Wei Ji

Life

His great-grandfather was Wei Ying (魏應) and his grandfather Wei Yi (魏毅); his father is given as Wei Boya (魏伯雅) or Wei Xizhe (魏希哲), while Wei Wenchang (魏文昌) is variously listed as a fifth-generation ancestor or a higher great-grandfather.

He became a juren in the third year of the Yongle era (1405), and the following year was placed on the secondary jinshi list.

He first became a Songjiang instructor. He was summoned to help compile the Yongle Dadian. From 1419 to 1426, he served in Nanjing as a Taichang boshi; early in the Xuande era he entered the Ministry of Personnel as a yuanwailang and later became a Taichang si shaoqing. He also served as a co-examiner in Jiangxi provincial examinations in Yongle 12 and 15, as a co-examiner in metropolitan examinations in Xuande 2, Xuande 5 and Zhengtong 1, and in the posts of deputy and chief envoy in Xuande 3 and Zhengtong 5.

In the third year of Zhengtong (1438), he was promoted to left vice minister of the itinerant Ministry of Personnel, transferred to the Ministry of Rites, then to the Nanjing Ministry of Personnel, and rose to shangshu. From the fourteenth year of Zhengtong to the first year of Jingtai (1449–1450), he held the Nanjing Ministry of Personnel shangshu post; a variant account calls him Nanjing Ministry of Rites shangshu. He retired in the first year of Jingtai.

After his retirement, in the jia-shen year of Tianshun, following Emperor Xianzong’s accession, retired officials of fifth rank and above were advanced one grade; Wei Ji, then ninety-one, was advanced to the first rank. He continued to compose poems at ages ninety-six, ninety-seven and ninety-eight, including a poem written while ill at the end of his life; he reached the first rank and lived to nearly one hundred.

Associations and literary activity

He recommended 毛倫 and 徐正, had a relationship of esteem with 沈恪, was linked to 張經 and 顧觀 in teacher–student relationships, and had 陳循 as a disciple.

A book-preface relationship linked him with 汪應軫; Wei Ji wrote epitaphs for 葉盛、王英、徐琦、陳敬宗、梁楘、張眞、甄庸 and 盧楷, and biographies for 陶成、陳晟、陳璇 and 鄭建. He also wrote colophons for 金潤’s books and paintings, a farewell piece for 孫鼎, and tomb tables for 王綱、施禮 and 胡濬; he supplied poetic inscriptions, notes or names for 易先’s buildings, wrote a preface to 陳嘉猷’s poetry and prose, and praised 李敏’s administration. 毛奇齡 was the author of a biography of Wei Ji, and 陳循 gave him a farewell piece.

Writings and poetry

He wrote poetry and prose, and his verse was described as graceful and pleasing to recite. His works include Nanzhai zhaigao (《南齋摘稿》); the collection also appears under the titles Nanzhai qianji (《南齋前集》) and Nanzhai houji (《南齋後集》), or the collective title Nanzhai qianhou ji (《南齋前後集》). Both Wei Ji’s Nanzhai zhaigao and Nanzhai xiansheng Wei Wenjing gong zhaigao bear the designation “ten juan.”