Zhang Xuecheng (1738-1801), formerly known as Wen Yi (文镳), Wen Dian (文酕), Zi Shi Zhai (字實斋), Shaoyan (号少岩), Hui Ji (present-day Shaoxing, Zhejiang), an outstanding historian and thinker of the Qing Dynasty, the terminator of classical Chinese historiography, the founder of Fang Zhixue, and the reputation of "Zhejiang Eastern Historiography Temple Army". Because of the inopportune learning, he repeatedly failed to try, and was as late as Qianlong forty-three years (1778) Fang Zhongjinshi, who was 41 years old at the time.
Zhang Xuecheng's life was turbulent and displaced, poor and destitute, but he was "written between the dust and feet of the car". He has successively majored in more than ten chronicles such as "Hezhou Zhi", "Yongqing County Zhi", "Bozhou Zhi", "Hubei Tongzhi" and so on, and created a complete set of Xiu Zhi Yi examples. He also devoted his life's energy to writing treatises such as "Wenshi Tongyi", "School Chicken Tongyi", and "Examination of Historical Books", summarizing and developing the theories of ancient Chinese historiography, which had a profound impact on future generations. His "Wenshi Tongyi" is on a par with Liu Zhiji's "Stone" of the Tang Dynasty, and is the "double bi" of ancient Chinese historical theory.
In the fifty-ninth year of Qianlong (1794), Zhang Xuecheng, who had been wandering in a foreign land for more than forty years, returned to his hometown. In the fifth year of Jiaqing (1800), he was poor and sick, and he was blind in both eyes. He died in November of the following year (1801) and was buried in Shanyin Fangwu.
Migrate with the parent
In the third year of Qianlong (1738), Zhang Xuecheng was born in Huiji County, Shaoxing Province, Zhejiang (present-day Shaoxing, Zhejiang). His father, Zhang Bi, was diligent in his studies and followed the rules of good inducement. Zhang Xuecheng was sick when he was young, his qualifications were dull, his memory was particularly poor, and he recited only more than 100 words a day, and then he fell ill and suspended his studies. He had already married his wife at the age of fourteen, and at that time the study of the Four Books had not yet been completed.
Zhang Bi was appointed to The Zhi County of Yingcheng in Hubei in the 16th year of Qianlong (1751). Fourteen-year-old Zhang Xuecheng also went to Yingcheng with his parents. At this time, his childlike heart did not rest, although his father invited him to a master who was good at teaching, but he refused to study the texts of Yingju, but liked to read books in general, and his interests tended to be close to historiography. He tried to take books such as Zuo Zhuan and Chinese and adapted them into a chronicle of history, known as the Book of Eastern Zhou, which lasted for three years, but was stopped by the librarian and gave up. At that time, he claimed to have the ability to govern historiography, and he was not inferior. However, at that time, his basic skills in historiography were very poor, and "the use of rhetorical aids in writing was still inappropriate."
In the twenty-first year of Qianlong (1756), Zhang Xuecheng resigned for reasons, and for more than ten years, Zhang Xuecheng went to Hubei Yingcheng and Tianmen (present-day Tianmen County, Hubei) to teach at the academies, Zhang Bi was poor and could not return to his hometown, hoping that his son Zhang Xuecheng could strive for meritorious fame, and Zhang Xuecheng grew older, slightly aware of the difficulties of the world, reflected on his studies, and nothing could be applied to his livelihood, so he had to take the examination of the imperial examination, which was the step of entering the reader's body.
The field is frustrated
In the twenty-fifth year of Qianlong (1760), he went to the Beijing Division for the first time to take the Shuntianfu Township Examination, but failed to win the examination. The next year, he went to the countryside to take the test, but he was reprimanded again, so he studied in the Guozijian. During his studies in Guozijian, his examination results were still inferior, and he was scorned and ridiculed by his classmates, but among the students who shared the house, Zeng Shen, Zhen Songnian and Zhang Xuecheng knew each other. At the age of twenty-eight, under the door of Zhu Yun, a university scholar of the Beijing Division, he was able to explore his rich collection of books, and discussed the academic origins and similarities and differences with the famous scholars who came to Zhumen, and made great progress in his studies.
However, at this time, Zhang Xuecheng already had a unique view in academics. In the twenty-eighth year of Qianlong (1763), he had two letters replying to Zhen Songnian, indicating some of his views on compiling and revising Fang Zhi. Its main point of view, one is that zhi is a historical style, so "the genre should be historical law", fang zhi should be modeled on the jichuan style history book, and put forward the "art text" part can not be indiscriminately included in the poetry, poetry should be selected as an auxiliary to the zhi book and other suggestions. Second, Fang Zhi should "draw materials for the history of the country", so it must be "detailed and prepared, neat and uniform". To this end, he proposed that the local government "should establish a science room on weekdays" to preserve relevant information. The third is that the writing of Fang Zhi should be "creative" and "non-conscientious", so that it is not only a book of Yiyi, but also a "book of the world". These insights were formed by Zhang Xuecheng's extensive reading of books, extensive reference to ancient and modern Fang Zhi, and careful analysis and reflection. Zhang Xuecheng established the understanding that Fang Zhi is the whole history of Fang Zhi, which is of great academic significance, which enabled him to closely integrate historical research in his subsequent revision activities, and opened up a broad future for the establishment of his own Fang Zhi and historical theory.
Subsequently, Zhang Xuecheng participated in the compilation of the Chronicle of Tianmen County in the twenty-ninth year of Qianlong (1764); Specific opinions on xiuzhi were also put forward, entitled "Ten Discussions on Xiuzhi". It can be seen that he first achieved high academic attainments in the field of editing Fang Zhi.
Livelihoods are lost
In the thirtieth year of Qianlong (1765), Zhang Xuecheng went to the Beijing Division for the third time to take the Shun Tianfu Township Examination, but still failed the list, and soon he asked Zhu Yun, the editor of the Hanlin Academy, to learn to write articles. Zhu Yun was very close to a large number of famous scholars at that time, so that Zhang Xuecheng became acquainted with many academic celebrities and broadened his horizons. Among them, Dai Zhen's remarks greatly shocked him, and he placed a huge question of how to govern his studies and through what means to become a scholar in front of Zhang Xuecheng. Dai Zhen was a first-class scholar during the Qianlong period, a master of scripture and evidence, who also had creative ideas in philosophy and was an outstanding thinker. Dai's way of learning is: "So the Words of the Wise Path are also, so the words of the Words of the Wordmakers are also." From the word to the word, from the word to the way, there will be a gradual.".
That is to say, it is necessary to interpret the scriptures by exhorting the words and phrases in order to proceed to the enlightenment, that is, to draw theoretical understanding. The first time Dai Zhen saw Zhang Xuecheng, he used this authoritative attitude to teach this way of learning, claiming that "Yu Fu can investigate the innate and acquired nature and the essence of Heluo, that is, he does not dare to read 'Yuan Henry Zhen'; The Fren is able to know the precession of the stars and the surface of the heavens, that is, he does not dare to read 'Chin Ruo Jing Zhi'; Fu can distinguish between sound rhythms and ancient and modern rhymes, that is, he does not dare to read 'Guan Guan Ju Dove'; Fu Neng kao three unification Zheng Shuo, Zhou official ceremony, that is, did not dare to read 'Spring King Zhengyue'." This discussion caused Zhang Xuecheng, who was not deeply educated and had always neglected to exegesis and examination, to fall into contradictions and wandering, and realized that "my generation in the Four Books and one classic, just before opening the book, can be ashamed, can be cold!" This sentiment was clearly expressed in Qianlong's Thirty-first Year (1766) "Treatise on the Study of Sun Runan". Is it to adhere to the original path of "not making opinions and not to imprison the cage for discipline", or to change course and engage in historical evidence? Zhang Xuecheng must make his own choices. During this period, after several years of ups and downs, he "was full of impetuous arrogance and exhaustion", not only suffered repeated setbacks in the examination hall, but even the door to research and governance was also dazed for a while.
In the autumn of the thirty-second year of Qianlong (1767), he once planned to "screen everything and make a decision to decide the plan", but forced to make a living, he still accepted the commission to revise the "Chronicle of the Guozi Supervisor". Since then, the burden of life has become heavier. But once he entered the Zhi Bureau, he felt constrained at every turn and it was difficult to show his talents. What made him particularly angry was that the zhi bureau supervisor was jealous of xian's ability, relied on the power in his hands, reversed right and wrong, and excluded and attacked true talents and practical scholars. A few years later, Zhang Xuecheng couldn't bear it anymore, so he angrily left Zhi bureau. Shortly after leaving The Bureau, he wrote a long letter to Mr. Zhu Chunpu, who had always been the examiner of the Shuntianxiang Examination and had always cared for and valued him, stating his reasons for leaving the Bureau and his future plans. According to the information explained in his letter, Zhang Xuecheng wrote the "Wenshi Tongyi" in the following year of Chudu, which was exactly 20 years after he left his hometown. Zhang Xuecheng left his hometown in the twenty-eighth year of Qianlong (1753), so the time of writing of "Wenshi Tongyi" should be the thirty-seventh year of Qianlong (1772), and Zhang Xuecheng was 35 years old.
In the thirty-third year of Qianlong (1768), his father died in Yingcheng, and the whole family of seventeen or eight came to Beijing, so he had to write a letter to ask his teacher Zhu Yun to help seek the position of compiling a book. "The extent of his embarrassment is conceivable.
Immerse yourself in academics
In the thirty-sixth year of Qianlong (1771), Zhang Xuecheng had a disagreement with the scholars in compiling the "Chronicle of the Supervision of the State Son", and he was very unhappy, so he resigned from his post. The following year, in a letter, he stated the reasons for his resignation with great emotion and excitement, and quoted Liu Zhiji of the Tang Dynasty who resigned from his post as a historian and privately wrote "Stone", and initially envisaged the compilation of "Wenshi Tongyi". This was the first time he mentioned the title of "Wenshi Tongyi", which can be presumed to be inspired by Liu Zhiji's writing of "Stone".
From the thirty-seventh year of Qianlong (1772), Zhang Xuecheng began to write the "Literature and History of Tongyi", which was uninterrupted for more than 20 years. He was also recruited to revise local chronicles such as Hezhou, Yongqing County, Bozhou, ChangdeFu and Jingzhou Prefecture to participate in the revision of the "Hubei Tongzhi". Zhang Xuecheng was poor all his life, and from the age of 32, due to the death of his father, he relied on lectures and cultivation to survive, which was very poor. He was knowledgeable and insightful in historical theory, but due to his social status and economic strength, he failed to fully exert his talents and ambitions. He deliberately edited the "Historical Examination" for 12 years and did not come out. Only the articles of the Wenshi Tongyi were engraved before his death.
In the thirty-eighth year of Qianlong (1773), he was hired by Liu Changcheng of Zhizhou (知州, in present-day Hexian County, Anhui) to preside over the compilation and revision of the "Hezhou Zhi", and based on the information provided by the old records of Hezhou, he extensively searched for literature, and spent more than a year to compile forty-two articles, and compiled it into eight volumes of "Hezhou Wenzheng". This activity of compiling and revising Fang Zhi played a great role in laying the academic foundation of Zhang Xuecheng. In a letter during the revision of the Zhi, Zhang Xuecheng claimed that "before and after the inspection, the intellect is quite advanced", "the spirit of thinking is the study of the school, the exploration class, Liu, the traceability of the official ceremony, the "Carved Dragon", "Stone", the identification of the name, the flow of the algae, for the book "Wenshi Tongyi". According to Zhang Xuecheng's later recollection, when he was twenty-three or four years old, he had the idea of "being a historian in addition to Rulin and Wenyuan, but only in the preface to the Biography of Hezhou Zhiqian Zhilie" did he expound this idea as a proposition to examine the source of historiography. He believes that the content of the biography of historians should "affirm the study of the family" and "focus on books, and no longer use the beginning and end of the book", that is, not only to record the life and deeds of historians, but also to record the materials, compilation, dissemination and study of their historical works. For the history of a generation and many writers, it is necessary to "distinguish between the genres, discuss the gains and losses of the sub-group of books, and put them together in one article." This kind of proposition contains the germination of the idea of advocating the recording of the history of historiography and the study of the history of historiography, which is a very valuable idea.
In the summer of the thirty-eighth year of Qianlong (1773), during the compilation and revision of the Chronicle of Hezhou, Zhang Xuecheng met Dai Zhen again and had a face-to-face debate on the issue of Fang Zhiyi's example. Dai Zhen pushed the method of studying the evidence to Xiuzhi, and advocated that Fang Zhi should focus on assessing the geographical evolution. Zhang Xuecheng refuted Dai Zhen, pointing out that Fang Zhi should be a history of one party, not a simple geographical book, and believed that "archaeology should be careful and cautious, and it is inevitable that it is incompatible, and it is not better to emphasize literature than to change the ear.". He further put forward the view that "those who cultivate the spirit will not show beauty, but will seek practical use". As a result, the image of this authority in his mind completely collapsed, swept away the original wandering, and greatly enhanced his confidence in not tending to conform to the study style of study and taking his own path of governance.
Dog
In the forty-second year of Qianlong (1777), Zhang Xuecheng briefly served as the main lecturer of Dingwu Academy in Dingzhou (which covers the three counties of Dingxian, Quyang, and Shenze in present-day Hebei Province). In May, he was hired by Zhixian and close friend Zhou Zhenrong of Yongqing (present-day Yongqing County, Hebei) to edit the Chronicle of Yongqing County, which was written in July of the forty-fourth year of Qianlong (1779). The most obvious difference between its style and the "Hezhou Chronicle" is the six books of officials, households, ceremonies, soldiers, criminals, and workers. These "six books" were all compiled from archives to facilitate the preservation of historical materials, but they could not be special and concise works, as he himself later said: "Yongqing Quanzhi hated wu miscellaneous." This prompted Zhang Xuecheng to continue to explore the solution of the contradiction between Fang Zhi's scholarship and information. In this year, Zhang Xuecheng also wrote four volumes of "School Chicken Tongyi", which is an important work commensurate with the "Literature and History Tongyi".
During the compilation and revision of the "Yongqing County Chronicle", Zhang Xuecheng came to operate during the examination hall of the imperial examination. In the autumn of the forty-second year of Qianlong (1777), he was selected in the Shuntianfu Township Examination and entered the priesthood in the middle of the following year. However, he considered himself to be devious and did not have the qualities to be an official, and he never dared to join the army. In this way, after the "Yongqing County Chronicle" was written, he still lived a life of wandering and traveling, and within a few years he was poor and miserable. In the forty-sixth year of Qianlong (1781), he went to Henan to plot unsuccessfully, and was robbed of his luggage and stored writings on his way back. Later, he borrowed another copy recorded by a friend to recope it, but he could not restore its full picture, of which the fourth volume of the "School Chicken Tongyi" was lost, which was particularly regrettable. Out of a livelihood, Zhang Xuecheng successively lectured at Qingzhang Academy in Feixiang (present-day Feixiang County, Hebei), Jingsheng Academy in Yongping County (present-day Lulong, Hebei), and Lianchi Academy in Baoding (present-day Baoding, Hebei). At Qingzhang Academy, he asked the students about their learning ambitions: "If the students have also ascended to the rank of scholar and have nothing to do, they will bundle the books and not look at them?" Or will there still be those who cannot help themselves?" He pointed out: "Learning is also not suitable for the purpose of raising a career. It shows that although Zhang Xuecheng himself is very keen on the merits of the imperial examination, he still regards academic research as an unswerving ambition. During the lecture at Jingsheng College, the family moved to Yongping, and since then, his family has often migrated with the change of his place of study.
In the forty-eighth year of Qianlong (1783), Zhang Xuecheng was living in Beijing and was seriously ill, but fortunately, his fellow villager Shao Jinhan took him to his home and extended medical treatment to prevent him from death. Shao Jinhan is a famous scholar, since he met Zhang Xuecheng more than a decade ago, the two are like-minded, and this time during his illness, he often studied with the theory every night. Both were interested in reworking the History of the Song Dynasty, and Zhang Xuecheng explicitly proposed to "take the work of BanMa and the way of Cheng Zhu" as the purpose of the speech. In this year, a noteworthy feature of his writings was to explore the issues of academic origin and governance style in a more in-depth manner from a philosophical point of view, and he wrote important treatises such as "Yan Gong", "Poetry Teaching", and "On the Study of Han and Zhu Cangmei".
In the winter of the fifty-second year of Qianlong (1787), Zhang Xuecheng met with The Inspector of Henan, Bi Yuan, and was treated favorably, and at the beginning of the following year, he began to edit the "Examination of Historical Records", which was presided over by Zhang Xuecheng. The editing of this book is a major academic volunteer of Zhang Xuecheng, and the purpose is to comprehensively sort out and summarize the historical books of the past. But the scale of the move is too big for anyone to do. At this time, relying on Bi Yuan, manpower and material resources were fully prepared, and famous scholars such as Hong Liangji, Sun Xingyan, Wu Yi and others were invited to participate. In addition to presiding over the editing of the "Examination of Historical Records", Zhang Xuecheng was also placed in the Wenzheng Academy of Guidefu (府治 in present-day Shangqiu, Henan) to lecture, and he took the opportunity to revise the book "School Chicken Tongyi". After this careful revision, Zhang Xuecheng's bibliographic thinking was expressed in a concentrated manner.
Seek progress in distress
Because Bi Yuan went to serve as the governor of Huguang, Zhang Xuecheng immediately lost the chair of Wenzheng Academy and left Henan with his family. From the second half of the fifty-third year of Qianlong (1788) to the first half of the following year, he traveled between Bozhou (present-day Boxian County), Taiping (present-day Taiping County), and Anqing in Anhui Province. From April 11 to the eighth day of May in the fifty-fourth year of Qianlong (1789), he wrote more than 20 articles in the past month, exploring the issues of academic history, the purpose of governance, the way of governance, and the style of study from a philosophical point of view, and theoretically expounding his own propositions, of which "Original Tao", "Original Learning", "Economic Interpretation", "Bo Covenant", and "Historical Interpretation" are the essence of "Literature and History".
In the autumn of the fifty-fourth year of Qianlong (1789), Zhang Xuecheng edited the "Bozhou Chronicle" at the invitation of Pei Zhen of Zhizhou, which was compiled in February of the following year. He himself was very satisfied with the "Bozhou Chronicle", believing that "the recent writing of the Bozhou Chronicle is quite new... The essence of righteousness is also the best in the "Literature and History of Tongyi". Since then, he has established the style of Fang Zhili's "three books", that is, Zhi, Zhi, Zhigu, and Wenzheng each into a book, complementing each other, and the zhi part reflects the author's ingenuity, and the palm collects one party's canon, and the wenzheng collects one party's literature, thus solving the contradiction between Fang Zhi's academic and materialistic nature. In this way, Zhang Xuecheng's Fang Zhixue theory is basically mature.
In the year when the Bozhou Chronicle was completed, Zhang Xuecheng left Bozhou for Wuchang, and continued to edit the "Historical Records Examination" with Bi Yuan, and participated in the compilation of Bi Yuan's "Continuation of Zizhi Tongjian". From the fifty-fifth year of Qianlong (1790) to the fifty-seventh year of Qianlong (1792), "Answering Questions", "Shi De", "Fang Zhili Three Books Discussion", "Shujiao" and so on were successively formed, marking that Zhang Xuecheng had formed his own historical theoretical system.
Zhang Xuecheng was fifty-seven years old when he returned to his hometown, and he had been away from his hometown for more than forty years, and he had experienced hardships. There are no assets in the family, just a wealth of books. However, he did not live a stable life at home, and soon traveled to Yangzhou, Anqing, Tongcheng and other places, one of the important purposes was to find support to complete the "Historical Examination". This monumental work was completed in Wuchang, Hubei Province, with the help of Bi Yuan's power, and was interrupted by Bi Yuan's depreciation. In the third year of Jiaqing (1798), he relied on Xie Qikun's support in Hangzhou to revise it into three hundred and twenty-five volumes, but the book finally failed to circulate, and only the "Outline of the Examination of TheOry of Revision of Historical Books" at the time of its creation, the "Interpretation of The Interpretation of The History of the History" at the time of the completion of the book, and the "General Catalogue of the Examination of Historical Books" have survived to this day. In the fifth year of Jiaqing (1800), Zhang Xuecheng became blind due to an eye disease and continued to write, and died in November of the sixth year of Jiaqing (1801).
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