Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/368

Rh This topographical project was first carried on in Peking, but when the chief director, retired from official life and moved south to continue the project in his own home, Huang Yü-chi went with him. In the summer of 1691 he went to his home in Nanking and died soon thereafter.

His poetry was regarded favorably by contemporary critics, but it is as bibliophiles that both Huang Yü-chi and his father are best known. His father assembled a library of more than 60,000 chüan, and he himself added to it some 20,000 chüan. The library was first known as Ch'ien-ch'ing chai 千頃齋 and was so designated by contemporaries such as and, the latter having occasion to consult it frequently between the years 1630 and 1641. But it was also called Ch'ien-ch'ing t'ang, as indicated by the title of the famous catalogue of Ming literature, 千頃堂書目 Ch'ien-ch'ing t'ang shu-mu, compiled by Huang Yü-chi. This catalogue, in 32 chüan, was doubtless consulted by the compilers of the bibliographical section of the official Ming History. The descriptive notice of it in the Ssŭ-k'u Catalogue (see under ) says, "For the investigation of the literature of the Ming period this book is most dependable." Other bibliographies of the same nature were Kuo-shih ching-chi chih, the bibliographical section in  Ming-shu, and  Ming-shih i-wên chih. The Ch'ien-ch'ing-t'ang shu-mu circulated for more than two centuries solely in manuscript form, appearing in print for the first time in 1916 in the Shih-yüan ts'ung-shu, compiled by Chang Chün-hêng (see under ). This fact accounts for the existence, in older libraries, of variant transcripts of the catalogue—some showing differences of considerable importance.

[1/489/26a; 3/427/27a; 30/3/17a; 32/4/12b; 泉州府志 Ch'üan-chou fu-chih (1763) 55/7b; Yeh Ch'ang-ch'ih, Ts'ang-shu chi-shih shih (see under );, 黃氏千頃齋藏書記 in Mu-chai yu-hsüeh chi (Ssŭ-pu ts'ung-k'an ed.) 26/2b; Ssŭ-k'u 85/4b.]

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 HUI Shih-ch'i 惠士奇, 1671–1741, scholar, was a native of Yüan-ho (Soochow). His grandfather, Hui Yu-shêng 惠有聲, was a teacher of the Classics in Wu-hsien (Soochow). His father, Hui Chou-t'i 惠周惕, took his chin-shih degree in 1691, and about the year 1694 was magistrate of the Mi-yün district, Chihli, where he died shortly after. He was a noted scholar and left several works: among them the 詩說 Shih shuo, 3 + 1 chüan, which interprets the Classic of Poetry from a novel point of view; and the 研溪先生詩集 Yen-ch'i hsien-shêng shih chi, 7 chüan, a collection of his poems. His residence at Yüan-ho bore the name Hung-tou shu-chuang 紅豆書莊, so that contemporaries called him Lao (老) Hung-tou hsien-shêng (先生) and his son, Hui Shih-ch'i, Hung-tou hsien-shêng.

Hui Shih-ch'i began his studies under his father. He graduated as chü-jên in 1708 and as chin-shih in 1709. Having studied at the Hanlin Academy as a bachelor, he was made a compiler of the second class. He served as junior metropolitan examiner in 1713 and 1715, and as senior provincial examiner of Hu-kuang (Hunan and Hupeh) in 1720. In the winter of 1720 he was appointed educational commissioner of Kwangtung, a position he held for six years. During this period he promoted education in that remote region, and so won the admiration of the people that he was later enshrined at Canton, at Hui-chou, and at Ch'ao-chou. Many scholars, including the following, studied under him: Su Êr 蘇珥 ; Ho Mêng-yao 何夢瑤, a chin-shih of 1730; and Lo T'ien-ch'ih 羅天尺. Once during his term in office Hui Shih-ch'i exceeded his proper function by illegally appointing an educational official in the province. Emperor Shih-tsung acquitted him of this offense because of his usual faithfulness in the performance of duties. But when Hui Shih-ch'i returned to the capital, late in 1726, he was unacceptable to the Emperor, and in the following year was dispatched to Chinkiang to make amends by repairing the city wall at his own expense. Although he invested his whole fortune, he could not complete the work, and in consequence was, in 1731, deprived of his official position as compiler. In 1737 he was appointed by the new emperor, Kao-tsung, a sub-reader of the Hanlin Academy, but resigned two years later because of age.

Hui Shih-ch'i was a man of great erudition, and had such a retentive memory that he is said to have learned by heart most of the important Classics. According to some biographers, he recited, when once tested by some friends, an entire chapter of the Historical Record (Shih-chi) 356