Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 2.pdf/73

 Sun was given the honorary title of Grand Tutor to the Heir Apparent. He died in 1909, one year before the National Assembly convened. He was canonized as Wên-chêng 文正 and his name was celebrated in the Temple of Eminent Statesmen.

Sun Chia-nai was prudent by nature and always maintained a middle course between the radicals and the conservatives. He and Wêng T'ung-ho were two of the most influential officials of their time, but though Wêng's influence was evident to all, Sun's was less known to the public. He favored many of the reforms of 1898, but was opposed to the political theories of K'ang Yu-wei (see under ) and memorialized the throne in opposition to them. This perhaps accounts for the fact that he could remain in the government after the reform movement failed. He is said to have been a student of the philosophy of Wang Yang-ming (see under ). Of his writings, only a few memorials remain, for most of his works were destroyed in the Boxer Uprising. His last memorial, written when he was dying, was reproduced in facsimile late in 1909 under the title 太傳孫文正公手書遺摺稿 T'ai-fu Sun Wên-chêng kung shou-shu i-chê kao.

[1/449/1a; 2/64/27a; 6/1/15b; Chin-shih jên-wu (see under ), p. 66; Chin-tai Hua-kuo chiao-yü shih-liao (see bibl. under ), vol. 1, pp. 116–61; 中華教育界 Chung-hua chiao-yü-chieh, vol. XXIII, no. 1, vol. XXIV, nos. 1, 7; Richard, Timothy, Conversion by the Million (1907), vol.II, p. 95.]

2em

 SUN Chih-wei 孫枝蔚, 1620–1687, poet, native of San-yüan, Shensi, came from a family of some means. After his native place was pillaged by, he engaged for a time in business at Chiang-tu (Yangchow) and made considerable profit. Soon, however, he devoted himself to the study of the Classics, and gained a reputation as a poet. When was at Yangchow he learned of Sun Chih-wei's literary fame, and in 1660 a friendship developed between them. In 1679 Sun was recommended to take the special examination known as po-hsüeh hung-tz'ŭ (see under ). At first he declined because of age, but later took the examination and failed. Desiring to honor several of the elderly applicants, who like Sun had failed to pass the examination, the Emperor conferred upon Sun Chih-wei and six others the honorary title of secretary of the Grand Secretariat. Sun declined the honor on the ground that, though old, he was not old enough for such a distinction, His collected works were printed under the title, 溉堂全集 Kai-t'ang ch'üan-chi, 28 chüan, consisting of: Kai-t'ang wên (文)-chi, 5 chüan; Kai-t'ang hsü (續)-chi, 6 chüan; Kai-t'ang ch'ien (前)-chi, 9 chüan; Kai-t'ang hou (後)-chi, 6 chüan; and Kai-t'ang shih-yü (詩餘), 2 chüan. The last three are given notice in the Ssŭ-k'u Catalogue (see under ).

[1/489/23b; 2/71/8a; 3/426/11a; 4/58/8, 139/11b; 17/10/70b; 30/3/3a; 32/4/4a; San-yüan hsien-chih (1783) 9/31b; Yangchow fu-chih (1733) 33/15a;, Hu-hai lou ch'üan-chi, 文集 1/6a.]

2em

 SUN Hsing-yen 孫星衍, Sept. 28, 1753–1818, Feb. 16, scholar, was a native of Yang-hu, Kiangsu. His great-great-grandfather,, was noted during the last years of the Ming dynasty for his incorruptibility as an official. His father, Sun Hsün 孫勳, a chü-jên of 1756, lived to old age and survived his son. Early in 1772 Sun Hsing-yen married Wang Ts'ai-wei 王采薇, the scholarly fourth daughter of Wang Kuang-hsieh 王光燮 who was a chin-shih of 1737. In addition to being a poetess, she had a wide literary interest which extended even to works on Taoism. She left a volume of verse, entitled 長離閣集 Ch'ang-li ko chi, which later was printed at the close of Sun Hsing-yen's collected verse, entitled 芳茂山人詩錄 Fang-mao shan-jên shih-lu. Unfortunately she died at the age of twenty-four (sui), and Sun was so overcome by grief that he resolved to remain unmarried the rest of his life. His devotion won him much respect, despite the fact that at the age of forty (sui) he was compelled by his grandfather, who could not contemplate the lack of an heir, to take a second wife.

In 1774 Sun Hsing-yen entered the Chung-shan (鍾山) Academy in Nanking where he associated with such contemporaries as and Yang Fang-ts'an (see under ) and with such older scholars as, , and. Having failed to qualify in a special examination given by Emperor Kao-tsung on the latter's fifth tour of South China in 1780, he 675