The singular Yuán-period 元 imperial Hàn-Confucian Yùtáng (Hànlín) official, bridge-figure of Khubilai-and-successor empire-cultural policy, founder of Yuán-imperial-Hàn-Confucian cultural-recovery of southern literati after 1276. Original given-name Wénhǎi 文海; taboo-avoided for the Yuán Wǔzōng’s miàohuì “Hǎishān” 海山 — Chéng adopted his zì Méngqīng 孟卿 as substitute name in formal usage. Hào Xuělóu 雪樓 (“Snow-Tower”). Native of Yǐngzhōu Jīngshān 郢州京山 (modern Húběi).
Foundational mission. Imperial commissioner of the Zhìyuán 23 (1286) southern-recruitment expedition: Chéng travelled south by imperial commission to recruit Sòng-remnant scholars into Yuán court service. The mission recovered into Yuán imperial service:
- Zhào Mèngfǔ 趙孟頫 趙孟頫 (the great calligrapher-painter-scholar)
- Yú Jí 虞集 虞集 (the foundational YuánHànlín scholar)
- And dozens of other major southern literati.
This is the single most-consequential Yuán-Confucian recruitment act.
Career. Successive Hànlín offices over three decades through the Khubilai → Chéngzōng → Wǔzōng → Rénzōng reigns. Composer of substantial portions of Yuán imperial zhìzhào (edicts), zhìcí (decree-words), cèwén (investiture-texts), jìwén (sacrificial-texts), zhāiyì (vegetarian-feast intentions), qīngcí (blue-words for Daoist rituals), biǎo (memorials), and zhìyǔ (offerings-words). The body of his Chìcì bēi (imperially-commissioned steles) for senior Mongol-Khangli aristocrats and Hàn-Confucian elders forms the largest single Yuán-imperial epigraphic-biography corpus preserved through manuscript transmission.
Within the Kanripo corpus. KR4d0466 Xuělóu jí 雪樓集 (撰).
Reference. Yuánshǐ j. 172.