Liu Zhi

Life and career

He passed the jinshi examination in Jiayou 4 (1059). He first served as 南宮令 and was then transferred to 江陵觀察推官; during the Zhiping era under Emperor Yingzong, Han Qi recommended him for the examination that led to his appointment as a palace-library collator (館閣校勘).

In Xining 4 (1071), he became an acting investigating censor (監察御史裏行), repeatedly memorialized against the new laws as inconvenient and harmful to the people, and was demoted to supervise the salt granary at Hengzhou. Wang Anshi initially admired his administrative record, but Liu did not align himself with the new laws and instead submitted a forceful memorial on their defects.

After several years he was summoned to 同知太常禮院; in the early Yuanfeng era he served as 開封府推官 and was promoted to 右司郎中. Because he proposed that the executive offices should conduct their business jointly, he was impeached on another charge, dismissed, and returned home; the following year he was appointed governor of Huazhou.

After Zhezong's accession, he was summoned as Minister of Personnel (吏部郎中) and promoted to侍御史 and Censor-in-chief (御史中丞); he impeached members of the New Policies faction and brought the changping and mianyi measures to an end. In Yuanyou 1 (1086), he became 尚書右丞 and subsequently advanced to 尚書省左丞, 中書侍郎, and 門下侍郎. He became a leader of the Shuo faction. In Yuanyou 6 (1091), he was appointed 尚書右僕射, a title rendered in another account as 「右儀射」.

Forthright and zealous in rooting out wrongdoing, he was soon ensnared by slander; after censors accused him of advancing private party interests, he was sent out as governor of Yunzhou and transferred to Qingzhou. His career also included service as prefect and pacification commissioner of Daming, prefect and pacification commissioner of Qingzhou, and governor of Huangzhou. At the beginning of Shaosheng, when Zhezong took personal control of the government, Liu was repeatedly demoted as a Yuanyou party adherent, first to 团练副使 at Dingzhou and then to assignment at Xinzhou; he died in exile in the fourth year of Shaosheng at the age of sixty-eight.

Learning and political associations

His teachers included Liu Shu, Jiang Qian, and Gong Dingchen; he is also identified as a scholar of the Chunqiu and as a man of letters, and as one of those entered in the Yuanyou party register. In 1092 he was a friend of Yang Wei; politically, he was involved with Zhang Dun in impeachments, opposition, and polemics.

Family

His father was Liu Juzheng. Among his sons were Liu Qi and the younger Liu Dao; Cai Fan was his son-in-law, while Tian Ziliang was an in-law and Cai Yi the husband of a cousin on his mother's side. Later kin included the grandson Liu Mou (Liu Rui's father), the great-grandsons Liu Xun and Liu Rui, the sixth-generation descendant Liu Zhensun, the direct descendants Liu Jia and Liu Congyu, and the junior kinsman Liu Dong.

Works

His Zhong-su ji (《忠肅集》) originally comprised forty juan and was later lost; Qing palace editors reconstructed twenty juan from material preserved in the Yongle Dadian, including six juan of poetry. A separate one-juan work, 《劉忠肅公（摯）行年記》, is also listed.