Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/249

Rh may account, in part, for the great popularity which the T'ung-ch'êng School enjoyed. But the conception of the i-fa which Fang Pao advocated was not his own invention—it had been in vogue as a pedagogical device during the Ming dynasty. In fact it was, the real founder of the school, who popularized Fang Pao's works and attributed to him the views which continued to be so popular during the remainder of the Ch'ing period. Fang was elevated because he had been a high official, had lived a long and respected life, was held in esteem by emperors as a ku-wên and a pa-ku writer, and, not least of all, was a native of T'ung-ch'êng, the city from which Yao Nai himself came.

Fang wrote very few poems, owing, it is said, to the advice of a candid friend. The first collection of his essays, entitled 望溪先生文集 Wang-hsi hsien-shêng wên-chi, 18 chüan, appeared in 1746 and was frequently reprinted. In 1851 Tai Chün-hêng 戴鈞衡 re-edited this collection, adding 10 chüan of Fang's works drawn from various sources, together with a nien-p'u of Fang's life compiled by Su Tun-yüan 蘇惇元. This edition by Tai, entitled Wang-hsi hsien-shêng chi-wai wên (集外文) was expanded by a supplement (補遺) of 2 chüan in 1852. Both Tai and Su were natives of T'ung-ch'êng and were writers of the T'ung-ch'êng School. Two more supplements were added by later admirers.

Fang Pao upheld the teachings of Chu Hsi (see under ) and repeatedly asserted that he had converted a number of heterodox scholars to the Sung philosophy. In a letter to Li Kung on the occasion of the death of the latter's eldest son, Fang remarked that the calamity was a portent sent by Heaven for Li's attacks on Chu Hsi. Such bigotry was characteristic of the T'ung-ch'êng School which limited itself to the study of Chu Hsi's commentaries and to the prose writings of a few men, branding other types of literature as harmful to the mind. Among those who openly criticized the works of Fang was who pronounced his writings both empty and unscholarly.

[1/296/3b; 3/69/1a; 4/25/19b; 17/4/48a; Su Tun-yüan, Wang-hsi hsien-shêng nien-p'u (1851); Liu Shêng-mu 劉聲木, 桐城文學淵源考, T'ung-ch'êng wên-hsüeh yüan-yüan k'ao 2/1a; 桐城文學撰述考 T'ung-ch'êng wên-hsüeh chuan-shu k'ao 1/8b (both in 直介堂叢刻 Chih-chieh t'ang ts'ung-k'ê); Ch'ien Ta-hsin, Ch'ien-yen t'ang wên-chi 31/17a, 33/14b; Ma Ch'i-ch'ang (see under ), T'ung-ch'êng ch'i-chiu chüan.]

2em

FANG Tsung-ch'êng 方宗誠, Nov. 8, 1818–1888, April 2, scholar, came of a family of local gentry in T'ung-ch'êng, Anhwei, and was remotely related to. After studying under a local scholar named Hsü Lu 許魯 he became a pupil of Fang Tung-shu with whom he stayed for twelve years. As his grandfather had expended the family property for famine relief, he was forced from his early days to earn his living by teaching. Late in 1853, when his native town fell to the Taipings, he took refuge in a small mausoleum attached to his ancestral tomb in a suburban village and lived there for about eight years. Early in 1859 he was invited to Tsinan as a tutor by Wu T'ing-tung 吳廷栋, who was then financial commissioner of Shantung. Late in the same year he accompanied Wu to Pao-ting, Chihli, where the latter was judicial commissioner.

At the call of and  Fang left Pao-ting for Anking early in 1861, but was forced by, the Nien banditti to stop at Kaifeng, where he became a member of the secretarial staff of the governor of Honan, Yen Shu-sen (see under ). Early in 1862 he visited Anking to see Tsêng Kuo-fan, but after a short sojourn went to Wuchang where Yen Shu-sên was governor of Hupeh. In the following year he returned to Anking and became a member of the famous secretarial staff of Tsêng Kuo-fan whom he followed later to Nanking, and to Chi-ning, Shantung. In the autumn of 1866, when Tsêng was stationed at Chou-chia-k'ou, Honan, Fang left him and returned to Anking. Once in 1867 and again in 1868–69, at Shanghai, he was engaged in the compilation of the Shanghai hsien-chih (see under ). In 1869 he was again invited by Tsêng Kuo-fan, then governor-general of Chihli, to Pao-ting. In the following year, on the recommendation of Tsêng's successor,, he was appointed magistrate of Tsao-ch'iang, Chihli, a position he held during the years 1871–80. During his term in office at Tsao-ch'iang he established (1876) an Academy named Ching-i shu-yüan 敬義書院; and compiled the 棗強縣志補正 Tsao-ch'iang 237