Xú Qiánxué 徐乾學 (1631–1694). Zì Yuányī 原一, hào Jiàn’ān 健菴. Native of Kūnshān 崑山 (modern Kūnshān, Jiāngsū). Jìnshì of Kāngxī gēngxū (Kāngxī 9 = 1670), ranked second (bǎngyǎn 榜眼) in the palace examination. Career: rose through Hànlin posts, Lǐbù shìláng 禮部侍郎, Dūcháyuàn zuǒdūyùshǐ 都察院左都御史, ultimately Xíngbù shàngshū 刑部尚書 (Minister of Justice). Removed from office in the Kāngxī 28 (1689) impeachment of his patronage faction; spent his last five years in private scholarship.
Owner of one of the most important private libraries of the early Qīng — the Chuánshì lóu 傳是樓 — second to none in his era. Major patron of the leading early-Qīng evidential scholars, including Yán Ruòqú 閻若璩 (1636–1704), who was a member of his household scholarly circle and contributed substantially to his major projects.
Author of KR1d0051 Dúlǐ tōngkǎo 讀禮通考 in 120 juan — the most comprehensive Qīng treatise on Chinese mourning ritual ever composed, organising material under eight major rubrics: sāngqī (mourning periods), sāngfú (mourning garments), sāngyíjié (mourning procedures), zàngkǎo (burial investigations), sāngjù (mourning implements), biànlǐ (variant rituals), sāngzhì (mourning regulations), and miàozhì (temple regulations). The work was begun during Xú’s mother’s mourning period and refined over a decade-plus of three drafts; published posthumously. The Sìkù tíyào characterises the work as “this Heaven-and-Earth’s indispensable book” and explicitly identifies Qín Huìtián’s 秦蕙田 Wǔlǐ tōngkǎo 五禮通考 as a direct continuation of Xú’s project. CBDB id 30399, dates 1631–1694.