Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/216

Rh continue long in the Academy because of a minor irregularity on the part of a high official, presumably Governor. In 1752 he and Hang Shih-chün went together to Kwangtung where they were each invited to become heads of Academies: Ch'üan of the T'ien-chang 天章 Academy and Hang of the Yüeh-hsiu 粵秀 Academy. But in the following year (1753) Ch'üan became seriously ill and was compelled to leave. After 1747 he had suffered much from insomnia and this and other complications undermined his health. In 1754 he made his last tour of Hangchow and Yangchow, returning to Ningpo late in that year. The next spring his only son died at the age of thirteen (sui). Ch'üan himself took ill and died, though not before he had edited most of his own writings and had entrusted them to a disciple, Tung Ping-ch'un 董秉純. This disciple arranged for the burial by pawning his master's manuscripts with the Ma family for 100 taels, and by selling his collection of books to a wealthy Lu 盧 family of Ningpo—the family of Lu Chih 盧址 whose library, Pao-ching lou 抱經樓, was as famous in Ningpo as the Pao-ching t'ang 堂 of  was famous in Hangchow. Ch'üan was survived for a year by his second wife, the daughter of a Manchu named Ch'un-t'ai 春臺. She gave birth to his only son who is referred to above. Thus in the course of two years Ch'üan Tsu-wang's family came to an end. And though, shortly before his death, he adopted the son of a distant cousin, the father of that youth squandered what remained of Ch'üan's possessions.

Some thirty works are attributed to Ch'üan Tsu-wang, but of these only a few minor items were printed during his lifetime, among them the Kung-chü chêng-shih-lu (mentioned above) and the 度嶺集 Tu-Ling chi, a small collection of poems written during his sojourn in Kwangtung and printed there in 1753. Before he died he edited a collection of his short works in prose, under the title 鮚埼亭集 Chi-ch'i t'ing chi, 60 chüan, the manuscript of which was first kept by the Ma family of Yangchow and later by Hang Shih-chum. The disciple, Tung, to whom Ch'üan entrusted his other manuscripts, reports that he tried in vain to obtain from Hang the manuscript of the Chi-ch'i t'ing chi. Tung himself did not print any of his master's works except one on the Classics and histories, in dialogue form, entitled 經史答問 Ching-shih ta-wên, 10 chüan (1765). Nevertheless he edited (1776) a number of Ch'üan's short works in prose to which he gave the title Chi-ch'i t'ing chi wai-pien (外編), 50 chüan, which was re-edited by another disciple named Chiang Hsüeh-yung 蔣學鏞. In the years 1795-98, when was commissioner of education in Chekiang, he gave high praise (see preface to the Ching-shih ta-wên) to the solidity of Ch'üan's writings, which Ch'üan had achieved only by hard work. This praise evoked a new interest in Ch'uan's writings. In 1803 Shih Mêng-chiao 史夢蛟 of Yu-yao obtained the original manuscript of the Chi-ch'i t'ing chi, comprising only 38 of the 50 chüan, which he printed in 1804, together with a reprint of the Ching-shih ta-wên and a nien-p'u of Ch'üan's life by Tung. Soon after 1804 a scholar published anonymously the Chi-ch'i t'ing-chi wai-pien from Tung and Chiang's manuscripts. These several collections were reprinted together in the first series of the 四部叢刊 Ssŭ-pu ts'ung-k'an under the collective title, Chi-ch'i t'ing chi, 38 + 10 + 50 chüan. To them were appended the collected poems of Ch'üan, entitled Chi-ch'i t'ing shih (詩) chi, 10 chüan, reproduced from a manuscript copy once in the possession of the Lu family of Ningpo. Another collection of Ch'üan's poems is the 句餘土音 Chü-yü t'u-yin, 3 chüan, printed in 1814, of which an annotated edition, entitled Chü-yü t'u-yin pu-chu 補注, 6 chüan, appeared in 1922.

The Chi-ch'i t'ing-chi embodies much information about the resistance of the Ming loyalists after 1645, especially about the part played by the natives of Ch'üan's home district, Ningpo. Ch'üan's interest in preserving the history of the resistance to the Manchus in South China was prompted by the fact that his own ancestors had taken part in it. And that interest was doubtless enhanced by the tragic experiences of and  whose alleged seditious writings became the subject of much controversy, during Ch'üan's most impressionable years. If his own writings had come to public attention during his lifetime, or even half a century later, he would doubtless have been the victim of similar persecution and his works would have been vigorously suppressed. The information he gives us of an important period of Chinese history we perhaps owe to the fact that his writings lay for so long a time in manuscript. The dangers incident to publication probably account for Hang Shih-chün's refusal to part with the manuscripts, and also perhaps for the loss of some of them. That there are 204