Song Jing (宋景; his birth year is disputed, with one account giving 1476 and another leaving it unknown; he died in 1547) was a Ming official. His courtesy name was Yixian (以賢), his sobriquet Nantang (南塘), and he was from Fengxin, Jiangxi (now Fengxin County, Yichun, Jiangxi). He was listed as fourteenth in birth order (十四), and his posthumous title is also found in the variant form 莊靖.
Life
One account describes Song Jing as intelligent and studious from childhood and states that he entered the school system at the age of twenty. In the Jiangxi provincial examination of 1504 he ranked fortieth among the successful candidates; the following year, at the Yichou examination of 1505, he passed the jinshi examination in the second class, fifteenth place.
He was appointed prefect of Suizhou and in 1510 was transferred to serve as a censor in the Henan Circuit. The transfer of a prefect to the censorate had previously had no precedent; Liu Jin established the precedent, and after Liu Jin was executed, Song Jing claimed illness and left office. Recommended for reappointment in 1524 as an Investigating Censor in Zhejiang, he was promoted in 1528 to Vice Surveillance Commissioner in Shanxi and took part in suppressing the uprising of Chen Qing of Lucheng.
During the Shanxi famine, rebels rose and killed a guard commander. Song Jing raised the imperial banner and summoned those who had been coerced; the rebels surrendered, and he captured and executed their leader. He subsequently served as canzheng in Shandong, zuo canzheng in Fujian, you buzhengshi in Sichuan, and zuo buzhengshi in Shanxi; in 1533 he became qing of the Nanjing Court of State Ceremonial.
From 1537 he served as Nanjing zuo fudu yushi; from 1539 to 1540 he held the left and right vice-ministerships in the Ministry of Justice, then served as Nanjing Minister of Works from 1540 to 1543, Nanjing Minister of Personnel from 1543, and Nanjing Minister of War by 1546. His recorded offices also included canzhi zhengshi, canzan jiwu, and Nanjing you fu du yushi. He was later promoted to left censor-in-chief of the Censorate, returned to the capital for duty, and died in office in 1547.
Family and associations
His great-grandfather was 宋惟寧, his grandfather 宋宇昂, and his father 宋迪嘉; the father’s name is elsewhere given as 宋迪, and his mother was 塗氏. His elder brother was 宋時, his younger brothers were 宋旦 and 宋暉, and his wife was 張氏.
His five sons were 宋介慶, 宋具慶, 宋和慶, 宋承慶, and 宋垂慶; his grandson was 宋國譜 and his great-grandson was 宋應昇. At his departure, Zhang Bangqi and Lü Nan composed farewell words for him, in the form of a farewell poem or preface, while Yan Song wrote his spirit-path stele.
Posthumous honors
He received the posthumous title Zhuangjing (莊靖). His posthumous honors included Taizi Shaobao (太子少保) and Minister of Personnel (吏部尚書), together with the honorific rank Zizheng dafu (資政大夫); the office listings also contain the title Taizi Taibao (太子太保).
References
- CBDB Song Jing (68287)
- 搜韵 宋景 (44941)
- Wikidata Song Jing (Q6820662)