Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/468

 of boats from the south arrived. This feat won for Li Fu considerable gratitude and applause.

About the end of April 1724 Li was appointed governor of Kwangsi, a post he held for more than a year. There he put down a local uprising and initiated the compilation of the 廣西通志 Kwangsi t'ung-chih, which was printed about 1726 in 200 chüan, by the provincial judge, Kan Ju-lai 甘汝來. In 1725 Li was promoted to the post of governor-general of Chihli, assuming office in April of the following year, with headquarters at Paoting. Two months later he was secretly ordered by Emperor Shih-tsung to detain at Paoting the latter's brother,, who had been arrested in Si-ning, Kansu, and was being transferred to Peking on a charge of insubordination and conspiracy. According to documents recently published, Li had Yin-t'ang placed in solitary confinement with hands and feet shackled, and caused food to be sent to him over the wall by means of pulleys. Yin-t'ang survived three months of this treatment, but died in September 1726. A report spread far and wide that Li had murdered Yin-t'ang at the Emperor's behest. Accused of having recommended persons unfit for office and of having falsely blamed the Emperor's favorite,, of murder, Li was removed from his post, early in 1727, and appointed junior vice-president of the Board of Works. Charged two months later with having mishandled, during his term as governor of Kwangsi, two cases involving aborigines of Kwangsi, he was forced to return to that province to settle the cases. There he was arrested on the charge of misjudgment and misconduct. Tried in Peking on twenty-one counts, he was sentenced to execution and confiscation of property, but at the last moment was pardoned by the Emperor and ordered to redeem himself by serving on the editorial board for the compilation of the first edition (1739) of the general history of the Manchu Banner system, 八旗通志 Pa-ch'i t'ung-chih. He labored eight years on this work which is said to be largely his own contribution. In the meantime he compiled and edited three works on the philosophical school of Lu Chiu-yüan 陸九淵 and Wang Shou-jên (see under ). During the K'ang-hsi period this school had been forced into comparative obscurity by that of Chu Hsi (see under ). Li Fu, who was born near Lu's native place, undertook to defend the Lu-Wang school by expanding Lu's chronological biography 陸子年譜 Lu-tzŭ nien-p'u, in 3 chüan, and by issuing a work on Lu's philosophy, entitled Lu-tzŭ hsüeh-p'u (學譜), in 20 chüan. In his 朱子晚年全論 Chu-tzŭ wan-nien ch'üan-lun, in 8 chüan, Li reinforced with more material Wang Shou-jên's Chu-tzŭ wan-nien ting-lun (定論) which maintains that during his last days Chu Hsi was converted to Lu's philosophy. These works were printed in the seventeen thirties and were later given notice in the Ssŭ-k'u Catalogue (see under ).

In 1735 the new emperor, Kao-tsung, restored to Li Fu his rank, and not long after appointed him senior vice-president of the Board of Revenue. But in the following year Li was reprimanded for recommending too many new chin-shih to official posts, and was degraded. Early in 1737 he was appointed a vice-director of the Board which edited a collection of commentaries on the Three Rituals, entitled San Li i-shu (see under ). In the same year he was sent to Shaohsing, Chekiang, to offer sacrifices at the tomb of the legendary Emperor Yü 禹, after which he returned to his native place to mourn the death of his mother. In 1741 he was appointed director of the Banqueting Court and was sent to Nanking as examiner of the Kiangnan provincial examinations. Later in the same year he was again promoted to the post of sub-chancellor of the Grand Secretariat. He retired in 1743 and died at his home in Lin-ch'uan seven years later. His epitaph was written by his devoted disciple,.

Li Fu was a famous writer in his day, both in prose and poetry. The first collection of his literary works, entitled 穆堂初稿 Mu-t'ang ch'u kao, in 50 chüan, was printed in 1740. A second collection, containing his later efforts, entitled Mu-t'ang pieh-kao (別稿) also in 50 chüan, appeared in print about the year 1747. By an edict of 1768 these collections were banned and the printing blocks destroyed, ostensibly because they contained two poems commemorating a gathering at which was present. But in view of the fact that the gathering took place before Tai's case came to the attention of the throne (1711) Li's descendants were not punished. A combined reprint of both collections appeared in 1831, under the title 李穆堂詩文全集 Li Mu-t'ang shih-wên ch'üan-chi, with alteration and omission of such passages as might provoke censorship. According to, Li was ungrateful to those who helped him to fame and wealth durig his early years of distress and poverty. 456