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Rh was executed in the same year, but Erdeni and others began translating a number of Chinese works into the Manchu tongue, thus laying the foundation of a national literature.

Despite these services Erdeni appears to have fallen into disfavor with Nurhaci. Anticipating the confiscation of his property, he entrusted a quantity of gold and pearls to his brother-in-law. When these were discovered in 1623 Erdeni and his wife were executed on the charge of accumulating and concealing valuables. Nurhaci's successor,, ordered that Erdeni should be posthumously adopted into the Hešeri clan, into the family of the brothers Šose and Hife (for both, see under ) who were also from Duyengge and who had also played an important part in the formation of the Manchu language. In 1654 Erdeni was granted by Emperor Shih-tsu the posthumous name Wên-ch'êng 文成. The system of writing developed by Erdeni continued in use until 1632 when it was revised by. Manuscripts in the earlier form are rare, but about thirty volumes of them have been found in the Palace Museum, accompanied by translations into "modern" pointed Manchu made in the Ch'ien-lung period.

[1/234/1a; 2/4/9b; 3/115/1a; 4/3/18a; 11/8/28b; 34/147/11a; 滿洲老檔秘錄 Man-chou lao-tang mi-lu (1920) 1/33b; Li Tê-ch'i 李德啟, "Origin and Evolution of the Manchu Language" (in Chinese) ''Bul. Nat. Lib. Peking, Vol. V, No. 6; Wylie, Chinese Researches (1897) pp. 253–271; Laufer, Skizze der Manjurischen Literatur, Revue orientale, vol. IX, 1908, pp. 1–53; Fuchs, Walter, Beiträge zur Mandjurischen Bibliographie und Literatur'' (1936).]

2em

F

FA Jo-chên 法若真, 1613–1696, scholar, official, and landscape painter, was a native of Kiaochow, Shantung. His father, Fa Huan 法寰, served as magistrate of three districts in Chihli and Kiangsu, as first-class sub-prefect of Huai-ch'ing-fu, Honan, and when the Ming dynasty fell retired to his home. Fa Jo-chên became a licentiate (諸生) under the Ming. During the invasion of Shantung by the Manchu forces under Kiaochow was besieged early in 1643 and he took his family into the mountains forty miles to the southwest, where he was captured by robbers. He was ransomed by his mother and wife but, as Kiaochow was harassed by local insurgents, he remained for some three years concealed in the mountains, continuing his studies. In the provincial examination of 1645, the first under the new regime, on account of the unusual merit of his work on the Five Classics, he was passed with special privileges and in the following year became a chin-shih and then a member of the Hanlin Academy.

While serving as assistant reader of the Pi-shu yüan 祕書院 in charge of state papers of the Six Boards Fa Jo-chên offended the Grand Secretary and was sent to Chekiang as grain intendant. He had not yet left for this post when he received word of the death of his father and two brothers in a revolt at Kiaochow. At his urgent request an army was dispatched against the rebels and when the leader was killed he asked for the head and hands to offer at his father's grave. Subsequently he took a post as intendant of a circuit in Fukien, and while in that province was successful in resisting attacks of at Hsing-hua. From 1662 to 1664 he served as judicial commissioner for Chekiang. After a period of mourning for the death of his mother he was in 1668 made lieutenant-governor of Anhwei. Accused of concealing a shortage in the accounts of he was removed from office in 1670. He was summoned to the po-hsüeh hung-tz'ŭ examination (see under ) of 1679 in Peking, but was unsuccessful. He early became known as a poet and his calligraphy and landscape painting are also of note. A collection of over four thousand examples of his poetry with the title 黃山詩留 Huang-shan shih-liu, in 16 chüan, was compiled by Chang Ch'ien-i 張謙宜, and printed in 1698. It was given notice in the Ssŭ-k'u Catalogue (see under ). His two sons, Fa Yün 法橒 and Fa Chang 法樟, were both poets; and his great-grandson, Fa K'un-hung 法坤宏 , was a scholar of some note.

[2/67/37b; 3/151/48a; 30/5/4a; 32/7/19b; Kiaochow chih (1845) 11/9b, 26/2b, 27/1a, 34/15b; Anhwei t'ung-chih (1877) 123/8a, 9b; Chekiang t'ung-chih (1736) 121/18b;, Kuo-ch'ao Shan-tso shih-ch'ao 10/7a ff. includes 19 poems by Fa Jo-chên; L.T.C.L.H.M., p. 180, lists an album and separate examples of landscapes attributed to him; 增修膠志 Tsêng-hsiu Chiao- 226