Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/386

Rh While officiating as associate examiner of the Shun-t'ien provincial examination (1792), he received appointment as inspector of education in Kweichow. He took up his post in Kweiyang late that same year and remained in the province of Kweichow for three years, returning to the capital early in 1796. In 1797 he was ordered to serve in the School for Imperial Princes, and as special tutor to Prince Ch'un 奕純 (d. 1816).

Upon the death in 1798 of his younger brother, Hung Liang-chi retired to his home, but after the decease of Emperor Kao-tsung (February 7, 1799) returned to Peking, receiving appointment first as a compiler of the official chronicles of Emperor Kao-tsung and then as a professor in the National Academy. Granted leave of absence, he was about to set out for home when, depressed by the state of the country, he ventured to offer advice on national affairs—although his official rank did not warrant his doing so. The aged Emperor, Kao-tsung, had just died, and the new Emperor, Jên-tsung, who had been debarred from active participation in government while his father was living, took over direction of affairs. The powerful had been put to death, rebellion fostered by organizations such as the White Lily Sect had spread widely through central and northwest China, and the dynasty was showing definite signs of decay. Oppressed with these conditions, Hung addressed a letter to Prince Ch'êng (i.e., q.v.) in which he expressed frankly his opinion about corrupt tendencies in officialdom, and even remarked on the Emperor's personal behavior. The letter was delivered to the prince on October 22 and was at once presented to the Emperor. On the following day Hung was dismissed from office and sent to the Grand Council and the Board of Punishment for questioning. A verdict was reached that he should be decapitated on the charge of "extreme indecorum" (大不敬), but the Emperor commuted the sentence to exile in Ili, Chinese Turkestan. On October 26 Hung set out on his long journey. He went through Sian and Lanchow, and reached his destination on March 5, 1800. That spring the metropolitan area suffered from drought; the emperor prayed for rain, and granted some pardons, but without result. On May 26 a pardon was issued for Hung and, according to reports, ample rain fell in Peking the afternoon of that very day. However that may be, the exile meted out to him was the shortest imposed upon any Chinese banished to that part of the empire. He left a diary of his journey to Ili, entitled 伊犁日記 I-li jih-chi, and brief notes covering the same region, entitled 天山客話 T'ien-shan k'o-hua. On October 24, 1800, he reached home safely, and in 1802 was invited to become director of the Yang-ch'uan Academy (洋川書院) at Ching-tê, Anhwei. While there he compiled the local histories: 涇縣志 Ching-hsien chih, 32 chüan (1806), and 寧國府志 Ning-kuo fu-chih, 50 chüan (1807). In his last years he traveled extensively in southeast China. On his return from a visit to Chiao-shan (an island in the Yangtze) in the spring of 1809 he became ill, and died two months later.

Hung Liang-chi made his greatest contributions in the field of geography. In addition to compiling the above-mentioned local histories, he left a geography of the empire, entitled 乾隆府廳州縣志 Ch'ien-lung fu t'ing chou hsien chih, in 50 chüan, which was completed in 1787 and was first printed in 1803. While in Kweichow, as inspector of education, he produced a work on the river systems of that province, entitled 貴州水道考 Kuei-chou shui-tao k'ao, in 3 chüan, which was later incorporated in his collected works. He also left three works on historical geography, entitled 補三國疆域圖 Pu San-kuo chiang-yü chih, 2 chüan; Tung Chin (東晉) chiang-yü chih, 4 chüan; and Shih-liu kuo (十六國) chiang-yü chih, 16 chüan. Of his studies in classics and philosophy the following may be mentioned: 春秋左傳詁 Ch'un-ch'iu Tso-chuan ku, 12 chüan; 六書轉注祿 Liu-shu chuan-chu lu, 10 chüan; and 漢巍音 Han Wei yin, 4 chüan. Attention has recently been drawn to his theory of population as resembling, in some respects, that of Malthus (see bibliography at close of this sketch).

Hung Liang-chi was celebrated as a poet and a man of letters, and in his younger days his fame in this field rivaled that of his contemporary, Huang Ching-jên. His collected literary works are entitled: 卷施閣集 Chüan-shih ko chi, 更生齋集 Kêng-shêng chai chi, and 附鮚軒集 Fu-chi hsüan chi. His complete works, 洪北江遺集 Hung Pei-chiang i-chi, were published in 1889—with the help of the official printing establishment of Hupeh—by his great-grandson, Hung Yung-ch'in 洪用懃. They comprise 24 titles, including all the above-mentioned works except the local histories.

Hung Liang-chi had four sons: the eldest, Hung I-sun 洪飴孫, was for a short time magistrate of Tung-hu, Hupeh, and an ardent stu- 374