Liu I-cheng (1879-), historian of the Tung-nan, school and librarian of the Chiang-su sheng-li t'u-shu-kuan at Nanking.
 
Tant'u, Kiangsi, was the birthplace of Liu I-cheng. His father died when Liu was only seven sui, and thereafter he lived in the home of his maternal grandfather, Pao Chung-ming. His mother tutored him in the Chinese classics, and he became a sheng-yuan in 1895 and began tutoring private students. In 1901 he went to Nanking, where he served as associate compiler at the Chiang-ch'u pien-i-chü [Kiangsu-Hupeh compilation and translation bureau], headed by Miao Ch'üan-sun (q.v.). In 1906 he taught for a short time in Peking and Mukden. He then returned to Nanking to become a professor of history at the Nanking Higher Normal School, which became Southeast University in 1923 and National Central University in 1927. One of his favorite students was Chang Ch'i-yün (q.v.), for whom he secured an appointment in 1927 as instructor in geography.
 
In 1924 Liu I-cheng also became the executive secretary of the Hsueh-heng [critical review], which opposed the pai-hua [vernacular] movement of Hu Shih (q.v.) and his associates. Many of Liu's earlier writings were published in the Hsüeh-heng.
 
Liu I-cheng's scholarly activities reflected his dual role as historian and librarian. Between 1921 and 1929 he founded in Nanking the Society of History and Geography, which published the Shih-ti hsueh-pao [journal for the study of historical geography], and the Historical Society, which published the Shih-hsueh tsa-chih [historiography magazine]. Among the frequent contributors to these magazines were Chang Ch'i-yün and Miao Feng-lin (1898-; T. Tsan-yü), who later joined with Liu in founding the Chung-shan shu-chü [Chung-shan book company] - and publishing the Kuo-feng pan-yueh k'an [Kuo-feng semi-monthly]. These three magazines became the forum for the Tung-nan [southeastern] school of historical studies, which had some influence on Chinese scholarship in the 1920's and 1930's.
 
In 1927 Liu I-cheng was appointed librarian of the Chiang-su sheng-li t'u-shu-kuan [Kiangsu provincial library]. Formerly known as the Chin-ling Lung-p'an-li t'u-shu-kuan [library of the Lung-p'an quarter of Nanking], the library had been founded by Miao Ch'üan-sun and financed by Tuan-fang (ECCP, Ü, 780-82). Its valuable holdings of rare books and manuscripts were second only to those of the National Peking Library. Under Liu I-cheng's direction, a number of the library's rare books were photographically reproduced and published. These included the Tsei-ch'ing hui-tsuan [collected materials concerning the rebel-thieves] and a set of three works devoted to the study of Manchuria under the Ming dynasty. In 1936 a catalogue of the library's holdings was published; it had been compiled by Fan His-tseng and Wang Huan-piao under the direction of Liu I-cheng.
 
Among Liu's articles in the Hsüeh-heng were "Wang Hsüan-ts'e shih-chi," which dealt with a Buddhist monk who visited India in 643, 648, and 657; "Han-kuan-i shih" [the history of debates among the bureaucracy of the Han dynasty]; "Hua-hua chien pei-shih" [studies in sinification], a study of Japan's search for and acceptance of Chinese culture; "Tu Mo wei-yen" [a note on Mo-tzu], proclaiming the supremacy of Mencius over Mo-tzu; "Wu-painien ch'ien Nan-ching chih kuo-li ta-hsüeh" [a national university established 500 years ago in Nanking], a study of the Imperial Academy established during the Ming period; and the "T'ang-tai ping-shu k'ao" [the number of soldiers during the T'ang dynasty]. His Chungkuo wen-hua shih [history of Chinese culture], which appeared in the Hsüeh-heng in 1929, was published as a book in 1932. That year also saw the appearance of his Li-tai ping-shu mu-lu [catalogue of military books through the dynasties].
 
Liu also published articles and bibliographical notes in the Bulletin of the Kiangsu Provincial Library. Among these articles were "Lu Paoching hsien-sheng nien-p'u" [chronological biography of Lu Pao-ching], a study of Lu Wen-ch'ao (ECCP, I, 549-50); "Nan-chien-shih t'an" [talks on the Nanking academy's recension of the twenty-one official dynastic histories]; "Tsu-p'u yen-chiu chü-li" [research in clan genealogies, with examples] ; "Chiangsu shu-yüan chih ch'u-kao: li-su-pien" [draft history of Kiangsu society: section on local rites and customs] ; and "Ming-tai Chiang-su wo-k'ou shih-chi" [collected accounts concerning the invasion of Kiangsu by Japanese pirates during Ming times], which appeared shortly after the Japanese attacked Mukden in September 1931.
 
In 1948 Liu I-cheng, who had become an official historian in the newly founded Kuo-shih kuan, was given the title of academician by the Academia Sinica. His Kuo-shih yao-i [the essence of Chinese history] was published in Shanghai in 1949.