Early-Qīng 清 grand secretary, court painter, and classical scholar; native of Chángshú 常熟 in Sūzhōu fǔ 蘇州府 (modern Jiāngsū). Zì Yángsūn 揚孫; hào Xīgǔ 西谷; posthumously canonized Wénsù 文肅. Lifedates 1669–1732 are firm (CBDB id 65840).
Jìnshì of Kāngxī 42 / 1703 (癸未). Held a series of senior Hànlín and central-administrative posts under Kāngxī and Yōngzhèng, ending as Wényuángé dàxuéshì 文淵閣大學士 (Grand Secretary). Bio in Qīngshǐ gǎo 清史稿 j. 289.
He is celebrated chiefly as a master of court painting (huā niǎo 花鳥, flowers-and-birds; lent his hand to imperial commissions including illustrations for the imperial gardens) and as the editor of major Yōngzhèng-era imperial scholarly compilations. His participation in classical scholarship is more limited but notable: as the Sìkù compilers note in their tíyào on his Shàngshū dìlǐ jīn shì 尚書地理今釋 (KR1b0057), the work was composed during his service as Nèigé xuéshì 內閣學士 (Inner Cabinet Reader) and was prefaced under “shèng xùn” 聖訓 (imperial instructions) — i.e. it was undertaken in response to imperial direction received during his palace duties.
The Shàngshū dìlǐ jīn shì is a focused 1-juǎn monograph correcting a comprehensive catalog of geographical-identification errors in earlier Shàngshū commentators, particularly Cài Shěn’s Shū jízhuàn (KR1b0017). Methodologically grounded in mainstream Qing-period kǎojù, it draws on the Hàn shū dìlǐ zhì, the Hòu Hàn shū, the Shuǐ jīng zhù, the Yuánhé jùnxiàn zhì, the Yuánfēng jiǔyù zhì, and the parallel philological work of 傅寅 (KR1b0012), 陳師凱 (KR1b0031), 時瀾 (KR1b0013 Shū shuō), and 顧炎武’s Zhàoyù zhì 肇域志 — drawing systematically on the early-Qīng historical-geography apparatus.