Xu Fuyuan

Life

In 1558 he placed forty-fifth in the Zhejiang provincial examination, and in 1562 he passed the metropolitan examination in thirty-sixth place and took the jinshi degree as thirty-second in the second class; he was appointed a secretary (主事) in the Nanjing Ministry of Works. In the early years of the Longqing reign the senior grand secretary Gao Gong recommended him as secretary of the Bureau of Merit in the Ministry of Personnel, and he was sent out as an assistant surveillance commissioner (僉事) of Guangdong, where he won credit for resisting Japanese pirates; he also served as circuit intendant (巡道) of Leizhou. At the beginning of the Wanli reign the grand secretary Zhang Juzheng drove out the followers of Gao Gong, and Xu was demoted to a judge (判官) of the Lianghuai Salt Distribution Commission; he later rose to a bureau director (郎中) in the Ministry of War and was appointed prefect of Jianchang prefecture in Jiangxi. On the recommendation of the supervising secretary Zou Yuanbiao he was promoted to deputy surveillance commissioner for education (提學副使) in Shaanxi.

In 1592 he was made grand coordinator (巡撫) of Fujian with the title of right assistant censor-in-chief of the Censorate, and he also held the office of right vice censor-in-chief. There were many temple estates in his jurisdiction, and he had six-tenths of them turned over to the government; he also recruited people to cultivate more than 83,000 mu of land at Haitan, built city walls and barracks and stationed troops there, and asked for the administration of Nanri, Penghu and the Zhejiang islands of Chentang, Jintang, Yuhuan and Nanji. Three years later he was promoted to chief minister of the Nanjing Court of Judicial Review, then transferred to the Nanjing Ministry of War as right vice-minister, and soon afterwards to the post of left vice-minister in the Ministry of War at Beijing. He had also at some point left office through illness, and he was later censured and asked to retire. He died at home in 1604 and was granted posthumously the title of Minister of Works at Nanjing and the posthumous name Gongjian (恭簡).

Thought and associates

Xu studied under Tang Shu in his youth, and his learning followed Wang Yangming, whose doctrine of innate knowledge (良知) he firmly believed. He exchanged letters with Feng Mengzhen, Zou Yuanbiao, Gao Panlong, Zhou Rudeng, Li Cai, Mao Kun and Shen Shixing; he also took pupils and lectured together with Liu Jingzhong. His disciples included Feng Congwu and Ding Yuanjian. After his death, Ye Xianggao wrote his epitaph and a sacrificial address, Sun Kuang his spirit-path stele inscription, Zou Yuanbiao and Mao Wei shrine records for him, and Gao Panlong a preface to his writings.

Works

His collected writings are the Jinghe tang ji (敬和堂集). He also wrote spirit-path stele inscriptions for Lin Tingji and Chen Shan.

Family

He was the eldest of his brothers; his younger brothers were Xu Daoyuan, Xu Zhiyuan and Xu Xingyuan. His great-grandfather was Xu Zongming, his grandfather Xu Fu, his father Xu Song and his mother of the Shen family; his wife was of the Shu family, and his great-great-grandson was Xu Zhen.