Yuan Mingshan

Life

His father was Yuan Gong (元貢; 1243–1289). He had three sons—Yuan Meng (元蒙), Yuan Hui (元晦), and Yuan Gao (元暠); Yuan Hui died in 1323, and Yuan Gao was born in 1317.

At the age of twenty, he traveled in Wuzhong and, on the recommendation of the Zhejiang Eastern Circuit commissioner, was appointed school principal at Anfeng and Jiankang; the Jiankang appointment is also styled lùxuézhèng. He was later appointed a clerk in the Mobile Privy Council, whose Associate Commissioner Dong Shixuan treated him as an honored guest; he was repeatedly appointed to clerical posts in the central and provincial offices, but was dismissed after a false accusation and took up residence in Huainan. Other career titles included a clerk in the traveling court, a clerk in the Jiangxi Branch Secretariat, Left Chancellor of the Secretariat, Lecturer-Academician of the Hanlin National History Academy, and Academician of that academy.

When Renzong was still crown prince, Yuan was first selected as Junior Erudite of the Eastern Palace; after Renzong’s accession (1311), he successively served as Hanlin Direct Academician, Hanlin daizhi, Direct Academician, drafter of edicts, co-editor of the national history, and Reader-Academician, eventually becoming a Hanlin Academician. By imperial command, he rendered into Mongolian the passages of the *Shangshu* concerning affairs of government. In the second year of Yanyou (1315), he became the first chief examiner for the nationwide metropolitan examination of jinshi; at the palace examination he served as reader of the papers, and many of the candidates he selected later became distinguished ministers. During Yanyou he became Minister of Rites, was promoted to participant in the affairs of the Secretariat, and returned to the Hanlin; at the end of the year he was appointed Vice Commissioner of the Huguang Branch Secretariat (the office is also styled *xing zhongshu sheng canzheng*), summoned as Reader-Academician of the Jixian Hall, and advanced to Hanlin Academician.

In the second year of Zhizhi (1322), he died in office at the age of fifty-four. He was posthumously granted the rank of Zishan daifu and Left Assistant of the Henan Branch Secretariat, ennobled as Duke of Qinghe Commandery, and given the posthumous name Wenmin.

Scholarship and prose

He could remember a text after reading it once, had studied all the Classics under teachers, and was particularly learned in the *Spring and Autumn*. From early in life he took pride in his prose, working within the tradition of Qin and Han writing; in his later years his attainments grew increasingly refined.

His works include *Qinghe ji* (《清河集》). His writings span prefaces, biographies, epitaphs, spirit-way inscriptions, tomb inscriptions, farewell prefaces and poems, colophons, and Daoist temple inscriptions. Wu Boqing praised his prose for escaping the narrow conventions of contemporary writing and recovering the legacy of ancient authors; Ma Boyong described it as forceful without showing its workmanship and original without seeming derivative, praised its luxuriant brilliance and ancient resonance, and ranked Yuan with Yao Sui as one of the great prose masters who revived ancient learning in their age. Yu Bosheng likewise called his prose vigorous and impassioned, with a disdainful view of Qin and Han models.

Associations

Yuan Mingshan’s friends included Zhao Mengfu and Guo Yu. While in Jiangxi and Jinling, he often engaged Yu Bosheng in vigorous disputation, yet the two enjoyed one another’s company; in the capital they again refused to yield to each other. The Daoist adept Wu Xianxian was especially close to him and once asked him to compose a piece.

After one such piece was completed, Yuan anticipated that Yu Bosheng would criticize it and asked Wu Xianxian to prepare a feast and invite him. Yu advised cutting more than a hundred characters; Yuan immediately handed him the brush, and after 120 characters were deleted the prose became more precise, whereupon the two friends restored their former intimacy.