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- 40 A FURTHER NOTE ON THE HCCSWP By Peter Mitchell, York University Toronto In the February, 1969 number of the Ch'ing-shih wen-t'i, Frederick Wakeman briefly outlined and commented on an important early nineteenth century source, the Huang-ch'ao ching-shih wenpie ? *? sH ^iHt1X.íffl· noting particularly its usefulness "as a means of getting a genuine sense of Ch'ing institutional history , and of appreciating the values of those Chinese officials who constantly referred to this work for both inspiration and guidance in daily administration. " (Wakeman, 8. ) To reinforce a shared enthusiasm for this initial work ina series of "statecraft" compendiums of the late Ch'ing period, I wish to expand briefly on the circumstances of its completion in light of some research done on Wei Yuan ^^ ^. (1794-1857). It was Wei who brought to this work that blend of revived empiricist concern for administrative problems and the "radical" chin -wen (Modern Text) concepts of ho -shih ("accord with the times"). His connection with this work also illustrates the emergence in Kiangsu province of a reformist group of officials and thinkers whose limited but impressive efforts to implement the ideas of the HCCSWP in the late 1820 's and early - 41 1830 's were destroyed by the Opium War. Wei Yuan, a Hunanese scholar born to a minor Kiangsu official noted for his integrity and ability in office, studied in the capital between 1813 and 1825 under several of the best examples of available intellectual alternatives. Besides Sung-hstleh and Han-hsüeh, the chin -wen concepts of Liu Feng-luj£"\ ÌJ,/PsK (1766-1829) [see Hummel; 518-52 G particularly affected Wei's intellectual development just as they also fostered the early views of Kung Tzu-chen ( ^nL· fjj J^ , 1792-1841), the mercurial genius with whom Wei's name became intimately linked in their chin-wen advocacy. Wei failed twice in the Shun-t'ien provincial examinations before obtaining in 1822 at 29 sui his chü-jen degree, standing second in the list and obtaining even the Emperor's personal commendation on the excellence of his examination papers. It was another two decades before he managed to achieved the coveted chin-shih status. He was noted not only for his scholarly accomplishments but also as a keen student of contemporary affairs. In 1825 he accepted the invitation of Ho Ch'ang-ling, then Financial Commissioner of Kiangsu, to edit the HCCSWP. How Wei came to Ho's notice is not clear. Ho had been in the capital during Wei's earlier student days there, and may have been brought to notice Wei through T'ao Chu ^tW $? (1779-1838), - 42 another Hunanese noted for his reformist sentiments and governor of Kiangsu from 1825 to 1830. It is known that both Ho and T'ao held a high opinion of Wei's father's conduct in Kiangsu river control , bandit suppression and directorship of the Soochow mint from 1824 to 1829 under a succession of Financial Commissioners. Ho's sponsorship of Wei was not unusual: he was known for his support of young promising scholars, particularly Hunanese, and made a practice of holding dinners for officials of various ranks to discuss contemporary administrative problems and schemes for reform. The question of Wei's actual degree of involvement in the HCCSWP's compilation is a difficult one. Wakeman indicated Ho began compilation in 1821, completing the work during his Kiangsu tenure of office as judicial commissioner and later financial commissioner . Wei, himself in 1855, stated simply that "When I briefly travelled to the capital, I was fond of consulting the historical archives. Then in the 5th year of Tao-kuang (1825), I edited the HCCSWP for Ho Fang-po LCh 'ang -ling] of Kiangsu. " CkWTNWC, 439.] Since his friends and later official biographers always associated Wei closely with this work, it can be argued that he certainly played a major role in that work's final form. Ho Ch'iu-t'ao^] *l -j& ïfg (1824-1862), the famous scholar and historian, reinforced this possibility by stating in his famous Shuo-fang pei -sheng áyj ~y\ - 43 I W sK. ¡-See Hummel, 283], "He CweiJ was originally...

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