Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 2.pdf/9

 personal experiences. The original wood blocks of this work were destroyed in the Taiping Rebellion, but his descendants republished it with notes in 1872 and in 1538. We know from his studies that Pao Shih-ch'ên was a serious student of practical politics. Unlike contemporary scholars who pursued traditional learning for its own sake, he studied with the practical object of reforming a corrupt administration, his special interest being agrarian problems.

Pao Shih-ch'ên was a skilled calligrapher, particularly in the hsing 行 and ts'ao 草 styles. Specimens of his handwriting were brought together under the title 倦游閣帖 Ch'üan-yu ko t'ieh. He was, however, more renowned as a critic of calligraphy. His studies of ancient calligraphy, based on inscriptions on stone, were gathered in the I-chou shuang-chi. Those dealing with calligraphy in general were published in the Chih-chin chai ts'ung-shu (see under ), under the title An-wu lun-shu (論書). To develop further Pao's theories of calligraphy, K'ang Yu-wei (see under ) completed in 1889 his Kuang (廣) I-chou shuang-chi, 6 chüan.

A cousin, Pao Shih-jung 包世榮, a chü-jên of 1821, was a classical scholar of the Han school (see under ). He wrote the 毛詩禮徵 Mao-shih li-chêng, 10 chüan, published in 1827, and other works Pao Shih-ch'ên's work on political economy, entitled 說儲上 Shuo-ch'u shang, was reprinted in 1936 in facsimile from the original manuscripts by the Kuo-hsüeh Library of Nanking.

[2/73/20a; 5/79/1a; 6/41/1a; 29/8/11b; 江寧府志 Chiang-ning fu-chih (1881) 14/9 shang/3b; An-wu ssŭ-chung; Hu Yün-yü 胡韞玉, 包愼伯先生年譜 Pao Shên-po hsien-shêng nien-p'u (not consulted).]

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 PAO-t'ing 寶廷, Feb. 17, 1840–1890, Dec. 24, member of the Imperial Clan, was one of the so-called Four Admonishing Officials (see under ) at the close of the Ch'ing period. He was a descendant of in the eighth generation, and his family belonged to the Bordered Blue Banner. His father, Ch'ang-lu 常祿, was a chin-shih of 1832 who rose to a sub-readership of the Hanlin Academy. Pao-t'ing spent most of his boyhood in the Western Hills of Peking, where his father had retired in 1848. In 1856, soon after the family returned to Peking, the ancestral residence was destroyed by fire and the family fortune declined. Pao-t'ing was therefore forced to study under straightened circumstances. Graduating as chü-jên in 1864 and as chin-shih in 1868, he served seven years (1868–75) in the Hanlin Academy, rising to a readership in 1873. Though he was degraded in 1875 to a secretaryship in the Supervisorate of Imperial Instruction owing to poor grades in his examinations, he was promoted several times in the ensuing years and finally (late in 1881) was made junior vice-president of the Board of Ceremonies, a position he held until early in 1883. In 1882 he served as chief examiner of the Fukien provincial examination. Among his selections for chü-jên was Chêng Hsiao-hsü 鄭孝胥 who later became the first prime minister of Manchukuo.

During his official career Pao-t'ing was a leader of the group of officials in Peking who were known as Ch'ing-liu tang 清流黨. In the eighteen-seventies this group made a point of denouncing the unfair practices of high officials and exercised a strong influence on the Peking government. Though patriotic and anxious to strengthen the country, most of them were conservatives and were ignorant of foreign affairs. They did much for the enforcement of strict official discipline but obstructed the work of progressive officials, such as and. Copies of twenty-eight memorials of Pao-t'ing preserved by his sons were edited and printed in 2 chüan by Kao Fêng-ch'i 高鳳岐, under the title 竹坡侍郎奏議 Chu-p'o shih-lang tsou-i. Kao's preface is dated 1901. This work was reprinted in 1901 by Hsia Chên-wu 夏震武 as a part of the 嘉定長白二先生奏議 Chia-ting Ch'ang-pai êr hsien-shêng tsou-i. It has a nien-p'u of Pao-t'ing, compiled by his eldest son, and memorials of Hsü Chih-hsiang 徐致祥 who rose in his official career to educational commissioner of Chekiang (1894–99).

Unlike many of his fellow officials, Pao-t'ing was indifferent to wealth and had no desire to possess rare books, ancient bronzes, inscribed stones, or other objects of antiquity. He led an unconventional life and was not free from the moral failings which characterized some of his promimentprominent [sic] contemporaries. In 1860 he married 611