Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/166

Rh may be mentioned the 聲類 Shêng lei, in 4 chüan, a work on phonetics which was first printed in 1825, again in 1849, and later included in his complete works. But it was in the field of history that Ch'ien Ta-hsin exercised his greatest influence. In addition to the afore-mentioned Nien-êr shih k'ao i, he produced two works on the Yüan dynasty: one tracing Mongol clan and family names, the other a bibliography of the literary productions of the Yüan period. The former, in 3 chüan, was entitled 元史氏族表 Yüan-shih shih-tsu piao, and the latter, in 4 chüan, was entitled 元史藝文志 Yuan-shih i-wên chih, both completed in 1791. Conscious of the short-comings of the official dynastic history of the Yüan period, Ch'ien Ta-hsin intended to rewrite it, and the two above-mentioned works seem to be parts of that project. states in his Shu-niu ta-wên that Ch'ien Ta-hsin left a draft of his Yüan history, 元史稿 Yüan-shih kao, in 100 chüan, which was never published. The Japanese bibliophile, Shimada Kan (see bibliography) affirms that a manuscript Yüan-shih kao is in existence in 28 fascicles of which the first 25 chapters are missing. During the turmoil of the Sung, Liao, Chin and Yüan dynasties the use of various reign-titles and conflicting calendars produced confusion in the writing of history. To clarify this situation Ch'ien prepared a chart, entitled 四史朔閏考 Ssŭ-shih shuo jun k'ao. Left unfinished at the time of his death, it was brought to completion by his pupil, Li Jui, and by his nephew, Ch'ien T'ung (see under ). It was first printed in 1820. His corrections of Hu San-hsing's 胡三省 (身之, 1230–1287) commentary to the Tzŭ-chih t'ung-chien (see under ) resulted in a work of 2 chüan, entitled 通鑑注辨正 T'ung-chien chu pien-chêng, first printed in 1792 by a pupil, Ko Chou-hsiang 戈宙襄. Ch'ien also wrote five chronological biographies as follows: the biography of Hung K'uo 洪适, entitled 洪文惠公年譜 Hung Wên-hui kung nien-p'u; of Hung Mai 洪邁 , entitled 洪文敏公年譜 Hung Wên-min kung nien-p'u; of Lu Yu (see under ), entitled 陸放翁年譜 Lu Fang-wêng nien-p'u; of Wang Ying-lin 王應麟 , entitled 王伯厚年譜 Wang Po-hou nien-p'u; and of Wang Shih-chên (see under ), entitled 弇州山人年譜 Yen-chou shan-jên nien-p'u.

Ch'ien Ta-hsin took special interest in recording the dates of birth and death of historical figures. The result was the well-known 疑年錄 I-nien lu, ("Record of Uncertain Dates"), which became the basis of the most important dictionary of dates in the Chinese language. This work, in 4 chüan, which recorded dates of birth and death of some 364 persons, was left incomplete at the time of Ch'ien's death, but was supplemented (hsü 續) in 1813 by a pupil named Wu Hsiu 吳修, and published in 1818 with a few additions (補 pu) and a preface by. Further supplements to this work were compiled later as follows: Pu (補) i-nien lu, in 4 chüan, by Ch'ien Chiao, 錢椒 with a preface by Wêng Kuang-p'ing 翁廣平, dated 1838; San-hsü (三續) i-nien lu, published in 1879, in 10 chüan, by ; I-nien kêng (賡) lu, in 2 chüan, by Chang Ming-k'o 張鳴珂 , published in 1908; Wu-hsü (五續) i-nien lu, in 5 chüan, by Min Êr-ch'ang 閔爾昌. Finally all these were brought together by Chang Wei-hsiang 張惟驤 who re-edited them and printed them in 1925, with further additions, under the title I-nien lu hui-pien (彙編), "Union List of Uncertain Dates," 16 chüan—including a total of 3,928 names. As a result of his study of inscriptions on metal and stone Ch'ien Ta-hsin produced four collections of interpretative notes totaling 25 chüan, under the title 金石文跋尾 Chin-shih wen pa-wei. These were printed at various times separately before they were reedited and reprinted in his collected works in 20 chüan. A catalogue of inscriptions in his own collection, 金石文字目錄 Chin-shih wên-tzŭ mu-lu, 8 chüan, was edited by his son-in-law, Ch'ü Chung-jung 瞿中溶, and printed in 1805 with the assistance of another son-in-law, Hsü Hsi-ch'ung 許希冲. During his illness in 1784 Ch'ien Ta-hsin began to write his chronological autobiography, the 竹汀居士年譜 Chu-t'ing chü-shih nien-p'u, which he brought down to the year 1792. His great-grandson, Ch'ien Ch'ing-tsêng 錢慶曾, completed it with additional notes of his own. A collection of Ch'ien's miscellaneous notes, entitled 十駕齋養新錄 Shih-chia chai yang-hsin lu, 20 chüan, with a supplement (餘錄) in 3 chüan, is compared by some to the famous Jih-chih lu of. In the field of mathematics Ch'ien produced two works, 三統 154