Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/31

Rh nected with the work were wiped out by execution and banishment, those of Cha, Fan, and Lu, numbering more than three hundred persons, were freed by the evidence in that letter. In regard to this case a legend arose to the effect that Cha was saved from the inquisition by the above-mentioned Wu Liu-ch'i who, as a youth, is said to have been rescued from poverty and distress through the kindness of Cha. The story was believed by and was later used by  as the theme of a play, entitled 雪中人 Hsüeh-chung jên, "The Man in the Snow". Cha himself declared the episode to be groundless. It is known, however, that one day in 1630, when near Hangchow, he befriended a beggar named Lu chin 陸晉 whom he found to be uncommonly intelligent. It seems likely, therefore, that Wu was mistaken for Lu.

Freed from suspicion in the Chuang T'ing-lung incident in 1663, Cha Chi-tso proceeded to Peking to thank those officials who had come to his rescue in the preceding year. During the following six years he taught most of the time in private families. Meanwhile he brought together his prose and verse in two collections, under the titles 先甲集 Hsien Chia-chi and Hou (後) Chia-chi, differentiating between what he had written before the cyclical year chia-shên 甲申 (1644) and after that year. Both of those works are probably lost. He returned to Hangchow in 1669 to resume his lectures in the Ching-hsiu t'ang. Five years later one of his pupils, Shên Ch'i 沈起, who had been studying with him since 1637, expanded the Tung-shan wai-chi into 4 chüan and included additional biographical data about Cha's life. This pupil was with the aged teacher when he died (1676) and compiled his chronological biography, 查東山先生年譜 Cha Tung-shan hsien-shêng nien-p'u, which was printed in 1916 in the 嘉業堂叢書 Chia-yeh t'ang ts'ung-shu, from a manuscript copy. In his best days Cha Chi-tso helped several of his clansmen to attain fame in literature such as Cha Ssŭ-han 查嗣韓, Cha Shêng 查昇 , both chin-shih of 1688, and Cha Ssŭ-li (see under ).

The most significant contribution of Cha Chi-tso in the field of scholarship was a complete history of the Ming dynasty, entitled 罪惟錄 Tsui-wei lu in 97 chüan compiled over a period of twenty years (1655–75) and arranged after the manner of the official dynastic histories. It was never printed, for fear it would give offense to the Manchu authorities. A manuscript copy supposed to be, in part at least, in the author's own clear handwriting was reproduced in facsimile in the third series of the 四部叢刊 Ssŭ-pu ts'ung-k'an (1936). Another manuscript attributed to him, entitled 國壽錄 Kuo Shou lu, in 4 chüan (with supplement in 1 chüan is preserved in the Library of the Nanyang Middle School, Shanghai. It consists of biographies of noted personages of the late Ming period. Fragments of a third manuscript, entitled 東山國語 Tung-shan kuo-yü, narrating events in the late Ming period, is also reproduced in the Ssŭ-pu ts'ung-k'an. On the basis of his experience at the court of the Prince of Lu (see under ), Cha wrote a chronological account of the Prince's reign, entitled 魯春秋 Lu ch'un-ch'iu, in one chüan which was printed in 1914 in the 適園叢書 Shih-yüan ts'ung-shu (compiled by Chang Chün-hêng 張鈞衡, T. 石銘, a chü-jên of 1894).

[Cha Tung-shan hsien-shêng nien-p'u; 3/463/58a; 27/3/15b; 29/1/29a; W.M.S.C.K. 1/1a, 2/8a, 19/11a;, Hsiang-tsu pi-chi 3/20b; , Ching-yeh t'ang chi, 35/2a.]

2em

 CHA-lang-a. See under.

 CHA Li 查禮 (original ming 爲禮, 學禮, T. 恂叔, 魯存, H. 儉堂, 榕巢, 茶坨, 藕汀, 鐵橋, 紅螺山人, 九峯老人, 澹安居士), July 27, 1715–1783, Jan. 31, official and poet, was a native of Wan-p'ing (Peking). From the T'ang period onward his family lived in southern Anhwei, from where his branch of the family first moved to Lin-ch'uan, Kiangsi, and then to Peking. His great-great-great-grandfather came to live in Peking in 1590. When the Ming Dynasty ended in 1644 and Peking fell into disorder, seven women of the family committed suicide. Under the Ch'ing dynasty his father, Cha Jih-ch'ien 查日乾, at first served as a clerk in the Customs at Tientsin but sometime before 1705 became an agent of the notorious salt merchant, Chang Lin (see under ). Cha Jih-ch'ien's field of activity was the Peking area where he monopolized the sale of salt and made an annual profit of from one to two hundred thousand taels. He was energetic and shrewd and made friends with many officials at Court, including his distant relatives, and Cha Shêng (see under ). 19