The Elegant Life of a Letter-writing Assistant in the Late Qing Dynasty

Shuqi Shiye (leter-writing assistant) is a private secretary responsible for an official's paper work. Xu Dunren was a letter-writing assistant for Jiang Zhizhang, who was a reputed official during the late Qing Dynasty. Xu's diary Risun Zhai Diary records his life as a letter-writing assistant in Chengdu and Xi'an and is an important historical material for the study of letter-writing assistants. A comparison between Xu's diary and the poems he wrote on his way to Sichuan reveals the similarities and differences between different styles in expressing his experiences and emotions. An examination of all the tasks he mentioned in his diary, including drafting documents, marking examination papers, writing poems and essays in the name of his boss, and editing and proofreading books, brings to light the special contribution of those letter-writing assistants to the management of literary affairs. The diary discloses Xu's daily life, which was occupied primarily by reading and calligraphy. He read a lot of Confucian classics and calligraphed the pavilion style mostly. These two activities are consistent with his professional identity. The diary also exhibits Xu's income and expenditure. His income was mainly used to support his relatives, and his correspondence with his relatives was an important pillar of his spiritual life. The diary records the donation he initiated for his uncle Cai Jiayu. There are interesting differences between the records of Suzhou Fu Zhi and those of this diary, one being public and the other private. The elegant life of Xu represents some common features of letter-writing assistants in the history.