Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/356

Rh hui-k'an (see under ), second series (1935).

[1/450/2a; Appendix to the Hsien-an i-wên; 文瀾學報 Wên-lan hsüeh-pao, vol. II, no. 3–4 (1936) p. 348; Hsü Shih-ch'ang 徐世昌, 晚清簃詩匯 Wan-ch'ing-i shih-hui (1929) 172/42a, 177/21a; Hupeh t'ung-chih (1921), chüan 60.]

2em

 HUANG Shu-lin 黃叔琳, Oct. 26, 1672–1756, Feb. 6, scholar and official, was a native of Ta-hsing, one of the two administrative divisions of Peking. His ancestors who bore the surname, Ch'êng 程, came originally from Hsin-an, Anhwei. His father, Huang Hua-fan 黃華蕃, was adopted by a family named Huang, hence his present surname. Being a precocious youth, Huang Shulin became a chü-jên in 1690 and a chin-shih in 1691, ranking third, or t'an-hua 探花, in the list of successful competitors. After officiating in various posts in Peking he was, early in 1709, appointed educational commissioner of Shantung. During his term of three years in Shantung he made efforts to promote local education, which involved the restoration of the Po-hsüeh Academy (白雪書院) in Tsinan (1709) and of the Sung-lin Academy (松林書院) in Ch'ing-chou (1711). In 1710 he printed the 漁洋詩話 Yü-yang shih-hua, or notes on the verse of the famous Shantung poet,. He went back to Peking in 1712. A year later he served for a short time as prefect of Fêng-t'ien-fu (Mukden), but was soon recalled to Peking. During the next few years until 1722 he held various unimportant posts. But late in 1722, after Emperor Shih-tsung ascended the throne, he made a good impression on the new Emperor and was appointed a sub-chancellor of the Grand Secretariat. Within a month he was promoted to be junior vice-president of the Board of Punishments. In 1723 he was chief examiner of the Kiangnan provincial examination at Nanking—a task he performed so well that several accomplished students of the classics were, under his supervision, selected as chü-jên, among them:, Ch'ên Tsu-fan (see under ), and Jên Ch'i-yün 任啟運.

Later in the same year (1723) Huang was made senior vice-president of the Board of Civil Appointments, and in the following winter was sent to Hupeh to fix the price of salt which then as now was a government monopoly. In 1724 he became governor of Chekiang. About four months after assuming office, however, he was suspended and tried on several charges. First he was ordered to Yangchow to answer to the charge of having received bribes when he was inspecting the salt administration in the preceding year. Though he professed innocence, he was deprived of all his ranks and was subjected to a heavy fine. Then he was sent to Hangchow to be tried, among other things, for having had a dishonest butcher tortured to death. But Emperor Shih-tsung, not wishing the charges pressed too far, ordered him, early in 1725, to redeem himself by serving on a special commission responsible for repairing the dikes on the northeastern coast of Chekiang. At the same time he was compelled to make contributions to the cost of the work. Later in that year he was ordered to stay in Soochow under the surveillance of the financial commissioner until the fine was paid. During the seven years he lived in Soochow he made some friends and had a number of pupils. In 1732 he was exempted from paying the remainder of his fine, and so was allowed to return to Peking.

In 1736 Huang was recalled by the new emperor, Kao-tsung, who appointed him provincial judge of Shantung. In 1737 he became financial commissioner, but early in 1740 retired to mourn the death of his mother. During the mourning period he was degraded in rank for failure to report on the incompetency of a subordinate official in Shantung. Hence in 1742, when he emerged from retirement, he was appointed to an unimportant post in Peking. Even that post was taken from him early in 1743 on several charges of mismanagement in Shantung in previous years. Thus at seventy-two sui he was deprived of all his ranks and was sent into retirement for the rest of his life.

Huang Shu-lin was a prolific scholar. Ten of his works received notice in the Ssŭ-k'u Catalog (see under ) but only one of these was copied into the Imperial Manuscript Library. In the field of classical studies he left six works, two of which are treatises on the Book of Changes. As a historian he annotated the celebrated work on historical criticism by Liu Chih-chi, known as Shih-t'ung (see under ). This edition, entitled Shih-t'ung hsün-ku pu (訓故補), 20 chüan, was first printed in 1747. As the title states, it is an expansion, and also an improvement on the Shih-t'ung hsün-ku by the Ming scholar, Wang Wei-chien (see under  344