Sòng Qíqiū 宋齊邱
Style names Chāohuí 超回 (later changed to Zǐsōng 子嵩). Native of Lúlíng 廬陵 (in modern Jiāngxī). Born 887; died 959.
A late-Tang / Wǔdài (Five-Dynasties) / Southern-Tang (南唐) court official. Originally entered service under Lǐ Biàn 李昪 (the Southern-Tang founder) as a bùyī (commoner-without-degree); promoted Diànzhí jūnpànguān (Palace-Direct Military-Judge); rose to Yòusī yuánwàiláng (Right Department Bureau Vice Director); successive promotions to Tóng Píngzhāngshì (Co-Pacification-and-Administration Director) cum Zhī Shàngshūshěng shì (Imperial Secretariat Affairs Director).
Under Lǐ Biàn’s son Lǐ Jǐng 李璟 (Yuánzōng), Sòng Qíqiū was appointed Tàifù (Grand Tutor) and Jiànnán Dōngchuān Jiédùshǐ (Jiànnán Eastern Sìchuān Provincial Governor); ennobled Chǔguógōng (Lord of Chǔ). Eventually fell from favor (the Sòng Qíqiū dǎng faction was implicated in court intrigue), was deprived of office, and committed suicide by hanging.
The Sìkù 提要 of KR3g0044 Yùguǎn zhàoshén jú describes Sòng Qíqiū as having lived “in the Five-Dynasties chaotic-and-unsettled age, satisfying himself with cleverness-and-deceit, especially fond of shùshù (numerical-arts); whatever combined celestial-imagery, geomancy, Gūbù, réndùn, and other arts — those who lived under his roof were always several-tens of practitioners; [Sòng Qíqiū] generously supplied them all”. This characterization establishes Sòng Qíqiū as a major late-imperial patron-and-collector of shùshù technical traditions, with his retinue of dozens of practitioners producing technical works that circulated under his (or fictitiously his) name.
The 提要 doubts that Sòng Qíqiū personally authored the KR3g0044 Yùguǎn zhàoshén jú (3 juàn, on physiognomy) — judging it more likely a composition by one of his retinue published under his name. The work in any case has substantive physiognomic content and is one of the principal late-imperial Chinese physiognomic sources.