Wu Cheng

Life

He showed exceptional precocity: at three he could recite poems after instruction, and at five he memorized more than a thousand words a day; as he matured, he became widely versed in the classical canon. At about twenty he gained a recommendation in the local examination system. During the Xianchun era of the Song, he failed the presented-scholar examination, took refuge in Bushuigou, arranged and edited the Classics, corrected the Greater and Lesser Dai Records, and later lived in a thatched hut, earning the appellation Master Caolu.

In the twenty-third year of the Zhiyuan era, the Yuan emperor Shizu sent Cheng Jufu south to seek talent and summoned Wu Cheng to the capital; Wu Cheng declined and returned because his mother was elderly. During the Dade era he was recalled as a Hanlin writer in attendance and appointed deputy director of the Jiangxi Confucian School; after three months he left office because of illness.

At the beginning of Zhida (1310), he was summoned as Assistant Director of the National Academy; in the first year of Huangqing he was promoted to Libationer and retired, and some students followed him south without even taking leave. After Emperor Yingzong’s accession, he became a Hanlin Academician and joint compiler of the dynastic history; in the third year of Zhizhi (1323) he held the office of Academician of the Hanlin Academy of National History, and early in the Taiding era he served as an expositor at the Classics Banquet, taking overall charge of the Yingzong Veritable Records.

When the Veritable Records were completed, he again left office and returned home, receiving in addition the rank of Grand Master for Glorious Service. In retirement, scholars from across the realm came with their books to study under him, often numbering more than a thousand; alongside Xu Heng, he promoted teaching in the north and south, mutually advancing the Confucian Way, and the two were regarded as leading Confucian masters of their time.

Family and associations

His grandfather was 吳樞; his father-in-law was 余珏 (1232–1298), and his wife was 余維恭 (1255–1291). He had five sons: 吳文, who died in 1334; 吳袞 (1282–1309); and 吳京, 吳稟, and 吳亶. His sons-in-law were 劉光 (1276–1327) and 鄔龍翔 (1259–1282). He also had great-great-grandsons 吳爟 and 吳焮.

Wu Cheng was a friend of Zhao Mengfu; Zhao once copied three poems composed in response to poems by Zhu Xi and Liu Pingshan and presented them to him.

Scholarship and works

Wu Cheng took the Confucian tradition as his responsibility and wrote whenever he had leisure. His works include 《儀禮逸經傳》, 《禮記纂言》, 《易纂言》, 《易纂言外翼》, 《書纂言》, 《三禮敘錄》, and 《春秋纂言》.

He also wrote 《道德真經注》, 《莊子內篇訂正》, 《草廬子》, and 《琴言十則》, and edited 《吳文正公較定今文孝經》 and 《孝經》. His collected writings include 《吳文正集》; his poetry was collected in the four-volume 《草廬集》, and he also wrote 《草廬詞》.

He favored the books of Shaozi, and his poetry tended in that direction; its syntax contains passages of unusual freedom, and many passages are limpid and graceful.