Hao Yixing 郝懿行

Hao Yixing 郝懿行 (1755-1823), courtesy name Xunjiu 恂九, style Lanhao 蘭皋, from Qixia 棲霞, Shandong, was a scholar of the high Qing period 清 (1644-1911).

He passed the jinshi examination in 1799 and was appointed secretary in the Ministry of Revenue (hubu zhushi 戶部主事). In 18209, he was made ministerial secretary of the Jiangnan Office (Jiangnan si zhushi 江南司主事). In his studies, he was particularly interested in the ancient glossary Erya 爾雅, on which he compiled the book Erya yishu 爾雅義疏, as a continuation and correction of Shao Jinhan's 邵晉涵 (1743-1796) Erya zhengyi 爾雅正義. Hao points out that the used ancient texts – including Shao's book – to identify plants and small creatures, and added novel observations to the data provided in the old Erya text. He also corrected wrong renderings of pronunciation. His Erya yishu was, therefore, acclaimed by contemporary scholars like Wang Niansun 王念孫 (1744-1832) or Ruan Yuan 阮元 (1764-1849).

Another of his works, Chunqiu shuolüe 春秋說略, analyses the correctness of moral judgments (baobian 褒貶) in the text with historical facts, and compared statements in the the proper Chunqiu 春秋 classic with those in the three commentaries Zuozhuan 左傳, Gongyangzhuan 公羊傳 and Guliangzhuan 穀梁傳. In this way, his book Chunqiu bi 春秋比 frees the Chunqiu tradition from the ideological interpretive ballast of the Han period 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE). This achievement was praised by Ji Yun 紀昀 (1724-1805).

Other books of Hao Yixing are Shanhaijing jianshu 山海經箋疏, Yishuo 易說, Shushuo 書說, Zhengshi Liji jian 鄭氏禮記箋, Hanshi waizhuan kaozheng 韓詩外傳考證 and Zhushu jinian jiaozheng 竹書紀年校正. He also wrote the agricultural treatise Baoxun 寶訓, a book on bee-keeping, Fengya xiaoji 蜂衙小記, and a book on marine products, Jihaicuo 記海錯.