吳棫 (T. 才老, chin-shih of 1124), Chu Hsi (see under Hu Wei), and others, cast doubts upon the authenticity of the fourth century text; and in the year 1543 Mei Tsu (see under Sun Hsing-yen) published his Ku-wên Shang-shu k'ao-i ("A Study of Discrepancies in the Shu-ching in Ancient Characters"). But, even so, the authenticity of a text which had circulated so long was not generally questioned. By the time Yen Jo-chü was twenty years of age he began to doubt its authenticity and devoted the next thirty years to an exhaustive study of the problem. The result is the above-mentioned Shang-shu ku-wên shu-chêng which, by convincing evidence and judicious arguments, proved beyond doubt that the "ancient text", which had circulated for a millenium, is a forgery. Although some scholars took issue with Yen's conclusions ksee under Mao Ch'i-ling), most of the adherents of the School of Han Learning (see under Ku Yen-wu) saw no reason to doubt them. The importance of Yen's discovery to Chinese historical criticism can scarcely be exaggerated. Not only was a long-venerated Classic taken down from its exalted position, but the way was opened for a critical examination of any work of antiquity—no matter how sacred.
Equally daring, and scarcely less revolutionary, was Yen's examination of the authorship of the Ta-hsüeh, or Great Learning—originally a chapter in the Record of Rites (Li-chi) and now one of the Four Books. He pointed out that the attribution of the work, by Sung scholars, to Tsêng Shên 曾參 (i.e. Tsêng-tzŭ, b. 505 B.C.) and his disciples was without foundation. Yen's argument was so conclusive that the traditional belief was shaken.
Yen Jo-chü had a vivid sense of chronology, as his Shang-shu ku-wên shu-chêng and his 孟子生卒年考 Mêng-tzŭ shêng-tsu-nien k'ao ("An Investigation of the Birth and Death Dates of Mencius") indicate. The last-named work was printed a few years before his death. He was also a specialist in historical geography, a knowledge of which he regarded as indispensable to an understanding of classical works. His 四書釋地 Ssŭ-shu shih-ti ("Analysis of the Place Names in the Four Books"), 6 chüan, is a valuable contribution both to geographical and classical scholarship, and has been supplemented at carious times. It was first printed in serial form about the year 1696, and was reprinted as a whole in 1787. Yen Jo-chü also left a collection of miscellaneous notes, entitled 潛邱劄記 Ch'ien-ch'iu cha-chi, 6 chüan; which was printed by his grandson, Yen Hsüeh-lin 閻學林 (T. 信藪). Appended to it is the literary collection, 左汾近稿 Tso fên chin-kao, of his eldest son, Yen Yung 閻詠 (T. 復申, original ming 詒樸 T. 元木 H. 左汾, chin-shih of 1709). A chronological biography of Yen Jo-chü is referred to in the biography of Chang Mu [q. v.] in this dictionary. A set of Yen's miscellaneous studies appear in various ts'ung-shu.
[1/487/8a; 2/68/17a; 3/415/7a; 4/131/8a; 7/32/1a; Li Tsung-fang, 聞妙香室文集 Wên miao-hsiang shih wên-chi (1835) 12/1a; Yen Jo-chü hsien-shêng nien-p'u (see under Chang Mu), Ssŭ-k'u, passim; Ch'ien Ta-hsin [q. v.], Ch'ien Yen-t'ang ch'üan-shu (wên-chi, Changsha, 1884), 38/5a–11b; Ting Kuo-chün, 荷香館瑣言 Ho-hsiang kuan so-yen, hsia 20a; Chao-lien [q. v.], Hsiao-t'ing tsa-lu 5/37a.]
YEN K'o-chün 嚴可均 (T. 景文, H. 鐵橋), 1762–1843, scholar, was a native of Wu-ch'êng, Chekiang. Finding himself unable to advance in the examinations in his native province, owing it is said, to delinquency in taxes, he went to the capital in 1795 and registered as from Wan-p'ing (Peking). There, in 1800, he passed the Shun-t'ien provincial examination and became a chü-jên. Beginning about 1796, he became interested in the study of the Shuo-wên (see under Tuan Yü-ts'ai) and related philological subjects, which he pursued, together with his friend, Yao Wên-t'ien [q. v.]. Yen was one of the pioneers in this field, for at that time interest in the study of the Shuo-wên was slight and few of its numerous collated texts had appeared. The great works on the subject (see under Tuan, Niu Shu-yü, Fêng Kuei-fên et. al) had not yet been published. Yen's first publiished work on the Shuo-wên was the Shuo-wên ting-ting (訂訂), printed in 1800 (see Tuan Yü-ts'ai); the second was the Shuo-wên shêng-lei (聲類), 2 chüan, completed in 1802; and the third was entitled Shuo-wên i (翼), 15 chüan, completed in 1807, which dealt with variant forms of the ancient characters, collected from inscriptions on metal or stone. The fourth, and most important, study was the Shuo-wên chiao-i (校議), 30 chüan, with a sketch of the life of Hsü Shên (see Tuan Yü-ts'ai). It was printed about 1818 and was compiled in collaboration with Yao Wên-t'ien and Sun Hsing-yen [q. v.]. This last work sets forth correctives in the text of the Shuo-wên as edited by Hsü
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