Chekiang. His grandfather, Shao Tsêng-k'o 邵曾可 (T. 子唯, H. 魯公, d. 1658, aged 51 sui), was a pupil of Shên Kuo-mo 沈國模 (or 謨 T. 叔則, 求如, 1575–1656), who founded in Yü-yao the Academy known as the Yao-chiang Shu-yüan 姚江書院 I to promote the teachings of Wang Shou-jên (see under Chang Li-hsiang)—Wang also having been a native of that place. His father, Shao Chên-hsien 邵貞顯 (T. 立夫, H. 鶴閒, d. 1670 aged 45 sui), carried on the tradition as a student and teacher. In 1664 Shao T'ing-ts'ai became a pupil of Han K'ung-tang 韓孔當 (T. 仁父, H. 遺韓, d. 1671, aged 73 sui), a local scholar of the Wang school. During 1667-68, he went to Shaohsing to attend the Chêng-jên chiang-hui 證人講會, a gathering of scholars called together by Huang Tsung-hsi [q. v.] and others. It was there that, in 1668, he first met Mao Ch'i-ling [q. v.] whom he admired and with whom he later corresponded. After he was made a licentiate, in 1669, he competed fourteen times for a higher degree, but never succeeded. In 1694 he was engaged by the magistrate of Yü-yao to take charge of the Yao-chiang Academy. In 1708 he went to Peking where he lived in the home of Sung Chih (1656–1726, see under Sung Lao), and while there he became a friend of Wan Ching [q. v.]. He also corresponded with Li Kung [q. v.], the well-known philosopher of North China.
His historical works, entitled 東南紀事 Tung-nan chi-shih and 西南紀事 Hsi-nan chi-shih, deal with the southern Ming regime. They were printed, each in 12 chüan, in the 邵武徐氏叢書 Shao-wu Hsü-shih ts'ung-shu (1884). A collection of his essays, entitled 思復堂文集 Ssŭ-fu t'ang wên-chi, 10 chüan, was first printed in 1705, and was reprinted in 1894 in the Shao-hsing hsien-chêng i-shu (see under Wang Hui-tsu). A considerable number of these essays are devoted to biographies of Ming and early Ch‘ing philosophers and to the lives of Sung and Ming loyalists. Twelve of them, dealing with economics and government, were printed separately in 1711 under the title 治平略 Chih-p'ing lüeh.
[1/486/9a; Ssŭ-fu t'ang wên-chi; Shao-hsing fu-chih (1792) 53/63a; Yao Ming-ta 姚名達, 邵念魯年譜 Shao Nien-lu nien-p'u (1930); T'oung Pao (1934), p. 98.]
SHAO-tsung. Temple name of Chu Yü-chien [q. v.].
SHAO-wu. Reign-title of Chu Yü-yüeh (see under Chu Yü-chien).
SHÊN Chin-ssŭ 沈近思 (T. 位山, H. 闇齋, 俟軒), Feb. 22, 1671–1728, Jan. 23, official and philosopher, was the fifth son of a poor farmer of Jên-ho (Hangchow). When he was nine (sui) his father died, and when he was thirteen (sui) an elder brother took him to the famous local monastery, Ling-yin-ssŭ 靈隱寺. There he began his study of Buddhism under the direction of a monk named Chieh-ch'ao Lao-jên 借巢老人 who later sent him to study under Chou Ssŭ-min 周思敏 (H. 魯亭, 1648–1708), a student of both Confucianism and Buddhism. At fifteen, he began his meditations with a view to becoming a Buddhist priest, at the same time studying the Chinese classics, and making the acquaintance of learned scholars. In 1700 he took his chin-shih degree, but before being appointed to an official post he returned to his home and taught, asserting that his scholarship was not adequate to make him of service to the world. In 1706 he was appointed magistrate of Lin-ying, Honan, where he became a greatly beloved official. There he established a free school for illiterate children in the village of Ko-kang 葛崗 (1709), and in 1710 founded the Tzŭ-yang Academy (紫陽書院). He built new granaries, cemeteries for the poor, temples to virtuous persons, repaired the city wall and the graves of ancient worthies, and built a dike at K‘ung-chia-k'ou 孔家口. In 1713 his work became known to Emperor Shêng-tsu who appointed him sub-prefect of Nanning, Kwangsi. Beset by illness, Shên retired in the following year to teach.
In 1720 he was summoned to the capital and appointed steward to the Pên-yü Granary (本裕倉) in Ch'ing-ho, Chihli. But owing to a bandit uprising in Formosa he was sent to the neighbouring province of Fukien to await appointment as prefect. There he wrote four essays, with the collective title 遠慮論 Yüan-lü lun, in which he presented suggestions concerning pacification of the island. In 1723 he was successively appointed a director in the Board of Civil Office, associate-examiner of the metropolitan examination, and later director of the Court of the Imperial Stud, examiner in the provincial examination of Shantung (1724), and director of the metropolitan military examination. In 1726 he was in charge of the provincial examination of Kiangnan (Kiangsu and Anhwei). In the same year, in consequence of the punishment of two officials from his own province, Chekiang
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