Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 2.pdf/218

 tionary against writing or printing them in that form. When he realized his error he had the words cut from the printing blocks but, before this was done, unexpurgated copies had passed into circulation, and these were his undoing. Another count against him was a claim made in the genealogy of the Wang family (王氏通譜), to direct descent from the mythical Emperor Huang-ti, and from the first king of the house of Chou.

Wang Hsi-hou was executed (December 27, 1777), and twenty-one members of his immediate family were arrested and taken to Peking. His property was confiscated and all his publications were consigned to the flames. His three sons and four grandsons were sentenced (January 21, 1778) to imprisonment to await execution in the autumn, but later two of the sons and three of the grandsons had their sentences commuted to enslavement in Heilungkiang. The Emperor was so irritated with the initial handling of the case that he dismissed three of the high officials of Kiangsi province, including the governor, Haich'êng (see under ). Another high official, Li Yu-t'ang (see under ), was deprived of all offices and rank for having written a poem in praise of the dictionary in question.

It is worth noting that copies of this dictionary are preserved in Japan, one being in the Cabinet Library, Tokyo (Naikaku Bunko). The catalogue of Japanese and Chinese books in the Library of the Tokyo Imperial University, compiled in 1900, lists one printed copy and one in manuscript. Whether these survived the earthquake of 1923 is not known. A reprint, entitled 字貫提要 Jikan-teiyō, also in 40 chüan, is listed in the catalogue of Chinese books in the Naikaku Bunko, (1914). The Tzŭ-kuan is an encyclopaedic dictionary in which the words are arranged under thirty-five categories.

[Chang-ku ts'ung-pien (see under ), nos, 1–3; Tung-hua lu, Ch'ien-lung 42: 10–11; Ch'ing-pai lei-ch'ao (see bibl. under ), vol. 8, 25/125; Wang-tu hsien-chih (1934) 12/37a; I-ching (see bibl. under ), no. 5 (May 5, 1936) 10–11.]

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 WANG Hsiang-ch'ien 王象乾, d. 1630, age 85 (sui), Ming official, was a member of the celebrated Wang family of Hsinch‘êng, Shantung, which produced, between the years 1562 and 1610, ten successful candidates for the chin-shih degree. Of eight sons and nineteen grandsons of one member of this family, named Wang Ch'ung-kuang 王重光 (chin-shih of 1541), almost all rose to positions of importance in the government. Wang Hsiang-ch'ien, one of these grandsons, received his chin-shih in 1571 and became magistrate at Wên-hsi, Shansi. Shortly thereafter he entered the Board of War and rose to be a department director. After a term as prefect at Paoting he was assigned in 1589 to the post of junior assistant to the lieutenant-governor of the frontier district of Hsüan-fu 宣府 where he achieved success in diplomatic negotiations with the Mongols. Becoming governor in 1594, he kept the border quiet for the following seven years. After the suppression of the rebellion of Yang Ying-lung 揚楊 [sic]應龍 (executed January 29, 1601) in Szechwan, Wang was sent to that province to replace Li Hua-lung 李化龍 as commander of the military forces, but retired in 1605 after a disagreement over policy regarding the Miao aborigines of Keichow. In 1608 he was appointed commander of the forces in Liaotung and northeastern Chihli which were menaced by Mongol raids. Because of his successes he was promoted in 1612 to the presidency of the Board of War with the honorary title of Senior Guardian of the Heir Apparent.

He resigned in 1614 on account of illness and remained in retirement until 1621 when he was recalled at the age of seventy-six (sui) to head the Board of War and command the armies in Liaotung where the Manchus had recently captured the cities of Shên-yang and Liao-yang. In concert with he favored the creation of a Mongol buffer state outside Shanhaikuan, and proposed an annual expenditure of about a million taels in the form of doles to keep the Mongol tribes in order. Opposed in this policy by, and others, Wang again resigned, remaining in retirement until 1628 when an invasion of northern Shansi by Lingdan Khan 林丹汗 of Chahar resulted in his recall to act as mediator. Unable to carry out his plan of conciliating the Mongols, owing, it is said, to the opposition of other officials, he finally retired in 1629 and died at home in the following year. He 820