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范文正集

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Text ID
KR4d0025
Date
1052–1089
Dynasty
宋

Fàn Wénzhèng jí 范文正集

The Wén-zhèng Collection (of Fàn Zhòng-yān) by 范仲淹 (撰)

About the work

Fàn Wénzhèng jí 范文正集 (the SBCK title is Fàn Wénzhèng gōng jí 范文正公集) is the 20-juǎn literary collection of Fàn Zhòngyān 范仲淹 (989–1052, zì Xīwén 希文, posthumous Wénzhèng 文正), the principal architect of the Qìnglì 慶曆 reforms (1043–1045) and one of the most morally significant figures of the Northern Sòng. The work is famous for the Yuèyánglóu jì 岳陽樓記 of 1046 — with its closing line “xiān tiān xià zhī yōu ér yōu, hòu tiān xià zhī lè ér lè” 先天下之憂而憂、後天下之樂而樂 (“worry before the world worries, rejoice after the world rejoices”) — universally cited as the canonical statement of the Sòng shìdàfū moral vocation.

Tiyao

No tíyào in source — the SBCK file is digitized from the Sòng Yuányòu recension carrying instead Sū Shì’s preface (Yuányòu 4 / 1089). Sū writes that he was an eight-year-old in Qìnglì 3 / 1043 when he first heard the names of Hán [Qí], Fàn [Zhòngyān], Fù [Bì], and Ōuyáng [Xiū] from his rural teacher Zhāng Yì 張易; that he met none of them while Fàn lived (Fàn died in 1052, before Sū’s jìnshì of 1057); that he came to know the four sons (the future Zǎixiàng Fàn Yáofū 范堯夫 / Chúnrén 純仁, then Yíshǒu 彝叟 / Chúnyī 純義 — wait, actually Chúnlǐ — and Dérú 德孺 / Chúnsuì 純粹) and was asked by them to preface the work; that Fàn’s “shàng zǎixiàng wànyán shū” 上宰相萬言書 of Tiānshèng / Míngdào already laid out the program of his subsequent reforms — Fàn was “no scholar who studied after office, but had already settled the wángbà strategy in the fields.” The collection, says Sū, is 20 juǎn, with 268 shīfù and 165 wén pieces; rooted in benevolence, ritual, music, loyalty, faith, filial piety as a man hungers for food.

The Sìkù WYG 20-juǎn tíyào (V1089.3) follows the Sū preface in placing Fàn at the head of the Qìnglì generation and notes that the original collection’s transmission was preserved by his sons, recompiled in the Yuányòu of 1089 and Shàoxīng (when the SBCK Sòng base was cut), with subsequent printings under the Sìbùcóngkān line.

Abstract

Fàn Zhòngyān is among the most consequential figures of Northern-Sòng intellectual history. Born in Sūzhōu Wúxiàn 蘇州吳縣 (modern Sūzhōu) in Duāngōng 2 / 989, raised by his mother and stepfather Zhū Wénhàn 朱文翰 (briefly bearing the surname Zhū before reverting to Fàn at age 23 in Tàipíng xīngguó), he passed the jìnshì in Dàzhōngxiángfú 8 / 1015 and rose through the Yánguān offices and provincial zhīzhōu to Cānzhī zhèngshì under Rénzōng in Qìnglì 3 / 1043 — the fulcrum office of the Qìnglì xīnzhèng 慶曆新政 program co-led with Hán Qí, Fù Bì, Ōuyáng Xiū, and Yú Jìng. The reform’s failure in 1045 sent him out to Bīnzhōu and finally Hángzhōu; he died en route from Hángzhōu to Yǐngzhōu at Xúzhōu in Huángyòu 4 / 1052 age 64. Posthumously canonized Wénzhèng 文正 — the most prestigious civil canonization. His sons Fàn Chúnyòu 范純祐, Chúnrén 范純仁 (later himself Zǎixiàng), Chúnlǐ 范純禮, and Chúnsuì 范純粹 maintained the Yīzhuāng 義莊 charitable estate that he founded at Sūzhōu in 1049 — the first endowed lineage charity in Chinese history and the institutional model imitated by hundreds of later zōngzú foundations.

The collection’s contents include the Shàng zǎixiàng shū (the early-Tiān-shèng “Ten-thousand-word memorial” laying out the proto-Qìnglì reform program), the Yuèyánglóu jì (the most-quoted jì in Chinese literature), the Shéntóng shī xù prefaces, Lǐcí xún military fù, and substantial bēizhìxíngzhuàng — including the mùzhì for Tián Xī KR4d0003 preserved at Xiánpíng jí. The literary register is the early-Qìnglì gǔwén before Ōuyáng Xiū’s full development. The dating bracket is from Fàn’s death (1052) to Sū Shì’s preface (1089).

Translations and research

  • Liu, James T. C. 1957. “Fan Chung-yen (989–1052) — An Early Sung Reformer.” In Confucianism in Action, ed. Nivison and Wright. Stanford UP. The foundational Western treatment.
  • Mote, F. W. 1999. Imperial China 900–1800. Harvard. Treats Fàn as the principal early-Sòng exemplar of the reform official.
  • Twitchett, Denis. 1959. “The Fan Clan’s Charitable Estate, 1050–1760.” In Confucianism in Action. The classic study of the Yī-zhuāng.
  • Egan, Ronald C. 1984. The Literary Works of Ou-yang Hsiu. Cambridge UP. Treats Fàn at the head of the Qìng-lì generation.
  • Smith, Paul Jakov. 2009. “Anatomies of Reform: The Qingli-Era Reforms”, in Cambridge History of China vol. 5.1.
  • Lǐ Yǒng-bīng 李涌冰, ed. 2014. Fàn Zhòng-yān quán-jí 范仲淹全集. Sì-chuān dàxué chūbǎnshè. The current standard critical edition.

Other points of interest

The Yuèyánglóu jì — written in 1046 from Dèngzhōu in response to a request from Téng Zōngliàng 滕宗諒 to commemorate the rebuilt Yuèyáng tower — is the single most-quoted prose passage in the entire Northern-Sòng gǔwén corpus. The Yīzhuāng charitable-estate institution founded by Fàn at his birthplace in 1049 is the original of the East-Asian zōngzú charity tradition.

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