Ye Dehui
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ye Dehui | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 1864 Changsha, Hunan, China |
| Died | 11 April 1927 (aged 62–63) Changsha, Hunan, China |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
Ye Dehui (Chinese: 葉德輝; pinyin: Yè Déhuī; 1864 – 11 April 1927) was a Chinese writer and editor active during the Qing dynasty and the Republican Era. Vacillating between academia, business, and civil service in his early life, Ye eventually established himself as a leading bibliophile and literatus. He was ultimately executed by the local Communist government for his alleged counter-revolutionism.
Ye was born in 1864 in Changsha, Hunan.[1][2] He was the son of a government official in Hebei. After passing his entry-level imperial examinations,[1] Ye briefly pursued a career in business, becoming a successful trader with interests in rice, salt, and textiles.[3] In 1892, he obtained the jinshi degree.[1] The same year, he became a secretary at the Board of Civil Office but found the job unsatisfying and quit after a few months.[4]
Career
As an editor and publisher, Ye is known for his Shuangmei jing’an congshu (雙梅景闇叢書; literally Shadow of the Double Plum Tree Anthology), which collects four Chinese medical classics on sexual cultivation that had been partially preserved in the Ishinpō: the Sunü jing; Yufang mijue; Yufang zhiyao; and Dongxuan zi.[5] First published in 1907,[4] Ye's anthology "outraged" the Chinese public,[6] although it was later described in the 1950s by Joseph Needham as "the greatest Chinese sexological collection".[5]
Ye was one of the most prolific collectors of rare books and manuscripts in China.[2] In 1910, he published a guide to book-collecting and in 1915, he released a catalogue of the 350,000-odd volumes in his personal collection.[7] Ye also occasionally tried his hand at prose and poetry.[7]
