Volume 290 Biographies 77: Yang Mingshi, Huang Shulin, Fang Bao, Wang Lansheng, Hu Xu, Wei Tingzhen, Cai Shiyuan, Shen Jinsi, Lei Hong

列傳七十七

Biographies 77

楊名時黃叔琳子登賢方苞王蘭生留保胡煦

Yang Mingshi, Huang Shulin, Zi Dengxian, Fang Bao, Wang Lansheng, Liubao, and Hu Xu

魏廷珍任蘭枝蔡世遠沈近思雷鋐

Wei Tingzhen, Ren Lanzhi, Cai Shiyuan, Shen Jinsi, and Lei Hong

楊名時，字賓實，江南江陰人。康熙三十年進士，改庶吉士。李光地為考官，深器之，從受經學。散館，授檢討。四十一年，督順天學政，用光地薦也。尋遷侍讀。四十二年，上西巡，肥鄉武生李正朝病狂，衝突儀仗。光地時為直隸巡撫，請罪正朝，因劾名時。上斥名時督學，有意棄富錄貧，不問學業文字，但不受賄囑，從寬恕宥。四十四年，任滿，命河工效力。旋連遭父母喪，以憂歸。五十一年，服除，候補。五十三年，命直南書房。名時不投牒吏部，因不得補官，上特命充陝西考官。五十六年，授直隸巡道。時沿明製，直隸不設兩司，以巡道任按察使事。政劇，吏為奸，名時革宿弊殆盡。五十八年，遷貴州布政使。

Yang Mingshi, whose style was Bingshi, came from Jiangyin in Jiangnan. He earned his jinshi degree in the thirtieth year of the Kangxi reign and entered the Hanlin Academy as a bachelor. Li Guangdi, who served as examiner, took a strong liking to him, and Yang went on to study the classics under his tutelage. When his term at the academy ended, he was appointed a reviser. In the forty-first year he was put in charge of education in Shuntian, having been recommended by Li Guangdi. He was soon promoted to reader-in-waiting at court. In the forty-second year, during the emperor's western tour, Li Zhengchao, a military licentiate from Feixiang, suffered a fit of madness and charged the imperial procession. Li Guangdi was then governor-general of Zhili; he called for Zhengchao to be punished and used the occasion to impeach Yang Mingshi as well. The emperor rebuked Yang for his conduct as education commissioner, charging that he had deliberately favored the poor over the wealthy and ignored candidates' learning and literary merit; because he had refused bribes and illicit recommendations, however, he was leniently forgiven. When his term ended in the forty-fourth year, he was assigned to river-conservancy duty. He soon lost both parents in succession and went home to observe mourning. In the fifty-first year, once his mourning period had ended, he waited for a new posting. In the fifty-third year he was assigned to duty in the Southern Study. Because Yang had not filed his credentials with the Board of Civil Office, he could not be given a regular appointment; the emperor therefore specially appointed him examiner for Shaanxi. In the fifty-sixth year he was made circuit intendant of Zhili. Following the Ming precedent, Zhili had no separate treasurer or judge; the circuit intendant handled the surveillance commissioner's responsibilities. Administration was demanding and clerks rife with corruption; Yang swept away nearly all entrenched abuses. In the fifty-eighth year he was transferred to serve as provincial treasurer of Guizhou.

五十九年，擢雲南巡撫。師征西藏，留駐雲南，名時為營館舍，明約束，無敢叫囂。名時疏言：「雲南兵糧歲需十四萬九千餘石，俱就近支放。兵多米少，諸州縣例四年折徵一次，請改每年給本色三季，折色一季。」部議如所請行。雍正元年，名時奏請安，世宗諭曰：「爾向日居官有聲。茲當加勉，莫移初志。」尋疏言：「雲南巡撫一切規禮，臣一無所取。惟鹽規五萬二千兩，除留充卹灶、修井諸用，餘四萬六千兩。累年供應在藏官兵軍需賞賚，撥補銀廠缺課，及公私所用，皆取於此。藏兵撤後，請仍留臣署若干，餘悉充公用。」上諭曰：「督撫羨餘，豈可限以規則？取所當取，用所當用，全在爾等揆情度理而行，無煩章奏也。」名時迭疏請調劑鹽井，改行社倉，皆下部議行。雲南自亂後田賦淆亂，往往戶絕田去而丁未除，至有一人當數十丁者，累代相仍，名曰「子孫丁」。名時疏請照直隸例，將通省丁額攤入田糧完納。雲南舊例，地方應辦事，皆取諸民間，謂之「公件」。胥役科斂，指一派十，重為民累。名時議核實州縣需款，酌定數目徵收，不得再有加派。檄行所屬諸州縣，核數開報。

In the fifty-ninth year he was promoted to governor of Yunnan. While the army campaigned in Tibet and was quartered in Yunnan, Yang arranged lodging and laid down strict rules, so that the troops did not dare cause disorder. Yang memorialized: "Yunnan's annual military grain requirement exceeds 149,000 shi, all of which is issued from local granaries. Because troops were numerous and grain scarce, prefectures and counties had customarily commuted grain levies once every four years; he proposed that each year grain in kind be delivered for three seasons and commuted payments for one." The ministry approved his proposal and ordered it carried out. In the first year of Yongzheng, Yang presented his respects; the Yongzheng Emperor instructed him: "You once enjoyed a fine reputation in office. Now redouble your efforts and do not stray from your first intentions." He soon memorialized again: "I have taken none of the customary perquisites attached to the Yunnan governorship. Only the salt surcharge of 52,000 taels applied; after setting aside funds to support saltern households and repair wells, 46,000 taels remained. For years this fund had supplied the needs, rewards, and gifts of troops in Tibet, covered shortfalls in silver-mine tax quotas, and met both public and private expenses. Now that the Tibetan garrison has been withdrawn, I ask that a portion remain in my office and that the rest be turned entirely to public use." The emperor replied: "How can surplus funds of governors be bound by fixed rules? Take what ought to be taken and spend what ought to be spent; that is entirely for you to judge by circumstance—there is no need for such memorials." Yang sent repeated memorials on regulating salt wells and instituting community granaries; each proposal was referred to the ministries and approved. After the rebellions, Yunnan's land-tax registers were in chaos: households would die out and land pass away while corvée quotas remained, until one man might be liable for dozens of quotas inherited across generations—known as "descendants' quotas." Yang memorialized that, following the Zhili precedent, all corvée quotas in the province be folded into land-tax payments. Under Yunnan's old practice, all local obligations were levied on the populace and called "public items." Yamen runners extorted on these levies, demanding tenfold where one was due—a crushing burden on the people. Yang proposed verifying each county's actual needs, fixing collection amounts accordingly, and forbidding any further surcharges. He circulated orders to all subordinate prefectures and counties to verify figures and submit reports.

三年，擢兵部尚書，改授雲貴總督，仍管巡撫事。時上令諸督撫常事疏題，要事摺奏。名時洩密摺，上令悉用題本，名時乞遇事仍得摺奏，許之。四年，轉吏部尚書，仍以總督管巡撫。名時具題本，誤將密諭載入，上嚴責，命解任，以硃綱代為巡撫。未至，仍令名時暫署。俄，綱上官，劾名時在任七載，徇隱廢弛，庫帑倉穀，借欠虧空。上命名時自陳，綱代名時奏謝罪，上責其巧詐，諭總督鄂爾泰嚴訊。名時自承沽名邀譽，斷不敢巧詐。讞上，部議以名時始終掩護，朦朧引咎，無人臣事君禮，坐挾詐欺公，當斬。上命寬免，復遣侍郎黃炳會綱按治。炳等欲刑訊，鄂爾泰持不可，乃坐名時得鹽規八萬，除捐補銀廠缺課，應追五萬八千餘兩。上令名時留雲南待後命。

In the third year he was promoted to minister of war, then appointed governor-general of Yunnan-Guizhou while continuing to handle the governorship. The emperor had ordered governors to file routine memorials for ordinary business and folded memorials for important matters. Yang leaked a secret folded memorial; the emperor then required routine memorials for all business. Yang pleaded to retain folded memorials when necessary, and permission was granted. In the fourth year he was transferred to minister of civil office, continuing as governor-general and overseeing the governorship. Yang submitted a routine memorial that mistakenly included a secret imperial instruction; the emperor rebuked him severely, relieved him of office, and appointed Zhu Gang governor in his place. Before Zhu Gang arrived, Yang was ordered to continue acting in the post. Soon after taking office, Zhu Gang impeached Yang for seven years of favoritism, concealment, and lax rule, with treasury funds and granary stocks lent out, owed, and in deficit. The emperor ordered Yang to explain himself; Gang submitted an apology on his behalf. The emperor charged him with cunning deceit and instructed Governor-General Ortai to conduct a rigorous investigation. Yang admitted to courting reputation but firmly denied any deceit. When the verdict was submitted, the ministry held that Yang had shielded wrongdoing throughout, evasively accepted blame, failed in a subject's duty to his ruler, and was guilty of deceiving the public—punishable by decapitation. The emperor ordered leniency and again dispatched Vice Minister Huang Bing, together with Gang, to investigate. Huang Bing and his colleagues wished to apply torture, but Ortai objected. Yang was then found to have received 80,000 taels from the salt surcharge; after deducting amounts donated to cover silver-mine tax shortfalls, more than 58,000 taels remained to be recovered. The emperor ordered Yang to remain in Yunnan pending further orders.

高宗即位，召詣京師。乾隆元年，名時至，賜禮部尚書銜，兼領國子監祭酒，兼直上書房、南書房。名時以前在雲南令諸州縣核實需款定數徵收，去公件之弊，事未竟而去，奏請下督撫勘定。總督尹繼善、巡撫張允隨奏請以額編條糧重輕，與原定公件多寡，兩相比並，就中攤減，下部議行。視未定議前取諸民者去十之七，雲南民困以蘇。

When the Qianlong Emperor ascended the throne, Yang was summoned to the capital. In the first year of Qianlong, when Yang arrived, he was granted the rank of minister of rites, made chancellor of the Imperial Academy, and assigned concurrently to the Upper Study and Southern Study. While in Yunnan, Yang had ordered counties to verify needs and fix collection amounts to end abuses of "public items"; the reform was unfinished when he left, and he memorialized asking that governors survey and finalize the amounts. Governor-General Yin Jishan and Governor Zhang Yun memorialized to compare registered grain quotas with the originally fixed public items, apportion reductions accordingly, and refer the plan to the ministries for approval. Compared with levies on the people before the reform was finalized, seven-tenths were cut, and Yunnan's populace found relief from their hardship.

苗疆用兵久，名時疏言：「禦夷之道，貴在羈縻，未有怨毒猜嫌而能長久寧貼者。貴州境內多與苗疆相接，生苗在南，漢人在北，而熟苗居中，受僱直為漢人傭，相安已久。生苗所居深山密箐，有熟苗為之限，常聲內地兵威以懾之，故亦罔敢窺伺。自議開拓苗疆，生苗界上常屯官兵，干戈相尋，而生苗始不安其所。至熟苗無事則供力役，用兵則為鄉導，軍民待之若奴隸，生苗疾之若寇仇。官兵勝，則生苗乘間抄殺以洩忿；官兵敗，又或屠戮以冒功。由是熟苗怨恨，反結生苗為亂。如台拱本在化外，有司迎合要功，輒謂苗民獻地。上官不察，竟議駐師。遂使生苗煽亂，屢陷官兵，蹂躪內地；間有就撫熟苗，又為武臣殘殺，賣其妻女。是以賊志益堅，人懷必死。為今日計，惟有棄苗疆而不取，撤重兵還駐內地，要害築城，俾民有可依，兵有可守。來則御之，去則舍之。明懸賞格，有能擒首惡及率眾歸順者，給與土官世襲，分管其地。更加意撫綏熟苗，使勿為生苗所劫掠，官兵所侵陵，庶有俯首向化之日。不然，臣恐兵端不能遽息也。」二年，卒，贈太子太傅，賜祭葬，諡文定。

The Miao frontier campaign had dragged on; Yang memorialized: "In dealing with frontier peoples, restraint and conciliation matter most; those who harbor resentment and suspicion cannot long remain peaceful. Much of Guizhou borders the Miao frontier: raw Miao to the south, Han to the north, and acculturated Miao between them, long hired as laborers by Han and living in peace. Raw Miao dwell in deep mountains and ravines; acculturated Miao serve as a buffer, often invoking the empire's military might to overawe them, so they dared not raid inward. Once the plan to open the Miao frontier was adopted, government troops were constantly stationed on raw Miao borders, fighting followed fighting, and the raw Miao were driven from their homes. Acculturated Miao supplied labor in peacetime and served as guides in war; soldiers and civilians treated them like slaves, while raw Miao hated them as enemies. When government troops won, raw Miao seized the chance to raid and kill in revenge; when troops lost, soldiers sometimes slaughtered civilians to claim merit. Thus acculturated Miao grew resentful and joined raw Miao in rebellion. Taigong, for example, lay beyond the civilized zone; local officials eager for merit would simply claim the Miao had offered their land. Superiors failed to investigate and approved garrisoning troops there. This stirred raw Miao to rebellion, repeatedly trapped government troops, and ravaged the interior; acculturated Miao who had submitted were butchered by military officers who sold their wives and daughters. Rebel resolve hardened, and every man was ready to die fighting. For the present, we should abandon the Miao frontier, withdraw heavy troops to garrison the interior, and build walled strongpoints at key points so the people have refuge and troops have defensible positions. Resist them when they come; let them go when they withdraw. Post clear rewards: those who capture ringleaders or lead their people to submit should receive hereditary native-official posts to govern their own territories. Pacify the acculturated Miao so they are not plundered by raw Miao or abused by troops; only then may they bow to imperial rule. Otherwise, I fear warfare will not soon end." In the second year he died. He was posthumously made Grand Tutor of the Heir Apparent, granted imperial funeral rites, and given the posthumous title Wending.

黃叔琳，字昆圃，順天大興縣人。康熙三十年一甲三名進士，授編修，累遷侍講。丁父憂，服除，起原官，遷鴻臚寺少卿。五遷刑部侍郎。雍正元年，調吏部。命偕兩淮鹽政謝賜履赴湖廣，與總督楊宗仁議鹽價，革除陋規，從所請。疏言：「各省支撥兵糧，布政使、糧道為政，先期請託，方撥近營。否則撥遠汛，加運費，民既重累輸輓，兵亦苦待餉。請敕督撫察兵數，先撥本州縣衛、所，不敷，於附近州縣撥運。」下部議行。旋授浙江巡撫。時御史錢廷獻請濬浙江東西湖，蓄水灌田，命叔琳會總督滿保勘議。叔琳等奏言：「西湖居會城西，週三十餘裡，南北山泉入湖處，舊皆設閘以阻浮沙，水得暢流；又有東湖為之停蓄，湖水分出上下塘河，農田資以灌溉。自閘廢土淤，民佔為田，築埂圍盪，栽荷蓄魚。請照舊址清釐，去埂建閘，濬城內河道，並疏治上塘河各支港，及自會城至江南吳江界運河港汊壩堰。」部議從之。

Huang Shulin, whose style was Kunpu, came from Daxing County in Shuntian. In the thirtieth year of Kangxi he ranked third in the first class of jinshi graduates and was appointed a compiler, later rising to court expositor. After mourning his father, he resumed his former post and was transferred to vice minister of the Court of State Ceremonial. After five promotions he became vice minister of justice. In the first year of Yongzheng he was transferred to the Board of Civil Office. He was ordered to accompany Liang-Huai salt controller Xie Cilü to Huguang to consult Governor-General Yang Zongren on salt prices and abolish corrupt practices; his proposals were approved. He memorialized: "In each province military grain disbursement is controlled by the provincial treasurer and grain intendant; nearby camps are supplied only after prior favor-seeking. Otherwise distant posts are supplied at added transport cost, doubling the people's transport burden while troops suffer waiting for rations. He asked that governors verify troop numbers, allocate first from local prefectures, counties, guards, and battalions, and draw from nearby counties only if insufficient." The ministries approved and ordered it carried out. He was soon appointed governor of Zhejiang. Censor Qian Tingxian had proposed dredging Zhejiang's East and West Lakes to store irrigation water; Huang was ordered to join Governor Manbao in surveying the project. Huang and his colleagues memorialized: "West Lake lies west of the provincial capital, with a circumference of more than thirty li. Sluice gates once blocked drifting sand where mountain springs entered from north and south, allowing water to flow freely; East Lake stored overflow; lake water fed the Upper and Lower Tang Rivers, irrigating farmland. After the gates fell into ruin and silt accumulated, people encroached on the lakebed, built dikes around shallows, and planted lotus and raised fish. They proposed restoring the original boundaries, removing dikes and rebuilding gates, dredging city canals, clearing branch channels of the Upper Tang River, and repairing canal harbors, junctions, dams, and weirs from the capital to the Jiangnan border at Wujiang." The ministry approved.

叔琳疏薦人才，有廷臣嘗言於上者，上疑叔琳請託先容，諭戒鄭重。會有言叔琳赴湖廣時，得鹽商賕，俾充總商，及為巡撫，庇海寧陳氏僕；其弟御史叔敬巡視台灣，過杭州，僕閧於市，叔琳皆以罪商，有死者，商為罷市。上命解叔琳任，遣侍郎李周望與將軍安泰分案按治。安泰等奏叔琳以陳氏僕與商爭毆，逮商杖斃，事實，無與叔璥事，亦未嘗罷市。周望等奏叔琳貸金鹽商，非行賄，上命毋窮究。三年，命赴海塘效力。

Huang memorialized recommending talented men whom court officials had already mentioned to the emperor; the emperor suspected Huang of lobbying on their behalf and cautioned him sternly. Reports then alleged that on his Huguang mission Huang had taken bribes from salt merchants to appoint them chief merchants, and that as governor he had shielded a servant of the Chen family of Haining; and that his younger brother, Censor Shujing, passing through Hangzhou while inspecting Taiwan, had seen the servant brawl in the market—whereupon Huang punished merchants, some fatally, provoking a merchants' strike. The emperor dismissed Huang and dispatched Vice Minister Li Zhouwang and General Antai to investigate the cases separately. Antai reported that Huang had arrested and beaten a merchant to death after the Chen servant brawled with merchants—true—but that Shujing was not involved and no market strike had occurred. Li Zhouwang and his colleagues reported that Huang had lent money to salt merchants rather than accepted bribes; the emperor ordered the matter dropped without further inquiry. In the third year he was ordered to serve on coastal embankment works.

乾隆元年，授山東按察使。疏言：「舊例州縣命案，印官公出，由鄰封相驗。嗣廣西巡撫金鉷奏請改委佐雜，夤緣賄囑，難成信讞。」又言：「審案舊有定限，逾限議處。嗣河東總督田文鏡題定分立解府、州、司、院限期，雖意在清釐，適啟通融挪改之弊，請皆仍舊為便。」從之。二年，遷布政使。四年，丁母憂。服除，授詹事。以在山東誤揭屬吏諱盜，奪官。叔琳登第甫二十，十六年，重遇登第歲，命給侍郎銜。二十一年，卒，年八十三。

In the first year of the Qianlong reign he was appointed surveillance commissioner of Shandong. He memorialized: "Under former practice, when a prefectural or county official holding the seal was absent on public business, homicide cases were examined by a neighboring jurisdiction. Later Governor Jin Hong of Guangxi proposed assigning deputy and subordinate officials instead; favor-seeking and bribes made trustworthy verdicts difficult to obtain." He also wrote: "Trials formerly had fixed deadlines, and exceeding them brought disciplinary proceedings. Later Governor-General Tian Wenjing of Hedong set separate deadlines for cases at the prefecture, circuit, provincial judicial commission, and high court. Though meant to clarify procedure, this invited evasion and postponement; he asked that the old limits be restored." The proposal was approved. In the second year he was promoted to provincial treasurer. In the fourth year he went into mourning for his mother. When his mourning ended, he was appointed junior tutor to the heir apparent. He was dismissed for having wrongly reported in Shandong that a subordinate had concealed banditry. Huang had passed the examinations only twenty years earlier; in the sixteenth year, when the cycle of his examination year returned, he was granted vice-ministerial rank. In the twenty-first year he died, at the age of eighty-three.

叔琳富藏書，與方苞友。苞治諸經，叔琳皆與商榷。

Huang owned a large library and was a friend of Fang Bao. Whenever Bao worked on the classics, Huang debated them with him.

子登賢，字筠盟。乾隆元年進士，授戶部主事。累遷左副都御史，督山東學政。康熙間，叔琳來督學，立三賢祠，祀胡瑗、孫復、石介，以式諸士。後六十年，登賢繼之，訓士遴才，皆循叔琳訓。四十九年，卒。

His son Zi Dengxian, whose style was Junmeng. He earned his jinshi degree in the first year of Qianlong and was appointed a secretary in the Ministry of Revenue. He rose to left vice censor-in-chief and served as education commissioner of Shandong. During the Kangxi reign Huang came as education commissioner, built a Shrine of the Three Worthies honoring Hu Yuan, Sun Fu, and Shi Jie, and held them up as models for scholars. Sixty years later Dengxian succeeded him; in educating scholars and selecting talent he followed Huang's methods throughout. He died in the forty-ninth year.

方苞，字靈皋，江南桐城人。父仲舒，寄籍上元，善為詩，苞其次子也。篤學修內行，治古文，自為諸生，已有聲於時。康熙三十八年，舉人。四十五年，會試中式，將應殿試，聞母病，歸侍。五十年，副都御史趙申喬劾編修戴名世所著南山集、孑遺錄有悖逆語，辭連苞族祖孝標。名世與苞同縣，亦工為古文，苞為序其集，並逮下獄。五十二年，獄成，名世坐斬。孝標已前死，戍其子登嶧等。苞及諸與是獄有乾連者，皆免罪入旗。聖祖夙知苞文學，大學士李光地亦薦苞，乃召苞直南書房。未幾，改直蒙養齋，編校御製樂律、算法諸書。六十一年，命充武英殿修書總裁。世宗即位，赦苞及其族人入旗者歸原籍。

Fang Bao, whose style was Linggao, came from Tongcheng in Jiangnan. His father Zhongshu was registered by adoption in Shangyuan and was skilled in poetry; Bao was his second son. He studied with deep devotion, cultivated his moral conduct, and practiced ancient-style prose; even as a student he was already well known. He passed the provincial examination in the thirty-eighth year of Kangxi. In the forty-fifth year he passed the metropolitan examination and was about to sit for the palace examination when he learned his mother was ill and returned home to care for her. In the fiftieth year Vice Censor-in-Chief Zhao Shenqiao impeached Compiler Dai Mingshi's Nanshan Ji and Jieyilu for seditious passages, implicating Bao's kinsman Fang Xiaobiao. Dai Mingshi was from the same county as Bao and was likewise accomplished in ancient prose; Bao had written a preface for his collection and was arrested along with him. In the fifty-second year the case was concluded and Dai Mingshi was sentenced to execution. Xiaobiao had already died; his son Dengshan and others were banished to frontier garrison duty. Bao and everyone implicated in the case were spared execution but enrolled in the Eight Banners. Kangxi had long valued Bao's scholarship; Grand Secretary Li Guangdi also recommended him, and Bao was summoned to serve in the Southern Study. Soon afterward he was transferred to the Mengyang Studio to compile and collate imperial works on music, pitch pipes, and mathematics. In the sixty-first year he was appointed chief compiler of book projects at the Hall of Martial Eminence. When the Yongzheng Emperor succeeded to the throne, he pardoned Bao and his kinsmen who had been enrolled in the banners and restored them to their original household registers.

雍正二年，苞乞歸里葬母。三年，還京師，入直如故。居數年，特授左中允。三遷內閣學士。苞以足疾辭，上命專領修書，不必詣內閣治事。尋命教習庶吉士，充一統志總裁、皇清文穎副總裁。乾隆元年，充三禮義疏副總裁。命再直南書房，擢禮部侍郎，仍以足疾辭，上留之，命免隨班行走。復命教習庶吉士，堅請解侍郎任，許之，仍以原銜食俸。苞初蒙聖祖恩宥，奮欲以學術見諸政事。光地及左都御史徐元夢雅重苞。苞見朝政得失，有所論列，既，命專事編輯，終聖祖朝，未嘗授以官。世宗赦出旗，召入對，慰諭之，並曰：「先帝執法，朕原情。汝老學，當知此義。」乃特除清要，馴致通顯。

In the second year of Yongzheng, Bao asked leave to return home and bury his mother. In the third year he returned to the capital and resumed palace service as before. After several years he was specially appointed left junior adviser of the Hanlin Academy. He was promoted three times to grand secretary of the Grand Secretariat. Bao pleaded a foot ailment; the emperor ordered him to devote himself solely to book compilation and excused him from attending the Grand Secretariat. He was soon ordered to instruct Hanlin bachelors and served as chief compiler of the Comprehensive Gazetteer and associate chief compiler of the Imperial Qing Literary Treasury. In the first year of Qianlong he served as associate chief compiler of the Exegesis of the Three Rites. He was again assigned to the Southern Study and promoted to vice minister of Rites; he again pleaded his foot ailment; the emperor kept him in office but excused him from attending court in procession. Ordered once more to instruct Hanlin bachelors, he firmly asked to be relieved of the vice ministership; his request was granted, and he continued to draw salary at his former rank. At first, grateful for Kangxi's gracious pardon, Bao was eager to apply his scholarship to public affairs. Li Guangdi and Left Censor-in-Chief Xu Yuanmeng held him in high regard. When he saw failings in court governance he would submit memorials discussing them; afterward he was ordered to devote himself to editing, and throughout the Kangxi reign he was never given an official post. The Yongzheng Emperor pardoned him from the banners, summoned him for audience, and comforted him, saying: "The late emperor enforced the law; I weigh the circumstances. You are an elder scholar and should understand this principle." He was then given a prestigious appointment and gradually rose to high office.

苞屢上疏言事，嘗論：「常平倉穀例定存七糶三。南省卑濕，存糶多寡，應因地制宜，不必囿成例。年飢米貴，有司請於大吏，定值開糶，未奉檄不敢擅。自後各州縣遇穀貴，應即令定值開糶，仍詳報大吏。穀存倉有鼠耗，盤量有折減，移動有運費，糶糴守局有人工食用。春糶值有餘，即留充諸費。廉能之吏，遇秋糴值賤，得穀較多，應令詳明別貯，備歉歲發賑。」下部議行。又言民生日匱，請禁燒酒，禁種煙草，禁米穀出洋，並議令佐貳官督民樹畜，士紳相度濬水道。又請矯積習，興人才，謂：「上當以時延見廷臣，別邪正，示好惡。內九卿、外督撫，深信其忠誠無私意者，命各舉所知。先試以事，破瞻徇，繩贓私，厚俸而久任著聲績者，賜金帛，進爵秩。尤以六部各有其職，必慎簡卿貳，使訓厲其僚屬，以時進退之，則中材咸自矜奮。」乾隆初，疏謂：「救荒宜豫。夏末秋初，水旱豐歉，十已見八九。舊例報災必待八九月後，災民朝不待夕，上奏得旨，動經旬月。請自後遇水旱，五六月即以實奏報。」並言：「古者城必有池，週設司險、掌固二官，恃溝樹以守，請飭及時修舉。通川可開支河，沮洳可興大圩，及諸塘堰宜創宜修，若鎮集宜開溝渠、築垣堡者，皆造冊具報，待歲歉興作，以工代賑。」下部議，以五六月報災慮浮冒，不可行；溝樹塘堰諸事，令各督撫籌議。

Fang repeatedly memorialized on state affairs; he once argued: "Ever-normal granaries were required by rule to keep seven parts in store and sell three. Southern provinces are low-lying and humid; how much to store or sell should follow local conditions and need not be bound by precedent. In famine years, when grain was dear, local officials had to ask superiors for permission to set prices and open sales; without an order they dared not act. Henceforth, whenever grain grew dear in a prefecture or county, officials should immediately be ordered to set prices and open sales, while still reporting fully to their superiors. Stored grain suffers rat damage; measuring entails loss; transport costs arise when grain is moved; and granary sales and purchases require labor and provisions. Any surplus from spring sales should be kept to cover these costs. Honest and capable officials who bought grain cheaply in autumn and obtained larger stocks should be required to record and store it separately for relief in lean years." The ministry approved and carried out the proposal. He also said the people's livelihood was daily growing poorer and asked to ban distilled liquor, tobacco cultivation, and the export of grain overseas; he also proposed that deputy officials supervise planting and livestock and that gentry survey and dredge waterways. He also urged reform of entrenched habits and promotion of talent, writing: "Your Majesty should receive court ministers regularly, distinguish the upright from the corrupt, and make your preferences clear. Among the nine ministers at court and the governors in the provinces, those whose loyalty and disinterested service Your Majesty deeply trusts should each be ordered to recommend men they know. Test them first in office, break favoritism, and punish corruption; officials of generous salary and long tenure who distinguish themselves should receive gold and silk and advancement in rank. Above all, since each of the six ministries has its own duties, vice ministers should be chosen carefully, instructed to discipline their subordinates, and promoted or dismissed in due season—then even middling talents will strive to excel." Early in Qianlong he memorialized: "Famine relief should be prepared in advance. By late summer and early autumn, flood, drought, plenty, or scarcity are already evident in eight or nine cases out of ten. Under old practice disaster had to be reported only after the eighth or ninth month, yet famine victims cannot wait from morning to night, while memorials and imperial replies often took months. He asked that hereafter, when flood or drought occurred, truthful reports be submitted in the fifth or sixth month." He also urged: "In antiquity every city had a moat, and the Zhou appointed the Fortification Supervisor and Rampart Keeper, relying on ditches and planted trees for defense; repairs should be carried out promptly. Branch streams could be cut where rivers ran through; great dikes could be raised on marshland; ponds, weirs, market towns needing canals, and walled forts should all be listed and reported, then built in lean years as work-for-relief projects." The ministry deliberated and rejected early disaster reporting in the fifth or sixth month for fear of false claims; but ordered each governor-general and governor to plan works on ditches, trees, ponds, and weirs.

高宗命苞選錄有明及本朝諸大家時藝，加以批評，示學子準繩，書成，命為欽定四書文。苞欲仿硃子學校貢舉議立科目程式，及充教習庶吉士，奏請改定館課及散館則例，議格不行。苞老多病，上憐之，屢命御醫往視。

The Qianlong Emperor ordered Bao to collect and annotate examination essays by leading Ming and Qing masters as models for students; when the work was finished it was titled the Imperially Approved Four Books Essays. Bao wished to follow Zhu Xi's proposals on schools and examinations to establish fixed examination forms; while instructing Hanlin bachelors he also memorialized to revise academy lessons and rules for leaving the academy, but the proposal was blocked. Bao was old and frequently ill; the emperor took pity on him and repeatedly sent imperial physicians to treat him.

苞以事忤河道總督高斌，高斌疏發苞請託私書，上稍不直苞。苞與尚書魏廷珍善，廷珍守護泰陵，苞居其第。上召苞入對，苞請起廷珍。居無何，上召廷珍為左都御史，命未下，苞移居城外。或以訐苞，謂苞漏奏對語，以是示意。庶吉士散館，已奏聞定試期，吳喬齡後至，復補請與試。或又以訐苞，謂苞移居喬齡宅，受請託。上乃降旨詰責，削侍郎銜，仍命修三禮義疏。苞年已將八十，病日深，大學士等代奏，賜侍講銜，許還裡。十四年，卒，年八十二。苞既罷，祭酒缺員，上曰：「此官可使方苞為之。」旁無應者。

Bao clashed with Grand Canal Director-General Gao Bin, who memorialized exposing Bao's private letters soliciting favors, and the emperor's regard for him cooled. Bao was close to Minister Wei Tingzhen, who was guarding the Yongling mausoleum; Bao lived in his house. The emperor summoned Bao for audience, and Bao asked that Wei be recalled to office. Before long the emperor summoned Wei as left censor-in-chief; before the appointment was announced, Bao moved outside the city. Someone impeached Bao, alleging that he had leaked what was said in audience—thereby hinting that he had moved because he knew the appointment in advance. When Hanlin bachelors left the academy, the examination date had already been reported and fixed; Wu Qiaoling arrived late, and Bao again asked that he be allowed to take the examination. Again someone impeached Bao, claiming that he had moved into Qiaoling's house and accepted a bribe. The emperor then issued a reprimand, stripped him of his vice ministership, but still ordered him to continue compiling the Exegesis of the Three Rites. Bao was nearly eighty and growing steadily weaker; grand secretaries memorialized on his behalf; he was granted reader-in-waiting rank and allowed to return home. In the fourteenth year he died, at the age of eighty-two. After Bao had left office, the chancellorship of the Imperial Academy fell vacant; the emperor said: "This post could be given to Fang Bao." No one beside him answered.

苞為學宗程、朱，尤究心春秋、三禮，篤於倫紀。既家居，建宗祠，定祭禮，設義田。其為文，自唐、宋諸大家上通太史公書，務以扶道教、裨風化為任。尤嚴於義法，為古文正宗，號「桐城派」。

Bao's scholarship followed the Cheng-Zhu school; he devoted himself especially to the Spring and Autumn Annals and the Three Rites and was rigorous in ethical relations. In retirement he built an ancestral shrine, fixed the sacrificial rites, and established charitable fields. In his writing he looked from the great Tang and Song masters back to Sima Qian's Records, taking as his task the support of moral teaching and the improvement of custom. He was especially strict in literary method and became the orthodox master of ancient-style prose, known as the Tongcheng School.

苞兄舟，字百川，諸生，與苞同負文譽。嘗語苞，當兄弟同葬，不得以妻祔。苞病革，命從舟遺言；並以弟林早卒未視斂，斂袒右臂以自罰。

Bao's elder brother Zhou, whose style was Baichuan, was a licentiate and shared his literary fame. He once told Bao that brothers should be buried together and that wives must not be interred alongside them. On his deathbed Bao ordered that Zhou's last wish be followed; and because his younger brother Lin had died young without his being present at the encoffining, he had his right arm left bare in the coffin as self-punishment.

王蘭生，字振聲，直隸交河人。少穎異。李光地督順天學政，補縣學生，及為直隸巡撫，錄入保陽書院肄業，教以治經，並通樂律、曆算、音韻之學。光地入為大學士，薦蘭生直內廷，編纂律呂正義、音韻闡微諸書。康熙五十二年，賜舉人，以父憂歸。服除，仍直內廷。六十年，應會試，未第。上以蘭生內直久，精熟性理，學問亦優，賜進士，殿試二甲一名，改庶吉士。雍正元年，散館授編修。三年，署國子監司業。四年，真除，督浙江學政。五年，遷侍講。六年，轉侍讀。時查嗣庭、汪景祺以誹謗得罪，停浙江士子鄉會試。蘭生奏言：「諸生當立品奉公，如有潛通胥役，欺隱錢糧，察出黜懲。臣按考所至，嚴加曉諭，並令地方官開報，必使輸糧乃得入試。」上深嘉之，命浙江士子準照舊鄉會試。七年，擢侍讀學士，督安徽學政。九年，遷內閣學士，仍留學政。十年，命再留任三年。尋充江南鄉試考官，調陝西學政。十三年，以所舉士得罪，左授少詹事。高宗即位，召入都，復授內閣學士。乾隆元年，遷刑部侍郎，兼署禮部侍郎。二年春二月，上奉世宗葬泰陵，蘭生扈行。次良鄉，發，病遽作，卒於肩輿中。賚白金五百，治喪涿州，待家人奔赴，賜祭葬如例。

Wang Lansheng, whose style was Zhensheng, came from Jiaohe in Zhili. From childhood he was exceptionally gifted. When Li Guangdi supervised education in Shuntian, Wang was enrolled as a county student; when Li became governor of Zhili, he placed him in Baoyang Academy, taught him the classics, and also music, calendrics, mathematics, and phonology. When Li entered the capital as grand secretary, he recommended Wang for service in the inner court to compile the Correct Meaning of Pitch Pipes, Elucidation of Phonology, and other works. In the fifty-second year of Kangxi he was granted the rank of provincial graduate and returned home to mourn his father. After his mourning period ended, he resumed service in the inner court. In the sixtieth year he took the metropolitan examination but failed to place. The emperor, noting that Wang had long served in the inner court, was deeply versed in Neo-Confucian ethics, and was also an outstanding scholar, granted him metropolitan graduate status; in the palace examination he placed first in the second class of the second grade and was appointed a Hanlin bachelor. In the first year of Yongzheng, after completing his Hanlin training, he was appointed a compiler. In the third year he served as acting vice director of the Imperial Academy. In the fourth year he received a formal appointment and was made educational commissioner of Zhejiang. In the fifth year he was promoted to expositor of the Hanlin Academy. In the sixth year he was transferred to reader. At that time Zha Siting and Wang Jingqi had been punished for defamation, and the provincial and metropolitan examinations for Zhejiang candidates were suspended. Wang Lansheng memorialized: "Students must uphold integrity and serve the public interest; any who secretly collude with clerks to conceal land tax and grain payments should, once discovered, be dismissed and punished. In every prefecture where I conduct the examinations I give strict instruction, and I require local officials to report cases openly—only candidates who have paid their grain taxes may sit for the exams." The emperor greatly approved and ordered that Zhejiang candidates resume the provincial and metropolitan examinations as before. In the seventh year he was promoted to reader-in-waiting and appointed educational commissioner of Anhui. In the ninth year he was made a grand secretary of the Grand Secretariat while retaining his post as educational commissioner. In the tenth year he was ordered to remain in his post for another three-year term. Soon after he served as chief examiner for the Jiangnan provincial examination and was transferred to educational commissioner of Shaanxi. In the thirteenth year, because a scholar he had recommended had offended, he was demoted to junior tutor of the heir apparent. When the Qianlong Emperor acceded, he was summoned to the capital and again appointed a grand secretary of the Grand Secretariat. In the first year of Qianlong he was promoted to vice minister of the Ministry of Punishments and also served as acting vice minister of the Ministry of Rites. In the second year, in the second month of spring, when the emperor escorted the Yongzheng Emperor's remains to Tailing for burial, Wang Lansheng accompanied the procession. When the procession reached Liangxiang and set out again, he was suddenly stricken with illness and died in his sedan chair. The court granted five hundred taels of silver; his funeral was arranged at Zhuozhou until his family could arrive, and he was granted state sacrifice and burial according to regulation.

蘭生為學原本程、朱，光地授以樂律，與共校硃子琴律圖說，刻本多謬誤，以意詳正，遂可推據。既入直，聖祖授以律管、風琴諸解，本明道程子說，以人之中聲定黃鐘之管，積黍以驗之，展轉生十二律，皆與古法相應；又至郊壇親驗樂器，推匏土絲竹諸音與黃鐘相應之理，其說與管子、淮南子相合。音韻亦授自光地，謂邵子經世詳等而略韻，顧炎武音學五書詳韻而略等，兼取其長，以國書五字類為聲韻之元以定韻，又用連音為紐均之法以定等，皆發前人所未及。聖祖深賞之，禁中夜讀書，惟蘭生侍左右，巡幸必以從，亟稱其賢。

Wang Lansheng's scholarship was grounded in the Cheng-Zhu school; Li Guangdi taught him music theory, and together they collated Zhu Xi's Diagram and Explanation of Qin Pitch Standards—the printed edition contained many errors, which Wang corrected through reasoned judgment until the work could serve as a reliable basis for inquiry. After he entered palace service, the Kangxi Emperor taught him the theory of pitch tubes and the wind organ, following the Cheng brothers' doctrine: the median human voice was used to fix the yellow-bell tube, verified by accumulated millet grains, and the twelve pitches were derived in succession—all in accord with ancient methods; He also went in person to the suburban altar to test the instruments, working out how the tones of gourd, clay, silk, and bamboo instruments corresponded to the yellow bell—his account agreeing with the Guanzi and Huainanzi. Phonology too he learned from Li Guangdi, who observed that Shao Yong's Comprehensive Mirror of History was thorough on tone grades but slight on rhymes, whereas Gu Yanwu's Five Books on Phonology were thorough on rhymes but slight on grades; Wang took the best of both, using the Manchu Five-Character Categories as the basis for fixing rhymes and linked sounds as the method for fixing tone grades—insights no earlier scholar had attained. The Kangxi Emperor held him in high esteem; when he read at night in the palace, only Wang Lansheng attended him, and on every imperial tour Wang accompanied him—the emperor repeatedly praising his virtue.

留保，字松裔，完顏氏，滿洲正白旗人。祖阿什坦，字金龍，順治初，授內院六品他敕哈哈番，繙譯大學、中庸、孝經、通鑑總論諸書；九年，成進士，授刑科給事中。留保，康熙五十三年舉人。六十年，與蘭生同賜進士，改庶吉士。雍正元年，散館授檢討。累遷通政使。六年，廣東巡撫楊文乾劾總督阿克敦侵蝕粵海關火耗，並令家人索暹羅米船規禮諸事，上命總督孔毓珣及文乾按治。尋文乾卒，改命留保及郎中喀爾吉善會毓珣按治。毓珣以上怒，將刑訊，留保爭之，乃免。讞定，阿克敦罪當死，尋復起，語詳阿克敦傳。留保遷侍郎，歷禮、吏、工三部。乾隆初，乞病，致仕。卒，年七十七。

Liubao, whose style was Songyi, was of the Wanyan clan and a Manchu of the Plain White Banner. His grandfather Ashitan, whose style was Jinlong, in the early Shunzhi reign was appointed a sixth-rank clerk in the Inner Court and translated the Great Learning, Doctrine of the Mean, Classic of Filial Piety, General Discussion of the Comprehensive Mirror, and other works; In the ninth year he passed the metropolitan examination and was appointed supervising secretary of the Punishments Bureau. Liubao received his provincial graduate degree in the fifty-third year of Kangxi. In the sixtieth year he and Wang Lansheng were both granted metropolitan graduate status and appointed Hanlin bachelors. In the first year of Yongzheng, after completing his Hanlin training, he was appointed a reviser. He rose in succession to commissioner of the Transmission Office. In the sixth year the Guangdong governor Yang Wenqian impeached Governor-General Akedun for embezzling the Canton customs surcharge and for having his household extort customary gifts from Siamese rice vessels, among other offenses; the emperor ordered Governor-General Kong Yuxun and Wenqian to conduct an inquiry. Wenqian soon died, and the emperor instead ordered Liubao and Director Kaljishan to join Kong Yuxun in the investigation. Kong Yuxun, fearing the emperor's wrath, was about to apply torture; Liubao protested, and the torture was waived. When the verdict was reached, Akedun's offense warranted death; he was later restored to office, as recounted in his biography. Liubao was promoted to vice minister and served in succession in the Ministries of Rites, Personnel, and Works. Early in the Qianlong reign he pleaded illness and retired from office. He died at the age of seventy-seven.

胡煦，字滄曉，河南光山人。初以舉入官安陽教諭。治周易，有所撰述。康熙五十一年，成進士，散館授檢討。聖祖聞煦通易理，召對乾清宮，問河、洛理數及卦爻中疑義。煦繪圖進講，聖祖賞之，曰：「真苦心讀書人也。」五十三年，命直南書房。上方纂周易折中，大學士李光地為總裁，命煦分纂。尋命直蒙養齋，與修卜筮精蘊。五十七年，遷洗馬，與修卜筮匯義。轉鴻臚寺少卿。六十一年，遷光祿寺少卿，再遷鴻臚寺卿。雍正元年，擢內閣學士，命與刑部侍郎馬晉泰如盛京按鞫私刨人葠，錄囚百五十八人，論罪如律。煦還奏：「刨葠俱貧民，羈候按鞫，自春夏至九、十月，往往瘐斃。請歸盛京刑部及將軍、府尹，以時定讞。」上如所請，命嗣後停遣部院堂官按鞫。五年，擢兵部侍郎，兼署戶部。時諸部院每於員外增置佐正員治事，煦協理副都御史，又協辦禮部侍郎。八年，命直上書房，充明史總裁。九年，授禮部侍郎。旋以衰老奪官。十年，河東總督田文鏡劾煦長子孟基本邱氏子，冒姓，以官卷得鄉舉，下部議黜。乾隆元年，煦詣闕召見，命還原銜，復孟基舉人，賜其幼子季堂廕生。煦疾作，卒於京師，賚銀五百治喪，賜祭葬。

Hu Xu, whose style was Cangxiao, came from Guangshan in Henan. He first entered office as instructor of Anyang on the strength of his provincial graduate degree. He specialized in the Book of Changes and had written on the subject. In the fifty-first year of Kangxi he passed the metropolitan examination and, after Hanlin training, was appointed a reviser. The Kangxi Emperor, hearing that Hu was versed in the Changes, summoned him to audience at the Palace of Heavenly Purity and questioned him on the numerology of the He and Luo diagrams and on obscure points in the hexagram lines. Hu drew diagrams and lectured before the emperor, who praised him, saying: "Here is a man who has truly read with painstaking devotion." In the fifty-third year he was ordered to serve in the Southern Library. The emperor was then compiling the Balanced Meaning of the Book of Changes, with Grand Secretary Li Guangdi as chief editor, and Hu was ordered to assist in the compilation. He was soon ordered to serve at the Mengyang Studio and helped compile the Essential Storehouse of Divination. In the fifty-seventh year he was promoted to groom of the heir apparent and helped compile the Collected Meaning of Divination. He was transferred to vice minister of the Court of State Ceremonial. In the sixty-first year he was made vice minister of the Court of Imperial Entertainments and then promoted to minister of the Court of State Ceremonial. In the first year of Yongzheng he was promoted to grand secretary of the Grand Secretariat and ordered, with Vice Minister of Punishments Ma Jintai, to proceed to Mukden to try cases of illegal ginseng digging; one hundred fifty-eight prisoners were tried and sentenced according to law. On his return Hu memorialized: "The ginseng diggers were all poor people; held in custody pending trial from spring and summer through the ninth and tenth months, many died in prison from confinement. I ask that cases be returned to the Mukden Ministry of Punishments and to the general and prefectural governor so that verdicts may be decided in timely fashion." The emperor granted the request and ordered that thereafter ministry and court chiefs no longer be dispatched to conduct trials. In the fifth year he was promoted to vice minister of the Ministry of War and also served as acting vice minister of the Ministry of Revenue. At that time each ministry and court often added assistant regular officials below the rank of director to handle affairs; Hu served as acting vice censor-in-chief and also as acting vice minister of Rites. In the eighth year he was ordered to serve in the Upper Study and appointed chief editor of the History of the Ming. In the ninth year he was appointed vice minister of the Ministry of Rites. He was soon dismissed from office on account of advanced age. In the tenth year the Hedong governor-general Tian Wenjing impeached Hu's eldest son Mengji as actually a son of the Qiu clan who had taken the Hu surname and, using an official examination paper reserved for officials' sons, obtained provincial graduate rank; the case was referred to the ministries for deliberation and dismissal. In the first year of Qianlong Hu came to court for an audience; the emperor ordered his former rank restored, Mengji's provincial graduate status reinstated, and his younger son Jitang granted a yin privilege degree. Hu was stricken with illness and died in the capital; five hundred taels of silver were granted for his funeral, and he was granted state sacrifice and burial.

煦正直忠厚，所建白必歸本於教化。嘗奏：「請敕州縣歲舉孝子悌弟，督撫旌其門，免徭役，見長官如諸生。其有慈惠廉節，篤於交友，下逮僕婢，行有可稱，皆得申請獎勸，庶化行俗美，人知自愛。」又請敕州縣勸農桑，或別設農官以專其任。又言：「督撫於命、盜重案，每用'自行招認'四字，援以定罪。夫民姦黠者抵死不服，愚懦者畏刑自誣。請嗣後必證據確然，然後付法司閱實。一有不當，旋即駁正，庶得慎刑之意。」他所陳奏，如廣言路，裕積儲，汰浮糧，省冗官，平權量，多切於世務。乾隆間，高宗詔求遺書，徵煦著述。時季堂官江蘇按察使，以煦著周易函書進。五十九年，特命追諡，諡文良。季堂自有傳。

Hu was upright and loyal; every proposal he made was grounded in moral education and social reform. He once memorialized: "I ask that prefectures and counties each year recommend filial sons and obedient younger brothers; governors-general and governors honor their households, exempt them from corvée labor, and allow them to approach officials as students do. Those who show kindness, benevolence, integrity, and steadfast friendship, extending even to servants and maids, whose conduct is worthy of praise—all should be eligible to apply for rewards and encouragement, so that moral transformation may spread, customs improve, and people learn self-respect." He also asked that prefectures and counties be ordered to encourage farming and sericulture, or that separate agricultural officials be appointed to devote themselves to the task. He also said: "In homicide and robbery cases of grave weight, governors-general and governors often invoke the four words 'voluntarily confessed' as grounds for conviction. Among the people, the cunning and crafty will resist to the death rather than confess, while the foolish and timid, fearing punishment, falsely incriminate themselves. I ask that hereafter evidence must be conclusive before cases are sent to the judicial offices for verification. Whenever anything is improper, it should at once be rejected and corrected, so that the principle of cautious punishment may be upheld." His other memorials—on broadening channels of remonstrance, enriching grain reserves, eliminating inflated grain quotas, reducing superfluous officials, and standardizing weights and measures—were mostly pertinent to the affairs of the day. During the Qianlong reign, the emperor issued an edict seeking lost books and called for Hu Xu's writings. At that time his son Jitang was Jiangsu provincial judge and presented Hu's Comprehensive Book on the Book of Changes. In the fifty-ninth year he was specially granted a posthumous title: Wenliang, "Cultivated and Good." Jitang has his own biography.

魏廷珍，字君璧，直隸景州人。李光地督學，招入幕閱卷，旋以舉人薦直內廷，與王蘭生、梅成校樂律淵源。五十二年，成一甲三名進士，授編修。五十四年，遷侍講，直南書房。五十六年，轉侍讀。五十九年，轉擢詹事，復遷內閣學士。六十一年，命領兩淮鹽政。

Wei Tingzhen, whose style was Junbi, came from Jingzhou in Zhili. When Li Guangdi supervised education he recruited Wei into his staff to grade examination papers; soon, as a provincial graduate, Wei was recommended for service in the inner court and, with Wang Lansheng and Mei Cheng, collated the Origins of Pitch Pipes and Musical Regulation. In the fifty-second year he placed third in the first class of metropolitan graduates and was appointed a compiler. In the fifty-fourth year he was promoted to expositor and served in the Southern Library. In the fifty-sixth year he was transferred to reader. In the fifty-ninth year he was promoted to tutor of the heir apparent and then transferred to grand secretary of the Grand Secretariat. In the sixty-first year he was ordered to head the Lianghuai salt administration.

雍正元年，授偏沅巡撫。世宗諭曰：「爾清正和平，但不肯任勞怨。今為巡撫，宜剛果嚴厲，不宜因循退縮。」二年，以辰谿諸生黃先文故殺人，讞鬥殺擬絞，遇赦請免；會同民譚子壽等因姦斃三命，擬斬候，皆失出；又以撥綠旗兵餉未具題：部議降調。上諭：「廷珍學問操守勝人，乃料理刑名錢穀，非過則不及。」召回京，授盛京工部侍郎。三年，授安徽巡撫，又以按治涇縣吏王時瑞等假印徵賦，寬徇，為部駁，上戒其毋姑息。廷珍疏言：「清釐錢糧，官吏侵蝕，往往匿民欠中，不易清察。請視民欠多少，多限一年，少限半年，分別詳察。官吏侵蝕，循例責償，如實欠在民，督徵催解，州縣有逋賦，繼任受代，許以時察報。」詔如所請行。嗣以清察限促，敕部更定。廣東總督孔毓珣入對，言道經宿州靈壁，積潦妨稼，上責廷珍怠玩，令出俸疏濬。廷珍乞內補，上不許。八年，調湖北。九年，召回京，授禮部尚書。十年，授漕運總督，署兩江總督。十二年，授兵部尚書。十三年，仍調禮部。

In the first year of Yongzheng he was appointed governor of Bianyuan. The Yongzheng Emperor instructed him: "You are upright and fair-minded, but unwilling to bear hardship and blame. Now that you are a governor, you should be firm, resolute, and stern; you must not be lax or shrink from your duties." In the second year, in the case of the Chenxi student Huang Xianwen, who had killed someone in a quarrel, the verdict proposed strangulation after commutation for brawling and requested exemption under an amnesty; in the joint case of the commoner Tan Zishou and others, who on account of adultery took three lives and were sentenced to decapitation after the autumn assizes—all were erroneous releases of judgment; also because the allocation of Green Banner troop pay had not been formally memorialized—the ministry deliberated demotion and transfer. The emperor instructed: "Wei Tingzhen surpasses others in learning and integrity, yet in handling legal cases and fiscal accounts he is either excessive or deficient." He was recalled to the capital and appointed vice minister of the Ministry of Works at Mukden. In the third year he was appointed governor of Anhui; again, in trying the Jing county clerks Wang Shirui and others for levying taxes with forged seals, he was lenient and indulgent; the ministry rejected his handling of the case, and the emperor admonished him not to be indulgent. Wei Tingzhen memorialized: "In clearing land tax and grain accounts, when officials embezzle they often conceal their theft within popular arrears, which is difficult to investigate. I ask that according to the amount of popular arrears, a limit of one year be set where they are large and half a year where they are small, with detailed investigation in each case. Where officials have embezzled, compensation should be required according to regulation; where arrears truly rest with the people, collection should be supervised and urged; where prefectures and counties have delinquent taxes, successors taking office may be allowed to investigate and report in timely fashion." An edict ordered that it be carried out as requested. Later, because the clearance deadline was too short, the emperor ordered the ministry to revise it. When Guangdong governor-general Kong Yuxun came to audience, he reported that on the road through Lingbi in Suzhou prefecture, accumulated floodwater was harming the crops; the emperor blamed Wei Tingzhen for negligence and ordered him to pay for dredging from his official salary. Wei Tingzhen petitioned for a post in the interior, but the emperor refused. In the eighth year he was transferred to Hubei. In the ninth year he was recalled to the capital and appointed minister of rites. In the tenth year he was appointed grain-transport governor-general and served concurrently as acting governor-general of the two Jiangs. In the twelfth year he was appointed minister of war. In the thirteenth year he was again transferred to the ministry of rites.

高宗即位，命以尚書銜守護泰陵。乾隆三年，授左都御史。四年，遷工部尚書。五年，以老病乞休。上以：「廷珍在世宗朝服官中外，不克舉其職，屢奉申誡，今以老病乞休，似此因循懈怠、持祿保身之習，斷不可長。」命奪官。時方苦旱，太常寺卿陶正靖謝上入對，上問：「今苦旱，用人行政或有闕失，宜直言。」正靖因奏：「廷珍負清望，無大過。近日放還，天語峻厲，非所以優老臣。」上霽顏聽之。後數日，上以語禮部尚書任蘭枝，蘭枝言正靖其門生也。上知蘭枝與廷珍為同年進士，因不懌，諭：「朝臣師友門生援引標榜，其端不可開。」命蘭枝書上諭戒正靖，蘭枝書上諭，言：「上問正靖，知為蘭枝門生。」上詰蘭枝，蘭枝對「年老耳聾，一時誤聽。」上愈怒，責蘭枝詐偽，對稱「老」，以舊臣自居，下吏議，蘭枝、正靖皆奪官。上命留蘭枝，正靖降調。

When Emperor Gaozong took the throne, he was ordered to guard the Tailing mausoleum with ministerial rank. In the third year of Qianlong he was appointed left censor-in-chief. In the fourth year he was transferred to minister of works. In the fifth year he petitioned to retire on grounds of age and illness. The emperor said: "Wei Tingzhen held office at home and abroad under the Yongzheng Emperor yet failed to perform his duties and was repeatedly admonished; now he seeks retirement on grounds of age and illness. Habits of procrastination, slackness, and clinging to office merely to keep one's salary must never be allowed to spread." He ordered him stripped of office. At that time the land was in severe drought. Tao Zhengjing, grand secretary of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, thanked the emperor and came to audience. The emperor asked: "The drought is bitter; in appointing men and governing there may be failings. Speak plainly." Zhengjing thereupon memorialized: "Wei Tingzhen enjoys a reputation for integrity and has committed no grave offense. He was recently dismissed, and the imperial words were stern and severe—that is not how an aged minister should be treated with favor." The emperor's countenance cleared and he listened. Several days later the emperor mentioned the matter to Ren Lanzhi, minister of rites; Lanzhi said that Zhengjing was his disciple. The emperor knew that Lanzhi and Wei Tingzhen had been fellow graduates of the same year and was displeased. He instructed: "For court ministers to invoke mentors, friends, disciples, and patronage labels—this door must not be opened." He ordered Lanzhi to write out the imperial instruction as a warning to Zhengjing. In what Lanzhi wrote of the instruction he said: "When the emperor inquired about Zhengjing, he learned that he was Lanzhi's disciple." The emperor interrogated Lanzhi; Lanzhi replied, "I am old and deaf and misheard for a moment." The emperor grew still angrier, rebuked Lanzhi for deceit, and because in his reply he styled himself "old" and put himself forward as a veteran minister, referred the case to the judicial officers for deliberation; both Lanzhi and Zhengjing were stripped of office. The emperor ordered Lanzhi retained in office; Zhengjing was demoted and transferred.

十三年，上東巡，過景州，廷珍迎謁，命還原銜，賜以詩，有句曰：「皇祖栽培士，於今賸幾人？」並書「林泉耆碩」榜賚之。十六年，又賜詩，予其子錫麟廕生。二十一年，復東巡，廷珍迎謁，年已將九十，又賜詩，予錫麟員外郎銜。尋卒，賜祭葬，諡文簡。

In the thirteenth year the emperor toured east and passed Jingzhou; Wei Tingzhen came out to meet him and was ordered restored to his original rank. The emperor granted him a poem with a line: "Scholars nurtured by the imperial grandfather—how many remain today?" He also wrote and bestowed a plaque reading "Esteemed Elder of Forest and Spring." In the sixteenth year he was again granted a poem, and his son Xilin was given the status of hereditary licentiate. In the twenty-first year, on another eastern tour, Wei Tingzhen came to meet him; he was nearly ninety. The emperor again granted a poem and gave Xilin the rank of vice director. Soon afterward he died; imperial sacrifices and funeral rites were granted, and his posthumous title was Wenjian.

任蘭枝，字香谷，江蘇溧陽人。康熙五十二年一甲二名進士，授編修。雍正元年，命直南書房。累遷內閣學士。五年，與安南定界，偕左副都御史杭奕祿齎詔宣諭，語詳杭奕祿傳。使還，遷兵部侍郎。命如江西按南昌總兵陳玉章侵餉。調吏部。高宗即位，命充世宗實錄總裁。擢禮部尚書，歷戶、兵、工部，復調禮部。十年，以老致仕。十一年，卒。

Ren Lanzhi, style Xianggu, was a native of Liyang in Jiangsu. In the fifty-second year of Kangxi he placed second in the first rank of metropolitan graduates and was appointed a reviser. In the first year of Yongzheng he was ordered to serve in the Southern Studio. He was promoted repeatedly to grand secretary of the Grand Secretariat. In the fifth year, when the boundary with Annan was fixed, he went with left vice censor-in-chief Hang Yilu bearing an edict to proclaim it; the details are given in Hang Yilu's biography. On his return from the mission he was transferred to vice minister of war. He was ordered to Jiangxi to investigate Nanchang commander-in-chief Chen Yuzhang for embezzling troop pay. He was transferred to the ministry of personnel. When Emperor Gaozong took the throne, he was ordered to serve as chief compiler of the Veritable Records of the Yongzheng Emperor. He was promoted to minister of rites, served in the ministries of revenue, war, and works, and was again transferred to the ministry of rites. In the tenth year he retired on grounds of age. In the eleventh year he died.

蔡世遠，字聞之，福建漳浦人。父璧，拔貢生，官羅源訓導，有學行，巡撫張伯行延主鼇峰書院，招世遠入使院校訂先儒遺書。

Cai Shiyuan, style Wenzhi, was a native of Zhangpu in Fujian. His father Bi was a selected tribute graduate who served as instructor of Luoyuan and was known for learning and integrity. Governor Zhang Boxing invited him to head the Aofeng Academy and brought Shiyuan into the school to collate surviving works of earlier Confucians.

世遠，康熙四十八年進士，改庶吉士。大學士李光地以宋五子之書倡後進，得世遠，深器之。四十九年，乞假省親。五十年，遭父喪，服除，赴京師。以假逾期，於例當休致，世遠不欲以父喪自列。會上命纂性理精義，光地充總裁，薦世遠分修，書成，世遠不欲以編輯敘勞，辭歸。巡撫呂猶龍延主鼇峰書院，以正學教士。居久之，雍正元年，特召授編修，直上書房，侍諸皇子讀。尋遷侍講。四年，遷右庶子，再遷侍講學士。五年，遷少詹事，再遷內閣學士。六年，遷禮部侍郎。

Shiyuan passed the metropolitan examination in the forty-eighth year of Kangxi and became a Hanlin bachelor. Grand Secretary Li Guangdi used the books of the Five Song Masters to guide later generations; when he obtained Shiyuan, he valued him deeply. In the forty-ninth year he begged leave to visit his parents. In the fiftieth year his father died; when mourning ended he went to the capital. Because his leave had exceeded the permitted term, by regulation he should have retired; Shiyuan did not wish to plead his father's death as an excuse. It happened that the emperor ordered the compilation of Essentials of Nature and Principle; Li Guangdi served as chief compiler and recommended Shiyuan to share in the work. When the book was finished Shiyuan did not wish to claim reward for editing and returned home. Governor Lü Youlong invited him to head the Aofeng Academy and teach scholars orthodox learning. After residing there for a long time, in the first year of Yongzheng he was specially summoned and appointed reviser, entered the Upper Study, and attended the princes in their studies. Soon he was transferred to expositor. In the fourth year he was transferred to right vice grand tutor of the heir apparent, then again to expositor-in-waiting. In the fifth year he was transferred to junior tutor of the heir apparent, then again to grand secretary of the Grand Secretariat. In the sixth year he was transferred to vice minister of rites.

七年，上將設福建觀風整俗使，諮世遠，命與同籍京朝官議之。僉謂：「福建自海疆平定後，泉、漳將吏因功驟擢通顯，子弟驕悍，無所懍畏。皇上飭官方，興民俗，上年學政程元章奏以泉、漳風俗未醇，責成巡道整飭，自此益加儆戒。但人有賢愚，士或鄙劣薄行，民又多因怒互爭，未必洗心滌慮。應請設觀風整俗使，防範化導，於風俗人心有益。」得旨允行。八年，福建總督高其倬劾世遠長子長漢違例私給船照，上以疏示世遠。世遠奏言：「臣子長漢現在京邸。此所給照，不知何人所為。但有臣官銜圖書，非臣族姓，即臣戚屬，請敕鞫治。」部議坐失察，降調。十年，特旨復原職。十二年，卒。

In the seventh year the emperor was about to establish a Fujian commissioner for observing customs and reforming the vulgar; he consulted Shiyuan and ordered him to deliberate with fellow-provincials among capital officials. All said: "Since Fujian's maritime frontier was pacified, officers of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou were swiftly promoted to high rank for their achievements; their sons and younger brothers grew arrogant and fierce and feared nothing. The emperor has admonished officials and revived folk customs. Last year educational commissioner Cheng Yuanzhang memorialized that the customs of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou were not yet pure and charged touring commissioners with rectification; since then vigilance has increased. Yet men differ in worth and folly; some scholars are base and of poor conduct; the people moreover often quarrel in anger and have not necessarily cleansed their hearts and minds. We should request the establishment of a commissioner to observe customs and reform the vulgar, to guard, transform, and guide the people—beneficial to customs and to the human heart." The imperial response approved implementation. In the eighth year Fujian governor-general Gao Qishen memorialized that Shiyuan's eldest son Changhan had violated regulations by privately issuing boat permits; the emperor showed him the memorial. Shiyuan memorialized: "This subject's son Changhan is presently at the capital residence. As for the permit in question, I do not know who issued it. But if it bears this subject's official seal and documents, whether the offender is of my clan or my affines, I beg that he be ordered tried and punished." The ministry found him guilty of failure to supervise and demoted him. In the tenth year a special edict restored him to his former post. In the twelfth year he died.

世遠侍諸皇子讀，講四子、五經及宋五子書，必引而近之，發言處事，所宜設誠而致行者；於諸史及他載籍，則即興亡治亂，君子小人消長，心跡異同，反覆陳列。十餘年來，寒暑無或間。十三年，高宗即位，贈禮部尚書，諡文勤。所著二希堂集，御製序弁首。「二希」者，謂功業不敢望諸葛武侯，庶幾范希文；道德不敢望硃子，庶幾真希元。上製懷舊詩，稱為聞之蔡先生。六十年，上將歸政，釋奠於先師，禮成，推恩舊學，加贈太傅。

Shiyuan attended the princes in their studies, lecturing on the Four Books, the Five Classics, and the books of the Five Song Masters. He always drew the lessons close at hand—what sincerity to establish and what conduct to practice in speech and action; in the various histories and other records he would take up rise and fall, order and disorder, the waxing and waning of gentlemen and petty men, the divergence of heart and outward conduct, and set them forth again and again. For more than ten years, through cold and heat alike, he never slackened. In the thirteenth year, when Emperor Gaozong took the throne, he was posthumously made minister of rites; his posthumous title was Wenqin. His collected works, Studio of Two Hopes, bore an imperial preface at the head. "Two Hopes" meant that in achievement he dared not aspire to Martial Marquis Zhuge, but hoped to approximate Fan Xiwen; in moral cultivation he dared not aspire to Master Zhu, but hoped to approximate True Hope Yuan. The emperor composed a nostalgic poem in which he called him Teacher Cai Wenzhi. In the sixtieth year, as the emperor was about to abdicate, he performed the sacrifice to the sage-teacher; when the rites were completed he extended grace to his former teachers and posthumously added the title Grand Tutor.

子長澐，諸生。乾隆三年，以學行兼優薦，發江南以知縣用。歷甘泉、石埭、句容、無錫諸縣。兩江總督德沛稱其廉明，再遷江寧知府。調廬州、松江諸府，遷四川按察使。二十七年，特擢兵部侍郎。逾年，卒。上屢念世遠舊勞，推恩其諸子，觀瀾、長汭及孫本崇皆賜舉人。

His son Changyun was a licentiate. In the third year of Qianlong he was recommended for excellence in both learning and conduct and sent to Jiangnan for appointment as magistrate. He served as magistrate of Ganquan, Shidai, Jurong, and Wuxi. Two Jiangs governor-general De Pei praised his integrity and clarity, and he was promoted again to prefect of Jiangning. He was transferred to the prefectures of Luzhou and Songjiang and was promoted to judicial commissioner of Sichuan. In the twenty-seventh year he was specially promoted to vice minister of war. The following year he died. The emperor often recalled Shiyuan's old service and extended grace to his sons; Guanlan, Changrui, and his grandson Benchong were all granted licentiate status.

沈近思，字位山，浙江錢塘人。康熙三十九年進士。四十五年，授河南臨潁知縣。潁水經許州東入臨潁，許州孔家口下距臨潁境僅百餘步，堤屢圮，水入臨潁，害禾稼。近思請築堤，臨潁任夫十之七，士民爭輸穀。日役千三百人，人穀二升，二十日而堤成。水至不為患，歲大熟。近思立紫陽書院，教士以正學。縣西葛岡村俗最惡，近思為置塾，課村童，立書程簿，躬教督之。化行於其鄉，俗日馴。五十二年，巡撫鹿祐薦卓異，遷廣西南寧同知。病，告歸。

Shen Jinsi, style Weishan, was a native of Qiantang in Zhejiang. He passed the metropolitan examination in the thirty-ninth year of Kangxi. In the forty-fifth year he was appointed magistrate of Linying in Henan. The Ying River passes east of Xuzhou into Linying; below Kongjiakou in Xuzhou to the Linying border is only a little over a hundred paces. The dikes repeatedly collapsed, water entered Linying, and harmed the grain crops. Jinsi requested that a dike be built; Linying supplied seven-tenths of the laborers, and gentry and commoners vied to contribute grain. Thirteen hundred men labored each day, each receiving two sheng of grain; in twenty days the dike was completed. When the water came it did no harm, and the year brought a great harvest. Jinsi founded the Ziyang Academy and taught scholars orthodox learning. West of the county, Gegang village had the worst customs; Jinsi set up a school there, taught village boys, established reading schedules, and personally taught and supervised them. Transformation spread through his township, and customs daily grew tame. In the fifty-second year Governor Lu You recommended him as outstanding, and he was transferred to sub-prefect of Nanning in Guangxi. He fell ill and requested leave to return home.

五十九年，以浙江巡撫硃軾薦，敕部調取引見，命監督本裕倉。浙江福建總督滿保奏請以知府揀發福建，檄署台灣知府。近思議析置數縣，道鎮彈壓，府治駐兵三千，分佈營汛，收材勇入行伍，嚴加操練，以漸移充內地各標。流民至者，必審籍貫、稽家口，方授以田土，否則悉驅過洋。議未即行，雍正元年，召授吏部文選司郎中，賜第，賚帑金四百。尋授太僕寺卿，仍兼領文選司事。二年，超授吏部侍郎，命與尚書阿爾松阿如河南按治諸生王遜等糾眾罷考，論如律。

In the fifty-ninth year, on the recommendation of Zhejiang governor Zhu E, the emperor ordered the ministry to summon him for audience and appointed him to supervise the Benyu granary. Zhejiang-Fujian governor-general Manbao memorialized requesting that he be selected and sent to Fujian as prefect; he was ordered to serve as acting prefect of Taiwan. Jinsi proposed dividing the region into several counties, with circuit and garrison forces to suppress disorder, three thousand troops stationed at the prefectural seat, distributed camps and posts, recruiting able men into the ranks with strict drill, and gradually transferring them to fill the banners of the interior. When migrant people arrived, their native place and household registers had to be verified before they were granted land; otherwise they were all driven across the sea. The proposal was not immediately implemented. In the first year of Yongzheng he was summoned and appointed director of the Ministry of Personnel's selection bureau; he was granted a residence and four hundred taels of silver. Soon afterward he was appointed vice minister of the Court of the Imperial Stud while still concurrently directing the Ministry of Personnel's selection bureau. In the second year he was promoted out of turn to vice minister of personnel and ordered, together with Minister Arsanga, to proceed to Henan and investigate the licentiates Wang Xun and others who had rallied crowds to boycott the examination; they were sentenced according to law.

四年，充江南鄉試考官。例以鄉試錄進呈，上嘉近思命題正大，策問發揮性理，諭獎之。時侍郎查嗣庭、舉人汪景祺以誹謗獲罪，停浙江人鄉會試。近思疏言：「浙省乃有如嗣庭、景祺者，越水增羞，吳山蒙恥！」因條列整飭風俗，約束士子，凡十事。上曰：「浙省有近思，不為習俗所移，足為越水、吳山洗其羞恥！」所陳委曲詳盡，下巡撫李衛、觀風整俗使王國棟，如議施行。五年，擢左都御史，仍兼領吏部事。卒，命平郡王福彭往奠，加禮部尚書、太子少傅。以其子方幼，令吏部遣司官為治喪，賜祭葬，諡端恪。

In the fourth year he served as an examiner for the Jiangnan provincial examination. As was customary, the provincial examination record was submitted to the throne. The emperor praised Jinsi's examination topics as upright and substantial and his policy questions for their development of Neo-Confucian principle, and issued a commendation. At that time Vice Minister Zha Siting and licentiate Wang Jingqi were convicted of slander, and the provincial and metropolitan examinations for candidates from Zhejiang were suspended. Jinsi memorialized: "In Zhejiang there are men like Siting and Jingqi — the waters of Yue are shamed anew, and Mount Wu is disgraced!" He went on to set forth ten measures for rectifying local customs and restraining the scholar class. The emperor said: "Zhejiang has Jinsi, who is not swayed by local custom — enough to wash away the shame of the Yue waters and Mount Wu!" What he presented was thorough and detailed in every respect; the memorial was sent down to Governor Li Wei and the envoy for observing customs and rectifying morals Wang Guodong to carry out as proposed. In the fifth year he was promoted to censor-in-chief of the left while still concurrently directing the Ministry of Personnel. When he died, Prince Ping Fu Peng was ordered to perform the funeral rites, and Jinsi was posthumously granted the ranks of minister of rites and junior tutor to the heir apparent. Because his son was still young, the Ministry of Personnel was ordered to dispatch an official to manage the funeral; he was granted state sacrificial and burial honors and given the posthumous title Duankhe (Sincere and Respectful).

近思少孤貧，為僧靈隱寺。世宗通佛理，嘗以問近思，近思對曰：「臣少年潦倒時，嘗逃於此。幸得通籍，方留心經世事以報國家。亦知皇上聖明天縱，早悟大乘，然萬幾為重，臣原皇上為堯、舜，不原皇上為釋迦。即有所記，安敢妄言以分睿慮？」上為改容。及耗羨歸公議起，上意在必行，近思獨爭之，言：「耗羨歸公，即為正項，今日正項之外加正項，他日必至耗羨之外加耗羨。臣嘗為縣令，故知其必不可行。」上一再詰之，近思陳對侃侃，雖終不用其言，亦不以為忤也。

Jinsi was orphaned and poor as a youth and became a monk at Lingyin Temple. The Yongzheng Emperor was versed in Buddhist doctrine and once questioned Jinsi about it. Jinsi replied: "When I was destitute in my youth, I once took refuge here. Fortunately I gained a place on the registers of office; only then did I turn my mind to public affairs to repay the state. I also know that Your Majesty is sagely and heaven-endowed, and that you awakened early to the Great Vehicle; yet the myriad affairs of state are weighty. Your servant wishes Your Majesty to be Yao or Shun — not wishes Your Majesty to be Shakyamuni. Even if I retain some recollection, how would I dare speak recklessly and divide Your sagely attention?" The emperor's manner changed at once. When the proposal to return meltage surplus to the public treasury arose, the emperor was resolved to implement it, but Jinsi alone opposed it, saying: "Once meltage is returned to the public account it becomes a regular levy. Today you add a regular levy on top of regular levies; tomorrow you will inevitably add meltage on top of meltage. Your servant once served as a county magistrate, and therefore knows it cannot possibly work." The emperor pressed him again and again, but Jinsi answered with calm and fluent argument. Though his counsel was ultimately not adopted, the emperor did not take it as insubordination.

子玉璉，世宗命地方官加意撫養成立。乾隆中，授廣西桂林同知。

His son Yu Lian was ordered by the Yongzheng Emperor to be carefully nurtured to maturity by local officials. During the Qianlong reign he was appointed sub-prefect of Guilin in Guangxi.

雷鋐，字貫一，福建寧化人。為諸生，究心性理。庶吉士蔡世遠主鼇峰書院，從問學。雍正元年，舉於鄉。世遠時為侍郎，薦授國子監學正。十一年，成進士，改庶吉士，乞假歸。十三年，高宗即位，召來京，命直上書房。乾隆元年，散館，以病未入試，特授編修。二年，大考二等一名，賜筆、墨、硯、葛紗。同直編修餘棟以憂歸，端慧皇太子喪，入臨，上欲留之。鋐疏言：「侍學之臣，當明大義，篤人倫。使棟講書至'宰我問三年喪'，何以出諸口？」楊名時亦諍之，事遂寢。四年，遷諭德。尋以父憂歸。九年，召來京，仍直上書房，賞額外諭德食俸。

Lei Hong, style name Guanyi, was a native of Ninghua in Fujian. As a student he devoted himself to the Neo-Confucian study of mind, nature, and principle. Hanlin bachelor Cai Shiyuan directed Aofeng Academy, and Hong pursued his studies there. In the first year of Yongzheng he passed the provincial examination. Shiyuan was then a vice minister; he recommended Hong, who was appointed rectifier of studies at the Imperial Academy. In the eleventh year he passed the metropolitan examination, entered the Hanlin as a bachelor, and requested leave to return home. In the thirteenth year, when the Gaozong Emperor ascended the throne, Hong was summoned to the capital and ordered to serve directly in the Eastern Palace study. In the first year of Qianlong, when he left the Hanlin probationary period, illness kept him from taking the examination; he was specially granted the post of compiler. In the second year he placed first in the second class of the great examination and was granted a brush, ink, inkstone, and gauze. His fellow attendant compiler Yu Dong had returned home for mourning. When the Duanhui Crown Prince died, Dong came to the capital to attend the mourning, and the emperor wished to keep him from leaving. Hong memorialized: "A minister who attends the heir in study ought to clarify great principle and be steadfast in human relations. If Dong were to lecture on the passage in which Zai Wo questions the three-year mourning — how could such words come from his mouth?" Yang Mingshi also remonstrated, and the matter was dropped. In the fourth year he was transferred to preceptor. Soon afterward he returned home to observe mourning for his father. In the ninth year he was summoned to the capital, continued to serve directly in the Eastern Palace study, and was granted an additional preceptor's salary.

十年，三遷通政使。上以言事者多沽直名，自規便利，詔訓飭。鋐疏言：「皇上裁成激勸，俾以古純臣為法，意至深厚。然臺諫所得者名，政事所得者實。論臣子之分，不惟不可計利，並不可好名；而在朝廷樂聞讜言，不必疑其好名，並不必疑其計利。孔子稱舜大知曰隱惡揚善，則知當時進言者不皆有善無惡，惟舜隱之揚之，所以嘉言罔攸伏，成執兩用中之治。」得旨嘉獎。十四年，乞假省母。十五年，還京，命督浙江學政。十六年，上南巡，賜以詩，謂：「浙江近福建，為汝便養母也。」尋調江蘇。十八年，擢左副都御史，仍留督學。復調浙江。杭州、嘉興災，致書巡撫週人驥議蠲賑。人驥以時已隆冬，例不得補報，難之。鋐遂疏聞，上命蠲賑。二十一年，乞養母歸。二十二年，上南巡，鋐迎謁，上書榜賜其母。二十四年，丁母憂。二十五年，鋐未終喪，卒，年六十四。

In the tenth year he was promoted three ranks in succession to commissioner of the transmission office. Because many who spoke on policy were trading on a reputation for integrity while pursuing their own advantage, the emperor issued an edict of admonition. Hong memorialized: "Your Majesty shapes and exhorts us, setting the pure ministers of antiquity as our model — your intent is profoundly deep. Yet what the censorate gains is reputation, while what government gains is substance. Speaking of a minister's duty, one must not only refrain from calculating profit but also refrain from coveting fame; yet at court one should gladly hear honest counsel — there is no need to suspect speakers of coveting fame, and no need to suspect them of calculating profit. Confucius praised Shun's great wisdom in the words 'concealing evil and proclaiming good' — from which we know that those who offered counsel in his day were not all without fault; it was Shun alone who concealed their faults and proclaimed their virtues. Thus good words had nowhere to remain hidden, and he achieved a rule that held both extremes and used the mean." He received an edict of commendation. In the fourteenth year he requested leave to visit his mother. In the fifteenth year he returned to the capital and was ordered to supervise educational administration in Zhejiang. In the sixteenth year, during the emperor's southern tour, he bestowed a poem on Hong, saying: "Zhejiang is close to Fujian — I have assigned you there for your convenience in supporting your mother." He was soon transferred to Jiangsu. In the eighteenth year he was promoted to vice censor-in-chief of the left while remaining education commissioner. He was again transferred to Zhejiang. When Hangzhou and Jiaxing suffered disaster, he wrote to Governor Zhou Renji to discuss tax remission and famine relief. Renji objected that it was already deep winter and that regulations did not permit supplementary reporting. Hong then memorialized the throne directly, and the emperor ordered tax remission and famine relief. In the twenty-first year he requested leave to return home and support his mother. In the twenty-second year, during the emperor's southern tour, Hong went out to meet and pay his respects; the emperor wrote an inscribed plaque and bestowed it on Hong's mother. In the twenty-fourth year he entered mourning for his mother. In the twenty-fifth year Hong died before his mourning period had ended; he was sixty-four.

鋐和易誠篤，論學宗程、朱。督學政，以小學及陸隴其年譜教士。與方苞友，為文簡約沖夷得體要。

Hong was affable, sincere, and steadfast; in scholarship he followed the Cheng–Zhu school. As education commissioner he instructed scholars with the Elementary Learning and Lu Longqi's chronological biography. He was friends with Fang Bao; his prose was concise, restrained, and serene, and it grasped the essentials.

論曰：聖祖以硃子之學倡天下，命大學士李光地參訂性理諸書，承學之士，聞而興起。苞與光地誼在師友間，名時、蘭生、廷珍、世遠皆出光地門。煦亦佐光地修書，得受裁成於聖祖。叔琳，苞友，鋐又出世遠門，淵源有自。獨近思未與光地等遊，而學術亦無異，雍正初，與世遠、苞先後蒙特擢。壽考作人，成一時之盛，聖祖之澤遠矣。

The historian comments: The Kangxi Emperor promoted Zhu Xi's learning throughout the realm and ordered Grand Secretary Li Guangdi to revise the books on principle and nature; scholars who inherited the tradition heard the call and rose to answer it. Fang Bao and Li Guangdi stood in a relationship between teacher and friend; Yang Mingshi, Wang Lansheng, Wei Tingzhen, and Cai Shiyuan all came from Guangdi's school. Hu Xu also assisted Guangdi in compiling books and received shaping instruction from the Kangxi Emperor. Huang Shulin was Fang Bao's friend, and Lei Hong in turn came from Cai Shiyuan's school — their intellectual lineage had clear roots. Only Shen Jinsi had not moved in the same circles as Guangdi and the others, yet his learning was of the same kind; at the beginning of the Yongzheng reign he, together with Cai Shiyuan and Fang Bao, was in turn singled out for special promotion by the throne. They brought longevity and nurtured talent, achieving the brilliance of an age — the Kangxi Emperor's beneficence had indeed extended far.

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