Early-Yuán 元 Hàn-Confucian censor-official, one of the founding-generation institutional architects of Khubilai-era Mongol-Yuán administration. Zì Tàichū 太初; hào Qīngyá 青崖 (“Green-Cliff”). Native of Shùnshèng 順聖 in Hóngzhōu 宏州 (modern Shǎnxī / Shānxī region).
Family background. Adopted son of his cousin-grandfather Wèi Pán 魏璠 — the eminent Jīn-end Hànlín xiūzhuàn 翰林修撰 whose principled directness so impressed Khubilai Khan that Khubilai summoned Pán to the Mongol court at Hélín 和林 with high honors. Pán being childless, Wèi Chū was raised as his successor.
Career. Early entry to the Zhōngshūshěng (Imperial Secretariat) as a clerk; resigned and returned. Re-recommended; the emperor (Khubilai) inquired and learned Wèi was Pán’s son — therefore appointed Guóshǐyuàn biānxiū 國史院編修. Promoted to Censor (yùshǐ 御史); ultimately Nántái yùshǐ zhōngchéng 南臺御史中丞 (Vice-Censor-in-Chief at the Southern Censorate).
Literary lineage. Disciple of Yuán Hǎowèn 元好問 (1190–1257); the Qīngyá jí preserves Wèi’s record that he and Jiāng Yù 姜彧 had together studied under Yuán Hǎowèn, and that when their teacher came to Yān (Beijing) Wèi morning-and-evening attended his staff-and-sandals.
Memorial-documentation. Wèi’s zòuyì corpus is the principal historical contribution of his collection — a body of Khubilai-era administrative memorials that the Sìkù editors explicitly valued as supplementing the Yuánshǐ’s lacunae. Notable memorials include:
- Qǐng dìng fǎlìng 請定法令 (legal codification)
- Qǐng sù cháoyí 請肅朝儀 (court ritual reform)
- Qǐng huǎn zhuāngpèi yánhuò 請緩椿配鹽貨 (salt-trade matter)
- Qǐng jìn diāodèng kèmǐ 請禁刁蹬客米 (rice-trade)
- Qǐng yōuhù rúhù 請優護儒戶 (Confucian-household protections)
- Qǐng jīng Zhèng Jiāng sǐjié 請旌鄭江死節 (commemoration of martyrs)
- Qǐng xiū Mèngzǐ miào 請修孟子廟 (restoration of the Mencius shrine — a major Yuán institutional-Confucian act)
- Qǐng hé gù gōngjiàng 請和顧工匠 (artisan policy)
- Qǐng bà Hénán qiānjūn 請罷河南簽軍 (Hénán demobilization)
Within the Kanripo corpus. KR4d0455 Qīngyá jí 青崖集 (撰).
Reference. Yuánshǐ j. 164.