Yuan Zongdao

Life

His great-grandfather was Yuan Ying, his grandfather Yuan Dahua, and his father Yuan Lian; his mother was Lady Gong, and he also had a secondary mother, Lady Liu. Among his siblings was Yuan Ningdao; his elder brothers were Yuan Zhizong, Yuan Zongjiao, and Yuan Chongji. His younger brothers were Yuan Hongdao, Yuan Zhongdao, Yuan Zongzheng, Yuan Zongxian, Yuan Lundao, Yuan Andao, Yuan Zongqing, and Yuan Zongbo. He married Lady Cao and subsequently Lady Liao, and had two sons, Yuan Yingtai and Yuan Yingzheng.

In 1579 he passed the Huguang provincial examination as a juren; his placement is variously given as eighth, or as first for the xianggong juren and eighth for the shengyuan. In 1586 he ranked first in the metropolitan examination (huiyuan), then took first place in the second class in the palace examination, becoming a jinshi (chuanlu).

After observing government in the Ministry of Personnel, he became a Hanlin shujishi, was appointed a compiler, and ultimately held the office of Right Shuzi. In the sixteenth year of the Wanli reign he was appointed a Hanlin Academy compiler and served as a display reader at the Classic Banquet; in the nineteenth year he compiled the memorials of the Six Ministries, and in the twenty-fourth year he managed imperial edicts. In the twenty-third year he became a chief compiling official; the beginning of a term as a compiling official is also placed in the twenty-second year.

In the twenty-fifth year of Wanli (1597) he became a lecturer to the Eastern Palace, and in the seventh month of the twenty-sixth year was promoted to Left Zhongyun; in the ninth month of that year he served with Fan Chunjing as an examiner for the military examination. In the fifth month of the twenty-seventh year he became Left Yude concurrently Hanlin attendant lecturer and took charge of the Sijing Bureau; in the fourth month of the twenty-eighth year he became Right Shuzi of the Right Spring Office concurrently attendant reader, held the office seal, and continued his compiling and lecturing duties.

As an Eastern Palace lecturer, he curtailed social engagements and receptions, entered office at cockcrow, and worked without interruption through cold and heat; overwork brought on the illness that led to his death. He died of illness in the eleventh month of the twenty-eighth year of Wanli, at the age of forty; he was posthumously granted the title of Shao Zhanshi in the early Tianqi era, while another account gives Minister of Rites. After his death, friends helped pay for his coffin and his family’s journey home, supplemented by the sale of his paintings, calligraphy, writing implements, and inkstones.

His associates included Wu Yongxian, Gong Zhong’an, and Peng, styled Changqing; he was a fellow examination-year friend of Gu Tianjun. He repeatedly exchanged poems with and travelled with his brother Yuan Hongdao, wrote to Tang Xianzu, and was regarded as a fellow member of the same way of learning as Pan Shizao.

Literary thought

At a time when Wang Shizhen and Li Panlong dominated the literary world and antiquarian imitation was at its height, Yuan Zongdao and his brothers Hongdao and Zhongdao opposed that tendency. He admired Bai Juyi and Su Shi and named his studio Baisu Studio. His writing valued natural expression and the free expression of individual spirit; in studying ancient prose, he held that one should learn its meaning rather than cling to its wording, and his style became known as the Gong’an style.

Together with Yuan Hongdao and Yuan Zhongdao, he was known as one of the Three Yuans of Gong’an and was one of the initiators and leaders of Gong’an-school literature.

Works

His writings include Baisu Studio Classified Drafts (《白蘇齋類稿》), also named Baisu Studio Collection (《白蘇齋集》) and Baisu Studio Classified Collection (《白蘇齋類集》), the last in twenty-two juan. He also wrote Dan Zeng (《丹甑》), also called Zashuo (《雜說》), a one-juan work.