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Chou
Chou

his friends which he had edited. He died two years later.

Among other works written or compiled by Chou Liang-kung may be mentioned the 讀畫錄 Tu-hua lu (also known as 讀畫樓畫人傳 Tu-hua lou hua-jên chuan), 4 chüan, being short sketches of the lives of painters; the 印人傳 Yin-jên chuan, 3 chüan, about famous carvers of seals; and the 印譜 Yin-p'u, printed in 1667, being examples of well carved seals. His 同書 T'ung-shu, printed about 1649 in 4 chüan, contains facts and anecdotes grouped according to similarity. He edited a collection of short articles in prose by his contemporaries, entitled Lai-ku t'ang wên-hsüan (文選), 20 chüan, printed about 1667. This collection is rare because it contains the writings of several authors whose works were later banned, such as Ch'ien Ch'ien-i and Ai Nan-ying [qq. v.]. A copy of it is preserved in the Library of Congress. To commemorate his friends Chou Liang-kung edited three anthologies of letters by his contemporaries, known collectively as Lai-ku t'ang ch'ih-tu hsin-ch'ao (尺牘新鈔), printed in the early K'ang-hsi period. The first series, entitled simply Ch'ih-tu hsin-ch'ao, 12 chüan, was reprinted in 1847 in the Hai-shan hsien-kuan ts'ung-shu (see P'an Chên-ch'êng). The second series, known as 藏弆集 Ts'ang-chü chi, and the third, 結鄰集 Chieh-lin chi, each in 16 chüan, were reprinted in 1839. A fourth series, entitled 牧靡集 Mu-mi chi, was probably never printed. Chou Liang-kung attempted to print a ts'ung-shu comprising a hundred monographs under the title, Lai-ku t'ang ts'ang-shu (藏書), but the blocks for only seven items in the first series (甲集) were completed when he died. His fifth son, Chou Tsai-tu 周在都 (T. 燕客, H. 澌農, b. 1655), reprinted these in 1711, adding three more items to bring this first series to completion. As Chou Liang-kung had destroyed, shortly before he died, most of his own writings, his sons saw to it that they were reprinted. Thus Chou Tsai-chün reprinted his father's essays and poems in 1675 under the title, Lai-ku t'ang wên-chi (文集), 24 chüan, with supplements comprising a nien-p'u and biographical sketches of his father. The Yin-shu-wu shu-ying was reprinted in 1725 by his third son, Chou Tsai-yen 周在延 (T. 榕客, 龍客, b. 1653), and was again printed in 1814 by a descendant, Chou Hêng-fu 周恆福.

For more than a hundred years after his death Chou Liang-kung was widely acclaimed as a great writer. In 1776, when the compilation of the Imperial Library was in progress (see under Chi Yün), Emperor Kao-tsung ordered that officials of the Ming period who had accepted office under the Manchu regime should be designated Êr-ch'ên (貳臣), or "officials who served two dynasties". Thus men highly thought of in their day, such as Ch'ien Ch'ien-i, came to be regarded as disloyal and gained an unenviable place in the official history. Chou Liang-kung was classed with this group. Nevertheless the Imperial Library at first included four works written by Chou, namely the Min hsiao-chi, the Tu-hua lu, the Yin-shu-wu shu-ying, and the Yin-jên chuan. At the same time his works were frequently quoted in the Imperial Catalogue (see under Chi Yün). But in 1787 the emperor became infuriated when he observed in the Imperial Manuscript Library writings by Li Ch'ing [q. v.] slandering his great-grandfather, Emperor Shih-tsu. He therefore ordered a re-examination of the Library to expunge from it all works prejudicial to the reigning dynasty. The inquisitors discovered two lines of a poem which Chou had written and which was later reproduced in the second chüan of his Tu-hua lu, reading: 人皆漢魏上, 花亦義熙餘. These lines, which allude to the barbarian inroads on China in the fifth century A.D., were interpreted as a covert thrust at the Manchu invasion. Thus Chou's works were ordered expunged from the Manuscript Library and quotations from his writings were erased from the pages of the Imperial Catalogue of the Library. The Library of Congress possesses the original editions of the Lai-ku t'ang wên-hsüan, the Lai-ku t'ang chi, and the Chieh-lin chi. The last item was printed in 1670 and contains many letters written by persons whose works were listed among banned books in the Ch'ien-lung period.


[Nien-p'u in Lai-ku t'ang wên-chi; 2/79/32b; 4/10/21a; 29/1/20b; Bulletin of the National Library of Peiping, vol. 7, no. 5, pp. 23–24; 文獻論叢 Wên-hsien lun-ts'ung (1936) 論述 1, pp. 3–12; Goodrich, L. C., "The Introduction of the Sweet Potato into China", in China Journal, vol. XXVII, no. 4, Oct. 1937, pp. 206–08; W.M.S.C.K., 15/11a.]

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