Sūn Fù 孫復
Style name Míngfù 明復, by which he was usually called; also known as Tàishān xiānshēng 泰山先生 from his decades of seclusion teaching at Tàishān 泰山. Native of Píngyáng 平陽 in Jìnzhōu 晉州 (modern Shānxī). One of the Sòng chū sān xiānshēng 宋初三先生 — the “three masters of the early Sòng” — together with Hú Yuán 胡瑗 (993–1059) and Shí Jiè 石介 (1005–1045); a foundational figure of the Confucian revival that culminated in Dàoxué 道學. The Sòng shǐ rúlín zhuàn (juan 432) gives him a full biography.
Sūn failed the jìnshì examinations four times in his youth and after the fourth failure (around 1024) withdrew to teach privately at Tàishān. The Tàishānshūyuàn 泰山書院 he established there became one of the most influential of the early Northern-Sòng private academies. His pupils included Shí Jiè (his foremost disciple), Wén Yànbó 文彥博 (1006–1097), Hán Qí 韓琦 (1008–1075), and Sòng Qí 宋祁 (998–1061). Was eventually summoned to court by Fàn Zhòngyān 范仲淹 in the Qìnglì 慶歷 era (early 1040s) and given a junior post in the Guózǐjiān 國子監 as Zhíjiǎng 直講 (Lecturer); rose only to Tàichángjìjiǔ 太常祭酒 and Diānzhōngchéng 殿中丞.
His intellectual work centred on the Chūnqiū. The Chūnqiū zūn wáng fā wéi KR1e0018 in fifteen juan (now twelve, with the three-juan Zǒng lùn lost) was completed in 1057 just before his death, with assistance from his pupil Zǔ Wúzé 祖無擇 dispatched by Hán Qí. He also produced a Yì shuō 易說 in sixty-four hexagram chapters (lost) and a collected literary works Suī yáng zǐ jí 睢陽子集 in ten juan (largely lost).
Sūn Fù’s Chūnqiū hermeneutics — direct reading of the jīng without recourse to the three commentaries; rigorist yǒu biǎn wú bāo 有貶無襃 (“only blame, no praise”) interpretation — built on the Tang-era Lù Chún 陸淳 (KR1e0013) and opened the Northern-Sòng xīnyì movement that runs through Liú Chǎng KR1e0021 to Hú Ānguó KR1e0036. Cháng Zhì’s 常秩 famous criticism — that Sūn’s reading was “Shāng Yāng’s law: those who throw ash on the road are punished, those who walk over six chǐ are executed” — captures the severity that defines his school. Wilkinson’s Chinese History: A New Manual §28.7.3 names Sūn as the founding figure of the Tang–Sòng Confucian revival proper.
Buried at his family seat in Yùnzhōu 鄆州 (modern Shāndōng); Ōuyáng Xiū 歐陽修 wrote the Sūn Fù mùzhì míng 孫復墓誌銘. CBDB id 19670.