Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 2.pdf/14

 noisseur of wines. He was unofficially given the posthumous name, Hsiao-chieh 孝介.

[2/70/19a; Hai-yen hsien chih (1877) 17/28a; Hsieh Kuo-chên 謝國楨, "The Writings of P'êng Sun-i" (in Chinese), ''Bul. Nat. Lib. Peiping, vol. 3, no. l, pp. 35–45; 歸安縣志 Kuei-an hsien chih (1881) 36/23b; Liang Yü 梁愈, "A Study of the Shan-chung wên-chien lu" (in Chinese), Historical Annual (Shih-hsüeh nien-pao''), vol. 1, no. 5, pp. 213–15.]

2em

 P'ÊNG Sun-yü 彭孫遹, 1631–1700, scholar, calligrapher, and official, was a native of Hai-yen, Chekiang. He was made a chin-shih in 1659, and twenty years later was summoned to compete in the special examination known as po-hsüeh hung-tz'ŭ 博學宏詞 which was held on April 11, 1679. He took first honors among the fifty candidates who passed the examination. A total of 188 scholars had been summoned to take it. Of this number thirty-six declined, pleaded illness, or were prevented by death from competing; and 102 failed. Of the fifty who passed, twenty-three were from Kiangsu, thirteen from Chekiang, five from Chihli, three from Anhwei, two from Kiangsi, and one each from Shensi, Honan, Shantung, and Hupei.

After several promotions P'êng Sun-yü rose in 1688 to a sub-chancellorship in the Grand Secretariat, and in the following spring was especially commissioned to pay sacrificial honors at the tomb of Confucius in Shantung. Like all of the scholars who passed the po-hsüeh hung-tz'ŭ examination of 1679, he had a share in the compilation of the History of the Ming Dynasty (Ming-shih), assisting also in the preparation of the official account of the suppression of the Sanfan Rebellion (see under ), entitled P'ing-ting San-ni fang-lüeh (see under ). For a time he was Director of the State Historiographer's Office (國史館). He retired from official life in 1697. When, two years later, Emperor Shêng-tsu was on his third tour of the South a tablet, inscribed by the imperial hand, was bestowed upon P'êng as a token of extraordinary favor. The inscription, reading Sung-kuei t'ang 松桂堂 (The Hall of the Pine and the Cassia), appears in the title of his collected works, Sung-kuei t'ang ch'uan chi (全集). This work, in 37 chüan, was printed by his son, P'êng Ching-tsêng 彭景曾 in 1743. As a poet the natne of P'êng Sun-yü was linked with that of his great contemporary,. He was especially praised for his tz'ŭ or poems in irregular metre.

[1/489/14b; 3/59/31a; 20/1/00 (portrait); 29/2/9b; 32/2/1a; Hai-yen hsien chih (1877) 16/8b; Ssŭ-k'u 173/5a.]

2em

 P'ÊNG Ting-ch'iu 彭定求, June 2, 1645–1719, May 27, philosopher, was a native of Ch'ang-chou, Kiangsu. His ancestors, engaged for the most part in military service, had come from Ch'in-chiang, Kiangsi, in the time of the first Ming emperor. When P'êng Ting-ch'iu was a child, his father, P'êng Lung 彭瓏, introduced him to the teachings of Kao P'an-lung 高攀龍 , who was one of the Seven Worthies (七賢) of the Ming period—another being Wang Yang-ming (see under ). The father directed his son to study the 太上感應篇 T'ai-shang kan-ying p'ien, a widely read Taoist tract about future rewards and punishments (see under and ). The son regarded who had befriended his father, as his teacher.

Having passed first in the Palace Examination for the chin-shih degree (1676), P'êng Ting-ch'iu was appointed a first class compiler in the Hanlin Academy. In 1684 he became editor for the compilation of the edicts of T'ai-tsung and Shih-tsu. The following year he was Court diarist, and was appointed a tutor in the Imperial Academy. As tutor he was especially interested in the moral education of the sons of Manchu officials. He ordered that the Classic of Filial Piety be translated into Manchu (1686), and the text—which contained also the Chinese version—was used by order of the authorities in the teaching of the Manchu students. Late in 1688 he became a sub-expositor, but he had begun to think about the advanced age of his father and longed to return to his native village. Granted leave, he set out for Ch'ang-chou early in 1689. He passed through Sui-yang, Honan, and there paid his respects at the coffin of T'ang Pin. When he reached Fêng-yang, Anhwei, he received word that his father had died—a source of much grief to him. In 1691, after the mourning period was over, he begged that his leave of absence be extended. He did not return to Peking to resume his duties until 1693, and then found that most 616