Fang Hongjing

Life

Fang Hongjing belonged to the Fang family of She County and ranked third among his brothers. His great-grandfather was Fang Maofu (方茂富), his grandfather Fang Taisun (方泰孫) and his father Fang Hu (方虎); his mother was of the Hu family (胡氏) and his stepmother of the Zheng family (鄭氏). His elder brothers were Fang Xuanjing (方玄靜) and Fang Yijing (方頤靜), and his younger brothers Fang Wujing (方武靜), Fang Benjing (方本靜) and Fang Shoujing (方守靜). He married a woman of the Zheng family (鄭氏).

In his early years he was a government school student (庠生). In 1546, the twenty-fifth year of the Jiajing reign, he passed the provincial examination at Yingtian Prefecture, placing tenth; in 1550 he placed fourteenth in the metropolitan examination and eighth in the second class of the jinshi.

He was appointed magistrate of Dongping Prefecture, then promoted to a directorship in the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue, and went out as assistant surveillance commissioner of Sichuan, rising to vice surveillance commissioner of Jiangxi. In the tenth month of 1564 he was transferred to Guangxi as assistant education commissioner, inspecting the schools of the province. He then became left administration vice commissioner of Jiangxi and handled the case of Yan Song and his son, in which he was somewhat implicated; he would not, however, attach himself to Yan Song.

In the tenth month of 1567, the first year of Longqing, he was promoted to surveillance commissioner of Huguang; in the twelfth month of 1568 to right administration commissioner of Jiangxi; in the second month of 1570 to left administration commissioner of Guangdong; in the tenth month of 1572 to chief minister of the Court of the Imperial Stud; and in the eleventh month of that year to right vice censor-in-chief and grand coordinator of Zhejiang. In the second month of 1574, the second year of Wanli, he was impeached by the Nanjing censorial offices and ordered to return home pending investigation; in the tenth month of 1584 he was appointed with his former rank to govern Yunyang, in 1586 promoted to right vice minister of revenue as director-general of the Nanjing grain depot, in 1587 appointed right vice minister of revenue managing the affairs of the Nanjing Ministry of Works, and in 1589 he returned home amid slander. His recorded posts also included administration commissioner in South Zhili and minister of works at Nanjing. He died in 1611, the thirty-ninth year of Wanli, at the age of ninety-five.

Associations

In his youth he formed a poetry society with local men; after he entered official life, when Wang Boyu (汪伯玉) was at the height of his reputation and founded the Hongzhong society, Fang was repeatedly invited to join but refused. He was a friend of Bi Maokang (畢懋康); Li Weizhen (李維楨) wrote a preface and a sacrificial address for him, Ye Xianggao (葉向高) his epitaph, and Gu Qiyuan (顧起元) his funerary account and a preface to his poetry and prose, while Wang Qiao (王樵) and Tang Binyin (湯賓尹) were among those who sent him poems and writings.

Works

In his later years he wrote a great deal. His collected works, the Suyuan cungao (《素園存稿》), also known as Suyuan gao (《素園稿》), ran to twenty juan; he also wrote the one-juan Qianyi lu ketan (《千一錄客談》). The Suyuan cungao preserves his letters to Wang Qiao, Wu Guolun (吳國倫), Wang Daokun (汪道昆), Geng Dingxiang (耿定向), Zhao Yongxian (趙用賢), Chen Suoxue (陳所學) and Zhan Jingfeng (詹景鳳), as well as his replies to Cao Daye (曹大埜) and Li Weizhen.