[
    {
        "id": 212517,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1991",
        "page_number": 71,
        "title": "RAS-1991",
        "content_text": "51\n\ndistinguished scholars, Wang Chang (1725-1806) and Sun Xinyen (1753-1818) were invited by Ruan Yuan to serve as senior lecturers at the academy he established in Hangzhou, the Gu jing jing she.\n\nWang Chang, a man-of-letters with expertise in such diverse fields as the Classics, linguistics, Buddhist scripture, border warfare, and copper administration, had attained the jinshi degree in 1754 and had served as a clerk in the Grand Council. After a long career that included serving on the personal staff of Wen-fu (d. 1771), the Manchu President of the Board of Barbarian Affairs during the ten military campaigns of the mid-Qianlong reign, he retired to join Ruan Yuan in Hangzhou. Wang had been one of the three chief compilers of Ping ding liang Jin chuan fang lue [Official history of the Jinchuan war] 136+17 juan, printed 1800, and wrote a dozen or so major works of his own, including Yun nan tung zheng chuan shu [The complete work on copper administration in Yunnan], 50 juan, completed in 1787 (now listed as lost), Qing pu xian zhi [Local gazetteer of Qingpu], 40 juan, 1768, and Tai cang xian zhi [Gazetteer of Tai cang], 65 juan, printed in 1803, Shan sheng lü lie [Statutes and precedents of Shanxi province], 50 juan, c.1786, and many others.\n\nSun Xingen, a leading Classicist, specialist in astronomy, Buddhist scripture, geography and mathematics, never attained the jinshi degree but had passed the provincial examination in 1786. He was a friend of such noted scholars as Yuan Mei (1716-1798), Hong Liangji, Duan Yucai, Sun Zhizu, Gui Fu, Wu Yi and Wang Zhong. He met Ruan Yuan during the latter's tenure as director of studies in Shandong. Before joining the Gu jing jing she, Sun also served as director of the Jishan Academy, Hangzhou (1800) and in 1811 was appointed director of Zhongsan Academy in Nanjing. He participated in the compilation of several local histories but made his reputation as a Classical scholar by meticulously correcting the mistakes made throughout the centuries and publishing new editions of ancient texts. He compiled his own local histories — Lu zhou fu zhi [Gazetteer of Lu zhou in Anhuai], printed in 1803 and Sung jiang fu zhi [Gazetteer of Sungjing, including Shanghai], printed in 1819. His considerable literary works were collected in Sun Yen ru shi wen ji [Poems and essays by Sun Xinyen]. Sun was also a noted calligraphist, specializing in the seal script. His wife, Wang Cai wei (1753-1776), and a daughter, Sun Yi hui (married Xiao), both accomplished in poetry and literature, published poems.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 212521,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1991",
        "page_number": 75,
        "title": "RAS-1991",
        "content_text": "55\n\nintellectually lethargic. It was also from Liu's diaries we discover that Ruan Yuan's house was burned down on April 2, 1823 with heavy losses, including Ruan's entire library.1\n\n31\n\nThe founding of the Xue hai tang in Canton brought to Ruan Yuan a number of Cantonese scholars. Besides Chen Li, who was cited by Hiromu Momose in Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period as perhaps \"the most brilliant among a group of Cantonese scholars who developed eclectic theories mid-way between Sung Neo-Confucianism and the School of Han Learning,\" the others included Lin Botun, Wu Lanxiu, Ma Fuan, and Xu Rong, Tan Rong from Nanhai, who had passed the provincial examination in 1824 and had been appointed to the Xue hai tang by Ruan Yuan but had chosen not to take the metropolitan examination, nevertheless persuaded his friends, the Wu Family hong merchants, to print the large collectanea, Yue ya tang cong shu, consisting of 180 titles.\n\nIt is disappointing that the personalities and idiosyncrasies of these scholars cannot be discerned from reading their writings. Employing the techniques of detective novelists by investigating whatever might be construed as clues that come my way, I have been able to reconstruct the person of Ruan Yuan to a certain extent, but the scholars around him have completely eluded my attempts. They were not easy prey. Neither were they easy to manage. At times their eccentricities hindered progress of Ruan's work.\n\nThe completion of Shi san jing zhu shu fu jiao kan ji was delayed considerably because of personality conflict among the compilers. The idea for such a project had originated with Lu Wen chao (1717-1796), a scholar-official from Hangzhou who had spent a greater part of his time copying various old editions of the Classics by hand, noting the differences and printing the corrected texts. After Lu's death his student, Zang Rong, who was working on Jing ji zuan gu, persuaded Ruan Yuan to undertake the project to print the Jiao kan ji as well. In 1799, after consulting his staff, a much more ambitious project became envisaged, to print the Thirteen Classics together with all the notations throughout the ages.\n\nBeing then Governor of Zhejiang with resources at his command, Ruan Yuan asked Duan Yucai (1735-1815), a Classicist with expertise in etymology and phonetics, to take on the responsibility as editor. Considering the task too arduous for a single man, Duan recommended his friend Gu Guangchi (1776-1835) to share the work. Gu, in turn, brought other scholars.\n\n33\n\nPage 75\nPage 76",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 212522,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1991",
        "page_number": 76,
        "title": "RAS-1991",
        "content_text": "56 \n\n+35 \n\nMatters failed to run smoothly from the beginning. Duan's feeling about being flattered had been expressed in a letter. “I found it impossible to refuse Ruan Yuan's generous and tempting offer to edit the annotation notes to the Thirteen Classics. Of course I realized that this was to be an onerous task, therefore have asked for help.” The tone changed in another letter, dated three years from the outset of the project. \"I truly regret that for three years, my time has been spent on making other people's dowry.\"**\" The completed work was not printed until 1817 in Nanchang shortly before Ruan Yuan was transferred to Canton. The edition was full of errors.\n\nRuan Yuan's changing fortune and personalities of the leading scholars working on this project were the major reasons for the long delay in completion of this project. Ruan Yuan had had to concentrate on government affairs. From 1805-1807, mourning for his father, he was able to work on the Jiao kan ji. From 1809 to 1812, he was not in a position to sponsor any literary project. Another major reason for the long delay was the personality of Duan Yucai. In 1800 Duan was 65 years old, and 80 at the time of his death in 1815. During the interim, he was becoming increasingly difficult. He and Gu could not agree on fundamental issues, with most of the scholars siding with Gu. So, the project did not coalesce until after Duan's death. That the printing and binding of the work took little more than two years indicates that a great deal of the work had been done already before Duan's death, and that the human and financial resources were such that completion of the major work was only a matter of time.\n\nHow Ruan Yuan supported the scholars\n\nRuan Yuan supported the scholars around him in three major ways. He put close relatives and friends, such as his cousin Ruan Heng (d. 1856) and Jiao Xun, as well as those with the practical knowledge he needed in discharging government responsibilities on his personal staff, paid out of his own or administrative funds. Ruan Yuan made it possible for other scholars to obtain academic appointments and to work on literary projects. Meanwhile, each scholar was to pursue his own research and writing. In many cases, although not all, Ruan Yuan published their works.\n\nEighty scholars were on his direct payroll during his long career that lasted almost half a century through the reigns of three emperors.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j",
        "rank": 0
    }
]