Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 2.pdf/343

 tendent of trade for the three ports of Tientsin, Chefoo and Newchwang, invited him to direct the compilation of a new local history of the prefecture of Tientsin. But owing to lack of funds, and for other reasons, the project was not carried out, and Yü went south (1865). On the invitation of, then acting governor-general at Nanking, he was made director of the Tzŭ-yang 紫陽 Academy at Soochow. About this time (1867) his notes on the study of the Classics, entitled 群經平議 Ch'ün-ching p'ing-i, 35 chüan, were printed. In the same year (1867) he relinquished his post at the Tzŭ-yang Academy for a similar one in the Ku-ching Ching-shê (see under ) on West Lake, Hangchow, where he continued to teach for more than thirty years, lecturing occasionally also in other Academies.

In 1869, when was convalescing on West Lake, Yü met P'êng and they became fast friends. Later P'êng's granddaughter, P'êng Chien-chên 彭見貞, married Yü's grandson, Yü Pi-yün 俞陛雲 , who became a chin-shih in 1898 with the third highest honors, known as t'an-hua 探花. In 1870 Yü Yüeh's study notes on ancient philosophers, entitled 諸子平議 Chu-tzŭ p'ing-i, 35 chüan, were printed; and in the following year nine works by him on various subjects were printed under the collective title 第一樓叢書 Ti-i lou ts'ung-shu. In 1870, and again in 1872, Yü travelled to Fukien to visit his mother who was living with his brother, Yü Lin.

To the residence which Yü Yüeh built at Soochow in 1873 he gave the name Ch'ü-yüan 曲園 which also became his pseudonym and figures in the title of his miscellaneous notes known as Ch'ü-yüan tsa-tsuan (雜纂), 50 chüan. In 1878 a company of his pupils built him a villa, known as Yü-lou 俞樓, at the foot of Mt. Ku (孤山), at Hangchow, and for that reason another series of his miscellaneous notes was given the title Yü-lou tsa-tsuan, 50 chüan. Being now advanced in years, Yü resigned (1899) from the Ku-ching Ching-shê.

Yü Yüeh compiled two local histories: 上海縣志 Shanghai hsien-chih, completed in 1870; and 鎮海縣志 Chên-hai hsien-chih (Chekiang), completed in 1879. His fame as a teacher and as a man of letters spread beyond his country to Japan. In 1882, Kishida Ginjirō 岸田銀次郎 (popularly known as Gingō 吟香 H. 國華, 1833–1905), a well-known journalist and pharmacist, supplied him with poerns by many Japanese authors with the request that he make an anthology. This anthology was completed in the following year under the title 東瀛詩選 Tung-ying shih-hsüan, 44 chüan, and was later printed. One of his Japanese pupils, Narahara Nobumasa 楢原陳政 (original surname Inoue 井上 H. 子德) came to him in 1884. Narahara later became an interpreter and died in Peking in 1900. On Yü Yüeh's seventieth birthday Narahara. presented him with an anniversary collection of prose and verse by various Japanese authors. This contribution, entitled 東海投桃集 Tung-hai t'ou-t'ao chi, appears in the complete collection of Yü's works known as 春在堂全書 Ch'un-tsai t'ang ch'üan-shu. It should be explained that this so-called complete collection went through several editions during Yü's lifetime with the result that the contents vary. Moreover, several of the items were first printed independently. The edition of 1899 (probably the latest) contains 38 items. One chüan of poems by Yü's second daughter, Yü Hsiu-sun 俞繡孫, entitled 慧福樓辛草 Hui-fu lou hsing-ts'ao, is also included. There appears in this collection, an autobiographical poem by Yü, entitled Ch'ü-yüan tzŭ-shu shih (自述詩) of which 199 stanzas were written in 1889, 80 more being added in 1903.

The Huang-Ch'ing ching-chieh hsü-pien (see under ) reprints fourteen works by Yü concerning the Classics. As a philologist and textual critic Yü Yüeh followed in the footsteps of and, father and son. It is acknowledged that his Chu-tzŭ p'ing-i was in general patterned after the former's Tu-shu tsa-chih, and that his Ch'un-ching p'ing-i was modeled after the latter's Ching-i shu-wên. Yü Yüeh was also known as -in accomplished calligrapher.

[1/488/35a; 5/75/17a; 26/4/12a; Chou Yün-ch'ing, Yü Ch'ü-yüan hsien-shêng nien-p'u (chronological biography) in 民鐸雜誌 Min-to tsa-chih, vol. 9, no. 1; Wên-lan hsüeh-pao (see under ), vol. 2, no. 1, portrait; Koyanagi Shigeta, "Yü Yüeh, a Great Scholar of the Late Ch'ing Period" (in Japanese), Tōyō Tetsugaku, vol. 13, nos. 2, 3 (1906), and "The Writings and Theories of Yü Yüeh" (in Japanese), Tetsugaku Zasshi, no. 228 (1906).]

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YÜAN Ch'ang 袁昶 , 945