[
    {
        "id": 212508,
        "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": 62,
        "title": "RAS-1991",
        "content_text": "42\n\ncorrespondence with Ruan Yuan, if such items are extant.\n\nThis paper is not a prosopographic study of a generation of mid-Qing scholars, but I need to involve all of them in order to come to certain conclusions about one of them.\n\nPatronage of scholarship and learning during the mid-Qing\n\nProviding scholars who did not have government offices or private income with a means of livelihood while pursuing their research and writing was not a practice unique to China, nor was it a new phenomenon of the mid-Qing era. Often, the individuals offering this support had been motivated by political considerations. Lynn Struve of Indiana University and Kent Guy of the University of Washington have recorded in English the result of their studies on early Qing patronage of scholarship and learning. Struve has found that the Kangxi Emperor commissioned major literary projects from roughly the 1680s through the 1710s, including the Ming Shi (Ming History), to legitimize the Qing rule by making use of scholars who were not officials. This tradition was followed by the Qianlong Emperor in such monumental compilation tasks as the Si ku chuan shu (Complete Library in Four Branches of Literature).\n\n5\n\nLiterary works were produced under the patronage of individual scholar-officials as well. The Xu Brothers of the Kangxi era, who had several as chief editors of several imperially commissioned compilations, maintained a retinue of scholars. The most celebrated mid-Qing officials who were patrons of scholars were the Zhu Brothers. They gave scholars jobs on their personal staff, or in academic institutions, or an allowance while working on literary projects they sponsored. Zhu Yun (1729-1781), who was remembered for having suggested to the Qianlong Emperor the idea of the Si Ku Chuan Shu, and his younger brother, Zhu Gui (1731-1807), personal tutor to the Jiaqing Emperor, for instance, had on their staff at one time or another such scholars as Zhang Xuecheng (1738-1801), Shao Jinhan (1743-1809), Hong Liangji (1746-1809) and Ruan Yuan. Guy observed that\n\nAlthough Chu's was the first group of this type of scholarly patronage to coalesce, such circles became a fairly common feature of the era's intellectual life. Among the most important successors of Chu's circle in this regard were the",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 212513,
        "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": 67,
        "title": "RAS-1991",
        "content_text": "47\n\n1820-1840. Ding xiang ting pi tan, 4 juan, 1800 and several other volumes.\n\nHow Ruan Yuan managed his scholarly projects\n\nAs Chief Executive in the provinces, with authority to allocate public resources and solicit private funding, Ruan Yuan was able to make decisions to sponsor academic and scholarly activities. With government affairs demanding his constant attention, the scholars around him, with expertise in various fields, were entrusted with the actual research and writing of the works. Ruan Yuan could draw from the large field of scholars he knew who either did not qualify or had preferred not to enter government service. A number of these scholars from Ruan Yuan's own home district, the Yangzhou and Jiangdu area, which had enjoyed a long literary and intellectual tradition, followed him throughout his career. From the provinces of Shandong and Zhejiang where the scholarly heritage was also exceptionally strong, and where there was a rich legacy of book collecting as well, he was able to recruit many scholars. In addition, as examiner for several provincial level examinations and in particular as Metropolitan Examination examiner in 1799, he could lay claim to a network of 'students' all over the country. Lynn Struve's observation about the Xue Brothers is equally applicable in Ruan Yuan's case.\n\nThe opportunities to serve as examiners for the most important capital and provincial examinations, through which they could develop networks of \"student-teacher\" relations among the most promising examinees in the country.21\n\n122\n\nRuan Yuan himself showed how he gave up all his time away from government affairs on literary production. “I have no time-consuming avocation. Nor do I enjoy a capacity for wine. Therefore, I tend to spend all my spare time with a brush in my hand, in the company of books and scholars.” He indicated in the preface of each work where the idea for its creation had originated. The subjects for his earlier works as a young Hanlin had been assigned to him. Two major subjects for compilation later on had been proposed by other scholars—the Chou ren zhuan by Li Rui (1765-1814) and the Shi san jing zhu shu fu jiao kan ji by Lu Wenchao (1717-1796). In addition to the scholarship needed for such tasks, Ruan Yuan provided the management for such productions. He wrote on how his writing projects were organized.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j",
        "rank": 0
    }
]