Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period/Fa-shih-shan
FA-shih-shan 法式善 (T. 聞文, H. 時帆, 梧門, 陶廬, 小西涯居士, original name Yün-ch'ang 運昌), Feb.–Mar., 1753–1813, official, scholar and poet, was a Mongol whose family belonged to the Plain Yellow Banner of the Imperial Household Division. After the Manchu conquest of China his ancestors resided in Peking and many of them served as minor officials. Shortly after his birth Fa-shih-shan was adopted by Ho-shun 和順 (d. 1761), an uncle who was an overseer of the Imperial Armory. Ho-shun's Chinese wife, née Han 韓 (H. 端靜閒人, 1724–1774), was a poetess who left a collection of verse, entitled 帶綠草堂遺詩 Tai-lü ts'ao-t'ang i-shih, 1 chüan (1797). To his foster mother Fa-shih-shan owed much of his early education. In 1778, at the age of sixteen (sui), he graduated as hsiu-ts'ai, and during the ensuing two years obtained his chü-jên (1779) and chin-shih (1780) degrees. Thereafter, as a bachelor, and then as a corrector of the Hanlin Academy, he participated in the compilation of the Ssŭ-k'u ch'üan-shu (see under Chi Yün). In 1783 he was made tutor of the Imperial Academy and two years later became deputy supervisor of Imperial Instruction. Though promoted in 1786 to a readership in the Hanlin Academy, he was degraded in 1791 to the post of an assistant department-director of the Board of Works, owing to poor grades in his examination at the Academy. Two years later, however, he was appointed libationer of the Imperial Academy, a position he held for six years (1793–99). During his term in office he won high recognition for his services and for his scholarship. For this reason he is often ranked with Shêng-yü [q. v.]—the two being regarded as the ablest bannerman libationers in the Ch'ing period. In the spring of 1799, when Emperor Jên-tsung sought political advice, Fa-shih-shan presented to him a memorial consisting of eighteen treatises on educational and administrative affairs. Unfortunately, however, his treatise on the military settlement of bannermen on the northern frontiers incurred the displeasure of the emperor, and Fa-shih-shan was degraded to a compilership in the Hanlin Academy. In 1801 he rose to be an expositor, but in the following year was again degraded because of his poor attainments in the regular examination of the Academy. It took him three years to regain his position as expositor.
After 1801 Fa-shih-shan, Yao Wên-t'ien [q. v.] and others were engaged, under the direction of Grand Secretary Ch'ing-kuei (see under Yin-chi-shan), in the compilation of the 國朝宮史續編 Kuo-ch'ao kung-shih hsü-pien, 100 chüan, a work on the history of the Imperial Palace. This is a continuation of the Kuo-ch'ao kung-shih which was completed in 36 chüan in 1770. Owing to a few errors discovered in his work, Fa-shih-shan was degraded in 1806 to be expectant deputy supervisor of Imperial Instruction, but upon the completion of the Kuo-ch'ao kung-shih hsü-pien in the autumn of 1810 he was ordered to serve in the Imperial Study. Both the original work and the continuation were preserved in manuscript in the Palace library, but were printed in 1925 and in 1932, respectively, the title of the latter being then changed to Ch'ing (清) kung-shih hsü-pien. Late in his official career Fa-shih-shan was one of the senior editors of two great collectanea of prose works compiled by Imperial order, namely the Ch'uan T'ang wên (see under Tung Kao) and the 國朝文頴續編 Kuo-ch'ao wên-ying hsü-pien, 108 + 58 + 10 chüan, a continuation of the Kuo-ch'ao (Huang-Ch'ing) wên-ying (see under Tung Pang-ta). The continuation was completed in 1810 and was printed soon after in the Palace printing-office.
Fa-shih-shan retired from office before the completion of the Ch'uan T'ang wên, which was in 1814. His residence, known as Shih-k'an 詩龕 or Wu-mên Shu-wu 梧門書屋, was famous for its bamboo garden and for its rich collection of books, paintings, and calligraphy. It was built on the site of the residence of the Ming Grand Secretary, Li Tung-yang 李東陽 (T. 賓之, H. 西涯, posthumous name 文正, 1447–1516), north of the Ti-an Gate, Peking. Being a great admirer of Li, Fa-shih-shan wrote several poems in praise of him and compiled a chronological biography of him, entitled 李文正公年譜 Li Wên-chêng kung nien-p'u which was first printed in 1803 at Yangchow by an intimate friend, Wang Ch'i-sun (see under Shih Yün-yü). In the following year Fa-shih-shan enlarged and printed the nien-p'u in 7 chüan, in Peking. He also collated Li's collected works, 懷麓堂集 Huai-lu t'ang chi, 100 chüan, which was first printed in 1518–19 and was reprinted in 1681–82. He intended to print his collated edition of this collection, but when he discovered that T'an Wan 譚琬 (T. 邦瑜) and other scholars of Li's native place (Ch'a-ling, Hunan) were printing another collated edition he abandoned the idea. This Hunan edition of the Huai-lu t'ang chi appeared about the year 1809. At the request of Fa-shih-shan the Li Wên-chêng kung nien-p'u was included in it after being supplemented by T'ang Chung-mien 唐仲冕 (T. 六枳, H. 陶山, 1753–1827).
Since he spent most of his public career in the Hanlin Academy and in other literary offices, Fa-shih-shan read extensively the records and books in those libraries, thus obtaining an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of the history of institutions in the Ch'ing period. In this field he produced several collections of notes and memoranda. Two of them, entitled 槐㕔載筆 Huai-t'ing tsai-pi, 20 chüan, and 陶廬雜錄 T'ao-lu tsa-lu, 6 chüan, were printed in 1799 and 1817, respectively; but other items, including the Pei-i (備遺) tsa-lu, 8 chüan, failed to be printed. A work, entitled 清祕述聞 Ch'ing-pi shu-wên, 16 chüan (1798), consisting of lists of examiners in the metropolitan and provincial examinations, and of educational commissioners during the years 1645–1798, is the best known among his works.
Fa-shih-shan was an excellent poet, and as such he first followed the theories of Wang Shih-chên [q. v.], but later was considerably influenced by Yüan Mei [q. v.]. He had a wide circle of literary friends of various racial backgrounds, including Chinese, Manchus and Mongols. It is reported that his residence was always filled with these friends, some of whose literary works he brought together in 64 chüan, under the title 朋舊及見錄 P'êng-chiu chi-chien lu—a work unfortunately not printed. By the year 1793 Fa-shih-shan had produced some 3,000 poems from which, at his request, Yüan Mei and Hung Liang-chi [q. v.] selected about 1,000. A few years later Fa-shih-shan brought these verses together in 10 chüan, and supplemented them annually. Three collections of these works were printed by his friends, Juan Yüan [q. v.], Wu Tzŭ (see under Wu Hsi-ch'i) and others, but a more complete collection was printed in 1807–12 by a certain Wang Yung 王墉, under the title 存素堂詩集 Ts'un-su t'ang shih-chi, 24 + 8 + 1 chüan. A supplementary collection was printed by Juan Yüan a few years after the death of Fa-shih-shan's son, Kuei-hsin 桂馨 (b. ca. 1790, died shortly after his father). This work contains a chronological biography of Fa-shih-shan, entitled 梧門先生年譜 Wu-mên hsien-shêng nien-p'u, which was compiled by Kuei-hsin and revised by Juan Yüan. Fa-shih-shan's critique of poetry, entitled 梧門詩話 Wu-mên shih-hua, seems not to have been printed, though several quotations from it appear in the works of his contemporaries. Manuscript copies of it in 4 ts'ê are said to be preserved in the libraries of Pao-hsi 寶熙 (T. 瑞臣, H. 沈盦, b. 1871, chin-shih of 1892) and of Yeh Kung-ch'ao 葉恭綽 (T. 譽虎, b. 1880).
A collection of Fa-shih-shan's prose, entitled Ts'un-su t'ang wên-chi (文集), 4 chüan, was printed in 1807; and was supplemented by 2 chüan in 1811. In addition to the works named above a few others, including a collection of his memorials, are reported to have been printed. Today, however, most of Fa-shih-shan's works are rare owing to the fact that they have not been reprinted. In the eighteen-eighties the printing-blocks of some of his works came into the possession of a publisher in Peking. The blocks of the Ts'un-su t'ang shih-chi, of the Ch'ing-pi shu-wên, and of the Huai-t'ing tsai-pi were bought by Chih-jui [q. v.] and were once preserved in the Hanlin Academy, but seem to have been destroyed during the Boxer Uprising.
[1/490/16a; 2/74/43a; 3/132/9a; 7/43/8b; 20/3/00; Nien-p'u (see above, not consulted); Pa-ch'i wên-ching (see under Shêng-yü) 59/2a and passim; Fu Pao-sen 符保森, 國朝正雅集 Kuo-ch'ao chêng-ya chi (1857) 34/1a; Yeh Ch'ang-ch'ih (see under P'an Tsu-yin), Ts'ang-shu chi-shih shih (1910) 5/54a; Literary collections of Fa-shih-shan (not consulted), Juan Yüan, Wêng Fang-kang, Hung Liang-chi [qq. v.] and others; Hashikawa Tokio 橋川時雄, 滿州文學興廢考 Manshū bungaku kōhai kō (1932) 35a-37b.]