Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period/Huang Ch'un-yüeh
HUANG Ch'un-yüeh 黃淳耀 (T. 蘊生, H. 陶庵), July 13, 1605–1645, Aug. 24, Ming scholar and loyalist, was a native of Chia-ting, Kiangsu. A chin-shih of 1643, he deplored the artificial literary style of the day and attempted to return to the rigid simplicity of the Classics. He formed a literary society (直言社 Chih-yen-shê) advocating "plain living and high thinking" and striving toward the way of the scholar. He held no office under the Ming and when the Prince of Fu (see Chu Yu-sung) set up a court and assigned posts to those who had become chin-shih, he did not present himself. In 1645, when Nanking fell, his district city was besieged by Ch'ing forces. He and his younger brother, Huang Yüan-yüeh 黃淵耀 (T. 金友, H. 偉恭, d. 1645), joined Hou T'ung-tsêng [q. v.] in leading the local populace in a desperate defense and when the city was lost, both committed suicide at Hsi-lin Monastery (西林庵), August 24, 1645, the elder brother at forty-one (sui), the younger, twenty-two. His contemporaries referred to him posthumously as Master Chên-wên (貞文先生); in 1703 the district erected a temple in honor of him and his brother, and in 1776 he was given the posthumous name, Chung-chieh 忠節.
Huang's collected works, 陶庵全集 T'ao-an ch'üan-chi, 22 chüan, published in 1761, were proscribed in the Ch'ien-lung period. His essays in the style of the examination hall (pa-ku-wên) were taken as models by scholars in the early Ch‘ing period. A little volume of notes on Shantung geography and historical land-marks, 山左筆談 Shan-tso pi-t'an, which is ascribed to him, the compilers of the Ssŭ-k'u Catalogue (see under Chi Yün), regard as of doubtful authenticity.
[M.1/282/36a; 南疆逸史 Nan-chiang i-shih, 25/2b; Chia-ting-sien chih (1742) 10/26b; (1882) 2/23a, 17/8b; Hsiao-t'ien chi chuan (see under Hsü Tzŭ) 46/20a; 嘉定縣乙酉記事 Chia-ting-hsien i-yu chi-shih in 痛史 T'ung-shih; 明季南略 Ming-chi nan-lüeh 9/16a; Ssŭ-k'u 77/7a.]
Earl Swisher