Biography

Yang was born in 1839, during the Qing dynasty, in Lucheng Town, Yidu County, Hubei Province. His courtesy name was Xingwu (惺吾). After passing the provincial examination and earning the juren degree in 1862 (first year of the Tongzhi reign), he lived for ten years in Beijing trying to pass the imperial examination for the highest jinshi degree, without success. Although he failed the examinations, he became friends with the prominent officials Pan Zuyin and Zhang Zhidong, who shared his passion for antiques. He attended Pan's lavish parties and shopped for antiques in Beijing's Liulichang with Zhang.

From a young age Yang was interested in geography, and spent much of his life annotating Li Daoyuan's 6th-century work Commentary on the Water Classic (Shui Jing Zhu). His knowledge in geography earned him a diplomatic post to Japan, despite his repeated examination failure. In Tokyo he worked under the career diplomat Li Shuchang, an abrasive superior who nevertheless appreciated Yang's knowledge in antiques. As Japan was quickly westernizing during the Meiji Restoration, traditional Chinese publications fell out of fashion and were sold cheaply. Working with Li as well as Japanese antiquarians, Yang purchased tens of thousands of old Chinese books preserved in Japanese collections, many of which had become rare or even lost in China. They were later published as Guyi congshu (古逸丛书). After Yang's death, the Republic of China government purchased his collection and preserved most of his books in the National Palace Museum.

Yang was posted in Japan from 1880 to 1884. After returning to China, he taught at the in Wuchang and then became dean of the Qincheng School (勤成学堂), later renamed as Cungu School (存古学堂). In 1909 he served as an advisory official of the Ministry of Rites. He died in Beijing on 9 January 1915, and was buried in his hometown Yidu.

Annotation of the Commentary on the Water Classic

Yang devoted most of his lifetime to the annotation of the Commentary on the Water Classic (Shui jing zhu). He wrote 40 volumes of annotation but died before completing the work. His disciple Xiong Huizhen carried on the project and wrote another 40 volumes of annotation. It was published in the 1950s as the Shui jing zhu shu (水經註疏). The influential historian Gu Jiegang remarked that the work "brought to a point of culmination the textual research of The Classic of Waterways of the previous three centuries." He greatly admired the authors' "single-minded devotion" to the task, and Xiong's devotion to his master.

Historical atlas of China

Another of Yang's important works is the Lidai yudi tu (歷代輿地圖), his historical atlas of China which is often simply called the Yangtu (Yang's atlas). Yang began the work in 1866 with the assistance of Deng Yongxiu, and was joined by Rao Dunzhi in the late 1870s. They plotted historical geographical data on a Qing dynasty map, but left out non-Han Chinese kingdoms such as Nanzhao and Dali. Published between 1906 and 1911, it was the most complete and scholarly historical atlas of China produced during the Qing dynasty. Based on Yang's atlas, historian Tan Qixiang compiled The Historical Atlas of China, which was published in the 1980s and is considered the most authoritative atlas of Chinese history ever published.

Calligraphy

With the encouragement of Pan Zuyin, Yang became an accomplished calligrapher of the Stele School of Chinese calligraphy. When he went to Japan, he introduced the style to Japanese calligraphers, offering them "virtually an unprecedented aesthetic style" and revolutionizing Japanese calligraphy. He was considered a talented artist by famous Japanese calligraphers such as Miyajima Seiichiro, Kusakabe Meikaku, Iwaya Osamu, and Matsuda Sekka. and others bought hundreds of sheets of Yang's works. Yang wrote many essays on the Stele School of calligraphy, which were published by Japanese scholars in two volumes, Ping bei ji (評碑記, "Record of stelae criticism") and Ping tie ji (評帖記, "Record of model-letters criticism").

Memorials

In September 1986, the government of Yidu city repaired Yang Shoujing's tomb and former residence, which was turned into the Yang Shoujing Museum. His residence and tomb are now protected as a Major National Historical and Cultural Site of China (designation 6-995).

生平

楊守敬1839年出生于 湖北省宜都市陸城鎮，表字惺吾。同治元年（1862年）次參加鄉試中舉人後，1865年考取景山官學教習。以後他一共七次進京趕考，雖然沒能考中，但結識了潘祖蔭和張之洞等著名人物。

楊守敬很小就對地理感興趣，一生中大部分時間用來註疏酈道元6世紀的《水經注》。因為他通曉理知識，1880年出使日本，在駐日欽使黎庶昌手下充任隨員。因日本在明治維新後迅速西化，傳統的中國出版物不再流行，變得十分便宜。因此，楊守敬和黎庶昌在日本購買了上萬本中國古籍，有的在中國也很難找到，甚至是在中國絕版的。這些書在1884年以《古逸叢書》之名出版。楊守敬去世後，國民政府收購了他的收藏，將他的藏書大都保存在國立故宮博物院。

回國後，楊守敬先後在武昌任黃岡市教諭、兩湖書院教習、勤成（後改名存古）學堂總教長，築鄰蘇園，藏書甚豐，曾參加《荊州府志》的編纂。宣統元年（1909年）被舉為禮部顧問官，次年兼聘為湖北省通志局纂修。武昌起義後，有歹徒持槍入屋，聲言「借盤費。」避居上海。袁世凱任大總統，欲聘其為顧問，以「年老無意出山」拒絕赴任。晚年在上海賣字為生，自號鄰蘇老人。民國四年（1915年）1月9日，在北京逝世。逝世後，民國政府派專車護送靈柩回宜都，歸葬宜塋龍窩。

成就

楊守敬二十五歲前往北京市，即好金石學，搜求漢、魏六朝金石文字，結交好友潘存。同治六年（1867年）著成《激素飛清閣評碑記》。

在日本期間，收集散佚在日本的中國古籍，寫成《日本訪書緣起條例》。在大阪市，有人見楊購書，「莫不竊笑癖而且癡，而余不顧也。」回國後黃公度鼓勵他寫成《日本訪書緣起條例》。

其亦好研究《水經注》，光緒三年（1877年）《水經註疏·江水》的初稿寫成。光緒三十年（1904年）與弟子熊會貞撰寫《水經註疏》稿成，楊守敬每每點出：「此戴襲趙之確証。」宣統元年（1909年）十月，羅振玉給楊守敬信中，稱讚其「輿地之學」與王念孫、段玉裁之「小學」、李善蘭之「算學」為當時的「三絕學」。

工書法，宗歐陽詢，撰有《楷法溯源》、《評碑記》、《評帖記》、《學書邇言》等。藏書40萬卷。著有《歷代輿地圖》、《水經註圖》、《水經註疏》、《隋書地理誌考證》、《寰宇貞石圖》、《日本訪書志》等。民國八十年（1991年）王永瑞編審《楊守敬集》。

注釋

參考書目

• 吳天任：《楊惺吾先生年譜（附水經註疏清寫本與最後訂本校記）》，藝文印書館，1974。由著名詩人、歷史學家、酈學家吳天任編撰。

• 楊世燦：《楊守敬學術年譜》，湖北人民出版社出版，2004年。