Fan Zhongyan (989—1052), styled Xi Wen, was a native of Wu County in Suzhou during the Northern Song Dynasty (today’s Suzhou in Jiangsu Province). In the 8th year of Dazhong Xiangfu period (1015), Fan Zhongyan achieved success in the highest imperial examination. The first year of Jing You period (1034) witnessed his transfer to Suzhou as the county-level governor. He set up a prefecture school and established a charitable trust. In the following year, Fan Zhongyan was promoted to be an official in the government of Kaifeng Prefecture. Known for his courage to speak out in defense of justice, he strongly opposed Chancellor (Zai Xiang) Lv Yi’s arrogating all powers to himself, which led to his relegation to be county-level governor successively of Raozhou (today’s Boyang in Jiangxi Province), Runzhou (today’s Zhenjiang in Jiangsu Province) and Yuezhou (today’s Shaoxing in Zhejiang Province). In the first year of Kang Ding period (1040), with the honorary title Scholar of Longtu Pavilion (Long Tu Ge Zhi Xue Shi), Fan Zhongyan was appointed as the deputy military commissioner of Shaanxi (Shaanxi Jing Lue Fu Shi) to take charge of military affairs concerning the Western Xia regime. He was later in charge of not only the construction of the City Qingjian and the City of Dashun, but also the renovation of such stockaded villages as Hulu and Xiyao. Moreover, Fan Zhongyan ordered garrison troops to cultivate wasteland and grow crops. Tens of thousands of households of Qiang nationality re-engaged themselves in agriculture. As a result, the frontier defense was strengthened. In the 3rd of the Qingli period (1043), Fan Zhongyan was summoned back to the capital and was named as Deputy Chief Minister (Shu Mi Fu Shi), soon after which he became Participant in Determining Governmental Matters (Can Zhi Zheng Shi). Fan Zhongyan submitted a proposal of reforming governance, involving ten specific suggestions—elimination of redundancy, selection of talents, lightening of corvee, promotion of agriculture and improvement of military hardware, etc. Most of these suggestions were adopted by Emperor Renzong and gradually put into practice, which were historically known as “New Policies of the Qingli Reign”. However, the policies met vigorous opposition from bureaucrats and aristocrats. Fan Zhongyan was also falsely accused as a “cabal” member, because the reform affected those people’s interests. The 5th year of the Qingli reign saw him dismissed from office and relegated to be a provincial official responsible for political inspection in Shaanxi (Si Lu Xuan Fu Shi of Shaanxi). Later, he was the county-level governor of the Counties of Bin (today’s Bin County in Shaanxi Province), Deng (today’s Deng County in Henan Province) and Hang. Fan Zhongyan’s posthumous title was Wen Zheng. During his life time, Fan was a master of lyrical poetry (ci poetry) and poetic proses. His essays on political issues tended to follow the classic style, while his essays of gratitude, impeachments, reports and petitions to the throne (four types of official document in ancient China known as Zhang, Biao, Qi and Zou) carried some features of the genre known as Pian Li (a rhythmical prose style characteristic of parallelism and ornateness). Fan Zhongyan expressed his dream and ambition in his widely read essay “On Yueyang Tower” as “Be the first to endure hardships and the last to enjoy comforts.” which enjoys immense popularity generation after generation. The book Fan Wen Zheng Gong Ji (An Anthology of Sir Fan Wenzheng’s Essays) has enjoyed popularity for generations as well.
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