Miao Quansun
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Miao Quansun | |||||||||
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| Traditional Chinese | 繆荃孫 | ||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 缪荃孙 | ||||||||
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Miao Quansun (缪荃孙; 繆荃孫; Miào Quánsūn) (20 September 1844 – 22 December 1919), courtesy name Yanzhi (Chinese: 炎之; pinyin: Yánzhī), was a Chinese philologist, historian, educationalist, bibliographer and librarian. He oversaw the foundation of the Jiangnan Library in Nanjing and was the first administrator of the National Library of China in Beijing.
Miao Quansun was also known by other names. Other than his courtesy name Yanzhi (炎之; Yánzhī), he was also known as Xiaoshan (筱珊; Xiǎoshān, also written as 小山 or 筱山). In older Romanisations, his name may also be rendered Miao Ch'üan-sun.
Early life
Miao Quansun was a native of Miaojia, a village in Shengang Town, Jiangyin, Jiangsu province.[1][2] He was born on 20 September 1844 (the 24th year of the Daoguang Emperor) into a family of officials. His grandfather, Miao Tinghuai (缪庭槐; 繆庭槐; Miào Tínghuái), served as the prefectural magistrate of Pingliang in Gansu, and his father, Miao Huanzhang (缪煥章; 缪焕章; Miào Huànzhāng), passed the provincial imperial examination, but did not get an official position. Later, he served in the military command under Zhang Guoliang, but was dismissed in 1863 after anti-missionary riots in Qingyan and Kaizhou in 1861 and 1862.[3]
His education progressed rapidly, completing his study of the Five Classics by the age of 11. When he was 17, the Taiping Army entered Jiangyin and he fled with his stepmother to Huai'an. At 21, he moved to Chengdu, where his studies continued. He passed the Sichuan provincial imperial exam at the age of 24. In 1876, the second year of the Guangxu Emperor's reign, at the age of 33, he passed the highest palace examination, gained the title of shujishi and entered the Hanlin Academy. He remained there for 7 years and assisted Zhang Zhidong, then an editor there, in compiling the Shun Tianfu Chronicles (顺天府志), a 130-volume gazetteer of the Beijing metropolitan area. This work was completed in 1885 and revised in 1889.[4] He later resigned after disagreement with the head of the academy, Xu Tong. He spent the following ten years collating and editing written works.
