Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period/Chiang Liang-ch'i
CHIANG Liang-ch'i 蔣良騏 (T. 千之, H. 蠃川) 1722–1789, official and writer, was a native of Ch'üan-chou, Kwangsi. He was the second son of Chiang Lin 蔣林 (T. 元楚, H. 介亭, 1694–1748) who was a chin-shih of 1715 and a corrector in the Hanlin Academy, and who after filling several posts as prefect served as salt-controller in Chihli from 1736 to 1740. Chiang Liang-ch'i and his elder brother, Chiang Liang-i 蔣良翊 (T. 廷勷, H. 補堂), passed the provincial examination in the same year (1747), but Liang-ch'i became a chin-shih in 1751, three years earlier than his brother. When Emperor Kao-tsung had the State Historiographer's Office re-opened about 1765 in order to revise the biographies for the official history of the reigning dynasty Chiang Liang-ch'i, then a compiler in the Hanlin Academy, was appointed one of the editors. In this capacity he had access to the "veritable records" (實錄) of the dynasty, and from them he copied, in condensed form, documents of importance dating from the time of Nurhaci [q. v.] to the beginning of the reign of Emperor Kao-tsung (1735). This record he arranged chronologically in 32 chüan and printed under the title 東華錄 Tung-hua lu, "Records from within the Eastern Flowery Gate," in reference to the great east gate (Tung-hua Mên) of the Palace area, near which the State Historiographer's Office was located. This work was expanded by Wang Hsien-ch'ien 王先謙 (T. 益吾, H. 葵園, 1842–1918) who added data about later reigns. After the compilation of Chiang's edition of the Tung-hua lu the Ch'ing official history was subjected to several revisions, hence Chiang's version preserves some passages which cannot be found in the revised history. There is a manuscript copy in 16 chüan in the Kuo-hsüeh Library, Nanking.
Chiang Liang-ch'i served for five years (1779-84) as vice-governor and commissioner of education of Fêng-t'ien-fu. Recalled to Peking, he was promoted to the directorship of the Court of the Imperial Stud, and made inspector of a school for imperial clansmen. On February 14, 1785 (the fiftieth anniversary of the accession of Emperor Kao-tsung) Chiang was honored by an invitation to the Banquet for Elderly Men (Ch'ien-sou yen, see under Liang Kuo-chih). Later he was made commissioner in the Office of Transmission. He died in Peking, but was buried in his native district.
Chiang Liang-ch'i is said to have been an able calligrapher and also to have composed several volumes of poems.
[Ch'üan-chou chih (1799) 6/6b, 8/49a–63a; Wang Ch'ang [q. v.] Hu-hai wên-chuan 52/13b; Chi-fu t'ung-chih (see Huang P'êng-nien) 30/48b; 盛京通志 Shêng-ching t'ung-chih (1778) 41/7b; 千叟宴詩 Ch'ien-sou yen shih (1785), 3/21a, for date of birth; Biggerstaff, Knight, "Some Notes on the Tung-hua lu and the Shih-lu", Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, vol. 4, no. 2, July 1939.]
Fang Chao-ying