Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/433

Rh , then director of the Court of Judicature and Revision. By imperial decree of 1751 these four men were appointed tutors in the Imperial Academy. On account of his advanced age Ku could not undertake the actual duties of office, but accepted the title of tutor. While in Peking (1752) to celebrate the birthday of the Empress Dowager he had an audience with the Emperor. He commented on the extravagance in Kiangsu and on the benefits that would accrue if the Emperor should set an example of frugality for the empire. This sentiment so pleased His Majesty that upon Ku's departure he presented him with two poems in which he pointed out that while Ku was too old to hold office, he was not too old to write, and that he ranked high in the esteem of his sovereign. When the emperor was on his second tour of South China (1757) he again summoned Ku into his presence, granted him the additional title of Libationer, and conferred on him an inscription in the imperial handwriting, which read: "Venerable Interpreter of the Classics" (傳經耆碩).

The most important of Ku's scholarly works deals with the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 B.C.). It is entitled 春秋大事表 Ch'un-ch'iu ta-shih piao, in 50 chüan, and was printed about the year 1748. It is a collection of chronological, geographical, geneological, economic, and other information concerning the ancient Chinese states of that period, arranged in tabular form under fifty topics. After each topic, wherever there is an element of dispute or doubt, supplementary annotations by the author or by some other scholar are added. Attached to this work are maps with explanations in which the ancient and contemporary forms of place-names are given. The author states that in order to determine the geographical features of the Ch'un-ch'iu period he made extensive tours to the places in question. This work and the commentaries on the Odes, entitled 毛詩類說 Mao-shih lei-shuo, in 21 chüan, with a supplement of 3 chüan, were copied into the Imperial Manuscript Library (see under ). Ku Tung-kao's 大儒粹語 Ta-ju ts'ui yü, 28 chüan, contains extracts from the lectures of twenty-seven scholars of the Sung, Yüan, and Ming dynasties, the ideas of each scholar being systematized and harmonized. His 尚書質疑 Shang-shu chih-i, 2 chüan, is a not entirely successful study of the Classic of History. Ku Tung-kao was also chief compiler of the 淮安府志 Huai-an-fu chih, in 32 chüan, printed in 1748.

[1/486/30a; 2/68/27a; 3/127/10a; Ssŭ-k'u 14/7b; 無錫金匱縣志 Wu-shi Chin-kuei hsien chih, (1881), 21/29, 38/21a; Tung hua lu, Ch'ien-lung 14: 11, 12; 16: jun 5, 6, 8.]

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 KU Yen-wu 顧炎武, July 15, 1613–1682, Feb. 15, a leading scholar of the early Ch'ing period, was a native of K'un-shan, Kiangsu. He was descended from a family that produced a number of writers and officials in the Ming period. Originally his personal name was Chiang 絳 (also 繼紳, 圭年 T. 忠清), but after the Manchu conquest (1644) he changed it to Yen-wu. By his pupils and others he was commonly referred to by his hao, T'ing-lin. His father, Ku T'ung-ying 顧同應, was a student in the Imperial Academy but failed seven times in the provincial examinations. Being the second of five sons, Ku Yen-wu was in infancy made the adopted son of his father's first cousin, Ku T'ung-chi 顧同吉, who died about the year 1602, age eighteen (sui), leaving no heir. Immediately after the latter died his betrothed (née Wang 王, 1586–1645), then aged seventeen (sui), came to live in the Ku household as though she were his widow—it being considered the highest virtue for a maiden to live in the family of her deceased fiancé. Eleven years passed thus, and not long after Ku Yen-wu was born, he became her adopted son. Much of his early education and austerity of character he owed to her, and after her death he wrote a moving account of her life, entitled 先妣王碩人行狀 Hsien-pi Wang-shih-jên hsing-chuang. When Ku Yen-wu was three sui an attack of smallpox severely affected and permanently altered the appearance of his right eye—a point noted by some of his biographers. Taking his licentiate in 1626, he gradually achieved fame as a writer and in 1643 purchased the rank of a student of the Imperial Academy. Prior to this last date, however, he was moved by the political and social chaos of the time to approach the literature of the past from a more practical point of view than most scholars of his day. He made extensive researches in the Dynastic Histories, the local chronicles, and the collected works of Ming authors, making careful notes 421