Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period/Liang T'ung-shu
LIANG T'ung-shu 梁同書 (T. 元頴, H. 山舟, 不翁, 新吾長翁), Oct. 26, 1723–1815, Aug. 19, scholar and calligrapher, was a native of Ch'ien-t'ang (Hangchow). He was the elder son of Liang Shih-chêng [q. v.] but was adopted by his uncle, Liang Ch'i-hsin 梁啟心 (T. 首存, H. 蔎林, 1695–1758, a chin-shih of 1739). In 1747 Liang Tsung-shu became a chü-jên. Failing to pass the metropolitan examination of 1752, Emperor Kao-tsung granted him special permission to proceed to the palace examination, thus making it possible for him to take his chin-shih degree in that year and become a member of the Hanlin Academy. In 1756 he was appointed associate examiner of the Shun-t'ien provincial examination, and in the following year, of the metropolitan examination. After the death of his foster father in 1758, he abandoned his official career and retired to private life. Nevertheless he presented himself in the capital in 1770 for the celebration of the eightieth birthday of Empress Hsiao-shêng (see under Hung-li), mother of Emperor Kao-tsung, and again twenty years later, for the eightieth birthday of Emperor Kao-tsung himself. In 1807, the sixtieth anniversary of his graduation as a chü-jên, he participated in the banquet known as Lu-ming yen 鹿鳴宴 which was given to newly-selected chü-jên, and to older men who had passed a cycle since receiving the degree.
As a calligrapher Liang T'ung-shu was one of the foremost of the Ch'ing period. It is said that he could write characters three feet square. Facsimile inscriptions of his calligraphy are very numerous. His fame as a calligrapher even reached Japan and the Loochoo islands. Two contemporaries, likewise surnamed Liang, were also known as great calligraphers—Liang Hsien 梁巘 (T. 聞山, H. 松齋, a chü-jên of 1762) and Liang Kuo-chih [q. v.]. The three were known together as the three Liangs (三梁).
The collected works of Liang Tung-shu, entitled 頻羅庵遺集 P'ing-lo an i-chi, in 16 chüan, were first printed in 1817. The last chüan of this work, entitled 筆史 Pi-shih, contains a brief account of the development of the Chinese writing brush, together with information about well-known brush-makers and the materials they used. Liang T'ung-shu had no son, but adopted Liang Yü-shêng [q. v.], the eldest son of his younger brother. He is said to have led a very simple and regular life, and that he exercised great economy in the management of family affairs.
[1/508/3a; 3/126/35b; 29/5/12b; Hangchow fu chih (1922) 146/6b.]