Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 2.pdf/248

 into the Imperial Manuscript Library (see under ). His selected memorials illustrating his official career constitute one tenth of the Chien-chi t'ang wên-chi. This work was compiled by his son, Wei Li-t'ung 魏荔彤, from various collections printed during his father's lifetime. The reprint in the Chi-fu ts'ung-shu (see under ) is a rearrangement of the material with some additions.

Wei I-chieh wrote one of the testimonials eulogizing Father Adam Schall on the latter's seventieth birthday (see under Yang Kuanghsien). In this eulogy he compares Christianity with Confucianism and finds that the two systems have many points in common. According to the 萇楚齋隨筆 Ch'ang-ch'u chai sui-pi by Liu Shêng-mu (see under ), Wei once professed a belief in Christianity; at least it so appears from a letter he wrote to a missionary—a letter now preserved in the library of the Catholic Mission at Zikawei, Shanghai.

[Wei Wên-i Kung nien-p'u; 1/268/1a; 2/5/41a; 3/3/11a; 4/11/1a; 7/3/5b; 12/2/14a; 23/1/3a; Ch'ang-ch'u chai sui-pi 5/1a.]

2em

 WEI Li 魏禮, 1629–1695, poet, a native of Ning-tu, Kiangsi, was a younger brother of and  and, like them, achieved fame as a writer. After 1659 he traveled extensively, from the Great Wall in the north to the Island of Hainan in the south, making friends of distinguished scholars whom he met. His two sons, Wei Shih-hsiao 魏世傚 and Wei Shih-yen 魏世曦, and their cousin, Wei Shih-chieh (see under ), were together known as the "Three Younger Wei" (小三魏). A third son, Wei Shih-k'an (see under ), was adopted by the latter, Wei Li made the acquaintance of the poet-statesman,. They met at Canton in 1685 when the latter was commissioned to offer sacrifices to the South Seas. The prose and poetic works of Wei Li were assembled, chiefly by his brother, Wei Hsi, in 1671 and were published in 1679 in the San Wei chi (see under ) under the title Wei Chi-tzŭ wên-chi, 16 chüan. Chüan 15 of this work comprises biographical sketches of some fifty eminent men and women of Ning-tu, his native place.

[See bibliography for, in particular Wei Shu-tzŭ wên-chi 8/81b, 11/72a; Wei-ku wên-kao 8/3b.]

2em

WEI Yüan 魏源, Apr.23, 1794–1856, historian and geographer, was a native of Shao-yang, Hunan. His father, Wei Pang-lu 魏邦魯 (d.c. 1830), was an official who held posts principally in Kiangsu. Wei Yuan was the second of four sons. At the age of fifteen (sui) he became a hsiu-ts'ai and showed, it is said, an interest in the study of history and the philosophy of Wang Yang-ming (see ). In 1814 he went as a pa-kung 拔貢 to Peking where he met such scholars as Hu Ch'êng-kung 胡承珙, and. A chü-jên of 1822, he accepted from, then lieutenant-governor of Kiangsu, the editorship of the Huang-ch'ao ching-shih wên-pien (see under ) which was completed in 1826. Dealing as it did with national issues, both political and economic, Wei Yüan developed, through the preparation of this work, an interest in current events. In 1829 he obtained by purchase a position as a secretary of the Grand Secretariat, where he could use the imperial library and the archives, and where he could familiarize himself with national and governmental affairs. In 1844, when he was in his fiftieth year, he became a chin-shih. He received appointment as acting magistrate of Tung-t'ai, Kiangsu, in 1845, but owing to the death of his mother in the following year he retired from office to observe the period of mourning.

In 1849 Wei Yüan was made magistrate of Hsing-hua, also in Kiangsu. This district was in that year subjected to a flood; and Wei, by taking measures which his superiors had opposed, saved the crops and brought about the establishment of definite regulations for opening the water-gates and repairing the embankments. The rice which was harvested in that year was styled by the people "Esquire Wei's rice" (魏公稻). When was governor-general of Kiangsu he often took the advice of Wei Yüan in matters of coastal transport, river conservancy, and salt administration. In 1851 Wei was promoted to the post of department magistrate of Kao-yu, Kiangsu—at a time when 850