Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period/Fu Wei-lin
FU Wei-lin 傅維鱗 (T. 掌雷, H. 歉齊, original ming Wei-chên 維楨), d. 1667, official and scholar, was a native of Ling-shou, Chihli. After receiving his chin-shih in 1646, he became a Hanlin compiler and was assigned to the compilation of the Ming history. In 1648 he directed the provincial examination of Kiangnan, and in 1652 was made senior secretary of the Supervisorate of Instruction. Owing to his outspoken frankness he was sent in the following year, as intendant, to Lin-ch'ing, Shantung, where in a time of famine (1654) he devised effective relief measures and submitted plans for the reform of the colonization system, which were adopted. Recalled in 1655, he was promoted several times and in 1657 became senior vice-president of the Censorate in which capacity he submitted a memorial on the promotion of scholarship in the Court. This document Emperor Shih-tsu characterized as the best submitted during the preceding years of his reign. Later he was given the title of Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent (1658) and served as president of the Board of Revenue (1661). In 1666 while serving as superintendent of construction of Emperor Shih-tsu's tomb, he resigned on account of ill health and died the following summer.
Fu Wei-lin's most important literary work is a history of the Ming dynasty, 明書 Ming-shu, covering the years from 1328 to 1644, in 171 chüan, with a table of contents in two additional chüan. It was published by his son some time before 1679 and later was included in the Chi-fu ts'ung-shu (see under Ts'ui Shu), which consists of reprints of writings by natives of Chihli province. According to his autobiographical preface he utilized for this work more than three hundred sources, but concedes that it is incomplete for the period after 1620.
[Ssŭ-k'u, 50/14b; 3/45/16a; 4/9/9b; 10/2/18b; Hsieh Kuo-chên, W.M.S.C.K. (1932) 1/6a; Ho-pei ti-i po-wu-yüan hua-pao (see under Cha Li), nos. 60, 61; 大清畿輔書徵 Ta-Ch'ing Chi-fu shu-chêng 27/6b.]