Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 2.pdf/38

 (see under and ), he presented a memorial to the throne in which he drew attention to the faults of the people of Chekiang on ten counts. His last posts were: director of the metropolitan examination, junior vice-president of the Board of Civil Office, president of the Censorate, and tutor to the bachelors in the Hanlin Academy (1727). After his death he was canonized as Tuan-k'o 端恪, and made honorary president of the Board of Rites and junior tutor of the Heir Apparent.

As a philosopher Shên Chin-ssŭ was a follower of the Sung Confucianists, particularly Chu Hsi (see under ), whom he ranked with Confucius. So devoted was he to Chu's philosophy that he adopted the personal name "Chin-ssŭ", a phrase which appears in the Analects (XIX, 6) and was later used in the title of Chu Hsi's famous work, the 近思錄 Chin-ssŭ lu, completed in 1176. He denounced any who entertained different opinions, and accused Lu Chiu-yüan (see under ) and Wang Shou-jên (see under ) of departing from the teachings of Confucius. Having abandoned Buddhism for Confucianism, he preached and lived the practical doctrines of the latter, and never again mentioned the former. Shện produced the following works on literature and philosophy: the 陸子遺書 Lu-tzŭ i-shu, 14 chüan (completed 1727), being the annotated literary remains of whom he regarded as the best scholar after the Sung period; the 讀論語隅見錄 Tu Lun-yü yü-chien lu; the 天鑒堂詩文集 T'ien-chien t'ang shih-wên chi; the 眞味詩錄 Chên wei shih lu; and the 勵志雜錄 Li-chih tsa lu, which contains some of his short notes on philosophy. The last item is found, together with his nien-p'u by Shên Yüeh-fu 沈曰富 (1808–1858), in a collection entitled 沈端恪公遺書 Shên Tuan-k'o kung i-shu which was published in 1873.

[1/296/9b; 2/12/49b; 3/67/29a; 7/13/39a; 12/11/35a; Tung-hua lu, K'ang-hsi, 60:6, 27; 臨潁縣續志 Lin-ying hsien hsü-chih (1747) 5/7a; Hangchow fu-chih (1784) 82/18b, (1922), 88/5b, 125/20b; Shên Yüeh-fu, Shên Tuan-k'o kung nien-p'u.]

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 SHÊN Ch'in-han 沈欽韓, July 5, 1775–1832, Jan. 22, scholar and poet, was a native of Mu-tu 木瀆, in the district of Wu-hsien (Soochow), Kiangsu. He was descended from a line of literati, but during his youth his family was poor. Being himself very studious, he borrowed books from others and copied from them material that interested him. In this way he became proficient in various literary forms and developed in particular a skill in the annotation and exegesis of the classics and histories. His essays in the style required in the examinations, though scholarly, were time and again rejected by the examiners. Hence he did not pass the district examination until after he was thirty sui. He became a chü-jên in 1807 but in the following ten years he failed in the examinations for the chin-shih degree. In 1817 he applied for appointment to a minor position. Graded in the second class, he qualified for the post of a prefectural sub-director of schools. After waiting five years for an opening, he was named in 1822 to such a post in the prefecture of Ning-kuo-fu, Anhwei. In this capacity he served for eight years, resigning in the autumn of 1830 when his mother died. He, too, died after being at home a little more than a year. The eldest of his three sons died one month after him.

According to, his friend and biographer, Shên Ch'in-han was by nature extravagant, and to increase his income sometimes lent his services to persons of questionable repute. At any rate it is clear that he did not accumulate much during his eight years in office, for after his death his family was too poor to bury him properly. The burial finally took place in 1840 with the financial help of the bibliophile, Yü Sung-nien (see under ), to whom were entrusted all or most of his unpublished manuscripts in the hope that they might be printed.

The most important works of Shên Ch'in-han are those containing his critical comments on the official histories of the two Han Dynasties, namely 漢書疏證 Han-shu shu-chêng, 36 chüan, and Hou (後) Han-shu shu-chêng, 30 chüan, both printed in 1900 by the provincial press of Chekiang, and often referred to collectively as the Ch'ien (前), Hou Han-shu shu-chêng or Liang (兩) Han-shu shu-chêng. On these two works, which contain about two million words, Shen labored for twenty years. As to his other works, the following were printed in the Kung-shun t'ang ts'ung-shu of 1884 (see under ): 左傳補注 Tso-chuan pu-chu, 12 chüan, his comments on the T'so-chuan; 左傳地名補注 Tso-chuan ti-ming pu-chu, 12 chüan, his notes on geographical names in the Tso-chuan; and 石湖詩注 Shih-hu shih chu, 3 chüan, his annotations on the poems of Fan Ch'êng-ta 范成大 (T. 640