Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period/Lu Hsin-yüan
LU Hsin-yüan 陸心源 (T. 剛父, H. 存齋, 潛園老人), 1834–1894, Dec. 5, bibliophile, scholar and official, was a native of Kuei-an (part of present Wu-hsing), Chekiang. His family was descended from Lu Chih 陸贄 (T. 敖輿, H. 754–805), a famous minister of the Tang dynasty. Beginning his studies at a very early age, Lu Hsin-yüan is said to have mastered the Nine Classics by the time he was thirteen sui, and came to be recognized as one of the seven learned scholars of his native place. He was an admirer of the critical scholar Ku Yen-wu [q. v.], and named his studio I-Ku t'ang 儀顧堂 after him. Lu was graduated as chü-jên in 1859, but in the following year he failed in the chin-shih examination. On his way home from Peking he was attacked by a band of Nien rioters (捻匪) at Ch'ing-chiang-p'u, Kiangsu, and barely escaped with his life. Upon his return he and Niu Fu-hai 鈕福海 (T. 季蘇, 1816–1862), with other fellow-villagers, made an effort to protect their town from the Taiping rebels. Shortly afterwards, having qualified as prefect, he was sent to Kwangtung province. In 1863 Liu Ch'ang-yu [q. v.], who was then governor-general of Chihli (1863–67), had him transferred to Chihli where as Liu's adviser he succeeded in clearing the boundaries of Chihli, Shantung and Honan of bandits. In the following year, at the call of Mao Hung-pin 毛鴻賓 (T. 寄雲, H. 寅庵, 菊隱, 1806–1868), governor-general of Kwangtung and Kwangsi (1863–65), he went to Canton, and was appointed (1865) intendant of the Nan-Shao-Lien Circuit. In this year under the direction of Kuo Sung-tao [q. v.] he subdued the rebellious aborigines in Ch'ang-ning (Hsin-fêng) and mutinous soldiers from Hunan. In 1866 he was transferred to the intendancy of the KaoLien Circuit, and in the following year re-established the Ching-jên (敬仁) Academy at Mao-ming and the T'ao-nan (陶南) Academy at Shih-chêng (Lien-chiang).
This same year Lu was obliged to return home to mourn his father. In 1872, however, at the, call of Li Ho-nien 李鶴年 (T. 子和, d. 1890), governor-general of Fukien and Chekiang (1871–76), he went to Foochow where, with the rank of acting salt intendant, he served as Li's adviser on financial, diplomatic and naval matters. When Japanese troops penetrated Formosa in 1874 he lodged a strong protest with the Japanese commander against what he regarded as unwarranted invasion. In 1874 Lu retired to his native place, taking up his residence in a garden situated in the eastern part of the town, which he named Ch'ien-yüan 潛園. Thereafter he devoted himself to writing and book-collecting, at the same time rendering service to his neighbors by way of flood-relief, establishing schools, etc. In 1888 he donated 150 valuable books to the Imperial Academy. Although he had been deprived of his rank and title two years after his retirement because of some irregularities in connection with his term of office in Foochow, his distinguished services—military and social—were recognized by Li Hung-chang [q. v.] and other high officials. On their recommendation he was decorated with the Red Coral Button of the second class. In 1892, when returning from an audience with the emperor at Peking, he was taken ill at Tientsin and two years later died at his residence.
Lu Hsin-yüan was famous as one of the most celebrated bibliophiles at the close of the Ch'ing period. During the Taiping Rebellion the contents of many of the famous private libraries in central and south China were dispersed. Lu is said to have gathered portions of some ten of these libraries, among them about 48,000 volumes from the I-chia t'ang 宜稼堂 in Shanghai, which was owned by Yü Sung-nien 郁松年 (T. 萬枝, H. 泰峰), a well-known bibliophile of the middle of the nineteenth century. By 1882 Lu's collection reached 150,000 chüan, not including popular editions. He preserved his collection in three places: Pi-Sung lou 皕宋樓 in which he kept about 120 Sung and 100 Yüan editions, and some rare manuscripts; Shih-wan-chüan lou 十萬卷樓 in which he kept rare works printed after the Ming period; and Shou-hsien ko 守先閣 in which he kept ordinary books. After his death these collections came into the possession of his eldest son, Lu Shu-fan 陸樹藩 (T. 純伯, chü-jên of 1889), who in 1907 sold all the rare editions (some 40,000 chüan) of the Pi-Sung lou, Shih-wan-chüan lou, and the Shou-hsien ko to the late Baron Iwasaki Yanosuke 岩崎彌之助 (H. 蘭室, 1851–1908), a Japanese financier. These rare books were for a time kept in the Iwasaki library, Seikadō Bunko 靜嘉堂文庫, at Surugadai, Tokio, but since 1924, the Seikadō collection has been preserved in a structure erected for that purpose in the villa of the Iwasaki Family at Tamagawa, a suburb of Tokio. An annotated catalogue of the rare Chinese books in the collection was published in 1917 in 50 chüan under the title Seikadō hisekishi (秘籍志). A general catalogue of the Chinese books in the collection was published in 1930 under the title Seikadō Bunko kanseki bunrui mokuroku (漢籍分類目錄). The remainder of Lu's collection is preserved in the Public Library at Wu-hsing.
On the basis of his wide bibliographical knowledge Lu Hsin-yüan compiled the following three important works: I-Ku t'ang t'i-pa (題跋), 16 chüan, published in 1890, a collection of his bibliographical notes, with a supplement of 16 chüan published in 1892; 群書校補 Ch'ün-shu chiao-pu, 100 chüan, textual criticism of 35 rare editions and manuscripts of the Sung, Yüan, and early Ming periods; and Pi-Sung lou ts'ang-shu chih (藏書志), 120 + 4 chüan, published in 1882, a catalogue with bibliographical remarks on the rare editions in his collections. The last-mentioned work was completed with the assistance of Li Tsung-lien 李宗蓮 (T. 友蘭, 少清, chin-shih of 1874). On the basis of his collections Lu also compiled a collectanea entitled Shih-wan-chüan lou ts'ung-shu. It contains 51 rare items dating from the T'ang to the Yüan periods, and was printed in three series in the years 1876–79, 1882, 1892.
As an archaeologist Lu collected about one hundred bronzes of the period before Han, about 60 mirrors of the period before T'ang, and some 9,000 inscriptions on stone and bronze. On the basis of these source-materials he compiled the following books: a supplement (200 chüan) to the Chin-shih ts'ui-pien (see under Wang Ch'ang), which was not printed; 唐文拾遺 Tang-wên shih-i, 72 + 8 chüan, with supplement in 16 chüan, a collection of inscriptions of the T'ang dynasty taken from newly-discovered stones and bronzes; Wu-hsing chin-shih chi (金石), 16 chüan, printed in 1890, a collection of epigraphical remains in his native district; Chin-shih hsüeh-lu pu (補), 4 chüan, printed in 1886, a supplement to the biographies of archaeologists and epigraphists, known as Chin-shih hsüeh-lu (see under Li Fu-sun). He added to it information about 350 more specialists in this field. A second supplement to the Chin-shih hsüeh-lu, written by Ch'u Tê-i 褚德彝, was published in 1919 in 2 chüan under the title Chin-shih hsüeh-lu hsü-pu (續補). Lu made a collection of hundreds of ancient inscribed bricks of which he made the following catalogues: 千甓亭古塼圖釋 Ch'ien-p'i-t'ing ku chuan t'u-shih, 20 chüan, printed in 1891, consisting of rubbings; and Ch'ien-p'i-t'ing chuan-lu (磚錄), 6 chüan, printed in 1881, with a supplement of 4 chüan, printed in 1888, consisting of inscriptions. Lu also collected paintings and examples of calligraphy. An annotated catalogue of them entitled 穰棃館過眼錄 Jang-li-kuan kuo-yen lu, 40 chüan, with a supplement of 16 chüan, was published in 1892.
Lu Hsin-yüan was also interested in chronological and historical studies and in this field he left three books: a third continuation (三續) of the I-nien lu or "Record of Uncertain Dates" (see under Ch'ien Ta-hsin); 宋史翼 Sung-shih i, 40 chüan, a history of the party strife at the end of the Northern Sung dynasty; and 元祐黨人傳 Yüan-yu tang-jên chuan, 10 chüan, published in 1889, being biographies of a group of partisans of the Yüan-yu reign-period (1086–94) of the Northern Sung dynasty. He compiled a collection of poems relating to his native region, entitled Wu-hsing shih-ts'un (詩存), 48 chüan, with preface dated 1890; and a gazetteer of his native district, Kuei-an hsien-chih, 52 chüan (published about 1882). His collected writings were brought together after his death under the title Ch'ien-yüan tsung-chi (總集), also designated Ch'ien-yüan ts'ung-shu. This collection contains all the above-mentioned works, except the Shih-wan-chüan lou ts'ung-shu, together with several others of which two deserve mention. One is a supplement (100 + 4 chüan, printed in 1893) to the anecdotes concerning poems of the Sung dynasty, known as Sung-shih chi-shih (see under Li Ê). In the editing of this work Lu had the help of P'an Tsu-yin, Yü Yüeh [qq. v.] and others. The second is Lu's literary collection, entitled I-Ku t'ang chi, a work first published in 1862 in 8 chüan, and later expanded to 12 chüan and then (1874) to 16 chüan. The I-Ku t'ang chi in the latest edition of the Ch'ien-yüan tsung-chi, printed in 1898, consists of 20 chüan. Lu also collected the letters written to him by his friends, and printed them in facsimile under the title Ch'ien-yüan yu-p'êng shu-wên (友朋書問), 12 chüan.
[6/18/25b; Yü Yüeh [q. v.], Ch'un-tsai t'ang tsa-wên liu pien 4/1a; see appendix to the Seikadō Bunko kanseki bunrui mokuroku; Pelliot, B.E.F.E.O. IX, pp. 211–49, 425–69 for analysis of his works.]