Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 2.pdf/60

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Singde
Singde

酉陽修月 Yu-yang hsiu-yüeh, 琵琶賺 P'i-p'a chuan, and 桃花人面 Toao-hua jên-mien. The first four were published in 1833 under the collective title 瓶笙館修簫譜 P 'ing-shêng kuan hsiu-hsiao p'u.

Shu Wei was gifted in music, and played various instruments. At times he also composed the music for his own dramas, and this may account for the lyric quality of his writings. He also had skill as a painter and calligrapher.

In the course of his wide travels Shu Wei made many literary friends, among them, Sun Yüan-hsiang [q. v.] and Wang T'an 王曇 (T. 仲瞿, 1760–1817). The latter, a chü-jên of 1794, was the nephew of Shu's wife, and author of the following works: 煙霞萬古樓文集 Yen-hsia wan-ku lou wên-chi, 6 chüan; Yen-hsia wan-ku lou shih-hsüan (詩選), 2 chüan, both printed in 1840; 仲瞿詩錄 Chung-ch'ü shih-lu 1 chüan, printed in 1851; and some ten unpublished works on various subjects.


[2/72/55b; 3/439/13a; 10/25/10b; 19/戊上/26b; 24/43/11a; 26/2/26b; 29/6/33a; Shih Yün-yü [q. v.], Tu-hsüeh lu san-kao 5/9b; Aoki, Seiji 青木正兒, 中國近代戲曲史 Chung-kuo chin-tai hsi-ch'ü shih (translated by Chêng Chên 鄭震 1933), pp. 399–401; P'ing-shêng kuan hsiu-hsiao p'u, in the 百川書屋叢書 Po-ch'uan shu-wu ts'ung-shu; Yen-hsia wan-ku lou wên-chi, 4/23a; Yen-hsia wan-ku lou shih-hsüan, 1/2a.]

Li Man-kuei


SHUN-ch'êng, Prince. See under Lekedehun.


SHUN-chih. Reign-title of Fu-lin [q. v.].


SHUN-t'ien. Reign-title of Lin Shuang-wên (see under Ch'ai Ta-chi).


SINGDE 性德 (T. 容若, H. 楞伽山人, original name, Cengde 成德), Jan. 19, 1655–1685, July 1, poet and official, was the eldest son of Mingju [q. v.] of the Yehe Nara clan, and a member of the Manchu Plain Yellow Banner. When he took his chü-jên degree, in 1672, one of the chief examiners was Hsü Ch'ien-hsüeh [q. v.] who later did his utmost to advance the studies and the fame of this Manchu scholar. Although he passed the metropolitan examination in 1673 at the age of nineteen (sui), Singde was hindered by illness from proceeding at once with the palace examinations. In the interval of three years before the next examination he jotted down four chüan of miscellaneous notes on his studies which he entitled 淥水亭雜識 Lu-shui t'ing tsa-chih, after the name of a pavilion in his father's garden near the Shih-ch'a hai 十剎海 in the northern precincts of Peking. This garden later became the property of Prince Ch'êng (see under Yung-hsing) and still later of Prince Ch'un (see under I-huan). In the palace examinations of 1676 Singde ranked seventh as chin-shih of the second class. But instead of appointing him to a literary post, Emperor Shêng-tsu made him an officer of the Imperial Bodyguard.

Singde's fame as a writer of tz'ŭ (poems in irregular metre), and as a scholar, spread rapidly in literary circles of Peking. By 1678 his second collection of tz'ŭ was edited and printed by his friends, Ku Chên-kuan 顧貞觀 (T. 華封, H. 梁汾, b. 1637) and Wu Ch'i [q. v.], under the title 飲水詞 Yin-shui tz'ŭ—the first collection, 側帽詞 Ts'e-mao tz'ŭ, having appeared some time earlier. Many of the Chinese scholars.who were summoned to Peking to take the special examination in 1679, known as po-hsüeh hung-tz'ŭ (see under P'êng Sun-yü), became his intimate friends, and not a few were benefited financially by him or through the influence of his father who had been made a Grand Secretary in 1677. Apparently it was Singde's hospitality to Chinese scholars which gave rise to the theory that he was the hero of Ts'ao Chan's [q. v.] famous novel, Hung-lou mêng.

In 1682 Singde joined the commission under Langtan and Pengcun [qq. v.] which was sent to investigate the activities of Russia in the Amur region. From then on he accompanied the Emperor on many tours outside the capital—once to Chekiang in 1684. When the Emperor set out in June 1685 on a trip to the Eastern Tombs, Singde was too ill to go. He died in the following month, leaving three sons and two daughters.

The collected works of Singde, in 20 chüan, were edited by Hsü Ch'ien-hsüeh and printed in 1691 under the title 通志堂集 T'ung-chih t'ang chi, after the name of his studio. This work received descriptive notice in the Ssŭ-k'u Catalog (see under Chi Yün), as did two others on the Classics which seem, however, to have been compiled by Chinese scholars and later attributed to Singde. His studio name appears in the title of the great collection of 138 treatises on the Nine Classics, entitled 通志堂集 T'ung-chih t'ang ching-chieh (經解). Hsü Ch'ien-hsüeh's preface to it states that Singde provided the funds to initiate the printing. His name appears in the margins as the editor, and there are various perfunctory prefaces attributed to him, but these were probably written by others. The work itself seems not to have been printed until after Singde's death.

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