Fan Zuyu

Life

His family connections included the paternal uncles Fan Baijia (范百嘉) and Fan Baisui (范百歲), and the father of his wife, Lü Gongzhu (呂公著).

In the eighth year of the Jiayou reign (1063), he passed the jinshi examination in the first category, received the provisional post of 試校書郎, and became magistrate of Longshui County in Zizhou, his first office. In the third year of the Xining reign, Sima Guang recruited him as a co-editor of the Zizhi Tongjian; he worked with Guang for fifteen years, while accounts give his residence in Luoyang as twelve or thirteen years, and he took charge of the Tang three-century outline and chronicle. When the Tongjian was completed in the seventh year of Yuanfeng, he was promoted to 秘書省正字.

He subsequently held posts including 右正言, 著作佐郎, 著作郎兼侍講, 起居舍人, 中書舍人, 右諫議大夫, 給事中, 禮部侍郎, 翰林學士, 翰林侍講學士, 侍講學士, 知制誥, 監修國史, and the posts of 檢討官 and 修撰 in the 實錄院; he also served in the 經筵 and 史館 and held the rank of 龍圖閣學士.

In the first year of Yuanyou (1086), he was appointed 著作佐郎, made a reviewing editor for the Shenzong Shilu, and then advanced to 著作郎兼侍講. In the fourth year, he became 右諫議大夫 and then 給事中, and served as a reviser in the National History Office; the date of his appointment as Minister of Rites is given either as that year or the next. In the sixth year he became a Hanlin Academician; because his uncle Bailu was serving in the Secretariat, he was reassigned as a court lecturer. In the seventh year he was a Hanlin Academician and Hanlin Court Lecturer, and in the eighth he additionally served as a court lecturer, drafter of edicts, and official in charge of the National History Office.

In the eighth year of Yuanyou, because he opposed Zhang Dun's appointment as chief councillor, he was sent out as governor of Shanzhou with the rank of 龍圖閣學士. At the beginning of the Shaosheng reign, Emperor Zhezong took personal control and restored the new policies. Critics accused the Shenzong Shilu that he had helped compile of disparaging Shenzong and of following Sima Guang in altering the new policies; treated as a member of the old Yuanyou party, he was successively demoted to deputy military commissioner of Wu'an and vice-prefect of Shaozhou, placed under restrictions in Yongzhou and Hezhou, and then transferred to Binzhou and Huazhou. Zhu Guangting was his friend, while Liu Zheng and Huang Lü impeached him.

His recorded sons were Fan Chong (范沖, 1067–1141) and Fan Wen (范溫); his grandchildren included 范仲圭, 范仲綸, 范仲殳, 范仲藝, 范仲芑, and 范仲彪.

He died at Huazhou in the tenth month of the first year of Yuanfu, aged fifty-eight. In the second year of the Jianyan reign (1128), the rank of 龍圖閣學士 was restored to him posthumously; during the Ningzong reign he received the posthumous name Zhengxian.

Scholarship and writings

Fan Zuyu spent many years in the classical learning court and the historiographical bureau and participated in compiling the Shenzong Shilu; he was known for historical scholarship and political thought. His Tangjian, in twenty-four juan, discusses the political gains and losses of the three centuries from Tang Gaozu to Emperor Zhaoxuan, was especially famous, and earned him the sobriquet “Tangjian Gong.” He also wrote Dixue in eight juan and Guwen Xiaojing shuo; these three works survive, together with the fifty-five-juan collection Fantaishi ji. Other attributed titles include Renhuang xundian in six juan and Jiyi in one juan.