Pei Yaoqing

Life

His father was Pei Shouzhen, who had served as governor of Ningzhou; Pei Yaoqing was the younger brother of Pei Ziyu. At the age of eight, he was selected as a child prodigy and passed the child examination; at twenty, he became a proofreader in the Palace Library and soon joined the household of Prince Xiang. After Ruizong's accession, he became a registrar of the Directorate of Education and acting assistant director of the Office of the Heir Apparent; he then served successively as a staff officer in Henan Prefecture, an auxiliary director in the Examination Office, a director in the Right Administrative Office, and a director in the Ministry of War.

Early in the Kaiyuan era under Xuanzong, Pei Yaoqing became magistrate of Chang'an. There he paid the assessed value in advance under the old system of household-assigned market purchases, thereby eliminating abuses in the hiring system; he later served as governor of Ji (濟州), Xuan (宣州), and Ji (冀州) prefectures, where he was credited with benevolent administration, before entering the capital as vice minister of revenue and becoming Jingzhao Yin. In Kaiyuan 20 (732), while serving as Jingzhao Yin, he proposed expanding the grain transport system to provision the Guanzhong region, together with plans for granaries, tax collection, and water-and-land transport, and Xuanzong approved the proposals.

In Kaiyuan 21 (733), he was appointed Huangmen shilang and a holder of the concurrent chancellorship title Tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi, and was made transport commissioner; the following year he became Shizhong. He organized grain shipments in stages, and within three years grain reserves reached seven million dan while transport costs fell by 300,000 strings of cash. In Kaiyuan 24 (736), he was relieved of responsibility for government affairs; the office held at that point is variously given as Shangshu zuo chengxiang or Shangshu youcheng, and he was enfeoffed as Marquis of Zhaocheng.

In the first year of Tianbao (742), he was first advanced to Left Vice Director of the Department of State Affairs and soon transferred to the right; another account simply describes him as repeatedly receiving the post of Right Vice Director. He died in 743 at the age of sixty-three and received the posthumous name Wenxian; his posthumous honors are variously given as Grand Preceptor of the Heir Apparent and Sikong, and his burial place was Jishan. His sons included Pei Yan, Pei Sui, Pei Fan, Pei Hong, Pei Gao, and Pei Zong; two further sons are unnamed, and Pei Ji is listed as a descendant in the eighth generation.

Literary activity and associations

Pei Yaoqing wrote poetry and prose, and two poems survive. In 737, he attended a banquet at the Wei family's Xiaoyao Valley with Wang Wei, Zhang Jiuling, Xiao Song, Han Xiu, Du Xian, and Wang Qiu, taking part in poetic exchanges; he presented poems and prose to Zhang Jiuling and received poems and prose from Wang Wei. In 740, he composed an epitaph for Dou Xiqiu.