Pan Zuyin Study

Pan Zuyin, one of the grand councilor of state in the late Qing dynasty, was one of the most prominent ministers and leading scholars of the period of Emperors Daoguang, Xianfeng, Tongzhi and Guangxu. By now, the studies of him mostly focus on his historical contribution to the collection of ancient Chinese books and bronze wares and the value of series of books he printed but less on his life and works.This dissertation mainly contains two parts.By using the historical literature and materials that have been neglected for long,the first part gives an overall examination of Pan Zuyin’s works,acquaintances and academic achievements,which includes such new breakthroughs in the identification of the authorship of Collections of Pangxizhai Library(滂喜斋丛书),and Pan’s interests in antiques and his studies of ancient Egyptian pictography.The second part is a chronological research on the life of Pan Zuyin,which is based on The chronicle of Pan Zuyin(潘文勤公年谱)written by his younger brother Pan Zunian,and abundant documents such as memoirs,Pan Zuyin’s Poems(郑盦诗文存),his unpublished diaries and the works,and chronicles and diaries of his acquaintances.In detail, in the first part, “A Catalogue of Pan Zuyin’s Works and Works Printed by Pan Zuyin” are based on the comparison between all the relevant records, catalogues and editions. They give detailed descriptions of Pan Zuyin’s works and other people’s works printed by him. “A Summary of Pan Zuyin’s Diaries, Manuscripts Collected by Suzhou Museum” investigated the contents and value of the existing diaries. “The Compilation of the Catalogue of Pangxizhai Library, Revised Manuscripts Collected by Shanghai Library”, by analyzing two editions of the catalogues, accounts how Pan Zuyin gave his trust to Ye Changzhi to compile the catalogue and illustrates the concrete procedures in the compilation. In comparison with the diary of Dong Wenhuan who was acquainted with the Korean Delegation to Beijing, “Pan Zuyin’s Korean Acquaintances” explores Pan Zuyin and his family’s association with their Korean acquaintances to illustrate why he became interested in collecting the Korean seals. “Pan Zuyin’s Collection of Egyptian Pictography” is based on Pan Zuyin’s and Zhang Yinhuan’s diaries and letters and the rubbings in their collections. It reveals that Pan Zuyin had a wide range of interest in not only ancient Chinese scripts but also other newly-unearthed scripts of other cultures.The second part is divided into three chapters, taking the age of 23 when Pan Zuyin was enrolled as scholar and the age of 54 when he came back to mourn his parent as two dividing lines. Chapter one mainly addresses Pan Zuyin’s early years, when he lived a well-off life in an official’s family until 22. Chapter two explores Pan Zuyin’s experience as a minister serving at the Southern Studio, the Six Ministries and the Cabinet successively from the age 23 to 53. Chapter three reviews Pan Zuyin’s last years since he resigned and went back to his hometown Suzhou to mourn his parent, Later, when he went back to his office in Beijing, he died of exhaustion at the age of 61 when he administered the operations relieving the flood plaguing the capital area.