1.The Historical Geographer

　　Yang Shoujing was born in a businessman’s family in Lucheng, Yidu City on June 2nd, 1839. He showed a great interest in study since his childhood. When he was nineteen years old, he took the imperial examination at the prefecture level and got the first in all the exams. When he was twenty-four years old, he became a successful candidate in the imperial examination at provincial level. One year later he went to the capital to take the metropolitan examination but failed all the seven exams. Then he began to devote all of his energy to writing. When he was 42, he went to Japan as a   retinue of the ambassador. At the age of 46, he came back to China and served as a teacher in Huanggang City, Hubei Province. At the age of 61, he was teaching in Lianghhu College, and three years later he was promoted to be the chief of the Teaching Affairs Office in Qincheng College. In 1903 he came first in the special examination of economic set at the end of the Qing Dynasty. When he was 68 years old, he declined the appointment to the county magistrate of Huoshan County, Anhui Province due to his high age. Next year he was proposed as adviser of the Department of Amenity and has participated in the compilation and proofreading of Annals of Hubei Province. After the revolt in Wuchang in the Revolution of 1911, he moved from Wuhan to Shanghai. In 1914, Yuan Shikai invited him to be adviser and he refused it immediately. Then he moved to Beijing and was appointed the member of the Council of State. He passed away on January 9, 1915 and was buried in Longwo in Yidu County.

　　Yang Shoujing was especially good at historical geography. His masterpiece Commentary on the Waterways Classic won high praises of many scholars and experts. Yang Shoujing’s geography was hailed by the famous scholar, Luo Zhengyu in the Qing Dynasty, as one of Three Unprecedented Disciplines in the Qing Dynasty. Commentary on the Waterways Classic and Illustration to Waterways Classic on which Yang Shoujing and his student Xiong Huizhen (1863－1936) spent more than 20 years is an important contribution they made to Chinese history and culture.

　　Many famous scholars and experts of the Qing Dynasty such as Quan Wangzu devoted their whole life to Commentary on the Waterways Classic and Illustration to Waterways Classic that were cherished as standard. But Yang Shoujing found that there were many faults in these two books, after he read the original editions when he was in Japan. About ten percent of the mistakes were made by the writers, about forty percent in the process of painting, and twenty percent or so in the process of emending. So he decided to research Commentary on the Waterways Classic on the basis of previous studies. In addition to collecting the materials, he did a lot of hard fieldwork. For example, he did a detailed investigation into the waterway changes after Li Daoyuan (a famous writer of the book), walked along the Qinjiang River to find its headstream, and tried to define the scope of the Three Gorges after he visited there — all of these work he did laid a solid foundation for his authoritative book Commentary on the Waterways Classic. He published another book Notes and Commentaries of Waterways Classic in 1905, and cut and mimeographed Addendum and Supplementary to Notes and Commentaries of Waterways Classic for publication in 1909, for which he won great fame in the academic circle. Many famous scholars at that time said that what he was studying was to gap thelost knowledge in thousands years of history. Yang Shoujing together with one of his best students, Xiong Huizhen spent more than 30 years completing the huge work Commentary on the Waterways Classic, which has more than one million words.

　　Yang Shoujing was very successful in the academic circle. He made Map of China when he was 20 years old, then published A Chronological Map of China, and spent 3 years in completing Illustration to Waterways Classicwith Xiong Huizhen. “I, together with Xiong Huizhen, have completed the book Commentary on the Waterways Classic, and we feel that it needs to map according to this book. Li Daoyuan used to write his book according to the map. We, however, make the map according to the book, because there are a lot of geographical changes in so long histories. These changes are all specially underlined”, said he. Although there was still much to be improved in this book, it was the best one of its kind in the Qing Dynasty. In 1982 on the basis of Yang Shoujing’s map, Tan Qixiang as the chief editor made The Historical Atlas of China, which was regarded as a great event in the academic circle at that time.

2.The Epigraphist

　　Yang Shoujing was very interested in the collection of rubbings from stone inscriptions. He has collected many rubbings in his early age. In addition to Comments on Tablet Inscriptions from Qin to Tang Dynasty and Comments on Calligraphy, he spent forty years from 1870 to 1910 finishing Wangtang Jinshi whose contents were rare-seen rubbings, compiling a dictionary, Tracing the Origin of Regular script, from 1876 to 1877 and got it published in 1888. When he was 42 years old he went to Japan, bringing with him more than 10,000 items of rubbings. To collect the ancient books of China spread in Japan, he had to sell many of them, but he reprinted the precious book Rubbings of Stele Inscriptions in Southeast Asia in a reduced format in 1882. All of these works suffice to prove that he is a model in epigraphy.

　　He was a rigorous scholar and had an exaggerated liking for the acquisition and ownership for books and rubbings. He would do careful investigation in the rare ancient books and rubbings whenever he found them. His research could be dated back to the 4th year of the Emperor Tongzhi (1865). He then went to Beijing to take the metropolitan examination and was influenced by Pan Cun, his first calligraphy teacher. From then on he began to collect the rubbings of stone inscriptions and comment on them. In the 6th year of Emperor Tongzhi (1867), he wrote his first book Comments on Tablet Inscriptions from Qin to Tang Dynasty, commenting on 285 kinds of stone inscriptions from the Former Qin to the Tang Dynasty. He again in the next year wrote another book, Comments on Calligraphy, commenting on 96 kinds of rubbings. But unfortunately these two books were lost when they were passed among Japanese friends. Fortunately both of them were found, and one of them Comments on Tablet Inscriptions from Qin to Tang Dynasty was very popular in Japan after it was published (the publishing date is unknown). He wrote nothing about rubbings since these two books he wrote in his early age were lost. When Yang Shoujing was 73 years old, Mizunosoubai, a Japanese was accepted by him as his only formal student because Mizunosoubai loved calligraphy. Finally Yang Shoujing wrote his last book Comments on Stele Inscription and Calligraphy at Mizunosoubai’s repeated request.

3.The Calligraphist

　　Yang Shoujing made great achievements in calligraphy and was a world-famous calligraphist. Not only was he good at regular script, Chinese calligraphy, official script, seal characters and cursive characters, but also wrote many important books, which are still viewed as important theories of calligraphy. Nowadays his writing is cherished by a lot of museums, libraries, and collectors. Some of his stone inscriptions are well preserved in many scenic spots and classified as important cultural relics. He also had a very important position in Japan. He is valued as the father of modern Japanese calligraphy and is viewed as a symbolic person for Japanese calligraphy to enter into a new era.
     In April 1880, Yang Shoujing brought to Japan a lot of precious collections, such as the rubbings of stone inscriptions, seals from the Han Dynasty to the Wei and Jin Dynasties, ancient coins and so on. Yang Shoujing would never think of what a great impact his collection he brought to Japan would have on the calligraphy of Japan. One important scholar Kokamieizan who studied the history of calligraphy has compared the influence of Yang Shoujing’s theory to “Yang Shoujing Whirlwind”. “Yang Shoujing Whirlwind” had a far-reaching influence on the calligraphy and the communication between Japan and China. There were still a lot of Japanese friends interested in calligraphy calling on him for theory exchanges and skills after he went back to China in May 1884. When he was 73 years old, Mizunosoubai came all the way from Japan to Shanghai to study calligraphy and epigraphy from him.
     Yang Shoujing was not only good at calligraphy, but also the theories. In Japan there are about 6,000 scholars studying his calligraphy theory. He added “two more requirements” (requirements of high moral standards and broad knowledge) to the traditional “three requirements”(requirements of talent, intensive study and more practice) He thought that the higher one’s moral standards, the more beautiful one’s calligraphy. Moreover broad knowledge could improve the quality of one’s works.

4.The Bibliophile

　　In March, the 6th year of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty (1880), Yang Shoujing failed the metropolitan examination for the 6th times, and in the summer he went to Japan as a retinue at the invitation of He Ruzhang, a Chinese ambassador in Japan. Japan at that time was undergoing Meiji Reform, advocating new learning and rejecting old learning. That is why the classic books of China were rejected. Yang Shoujing, taking advantage of circumstances, was able to buy a lot of rare editions that could hardly be found in China. He at the same time made acquaintance with a Japanese doctor, also a bibliophile. He found several photo-offset copies of rare edition in the place where the doctor lived, and loved them very much. So Moritatsuyuki just generously gave them to him. Inspired by it, he published another book A Photography Collection of Classics, which was the first of its kind. Moritatsuyuki gave Yang Shoujing another book called A Collection of Chinese Classics, according to which he easily got over 30,000 volumes of ancient books within one year.

　　After one year Li Shuchang (1837—1897) was sent to Japan as the ambassador to take He Ruzhang’s place. Li Shuchang whose courtesy name is Chun Zhai was born in Zunyi City, Guizhou Province, and had been sent to Japan twice as the ambassador during the reign of Emperor Guangxu. He was deeply moved when he learned that Yang Shoujing collected a lot of rare ancient books, because he was also very much interested in it. So Li Shuchang commissioned Yang Shoujing to cut and mimeograph the book Ancient Book Series on the basis of ancient books. Yang Shoujing was greatly encouraged by Li Shuchang and focused even more attention on the collection of ancient books. He took to Japan over 13,000 volumes of rubbings from the stone inscription of the Han, Wei, Six Dyansties (222—589), the Sui Dynasty, and moreover he was very good at calligraphy and Chinese ink painting. So he taking advantage of these rubbings, not just introduced to Japan Chinese calligraphy, but also exchanged these rubbings for many unique copies.

　　In 1914 Yang Shoujing was engaged as adviser of Yuan Shikai and these books were taken to Beijing by him. Now most of these books are kept in the Palace Museum at Taibei.

　　These above three are the most outstanding ones among the celebrities of history. The beautiful and peaceful environment of the Three Gorges Area not only gave birth to many famous people in history, but attracted a lot of celebrities who left us a lot of precious works about the Three Gorges. For example, the Great Talented Poet, Du Pu wrote more than 400 poems about the Three Gorges during his two years’ staying in Kuizhou, such as Climbing High, Ode to Autumn. It was at that time that he reached the peak of his career. In the 13th year ofEmperor Yuanhe of the Tang Dynasty (818), the poet Bai Juyi was promoted from minister of war of Jiangzhou (today’s Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province) to prefectural governor of Zhongzhou (today’s Zhongxian County in Sichuan Province), and his younger brother Bai Xingjian went to Zhongzhou together with him. Another poet, Yuan Zheng, one of Bai Juyi’s good friends happened to be promoted from minister of war of Tongzhou (today’s Daxian County in Sichuan Province) to superior officer of Guo Zhou (today’s Lingbao in Henan Province). They three met at Yiling in March of the 14th year of Emperor Yuanhe. To record this coincidence, Bai Juyi wrote a poem “Introduction to Three Visitors’ Cave”, which was carved on the wall of the cave, hence came the name of Three Visitors’ Cave. And it has become a mecca of tourists. In the 3rd year of Emperor Jingyou of the Song Dynasty (1036), the great writer Ouyang Xiu whose writings are modeled after was demoted to county magistrate of Yiling County. He wrote altogether more than 50 poems and articles during his one-year term in Yiling, some of which are very important materials for the study of the history of Yichang City, such as A Letter to Yin Shilu, A Record of Zhi Xi Ting of Xiazhou, Funeral Oration on Marquis Cai Huan, Ode to Boxtree by Zigong, Nine Songs on Yiling. During the reign of Emperor Jiayou,thefamous litterateur, Su Xun together with his two sons Su Shi and Su Zhe went to his post from Meizhou (today’s Meishan County) to Bianjing (today’s Kaifeng City in Henan Province) and stop at the Three Gorges, which left a deep impression on them. They three visited the Three Visitors Cave, after arrived at Yiling (the ancient name of Yichang), and all of them wrote a poem on the wall of the cave. So they are called later three visitors. In addition Su Shi wrote many poems about the Three Gorges, such as Entering Gorges, Coming out of Gorges, Ode to Zhi Xitang, Huangling Temple, and Ode to Sweet Spring in Xiazhou. Lu You, poet of the Southern Song Dynasty went to the Three Gorges and wrote many poems about the Three Gorges. In 1170 he wrote the Diaries on Entering the Region of Shu, which offers a detailed description about the scenery of the Three Gorges. When he visited the Three Visitors Cave, he made tea with water in this cave. So he wrote a Qilǜ poem (an eight-line poem with seven characters to a line and a strict pattern and rhyme scheme) to record this incidence and left a famous tourist attraction, Lu You Spring.