Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period/Shao T'ing-ts'ai
SHAO T'ing-ts'ai 邵廷采 (original ming 行中 T. 念魯, 允斯), Jan. 29, 1648–1711, July 11, historian and philosopher, was a native of Yü-yao, Chekiang. His grandfather, Shao Tsêng-k'o 邵曾可 (T. 子唯, H. 魯公, d. 1658, aged 51 sui), was a pupil of Shên Kuo-mo 沈國模 (or 謨 T. 叔則, 求如, 1575–1656), who founded in Yü-yao the Academy known as the Yao-chiang Shu-yüan 姚江書院 I to promote the teachings of Wang Shou-jên (see under Chang Li-hsiang)—Wang also having been a native of that place. His father, Shao Chên-hsien 邵貞顯 (T. 立夫, H. 鶴閒, d. 1670 aged 45 sui), carried on the tradition as a student and teacher. In 1664 Shao T'ing-ts'ai became a pupil of Han K'ung-tang 韓孔當 (T. 仁父, H. 遺韓, d. 1671, aged 73 sui), a local scholar of the Wang school. During 1667-68, he went to Shaohsing to attend the Chêng-jên chiang-hui 證人講會, a gathering of scholars called together by Huang Tsung-hsi [q. v.] and others. It was there that, in 1668, he first met Mao Ch'i-ling [q. v.] whom he admired and with whom he later corresponded. After he was made a licentiate, in 1669, he competed fourteen times for a higher degree, but never succeeded. In 1694 he was engaged by the magistrate of Yü-yao to take charge of the Yao-chiang Academy. In 1708 he went to Peking where he lived in the home of Sung Chih (1656–1726, see under Sung Lao), and while there he became a friend of Wan Ching [q. v.]. He also corresponded with Li Kung [q. v.], the well-known philosopher of North China.
His historical works, entitled 東南紀事 Tung-nan chi-shih and 西南紀事 Hsi-nan chi-shih, deal with the southern Ming regime. They were printed, each in 12 chüan, in the 邵武徐氏叢書 Shao-wu Hsü-shih ts'ung-shu (1884). A collection of his essays, entitled 思復堂文集 Ssŭ-fu t'ang wên-chi, 10 chüan, was first printed in 1705, and was reprinted in 1894 in the Shao-hsing hsien-chêng i-shu (see under Wang Hui-tsu). A considerable number of these essays are devoted to biographies of Ming and early Ch‘ing philosophers and to the lives of Sung and Ming loyalists. Twelve of them, dealing with economics and government, were printed separately in 1711 under the title 治平略 Chih-p'ing lüeh.
[1/486/9a; Ssŭ-fu t'ang wên-chi; Shao-hsing fu-chih (1792) 53/63a; Yao Ming-ta 姚名達, 邵念魯年譜 Shao Nien-lu nien-p'u (1930); T'oung Pao (1934), p. 98.]