The Huis in Su-Chou

The Chuangs and Lius in Ch'ang-chou were not the only lineages whose scholarly achievements gained national prominence. The scholarly traditions of the Hui lineage were intimately tied to the emergence of Han Learning in Su-chou during the eighteenth century. Hui Tung (1697-1758) built upon the teachings of his great-grandfather Hui Yu-sheng (d. ca. 1678) and grandfather Hui Chou-t'i (fl. ca. 1691), which had been transmitted to him by his distinguished father, Hui Shih-ch'i (1671-1741). Su-chou Han Learning traditions show us how teachings, once the cultural property of a particular line within a

[8] Twitchett, "A Critique," pp. 33-34.

lineage, passed into the public domain. Keeping Confucian teachings within the family line, and thus within the lineage, was a typical political strategy designed to maintain the success of a descent group in the empire-wide civil service examinations. State examinations were based solely on classical studies, so they were frequently pursued within a "lineage of teachings" based on kinship organizations. Such teachings were preserved to further the interests of the lineage in local society and in the civil service.

The Hah Learning of the Huis demonstrates, however, that there was a tension between public prestige and private traditions. The exclusivity of lineage schools, for instance, could be tempered by a local tradition of scholarship. This could then enhance lineage prestige when its scholarly tradition entered the public domain. Consequently, lineage academies could fulfill exclusive and inclusive roles, depending on the cultural strategies of a particular lineage vis-à-vis surrounding society. Accordingly, both Han Learning in Su-chou and New Text Confucianism in Ch'ang-chou represented at different times the exclusive teachings of a particular lineage and the inclusive doctrines of a school of learning.

Originally from Shensi Province in the northwest, the Huis began their flight south when the Wei River valley—the heartland of Chinese civilization during the Han and Tang dynasties—fell to Khitan invaders by 947. During the Ming dynasty the Huis settled in Su-chou, but they did not come to prominence there until the late Ming and early Ch'ing, when the scholarly achievements of Hui Wan-fang, Hui Tung's great-great-grandfather, were widely recognized.^[9]

Hui Chou-t'i was the first in the Hui lineage to pass the highest level chin-shin (presented literatus) examinations. It was his subsequent appointment to the prestigious Hanlin Academy (Han-lin yuan ) that moved the Huis into national prominence. His son Shih-ch'i passed the provincial examinations in 1708, and in 1709 Shih-ch'i duplicated his father's achievement by passing the chin-shih examination in Peking with high honors. The Hui lineage had thus placed its sons from two consecutive generations in the Hanlin Academy, which was the starting point for guaranteed official power and influence. The "Han Learning" associated with Hui Tung in Su-chou derived from scholarly traditions

[9] On the Hui lineage see Hui-shih ssu-shih ch'uan-ching t'u-ts'e . See also Yang Ch'ao-tseng (then governor-general in Su-chou), "Chi-lu," pp. la-7b. Cf. Dardess, "Cheng Communal Family."

and cultural resources built up over four generations of his immediate family,^[10]

Hui Tung drew on traditions of "ancient learning" (ku-hsueh ) and "classical techniques" (ching-shu ) transmitted within his lineage to articulate a scholarly position predicated on the superiority of Han dynasty sources over T'ang, Sung, and Ming Confucian writings. Rather than study the Four Books (a Sung-Yuan concoction associated with Sung Learning), the Huis stressed the Five Classics of antiquity in their efforts to reconstruct Han Learning. The Huis' financial success and intellectual prominence in the eighteenth century permitted Hui Tung the luxury of study and research to build a "school of learning" in Su-chou.

Despite the exclusivity of lineage schools, the success of the Hui family in influencing Su-chou scholarship illustrates that lineage traditions possessed important complementary elements of private advantage and public influence. The organizational rationale for the Su-chou "school of Han Learning" rested on teachings transmitted by the Huis to scholars and students outside of the Hui lineage who resided or studied in Su-chou. Ch'ien Ta-hsin and Wang Ming-sheng, both native sons of nearby Chia-ting, for example, were caught up in the wave of Han Learning in the 1750s when they were studying in Su-chou. They became influential k'ao-cheng scholars during the heyday of Han Learning in the 1780s and 1790s.

Hui Tung remained a private scholar throughout his life and worked in his Su-chou studio famous for its library. This independent scholarly tradition, financed by the Huis' earlier successes, would diverge from official standards and ultimately add to critical k'ao-cheng styles of classical inquiry. Hui Tung's career also suggests that during the early decades of the Ch'ien-lung Emperor's reign there was a chasm between private Han Learning and public examination studies, which remained predicated on mastery of Sung Learning.^[11]

[10] See Lu Chien's "Hsu" (Preface) to Hui Tung's Chou-i shu , p. 1b. See Bourdieu, Theory of Practice, pp. 171-83, for a discussion of "symbolic capital."

[11] Hummel et al., Eminent Chinese , pp. 138, 357-58. Cf. my discussion of "professionalized scholars" in Philosophy to Philology , pp. 133-34. Before the abolition of the Confucian examination system in 1905, the Five Classics and Four Books were the backbone of the education system. The Five Classics were the Change, Documents, Poetry, Rites, and the Springand Autumn Annals . A Music Classic had been lost in the classical period. The Four Books were the Analects, the Mencius , the "Great Learning," and the "Doctrine of the Mean."