Ch'en San-li 陳三立 Ch'en San-li (1852 - 15 September 1937) helped to develop reform and modernization programs in Hunan while his father, Ch'en Pao-chen, was governor (1895-98). After the failure of the Hundred Days Reform of 1898, he was banished from government service. He then became a noted poet and essayist.

The Ch'en San-li branch of the Ch'en clan had moved from Fukien to Ining, Kiangsi, five generations before his birth and gradually had established itself as the leading family of the local gentry. Both Ch'en's great-grandfather, Ch'en K'o-sheng, and grandfather, Ch'en Weilin, were chien-sheng, students of the Imperial Academy. Ch'en Wei-lin, a follower of the Wang Yang-ming school of Neo-Confucianism, practiced medicine. A public-spirited man, he safeguarded his home district by organizing local militia against the Taiping rebels and promoted education by establishing the Ining Academy. Ch'en San-li's father, Ch'en Pao-chen (1831-1900; T. Yu-ming), who inherited Ch'en Weilin's regard for Wang Yang-ming and was an ardent student of the I-ching [book of changes], was known for his progressive views and statesmanship. Ch'en San-li grew up in a home environment which was conducive to the development of an interest in intellectual subjects and public affairs. He was introduced to the intricacies of foreign policy by Kuo Sungt'ao (ECCP, I, 438-39) and Lo Cheng-i and to the problems of internal administration by Wang Wen-shao (1830-1908), who had helped his father's career.

In 1874 Ch'en San-li married the daughter of Lo Hsing-ssu, then prefect of Yuyang, Szechwan. Ch'en and his wife were a devoted couple. Her death in 1880 when she was only 26, came as a great shock to him. Later, he married the daughter of Yü Tsai-t'ien and found in her an equally devoted and congenial wife. Ch'en San-li passed the examinations for the chü-jen degree in 1882. In 1886 he obtained the chin-shih degree and was appointed secretary in the Board of Revenue at Peking. In September 1895, on the recommendation of Jung-lu (ECCP, I, 405-9), Ch'en Pao-chen was appointed governor of Hunan. He invited his son to accompany him. Disgusted by the corruption at Peking, Ch'en San-li resigned his position and went to Changsha as his father's aide. China had just been defeated in the first Sino-Japanese war of 1894-95, and the Ch'ens were determined to do their utmost to restore the nation. The opportunity in Hunan appeared to be designed specifically for the realization of their plans.

From 1895 to 1898 Ch'en Po-chen attempted to sponsor a provincial government which would make Hunan the starting point of modernization and reform for south China. Ch'en San-li played a decisive part in this effort. The father-son relationship was so close that it is difficult to distinguish whose directives were responsible for which aspects of the reform effort in Hunan. It may have been the father who, in cooperation with Chang Chih-tung (ECCP, I, 27-32), pushed the economic development of his province by promoting mining, shipping, telegraphic communications, and reorganization of the salt administration. It may have been the son who formulated the main principles of the Hunan reform and promoted social and educational progress. Ch'en San-li's writings indicate that their view was that durable reform must be based on a general democratization of social attitudes. He conceived of this democratization, however, as a gradual process of organic growth. The specific objectives of the Hunan reform were grouped under four main principles: reform of the social attitudes of the gentry, promotion of general education, control of the military forces, and democratization of the bureaucracy. The influx of talent into Hunan was impressive, and there was no other center in China where the reform spirit was as vital as in Changsha during the late 1890's. The provincial director of education, Hsu Jen-chu (1863-1900; T. Shih-fu), established the Shih-wu hsueh-t'ang [academy of current affairs], of which Liang Ch'i-ch'ao was made dean. T'an Ssu-t'ung (ECCP, II, 702-5) organized the Nan-hsueh-hui, or South China Reform Association, and edited the Hsiang-hsueh hsin-pao [Hunan scholarship new journal], the first newspaper in Hunan, which began publication in April 1897. Huang Tsun-hsien (ECCP, I, 35051), who had served in the Chinese embassies at London and Tokyo, worked to spread Western ideas and institutions. The Ch'ens shared the enthusiasm of this group, and suggestions coming from its members contributed much to the effectiveness of the Hunan movement. Ch'en San-li's role in Hunan gained him national recognition. His closest friends during the period were T'an Ssu-t'ung; Ting Hui-k'ang, the son of Ting Jih-ch'ang (ECCP, II, 721-23) and Wu Pao-ch'u, the son of Wu Ch'ang-ch'ing (1824-1884). The four were admiringly called the ssu kung-tzu [four young patricians]. However, the Ch'ens were not inordinate in their enthusiasm. When Ch'en Pao-chen recommended Lin Hsu ( 1857-1 898), Liu Kuangti (1859-1898), T'an Ssu-t'ung, and Yang Jui (1857-1898) to the Kuang-hsu emperor at Peking, he praised their youthful talent, but added that they tended to be rash and recommended that they be placed under the guidance of Chang Chih-tung. When court intrigues at Peking caused the Hundred Days Reform to end in disaster, the four were executed. The Ch'ens, father and son, were found guilty by association and banished for life from government service. Thanks to the intervention of Chang Chih-tung and Liu K'un-i (ECCP, I, 523-24), they escaped more severe punishment. Although they were pardoned in 1900, the elder Ch'en did not recover from this blow and died in that year, a broken man. The death of his father brought Ch'en San-li to the brink of despair. He felt that he had pushed his father along a course which was bound to lead to disaster, and he was tortured by self-reproach and remorse.

At the height of the Boxer Uprising, Ch'en San-li's concern for the national good caused him, in cooperation with Chang Chien (q.v.), to persuade Liu K'un-i, the governor general of Liang-kiang, to proclaim neutrality and to maintain it in the face of military advances by the Allied powers, thus ensuring peace in the lower Yangtze valley. That was his final political action. Thereafter, except for two honorary posts, as general manager of the proposed Nanchang-Kiukiang Railway (1907) and as editor in chief of the provincial gazetteer of Kiangsi, he held no government offices. Toward the end of the Ch'ing dynasty, when reform measures were discussed at the court at Peking and his suggestions were requested, he did not respond to the request.

After his father's death, Ch'en led the roaming life of a scholar-poet. Much of the time he resided at Nanking, where he named his abode the San-yuan ching-she, a name from which his pen name was derived. He also spent time in Shanghai, Hangchow, Hsunyang, and on Mount Lushan, writing occasional pieces and obituaries for friends and acquaintances, but mainly devoting himself to the writing of poetry. In 1933 Ch'en moved to Peiping. He died there four years later, in the summer of 1937. It is said that he committed suicide, following the example of ancient worthies, by self-imposed starvation. He did so as a protest against the Japanese invaders. Although Ch'en San-li's poems were distinctive and unmistakable, he never strove for novelty in his verse, but used the traditional forms of Chinese poetry. Thus, his style was closer to that of his friend Cheng Hsiao-hsu (q.v.) than to that of romanticists such as Huang Tsun-hsien and K'ang Yu-wei (q.v.). Some critics have held that his verse is derived from the poetry of the northern Sung period, particularly from the work of Huang T'ing-chien (1045-U05). However, Ch'en also learned from the more sophisticated work of Wang Shih-chen (1634-1711; ECCP, 11,831-33) and others of the early Ch'ing period, and his poems achieved a subtlety and depth which those of earlier periods did not have. Ch'en San-li was highly respected as a poet; Liang Ch'i-ch'ao (q.v.) once stated that none of the poems in the famous T'ang and Sung collections surpassed those of Ch'en San-li.

His poetry is available in several collections. The San-yuan ching-she shih [the poems of the San-yuan ching-she] and the San-yuan ching-she hsu-chi [more writings of the San-yuan chingshe], both with prefaces by Cheng Hsiao-hsu, were published in 1909 and 1922, respectively, by the Commercial Press. That press also issued a one-volume San-yuan ching-she shih pieh-chi in 1931. The San-yuan ching-she shih chi, reproducing Ch'en's poetry from 1909 to 1926 in his own calligraphy, was published in Taiwan in 1961. As a prose writer, Ch'en San-li was as famous as Ma Ch'i-ch'ang (1855-1929; T. T'ung-po), the leading essayist of the traditional T'ungch'eng school in the republican period. Some critics linked him with Wang Shu-nan (1851-1936; T. Chin-ch'ing), like Ch'en a chin-shih of 1886, and the pair were commonly referred to as Ch'en of the South and Wang of the North. The collection of Ch'en's prose writings entitled San-yuan ching-she wen-chi was published by the Chunghua Book Company at Shanghai in 1949 and was reprinted in Taipei in 1961. The materials in this collection were arranged chronologically, not by genre. Obituary matter in the traditional style makes up about threefourths of the collection. Ch'en San-li's second wife died in 1923. He had five sons, ofwhom the best-known are Ch'en Heng-k'o and Ch'en Yin-k'o (q.v.). A daughter married Yu Ta-wei (q.v.).

Ch'en Heng-k'o (1876-1923; T. Shih-tseng; H. Huai-t'ang, Hsiu-tao-jen) received his training in the Chinese classics from his grandmother. His main interest, however, was in traditional Chinese painting, which he studied under Wu Ch'ang-shih (1844-1927) and Yao Hua (18761936). Later he went to Japan to study at the Tokyo Higher Normal School. On graduation, he returned to China, taught in Kiangsu and Hunan, and finally worked for ten years in the ministry of education at Peking. During that period in Peking he organized a research council of Chinese painting [Chung-kuo hua-hsueh yen-chiu hui] and published a periodical entitled Hui-hua tsa-chih [painting magazine] . In 1922 he published an important volume called Chung-kuo wen-jen hua chih yen-chiu [a study of paintings of Chinese scholars], which also included an article by Omura Seigai (1868-1927), professor of Oriental art at the Tokyo Fine Arts School. That book was the first attempt to trace systematically the role played by traditional scholar-painters in the development of Chinese painting. He stated that the four factors most important to the achievement of a good painting by a man of letters are personality, scholarship, talent, and positive comprehension. Ch'en Heng-k'o died on 17 September 1923 at Nanking while attending his mother's funeral. Another book of his, Chungkuo hui-hua shih [history of Chinese painting], was published in 1925. His literary works, entitled Huai-Cang wen-kao [the drafts of articles of Huai-t'ang] and Ch'en Shih-tseng shih-chi [the poems of Ch'en Shih-tseng], were published in small quantity and are not generally available. The originality of Ch'en Heng-k'o's contribution to modern Chinese painting has been appreciated more since his death than during his lifetime. Some of his paintings have been reproduced in recent years. Among these, eight landscape paintings, Ch'en Shih-tseng hua-ts'e [the paintings of Ch'en Shih-tseng], printed by the famous Jung-pao-chai at Peking in 1955, deserves special mention. Ch'en Heng-k'o was also important as an influential critic of the painting of Ch'i Pai-shih (q.v.).