Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/445

Rh the T'ai-ping hu (southwest corner of the main city, Peking) where the palace of I-hui and his consort, Ku-t'ai-ch'ing, was located. Kung, moreover, expressed in his poems a preference for Manchu ladies who did not bind their feet. The poems of Ku-t'ai-ch'ing contain some references similar to those of Kung and, moreover, she is known to have had many friends among ladies from Hangchow which was Kung's native city. A few months after her husband died (1838) Ku-t'ai-ch'ing was expelled from her residence by her husband's son, for reasons unknown. Kung himself left Peking in 1839 and it is possible that his strange actions at that time, and his hurried departure from the capital are linked to differences with I-hui's son as well as with Mu-chang-a.

Kung Tzŭ-chên wrote many works on various subjects but few are extant. Only his short articles in prose and about a tenth of his poems are preserved in two main collections, entitled 定盦文集 Ting-an wên-chi, and Ting-an wên-chi pu-pien (補編), 4 chüan. The latter, printed in 1886, contains some of his prose writings. The former consists of three collections: the first two, entitled Ting-an wên-chi and Ting-an hsü (續) chi, consist of prose works printed in 1868 by Wu Hsü (see under ) from manuscripts edited by Kung himself; the third, entitled Ting-an wên-chi pu, was printed by Wu in 1889 and contains the following titles: Wên, 1 chüan; 破戒草 P'o-chieh ts'ao (poems), 2 chüan; 己亥雜詩 Chi-hai tsa-shih, 1 chüan; Tz'ŭ, 5 chüan. The first four chüan of tz'ŭ were first printed by Kung himself in 1823. His poems had also been printed separately. A number of his letters and other writings were collected by Chang Tsu-lien 張祖廉 who printed them in 1921 in his collectanea, 娟鏡樓叢刻 Chüan-ching lou ts'ung-k'o, under the title Ting-an i-shu (遺書). A few other works by Kung were also published, among them the 太誓答問 T'ai-shih ta-wên, printed in 1832, and the 春秋決事比 Ch'un-ch'iu chüeh-shih pi, originally in 6 chüan, of which 1 chüan was printed in the Huang-Ch'ing ching-chieh hsü-pien (see under ).

Although these are perhaps all the works of Kung Tzŭ-chên that are extant, his influence in the scholastic field was enormous. He is justly known as a forerunner of the modern reform movement because many of the reformers of the late nineteenth century, such as K'ang Yu-wei and Liang Ch'i-ch'ao (see under ), were influenced by his political and social writings as these appear in the Ting-an wên-chi. In his articles he attacked the Ch'ing government for the political, social, and economic decadence of the time. He advocated the abolition of the civil service examinations as practiced in his day. He maintained that opium users should be strictly punished, that women should be discouraged from binding their feet, that the Court ceremonies of kneeling to the emperor should be modified, and that certain superstitious practices at Court should cease—all suggestions very revolutionary in his day. His program coincided with theories promulgated by students of the Kung-yang commentary to the Spring and Autumn Annals, namely, that government must at intervals adapt itself to changed social conditions. This school grew out of the School of Han Learning (see under ) which concerned itself with the objective study of ancient texts, but which in the Ch'ien-lung period (see under ) had to refrain from the discussion of political topics.

Thanks in part to the early training he received from Tuan Yü-ts'ai—his maternal grandfather—Kung Tzŭ-chên developed a clear and forceful prose style to which his powerful influence is in large part attributable. He possessed a more vigorous style than that of the T'ung-ch'êng School (see under ), largely, no doubt, because he had something to say and could lay under contribution a much richer store of knowledge. Perhaps, however, he will be chiefly known to future generations and to larger circles by his lyric poems, especially those in the Chi-hai tsa-shih which are popular among students.

A son of Kung Tzŭ-chên, named Kung Ch'êng 龔橙, also known as Kung Kung-hsiang 龔公襄, lived many years in Peking where he studied the Manchu and Mongol languages. For some twenty years, beginning in 1850, he lived in Shanghai where, according to, he was often in destitute circumstances. In 1860 he was engaged as a secretary by Thomas Wade (see under ) whom he accompanied on the expedition to Tientsin and Peking. Thirteen volumes of his manuscripts, about etymology, phonetics and epigraphy, are in the possession of a Kao 高 family of Hangchow.

An uncle of Kung Tzŭ-chên, named Kung Shou-chêng 龔守正, was a chin- 433