Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period/Wan Ssŭ-ta
WAN Ssŭ-ta 萬斯大 (T. 充宗, H. 跛翁, 褐夫先生), July 11, 1633–1683, Sept. 16, scholar, native of Yin-hsien, Chekiang, was the sixth son of Wan T'ai [q. v.] and father of Wan Ching [q. v.]. Like his brothers, he was a pupil of Huang Tsung-hsi [q. v.]. He took no interest in the examinations, conceiving it to be his duty to elucidate the Classics, particularly the three Rites (Record of Rites, Decorum Ritual, Institutes of Chou) and the Spring and Autumn Annals. His investigations on the latter filled 242 chüan, but these were all destroyed by fire in 1673. He began, in 1681, to retrieve this loss, but when he died two years later only 10 chüan of miscellaneous notes, 學春秋隨筆 Hsüeh Ch'un-ch'iu sui-pi, were completed. This work, together with four others on the Rites (學禮質疑 Hsüeh Li chih-i, 禮記偶箋 Li-chi ou-chien, 儀禮商 I-li shang and 周官辨非 Chou-kuan pien fei), were printed by his son under the general title Five Treatises on the Classics, 經學五書 Ching hsüeh wu-shu, whose preface is dated 1758. In addition to the above, Wan Ssŭ-ta compiled a genealogy of the Wan family, 萬氏家譜 Wan-shih chia-p'u, in 20 chüan.
[2/63/19b; 3/413/26a; Yin-hsien chih (1877) 41/19b; Ssŭ-k'u 20/5a, 22/1b, 23/5a, 24/5a, 31/2a.]