title (正續)外吏規型 (Cheng-hsü) Wai-li kuei-hsing.
[1/378/1a; 2/37/46a; 3/373/41a; 5/55/1a; 1/377/5a; 1/379/5a; (see bibl. under Ch'i-ying).]
YÜ Chih-ting 禹之鼎 (T. 尚吉, 尚基, 上吉, H. 愼齋), 1649–1702, painter, was a native of Chiang-tu, Kiangsu. In his youth he was a pupil of Lan Ying 藍瑛 (T. 田叔, H. 蝶叟, 石頭陀), a noted painter of the late Ming period. Yü Chih-ting's greatest skill lay in portraiture for which he generally used the so-called "black and white" method (白菗). He also employed the "orchid leaf style" (蘭葉法) of the great T'ang artist, Wu Tao-hsüan 吳道玄 (T. 道子, early 8th century). For more than six years prior to 1690 he held a post in the capital as usher in the Court of State Ceremonial and also served in the Imperial Court as a painter. Many contemporaries of note, such as Wu Wei-yeh, Ch'ên T'ing-ching, Kao Shih-ch'i, and Hsü Ch'ien-hsüeh [qq. v.], induced him to prepare portraits and other paintings for them. In 1645 he retired from office, making his home at Tung-t'ing shan in T'ai-hu, Kiangsu. A painting by him, entitled 王會圖 Wang-hui t'u, "Assembly of the Princes", was inspired by the chapter, Wang-hui, in the ancient work 逸周書 I Chou-shu. He presumably adapted it to the ceremonies then accorded by the Ch'ing Court to princes and ambassadors of tributary states. A painting which he made for Wang Shih-chên [q. v.] in 1701, entitled 王漁洋踏雪尋梅圖 Wang Yu-yang t'a-hsüeh hsün-mei t'u, is reproduced in the work, 中國名畫 Chung-kuo ming-hua, series eight. The 故宮週刊 Ku-kung chou-k'an (nos. 172 and 474) has also reproduced two of his paintings from the Palace Museum, Peiping.
[1/509/2b; 19/2上/47b; 20/1/00 (portrait); 27/13/7b; Chiang-tu hsien hsü-chih (1831) 6/23a; Waley, Index, p. 109; T'oung Pao 1922, p. 359; Chavannes, Ars Asiatica I, p. 55; L.T.C.L.H.M., p. 191 lists a number of paintings attributed to him.]
YÜ Hsiao-k'o 余蕭客 (T. 仲林, H. 古農), 1729–1777, native of Ch'ang-chou (Soochow), was one of the followers of the great classicist, Hui Tung [q. v.]. When Yü Hsiao-k'o was only five sui his father went to Kwangsi as private secretary to an official, but a few years later his father died and he was brought up by his mother. From youth on he was a diligent student of the Classics, but he early became dissatisfied with the traditional methods of the so-called Sung Learning (see under Ku Yen-wu) which stressed a philosophic rather than a textual and historical study of the Classics. He thus began to read the Classics with the aid of ancient commentaries, and for a time he studied under Hui Tung. Yü's method of study demanded access to an extensive library, but as he was too poor to purchase all the books he needed, he transcribed rare items from the collections of others. He is reported to have read the Taoist Canon and the Tripitaka at temple libraries in Soochow. In 1761 he lived as a tutor in the residence of a fellow townsman, Chu Huan 朱奐 (T. 文游), who owned a library, called Tzŭ-lan t'ang 滋蘭堂, where Yü pored over rare books. By 1762 his excessive reading had so impaired his vision that he was unable to read books printed in small type. A few years later he was invited by Fang Kuan-ch'êng [q. v.] to Paoting, Chihli, to participate in the compilation of the Chih-li ho-ch'ü shui-li shu (see under Tai Chên). Soon, however, owing to his rapidly failing eye-sight, he left Paoting (1768) and recommended Tai Chên as his successor. During this short period he visited Peking where his scholarship was recognized by Chu Yün, Chi Yün [qq. v.] and other influential scholars. In his declining years he taught in his native town, Soochow, where he was called the "Blind Master" because he lectured solely from memory.
Though Yü Hsiao-k'o was throughout life an impecunious scholar, and therefore handicapped, he left several works on the Classics, among them the 古經解鉤沈 Ku-ching chieh kou-ch'ên, 30 chüan, a collection of fragments of ancient commentaries on the Classics extracted from various works written prior to the T'ang period. This work was published about 1762, but Yü Hsiao-k'o himself was not satisfied with it and asked his eminent pupil, Chiang Fan [q. v.], to revise it. The latter, however, had no opportunity to do so. The partially impaired printing-blocks of the above-mentioned edition later (1807) came into the possession of the Lu 魯 family of Chinkiang where the work was twice reprinted—the first reprinted edition lacking about thirty leaves of the original, the second (1840) being complete. Yü was so interested in the study of the ancient literary collection, Wên-hsüan (see under Wêng Fang-kang), that he called his studio Hsüan-yin lou 選音樓.
941
