Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period/Hsü Ch'iu
HSÜ Ch'iu 徐釚 (T. 電發, H. 虹亭, 拙存, 楓江漁父), 1636–1708, poet, landscape painter and man of letters, was a native of Wu-chiang, Kiangsu. In 1679 he was summoned to Peking to take the special examination known as po-hsüeh hung-tz'ŭ (see under P'êng Sun-yü). One of the successful competitors, he was made a corrector in the Hanlin Academy and a compiler of the official Ming history. Appointed in 1687 to a post outside of the capital, he resigned and returned to his home, later declining reappointment to his former position. He travelled extensively in China, visiting Kwangtung and Kwangsi three times. He is known for his critique of tz'ŭ, a type of poetry in irregular metre. One work on this subject, written in 12 chüan between the years 1673 and 1678, entitled 詞苑叢談 Tz'ŭ-yüan ts'ung-t'an, was printed in 1688 and reproduced in the Hai-shan hsien-kuan ts'ung-shu (see under P'an Chên-ch'êng). The 本事詩 Pên-shih shih, in 12 chüan, an anthology of poems of sentiment selected for their historical content from authors of the Ming and early Ch'ing periods, was completed by 1673 and printed in 1704. It was placed among the list of partially banned books in the Ch'ien-lung period. His collected poems and essays were printed in 1695 under the title 南洲草堂集 Nan-chou ts'ao-t'ang chi, in 50 chüan, with 6 chüan of supplements. A work of his containing criticisms and anecdotes of contemporary writers of tz'ŭ, entitled Nan-chou ts'ao-t'ang tz'ŭ-hua (詞話), in 3 chüan, is reprinted in the Hsüeh-hai lei-pien (see under Ts'ao Jung).
[1/489/16b; 2/71/9b; 3/119/1a; 7/38/2b; 20/1/00; Wu-chiang hsien chih (1747) 32/21a, 32b; Soochow-fu chih (1748) 65/34a; L.T.C.L.H.M., p. 226b, which attributes one scroll and two albums of landscapes to Hsü; Yeh Tê-hui (see under Chu I-tsun), Kuan-ku-t'ang ts'ang shu-mu (1916) 4/35.]
Dean R. Wickes