Ling Tingkan

Life

His grandfather was Ling Yiyun and his father Ling Wenchang (died 1760), his mother being of the Wang family; his elder brother was Ling Tingyao and his wife of the Hua family. His nephew was Ling Jiaxi, his grandson Ling Mingde, and an ancestor of the line was Ling Antang.

Brought up in poverty, he was apprenticed to trade in his youth and began preparing for the civil examinations only at the age of twenty-five, copying the classics out by hand. He was placed on a supplementary roll and passed the provincial examination, and in 1790, the fifty-fifth year of the Qianlong reign, he obtained the jinshi degree, ranking twenty-sixth in the third class, and was appointed professor at Ningguo Prefecture. He travelled to Yangzhou and in 1783 to Shuntian Prefecture; he entered the Imperial College, studied under Weng Fanggang, and turned to classical scholarship.

In his youth he lived by the sea and amused himself with writing ci, exchanging verses with his fellow townsman Zhang Zhuoting. Travels abroad led him to the classics, and he came to know Ruan Yuan of Yizheng; about the age of twenty he put aside ci writing and devoted himself to learning. While serving at Wanling he sorted his old drafts and compiled them into the two-juan collection 《梅邊吹笛譜》, taking its title from a line in Baishi's 'Anxiang'. At the Dragon Boat Festival of 1800 (the fifth year of Jiaqing) he wrote a preface for the collection; Ruan Yuan, then a vice-minister serving as governor of Zhejiang, had a copy made for his inspection.

Scholarship

Ling Tingkan was broadly learned in the classics and history and skilled in literary composition; he was diligent in the study of history and thoroughly familiar with changes in territorial boundaries and differences among official posts. He devoted himself especially to the three Rites classics, was versed in music theory and calendrical astronomy, and was a noted figure of the Qianlong–Jiaqing school. His study of music theory led him to test the qin against the pipa and to conclude that the twenty-eight modes of banquet music often differed in name from those of court music. He was an accomplished writer of prose and verse, especially parallel prose.

Works

His works include 《禮經釋例》, 《燕樂考原》, 《元遺山年譜》, 《校禮堂文集》 and 《校禮堂詩集》, the ci collection 《梅邊吹笛譜》, 《充渠新書》, 《晉泰始笛律匡謬》, 《箚記》 and 《魏書音義》. The two-juan ci collection was prepared by his own hand; in 1826 (the sixth year of Daoguang) his pupil Zhang Qijin arranged its table of contents and wrote a postscript, remarking that his teacher's ci did not follow any single school but was especially strict in its prosody. He also wrote a postscript for the writings of Chen Zuren and a preface for those of Lu Nan.

Friends and Pupils

He was a friend of Jiao Xun, Jiang Fan, Li Ruzhen and Wang Pinzhen, and a fellow townsman of Hong Bang and Wang Long. Zhang Binhe recognized him for his writing and learning, while Huang Wenyang and Jin Zhaoyan admired him, and Cheng Jinfang recommended him for a special examination. His pupils included Hu Peihui, Cheng Enze, Lü Feipeng, Ruan Changsheng, Zhang Qijin, Dai Yanghui and Cheng Hongpu. After his death Cheng Hongpu arranged his burial and Zhang Qijin compiled his chronological biography, while Ruan Yuan wrote his biography and had his writings printed at Hangzhou.