Sū Xún 蘇洵
Style name Míngyǔn 明允; hào Lǎoquán 老泉. Native of Méishān 眉山 in Méizhōu 眉州 (modern Sìchuān). Lifedates 1009–1066 (Northern Sòng). Father of Sū Shì 蘇軾 (蘇軾) and Sū Zhé 蘇轍 (蘇轍); together they are the Sān Sū 三蘇, conventionally counted among the TángSòng bā dà jiā 唐宋八大家 (“Eight Great Masters of the TángSòng” classical-prose canon). The Sòngshǐ (juan 443) carries his biography.
Began serious classical study late — by his own famous late-recovery account, he did not commit to scholarship until age twenty-seven. Brought himself and his two sons to the capital in the 1050s through Zhāng Fāngpíng 張方平’s recommendation; secured a meeting with Ōuyáng Xiū 歐陽修, who took to his prose strongly and recommended him to court. Held a series of minor offices, including Bìshū shěng jiàoshū láng 祕書省校書郎 and Jíxián xiào jiào 集賢校理. Best known as the most authoritative practitioner among the Sān Sū of memorial-style political prose (lùn 論, cè 策, biǎo 表): the Liù guó lùn 六國論 (“On the Six Kingdoms”) and the Quán shū 權書 series are canonical Sòng-prose anthology pieces.
The Yìzhuàn he initiated in his late years was the seed of the SānSū family Yì commentary KR1a0015 Dōngpō Yìzhuàn; he died in 1066 with the work unfinished and charged his two sons to complete it. His xíngzhuàng records his late-life turn to Yì-study and his focus on the affective-political dynamics of the yáo (firmness-suppleness, distance-nearness, joy-anger, with-grain-against-grain) — themes the sons absorbed.
His prose collection Jiāyòu jí 嘉祐集 (15 juan) is the standard surviving witness to his independent writing.