1
王來咸褚士寶馮行貞甘鳳池曹竹齋潘佩言
Wang Laixian, Chu Shibao, Feng Xingzhen, Gan Fengchi, Cao Zhuzhai, and Pan Peiyan.
2
江之桐梁九張漣葉陶劉源唐英戴梓
Jiang Zhitong, Liang Jiu, Zhang Lian, Ye Tao, Liu Yuan, Tang Ying, and Dai Zi.
3
丁守存徐壽子建寅華封
Ding Shoucun, Xu Shou, Zi Jianyin, and Hua Feng.
4
王來咸，字征南，浙江鄞縣人。 先世居奉化，自祖父居鄞，至來咸徙同，從同里單思南受內家拳法。 內家者，起於宋武當道士張三峰，其法以靜制動，應手即僕，與少林之主於搏人者異，故別少林為外家。 其後流傳於秦、晉間，至明中葉，王宗岳為最著，溫州、陳州同受之，遂流傳於溫州。 嘉靖間，張松溪最著，松溪之徒三四人，寧波葉繼美為魁，遂流傳於寧波。 得繼美之傳者，曰吳崑山、周雲泉、陳貞石、孫繼槎及思南，各有授受。 思南從征關白，歸老於家，以術教，頗惜其精微。 來咸從樓上穴板窺之，得其梗概。 以銀卮易美檟奉思南，始盡以不傳者傳之。
Wang Laixian, whose style name was Zhengnan, came from Yin County in Zhejiang. His family had originally lived in Fenghua; from his grandfather's day they settled in Yin, and Laixian later moved to Tonggu, where he studied inner-school boxing under his neighbor Shan Sinan. The inner school began with the Wudang Daoist Zhang Sanfeng in the Song. Its art counters motion with stillness: one touch and the opponent goes down. Shaolin, by contrast, is built around overpowering an adversary, and so came to be called the outer school. The art later spread through the Qin and Jin regions. By the mid-Ming, Wang Zongyue was its most celebrated master; Wenzhou and Chenzhou both inherited the tradition, and from there it passed into Wenzhou. During the Jiajing era Zhang Songxi stood at the head of the art. He had three or four disciples; Ye Jimei of Ningbo was the leading one, and the lineage thereafter took root in Ningbo. Jimei's disciples included Wu Kunshan, Zhou Yunquan, Chen Zhenshi, Sun Jiqiao, and Sinan, each passing the art on in his own way. Sinan had served in the campaign against the Japanese invader Hideyoshi. In old age he retired home to teach, but he guarded the art's finer points closely. Laixian bored a hole in the floor above and watched through it until he had grasped the gist of the training. He traded a silver cup for fine coffin wood and offered it to Sinan as a gift; only then did Sinan teach him everything he had held back.
5
來咸為人機警，不露圭角，非遇甚困不發。 凡搏人皆以其穴，死穴、暈穴、啞穴，一切如銅人圖法。 有惡少侮之，為所擊，數日不溺，謝過，乃得如故。 牧童竊學其法，擊伴侶，立死。 視之，曰：「此暈穴。」 不久果甦。 任俠，嘗為人報仇，有致金以讎其弟者，絕之，曰：「此以禽獸待我也！」 明末，嘗入伍為把總，從錢肅樂起兵浙東，事敗，隱居於家。 慕其藝者，多通殷勤，皆不顧。 鋤地擔糞，安於食貧。 未嘗讀書，與士大夫談論蘊藉，不知為粗人。 黃宗羲與之遊，同入天童，僧少焰有膂力，四五人不能掣其手，稍近來咸，蹶然負痛。 來咸嘗曰：「今人以內家無可炫耀，於是以外家羼之，此學行衰矣！」 因為宗羲論述其學源流。 康熙八年，卒，年五十三。 宗羲子百家從之學，演其說為內家拳法一卷，百家後無所傳焉。
Laixian was sharp and alert by nature, never flaunting his skill, and he would not unleash it except under great provocation. In combat he always aimed at the vital points — death points, fainting points, mute points — following the method of the bronze acufigure chart. Once a bully mocked him; Laixian struck him, and for days the man could not pass water. Only after he apologized was he restored to normal. A shepherd boy secretly picked up his technique, struck a playmate, and the boy dropped dead on the spot. Laixian examined him and said, "That was a fainting point." Before long the boy did indeed come round. He lived by the code of the knight-errant. Once a man offered him gold to avenge a brother; he refused, saying, "You would have me behave like an animal!" In the late Ming he served as a platoon commander and joined Qian Zhile's uprising in eastern Zhejiang. When the cause failed, he withdrew into seclusion. Many who admired his skill tried to court him with favors; he ignored them all. He hoed the earth and carried night soil, content to live in poverty. He had never read books, yet in talk with scholar-officials he was polished and restrained; no one would have guessed he was a rough man. Huang Zongxi often kept his company. Once they entered Tiantong Monastery together. The monk Shaoyan was immensely strong — four or five men together could not wrest his hand loose — yet when he drew a little near Laixian, he suddenly crumpled in pain. Laixian once said, "People today think inner-school boxing has nothing flashy to display, so they adulterate it with outer-school techniques. The art is dying!" He then laid out for Zongxi the origins and transmission of the school. He died in the eighth year of the Kangxi reign, at the age of fifty-three. Huang Zongxi's son Baijia studied under him and expanded his teachings into a one-volume Inner-School Boxing Method; afterward the lineage died with Baijia.
6
清中葉，河北有太極拳，云其法出於山西王宗岳，其法式論解，與百家之言相出入。 至清末，傳習者頗眾雲。
In the mid-Qing, taiji boxing appeared in Hebei, said to descend from Wang Zongyue of Shanxi. Its formal theory and commentary partly agreed and partly disagreed with Baijia's account. By the late Qing, it is said, those who practiced and passed it on had grown quite numerous.
7
褚士寶，字復生，江南上海人。 家素封，膂力過人，好技擊，遊學四方。 與畢昆陽、武君卿為友，遂精槍法，名曰四平槍，旋轉如風，人莫能近。 同邑有張擎者，虎頸板肋，力舉百鈞，橫行為閭里患，眾請士寶除之。 同飲酒，擎自誇其勇，酒酣，攘臂作勢，士寶徐以箸點其胸，曰：「子盍坐而言乎？」 擎遂默然，少頃辭去，越日，死於橋亭。 明季福王南渡，兵部員外郎何剛薦士寶為伏波營游擊。 未之官，南都陷，終老於家。 所傳弟子有王聖蕃、池天榮。 天榮又傳浙江提督喬照。 其槍譜二種及治傷藥酒方，世猶有藏之者。
Chu Shibao, whose style name was Fusheng, came from Shanghai in Jiangnan. Born into a wealthy family, he possessed extraordinary strength, loved the martial arts, and wandered far and wide to study them. Through friendship with Bi Kunyang and Wu Junqing he mastered a spear art called the Four-Square Spear. It spun like a whirlwind; no one could get near him. In the same county lived Zhang Qing, bull-necked and barrel-chested, able to lift a hundred jun. He terrorized the neighborhood, and the people begged Shibao to remove him. They drank together. Qing bragged of his courage; when he was well into his cups he rolled up his sleeves and squared up. Shibao lightly tapped his chest with chopsticks and said, "Why not sit down and talk?" Qing fell silent at once. Soon he excused himself and left; the next day he was found dead at a bridge pavilion. When the Prince of Fu fled south in the late Ming, He Gang of the Bureau of War recommended Shibao for the post of mobile commander in the Fubo Camp. Before he could take up the appointment, the Southern Capital fell, and he lived out his days at home. Among his disciples were Wang Shengfan and Chi Tianrong. Tianrong in turn passed the art to Qiao Zhao, provincial military commander of Zhejiang. Two versions of his spear manual and his medicinal wine recipes for treating wounds are still preserved by collectors.
8
馮行貞，字服之，江南常熟人。 父班，以文學者。 兄行賢，傳其學。 行貞少亦喜讀書，工小詞，性倜儻不羈。 善射，能以後矢落前矢，投石子於百步外無不中。 實雞卵殼以礦灰，遇劇盜，輒先發雞卵中其目。 山東響馬老瓜賊為行旅患，聞馮氏名，莫敢攖。 從休寧程打虎及張老受槍法，馳突無敵。 山行遇虎，以短槍斃之。 嘗為客報仇。 康熙中，從康親王杰書軍南征，有功，當得官，尋棄歸。 僑居吳中婁門外村落，以經書教授，詩畫自娛。 年七十餘，卒。 以槍法授同縣陶元淳，元淳後無傳者。
Feng Xingzhen, whose style name was Fuzhi, came from Changshu in Jiangnan. His father Ban was a scholar of literary accomplishment. His elder brother Xingxian carried on that scholarly tradition. In youth Xingzhen also loved books and wrote short lyric poems with skill. By nature he was bold and untamed. He was a fine archer: he could split the leading arrow with the one that followed. Stones he hurled a hundred paces away never missed their mark. He packed eggshells with mineral lime; when he met fierce bandits he would first hurl an egg into their eyes. The Shandong highwayman known as Old Melon Thief preyed on travelers, yet even he, hearing the Feng name, did not dare pick a fight. He studied spear fighting under Cheng Dahu of Xiuning and Old Zhang. In the charge and the thrust he had no equal. Once, traveling in the hills, he met a tiger and killed it with a short spear. He once took a client's revenge. During the Kangxi reign he marched south with Prince Kang Jieshu's army, earned distinction, and was offered an official post — but he soon gave it up and went home. He settled in a village beyond Lou Gate in Suzhou, taught the classics for a living, and passed his days in poetry and painting. He died in his seventies. He taught his spear art to his fellow townsman Tao Yuanchun, but the lineage ended with Yuanchun.
9
甘鳳池，江南江寧人。 少以勇聞。 康熙中，客京師貴邸。 力士張大義者慕其名，自濟南來見。 酒酣，命與鳳池角，鳳池辭，固強之。 大義身長八尺餘，脛力強大，以鐵裹拇，騰躍若風雨之驟至。 鳳池卻立倚柱，俟其來，承以手，大義大呼僕，血滿鞾，解視，拇盡嵌鐵中。 即墨馬玉麟，長軀大腹，以帛約身，緣牆升木，捷於猱。 客揚州巨賈家，鳳池後至，居其上。 玉麟不平，與角技，終日無勝負。 鳳池曰：「此勁敵，非張大義比！」 明日又角，數蹈其瑕，玉麟直前擒鳳池，以駢指卻之，玉麟僕地，慚遁。 鳳池嘗語人曰：「吾力不逾中人，所以能勝人者，善藉其力以製之耳。」 手能破堅，握鉛錫化為水。 又善導引術，同里譚氏子病瘵，醫不效，鳳池於靜室窒牖戶，夜與合背坐，四十九日而痊。
Gan Fengchi came from Jiangning in Jiangnan. From youth he was famed for his courage. During the Kangxi reign he lodged as a guest in the house of a great family in the capital. A brawler named Zhang Dayi, who admired his reputation, traveled from Jinan to meet him. When the wine was flowing, Dayi demanded a bout with Fengchi. Fengchi refused, but Dayi would not take no for an answer. Dayi stood more than eight chi tall, with shins of iron strength. He bound his thumbs in metal and leaped like a sudden storm. Fengchi stepped back to lean against a pillar, waited for the rush, and caught him with his hands. Dayi cried out and collapsed; blood filled his boots. When the wrappings were removed, his thumbs were driven deep into the iron. Ma Yulin of Jimo was long-limbed and big-bellied. Wrapping cloth tight around his body, he could climb walls and trees faster than a monkey. Both were guests at a wealthy merchant's house in Yangzhou. Fengchi arrived later and was given the better room above Yulin. Yulin took offense. They matched skills all day long, and neither could prevail. Fengchi said, "This is a real opponent — nothing like Zhang Dayi!" The next day they fought again. Several times Fengchi found openings in Yulin's guard. Yulin lunged to grab him; Fengchi turned him back with the parallel-finger technique. Yulin fell to the ground and fled in shame. Fengchi once told people, "My strength is no greater than an ordinary man's. I win because I know how to borrow an opponent's force and turn it against him." His hands could shatter hard objects; when he gripped lead or tin it melted in his grasp like water. He was also adept at daoyin exercises. A neighbor's son in the Tan family had consumption; doctors could not cure him. Fengchi sealed the windows and doors of a quiet room and sat back-to-back with the boy through the nights; after forty-nine days the boy recovered.
10
喜任俠，接人和易，見者不知為賁、育。 雍正中，浙江總督李衛捕治江寧顧云如邪術不軌獄，株連百數十人，鳳池亦被逮，讞擬大辟。 世宗於此獄從寬，未盡駢誅。 或云鳳池年八十餘，終於家。 江湖間流傳其佚事多荒誕，著其可信者。
He loved the life of the knight-errant and treated everyone with easy warmth. Those who met him never guessed he was another Ben or Yu. During the Yongzheng reign, Zhejiang governor-general Li Wei prosecuted Gu Yunru of Jiangning for heterodox arts and seditious plotting; more than a hundred people were implicated. Fengchi was arrested too, and the sentence proposed was death. The Yongzheng Emperor showed mercy in the affair and did not execute the whole lot. Some say Fengchi lived past eighty and died at home. The rivers-and-lakes world is full of wild stories about him; only those that seem credible are set down here.
11
曹竹齋，以字行，佚其名，福建人。 老而貧，賣卜揚州市。 江、淮間健者，莫能當其一拳，故稱曹一拳。 少年以重幣請其術，不可。 或怪之，則曰：「此皆無賴子，豈當授藝以助虐哉？ 拳棒，古先舞蹈之遺也，君子習之，所以調血脈，養壽命，其粗乃以御侮。 必彼侮而我御之，若以之侮人，則反為人所禦而自敗矣。 無賴子以血氣事侵凌，其氣浮於上，而立腳虛，故因其奔赴之勢，略藉手而僕耳。 一身止兩拳，拳之大才數寸，焉足衛五尺之軀，且以接四面乎？ 惟養吾正氣，使周於吾身，彼之手足近吾身，而吾之拳，即在其所近之處。 以彼虛囂之氣，與吾靜定之氣接，則自無幸矣。 故至精是術者，其徵有二：一則精神貫注，而腹背皆乾滑如臘肉； 一則氣體健舉，而額顱皆肥澤如粉粢。 是皆血脈流行，應乎自然，內充實而外和平，犯而不校者也。」 嘉慶末，歿於揚州，年八十餘。
Cao Zhuzhai, known only by his courtesy name — his given name is lost — came from Fujian. Old and poor, he made a living casting fortunes in Yangzhou. Among the strongmen of the Yangtze-Huai region, none could take a single punch from him, and so he was called Cao One-Fist. A young man offered a large sum to learn his art, but he refused. When someone wondered at this, he said, "They are nothing but worthless ruffians. Why should I teach them fighting so they can bully others? Boxing and the staff are relics of the ancient ritual dances. A gentleman trains in them to harmonize the blood and breath and prolong life; in their rougher form they serve only to ward off insult. The proper use is to answer insult with defense. Use them to insult others, and others will turn them back on you — you defeat yourself. Ruffians bully with hot blood alone. Their energy rides high while their footing is hollow; ride their rush, and the lightest touch of the hand brings them down. The body has only two fists, and each fist spans at most a few inches. How can that guard a five-chi frame against blows from every direction? Cultivate upright qi until it fills the whole body. When an enemy's hands or feet come near, your fist is already where they arrive. When their hollow, blustering force meets your calm, rooted breath, they cannot prevail. Those who reach the highest mastery show two signs. First, the spirit is gathered throughout the body, and the abdomen and back are dry and smooth as cured meat; second, the breath is strong and lifted, and the brow and crown are full and lustrous as fresh rice cakes. Both mean the blood and breath move freely in accord with nature — firm within, serene without, struck yet unprovoked." He died in Yangzhou late in the Jiaqing reign, aged over eighty.
12
潘佩言，亦以字行，安徽歙縣人。 以槍法著稱，稱潘五先生。 其言：「槍長九尺，而桿圓四五寸，然槍入手，則全身悉委於桿。 故必以小腹貼桿，使主運； 後手必盡錞，以虎口實擫之； 前手必直，令盡勢。 以其掌根與後手虎口反正擰絞，而虛指使主導。 兩足亦左虛右實，進退相任以趨勢。 使槍尖、前手尖、前足尖、鼻尖五尖相對，而五尺之身，自託廕於數寸之桿，遮閉周匝，敵仗無從入犯矣。 其用，有戳、有打； 其法，曰二、曰叉。 二以取人，叉以拒人。 此叉則彼二，此二則彼叉。 叉二循環，兩槍尖交如繞指，分寸間，出入百合，不得令相附。 桿一附，則有僕者，故曰'千金難買一聲響'。 手同則爭目，目同則爭氣。 氣之運也，久暫稍殊，而勝敗分焉。 故其術為至靜。」 「吾授徒百數，而莫能傳吾術。 吾之術，受於師者才十之三，其十之七，則授徒時被其非法相取之勢迫而得之於無意者也。 是故名師易求，佳徒難訪。 佳徒意在得師，以天下之大，求之無不如意者。 至名師求徒，雖遇高資妙質，足以授道，而非其志之所存，不能耐勞苦以要之永久，則百貢而百見卻矣。」
Pan Peiyan, known by his courtesy name, came from She County in Anhui. He was famed for spear fighting and was known as Master Pan Five. He taught: "The spear is nine chi long and the shaft four or five inches thick, yet once it is in your hands the whole body commits itself to the shaft. Press the lower abdomen to the shaft and let it drive the movement; the rear hand must reach its full extension, the web of the thumb gripping tight; the front hand must stay straight to release the full force. Twist palm root and rear-hand grip against each other, and let the relaxed fingers lead the way. The feet too are left empty and right full, advance and retreat sharing the momentum between them. Line up spear tip, front-hand tip, front-foot tip, and nose tip — the five points facing one another — and a five-chi body shelters itself behind a shaft of a few inches, closing every angle so no enemy weapon can break through. In use there are thrusts and strikes; In technique there are two forms, called the Two and the Cross. The Two is for striking an opponent; the Cross is for warding him off. When you Cross, your opponent Twoes; when you Two, he Crosses. Cross and Two alternate in endless cycle, the spear tips weaving together like interlaced fingers. Within inches they exchange a hundred blows, yet the shafts must never meet. Let the shafts touch and someone goes down—hence the saying: 'A thousand ounces of gold cannot buy the sound of one clean clash.' When both hands move the same way, victory is decided by the eyes; when the eyes meet, it is decided by the breath. Breath moves in its own rhythm; the slightest difference in endurance decides who wins and who loses. That is why this art finds its highest expression in utter stillness." I have taught hundreds of disciples, yet not one has been able to carry on my art. Of everything I know, only three parts in ten came from my master. The other seven I learned by accident—when my disciples tried to steal the art by force, and in resisting them I discovered what I had never been taught. A famous master is easy to find; a worthy disciple is not. A worthy disciple wants only a teacher, and in a world this wide he will always find one. When a master seeks a disciple, he may meet someone of keen talent and fine quality, fully fit to receive the art—but if the student's heart is not in it, if he cannot endure hardship and stay the course, then though the master offers himself a hundred times, a hundred times he will be turned away."
13
佩言與竹齋同時處揚州，後歸歙，不知所終。
Peiyan and Zhuzhai were contemporaries in Yangzhou. Later Peiyan returned to She, and nothing further is known of his fate.
14
江之桐，字蘭崖，安徽和州人。 年十餘歲，傭於江寧賣餅家，嗜讀書，其主人異之。 招至家，居之樓上數年，讀左傳、國語、戰國策、史記、漢書、三國志畢。 乃謝主人去，自設小肆於市。 更習武藝，手臂刀矛，皆務實用，變通成法。 且讀書，且習藝，讀稍倦，則趫舉翕張，以作其氣。 已而默坐，以凝其神，晝夜無間。 至百日乃睡，睡十餘日，復如之。 讀史善疑，質之儒生，往往無以答。 其藝通綿長、俞刀、程棓、瓘嵋十八棍，多取洪門，敵硬鬥強，以急疾為用。 复及陣圖、形勢、器械，皆有理解。
Jiang Zhitong, styled Lanya, came from Hezhou in Anhui. While still in his early teens he worked as a hired hand for a cake seller in Jiangning. He was always reading, and his employer thought this strange. The master took him in and put him up on an upper floor for several years, until he had read through the Zuo Commentary, Discourses of the States, Intrigues of the Warring States, Records of the Grand Historian, Book of Han, and Records of the Three Kingdoms. He then thanked his host and left, opening a small shop in the market. He then took up the martial arts—hand techniques, arms, sword, and spear—training everything for practical use and adapting established forms as he saw fit. He read and trained in turn. When reading tired him, he would leap and stretch, flexing and extending his limbs to rouse his breath. Then he would sit in silence to fix his spirit, day and night without pause. He would stay awake a hundred days, sleep for ten or so, and begin again. When he read history he was quick to doubt; he would press Confucian scholars with his questions, and they often could not answer. His arts included Mianchang, Yu's blade, Cheng's staff, Guanmei's eighteen cudgels, and much from the Hong School—meeting force with force, relying above all on speed. He also had a grasp of battle formations, terrain and disposition, and the use of weapons.
15
年六十餘，始遇荊溪周濟。 濟故績學，自負經世之略，通武藝，好談兵。 與語大悅，延教其孫，三年而之桐卒。 濟之言曰：「兵事至危，非得練士能臨敵苦鬥曆三十刻，及選鋒一可當三者，雖上有致果之志，下有死長之心，遇強敵不能必克。 以力為本，以技濟之，謂之練士； 作其勇者，謂之選鋒。 世之便騎射、習火器，以為士卒程，事取捷速，恆不能持久。 洎乎接刃，則霍然而去。 故曰'巧不勝拙'。 若之桐，庶為知務。」
Not until he was past sixty did he meet Zhou Ji of Jingxi. Zhou was a scholar of wide learning who prided himself on statecraft, was versed in martial arts, and loved to talk of war. Greatly pleased in talking with him, Zhou kept him on to teach his grandson. Three years later Zhitong died. Zhou Ji said: "War is the utmost peril. Unless you have seasoned troops who can face the enemy in hard fighting for thirty ke, and picked vanguard men each worth three ordinary soldiers, then even if the commander above is bent on victory and the ranks below are ready to die for their officers, you cannot be sure of beating a strong foe. Troops grounded in strength and sharpened by skill—those are seasoned troops; Men whose courage is forged to the highest pitch—those are the picked vanguard. People today train soldiers in horsemanship, archery, and firearms, aiming for quick results—and such troops rarely last. But when steel meets steel, they melt away. Hence the saying: 'Skill cannot beat plain doggedness.' A man like Zhitong, one may say, understood what really counts."
16
梁九，順天人。 自明末至清初，大內興造匠作，皆九董其役。 初，明時京師有工師馮巧者，董造宮殿，至崇禎間老矣。 九往執業門下，數載，終不得其傳，而服事左右，不懈益恭。 一日九獨侍，巧顧曰：「子可教矣！」 於是盡授其奧。 巧死，九遂隸籍工部，代執營造之事。 康熙三十四年，重建太和殿，九手製木殿一區，以寸準尺，以尺準丈，大不逾數尺許，四阿重室，規模悉其，工作以之為準，無爽。
Liang Jiu came from Shuntian. From the late Ming through the early Qing, all construction work in the inner palace was overseen by Jiu. In the Ming there had been a master builder in the capital named Feng Qiao, who directed palace construction; by the Chongzhen reign he was old. Jiu went to serve in his workshop. For years he never received the full art, yet he waited on Feng day after day with tireless, ever more reverent devotion. One day Jiu alone was in attendance. Feng looked back and said, "You may now be taught!" With that he transmitted to him the whole of his craft. When Feng died, Jiu entered the rolls of the Ministry of Works and took over construction in his place. In the thirty-fourth year of Kangxi, when the Hall of Supreme Harmony was rebuilt, Jiu made a wooden model of the hall with his own hands. Inch calibrated foot, foot calibrated rod; the whole was only a few feet across, yet its four slopes and nested chambers reproduced the design exactly. The craftsmen took it as their standard, and not a measure was off.
17
張漣，字南垣，浙江秀水人，本籍江南華亭。 少學畫，謁董其昌，通其法，用以疊石堆土為假山。 謂世之聚危石作洞壑者，氣象蹙促，由於不通畫理。 故漣所作，平岡小阪，陵阜陂纮，錯之以石，就其奔注起伏之勢，多得畫意，而石取易致，隨地材足，點綴飛動，變化無窮。 為之既久，土石草樹，咸識其性情，各得其用。 創手之始，亂石林立，躊躕四顧，默識在心。 高坐與客談笑，但呼役夫，某樹下某石置某處，不假斧鑿而合。 及成，結構天然，奇正罔不入妙。 以其術游江以南數十年，大家名園，多出其手。 東至越，北至燕，多慕其名來請者，四子皆衣食其業。 晚歲，大學士馮銓聘赴京師，以老辭，遣其仲子往。 康熙中，卒。 後京師亦傳其法，有稱山石張者，世業百餘年未替。 吳偉業、黃宗羲並為漣作傳，宗羲謂其「移山水畫法為石工，比元劉元之塑人物像，同為絕技」雲。
Zhang Lian, styled Nanyuan, was from Xiushui in Zhejiang, though his registered domicile was Huating in Jiangnan. As a youth he studied painting and sought out Dong Qichang, mastering his methods and applying them to piling stone and earth into artificial mountains. He said that those who heaped dangerous rocks into caves and ravines made landscapes that felt cramped and pinched because they did not understand painting. What Lian built were gentle knolls and low hills, ridges and embankments, stones set according to the natural flow and fall of the land—often achieving the spirit of a painted landscape. The stone was easy to find and always at hand; his placements were lively, his transformations endless. After long practice he knew the nature of every kind of earth, stone, grass, and tree, and used each where it belonged. At the beginning, with stones standing in disorder, he would pause and look all around, holding the whole design in his mind. Seated above, talking and laughing with guests, he would only call to the workmen: put this stone under that tree, place that one here—and the pieces fit together without axe or chisel. When it was done, the structure seemed wholly natural; the regular and the unexpected alike were brought to perfection. He traveled south of the Yangtze for decades, and many great estates and famous gardens were his work. From Yue in the east to Yan in the north, many who admired his name came to invite him, and all four of his sons lived by the same craft. In his later years Grand Secretary Feng Quan invited him to the capital; pleading old age, he sent his second son instead. He died in the Kangxi reign. Later his methods spread to the capital too; there was one called Mountain-and-Stone Zhang, whose family kept the trade for more than a century without decline. Wu Weiye and Huang Zongxi both wrote biographies of Lian. Huang Zongxi said that he "moved the methods of landscape painting into stonework—a supreme art, comparable to Liu Yuan of the Yuan, who modeled human figures."
18
葉陶，字金城，江南青浦人，本籍新安。 善畫山水，康熙中，祇候內廷。 奉敕作暢春園圖本稱旨，即命佐監造，園成，賜金馳驛歸。 尋復召，卒於途。
Ye Tao, styled Jincheng, was from Qingpu in Jiangnan, though his registered domicile was Xin'an. He was skilled at landscape painting and, in the Kangxi reign, attended the inner court. By imperial order he painted the design for the Changchun Garden and pleased the throne; he was at once appointed to help supervise its construction. When the garden was finished, he was given gold and sent home by express relay. Soon he was summoned again, but died on the road.
19
劉源，字伴阮，河南祥符人，隸漢軍旗籍。 康熙中，官刑部主事，供奉內廷，監督蕪湖、九江兩關，技巧絕倫。 少工畫，曾繪唐凌煙閣功臣像，鐫刻行世，吳偉業贈詩紀之。 及在內廷，於殿壁畫竹，風枝雨葉，極生動之致，為時所稱。 手製清煙墨，在「寥天一」、「青麟髓」之上。 於一笏上刻滕王閣序、心經，字畫嶄然。 奉敕制太皇太后及皇貴妃寶範，撥蠟精絕。 時江西景德鎮開御窯，源呈赩樣數百種。 參古今之式，運以新意，備諸巧妙。 於彩繪人物山水花鳥，尤各極其勝。 及成，其精美過於明代諸窯。 其他御用木漆器物，亦多出監作，聖祖甚眷遇之。 及卒，無子，命官奠茶酒，侍衛護柩，馳驛歸葬，恩禮特異焉。
Liu Yuan, styled Banruan, came from Xiangfu in Henan and was registered in the Han Army Banner. In the Kangxi reign he served as a principal secretary in the Ministry of Justice, attended the inner court, and supervised the customs posts at Wuhu and Jiujiang. His technical skill was unmatched. In youth he was skilled at painting. He once painted the portraits of the Tang ministers at Lingyan Pavilion, had them carved and published, and Wu Weiye wrote a poem to commemorate the work. At the inner court he painted bamboo on palace walls—wind-lifted branches and rain-beaten leaves rendered with extraordinary life—and was widely praised. He made Clear Smoke ink with his own hands, finer even than the celebrated Liaotianyi and Qinglinsui. On a single tablet he carved the Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng and the Heart Sutra, every character crisp and clear. By imperial order he cast the seals of the Grand Empress Dowager and the Imperial Noble Consort; his lost-wax work was consummate. When the imperial kiln at Jingdezhen in Jiangxi was opened, Yuan submitted several hundred sample designs. Drawing on forms old and new, he worked in fresh ideas and embodied every refinement. In overglaze figures, landscapes, flowers, and birds, each kind reached its highest excellence. When they were finished, their fineness surpassed anything from the Ming imperial kilns. Other imperial objects in wood and lacquer were also largely made under his supervision, and the Shengzu treated him with exceptional favor. When he died without heirs, officials were ordered to offer libations, guards escorted his coffin, and an express relay carried him home for burial—honors altogether out of the ordinary.
20
唐英，字俊公，漢軍旗人。 官內務府員外郎，直養心殿。 雍正六年，命監江西景德鎮窯務，歷監粵海關、淮安關。 乾隆初，調九江關，复監督窯務，先後在事十餘年。 明以中官督造，後改巡道，督府佐司其事，清初因之。 順治中，巡撫郎廷佐所督造，精美有名，世稱「郎窯」。 其後御窯興工，每命工部或內務府司官往，專任其事。 年希堯曾奉使造器甚夥，世稱「年窯」。
Tang Ying, styled Jungong, was a Han Bannerman. He served as an assistant director in the Imperial Household Department and attended duty at the Hall of Mental Cultivation. In the sixth year of Yongzheng he was ordered to supervise the kilns at Jingdezhen in Jiangxi, and also oversaw the Guangdong Maritime Customs and the Huai'an Customs. At the beginning of Qianlong he was transferred to the Jiujiang Customs and again supervised the kilns, serving in all for more than ten years. Under the Ming, eunuchs supervised manufacture; later the duty passed to circuit intendants, with provincial aides assisting—the early Qing kept the same system. In Shunzhi, wares overseen by Governor Lang Tingzuo were famed for their beauty and were known as Lang ware. After that, whenever the imperial kiln went into operation, officials from the Ministry of Works or the Imperial Household were sent to take sole charge. Nian Xiyao once served on commission and produced ware in great quantity, known as Nian ware.
21
英繼其後，任事最久，講求陶法，於泥土、釉料、坯胎、火候，具有心得，躬自指揮。 又能卹工慎帑，撰陶成紀事碑，備載經費、工匠解額，臚列諸色赩釉，仿古採今，凡五十七種。 自宋大觀，明永樂、宣德、成化、嘉靖、萬曆諸官窯，及哥窯、定窯、均窯、龍泉窯、宜興窯、西洋、東洋諸器，皆有仿製。 其釉色，有白粉青、大綠、米色、玫瑰紫、海棠紅、茄花紫、梅子青、騾肝、馬肺、天藍、霽紅、霽青、鱔魚黃、蛇皮綠、油綠、歐紅、歐藍、月白、翡翠、烏金、紫金諸種。 又有澆黃、澆紫、澆綠、填白、描金、青花、水墨、五彩、錐花、拱花、抹金、抹銀諸名。
Ying came after them and held the post longest. He mastered ceramic technique—clay, glaze, body, and firing—through his own insight, and directed the work himself. He also cared for the workers and watched the treasury closely. He wrote the Stele Record of Completed Ceramics, setting down expenditures and artisan quotas in full and listing fifty-seven kinds of colored glazes, drawing on both antiquity and the present. From the Song Daguan ware through the Ming Yongle, Xuande, Chenghua, Jiajing, and Wanli official kilns, and from Ge, Ding, Jun, Longquan, and Yixing to Western and Eastern wares—everything was reproduced. His glaze colors included pale powder-blue, deep green, rice-color, rose purple, crab-apple red, eggplant purple, plum green, mule-liver, horse-lung, sky blue, clear red, clear blue, eel yellow, serpent-skin green, oil green, Ou red, Ou blue, moon white, kingfisher, black gold, purple gold, and many more. There were also pour-yellow, pour-purple, pour-green, filled white, gold-tracery, underglaze blue, ink wash, five-color, incised design, embossed design, gilded wash, and silver wash, among other styles.
22
奉敕編陶冶圖，為圖二十：曰採石製泥，曰淘煉泥土，曰煉灰配釉，曰製造匣缽，曰圓器修模，曰圓器拉坯，曰琢器做坯，曰採取青料，曰煉選青料，曰印坯乳料，曰圓器青花，曰制畫琢器，曰蘸釉吹釉，曰鏇坯挖足，曰成坯入窯，曰燒坯開窯，曰圓琢洋採，曰明爐暗爐，曰束草裝桶，曰祀神酬原。 各附詳說，備著工作次第，後之治陶政者取法焉。 英所造者，世稱「唐窯」。
By imperial command he compiled Illustrations of Ceramic Manufacture in twenty plates: quarrying stone and preparing clay; washing and refining clay; calcining ash and compounding glaze; making saggers; trimming molds for round ware; throwing round ware; shaping carved ware; gathering cobalt ore; refining cobalt ore; stamping bodies and grinding slip; underglaze blue on round ware; designing carved ware; dipping and blowing glaze; turning bases and trimming feet; loading greenware into the kiln; firing and opening the kiln; overglaze on round and carved ware; open and muffled kilns; binding straw for packing; and offering sacrifice to the gods in gratitude for success. Each plate had a detailed explanation, setting out the order of work in full; later administrators of ceramic affairs took it as their model. The wares he made were known as Tang ware.
23
戴梓，字文開，浙江錢塘人。 少有機悟，自製火器，能擊百步外。 康熙初，耿精忠叛，犯浙江，康親王杰書南征，梓以布衣從軍，獻連珠火銃法。 下江山有功，授道員劄付。 師還，聖祖召見，知其能文，試春日早朝詩，稱旨，授翰林院侍講。 偕高士奇入直南書房，尋改直養心殿。 梓通天文算法，預纂修律呂正義，與南懷仁及諸西洋人論不合，咸忌之。 陳弘勳者，張獻忠養子，投誠得官，向梓索詐，互毆構訟。 忌者中以蜚語，褫職，徙關東。 後赦還家，留於鐵嶺，遂隸籍。
Dai Zi, styled Wenkai, came from Qiantang in Zhejiang. From youth he was quick and inventive. He made his own firearms, able to hit a target a hundred paces away. In the early Kangxi reign Geng Jingzhong rebelled and invaded Zhejiang. Prince Kang Jieshu marched south, and Zi followed the army as a commoner, presenting his method of the linked-bead musket. For merit in taking Jiangshan he was granted a dispatch appointing him a circuit intendant. When the army returned, the Shengzu summoned him. Learning that he could write, the emperor tested him with a poem on the spring morning audience; pleased, he appointed him Hanlin Academician Reader-in-Waiting. Together with Gao Shiqi he entered service in the Southern Library; soon he was reassigned to the Hall of Mental Cultivation. Zi was versed in astronomy and mathematics and took part in compiling the Correct Meaning of Pitch Pipes and Calendar. He quarreled with Ferdinand Verbiest and the other Westerners, and they all resented him. One Chen Hongxun, an adopted son of Zhang Xianzhong who had surrendered and received office, tried to extort him; they fought and brought lawsuits against each other. His enemies planted rumors against him; he was dismissed from office and banished to the Northeast. Later amnestied and permitted to go home, he settled in Tieling and took up residence there.
24
所造連珠銃，形如琵琶，火藥鉛丸，皆貯於銃脊，以機輪開閉。 其機有二，相銜如牝牡，扳一機則火藥鉛丸自落筒中，第二機隨之並動，石激火出而銃發，凡二十八發乃重貯。 法與西洋機關槍合，當時未通用，器藏於家，乾隆中猶存。 西洋人貢蟠腸鳥槍，梓奉命仿造，以十槍賚其使臣。 又奉命造子母砲，母送子出墜而碎裂，如西洋炸砲，聖祖率諸臣親臨視之，錫名為「威遠將軍」，鐫制者職名於砲後。 親征噶爾丹，用以破敵。
The repeating firelock he devised was shaped like a pipa lute; gunpowder and shot were stored along the barrel's spine and fed by a wheeled mechanism. Two interlocking mechanisms worked in sequence: pull one lever and powder and ball dropped into the bore; the second mechanism followed, flint struck steel, and the piece discharged—twenty-eight shots before it had to be reloaded. The design accorded with the Western machine gun, but it never came into general use; the weapon remained in his household and was still in existence as late as the Qianlong reign. When Westerners presented a coiled-gut air rifle as tribute, Dai was commanded to reproduce it and sent ten copies back with the envoy as gifts. He was also ordered to build a shell cannon whose projectile was launched from the parent tube and shattered on impact, like Western explosive ordnance. The Kangxi Emperor came in person with his ministers to witness the trial, named it the Weiyuan General, and had Dai's official title cut into the breech. On the emperor's expedition against Galdan, it was deployed to smash the foe.
25
丁守存，字心齋，山東日照人。 道光十五年進士，授戶部主事，充軍機章京。 守存通天文、曆算、風角、壬遁之術，善製器。 時英吉利兵犯沿海數省，船砲之利，為中國所未有。 守存慨然講求製造，西學猶未通行，凡所謂力學、化學、光學、重學，皆無專書，覃思每與闇合。 大學士卓秉恬薦之，命繕進圖說，偕郎中文康、徐有壬赴天津，監造地雷、火機等器，試之皆驗。
Ding Shoucun, courtesy name Xincai, came from Rizhao in Shandong. He passed the metropolitan examination in the fifteenth year of Daoguang, received appointment as a secretary in the Ministry of Revenue, and served on the Grand Council staff. Shoucun was versed in astronomy, calendrical reckoning, wind divination, and the esoteric arts of Ren and Dun, and excelled at devising instruments. English forces were then assailing several coastal provinces, and the superiority of their ships and cannon was unlike anything China had ever faced. Shoucun threw himself into manufacturing with fierce resolve. Western learning had scarcely taken root; there were no dedicated texts on what would later be called mechanics, chemistry, optics, or gravitation—yet his long brooding often arrived at the same conclusions by intuition. Grand Secretary Zhuo Bingtian recommended him to the throne. He was ordered to prepare illustrated specifications and, together with the bureau directors Wen Kang and Xu Youren, went to Tianjin to oversee the production of land mines, ignition devices, and other weapons—all of which passed trial.
26
咸豐初，從大學士賽尚阿赴廣西參軍事，會獲賊黨胡以暘，使招降其兄以晄，守存制一
In the early Xianfeng reign he accompanied Grand Secretary Saishanga to Guangxi as a staff officer. When the rebel Hu Yiyang was taken, Shoucun was charged with winning over his brother Yihuang to surrender, and he devised a
27
匣曰手捧雷，偽若緘書其中，俾以晄致之賊酋，酋啟匣炸首死。 尋檻送賊渠洪大全還京，遷員外郎。
case he named the Hand-Held Thunder Bomb, disguised to look like a sealed letter inside; Yihuang was made to carry it to the rebel chieftain, who opened the case and was blown apart. Not long after, he conveyed the rebel chieftain Hong Daquan to the capital in a cage and was promoted to vice director.
28
從尚書孫瑞珍赴山東治沂州團防，造石雷、石砲以御賊。 尋調直隸襄辦團練，上戰守十六策。 十年，回山東，創議築堡日照要塞，曰濤雒。 賊大舉來犯，發石砲，聲震山谷，賊辟易，相戒無犯。 丁家堡附近之民歸之，數年遂成都聚。
He followed Minister Sun Ruizhen to Shandong to organize militia defenses at Yizhou, fashioning stone thunder bombs and stone cannon to hold bandits at bay. He was soon transferred to Zhili to help organize local militias and submitted sixteen proposals on tactics of attack and defense. In the tenth year he returned to Shandong and proposed erecting a fortified strongpoint at Rizhao, named Taoluo. When bandits marched against him in strength, he fired the stone cannon; the roar shook the valleys, the enemy recoiled, and they warned one another never to come near. People from the vicinity of Dingjiabu rallied to him, and within a few years the place grew into a thriving town.
29
同治初，復至直隸，留治廣平防務，築堡二百餘所。 軍事竣，授湖北督糧道，署按察使。 充鄉試監試，創法，以竹筒引江水注闈中，時以為便。 瀕江諸省，率仿行之。 尋罷歸。 所著書曰丙丁秘籥，進禦不傳於外； 所傳者曰造化究原，曰新火器說。
In the early Tongzhi reign he went back to Zhili, stayed on to manage defenses at Guangping, and built more than two hundred fortified posts. When the military work was finished, he was appointed grain-intendant of Hubei and served as acting provincial judge. While supervising the provincial examinations, he invented a method of drawing river water into the examination compound through bamboo pipes—a practice widely praised at the time. Provinces along the Yangzi River soon copied his method. Before long he was dismissed from office and went home. Among his books was the Secret Keys of Fire and Explosives, presented to the throne and never released beyond the palace; those that did circulate were Origins of Natural Transformation and A New Treatise on Firearms.
30
徐壽，字雪村，江蘇無錫人。 生於僻鄉，幼孤，事母以孝聞。 性質直無華。 道、咸間，東南兵事起，遂棄舉業，專研博物格致之學。 時泰西學術流傳中國者，尚未昌明，試驗諸器絕鮮。 壽與金匱華蘅芳討論搜求，始得十一，苦心研索，每以意求之，而得其真。 嘗購三棱玻璃不可得，磨水晶印章成三角形，驗得光分七色。 知槍彈之行拋物線，疑其仰攻俯擊有異，設遠近多靶以測之，其成學之艱類此。 久之，於西學具窺見原委，尤精製器。 咸豐十一年，從大學士曾國籓軍，先後於安慶、江寧設機器局，皆預其事。
Xu Shou, courtesy name Xuecun, was a native of Wuxi in Jiangsu. He was born in an out-of-the-way hamlet, lost his father while still a boy, and became known for devoted care of his mother. He was plain and unpretentious by nature. When fighting broke out across the southeast during the Daoguang and Xianfeng reigns, he gave up the civil-service examinations and devoted himself to natural history and the physical sciences. Western learning had only begun to reach China and was not yet well established; equipment for experiment was almost impossible to find. Shou and Hua Hengfang of Jingui debated and hunted for answers together. At first they could verify scarcely one claim in ten, yet through relentless study—often reasoning their way forward by sheer intuition—they arrived at the truth. Unable once to obtain a triangular glass prism, he ground a crystal seal into a triangle and proved that light separates into seven colors. Knowing that bullets follow a parabolic path, he suspected that firing upward and firing downward were not the same, and set up targets at many ranges to test the matter—such was the labor of teaching himself. In time he came to see the full scope of Western learning and grew especially adept at building instruments. In the eleventh year of Xianfeng he entered the service of Grand Secretary Zeng Guofan and helped establish arsenals first at Anqing and then at Jiangning.
31
壽與蘅芳及吳嘉廉、龔芸棠試造木質輪船，推求動理，測算汽機，蘅芳之力為多； 造器罝機，皆出壽手製，不假西人，數年而成。 長五十餘尺，每一時能行四十餘裡，名之曰黃鵠。 國籓激賞之，招入幕府，以奇才異能薦。 既而設製造局於上海，百事草創，壽於船砲槍彈，多所發明。 自製強水棉花藥、汞爆藥。
Shou, Hengfang, Wu Jialian, and Gong Yuntang attempted to build a wooden steamship, working out the laws of motion and calculating the steam engine—Hengfang bore the heaviest share of that labor; yet the fabrication of parts and assembly of machinery were entirely Shou's own handiwork, accomplished without Western help over several years. More than fifty feet long, it could cover over forty li in an hour and was christened the Yellow Swan. Zeng Guofan was deeply impressed, took him onto his staff, and recommended him to the throne as a man of rare ability. When the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau was later set up in Shanghai, with everything to be invented from nothing, Shou devised many improvements in ships, cannon, and projectiles. He produced his own nitric acid, guncotton, and mercury fulminate.
32
創議繙譯西書，以求製造根本。 於是聘西士偉力亞利、傅蘭雅、林樂知、金楷理等，壽與同志華蘅芳、李鳳苞、王德均、趙元益孳孳研究，先後成書數百種。 壽所譯述者，曰西藝知新及續編，化學鑑原及續編、補編，化學考質，化學求數，物體遇熱改易說，汽機發軔，營陣揭要，測地繪圖，寶藏興焉。 法律、醫學，刊行者凡十三種，西藝知新、化學鑑原二書，尤稱善本。
He proposed translating Western books in order to establish a true foundation for manufacturing. Western scholars Alexander Wylie, John Fryer, Young J. Allen, and Cornelius Keng were hired; Shou labored alongside Hua Hengfang, Li Fengbao, Wang Dejun, and Zhao Yuanyi, and together they eventually turned out several hundred volumes. Among Shou's translations and compilations were Illustrated New Western Arts and its sequel, The Principles of Chemistry with its continuations and supplements, A Practical Course of Qualitative Analysis, Chemical Calculations, On the Alterations of Bodies by Heat, The First Steps in the Steam Engine, Essentials of Military Arrangements, Surveying and Mapping, and A Review of Precious Minerals. Thirteen works on law and medicine were also issued in print; Illustrated New Western Arts and The Principles of Chemistry were especially esteemed as fine editions.
33
同治末，與傅蘭雅設格致書院於上海，風氣漸開，成就甚眾，壽名益播。 山東、四川仿設機器局，爭延聘壽主其事，以譯書事尤急，皆謝不往，而使其子建寅、華封代行。 大冶煤鐵礦、開平煤礦、漠河金礦經始之際，壽皆為擘畫規制。 購器選匠，資其力焉。 無錫產桑宜蠶，西商購繭奪民利，壽考求烘繭法，倡設烘灶，及機器繅絲法，育蠶者利驟增。
Near the end of the Tongzhi reign he and John Fryer founded the Polytechnic Institute in Shanghai; the new learning slowly took hold, many students were trained, and Shou's reputation spread ever wider. Shandong and Sichuan followed suit with arsenals of their own and competed to engage Shou as director, but translation remained the more pressing task; he declined every invitation and sent his sons Jianyin and Huafeng in his place. At the founding of the Daye coal and iron works, the Kaiping coal mines, and the Mohe gold fields, Shou drew up the plans and regulations for each. He also assisted in purchasing equipment and choosing skilled workers. Wuxi's mulberry was ideal for silkworms, yet Western merchants bought cocoons and cut into local profits; Shou investigated methods of drying cocoons, promoted drying kilns, and introduced machine reeling, sharply raising the earnings of sericulturists.
34
壽狷介，不求仕進，以布衣終。 光緒中，卒，年六十七。 子建寅、華封，皆世其學。
Shou was proud and uncompromising; he never sought office and died in plain clothes. He died in the Guangxu reign at the age of sixty-seven. His sons Jianyin and Huafeng both carried on his craft.
35
建寅，字仲虎。 從父於江寧、上海，助任製造。 尋充山東機器局總辦，福建船政提調，出使德國二等參贊，洊擢直隸候補道。 光緒末，張之洞調至湖北監造無菸火藥，已成，藥炸裂，殞焉，賜優恤。
Jianyin, courtesy name Zhonghu. He followed his father to Jiangning and Shanghai and helped with manufacturing work. He later served as director of the Shandong Arsenal, superintendent of the Fujian Naval Yard, and second secretary on a mission to Germany, and was repeatedly promoted to expectant intendant of Zhili. In the late Guangxu reign Zhang Zhidong summoned him to Hubei to oversee production of smokeless powder; when the work was complete the charge detonated and killed him, and the court granted him special posthumous honors.
36
華封，字祝三。 性敏，為父所愛，秘說精器多授之，以製造為治生。 建寅、華封並從父譯書行於世。
Huafeng, courtesy name Zhusan. Quick-witted and favored by his father, he received many secret formulas and delicate instruments, and earned his living through manufacturing. Jianyin and Huafeng both followed their father in translating books that went out into the world.