 1809 and printed in the Hsü Huang Ch'ing ching-chieh (see under ). Of the pupils of Chiang Shêng the most brilliant were and.

[1/487/39a; 3/421/1a; 4/131/15a; 7/36/18a; Li Ching-kao 黎經誥, 許學考 Hsü-hsüeh k'ao (1927) 15/33a, 40a, 17/8b; Takada Hirotada 高田周忠, 轉注考證 in 漢學 Kangaku, vol. 1, nos. 1–7; Hashimoto Naribumi 橋本成文, 清朝尚書學 in 漢文講座 Kambun Kōza, vol. V (1933) ]

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CHIANG Shih-ch'üan 蔣士銓, Dec. 2, 1725–1785, Apr. 1 or 3, poet and dramatist, came from a family which originally bore the name of Ch'ien 錢, and which resided for many generations in Ch'ang-hsing, Chekiang. In the turmoil accompanying the fall of the Ming dynasty, when Ch'ang-hsing was ravaged by soldiers and bandits, his grandfather, then in his teens, escaped to Yüan-shan, Kiangsi, and adopted the surname, Chiang. Thereafter the family was registered in the district of Yüan-shan, though it also resided elsewhere. Chiang Chih-ch'üan was born in Nanchang and lived there until 1735. In his childhood he studied under his mother, Chung Ling-chia 鍾令嘉, who was a well educated woman. In 1735 his father, Chiang Chien 蔣堅, took the family north and lived for nine years in Tsê-chou, Shansi. After he returned to Kiangsi, Chiang Shih-ch'uan became a hsiu-ts'ai (1746) and in the following year (1747) a chü-jên. Early in 1750 Ku Hsi-ch'ang 顧錫鬯, magistrate of Nanchang, initiated the compilation of the local history and Chiang Shih-ch'uan was invited to be one of the editors. This edition of the 南昌縣志 Nan-ch'ang hsien chih, in 70 chüan, was completed and printed late in 1751. Taking his chin-shih in Peking in 1757, Chiang Shih-ch'üan was appointed in 1760 a compiler of the second class and a proof reader in the Imperial Printing Establishment and Bookbindery in the Wu-ying tien (see under ). In 1762 he was associate examiner of the Shun-t'ien provincial examination, and in the following year helped to revise the Hsü Wên-hsien t'ung-k'ao (see under ). In 1763 he asked for leave to look after his aged mother. Upon his return to the South in 1764 he resided for a time in Nanking.

In 1766 Chiang Shih-ch'üan began his career as an educator. First he was in charge of the Academy, Chi-shan Shu-yüan 蕺山書院, in Shaohsing, Chekiang, then for a time of the Ch'ung-wên Academy 崇文書院, in Hangchow, and finally of the An-ting Academy 安定書院, in Yangchow. In 1775 his mother died. After observing the period of mourning, he went to Peking in 1778. While awaiting appointment as censor he was made, in 1781, a compiler in the National Historiographic Bureau (國史館). He took part in compiling the fourteenth chüan of the Huang Ch'ing K'ai-kuo fang lüeh (see under ). Soon after this appointment, however, he was afflicted with paralysis and retired, and so his name was not included in the list of compilers of that work. In 1781 he returned to his residence in Nanchang, which he called Ts'ang-yüan 藏園 and there he died four years later.

Chiang Shih-ch'üan was one of the foremost literary men of his time. He and P'êng Yüan-jui 彭元瑞, a fellow-provincial and like him a chin-shih of 1757, were in their younger days referred to as "The Two Celebrities of Kiangsi" (江石兩名士). Their later careers were widely different, for while Chiang remained an official of low grade, P'êng rose to the high rank of president of the Board of Civil Office (1789-91). In the field of poetry Chiang Shih-ch'üan, and, were the recognized masters of South China in the Ch'ien-lung period. Unlike most of his contemporaries, Chiang was not an admirer 141