Quan Zuwang

Life

Born into the Quan family of Yin County, he was the son of Quan Shu (全書, 1663–1738), with Quan Dacheng (全大程) as his great-grandfather, Quan Wuqi (全吾騏) as his grandfather, and Quan Zuqian (全祖謙) as his elder brother; his son was Quan Zhaode (全昭德) and his grandson Quan Suntong (全孫桐). An early prodigy, he could explain the Four Books and Five Classics at four, read the Zizhi Tongjian at seven, and studied under Dong Ci'ou (董次歐).

At nineteen, he was recommended to go to the capital by the education commissioner Wang Lansheng (王蘭生), where he met Fang Bao (方苞). In 1732 he passed the Shuntian provincial examination, and Li Fu (李紱), after reading his examination paper, hailed him as the foremost successor to Shen Ning and Dong Fa. His first wife, née Zhang (張氏), died in childbirth in the eighth month of that year; in 1735 he remarried Cao (曹氏), while poverty led him to pawn twenty thousand volumes of books at Huang Jiancang’s establishment in Renhe.

In 1736 he passed the metropolitan examination as the thirty-sixth candidate in the third class, received the designation “presented scholar of the same degree,” and was selected as a Hanlin Academy shuji shi. While in the Hanlin Academy, he borrowed the Yongle Dadian and copied rare books; after the completion of his academy service he declined appointment as a magistrate, returned home the following year, and devoted himself to writing and teaching. He later lectured at Jishan Academy in Zhejiang and Duanxi Academy in Guangdong; in 1742 he and fellow native Jiang Shizhi (蔣拭之) and others founded the Zhenlu Society, where they exchanged poems. In 1748 he accepted an appointment to lecture at Jishan Academy but resigned after an affront from the prefect; in 1751 he went to Duanxi Academy and returned home the following year because of illness. His friends included Hang Shijun (杭世駿), Li E (厲鶚), and Zhao Yu (趙昱), while his students included Lu Gao (盧鎬), Dong Bingchun (董秉純), and Jiang Xueyong (蔣學鏞).

Strong-willed and unconventional, he was broadly learned and devoted especially to collecting documents and honoring loyal figures; he was particularly accomplished in the history of the late Song and Southern Ming, and paid close attention to the loyalists of the late Ming and the scholars of the early Qing. In 1754 he lived in Yangzhou, continuing to collate and write despite illness, and returned home in winter; he died on 9 August 1755 at the age of fifty-one, while his son Quan Zhaode also died young that year. His family sold the ten thousand volumes kept at Shuangjiu Shanfang to raise two hundred silver taels for his burial, and his tomb was at Wangjiaqiao south of the city. After his death, Dong Bingchun organized his writings, and together with Jiang Xueyong asked Hang Shijun to collate the manuscript of the Jiqiting Collection and write its preface; Hang’s original draft was lost, but Dong preserved a duplicate, which was printed in 1801.

Scholarship and works

His scholarship ranged across history, the classics, poetry, and prose. The Jiqiting Collection contains a large number of inscriptions, memorials, biographies, and records concerning late-Ming loyalists and early-Qing scholars; he also spent about ten years completing the portion of the Song-Yuan Learning Cases that Huang Zongxi and Huang Baijia had left only about three-tenths to two-fifths finished.

His principal works include the Jiqiting Wenji, Jiqiting Waibian, Jiqiting Shiji, Questions on the Classics and Histories, Doubts on the Geography Treatise of the Han History, Ju Yu T uyin, and the Chronological Table of General History from Antiquity to the Present; he also collated the Shuijing zhu, annotated the Kunxue jiwen, compiled the Yongshang Old Poems, and is associated with the Duyi Bielu, Gongche Zhengshi lu, Cike Zhiyan, Qian Zhongjie Gong ji, Duling ji, Cangtian lu, Yongshang Zuwang biao, Kongzi Disciples’ Name Table, and Tianyi Pavilion Stele Catalogue. He devoted particular effort to the local literature of Ningbo, searching for and copying the Qian Dao Siming Illustrated Gazetteer, the Baoqing Siming Gazetteer, the Kaiqing Siming Gazetteer, and the Yongshang Old Poems, while compiling the Ju Yu Singing-and-Responding Collection and writing the Ju Yu T uyin.