Fāng Bāo 方苞 (1668–1749). Zì Fèngjiǔ 鳳九, hào Línggāo 靈臯 / Wàngxī 望溪. Native of Tóngchéng 桐城 in Ānqìng prefecture (modern Tóngchéng, Ānhuī). The principal founding figure of the Tóngchéngpài 桐城派 school of classical-prose scholarship.
Career under Kāngxī and Yōngzhèng: passed the metropolitan examination (huìshì zhōngshì) in bǐngxū of Kāngxī (Kāngxī 45 = 1706) but did not formally take the palace examination, eventually serving as Grand Secretary of the Inner Cabinet (Nèigé xuéshì) and Vice-Minister of the Board of Rites (Lǐbù shìláng). Implicated in the Nán Shānjí 南山集 case of Dài Míngshì 戴名世 (1711) and arrested, eventually pardoned and assigned to compile imperial works. Late in life dismissed from his official position and assigned to court editorial work; finally given the special honorary rank of shìjiǎng on retirement.
Author of three Sìkù-admitted Sānlǐ works: KR1d0021 Zhōuguān jízhù 周官集注 in 12 juan (1720, autograph preface dated gēngzǐ of Kāngxī winter); KR1d0041 Yílǐ xīyí 儀禮析疑 in 17 juan; and KR1d0072 Lǐjì xīyí 禮記析疑 in 48 juan. He was also a deputy compiler on the Qīndìng Sānlǐ yìshū commission (cf. KR1d0018, KR1d0037, KR1d0068).
Fāng’s distinctive position on the Zhōulǐ: in his collected works (Wàngxī jí 望溪集) he argues that specific passages of the Zhōuguān were inserted by Liú Xīn to flatter Wáng Mǎng, and identifies particular paragraphs and sentences as LiúXīn fabrications. The Sìkù editors of KR1d0021 note this position with disapproval: “claiming to penetrate truth from forgery as if reading the brushwork itself, in fact unable to escape arbitrary judgement — and so falls short of the Jízhù’s own conscientious restraint.” The contrast between Fāng’s careful Jízhù and his speculative Wàngxī jí essays on the same text is a notable instance of intra-author methodological inconsistency.
CBDB id 34138, dates 1668–1749 — verified against standard Qīngshǐ sources.