Fàn Níng 范甯
Style name Wǔzǐ 武子. Native of Shùnyáng 順陽 (modern Xīchuān 淅川, Hénán). Eastern Jìn 東晉 classicist, the foundational figure of imperial Gǔliáng exegesis, and the author of the Chūnqiū Gǔliáng zhuàn jí jiě 春秋穀梁傳集解 (KR1e0009 / KR1e0010) — the earliest surviving complete Gǔliáng commentary. The name is written 范甯 in the SBCK frontmatter and in the catalog meta for KR1e0009; 范寧 (using the standard form 寧) in the WYG/Sìkù frontmatter for KR1e0010 and in modern reference works. Both are graphic variants of the same person.
Held office under the Eastern Jìn as Magistrate of Yùzhāng 豫章 commandery (modern Nánchāng, Jiāngxī), in which post he composed the Jí jiě over many years, incorporating the contributions of his pupils, gùlì 故吏 (former subordinates), and family members — each named, with their gloss attached. The Jì shū 晉書 biography (juan 75) reports that the work was “valued by the world.” His preface (xù 序) is an extended methodological defence of treating the Sān zhuàn as complementary witnesses rather than warring schools, against partisans who would champion any single one over the others.
Came from one of the major Eastern-Jìn aristocratic families, the Shùnyáng Fàn 順陽范氏. His grandson on his mother’s side was the great calligrapher Wáng Xīzhī 王羲之 (303–361); his son Fàn Tài 范泰 (355–428) was the father of the historian Fàn Yè 范曄 (398–445), compiler of the Hòu Hàn shū (KR2a0006). Fàn Níng’s correspondence and political alliances with both the Wáng and the Xiè 謝 clans of his day are noted in the Jì shū.
In addition to the Gǔliáng jí jiě, Fàn Níng produced a Lüè lì 略例 (Regulatory Abbreviation) of more than ten regulatory items — referred to by Yáng Shìxūn’s zhèngyì but no longer extant as a separate work, possibly dispersed into the body of the Jí jiě-with-zhèngyì presentation in the Sòng. He also wrote essays opposing the philosophical doctrines of Wáng Bì 王弼 and Hé Yàn 何晏 (the Xuán xué 玄學 founders), favouring a more strictly Confucian classical reading; these essays survive only in fragments. He was a vigorous polemicist on behalf of the Eastern-Jìn cult of the family altar (jiā miào 家廟) against rival ritual programmes.
Died in office in 401 CE. The Jì shū praises his classical scholarship and ritual programmes but notes his austerity and political stiffness.