Liu E (; also spelled Liu O; 18 October 1857 – 23 August 1909),

courtesy name A courtesy name (), also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name. This practice is a tradition in the East Asian cultural sphere, including China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.Ulrich Theobald ...

Tieyun (), was a Chinese writer, archaeologist and politician of the late

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

Government and politics

Liu was a native of Dantu (modern day

Zhenjiang Zhenjiang, alternately romanized as Chinkiang, is a prefecture-level city in Jiangsu Province, China. It lies on the southern bank of the Yangtze River near its intersection with the Grand Canal. It is opposite Yangzhou (to its north) and b ...

). In the government he worked with flood control, famine relief, and railroads. He became disillusioned with official ideas of reform and became a proponent of private economic development modeled after western systems. During the Boxer Uprising he speculated in government rice, distributing it to the poor. He was

cashiered Cashiering (or degradation ceremony), generally within military forces, is a ritual dismissal of an individual from some position of responsibility for a breach of discipline. Etymology From the Flemish (to dismiss from service; to discard ...

for these efforts, but shrewd investments had left him wealthy enough to follow his pioneering archaeological studies and to write fiction.

Literature

Liu's best known work is ''

The Travels of Lao Can ''The Travels of Lao Can'' () is a novel by Liu E (1857-1909), written between 1903 and 1904 and published in 1907 to wide acclaim. Thinly disguising his own views in those of Lao Can, the physician hero, Liu describes the rise of the Boxers in ...

'', which the critic C.T. Hsia calls the "most beloved of all the novels" in the last decade of the Qing. Liu E's novels borrowed allusions and images from classical Chinese literature and used extensive

symbol A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different conc ...

ism. Therefore, his works appealed to readers who had a classical education and were considered sophisticated.Doleželová-Velingerová, p
724

Oracle bone archaeology and scholarship

In 1903 Liu published the first collection of 1,058

oracle bone Oracle bones () are pieces of ox scapula and turtle plastron, which were used for pyromancy – a form of divination – in ancient China, mainly during the late Shang dynasty. ''Scapulimancy'' is the correct term if ox scapulae were used for th ...

rubbings entitled ''Tieyun Canggui'' (鐵雲藏龜, Tie Yun's .e., Liu ERepository of Turtles) that helped launch the study of

oracle bone inscriptions Oracle bone script () is an ancient form of Chinese characters that were engraved on oracle bonesanimal bones or turtle plastrons used in pyromantic divination. Oracle bone script was used in the late 2nd millennium BC, and is the earliest kno ...

as a distinct branch of Chinese

epigraphy Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

.Creamer, Thomas B. I. (1992), "Lexicography and the history of the Chinese language", in ''History, Languages, and Lexicographers'', ed. by

Ladislav Zgusta Ladislav Zgusta (20 March 1924 in Libochovice – 27 April 2007 in Urbana, Illinois) was a Czech-American historical linguist and lexicographer, who wrote one of the first textbooks on lexicography. He was a professor of linguistics and classics at ...

, Niemeyer, p. 108.

Exile and death

Liu was framed for malfeasance related to his work during the

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by ...

and was exiled in 1908, dying within the next year in Dihua of the

Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

Province (today known as

Ürümqi Ürümqi ( ; also spelled Ürümchi or without umlauts), formerly known as Dihua (also spelled Tihwa), is the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the far northwest of the People's Republic of China. Ürümqi developed its ...

Notes

References

* Doleželová-Velingerová, Milena. "Chapter 38: Fiction from the End of the Empire to the Beginning of the Republic (1897–1916)" in: Mair, Victor H. (editor). ''The Columbia History of Chinese Literature''.

Columbia University Press Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City, and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by Jennifer Crewe (2014–present) and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fiel ...

, 13 August 2013. p. 697–731. , 9780231528511. * * Shen, Tianyou, ''

Encyclopedia of China The ''Encyclopedia of China'' () is the first large-entry modern encyclopedia in the Chinese language. The compilation began in 1978. Published by the Encyclopedia of China Publishing House, the encyclopedia was issued one volume at a time, begin ...

'', 1st ed. * ''The Travels of Lao Ts'an'', Liu T'ieh-yün (Liu E), translated by Harold Shadick, professor of Chinese literature in Cornell University. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1952. Reissued: New York; London: Columbia University Press, 1990. 277p. (A Morningside Book). * ''The travels of Lao Can'', translated by Yang Xianyi, Gladys Yang (Beijing: Panda Books, 1983; 176p.) *

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Liu, E Qing dynasty poets Qing dynasty novelists Chinese archaeologists Chinese epigraphers Chinese people of the Boxer Rebellion 1857 births 1909 deaths Writers from Nanjing Qing dynasty politicians from Jiangsu Politicians from Nanjing Poets from Jiangsu 19th-century Chinese poets 19th-century Chinese novelists Chinese male novelists