Fàn Tàishǐ jí 范太史集
Collected Works of [Fàn] Tài-shǐ [Zǔ-yǔ] by 范祖禹 (撰)
About the work
Fàn Tàishǐ jí 范太史集 (named from Fàn Zǔyǔ 范祖禹’s Tàishǐ — the Hànlín xuéshì / Shǐguǎn xiūzhuàn office under which he is customarily addressed) is the literary collection of Fàn Zǔyǔ (1041–1098, zì Chúnfǔ 淳甫 / Mèngdé 夢得), the principal Yuányòu-period jiǎngguān (imperial lecturer) and the historian to whom Sīmǎ Guāng 司馬光 司馬光 entrusted the Táng portion of the Zīzhì tōngjiàn (and on whose own Táng jiàn 唐鑑 KR2b0027 in 12 juǎn his cognomen Tángjiàngōng is based). The collection is the structurally-distinctive Yuányòu biéjí: poetry occupies only juǎn 1–3; biǎozhuàngzházǐ take juǎn 4–12; zòuyì (the central body of his jīngyán lectures and political memorials) take juǎn 13–26; jìn gùshì (Tang and pre-Tang historical lectures presented to the throne) takes juǎn 27; Hànlín cícǎo (his court drafts) take juǎn 28–33; fù, lùn, cèwèn etc. take juǎn 34–37; and zhìmíng / shéndàobēi take juǎn 38–55 — of which juǎn 45–55 are devoted entirely to Huángzú (imperial-clansmen) epitaphs, an unusual concentration reflecting Fàn’s Hànlín assignments. The Sìkù received this 55-juǎn full text (matching Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì and Mǎ Duānlín’s Jīngjí kǎo, hence preserving the Sòng-period zhì); a parallel circulating Míng zhāichāo (selective) recension by Chéng Mǐnzhèng 程敏政 in only 18 juǎn survived alongside it but is rejected as incomplete.
Tiyao
The Sìkù tíyào: Fàn Tàishǐ jí in 55 juǎn by Fàn Zǔyǔ of the Sòng. Zǔyǔ, zì Chúnfǔ, of Huáyáng. Jiāyòu 8 / 1063 jìnshì jiǎkē. Followed Sīmǎ Guāng in compiling the Tōngjiàn; on its completion was recommended as Mìshūshěng zhèngzì; passed through Lóngtúgé xuéshì zhī Shǎnzhōu; was wū (slandered) by speakers, demoted to Bīnhuà, where he died. Deeds in his Sòngshǐ běnzhuàn. His Dì xué 帝學 and Táng jiàn and other books are separately cataloged. His wénjí circulates in the world in two recensions: one is only 18 juǎn — Míng Chéng Mǐnzhèng’s Mìgé jièyuè selective excerpt for circulation — in fact not a full book. This copy in 55 juǎn — its juǎnmù matches Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì and Mǎ Duānlín’s Jīngjí kǎo — clearly still the Sòng-time old zhì. Zǔyǔ’s lifelong lùnjiàn (memorialized remonstrances) come to no fewer than several hundred-thousand words; in the Ěryīng (lecture pavilion) he stayed by jīng (canon) and jùzhèng (held to right-uprightness) — called jiǎngguān dìyī (lecturer the first). The shǐchén says he kāichén zhìdào, qūbié xiézhèng, biànshì shìyí, píngyì míngbái, dòngjiàn dǐyùn (open-laid the way of governance, distinguished perversion from rectitude, explained matters with simple-clarity, peering into the depths of meaning). Hence the běnzhuàn records up to 15–16 of his shū (memorials), and in the collection the zhāngzòu are particularly numerous, all uniformly zhànshēn jīngshù, liàndá shìwù, shēn yǒu pì yú xiànnà (deeply rooted in canon, accomplished in affairs, deeply useful in xiànnà (offered counsel)). Where he occasionally falls into piānzhí (one-sided rigidity): on the héjì tiāndì (joint-sacrifice of heaven and earth) matter, Zǔyǔ said the fēnjì (separate sacrifice) ritual since the Hàn has not been able to be carried out — and “in one year twice making a jiāo (suburban sacrifice) — this surely cannot be done; and on the xiàzhì day particularly not easy to perform.” At the same time Sū Shì and others, on the basis of the Zhōulǐ, took fēnjì as right; Zǔyǔ and Gù Lín 顧臨 firmly held; in the end the zhì followed Zǔyǔ’s proposal — clearly his prince was used to yànān (banquet-ease), and the discussants thereupon made qiānjiù zhīlùn (accommodating arguments); this surely is unavoidable as xiánzhě zhī guò (a sage-man’s failing). Yet his great gist is kàngzhí chílùn qiēdāng (firmly upright, holding the argument cuttingly to the point); he has nothing to be ashamed of as a chúnrú (pure Confucian). Contemporaries compared him with Jiǎ Yì 賈誼 and Lù Zhì 陸贄; commentators do not regard this as overpraise. Qiánlóng 44 (1779) 2nd month, respectfully collated.
Abstract
Fàn Tàishǐ jí is the principal source for the second-generation Yuányòu coalition’s intellectual self-presentation: where the first generation (Sīmǎ Guāng, Lǚ Gōngzhù, Wén Yànbó) had spoken from positions of senior power, Fàn Zǔyǔ’s zòuyì speak from the lecturer’s chair — defining the jīngyán method (canonical text → historical exemplum → present application) that became the orthodox Confucian-pedagogical mode. The 14 juǎn of zòuyì (13–26) and the 27th juǎn of jìn gùshì (the historical anecdotes presented at jīngyán) are the operational record of this method. The jīngyán dìyī designation, attributed by Sòngshǐ to “the historian,” is most fully traceable to Sū Shì’s biǎo statements (preserved in the Sū Shì collection KR4d0076). The héjì / fēnjì tiāndì debate is the principal li-zhì matter on which Fàn took a position against Sū Shì — and the Sìkù editors’ framing this as a xiánzhě zhī guò (made worse by the prince’s yànān-prone disposition) is itself an interesting Qing reading of the Yuányòu period. The Chéng Mǐnzhèng 18-juǎn Mìgé selective recension (which the Sìkù editors rejected) is itself bibliographically significant: it preserves the Yuán Bìshūjiān holdings as filtered by an early-Míng géchén. Dating bracket: Fàn’s death (1098) to the Sìkù re-collation (1779).
Translations and research
- Levine, Ari Daniel. 2008. Divided by a Common Language: Factional Conflict in Late Northern Song China. University of Hawai’i Press. Treats Fàn Zǔ-yǔ as central Yuán-yòu figure.
- Smith, Paul Jakov. 2009. “Shen-tsung’s Reign and the New Policies of Wang An-shih, 1067–1085.” In Cambridge History of China, Vol. 5.1.
- Yú Yīng-shí 余英時. 2003. Zhū Xī de lì-shǐ shì-jiè 朱熹的歷史世界. Sān-lián. Treats Fàn Zǔ-yǔ as the central jīng-yán methodologist.
- de Weerdt, Hilde. 2007. Competition over Content: Negotiating Standards for the Civil Service Examinations in Imperial China (1127–1279). Harvard. Background.
- Cài Hán-dōng 蔡涵墨 (Charles Hartman) on Fàn Zǔ-yǔ historiography.
Other points of interest
The 11-juǎn concentration of Huángzú (imperial-clansmen) epitaphs (juǎn 45–55) is unusual for a biéjí and reflects Fàn’s Hànlín assignment as principal-court epitaphist for the Yuányòu-period imperial-clansmen — making this collection a primary prosopographic source for Sòngshǐ Zōngshìzhuàn. The jìn gùshì of juǎn 27 — historical anecdotes presented at jīngyán — is a model of the late-Northern-Sòng jīngyán method and was directly imitated in Lǚ Zǔqiān’s Lìdài zhìluè and downstream jiǎngshǐ literature.
Links
- Fan Zuyu (Wikidata)
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.1 (Sòng biéjí); §15.1 (Zīzhì tōngjiàn).