ARTICLES

Liu Yü-yün's Autobiographical Sketch[1]

My patronymic is Aisin Gioro, my ming Yü-yün, and my hao An-jen the [Buddhist] layman. I am the grandson of Prince Li (Shih-to) who served on the Grand Council during the Kuang-hsü period (1875-1907). As a youth I received a court education, and as I grew older, became the pupil of Ch'en Pao-ch'en (Tutor to the Heir Apparent], Cheng Hsiao-hsü [first Prime Minister of Manchukuo], Lo Chen-yü, K'o Shao-min [scholar of Mongol history], Wang Kuo-wei [the philologist], K'ang Nan-hai (Yu-wei), Liang Ch'i-ch'ao, and Yeh Yü-lin. All of these great teachers instructed me in the classics, the histories, works of philosophy, and literature. The Englishman [Reginald] Johnson taught me western studies. After that I studied by myself for thirty-odd years, taking the greater meaning of the Kung Yang Commentary to the Spring and Autumn Annals as yung (function), and the Book of Changes as t'i (essence).

I have read the classics one and all, and have written drafts of 'The Ultimate Meaning of the Eight Classics for Aisin' (the Book of Changes, Book of Documents, Odes, Book of Rites, Kung Yang Commentary to the Spring and Autumn Annals, Analects, Mencius and Classic of Filial Piety), as well as 'A New History of the Ch'ing Dynasty,' a collection of writings on matters before 1945 [when I was an official in the Manchurian government] called 'Feeling-Ideation-Reaction-Consciousness', and one on matters since then called 'without Feeling-Ideation-Reaction-Consciousness.'[2]

In 1948, I came to Taiwan and lived in retirement in the countryside, taking my pleasure in daily reading. Dressed in simple clothes and sandals, I delighted in whiling away my time with the older residents of the neighborhood who seldom knew my real name but simply called me 'Venerable Sir'. I also liked to practice calligraphy and painting, seeking consolation therein. In October of 1958, I first began to take on foreign students who had come to China on fellowships in order to study or to write their dissertations. It has been over ten years now, and many of my students have gone on to receive their doctorates and teach in universities: thirty-three Americans, two Germans, two Japanese, two Englishmen, one Canadian and one Vietnamese.

Related material from Nothing Concealed in the current issue:

• Preface to Nothing Concealed 無隱錄, by Frederic Wakeman Jr.
• Lo Chen-yü Visits the Wastes of Yin, by Richard C. Rudolph

Notes:

[1] The Chinese version of this follows directly.

[2] These are the four immaterial skandhas of Chinese Buddhism: vedana, sanjna, samskara, vijnana.

吾師姓愛新覺羅，名毓鋆，號安仁居士，清光緒領班軍機大臣禮親王世鐸公之孫。幼承庭訓，及長，師事太傳陳公寶琛、鄭公孝胥、羅公振玉、柯公紹忞、王公國維、康公南海、梁公啓超、業玉麟諸大師攻經史、子、集；英人教師莊士敦傳西學。獨學卅餘年以春秋公羊學之微言大義為用，以大易為歸，貫澈羣經，成愛新氏八經微義（易、書、詩、禮記、公羊春秋、論、孟、孝經）並著新清史，受想行識集（記乙酉以前事）及無受想行識集（記乙酉以後事）等稿。民國卅七年一月來臺，隱於鄉，以讀書自娛。履衣布褐，喜與村老遊，知與不知，咸以老公公呼之而不名。先生善書畫，有求必與。自民國四十七年十月開始指導外國基金會留華學生博師論文迄今已十有一年，共四十一位，其通過博士學位者二十餘人，均執教於各大學（計美三三、德二、日二、英二、加二、越南一）。