Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/517

 Ya-mei-li-chia ho-chung-kuo chih-lüeh, 75 leaves. A greatly revised edition, printed in 1862 in 107 leaves, bore the title 聯邦志略 Lien-pang chih-lüeh. An anonymous work on China's foreign relations, 夷氛記聞 I-fên chi-wên, 5 chüan, printed in 1874 and reprinted in 1937, is also attributed to Liang. He left about a dozen other works, among them two collections of verse: 藤花亭詩集 T'êng-hua-t'ing shih-chi, 4 chüan, and T'êng-hua-t'ing shih-t'ieh (試帖), 1 chüan; and two collections of prose, T'êng-hua-t'ing san-t'i-wên chi (散體文集), 10 chüan, and T'êng-hua-t'ing pien-t'i-wên chi (駢體文集), 4 chüan. Most of his works, except his gazetteers, were reprinted under the collective title T'êng-hua-t'ing ch'üan-chi (全集).

[2/73/42a;, I-t'an lu 下/16a; Shun-tê hsien-chih (1929) 18/8a; Hsien Yü-ch'ing 洗玉清, 梁廷枏著述考 in Lingnan Journal, vol. IV, no. 1 (1935).]

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 LIANG T'ung-shu 梁同書, Oct. 26, 1723–1815, Aug. 19, scholar and calligrapher, was a native of Ch'ien-t'ang (Hangchow). He was the elder son of but was adopted by his uncle, Liang Ch'i-hsin 梁啟心. In 1747 Liang Tsung-shu became a chü-jên. Failing to pass the metropolitan examination of 1752, Emperor Kao-tsung granted him special permission to proceed to the palace examination, thus making it possible for him to take his chin-shih degree in that year and become a member of the Hanlin Academy. In 1756 he was appointed associate examiner of the Shun-t'ien provincial examination, and in the following year, of the metropolitan examination. After the death of his foster father in 1758, he abandoned his official career and retired to private life. Nevertheless he presented himself in the capital in 1770 for the celebration of the eightieth birthday of Empress Hsiao-shêng (see under ), mother of Emperor Kao-tsung, and again twenty years later, for the eightieth birthday of Emperor Kao-tsung himself. In 1807, the sixtieth anniversary of his graduation as a chü-jên, he participated in the banquet known as Lu-ming yen 鹿鳴宴 which was given to newly-selected chü-jên, and to older men who had passed a cycle since receiving the degree.

As a calligrapher Liang T'ung-shu was one of the foremost of the Ch'ing period. It is said that he could write characters three feet square. Facsimile inscriptions of his calligraphy are very numerous. His fame as a calligrapher even reached Japan and the Loochoo islands. Two contemporaries, likewise surnamed Liang, were also known as great calligraphers—Liang Hsien 梁巘 and. The three were known together as the three Liangs (三梁).

The collected works of Liang Tung-shu, entitled 頻羅庵遺集 P'ing-lo an i-chi, in 16 chüan, were first printed in 1817. The last chüan of this work, entitled 筆史 Pi-shih, contains a brief account of the development of the Chinese writing brush, together with information about well-known brush-makers and the materials they used. Liang T'ung-shu had no son, but adopted, the eldest son of his younger brother. He is said to have led a very simple and regular life, and that he exercised great economy in the management of family affairs.

[1/508/3a; 3/126/35b; 29/5/12b; Hangchow fu chih (1922) 146/6b.]

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 LIANG Yü-shêng 梁玉繩, Jan. 15, 1745–1819, scholar, was a native of Ch'ien-t'ang (Hangchow). He was a son of Liang Tun-shu (see under ), a grandson of, and an adopted son of. Having failed eight times in the provincial examinations, he decided at the age of thirty-six (sui) to abandon the examination career and devote himself to what he regarded as more serious studies. After some twenty years of labor he produced in 1783 a critical study of Ssŭ-ma Ch'ien's Shih-chi (Historical Record), entitled 史記志疑 Shih-chi chih-i, in 36 chüan. A preface by, dated 1787, lauds it as one of the most valuable studies that had been made of this history. First printed in 1787, the Shih-chi chih-i was later included in the Kuang-ya ts'ung-shu (see under ). Liang Yü-shêng also made a study of a section in the History of the Former Han Dynasty (Ch'ien Han-shu) known as 古今人表 Ku-chin jên-piao (Prominent Men of Ancient and Modern Times) which he brought together in 1786 under the title Jên-piao k'ao (考), in 9 chüan. In the spring of 1788 he and together edited the 呂氏春秋 Lü-shih ch'un-ch'iu for. Having gathered further 505