1
列傳二百七十二
Biography 272
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文苑二
Literary Figures, Part Two
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諸錦厲鶚王峻何夢瑤劉大櫆李鍇沈炳震曹仁虎胡天游袁枚王又曾邵齊燾徐文靖朱仕琇蔣士銓趙翼嚴長明朱筠翁方綱姚鼐宋大樽章學誠祁韻士馮敏昌法式善惲敬黎簡張士元
Zhu Jin, Li E, Wang Jun, He Mengyao, Liu Dakui, Li Kai, Shen Bingzhen, Cao Renhu, Hu Tianyou, Yuan Mei, Wang Youceng, Shao Qidao, Xu Wenjing, Zhu Shixiu, Jiang Shiquan, Zhao Yi, Yan Changming, Zhu Yun, Weng Fanggang, Yao Nai, Song Dazun, Zhang Xuecheng, Qi Yunshi, Feng Minchang, Fa Shi Shan, Yun Jing, Li Jian, and Zhang Shiyuan
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諸錦，字襄七，秀水人。 少時家貧陋，輒就讀書肆，主人敬其勤學，恣所觀覽。 顧嗣立為之延譽，名大起。 雍正二年進士。 乾隆初，試鴻博，授編修。 閉門撰述，不詣權要。 至左贊善，遂告歸。 著有毛詩說、饗禮補亡、夏小正注及絳跗閣集。
Zhu Jin, whose style was Xiangqi, came from Xiushui. As a youth his household was poor and humble; he would go to bookshops to read, and the proprietors, admiring his zeal for learning, let him browse their stock freely. Gu Sili championed him, and his name spread far and wide. He passed the jinshi examination in the second year of the Yongzheng reign. Early in the Qianlong reign he took the special erudition examination and was appointed a Hanlin compiler. He shut himself away to write and never paid court to men in power. He rose to Left Tutor of the Heir Apparent, then retired. He wrote Expositions on the Mao Odes, Supplements to Lost Portions of the Feasting Rites, a commentary on the Xia Xiaozheng, and the Jiangfu Pavilion Collection.
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先是康熙己未徵博學鴻儒，得人稱盛。 高宗御極，复舉行焉，內外薦達二百六十七人，試列一等者五人，錦第三； 二等十人。 明年補試，續取四人，錢塘陈兆崙、仁和沈廷芳、高郵夏之蓉，皆試列二等者也。 兆崙自有傳。
Earlier, in the jiwai year of the Kangxi reign, the court had summoned men of broad erudition, and the scholars chosen were hailed as a brilliant cohort. When the Gaozong Emperor came to the throne, the examination was held again; two hundred sixty-seven candidates were put forward from inside and outside the court; five placed in the first class, with Jin third; and ten in the second class. The following year a supplementary examination added four more: Chen Zhaolun of Qiantang, Shen Tingfang of Renhe, and Xia Zhirong of Gaoyou—all had placed in the second class. Zhaolun has a separate biography.
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廷芳，字畹叔。 由監生舉鴻博，授編修，遷御史。 奏毀都城智化寺內明閹王振造像及李賢所撰頌德碑，報可。 出為登萊青道，遷河南按察使。 廷芳少從方苞遊，為文無纖佻之習。 詩學本查慎行。 著隱拙齋集及十三經註疏正字、續經義考等書。
Shen Tingfang, whose style was Wanshu, entered through the Imperial Academy, was nominated for the erudition examination, appointed compiler, and later promoted to censor. He memorialized for the destruction of the Ming eunuch Wang Zhen's statue in Zhihua Temple in the capital and of the encomiastic stele written by Li Xian; the court approved. He served as intendant of the Deng-Lai-Qing circuit and was later transferred to Henan as surveillance commissioner. Tingfang had studied under Fang Bao in his youth, and his prose never took on a frivolous or affected tone. His poetry followed the model of Zha Shenxing. His works include the Yinzhuo Studio Collection, Correct Characters in the Thirteen Classics with Commentaries, a continuation of the Examination of the Meanings of the Classics, and other books.
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之蓉，字芙裳。 雍正十一年進士。 舉鴻博，以檢討典試福建，又督廣東、湖南學政。 其校士也，必以通經學古為先。
Xia Zhirong, whose style was Fushang, became a jinshi in the eleventh year of the Yongzheng reign. He was nominated for the erudition examination, served as reviser while presiding over the Fujian provincial examination, and later supervised education in Guangdong and Hunan. In selecting scholars he always gave first place to mastery of the classics and learning drawn from antiquity.
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當時試一等者，劉綸居首，次則南城潘安禮、金壇於振、錢塘杭世駿； 二等自兆崙等三人外，為無錫楊度汪，菏澤劉玉麟，休寧汪士湟、程恂，錢塘陳士璠，天台齊召南，會稽周長登。 其續取者，一等宜興萬松齡，二等桐鄉朱荃、南安洪世澤、石屏張漢，凡十九人。 惟綸、玉麟官最顯，而世駿、召南及兆崙尤知名於世云。
Of those who placed in the first class at that examination, Liu Lun ranked first, followed by Pan Anli of Nancheng, Yu Zhen of Jintan, and Hang Shijun of Qiantang; among the second class, besides Zhaolun and the other three, were Yang Duwang of Wuxi, Liu Yulin of Heze, Wang Shihuang and Cheng Xun of Xiuning, Chen Shifan of Qiantang, Qi Zhaonan of Tiantai, and Zhou Changdeng of Kuaiji. Those added in the supplementary round included Wan Songling of Yixing in the first class and Zhu Quan of Tongxiang, Hong Shize of Nan'an, and Zhang Han of Shiping in the second—nineteen men in all. Only Lun and Yulin rose to the highest offices, but Shijun, Zhaonan, and Zhaolun were especially celebrated.
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厲鶚，字太鴻，錢塘人。 家貧，性孤峭，不苟合。 始為詩即得佳句。 於學無所不窺，一發之於詩。 康熙五十九年，李紱典試浙江，得鶚卷，閱其謝表，曰：「此必詩人也！」 亟錄之。 計偕入都，尤以詩見賞湯右曾。 再試禮部不第。 乾隆元年，舉鴻博，誤寫論置詩前，又報罷。 其後赴都銓，行次天津，留友人查為仁水西莊，觴詠數月，不就選，歸。 卒，年六十一。
Li E, whose style was Taihong, came from Qiantang. His family was poor; he was aloof and uncompromising by nature and would not curry favor. From his earliest attempts at poetry he produced memorable lines. There was no branch of learning he did not explore, and he poured it all into his verse. In the fifty-ninth year of the Kangxi reign, Li Fu presided over the Zhejiang provincial examination, came upon E's paper, read his letter of thanks, and said, "This must be a poet!" He passed him at once. When he went to the capital for the metropolitan examination, Tang Youzeng was especially taken with his poetry. He failed the Ministry of Rites examination on a second attempt. In the first year of Qianlong he was nominated for the erudition examination, but placed his essay before his poems by mistake and was rejected again. Later, on his way to the capital for official appointment, he stopped at Tianjin and stayed for months at his friend Zha Weiren's Shuixi Manor, drinking and composing verse; he never took up his appointment and returned home. He died at the age of sixty-one.
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鶚蒐奇嗜博。 揚州馬曰琯小玲瓏山館富藏書，鶚久客其所，多見宋人集，為宋詩紀事一百卷。 又南宋畫院錄、遼史拾遺、東城雜記諸書，皆博洽詳贍。 詩刻鍊，尤工五言，有自得之趣。 詩馀亦擅南宋諸家之長。 先世本慈谿，徙居錢塘，故仍以四明山樊榭名其集雲。 鶚嘗與趙信、符曾等人各為南宋雜事詩一百首，自採諸書為之注，徵引浩博，考史事者重之。
Li E collected curiosities and was insatiably learned. Ma Yueguan of Yangzhou kept a magnificent library at his Little Exquisite Hill Lodge; Li E lodged there for years, gained access to many Song anthologies, and compiled the Song Poetry Historical Records in one hundred juan. His Records of the Southern Song Painting Academy, gleanings from the Liao History, Miscellaneous Notes on the Eastern City, and other works were all learned and comprehensive. His poetry was finely wrought; he excelled especially in pentasyllabic verse and achieved a distinctive voice of his own. In lyric poetry as well he mastered the strengths of the Southern Song masters. His ancestors were originally from Cixi but had moved to Qiantang; he still named his collected works after Fan Pavilion on Siming Mountain. Li E once joined Zhao Xin, Fu Ceng, and others in writing one hundred poems each on miscellaneous Southern Song topics, annotating them with material drawn from many books; the citations are vast, and historians still rely on the work.
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汪沆，字師李。 少從鶚受詩，亦試鴻博報罷。 其後大學士史貽直將以經學薦，以母老辭。
Wang Hang, whose style was Shili, studied poetry under Li E in his youth and likewise took the erudition examination without success. Later Grand Secretary Shi Yizhi was about to recommend him for his classical scholarship, but he declined because his mother was elderly.
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同時浙江舉鴻博未錄用者，符曾，字幼魯。 官戶部郎中。 鄞縣陳撰最推服其詩。 撰，字楞山，毛奇齡弟子。 以布衣薦，未就試。 仁和趙昱，字功平。 貢生。 弟信，字辰垣。 國學生。 兄弟同舉。 家有池館之勝，喜購書。 連江陳氏世善堂書散出，皆歸之。
Among contemporaries from Zhejiang nominated for the erudition examination but not appointed was Fu Ceng, whose style was Youru. He served as a director in the Ministry of Revenue. Chen Zhuan of Yin county admired his poetry above all others. Chen Zhuan, whose style was Lengshan, was a disciple of Mao Qiling. Recommended as a commoner, he never sat for the examination. Zhao Yu of Renhe, whose style was Gongping, was a tribute student. His younger brother Xin, whose style was Chenyuan, was a student of the Imperial Academy. The brothers were nominated together. Their household boasted fine gardens and pools, and they delighted in acquiring books. When the library of the Chen family's Shishan Hall in Lianjiang was broken up, they acquired it all.
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王峻，字艮齋，常熟人。 少與同里宋君玉師事陳祖範，一時並稱王宋。 雍正二年進士，授編修。 歷典浙江、貴州、雲南鄉試。 乾隆初，改御史，拜官甫三日，劾左都御史彭維新矯詐苛鄙，直聲震都下。 以母憂去官，遂不出。 主講安定、雲龍、紫陽書院。 其學長於史，尤精地理。 嘗以水經正文及注混淆，欲一一釐定之，而補唐以後水道之遷變，及地名之同異，為水經廣注，手自屬稿，未暇成也。 惟成漢書正誤四卷。 錢大昕謂駕三劉氏、吳氏刊誤上也。 書法橅李北海，所書碑碣盛行於時。
Wang Jun, whose style was Genzhai, came from Changshu. In youth he and his fellow townsman Song Junyu studied under Chen Zufan; at the time they were known together as Wang and Song. He became a jinshi in the second year of the Yongzheng reign and was appointed a Hanlin compiler. He successively presided over the provincial examinations in Zhejiang, Guizhou, and Yunnan. Early in the Qianlong reign he was transferred to censor; three days after taking office he impeached Left Censor-in-Chief Peng Weixin for pretension, deceit, harshness, and meanness, and his forthright reputation resounded through the capital. He left office to mourn his mother and never served again. He lectured at the Anding, Yunlong, and Ziyang academies. His scholarship excelled in history and was especially refined in geography. Finding the main text and commentary of the Water Classic hopelessly confused, he planned to distinguish them line by line while supplementing post-Tang changes in waterways and variant place-names in an Expanded Commentary on the Water Classic; he drafted it himself but never had time to finish it. He did complete Corrections to Errors in the Han History in four juan. Qian Daxin said it surpassed the emendations of the three Liu scholars and of Wu. His calligraphy followed the model of Li Beihai, and the steles and tablets he wrote were widely sought in his day.
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王延年，字介眉，錢塘人。 雍正四年舉人。 乾隆初，舉鴻博，後官國子監學政。 十七年，會試，以耆年晉司業，賜翰林院侍講銜。 延年史學洽熟，嘗補袁樞通鑑紀事本末，以原書不言田制，則度地居民之法亡； 不言漕運，則鑿渠引河之利塞； 不言府兵，則耕牧戰守之功隳。 至於耶律鴟張遼海，而陳邦瞻書不究其終； 党項虎視河、湟，薛應旂書不詳其始。 紹建安者又如此，不可不亟正之也。 杭世駿序之，比延年於唐杜君卿、宋劉中原父雲。 晚年，大學士蔣溥、劉統勳皆以經學薦，又自進呈所著書，上嘉許焉。
Wang Yannian, whose style was Jiemei, came from Qiantang. He passed the provincial examination in the fourth year of the Yongzheng reign. Early in the Qianlong reign he was nominated for the erudition examination and later served as educational intendant of the Imperial Academy. In the seventeenth year, at the metropolitan examination, he was promoted to vice director of studies on account of his advanced age and granted the brevet rank of Hanlin attendant reader. Yannian's historical learning was thorough; he once supplemented Yuan Shu's Comprehensive Mirror Historical Narratives in Full, arguing that because the original says nothing about the field system, the methods of surveying land and settling the people are lost; that because it says nothing about canal transport, the benefits of digging channels and drawing rivers are lost; and that because it says nothing about the fubing militia, the achievements of farming, herding, fighting, and defending are undone. When the Khitan spread their power over the Liao region, Chen Bangzhan's book does not pursue the outcome to the end; when the Tangut glared like tigers at the He and Huang rivers, Xue Yingqi's book does not explain how it began. Those who carried on the Jian'an tradition repeat the same omissions; the work urgently needed correction. Hang Shijun wrote a preface comparing Yannian to Du Junqing of the Tang and Liu Zhongyuanfu of the Song. In his later years Grand Secretaries Jiang Pu and Liu Tongxun both recommended him for his classical scholarship; he also presented his own writings to the throne, and the emperor commended them.
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何夢瑤，字報之，南海人。 惠士奇視學廣東，一以通經學古為教。 夢瑤與同里勞孝輿、吳世忠，順德羅天尺、蘇珥、陳世和、陳海六，番禺吳秋一時並起，有「惠門八子」之目。 雍正八年成進士，出宰粵西，治獄明慎，終奉天遼陽知州。 性長於詩，兼通音律算術。 謂蔡元定律呂新書，本原九章，為之訓釋。 更取御製律呂正義研究八音協律和聲之用，述其大要。 參以曹廷棟琴學，為書一編。 時稱其決擇精當。 又著算迪，述梅氏之學，兼闡數理精蘊、歷象考成之旨。 江籓謂近世為此學者，知有法，不知法之所以然； 知之者，惟夢瑤也。
He Mengyao, whose style was Baozhi, came from Nanhai. When Hui Shiqi served as Guangdong education commissioner, he taught solely through mastery of the classics and study of antiquity. Mengyao rose together with his fellow townsman Lao Xiaoyu and Wu Shizhong, with Luo Tianchi, Su Er, Chen Shihe, and Chen Hailiu of Shunde, and with Wu Qiu of Panyu; they were known as the "Eight Sons of the Hui School." He became a jinshi in the eighth year of the Yongzheng reign, served as a magistrate in western Guangdong with clarity and care in legal matters, and ended his career as prefect of Liaoyang in Fengtian. By nature he excelled in poetry and was also versed in music theory and mathematics. He held that Cai Yuanding's New Book on the Pitch Pipes and Temperament derived from the Nine Chapters and wrote a commentary on it. He further studied the imperial Correct Meaning of the Pitch Pipes and Temperament to explain how the eight tones harmonize pitch pipes and blend sounds, and summarized its main points. Drawing also on Cao Tingdong's Studies of the Qin, he compiled a single treatise. Contemporaries praised the precision of his judgments. He also wrote Arithmetic Explained, expounding the Mei family's mathematics while clarifying the purport of the Essence of Mathematical Principles and the Investigation of Calendrical and Astronomical Phenomena. Jiang Fan said that among recent scholars in this field, most know the methods but not why the methods work; Mengyao alone truly understood why.
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孝輿，字阮齋。 乾隆元年，召試鴻博，未用。 以拔貢生廷試第五，出為黔中令。 治古州屯務，足繭萬山中。 將去，民攀轅曰：「公勞苦以衣食我！」 皆泣下。 歷錦屏、龍泉、鎮遠諸邑，皆有績。 卒於官。
Lao Xiaoyu, whose style was Ruanzhai, In the first year of Qianlong he was summoned to the erudition examination but was not appointed. Having entered as a selected tribute student and placed fifth in the palace examination, he was appointed magistrate in Qianzhong. He administered military colony affairs at Guzhou, trudging through countless mountain passes until his feet were calloused. When he was about to leave, the people clung to his carriage and cried, "You have toiled to provide us with clothing and food!" All wept. He later served in Jinping, Longquan, Zhenyuan, and other districts, distinguishing himself in each post. He died in office.
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天尺，字履先。 年十七，應學使試。 士奇手錄其賦、詩示諸生，名大起。 徵鴻博，念親老不就，以舉人終。 雍正時修一統志，與孝輿同纂粵乘。 孝輿忤俗，被口語，天尺力白之。 所居里曰石湖，世以前有范石湖，因稱後石湖以別之云。
Luo Tianchi, whose style was Lüxian, At seventeen he sat for the provincial education commissioner's examination. Hui Shiqi copied out his fu and poems by hand to show the students, and his reputation spread swiftly. When summoned for the erudition examination, he declined out of concern for his aged parents and remained a provincial graduate for life. During the Yongzheng reign he helped compile the Comprehensive Gazetteer and worked with Lao Xiaoyu on the Guangdong Gazetteer. When Lao Xiaoyu offended local opinion and came under slander, Luo Tianchi vigorously defended him. He lived in a hamlet called Stone Lake; because Fan Chengda, known as Stone Lake, had lived there earlier, locals called it Later Stone Lake to distinguish the two.
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珥，字瑞一。 為文長於序記，詩有別趣，書法亦工。 惠士奇稱之曰「南海明珠」。 舉鴻博，以母老，辭不試。 乾隆初鄉舉，一試禮部，遂不出。
Su Er, whose style was Ruiyi, His prose excelled in prefaces and commemorative essays, his poetry had a distinctive flavor, and his calligraphy was also accomplished. Hui Shiqi called him "Pearl of the South Sea." Nominated for the erudition examination, he declined to sit because his mother was elderly. Early in the Qianlong reign he passed the provincial examination, made one attempt at the metropolitan examination, and then withdrew from public life.
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時粵東舉鴻博者，又有番禺車騰芳，字圖南。 康熙末，與里人許遂同徵。 至京後期，即乞終養歸。 後為海豐學官。 學使吳鴻雅重之，嘗從容問其諸子頗有應試者乎，騰芳以皆失學對，吳益嘆異焉。
Among those from eastern Guangdong nominated for the erudition examination at the time was Che Tengfang of Panyu, whose style was Tunan. At the end of the Kangxi reign he was summoned to the capital together with his fellow townsman Xu Sui. After reaching the capital he missed the deadline and immediately petitioned to return home and care for his parents permanently. He later served as educational official of Haifeng. Education intendant Wu Hong held him in high regard and once casually asked whether any of his sons had sat for the examinations; Tengfang replied that none had been able to pursue their studies, and Wu marveled at him all the more.
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遂，字揚雲。 康熙中舉人。 為清河令，蠲逋賦，民德之。 坐事去職。 巡撫薦應鴻博，格於部議，未試歸。
Xu Sui, whose style was Yangyun, He became a provincial graduate during the Kangxi reign. As magistrate of Qinghe he remitted overdue taxes, and the people were deeply grateful. He was dismissed from office after an incident. The provincial governor recommended him for the erudition examination, but the ministry rejected the nomination, and he returned home without sitting for it.
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韓海，字偉五，亦番禺人也。 雍正十一年進士，官封川教諭。 大府欲薦應鴻博，海賦詩以見志，大府覽詩愕然，遂不復強。 海亦旋卒。
Han Hai, whose style was Weiwu, was also from Panyu. He passed the metropolitan examination in the eleventh year of Yongzheng and served as instructor of Fengchuan. When the provincial authorities wished to recommend him for the erudition examination, Hai wrote a poem declaring his intent; the officials read it, were taken aback, and did not press him further. Han Hai soon died as well.
22
劉大櫆，字才甫，一字耕南，桐城人。 曾祖日燿，明末官歙縣訓導，鄉里仰其高節。 其後累世皆為諸生，至大櫆益有名。 始年二十餘入京師，時方苞負海內重望，後生以文謁者不輕許與，獨奇賞大櫆。 雍正中，兩登副榜，竟不獲舉。 乾隆元年，苞薦應詞科，大學士張廷玉黜落之，已而悔。 十五年，特以經學薦，復不錄。 久之，選黟縣教諭，數年告歸。 居樅陽江上不復出，年八十三，卒。 大櫆修幹美髯，能引拳入口。 縱聲讀古詩文，聆其音節，皆神會理解。 桐城自方苞為古文之學，同時有戴名世、胡宗緒。 名世被禍，宗緒博學，名不甚顯。 大櫆雖游苞門，傳其義法，而才調獨出，著海峰詩文集。 姚鼐繼起，其學說盛行於時，尤推服大櫆。 世遂稱曰「方劉姚」。 宗緒，字襲參。 康熙末，以舉人薦充明史館纂修。 雍正八年進士，授編修，遷國子監司業。 少孤貧，母潘苦節，課之嚴而有法。 感憤勵學，自經史以逮律曆、兵刑、六書、九章、禮儀、音律之類，莫不研窮。 著易管、洪範皇極疑義、古今樂通、律衍數度衍參注、晝夜儀像說、歲差新論、測量大意、梅胡問答、九九淺說、正字通芟誤、正蒙解、大學講義、方輿考、南河北河論、膠萊河考、臺灣考、兩戒辨、苗疆紀事等書。 自為詩文曰環隅集，古藻過大櫆。 大櫆同邑門人自姚鼐外推王灼。 灼，字濱麓。 乾隆五十一年舉人，選東流教諭。 嘗館於歙，與金榜、程瑤田及武進張惠言諸人相友善。 一日見惠言黃山賦，曰：「子之才可追古作者，何必託齊、梁以下自域乎！」 惠言遂棄儷體為古文。 灼所著悔生詩文鈔，鮑桂星為刊行焉。
Liu Dakui, whose style was Caifu and also Gengnan, came from Tongcheng. His great-grandfather Riyao, in the late Ming served as director of studies in She County, and the countryside revered his lofty integrity. For generations afterward all were licentiates, and by Dakui's time the family name had grown still greater. When he first entered the capital in his twenties, Fang Bao then bore the greatest literary reputation in the realm; younger men who presented writings for his judgment were seldom approved, yet he alone marveled at and prized Dakui. During the Yongzheng reign he twice placed on the supplementary list but never obtained the jinshi degree. In the first year of Qianlong, Bao recommended him for the special erudition examination; Grand Secretary Zhang Tingyu rejected him, then later regretted it. In the fifteenth year he was specially recommended for classical learning but again was not selected. After a long while he was selected as director of studies in Yi County; several years later he requested leave and returned home. He lived on the banks of the Zongyang River and never went out again; he died at the age of eighty-three. Dakui was tall and handsome with a fine beard and could put his fist into his mouth. When he read ancient poetry and prose aloud, those who heard the cadences all grasped the meaning in spirit. In Tongcheng, from the time Fang Bao established the study of ancient-style prose, there were at the same time Dai Mingshi and Hu Zongxu. Mingshi suffered calamity; Zongxu was broadly learned but his name was not very prominent. Although Dakui studied under Bao's gate and transmitted his principles and methods, his literary talent stood uniquely apart; he authored the Haifeng Poetry and Prose Collection. Yao Nai rose afterward; his doctrines flourished in the age and he especially admired Dakui. The world therefore styled them "Fang, Liu, and Yao." Hu Zongxu, styled Xican. In the late Kangxi reign, as a provincial graduate he was recommended to serve in the Ming History Bureau. In the eighth year of Yongzheng he became a jinshi, was appointed compiler, and was promoted to vice director of the Imperial Academy. Orphaned and poor in youth, his mother Pan endured hardship with stern integrity and instructed him strictly yet with method. Stirred and impelled to study, from the classics and histories down to calendrical astronomy, military law, the six scripts, the Nine Chapters, ritual, and music—nothing escaped his exhaustive research. He authored the Yiguan, Hongfan Huangji Yiyi, Gujin Yuetong, Luyan Shudu Yan Canzhu, Zhouye Yixiang Shuo, Suicha Xinlun, Celiang Dayi, Mei Hu Wenda, Jiujiu Qianshuo, Zhengzitong Shanwu, Zhengmeng Jie, Daxue Jiangyi, Fangyu Kao, Nanhe Beihe Lun, Jiaolai He Kao, Taiwan Kao, Liangjie Bian, Miaojiang Jishi, and other works. His own poetry and prose he called the Huanyu Collection; its archaic diction surpassed Dakui's. Among Dakui's fellow-townsmen disciples, apart from Yao Nai, Wang Zhuo was most esteemed. Wang Zhuo, styled Binlu. A provincial graduate in the fifty-first year of Qianlong, he was selected as director of studies in Dongliu. He once lodged in She County and was on friendly terms with Jin Bang, Cheng Yaotian, and Zhang Huiyan of Wujin, among others. One day, seeing Huiyan's fu on Mount Huang, he said, "Your talent can pursue the ancient authors—why confine yourself to the domain below Qi and Liang?" Huiyan thereupon abandoned parallel prose and wrote ancient-style prose. Zhuo's Huisheng Poetry and Prose Transcript was published by Bao Guixing.
23
李鍇，字鐵君，漢軍正黃旗人。 祖恆忠，副都統。 湖廣總督輝祖子。 鍇娶大學士索額圖女，家世貴盛，其於榮利泊如也。 性友愛，兄伊山、祈山仕不遂，鍇省伊山戍所，累月乃歸。 祈山罷官還，無宅，以己屋授之，並鬻產為清宿逋。 嘗一充官庫筆帖式，旋棄去。 乾隆元年，舉鴻博，未中選。 十五年，詔舉經學，大臣交章論薦，以老疾辭。 少好山水，遊蹤所至，務窮其奇。 苦嗜茗，為鐵鐺瓦缶，一奴負以從。 客江南，嘗月夜挾琴客泛舟採石，彈大雅之章，扣舷和之，水宿者皆驚起，人莫測其致也。 鍇既以屋讓兄，乃築室盤山廌青峰下，閉戶躭吟，罕接人事。 歲一至城中，一二日即去。 居盤山二十載而歿。 詩古奧峭削。 著睫巢集，又著原易及春秋通義、尚史。
Li Kai, whose style was Tiejun, was a member of the Han Eight Banners' Plain Yellow Banner. His grandfather Hengzhong served as vice commander-in-chief. He was the son of Huizu, governor-general of Huguang. Kai married the daughter of Grand Secretary Sonin; though his family was eminent and prosperous, he remained indifferent to rank and gain. Affectionate by nature, he cared deeply for his elder brothers Yishan and Qishan when their official careers faltered; he traveled to Yishan's garrison post and stayed for months before returning home. When Qishan was dismissed and returned home without a house, Kai gave him his own dwelling and sold property to clear his old debts. He once served briefly as a clerk in the government treasury but soon resigned. In the first year of Qianlong he was nominated for the erudition examination but was not selected. In the fifteenth year an edict called for recommendations in classical learning; leading ministers repeatedly recommended him, but he declined on grounds of age and illness. From youth he loved mountains and rivers and, wherever he traveled, sought out their most remarkable sights. Passionately fond of tea, he had an iron kettle and earthen jar made and kept a servant to carry them wherever he went. While sojourning in Jiangnan, he once took his qin aboard a boat on a moonlit night at Caishi, played grand old pieces, and beat the gunwale in time; those sleeping on the water all started up in alarm, and no one could fathom his purpose. After giving his house to his brother, Kai built a dwelling below Zhiqing Peak on Pan Mountain, shut himself in to compose poetry, and rarely received visitors. He visited the city only once a year and stayed but a day or two. He lived on Pan Mountain for twenty years before he died. His poetry was archaic, dense, and sharply austere. He wrote Collected Works from the Eyelash Nest, as well as Original Commentary on the Changes, Comprehensive Meaning of the Spring and Autumn Annals, and Respectful History.
24
陳景元，字石閭，漢軍鑲紅旗人。 詩擬孟郊、賈島。 有石閭集。 與戴亨、長海為「遼東三老」。
Chen Jingyuan, whose style was Shilü, was a member of the Han Eight Banners' Bordered Red Banner. His poetry followed the manner of Meng Jiao and Jia Dao. He left the Shilü Collection. Together with Dai Heng and Chang Hai he was known as one of the "Three Elders of Liaodong."
25
亨，字通乾，號遂堂，瀋陽人，原籍錢塘。 父梓，以事戍遼，見藝術傳。 亨，康熙六十年進士。 官山東齊河縣知縣，以抗直忤上官，解組去。 寄居京師，家益貧，晏如也。 為人篤於至性，不輕然諾，夙敦風義。 其詩宗杜少陵，上溯漢、魏，卓然名家。 有慶芝堂詩集。
Dai Heng, whose style was Tongqian and art name Suitang, was from Shenyang but originally registered in Qiantang. His father Zi was banished to Liaodong after an incident; see the Treatise on Arts. Dai Heng passed the metropolitan examination in the sixtieth year of Kangxi. He served as magistrate of Qihe County in Shandong, but his blunt integrity offended his superiors and he resigned. He lived in the capital as a guest; though his family grew ever poorer, he remained serene. Deeply rooted in genuine feeling, he did not lightly give his word and had long honored loyalty and friendship. His poetry took Du Fu as its model, looked back to Han and Wei, and established him as a master in his own right. He left the Collected Poems from the Hall of Celebrated Fungus.
26
長海，字彙川，納喇氏，滿洲鑲白旗人，鎮安將軍瑪奇子。 例予廕，長海不就。 檄補戶部庫使，又逃，曰：「庫使司帑藏，歲豐入，懼焉。 逃死，非逃富貴也。」 其母賢，聽之，遂布衣終其身。 衝遠任真，趣無容心。 博古多識，嗜金石書畫，當意則傾囊購之。 嘗襲裘行吊，解裘以濟戚喪。 歸塗見未見書，買之，复解其衣。 由是中寒疾，乃夷然曰：「獲多矣！」 中歲愛易水雷溪之勝，築大★E5菴，因以為號。 晚入京居委巷，又顏其閣曰「玉衡」，懸畫四壁，對之吟諷。 其詩矩矱古人，而不膠於固，斷句尤冠絕一時。 論詩以性情為主，舉靡麗之習而空之。 有雷溪草堂詩。 乾隆九年，卒，年六十有七。
Chang Hai, whose style was Huichuan, was of the Nara clan, a member of the Manchu Bordered White Banner, and the son of Zhen'an General Maqi. By regulation he was granted hereditary office, but Chang Hai refused it. Ordered by dispatch to fill the post of Ministry of Revenue treasury clerk, he fled again and said, "The treasury clerk manages the store of funds; when harvests are abundant and revenues pour in, I am afraid. I flee death, not wealth and rank." His worthy mother consented, and he lived out his life as a commoner. Aloof and sincere by nature, he harbored no hidden designs. Erudite in antiquities, he loved bronzes, stones, books, and paintings and would empty his purse to buy anything that pleased him. Once, wearing a fur coat on his way to offer condolences, he took off the coat to help a bereaved family. On the way home he came upon a book he had never seen, bought it, and again stripped off his clothing to pay for it. He thereupon contracted a chill from the cold and said calmly, "I have gained much!" In mid-life he came to love the scenery of the Yishui and Leixi region, built the Great Lei Hermitage, and took it as his style name. Late in life he moved to the capital and lived in a narrow lane; he named his studio "Jade Measure," hung paintings on every wall, and chanted poetry before them. His poetry took the ancients as its model without becoming rigid, and his regulated couplets were unmatched in his day. In his theory of poetry he held that genuine feeling should come first and rejected the habit of ornate display. He left Poems from the Leixi Thatched Hall. He died in the ninth year of Qianlong, at the age of sixty-seven.
27
遼東以詩文名者，又有吳麟，字子瑞，號晚亭，滿洲鑲黃旗人。 康熙四十九年舉人，授內閣中書。 與鍇同舉鴻博，與修明史，纂本紀，充明史綱目纂修官。 善詩文，兼工山水。 著有黍谷山房集。
Among those in Liaodong famed for poetry and prose was Wu Lin, whose style was Zirui and art name Wanting, a member of the Manchu Bordered Yellow Banner. He became a provincial graduate in the forty-ninth year of Kangxi and was appointed a Secretariat drafter. Like Li Kai he was nominated for the erudition examination; he helped compile the History of Ming, edited the basic annals, and served as compiler of the Outline of the History of Ming. He excelled in poetry and prose and was also accomplished in landscape painting. He wrote the Taigu Mountain Studio Collection.
28
曹寅，字楝亭，漢軍正白旗人，世居瀋陽，工部尚書璽子。 累官通政使、江寧織造。 有楝亭詩文詞鈔。
Cao Yin, whose style was Lanting, was a member of the Han Eight Banners' Plain White Banner from a Shenyang family and was the son of Minister of Works Cao. He rose to serve as transmission commissioner and Jiangning textile commissioner. He left the Lanting Collection of Poetry, Prose, and Lyrics.
29
鮑珍，字冠亭，秘書院大學士鮑承先裔。 乾隆初，官嘉興海防同知。 有道腴堂全集。
Bao Zhen, whose style was Guanting, was a descendant of Grand Secretary Bao Chengxian of the Secretariat. Early in the Qianlong reign he served as coastal defense subprefect of Jiaxing. He left the Complete Works from the Hall of the Way's Sustenance.
30
高鶚，字蘭墅，亦漢軍旗人。 乾隆六十年進士。 有蘭墅詩鈔。
Gao E, whose style was Lanshu, was also a member of the Han Eight Banners. He passed the metropolitan examination in the sixtieth year of Qianlong. He left the Lanshu Collection of Poetry.
31
至道光年則有劉文麟，字仙樵，遼陽人。 九歲能詩。 以進士用廣東知縣，總督林則徐器之。 權平遠，兼長樂。 俗悍，喜械鬥，文麟甫往任，單輿遽入解之，眾羅拜，皆釋兵，俗為之易。 補文昌，丁憂。 再選河南沈丘。 時患匪，設方略擒其渠，盜賊息跡。 以忤上官劾降，遂歸，主瀋陽書院。 論詩以婉至為宗，語必有寄託。 英光偉氣，一發之於詩。 論者謂足繼遼東三老。 有仙樵詩鈔。 其門人王乃新，字雪樵，承德人。 亦能詩，有雪樵詩賸。
By the Daoguang reign there was Liu Wenlin, whose style was Xianqiao, from Liaoyang. At nine he could already compose poetry. Appointed a Guangdong county magistrate after passing the metropolitan examination, he was valued by Governor-General Lin Zexu. He served as acting magistrate of Pingyuan and concurrently of Changle. The local people were fierce and prone to armed brawls; as soon as Wenlin took up his post he drove in alone to settle a fight; the crowd bowed before him, all laid down their weapons, and the local customs changed. He was transferred to Wenchang and then entered mourning for a parent. Afterward he was appointed to Shenqiu in Henan. At the time the region suffered from banditry; he devised stratagems, captured the ringleaders, and banditry ceased. After offending his superiors he was impeached and demoted, returned home, and became director of the Shenyang Academy. In his poetic theory he made graceful perfection his ideal, and every line carried some deeper meaning. His heroic brilliance and lofty spirit found their full expression in his poetry. Critics held that he fully carried on the tradition of the Three Elders of Liaodong. He left the Xianqiao Collection of Poetry. His disciple Wang Naixin, whose style was Xueqiao, came from Chengde. He too wrote poetry and left the Xueqiao Leftover Poems.
32
沈炳震，字東父，歸安人。 少喜博覽，讀史於年月世系，人所忽者，必默識之。 嘗著新舊唐書合鈔，紀傳以舊書為綱，分注新書為目； 舊志多舛略，則以新書為綱，分注舊書為目。 又補列方鎮表，拜罷承襲諸節目，積數十寒暑乃成。 又著二十四史四譜：一紀元，二封爵，三宰執，四諡法。 其體出於表歷，而變其旁行斜上為標目。 乾隆元年，與弟炳謙皆以貢生試鴻博，報罷。 逾年，卒，年五十九。 卒後六年，侍郎錢陳群奏進其唐書合鈔，詔付書局，採錄唐書考證中。
Shen Bingzhen, whose style was Dongfu, came from Guian. From youth he read widely; when studying history he silently memorized dates and genealogies that others passed over. He compiled a Combined Transcription of the Old and New Books of Tang, using the Old Book as the main framework for biographies and annals with the New Book cited in marginal notes; Where the Old Book's monographs were erroneous or incomplete, he reversed the arrangement, making the New Book the framework and citing the Old Book in notes. He also compiled a supplementary table of provincial military governors, recording appointments, removals, and successions in full; the work took decades to complete. He also wrote the Four Registers of the Twenty-Four Histories, covering reign eras, enfeoffments and titles, chief ministers, and posthumous naming conventions. The format derived from calendrical tables, but he adapted the diagonal columns into section headings. In the first year of Qianlong he and his younger brother Bingqian both sat the erudition examination as provincial graduates, and both were rejected. The following year he died at the age of fifty-nine. Six years after his death, Vice Minister Qian Chenqun presented his Combined Transcription of the Books of Tang to the throne; the court ordered it sent to the imperial printing bureau and selections from it incorporated into Tang History Notes and Verification.
33
炳謙，字幼孜，炳震季弟也。 次弟炳巽，字繹旃。 著水經註集釋訂譌，據明黃省曾刊本，以己意校定之。 遍檢古籍，錄其文字異同者，間附諸家考訂之說。 州縣沿革，則悉以今名釋焉。 初未見朱謀㙔本，後求得，多與之合。 同時治水經者，有全祖望、趙一清。
Bingqian, whose style was Youzi, was Bingzhen's youngest brother. His next younger brother Bingxun was styled Yizhan. He wrote Collected Exegesis and Emendation of the Commentary on the Water Classic, working from Huang Shengzeng's Ming edition and revising it according to his own judgment. He searched exhaustively through ancient texts, recording textual variants and occasionally appending emendations from other scholars. For changes in administrative units he consistently glossed place names with their modern equivalents. At first he had not seen Zhu Miqian's edition, but when he later obtained it he found that his readings largely agreed. Others working on the Water Classic at the same time included Quan Zuwang and Zhao Yiqing.
34
一清，字誠夫，仁和人。 國子監生。 父昱，季父信，見厲鶚傳。 一清禀其家學，博極群書。 水經註傳寫訛奪，歐陽玄、王禕稱其經、注混淆，祖望又謂道元注中有注。 一清因從其說，辨驗文義，離析之，使文屬而語不雜。 又唐六典注稱桑欽所引天下之水百三十七，江、河在焉，今少二十一水。 考崇文總目，水經註三十六卷，蓋宋代已佚其五卷。 此二十一水，即在所佚中。 於是雜採他書，證以本注，得滏、洺等十八水。 又分㶟水、㶟餘水，清、濁漳，大小遼水，增多二十一，與六典注合。 為水經註釋，又成水經箋刊誤，以正朱謀㙔之失。 方觀承督直隸，撰直隸河渠志，一清所草創，而戴震要刪之。 其自著有東潛文集。
Zhao Yiqing, whose style was Chengfu, came from Renhe. He was a student of the Imperial Academy. His father Yu and his youngest uncle Xin are discussed in the biography of Li E. Yiqing inherited his family's scholarship and mastered an enormous range of books. Textual corruption had blurred the main text and commentary of the Water Classic; Ouyang Xuan and Wang Yi noted that text and gloss were confused, and Quan Zuwang argued further that Li Daoyuan's commentary contained embedded notes within notes. Yiqing adopted this view, verified the sense of the text, and separated the layers so that the main text cohered and the language was no longer mixed. The Tang Six Offices Commentary states that Sang Qin cited 137 rivers throughout the realm, including the Yangtze and Yellow River, but the present text is short by twenty-one rivers. According to the Comprehensive Catalog of the Chongwen Pavilion, the Commentary on the Water Classic ran to thirty-six scrolls; five scrolls had probably already been lost by Song times. These twenty-one missing rivers belonged to the lost portions. He then drew on other sources and checked them against the original commentary, recovering eighteen rivers including the Fu and Ming. By further separating the Huo and Huoyu rivers, the Clear and Muddy Zhang rivers, and the Greater and Lesser Liao rivers, he accounted for all twenty-one missing rivers in accord with the Six Offices Commentary. He wrote his Commentary on the Water Classic and also completed Exegetical Corrections to the Water Classic to rectify Zhu Miqian's errors. When Fang Guancheng served as governor-general of Zhili he compiled the Zhili River Conservancy Gazetteer; Yiqing drafted it, but Dai Zhen insisted on cutting much of it. Among his own works was the Dongqian Collection.
35
曹仁虎，字來殷，嘉定人。 少稱奇才。 乾隆二十二年，南巡，獻賦，召試列一等，賜舉人，授內閣中書。 二十六年，成進士，選庶吉士，授編修。 每遇大禮，高文典冊，多出其手。 擢右中允，充日講起居注官，累遷侍講學士。 五十一年，視學粵東。 方按試連州，聞母訃，酷暑奔喪，晝夜號泣，竟以毀，卒於途。
Cao Renhu, whose style was Laiyin, came from Jiading. As a youth he was acclaimed as a prodigy. In the twenty-second year of Qianlong, during the southern tour, he submitted a fu; at the imperial examination he placed first class, was granted the rank of provincial graduate, and appointed a Secretariat drafter. In the twenty-sixth year he passed the metropolitan examination, entered the Hanlin Academy as a bachelor, and was appointed compiler. On every great ceremonial occasion the lofty state documents were largely drafted by his hand. He rose to Right Sub-Reader, served as diarist of the imperial lectures, and was promoted in due course to Reader-in-Waiting. In the fifty-first year he served as educational intendant in Guangdong. While conducting examinations at Lianzhou he received word of his mother's death; he raced home through the midsummer heat, weeping day and night, and ultimately died of grief on the road.
36
仁虎以文字受主知，聲華冠都下，屢典文衡。 詩宗三唐，而神明變化，一洗粗率佻巧之習。 格律醇雅，醖釀深厚，為一時所推。 著有宛委山房詩集、蓉鏡堂文稿。 與王鳴盛、王昶、錢大昕、趙文哲及吳泰來、黃文蓮稱「吳中七子」。 鳴盛等四人皆自有傳。
Renhu won imperial favor through his literary talent; his reputation stood foremost in the capital, and he repeatedly served as chief literary examiner. In poetry he followed the Three Tang masters yet infused his work with inspired transformation, entirely shedding the habits of crudeness, carelessness, and facile cleverness. His metrical craft was refined and elegant and his style richly matured; he was acclaimed by his age. He authored the Wanwei Mountain Studio Poetry Collection and the Rongjing Hall Drafts. Together with Wang Mingsheng, Wang Chang, Qian Daxin, Zhao Wenzhe, Wu Tailai, and Huang Wenlian he was known as the "Seven Masters of Wu." Mingsheng and the other three each have biographies elsewhere.
37
泰來，字企晉，長洲人。 乾隆二十五年進士，用內閣中書。 乞病歸，築遂初園於木瀆。 藏書多宋、元善本。 畢沅延主關中及大樑書院，與洪亮吉輩往還唱和。 其詩一本漁洋，著有淨名軒、硯山堂等集。
Wu Tailai, whose style was Qijin, came from Changzhou. After passing the metropolitan examination in the twenty-fifth year of Qianlong he served as a Secretariat drafter. He requested leave on grounds of illness and returned home, where he built the Suichu Garden at Mudu. His library contained many fine Song and Yuan editions. Bi Yuan invited him to direct the Guanzhong and Daliang academies, where he exchanged poems with Hong Liangji and others. His poetry wholly followed Wang Shizhen's example; he authored the Jingming Studio and Yanshan Hall collections, among others.
38
文蓮，字芳亭，上海人。 官知縣，有聽雨集。
Huang Wenlian, whose style was Fangting, came from Shanghai. He served as a county magistrate and left the Listening to Rain Collection.
39
胡天游，字稚威，山陰人，初姓方，名游。 副榜貢生。 乾隆元年，尚書任蘭枝薦舉鴻博，次年補試，鼻衄大作，投卷出。 時四方文士云集京師，每置酒高會，分題命賦，天游輒出數千言，沉博絕麗，見者咸驚服。 性耿介，公卿欲招致一見，不可得。 後舉經學，再報罷。 客山西，卒。 著有石笥山房集。
Hu Tianyou, whose style was Zhiwei, came from Shanyin; he was originally surnamed Fang with the given name You. He was a provincial graduate placed on the supplementary jinshi list. In the first year of Qianlong Minister Ren Lanzhi recommended him for the erudition examination; at the supplementary test the following year he suffered a severe nosebleed, submitted his paper, and withdrew. Literary men from across the realm had gathered in the capital; at every grand gathering topics were assigned and compositions demanded, and Tianyou would produce thousands of characters—profound, encyclopedic, and surpassingly beautiful—leaving all who read them in awe. By nature he was upright and unyielding; even when high officials wished to summon him for a single meeting, they could not obtain an audience. Later he was twice nominated for the classical learning examination and twice rejected. He died while sojourning in Shanxi. He left the Shixiang Mountain Studio Collection.
40
自言古文學韓愈，然往往澀險似劉蛻，非其至也。 儷體文自三唐而下，日趨頹靡。 清初陳維崧、毛奇齡稍振起之，至天游奧衍入古，遂臻極盛。 而邵齊燾、孔廣森、洪亮吉輩繼起，才力所至，皆足名家。 後數十年而有鎮洋彭兆蓀，以選聲鍊色勝，名重一時。
He claimed to study Han Yu in ancient prose, yet his writing often tended toward the cramped and difficult style of Liu Tui—not his highest attainment. Parallel prose from the Three Tang period onward had daily grown more decadent. Early in the Qing Chen Weisong and Mao Qiling had partly revived it; with Tianyou's recondite breadth and antiquarian depth parallel prose reached its peak. Then Shao Qidao, Kong Guangsen, Hong Liangji, and others arose in turn; each wielded talent sufficient to establish a distinct school. Several decades later came Peng Zhaosun of Zhenyang, who excelled in refining diction and polishing imagery, and for a time his reputation stood very high.
41
兆蓀，字湘涵。 少有才名，久困無所遇。 舉道光元年孝廉方正。 胡克家為江蘇布政使，客其所。 時總督以國用不足議加賦，兆蓀為克家力陳其不可，事得寢。 又偕顧廣圻同校元本通鑑及文選，世稱其精槧。 晚依曾燠兩淮鹽運使署。 著小謨觴館集，燠為點定之。
Peng Zhaosun was styled Xianghan. He enjoyed a reputation for talent from youth, but long remained in obscurity without advancement. He passed the Filial and Incorrupt Recommended Scholars examination in the first year of Daoguang. When Hu Kejia served as Jiangsu financial commissioner, Zhaosun lodged at his residence. When the governor-general proposed raising taxes because state revenue was insufficient, Zhaosun forcefully argued to Kejia that this must not be done, and the proposal was abandoned. He also collaborated with Gu Guangqi in collating Yuan editions of the Comprehensive Mirror and the Literary Selections; contemporaries praised their exacting editorial work. In later years he relied on Zeng Ao at the Two Huai salt transport commissioner's office. He wrote the Little Modang Hall Collection, which Zeng Ao edited and finalized.
42
袁枚，字子才，錢塘人。 幼有異禀。 年十二，補縣學生。 弱冠，省叔父廣西撫幕，巡撫金鉷見而異之，試以銅鼓賦，立就，甚瑰麗。 會開博學鴻詞科，遂疏薦之。 時海內舉者二百餘人，枚年最少，試報罷。 乾隆四年，成進士，選庶吉士。 改知縣江南，歷溧水、江浦、沭陽，調劇江寧。 時尹繼善為總督，知枚才，枚亦遇事盡其能。 市人至以所判事作歌曲刻行四方。 枚不以吏能自喜，既而引疾家居。 再起發陝西，丁父憂歸，遂牒請養母。 卜築江寧小倉山，號隨園，崇飾池館，自是優游其中者五十年。 時出遊佳山水，終不復仕。 盡其才以為文辭詩歌，名流造請無虛日，詼諧詄盪，人人意滿。 後生少年一言之美，稱之不容口。 篤於友誼，編修程晉芳死，舉借券五千金焚之，且卹其孤焉。
Yuan Mei, whose style was Zicai, came from Qiantang. From childhood he had an extraordinary natural gift. At twelve he enrolled as a county school student. At twenty he visited his uncle in the Guangxi governor-general's secretariat; Governor Jin Hong was struck by him, tested him with a fu on bronze drums, and he completed it at once in splendid style. When the special erudition examination was opened, he was recommended in a memorial. More than two hundred men were nominated throughout the realm; Mei was the youngest, and he failed the examination. In the fourth year of the Qianlong reign he became a jinshi and was selected as a Hanlin bachelor. He was appointed magistrate in Jiangnan, serving successively at Lishui, Jiangpu, and Shuyang before being transferred to the demanding post at Jiangning. At the time Yin Jishan was governor-general; he recognized Mei's talent, and Mei devoted his full ability to every task. Market people even set his judicial decisions to song and had them printed and circulated far and wide. Mei did not pride himself on his administrative ability; before long he pleaded illness and retired home. He was recalled and set out for Shaanxi, but when his father died he returned home in mourning and then memorialized to support his mother. He built his residence on Little Cang Mountain in Jiangning, styled it the Sui Garden, lavishly adorned its pools and halls, and lived at ease there for fifty years. From time to time he traveled to fine mountains and waters, and never again took office. He devoted his full talent to literary composition and poetry; eminent visitors called on him daily, and with wit and easy banter everyone went away satisfied. If a young man had even one fine phrase, he praised it without cease. He was devoted to friendship; when Compiler Cheng Jinfang died, he gathered IOUs totaling five thousand taels of silver and burned them, and also supported his orphans.
43
天才穎異。 論詩主抒寫性靈，他人意所欲出，不達者悉為達之。 士多效其體。 著隨園集，凡三十餘種。 上自公卿下至市井負販，皆知其名。 海外琉球有來求其書者。 然枚喜聲色，其所作亦頗以滑易獲世譏云。 卒，年八十二。
His native talent was brilliant and extraordinary. In poetic theory he upheld the expression of inner spirit; he could articulate what others wished to say but could not. Many scholars imitated his style. He wrote the Suiyuan ji and more than thirty works in all. From high officials down to street peddlers, everyone knew his name. People even came from overseas seeking his books. Yet he delighted in sensual pleasures, and his writings also drew worldly censure for their smoothness and ease. He died at the age of eighty-two.
44
晉芳，字魚門，江都人。 家世業鹺。 乾隆初，兩淮殷富，程氏尤豪侈。 晉芳獨好儒，購書五萬卷，不問生產，罄其貲。 少問經義於從父廷祚，學古文於劉大櫆。 而與袁枚、商盤諸人往復唱和，甚相得也。 乾隆七年，召試，授中書。 十七年，成進士，以吏部員外郎為四庫館纂修，書成改編修。 晚歲益窮，官京師至不能舉火。 就畢沅謀歸計，抵關中一月卒，年六十七。 晉芳於易、書、詩、禮皆有撰述，又有諸經答問、群書題跋、蕺園詩文集。 張問陶，字仲冶，遂寧人，大學士鵬翮玄孫。 以詩名，書畫亦俱勝。 乾隆五十五年進士，由檢討改御史，復改吏部郎中。 出知萊州府，忤上官意，遂乞病。 遊吳、越，未幾，卒於蘇州。 始見袁枚，枚曰：「所以老而不死者，以未讀君詩耳！」 其欽挹之如此。 著有船山集。 兄問安，字亥白。 舉人。 家居奉母，淡於榮利。 其詩才超逸，與問陶有二難之目。
Cheng Jinfang, whose style was Yumen, came from Jiangdu. His family for generations engaged in the salt trade. In the early Qianlong reign the Two Huai circuits were wealthy, and the Cheng clan was especially extravagant. Jinfang alone loved Confucian learning; he purchased fifty thousand volumes of books, paid no heed to livelihood, and exhausted his wealth. In youth he studied the meaning of the classics with his uncle by marriage Tingzuo and learned ancient-style prose from Liu Dakui. He also exchanged poems in mutual response with Yuan Mei, Shang Pan, and others, and they got on extremely well. In the seventh year of Qianlong he was summoned to examination and appointed a Secretariat drafter. In the seventeenth year he became a jinshi; as a vice director in the Ministry of Personnel he served as a compilation officer of the Siku Library, and when the work was completed was made a compiler. In his later years he grew ever poorer; while serving in the capital he could not even keep a cooking fire. He sought Bi Yuan's counsel on returning home; he reached Guanzhong and died within a month, aged sixty-seven. Jinfang wrote on the Changes, Documents, Odes, and Rites, and also produced Answers to Questions on the Classics, Colophons on Various Books, and the Jiyuan Poetry and Prose Collection. Zhang Wentao, whose style was Zhongye, came from Suining and was the great-great-grandson of Grand Secretary Penghe. He was famed for poetry, and his calligraphy and painting were also excellent. A jinshi in the fifty-fifth year of Qianlong, he moved from reviser to censor and then to director in the Ministry of Personnel. Sent out as prefect of Laizhou, he offended his superior and thereupon pleaded illness. He traveled through Wu and Yue; before long he died in Suzhou. When he first met Yuan Mei, Mei said, "The reason I have not died of old age is that I had not yet read your poetry!" Such was the depth of his admiration. He authored the Boat Mountain Collection. His elder brother Wen'an, whose style was Haibai. He was a provincial graduate. He lived at home caring for his mother and was indifferent to fame and profit. His poetic talent was transcendent; he and Wentao were styled the Two Excellences.
45
王又曾，字受銘，秀水人。 乾隆十六年，南巡召試，賜舉人，授內閣中書。 十九年，成進士，授刑部主事。 同縣錢載論詩宗黃庭堅，務縋深鑿險，不墮臼科。 又曾與朱沛然、陳向中、祝維誥和之，號「南郭五子」。 又有萬光泰、汪孟鋗、仲鈖皆與同時相鏃礪，力求捐棄塵壒，毋一語相襲取。 為詩不異指趣，亦不同體格。 時目為秀水派，而又曾與維誥、光泰尤工。
Wang Youceng, whose style was Shouming, came from Xiushui. In the sixteenth year of Qianlong, during the southern tour he was called to imperial examination, granted the rank of provincial graduate, and appointed a Secretariat drafter. In the nineteenth year he passed the metropolitan examination and was appointed a principal secretary in the Ministry of Justice. Qian Zai of the same county took Huang Tingjian as his model in poetry, striving to plumb depth and carve out difficulty without falling into conventional patterns. Youceng joined Zhu Peiran, Chen Xiangzhong, and Zhu Weigao in a poetic fellowship with Qian Zai, and they styled themselves the "Five Masters of Nanguo." Wan Guangtai, Wang Mengjun, and Zhong Chen were also their contemporaries; they honed one another's work, striving to cast off worldly vulgarity and never permitting a line to be borrowed from another poet. In poetry they shared the same aims, yet each cultivated a distinct form and style. They were regarded at the time as the Xiushui school; among them, Youceng together with Weigao and Guangtai were especially accomplished.
46
又曾卒，其子復乞載定其詩，號丁辛老屋集。 畢沅為之序，謂於漢、魏、六朝及唐、宋諸家外，能融會變化自成一家，取材於眾所不經見，用意於前人所未發，尤又曾所獨到云。
When Youceng died, his son Fu asked Qian Zai to revise and finalize his poems, which were published as the Dingxin Old House Collection. Bi Yuan wrote a preface for it, saying that beyond the masters of Han, Wei, the Six Dynasties, and Tang and Song, Youceng could merge and transform influences into a school of his own, drawing on material rarely seen by others and pursuing intentions that predecessors had never developed—an achievement unique to Youceng.
47
維誥，字宣臣。 乾隆三年舉人，官內閣中書。 有綠谿詩鈔。 光泰，字循初。 乾隆元年舉人。 有柘坡居士集。 維誥詩，全祖望稱其俊雅，李鍇稱其醇靜。 光泰詩，杭世駿稱其秀朗，載亦稱其綺麗。 蓋雖宗庭堅，而鍛鍊精到，絕無西江槎枒詰屈之習。 沛然，舉人，知高安縣，卒官。 向中客死涼州，詩傳者差少。 孟鋗，進士，吏部主事； 仲鈖，舉人：皆有集。 而復與載子世錫，維誥子喆相與稱。 詩守家法。 世錫已見載傳，有麂山老屋集。
Zhu Weigao, whose style was Xuanchen. He became a provincial graduate in the third year of Qianlong and served as a Secretariat drafter. He published the Green Stream Poetry Drafts. Wan Guangtai, whose style was Xunchu. He became a provincial graduate in the first year of Qianlong. He published the Zhepo Hermit Collection. Quan Zuwang praised Weigao's poetry for its refined elegance, and Li Kai praised it for its mellow stillness. Hang Shijun praised Guangtai's poetry for its graceful clarity, and Qian Zai also praised its exquisite beauty. For although they took Huang Tingjian as their model, their craftsmanship was precise and thorough, entirely free of the knotty, contorted manner of the Xijiang school. Zhu Peiran was a provincial graduate who served as magistrate of Gao'an County and died in office. Chen Xiangzhong died abroad in Liangzhou; comparatively few of his poems survive. Wang Mengjun was a jinshi and a principal secretary in the Ministry of Personnel; Zhong Chen was a provincial graduate: both had published collections. Fu exchanged mutual acclaim with Qian Zai's son Shi Xi and Zhu Weigao's son Zhe. Their poetry adhered to the family tradition. Shi Xi has already appeared in Qian Zai's biography; he published the Jishan Old House Collection.
48
復，字敦初。 官河南鄢陵知縣。 有樹萱堂、晚晴軒二集。 沅採入吳會英才集。
Fu, whose style was Dunchu. He served as magistrate of Yanling in Henan. He published two collections: the Shuxuan Hall and Wanqing Studio collections. Bi Yuan included him in the Wu-Hui Talents Collection.
49
喆，字明甫。 乾隆二十五年舉人。 有西澗詩鈔。
Zhe, whose style was Mingfu. He became a provincial graduate in the twenty-fifth year of Qianlong. He published the West Brook Poetry Drafts.
50
孟鋗子如洋，乾隆四十五年會試，廷試皆第一，亦與復等唱和。
Mengjun's son Ruyang ranked first in both the metropolitan and palace examinations in the forty-fifth year of Qianlong and also exchanged poems with Fu and the others.
51
邵齊燾，字叔宀，昭文人。 幼異敏，甫受書即能了大義。 乾隆七年進士，以編修居詞館十年。 嘗獻東巡頌，時稱班、揚之亞，群公爭欲致門下。 齊燾意度夷曠，殊落落也。 年三十六，即罷歸。 自顏其室曰「道山祿隱」。 主常州龍城書院，洪亮吉、黃景仁皆從受學。 善為儷體文，氣格排奡，意欲矯陳維崧、吳綺、章藻功三家之失。 卒，年五十有二。 著玉芝堂集。
Shao Qidao, whose style was Shujun, came from Zhaowen. As a child he was unusually quick and keen; as soon as he began reading texts he could grasp their essential meaning. He became a jinshi in the seventh year of Qianlong and served as a compiler in the Hanlin Academy for ten years. He once submitted an Eastern Tour Eulogy; contemporaries ranked him second only to Ban Gu and Yang Xiong, and leading men all vied to bring him into their circles. Qidao's bearing was free and unconstrained—utterly detached. At the age of thirty-six he resigned and returned home. He inscribed his study with the name "Salary-and-Retirement on Dao Mountain." He headed the Longcheng Academy in Changzhou; Hong Liangji and Huang Jingren both studied under him. He excelled at parallel prose; his force and style were bold and sweeping, and he intended to correct the faults of Chen Weisong, Wu Qi, and Zhang Zaogong. He died at the age of fifty-two. He authored the Yuzhi Hall Collection.
52
王太岳，字基平，定興人。 齊燾同年進士，授檢討。 由侍讀出補甘肅平慶道，調西安，遷湖南按察使。 調雲南，擢布政使，坐事落職。 命充四庫館總纂官。 四十三年，仍授檢討。 後遷司業，卒。 太岳蒞官有惠政，尤留心水利，與齊燾最善，駢文清剛簡直亦相近。 有清虛山房集。
Wang Taiyue, whose style was Jiping, came from Dingxing. A jinshi in the same year as Qidao, he was appointed reviser. Leaving his post as Reader, he served as intendant of Ping-Qing circuit in Gansu, was transferred to Xi'an, and was promoted to Hunan surveillance commissioner. Transferred to Yunnan, he was promoted to provincial administration commissioner, then was dismissed from office for an offense. He was ordered to serve as chief compiler at the Siku Library. In the forty-third year of Qianlong he was again appointed reviser. Later he was promoted to Vice Director of the Imperial College, then died. Taiyue's governance was marked by benevolent policies, and he was especially attentive to waterworks. He was closest to Qidao, and his parallel prose likewise shared a clear, firm, and straightforward quality. He published the Clear Void Mountain Studio Collection.
53
吳錫麒，字穀人，錢塘人。 性至孝。 乾隆四十年進士，授編修。 累遷祭酒，以親老乞養歸。 主講揚州安定樂儀書院。 錫麒工應制詩文，兼善倚聲。 浙中詩派，前有朱彝尊、查慎行，繼之者杭世駿、厲鶚。 二人殂謝後，推錫麒，藝林奉為圭臬焉。 著有正山房集。 全椒吳鼒嘗輯錄齊燾、亮吉、錫麒及劉星煒、袁枚、孫星衍、孔廣森、曾燠之文為八家四六雲。 此八家外，有金匱楊芳燦，與弟揆並負時名。
Wu Xiqi, whose style was Guren, came from Qiantang. By nature he was deeply filial. He became a jinshi in the fortieth year of Qianlong and was appointed compiler. He rose successively to Grand Master of the Imperial Academy; when his parents grew old he requested leave to retire and care for them. He served as lecturer at the Anding Leyi Academy in Yangzhou. Xiqi was skilled at court-style poetry and prose and also excelled at lyric poetry. In the Zhejiang poetry tradition, Zhu Yizun and Zha Shenxing came first; Hang Shijun and Li E followed them. After the two men passed away, Xiqi was upheld as their successor, and the world of letters revered him as the standard. He authored the Zheng Mountain Studio Collection. Wu Zi of Quanjiao once compiled the prose of Qidao, Liangji, Xiqi, Liu Xingwei, Yuan Mei, Sun Xingyan, Kong Guangsen, and Zeng Ao into the Eight Masters' Parallel-Prose Collection. Beyond these eight masters, there was Yang Fangcan of Jin Gui, who together with his younger brother Kui both enjoyed renown in their day.
54
芳燦，字蓉裳。 母夢五色雀集庭樹而生。 詩文華贍，學使彭元瑞大異之。 乾隆四十二年拔貢生。 廷試得知縣，補甘肅之伏羌。 回民田五反，縣民馬稱驥應之。 未發，芳燦從稱驥甥馬映龍偵得，立捕斬之，因城守。 賊奄至，以無應，解圍去。 憾映龍洩其謀，揚言映龍故與通，約五日後獻城也。 阿桂逮映龍，將殺之，卒以芳燦言得免。 敘功，擢知靈州，顧不樂外吏，入貲為戶部員外郎。 與修會典，益務記覽。 為詞章，嘗曰：「色不欲麗，氣不欲縱，沉博奧衍，斯駢體之能事矣。」 丁母憂，貧甚，鬻書以歸。 著芙蓉山館詩文鈔。
Fangcan, whose style was Rongshang. His mother dreamed of a five-colored bird alighting on the courtyard tree before she gave birth to him. His poetry and prose were splendidly rich; educational commissioner Peng Yuanrui was greatly impressed. He became a selected tribute student in the forty-second year of Qianlong. In the palace examination he was appointed magistrate and was assigned to Fuxiang in Gansu. The Hui rebel Tian Wu rose in revolt, and the county resident Ma Chenji responded. Before the plot unfolded, Fangcan learned of it through Chenji's nephew Ma Yinglong, immediately had Chenji arrested and executed, and fortified the city. The rebels arrived unexpectedly; finding no one to join them, they broke the siege and departed. Resentful that Yinglong had leaked their plot, they spread word that Yinglong had deliberately colluded with them and had agreed to surrender the city in five days. Agui arrested Yinglong and was about to execute him; in the end, thanks to Fangcan's testimony, he was spared. His merits were recorded and he was promoted to magistrate of Lingzhou, but unwilling to serve as an outer official he purchased an appointment as a vice director in the Ministry of Revenue. While assisting in compiling the Collected Statutes, he strove all the more to broaden his learning and memory. On belles-lettres he once said: "Color should not seek splendor, spirit should not seek unrestraint; depth, breadth, and abstruse extension—these are what parallel prose can fully accomplish." After mourning his mother he was destitute and sold books to pay for his return home. He authored the Furong Mountain Studio Poetry and Prose Drafts.
55
揆，字荔裳。 乾隆中，召試舉人，授中書。 從福康安徵衛藏。 官至四川布政使。 有藤花館稿。
Kui, whose style was Lishang. In the Qianlong era he was summoned to imperial examination as a provincial graduate and was appointed a Secretariat drafter. He accompanied Fu Kang'an on the campaign to Tibet. He rose to Sichuan provincial administration commissioner. He published the Wisteria Flower Studio Drafts.
56
鼒，字山尊。 嘉慶四年進士，終侍講學士。 以母老告歸，主講揚州。 亦長駢體，有夕蔡書屋集。
Wu Zi, whose style was Shanzun. He became a jinshi in the fourth year of Jiaqing and ended his career as Lecturer-in-Waiting. Citing his mother's age, he requested leave to return home and lectured in Yangzhou. He also excelled at parallel prose and published the Evening Cai Studio Collection.
57
徐文靖，字位山，當塗人。 父章達，以孝義稱鄉里。 文靖務古學，無所不窺。 著述甚富，皆援據經史。 雍正改元，年五十七，始舉江南鄉試。 侍郎黃叔琳典試還朝，以得三不朽士自矜，蓋指文靖及任啟運、陳祖範也。 乾隆改元，試鴻博，不遇。 詹事張鵬翀以所著山河兩戒考、管城碩記進呈，賜國子監學正。 十七年，徵經學，入都。 會開萬壽恩科，遂與試，年八十六，以老壽賜檢討，給假歸。 卒，年九十馀。 其所著又有周易拾遺、禹貢會箋、竹書統箋諸書。
Xu Wenjing, whose style was Weishan, came from Dangtu. His father Zhangda was famed in the village for filial piety and integrity. Wenjing devoted himself to classical learning and left nothing unexplored. His writings were extremely abundant, all supported with evidence from the classics and histories. When Yongzheng's reign began, at the age of fifty-seven he first passed the Jiangnan provincial examination. Vice Minister Huang Shulin, returning from supervising the examination, prided himself on having discovered three men of enduring worth—Wenjing, Ren Qiyun, and Chen Zufan. When Qianlong's reign began, he sat for the Hongbo examination and was not selected. Junior Sub-Prefect Zhang Pengchong presented Wenjing's Investigation of the Two Boundaries of Mountains and Rivers and Substantial Records of Brush City to the throne; he was granted the post of Instructor at the Imperial Academy. In the seventeenth year, when classical learning was summoned, he entered the capital. When the Longevity Enthusiastic Examination was opened, he took part; at eighty-six he was granted the rank of reviser on account of age and longevity and was given leave to return home. He died at the age of ninety or more. His other works include Gathered Remnants of the Book of Changes, Collaborative Commentary on the Tribute of Yu, Comprehensive Commentary on the Bamboo Annals, and other books.
58
趙青藜，字然一，涇縣人。 九歲能文，乾隆元年，舉會試第一，選庶吉士，授編修，充浙江鄉試考官。 遷御史，再充浙江考官，母憂歸，服闋，還台，又充湖南考官。 在台前後五年，有直聲。 如請清屯田、歸運丁、弛米禁、濟民食、提耗羨歸公、興西北水利； 又劾總督高斌、侍郎周學健奏開捐例，啟言利之端，為害甚大。 所言能持大體，不為激切之論。 尋以耳疾乞休，年八十馀，卒。 青藜外和內嚴，以不欺為主。 受古文義法於方苞，苞稱及門中如青藜者，可信其操行之終不迷。 著有漱芳居集，讀左管窺，於春秋二百四十二年穿穴甚深。
Zhao Qingli, whose style was Ranyi, came from Jing County. At nine he could compose prose; in the first year of Qianlong he ranked first in the metropolitan examination, was selected as a bachelor, appointed compiler, and served as provincial examiner for Zhejiang. He was transferred to censor, again served as Zhejiang examiner, returned home upon mourning for his mother, and after the mourning period resumed his post at the Censorate and again served as Hunan examiner. During his five years at the Censorate he earned a reputation for uprightness. He memorialized, among other things, to clarify military colonies, restore transport laborers, relax rice prohibitions, aid the people's food supply, return surplus fees to the public treasury, and promote waterworks in the northwest; He also impeached Governor-General Gao Bin and Vice Minister Zhou Xuejian for memorializing to open purchase-by-donation quotas, arguing that this opened the door to profit-seeking and would cause great harm. His memorials upheld the larger principles of governance and avoided inflammatory rhetoric. Soon afterward he requested retirement on account of an ear ailment; he died at the age of eighty or more. Qingli was outwardly gentle and inwardly strict, and made integrity his guiding principle. He studied the principles of ancient-style prose under Fang Bao, who said that among his disciples, men like Qingli could be trusted never to stray from the path of integrity. He authored the Shufang Studio Collection and A Narrow View through Reading the Zuo Commentary, in which his investigation of the two hundred forty-two years covered by the Spring and Autumn Annals was exceptionally thorough.
59
先是青藜同郡以史學稱者，推南陵汪越，字師退。 康熙四十四年舉人。 食貧勵節，守令咸折節致敬。 不妄幹謁。 著綠影草堂集，沖淡典博。 其讀史記十表，排比舊文，鉤稽微義，所得尤多。
Earlier, among those in Qingli's prefecture famed for historical learning, Wang Yue of Nanling, whose style was Shitui, was held foremost. He became a provincial graduate in the forty-fourth year of Kangxi. Though poor, he cultivated integrity, and local magistrates all treated him with deference. He never presumptuously sought audiences with the powerful. He authored the Green Shadow Studio Collection, a work mild in tone, restrained in manner, and rich in classical learning. In his study of the Ten Tables of the Records of the Grand Historian, arranging the old text in order and probing subtle meanings, his gains were especially great.
60
朱仕琇，字斐瞻，建寧人。 資性朗悟，而記誦拙，日可數十言，援筆為文輒立就。 從南豐汪世麟學古文，臨別請益，世麟曰：「子但通習諸經，則世無與抗矣。」 仕琇驚詫其言，遂以己意求之經傳，旁及百家諸子書，一以昌黎為宗。 副都御史雷鋐見其文，嘆為醇古衝澹，近古大家，自是名大著。 乾隆九年，舉鄉試第一。 逾四年，成進士，選庶吉士。 散館，出知夏津縣，民為之謠曰：「夏津清，我公能。」 在任七年，以河決，改福寧府學教授。 歸，主鰲峰講席者十年，卒，年六十六。
Zhu Shixiu, whose style was Feizhan, came from Jianning. By nature he was bright and quick, yet clumsy at memorization and could retain only a few dozen words a day; when he took up the brush to write, however, the essay was instantly complete. He studied ancient-style prose under Wang Shilin of Nanfeng; on parting he asked for further instruction, and Shilin said, "If you simply master the classics thoroughly, there will be no one in the world to rival you." Shixiu was startled by these words; he then pursued the classics and commentaries according to his own understanding, extending also to the writings of the hundred schools, and took Han Yu as his sole model. Vice Censor-in-Chief Lei Qian saw his writing and exclaimed that it was pure, ancient, mild, and restrained—the work of a master in the ancient manner—and from then his fame greatly spread. In the ninth year of Qianlong he ranked first in the provincial examination. Four years later he became a jinshi and was selected as a bachelor. After leaving the Hanlin Academy he went out to serve as magistrate of Xiajin County, and the people made a song about him: "Xiajin is clean—our lord can do it." After seven years in office, because of a breach in the river, he was transferred to professor at the Funing Prefectural School. Returning home, he headed the Aofeng lecture chair for ten years, then died at the age of sixty-six.
61
仕琇以古文辭自力，其意欲追古之立言者。 以為清穆者惟天，澹泊者惟水，含之咀之，得其妙以為文者惟人。 嘗與友人書曰：「為文在先高其志。 其心有以自得，則吾心猶古人之心也，以觀古人之言，猶吾言也。 然後辨其是非焉，究其誠偽焉，定其高下焉，如黑白之判於前矣。 於是順其節次焉，還其訓詁焉，沉潛其義蘊焉，調和其心氣焉，久則自然合之，又久則變化生之。 於是文之高也，如累土之成台，如鴻漸之在天，有莫知其所以然者。」 仕琇與大興朱筠及弟珪友善，筠推服其文甚至。 著梅崖文集。
Shixiu exerted himself through ancient-style prose, intending to follow the ancient masters who gave enduring expression to truth. He held that only Heaven is clear and solemn and only water is plain and unadorned; to hold and savor them and distill their subtlety into writing is something only human beings can do. He once wrote to a friend, saying, "In writing, one must first elevate one's aim. When the mind has something by which it can find satisfaction within itself, then my mind is like the minds of the ancients, and in reading the words of the ancients, I hear my own voice. Then one can distinguish right from wrong, investigate truth and falsity, and determine what is superior and inferior, as clearly as black and white set before the eyes. Thereupon one follows its order and sequence, restores its glosses, sinks deeply into its meaning, and harmonizes one's mind and spirit—and in time one naturally merges with it; after longer still, transformation and new creation arise. Then the loftiness of writing is like piling earth to form a terrace, like the wild goose gradually ascending into the sky—something achieved in a way one cannot fully explain." Shixiu was on friendly terms with Zhu Yun of Daxing and Yun's younger brother Gui; Zhu Yun admired his writing to the utmost. He authored the Meiya Collected Writings.
62
福建古文之學自仕琇。 其後再傳有高澍然，字雨農，光澤人。 嘉慶七年舉人，授內閣中書。 未幾，移病歸。 研說經傳，尤篤嗜昌黎集。 其文陳義正，言不過物，高視塵壒之表。 名不如仕琇，要其自得之趣，有不求人知能自樹立者。 著春秋釋經、論語私記、韓文故及抑快軒文集。
The study of ancient-style prose in Fujian began with Shixiu. Two generations later there was Gao Shuran of Guangze, whose style was Yunong. He became a provincial graduate in the seventh year of Jiaqing and was appointed a Secretariat drafter. Before long he cited illness and returned home. He studied and expounded the classics and commentaries and was especially devoted to the collected works of Han Yu. His writing set forth principles correctly; his words never exceeded their proper objects, and he looked down from above the dust and clamor of the world. His fame did not match Shixiu's, yet in the pleasures he found within himself he sought no recognition from others and could stand firmly on his own. He authored Exegesis of the Spring and Autumn Annals, Private Notes on the Analects, Old Notes on Han Yu's Writings, and the Collected Writings of the Yikuai Studio.
63
蔣士銓，字心馀，鉛山人。 家故貧，四歲，母鍾氏授書，斷竹篾為點畫，攢簇成字教之。 既長，工為文，喜吟詠。 由舉人官中書。 乾隆二十二年，成進士，授編修。 文名藉甚，裘曰修、彭元瑞並薦其才。 旋乞病歸。 帝屢從元瑞詢之，元瑞之士銓母老對。 帝賜詩元瑞，有「江西兩名士」之句。 士銓感恩眷，力疾起補官，記名以御史用。 未幾，仍以病乞休，遂卒，年六十二。
Jiang Shiquan, whose style was Xinyu, came from Yanshan. His family was originally poor; at the age of four his mother, née Zhong, taught him to read by cutting bamboo splints into strokes and assembling them into characters. When he grew up, he was skilled at prose and fond of poetry. As a provincial graduate he served as a Secretariat drafter. In the twenty-second year of Qianlong he became a jinshi and was appointed compiler. His literary fame was very great, and Qiu Yuexiu and Peng Yuanrui both recommended his talent. Soon he requested leave on grounds of illness and returned home. The emperor repeatedly inquired about him through Peng Yuanrui, who replied that Shiquan's mother was old. The emperor bestowed a poem on Peng Yuanrui containing the line "Two famous scholars of Jiangxi." Shiquan, grateful for the emperor's favor, forced himself up despite illness to resume office, and his name was recorded for appointment as censor. Before long he again requested retirement on grounds of illness, then died at the age of sixty-two.
64
士銓賦性悱惻，以古賢者自勵，急人之難如不及。 詩詞雄傑，至★述節烈，能使讀者感泣。 著忠雅堂集。 少時與武寧汪軔、南昌楊垕為昆弟交，出入必偕，財物與共。
Shiquan was by nature compassionate and tender, took ancient worthies as his model, and rushed to others' distress as if he could not arrive soon enough. His poetry and lyrics were bold and powerful, and when portraying loyal martyrs he could move readers to tears. He authored the Zhongya Hall Collection. In youth he formed a brotherly bond with Wang Ren of Wuning and Yang Hou of Nanchang; they always went out together and shared their possessions.
65
軔，字魚亭，優貢生。 垕，字子載，舉人，本天全六番招討宣慰使孫，雍正初，改土歸流，安置江西，遂為南昌人。 詩名與軔相埒。 士銓甚推服之。
Wang Ren, whose style was Yuting, was an outstanding tribute student. Yang Hou, whose style was Zizai, was a provincial graduate and originally the grandson of the Pacification Commissioner of the Six Fan of Tianquan; in the early Yongzheng era, when native domains were converted to direct rule, he was resettled in Jiangxi and thus became a man of Nanchang. His poetic fame matched Wang Ren's. Shiquan greatly admired them both.
66
同時有南豐趙由儀，字山南。 與士銓等並稱四子。 其後繼起者，曰東鄉吳嵩梁、臨川樂鈞。
At the same time there was Zhao Youyi of Nanfeng, whose style was Shannan. Together with Shiquan and the others they were styled the Four Masters. Those who rose afterward were Wu Songliang of Dongxiang and Le Jun of Linchuan.
67
嵩梁，字蘭雪。 以舉人官中書，選知黔西州。 著香蘇山館集。 聲播外夷，朝鮮吏曹判書金魯敬以梅花一龕供奉之，稱為詩佛。 日本賈人斥四金購其詩扇。 其名重如此。
Wu Songliang, whose style was Lanxue. As a provincial graduate he served as a Secretariat drafter and was selected to serve as prefect of Qianxi Prefecture. He authored the Xiangsu Mountain Studio Collection. His fame spread abroad; Jin Lujing, Minister of Personnel of Korea, enshrined a niche of plum blossoms in his honor and called him the Buddha of Poetry. Japanese merchants spent four ounces of gold to buy his poetry fans. Such was the weight of his fame.
68
鈞，初名宮譜，字元淑。 嘉慶六年舉人。 與嵩梁同為翁方綱弟子。 著青芝山館集。
Le Jun, originally named Gongpu, whose style was Yuanshu. He became a provincial graduate in the sixth year of Jiaqing. Together with Songliang he was a disciple of Weng Fanggang. He authored the Green Fungus Mountain Studio Collection.
69
趙翼，字耘松，陽湖人。 生三歲能識字，年十二，為文一日成七篇，人奇其才。 乾隆十九年，由舉人中明通榜，用內閣中書，入直軍機，大學士傅恆尤重之。 二十六年，復成進士，殿試擬一甲第一，王杰第三。 高宗謂陝西自國朝以來未有以一甲一名及第者，遂拔杰而移翼第三，授編修。 後出知鎮安府。 粵民輸穀常社倉，用竹筐，以權代概。 有司因購馬濟滇軍，別置大筐斂穀，後遂不革，民苦之。 翼聽民用舊筐，自權，持羨去，民由是感激，每出行，爭肩輿過其村。
Zhao Yi, whose style was Yunsong, came from Yanghu. At three he could recognize characters; at twelve he completed seven essays in a single day, and people marveled at his talent. In the nineteenth year of Qianlong, through the provincial graduate Mingtong list he was appointed a Secretariat drafter, entered attendance at the Grand Council, and Grand Secretary Fu Heng especially valued him. In the twenty-sixth year he again became a jinshi; in the palace examination he was proposed for first place in the first class and Wang Jie for third. Emperor Gaozong said that since the founding of the dynasty no one from Shaanxi had ever placed first in the first class, and so he elevated Jie and moved Yi to third, appointing him compiler. Later he went out to serve as prefect of Zhen'an Prefecture. The people delivered grain to the communal granary in bamboo baskets, using steelyard weights in place of bushel measures. Officials, because of purchasing horses to aid the army, separately set up large baskets to collect grain; afterward this practice was never reformed, and the people suffered from it. He allowed the people to use the old baskets, weigh for themselves, and keep the surplus; the people were deeply grateful, and whenever he went out they vied to carry his sedan chair past their villages.
70
先是鎮民付奉入雲南土富州為奸，捕獲百馀人，付奉顧逸去，前守以是罷官。
Earlier, when a local man named Fu Feng went into Yunnan to commit wrongdoing, over a hundred accomplices were captured, but Fu Feng escaped; the previous prefect was dismissed from office for this.
71
已而付奉死，驗其屍良是。 總督李侍堯疑其為前守道地，翼申辨，總督怒，劾之。 適朝廷用兵緬甸，命翼赴軍贊畫，乃追劾疏還。
Before long Fu Feng died; examination of the corpse confirmed that it was indeed he. Governor-General Li Shiyao suspected that the previous prefect had given Fu Feng cover; Zhao Yi pleaded his case, the governor-general grew angry, and impeached him. Just then the court was deploying troops; he was ordered to the army as strategic planner, and the impeachment memorial was recalled.
72
傅恆既至滇，經略兵事，議以大兵渡戛鳩江，別遣偏師從普洱進。 翼謂普洱距戛鳩江四千餘里，不如由江東岸近地取猛密，如其策入告。
Once Fu Heng arrived in Yunnan, he directed military affairs and proposed that the main force cross the Gajiang River while a detached column advanced from Pu'er. Zhao Yi said Pu'er was more than four thousand li away and that it would be better to take the nearer ground along the eastern bank of the river at Mengmi; following his plan, the report was submitted to the throne.
73
其後戛鳩兵遭瘴多疾病，而阿桂所統江東岸一軍獨完，卒以蕆事。
Afterward the troops crossing the Gajiang suffered malaria and many fell ill, but the single army Agui commanded on the eastern bank remained intact, and in the end the campaign was successfully concluded.
74
尋調守廣州，擢貴西兵備道。
Soon he was transferred to serve as prefect of Guangzhou and was promoted to defense circuit intendant of Guixi.
75
以廣州讞獄舊案降級，遂乞歸，不復出。
Because of an old case in adjudicating criminal matters in Guangzhou he was demoted, then requested to return home and never served again.
76
五十二年，林爽文反臺灣，侍堯赴閩治軍，邀翼與俱。
In the fifty-second year of Qianlong, when Lin Shuangwen rebelled, Li Shiyao went to manage the army in Taiwan and invited Zhao Yi to accompany him.
77
時總兵柴大紀城守半載，以易子析骸入告。 帝意動，諭大紀以兵護民內渡。 侍堯以詢翼，翼曰：「總兵欲內渡久矣，憚國法故不敢。 今一棄城，則鹿耳門為賊有，全臺休矣！ 即大兵至，無路可入。 宜封還此旨。」 侍堯悟，從之，明日接追還前旨之諭，侍堯膺殊賞； 而大將軍福康安續至，遂得由鹿耳門進兵破賊，皆翼計也。
At the time Regional Commander Chai Daji had defended the city for half a year and memorialized that the people were reduced to exchanging children and splitting corpses for food. The emperor's resolve wavered, and he ordered Chai Daji to escort the people inland across the strait. When Li Shiyao consulted Zhao Yi, Yi said, "The regional commander has long wished to cross inland but dared not because he feared the law of the state. Now if the city is abandoned once, Deer Ear Gate will fall to the rebels and all Taiwan will be lost! Even when the main army arrives, there will be no way to enter. This edict should be sealed and returned unopened." Li Shiyao understood and followed this advice; the next day he received the order recalling the previous edict and was granted special reward; and when the grand general arrived in succession, they were able to advance and defeat the rebels—all owing to Zhao Yi's plan.
78
事平，辭歸，以著述自娛。 尤邃史學，著廿二史劄記、皇朝武功紀盛、陔餘叢考、簷曝雜記、甌北詩集。 嘉慶十五年，重宴鹿鳴，賜三品銜。 卒，年八十六。 同時袁枚、蔣士銓與翼齊名，而翼有經世之略，未盡其用。 所為詩無不如人意所欲為，亦其才優也。
When the affair was settled he declined and returned home, devoting himself to scholarly writing. He was especially versed in historical learning and authored Notes on the Twenty-Two Histories, Collected Remnants from the Hillside, Notes Written in the Sun, and the Ou Bei Collection. In the fifteenth year of Jiaqing he again attended the Luming banquet and was granted third-rank insignia. He died at the age of eighty-six. At the same time Yuan Mei and Jiang Shiquan were equally famous with him, yet he had the breadth of vision to manage affairs of state and his talents were not fully used. In the poetry he composed there was none that did not give full expression to what people wished to say—this too showed the superiority of his talent.
79
其同里學人後於翼而知名者，有洪亮吉、孫星衍、趙懷玉、黃景仁、楊倫、呂星垣、徐書受，號為「毘陵七子」。 亮吉、星衍、懷玉自有傳。 景仁，字仲則，武進人。 九歲應學使者試，臨試猶蒙被索句。 後以母老客遊四方，覓升斗為養。 朱筠督學安徽，招入幕。 上巳修禊，賦詩太白樓。 景仁年最少，著白袷立日影中，頃刻成數百言，坐客咸輟筆。 時士子試當塗，聞使者高會，畢集樓下，咸從奚童乞白袷少年詩競寫，名大噪。 嘗自恨其詩無幽、并豪士氣，遂遊京師。 高宗四十一年東巡，召試二等。 武英殿書籤，例得主簿。 陝西巡撫畢沅奇其才，厚貲之，援例為縣丞，銓有日矣，為債家所迫，抱病逾太行，道卒。 亮吉持其喪歸，年三十五。 著兩當軒集。 子乙生，通鄭氏禮，善書，早卒。 倫，字敦五。 乾隆中進士，蒼梧縣知縣。 著有杜詩鏡詮。 星垣，字叔諾，大學士宮五世孫。 乾隆五十年，辟雍禮成，進頌冊，欽取一等一名，選訓導。 後官河間縣知縣。 有白雲草堂集。 葉縣知縣。 有教經堂集。
Among scholars from his native place who came after Zhao Yi and became well known were Hong Liangji, Sun Xingyan, Zhao Huaiyu, Huang Jingren, Yang Lun, Lü Xingyuan, and Xu Shushou, styled the "Seven Masters." Hong Liangji, Sun Xingyan, and Zhao Huaiyu each have their own biographies elsewhere. Huang Jingren, whose style was Zhongze, came from Wujin. At nine he took the educational commissioner's examination; on the eve of the test he was still under the covers seeking lines. Later, because his mother was old he traveled as a guest through the four quarters, seeking a livelihood by the bowl. When Zhu Yun supervised education in Anhui, he recruited Jingren into his secretariat. On the third-day-of-the-third-month purification gathering he composed a poem at the Taibai Tower. Jingren was the youngest; clad in a white unlined coat he stood in the sunlight and in a moment completed several hundred words, and all the seated guests laid down their brushes. At the time students were taking examinations at Dangtu; hearing of the commissioner's grand gathering, they all assembled below the tower and begged the servant boys for the white-coated youth's poem to copy in competition; his fame greatly resounded. He once regretted that his poetry lacked the bold spirit of You and Bing and therefore traveled to the capital. In the forty-first year of Gaozong's eastern tour he was summoned to examination and placed in the second class. For copying labels in the Hall of Military Glory, by precedent one received the post of registrar. Shaanxi Governor Bi Yuan marveled at his talent, richly rewarded him, and by purchased degree made him assistant magistrate; the appointment was imminent when creditors pressed him; he fell ill crossing the Taihang Mountains and died on the road. Liangji escorted his coffin home; he was thirty-five. He authored the Liangdang Studio Collection. His son Yisheng mastered the Zheng clan Rites, was skilled at calligraphy, and died young. Yang Lun, styled Dunwu. A jinshi in the Qianlong reign, he served as magistrate of Cangwu County. He authored the Mirror Commentary on Du Fu's Poetry. Lv Xingyuan, styled Shunuo, was a fifth-generation descendant of Grand Secretary Gong. In the fiftieth year of Qianlong, when the imperial school ceremony was completed, he presented a commemorative booklet and was chosen first of the first rank and selected as director of studies. Later he served as magistrate of Hejian County. He had the White Cloud Thatched Hall Collection. Xu Shushou served as magistrate of Ye County. He had the Teach-the-Classics Hall Collection.
80
嚴長明，字道甫，江寧人。 幼奇慧。 年十一，為李紱所賞，告方苞曰：「國器也！」 遂從苞受業。 尋假館揚州馬氏，盡讀其藏書。 高宗二十七年南巡，以諸生獻賦，賜舉人，用內閣中書，入軍機。 長明通古今，多智數，工於奏牘，大學士劉統勳最奇其才。 戶部奏天下錢糧雜項名目繁多，請併入地丁徵收，長明曰：「今之雜項折徵銀，皆古正供也。 若去其名，他日吏忘之，謂其物官所需，必且再徵，是使民重困也。」 統勳曰善，乃奏已之。 大學士溫福徵大金川，欲長明從行，長明固辭。 退，有咎之者，答曰：「是將敗沒，吾奈何從之！」 既而溫福果軍潰以死，隨往者皆盡。
Yan Changming, styled Daofu, was a native of Jiangning. As a child he was extraordinarily clever. At the age of eleven he won the admiration of Li Fu, who told Fang Bao, "This boy is material for a pillar of state!" Changming thereupon became Fang Bao's pupil. Before long he lodged with the Ma family of Yangzhou and read through their entire library. In the twenty-seventh year of Qianlong, when the emperor made his southern tour, Changming submitted a fu as a common student, was granted the rank of provincial graduate, appointed secretary in the Grand Secretariat, and entered the Grand Council. Changming was versed in past and present affairs, possessed great shrewdness, and excelled at drafting memorials; Grand Secretary Liu Tongxun admired his talent above all others. The Ministry of Revenue memorialized that the miscellaneous items in land tax and grain dues throughout the empire were too numerous and requested that they be merged into the land-and-poll tax for collection. Changming said, "The miscellaneous items now collected in converted silver are all ancient regular tribute. If their names are removed, clerks will someday forget what they were, assume the goods are whatever the government happens to need, and levy them again—doubling the people's burden." Tongxun approved, and the proposal was withdrawn. When Grand Secretary Wen Fu was dispatched to campaign in Jinchuan, he wanted Changming to accompany him, but Changming firmly declined. Afterward some blamed him, and he replied, "That expedition is going to end in defeat and ruin—how could I follow it!" Before long Wen Fu's army was indeed routed and he died, and all who had followed him perished.
81
長明在軍機七年，幹敏異眾，然亦以是見嫉。 其救羅浩源事，人尤喜稱之。 浩源，雲南糧道也。 分償屬吏汪應繳所虧帑金，有詔逾期即誅。 浩源繳不如數，逾期十日，牒請弛限。 上下其議，時統勳主試禮部，秋曹無敢任其事者。 長明因撾鼓入闈，見統勳，為言汪已捐复，將曳組綬出都，獨坐浩源，義未協，宜仍責汪自繳。 統勳曰：「具疏稿乎？」 曰：「具。」 即振袖出之，辭義明晰。 疏入報可，獄遂解。 其他事多類此。 人有圖其像祀之者。 三十六年，擢侍讀。 嘗扈蹕木蘭，大雪中失橐扆並所裝物，越日故吏以扆至。 問「何以知為吾物」，曰：「軍機官披羊裘者獨君耳。」 長明勞而遣之。
Changming served in the Grand Council for seven years. His efficiency and keenness surpassed everyone else's, yet for that very reason he also aroused envy. People especially praised his rescue of Luo Haoyuan. Haoyuan was grain intendant of Yunnan. He had been ordered to share in repaying a treasury shortfall owed by his subordinate Wang Ying, and an edict decreed execution if the deadline was missed. Haoyuan paid in less than the required amount, exceeded the deadline by ten days, and submitted a petition requesting an extension. The matter was passed up and down for deliberation. Tongxun was then presiding over the Ministry of Rites examination, and no one in the autumn office dared take responsibility for the case. Changming beat the drum to enter the examination compound, saw Tongxun, and explained that Wang had already made restitution by donation and was about to leave the capital in official dress while Haoyuan alone was being punished—the justice did not accord; Wang should still be held to pay on his own. Tongxun said, "Do you have a memorial draft ready?" Changming said, "It is ready." He immediately shook out his sleeve and produced it; its language and argument were perfectly clear. The memorial was submitted and approved, and the case was resolved. Most of his other deeds were of this kind. Some people painted his portrait and worshipped it. In the thirty-sixth year of Qianlong he was promoted to attendant reader. He once accompanied the imperial procession at Mulan and in a heavy snowfall lost his traveling screen and everything packed with it; the next day a former clerk returned with the screen. Changming asked, "How did you know it was mine?" The man said, "Among Grand Council officials, you alone wear a sheepskin coat." Changming rewarded him and sent him on his way.
82
後以憂歸，遂不復出。 客畢沅所，為定奏詞。 又主講廬陽書院。 博學強記，所讀書，或舉問，無不能對。 為詩文用思周密，和易而當於情。 著毛詩地理疏證、五經算術補正、三經三史答問、石經考異、漢金石例、獻徵馀錄等書。
Later he returned home on account of mourning and never took office again. He stayed as a guest at Bi Yuan's residence and drafted memorial language for him. He also served as chief lecturer at the Luyang Academy. Broadly learned and with a powerful memory, he could answer any question drawn from whatever he had read. In composing poetry and prose his thought was thorough and careful, his tone mild and easy yet true to feeling. He authored Geographical Evidential Commentary on the Mao Odes, Corrections and Supplements to Arithmetic in the Five Classics, Questions and Answers on Three Classics and Three Histories, Examination of Differences in Stone Classics, Han Epigraphic Precedents, Remaining Records of Offered Testimony, and other works.
83
子觀，字子進。 嗜學，好金石文字。 父乞歸後，築歸求草堂，藏書二萬卷，觀丹黃幾滿。 著江寧金石記，錢大昕甚高其品節。
His son Guan, styled Zijin. He loved learning and delighted in epigraphic inscriptions on metal and stone. After his father retired, he built the Guiqiu Thatched Hall, amassed twenty thousand juan of books, and Guan's red-and-yellow annotations nearly filled them all. He authored Records of Metal and Stone in Jiangning, and Qian Daxin greatly esteemed his character and integrity.
84
朱筠，字竹君，大興人。 乾隆甲戌進士，選庶吉士，授編修。 由贊善大考擢侍讀學士，屢分校鄉會試。 庚寅，典福建鄉試，辛卯，督安徽學政。 詔求遺書，奏言翰林院藏永樂大典內多古書，請開局校輯。 旋奉上諭：「軍機大臣議復朱筠條奏校核永樂大典一節，已派軍機大臣為總裁。 又朱筠所奏將永樂大典擇取繕寫，各自為書，及每書校其得失，撮舉大旨，敘於本書卷首之處，即令承辦各員，將各原書詳細檢閱，並書中要旨總敘厓略，呈候裁定；
Zhu Yun, whose style was Zhujun, came from Daxing. A jinshi in the jiaxu year of Qianlong, he was selected as a Hanlin bachelor and appointed compiler. Through reader-in-waiting and the great triennial examination he was promoted to reader-in-waiting of the Hanlin Academy and repeatedly served as examiner for provincial and metropolitan examinations. In gengyin he presided over the Fujian provincial examination; in xinmao he supervised education in Anhui. When an edict sought lost books, Zhu Yun memorialized that the Hanlin Academy's copy of the Yongle Encyclopedia contained many ancient works and requested that a bureau be opened to collate and edit them. Soon an imperial rescript followed: "On the section in the Grand Council ministers' reply concerning Zhu Yun's memorial on collating and verifying the Yongle Encyclopedia, Grand Council ministers have already been appointed as chief compilers. Further, as Zhu Yun proposed, selections from the Yongle Encyclopedia are to be copied out as separate books; for each book its errors and merits are to be collated, its main purport summarized, and an account placed at the head of the volume. Each official in charge is to thoroughly examine the original works and submit a general outline of each book's essential points for approval;
85
又將來書成，著名四庫全書。」 四庫全書自此始。 筠又請仿漢熹平、唐開成故事，校正十三經文字，勒石太學。 未幾，坐事降編修，充四庫全書纂修官，兼修日下舊聞考。
and when the books are completed, they are to be titled Complete Library of the Four Treasuries." From this the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries began. Zhu Yun also requested that, following the precedents of the Han Xiping and Tang Kaicheng stone classics, the text of the Thirteen Classics be corrected and cut into stone at the Imperial Academy. Before long, on account of an offense he was demoted to compiler, appointed a compilation officer of the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries, and also assigned to compile Records of Old Matters in the Capital.
86
高宗嘗稱筠學問文章殊過人。
Emperor Gaozong once praised Zhu Yun's learning and literary attainments as greatly surpassing others.
87
尋，復督學福建。
Before long he was again appointed educational commissioner.
88
歸，卒，年五十有三。
He returned home and died at the age of fifty-three.
89
筠博聞宏覽，以經學、六書訓士。 謂經學本於文字訓詁，周公作爾雅，釋詁居首； 保氏教六書，說文僅存。 於是敘說文解字刊布之。 視學所至，尤以人才經術名義為急務，汲引後進，常若不及。 因材施教，士多因以得名，時有朱門弟子之目。 好金石文字，謂可佐證經史。 諸史百家，皆考訂其是非同異。 為文以鄭、孔經義，遷、固史書為質，而參以韓、蘇。 詩出入唐、宋，不名一家，並為世重。 筠銳然以興起斯文為己任，搜羅文獻，表章風化，一切破崖岸而為之。 好客，善飲，談笑窮日夜。 酒酣論天下事，自比李元禮、范孟博，激揚清濁，分別邪正，聞者悚然。 著有笥河集等。 翁方綱，號覃溪，大興人。 乾隆壬申進士，選庶吉士，授編修。 擢司業，累至內閣學士。 先後典江西、湖北、順天鄉試，督廣東、江西、山東學政。 嘉慶元年，預千叟宴。 四年，左遷鴻臚寺卿。 十二年，重宴鹿鳴，賜三品銜。 十九年，再宴恩榮，加二品卿，年八十二矣。 又四年，卒。 方綱精研經術，嘗謂考訂之學，以衷於義理為主，論語曰「多聞」、曰「闕疑」、曰「慎言」，三者備而考訂之道盡。 時錢載斥戴震為破碎大道，方綱謂：「詁訓名物，豈可目為破碎？ 考訂訓詁，然後能講義理也； 然震謂聖人之道，必由典制名物得之，則不盡然。」 方綱讀群經，有書、禮、論語、孟子附記，並為經義考補正。 尤精金石之學，所著兩漢金石記，剖析毫芒，參以說文、正義，考證至精。 所為詩，自諸經註疏，以及史傳之考訂，金石文字之爬梳，皆貫徹洋溢其中。 論者謂能以學為詩。 他著有復初齋全集及禮經目次、蘇詩補注等。 姚鼐，字姬傳，桐城人，刑部尚書文然玄孫。 乾隆二十八年進士，選庶吉士，改禮部主事。 歷充山東、湖南鄉試考官，會試同考官，所得多知名士。 四庫館開，充纂修官。 鼐工為古文。 康熙間，侍郎方苞名重一時，同邑劉大櫆繼之。 鼐世父範與大櫆善，鼐本所聞於家庭師友間者，益以自得，所為文高簡深古，尤近歐陽修、曾鞏。 其論文根極於道德，而探原於經訓。 至其淺深之際，有古人所未嘗言。 鼐獨抉其微，發其蘊，論者以為辭邁於方，理深於劉。 三人皆籍桐城，世傳以為桐城派。 鼐清約寡欲，接人極和藹，無貴賤皆樂與盡懽； 而義所不可，則確乎不易其所守。 世言學品兼備，推鼐無異詞。 嘗仿王士禎五七言古體詩選為今體詩選，論者以為精當云。 自告歸後，主講江南紫陽、鍾山書院四十餘年，以誨迪後進為務。 嘉慶十五年，重赴鹿鳴，加四品銜。 二十年，卒，年八十有五。 所著有九經說十七卷，老子、莊子章義，惜抱軒文集二十卷、詩集二十卷，三傳補註三卷，法帖題跋二卷、筆記四卷。 子景衡，舉人，知縣。 有雋才，故工書，學其筆法，能亂真。
Zhu Yun was broadly learned with vast views and instructed scholars in classical learning and the six scripts. He held that classical learning rests on textual exegesis; the Duke of Zhou composed the Erya with Shigu first; the Keeper taught the six scripts, and only the Shuowen survives. Thereupon he arranged and published the Shuowen Jiezi. Wherever he supervised education he especially made talent, classical doctrine, and proper nomenclature urgent tasks, drawing forward the young as though he could never keep pace. Teaching according to each man's capacity, many scholars thereby gained renown; for a time they were styled disciples of the Zhu gate. He loved bronze and stone inscriptions, saying they could corroborate the classics and histories. All histories and the hundred schools he collated for right and wrong and sameness and difference. In prose he took the Zheng and Kong commentarial meaning and the Sima Qian and Ban Gu historical writings as substance, mixing in Han Yu and Su Shi. His poetry ranged through Tang and Song without naming one school, and both were highly valued by the age. Yun keenly took the revival of refined letters as his own charge, gathering documents and displaying moral transformation, breaking down all artificial barriers to do it. He loved guests, was skilled at drinking, and talked and laughed through the night. When wine was warm he discussed affairs of the realm, comparing himself to Li Yuanli and Fan Mengbo, stirring clear and muddy apart and distinguishing evil from right; listeners were awed. He authored the Sihe Collection and other works. Weng Fanggang, styled Tanxi, was a man of Daxing. A jinshi in the renshen year of Qianlong, he was selected as a Hanlin bachelor and appointed compiler. He was promoted to vice director of studies and rose in succession to grand secretary of the Grand Secretariat. He successively presided over the Jiangxi, Hubei, and Shuntian provincial examinations and supervised education in Guangdong, Jiangxi, and Shandong. In the first year of Jiaqing he attended the banquet for a thousand elders. In the fourth year he was demoted to director of the Court of Imperial Entertainments. In the twelfth year he again attended the Deer Cry banquet and was granted third-rank insignia. In the nineteenth year he again attended the Enrong banquet and was raised to second-rank secretary; he was already eighty-two. Four years later he died. Fanggang deeply studied the classics and once said that evidential scholarship must center on moral principle; the Analects says "hear much," "acknowledge doubt," and "speak cautiously"—when these three are complete the way of evidential study is exhausted. At the time Qian Zai denounced Dai Zhen for shattering the great Way; Fanggang said, "Can glossing and defining names and things be called shattering? Only after evidential collation and glossing can one expound moral principle; yet Zhen's claim that the way of the sages must be obtained through institutional regulations and names and things is not entirely so." Fanggang read the classics and had appended notes on the Documents, Rites, Analects, and Mencius, and also made supplementary corrections to the Jingyi Kao. He was especially skilled in the study of bronze and stone; his Two Han Bronze and Stone Record analyzes the finest points, comparing the Shuowen and commentaries, with evidential study of utmost precision. In his poetry, from commentaries on the classics through historical collation and the combing of bronze and stone inscriptions, all were thoroughly infused. Critics said he could make learning into poetry. His other works include the Complete Fuchu Studio Collection, Outline of the Rites Classics, and Supplementary Notes on Su Shi's Poetry. Yao Nai, whose style was Jichuan, came from Tongcheng and was the great-great-grandson of Minister of Justice Wuran. A jinshi in the twenty-eighth year of Qianlong, he was selected as a Hanlin bachelor and transferred to a principal secretary in the Ministry of Rites. He repeatedly served as examiner for the Shandong and Hunan provincial examinations and as associate metropolitan examiner, obtaining many renowned scholars. When the Siku Library opened he served as a compilation officer. Nai was skilled at ancient-style prose. In the Kangxi reign Vice Minister Fang Bao's name weighed on the age; Liu Dakui of the same county succeeded him. Nai's paternal uncle Fan was friendly with Dakui; what Nai had heard among family, teachers, and friends he added to his own attainments; his writing was lofty, concise, deep, and archaic, especially close to Ouyang Xiu and Zeng Gong. In discussing prose he rooted it in moral principle and traced it back to classical exegesis. As for the border between shallow and deep, there were things the ancients had never spoken. Nai alone plucked out the subtle and released the hidden; critics held his diction surpassed Fang and his reasoning surpassed Liu. All three were registered in Tongcheng; the world transmitted them as the Tongcheng school. Nai was frugal and of few desires; in receiving people he was extremely kindly, and whether noble or base all delighted to share full pleasure with him; yet where principle forbade, he was firmly unyielding in what he upheld. The age said learning and character were both complete and praised Nai without dissent. He once modeled Wang Shizhen's selections of five- and seven-character ancient poetry into a selection of regulated verse; critics held it precise and apt. After he retired he lectured at the Ziyang and Zhongshan academies in Jiangnan for more than forty years, making instruction of the young his task. In the fifteenth year of Jiaqing he again attended the Deer Cry banquet and was granted fourth-rank insignia. In the twentieth year he died, aged eighty-five. His works include the Seventeen Juan of the Nine Classics Explained, chapter commentaries on Laozi and Zhuangzi, twenty juan each of the Xibao Studio Collected Prose and Collected Poetry, three juan of Supplementary Notes on the Three Commentaries, two juan of Colophons on Model Calligraphy, and four juan of notes. His son Jingheng was a provincial graduate and served as magistrate. He had outstanding talent; Yao Nai was skilled at calligraphy, and Jingheng studied his brush method so well that his copies could pass for the genuine article.
90
吳定，字殿麟，歙縣人。 舉孝廉方正。 與姚鼐相友善，論文嚴於法。 鼐每為文示定，定所不可，必盡言，得當乃止。 定嘗語陳用光曰：「先生虛懷善取，為文尚如是，其為學可知矣。」 著有周易集註十卷，紫石泉山房文集十二卷、詩集六卷。 魯九皋，原名仕驥，字絜非，新城人。 嘗從鼐問古文法，又使其甥陳用光及鼐門。 乾隆三十六年進士，選山西夏縣，以積勞致疾卒。 所著曰山木居士集。 用光，字碩士。 嘉慶六年進士，由編修累官禮部侍郎。 篤於師友誼，嘗為姚、魯兩師置祭田，以學行重一時。 著有太乙舟文集。 當嘉、道間，傳古文法者，有宜興吳德旋、上元梅曾亮諸人，曾亮自有傳。 德旋，字仲倫。
Wu Ding, styled Dianlin, was a man of She County. He was recommended as Filial and Incorrupt. He was on friendly terms with Yao Nai and was strict in prose method. Whenever Nai showed Ding a piece of writing and Ding disapproved, he always spoke fully until it was right before stopping. Ding once said to Chen Yongguang, "The master's open mind and readiness to accept advice—even in writing he is so, his learning can be known." He authored ten juan of Collected Notes on the Zhouyi, twelve juan of the Zishi Spring Collected Prose, and six juan of Collected Poetry. Lu Jiugao, originally named Shiji, styled Jiefei, was a man of Xincheng. He once studied the methods of ancient-style prose with Nai and also sent his nephew Chen Yongguang to Nai's gate. A jinshi in the thirty-sixth year of Qianlong, he was selected for Xia County in Shanxi and died of accumulated illness from overwork. His work is called the Shanmu Jushi Collection. Yongguang, styled Shuoshi. A jinshi in the sixth year of Jiaqing, from compiler he rose in succession to vice minister of Rites. Devoted to the friendship of teachers, he once established sacrificial fields for the two masters Yao and Lu and was esteemed for learning and conduct in his time. He authored the Taiyi Boat Collected Prose. During the Jiaqing and Daoguang reigns, among those who transmitted the methods of ancient-style prose were Wu Dexuan of Yixing, Mei Zengliang of Shangyuan, and others; Zengliang has his own biography. Wu Dexuan, styled Zhonglun.
91
諸生。 以古文鳴。 與陽湖惲敬、永福呂璜以文相砥鏃。 詩亦高澹絕俗，有初月樓集。
He was a common student. He was renowned for ancient-style prose. Together with Yun Jing of Yanghu and Lü Huang of Yongfu he sharpened one another's writing. His poetry too was lofty, plain, and utterly beyond the vulgar; he authored the Chuyue Studio Collection.
92
宋大樽，字左彝，仁和人。 弱歲，刲股愈母疾，讓產其弟。 乾隆三十九年舉人，為國子監助教，以母老引疾歸。 豪於飲酒，善鼓琴，時時出遊佳山水，助其詩興。 其詩由唐人而上溯之，極於古歌謠而止，才力足以相儷。 有茗香論詩、學古集、牧牛村舍詩鈔。
Song Dazun, styled Zuoyi, was a native of Renhe. In his youth he cut flesh from his thigh to cure his mother's illness and yielded his inheritance to his younger brother. In the thirty-ninth year of Qianlong he became a provincial graduate, served as assistant instructor in the Imperial Academy, and on account of his mother's age pleaded illness and returned home. He was bold in drinking wine, skilled at playing the zither, and often traveled to fine mountains and waters to stir his poetic inspiration. His poetry traced upward from the Tang poets and stopped at ancient songs and ballads; his talent and strength were sufficient to match them. He authored Tea-Fragrance Discussions on Poetry, Collection of Learning from Antiquity, and Poems from the Oxherd's Village Cottage.
93
同縣錢林，字金粟。 嘉慶十三年進士，由編修至侍讀學士，左遷庶子。 林熟於本朝名臣言行，及河漕、鹽榷、錢法諸大政。 詩亦醖釀於漢、魏、六朝。 阮元督學浙江，稱為華實兼茂之士。 著文獻徵存錄、玉山草堂詩集。
Qian Lin of the same county, styled Jinshu. He became a jinshi in the thirteenth year of Jiaqing, rose from compiler to attendant reader of the Hanlin Academy, and was demoted to tutor of the heir apparent. Lin was thoroughly familiar with the words and deeds of eminent ministers of the present dynasty, as well as major policies such as canal transport, salt monopoly, and currency. His poetry too was steeped in the styles of the Han, Wei, and Six Dynasties. When Ruan Yuan supervised education in Zhejiang, he called him a man in whom literary grace and solid substance were equally flourishing. He authored Records of Literary Survivals and the Yushan Thatched Hall Poetry Collection.
94
端木國瑚，青田人。 青田故產鶴，國瑚生而清傲似鶴，其大父字之曰鶴田。 阮元督學得之，恆誇示人曰：「此青田一鶴也！」 命賦使署定香亭，賦成，一時傳誦。 國瑚好學深思，通天文之奧。 嘗被召相山陵，敘勞官中書。 道光十三年進士，選用知縣。 性不耐劇，投牒就原官。 著周易指，屬稿二十六年而後成。 詩才清麗，有太鶴山人集。 又著周易葬說、地理元文，後頗悔之，不輕為人營葬。
Duanmu Guohu was a native of Qingtian. Qingtian was famed for its cranes; Guohu was born pure and aloof like a crane, and his grandfather gave him the courtesy name Hetian, "Crane Field." When Ruan Yuan discovered him while supervising education, he constantly showed him off to others, saying, "This is a Qingtian crane!" He ordered him to compose a fu on the Dingxiang Pavilion in the commissioner's yamen; when the fu was finished it was transmitted and recited far and wide. Guohu loved learning and thought deeply, and was versed in the mysteries of astronomy. He was once summoned to inspect imperial tombs and was rewarded with appointment as secretary. He became a jinshi in the thirteenth year of Daoguang and was selected for appointment as magistrate. By nature he could not endure strenuous duties and submitted a petition to resume his former office. He authored Pointer to the Book of Changes, drafting it for twenty-six years before it was completed. His poetic talent was clear and beautiful; he authored the Collected Works of the Great Crane Mountain Man. He also authored Burial Doctrine in the Book of Changes and Original Text on Geomancy, but later deeply regretted this and would not lightly undertake burial planning for others.
95
吳文溥，字澹川，嘉興貢生。 亦以詩名。 其為人有韜略，超然不群，能作蘇門長嘯。 著南野堂集。
Wu Wenpu, styled Danchuan, was a tribute student of Jiaxing. He too was famed for poetry. As a man he had strategic depth, stood aloof from the crowd, and could perform the long whistle of the Su Gate recluses. He authored the Southern Wilds Hall Collection.
96
章學誠，字實齋，會稽人。 乾隆四十三年進士，官國子監典籍。 自少讀書，不甘為章句之學。 從山陰劉文蔚、童鈺遊，習聞蕺山、南雷之說。 熟於明季朝政始末，往往出於正史外，秀水鄭炳文稱其有良史才。 繼遊朱筠門，筠藏書甚富，因得縱覽群籍，與名流相討論，學益宏富。 著文史通義、校讎通義，推原官禮而有得於向、歆父子之傳。 其於古今學術，輒能條別而得其宗旨，立論多前人所未發。 嘗與戴震、汪中同客馮廷丞寧紹台道署，廷丞甚敬禮之。 學誠好辯論，勇於自信。 有實齋文集，視唐宋文體，夷然不屑。 所修和州、亳州、永清縣諸志，皆得體要，為世所推。 章宗源，字逢之。 乾隆五十一年，大興籍舉人，其祖籍亦浙江也。 嘗輯錄唐、宋以來亡佚古書，欲撰隋書經籍志考證，積十餘年始成。 稿為仇家所焚，僅存史部五卷。 後百有餘年，有姚振宗，字海槎，山陰人。 著漢藝文志、隋經籍志考證，能訂宗源之失。 又補後漢、三國兩藝文志。 目錄之學，卓然大宗。 論者謂足紹二章之傳。
Zhang Xuecheng, whose style was Shizhai, came from Kuaiji. A jinshi in the forty-third year of Qianlong, he served as director of the Imperial Academy. From youth in reading he was unwilling to be confined to exegetical learning. He associated with Liu Wenwei and Tong Yu of Shanyin and became versed in the teachings of Jishan and Nanlei. He was thoroughly familiar with the rise and fall of late-Ming court politics, often going beyond the standard histories; Zheng Bingwen of Xiushui called him possessed of the talent of a good historian. He then entered Zhu Yun's gate; Yun's library was very rich, and so he was able to roam through the collected books and discuss with eminent men; his learning grew ever broader. He authored Literary and Historical General Principles and Collation General Principles, tracing official rites and gaining insight from the tradition of the father and son Xiang and Xin. In ancient and modern learning he could always distinguish categories and grasp their main purport; many of his theories were what predecessors had not developed. He once lodged with Dai Zhen and Wang Zhong at Ning-Shao-Tai circuit intendant Feng Tingcheng's yamen; Tingcheng greatly respected and honored him. Xuecheng loved debate and was bold in self-confidence. He had the Shizhai Collected Prose and looked on Tang and Song literary forms with indifferent disdain. The gazetteers of He, Bozhou, and Yongqing counties that he compiled all grasped essentials and were praised by the age. Zhang Zongyuan, styled Fengzhi. In the fifty-first year of Qianlong, a provincial graduate registered in Daxing; his ancestral home was also in Zhejiang. He once compiled lost ancient books from Tang and Song onward and wished to write an evidential study of the Sui Bibliographic Treatise; after more than ten years it was first completed. The draft was burned by an enemy family; only five juan of the History section survive. More than a hundred years later there was Yao Zhenzong, styled Haiqiao, a native of Shanyin. He authored Evidential Commentary on the Han Bibliographic Treatise and Evidential Commentary on the Sui Bibliographic Treatise, and was able to correct Zhang Zongyuan's errors. He also supplemented the bibliographic treatises for Later Han and the Three Kingdoms. In bibliographic studies he stood as a great master. Critics said he was fully able to continue the tradition of Zhang Xuecheng and Zhang Zongyuan.
97
而學誠同時有歸安吳蘭庭，字胥石。 乾隆三十九年舉人。 稽古博聞，多所纂述。 嘗以宋吳縝著有五代史記纂誤，因更取薛居正舊史參校，為纂誤補四卷。 同邑丁杰邃於經，蘭庭熟於史，一時有「丁經吳史」之目。 元年，與千叟宴。
At the same time there was Wu Lanting of Gui'an, styled Xushi. He became a provincial graduate in the thirty-ninth year of Qianlong. He investigated antiquity with broad learning and compiled and wrote extensively. Wu Zhen of Song had authored Corrections to Errors in the History of the Five Dynasties; Lanting therefore took Xue Juzheng's old history for further collation and produced four juan of supplementary corrections. Ding Jie of the same county was deep in the classics and Lanting was versed in history; for a time they were styled "Ding Classic and Wu History." In the first year of Jiaqing he attended the banquet for a thousand elders.
98
他所著又有五代史考異、讀通鑑筆記、南霅草堂集。 祁韻士，字鶴皋，壽陽人。 乾隆四十三年進士，官編修，擢中允，大考改戶部主事。 嘉慶初，以郎中監督寶泉局。 局庫虧銅案發，戍伊犁。 未幾，赦還。 卒於保定書院，年六十五。 韻士幼喜治史，於疆域山川形勝、古人爵里名氏，靡不記覽。 弱冠，館靜樂李氏，李藏書十餘楹，多善本，韻士寢饋其中五年，益賅洽。 既入翰林，充國史館纂修。 時創立蒙古王公表傳，計內扎薩克四十九旗，外扎薩克喀爾喀等二百餘旗，以至西藏及回部糾紛雜亂，皆無文獻可徵據。 乃悉發庫貯紅本，尋其端緒，每於灰塵坌積中忽有所得，如獲異聞。 各按部落立傳，要以見諸實錄、紅本者為準； 又取皇輿全圖以定地界方向。 其王公支派源流，則核以理藩院所存世譜，八年而後成書； 又別撰藩部要略，以年月編次。 蓋傳仿史記，而要略仿通鑑。 李兆洛序之，謂如讀邃皇之書，睹鴻濛開闢之規模矣。 及戍伊犁，有所纂述，大興徐松續修之，成新疆事略。 韻士又著西域釋地、西陲要略，皆考證古今，簡而能核。 外有萬里行程記、己庚編、書史輯要、詩文集。 張穆，字石洲，平定州人。 道光中，優貢生。 善屬文。 歙縣程恩澤見之，驚曰：「東京崔、蔡之匹也！」 通訓詁、天算、輿地之學。 著蒙古游牧記，用史志體，韻士要略用編年體，論者謂二書足相埒。 又以魏書地形志分併建革，一以天平、元象、興和、武定為限，純乎東魏之志。 其雍、秦諸州地入西魏者，遂挩失踳駮不可讀。 乃更事排纂，書未成，其友何秋濤為補輯之。 又著顧炎武、閻若璩年譜，㐆齋詩、文集。 秋濤，字原船，光澤人。 道光二十四年進士，授刑部主事。 留心經世之務。 以俄羅斯與中國壤地連接，宜有專書資考鏡，始著北徼彙編六卷。 後復詳訂圖說，起漢、晉訖道光，增為八十卷。 文宗垂覽其書，賜名朔方備乘。 召見，擢員外郎、懋勤殿行走，旋以憂去。 同治改元，年三十九，卒。 又著王會篇箋釋、一鐙精舍甲部藁。 刑部奉敕撰律例根源，亦秋濤在官時創藁雲。
His other works include Variant Readings in the History of the Five Dynasties, Reading Notes on the Comprehensive Mirror, and the Nanzhao Thatched Hall Collection. Qi Yunshi, whose style was Hehao, came from Shouyang. A jinshi in the forty-third year of Qianlong, he served as compiler, was promoted to palace aide, and in the great triennial examination was transferred to a principal secretary in the Ministry of Revenue. In the early Jiaqing reign, as a director he supervised the Baoquan Bureau. When the bureau treasury copper shortage case broke out, he was banished to Yili. Before long he was pardoned and returned. He died at the Baoding Academy, aged sixty-five. From youth Yunshi delighted in studying history; of territorial boundaries, mountains and rivers, strategic points, and the ranks and places of ancient men he forgot nothing he read. At twenty he lodged with the Li family of Jingle; Li's library filled more than ten bays with many fine editions, and Yunshi slept and ate among them for five years, growing ever more comprehensive. Once he entered the Hanlin Academy he served as a compilation officer of the National History Bureau. At the time the Mongol princes and nobles tables and biographies were newly established; counting the inner zasak of forty-nine banners, the outer zasak of Khalkha and more than two hundred other banners, down to Tibet and the Muslim regions in tangled confusion—all lacked documentary evidence. Thereupon he fully opened the red-bound volumes stored in the archives and sought their threads; amid piled dust he would suddenly find something, as if gaining strange news. For each tribe he established a separate biography, taking what appeared in the veritable records and red-bound volumes as standard; he also took the Imperial Atlas to fix territorial boundaries and directions. As for the branches and origins of the princes and nobles, he checked against the genealogies stored at the Court of Colonial Affairs; after eight years the book was completed; he also separately compiled Essentials of the Frontier Regions, arranged by year and month. In general the biographies imitated the Records of the Historian and the essentials imitated the Comprehensive Mirror. Li Zhaoluo prefaced it, saying it was like reading the book of the august sovereign and beholding the primordial opening of the realm. When he was banished to Yili he had writings in progress; Xu Song of Daxing continued and completed them, producing the Xinjiang Affairs Outline. Yunshi also authored Explication of Western Regions Geography and Essentials of the Western Marches, all collating ancient and modern with brevity yet precision. Besides these he had the Ten Thousand Li Travel Record, Jigeng Bian, Essentials of Books and Histories, and collected poetry and prose. Zhang Mu, whose style was Shizhou, came from Pingding Prefecture. In the Daoguang reign he was a senior tribute student. He was skilled at composition. When Cheng Enze of She County saw him he exclaimed, "A match for Cui and Cai of the Eastern Capital!" He mastered exegetical studies, astronomy and mathematics, and geography. He authored the Mongol Nomad Record in the style of historical geographies; Yunshi's essentials used annalistic form; critics said the two books were fully comparable. He also held that the Wei Shu Geography Treatise in its divisions, mergers, establishments, and abolitions took Tianping, Yuanxiang, Xinghe, and Wuding as limits, purely the Eastern Wei gazetteer. For Yong and Qin prefectures whose territory entered Western Wei, it was pulled away and confused so as to be unreadable. Thereupon he undertook a new collation; the book was unfinished when his friend He Qiutao supplemented and compiled it. He also authored chronological biographies of Gu Yanwu and Yan Ruoju and the Yinzhai poetry and prose collections. He Qiutao, whose style was Yuanchuan, came from Guangze. A jinshi in the twenty-fourth year of Daoguang, he was appointed a principal secretary in the Ministry of Justice. He attended to affairs of statecraft. Because Russia and China share contiguous territory, there ought to be a specialized book for reference; he first authored the Northern Frontier Compilation in six juan. Later he revised the illustrated account in detail from Han and Jin down to Daoguang, expanding it to eighty juan. The Wenzong Emperor perused his book and bestowed the name Northern Frontier Comprehensive Account. Summoned to audience, he was promoted to vice director and attendant at the Maojin Hall; soon he left on mourning. At the beginning of the Tongzhi reign he died, aged thirty-nine. He also authored Exegesis of the Wanghui Pian and the Yideng Studio First Department Draft. The Ministry of Justice, by imperial order, compiled the Origins of Statutes and Precedents; this too was first drafted by Qiutao while in office.
99
馮敏昌，字伯術，欽州人。 童年補諸生。 翁方綱按試廉州，以拔貢選入國學。 乾隆四十三年進士，授編修。 大考，改戶部主事，調補刑部。 性至孝友，聞父喪，一痛嘔血，大雪，徒跣竟日。 方綱憂曰：「敏昌萬無生理！」 則持其母夫人書促令歸省。 及丁內艱，廬墓久，遂不復出。
Feng Minchang, styled Boshu, was a native of Qinzhou. In childhood he was enrolled as a common student. When Weng Fanggang conducted the examination tour in Lianzhou, Minchang was selected as a nominated tribute student and entered the Imperial Academy. In the forty-third year of Qianlong he passed the jinshi examination and was appointed compiler. At the grand examination he was transferred to secretary in the Ministry of Revenue and then reassigned to the Ministry of Justice. By nature he was deeply filial and fraternal; on hearing of his father's death he vomited blood in a single burst of grief, and in heavy snow went barefoot all day. Fanggang said in alarm, "Minchang has not the slightest chance of survival!" He thereupon took a letter from Minchang's mother and urged him to return home to see her. When he entered mourning for his mother, he lived long by the tomb and never took office again.
100
平生足跡半天下，嘗登岱，題名絕壁； 遊廬阜，觀瀑布； 抵華嶽，攀鐵纖，躋峽。 在河陽時，親歷王屋、大行諸山。 又以北岳去孟縣不千里，騎駿馬直造曲陽飛石之巔，窮雁門、長城而返。 最後宿南嶽廟，升祝融峰，觀雲海。 其悱惻之情，曠逸之抱，一寓於詩。 著有小羅浮草堂詩集、孟縣志、華山小志、河陽金石錄。 學者稱魚山先生。
In life his footsteps covered half the empire; he once climbed Mount Tai and inscribed his name on a sheer cliff; traveled to Mount Lu and viewed the waterfalls; reached Mount Hua, climbed the iron cables, and ascended Qiong Gorge. While serving in Heyang he personally traversed Mount Wangwu, the Taihang range, and other mountains. Because Mount Heng lay less than a thousand li from Meng County, he rode a swift horse straight to the Flying Stone summit at Quyang, explored Yanmen and the Great Wall, and returned. At last he lodged at the Southern Marchmount Temple, ascended Zhurong Peak, and viewed the sea of clouds. His tender feeling and his free, far-ranging spirit found their full expression in his poetry. He authored the Little Luofu Thatched Hall Poetry Collection, Gazetteer of Meng County, Short Account of Mount Hua, and Records of Metal and Stone in Heyang. Scholars called him Master Yushan.
101
其後嶺南以詩名家者，有嘉應宋湘，字煥襄。 嘉慶四年進士。 以編修典試四川、貴州，出知曲靖府。 教屬地種木棉，人稱「宋公佈」。 署廣南、永昌，皆有績。 永昌灣甸土州知州死，遠族景在東謀襲其職，據境專殺自恣，如是者五六年。 當事怯，莫敢發。 民、夷赴愬，湘請諸鎮帥，不允； 乃率僚屬遊宴棲賢山，從容賦詩，密約鄉兵乘夜兼行，出不意，擒在東斬之，費銀八千兩，不取償公家，邊隅以靖。 終湖北督糧道。 詩學少陵，有不易居集。
Later among those who became famed for poetry in Lingnan there was Song Xiang of Jiaying, styled Huanxiang. He passed the jinshi examination in the fourth year of Jiaqing. As compiler he presided over the provincial examinations in Sichuan and Guizhou, then went out to serve as prefect of Qujing. He taught his jurisdiction to plant cotton, and the people called it "Lord Song's cloth." While acting in Guangnan and Yongchang he achieved merit in both posts. When the native prefect of Wandian in Yongchang died, a distant kinsman named Jing Zaidong plotted to seize the office, held the territory, and killed at will for five or six years. The local authorities were timid and no one dared move against him. When commoners and tribesmen came to lodge complaints, Xiang appealed to the regional commander, but was refused; he then led his subordinates on an excursion and banquet at Qixian Mountain, composed poetry at leisure, secretly arranged with local militia to march together by night, caught Zaidong off guard, seized and executed him, spent eight thousand taels of silver without seeking reimbursement from the government, and thereby pacified the border. He ended his career as grain intendant of Hubei. His poetry followed Du Fu; he authored the Collection of the Not-Easy Abode.
102
敏昌同時又有趙希璜，字渭川，長寧人。 少讀書羅浮山，與順德黎簡友善。 乾隆四十四年舉人。 知安陽縣，邑志久未修，希璜聘武億共成之。 紀昀推其體例合古法。 末附金石錄十二卷，尤精確。 希璜工詩，著有四百三十二峰草堂詩鈔。
At the same time as Minchang there was also Zhao Xihuang, styled Weichuan, a native of Changning. In youth he studied on Mount Luofu and was on friendly terms with Li Jian of Shunde. He became a provincial graduate in the forty-fourth year of Qianlong. As magistrate of Anyang County, where the local gazetteer had long gone unrevised, Xihuang engaged Wu Yi to complete it with him. Ji Yun praised its format as conforming to ancient methods. At the end was appended a twelve-juan record of metal and stone inscriptions, especially precise. Xihuang was skilled at poetry and authored the Four Hundred Thirty-Two Peaks Thatched Hall Poetry Manuscript.
103
法式善，字開文，蒙古烏爾濟氏，隸內務府正黃旗。 乾隆四十五年進士，授檢討，遷司業。 五十年，高宗臨雍，率諸生七十馀人聽講，禮成，賞賚有差。 本名運昌，命改今名，國語言「竭力有為」也。 由庶子遷侍讀學士，大考降員外郎，阿桂薦補左庶子。 性好文，以宏獎風流為己任。 顧數奇，官至四品即左遷。 其後兩為侍講學士，一以大考改贊善，一坐修書不謹貶庶子，遂乞病歸。
Fa Shishan, styled Kaiwen, of the Mongol Wuerji clan, was registered in the Plain Yellow Banner of the Imperial Household Department. In the forty-fifth year of Qianlong he passed the jinshi examination, was appointed reviser, and was promoted to vice director of studies. In the fiftieth year of Qianlong, when Emperor Gaozong lectured at the Imperial Academy, Shishan led more than seventy students to listen; when the ceremony was completed, rewards were granted according to rank. His original name was Yunchang; he was ordered to change it to his present name, which in Manchu means "to exert oneself and act with purpose." From tutor of the heir apparent he was promoted to attendant reader of the Hanlin Academy; at the grand examination he was demoted to vice director of a ministry, then recommended by Agui for appointment as left tutor of the heir apparent. By nature he loved literature and took it as his mission to encourage talent and refinement on a grand scale. Yet his fate was unlucky: whenever he reached the fourth rank he was demoted. Afterward he twice served as lecturer of the Hanlin Academy; once he was demoted to tutor at the grand examination, once he was reduced to tutor of the heir apparent for carelessness in book compilation, and he then pleaded illness and returned home.
104
所居後載門北，明李東陽西涯舊址也。 構詩龕及梧門書屋，法書名畫盈棟幾，得海內名流詠贈，即投詩龕中。 主盟壇坫三十年，論者謂接跡西涯無愧色。 著清秘述聞、槐廳載筆、存素堂詩集。 平生於詩所激賞者，舒位、王曇、孫原湘，作三君子詠以張之。 然位艷曇狂，惟原湘以才氣寫性靈，能以韻勝，著天真閣集。
His residence was north of Houzai Gate, on the old site of Li Dongyang's Xiya Studio of the Ming. He built a poetry shrine and the Wumen Studio; fine calligraphy and famous paintings filled beams and tables, and whenever he received poems of praise and gift from leading figures throughout the empire, he placed them in the poetry shrine. For thirty years he presided over the literary world, and critics said he followed in Xiya's footsteps without shame. He authored Clear Secret Narratives, Brush Notes from the Pagoda Hall, and the Cunsu Hall Poetry Collection. Among poets he most admired in life were Shu Wei, Wang Tan, and Sun Yuanxiang; he composed Odes to Three Gentlemen to spread their fame. Yet Wei was florid and Tan wild; only Yuanxiang wrote native spirit with literary talent and could prevail through resonance; he authored the Tianzhen Pavilion Collection.
105
原湘，字子瀟，昭文人。 嘉慶十年進士。 選庶吉士，未仕。
Yuanxiang, styled Zixiao, was a native of Zhaowen. He passed the jinshi examination in the tenth year of Jiaqing. He was selected as a Hanlin bachelor but never took office.
106
同時江蘇與原湘負才名者，有吳江郭麟，字祥伯。 附監生。 一眉瑩白如雪，風采超俊。 家貧客遊，人爭倒屣。 詩學李長吉、沈下賢，詞尤清婉。 著靈芬館集。 嘗病潘昂霄金石例之隘，因據洪氏隸釋為金石例補，又撰詞品十二則，以繼司空表聖之詩品。
At the same time in Jiangsu, one who shared Yuanxiang's reputation for talent was Guo Lin of Wujiang, styled Xiangbo. He was an attached student of the Imperial Academy. One eyebrow shone white as snow, and his bearing was surpassingly handsome. His family was poor and he traveled as a guest; people vied to receive him with haste. His poetry followed Li He and Shen Quanqi, and his song lyrics were especially clear and graceful. He authored the Lingfen Hall Collection. He once found Pan Angxiao's Epigraphic Precedents too narrow and, relying on Hong Kuo's Explanation of Clerical Script, produced a Supplement to Epigraphic Precedents; he also drafted twelve rules on song lyrics to continue Sikong Tu's Grades of Poetry.
107
惲敬，字子居，陽湖人。 幼從舅氏鄭環學，持論能獨出己見。 乾隆四十八年舉人，以教習官京師。 時同縣莊述祖、有可、張惠言，海鹽陳石麟，桐城王灼集輦下，敬與為友，商榷經義，以古文鳴於時。 既而選令富陽，銳欲圖治，不隨群輩俯仰。 大吏怒其強項，務裁抑之，令督解黔餉。 敬曰：「王事也。」 怡然就道。 後遭父喪，服闋，選新喻。 吏民素橫暴，繩以法，人疑其過猛。 已乃進秀異士與論文藝，俗習大變。 調知瑞金，有富民進千金求脫罪，峻拒之。 關說者以萬金相啗，敬曰：「節士苞苴不逮門，吾豈有遺行耶！」 卒論如法。 由是廉聲大著。 卓異，擢南昌同知。 敬為人負氣，所至輒忤上官，以其才高優容之，然忌者遂銜之次骨。 最後署吳城同知，坐奸民誣訴隸詐財失察被劾。 忌者聞而喜曰：「惲子居大賢，乃以贓敗耶！」
Yun Jing, styled Ziju, was a native of Yanghu. In youth he studied under his maternal uncle Zheng Huan and in argument could put forward views entirely his own. In the forty-eighth year of Qianlong he became a provincial graduate and served as an instructor in the capital. At the time Zhuang Shuzu, You Ke, and Zhang Huiyan of his county, Chen Shilin of Haiyan, and Wang Zhuo of Tongcheng all gathered in the capital; Jing befriended them, discussed classical meaning, and was renowned for ancient-style prose in his age. Before long he was selected as magistrate of Fuyang and keenly sought to govern well, refusing to defer to the crowd. The grand official, angered by his stubbornness, sought to restrain him and ordered him to supervise the transport of Guizhou provisions. Jing said, "It is the king's business." He set out on the road with easy contentment. Later he suffered his father's death; when mourning ended he was selected for Xinyu. Officials and people there had long been violent and overbearing; he bound them with law, and some thought him too harsh. Then he advanced outstanding scholars to discuss literature and the arts, and local custom changed greatly. He was transferred to serve as magistrate of Ruijin; a wealthy man offered a thousand in gold to escape punishment, and he sternly refused. A go-between tried to bribe him with ten thousand in gold; Jing said, "A man of integrity does not let gifts reach his door—how could I leave any stain on my conduct!" In the end the case was decided according to law. From this his reputation for integrity became greatly renowned. Marked as outstanding, he was promoted to vice prefect of Nanchang. Jing as a man was proud; wherever he went he offended superiors, yet because his talent was high they indulged him; still, the envious came to hate him to the bone. At last while acting as vice prefect of Wucheng he was impeached for failing to detect a clerk's extortion in a false accusation by a wicked commoner. Those who envied him heard and rejoiced, saying, "Master Ziju the great worthy—has he fallen through corruption after all!"
108
敬既罷官，益肆其力於文。 深求前史興壞治亂之故，旁及縱橫、名法、兵農、陰陽家言。 會其友惠言歿，於是敬慨然曰：「古文自元、明以來漸失其傳，吾向所以不多為者，有惠言在也。 今惠言死，吾安敢不並力治之？」 其文蓋出於韓非、李斯，與蘇洵為近。 卒，年六十一。 著大雲山房稿。 其治獄曰子居決事，附集後。
After Jing was dismissed from office, he devoted his strength all the more to writing. He deeply sought the causes of rise, ruin, order, and disorder in former histories, and ranged also through the doctrines of strategists, legalists, military and agricultural thinkers, and yin-yang masters. When his friend Huiyan died, Jing said with emotion, "Ancient-style prose since the Yuan and Ming has gradually lost its transmission; the reason I have not written much hitherto is that Huiyan was still alive. Now that Huiyan is dead, how dare I not devote myself fully to restoring it?" His writing generally derived from Han Fei and Li Si and was close to Su Xun. He died at the age of sixty-one. He authored Drafts from the Great Cloud Mountain Studio. His judicial decisions, titled Ziju's Rulings, were appended after the collection.
109
趙懷玉，字億孫，武進人，尚書申喬四世孫。 乾隆中召試舉人，授中書。 久之，出為青州府同知，以憂歸，終於家。 性坦易，工古文辭。 嘗自言不敢好名為欺人之事，不敢好奇為欺世之學。 惲敬稱其文無有雜言诐義離真反正者。 著有生齋文集。
Zhao Huaiyu, styled Yisun, was a native of Wujin and fourth-generation descendant of Minister Shen Qiao. In the Qianlong era he was summoned to imperial examination as a provincial graduate and was appointed a Secretariat drafter. After a long time he went out to serve as vice prefect of Qingzhou, returned home on account of mourning, and died at home. By nature he was open and easy, and skilled at ancient-style prose. He once said of himself that he dared not love fame and do things that deceive people, nor dared seek novelty and pursue learning that deceives the world. Yun Jing praised his writing as having no mixed language, crooked meaning, or departure from truth and return to the straight. He authored the Shengsheng Studio Collected Prose.
110
黎簡，字簡民，順德人。 十歲能詩。 益都李文藻令朝陽，見簡詩，曰：「必傳之作也。」 勸令就試。 學使李調元得其擬昌黎石鼎聯句，奇賞之。 補弟子員，人號之曰黎石鼎。 久之，膺選拔。 尋丁外艱，遂終於家，足不踰嶺。 海內名流，欽其高節。 袁枚負盛名，遊羅浮，邀與相見，謝不往也。 著五百四峰草堂詩文鈔。 所與交同邑張錦芳、黃丹書，番禺呂堅皆以詩名。
Li Jian, styled Jianmin, was a native of Shunde. At ten he could compose poetry. When Li Wenzao of Yidu was magistrate of Chaoyang and saw Jian's poetry, he said, "This is work that will surely be transmitted." He urged him to take the examinations. Education commissioner Li Tiaoyuan obtained his imitation of Han Yu's linked verses on the Stone Tripod and admired it as extraordinary. He was enrolled as a student, and people nicknamed him Li Stone Tripod. After a long time he was selected by nomination. Before long he went into mourning for his maternal grandfather, spent the rest of his life at home, and never again crossed the Lingnan passes. Leading figures across the empire admired his uncompromising integrity. Yuan Mei, then at the height of his fame, was touring Luofu and invited Li Jian to meet him; Li Jian politely declined. He authored the Collected Poetry and Prose of the Five Hundred Four Peaks Thatched Hall. His close companions included Jinfang and Danshu of his native county and Jian of Panyu—all men renowned for their poetry.
111
錦芳，字粲夫。 乾隆中進士，官編修。 通說文，喜金石文字。 弟錦麟，字瑞夫。 舉人。 兄弟並為翁方綱所器異。 錦麟以賦「碧天如水雁初飛」句得名，時呼張碧天。 早卒。 錦芳著逃虛閣詩鈔，與欽州馮敏昌、同邑胡亦常稱「嶺南三子」。
Zhang Jinfang, whose style was Canfu, became a metropolitan graduate during the Qianlong reign and served as a Hanlin compiler. He was versed in the Shuowen and devoted to bronze and stone inscriptions. His younger brother Jinlin, whose style was Ruifu, He was a provincial graduate. Both brothers won special regard from Weng Fanggang. Jinlin won renown for a fu poem containing the line "The blue sky is like water, and wild geese first take flight," and people at the time called him Zhang Biantian. He died in early manhood. Jinfang authored the Collected Poetry of the Taoxu Pavilion and, together with Feng Minchang of Qinzhou and Hu Yichang of his native county, was known as one of the "Three Masters of Lingnan."
112
丹書，字廷授。 亦以詩受知調元。 貢優行，事親孝，居喪能盡哀。 後舉於鄉。 至都，朝貴爭延之，辭不就。 嘗曰：「貧與富交則損名，賤與貴交則損節。」 晚官教諭，兼工書畫。 著鴻雪齋詩鈔。
Huang Danshu, whose style was Tingshou, likewise won recognition for his poetry from Li Tiaoyuan. Nominated as a tribute student of outstanding conduct, he was filial toward his parents and mourned them with full depth of grief. He later passed the provincial examinations. After he reached the capital, leading court figures all sought to bring him into their households, but he declined every invitation. He once said, "When the poor consort with the rich, they lose standing; when the humble seek out the great, they lose their integrity." In his later years he served as a district instructor and was also accomplished in calligraphy and painting. He authored the Collected Poetry of the Hongxue Studio.
113
堅，字介卿。 歲貢生，窮老不遇。 著遲刪集。
Lv Jian, whose style was Jieqing, was a senior tribute student who lived out his days in poverty without ever winning office. He authored the Chishan Collection.
114
亦常，字同謙。 舉人。 落第南歸，與戴震同舟，至富春江乃別。 舟中手寫震所著書，謀刊之。 多敢瓜果解渴，得胃寒疾，抵家卒。 有賜書樓集。
Hu Yichang, whose style was Tongqian, He was a provincial graduate. After failing the metropolitan examination he traveled south, sharing a boat with Dai Zhen; the two did not part until they reached the Fuchun River. Aboard the boat he painstakingly copied Dai Zhen's writings by hand, intending to publish them. He ate too much fruit to slake his thirst, contracted a chill in the stomach, and died shortly after reaching home. His works include the Cishu Studio Collection.
115
張士元，字翰宣，震澤人。 工古文辭，師法歸有光。 歲正，陳其集几上，北面拜之。 又用歸氏評點史記法，上推之左氏，下逮韓、歐，無不合者。 乾隆五十三年舉人，久不第，留京師館董誥第八年。 誥主會試，欲令士元出門下，不能得也。 姚文田督學江南，士元與有舊，戒諸子勿應試。 年老，銓教諭，以耳聵謝不就。 曰：「國家設學校，使師弟子相從講學，豈漫以廩祿拯寒生哉？」 乃歸老爛谿之上，撰述自娛。 學者稱鱸江先生。
Zhang Shiyuan, whose style was Hanxuan, came from Zhenze. He excelled at ancient-style prose and took Gui Youguang as his master. Each New Year he would place Gui Youguang's collected works on his desk and bow to them facing north. He also adopted the Gui family's method of annotating the Records of the Grand Historian, extending it upward to the Zuo Commentary and downward through Han Yu and the Song Ouyangs, and found that the method held throughout. He passed the provincial examination in the fifty-third year of Qianlong but failed again and again at the metropolitan level; he remained in the capital as a tutor in Dong Gao's household for eight years. When Gao served as chief examiner for the metropolitan examination, he wished to claim Shiyuan as his protégé, but could not manage it. Yao Wentian was education commissioner for Jiangnan; Shiyuan was old friends with him and warned Yao's sons not to sit for the examinations. In old age he was selected for a post as instructor, but he declined on the grounds that he had grown deaf. He said, "The state founds schools so that teachers and pupils may pursue learning together—are those posts meant only to offer grain stipends to scholars in need?" He therefore retired to Lanxi and spent his remaining years writing for his own pleasure. Scholars addressed him as Master Lujiang.
116
性澹泊寡交，獨與王芑孫、秦瀛、陳用光以學問相切劘。 姚鼐見其文，亦擬之震川。 卒，年七十。 著嘉樹山房集。
By nature he was austere and kept few social ties; only with Wang Qisun, Qin Ying, and Chen Yongguang did he engage in earnest scholarly exchange. When Yao Nai read his prose, he too compared it to Gui Youguang's. He died at the age of seventy. He authored the Jiashu Mountain Studio Collection.
117
同邑張海珊，字越來； 張履，字淵甫：皆舉人。 海珊道光元年鄉試解首，榜發，已前卒。 其論學以宋賢為歸，又恥迂儒寡效，自農田、河渠、兵制、天下形勢所在，及漕糧利弊，悉心究討。 三吳亢旱港涸，一日北風大作，水入，糾眾築堤儲之，歲以有秋。 著小安樂窩集、喪禮問答、火攻秘錄。
Zhang Haishan of the same county, whose style was Yuelai; and Zhang Lv, whose style was Yuanfu—both were provincial graduates. In the first year of Daoguang, Haishan took first place in the provincial examination; by the time the results were announced, he had already been dead for some time. In learning he looked to the Song worthies as his guide, yet he also despised pedantic scholars who achieved little in practice; from agriculture, rivers and irrigation works, military organization, and the strategic geography of the empire to the costs and benefits of grain transport, he investigated everything with painstaking care. When drought struck the Three Wu and the harbor channels ran dry, a fierce north wind one day drove water in; he gathered the people to build dikes and hold it back, and that year the fields yielded a full harvest. His works include the Collected Writings from the Little Anle Nest, Questions and Answers on Mourning Rites, and Secret Records on Fire Attack.
118
履，海珊門人也。 傳海珊之學，尤精三禮。 其議禮之文，皆犁然有當，非徒習訓詁名物者。 官句容訓導。 著積石山房集。
Zhang Lv was Haishan's student. He carried forward Haishan's scholarship and was especially accomplished in the Three Rites. His essays on ritual all settled matters with unmistakable clarity; he was no mere antiquarian of glosses and nomenclature. He served as assistant instructor at Jurong. He authored the Collected Writings from the Jishi Mountain Studio.