Early life

Ye was born in 1864 in Changsha, Hunan. He was the son of a government official in Hebei. After passing his entry-level imperial examinations, Ye briefly pursued a career in business, becoming a successful trader with interests in rice, salt, and textiles. In 1892, he obtained the jinshi degree. The same year, he became a secretary at the Board of Civil Office but found the job unsatisfying and quit after a few months.

Career

As an editor and publisher, Ye is known for his Shuangmei jing』an congshu (; 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. First published in 1907, Ye's anthology "outraged" the Chinese public, although it was later described in the 1950s by Joseph Needham as "the greatest Chinese sexological collection".

Ye was one of the most prolific collectors of rare books and manuscripts in China. 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. Ye also occasionally tried his hand at prose and poetry.

Views

Unlike his contemporaries Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, Ye was vehemently opposed to Western intellectualism and opined that the decline of modern China was due to the people's "deviation from tradition". Ye also found Christianity to be inferior to Confucianism; he believed that there was "much absurdity" in the Old Testament and that "the religion of Jesus ... cowed people into submission." In 1900, Ye was arrested and briefly imprisoned for his suspected involvement in the anti-foreign and anti-Christian Boxer Rebellion.

Death

Ye was a staunch anti-communist. Upon the arrival of the Chinese Communist Party in Changsha in 1927, Ye composed a derogatory couplet that referred to the communists as "beasts" and "half-breeds". He was brought to trial by the Chinese Communist Party on 1 April 1927. Ten days later, on 11 April 1927, Ye and several other alleged counter-revolutionaries were executed by shooting. A "definitive" collection of his works was posthumously published by his son in 1935.

生平

他的父亲叶雨村于太平天国时从江苏吴县迁居湖南长沙经商，为了应考科举，叶家捐银200两取得湘潭县籍。叶家世居于坡子街，具有很大的影响力。据《申报》在1913年报导，坡子街为叶氏父子营业的地方，叶父任本街团总。父殁，族人推举叶德辉接替，并任全城商团团长。

八岁入学，学习《四书》、《说文解字》、《资治通鉴》等古学。十七岁就读岳麓书院，光绪十一年（1885年）中举人，光绪十八年（1892年）再中进士，同年五月，以主事分部学习，授吏部主事，但他到任不久，便以乞养为名，要求开缺回籍，从此不再任官。叶德辉曾与他的太老师王先谦一起反对维新变法，赞成复辟君主制。

1927年4月11日，湖南农工商学各界团体在长沙召开「农民协会公审大会」，以「封建馀孽、豪绅领袖」的罪名，将叶在浏城桥门外的识字岭枪决。然根据最新研究认为，叶德辉是由受共产党控制的国民党湖南省党部授权成立特别法庭判处死刑的。其子叶尚农写给日人松崎柔甫的信（刊桥川时雄编「文字同盟」第5号）道出其父死因：

成就与评价

• 叶德辉精于版本目录学、喜藏书、编书，以刻书闻名，他的名言是「老婆不借、书不借」，他在书里都放春宫画，据说可以避祝融，以防火灾。曾编纂了《观古堂书目丛刻》、《书林清话》、《古今夏时表》，并校刊《元朝秘史》，《书林清话》算是中国第一部真正有系统的书籍史，用笔记体写成，叙述唐宋以来刻板、活板、套色各种印刷方法。梁启超曾评价《书林清话》「论刻书源流及掌故甚好。」

• 史学家谢国桢在《丛书刊刻源流考》一文评价：「叶氏为湖南土豪，出入公门，鱼肉乡里，……论其人实无可取，然精于目录之学，能于正经正史之外，别具独裁，旁取史料，开后人治学之门径。」

• 毛泽东在中共八届十二中全会闭幕会(1968年10月)上，就德辉之死，说道：「这个保孔夫子、反对康有为的，此人叫叶德辉。后头顾孟馀问我，有这件事吗？我说有这件事，但是情况我不大清楚，因为我不在湖南。对于这种大知识分子不宜于杀。那个时候把叶德辉杀掉，我看是不那么妥当。」

相关人物

• 盐谷温，叶德辉之日本学生

• 松崎鹤雄，叶德辉之日本学生

• 杨树达，叶德辉之学生

著作

• 《双梅影暗丛书》