scale corruption, involving Wang Tan-wang (for further details see under Ch'ên Ta-shou) and numerous other officials. For the mistaken counsel he had received in this instance the Emperor laid full blame on his former minister. In the same year (1782) Yü's younger brother, Yü I-chien (see under Ch'ien Fêng), an official in Shantung, was executed for corruption, and this event also threw a shadow on Yü's name.
In March 1786 the Emperor wrote a poem in which he compared Yü Min-chung to Yen Sung (see under Juan Ta-ch'êng), a powerful and unscrupulous minister of the Ming period. Although he characterized him as having been neither as corrupt nor as powerful as Yen, he definitely placed on him the responsibility for the Kansu episode and ordered that his name should no longer be celebrated in the Temple of Eminent Statesmen. Finally, in 1795, shortly before his abdication, the Emperor scanned Yü's officially prepared biography and then declared that, in view of his activities as a minister, he should be further posthumously punished by being deprived of his hereditary rank. This rank, held by Yü Te-yü, was thereupon abolished.
Yü Min-chung left a literary collection, entitled 素餘堂集 Su-yü t'ang chi, printed in 1806. Some of the items seem to have been written by disciples or secretaries, among them Lu Hsi-hsiung [q. v.]. In addition to his official duties at Court, Yü also directed the compilation of a large number of official works of the Ch'ien-lung period, in particular the Imperial Manuscript Library known as the Ssŭ-k'u ch'üan-shu (see under Chi Yün). In 1787 the Emperor was apprised of many errors in that work—some made by editors, others by copyists. For these errors Yü was posthumously denounced, for he had a hand in framing the policies guiding this great compilation, and moreover, had recommended one of the offenders, Lu-fei Ch'ih [q. v.], who had charge of the copyists. These scribes received no salary, but were promised official ranks on completing a stated amount of work in a given time. It was an economical way to conduct so large an enterprise, but it could not prevent errors, which it took a long time to discover and eradicate. Recently fifty-six letters written by Yü to Lu Hsi-hsiung concerning the Ssŭ-k'u ch'üan-shu were published in facsimile (1933) under the title Yü Wên-hsiang lun Ssŭ-k'u shou-cha (論四庫手札). These letters show that Yü took more than casual interest in the selection and editing of the works which entered into that unique library,
Yü Min-chung's wife, Yü Kuang-hui 俞光蕙 (T. 滋蘭), studied under the artist Ch'ên Shu [q. v.], and achieved some skill in painting flowers. Their house in Peking, known as Yü-yü shu-wu 雨餘書屋, was famous for its wisteria.
[1/325/1a; 2/21/1a; 3/27/1a; 29/5/1b; Chang Hsüeh-ch'êng [q. v.], Chang-shih i-shu (1936), 7/16a; Chin-t'an Hsien-chih (1885) 14/12b, passim; ibid. (1923 ed.) 12/6; Wei Ch'ien-hêng 韋謙恆, 傳經堂詩鈔 Ch'uan-ching yang shih-ch'ao, 10/llb; Hu Chi-t'ang, P'ei-yin hsüan shih-chi (see under Hu Hsü) 2/20b, fu-lu, p. 8; T'oung Pao, 1920–21, p. 187, note concerning Panzi's portrait.]
YÜ 豫, Prince. See under Dodo.
YÜ 裕, Prince. See under Fu-ch'üan.
YÜ Yüeh 俞樾 (T. 蔭甫, H. 曲園), Dec. 25, 1821–1907, Feb. 5, scholar, was a native of Tê-ch'in, Chekiang. His father, Yü Hung-chien 俞鴻漸 (T. 儀伯, H. 1781–1846), was a chü-jên of 1816. His elder brother, Yü Lin 俞林 (T. 壬甫, H. 芝石, 柯九老人, 1814–1873), was a chü-jên of 1843 who rose in his official career to prefect of Fu-ning, Fukien (1870–73). Precocious and studious, Yü Yüeh became a hsiu-ts'ai in 1836. In 1839 he married Yao Wen-yü 姚文玉 (1820–1879), who left a collection of poems, entitled 含章集 Han-chang chi. In 1844 Yü Yüeh became a chü-jên, and in 1850 a chin-shih and a member of the Hanlin Academy. A poem he composed for the examination was highly praised by Tsêng Kuo-fan [q. v.] who was one of the examiners. Yü Yüeh was at different times, over a period of six years, a teacher at Hsin-an, Anhwei, and there his friend, Sun Tien-ling 孫殿齡 (T. 蓮叔), printed in 1851 a collection of his prose works under the title 好學為福齋文鈔 Hao-hsüeh wei fu chai wên-ch'ao, 4 chüan. In the following year Yü was made a compiler of the second class, and in the autumn of 1855 was appointed commissioner of education in Honan. He remained at this post for about two years but, owing to certain accusations lodged against him, was dismissed in 1857 and then went into retirement in Soochow. When the Taiping Rebellion spread eastward in 1860–62 he migrated with his family from one place to another, first to the ancestral home at Tê-ch'ing, then to Shang-yü, to Shanghai, and finally to Tientsin. Except for a trip to Peking in 1862, he remained in Tientsin for three years. While there, Ch'ung-hou [q. v.], superin-
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