Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 2.pdf/239

 that he began to compose verses at the age of twelve (sui) and that he was almost equally precocious as a calligrapher. Becoming a senior licentiate in 1753, he went to Peking in the following year, and there established lifelong friendships with and Chu Hsiao-ch'un 朱孝純. The former was one of the best-known essayists of the Ch'ing period and the latter was a poet and landscape painter. In 1755 an embassy was authorized to go to the Loochoo Islands to accord recognition to the new ruler of that tributary kingdom. The two leading emissaries were Chou Huang 周煌 and Ch'üan-k'uei 全魁. Wang Wên-chih accompanied them, setting out on the journey in 1756 and returning in the following year. Chou Huang left a topographical study of Loochoo, entitled 琉球國志略 Liu-ch'iu kuo chih-lüeh, which he presented to the throne in 1757. Though Wang Wên-chih accompanied the mission only in a secretarial capacity, it was no doubt for him a broadening experience.

In 1759 he took his chü-jên degree in the Shun-t'ien provincial examination, and in the following year became a chin-shih with third highest honors, known as t'an-hua 探花. He officiated (1762) as associate examiner of the Shun-t'ien provincial examination, and then (1763) of the metropolitan examination, becoming a subreader of the Hanlin Academy in 1763. A year later he was made prefect of Lin-an in Yunnan province where he remained until 1767 when, owing to misconduct of his subordinates, he was dismissed from his post. Renouncing official life, he thereafter lived in retirement or in travel in Kiangsu and Chekiang where he taught in various academies. In 1771 he directed the Ch'ung-wên 崇文 Academy on West Lake in Hangchow, and in reference to this fact styled himself Hsi-hu chang 西湖長, "Keeper of West Lake".

For many years Wang Wên-chih was a devotee of Buddhism; he not only studied Buddhistic literature but observed all the regulations, including the vegetarian diet. In 1778, on the day preceding his fiftieth birthday, he was ordained a priest in the T'ien-ch'ang Monastery (天長寺) at Hangchow, and assumed the monastic name Ta-wu 達無. But contrary to the usual Buddhist practice, he retained an ardent interest in music and the drama, even assisting Yeh T'ang 葉堂 in the compilation of the famous anthology of selections from various musical dramas, known as 納書楹曲譜 Na-shu ying ch'ü-p'u, 10 chüan, first printed in 1792. Furthermore it was said that he spent much money on keeping a cast of young actors, whom he taught to sing and whom he took with him, even in his travels. His reputation as a calligrapher rivalled that of and, and his fame as a poet almost equalled that of  in the lower Yangtze Valley. His collected verse, entitled 夢樓詩集, Mêng-lou shih chi, 22 chüan, was first printed in 1795. He was also a painter, and one of his granddaughters, Wang Yü-yen 王玉燕, was known as a painter, especially of plant life.

[1/508/2a; 3/240/58a; 19 ting shang 35b; 20/3/00 (portrait); 23/37/20b; 29/6/1a; Tan-t'u hsien-chih (1879) 33/38a, 34/27a; L.T.C.L.H.M. 33,34.]

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 WANG Yin-chih 王引之, Apr. 19, 1766–1834, Dec. 24, official and scholar, eldest son of , was a native of Kao-yu, Kiangsu. After taking his chin-shih degree with high honors in 1799, he was appointed a compiler in the Hanlin Academy. In 1801 he was dispatched to Kweichow as provincial examiner. In 1804 he was ordered to participate in the compilation of the 皇朝詞林典故 Huang-ch'ao Tz'ŭ-lin tien-ku, 64 chüan—a compendium of various matters relating to the history and the operation of the Hanlin Academy from the beginning of the Ch'ing period. This work, completed early in 1806, is an expansion of another with the same title which was commissioned in 1744 and completed in 8 chüan in 1748. In 1804, after Wang had discharged his duties as examiner in the provincial examination in Hupeh, his mother died at Tsining, Shantung, where his father was in charge of river control. He was recalled to attend to her funeral, and in the following year transferred her remains to the South. Thereafter he observed the period of mourning at his home in Kao-yu. Upon his return to the capital (1807) he was appointed commissioner of education in Honan where he served for three years. After several promotions in the Hanlin Academy he was appointed deputy commissioner of the Office of Transmission (1812), director of the Court of the Imperial Stud, and then director of the Court of Judicature and Revision (1813). In 1814 he became commissioner of education in Shantung where during a two-year term he attempted to improve not only the standards of 841