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列傳二百七十一
Biographies 271
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文苑一
Literary Figures 1
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魏禧侯方域申涵光吳嘉紀錢謙益吳偉業宋琬施閏章王士祿陳恭尹馮班胡承諾阿什垣汪琬計東彭孫遹朱彝尊尤侗陳維崧潘耒徐嘉炎萬斯同劉獻廷邵遠平喬萊陸葇龐塏陸圻孫枝蔚丁煒黃與堅吳雯梅清馮景姜宸英性德文昭趙執信黃儀查慎行史申義顧陳垿何焯戴名世
Wei Xi, Hou Fangyu, Shen Hanguang, Wu Jiaji, Qian Qianyi, Wu Weiye, Song Wan, Shi Runzhang, Wang Shilu, Chen Gongyin, Feng Ban, Hu Chengnuo, A Shen Yuan, Wang Wan, Ji Dong, Peng Sunyu, Zhu Yizun, You Dong, Chen Weisong, Pan Lei, Xu Jiayan, Wan Sitong, Liu Xianting, Shao Yuanping, Qiao Lai, Lu Rou, Pang Kai, Lu Qi, Sun Zhiwei, Ding Wei, Huang Yujian, Wu Wen, Mei Qing, Feng Jing, Jiang Chenying, Xingde, Wenzhao, Zhao Zhixin, Huang Yi, Cha Shenxing, Shi Shenyi, Gu Chenxu, He Chao, and Dai Mingshi
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清代學術，超漢越宋。 論者至欲特立「清學」之名，而文學並重，亦足於漢、唐、宋、明以外別樹一宗，嗚呼盛已！ 明末文衰甚矣！ 清運既興，文氣亦隨之而一振。 謙益歸命，以詩文雄於時，足負起衰之責； 而魏、侯、申、吳，山林遺逸，隱與推移，亦開風氣之先。 康、乾盛治，文教大昌。 聖主賢臣，莫不以提倡文化為己任。 師儒崛起，尤盛一時。 自王、朱以及方、惲，各擅其勝。 文運盛衰，實通世運。 此當舉其全體，若必執一人一地言之，轉失之隘，豈定論哉？ 道、咸多故，文體日變。 龔、魏之徒，乘時立說。 同治中興，文風又起。 曾國籓立言有體，濟以德功，實集其大成。 光、宣以後，支離龐雜，不足言文久矣。 茲為文苑傳，但取詩文有各能自成家者，彙為一編，以著有清一代文學之盛。 派別異同，皆置勿論。 其已見大臣及儒林各傳者，則不復著焉。
Qing scholarship surpassed that of the Han and exceeded that of the Song. Some scholars went so far as to propose a distinct label of "Qing Learning," and with literature held in equal regard, Qing culture could well stand as a separate tradition alongside those of the Han, Tang, Song, and Ming—what an age of brilliance! By the late Ming, letters had fallen into deep decline! When the Qing dynasty rose, the literary spirit revived in turn. Qian Qianyi submitted to the new regime and towered over his age in poetry and prose, bearing the burden of reviving a fallen literary tradition; while Wei Xi, Hou Fangyu, Shen Hanguang, and Wu Jiaji, recluses dwelling in the hills, quietly moved with the changing times and helped open the new literary climate. Under the prosperous reigns of Kangxi and Qianlong, culture and learning flourished as never before. Sage emperors and capable ministers alike made the advancement of culture their personal charge. Men of letters and learning rose in great numbers, reaching a peak unrivaled in their day. From Wang Shilu and Zhu Yizun to Fang Bao and Yun Jing, each mastered his own field of excellence. The fortunes of literature rise and fall in step with those of the dynasty itself. Such matters must be judged as a whole; to fix on one figure or one region alone is to take too narrow a view—how could that be a final verdict? During the Daoguang and Xianfeng reigns, amid constant upheaval, literary styles changed by the day. Figures such as Gong Zizhen and Wei Yuan seized the moment to advance new doctrines. With the Tongzhi revival, literary culture flourished once more. Zeng Guofan wrote with disciplined form and backed his words with moral stature and practical achievement, bringing the tradition to its fullest expression. After the Guangxu and Xuantong reigns, letters grew fragmented and chaotic, and have scarcely deserved the name of literature for some time. This Literary Figures chapter selects only those poets and prose writers who each established a distinctive voice of their own, gathering them in one volume to show the brilliance of Qing letters. Questions of literary faction and affiliation are deliberately left aside. Those already treated in the biographies of eminent officials and Confucian scholars are not included again here.
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魏禧，字冰叔，寧都人。 父兆鳳，諸生。 明亡，號哭不食，翦發為頭陀，隱居翠微峰。 是冬，筮離之乾，遂名其堂為易堂。 旋卒。
Wei Xi, courtesy name Bingshu, was a native of Ningdu. His father Zhao Feng was a licentiate. When the Ming fell, he wailed and refused to eat, shaved his head to become a Buddhist mendicant, and withdrew to Cuiwei Peak. That winter, having divined the hexagram Li changing into Qian, he named his hall the Hall of Change. He died shortly afterward.
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禧兒時嗜古，論史斬斬見識議。 年十一，補縣學生。 與兄際瑞、弟禮，及南昌彭士望、林時益，同邑李騰蛟、邱維屏、彭任、曾燦等九人為易堂學。 皆躬耕自食，切劘讀書，「三魏」之名遍海內。 禧束身砥行，才學尤高。 門前有池，顏其居曰勺庭，學者稱勺庭先生。 為人形幹修頎，目光射人。 少善病，參術不去口。 性仁厚，寬以接物，不記人過。 與人以誠，雖見欺，怡如也。 然多奇氣，論事每縱橫排奡，倒注不窮。 事會盤錯，指畫灼有經緯。 思患豫防，見幾於蚤，懸策而後驗者十嘗八九。 流賊起，承平久，人不知兵，且謂寇遠猝難及。 禧獨憂之，移家山中。 山距城四十里，四面削起百餘丈。 中徑坼，自山根至頂若斧劈然。 緣坼鑿磴道梯而登，因置閘為守望。 士友稍稍依之。 後數年，寧都被寇，翠微峰獨完。 喜讀史，尤好左氏傳及蘇洵文。 其為文凌厲雄傑。 遇忠孝節烈事，則益感激，摹畫淋漓。
From boyhood Xi was devoted to antiquity, and when he discussed history his judgments were sharp and incisive. At eleven he enrolled as a supplemental county student. Together with his elder brother Jirui, his younger brother Li, Peng Shiwang and Lin Shiyi of Nanchang, and fellow townsmen Li Tengjiao, Qiu Weiping, Peng Ren, and Zeng Can—nine men in all—he formed the Hall of Change school. They all worked their own fields for their livelihood, studied with tireless diligence, and the fame of the "Three Weis" spread across the land. Xi held himself to the strictest standards of conduct, and his talent and learning stood above the rest. A pond lay before his gate, and he named his residence Spoon Court; scholars addressed him as Master Spoon Court. He was tall and slender in build, with a gaze that seemed to pierce those before him. From youth he was frequently ill and rarely went without ginseng and atractylodes on his lips. By nature he was kind and magnanimous, generous in his dealings with others, and never kept account of others' faults. He dealt with others in good faith, and even when deceived remained perfectly at ease. Yet he possessed a bold and unconventional spirit; when discussing affairs he spoke with sweeping force, pouring out argument after argument without end. When affairs grew tangled and complex, his plans showed clear method and design. He anticipated trouble before it arose, read the signs early, and of the policies he proposed in advance, eight or nine times out of ten events proved him right. When rebel armies rose, the land had known peace so long that people were ignorant of war and assumed the bandits were too distant to strike suddenly. Xi alone was alarmed and moved his family into the mountains. The mountain stood forty li from the city, its cliffs rising sheer on every side more than a hundred zhang high. A fissure ran straight through it from base to summit, as though the mountain had been cleaved by an axe. They carved steps and ladders along the fissure for ascent and erected gates for watch and defense. Scholars and friends gradually gathered there for refuge. Several years later, when Ningdu was overrun by bandits, Cuiwei Peak alone remained unscathed. He loved reading history, especially the Zuo Commentary and the prose of Su Xun. His prose was fierce, bold, and commanding. When treating themes of loyalty, filial devotion, and heroic integrity, he grew all the more impassioned and rendered them with overflowing force.
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年四十，乃出遊。 於蘇州交徐枋、金俊明，杭州交汪渢，乍浦交李天植，常熟交顧祖禹，常州交惲日初、楊瑀，方外交藥地、槁木，皆遺民也。 當是時，南豐謝文洊講學程山，星子宋之盛講學髻山，弟子著錄者皆數十百人，與易堂相應和。 易堂獨以古人實學為歸，而風氣之振，由禧為之領袖。 僧無可嘗至山中，歎曰：「易堂真氣，天下無兩矣！」 無可，明檢討方以智也。 友人亡，其孤不能自存，禧撫教安業之。 凡戚友有難進之言，或處人骨肉間，禧批郤導窾，一言輒解其紛。 或訝之，禧曰：「吾每遇難言事，必積誠累時，待其精神與相貫注，夫然後言。」 康熙十八年，詔舉博學鴻儒，禧以疾辭。 有司催就道，不得已，舁疾至南昌就醫。 巡撫舁驗之，禧蒙被臥稱疾篤，乃放歸。 後二年卒，年五十七。 妻謝氏，絕食殉。 著有文集二十二卷、日錄三卷、詩八卷、左傳經世十卷。
At forty he finally set out on his travels. In Suzhou he befriended Xu Fang and Jin Junming; in Hangzhou, Wang Fen; in Zhapu, Li Tianzhi; in Changshu, Gu Zuyu; in Changzhou, Yun Richu and Yang Yu; among Buddhist monks, Yaodi and Gaomu—all loyalists of the fallen Ming. At that time Xie Wenjin of Nanfeng taught on Cheng Mountain and Song Zhisheng of Xingzi on Ji Mountain, each with dozens or hundreds of registered disciples, their schools answering the spirit of the Hall of Change. The Hall of Change alone took the practical learning of the ancients as its ideal, and Xi stood at the head of the movement that revived the age. The monk Wuke once visited the mountain and exclaimed, "The Hall of Change has a vital spirit unmatched anywhere under heaven!" Wuke was Fang Yizhi, Hanlin reviewer under the Ming. When a friend died leaving an orphan who could not fend for himself, Xi took the boy in, educated him, and helped him establish a livelihood. Whenever kin or friends faced words too delicate to speak, or when he stood between feuding relatives, Xi would cut to the heart of the matter with a single remark and dissolve the quarrel. When someone expressed surprise at this, Xi said, "Whenever I face something difficult to say, I must build up sincerity over time and wait until our minds are fully attuned—only then do I speak." In the eighteenth year of Kangxi, when an edict summoned men of broad learning and eminent talent, Xi declined on grounds of illness. When officials pressed him to set out, he had no choice but to be carried, feigning illness, to Nanchang for medical treatment. The governor had him brought in for inspection; Xi lay wrapped in quilts claiming grave illness, and was sent home. He died two years later, at the age of fifty-seven. His wife, née Xie, starved herself to death in devotion to him. His works include a collected prose in twenty-two juan, a daily record in three juan, poetry in eight juan, and Applying the Zuo Commentary to Statecraft in ten juan.
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際瑞，原名祥，字善伯，禧兄。 明亡後，禧、禮並謝諸生。 際瑞歎曰：「吾為長子，祖宗祠墓，父母屍饔，將誰責乎？」 遂出就試。 順治十七年歲貢生。 寧都民亂，贛軍進討，索餉於山砦。 際瑞身冒險阻，往來任其事，屢瀕於死。 際瑞重信義，翠微峰諸隱者暨族戚倚際瑞為安危者三十餘年。 康熙十六年，滇將韓大任踞贛，當事議撫之。 大任曰：「非魏際瑞至，吾不信也！」 時際瑞館總鎮哲爾肯所，遂遣之。 家人泣勸毋往，際瑞曰：「此鄉邦宗族所關也，吾不行，恐禍及。 行而無成，吾自當之。」 遂往。 甫入營。 官兵遽從東路急攻。 大任疑賣己，因拘留之。 大任變計走降閩，際瑞遂遇害，年五十八。 子世傑殉焉。 際瑞篤治古文，喜漆園、太史公書。 著有文集十卷、五雜俎五卷。
Jirui, originally named Xiang, courtesy name Shanbo, was Xi's elder brother. After the fall of the Ming, both Xi and Li renounced their status as licentiates. Jirui sighed and said, "As the eldest son, who will tend the ancestral temples and tombs, who will see to our parents' burial and sacrificial offerings?" So he went out and entered the examinations. In the seventeenth year of Shunzhi he qualified as a tribute student. When the people of Ningdu rose in revolt, the Ganzhou army marched to suppress them and demanded supplies from the mountain strongholds. Jirui personally braved danger and obstruction, going back and forth to handle the matter, repeatedly coming near death. Jirui was a man of faith and honor; for more than thirty years the recluses of Cuiwei Peak and his kinsmen looked to him for their safety in times of peril. In the sixteenth year of Kangxi the Yunnan general Han Daren held Ganzhou, and the authorities discussed offering him terms of surrender. Han Daren said, "Unless Wei Jirui comes in person, I will not believe a word of it!" At the time Jirui was staying with the regional commander Zhe'erken, who sent him on the mission. His family wept and begged him not to go. Jirui said, "This concerns our homeland and our clans; if I do not go, I fear disaster will fall on them. If I go and fail, I alone shall bear the blame." And so he went. He had scarcely entered the camp when government troops suddenly launched a swift attack from the east. Han Daren suspected he had been betrayed and had him detained. Han Daren changed his plan and fled to surrender in Fujian; Jirui was killed in the affair, at the age of fifty-eight. His son Shijie died with him. Jirui devoted himself to ancient-style prose and loved the writings of Zhuangzi and Sima Qian. His works include a collected prose in ten juan and Miscellaneous Notes in five juan.
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禮，字和公，禧弟。 少魯鈍，受業於禧。 禧嘗笞詈之，禮弗憾，曰：「兄固愛弟也！」 禧喜過望。 方九歲，父將析產，持一田券躊躇曰：「與祥，則禮損矣。 奈何？」 禮適在旁，應聲曰：「任損我，毋損伯兄。」 父笑曰：「是固魯鈍者耶？」 禮寡言，急然諾，喜任難事，以鬱鬱不得志，乃益事遠遊。 所至必交其賢豪，物色窮岩遺佚之士。 年五十，倦遊返，於翠微左幹之巔構屋五楹。 是時伯叔踵逝，石閣、勺庭久虛無人。 諸子各散處，不復居易堂。 禮獨身率妻子居十七年，未他徙。 卒，年六十六。 著有詩文集十六卷。 子世效、世儼。
Li, courtesy name Hegong, was Xi's younger brother. As a boy he seemed slow and dull, and studied under Xi. Xi once beat and scolded him, but Li bore no resentment and said, "My elder brother truly loves his younger brother!" Xi was delighted beyond all expectation. When he was nine, his father was about to divide the family property and, holding a land deed, hesitated. "If I give this to Xiang," he said, "Li will be shortchanged. What am I to do?" Li, who happened to be nearby, answered at once, "Let me take the loss; do not shortchange my elder brother." His father laughed and said, "And this is the dull one?" Li spoke little, was quick to keep his word, and liked to take on hard tasks; frustrated in his ambitions, he devoted himself increasingly to long journeys. Wherever he went he sought out men of talent and spirit, tracking down recluses in remote hills and valleys. At fifty, weary of travel, he returned and built a five-bay house on the summit of Zuogan on the left flank of Cuiwei. By then his uncles had died in succession, and the halls of Stone Pavilion and Spoon Court had long stood empty. The brothers had each gone their separate ways and no longer gathered at the Hall of Change. Li lived there alone with his wife and children for seventeen years and never moved elsewhere. He died at the age of sixty-six. He left a collected poetry and prose in sixteen juan. His sons were Shi Xiao and Shi Yan.
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世效，字昭士。 生二十餘月，母口授九歌，輒能成誦。 稍長，從仲父禧讀。 性狷急，勇於任事。 禧嘗謂其文一如其人，鋒銳所及，往往有沒羽之力。 以多病不應試。 遍遊燕、楚、吳、越，一至嶺南。 適王士禎使粵，見所作，原折節與交。 著有耕廡文稿十卷。
Shi Xiao, styled Zhaoshi. At barely twenty months old, he could already recite the Nine Songs from memory after his mother taught them to him orally. As he grew older, he studied under his second uncle, Wei Xi. By nature he was impatient and quick-tempered, but bold in taking on responsibility. Xi once remarked that his writing matched the man—wherever its edge fell, it often struck with the force of an arrow buried to the feathers. Chronic illness kept him from sitting for the civil examinations. He traveled widely through Yan, Chu, Wu, and the Yue regions, and once journeyed as far south as Lingnan. When Wang Shizhen was dispatched to Guangdong, he read Shi Xiao's work and willingly set aside his own rank to befriend him. He left the Gengwu Drafts in ten juan.
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世儼，字敬士。 善病如其兄，然不廢翰墨。 與世傑、世效時稱「小三魏」。 著有為谷文稿八卷。
Shi Yan, styled Jingshi. Like his elder brother, he was often ill, yet he never abandoned his literary pursuits. Together with Shi Jie and Shi Xiao, he was known at the time as the "Little Three Wei." He left the Weigu Drafts in eight juan.
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李騰蛟，字咸齋，亦寧都人。 諸生。 於易堂中年最長，諸子皆兄事之，嚴敬無敢斁。 後居三巘峰，以經學教授。 著周易賸言。 年六十，卒。
Li Tengjiao, styled Xianzhai, was also from Ningdu. He held the rank of licentiate. At the Yi Hall he was the eldest in years, and the younger men all treated him as an elder brother, with such strict reverence that none dared show disrespect. Later he settled on San Yan Peak and made his living teaching the classics. He wrote Remaining Words on the Book of Changes. He died at the age of sixty.
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邱維屏，字邦士，寧都人，三魏姊壻也。 明諸生。 為人高簡率穆。 讀書多玄悟，禧嘗從之學。 晚為歷數、易學及泰西算法。 僧無可與布算，退語人曰：「此神人也！」 彭士望與維屏交三十餘年，未嘗見其毀一人。 然維屏獨推服禧，嘗貽禧書曰：「拒諫飾非者大惡也，不拒諫而嘗自拒諫，不飾非而嘗自飾非，尤惡之惡也。 足下敢於自信，自處有故，而持之以堅，拒諫飾非，蓋有如此者！」 禧得之痛服。 維屏教授弟子，手批口講，日夜不輟業。 康熙十八年，卒，年六十六。 垂歿，示子曰：「食有菜飯，穿可補衣，無譎戾行，堪句讀師。」 士望服其言。 著有周易剿說十二卷、松下集十二卷、邦士文集十八卷。
Qiu Weiping, styled Bangshi, was from Ningdu and had married a sister of the Three Wei brothers. He had been a licentiate under the Ming. He was lofty and reserved in manner, plain and dignified in bearing. He read with deep intuitive insight, and Wei Xi once studied under him. In his later years he turned to calendrical science, the Book of Changes, and Western mathematics. The monk Wuke worked through calculations with him and, afterward, told others, "This man is a prodigy!" Peng Shiwang had known Weiping for more than thirty years and never once heard him speak ill of anyone. Yet Weiping alone held Xi in the highest regard and once wrote to him: "To reject remonstrance and cover one's faults is a great evil; but to accept remonstrance in principle yet habitually reject it in practice, and to condemn self-deception yet persistently deceive oneself—that is evil compounded. You dare to trust yourself utterly; you have your reasons for how you conduct yourself and hold to them unyieldingly—rejecting remonstrance and covering one's faults are precisely such things!" When Xi read it, he was deeply moved and fully convinced. Weiping taught his disciples, annotating their work by hand and lecturing orally, and day and night they never ceased their studies. He died in the eighteenth year of the Kangxi reign, at the age of sixty-six. On his deathbed he told his sons, "With plain rice and vegetables to eat and patched clothes to wear, and without deceitful or perverse conduct, one can make a living as a teacher of elementary reading." Shiwang admired what he had said. He left Explanatory Notes on the Book of Changes in twelve juan, the Songxia Collection in twelve juan, and the Bangshi Collected Writings in eighteen juan.
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曾燦，字青藜，亦寧都人，給事中應遴仲子。 歲乙酉，楊廷麟竭力保南贛。 應遴以閩嶠山澤間有眾十萬，命燦往撫之。 既行，而應遴病卒，贛亦破，乃解散。 尋祝髮為僧，遊閩、浙、兩廣間。 大母及母念燦成疾，乃歸寧都。 以大母命受室，築六松草堂，躬耕不出者數年。 後僑居吳下二十餘年，客遊燕市以卒。 著有六松草堂文集、西崦草堂詩集。
Zeng Can, styled Qingli, was also from Ningdu and was the second son of the censor Ying Lin. In the yiyou year, Yang Tinglin fought with all his strength to hold southern Ganzhou. Learning that a hundred thousand men had gathered in the mountains and marshes of the Fujian ranges, Ying Lin sent Can to win them over. Can had barely set out when Ying Lin fell ill and died; Ganzhou soon fell as well, and Can disbanded his forces. Before long he shaved his head and became a monk, traveling through Fujian, Zhejiang, and Guangdong and Guangxi. His grandmother and mother pined for him until they fell ill, and so he returned to Ningdu. At his grandmother's command he married, built the Six Pines Thatched Hall, and for several years farmed the land himself without leaving home. He later lived as a sojourner in the Wu region for more than twenty years and died while visiting the capital. He left the Six Pines Thatched Hall Collected Writings and the Xiyan Thatched Hall Poetry Collection.
15
林時益，本明宗室，名議霶，字確齋，南昌人。 與彭士望同里。 兩人謀居。 士望與魏禧一見定交，極言金精諸山可為嶺北耕種處，乃攜家偕士望往。 僑居十餘年，與魏氏昆弟相講習。 康熙七年，詔明故宗室子孫眾多，竄伏山林者還田廬，復姓氏。 時益久客寧都，弗樂歸。 卜居冠石，結廬傭田，非其力不食。 冠石宜茶，時益以意制之，香味擬陽羨，所謂林茶者也。 晚好禪悅。 著有冠石詩集五卷、確齋文集。
Lin Shiyi was originally a member of the Ming imperial clan; his birth name was Yi Piao, styled Quezhai, and he was from Nanchang. He was from the same home district as Peng Shiwang. The two men planned where to settle. Shiwang and Wei Xi became friends at first meeting; Xi spoke at length of how the mountains around Jin Jing could serve as farmland north of the ranges, and so Shiyi took his family and went there with Shiwang. He lived there as a sojourner for more than ten years, studying together with the Wei brothers. In the seventh year of the Kangxi reign, an edict declared that the many descendants of the former Ming imperial clan who had hidden in the mountains should return to their fields and homes and resume their original surnames. Shiyi had long lived as a guest in Ningdu and had no wish to go back. He settled at Guanshi, built a hut, and rented fields to farm; he would eat only what his own labor had produced. Guanshi was well suited to tea; Shiyi devised his own method of preparing it, and its fragrance and flavor rivaled Yangxian tea—this was the tea known as Lin Tea. In his later years he took delight in Chan Buddhism. He left the Guanshi Poetry Collection in five juan and the Quezhai Collected Writings.
16
梁份，字質人，南豐人。 少從彭士望、魏禧遊，講經世之學。 工古文辭。 嘗隻身遊萬里，西盡武威、張掖，南極黔、滇，遍歷燕、趙、秦、晉、齊、魏之墟，覽山川形勢，訪古今成敗得失，遐荒軼事，一發之於文。 方苞、王源皆重之。 其論山海關，謂：「關自明洪武間始設，隋置臨榆於西，唐為榆關。 東北古長城，燕、秦所築，距關遠，皆不足輕重。 金之伐遼，自取遷民始。 李自成席捲神京，敗石河而失之。 天之廢興，人之成敗，而決於山海一隅。 荒榛千百年之上，偏重於三百年間。 天下定則山海安，山海困則天下舉困，其安危之重如此。」 生平以未遊山海為憾。 為人樸摯強毅，守窮約至老不少挫。 卒，年八十九。 著有懷葛堂文集十五卷、西陲今略八卷。
Liang Fen, styled Zhiren, was from Nanfeng. In youth he studied with Peng Shiwang and Wei Xi, learning the arts of statecraft. He excelled at ancient-style prose. He once traveled ten thousand li alone, reaching as far west as Wuwei and Zhangye and as far south as Guizhou and Yunnan; he traversed the old lands of Yan, Zhao, Qin, Jin, Qi, and Wei, surveyed mountains and rivers, investigated the successes and failures of past ages, and committed even remote and little-known events to writing. Fang Bao and Wang Yuan both held him in high esteem. In his discussion of Shanhai Pass he wrote: "The pass was first established in the Hongwu reign of the Ming; in the Sui the Lin Yu post was placed to the west, and in the Tang it was called Yu Pass. The ancient Great Wall to the northeast, built by Yan and Qin, stood far from the pass and mattered little. The Jin conquest of the Liao began with absorbing relocated commoners. Li Zicheng swept through the capital, was defeated at the Shi River, and lost everything. The rise and fall of dynasties and the success or failure of men were decided at this one corner where mountains meet the sea. For more than a thousand years it lay in wilderness and neglect, yet its decisive importance was concentrated in the last three hundred. When the realm was settled, the pass was secure; when the pass was threatened, the whole realm was threatened—such was its strategic weight." Throughout his life he regretted never having visited Shanhai Pass. Plain, sincere, and steadfast, he held to poverty and restraint until old age without the least weakening. He died at the age of eighty-nine. He left the Huaige Hall Collected Writings in fifteen juan and the Brief Account of the Western Frontier in eight juan.
17
侯方域，字朝宗，商丘人。 父恂，明戶部尚書； 季父恪，官祭酒：皆以東林忤閹黨。
Hou Fangyu, styled Chaozong, was from Shangqiu. His father Xun had been Minister of Revenue under the Ming; his younger uncle Ke had served as Chancellor of the National University: both had clashed with the eunuch faction through their Donglin affiliations.
18
方域師倪元璐。 性豪邁不羈，為文有奇氣。 時太倉張溥主盟復社，青浦陳子龍主盟幾社，咸推重方域，海內名士爭與之交。 方恂之督師援汴也，方域進曰：「大人受詔討賊，廟堂議論多牽制。 今宜破文法，取賜劍誅一甲科守令之不應徵辦者，而晉帥許定國師噪，亟斬以徇。 如此則威立，軍事辦，然後渡河收中原土寨團結之眾，以合左良玉於襄陽，約陝督孫傳庭犄角並進，則汴圍不救自解。」 恂叱其跋扈，不用，趣遣之歸。
Fangyu studied under Ni Yuanlu. Bold and unrestrained by nature, he wrote with singular force. At the time Zhang Pu of Taicang led the Fushe society and Chen Zilong of Qingpu led the Jishe society; both held Fangyu in high esteem, and celebrated scholars throughout the realm vied to befriend him. When Xun was appointed supreme commander to relieve Bian, Fangyu urged him: "Father, you have received an edict to suppress the rebels, yet court deliberations impose many restraints. You should set bureaucratic convention aside, take the imperial sword, and execute one prefect or magistrate of jinshi rank who fails to meet levies and supplies; and as for the Shanxi commander Xu Dingguo, whose troops are in an uproar, behead him at once as a warning. Do this, and authority will be established and the army brought to order; then cross the river to rally the fortified communities of the Central Plain, join Zuo Liangyu at Xiangyang, and coordinate with the Shaanxi governor Sun Chuanting for a pincer advance—the siege of Bian will lift of its own accord." Xun rebuked him for arrogance, rejected his advice, and sent him home at once.
19
方域既負才無所試，一放意聲伎，流連秦淮間。 閹黨阮大鋮時亦屏居金陵，謀復用。 諸名士共檄大鋮罪，作留都防亂揭，宜興陳貞慧、貴池吳應箕二人主之。 大鋮知方域與二人善，私念因侯生以交於二人，事當已，乃囑其客來結驩。 方域覺之，卒謝客，大鋮恨次骨。 已而驟柄用，將盡殺黨人，捕貞慧下獄。 方域夜走依鎮帥高傑，得免。 順治八年，出應鄉試，中式副榜。 十一年，卒，年三十七。
With his talent unused, Fangyu gave himself over to music and entertainers and lingered along the Qinhuai. Ruan Dacheng of the eunuch faction was also living in retirement in Jinling at the time, scheming for reinstatement. Leading scholars jointly denounced Dacheng's crimes and composed the Manifesto Against Disorder in the Southern Capital, chiefly authored by Chen Zhenhui of Yixing and Wu Yingji of Guichi. Dacheng knew Fangyu was close to the two men and privately thought that by winning over Hou Sheng he could reach them and settle the matter; he sent clients to offer friendship. Fangyu saw through the scheme and declined the visitors; Dacheng hated him to the bone. Before long Dacheng was suddenly restored to power and set about killing his factional enemies; he arrested Zhenhui and imprisoned him. Fangyu fled by night to the regional commander Gao Jie and escaped harm. In the eighth year of Shunzhi he sat for the provincial examination and placed on the supplementary list. He died in the eleventh year of Shunzhi, at the age of thirty-seven.
20
方域健於文，與魏禧、汪琬齊名，號「國初三家」。 有壯悔堂集。
Fangyu excelled in letters and was famed alongside Wei Xi and Wang Wan as the Three Masters at the Founding of the Dynasty. He left the Zhuanghui Hall Collection.
21
同時江西以文名者，南昌王猷定，新建陳宏緒、徐士溥、歐陽斌元。
At the same time, Jiangxi writers of note included Wang Youding of Nanchang and Chen Hongxu, Xu Shipu, and Ouyang Binyuan of Xinjian.
22
猷定，字於一。 選拔貢生。 父時熙，進士，官太僕卿，名在東林。 猷定好奇，有辯口，文亦如之。 著四照堂集。
Youding, styled Yuyi. He was a selected tribute student. His father Shixi was a jinshi who served as Vice Minister of the Imperial Stud and was known as a Donglin associate. Youding was fond of the unusual and had a gift for debate, and his writing showed the same quality. He left the Sizhao Hall Collection.
23
宏緒，字士業。 父道亨，進士，官兵部尚書。 疏救楊漣，罷歸。 藏書萬卷。 宏緒不仕，輯宋遺民錄以見志，有石莊集。
Hongxu, styled Shiye. His father Daoheng was a jinshi who served as Minister of War. After submitting a memorial to save Yang Lian, he was dismissed and sent home. He amassed a library of ten thousand scrolls. Hongxu refused office, compiled the Record of Song Loyalists to declare his convictions, and left the Shizhuang Collection.
24
士溥，字巨源。 父良彥，進士。 忤崔、魏削籍，戍清浪。 溧陽陳名夏聞士溥善古文，手書招之，拒不納。 有榆溪集。
Shipu, styled Juyuan. His father Liangyan was a jinshi. After crossing Cui and Wei, he was struck from the rolls and exiled to Qinglang. Chen Mingxia of Liyang, hearing that Shipu excelled in ancient-style prose, wrote to summon him in his own hand; Shipu refused the invitation. He left the Yuxi Collection.
25
斌元，字憲萬。 嘗為南司馬呂大器草奏劾馬士英二十四大罪，又佐史可法幕府。 有文集十二卷。
Binyuan, styled Xianwan. He once drafted for the Southern Vice Censor Lu Daqi a memorial impeaching Ma Shiying on twenty-four major counts, and also served on Shi Kefa's staff. He left a collected works in twelve juan.
26
申涵光，字孚孟，號鳧盟，永年人，明太僕寺丞佳胤子。 年十五，補諸生。 文名藉藉，顧不屑為舉子業。 日與諸同志論文立社，載酒豪遊為樂。 萬曆六年亂起，議城守，出家貲四百金、錢二十萬犒士。 甲申，奉母避亂西山，誅茅廣羊絕頂。 與鉅鹿楊思聖，雞澤殷岳、殷淵，定患難交。 京師破，佳胤殉國難，涵光痛絕復甦。 因渡江而南，謁陳子龍、夏允彝、徐石麟諸名宿，為父志、傳。 歸里，事親課弟，足跡絕城市。 日與殷岳及同里張蓋相往來酬和，人號為「廣平三君」。
Shen Hanguang, styled Fumeng, sobriquet Fumeng, was a native of Yongnian and the son of Jiaoyin, Vice Director of the Imperial Stud under the Ming. At fifteen he was enrolled as a licentiate. His literary fame was widespread, yet he disdained the grind of examination essays. Day after day he discussed letters and formed literary societies with kindred spirits, finding his joy in wine and spirited outings. When disorder broke out in the sixth year of Wanli, he contributed four hundred taels of gold and two hundred thousand cash from his family fortune to reward the troops defending the city. In 1644 he took his mother to the Western Hills to escape the turmoil, building a thatched hut on the summit of Mount Guangyang. With Yang Sisheng of Julu and Yin Yue and Yin Yuan of Jize he forged bonds of friendship in adversity. When the capital fell, Jiaoyin died in the national calamity; Hanguang was stricken with grief to the point of death, then revived. He then crossed the river south and visited eminent elders such as Chen Zilong, Xia Yunyi, and Xu Shilin, seeking a biography and memorial account for his father. Back home, he cared for his parents and tutored his younger brothers, keeping his footsteps far from the cities. Day after day he exchanged visits and poetic responses with Yin Yue and Zhang Gai of his home district, and people called them the Three Lords of Guangping.
27
清初，詔訪明死難諸臣。 柏鄉魏裔介上褎忠疏，列佳胤名，格於部議。 涵光徒跣赴京師，踔泥水中，幾瀕於死。 麻衣絰帶，號哭東華道上，觀者皆飲泣。 裔介再疏爭之，卒與祀卹如例。 一時士大夫高其行，皆傾心納交，宴遊贈答無虛日。
Early in the Qing, an edict was issued to seek out Ming officials who had died in the national calamity. Wei Yijie of Baixiang submitted a memorial honoring the loyal dead and listed Jiaoyin's name, but the Ministry blocked it in deliberation. Hanguang went barefoot to the capital, wading through mud and water, and nearly died on the way. Wearing hemp mourning garments and a hemp headband, he wailed along Donghua Road, and all who saw him wept. Yijie submitted another memorial to press the case, and in the end Jiaoyin received posthumous honors and relief according to precedent. Scholar-officials of the time admired his conduct and sought his friendship; feasts, excursions, and exchanges of gifts and poems filled his days.
28
涵光為詩，吞吐眾流，納之爐治。 一以少陵為宗，而出入於高、岑、王、孟諸家。 嘗謂：「詩以道性情，性情之真者，可以格帝天，泣神鬼。 若專事附會，寸寸而效之，則啼笑皆偽，不能動一人矣。」 尚書王士禎稱涵光開河朔詩派。 學士熊伯龍謂今世詩人吾甘為之下者，鳧盟一人而已。
In composing poetry, Hanguang took in every current of the tradition and refined it in his own forge. He took Du Fu as his sole master, yet moved freely among the schools of Gao Shi, Cen Shen, Wang Wei, and Meng Haoran. He once said: "Poetry expresses one's nature and feelings; when those feelings are true, they can move Heaven itself and make spirits and ghosts weep. If one devotes oneself solely to imitation, copying line by line, then laughter and tears alike are false and cannot move a single person." Minister Wang Shizhen said that Hanguang founded the Hebei school of poetry. Academician Xiong Bolong said that among the poets of his age, Fumeng alone was one he would gladly rank above himself.
29
嘗謁孫奇逢，執弟子禮。 奇逢恨得之晚，以聖賢相敦勉。 自是始聞天人性命之旨，究心理學，不復為詩。 順治十七年，詔郡縣舉孝行，有司以涵光應，力辭之。 再舉隱逸之士，堅辭不就。 嘗自悔為名累，謝絕交遊。 晚年取諸儒語錄昕夕研究。 作性習圖、義利說及荊園小語、進語諸書。 嘗曰：「主靜不如主敬，敬，自靜也。 朱、陸同適於道，朱由大路，雖遲而穩； 陸由便徑，似捷而危：在人自擇耳。」 奇逢謂其苦心積慮，閱歷深而動忍熟。 裔介則讚之曰：「年少文壇，老來理路，聖賢之所謂博文而約禮也。」 其推重如此。 康熙十六年，卒，年五十九。
He once visited Sun Qifeng and performed the rites of a disciple. Qifeng regretted having found him so late and urged him on with the example of sages and worthies. From then on he first heard the teaching on Heaven, human nature, and life's purpose; he pursued Neo-Confucian learning and wrote no more poetry. In the seventeenth year of Shunzhi an edict ordered the prefectures and counties to recommend men of filial conduct; the local officials nominated Hanguang, but he firmly declined. When recluses were recommended again, he firmly declined and would not accept office. He once regretted that fame had become a burden and withdrew from society. In his later years he studied the recorded sayings of various Confucians morning and evening. He wrote such works as Diagrams of Nature and Habit, Discourse on Righteousness and Profit, Small Talk from Jing Garden, and Advancing Words. He once said: "To uphold reverence is better than to uphold stillness; reverence is stillness of itself. Zhu Xi and Lu Xiangshan alike lead to the Way; Zhu takes the great road—though slow, it is steady; Lu takes the shortcut—though it seems quick, it is perilous: each person must choose for himself." Qifeng said that his painstaking thought and accumulated reflection came from deep experience and mature forbearance in action. Yijie then praised him, saying: "In youth he stood on the literary stage; in old age he pursued the path of principle—this is what the sages call broad learning disciplined by ritual." Such was the esteem in which he was held. He died in the sixteenth year of Kangxi, at the age of fifty-nine.
30
涵光又解琴理。 書法顏魯公，尤工漢隸。 間作山水木石，落落有雅緻。 著有聰山詩集八卷，文集四卷，說杜一卷。
Hanguang also understood the principles of the zither. In calligraphy he followed Yan Zhenqing and was especially skilled in Han clerical script. From time to time he painted landscapes, trees, and rocks with an open, refined elegance. He left the Congshan Poetry Collection in eight juan, a prose collection in four juan, and On Du Fu in one juan.
31
蓋，字覆輿。 明亡後，謝諸生，悲吟侘傺，遂成狂疾。 嘗遊齊、晉、楚、豫間，歸自閉土室中，雖妻子不得見。 唯涵光、岳至則延入，談甚洽。 其詩哀憤過情，恆自毀其稿。 卒後，涵光為刊遺詩，曰柿葉集。
Gai, styled Fuyu. After the fall of the Ming he resigned his status as licentiate, mourned in verse with desolate lament, and eventually developed a mad affliction. He once traveled among Qi, Jin, Chu, and Yu, and upon returning shut himself in an earthen chamber where even his wife and children could not see him. Only when Hanguang and Yue came would he admit them, and their talk was always congenial. His poetry was grief-stricken and indignant beyond measure, and he constantly destroyed his own drafts. After his death Hanguang published his remaining poems as the Persimmon Leaf Collection.
32
岳，字宗山，雞澤人。 舉人。 京師陷，入西山，與其弟淵謀舉義。 事泄，淵被害，岳匿涵光家得免。 其為詩自魏、晉以下屏不觀，尤不喜律詩，所作唯古體，莽莽然肖其為人。 有留耕堂集。
Yue, styled Zongshan, was a native of Jize. He was a provincial graduate. When the capital fell he entered the Western Hills and with his younger brother Yuan plotted to raise a righteous force. When the plot leaked out, Yuan was killed; Yue hid in Hanguang's home and escaped harm. In composing poetry he shut out everything from Wei and Jin downward, especially disliked regulated verse, and wrote only in ancient forms—vast and rugged, matching his character. He left the Liugeng Hall Collection.
33
吳嘉紀，字賓賢，泰州人。 布衣。 家安豐鹽場之東淘。 地濱海，無交遊。 自名所居曰陋軒。 貧甚，雖豐歲常乏食。 獨喜吟詩，晨夕嘯詠自適，不交當世。 郡人汪楫、孫枝蔚與友善，時稱道之，遂為王士禎所知。 尤賞其五言清冷古淡，雪夜酌酒，為之序，馳使三百里致之。 嘉紀因買舟至揚州謁謝定交，由是四方知名士爭與之倡和。
Wu Jiaji, styled Binxian, was a native of Taizhou. He was a commoner. His family lived at Dongtao by the Anfeng salt works. The place bordered the sea and he had no social contacts. He named his dwelling the Humble Studio. He was extremely poor; even in abundant years he often lacked food. He alone delighted in composing poetry, chanting and singing morning and evening for his own contentment, and kept no company with men of the age. Wang Ji and Sun Zhiwei of his prefecture were his friends and often spoke of him, and thus he came to be known to Wang Shizhen. Shizhen especially admired his five-character lines for their cool clarity and ancient plainness; on a snowy night he poured wine, wrote a preface for him, and sent a messenger three hundred li to deliver it. Jiaji therefore bought a boat and went to Yangzhou to pay his respects and establish friendship; from then on renowned men from all quarters vied to exchange poems with him.
34
嘉紀工為危苦嚴冷之詞，嘗撰今樂府，淒急幽奧，能變通陳跡，自為一家。 所著陋軒集多散佚，友人復裒集之為四卷。 其詩風骨頗遒，運思亦復劖刻。 由所遭不偶，每多怨咽之音，而篤行潛修，特為一時推重云。
Jiaji was skilled at writing words of peril, hardship, severity, and cold; he once composed New Music Bureau poems—desolate, urgent, hidden, and abstruse—able to transform stale forms and establish a school of his own. Most of his Humble Studio Collection was scattered and lost; friends later gathered the remaining pieces into four juan. His poetry had vigorous bone and sinew, and his working of thought was likewise incised and refined. Because fortune had been unkind to him, his work often bore notes of grievance and lament; yet his earnest conduct and quiet cultivation were especially esteemed in his time.
35
徐波，字元嘆，吳縣人。 少任俠。 明亡後，居天池，構落木菴，以枯禪終。 詩多感喟，虞山錢謙益與之善，贈以詩，頗推重之。 有諡簫堂、染香菴等集。
Xu Bo, styled Yuantan, was a native of Wu County. In youth he was chivalrous and bold. After the fall of the Ming he lived at Tianchi, built the Falling Tree Hermitage, and ended his days in dry Chan meditation. His poetry was full of sighs and emotion; Qian Qianyi of Yushan was his friend, presented him with poems, and held him in considerable esteem. He left such collections as Yi Xiao Hall and Dyed Fragrance Hermitage.
36
<u>錢謙益</u>，字<u>受之</u>，<u>常熟</u>人。 明萬曆中進士，授編修。 博學工詞章，名隸東林黨。 天啟中，御史<u>陳以瑞</u>劾罷之。 崇禎元年，起官，不數月至禮部侍郎。 會推閣臣，<u>謙益</u>慮尚書<u>溫體仁</u>、侍郎<u>周延儒</u>並推，則名出己上，謀沮之。 <u>體仁</u>追論<u>謙益</u>典試浙江取錢千秋關節事，予杖論贖。 <u>體仁</u>复賄<u>常熟</u>人<u>張漢儒</u>訐<u>謙益</u>貪肆不法。 <u>謙益</u>求救於司禮太監<u>曹化淳</u>，刑斃<u>漢儒</u>。 <u>體仁</u>引疾去，<u>謙益</u>亦削籍歸。
Qian Qianyi, styled Shouzhi, was a native of Changshu. In the Wanli reign he became a jinshi and was appointed Compiler. Broadly learned and skilled in belles-lettres, he was known as a Donglin associate. In the Tianqi reign the censor Chen Yirui impeached him and had him dismissed. In the first year of Chongzhen he was restored to office and within a few months reached Vice Minister of Rites. When Grand Secretaries were to be jointly recommended, Qianyi feared that if Minister Wen Tiren and Vice Minister Zhou Yanru were recommended together, their names would rank above his own, and he plotted to obstruct it. Tiren pursued the matter of Qianyi's chief examining in Zhejiang and accepting Qian Qianqiu's examination irregularities; Qianyi was sentenced to beating and redemption. Tiren again bribed Zhang Hanru of Changshu to accuse Qianyi of greed, excess, and unlawful conduct. Qianyi sought rescue from the Director of Ceremonial eunuch Cao Huachun, and Hanru was executed. Tiren cited illness and withdrew; Qianyi was also struck from the rolls and sent home.
37
流賊陷<u>京師</u>，明臣議立君<u>江寧</u>。 <u>謙益</u>陰推戴<u>潞王</u>，與<u>馬士英</u>議不合。 已而<u>福王</u>立，懼得罪，上書誦<u>士英</u>功，<u>士英</u>引為禮部尚書。 复力荐閹黨<u>阮大鋮</u>等，<u>大鋮</u>遂為兵部侍郎。 順治三年，豫親王<u>多鐸</u>定<u>江南</u>，<u>謙益</u>迎降，命以禮部侍郎管秘書院事。 <u>馮銓</u>充明史館正總裁，而<u>謙益</u>副之。 俄乞歸。 五年，<u>鳳陽</u>巡撫<u>陳之龍</u>獲<u>黃毓祺</u>，<u>謙益</u>坐與交通，詔總督<u>馬國柱</u>逮訊。 <u>謙益</u>訴辨，<u>國柱</u>遂以<u>謙益</u>、<u>毓祺</u>素非相識定讞。 得放還，以箸述自娛，越十年卒。
When the bandits took the capital, Ming officials discussed enthroning a ruler at Jiangning. Qianyi secretly favored enthroning the Prince of Lu, and his views did not agree with those of Ma Shiying. Before long the Prince of Fu was enthroned; fearing punishment, Qianyi submitted a memorial praising Shiying's merits, and Shiying had him appointed Minister of Rites. He again vigorously recommended eunuch-faction figures such as Ruan Dacheng, and Dacheng was duly appointed Vice Minister of War. In the third year of Shunzhi, Prince Regent Dodo pacified the south; Qianyi surrendered and was appointed Vice Minister of Rites in charge of the Secretariat Academy. Feng Quan was chief director of the Ming History Bureau, with Qianyi as his deputy. Before long he asked to retire. In the fifth year, Chen Zhilong, governor of Fengyang, captured Huang Yuqi; Qianyi was implicated for having communicated with him, and the emperor ordered Governor-General Ma Guozhu to arrest and question him. Qianyi pleaded in his own defense, and Ma Guozhu ruled that he and Yuqi had never been acquainted. He was released and returned home, devoting himself to writing for his remaining years; he died ten years later.
38
<u>謙益</u>為文博贍，諳悉朝典，詩尤擅其勝。 明季<u>王</u>、<u>李</u>號稱復古，文體日下，<u>謙益</u>起而力振之。 家富藏書，晚歲絳雲樓火，惟一佛像不燼，遂歸心釋教，著。 其自為詩文，曰，曰、。 乾隆三十四年，詔毀板，然傳本至今不絕。
Qianyi's prose was broad and learned, he knew court rites inside out, and his poetry was the field in which he truly excelled. In the late Ming, the Wang and Li schools claimed to be restoring classical style even as literary standards sank; Qianyi stepped forward and tried hard to reverse the decline. He maintained a great library at home. In his old age the Jiangyun Pavilion burned down, leaving only a Buddhist image unscathed; he then turned to Buddhism and wrote his Exegetical Notes on the Śūraṅgama Sūtra. His own writings included the Collected Works of Muzhai, the Chuxue Collection, and the Youxue Collection. In Qianlong 34 an edict ordered the blocks destroyed, yet circulated copies survive to this day.
39
龔鼎孳，字孝升，合肥人。 明崇禎七年進士，授兵科給事中。 李自成陷都城，以鼎孳為直指使，巡視北城。 及睿親王至，遂迎降，授吏科給事中。 改禮科，遷太常寺少卿。 順治三年，丁父憂，請賜卹典。 給事中孫自齡疏言：「鼎孳辱身流賊，蒙朝廷擢用，曾不聞夙夜在公，惟飲酒醉歌，俳優角逐。 聞訃仍復歌飲留連，冀邀非分之典，虧行滅倫，莫此為甚！」 部議降二級。 尋遇恩詔獲免，累遷左都御史。
Gong Dingzi, styled Xiaosheng, was from Hefei. A jinshi of Chongzhen 7, he was appointed supervising secretary in the Bureau of War. When Li Zicheng took the capital, Dingzi was made a direct censor and charged with patrolling the northern city. When Prince Regent Dorgon arrived, he surrendered and was appointed supervising secretary in the Bureau of Personnel. He moved to the Bureau of Rites and was promoted to Vice Director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. In Shunzhi 3, while mourning his father, he petitioned for imperial condolences. Supervising Secretary Sun Ziling memorialized: "Dingzi debased himself serving the rebels; honored with office by the court, he has shown none of the tireless dedication a minister owes—only drinking, drunken song, and jousting with actors. Hearing of his father's death, he still caroused and lingered over wine and song, hoping to secure undeserved honors—a violation of propriety and filial duty without equal!" The ministry recommended demoting him two ranks. He was soon pardoned under an amnesty and rose to Left Censor-in-Chief.
40
先是大學士馮銓被劾，睿親王集科道質訊。 鼎孳斥銓閹黨，為忠賢義兒。 銓曰：「何如逆賊御史？」 鼎孳以魏徵歸順太宗自解，王笑曰：「惟無瑕者可以戮人。 奈何以闖賊擬太宗！」 遂罷不問。 坐事降八級調用，補上林苑丞，旋罷。 康熙初，起左都御史，遷刑部尚書。 卒，諡「端毅」。 乾隆三十四年，詔削其諡。
Earlier, Grand Secretary Feng Quan had been impeached, and the Prince Regent assembled the censorate for a formal inquiry. Dingzi denounced Feng Quan as a eunuch-faction ally and adoptive son of Wei Zhongxian. Feng Quan retorted: "And how does that compare with a censor who served the rebel bandits?" Dingzi defended himself by citing Wei Zheng's turn to Emperor Taizong of Tang; the Prince laughed and said, "Only those without blemish may judge others. How dare you compare Li Zicheng's bandits to Emperor Taizong!" The matter was dropped. After an offense he was demoted eight ranks and reassigned as director of the Imperial Park, then dismissed. At the start of the Kangxi reign he was restored as Left Censor-in-Chief and later became Minister of Punishments. He died and was posthumously given the title "Duanyi" (Steadfast and Resolute). In Qianlong 34 an edict stripped his posthumous title.
41
鼎孳天才宏肆，千言立就。 世祖在禁中見其文，歎曰：「真才子也！」 嘗兩典會試，汲引英雋如不及。 朱彝尊、陳維崧遊京師，貧甚，資給之。 傅山、閻爾梅陷獄，皆賴其力得免。 臨歿，以徐釚囑梁清標曰：「負才如虹亭，可使之不成名耶？」 釚後以清標薦試鴻博，入史館。 自謙益卒後，在朝有文藻負士林之望者，推鼎孳雲。 著有定山堂集。
Dingzi was prodigiously gifted; he could produce a thousand-character essay in a single sitting. The Shizu Emperor read his work in the inner palace and exclaimed, "A true literary genius!" He twice presided over the metropolitan examinations, advancing talented scholars as if he could never reach them soon enough. When Zhu Yizun and Chen Weisong came to the capital in dire poverty, he provided for them. Fu Shan and Yan Ermei were imprisoned; both owed their release to his intervention. On his deathbed he commended Xu Chi to Liang Qingbiao, saying, "A man of talent like Hongting—can we let him go unrecognized?" Xu Chi later entered the History Bureau after Liang Qingbiao recommended him for the Special Examination. After Qian Qianyi's death, Gong Dingzi stood at the head of those at court whose literary gifts commanded the respect of the scholarly world. He wrote the Ding Shan Tang Collection.
42
吳偉業，字駿公，太倉人。 明崇禎四年進士，授編修。 充東宮講讀官，再遷左庶子。 弘光時，授少詹事，乞假歸。 順治九年，用兩江總督馬國柱薦，詔至京。 侍郎孫承澤、大學士馮銓相繼論薦，授秘書院侍講，充修太祖、太宗聖訓纂修官。 十三年，遷祭酒。 丁母憂歸。 康熙十年，卒。
Wu Weiye, styled Jungong, was from Taicang. A jinshi of Chongzhen 4, he was appointed Compiler. He served as lecturer to the crown prince and was twice promoted to Left Subprefect of the Heir Apparent. Under the Hongguang regime he was appointed Junior Mentor and asked for leave to return home. In Shunzhi 9, on the recommendation of Governor-General Ma Guozhu of the Two Jiangs, he was summoned to the capital. Vice Minister Sun Chengze and Grand Secretary Feng Quan both recommended him in turn; he was made Secretariat Reader and compiler of the Sacred Instructions of Taizu and Taizong. In the thirteenth year he was promoted to Libationer. He returned home to mourn his mother. He died in Kangxi 10.
43
偉業學問博贍，或從質經史疑義及朝章國故，無不洞悉原委。 詩文工麗，蔚為一時之冠，不自標榜。 性至孝，生際鼎革，有親在，不能不依違顧戀，俯仰身世，每自傷也。 臨歿，顧言：「吾一生遭際，萬事憂危，無一時一境不歷艱苦。 死後斂以僧裝，葬我鄧尉、靈巖之側。 墳前立一圓石，題曰『詩人吳梅村之墓』。 勿起祠堂，勿乞銘。」 聞其言者皆悲之。 著有春秋地理志、氏族志，綏寇紀略及梅村集。
Weiye's erudition was vast; ask him about any knot in the classics or histories, or any point of court ritual and state precedent, and he could trace every thread to its source. His poetry and prose were exquisitely crafted and stood at the summit of his generation, though he never flaunted it. Deeply filial by nature, he came of age amid dynastic upheaval; with parents still alive he could not but hesitate and cling to both old and new worlds, and as he surveyed his life he often grieved over it. Facing death he said: "In all my days I have known nothing but worry and danger—there was never a moment or a place free of hardship. When I am dead, dress me in monk's robes and bury me beside Dengwei and Lingyan. Place a round stone before the grave and inscribe it: "The Grave of the Poet Wu Meicun." Do not raise a memorial hall; do not ask anyone to write my epitaph." All who heard him were deeply saddened. His works included the Gazetteer of Spring and Autumn Geography, Record of Clans, Chronicle of Pacifying the Bandits, and the Meicun Collection.
44
曹溶，字鑑躬，嘉興人。 明崇禎十年進士，官御史。 清定京師，仍原職。 尋授順天學政。 疏薦明進士王崇簡等五人，又請旌殉節明大學士苑景文、尚書倪元璐等二十八人，孝子徐基、義士王良翰等及節婦十餘人。 試竣，擢太僕寺少卿。 坐前學政任內失察，降二級。 久之，稍遷左通政，上言：「通政之官職在納言，請嗣後凡遇挾私違例章疏即予駮還，仍許隨事建議。」 又言：「王師入關，各處駐兵，乃一時權宜。 今當歸併於盜賊出沒險阻之地，則兵不患少。 其閒散無事之兵，遇缺勿補，遇調即遣，則餉不虛糜。 且當裁提鎮，增副將，以專責成。」 又言：「諸司職掌無成書，請以近年奉旨通行者，參之前朝會典，編為簡明則例，以重官守。」 擢左副都御史。 疏請時禦便殿，召大臣入對，賜筆札以辨其才識，有切中利弊者，即飭力行，勿概下部議，帝並嘉納。 擢戶部侍郎，出為廣東布政使，降山西陽和道。 康熙初，裁缺歸里。 十八年，舉鴻博，丁憂未赴，學士徐元文薦修明史。 又數年，卒，有倦圃詩集。
Cao Rong, styled Jiangong, was from Jiaxing. A jinshi of Chongzhen 10, he served as censor. When the Qing took the capital he kept his original post. He was soon appointed educational commissioner of Shuntian. In a memorial he recommended five Ming jinshi including Wang Chongjian, and asked that honors be granted to twenty-eight Ming loyalists who died for the dynasty, including Grand Secretary Yuan Jingwen and Minister Ni Yuanlu, as well as the filial son Xu Ji, the righteous man Wang Lianghan, and more than ten chaste widows. After the examinations he was promoted to Vice Director of the Court of the Imperial Stud. He was demoted two ranks for failing to detect misconduct during his earlier term as educational commissioner. After some time he rose to Left Vice Minister of Communications and memorialized: "The transmission office exists to channel remonstrance; hereafter, whenever a memorial violates the rules out of private interest, return it at once—but still allow ad hoc proposals on current affairs." He also argued: "When the imperial army entered the passes, garrisons were posted across the realm only as a temporary measure. They should now be concentrated where bandits and rebels haunt difficult country; then numbers will cease to be a worry. Idle troops with no duties should go unfilled when vacancies arise and be sent out the moment they are needed—so rations are not squandered. He also urged reducing provincial commanders and adding vice generals, so that accountability would be clear." He further proposed compiling a concise code of office from recent imperial edicts and Ming administrative precedents, since the ministries lacked any authoritative handbook of duties. He was promoted to Left Vice Censor-in-Chief. He memorialized that the emperor should hold informal audiences, summon ministers for direct discussion, and supply paper and brush to test their judgment; proposals that hit real strengths and weaknesses should be enforced immediately rather than routinely sent down for departmental debate—and the emperor accepted every point. He was promoted to Vice Minister of Revenue, then posted as provincial administration commissioner of Guangdong, and later demoted to intendant of Yanghe in Shanxi. At the start of Kangxi his post was abolished and he returned home. In Kangxi 18 he was nominated for the Special Examination but could not attend because of mourning; Academician Xu Yuanwen recommended him to help compile the Ming History. He died several years later, leaving the Juanpu Poetry Collection.
45
宋琬，字玉叔，萊陽人。 父應亨，明天啟中進士。 令清豐，有惠政，民為立祠。 崇禎末殉節，贈太僕寺卿。
Song Wan, styled Yushu, was from Laiyang. His father Yingheng was a jinshi in the Tianqi reign. As magistrate of Qingfeng he ruled with kindness, and the people erected a shrine in his honor. At the end of Chongzhen he died loyal to the dynasty and was posthumously made Vice Director of the Court of the Imperial Stud.
46
琬少能詩，有才名。 順治四年進士，授戶部主事，累遷吏部郎中。 出為隴西道，過清豐，民遮至應亨祠，款留竟日，述往事至泣下。 琬益自刻厲，期不墜先緒。 調永平道，又調寧紹台道，皆有績。 十八年，擢按察使。 時登州於七為亂。 琬同族子懷宿憾，因告變，誣琬與於七通，立逮下獄，並系妻子。 逾三載，下督撫外訊。 巡撫蔣國柱白其誣，康熙三年放歸。 十一年，有詔起用，授四川按察使。 明年，入覲，家屬留官所。 值吳三桂叛，成都陷，聞變驚悸卒。
From youth Song Wan wrote poetry and was known for his talent. A jinshi of Shunzhi 4, he was appointed a secretary in the Ministry of Revenue and rose to Director in the Ministry of Personnel. Posted as intendant of Longxi, he passed through Qingfeng, where the people stopped him at Yingheng's shrine and kept him a full day, recalling the past until they wept. Song Wan redoubled his efforts, determined not to disgrace his family's name. Transferred to Yongping and then to Ning-Shao-Tai, he distinguished himself in every assignment. In the eighteenth year he was promoted to provincial surveillance commissioner. At that time Yu Qi had risen in rebellion at Dengzhou. A kinsman of Song Wan's, nursing an old grievance, denounced him; Wan was falsely accused of colluding with Yu Qi, seized and thrown into prison, and his wife and children were imprisoned too. After more than three years the case was tried outside provincial jurisdiction. Governor Jiang Guozhu established his innocence, and in Kangxi 3 he was released and sent home. In the eleventh year an edict recalled him to office as provincial surveillance commissioner of Sichuan. The next year he went to court for audience, leaving his family at his post. When Wu Sangui rebelled and Chengdu fell, the news struck him with such shock that he died.
47
始琬官京師，與嚴沆、施閏章、丁澎輩酬倡，有「燕台七子」之目。 其詩格合聲諧，明靚溫潤。 既構難，時作淒清激宕之調，而亦不戾於和。 王士禎點定其集為三十卷。 嘗舉閏章相況，目為「南施北宋」。 歿後詩散佚，族孫邦憲綴輯之為六卷。
When Song Wan first served in the capital he exchanged verses with Yan Hang, Shi Runzhang, Ding Peng, and others, and was counted among the "Seven Masters of the Yan Capital." His poetry married form to melody—bright, lucid, warm, and refined. After his ordeal he sometimes wrote in a desolate, impassioned vein, yet never lost his sense of balance. Wang Shizhen edited his collected works into thirty juan. He once paired himself with Runzhang under the epithet "Southern Shi and Northern Song." After his death his poems were scattered and lost; his clansman grandson Bangxian gathered and edited them into six juan.
48
沆，字子餐，餘杭人。 順治十二年進士，官至戶部侍郎。 性退讓，或譏彈其詩，輒應時改定。 有皋園集。
Hang, styled Zican, was from Yuhang. A jinshi of the twelfth year of Shunzhi, he rose to serve as Vice Minister of Revenue. Modest and yielding by nature, he would revise his poems on the spot whenever anyone criticized them. He left a collection entitled Gaoyuan ji.
49
施閏章，字尚白，號愚山，宣城人。 祖鴻猷，以儒學著。 子姓傳業江南，言家法者推施氏。
Shi Runzhang, styled Shangbai and known as Yushan, was from Xuancheng. His grandfather Hongyou was noted for scholarly accomplishment. His family kept up its scholarly tradition in the south for generations; when people spoke of exemplary household discipline, the Shi were always cited.
50
閏章少孤，事叔父如父。 從沈壽民遊，博綜群籍，善詩古文辭。 順治六年進士，授刑部主事，以員外郎試高等。 擢山東學政，崇雅黜浮，有冰鑑之譽。 秩滿，遷江西參議，分守湖西道。 屬郡殘破多盜，遍歷山谷撫循之，人呼為施佛子。 嘗作彈子嶺、大阬嘆等篇告長吏，讀者皆曰：「今之元道州也。」 尤崇獎風教，所至輒葺書院，會講常數百人。 新淦民兄弟忿戾不睦，一日聞講禮讓孝弟之言，遂相持哭，詣堦下服罪。 峽江患虎，製文祝之，俄有虎墮深塹，患遂絕。 歲旱，禱雨輒應。 康熙初，裁缺歸。 民留之不，得，乃醵金創龍岡書院祀之。 初，閏章駐臨江，有清江環城下，民過者咸曰：「是江似使君。」 因改名使君江。 及是傾城送江上，又送至湖。 以官舫輕，民爭買石膏載之，乃得渡。 十八年，召試鴻博，授翰林院侍講，纂修明史，典試河南。 二十二年，轉侍讀，尋病卒。
Runzhang was orphaned young and treated his uncle with the respect due a father. He studied with Shen Shoumin, read widely across many texts, and excelled in poetry and classical prose. A jinshi of the sixth year of Shunzhi, he was appointed a secretary in the Ministry of Justice and placed at the top of the assistant department director examination. Promoted to educational commissioner of Shandong, he favored solid elegance over shallow display and won a reputation as an incorruptible judge of talent—as a "mirror of ice." When his term ended, he was made assistant administrator of Jiangxi with charge of the western Jiangxi circuit. The prefectures under his charge were devastated and infested with bandits; he traveled through hill and valley to restore order, and the people called him "Bodhisattva Shi." He once wrote such pieces as "Lament at Danzi Ridge" and "Lament at the Great Pit" to reprove local officials; readers said of him, "He is the Yuan Daozhou of our age." He made a special point of promoting moral instruction; wherever he went he restored academies, and his lecture gatherings routinely drew hundreds. Two brothers in Xingan had grown hostile to each other; one day, upon hearing a lecture on ritual, deference, and filial duty, they fell into each other's arms weeping and came before the hall to confess their wrongdoing. When Xiajiang was troubled by tigers, he composed a ritual prayer against them; soon afterward a tiger fell into a deep ditch, and the menace ceased. In drought years his prayers for rain were answered without fail. Early in the Kangxi reign his office was abolished and he returned home. Unable to keep him from leaving, the people pooled funds to found Longgang Academy and enshrined him there. When Runzhang was first posted at Linjiang, a clear river wound below the city walls; people passing by would say, "This river is like our prefect." It was accordingly renamed "Prefect's River." On this occasion the whole city turned out to see him off on the river and followed him as far as the lake. Finding the official boat too light to cross safely, the people vied to buy gypsum and load it aboard so he could get across. In the eighteenth year he was summoned to the poetics examination, appointed Reader-in-Waiting of the Hanlin Academy, assigned to compile the Ming History, and put in charge of the Henan provincial examinations. In the twenty-second year he was promoted to Reader; before long he fell ill and died.
51
閏章之學，以體仁為本。 置義田，贍族好，扶掖後進。 為文意樸而氣靜，詩與宋琬齊名。 王士禎愛其五言詩，為作摘句圖。 士禎門人問詩法於閏章，閏章曰：「阮亭如華嚴樓閣，彈指即見。 予則不然，如作室者，瓴甓木石，一一就平地築起。」 論者皆謂其允。 著有學餘堂集、矩齋雜記、蠖齋詩話，都八十餘卷。
Runzhang's scholarship took practical humanity as its foundation. He set up charity fields to support needy kinsmen and took pains to encourage younger scholars. His prose was plain in thought and calm in spirit; in poetry he ranked with Song Wan. Wang Shizhen admired his pentameter verse and painted an "Extracted Lines" scroll in his honor. When one of Shizhen's disciples asked Runzhang about the art of poetry, Runzhang replied, "Ruanting is like the jeweled towers of the Avatamsaka Sutra—you need only snap your fingers and they appear. I am not like that. I am like someone building a house—laying each tile, brick, and stone in place from the ground up." Critics agreed that the comparison was just. His works include the Xueyu Tang ji, Juzhai zaji, and Huozhai shihua—more than eighty juan in all.
52
閏章與同邑高詠友善，皆工詩，主東南壇坫數十年，時號「宣城體」。
Runzhang was close friends with his fellow townsman Gao Yong; both were masters of poetry and for decades led literary circles in the southeast, their manner known as the "Xuancheng style."
53
詠，字阮懷。 幼稱神童。 祖維岳，知興國州，清介無長物。 詠食貧勵學，屢躓名場，年近六十，始貢入太學。 詞科之舉，詠與焉，授檢討。 閏章稱其討優入古人。 兼工書畫，有遺山堂、若岩堂集。
Yong, styled Ruanhuai. In childhood he was hailed as a prodigy. His grandfather Weiyue, who served as prefect of Xingguo, was incorruptible and owned almost nothing beyond the essentials. Yong lived in poverty but studied hard; he failed repeatedly on the examination circuit and was nearly sixty before he entered the Imperial Academy as a tribute student. He took part in the special scholars' examination and was appointed a reviser. Runzhang said of his regulated verse that it rivaled the ancients. He was also accomplished in calligraphy and painting and left the Yishan Tang and Ruoyan Tang collections.
54
時同舉鴻博又有泰州鄧漢儀，字孝威。 以年老授中書舍人。 亦工詩。 遊跡所至，輒以名集，逐年編紀，凡七集。 詩家咸推重之。
Among those recommended for the special examination at the same time was Deng Hanyi of Taizhou, styled Xiaowei. Because of his age, he was appointed a drafting clerk in the Secretariat. He too was a skilled poet. Wherever he traveled he titled a collection after the place, arranging them year by year—seven volumes in all. Poets everywhere held him in high regard.
55
王士祿，字子底，濟南新城人。 少工文章，清介有守。 弟士祜、士禎從之學詩。 士禎遂為詩家大宗，官尚書，自有傳。 士祿，順治九年進士。 投牒改官，選萊州府教授，遷國子監助教，擢吏部主事。 康熙二年，以員外郎典試河南，磨勘罣吏議下獄。 久之得雪，免歸。 居數年，起原官。 學士張貞生、御史李棠先後建言獲咎，力直之，人以為難。 尋又免歸。 母喪，以毀卒，年四十有八。 其文去雕飾，詩尤閒澹幽肆。 有西樵、十笏山房諸集。
Wang Shilu, styled Zidi, was from Xincheng in Jinan. From youth he excelled at literary composition and was known for his integrity and self-restraint. His younger brothers Shihu and Shizhen studied poetry under him. Shizhen went on to become a leading figure in poetry, rose to minister, and has his own biography. Shilu was a jinshi of the ninth year of Shunzhi. He petitioned to change posts, was appointed instructor at Laizhou Prefecture, then assistant instructor at the Imperial Academy, and was eventually promoted to a secretary in the Ministry of Personnel. In the second year of Kangxi, while presiding over the Henan examinations as an assistant department director, he was caught up in a post-examination investigation, censured, and thrown into prison. After a long interval he was cleared, dismissed from office, and sent home. Several years later he was recalled to his former rank. When Academician Zhang Zhensheng and Censor Li Tang were punished in turn for their memorials, he spoke out forcefully on their behalf—an act people considered brave. Before long he was dismissed again and sent home. He died at forty-eight, worn away by grief during mourning for his mother. His prose avoided ornament; his poetry was especially calm, understated, and spacious in spirit. His works include the Xiqiao and Shihu Shanfang collections.
56
士祜，字子測。 十歲時，客或疑焦竑字弱侯何耶？ 坐客未對，即應聲曰：「此出考工記，'竑其幅廣以為之弱'也。 咸驚其夙慧。 康熙初，第進士，未仕卒。 士禎輯其詩為古缽山人遺集。
Shihu, styled Zice. When he was ten, a guest wondered aloud why the scholar Jiao Hong took the style Ruohou? Before anyone at the table could answer, he replied at once: "It comes from the Record of Crafts—'Broaden the width of the cloth to make the selvage. Everyone was astonished by his precocious wit. Early in the Kangxi reign he passed the jinshi examination but died before he could take office. Shizhen edited his poems into the Gubo Shanren yiji, the Posthumous Collection of the Hermit of the Old Bowl.
57
當是時，山左詩人王氏兄弟外，有田雯、顏光敏、曹貞吉、王蘋、張篤慶、徐夜皆知名。
At that time, apart from the Wang brothers, Shandong poets of note included Tian Wen, Yan Guangmin, Cao Zhenji, Wang Ping, Zhang Duqing, and Xu Ye.
58
雯，字紫綸，號山薑，德州人。 康熙三年進士，授中書。 先是中書以貲郎充，是年始改用進士，遂為例。 累遷工部郎中。 督江南學政，所取士多異才。 每按試，從兩騾，二僕隨之，戒有司勿供張。 授湖廣督糧道，遷光祿寺卿，巡撫江寧，調貴州。 時苗、仲猖獗，粵督議會剿，雯謂：「制苗之法，犯則治之，否則防之而已，無庸動眾勞民也。」 議遂寢。 丁憂，起補刑部侍郎，調戶部，以疾歸。 康熙中，士禎負海內重名，其論詩主風調。 雯負其縱橫排奡之氣，欲以奇麗抗之。 有古懽堂集。
Wen, styled Zilun and known as Shangjiang, was from Dezhou. A jinshi of the third year of Kangxi, he was appointed a drafting clerk in the Secretariat. Previously Secretariat draftsmen had been purchased offices; from this year on jinshi were appointed instead, and the practice became standard. He rose through successive appointments to become a director in the Ministry of Works. As educational superintendent of Jiangnan, he selected many exceptionally gifted scholars. On examination tours he traveled with only two mules and two servants, and warned local officials not to put on display for him. He served as Huguang grain intendant, was promoted to Director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, governed Jiangning, and was later transferred to Guizhou. When the Miao and Zhong were acting up, the governor-general of Guangdong proposed a joint punitive campaign. Wen argued: "The way to handle the Miao is to punish offenses and otherwise keep them in check—there is no need to mobilize armies and wear out the people." The proposal was shelved. After mourning he was recalled as Vice Minister of Justice, transferred to the Ministry of Revenue, and later retired home because of illness. In the Kangxi era Shizhen enjoyed a towering national reputation, and his poetics emphasized tone and modulation. Wen, relying on his bold, forceful temperament, sought to counter him with poetry that was strange and gorgeous. He left the Guhuan Tang ji.
59
貞吉，字升六，安丘人。 與雯同年進士，禮部郎中。 詩格遒練，有實庵詩略。 兼工倚聲，吳綺選名家詞，推為壓卷。
Zhenji, styled Shengliu, was from Anqiu. A jinshi of the same year as Wen, he served as a director in the Ministry of Rites. His poetry was taut and polished; he left the Shian shilue. He was also an accomplished lyricist; when Wu Qi compiled an anthology of master lyricists, Zhenji's piece was placed at the head of the volume.
60
光敏，字遜甫，曲阜人，顏子六十七世孫也。 康熙六年進士，除國史院中書舍人。 帝幸太學，加恩四氏子孫，授禮部主事，歷吏部郎中。 其為詩秀逸深厚，出入錢、劉。 吳江計東謂足以鼓吹休明。 雅善鼓琴，精騎射蹋鞠。 嘗西登太華，循伊闕，南浮江、淮，觀濤錢塘，溯三衢。 所至輒命工為圖，得金石文恆懸之屋壁。 有樂圃集、舊雨堂集。
Guangmin, styled Xunfu, was from Qufu and a sixty-seventh-generation descendant of Yan Hui. A jinshi of the sixth year of Kangxi, he was appointed a drafting clerk of the State History Bureau. When the emperor visited the Imperial Academy and extended favor to descendants of the Four Sages, Guangmin was appointed a secretary in the Ministry of Rites and later served as a director in the Ministry of Personnel. His poetry was graceful, spirited, and richly layered, in the vein of Qian Qi and Liu Yuxi. Ji Dong of Wujiang said his poetry was worthy to celebrate the golden age. He was an elegant zither player and adept at mounted archery and cuju. He once climbed Mount Hua in the west, passed through the Yique Gate, traveled south along the Yangtze and Huai, watched the Qiantang bore, and went upriver through the Sanqu region. Wherever he traveled he commissioned artists to paint the scenes, and inscribed stones he acquired he always hung on his walls. His works include the Lepu ji and Jiuyu Tang ji.
61
蘋，字秋史，歷城人。 少落拓不偶，人目為狂。 雯見其詩，為延譽。 嘗賦「黃葉」句絕工，人稱為王黃葉。 康熙四十五年進士，當為令，以母老改成山衛教授。 閉門耽吟，介節彌著。 有二十四泉草堂集。
Ping, styled Qiushi, was from Licheng. In youth he lived unconstrained and unlucky in life; people considered him unhinged. Tian Wen read his poetry and lent him his reputation. He once wrote an exceptionally fine line on yellow leaves, and people nicknamed him "Wang Yellow Leaf." A jinshi of the forty-fifth year of Kangxi, he was slated to become a county magistrate but, because his mother was old, sought and received appointment as instructor at Chengshan Guard instead. He shut himself in to write poetry, and his principled integrity became all the more celebrated. His works include the Ershisi Quan Caotang ji.
62
篤慶，字歷久，淄川人。 拔貢生。 早受知施閏章。 會徵鴻博，有欲薦之者，辭不應。 詩以盛唐為宗，有崑崙山房集。
Duqing, styled Lijiu, was from Zichuan. He was a selected tribute graduate. From youth he won the patronage of Shi Runzhang. When the Special Examination was announced, some wanted to recommend him, but he refused. He modeled his poetry on the High Tang masters and left the Kunlun Shanfang ji.
63
夜，字東痴，新城人，本名元善。 舉鴻博，不赴。 有詩集。
Ye, styled Dongchi, was from Xincheng; his original name was Yuanshan. He was nominated for the Special Examination but did not go. He left a poetry collection.
64
陳恭尹，字元孝，順德人。 父邦彥，明末殉國難，贈尚書。 恭尹少孤，能為詩，習聞忠孝大節。 棄家出遊，賦姑蘇懷古諸篇，傾動一時。 留閩、浙者七年。 一日，父友遇諸塗，責之曰：「子不歸葬，奈何徒欲一死塞責耶！」 恭尹泣謝之，乃歸。 既葬父增城，遂渡銅鼓洋訪故人於海外。 久之歸，主何衡家。 與陶窳、梁無技及衡弟絳相砥礪，世稱「北田五子」。 已，复遊贛州，轉泛洞庭，再遊金陵，至汴梁，北渡黃河，徘徊大行之下。 於是南歸，築室羊城之南以詩文自娛，自稱羅浮布衣。
Chen Gongyin, styled Yuanxiao, was from Shunde. His father Bangyan died for the dynasty at the fall of the Ming and was posthumously made Minister of a department. Orphaned in youth, Gongyin wrote poetry and grew up steeped in stories of loyalty and filial devotion. He left home to travel, and poems such as his Recalling Antiquity at Gusu shook the literary world of his day. He stayed in Fujian and Zhejiang for seven years. One day a friend of his father met him on the road and rebuked him: "You have not returned to bury your father—do you think dying alone will satisfy your obligation?" Gongyin wept and apologized, then went home. After burying his father at Zengcheng, he crossed the Tonggu Sea to visit an old friend abroad. Long afterward he came back and lived in the home of He Heng. With Tao Yu, Liang Wuji, and He Heng's younger brother Jiang he spurred one another on in letters, and they were known as the "Five Sons of Beitian." Later he traveled again to Ganzhou, sailed on Lake Dongting, revisited Nanjing, went on to Kaifeng, crossed the Yellow River northward, and wandered beneath the Taihang range. He then returned south, built a house south of Guangzhou, and amused himself with poetry and prose, calling himself the Luofu Commoner.
65
恭尹修髯偉貌，氣幹沉深。 其為詩激昂頓挫，足以發其哀怨之思。 自言平生文辭多取諸胸臆，僕僕道塗，稽古未遑也。 卒，年七十一。 著獨漉堂集。 王隼取恭尹詩合屈大均、梁佩蘭共刻之，為嶺南三家集。
Gongyin wore a long beard and had a commanding presence, with a grave and steady air. His verse rose and fell with passionate force, enough to give voice to his grief and indignation. He said that most of his life's writing came straight from the heart; always on the road, he had never had time for scholarly antiquarianism. He died at seventy-one. His works include the Dulutang ji. Wang Sun collected Gongyin's poems together with those of Qu Dajun and Liang Peilan and published them as the Lingnan Sanjia ji.
66
大均，字介子，番禺人。 初名紹隆，遇變為僧，中年返初服。 工詩，高渾兀奡，有翁山詩文集。
Dajun, styled Jiezi, was from Panyu. Originally named Shaolong, he became a monk when disaster struck and returned to lay life in middle age. A fine poet, his verse was lofty, resonant, and boldly free; he left the Wengshan shiwen ji.
67
佩蘭，字芝五，南海人。 童時日記數千言。 順治十四年鄉試第一，又三十一年始成進士，年六十矣。 佩蘭夙負詩名。 既選庶吉士，館中推為祭酒。 不一年假歸，里居十五載。 會詔飭詞臣就職，復入都。 踰月散館，以不習國書罷歸。 結蘭湖社，與同邑程可則，番禺王邦畿、方殿元及恭尹等稱「嶺南七子」。 有六瑩堂集。
Peilan, styled Zhiwu, was from Nanhai. As a boy he could memorize several thousand characters a day. He topped the provincial examination in Shunzhi 14, but did not pass the palace examination until thirty-one years later, when he was sixty. Peilan had been famous for his poetry from early on. Once chosen as a Hanlin bachelor, he was regarded as the leading spirit of the academy. Within a year he took leave and went home, where he lived for fifteen years. When an edict ordered literary officials back to duty, he returned to the capital. A month later, when the Hanlin probation ended, he was dismissed for failing to master Manchu and sent home. He founded the Lanhu Society, and with his fellow townsman Cheng Keze, Wang Bangji and Fang Dianyuan of Panyu, Chen Gongyin, and others he was known as one of the "Seven Masters of Lingnan." His works include the Liuyingtang ji.
68
可則，字週量。 順治九年會試第一。 以磨勘停殿試歸，益恣探經史。 十七年，始應閣試，授內閣中書，累遷兵部郎中。 出知桂林府，以敏幹稱。 其官都下，與宋琬、施閏章、王士祿、士禎、陳廷敬、沈荃、曹爾堪輩為文酒之會，吳之振合刻八家詩選。 可則詩曰海日堂集。
Keze, styled Zhouliang. He placed first in the metropolitan examination in Shunzhi 9. A document review halted his palace examination and sent him home, where he threw himself even more freely into the classics and history. In the seventeenth year he finally took the palace examination, was appointed a Secretariat drafter, and rose to Director in the Ministry of War. Posted as prefect of Guilin, he was praised for sharp and capable administration. While at court he joined Song Wan, Shi Runzhang, Wang Shilu, Wang Shizhen, Chen Tingjing, Shen Quan, Cao Erkan, and others in literary gatherings over wine, and Wu Zhizhen published their Eight Masters Poetry Selection. Keze's poetry is collected in the Hairi Tang ji.
69
殿元，字蒙章。 康熙三年進士。 歷知剡城、江寧等縣。 置祭田以贍兄弟，而自攜長子還、次子朝僑寓蘇州。 父子皆有詩名。 所稱「嶺南七子」，併其二子數之也。 殿元著九谷集； 還，靈州集； 朝，勺園集。
Dianyuan, styled Mengzhang. A jinshi of Kangxi 3. He served successively as magistrate of Shancheng, Jiangning, and other counties. He set aside sacrificial land to support his brothers, but took his eldest son Huan and second son Chao to live in Suzhou. Father and sons were all known for their poetry. The so-called "Seven Masters of Lingnan" included his two sons in the count. Dianyuan wrote the Jiugu ji; Huan, the Lingzhou ji; Chao, the Shaoyuan ji.
70
佩蘭之友又有南海吳文煒，字山帶。 十歲工詩，兼善繪事。 時初效長吉體，務為險語取快。 康熙三十二年舉人。 計偕，卒於旅舍。 有金茅山堂集，恭尹為之序。
Among Peilan's friends was Wu Wenwei of Nanhai, styled Shandai. At ten he was already an accomplished poet and painter. At first he wrote in the manner of Li He, chasing daring lines for instant effect. A juren of Kangxi 32. On the journey to the capital for the examination he died at an inn. He left the Jinmaoshantang ji, with a preface by Chen Gongyin.
71
王隼，字蒲衣，番禺人。 父邦畿，明副貢生。 隱居羅浮，嶺南七子之一也。 有耳鳴集。 隼七歲能詩。 慕道術，早歲棄家入丹霞，尋入匡廬，居太乙峰，六七年始歸。 性喜琵琶，終日理書卷，生事窘不顧，惟取琵琶彈之。 琵琶聲急，即其窘益甚。 著大樗堂集。 妻潘，女瑤湘，並工詩。
Wang Sun, styled Puyi, was from Panyu. His father Bangji was a supplemental tribute graduate under the Ming. He lived in seclusion on Mount Luofu and was one of the Seven Masters of Lingnan. His works include the Ermimg ji. Sun was writing poetry by the age of seven. Drawn to Daoist practice, he left home young for Danxia, then Mount Lu, where he lived on Taiyi Peak and did not return for six or seven years. He loved the pipa; he spent his days among books, ignored his poverty, and played nothing but the pipa. The more urgently the pipa sounded, the worse his poverty became. His works include the Dachu Tang ji. His wife Pan and his daughter Yaoxiang were both accomplished poets.
72
馮班，字定遠，常熟人。 淹雅善持論，顧性不諧俗。 說詩力牴嚴羽，尤不取江西宗派，出入義山、牧之、飛卿之間。 書四體皆精。 著鈍吟集。 趙執信於近代文家少許可者，見班所著獨折服，至具衣冠拜之。 嘗謁其墓，寫「私淑門人」刺焚塚前。 其為名流所傾仰類此。
Feng Ban, styled Dingyuan, was from Changshu. Deeply learned and sharp in debate, he was by nature at odds with conventional society. In poetics he fiercely opposed Yan Yu, rejected the Jiangxi school above all, and ranged between Li Shangyin, Du Mu, and Wen Tingyun. He was master of all four major calligraphic scripts. His works include the Dunyin ji. Zhao Zhixin seldom approved any writer of his day, but Ban's work alone won him over—so much so that he put on full formal dress to pay him homage. Once he visited Ban's tomb, wrote "Private Disciple" on a card, and burned it before the grave. The admiration he won from leading men of letters was of this kind.
73
宗元鼎，字定九，江都人。 七歲詠梅，遠近傳誦其句。 堂有古梅一株，人謂之「宗郎梅」。 性狷而孝，釜甑屢空，未嘗以貧告人。 康熙初，貢太學，銓注州同知。 未仕卒。 元鼎與從弟元豫、觀，從子之瑾、之瑜皆工詩，有「廣陵五宗」之目。
Zong Yuanding, styled Dingjiu, was from Jiangdu. At seven he wrote a poem on plum blossoms, and his lines were passed around far and wide. An ancient plum tree stood in his hall, and people called it "Young Master Zong's Plum." Stern in temperament and deeply filial, he often had nothing in the larder, yet never complained of poverty to anyone. In early Kangxi he was sent as a tribute student to the Imperial Academy and selected for appointment as sub-prefect. He died before he could take up the post. Yuanding, his younger cousins Yuan Yu and Yuan Guan, and his nephews Zhi Jin and Zhi Yu were all accomplished poets and were known as the "Five Zongs of Guangling."
74
劉體仁，字公霝，潁州人。 順治中進士。 有家難，棄官從孫奇逢講學。 後官考功郎中。 體仁喜作畫，鑑識其精，又工鼓琴。 與汪琬、王士禎友善，著七頌堂集。 士禎稱其詩似孟東野； 又言今日善學才調集者無如元鼎，學西昆體者無如吳殳。
Liu Tiren, styled Gongyin, was from Yingzhou. A jinshi of the Shunzhi reign. When family trouble struck he resigned his post to study under Sun Qifeng. He later served as Director in the Ministry of Personnel. Tiren loved to paint and had a sharp eye for art; he was also an accomplished zither player. A friend of Wang Wan and Wang Shizhen, he left the Qisong Tang ji. Shizhen said his poetry resembled Meng Jiao's; He also said that among living poets none matched Yuanding in mastering the Caidiaoji tradition, and none matched Wu Shu in the Xikun manner.
75
殳，字修齡，原名喬，亦常熟人也。 著圍爐詩話，云：「意喻則米，炊而為飯者文，釀而為酒者詩乎？」 又曰：「詩之中須有人在。」 執信嘆為知言。
Shu, styled Xiuling, originally named Qiao, was also from Changshu. In his Weilu shihua he wrote: "Meaning is like rice—is prose the cooked grain, and poetry the wine brewed from it?" He also said: "A poem must have a living person in it." Zhao Zhixin sighed that this was the voice of genuine understanding.
76
胡承諾，字君信，天門人。 崇禎時舉人。 明亡後，隱居不仕，臥天門巾、柘間。 順治十二年，部銓縣職。 康熙五年，檄徵入都，六年，至京師，未幾告歸。 構石莊於西村，窮年誦讀，著繹志二十餘萬言。 繹志者，繹己所志也。 原本道德，切近人事，為有體有用之學。 其吏治篇曰：「古之人不敢輕言變法也。 必有明哲之德，於精粗之理無所不昭，不獨精者為之地，即粗者亦為之地，有和悅之氣，於異同之見無所不容，不獨同者樂其然，即異者亦樂其然； 然後可奪其久安之法，授以更新之制，而民不驚顧不讙譁也。」 租庸篇曰：「欲富國者，當使君民之力皆常有餘。 民之餘力，生於君之約取； 君之餘力，生於民之各足。」 他篇準此。 承諾自擬其書於徐幹中論、顏氏家訓。 或頗譏其掇拾群言，未能如古人自成一家之說，然大體必軌於正。 又有讀書錄，則鱗雜細碎，殆繹志取材之餘矣。 二十六年，卒，年七十五。
Hu Chengnuo, styled Junxin, was from Tianmen. A juren of the Chongzhen reign. After the Ming fell he lived in seclusion and refused office, dwelling among the Jin and Zhe hills near Tianmen. In Shunzhi 12 the ministry selected him for a county appointment. In Kangxi 5 he was summoned to the capital by official order; he arrived in Kangxi 6 and before long asked to go home. He built the Stone Villa in West Village, devoted himself to reading year round, and wrote the Yizhi, more than two hundred thousand characters in all. Yizhi means to unfold one's own aspirations. Rooted in moral principle and grounded in human affairs, it was learning with both substance and practical application. Its chapter on official administration says: "The ancients did not dare speak lightly of changing the laws. One must possess the virtue of clear wisdom, illuminating every principle fine and coarse alike—not only making room for the refined but for the coarse as well; one must have a spirit of harmony and ease, embracing every view whether alike or different—not only pleasing those who agree, but those who differ as well; only then could one take away long-established laws and grant new institutions, and the people would neither start in alarm nor break into clamor." The chapter on land tax and corvée says: "One who wishes to enrich the state should keep both the ruler's strength and the people's strength always in surplus. The people's surplus strength comes from the ruler's restraint in exactions; the ruler's surplus strength comes from each of the people having enough for themselves." The other chapters follow the same pattern. Chengnuo himself likened his book to Xu Gan's Zhonglun and the Yan Family Instructions. Some criticized it for assembling others' words rather than forming a school of thought of its own like the ancients, but on the whole it always kept to the correct path. He also left Reading Notes, a miscellaneous collection of fragments—likely leftover material gathered while composing the Yizhi. He died in the twenty-sixth year, at seventy-five.
77
同時篤志撰述，其學與承諾相上下者，又有賀貽孫，字子翼，永新人； 唐甄，字鑄萬，達州人。
At the same time there was He Yisun, styled Ziyi, of Yongxin, equally devoted to writing and Chengnuo's peer in learning; and Tang Zhen, styled Zhuwan, from Dazhou.
78
貽孫九歲能屬文。 明季社事盛行，貽孫與萬茂先、陳士業、徐巨源、曾堯臣輩結社豫章。 及明亡，遂不出。 順治初，學使者慕其名，特列貢榜，避不就。 巡按御史笪重光欲舉應鴻博，書至，貽孫愀然曰：「吾逃世而不逃名，名之累人實甚。 吾將從此逝矣！」 乃翦發衣緇，結茅深山，無復能踪蹟之者。 晚年窮益甚。 著有易觸、詩觸、詩筏、騷筏，又著水田居激書。 激書者，備名物以寄興，紀逸事以垂勸，援古鑑今，錯綜比類。 言之不足，故長言之，長言之不足，故危悚惕厲，必暢所欲言而後已，激濁揚清。 始自貴因，終於空明，凡四十一篇。
Yisun was writing prose by the age of nine. In the late Ming, when literary societies flourished, Yisun formed a society at Nanchang with Wan Maoxian, Chen Shiye, Xu Juyuan, Zeng Yaochén, and others. When the Ming fell, he withdrew from public life entirely. In early Shunzhi the provincial education commissioner, admiring his reputation, specially placed him on the tribute list, but he declined. The touring censor Da Chongguang wished to recommend him for the Special Examination; when the letter arrived, Yisun said mournfully: "I fled the world but not fame—how greatly fame burdens a man! I shall vanish from here!" He then cut his hair, put on monastic garb, built a thatched hut deep in the mountains, and was never traced again. In his later years he grew even poorer. His works include Yichu, Shichu, Shifa, and Saofa, and also the Shuitian ju Jishu. The Jishu assembles names and things to convey its themes, records unusual events to hand down admonition, draws on antiquity to mirror the present, and weaves comparisons together in intricate arrangement. When words were not enough, he spoke at length; when length was not enough, he wrote with urgency, alarm, vigilance, and sternness, never stopping until he had fully expressed himself—stirring up the muddy and raising up the clear. It begins with "Honoring Causation" and ends with "Empty Clarity"—forty-one chapters in all.
79
甄性至孝，父喪，獨棲殯室三年。 以世亂不克還葬，遂葬父虎丘。 順治十四年舉人。 選長子令，下車，即導民樹桑凡八十萬本，民利賴焉。 未幾，坐逃人詿誤去官。 僦居吳市，炊煙屢絕，至採枸杞葉為食，衣敗絮，著述不輟。 始志在權衡天下，作衡書，後以連蹇不遇，更名潛書。 分上下篇，上篇論學，始辨儒，終博觀，凡五十篇； 下篇論政，始尚治，終潛存，凡四十七篇。 上觀天道，下察人事，遠正古蹟，近度今宜，根於心而致之行，非虛言也。 寧都魏禧見而歎之曰：「是周、秦之書也，今猶有此人乎！」 卒，年七十五。
Deeply filial by nature, Zhen lived alone in the mourning hall beside his father's coffin for three years. Because the times were too chaotic to return the body home, he buried his father at Tiger Hill. A juren of Shunzhi 14. Selected as magistrate of Changzi, he immediately guided the people to plant eight hundred thousand mulberry trees, on which the people came to rely. Before long he was dismissed over entanglement in a fugitive case. He rented a room in Suzhou; cooking fires often went out altogether, and he gathered wolfberry leaves for food and wore tattered cotton padding, yet never stopped writing. At first his aim was to weigh and balance the realm, and he wrote the Hengshu; later, after repeated setbacks and lack of recognition, he renamed it the Qianshu. It is divided into upper and lower sections: the upper discusses learning, beginning with distinguishing the Ru and ending with broad observation—fifty chapters in all; the lower discusses governance, beginning with esteeming order and ending with hidden preservation—forty-seven chapters in all. Looking up it observes the Way of Heaven, looking down it examines human affairs; from afar it corrects ancient traces, from near it measures what suits the present—rooted in the heart and carried into action, not empty talk. Wei Xi of Ningdu saw it and sighed: "This is a book of Zhou and Qin times—can such a man still exist today!" He died at seventy-five.
80
阿什坦，字金龍，完顏氏，滿洲正白旗人。 順治九年進士，授刑科給事中。 初繙譯大學、中庸、孝經諸書，詔刊行。 阿什坦上言； 「學者宜以聖賢為期，經史為導，此外無益雜書當屏絕。」 又請嚴旗人男女之別，定部院九品之制，俱報可。 康熙初，罷職家居。 鰲拜專政，欲令一見終不往。 嗣以薦起，聖祖召問節用愛人，對曰：「節用莫要於寡欲，愛人莫先於用賢。」 聖祖顧左右曰：「此我朝大儒也！」 著有大學中庸講義及奏稿。 孫留保，以掌院學士充明史總裁，附王蘭生傳。
Ashitan, styled Jinlong, of the Wanyan clan, was a Manchu of the Plain White Banner. A jinshi of Shunzhi 9, he was appointed a supervising secretary in the Bureau of Punishments. When the Great Learning, Doctrine of the Mean, Classic of Filial Piety, and other books were first translated, an edict ordered their publication. Ashitan submitted a memorial: "Students should take the sages as their goal and the classics and histories as their guide; aside from these, unprofitable miscellaneous books should be cast aside." He also requested strict separation between men and women among banner people and the establishment of a nine-rank system for ministries and boards—all were approved. In early Kangxi he was dismissed and lived at home. When Oboi monopolized power and wished to summon him for an audience, he never went. Later, through recommendation, he was restored to office; the Kangxi Emperor summoned him and asked about thrift and caring for the people. He replied: "In thrift nothing is more essential than few desires; in caring for the people nothing comes before employing the worthy." The Kangxi Emperor turned to those beside him and said: "This is a great Confucian of our dynasty!" His works include commentaries on the Great Learning and Doctrine of the Mean, as well as memorial drafts. His grandson Liubao served as chief compiler of the History of the Ming as a Grand Secretary of the Hanlin Academy; see the biography of Wang Lansheng.
81
劉淇，字武仲，漢軍鑲白旗人。 弟汶，舉人。 受知世宗，時有二難之目。 著周易通說、禹貢說、助字辨略、堂邑志、衛園集。
Liu Qi, styled Wuzhong, was a Han Bannerman of the Bordered White Banner. His younger brother Wen was a juren. Both won the Yongzheng Emperor's favor and at the time were known as the "Two Qis." His works include Exposition of the Zhou Changes, Exposition of the Tribute of Yu, Brief Discrimination of Auxiliary Characters, Gazetteer of Tangyi, and the Weiyuan ji.
82
金德純，字素公，漢軍正紅旗人。 著旗軍志。
Jin Dechun, styled Sugong, was a Han Bannerman of the Plain Red Banner. He wrote the Record of Banner Armies.
83
傅澤洪，字育甫，漢軍旗人。 累官江南淮揚道。 著行水金鑑百七十五卷。
Fu Zehong, styled Yufu, was a Han Bannerman. He rose to Intendant of the Huai-Yang Circuit in Jiangnan. He wrote the Golden Mirror of Water Control in one hundred seventy-five juan.
84
汪琬，字苕文，長洲人。 少孤，自奮於學，銳意為古文辭。 於易、詩、書、春秋、三禮、喪服咸有發明。 性狷介。 深嘆古今文家好名寡實，鮮自重特立，故務為經世有用之學。 其於當世人物，褒譏不少寬假。 順治十二年進士，授主事，再遷刑部郎中。 坐累降兵馬司指揮，能舉其職，不以秩卑自沮。 任滿，稍遷戶部主事，民送之溢衢卷。 榷江寧西新關，以疾假歸。 結廬堯峰山，閉戶撰述，不交世事，學者稱堯峰先生。 以宋德宜，陳廷敬薦博學鴻儒科，試列一等。 授編修，纂修明史，棘棘爭議不阿。 在館六十日，再乞病歸。 歸十年而卒，年六十七。
Wang Wan, styled Tiaowen, was from Changzhou. Orphaned young, he drove himself in study and was intent on writing classical prose. He had original insights into the Changes, Odes, Documents, Spring and Autumn Annals, Three Rites, and Mourning Dress. By nature he was stern and uncompromising. He deeply lamented that writers ancient and modern loved fame but lacked substance and rarely held themselves to independent integrity; therefore he devoted himself to learning useful for governing the age. In his judgments of contemporaries, praise and censure alike were never sparing. A jinshi of Shunzhi 12, he was appointed a section chief and twice promoted to Director in the Ministry of Punishments. Demoted to commander in the Horse Bureau over entanglement in a case, he still fulfilled his duties and was not discouraged by his low rank. When his term ended he was promoted to section chief in the Ministry of Revenue; the people saw him off until the streets overflowed. He supervised the West New Customs at Nanjing, then took sick leave to return home. He built a hut on Mount Yaofeng, closed his doors to write, kept aloof from worldly affairs, and scholars called him Master Yaofeng. Recommended by Song Deyi and Chen Tingjing for the Erudite Special Examination, he placed in the first rank. Appointed compiler, he helped compile the History of the Ming and in sharp disputes never yielded. After sixty days in the academy he again requested sick leave and went home. Ten years after returning home he died, at sixty-seven.
85
初，聖祖嘗問廷敬今世誰能為古文者，廷敬舉琬以對。 及琬病歸，聖祖南巡駐無錫，諭巡撫湯斌曰：「汪琬久在翰林，有文譽。 今聞其居鄉甚清正，特賜御書一軸。」 當時榮之。 琬為文原本六經，疏暢類南宋諸家，敘事有法。 公卿志狀，皆爭得琬文為重。 嘗自輯詩文為類稿、續稿各數十卷，又簡其尤精者，囑門人林佶繕刻之。
Earlier the Kangxi Emperor once asked Chen Tingjing who in the present age could write classical prose, and Chen Tingjing named Wan. When Wan returned home on sick leave, the Kangxi Emperor on his southern tour stopped at Wuxi and instructed Governor Tang Bin: "Wang Wan long served in the Hanlin and has a literary reputation. Now I hear that in retirement he is very upright and pure; I specially bestow one scroll of imperial calligraphy." At the time this was counted a great honor. Wan's writing was rooted in the Six Classics, lucid and flowing like the Southern Song masters, and his narrative had method. For the memorial inscriptions and biographies of high officials, all vied to obtain Wan's writing as the crowning piece. He compiled his poetry and prose into categorized drafts and continued drafts, each of several dozen juan, then selected the finest pieces and entrusted his disciple Lin Ji to edit and print them.
86
計東，字甫草，吳江人。 少負經世才，自比馬周、王猛。 遭世變，著籌南五論，持謁史可法，可法奇之，弗能用也。 順治十四年，舉順天鄉試，旋以江南奏銷案被黜。 嘗從湯斌講學，又從汪琬受歐、曾古文義法，故其為文具有本原，而一出以和平溫雅。 既廢不用，貧無以養，縱遊四方，所至交其豪傑。 過鄴城，尋明詩人謝榛葬處，得之南門外二十里，為修墓立石，請有司禁樵牧。 又憩順德逆旅，念歸有光昔嘗佐郡，集中有廳壁記，求其遺址不得，乃即署旁廢圃中設瓣香，再拜流涕而去，觀者駭其狂。
Ji Dong, styled Fucao, was from Wujiang. In youth he possessed talent for statecraft and compared himself to Ma Zhou and Wang Meng. When disaster struck he wrote the Five Discourses on Planning for the South, presented them to Shi Kefa, and Shi Kefa marveled at them but could not employ him. In Shunzhi 14 he passed the Shuntian provincial examination, but was soon disqualified in the Jiangnan examination-fraud case. He studied under Tang Bin and learned classical prose from Wang Wan in the manner of Ouyang Xiu and Zeng Gong; his writing had solid foundations, yet always came forth in peaceful and gentle elegance. Discarded and unemployed, too poor to support himself, he wandered freely and wherever he went befriended local heroes. Passing through Yecheng, he searched for the burial place of the Ming poet Xie Zhen, found it twenty li outside the south gate, restored the tomb and erected a stele, and asked the authorities to forbid woodcutting and grazing there. Resting at an inn in Shunde, he recalled that Gui Youguang had once served as assistant in the prefecture and that his collected works contained a Hall Wall Record; unable to find the site, he set out a single incense petal in the abandoned garden beside the yamen, bowed twice with tears streaming, and left—onlookers were alarmed by his eccentricity.
87
東外若不羈，內行謹，事母至孝。 同邑友人吳兆騫流徙出關，為卹其家，且以女許配其弱子。 大學士王熙素重東，屢欲薦之，未果。 會詔舉鴻博，而東已前一年卒，深悼惜焉。
Outwardly Dong seemed unrestrained, but inwardly his conduct was careful and his devotion to his mother deeply filial. When his fellow townsman and friend Wu Zhaoqian was exiled beyond the pass, he provided for his family and even betrothed his daughter to Wu's young son. Grand Secretary Wang Xi had long valued Dong and repeatedly wished to recommend him, but never succeeded. Just as an edict was issued to recommend candidates for the Special Examination, Dong had already died the year before, and Wang deeply mourned and regretted it.
88
初游河南，見商丘宋犖，輒引重。 其後東歿二十餘年，犖至江蘇巡撫，為序其遺文，曰改亭集，刊行之。
On his first travels in Henan he met Song Luo of Shangqiu, who immediately held him in high esteem. More than twenty years after Dong's death, Song became governor-general of Jiangsu, wrote a preface for his posthumous writings titled the Gaiting ji, and had them published.
89
兆騫，字漢槎。 亦十四年舉人。 以科場蜚語逮系，遣戍寧古塔。 兆騫與弟兆宜皆善屬文，居塞上二十年，侘傺不自聊，一發之於詩。 已而友人顧貞觀言於納蘭成德、徐乾學，為納鍰，遂於康熙二十年赦還。 著秋笳集。 兆宜嘗注徐、庾二集，韓偓詩集，又注玉台新詠、才調集，並行於世。
Zhao Qian, styled Hancha. He too was a juren of Shunzhi 14. Because of rumors in the examination halls he was arrested and sent into exile at Ningguta. Zhao Qian and his younger brother Zhao Yi were both skilled writers; after twenty years on the frontier, despondent and unable to find solace, he poured it all out in poetry. Before long his friend Gu Zhenguan spoke to Nalan Xingde and Xu Qianxue, who paid the ransom, and in Kangxi 20 he was pardoned and returned. He wrote the Qiujia ji. Zhao Yi annotated the two collections of Xu and Yu, Han Wo's poetry collection, and also the Yutai xinyong and Caidiao ji, all of which circulated widely.
90
同邑顧我錡，廩生。 鄂爾泰任江蘇布政，試古學，得士五十三人，刻南邦黎獻集，推我錡為冠。 乾隆丙辰開詞科，鄂爾泰惜我錡前卒，不獲舉，人謂其遇與東同。 有湘南詩集。
His fellow townsman Gu Woqi was a government-sponsored student. When Ortai served as financial commissioner of Jiangsu, he tested candidates in classical learning, selected fifty-three scholars, printed the Nibang lixian ji, and ranked Woqi first. When the poetry special examination was opened in Qianlong bingchen, Ortai regretted that Woqi had already died and could not be recommended; people said his fortune matched Dong's. He left the Xiangnan shiji.
91
彭孫遹，字駿孫，海鹽人。 父期生，明唐王時官太僕卿，死贛州。 長子孫貽以毀卒，孫遹其少子也。 順治十六年進士，授中書。 素工詞章，與王士禎齊名，號曰「彭王」。 康熙十八年，開博學鴻儒科，詔中外諸臣廣蒐幽隱，備禮敦勸，無論已仕未仕，徵詣闕下，月餼太倉米。 明年三月朔，召試太和殿。 發賦、詩題各一，學士院給官紙，光祿布席，賜宴體仁閣下。 於是天子親擢孫遹一等一名，授編修。
Peng Sunyu, styled Junsun, was from Haiyan. His father Qisheng served as Minister of the Stud under the Ming Prince of Tang and died at Ganzhou. The eldest son Sunyi died from grief-mourning; Sunyu was the youngest son. A jinshi of Shunzhi 16, he was appointed a secretary in the Secretariat. Skilled in lyrical composition, he was as famous as Wang Shizhen, and the two were known as "Peng and Wang." In Kangxi 18 the Erudite Special Examination was opened; an edict ordered officials throughout the realm to search widely for recluses, prepare rites and earnestly encourage them, and whether already in office or not, summon them to the capital with monthly rations of Taicang rice. On the first day of the third month of the following year they were summoned for examination at the Hall of Supreme Harmony. One fu and one poetry topic were issued; the Hanlin Academy supplied official paper, the Court of Imperial Entertainments laid out the seating mats, and a banquet was granted below the Hall of Embodying Benevolence. Thereupon the emperor personally selected Sunyu as first in the first rank and appointed him compiler.
92
自孫遹外，其籍隸浙江者，又有錢塘汪霦，秀水徐嘉炎、朱彝尊，平湖陸葇，海寧沈珩，仁和沈筠、吳任臣、邵遠平，遂安方象瑛、毛升芳，蕭山毛奇齡，鄞陳鴻績，凡十三人。 江蘇二十三人，曰：上元倪燦，寶應喬萊，華亭王頊齡、吳元龍，無錫秦松齡、嚴繩孫，武進周清原，宜興陳維崧，長洲馮勳、汪琬、尤侗、範必英，吳錢中諧，儀真汪楫，淮安邱象隨，吳江潘耒、徐釚，太倉黃與堅，常熟周慶會，山陽李鎧、張鴻烈，上海錢金甫，江陰曹禾。 直隸五人，曰：大興張烈，東明袁佑，宛平米漢雯，獲鹿崔如岳，任丘龐塏。 安徽三人，曰：宣城施閏章、高詠，望江龍燮。 江西二人，曰：臨川李來泰，清江黎騫。 陝西一人，曰富平李因篤。 河南一人，曰睢州湯斌。 山東一人，曰諸城李澄中。 湖北一人，曰黃岡曹宜圃。 凡五十人，皆以翰林入史館。 其列二等者，亦多知名之士，稱極盛焉。
Apart from Sunyu, those registered in Zhejiang included Wang Lin of Qiantang, Xu Jiayan and Zhu Yizun of Xiushui, Lu Rou of Pinghu, Shen Heng of Haining, Shen Jun, Wu Renchen, and Shao Yuanping of Renhe, Fang Xiangying and Mao Shengfang of Suian, Mao Qiling of Xiaoshan, and Chen Hongji of Yin—thirteen in all. From Jiangsu there were twenty-three: Ni Can of Shangyuan, Qiao Lai of Baoying, Wang Xuling and Wu Yuanlong of Huating, Qin Songling and Yan Shengsun of Wuxi, Zhou Qingyuan of Wujin, Chen Weisong of Yixing, Feng Xun, Wang Wan, You Dong, and Fan Biying of Changzhou, Qian Zhongxie of Wu, Wang Ji of Yizhen, Qiu Xiangsui of Huai'an, Pan Lei and Xu Qiu of Wujiang, Huang Yujian of Taicang, Zhou Qinghui of Changshu, Li Kai and Zhang Honglie of Shanyang, Qian Jinfu of Shanghai, and Cao He of Jiangyin. From Zhili there were five: Zhang Lie of Daxing, Yuan You of Dongming, Mi Hanwen of Wan, Cui Ruyue of Huolu, and Pang Kai of Renqiu. From Anhui there were three: Shi Runzhang and Gao Yong of Xuancheng, and Long Xie of Wangjiang. From Jiangxi there were two: Li Laitai of Linchuan and Li Qian of Qingjiang. From Shaanxi there was one: Li Yindu of Fuping. From Henan there was one: Tang Bin of Suizhou. From Shandong there was one: Li Chengzhong of Zhucheng. From Hubei there was one: Cao Yipu of Huanggang. All fifty entered the Historiography Bureau as Hanlin scholars. Those placed in the second rank were also mostly renowned figures—the occasion was called an age of utmost flourishing.
93
孫遹歷官吏部侍郎，充經筵講官。 明史久未成，特命為總裁，賜專敕，異數也。 年七十，致仕歸，御書「松桂堂」額賜之，遂以名其集。
Sunyu rose to Vice Minister of Personnel and served as lecturer at the Classics Colloquium. The History of the Ming had long gone unfinished; he was specially appointed chief compiler and granted a personal commission—an exceptional honor. At seventy he retired; the emperor bestowed the plaque "Pine and Cassia Hall," and he named his collection after it.
94
朱彝尊，字錫鬯，秀水人，明大學士國祚曾孫。 生有異秉，書經目不遺。 家貧客遊，南踰嶺，北出雲朔，東泛滄海，登之罘，經甌越。 所至叢祠荒塚、破爐殘碣之文，莫不搜剔考證，與史傳參校同異。 歸里，約李良年、週篔、繆泳輩為詩課，文名益噪。
Zhu Yizun, styled Xichang, was from Xiushui and the great-grandson of Ming Grand Secretary Guozuo. Born with exceptional talent, he never forgot what he read. Poor and traveling as a guest, he went south beyond the ranges, north to Yunshuo, east across the sea to climb Zhifu, and through Ou-Yue. Wherever he went, he searched out and collated inscriptions from shrines, desolate tombs, broken furnaces, and ruined steles, comparing them with historical biographies for discrepancies. After returning home he joined Li Liangnian, Zhou Yun, Miao Yong, and others for poetry sessions, and his literary fame grew louder.
95
康熙十八年，試鴻博，除檢討。 時富平李因篤、吳江潘耒、無錫嚴繩孫及彝尊皆以布衣入選，同修明史。 建議訪遺書，寬期限，毋效元史之迫時日。 辨方孝孺之友宋仲珩、王孟缊、鄭叔度、林公輔諸人咸不及於難，則知從亡、致身錄謂誅九族，並戮其弟子朋友為一族不足據，所謂九族者，本宗一族也。 又言東林不皆君子，異乎東林者，亦不皆小人。 作史者未可存門戶之見，以同異分邪正。 二十年，充日講起居注官。 典試江南，稱得士。 入值南書房，賜紫禁城騎馬。 數與內廷宴，被文綺、時果之賚，皆紀以詩。 旋坐私挾小胥入內寫書被劾，降一級，後復原官。 三十一年，假歸。 聖祖南巡，迎駕無錫，御書「研經博物」額賜之。
In Kangxi 18 he passed the Special Examination and was appointed reviser. At that time Li Yindu of Fuping, Pan Lei of Wujiang, Yan Shengsun of Wuxi, and Yizun were all selected as commoners and jointly compiled the History of the Ming. He proposed searching for lost books, extending deadlines, and not forcing the work to match the Yuan History's compressed timeline. He showed that Fang Xiaoru's friends Song Zhongheng, Wang Mengyun, Zheng Shudu, Lin Gongfu, and others all escaped the calamity, proving that the Congwang and Zhishen lu claim—that nine clans were executed and disciples and friends slaughtered as one clan—cannot be relied upon; the so-called nine clans meant the original clan and its branches. He also argued that not all Donglin were gentlemen, and that those unlike the Donglin were not all petty men. Historians must not hold to factional views, dividing good and evil by allegiance. In Kangxi 20 he served as daily lecturer and recorder. He presided over the Jiangnan examination and was said to have selected worthy scholars. He entered the Southern Library and was granted the privilege of riding a horse within the Forbidden City. He attended inner-court banquets many times and received gifts of brocade and seasonal fruit, all of which he recorded in poetry. Soon afterward he was impeached for secretly bringing a clerk into the inner palace to copy books, was demoted one rank, and later had his original office restored. In Kangxi 31 he took leave to return home. When the Kangxi Emperor on his southern tour reached Wuxi, Yizun welcomed him and received the imperial plaque "Studying the Classics and Mastering Antiquity."
96
當時王士禎工詩，汪琬工文，毛奇齡工考據，獨彝尊兼有眾長。 著經義考、日下舊聞、曝書亭集。 又嘗選明詩綜，或因人錄詩，或因詩存人，銓次為最當。 卒，年八十一。 子昆田，亦工詩文，早卒。 孫稻孫，舉乾隆丙辰鴻博，能世其家。
At the time Wang Shizhen excelled at poetry, Wang Wan at prose, and Mao Qiling at evidential scholarship; Yizun alone combined all these strengths. His works include the Inquiry into the Meaning of the Classics, Old Accounts of the Capital, and the Baoshu Ting ji. He also compiled the Comprehensive Ming Poetry, recording poets through their poems or preserving men through their poems, with the most judicious arrangement. He died at eighty-one. His son Kuntian was also skilled in poetry and prose but died young. His grandson Daosun passed the Special Examination in Qianlong bingchen and continued the family tradition.
97
彝尊所與為詩課者，李良年，字武曹，同邑人。 與兄繩遠、弟符並著詩名。 試鴻博，罷歸。 有秋錦山房集。
Among those with whom Yizun held poetry sessions was Li Liangnian, styled Wucao, a fellow townsman. He and his elder brother Shengyuan and younger brother Fu all had reputations in poetry. He took the Special Examination and returned home after failing. He left the Qiujin shanfang ji.
98
譚吉璁，字舟石，嘉興人，彝尊姑之子也。 少遇寇，以身蔽父，寇舍之去。 後以諸生試國子監第一，授弘文院撰文中書舍人，出為延安同知。 吳三桂叛，守榆城獨完，論功加一級。 舉應鴻博，報罷。 遷知登州府。 卒。 有嘉樹堂集。
Tan Jicong, styled Zhoushi, was from Jiaxing and the son of Yizun's paternal aunt. In youth he encountered bandits and shielded his father with his body; the bandits spared them and left. Later, as a licentiate he ranked first in the Imperial Academy examination and was appointed a drafting secretary in the Hongwen Academy, then went out to serve as vice-prefect of Yan'an. When Wu Sangui rebelled he held Yucheng alone intact, and for his merit was promoted one rank. He was nominated for the Special Examination but was rejected. He was transferred to serve as prefect of Dengzhou. He died. He left the Jia shu tang ji.
99
尤侗，字展成，長洲人。 少補諸生，以貢謁選。 除永平推官，守法不撓。 坐撻旗丁鐫級歸。 侗天才富贍，詩文多新警之思，雜以諧謔，每一篇出，傳誦遍人口。 康熙十八年，試鴻博列二等，授檢討，與修明史。 居三年告歸。 聖祖南巡至蘇州，侗獻詩頌。 上嘉焉，賜御書「鶴棲堂」額，遷侍講。
You Dong, styled Zhancheng, was from Changzhou. In youth he became a licentiate and presented himself for selection through the tribute route. He was appointed judicial assistant of Yongping and upheld the law without yielding. Because he flogged a banner soldier he was reduced in rank and returned home. Dong's native talent was rich and abundant; his poetry and prose were full of fresh and striking thought, mixed with wit and banter, and whenever a piece appeared it was recited throughout the land. In Kangxi 18 he placed in the second rank of the Special Examination, was appointed reviser, and helped compile the History of the Ming. After three years in office he requested leave to return home. When the Kangxi Emperor on his southern tour reached Suzhou, Dong presented congratulatory poetry. The emperor was pleased, bestowed the imperial plaque "Crane Dwelling Hall," and promoted him to reader-in-waiting.
100
初，世祖於禁中覽侗詩篇，以才子目之。 後入翰林，聖祖稱之曰「老名士」。 天下羨其榮遇。 侗喜汲引才雋，性寬和，與物無忤。 兄弟七人甚友愛，白首如垂髫。 卒，年八十七。 著西堂集、鶴棲堂集，凡百餘卷。
Earlier, the Shunzhi Emperor in the palace had read Dong's poetry and regarded him as a literary genius. Later, after entering the Hanlin, the Kangxi Emperor called him "the old man of letters." All under Heaven envied his honored treatment. Dong delighted in recommending talented men; by nature he was generous and mild and at odds with no one. The seven brothers were deeply affectionate, white-haired yet as close as in childhood. He died at eighty-seven. His works include the Xitang ji and the Hexi tang ji, more than one hundred juan in all.
101
秦松齡，字留仙，無錫人。 順治十二年進士，官檢討，罷歸。 後舉鴻博，复授檢討。 典江西鄉試，歷左贊善，以諭德終。 松齡為庶常，召試詠鶴詩，有句云：「高鳴常向月，善舞不迎人。」 世祖拔置第一，示閣臣曰：「是人必有品！」 及告歸，里居二十餘年，專治毛詩。 仿黃氏日鈔之例，著毛詩日箋六卷。 自為詩文曰蒼峴山人集。
Qin Songling, styled Liuxian, was from Wuxi. A jinshi of Shunzhi 12, he served as reviser, was dismissed, and returned home. Later he was nominated for the Special Examination and was again appointed reviser. He presided over the Jiangxi provincial examination, rose to Left Assistant to the Heir Apparent, and ended his career as tutor to the heir apparent. When Songling was a bachelor in the Hanlin, he was summoned to compose a poem on the crane and wrote a line saying: "It cries often toward the moon and dances well without courting men." The Shunzhi Emperor ranked him first and showed it to the grand secretaries, saying: "This man must have character!" When he returned home he lived in retirement for more than twenty years and devoted himself exclusively to the Mao Odes. Following the example of Huang's Daily Notes, he wrote the Daily Commentary on the Mao Odes in six juan. His own poetry and prose he collected under the title Cangxian shanren ji.
102
曹禾，字頌嘉，江陰人。 康熙三年進士。 選鴻博，授檢討，官至祭酒。 與田雯、宋犖、汪懋麟、顏光敏、王又旦、謝重輝、曹貞吉、丁澎、葉封齊名，稱詩中十子。
Cao He, styled Songjia, was from Jiangyin. A jinshi of Kangxi 3. Selected for the Special Examination, he was appointed reviser and rose to Grand Master of the Imperial Academy. He stood among the Ten Masters of Poetry—Tian Wen, Song Luo, Wang Maolin, Yan Guangmin, Wang Youdan, Xie Chonghui, Cao Zhenji, Ding Peng, and Ye Feng.
103
同時江西選鴻博一等者，李泰來，字石台，臨川人。 順治九年進士。 嘗督江南學政，除蘇松常道，以疾歸。 試詞科，授侍講。 古文博奧，詩以和雅稱。 有石台集。
Among Jiangxi men chosen first class in the Special Examination at the same time was Li Tailai, styled Shitai, of Linchuan. A jinshi of Shunzhi 9. He once supervised education in Jiangnan, was appointed intendant of the Suzhou-Songjiang-Changzhou circuit, and retired on grounds of illness. He passed the Literary Examination and received appointment as lecturer-in-waiting. His classical prose was learned and profound, and his poetry was praised for its harmonious elegance. He left the Shitai ji collection.
104
陳維崧，字其年，宜興人。 祖於廷，明左都御史。 父貞慧，見遺逸傳。 維崧天才絕艷，十歲，代大父撰楊忠烈像贊。 比長，侍父側，每名流宴集，援筆作序記，千言立就，瑰瑋無比，皆折行輩與交。 補諸生，久之不遇。 因出遊，所在爭客之。 嘗由汴入都，與朱彝尊合刻一稿，名朱陳村詞，流傳至禁中，蒙賜問，時以為榮。 逾五十，始舉鴻博，授檢討，修明史。 在館四年，病卒。
Chen Weisong, styled Qinian, was from Yixing. His grandfather Yu Ting had been Left Censor-in-Chief under the Ming. His father Zhenhui appears in the Biographies of Recluses. Weisong possessed dazzling genius; at ten he wrote, in his grandfather's stead, an encomium for the portrait of Yang Zhonglie. Once grown, he waited on his father; at every banquet of leading men he would take up his brush and draft prefaces and accounts—thousands of words at a stroke, gorgeously unmatched—and even his seniors sought his friendship. He became a licentiate, yet for years found no official opening. He set out on the road, and wherever he went men competed to host him. Once, traveling from Bian to the capital, he and Zhu Yizun jointly published Zhu-Cun Village Lyrics; the book reached the inner palace, and he received an imperial inquiry—a mark of honor in his day. Not until past fifty did he pass the Special Examination, receive appointment as reviser, and join the compilation of the Draft History of the Ming. After four years in the academy he died of illness.
105
維崧清臞多鬚，海內稱陳髯。 平生無疾言遽色，友愛諸弟甚。 遊公卿間，慎密，隨事匡正，故人樂近之，而卒莫之狎。 著湖海樓詩集、迦陵文集。 時汪琬於同輩少許可者，獨推維崧駢體，謂自唐開、寶後無與抗矣。 詩雄麗沉鬱，詞至千八百首之多，尤前此未有也。
Lean and full-bearded, Weisong was known across the land as Chen the Bearded. He never spoke in anger or flashed sudden temper, and he loved his younger brothers dearly. Moving among ministers and grandees, he was careful and steady, setting things right as occasion arose; friends were glad to draw near him, yet none in the end took liberties. He left the Huhai lou shi ji and Jialing wen ji. Wang Wan seldom approved anyone among his peers, yet he singled out Weisong's parallel prose and declared that since Tang Kaiyuan and Tianbao, no one could rival him. His poetry was bold, lush, and weighty; his song lyrics ran to some eighteen hundred pieces—more than anyone before him.
106
順、康間，以駢文稱者，又有吳綺，字次，江都人。 維崧導源庾信，氾濫於初唐四傑，故氣脈雄厚。 綺則追步李商隱，才地視維崧為弱，而秀逸特甚。 順治十一年拔貢生，薦授中書舍人。 奉詔譜楊繼盛樂府，遷兵部主事，即以繼盛官官之也。 出知湖州府，有吏能。 人謂其多風力，尚風節，饒風趣，稱為「三風太守」。 未幾，罷歸。 貧無田屯，購廢圃以居。 有匄詩文者，以花木潤筆，因顏其圃曰種字林。 著林蕙堂集。 詞最有名，婦孺皆能習之。 以有「把酒祝東風，種出雙紅豆」之句，又稱「紅豆詞人」。
During Shunzhi and Kangxi, Wu Qi, styled Ci, of Jiangdu, was also celebrated for parallel prose. Weisong traced his line to Yu Xin and flooded outward into the Four Talents of early Tang, giving his style a deep, vigorous pulse. Qi followed in Li Shangyin's steps; his range was slighter than Weisong's, yet he was surpassingly elegant and nimble. In Shunzhi 11 he was chosen as a tribute student and recommended as a secretary in the Secretariat. By imperial command he set Yang Jisheng's yuefu to music; he was promoted to principal clerk in the Ministry of War—the office Yang Jisheng once held. Appointed prefect of Huzhou, he showed real administrative talent. Men praised his force of character, his regard for principle, and his store of wit, and called him the Three-Winds Prefect. Soon afterward he was removed from office and went home. Without land or fields, he bought an abandoned garden and made it his home. Those who asked him for poems or essays paid him in flowers and plants; he named the garden Character-Planting Grove for that reason. He left the Linhuitang ji collection. His song lyrics were best known of all—women and children alike could sing them from memory. For the line "Raise the cup and toast the east wind—planting twin red beans," he was also known as the Red-Bean Lyricist.
107
徐釚，字電發，吳江人。 應鴻博，授檢討。 會當外轉，遽乞歸。 後起原官，不就。 卒，年七十三。 著南州草堂集、本事詩。 又嘗刻菊莊樂府。 崑山葉方靄稱其綿麗幽深，耐人尋繹。 朝鮮貢使以兼金購之。 釚既工倚聲，因輯詞苑叢談，具有裁鑑。
Xu Qian, styled Dianfa, was from Wujiang. He took the Special Examination and received appointment as reviser. Just as he was due for transfer outside the capital, he suddenly petitioned to retire. Later he was summoned back to his former office but refused. He died at seventy-three. He left the Nanzhou caotang ji and Benshi shi. He also printed the Juzhuang yuefu. Ye Fang'ai of Kunshan called his writing lush and deep, subtle enough to repay long pondering. Envoys from Korea paid in fine gold to obtain copies. Already masterful in regulated lyrics, he compiled the Ciyuan congtan, displaying keen critical taste.
108
潘耒，字次耕，吳江人。 生而奇慧，讀書十行並下，自經史、音韻、算數及宗乘之學，無不通貫。 康熙時，以布衣試鴻博，授檢討，纂修明史。 上書總裁，言要義八端：「宜搜採博而考證精； 職任分而義例一； 秉筆直而持論平； 歲月寬而卷帙簡。」 總裁善其說，令撰食貨志，兼他紀傳。 尋充日講起居注官，修實錄、聖訓。 嘗應詔陳言，謂：「建言古無專責，梅福以南昌尉言外戚，柳伉以太常博士言程元振，陳東以太學生攻六賊，楊繼盛以部曹劾嚴嵩。 本朝舊制，京官並許條陳。 自康熙十年憲臣奏請停止，凡非言官而言事為越職。 夫人主明目達聰，宜導之使言。 今乃禁之，豈盛世事？ 臣請弛其禁，俾大小臣工各得獻替，庶罔上行私之徒，有所忌而不敢肆。 於此輩甚不便，於國家甚便也。 其在外監司守令，遇地方大利弊，許其條奏。 水旱災荒，州縣官得上聞。 如此，則民間疾苦無不周知矣。」 更請許臺諫官得風聞言事，有能奮擊姦回者，不次超擢，以作敢言之氣。 二十三年，甄別議起，坐浮躁降調，遂歸。
Pan Lei, styled Cigeng, was from Wujiang. Gifted from birth, he read ten lines at a glance; whether classics, history, phonology, mathematics, or Buddhist learning, he mastered them all. Under Kangxi he entered the Special Examination as a commoner, became reviser, and joined the compilation of the Draft History of the Ming. He wrote the chief compilers setting forth eight essentials: "Gather widely and verify with precision; divide labor yet keep one standard of method; write plainly and argue fairly; allow ample time and keep the work concise." The chiefs approved and assigned him the Treatise on Food and Money, along with other annals and biographies. He soon became diarist of the imperial lectures and helped compile the Veritable Records and Sacred Instructions. Once, responding to an imperial request for counsel, he argued: "Memorializing was never a single office—Mei Fu as magistrate of Nanchang spoke against imperial in-laws; Liu Kang as Grand Astrologer denounced Cheng Yuanzhen; Chen Dong as an academy student attacked the Six Traitors; Yang Jisheng as a ministry clerk impeached Yan Song. The old custom of this dynasty permitted every capital official to submit memorials. Since Kangxi 10, when censorial officials petitioned to end the practice, any non-censor who speaks on affairs of state is treated as overstepping his rank. A sovereign should see and hear for himself; he should be led to welcome speech. Yet now it is forbidden—can that be the way of a flourishing age? I ask that the ban be relaxed so officials at every rank may speak and remonstrate, giving those who mislead the throne for private ends something to fear. That would be hard on such men, but a great benefit to the realm. Provincial commissioners and local magistrates, when they see great benefit or harm in their jurisdictions, should also be allowed to memorialize. In flood, drought, or famine, county and district officials should be able to report upward. Then no hardship among the people would fail to reach the throne. He further asked that censors be allowed to speak on hearsay, and that men who boldly attack villainy be promoted out of turn to revive the courage to speak plainly. In year twenty-three a talent review began; deemed rash, he was demoted and sent away, then went home.
109
耒有至性，初被徵，辭以母老，不獲命，乃行。 既徐官，三牒吏部以獨子請終養，卒格於議不果歸。 逮居喪，哀毀骨立。 少受學同郡徐枋、顧炎武。 枋歿，周恤其孤孫，而刻炎武所著書，師門之誼甚篤焉。 四十二年，聖祖南巡，復原官。 大學士陳廷敬欲薦起之，力辭而止。 平生嗜山水，登高賦詠，名流折服。 有遂初堂集。 又因炎武音學五書為類音八卷。 炎武復古，耒則務窮後世之變雲。
Lei was deeply filial; when first called to office he pleaded his aged mother, was refused, and went all the same. Once in office, promotion came slowly; three times he petitioned the Ministry of Personnel as an only son to return and care for his parent, but each time debate blocked him. When mourning came upon him, grief wore him down to skin and bone. As a youth he studied under Xu Fang and Gu Yanwu, men of his own prefecture. When Fang died he cared for his orphaned grandson and printed Gu's writings—his loyalty to his teachers' circle ran very deep. In year forty-two, during the emperor's southern tour, his former office was restored. Grand Secretary Chen Tingjing wanted to recommend him back to service, but he refused firmly and would not return. He loved landscape all his life; composing on high places, he made eminent men bow to his talent. He left the Suichu tang ji. On the basis of Gu Yanwu's Yinxue wushu he compiled eight juan of Leiyin. Gu Yanwu looked back to antiquity; Lei, by contrast, traced the changes of later ages to their end.
110
當時詞科以史才稱者，朱彝尊、汪琬、吳任臣及耒為最著。 又有倪燦，字闇公，上元人。 以舉人授檢討，撰藝文志序，與姜宸英刑法志序並推傑構。 書法詩格秀出一時，有雁園集。
Of the Special Examination men celebrated for historical talent in that age, Zhu Yizun, Wang Wan, Wu Renchen, and Lei stood foremost. Also Ni Can, styled Angong, of Shangyuan. A provincial graduate appointed reviser, he wrote the preface to the Treatise on Literature; with Jiang Chenying's preface to the Treatise on Penal Law, both were hailed as outstanding compositions. His calligraphy and poetic style stood out in his time; he left the Yanyuan ji.
111
嚴繩孫，字蓀友，無錫人，明尚書一鵬孫。 六歲能作擘窠大書。 試日，目疾作，第賦一詩，亦授檢討，撰明史隱逸傳。 典試江西，尋遷中允，假歸。 有秋水集。 子泓曾，亦善畫工詩。
Yan Sun, styled Sunyou, of Wuxi, was grandson of the Ming minister Yan Yipeng. At six he could write large seal-script characters. On exam day eye trouble struck; he submitted only one poem, yet still became reviser and wrote the Recluses biography for the Draft History of the Ming. He conducted examinations in Jiangxi, was soon promoted to middle attendant, and went home on leave. He left the Qiushui ji. His son Hongzeng also painted and wrote poetry well.
112
徐嘉炎，字勝力，秀水人，明兵部尚書必達曾孫。 幼警敏，強記絕人。 既，試鴻博，授檢討。 康熙二十年，王師收滇、黔，嘉炎仿鐃歌鼓吹曲，撰聖人出至文德舞二十四章以獻； 又四年元夕，聖祖於南海大放燈火，縱臣民使觀，嘉炎复應制撰記：皆稱旨。 嘗侍直，命背誦咸有一德，終篇不失一字。 至「厥德靡常」數語，則斂容讀之，帝為悚異。 又嘗問宋元祐黨人是非，嘉炎舉諸人姓名始末，及先儒評騭語其悉。 特賜御臨蘇軾詩一卷，廷臣拜賜御書自此始也。 累擢內閣學士，兼禮部侍郎，充三朝國史及會典、一統志副總裁。 有抱經齋集。
Xu Jiayan, styled Shengli, of Xiushui, was great-grandson of the Ming War Minister Xu Bida. Even as a boy he was quick and clever, with a memory beyond ordinary men. Later he passed the Special Examination and became reviser. In Kangxi 20, when imperial forces recovered Yunnan and Guizhou, Jiayan modeled the drum-and-bugle songs and presented twenty-four pieces from "The Sage Appears" through "The Dance of Civil Virtue"; Four years later, on Lantern Festival night, the emperor lit the South Sea with lanterns and let officials and people look on freely; Jiayan again wrote on imperial command—and both works pleased the emperor. Once on palace duty he was told to recite "There Is One Virtue" from memory and did not err in a single word. At the lines "Its virtue is inconstant," he read with grave countenance, and the emperor was deeply moved. Asked once about the Yuanyou partisan faction, Jiayan gave each man's name and story and the verdicts of earlier scholars with full detail. He received a special gift of Su Shi poems in the emperor's own hand—the court's receipt of imperial calligraphy began here. He was promoted repeatedly to Grand Secretary and concurrent Vice Minister of Rites, and served as deputy chief compiler of the three-reign national history, the statutes, and the unified gazetteer. He left the Baojing zhai ji.
113
方象瑛，字渭仁，遂安人。 康熙六年進士。 試鴻博，授編修，典試蜀中。 尋告歸。 象瑛性簡靜，早慧，十歲作遠山淨賦，驚其長老。 致仕家居，望益重。 邑有大利弊，則岳岳爭言，歲省脂膏萬計，邑人建思賢祠祀之。 著健松齋集、封長白山記、松窗筆乘。
Fang Xiangying, styled Weiren, was from Suian. He received his jinshi degree in Kangxi 6. He passed the Special Examination and became a compiler, then served as chief examiner in Sichuan. He soon resigned and went home. Xiangying was plain and reserved by nature. Precocious as a child, at ten he wrote the fu "Clear Distant Mountains" and astounded the elders. After retirement he lived at home, and his standing only grew. Whenever the district faced matters of great public benefit or harm, he spoke out boldly; each year he saved the people tens of thousands in taxes and levies, and they built the Sixian Shrine in his honor. He wrote the Jiansong zhai ji, Record of Ascending Changbai Mountain, and Songchuang biji.
114
萬斯同，字季野，鄞縣人。 父泰，生八子，斯同其季也。 兄斯大，儒林有傳。 性彊記，八歲，客坐中能背誦揚子法言。 後從黃宗羲遊，得聞蕺山劉氏學說，以慎獨為宗。 以讀書勵名節與同志相劘切，月有會講。 博通諸史，尤熟明代掌故。 康熙十七年，薦鴻博，辭不就。
Wan Sitong, styled Jiye, was from Yin County. His father Wan Tai had eight sons; Sitong was the youngest. His elder brother Sida has a biography in the Confucian Scholars section. He had an extraordinarily strong memory; at eight, sitting among guests, he could recite Yang Xiong's Fayan by heart. He later studied under Huang Zongxi, learned the Jishan Liu school's teachings, and made vigilance in solitude his guiding principle. He urged moral integrity through study, exchanged frank counsel with fellow scholars, and held monthly lectures. He mastered the histories and knew Ming institutional precedent especially well. In Kangxi 17 he was recommended for the Special Examination but declined to serve.
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初，順治二年詔修明史，未幾罷。 康熙四年，又詔修之，亦止。 十八年，命徐元文為監修，取彭孫遹等五十人官翰林，與右庶子盧君琦等十六人同為纂修。 斯同嘗病唐以後史設局分修之失，以謂專家之書，才雖不逮，猶未至如官修者之雜亂，故辭不膺選。 至三十二年，再召王鴻緒於家，命偕陳廷敬、張玉書為總裁。 陳任本紀，張任志，而鴻緒獨任列傳。 乃延斯同於家，委以史事，而武進錢名世佐之。 每覆審一傳，曰某書某事當參校，顧小史取其書第幾卷至，無或爽者。 士大夫到門諮詢，了辯如響。
At first, in Shunzhi 2 an edict ordered work on the Ming History, but the project was halted before long. In Kangxi 4 the order came again, and again work ceased. In Kangxi 18 Xu Yuanwen was named supervising compiler; fifty Hanlin officials including Peng Sunyu and sixteen others including Right Sub-Reader Lu Junqi were appointed compilers. Sitong had criticized the practice since Tang times of dividing historical compilation among offices; individual scholars' histories, he argued, though less gifted, were never as chaotic as official ones—so he declined appointment. In Kangxi 32 Wang Hongxu was summoned home again and appointed chief compiler together with Chen Tingjing and Zhang Yushu. Chen handled the annals, Zhang the treatises, and Hongxu the biographies alone. He invited Sitong to his home, put him in charge of the history, and had Qian Mingshi of Wujin assist. Reviewing each biography he would say which book and passage needed checking; a clerk would fetch the right volume without fail. Scholars who came to consult him received answers as prompt and clear as an echo.
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嘗書抵友人，自言：「少館某所，其家有列朝實錄，吾默識暗誦，未敢有一言一事之遺也。 長游四方，輒就故家耆老求遺書，考問往事。 旁及郡志、邑乘，私家撰述，靡不搜討，而要以實錄為指歸。 蓋實錄者，直載其事與言，而無可增飾者也。 因其世以考其事，覈其言而平心察之，則其人本末可八九得矣。 然言之發或有所由，事之端或有所起，而其流或有所激，則非他書不能具也。 凡實錄之難詳者，吾以他書證之。 他書之誣且濫者，吾以所得於實錄者裁之。 雖不敢具謂可信，而是非之枉於人者蓋鮮矣。 昔人於宋史已病其繁蕪，而吾所述將倍焉。 非不知簡之為貴也，吾恐後之人務博而不知所裁，故先為之極，使知吾所取者有所捐，而所不取，必非其事與言之真，而不可溢也。」 又以：「馬、班史皆有表，而後漢、三國以下無之。 劉知幾謂得之不為益，失之不為損。 不知史之有表，所以通紀、傳之窮者。 有其人已入紀、傳而表之者，有未入紀、傳而牽連以表之者。 表立而後紀、傳之文可省，故表不可廢。 讀史而不讀表，非深於史者也。」 嘗作明開國訖唐、桂功臣將相年表，以備採擇。 其後明史至乾隆初大學士張廷玉等奉詔刊定，即取鴻緒史藁為本而增損之。 鴻緒藁，大半出斯同手也。
He once wrote a friend: "As a young man I lodged in a household that owned the Veritable Records of successive reigns. I memorized them in silence—I did not let a single word or event slip. As he grew he traveled widely, seeking lost books from old families and questioning elders about the past. He searched prefectural and county gazetteers and private writings of every kind, but always kept the Veritable Records as his standard. The Veritable Records record events and words directly, without embellishment. By dating events, checking words, and judging with impartial care, one can recover eight or nine tenths of a person's life. Yet words have their motives, events their origins, and consequences their provocations—matters only other books can fully supply. Where the Veritable Records are obscure, I corroborate them with other works. Where other books are false or exaggerated, I trim them against what the Veritable Records provide. I dare not claim full reliability, yet wrongful judgments of men are probably rare. Critics already found the Song History too verbose; my account will be twice as long. I do not undervalue brevity—but I fear later writers will chase comprehensiveness without knowing what to cut. So I first go to the limit, so they know what I include I also discard, and what I omit is not the true event or word and cannot be added." He also said: "Ma and Ban's histories all have tables, but from Later Han and Three Kingdoms onward there are none. Liu Zhiji argued that adding them would add nothing and omitting them would lose nothing. He failed to see that historical tables exist precisely to extend what annals and biographies cannot cover. Some figures already in annals or biographies appear again in tables; others not given full entries are brought in through tables. With tables in place, annals and biographies can be shorter—tables must not be dropped. To read history without reading the tables is not to know history deeply." He compiled a chronological table of founding ministers and generals through the Tang and Gui regimes for use in compilation. When Zhang Tingyu and other grand secretaries revised the Ming History under Qianlong, they took Hongxu's draft as their base and revised it. Most of Hongxu's draft came from Sitong's hand.
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平生淡於榮利，脩脯所入，輒以以周宗黨。 故人馮京第死義，其子沒入不得歸，為醵錢贖之。 尤喜獎掖後進。 自王公以至下士，無不呼曰萬先生。 李光地品藻人倫，以謂顧寧人、閻百詩及萬季野，此數子者，真足備石渠顧問之選。 而斯同與人往還，其自署則曰「布衣万某」，未嘗有他稱也。 卒，年六十。 著歷代史表，創為宦者侯表，大事年表二例。 又著儒林宗派。
He cared little for rank or gain all his life and used his stipends to support his clan. When his friend Feng Jingdi died a martyr, Feng's son was seized as property; Sitong collected funds to buy his freedom. He especially loved to nurture younger scholars. From nobles to common scholars, all called him Master Wan. Li Guangdi judged that Gu Yanwu, Yan Ruoju, and Wan Jiye were truly fit to serve as imperial advisers at Shiqu. Yet in correspondence he signed himself only "Commoner Wan"—never any other title. He died at sixty. He wrote dynastic historical tables, pioneering the eunuch-marquis table and the great-events chronology. He also wrote Lineages of the Confucian Forest.
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名世，字亮工。 康熙四十二年一甲進士，授編修。 夙負文譽，王士禎見其詩激賞之。 鴻緒聘修明史，斯同任考核，付名世屬辭潤色之。 官至侍讀，坐投詩諂年羹堯奪職。
Qian Mingshi, styled Lianggong. A top-ranked jinshi in Kangxi 42, he became a compiler. He had long enjoyed literary fame; Wang Shizhen read his verse and admired it greatly. When Hongxu engaged compilers for the Ming History, Sitong verified facts and gave the prose to Mingshi to compose and polish. He rose to Reader-in-Waiting but was stripped of office for sending flattering poems to Nian Gengyao.
119
劉獻廷，字繼莊，大興人，先世本吳人也。 其學主經世，自象緯、律曆、音韻、險塞、財賦、軍政、以逮岐黃、釋老之書，無所不究習。 與梁谿顧培、衡山王夫之、南昌彭士望為師友，而復往來崑山徐乾學之門。 議論不隨人後。 萬斯同引參明史館事，顧祖禹、黃儀亦引參一統志事。 獻廷謂諸公考古有餘，實用則未也。
Liu Xianting, styled Jizhuang, was from Daxing; his ancestors were originally from Wu. His scholarship served practical governance; from astronomy and calendrics to phonology, frontier passes, finance, military affairs, and even medicine and Buddhist-Daoist texts—he studied them all. Gu Pei of Liangxi, Wang Fuzhi of Hengshan, and Peng Shiwang of Nanchang were his mentors and friends; he also studied with Xu Qianxue of Kunshan. In debate he never merely followed others' lead. Wan Sitong brought him into the Ming History project; Gu Zuyu and Huang Yi were enlisted for the Unified Gazetteer. Xianting said they were strong on antiquarian research but weak on practical application.
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其論方輿書：「當於各疆域前，測北極出地，定簡平儀制度，為正切線表，而節氣之後先，日食之分秒，五星之凌犯佔驗，皆可推矣。 諸方七十二候不同，世所傳者本之月令。 乃七國時中原之氣候，與今不合，則歷差為之。 今宜細考南北諸方氣候，取其核者詳載之，然後天地相應，可以察其遷變之微矣。 燕京、吳下，水皆南流，故必東南風而後雨，衡、湘水北流，故必北風而後雨。 諸方山水向背分合，皆紀述之，而風土之剛柔，暨陰陽燥濕之徵，可次第而求矣。」
On geographical works he argued: "Before each region one should measure polar altitude, establish the plane astrolabe's system, and compile a tangent table—then the order of solar terms, the minutes and seconds of eclipses, and the conjunctions and portents of the five planets can all be calculated. The seventy-two seasonal periods differ by region; what is handed down derives from the Monthly Ordinances. Those reflect the Central Plain climate of Warring States times, which no longer matches the present—the shift in the calendar explains the difference. One should now examine the climates of north and south in detail, record what is verified, and then Heaven and Earth will correspond—so that subtle shifts may be observed. At Yanjing and the lower Yangtze, waters flow south, so rain requires a southeast wind; at Heng and Xiang, waters flow north, so rain requires a north wind. Each region's mountains and waters, their orientations and confluences, should all be recorded—then the hardness or softness of local conditions and the signs of yin-yang, dryness and damp may be traced in order."
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其論水利，謂：「西北乃先王舊都，二千餘年未聞仰給東南。 何則？ 溝洫通，水利修也。 自劉、石雲擾，以訖金、元，千餘年未知水利為何事，不為民利，乃為民害。 故欲經理天下，必自西北水利始矣。 西北水利，莫詳於水經酈注。 雖時移勢易，十猶可得六七。 酈氏略於東南，人以此少之。 不知水道之當詳，正在西北。」 於是欲取二十一史關於水利農田戰守者，考其所以，附以諸家之說，為之疏證。 凡獻廷所撰著，類非一人一時所能成，故卒不就。
On water conservancy he said: "The Northwest was the ancient capital region; for more than two thousand years it never depended on grain from the Southeast. Why? Because ditches and canals were connected and waterworks were maintained. From the turmoil of the Liu and Shi regimes through Jin and Yuan, for over a thousand years men forgot what water conservancy meant—it brought the people harm rather than benefit. To govern the realm properly, one must begin with waterworks in the Northwest. On Northwest waterworks, nothing is more detailed than Li Daoyuan's Commentary on the Water Classic. Though times have changed, six or seven parts in ten may still hold. Li was brief on the Southeast, and critics for that reason undervalue his work. They fail to see that waterways ought to be treated in detail precisely in the Northwest." He then planned to extract from the twenty-one histories all passages on waterworks, agriculture, and defense, investigate their grounds, add various scholars' views, and provide commentary and verification. Everything Xianting planned to write was beyond what one man could finish in a lifetime, and in the end none of it was completed.
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又嘗自謂於華嚴字母悟得聲音之道，作新韻譜，足窮造化之奧。 證以遼人林益長之說，益自信。 其法先立鼻音二，各轉陰、陽、上、去、入之五音共十聲，而不歷喉腭舌齒脣之七位。 故有橫轉，無直送，則等韻重疊之失去。 次定喉音四，為諸韻之宗，從此得半音、轉音、伏音、送音、變喉音。 又以二鼻音分配之，一為東北韻宗，一為西南韻宗，八韻立，而四海之音可齊。 於是以喉音互相合，得音十七； 喉音鼻音互相合，得音十； 又以有餘不盡者三合之，得音五：共三十二音，為韻父，而韻歷二十二位，為韻母。 橫轉各有五子，而萬有不齊之聲攝於此矣。
He also claimed that from the Huayan syllabary he grasped the principles of sound, and wrote the New Rhyme System, sufficient to plumb nature's deepest mysteries. Corroborated by the Liao scholar Lin Yichang's theory, he grew all the more confident. His method first posited two nasal sounds, each cycling through the five tones—level yin and yang, rising, departing, and entering—for ten sounds in all, without passing through the seven articulatory positions of throat, palate, tongue, teeth, and lips. Thus there is lateral turning but no direct progression, eliminating the redundancies of equal-rhyme systems. Next he fixed four throat sounds as the root of all rhymes, from which derived half tones, turning tones, hidden tones, sending tones, and modified throat tones. He then distributed the two nasal sounds—one governing northeast rhymes, one southwest—eight rhyme groups established, and the sounds of the four seas could be harmonized. Combining throat sounds with one another yielded seventeen phonemes; combining throat and nasal sounds yielded ten; combining the remaining unused elements in threes yielded five more: thirty-two sounds in all served as rhyme fathers, and twenty-two positions as rhyme mothers. Each lateral turn produced five variants, and the myriad irregular sounds of speech were all encompassed within this system.
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同時吳殳盛稱其書。 他所著多佚。 歿後，弟子黃宗夏輯錄之，為廣陽雜記。 全祖望稱為薛季宣、王道父一流雲。
Wu Shu at the time praised the work highly. Most of his other works are lost. After his death his disciple Huang Zongxia compiled the Guangyang zaji. Quan Zuwang ranked him with Xue Jixuan and Wang Daofu.
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邵遠平，字戒三，仁和人。 康熙三年進士，選庶吉士。 歷戶部郎中，出為江西學政，擢光祿寺少卿。 試鴻博，授侍讀，至少詹事，致仕歸。 以書史自娛，於世務泊如也。 聖祖南巡，賜御書「蓬觀」額，因自號蓬觀子。 遠平高祖經邦，明正德中進士，刑部員外郎。 以建言獲罪。 著弘簡錄，起唐迄宋，附以遼、金，未遑及元也。 遠平循其例續之，刊除舊史複重不雅馴者，入制誥於帝紀，採著作於儒林，而文苑分經學、文學、藝學三科，十三志則分載於紀傳，名曰元史類編。 朱彝尊稱其書非官局所能逮也。 別著史學辨誤，京邸、粵行等集。
Shao Yuanping, styled Jiesan, was from Renhe. A jinshi in Kangxi 3, he was selected as a Hanlin bachelor. He served as a director in the Ministry of Revenue, then as Jiangxi education intendant, and was promoted to Vice Director of the Court of Imperial Entertainments. He passed the Special Examination and became Reader-in-Waiting, rose to Junior Mentor of the Heir Apparent, then retired. He passed his days among books and histories, utterly detached from worldly affairs. On the Kangxi Emperor's southern tour, Shao received the imperial inscription "Pengguan" and styled himself Master Pengguan. Yuanping's great-grandfather Jingbang, a Ming Zhengde-era jinshi, served as an assistant director in the Ministry of Justice. He was punished for offering forthright counsel. He wrote the Hongjian lu, covering Tang through Song with Liao and Jin added, but not extending to Yuan. Yuanping continued in that vein, cutting redundant or clumsy passages from earlier histories, placing edicts in the annals and scholarly works in the Confucian Scholars section, dividing the Literary section into classical learning, literature, and technical arts, and distributing the thirteen treatises across annals and biographies—titling the work the Yuan Shi leibian. Zhu Yizun said the work surpassed anything an official compilation could match. He also wrote Correcting Errors in Historical Studies and collections including Jingdi and Yuexing.
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同邑吳任臣，字志伊。 志行端愨，強記博聞，為顧炎武所推。 以精天官、樂律試鴻博，入翰林，承修明史曆志。 著周禮大義、禮通、春秋正朔考辨、山海經廣注、託園詩文集，而十國春秋百餘卷尤稱淹貫。 其後如謝啟昆之西魏書，周春之西夏書，陳鱣之續唐書，義例皆精審，非徒矜書法，類史鈔也。
Fellow townsman Wu Renchen, styled Zhiyi. Upright and sincere in character, with a formidable memory and wide learning, he won Gu Yanwu's esteem. Selected for the Special Examination for his expertise in astronomy and music, he joined the Hanlin and worked on the Ming History's calendrical treatise. He wrote the Zhouli dayi, Litong, Chunqiu zhengshuo kaobian, Expanded Commentary on the Shanhai jing, and the Tuoyuan shiwen ji; his Ten Kingdoms Spring and Autumn of more than a hundred juan was especially admired for its breadth. Later works such as Xie Qikun's Western Wei History, Zhou Chun's Western Xia History, and Chen Shan's Continuation of the Tang History were all judicious in method—not mere showpieces of compilation, like historical copybooks.
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謝啟昆，字蘊山，南康人。 乾隆二十五年進士。 由編修簡鎮江知府，後至廣西巡撫，卒官。 嘗築湘、漓二江之堤，詳見本傳。 又修廣西通志，阬元言可為省志法。 啟昆以魏書專主東魏，不載西魏四主，北史亦無糾正，乃作西魏書十二篇。
Xie Qikun, styled Yunshan, was from Nankang. A jinshi in Qianlong 25. Promoted from compiler to prefect of Zhenjiang, he later became governor of Guangxi and died in office. He built dikes on the Xiang and Li rivers—described at length in his main biography. He also compiled the Guangxi gazetteer, whose basic principles could serve as a model for provincial gazetteers. Because the Wei History favors Eastern Wei and omits the four Western Wei rulers—and the Northern History never corrected the error—Qikun wrote twelve chapters of a Western Wei History.
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周春，字芚兮，海寧人。 乾隆十九年進士，選岑溪令，父憂去。 民懷其澤，合前令山陽劉信嘉、金壇於烜共祀之，曰岑溪三賢祠。 重宴鹿鳴，加六品銜。 卒，年八十七。 撰述甚多，而西夏書為最著。
Zhou Chun, styled Chanxi, was from Haining. A jinshi in Qianlong 19, he became magistrate of Cenxi and left office when his father died. The people honored his benevolence and, together with former magistrates Liu Xinjia of Shanyang and Yu Xuan of Jintan, enshrined him in the Three Worthies Shrine of Cenxi. At the repeat deer-ming banquet he received sixth-rank title. He died at eighty-seven. He wrote extensively, but the Western Xia History was his best-known work.
128
春同州陳鱣，字仲魚。 強於記誦，喜聚書。 州人吳騫拜經樓書亦富，得善木互相鈔藏。 嘉慶改元，舉孝廉方正。 又明年，中式舉人。 計偕入都，從錢大昕、翁方綱、段玉裁遊。 後客吳門，與黃丕烈定交。 精校勘之學。 嘗以朱梁無道，李氏既係賜姓，复奉天祐年號，至十年立廟太原，合高祖、太宗、懿宗、昭宗為七廟，唐亡而實存焉； 南唐為憲宗五代孫建王之玄孫，祀唐配天，不失舊物，尤宜大書年號，以臨諸國：於是撰續唐書七十卷。 又有論語古訓、石經說、經籍跋文，恆言廣證諸書。 卒，年六十五。
Chun's fellow townsman Chen Shan, styled Zhongyu. He had a strong memory and loved collecting books. Fellow townsman Wu Qian's Baijing lou library was also rich; when they found fine editions, they copied and exchanged them. In Jiaqing 1 he was recommended as Filial and Incorrupt. The following year he passed the provincial examination. On his journey to the capital for the metropolitan examination, he studied with Qian Daxin, Weng Fanggang, and Duan Yucai. He later lived in Suzhou and became close friends with Huang Pilie. He mastered textual collation. He argued that Later Liang was illegitimate; the Li clan, though granted the imperial surname, still used the Tianyou reign title, and by the tenth year had established a temple at Taiyuan enshrining Gaozu, Taizong, Yizong, and Zhaozong in seven temples—the Tang had fallen yet in truth endured; Southern Tang were great-great-grandsons of Prince Jian, fifth-generation descendant of Emperor Xianzong; they worshipped Tang and matched Heaven, preserving the old regalia—they above all should proclaim the reign title to rule the states: he therefore wrote a Continuation of the Tang History in seventy juan. He also wrote Old Exegesis of the Analects, Studies on the Stone Classics, Colophons on Classics and Histories, and Expanded Verification of Colloquial Sayings. He died at sixty-five.
129
喬萊，字石林，寶應人。 父可聘，明末為御史，有聲。 萊，康熙六年進士，授內閣中書，乞養歸。 十八年，試鴻博，授編修，與修明史。 典廣西鄉試，充實錄館纂修官，遷侍讀。 時御史奏濬海口，瀉積水，而河道總督靳輔言其不便，請於邵伯、高郵間置閘洩水，复築長堤抵海口束之，使水勢高則趨海易，廷議多主河臣言。 適萊入直，詔問萊，疏陳四不可行，略謂：「開河築堤，勢必壞隴畝，毀村落，不可行一。 淮、揚地卑，多積潦，今取濕土投深淵，工安得成？ 不可行二。 築丈六之堤，束水高一丈，秋雨驟至，勢必潰； 即當未潰，瀦水屋廬之上，豈能安枕？ 不可行三。 至於七州縣之田，向沒於水，今更束河使高，則田水豈復能涸？ 不可行四。」 帝是之，議乃寢。 二十六年，罷歸。 久之，召來京。 旋卒。
Qiao Lai, styled Shilin, was from Baoying. His father Keping had been a late-Ming censor of some renown. A jinshi in Kangxi 6, Lai became a Grand Secretariat secretary, then requested leave to care for his parents and went home. In Kangxi 18 he passed the Special Examination, became a compiler, and worked on the Ming History. He presided over the Guangxi provincial examination, served as a Veritable Records compiler, and rose to Reader-in-Waiting. When a censor proposed dredging the estuary to drain floodwater, Grand Canal Director Jin Fu argued against it, proposing sluices between Shaobo and Gaoyou and a long dike to the sea to raise the water level and speed its outflow; most court opinion sided with Jin Fu. Lai happened to be on duty when the emperor asked him; in a memorial he set forth four reasons the plan would fail, saying in part: "Opening a canal and building dikes will inevitably ruin fields and destroy villages—that is the first reason it cannot be done. The Huai and Yang region is low and waterlogged; to throw wet earth into deep water—how can the work succeed? That is the second reason it cannot be done. Building dikes one zhang six chi high to confine water a zhang higher—when autumn rains come suddenly, they will inevitably burst; and even before they burst, water would stand above houses and dwellings—who could sleep in peace? That is the third reason it cannot be done. As for the fields of seven prefectures and counties already submerged, to confine the river further and raise its level—how could those fields ever drain? That is the fourth reason it cannot be done." The emperor agreed, and the proposal was dropped. In Kangxi 26 he was dismissed and returned home. After a long interval he was summoned to the capital. He died soon after.
130
萊著易俟，雜採宋、元諸家易說，推求人事，參以古今治亂得失，蓋誠齋易傳之支流。 詩文有應制、直廬、使粵、歸田諸集。 孫億，亦工詩。
Lai wrote the Yi si, drawing on Song and Yuan commentaries on the Changes to explore human affairs and weigh the gains and losses of governance through the ages—a line descended from Yang's Commentary on the Changes. His poetry and prose include the Yingzhi, Zhilu, Shiyue, and Guitian collections. His grandson Yi also wrote fine poetry.
131
汪楫，字舟次，江都人，原籍休寧。 性伉直，意氣偉然。 始以歲貢生署贛榆訓導。 應鴻博，授檢討，入史館。 言於總裁，先仿宋李燾長編，匯集詔諭、奏議、邸報之屬，由是史材皆備。 二十一年，充冊封琉球正使，宣布威德。 瀕行，不受例餽，國人建卻金亭誌之。 歸撰使琉球錄，載禮儀暨山川景物。 又因諭祭故王，入其廟，默識所立主，兼得琉球世纘圖，參之明代事實，詮次為中山沿革志。 出知河南府，置學田，嵩陽書院聘詹事耿介主講席。 治行為中州最。 擢福建按察使，遷布政使。 楫少工詩，與三原孫枝蔚、泰州吳嘉紀齊名。 有悔齋集、觀海集。
Wang Ji, styled Zhouci, was from Jiangdu, originally registered in Xiuning. Blunt and upright by nature, he had a bold and imposing spirit. He first served as acting director of studies in Ganyu as an annual tribute student. He passed the Special Examination, became a reviser, and entered the History Bureau. He urged the chief compilers to follow Song Li Tao's comprehensive chronicle model, gathering edicts, memorials, and court gazettes—so that historical materials were fully assembled. In Kangxi 21 he served as chief envoy to invest Ryukyu, proclaiming imperial authority and virtue. Before departure he refused customary gifts, and the Ryukyuans built the Declining Gold Pavilion in his honor. On his return he wrote the Record of an Embassy to Ryukyu, recording ceremonies and local scenery. Ordered to perform sacrifices for the former king, he entered the temple and silently noted the enshrined tablets; he also obtained the Ryukyu succession chart, checked it against Ming records, and compiled the Zhongshan yange zhi. As prefect of Henan he established school lands and invited Mentor Geng Jie to lecture at Songyang Academy. His record of governance ranked first in the Central Plains. He was promoted to Fujian surveillance commissioner and then administration commissioner. From youth Ji wrote fine poetry and was ranked with Sun Zhiwei of Sanyuan and Wu Jiji of Taizhou. He wrote the Huizhai ji and Guanhai ji.
132
同里汪懋麟，字季甪，並有詩名，時稱「二汪」。 康熙六年進士，授內閣中書。 舉鴻博，持服不與試。 服闋，復用徐乾學薦，以刑部主事入史館為纂修官。 懋麟績學有幹才。 為中書時，楚人朱方旦挾邪說動公卿，懋麟作辨道論詆之。 熊賜履見其文，與定交。 及居刑曹，勤於職事。 有武某乘車宿董之貴家，之貴利其貲，殺之。 車載而棄於道，鞭馬使馳。 武父得車馬劉氏之門，訟劉殺其子。 懋麟曰：「殺人而置其車馬於門，非理也。」 乃微行，縱其馬，馬至之貴門，駭躍悲鳴。 因收之貴，一訊得實，置於法。 其發姦摘伏多類此。 懋麟從王士禎學詩，而才氣橫逸，視士禎為別格。 有百尺梧桐閣集。
Fellow townsman Wang Maolin, styled Jisu, shared his poetic fame; together they were called the "Two Wangs." A jinshi in Kangxi 6, he became a Grand Secretariat secretary. Recommended for the Special Examination, he was in mourning and did not sit for it. When mourning ended, Xu Qianxue recommended him again, and he entered the History Bureau as a compiler with the rank of principal in the Ministry of Justice. Maolin combined solid learning with practical ability. While a secretary, the Chu scholar Zhu Fangdan used heterodox teachings to sway high officials; Maolin wrote Disputing the Way to refute him. Xiong Cilu read his essay and became his close friend. In the Ministry of Justice he was diligent in his duties. A man surnamed Wu rode in a carriage and stayed at Dong Zhigui's house; Zhigui coveted his money and killed him. He loaded the body into the carriage, abandoned it on the road, and whipped the horse to send it galloping off. Wu's father found the carriage and horse at the Liu family's gate and sued Liu for murdering his son. Maolin said: "To kill a man and leave his carriage and horse at the gate makes no sense." He then went out in plain clothes and released the horse; when it reached Zhigui's gate it started in fright, leaping and whinnying mournfully. He then arrested Zhigui; one interrogation established the facts, and the law was applied. He uncovered hidden crimes in many cases like this. Maolin studied poetry with Wang Shizhen, but his talent ran freely and formed a style apart from Shizhen's. He wrote the Baichi wutong ge ji.
133
陸葇，字次友，平湖人。 幼時值大軍收平湖，父被執，葇詣軍前乞代父。 軍將手詩★M3示之曰：「兒能讀是耶？ 吾赦汝父。」 葇朗誦「收兵四解降王縛，教子三升上將台」，曰； 「此宋人贈曹武惠王詩也。 將軍不嗜殺，即今之武惠王矣！」 將軍喜，挾與北行，善育之，為議婚。 以先問名於楊，辭歸。 補諸生，入國學，試授中書。 康熙六年進士，管內秘書院典藉。 再試鴻博，授編修，分纂明史，命直南書房。 三十三年，召試翰詹諸臣豐澤園，聖祖親置第一，謂曰：「連試詩文。 無出汝右者。」 一歲七遷，至內閣學士。 長至，奏句決本，請出矜疑二十餘人。 後一年告歸。 葇性孝友，兄南雄知府世楷前卒，葇教養遺孤，俾成立，有名於時。 年七十，卒。 著雅坪詩文藁。
Lu Rong, styled Ciyou, was from Pinghu. As a boy, when the Qing army took Pinghu, his father was seized; Rong went to the camp and begged to die in his place. The general held out a poem and said: "Can you read this, boy? I will pardon your father." Rong recited clearly: "When the army withdrew, four bonds of the surrendering king were loosed; teaching one's son, thrice he ascended the general's platform," and said; "This is a Song poem presented to Marquis Wu of Cao. The general does not delight in killing—you are today's Marquis Wu of Cao!" The general was pleased, took him north, treated him well, and sought to arrange a marriage. Because he had already been betrothed to the Yang family, he declined and returned home. Restored as a county student, he entered the Imperial Academy and on examination was appointed secretary. A jinshi in Kangxi 6, he served as librarian of the Inner Secretariat Academy. He took the Special Examination again, became a compiler, helped compile the Ming History, and was assigned to the Southern Library. In Kangxi 33, Hanlin and Secretariat officials were tested at Fengzeyuan; the Kangxi Emperor ranked him first and said: "After testing your poetry and prose repeatedly, no one surpasses you." Within a year he was promoted seven times, reaching Grand Secretariat academician. At the winter solstice he reviewed death sentences and requested clemency for more than twenty doubtful cases. A year later he retired. Filial and devoted as a brother, Rong raised his late elder brother Shikai's orphaned children to maturity after Shikai, prefect of Nanxiong, had died earlier, winning renown at the time. He died at seventy. He wrote the Yaping shi wen gao.
134
奎勳，字聚侯，世楷子也。 少隨葇京師，以學行為公卿所推重，顧久困諸生中。 康熙末，年幾六十，始成進士，授檢討，充明史纂修官。 匄疾歸，主廣西秀峰書院。 奎勳篤於經學，忘飢渴寒暑。 著陸堂易學，謂說卦一篇，足該全易。 其詩學與明何楷詩世本古義相近。 尚書說，惟解伏生今文二十八篇、戴禮緒言，糾正漢人穿鑿附會之失。 春秋義存錄，則凡經、傳、子、緯所載孔子語盡援為據，力主春秋非以一字褒貶。 奎勳說經務新奇，使聽者忘倦。 最後撰古樂發微，未成而卒。
Kuixun, styled Juhou, was Shikai's son. As a youth he followed Rong to the capital; grandees respected his learning and conduct, yet he long remained a county student. Near the end of Kangxi, at nearly sixty, he finally passed the jinshi examination, became a reviser, and served as a Ming History compiler. Citing illness, he returned home and headed Xiufeng Academy in Guangxi. Kuixun was devoted to classical learning, heedless of hunger, thirst, cold, or heat. In his Lutang yixue he argued that the Explaining the Trigrams chapter alone fully encompasses the entire Book of Changes. His Odes scholarship resembled Ming He Kai's Shishi ben gu yi. In Shangshu shuo he explicated only Fu Sheng's twenty-eight New Text chapters and Dai's Rites preface, correcting Han scholars' forced interpretations. Chunqiu yi cun lu gathers every Confucian saying found in classics, commentaries, masters, and weft texts as evidence, arguing forcefully that the Spring and Autumn does not praise and blame through single-word judgments. Kuixun's lectures on the classics were strikingly original, and listeners never grew weary. He finally began Ancient Music Expounded but died before finishing it.
135
龐塏，字霽公，任丘人。 生有至性。 七歲時，父緣事被逮，母每夕禱天。 塏即隨母泣拜，無或間也。 稍長，工為文。 康熙十四年舉人，試鴻博，授檢討，分修明史。 明都御史某諂附魏忠賢，其裔孫私餽金，匄閹黨傳諱其事勿書，力拒之。 大考降補中書，洊擢戶部郎中，出知建寧府。 浦城民以令嚴苛激變，夜焚冊局，殺吏胥，罷市，令懼而逃。 塏聞變即馳至浦城，集士民明倫堂，曉喻禍福，戮一人而事定。 民感其德，立書院祀之。 九仙山多盜，至掠人索贖。 掩捕數十人，境內帖然。 未幾，告歸。
Pang Kai, styled Jigong, was from Renqiu. He possessed an exceptional nature from birth. At seven, when his father was seized on account of a legal matter, his mother prayed to Heaven every evening. Kai would follow his mother weeping and bowing without fail. As he grew he became skilled at writing. A provincial graduate in Kangxi 14, he passed the Special Examination, became a reviser, and helped compile the Ming History. A Ming censor had fawned on Wei Zhongxian; his descendant privately sent gold, begging that the eunuch faction biography omit the matter—Kai firmly refused. After failing the grand evaluation he was demoted to secretary, then rose to bureau director in the Ministry of Revenue and was sent out as prefect of Jianning. Pucheng people rose in revolt over the magistrate's harsh rule; by night they burned the register office, killed clerks, shut down the markets, and the magistrate fled in fear. Hearing of the disturbance, Kai rode at once to Pucheng, gathered gentry and people in the Hall of Bright Ethics, and admonished them of the consequences; after executing one man, the affair was settled. Grateful for his virtue, the people erected an academy in his honor. Jiuxian Mountain swarmed with bandits who even kidnapped people for ransom. After ambushing and capturing dozens, the territory became peaceful. Soon after he retired.
136
塏嗜吟詠，與同里邊汝元以詩學相劘切。 其所作醇雅，以自然為宗。 有叢碧山房集。
Kai loved composing poetry and, with fellow townsman Bian Ruyuan, sharpened their craft through mutual critique. His work was pure and elegant, with naturalness as its guiding principle. He wrote the Congbi shanfang ji.
137
汝元子連寶，字趙珍。 世其家學。 以諸生貢成均，廷試第一。 應乾隆元年博學鴻詞科，不中選。 十四年，复薦經學，辭不赴。 或勸之行，曰：「吾自審不能如漢伏勝、董仲舒，安敢幸取哉？」 著有隨園集。
Ruyuan's son Lianbao, styled Zhaozhen. He inherited the family scholarship. As a county student he was recommended to the Imperial Academy and ranked first in the palace examination. He sat for the Qianlong 1 Broad Learning and Eminent Words Examination but was not selected. In Qianlong 14, recommended again for classical learning, he declined to go. When some urged him to go, he said: "I know I cannot match Han Fu Sheng or Dong Zhongshu—how dare I seek undeserved recognition?" He wrote the Suiyuan ji.
138
陸圻，字麗京，錢塘人。 少與弟堦、培以文學、志行見重於時，稱曰「三陸」。 所為詩號西陵體。 性穎異，善思誤書。 嘗讀韓非子「一從而咸危」，曰：「是'一徙而成邑'也。」 戲令他人射覆，不得，惟弟廷中之。 平生不喜言人過，有語及者，輒曰：「吾與汝，姑自淑。」 莊廷鑨史禍作，圻坐逮。 以先嘗具狀自陳，事得白，歎曰：「今幸得不死，奈何不以餘年學道耶！」 親歿，遂棄家遠遊，不知所終。 子寅，成進士。 往來萬里，尋父不得，竟悒悒以死，時稱其孝。 培死甲申之難。
Lu Qi, styled Lijing, was from Qiantang. In youth he and his younger brothers Jie and Pei were respected for literary talent and upright character—they were called the "Three Lu." His poetry was known as the Xiling style. Quick-witted and unusual by nature, he was skilled at reasoning from textual errors in books. Once reading in Han Feizi "from one follow all are endangered," he said: "This is 'one removal and a town is formed.' In jest he had others guess the answer; none succeeded—only his younger brother got it. All his life he disliked speaking of others' faults; when someone did, he would say: "You and I had better improve ourselves first." When the Zhuang Tinglong History Affair arose, Qi was implicated and arrested. Because he had previously submitted a written statement in self-defense, the matter was cleared; he sighed: "Having thankfully escaped death, why not spend my remaining years pursuing the Way!" After his parents died, he abandoned his home and wandered far away—his end is unknown. His son Yin became a jinshi. Traveling tens of thousands of li in search of his father without success, he finally died in dejection—people praised his filial devotion. Pei died in the disaster of 1644.
139
丁澎，字飛濤，仁和人。 有雋才。 嗜飲，一石不亂，弟景鴻、溁並能文，時有「三丁」之目。 澎，順治十二年進士，官禮部郎中。 嘗典河南鄉試，得一卷奇之。 同考請置之乙，澎曰：「此名士也！」 榜發，乃廬陽李天馥，出語人曰：「吾以世目衡文，幾失此士。」 坐事謫居塞上五載，躬自飯牛，吟嘯自若。 所作詩多忠愛，無怨誹之思。 有扶荔堂集。
Ding Peng, styled Feitao, was from Renhe. He had outstanding talent. He loved drinking—a full dan of wine did not unsettle him; his younger brothers Jinghong and Rang were also fine writers—they were called the "Three Ding." Peng, a Shunzhi 12 jinshi, served as bureau director in the Ministry of Rites. While presiding over the Henan provincial examination, he found one exam paper remarkable. A fellow examiner asked to place it in the second rank; Peng said: "This is a man of distinction!" When the list was published it was Li Tianfu of Luyang; Peng told people: "I nearly lost this scholar by judging the essay with conventional eyes." Punished for an offense, he was banished to the frontier for five years, personally tending cattle, singing and whistling at ease. His poems were mostly filled with loyal devotion, without resentment or slander. He wrote the Fuli tang ji.
140
先是陳子龍為登樓社，圻、澎及同里柴紹炳、毛先舒、孫治、張丹、吳百朋、沈謙、虞黃昊等並起，世號「西泠十子」。
Earlier Chen Zilong formed the Ascending the Tower Society; Qi, Peng, and fellow townsmen Chai Shaobing, Mao Xianshu, Sun Zhi, Zhang Dan, Wu Baipeng, Shen Qian, Yu Huanghao, and others rose together—they were called the "Ten Masters of Xiling."
141
紹炳，字虎臣。 在十子中文名最著。 持躬尤端謹。 有省軒集。
Shaobing, styled Huchen. Among the Ten his literary reputation was the greatest. His personal conduct was especially upright and careful. He wrote the Sheng xuan ji.
142
先舒，字稚黃。 嘗從劉宗周講學。 其詩音節瀏亮，有七子餘風。 著思古堂集。
Xianshu, styled Zhihuang. He once studied under Liu Zongzhou. His poetry had a flowing, bright rhythm, retaining traces of the Seven Masters style. He wrote the Sigu tang ji.
143
治，字宇台。 篤友誼，陸培死，以孤女託為擇婿，得吳任臣。 及立嗣，又以甥女嫁焉。 有鑑菴集。
Zhi, styled Yutai. Deeply devoted in friendship, when Lu Pei died he entrusted an orphaned daughter to Zhi to choose a son-in-law; Zhi found Wu Renchen. When an heir was established, he also gave his niece in marriage to him. He wrote the Jian'an ji.
144
丹，字綱孫。 美鬚髯。 淡靜不樂交遊，而嗜山水。 其詩悲涼沉遠，曰秦亭集。
Dan, styled Gangsun. He had a handsome beard and sideburns. Calm and quiet, he took little pleasure in society but loved mountains and rivers. His poetry was desolate, deep, and far-reaching—it was collected as the Qinting ji.
145
百朋，字錦雯。 以舉人令南和，有異政，百姓祠祀之。 有襆庵集。
Baipeng, styled Jinwen. As a provincial graduate he served as magistrate of Nanhe; his exceptional governance led the people to enshrine him. He wrote the Fuan ji.
146
謙，字去矜。 工詩，初喜溫、李，後乃循漢、魏以窺盛唐。 有東江草堂集。 謙與紹炳、先舒皆精韻學。 紹炳作古韻通，先舒作韻學通指、南曲正韻，謙作東江詞韻。 陸圻歎曰：「恨孫偭、周德清曾無先覺。」
Qian, styled Qujin. Skilled at poetry, he first favored Wen Tingyun and Li Shangyin, then traced Han and Wei poetry to glimpse the High Tang. He wrote the Dongjiang caotang ji. Qian, Shaobing, and Xianshu were all expert in rhyme studies. Shaobing wrote Guyun tong, Xianshu wrote Yunxue tongzhi and Nanqu zhengyun, and Qian wrote Dongjiang ciyun. Lu Qi sighed: "It is a pity that Sun Mian and Zhou Deqing lacked such foresight."
147
黃昊，字景明。 十歲即善屬文。 薄柳州乞巧，更作辭巧文，識者知其遠到。 康熙中舉人，終教諭。
Huang Hao, styled Jingming. At ten he could already compose prose well. He disdained Liu Zongyuan's Begging for Skillfulness and wrote instead a Rejecting Skillfulness essay—those who knew recognized his far-reaching talent. A provincial graduate in the Kangxi era, he ended his career as director of studies.
148
孫枝蔚，字豹人，三原人。 少遭闖賊亂，結邑裡少年擊賊，墮坎埳，幸不死。 乃走江都，習賈，屢致千金，輒散之。 既乃折節讀書，僦居董相祠，高不見之節。 王士禎官揚州，以詩先，遂定交，稱莫逆焉。 時左贊善徐乾學方激揚士類，才俊滿門，枝蔚弗屑也。 以布衣舉鴻博，自陳衰老，乞還山，遂不應試，授內閣中書。 著溉堂集，詩詞多激壯之音，稱其高節。
Sun Zhiwei, styled Baoren, was from Sanyuan. In youth, during the rebel turmoil, he gathered local youths to fight bandits; he fell into a pit trap but fortunately survived. He then went to Jiangdu, took up trade, repeatedly amassed a thousand gold, and each time gave it all away. He then reformed his ways and devoted himself to study, renting rooms at the Shrine of Chancellor Dong and maintaining the lofty integrity of a man who shuns public notice. When Wang Shizhen was prefect of Yangzhou, he introduced himself with a poem; they became friends and were hailed as kindred spirits. At the time Left Assistant to the Heir Apparent Xu Qianxue was championing men of talent, and gifted scholars thronged his household—but Zhiwei would have none of it. Recommended for the Special Examination though only a commoner, he pleaded old age and infirmity and begged to retire to the hills; he did not sit for the exam and was appointed a Secretariat drafter. He wrote the Gaitang ji; his poetry and lyrics often rang with stirring vigor, and people praised his lofty character.
149
李念慈，字屺瞻，涇陽人。 順治十五年進士，以河間府推官改知新城縣。 坐逋賦罷。 會有荊襄之役，敘運餉勞，再起，補天門。 與枝蔚同舉鴻博，試不中選。 喜遊，好吟詠。 有谷口山房集。 施閏章稱其雄爽之氣勃勃眉宇，蓋秦風而兼吳、楚者。
Li Nianci, styled Qizhan, was from Jingyang. A Shunzhi 15 jinshi, he served as investigating censor of Hejian Prefecture before being transferred to magistrate of Xincheng County. He was dismissed for failing to collect taxes in full. When the Jingxiang campaign broke out, he was credited for transporting supplies, reinstated, and appointed to Tianmen. He was recommended for the Special Examination together with Zhiwei but was not selected. He loved to travel and was fond of composing poetry. He wrote the Gukou shanfang ji. Shi Runzhang praised the bold, open spirit that shone in his face, saying he combined the force of Qin with the grace of Wu and Chu.
150
丁煒，字瞻汝，晉江人。 諸生。 工詩，有吏才。 順治十二年，定遠大將軍濟度統師取漳州，詔便宜置郡縣吏，得試士幕下，拔煒第一。 授漳平教諭，遷知直隸獻縣，內擢戶部主事。 時議稅閩鹽，煒力陳不可，事得寢。 由郎中出為贛南分巡道。 閩人佃贛者乘亂劫略，號「田賊」，捕治之，民情大洽。 遷湖北按察使，脫重囚為盜誣者二十餘人於獄。 尋坐事謫官，居武昌，未發，武昌卒夏包子作亂，脅使署。 巡撫以死拒，東走安慶，乞師巡撫楊素蘊。 事平，降補知府雲南。 會素蘊移撫湖廣，以煒事聞，复按察職。 俄以疾歸。
Ding Wei, styled Zhanru, was from Jinjiang. He was a county student. He was skilled at poetry and had a gift for administration. In Shunzhi 12, Great General Jidu led troops to capture Zhangzhou; the court authorized him to appoint local officials at discretion, and scholars were tested under his command—Wei ranked first. He became director of studies at Zhangping, then magistrate of Xian County in Zhili, and was promoted internally to secretary in the Ministry of Revenue. When a proposal arose to tax Fujian salt, Wei argued forcefully against it, and the plan was shelved. Promoted from bureau director, he was sent out as circuit intendant for southern Ganzhou. Fujianese tenant farmers in Ganzhou exploited the unrest to plunder and rob; they were called the "Field Bandits." After he captured and punished them, the people were greatly pleased. Transferred to provincial judge of Hubei, he released from prison more than twenty men facing capital charges who had been falsely accused as bandits. Soon afterward he was demoted for an offense and was staying in Wuchang before his departure when Wuchang soldier Xia Baozi rebelled and forced him to sign official documents. He refused even at the cost of his life, fled east to Anqing, and begged Governor-General Yang Suyun for troops. Once the affair was settled, he was demoted and reassigned as prefect of Yunnan. When Suyun was transferred to govern Huguang, he reported on Wei's conduct, and Wei was restored to his post as provincial judge. Before long he retired home due to illness.
151
煒論詩，以為詩貴合法，然法勝則離； 貴近情，然情勝則俚。 故其為詩，力追三唐、漢、魏。 無詭薄之失。 有問山集。
In discussing poetry, Wei held that poetry should honor formal rules, yet when rules dominate it grows remote; it should honor closeness to feeling, yet when feeling dominates it turns vulgar. Therefore in his own poetry he strove to follow the Three Tang periods and the Han and Wei masters. His work never lapsed into perversity or shallowness. He wrote the Wenshan ji.
152
林侗，字同人，閩人也。 縣貢生。 喜金石。 卒，年八十八。 弟佶，字吉人。 康熙五十二年進士，官中書，工楷法。 文師汪琬，詩師陳廷敬、王士禎。 此三人集皆佶手繕付雕，精雅為世所重。 家多藏書，徐乾學輯經解，朱彝尊選明詩，皆就傳鈔。 有樸學齋集。
Lin Tong, styled Tongren, was from Fujian. He was a county tribute student. He was devoted to bronze and stone inscriptions. He died at eighty-eight. His younger brother was Ji, styled Jiren. A Kangxi 52 jinshi, he served as secretary and was skilled in regular script. For prose he took Wang Wan as his master; for poetry, Chen Tingjing and Wang Shizhen. All three men's collected works were copied in Ji's own hand for printing; their refinement and elegance were highly prized. The family owned a large library; when Xu Qianxue compiled commentaries on the classics and Zhu Yizun selected Ming poetry, both came to borrow copies for transcription. He wrote the Puxue zhai ji.
153
黃任，字莘田，永福人。 工書。 口辯若懸河。 有硯癖，以舉人令四會，罷官歸，惟硯石壓裝。 詩清新刻露，有香草齋集。 乾隆二十七年，重宴鹿鳴。 卒，年八十餘。
Huang Ren, styled Xintian, was from Yongfu. He was skilled at calligraphy. His eloquence flowed like a torrent. He had a passion for inkstones; as a provincial graduate he served as magistrate of Sihui, and when he was dismissed and returned home, only inkstones filled his baggage. His poetry was fresh, clear, and incisive; he wrote the Xiangcao zhai ji. In Qianlong 27, he was honored again at the Deer-Ming banquet. He died in his eighties.
154
鄭方坤，字則厚，建安人。 雍正元年進士。 為令邯鄲，屢擢至山東兗州知府。 時禁人口出海，抵奉天而未入籍者，悉勒還本土。 方坤適知登州，以為司牧者但當嚴姦宄之防，不得閉其謀生之路，為白大吏，弛其禁。 調武定，能盡心賑務。 兗州飢，复移治之。 方坤記誦博，詩才凌厲，與兄方城齊名。 有蔗尾集，又著經稗、五代詩話、全閩詩話、國朝詩人小傳。
Zheng Fangkun, styled Zehou, was from Jian'an. A Yongzheng 1 jinshi. He served as magistrate of Handan and rose through repeated promotions to prefect of Yanzhou in Shandong. At the time people were forbidden to go to sea; anyone who reached Fengtian without registering was forced to return home. Fangkun was then prefect of Dengzhou; he argued that local officials should guard strictly against treachery but must not block people's paths to livelihood, reported this to senior officials, and had the prohibition relaxed. Transferred to Wuding, he devoted himself wholeheartedly to famine relief. When famine struck Yanzhou, he was transferred back to govern it. Fangkun had a prodigious memory; his poetic talent was forceful, and he was equally renowned with his elder brother Fangcheng. He wrote the Zhewei ji, and also authored Jing bai, Wudai shihua, Quan Min shihua, and Guochao shiren xiaozhuan.
155
黃與堅，字廷表，太倉人。 幼有奇慧，八歲，酷好唐人詩，錄小本，懷袖中諷誦之。 已而究心經術，遍讀週、秦古書。 性落落，與人交有終始。 順治十六年進士，後舉鴻博，授編修，遷贊善，分修明史及一統志。 寓居委巷，寂寞著書，如窮愁專一之士。 有忍菴集。
Huang Yujian, styled Tingbiao, was from Taicang. From childhood he showed extraordinary intelligence; at eight he was passionately fond of Tang poetry, copied verses into a pocket book, and kept it in his sleeve to recite. He then devoted himself to classical learning and read widely in Zhou and Qin antiquities. Free and easy by nature, he was steadfast in friendship from beginning to end. A Shunzhi 16 jinshi, he was later recommended for the Special Examination, became a compiler, was promoted to tutor, and helped compile the Ming History and the Unified Gazetteer. Living in a humble lane, he wrote in solitude like a poor scholar wholly devoted to his craft. He wrote the Ren'an ji.
156
吳偉業選「婁東十子」詩，以與堅為冠。 十子者，周肇、許旭、王撰、王攄、王昊、王揆、王忭、王曜升、顧湄也。 肇詩曰東岡集，旭曰秋水集，撰曰三餘集，攄曰蘆中集。
Wu Weiye selected the poetry of the "Ten Masters of Loudong" and placed Yujian at the head. The Ten Masters were Zhou Zhao, Xu Xu, Wang Zhuan, Wang Shu, Wang Hao, Wang Kui, Wang Bian, Wang Yaosheng, and Gu Mei. Zhao's poetry was collected as the Donggang ji, Xu's as the Qiushui ji, Zhuan's as the Sanyu ji, and Shu's as the Luzhong ji.
157
昊，為世貞後，有文藻，下筆如宿構。 康熙十八年，召試，授官正字。 所著曰碩園集。 揆，順治中進士，所著曰芝廛集。 忭曰健菴集，曜升曰東皋集。
Hao was a descendant of Wang Shizhen; he had literary talent, and his writing seemed effortless. In Kangxi 18 he was summoned for examination and appointed proofreader. He wrote the Shuoyuan ji. Kui, a Shunzhi-era jinshi, wrote the Zhichan ji. Bian's poetry was collected as the Jian'an ji, and Yaosheng's as the Donggao ji.
158
湄，字伊人，亦太倉人。 事母以孝聞，父夢麟，長於毛、鄭之學，湄傳其業。 尤工詩，清麗婉約，陳瑚以為過元人。 其詩曰水鄉集。
Gu Mei, styled Yiren, was also from Taicang. He was known for filial devotion to his mother; his father Menglin was expert in the learning of Mao and Zheng, and Mei inherited his scholarship. Especially skilled at poetry, his work was clear, beautiful, and graceful; Chen Hu held that he surpassed Yuan poets. His poetry was collected as the Shuixiang ji.
159
吳雯，季天章，蒲州人，原籍遼陽。 父允升，任蒲州學政，卒官，遂家焉。 雯少朗悟，記覽甚博，尤長於詩。 遊京師，父執劉體仁、汪琬皆激賞之。 王士禎目為仙才。 嘗與葉方靄同直，誦其警句，方靄下直即趨訪，名大噪。 大學士馮溥出扇索詩，雯大書二絕句答之，其坦率類是。 卒以不遇，不悔也。 試鴻博不中選。 後居母憂，以毀卒。 雯著蓮洋集，詩體峻潔，有其鄉人元好問之風。 據名山記蓮洋村在華嶽下，取以名集。
Wu Wen, styled Tianzhang, came from Puzhou; his family was originally from Liaoyang. His father Yun Sheng served as educational commissioner of Puzhou, died in office, and the family settled there. From youth Wen was bright and perceptive; he read widely and was especially accomplished in poetry. When he traveled to the capital, his father's friends Liu Tiren and Wang Wan all praised him enthusiastically. Wang Shizhen called him a transcendent talent. Once while on duty with Ye Fang'ai, he recited a striking line; as soon as Fang'ai went off duty he hurried to visit him, and Wen's fame spread far and wide. Grand Secretary Feng Pu sent out a fan requesting a poem; Wen answered with two quatrains written in large characters—his frankness was often like this. He ultimately went unrecognized, yet he had no regrets. He took the Special Examination but failed to be selected. Later, while mourning his mother, he died from grief. Wen wrote the Lianyang ji; his poetic style was austere and pure, with the spirit of his fellow townsman Yuan Haowen. According to the Record of Famous Mountains, Lianyang Village lies below Mount Hua, and he took the name for his collection.
160
陶季，寶應人。 初名澂，字季深，以字行，复去其一，稱曰陶季。 負異才，鋒穎踔厲。 遊燕、趙、齊、魯之郊，逾太行，浮湘、沅，所至皆有詩。 士禎刪定其客滇南、閩中諸詩，以高、岑、龍標相況。 先是詔舉鴻博，公卿爭欲薦，季辭不就，以布衣終。 有湖邊草堂集及舟車集。
Tao Ji, a native of Baoying. Originally named Cheng and styled Jishen, he went by his style name, then dropped one character and was known as Tao Ji. Endowed with unusual talent, he wrote with sharp, soaring brilliance. He traveled through Yan, Zhao, Qi, and Lu, crossed the Taihang Mountains, and sailed the Xiang and Yuan rivers—wherever he went he wrote poetry. Shizhen edited his poems from Yunnan and Fujian and compared him to Gao Shi, Cen Shen, and Li Bai. Earlier, when the court ordered recommendations for the Special Examination, grandees all competed to recommend him, but Ji declined and lived out his days as a commoner. He wrote the Hubian caotang ji and the Zhouche ji.
161
梅清，字瞿山，宣城人，宋梅堯臣後也。 清英偉豁達，自力於學，以淹雅稱。 順治十一年舉人，試禮部不第。 朝士爭與之交，王士禎、徐元文尤傾倒焉。 詩凡數變，自訂天延閣前後集。 年七十餘，復合編瞿山詩略。 書法仿顏真卿、楊凝式。 畫尤盤薄多奇氣。 嘗作黃山圖，極煙雲變幻之勝，為當時所重。 同族有梅庚者，生後於清。 善八分書，亦工詩畫，與清齊名。
Mei Qing, styled Qushan, was from Xuancheng; he was a descendant of the Song poet Mei Yaochen. Heroic, open, and magnanimous, Qing applied himself to learning and was known for broad refinement. A Shunzhi 11 provincial graduate, he sat for the Ministry of Rites examination but did not pass. Court officials vied to befriend him, and Wang Shizhen and Xu Yuanwen were especially devoted. His poetry changed style several times over his career; he edited the Former and Later Collections of the Tianyan Pavilion himself. Past seventy, he compiled and edited the Qushan Selected Poems anew. His calligraphy followed the manner of Yan Zhenqing and Yang Ningshi. In painting he was especially bold and sweeping, full of uncanny energy. He once painted Mount Huang with such mastery of shifting mists and clouds that the work was greatly prized in his time. Among his clansmen was Mei Geng, born after Qing. Skilled in clerical script, he also excelled at poetry and painting and shared Qing's renown.
162
庚，字耦長。 少孤，承其祖鼎祚、父朗中之傳，益昌大之。 施閏章見其詩，引為忘年交。 康熙二十年舉人，為朱彝尊所得士。 性狷介，客遊京師，不妄投一刺。 士禎主禮闈，庚復被黜，士禎贈詩引為恨也。 後知泰順縣，有惠政，民德之。
Geng, styled Ouchang. Orphaned in youth, he inherited the learning of his grandfather Dingzuo and his father Langzhong and carried it to new heights. When Shi Runzhang read his poetry, he took him as a friend despite the age difference. A Kangxi 20 provincial graduate, he was a favored disciple of Zhu Yizun. Uncompromising by nature, he traveled to the capital as a guest yet never casually presented a single calling card. When Shizhen presided over the Ministry of Rites examination, Geng failed again; Shizhen sent him a poem lamenting the result. Later, as magistrate of Taishun County, he governed with kindness, and the people were grateful.
163
馮景，字山公，錢塘人。 國子監生。 善屬文，千言立就。 康熙時遊京師，侍郎項景襄、金鼐皆遣子弟從受學。 會營宮室，求楠木樑不得，有請以他木易國子監彝倫堂梁者。 景上書尚書魏象樞，極陳不可，事得寢。 由是馮太學生之名盛傳京師。 大學士索額圖召欲見之，謝不往。 歸館淮安邱象隨家垂十年。 宋犖撫江蘇，禮致幕府，或納金求為緩頰，峻卻之，人益欽其品。 景篤師友風義，與仁和汪煜、湯右曾交最篤。 二人為給事中，多所論列，亦由景數責善有以激厲之也。 王士禎轉左都御史，景以受知士禎，冀其大有匡濟，為書諷之。 景雖布衣，不求仕進，而未嘗忘當世之務。 在淮安時，有水患，湯斌奉詔北上，作書陳災狀及所以致患之由，斌見書嗟賞，又嘗稱其文為不朽。 其著述多佚，今存者解舂集。
Feng Jing, styled Shangong, was a native of Qiantang. He was a student of the Imperial Academy. Skilled at prose composition, he could finish a thousand-character piece on the spot. During the Kangxi reign he traveled to the capital; Vice Ministers Xiang Jingxiang and Jin Nai both sent sons and nephews to study under him. During palace construction, when nanmu beams could not be found, someone proposed swapping the beam of the Imperial Academy's Hall of Ethical Unity for timber of another kind. Jing memorialized Minister Wei Xiangju, arguing forcefully against the plan, and the matter was dropped. From this the name of Feng, the Imperial Academy student, spread throughout the capital. Grand Secretary Songgotu summoned him, but he declined the audience. He returned and lived as a retainer in Qiu Xiangsui's household in Huai'an for nearly ten years. When Song Luo governed Jiangsu, he courteously brought Jing into his staff; when others offered gold to ask him to intercede for them, he sternly refused, and people admired his character all the more. Jing was deeply devoted to the bonds of teacher and friend; his closest friendships were with Wang Yu of Renhe and Tang Youzeng. The two became supervising secretaries and often submitted critical memorials—partly because Jing repeatedly urged them toward moral rectitude. When Wang Shizhen became Left Censor-in-Chief, Jing, whom Shizhen had favored, hoped he would greatly set the realm right and wrote him a letter of admonition. Though a commoner who sought no office, Jing never forgot the affairs of the day. While in Huai'an during a flood, he wrote to Tang Bin, who had been ordered north on imperial business, describing the disaster and its causes; Bin read the letter with admiration and once praised his prose as immortal. Most of his writings are lost; only the Jiechun ji survives today.
164
邵長蘅，字子湘，武進人。 十歲補諸生，因事除名，旋入太學。 工詩，尤致力古文辭，陶鍊雅正。 與景同客犖幕，長蘅亦觥觥持古義，無所貶損，時論賢之。 著有青門稿。
Shao Zhangheng, styled Zixiang, was a native of Wujin. At ten he became a licentiate; he was stricken from the rolls over an affair and soon entered the Imperial Academy. Accomplished in poetry, he devoted himself especially to ancient-style prose, refining it to elegance and correctness. Like Jing, he served as a retainer in Song Luo's staff; Zhangheng too held to ancient principles with unyielding integrity and never compromised, and public opinion praised him. He wrote the Qingmen Drafts.
165
姜宸英，字西溟，慈谿人，明太常卿應麟曾孫。 父晉珪，諸生，以孝聞。 宸英績學工文辭，閎博雅健。 屢躓於有司，而名達禁中。 聖祖目宸英及朱彝尊、嚴繩孫為海內三布衣。 侍讀學士葉方靄薦應鴻博，後期而罷。 方藹總裁明史，又薦充纂修，食七品俸，分撰刑法志。 極言明詔獄，廷杖，立枷，東、西廠之害，辭甚愷至。 尚書徐乾學領一統志事，設局洞庭東山，疏請宸英偕行。 久之，舉順天鄉試。 三十六年，成進士。 廷對李蟠第一，嚴虞惇第二，帝識宸英手書，親拔置第三人及第，授編修，年七十矣。 明年，副蟠典試順天，蟠被劾遣戍，宸英亦連坐。 事未白，卒獄中。
Jiang Chenying, styled Ximing, was from Cixi and a great-grandson of the Ming Chamberlain for Ceremonials Yinglin. His father Jin Gui was a licentiate renowned for filial piety. Deeply learned and skilled in literary composition, Chenying wrote with breadth, refinement, and vigor. He repeatedly failed the examinations, yet his name reached the Forbidden City. The Emperor named Chenying, Zhu Yizun, and Yan Shengsun the three celebrated commoners of the realm. Reader-in-Waiting Ye Fang'ai recommended him for the Special Examination, but he arrived late and was passed over. When Fang'ai served as chief editor of the History of Ming, he recommended Chenying again as a compiler; Chenying received seventh-rank salary and was assigned to draft the monograph on penal law. He spoke at length of the evils of Ming secret prisons, court beatings, standing cangues, and the Eastern and Western Depots, in language that was earnest and forthright. Minister Xu Qianxue oversaw the Comprehensive Gazetteer and set up an office on East Dongting Mountain; he memorialized asking Chenying to accompany him. After some time he passed the Shuntian provincial examination. In Kangxi 36 he became a metropolitan graduate. At the palace examination Li Pan ranked first and Yan Yudun second; the Emperor recognized Chenying's handwriting, personally raised him to third place among the Presented Scholars, and appointed him compiler—he was seventy. The next year, serving as associate examiner for the Shuntian examination with Pan, he was implicated when Pan was impeached and sent into exile. Before the matter was cleared, he died in prison.
166
宸英性孝友。 與人交，坦夷而不阿。 祭酒翁叔元劾湯斌偽學，遽移書責之。 著湛園集、葦間集。 書法得鍾、王遺意，世頗重之。
Chenying was filial and devoted to his brothers by nature. In his dealings with others he was open and straightforward and would not flatter. When Chancellor Weng Shuyuan impeached Tang Bin for false learning, Chenying promptly sent him a letter of reproach. He wrote the Zhan Garden Collection and the Weijian Collection. His calligraphy captured the spirit of Zhong You and Wang Xizhi, and the world held it in high esteem.
167
虞惇，字贊成，常熟人。 幼能背誦九經、三史。 既官翰林，館閣文字多出其手。 科場獄興，虞惇諸子是科獲雋，考官蟠、宸英皆其同年友。 用是罣吏議鐫級，閒居數年。 起大理寺寺副，平反內務府殺人移獄被誣者，累遷太僕寺少卿，卒官。 著有讀詩質疑。 江南人刻其文曰嚴太僕集，以繼明歸太僕雲。
Yan Yudun, styled Zancheng, was a native of Changshu. As a child he could recite the Nine Classics and the Three Histories from memory. Once he entered the Hanlin Academy, most court compositions issued from his hand. When the examination scandal broke, Yudun's sons passed that year's examination with distinction; the chief examiners Pan and Chenying were both friends from his cohort year. For this he was censured by the personnel office and reduced in rank, and lived in retirement for several years. Recalled as vice director of the Grand Court of Revision, he exonerated a man wrongly accused after the Imperial Household Department shifted a murder case; he rose in succession to Vice Director of the Court of Imperial Stud and died in office. He wrote Doubts Raised on Reading the Classic of Poetry. Men of Jiangnan printed his writings as the Yan, Vice Director of the Court of Imperial Stud Collection, in succession to Gui You's Ming-era collection of the same title.
168
黃虞稷，字俞邰，上元人，本籍晉江。 七歲能詩。 以諸生舉鴻博，遭母喪，不與試。 左都御史徐元文薦修明史，又修一統志，皆與宸英同。 家富藏書。 著千頃堂書目，為明史藝文志所本。
Huang Yuji, styled Yu'ai, was from Shangyuan, with ancestral registration in Jinjiang. At seven he could compose poetry. Recommended as a licentiate for the Special Examination, he was in mourning for his mother and did not sit for the test. Left Censor-in-Chief Xu Yuanwen recommended him to compile the History of Ming and the Comprehensive Gazetteer, in both cases alongside Chenying. His household possessed a rich library. He wrote the Thousand-Mu Hall Bibliography, which became the basis for the bibliography monograph in the History of Ming.
169
性德，納喇氏，初名成德，以避皇太子允礽嫌名改，字容若，滿洲正黃旗人，明珠子也。 性德事親孝，侍疾衣不解帶，顏色黧黑，疾愈乃復。 數歲即習騎射，稍長工文翰。 康熙十四年成進士，年十六。 聖祖以其世家子，授三等侍衛，再遷至一等。 令賦乾清門應制詩，譯御製松賦，皆稱旨。 俄疾作，上將出塞避暑，遣中官將御醫視疾，命以疾增減告。 遽卒，年止三十一。 嘗奉使塞外有所宣撫，卒後，受撫諸部款塞。 上自行在遣中官祭告，其眷睞如是。
Xingde of the Nara clan was originally named Chengde; to avoid the taboo name of Crown Prince Yunreng he changed it. Styled Rongruo, a Manchu of the Plain Yellow Banner, he was the son of Mingzhu. Filial toward his parents, Xingde attended them in illness without loosening his girdle; his face grew dark and gaunt, and only when they recovered did he return to himself. From childhood he practiced riding and archery; as he grew older he became accomplished in letters. In Kangxi 14 he became a metropolitan graduate at sixteen. The Emperor, seeing him as a scion of a great house, appointed him a third-rank bodyguard and twice promoted him to first rank. Ordered to compose an imperial-assignment poem at the Gate of Heavenly Purity and to translate the imperial Pine Fu, he pleased the Emperor in both. Soon he fell ill; as the Emperor was about to leave the pass for summer retreat, he dispatched eunuchs with imperial physicians to attend him and ordered reports on whether his condition improved or worsened. He died suddenly at only thirty-one. He had once been sent beyond the pass on a pacification mission; after his death the tribes he had reassured came to the frontier in allegiance. From the traveling palace the Emperor sent eunuchs to offer sacrifices—such was the fond regard shown him.
170
性德鄉試出徐乾學門。 與從揅討學術，嘗裒刻宋、元人說經諸書，書為之序，以自撰禮記陳氏集說補正附焉，合為通志堂經解。 性德善詩，尤長倚聲。 遍涉南唐、北宋諸家，窮極要眇。 所著飲水、側帽二集、清新秀雋，自然超逸。 嘗讀趙松雪自寫照詩有感，即繪小像，仿其衣冠。 坐客期許過當，弗應也。 乾學謂之曰：「爾何似王逸少！」 則大喜。 好賓禮士大夫，與嚴繩孫、顧貞觀、陳維崧、姜宸英諸人遊。 貞觀友吳江吳兆騫坐科場獄戍寧古塔，賦金縷曲二篇寄焉，性德讀之歎曰：「山陽思舊，都尉河梁，並此而三矣！」 貞觀因力請為兆騫謀，得釋還，士尤稱之。
Xingde passed the provincial examination as a disciple of Xu Qianxue. With his followers he pursued scholarship, once gathering and printing Song and Yuan commentaries on the classics, writing prefaces for them and appending his own Rectifications to Chen's Collected Explanations of the Book of Rites; the whole was published as the Tongzhi Hall Exegesis of the Classics. Xingde was skilled at poetry and especially excelled at ci lyric composition. He ranged across the masters of Southern Tang and Northern Song, penetrating their subtlest essentials. His Yinshui and Cemao collections are fresh, elegant, and refined—naturally transcendent and unforced. Reading Zhao Songxue's poem on his own self-portrait once moved him so deeply that he immediately painted a small likeness in imitation of Zhao's dress and cap. When guests praised him beyond measure, he would not accept it. Qianxue said to him, "How much you resemble Wang Yishao!" At that he was greatly delighted. He delighted in receiving guests and honoring scholar-officials, keeping company with Yan Shengsun, Gu Zhenguan, Chen Weisong, Jiang Chenying, and others. Zhenguan's friend Wu Zhaoqian of Wujiang was implicated in the examination scandal and exiled to Ningguta; he composed two Jinlüqu lyrics and sent them. Xingde read them and sighed, "The Shanyang lament for old friends, the Commandant at the River Bridge, and this make three such laments!" Zhenguan then pressed hard on Zhaoqian's behalf; he was freed and returned home, and scholars especially praised him for it.
171
貞觀，字梁汾，無錫人。 康熙十一年舉人，官內閣中書。 工詩，自定集僅五言三十餘篇，清微婉篤，上睎韋、柳； 而世特傳其詞，與維崧及朱彝尊稱詞家三絕。 清世工詞者，往往以詩文兼擅，獨性德為專長，仁和譚獻嘗謂為詞人之詞。 性德後，又得項鴻祚、蔣春霖三家鼎立。
Zhenguan, styled Liangfen, was a native of Wuxi. A Kangxi 11 provincial graduate, he served as a secretary in the Grand Secretariat. Accomplished in poetry, his self-selected collection contains only thirty-odd pentameter poems—subtle, gentle, and sincere, looking back to Wei Yingwu and Liu Zongyuan. But the world chiefly transmitted his ci lyrics; together with Weisong and Zhu Yizun he was hailed as one of the three unsurpassed ci poets. Qing masters of ci often excelled equally in shi and prose; Xingde alone was a specialist, and Tan Xian of Renhe once called his work "ci of a true ci poet." After Xingde came Xiang Hongzuo and Jiang Chunlin, and the three stood like a tripod.
172
鴻祚，字蓮生，錢塘人。 道光十二年舉人。 善詞，上溯溫、韋，下逮周密、吳文英。 擷精棄滓，以自名其家。 屢應禮部試不第。 卒，年三十八。 自序憶雲詞，有曰：「不為無益之事，何以遣有涯之生！」 學者誦而悲之。
Hongzuo, styled Liansheng, was a native of Qiantang. A Daoguang 12 provincial graduate. Skilled in ci, he traced his lineage upward to Wen Tingyun and Wei Zhuang and downward to Zhou Mi and Wu Wenying. He distilled the finest and cast off the chaff, establishing a distinctive voice of his own. He took the Ministry of Rites examination many times but never passed. He died at thirty-eight. In the preface to his Reminiscences of Cloud Lyrics, he wrote, "If one does not do useless things, how can one pass one's finite life!" Scholars who read it were moved to grief.
173
春霖，字鹿潭，江陰人，寄籍大興。 咸豐中，官東台場鹽大使。 工詞。 時方亂離，傍徨沉鬱，高者直逼姜夔。 困於卑官，孤介忤時，益侘傺。 舟經吳江，一夕暴卒。 春霖慕性德飲水、鴻祚憶雲，自署水雲樓，即以名其詞。
Chunlin, styled Lutan, was a native of Jiangyin but registered as a resident of Daxing. During the Xianfeng era, he served as salt intendant at the Dongtai salt station. He excelled in ci poetry. In an age of chaos and upheaval, his lyrics were restless and brooding; at their best they nearly matched Jiang Kui. Stuck in a humble office, upright and out of step with the age, he grew ever more despondent. While passing through Wujiang by boat, he died suddenly one night. Chunlin admired Xingde's Drinking Water Lyrics and Hongzuo's Reminiscences of Cloud; he styled himself Master of the Water-and-Cloud Tower and gave that name to his ci collection.
174
宗室文昭，字子晉，饒餘親王阿巴泰曾孫，鎮國公百綬子。 辭爵讀書，從王士禎遊。 工詩，才名藉甚。 王式丹稱其詩以鮑、謝為胚胎，而又兼綜眾有，擷百家之精華，其味在酸鹹之外。 著有薌嬰居士集、紫幢詩鈔。
Wenzhao of the imperial clan, styled Zijin, was a great-grandson of Prince Raoyu Abatai and son of Prince of the State Baoshou. He declined his title to devote himself to study and kept company with Wang Shizhen. Accomplished in poetry, he enjoyed great literary renown. Wang Shidan said his poetry took Bao Zhao and Xie Lingyun as its foundation, yet also synthesized every school and distilled the essence of a hundred masters; its flavor transcended easy categories. He wrote the Xiangying Layman Collection and the Purple Banner Poetry Manuscript.
175
又宗室以詩名者，蘊端，初名岳端，字正子，號紅蘭主人，多羅安郡王岳樂子。 封貝子。 有玉池生稿。
Another imperial clansman famed for poetry was Yun Duan, originally named Yue Duan, styled Zhengzi and known as Master of the Red Orchid, son of Prince Duo'an Yuele. He held the rank of beizi. He left the Jade Pool Drafts.
176
博爾都，字問亭，號東皋漁父，恪僖公拔都海子，蘊端從弟。 封輔國將軍。 有問亭詩集。
Bo'erdu, styled Wenting and known as the Fisherman of Eastern Mound, was a son of Prince Kexi Badu and a younger cousin of Yun Duan. He held the rank of Defender Prince of the State. He left the Wenting Poetry Collection.
177
永忠，字良輔，又字臞仙，多羅貝勒弘明子。 輔國將軍。 有延芬室集。 詩體秀逸，書法遒勁，頗有晉人風味。 常不衫不履，散步市衢。 遇奇書異籍，必買之歸，雖典衣絕食不顧也。
Yongzhong, styled Liangfu and also known as Quxian, was a son of Prince Duo Luo Hongming. He held the rank of Defender Prince of the State. He left the Yanfen Studio Collection. His poetry was elegant and unfettered, his calligraphy bold and vigorous, with much of the flavor of Jin-dynasty masters. He often walked the streets without coat or shoes. Whenever he came upon rare books and unusual texts, he bought them and carried them home, even if it meant pawning his clothes or going without food.
178
書諴，字實之，號樗仙，鄭獻親王濟爾哈朗六世孫，輔國將軍長恆子。 奉國將軍。 有靜虛堂集。 性慷慨，不欲嬰世俗情。 年四十，即託疾去官。 邸有餘隙地，盡種蔬果，手執畚鎛，從事習勞以為樂。
Shu Shen, styled Shizhi and known as Chuxian, was a sixth-generation descendant of Prince Zhengxian Jirhalang and son of Defender Prince of the State Changheng. He held the rank of Bulwark Prince of the State. He left the Quiet Void Hall Collection. By nature he was generous and wished to keep clear of worldly entanglements. At forty he pleaded illness and resigned from office. On spare ground at his residence he planted nothing but fruits and vegetables; hoe and spade in hand, he took joy in manual labor.
179
永諲，字嵩山，康修親王崇安子。 鎮國將軍。 詩宗盛唐，書法趙文敏。 晚年獨居一室，不與人接。 詩多散佚。
Yongyin, styled Songshan, was the son of Prince Kangxiu Chong'an. He held the rank of Pacifying Prince of the State. In poetry he followed the High Tang; in calligraphy he followed Zhao Mengfu. In old age he shut himself in a single room and saw no one. Most of his poetry has not survived.
180
裕瑞，字思元，豫通親王多鐸裔。 封輔國公。 工詩善畫，通西番語。 常畫鸚鵡地圖，即西洋地球圖。 又以佛經自唐時流入西藏，近日佛藏皆出一本，無可校讎。 乃取唐古特字譯校，以復佛經唐本之舊，凡數百卷。 著有思元齋集。
Yurui, styled Siyuan, descended from Prince Yutong Dodo. He held the title of Duke Defender of the State. He was accomplished in poetry and painting and understood Tibetan. He often painted "parrot maps"—that is, Western terrestrial globes. He also noted that Buddhist scriptures had flowed into Tibet since the Tang, yet recent Buddhist canons all derived from a single text and offered nothing to collate against. He therefore collated Tangut-script translations to restore the Tang originals of the Buddhist canon—several hundred scrolls in all. He wrote the Siyuan Studio Collection.
181
趙執信，字仲符，益都人。 從祖進美，官福建按察使，詩名甚著。 執信承其家學，自少即工吟詠。 年十九，登康熙十八年進士，授編修。 時方開鴻博科，四方雄文績學者皆集輦下，執信過從談宴，一座盡傾。 朱彝尊、陳維崧、毛奇齡尤相引重，訂為忘年交。 出典山西鄉試，遷右贊善。 二十八年，坐國卹中宴飲觀劇，為言者所劾，削籍歸。 卒，年八十餘。
Zhao Zhixin, styled Zhongfu, was a native of Yidu. His father's cousin Jinmei served as Fujian Surveillance Commissioner and enjoyed great renown as a poet. Zhixin inherited the family tradition and from youth was accomplished in verse. At nineteen he passed the jinshi examination in Kangxi 18 and was appointed a Hanlin Compiler. The Special Examination had just been opened, and eminent scholars from every quarter gathered at the capital; Zhixin joined their conversations and banquets, and every gathering was won over by him. Zhu Yizun, Chen Weisong, and Mao Qiling especially valued him, and they became close friends despite the gap in their ages. He served as chief examiner for the Shanxi provincial examination, then was promoted to Right Director of the Court of Studious Endeavor. In Kangxi 28, because he feasted and watched plays during the period of national mourning, he was impeached by censors, struck from the rolls, and sent home. He died aged over eighty.
182
執信為人峭峻褊衷，獨服膺常熟馮班，自稱私淑弟子。 娶王士禎甥女，初頗相引重。 後求士禎序其詩，士禎不時作，遂相詬厲。 嘗問詩聲調於士禎，士禎靳之，乃歸取唐人集排比鉤稽，竟得其法，為聲調譜一卷。 又以士禎論詩，比之神龍不見首尾，雲中所露一鱗一爪而已，遂著談龍錄，云：「詩以言志，詩之中須有人在，詩之外尚有事在。」 意蓋詆士禎也。 說者謂士禎詩尚神韻，其弊也膚； 執信以思路劖刻為主，其失也纖。 兩家才性不同，實足相資濟雲。 執信所著詩文曰飴山堂集。
Zhixin was sharp-tempered and narrow in conviction; he revered none but Feng Ban of Changshu, whom he called his private master. He married Wang Shizhen's niece, and at first the two men held each other in the highest esteem. Later he asked Shizhen for a preface to his poetry; when Shizhen did not produce one promptly, the two fell into bitter mutual abuse. Once he asked Shizhen about tonal patterns in poetry; Shizhen was stingy with his knowledge, so Zhixin returned home, arranged and collated Tang collections, and finally mastered the method, producing a one-scroll Tonal Pattern Manual. He also said that Shizhen's discourse on poetry was like a divine dragon whose head and tail one never sees—only a scale or a claw glimpsed through the clouds—and therefore wrote Discourse on the Dragon, saying, "Poetry expresses intent; within poetry there must be a person, and beyond poetry there must still be events. His aim was clearly to attack Shizhen. Critics held that Shizhen's poetry valued spiritual resonance, yet its weakness was shallowness; Zhixin made laborious carving of thought his guiding principle, and his failing was excessive fineness. Their gifts and temperaments diverged, yet in truth they could profit each other. The poetry and prose Zhixin authored were collected as the Yishan Hall Collection.
183
當是時，海內以詩名者推士禎，以文名者推汪琬。 而嘉興葉燮，字星期，其論文亦與琬不合，往復論難，互譏嘲焉。 及琬歿，慨然曰：「吾失一諍友矣！ 今誰復彈吾文者？」 取向所短汪者悉焚之。 燮父紹袁，明進士，官工部主事，國亡後為僧。 燮生四歲，授以楚辭，即成誦。 康熙九年進士，選授寶應令。 值三籓亂，又歲饑，民不堪苦。 累以伉直失上官意，坐累落職。 時嘉定知縣陸隴其亦被劾，燮以與隴其同罷為幸。 性喜山水，縱遊宇內名勝幾遍。 年七十六，猶以會稽、五洩近在數百里獨未遊為憾。 复裹糧往，歸遂疾。 逾年卒。 寓吳時，以吳中論詩多獵範、陸皮毛，而遺其實，著原詩內外篇，力破其非。 吳士始而訾謷，久乃更從其說。 著已畦詩文集。 士禎謂其鎔鑄往昔，獨立起衰。
In those days Shizhen was reckoned the leading poet in the empire and Wang Wan the leading prose writer. Ye Xie of Jiaxing, styled Xingqi, also clashed with Wan over literary theory; they debated back and forth and taunted one another. When Wan died, Ye said with emotion, "I have lost a friend who spoke truth to me! Who is left to find fault with my writing? He gathered everything he had written against Wang and burned it all. Ye's father Shaoyuan, a Ming jinshi who had served as a secretary in the Ministry of Works, took holy orders after the fall of the dynasty. When Ye was four, he was taught the Songs of Chu and could recite them at once. A Kangxi 9 jinshi, he was selected and appointed magistrate of Baoying. This fell in the time of the Revolt of the Three Feudatories, with famine year after year, until the people could bear no more. Time and again his blunt, upright ways cost him his superiors' favor, and he was removed from office on a trumped-up charge. When Lu Longqi, magistrate of Jiading, was also impeached, Ye counted it an honor to fall from office alongside him. He loved mountains and rivers by nature and wandered freely to famed scenic places across the empire, leaving few unvisited. Even at seventy-six he regretted that Kuaiji and the Five Cascades—only a few hundred li distant—remained among the celebrated sites he had never seen. He packed food once more and made the journey; when he returned he took ill. A little over a year later he died. While living in Wu, he observed that poetry discussions there often hunted only the surface of Fan Zhongyan and Lu You while abandoning their substance, and therefore wrote the Inner and Outer Chapters of Original Poetry, forcefully refuting that error. Scholars of Wu first jeered at him, but before long they adopted his position. He wrote the Yiqu Poetry and Prose Collection. Shizhen said he had smelted the past into something new and alone roused a fading tradition.
184
馮廷櫆，字大木，德州人。 康熙二十一年進士，授中書。 幼有奇童之目，讀書一覽輒記，尤長於詩。 嘗充湖廣副考官，試畢，登黃鶴樓，俯江、漢之流，南望瀟湘、洞庭，慨然遠想，賦詩百餘篇，識者以為騷之遺也。 平生深契者惟執信，其詩孤峭亦相類，歿後散佚。 其孫德培搜輯得五百篇，名馮舍人遺詩。
Feng Tingkai, styled Damu, was a native of Dezhou. A Kangxi 21 jinshi, he was appointed a Secretariat Secretary. As a child he was hailed as a prodigy; a single reading fixed a text in memory, and poetry was his especial gift. Once, while serving as associate examiner in Huguang, he climbed Yellow Crane Tower after the examinations, looked down on the Yangzi and Han rivers, and gazed south toward the Xiao and Xiang and Lake Dongting; stirred by distant thoughts, he composed more than a hundred poems that connoisseurs took for heirs to the sao tradition. In life his sole intimate was Zhixin; their poetry alike was austere and steep, and after his death it was scattered and lost. His grandson Depei collected five hundred poems and published them as the Posthumous Poetry of Secretary Feng.
185
黃儀，字六鴻，常熟人。 精輿地之學。 嘗以班固地誌所載諸川，第詳水出入，其中間經歷之地，備著於水經，然讀者非繪圖不能了，乃反覆尋究，每水各為一圖。 凡都邑建署沿革、山川險易皆具焉，條縷分析，各得其理。 閻若璩見之，歎曰：「酈道元千古後一知己也！」 若璩嘗問儀：「後漢志溫縣濟水出，王莽時大旱，遂枯絕。 是河南無濟矣，何酈氏言之詳也？」 儀曰：「新莽時雖枯，後復見，酈氏所謂其後水流迳通，津渠勢改，尋梁脈水，不與昔同是也。 杜君卿乃不信水經，專憑彪志，竊以彪特紀一時災變耳，非謂永不截河南過也。」 徐乾學修一統志，儀與若璩、胡渭、顧祖禹任分纂，皆地學專家。 儀又訂正晉書地理志。 兼工詩詞，著有紉蘭集。
Huang Yi, styled Liuhong, was a native of Changshu. He was a master of geography. He observed that Ban Gu's Treatise on Geography recorded rivers only at their points of entry and exit, whereas the places they traversed in between were fully set forth in the Water Classic—yet readers could grasp this only with maps; he therefore investigated repeatedly and drew a separate map for each river. Every change in the siting of towns and offices, and every hazard or ease of mountain and river, was set down; strand by strand he analyzed each until its logic stood clear. When Yan Ruoqu saw it, he sighed and said, "Li Daoyuan has found, a thousand years later, one who truly understands him!" Ruoqu once asked Yi, "The Treatise on the Later Han says the Ji River issued from Wen County, but during Wang Mang's reign there was a great drought and it dried up completely. If there was no Ji in Henan, why does Li Daoyuan describe it at such length?" Yi said, "Although it dried up in the Xin Mang period, it later reappeared; this is what Master Li meant when he said that afterward the water's course ran through again, the force of channels and sluices changed, and one traced the pulse of the riverbed—no longer the same as before. Du You did not trust the Water Classic and relied solely on Ban Biao's Treatise; I suspect Ban Biao was merely recording a temporary disaster of that time, not saying that the river would never again cross through Henan." When Xu Qianxue compiled the Comprehensive Gazetteer, Yi served as a section compiler alongside Yan Ruoqu, Hu Wei, and Gu Zuyu—all masters of geographical studies. Yi also corrected the Geography Monograph in the Book of Jin. He was also accomplished in shi and ci poetry and left the Ren Lan Collection.
186
鄭元慶，字芷畦，歸安人。 通史傳，旁及金石文字。 李紱、張伯行雅重其學，欲薦於朝未得也。 顏魯公書湖州石柱記，元慶為之箋釋，甚博贍。 又著湖錄百二十卷，七易藁而後成，自謂平生精力殫於是書。 平生慕鄭子真之為人，自號鄭谷口。 晚更治經，其著書處名魚計亭。 著有周易集說、詩序傳異同、禮記集說參同、官禮經典參同、家禮經典參同、喪服古今異同考、春王正月考、海運議。
Zheng Yuanqing, styled Zhikai, was a native of Gui'an. He was versed in historical biographies and ranged widely into epigraphy and bronze inscriptions. Li Fu and Zhang Boxing greatly admired his scholarship and wished to recommend him to the throne, but never managed to do so. Yuanqing wrote a commentary on Yan Zhenqing's Record on the Huzhou Stone Pillar—a work of extraordinary breadth and erudition. He also compiled the Hu Lu in one hundred and twenty juan, revising the manuscript seven times before he was satisfied, and declared that he had poured his life's strength into that book alone. All his life he admired the conduct of Zheng Zizhen and took the sobriquet Zheng Gukou. In later life he turned to the Classics; the study where he wrote was named Yuji Pavilion. His works include Collected Notes on the Book of Changes, Differences in the Preface Traditions of the Book of Songs, Comparative Study of the Collected Notes on the Book of Rites, Comparative Study of the Classic of Official Rites, Comparative Study of the Classic of Family Rites, Examination of Ancient and Modern Differences in Mourning Dress, Examination of the First Month of the Spring King's Calendar, and Discourse on Sea Transport.
187
查慎行，字悔餘，海寧人。 少受學黃宗羲。 於經邃於易。 性喜作詩，遊覽所至，輒有吟詠，名聞禁中。 康熙三十二年，舉鄉試。 其後聖祖東巡，以大學士陳廷敬薦，詔詣行在賦詩。 又詔隨入都，直南書房。 尋賜進士出身，選庶吉士，授編修。 時族子升以諭德直內廷，宮監呼慎行為老查以別之。 帝幸南苑，捕魚賜近臣，命賦詩。 慎行有句云：「笠簷蓑袂平生夢，臣本煙波一釣徒。」 俄宮監傳呼「煙波釣徒查翰林」。 時以比「春城寒食」之韓翃雲。 充武英殿書局校勘，乞病還。 坐弟嗣庭得罪，闔門就逮。 世宗識其端謹，特許於歸田裡，而弟嗣瑮謫遣關西，卒於戍所。 嗣瑮，字德尹。 康熙三十九年進士，官至侍講。 性警敏，數歲即解切韻諧聲。 詩名與慎行相埒。 慎行著敬業堂集、周易玩辭集解，又補注蘇詩，行於世。 嗣瑮著查浦詩鈔、音類通考。
Zha Shenxing, styled Huiyu, was a native of Haining. In his youth he studied under Huang Zongxi. Of the Classics he was deepest in the Book of Changes. By nature he loved to write poetry; wherever he traveled he would compose on what he saw, and his name reached even within the Forbidden City. In the thirty-second year of Kangxi he passed the provincial examination. Later, when the Kangxi Emperor toured the east, Chen Tingjing, Grand Secretary of the Hall of Literary Glory, recommended him, and an edict summoned him to the imperial encampment to compose poetry. He was then ordered to accompany the court to the capital and serve in the Southern Studio. Soon afterward he was granted jinshi status, selected as a Hanlin bachelor, and appointed compiler. At the time his clansman Sheng served as tutor in the inner court, so the palace eunuchs called Shenxing "Old Zha" to tell them apart. The emperor visited the Southern Park, caught fish and bestowed them on his close ministers, and ordered them to compose poems. Shenxing had a couplet that ran: "Bamboo hat and straw sleeves—the dream of my whole life; your servant was always a fishing recluse on misty waters." Presently a palace eunuch called out, "Where is Academician Zha, the Fishing Recluse on Misty Waters?" At the time people compared it to the tale of Han Hong and his line "Spring City, Cold Food Festival." He served as collator in the Wuying Hall book office, then pleaded illness and returned home. When his younger brother Siting was condemned for an offense, the entire household was taken into custody. The Yongzheng Emperor recognized his upright discretion and specially allowed him to return to his fields, while his younger brother Simi was banished to the northwest and died in exile. Simi, styled Deyin. A jinshi of the thirty-ninth year of Kangxi, he rose to Reader-in-Waiting. Alert and quick-witted by nature, from childhood he understood rhyme categories and harmonic sound. His reputation as a poet rivaled Shenxing's. Shenxing authored the Jingye Tang Collection and Collected Explications Playing with the Words of the Book of Changes, and also supplemented annotations on Su Shi's poetry—all of which circulated widely. Simi authored the Cha Pu Poetry Selection and Comprehensive Examination of Sound Categories.
188
升，字仲韋。 康熙二十七年進士。 官少詹事。 詩筆清麗。 尤工書，似董其昌。 有澹遠堂集。
Sheng, styled Zhongwei. A jinshi of the twenty-seventh year of Kangxi. He rose to Junior Mentor to the Heir Apparent. His poetry and prose were lucid and graceful. He was especially accomplished in calligraphy, in a manner reminiscent of Dong Qichang. He left the Danyuan Tang Collection.
189
史申義，字叔時，江都人。 少工詩，與同里顧圖河齊名，稱維揚二妙。 康熙二十七年進士，授編修。 充雲南鄉試考官，改御史、禮科給事中，乞病歸。 王士禎以風雅詔後進，嘗謂申義及湯右曾足傳己衣缽，人稱「王門二弟子」。 在翰林時，聖祖以後進詩人詢大學士陳廷敬，廷敬舉申義、週起渭對，故又有「翰苑兩詩人」之目。
Shi Shenyi, styled Shushi, was a native of Jiangdu. From youth he was accomplished in poetry and shared equal fame with his townsman Gu Tuhe; together they were called the Two Wonders of Weiyang. A jinshi of the twenty-seventh year of Kangxi, he was appointed compiler. He served as examiner for the Yunnan provincial examination, then transferred to censor and Supervisor in the Ministry of Rites before pleading illness and retiring home. Wang Shizhen instructed later generations in refined poetry and once declared that Shenyi and Tang Youzeng were fit to inherit his mantle; people called them "Wang's Two Disciples." While serving in the Hanlin, the Kangxi Emperor asked Grand Secretary Chen Tingjing which poets among the younger generation were worth noting; Chen named Shenyi and Zhou Qiwei, and so they were also known as "the Two Poets of the Hanlin Academy."
190
起渭，字漁塘，貴陽人。 康熙三十三年進士，由檢討累遷詹事府詹事。 詩才雋逸，尤肆力於蘇軾、元好問、高啟諸家。 貴州自明始隸版圖，清詩人以起渭為冠，而銅仁張元臣、平遠潘淳亦並有詩名。
Qiwei, styled Yutang, was a native of Guiyang. A jinshi of the thirty-third year of Kangxi, he rose from Reviser through successive promotions to Grand Mentor of the Heir Apparent's Household. His poetic talent was spare and soaring; he especially devoted himself to the styles of Su Shi, Yuan Haowen, Gao Qi, and others. Guizhou had been part of the empire since the Ming; among Qing poets Qiwei stood at the head, while Zhang Yuanchen of Tongren and Pan Chun of Pingyuan also enjoyed poetic fame.
191
元臣，字志伊。 康熙三十六年進士，由檢討累遷左諭德。 有豆村詩鈔。
Yuanchen, styled Zhiyi. A jinshi of the thirty-sixth year of Kangxi, he rose from Reviser through successive promotions to Left Tutor to the Heir Apparent. He left the Doucun Poetry Selection.
192
淳，字元亮。 康熙五十四年進士，官檢討。 文安陳儀與同榜，一時咸推潘詩陳筆。 有椽林詩集。
Chun, styled Yuanliang. A jinshi of the fifty-fourth year of Kangxi, he served as Reviser. Chen Yi of Wen'an graduated in the same cohort, and for a time everyone praised Pan's poetry and Chen's prose. He left the Chuanlin Poetry Collection.
193
顧陳垿，字玉停，鎮洋人。 少有文名，嘗得徐光啟曆書，精求一月，通其術。 康熙五十四年舉人，以薦入湛凝齋修書。 書成，議敘行人司行人。 時外廷送算學三百餘員候試，聖祖親策之，得七十二人，陳垿為冠。 又充樂館纂修。 雍正元年，出使山東、浙江，還督通州倉。 三年，以目疾乞歸，閉門撰述，四方走書幣乞文者踵至。 性耿介，敦於內行。 居喪不飲酒食肉，不處內。 沈起元官河南，延主大樑書院，引範文正憂中掌學睢陽以勸； 陳垿執象山責東萊故事，謝不往也。 乾隆元年，詔起官，又舉鴻博，及六年設樂部，復以洞曉音律宣召，皆辭不赴，時論高之。 年七十，卒。
Gu Chenxu, styled Yuting, was a native of Zhenjiang. He won a literary reputation early; once he obtained Xu Guangqi's calendrical treatise and for a full month pursued it intensively until he mastered its methods. A provincial graduate in the fifty-fourth year of Kangxi, he entered the Zhanning Studio on recommendation to compile books. When the compilation was finished, he was nominated for appointment as Secretary in the Department of Foreign Affairs. At the time the outer court sent more than three hundred candidates in mathematics to await examination; the Kangxi Emperor personally tested them, seventy-two passed, and Chenxu ranked first. He also served as compiler in the Music Office. In the first year of Yongzheng he was dispatched as envoy to Shandong and Zhejiang; on his return he oversaw the Tongzhou granary. In the third year he pleaded eye disease and retired, shut his doors to write, and messengers bearing letters and gifts begging for compositions arrived in an unbroken stream from every quarter. By nature he was upright and unyielding, strict in his private conduct. While in mourning he neither drank nor ate meat and did not enter the inner quarters. When Shen Qiyuan was posted to Henan he invited Chenxu to head the Daliang Academy, citing Fan Zhongyan's directing the Suiyang Academy while still in mourning as encouragement; Chenxu invoked the precedent of Lu Jiuyuan's rebuke of Lu Donglai and politely refused. In the first year of Qianlong he was summoned back to office and also nominated for the Poet-Laureate examination; in the sixth year, when the Music Bureau was established, he was again summoned for his mastery of pitch and rhythm—all of which he declined, and contemporary opinion held him in high esteem. He died at the age of seventy.
194
陳垿精字學、算學、樂律，時稱三絕。 嘗造八矢注守圖說，謂字學居六藝之末，聲音，樂也，形體，書也，而口出耳入，手運目存，則皆有數焉。 學士惠士奇、通政孫勷得其書，置酒延陳垿請其說。 陳垿為言經聲緯音開發收閉之旨，及每矢實義，一矢未發，則聲不能出，字有所避，八矢盡而音定字死矣。 二人嘆為天授。 少與同里王時翔為性命交，並工詩。 婁東詩人大率宗吳偉業，陳序晚出，乃自闢町畦。 著洗桐集、抱桐集。
Chenxu mastered philology, mathematics, and music theory, and his contemporaries called these his Three Unmatched Excellences. He once wrote Illustrated Explanations of the Eight Arrows Principle, arguing that philology stands last among the Six Arts—sound belongs to music, form belongs to writing—yet when mouth emits and ear receives, hand moves and eye retains, all are governed by number. Academician Hui Shiqi and Vice Minister of Communications Sun Rang obtained his book, set out wine, and invited Chenxu to expound his theory. Chenxu explained the principles of warp-sounds and woof-sounds—opening, developing, receiving, and closing—and the real meaning of each arrow: until one arrow is released, sound cannot emerge; when a character must avoid something, all eight arrows are spent, the sound is fixed, and the character is dead. The two men sighed that such talent could only be heaven-endowed. In youth he and his townsman Wang Shixiang were sworn friends bound for life and death, and both were accomplished poets. Lou Dong poets mostly followed Wu Weiye, but Chen Xu emerged later and carved out a path of his own. He authored the Xi Tong Collection and the Bao Tong Collection.
195
何焯，字屺瞻，長洲人。 通經史百家之學。 藏書數万卷，得宋、元舊槧，必手加讎校，粲然盈帙。 學者稱義門先生，傳錄其說為義門讀書記。
He Chao, styled Qizhan, was a native of Changzhou. He was versed in the Classics, histories, and the learning of the hundred schools. His library held tens of thousands of volumes; whenever he obtained Song or Yuan old imprints he would personally collate them until the volumes stood radiant and complete on the shelves. Scholars called him Master Yimen, and his teachings were transcribed as Yimen's Reading Notes.
196
康熙四十一年，直隸巡撫李光地以草澤遺才薦，召入南書房。 明年，賜舉人，試禮部下第，复賜進士，改庶吉士。 仍直南書房，授皇八子讀，兼武英殿纂修。 連丁內外艱。 久之，復以光地薦，召授編修。 尚書徐乾學、翁叔元爭延致焯。 尋遘讒，與乾學失歡，而叔元劾湯斌，焯上書請削門下籍，天下快之。 聖祖幸熱河，或以蜚語上聞，還京即命收系。 盡籍其卷冊文字，帝親覽之，曰：「是固讀書種子也！」 無失職觖望語，又見其草藁有手簡吳縣令卻金事，益異之。 命還所籍書，解官，仍參書局。 六十一年，卒，年六十一。 帝深悼惜，特贈侍講學士。 贈金，給符傳歸喪，命有司存卹其孤。
In the forty-first year of Kangxi, Li Guangdi, Governor-General of Zhili, recommended him as a hidden talent from the wilds, and he was summoned to the Southern Studio. The next year he was granted provincial graduate status, failed the metropolitan examination at the Ministry of Rites, was then granted jinshi status, and was made a Hanlin bachelor. He continued to serve in the Southern Studio, tutoring the Eighth Imperial Son in reading while also compiling in the Wuying Hall. He mourned in succession for both parents. After a long interval he was again recommended by Guangdi, summoned to court, and appointed compiler. Minister Xu Qianxue and Minister Weng Shuyuan vied to bring He Chao into their households. Soon he encountered slander and fell out with Qianxue; when Shuyuan impeached Tang Bin, He Chao submitted a memorial asking to be struck from Shuyuan's roster of disciples, and people throughout the realm applauded. When the Kangxi Emperor went to Rehe, slander may have reached his ears; as soon as he returned to the capital he ordered He Chao seized. All his scrolls and writings were confiscated; the emperor read them himself and said, "This is truly a seed of learning!" There was no language of disgruntlement over lost office; moreover he found among the drafts a personal letter refusing a bribe from the magistrate of Wu County, and was all the more impressed. He ordered the confiscated books returned, dismissed He Chao from office, but still had him participate in the book office. In the sixty-first year of Kangxi he died, at the age of sixty-one. The emperor deeply mourned his loss and specially posthumously granted him the title of Reader-in-Waiting of the Hanlin Academy. He bestowed gold, provided travel passes for the return of the coffin, and ordered officials to care for his orphaned children.
197
焯工楷法，手所校書，人爭傳寶。 門人著錄者四百人，吳江沈彤、吳縣陳景雲為尤著。
He Chao excelled in regular script, and books he collated by hand were treasured and passed from hand to hand. Four hundred disciples were recorded under his name; Shen Tong of Wujiang and Chen Jingyun of Wuxian were especially distinguished.
198
景雲，字少章。 博聞彊識，能背誦通鑑。 年十七，湯斌撫吳，試士拔第一。 應京兆試，不遇。 館籓邸三年，以母老辭歸，遂不出，以諸生終。 少從焯遊，焯歿，獨系吳中文獻幾二十年。 著有讀書紀聞及綱目、通鑑、兩漢書、三國志、文選、韓、柳集皆有訂誤，共三十餘卷。 文集四卷，亦簡嚴有法。
Jingyun, styled Shaozhang. Broadly learned with a formidable memory, he could recite the Comprehensive Mirror from memory. At seventeen, when Tang Bin governed Jiangsu, he was tested among local scholars and placed first. He took the Capital Metropolitan examination but did not pass. He served three years as a retainer in a princely household, then returned home on grounds of his aged mother and never went out again, ending his days as a licentiate. From youth he studied under He Chao; after Chao's death he alone kept the literary tradition of Suzhou alive for nearly twenty years. His works include Reading Notes and textual corrections to the Outline and Mirror, the Two Han Histories, the Records of the Three Kingdoms, the Wen Xuan, and the collected works of Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan—more than thirty juan in all. His collected prose in four juan was likewise concise, rigorous, and well ordered.
199
子黃中，字和叔。 諸生。 父子皆長史學，而黃中尤以才略自負。 舉乾隆元年博學鴻詞，入都上書，論用人、理財、治兵三端。 大學士陳世倌韙其言。 頃之，詔求骨鯁之士，如古馬周、陽城者，世倌欲薦之，謝不應。 胡天遊傲睨群士，獨推服黃中。 示以文，每發其瑕璺，未嘗有忤也。 嘗病宋史蕪雜，別撰紀傳表百七十卷。 又著國朝諡法考、閣部督撫年表。 其卒也貧不能葬，或賻以金，妻張氏固卻之，曰：「奈何以貧故，傷夫子義！」 遂賣所居宅以營葬。
His son Huang Zhong, courtesy name Heshu. He was a licentiate. Father and son both excelled in historical studies, but Huang Zhong especially prided himself on talent and strategic insight. Recommended for the Qianlong 1 Erudite Special Examination, he went to the capital and submitted a memorial on three matters: appointing men, managing finances, and governing the military. Grand Secretary Chen Shiguan endorsed his views. Soon an edict sought blunt-spirited men in the mold of Ma Zhou and Yang Cheng of old; Shiguan wished to recommend him, but he declined. Hu Tianyou looked down on all other scholars but alone acknowledged Huang Zhong's superiority. When he showed Tianyou his writings, Tianyou always pointed out their flaws, yet Huang Zhong never took offense. Finding the Song History cluttered and diffuse, he separately composed annals, biographies, and tables in one hundred seventy juan. He also wrote A Study of Posthumous Titles of Our Dynasty and Chronological Tables of Grand Secretaries, Ministries, Governors-General, and Governors. When he died they were too poor to bury him; someone offered money for the funeral, but his wife, née Zhang, firmly refused. "How can we," she said, "because of poverty, wound my husband's integrity!" So she sold their house to arrange the burial.
200
戴名世，字田有，桐城人。 生而才辨雋逸，課徒自給。 以製舉業發名廩生，考得貢，補正藍旗教習。 授知縣，棄去。 自是往來燕、趙、齊、魯、河、洛、吳、越之間，賣文為活。 喜讀太史公書，考求前代奇節瑋行。 時時著文以自抒湮鬱，氣逸發不可控禦。 諸公貴人畏其口，尤忌嫉之。 嘗遇方苞京師，言曰：「吾非役役求有得於時也，吾胸中有書數百卷，其出也，自忖將有異於人人。 然非屏居深山，足衣食，使身無所累，未能誘而出之也。」 因太息別去。 康熙四十八年，年五十七，始中式會試第一，殿試一甲二名及第，授編修。 又二年而南山集禍作。
Dai Mingshi, courtesy name Tianyou, was a native of Tongcheng. From birth he was gifted with talent and eloquence and supported himself by teaching pupils. Through examination essays he became a noted stipend student, qualified as a tribute student, and was appointed instructor in the Plain Blue Banner. He was offered the post of county magistrate but declined it. From then on he traveled across Yan, Zhao, Qi, Lu, the Yellow River lands, Luoyang, Wu, and Yue, making his living by selling his writing. He loved reading Sima Qian and sought out the extraordinary integrity and remarkable deeds of former ages. From time to time he wrote to release his pent-up grief; his spirit surged forth beyond restraint. Great lords and eminent men feared his sharp tongue and especially envied and resented him. Once in the capital he met Fang Bao and said, "I am not busily seeking gain from the age; I have several hundred juan of books in my breast, and when they come forth I reckon they will differ from everyone else's. Yet unless I withdraw to deep mountains with food and clothing enough and my person free of burdens, I cannot draw them forth." He sighed deeply and took his leave. In the forty-eighth year of Kangxi, at fifty-seven, he finally placed first in the metropolitan examination, ranked second in the first class of the palace examination, and was appointed Hanlin compiler. Two years later the calamity of the Southern Mountain Collection erupted.
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先是門人尤雲鶚刻名世所著南山集，集中有與餘生書，稱明季三王年號，又引及方孝標滇黔紀聞。 當是時，文字禁網嚴，都御史趙申喬奏劾南山集語悖逆，遂逮下獄。 孝標已前卒，而苞與之同宗，又序南山集，坐是方氏族人及凡掛名集中者皆獲罪，繫獄兩載。 九卿覆奏，名世、雲鶚俱論死。 親族當連坐，聖祖矜全之。 又以大學士李光地言，宥苞及其全宗。 申喬有清節，惟興此獄獲世譏雲。 名世為文善敘事，又著有孑遺錄，紀明末桐城兵變事，皆毀禁，後乃始傳云。
Earlier his disciple You Yunhe had printed Mingshi's Southern Mountain Collection; in it was a letter to Yu Sheng that used the reign titles of the three Ming princes of the late dynasty, and it also cited Fang Xiaobiao's Records of Yunnan and Guizhou. At that time literary prohibitions were severe; Censor-in-Chief Zhao Shenqiao memorialized that the language of the Southern Mountain Collection was rebellious, and Mingshi was arrested and imprisoned. Xiaobiao had already died, but Bao was of the same clan and had written a preface to the collection; for this the Fang clansmen and all whose names appeared in it were punished and imprisoned for two years. The Nine Ministers reported back; Mingshi and Yunhe were both sentenced to death. His kin were liable to collective punishment, but the Kangxi Emperor showed mercy and spared them. On Grand Secretary Li Guangdi's recommendation, Bao and his entire clan were also pardoned. Shenqiao had a reputation for integrity, yet for initiating this case he earned the world's reproach. Mingshi's prose excelled at narrative; he also authored Records of the Survivors, recounting the military upheaval at Tongcheng at the end of the Ming—all were destroyed and banned, and only later did they begin to circulate.