Mao Qiling

{{Short description|Chinese scholar and philologist (1623–1716)}}

{{family name hatnote|Mao (毛)|lang=Chinese}}

File:毛奇齡.jpg

Mao Qiling ({{zh|t=毛奇齡|s=毛奇龄|p=Máo Qílíng|w=Mao Ch'i-ling}}; 1623–1716) was a Chinese scholar and philologist of the early Qing dynasty. A native of Xiaoshan in Zhejiang province, he became a licentiate at the age of fifteen sui.{{sfn|Tu|1943|p=563}} After the fall of the Ming dynasty in 1644, he refused to serve the Qing. In 1679, however, he took part in and passed a special honorary examination held by the Kangxi Emperor to attract scholars who had not yet announced their allegiance to the new dynasty.{{sfn|Tu|1943|p=563}} He was then appointed to the compilation of the official History of Ming.{{sfn|Tu|1943|p=563}} After retiring from office in 1687, he went to live in Hangzhou (Zhejiang), where he taught many disciples.{{sfn|Tu|1943|p=563}}

A scholar of wide learning, Mao compiled works on the Confucian Classics and on phonetics, music, history, and geography.{{sfn|Tu|1943|p=564}} After Mao's death his writings were collected and published as an eighty-volume work, The Collected Works of Xihe ("Xihe" was a popular pseudonym of Mao's).{{sfn|Legge|1893|p=20}} He was famous for vehemently opposing the orthodox commentaries on the Classics by Song-dynasty Neo-Confucians like Zhu Xi.{{sfnm|Wang|2008|1p=107|Elman|2001|2p=89}} He also unsuccessfully attacked Yan Ruoju's demonstration that the Old Text chapters of the Book of Documents (one of the Five Classics) were Han-dynasty forgeries.{{sfnm|Elman|2001|1pp=237–9|Tu|1943|2p=564}}

In the Shang shu guangting fu (Record of a broad understanding of the documents), Mao presented criticism of the earlier association between the early nonary cosmographic schemes and the Luoshu.{{sfn|Henderson|1995|p=224}}