Vice President of the Court of Censors, and in 1882 Minister of
the Tsung-li Yamên. From the latter post he was dismissed in
1884, and a month later he retired into private life.
232
Ch'ên Li 陳櫟 (T. 壽翁) A.D. 1252-1333. A native of 休寧 Hsiu-ning in Anhui. At three years of age his grandmother taught him to repeat by heart the Canon of Filial Piety
and the Confucian Analects; at five he was reading the Canon and
general history; at seven he was qualified to take his chin shih
degree; and at fifteen he was regarded as the greatest literary
authority in the neighbourhood. He declined to hold office under
the Mongols, and devoted himself to teaching, being known to
his disciples as 定宇先生 from the name he gave to his
house. Author of the 歷朝通畧, an historical work covering
the period from Fu Hsi down to the close of the Sung dynasty.
233
Ch'ên Lin 陳琳 2nd cent. A.D. A native of Kuang-ling in
Kiangsu. He began life as official secretary to Ho Chin; but
subsequently passed into the service of Ts'ao Ts'ao, who had a
high opinion of his skill as a dispatch-writer. He was a poet of
some distinction, and is ranked among the Seven Scholars of the
Chien-an period (see Hsü Kan).
234
Ch'ên Mêng-lei 陳夢雷. 17th and 18th cent. A.D. A
scholar who flourished under the reign of the Emperor K'ang Hsi,
and took a leading part in the preparation of the great encyclopædia known as the 圖書集成. No sooner, however, had
Yung Chêng acceded to the throne than Ch'ên and his son were
banished to the frontier, on the ground that the former had been
mixed up in the rebellion of Kêng Ching-chung in 1674, and that
although pardoned by the late Emperor, he had committed further
acts of lawlessness and disloyalty. The continuation of the work
was thereupon entrusted to Chiang T'ing-hsi.
235
Ch'ên Min-hsiu 陳敏修 . 12th cent. A.D. A scholar of the
