Yue Man Tang Reading Notes (Complete 6 Volumes)

Author: Li Cimeng, compiled by Long Yun, organized by Yu Yunuo
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2001-02-01
Features: Li Cimeng (1829-1894), a native of Huji, Zhejiang. His original name was Mo, styled Shiji, later changed to his current name and styled Chenke. Information about his life is briefly recorded in the "Biography of Literary Figures" in the Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, while the biography of Li Cimeng, the Censor of Shanxi Circuit, written by Ping Buqing (included in Three Compendia of Inscribed Biographies), provides a more detailed account. According to these biographical materials, Li Cimeng came from a prominent and distinguished family in the region of Yue. His father Jianyou built the library "Jiangfu Pavilion," but by his time, the family's fortune had declined. At the age of 12 or 13, he "excelled in rhyming poetry" and "increasingly devoted himself to deep thought and laborious study, reading extensively in all fields," thus gaining early recognition for his literary talent. In the 35th year of the Daoguang reign (1850), he was ranked second in the examination to become a county student. However, in his subsequent imperial examinations, he faced repeated failures, participating in eleven such exams. In the ninth year of the Xianfeng reign (1859), he traveled to the capital with funds and secured a minor post as a junior clerk in the Ministry of Revenue. In the fourth year of the Tongzhi reign (1865), he returned south for mourning duties and only passed the county student examination in the ninth year (1870). After five more attempts, he finally became a jinshi in the sixth year of the Guangxu reign (1880). To pursue officialdom, he spent thirty years taking exams, yet his actual circumstances were quite bleak and difficult. Although he passed the jinshi examination, his official career did not see significant improvement, and he was merely promoted to a position within his original rank, becoming a junior clerk in the Jiangnan Branch of the Ministry of Revenue. In the fifth year of the Guangxu reign (1889), he was transferred to the examination for censors, and the following year, he was appointed Censor of Shanxi Circuit, which was his highest official position. Yue Man Tang Reading Records, published by the Commercial Press. This book is based on the compiled edition and includes three improvements. First, following the bibliographical system of the Four Treasuries Catalogue, the books are classified into the traditional categories of Confucian classics (Jing), history (Shi), philosophy (Zi), and literature (Ji). Second, a four-digit alphanumeric index is compiled for the title and author of each book, enabling the work to function as a reference tool for more efficient retrieval. Third, errors in punctuation, typographical mistakes, and uncommon homophones or variant characters have been corrected.