Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/542

 became his concubine, and two years later he built at the foot of the hills called Yü-shan in Ch'ang-shu the library building known as Chiang-yün lou 絳雲樓 where the two studied, composed poems, and compiled books. It is reported that in 1645, when Nanking fell to the Manchus, she tried in vain to persuade him to commit suicide rather than surrender to the conquerors.

In 1647, when Ch'ien was arrested for harboring a Ming loyalist, she did her utmost to comfort him during the forty days he was imprisoned, and finally to have him released. In 1648 she gave birth to a daughter who later married Chao Kuan 趙管. Chien Ch'ien-i also had a son by his wife (née Ch'ên 陳, d. 1658), named Ch'ien Sun-ai 錢孫愛, who became a chü-jên in 1646. Liu Shih lived loyally with Ch'ien and his family, sharing their joys and misfortunes. After the Chiang-yün lou caught fire, in 1650, and most of the treasures and books were lost, both she and Ch'ien devoted themselves to Buddhistic studies, and in 1663 she tonsured her hair after the manner of a Buddhist nun. In June of the following year Ch'ien Ch'ien-i died.

Ch'ien had enemies both among his fellow townsmen and his clansmen who barely a month after his death pressed Liu Shih and Ch'ien's son to relinquish almost all the family property. Among his enemies was whom Ch'ien Ch'ien-i had taught and had often patronized. It seems that Ch'ien Tsêng was forced by another person to act as middleman in applying pressure on Liu Shih. After the farm land, jewels, and even the servants and slaves had been taken from her, she was pressed for 3,000 taels in cash. Having then no money left, she decided to sacrifice her own life in order to save her daughter and her stepson further trouble. She hanged herself, leaving word that the authorities should be notified and should be appealed to for help. Friends of Ch'ien Ch'ien-i and others then combined to denounce Ch'ien Tsêng and the blackmailers. Finally the quarrel was settled out of court and Ch'ien Sun-ai was left something to live on. After 1675 he served as magistrate of Yung-chêng, Honan.

Liu Shih helped Ch'ien Ch'ien-i to edit the section on women in his anthology of Ming poets, Lieh-ch'ao shih-chi, printed in 1649 (see under Ch'ien). The poems they wrote together, entitled 東山酬和集 Tung-shan ch'ou-ho chi, appeared as chüan 18–20 in Ch'ien's collected work, Ch'u-hsüeh chi. Her own poems appear in various anthologies and in Ch'ien's collected works.

Ch'ien Ch'ien-i's house in Ch'ang-shu was later divided between the Temple of the City Rampart (Ch'êng Huang Miao) and the office of the sub-prefect. In 1724, when the district of Chao-wên was created from part of Ch'ang-shu district, Ch'ien's house became the office and residence of the magistrate of Chao-wên. But the structure in which Liu Shih committed suicide, being supposedly haunted, was not used. In 1808, at the suggestion of, the magistrate, Hsieh P'ei 謝培, a native of Shang-yü, Chekiang, and a chü-jên of 1783, converted the building into a temple to her honor.

[19/癸上/8b; Ku Ling 顧岺, 塔影園集 T'a-ying-yüan chi, 1/10b (in Yin-li-tsai-ssŭ-t'ang ts'ung-shu); see bibliography for ;, T'ien-chên-ko chi, 19/5b; Ch'ien-shih chia-pien lu in Ching-t'o i-shih (see bibl. ); Niu Hsiu, Ku-shêng (see biog. of ) 3/3b.]

2em

LIU T'ai-kung 劉台拱, June 24, 1751–1805, June 19, scholar, a native of Pao-ying, Kiangsu, was a descendant of Liu Yung-ch'êng 劉永澄 , a member of the Tung-lin Party (see under ). His father, Liu Shih-mu 劉世暮, served as sub-director of schools at Chingchiang, Kiangsu (1780–87). In his boyhood Liu T'ai-kung studied the art of composition, but at the age of fifteen (sui) he became interested in Sung philosophy through the works of the local scholars, Wang Mou-hung (see under ) and Chu Tsê-yün 朱澤澐. After obtaining his chü-jên degree in 1771, Liu went to Peking where he competed unsuccessfully in the metropolitan examination of 1772. Upon his return to Kiangsu he became acquainted (1772) with under whose influence he took an interest in the critical methods of the School of Han Learning (see under ). In 1778 he went for a third time to Peking for the metropolitan examination, and remained there until 1781. During his sojourns in Peking he made the acquaintance of many contemporary scholars such as, , and. After 530