Yeh Ch'ang-ch'ih (30 October 1849-6 November 1917), scholar whose major work was the Ts'ang-shu chi-shih shih, a comprehensive history of private book collecting in China. He also made studies of bronze and stone inscriptions. Little is known of Yeh Ch'ang-ch'ih's family background or early education. His early association with such prominent men as Feng Kuei-fen (ECCP, I, 241-43) and P'an Tsu-yin (ECCP, II, 608-9) doubtless exerted a significant influence on his developing scholarly interests. Yeh was a student of Feng Kuei-fen and in the 1870's assisted him in the compilation of the local history of Soochow, Su-chou fu-chih. Later, as a tutor to the younger brother of P'an Tsu-yin in 1883, Yeh had the opportunity to associate with an established bibliophile and high official, while P'an's excellent library initiated him into bibliography and the study of bronze and stone inscriptions.

Yeh Ch'ang-ch'ih became a chü-jen in 1876 and a chin-shih in 1889, with the additional honor of being selected as a member of the Hanlin Academy. From 1889 until 1901 he held various positions traditionally awarded to Hanlin scholars in Peking: proctor in the state historiographer's office, tutor in the imperial academy, and composer of the national academy. Since the duties connected with these official posts were not burdensome, he had excellent opportunities to pursue his scholarly interests in the rich cultural environment of Peking. From 1901 to 1905 Yeh Ch'ang-ch'ih was commissioner of education in Kansu province, where he conducted studies of the historical relics found in northwest China. He found 103 stone tablets of T'ang, Sung, Chin, and Yuan times in a Buddhist temple in Pinchou, Shensi. A collection of rubbings of these tablets, with notes, was printed in 1915 under the title Pin-chou shih-shih lu. Yeh's period of residence in northwest China also made possible the further checking of a previously completed manuscript on stone inscriptions entitled YUshih, which was published in 1909 and reissued by the Commercial Press in 1936.

When the educational system was reorganized in 1905, Yeh left his post in Kansu. In 1907-3 he was an adviser in the newly established Lihsueh-kuan [school of ceremonies] in Peking. From 1908 to 1910 he was professor of history in the Ts'un-ku hsueh-t'ang in Soochow. After the revolution of 1911, Yeh, then 62, refused to participate in the republican government and regarded himself as an "i-lao," a man who belonged to the previous dynasty. He died in November 1917 of natural causes.

Yeh Gh'ang-ch'ih's collected prose, the Ch'iku-ch'ing wen-chi, was printed in 1921, and his collected poetry, the Ch'i-ku-ch'ing shih-chi, appeared in 1926. The Han-shan-ssu-chi, a history of the famed Buddhist monastery in Soochow, was printed in 1922. For nearly 50 years, from 1870 until shortly before his death in 1917, Yeh Ch'ang-ch'ih regularly kept a diary in which he recorded observations on current events, scholarly notes, and impressions of his contemporaries, as well as personal and family happenings. This diary, the Yen-tu-lu jih-chi ch'ao, was printed in 1933 in an edition by Wang Chi-lieh. Yeh's entries for the years 1900 and 1901 provide valuable materials on the Boxers in the Peking area and are included in a documentary collection, the I-ho-Vuan, which was part of the series of source materials on modern Chinese history published in Shanghai in 1951. His diary was also one of the four sources of the Chin-shih jen-wu-chih, a collection of biographical sketches on modern Chinese compiled by Chin Liang.

Yeh Ch'ang-ch'ih's most notable scholarly contribution, however, was the Ts'ang-shu chi-shih shih, a comprehensive history of private book collecting in China. Written in poetry with extensive notes, it includes information on 1,175 collectors from the Five Dynasties period through the 1880's. There are three different editions of this work: the 1895 edition in the Ling-chien-ko ts'ung-shu and later editions of 1909 and 1931. An index to this work, Ts'ang-shu chi-shih shih yin-te, was compiled by Ts'ai Chin-chung and published by the Harvard- Yenching Institute in 1937. A supplement covering book collectors of the republican period was prepared by Lun Ming (T. Che-ju) and was published in installments in the periodical Cheng-feng tsa-chih.