Cao Xun

Life

He was the son of Cao Zu and Wang; his great-grandfather was Cao Fangshu and his grandfather Cao Zhiqi. His wife was a Wang, and his second son was Cao Si (1137–1197).

Through his father's hereditary privilege, he received appointment as Chengxin lang. In the fifth year of Xuanhe (1123), he was specially summoned to the metropolitan examination and awarded a first-grade jinshi distinction; another account gives tong jinshi chushen. He remained a military official. His examination and appointment classifications also include jinshi, yinbu, and wuju jinshi.

At the beginning of Jingkang, he served as Hemen Xuanzan Sheren and was also associated with the administration of Longde Palace; he was appointed Wuyi dafu. When Huizong was taken north, Xun accompanied him to Yanshan and, under a secret order, traveled covertly to Prince Kang.

In the first year of Jianyan (1127), he reached Nanjing, presented Huizong’s written message on an imperial robe, and proposed sending volunteers by sea into Jin territory to bring Huizong back. The chief ministers rejected the proposal; he was sent to an external post and went nine years without promotion.

In the eleventh year of Shaoxing (1141), he served as deputy envoy with Liu Guangyuan to Jin, turned back en route, and then served as an assistant for receiving envoys. Soon afterward he went to Jin as a deputy envoy on a mission of thanks, called baoxie and elsewhere chengxie; in the twelfth year he secured permission for Huizong’s coffin and the empress dowager to return. In the thirteenth year he concurrently became Deputy Director of the Privy Council Secretariat; in the fifteenth he was assigned to fengci. In the twenty-fifth year he was appointed to know the Hemen affairs and concurrently manage the Imperial City Office; in the twenty-ninth he again served as a chengxie deputy envoy to Jin, and in the thirtieth he was appointed to supervise Wanshou Abbey. He was also promoted to Baoxin Army chengxuan shi and became Zhaoxin Army jiedushi in the twenty-ninth year.

Under Xiaozong, he was granted the titles Taiwei and Kaifu Yitong Sansi; in 1171, the seventh year of Qiandao, he was appointed to supervise the Imperial City Office. He died in 1174, the first year of Chunxi, aged over seventy—one account says seventy-seven—and received the posthumous title Zhongjing.

Works

His works include “Beishou jianwen lu,” “Songyin ji,” and “Songyin wenji.” His second son, Cao Si, compiled the posthumous writings as “Songyin ji”; the Song History bibliography lists forty juan. “Songyin wenji” and “Beishou jianwen lu” are both described as extant.

The textual transmission of “Songyin wenji” is complex. An old printed edition serves as the base text, collated against an old manuscript and the Wenyuange edition of the “Siku quanshu.” The Siku copy is often incomplete, and most of the original juan 14 is lost; juan 14 of the manuscript differs entirely from the base text. The editors therefore recast manuscript juan 14 as juan 24 and appended newly collected poems outside the collection.

Literary and social connections

In literary contexts, he wrote a preface for a book by Shi Huizhen and an epitaph for Wu Yi, and wrote postscripts to works by Zhang Xiaoxiang, Mi Fu, Su Shi, Huang Tingjian, Chen Guan, Zhu Shengfei, and Zhao Shen.

His other activities included a postscript to Mi Fu’s calligraphy and paintings, a portrait encomium for Zhao Gou, and memorial texts for Zhao Ji and Zheng Qiao.

Xun exchanged letters with the Chan master Zonggao; he was acquainted with Shi Yisheng and wrote inscriptions or poems for buildings associated with him. Xing, empress of Gaozong, also entrusted him with conveying her wishes to the Jin.