Ruan Yuan, 1764-1849: The Life and Work of a Major Scholar-Official in Nineteenth-Century China before the Opium War

9. Scholar and Patron of Learning of the Mid-Qing Era

9 Scholar and Patron of Learning of the Mid-Qing Era As a scholar and patron of learning Ruan Yuan is well known. His intellectual interests encompassed a wide range of research. With more than eighty extant publications with his name as author, compiler, or editor, there are also scores of forewords and epilogues to other scholars’ works, indicating that at least he was familiar with their contents. It was not easy for him to manage his government job and scholarly activities at the same time. Conflict of demands invariably occurred. In 1814, when time passed and he had not succeeded in capturing Zhu Maoli in Jiangxi, the Jiaqing Emperor ranted his frustrations in writing: ‘Is Ruan Yuan deaf and dumb like a wooden dummy,’1 or ‘is he spending too much time on literary compilations and neglecting his official responsibilities?’2 Consequently, whatever time and energy Ruan Yuan expended on scholarly pursuits, they could not be his top priority. Ruan Yuan’s Publications A full list of his extant publications can be found in Appendix IV. I have already described the circumstances which led to some of his earlier publications in Chapters 2 and 3, when he was a young metropolitan graduate in Beijing and provincial director of studies in Shandong and Zhejiang. After he assumed high positions in the provinces where funding was available, he continued endeavours employing scholars with expertise in all areas. Under his aegis, some of the most important publications of the Qing dynasty, from dictionaries to new editions of the Classics, were compiled and printed. In addition to the classics, both original analyses and new editions as a result of etymological investigations, he left works in all areas of scholarship, comprising works in archaeology and epigraphy, 1. GZD-JQ019008. Imperial rescript. 2. GZD-JQ019639. Imperial rescript. 202 Ruan Yuan, 1764–1849 bibliography and annotated catalogues, biography, dictionaries and lexicography, history and geography, anthropology and ethnology, literature, mathematics and astronomy, and technology. He also compiled major anthologies of works by scholars and poets whose works would not have survived otherwise. His writings on the Classics were printed in collections such as his Collection from the Yanjing Studio (Yanjing Shiji 揅經室集). They included essays of various lengths on topics from definitions of concepts such as ren (仁) and xing (性) to longer discourses of passages from texts such as the Classic of Rites, especially the Yili (儀禮). Some of his writings have been attacked by Mainland scholars for his political and interpretative perspectives,3 but his contributions to classical learning have been recognized as unparalleled. He completed a new edition of The Thirteen Classics with commentary essays of various ages (Shisanjing Zhushu Fu Jiao Kanji 十三經注疏附校堪記). This work has remained a standard text today. It was the principal text used by James Legge for his translation of the Chinese Classics into English.4 Equally indispensable to modern art historians are his identifications and analyses of ancient inscriptions found on bronzes and stone, as printed in Inscriptions on Bronze and Stone from Shandong (Shanzuo Jinshi Zhi 山 左金石志), Inscriptions on Bronze and Stone from Zhejiang (Liangzhe Jinshi Zhi 兩浙 金石志), and Identifications of Inscriptions on Bronzes in the Jigu Studio (Jiguzhai Zhongding Yiqi Kuanshi 積古齋鐘鼎彝器款識), among others. His interests and achievements in history, geography and historical geography were evident in the compilation of provincial gazetteers, such as the Comprehensive Gazetteer of Guangdong (Guangdong Tongzhi 廣東通志), the Draft Comprehensive Gazetteer of Yunnan (Yunnan Tongzhi Gao 雲南通志稿), Exploration of a World Map (Diqiu Tushuo 地球圖說), and Study of Old Landmarks in Zhejiang (Zhejiang Fanghu ‘Lingqin Cimu’ Lu 浙江防護 『陵寢祠墓』錄). He also wrote essays on practical subjects such as Measurement on Storage of Tribute Rice and A Discourse on Sea Transport, both are classified as ‘statecraft’ literature. The biographies he compiled gave modern historians a sense of learning of the era. His Draft Biographies of Scholars (Rulin Zhuangao 儒林傳稿), men of learning who did not hold offices above the third rank, therefore would not have official biographies compiled by the Historiography Office, became a part of the Draft 3. For example, see article from Marxist perspective by Cheng Mingshi (承名世) of the Shanghai Museum, ‘Zhu Yuanzhang de Liangtong Junling – Jialun Qingren de Fansuo Kaozheng’ (朱元璋的 兩通軍令 — 兼論清人的煩瑣考證), Wenwu (文物) 243 (July 1976), pp. 37–44. 4. The copy in the Hong Kong University Library is James Legge, The Chinese Classics, with a translation, critical and exegetical notes, prolegomena, and copius indexes. Printed at the London Mission Society Printing Office, Hong Kong, 1861–72. Scholar and Patron of Learning of...