Liu Chun (his birth year is variously given as 1460 or left unspecified; dates of birth include 11 December and 1 January, while he died in 1521, with 6 July also given) was a Ming-dynasty official. His courtesy name was Renzhong (仁仲), his sobriquets were Dongchuan (東川) and 樗菴, and his posthumous name was Wenjian (文簡); he was a native of Baxian in Sichuan.
Life
His examination record is reported in differing terms: one account calls him the jieyuan of the Chenghua gui-mao provincial examination and the bangyan of the ding-wei examination; another lists him as a juren ranked 77 and as second in the first class of the jinshi examination.
Appointed compiler in 1487, he served as a revising official from 1488 to 1491 and as a Hanlin reviser from 1491 to 1502; in 1493 he supervised papers for the palace examination. He subsequently served as lecturer to the Eastern Palace (1500–1505), as a lecturer at the Classic Mat (1501), as Left Instructor in the Left Spring Ward (1502–1503), and as attendant lecturer in the Hanlin Academy (1503–1506), becoming a Hanlin academician in 1506 and serving in that capacity through 1508.
During this period he successively served as assistant examiner for the metropolitan examination (1499), a Classic Mat official (1506), a provincial examination official (1507), an examiner for the military examination (1508), a daily lecturer at the Classic Mat (1512), and chief examiner for the metropolitan examination (1514); in 1521 he also read scripts for the palace examination.
During the Zhengde period he served first as Right Vice Minister of Personnel and then as Left Vice Minister (1511), followed by Minister of Rites (1513), while also holding the rank of Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent; his title is also given as Minister of Rites concurrently with Hanlin Academician. From 1518 to 1521 he served as Minister of Personnel, and in 1521 he again held the offices of Minister of Rites and Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent.
As Minister of Rites, he proposed abolishing the resident eunuchs and stopping or abolishing tribute offerings, but the proposals were not accepted. He carefully upheld institutional regulations, making many corrective decisions concerning imperial-clan requests for investiture and marriage, as well as the funerals, sacrificial rites, and posthumous honors of civil and military officials. He later took exclusive charge of imperial edicts and presided over the Directorate of the Heir Apparent; after his death he was given the posthumous name Wenjian.
His family included his great-grandfather Liu Keming, grandfather Liu Gang, father Liu Gui, who was born in 1436, and mother Deng. He had an elder brother, Liu Xiang, a younger brother, Liu Tai, and a wife from the Jian family.
His compositions for others included a preface to a book by Ma Tingyong, epitaphs for Bai Jun and Shen Hai, a discussion of courtesy and personal names for Wang Xian, and a biography of Liu Hong. Other compositions included sacrificial texts, tomb inscriptions, biographical notices, and prefaces to other people’s poetry and prose.
Works
He wrote the Liu Wenjian ji; the title also appears as Dongchuan Liu Wenjian gong ji, in twenty-four juan.
References
- CBDB Liu Chun (67821)
- 搜韵 劉春 (42952)
- Wikidata Liu Chun (Q10899917)