Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period/P'an Ch'êng-chang
P'AN Ch'êng-chang 潘檉章 (T. 聖木, H. 力田), d. July 1, 1663, age 38 (sui), historian, was a native of Wu-chiang, Kiangsu. Refraining from taking the examinations under the newly established Manchu regime, he and Wu Yen [q. v.] determined in 1652 to collaborate on a history of the Ming dynasty and on an historical account of the same period in poetical form. The former was destroyed in manuscript; the latter, which was completed in 1656 under the title of Chin yüeh-fu, has come down to our time, although banned by imperial decree (for both works see under Wu Yen). P'an himself wrote a book of biographical sketches of famous people of his own district, entitled 松陵文獻 Sung-ling wên-hsien, in 15 chüan and a work supplementing and correcting the Shih-lu or official records of the Ming emperors, which he entitled "Discrepancies in the National History" (國史考異, Kuo-shih k'ao-i). Six chüan of the latter (originally there were more than 30) may be seen in the Kung-shun t'ang ts'ung-shu (see under P'an Tsu-yin). The Sung-ling wên-hsien was preserved by his half-brother, P'an Lei [q. v.], whose preface states that it was printed in 1694. P'an Ch'êng-chang and Wu Yen were arrested in March 1663 because their names appeared as assistant compilers of the Ming-shih chi-lüeh of Chuang T'ing-lung [q. v.]. They were put to death in Hangchow early in July of the same year.
[6/35/23a–28b; Wu-chiang hsien-chih (1747),33/38b and 55/40a–44a.]