Lou Yue

Life

His father was Lou Qu (樓璩); his maternal grandfather was Wang Siwen (汪思溫), and his maternal uncles included Wang Dayou (汪大猷) and Wang Dading (汪大定). His wife's grandfather was Wang Yu (王俁), his elder brother was Lou Xi (樓錫), and his sons included Lou Chun (樓淳), Lou Xiao (樓潚), Lou Meng (樓濛), and Lou Zhi (樓治). In the first year of Longxing (1163), he passed the jinshi examination and was appointed as an instructor at Wenzhou.

In the fifth year of Qiandao (1169), he accompanied his maternal uncle Wang Dayou on a mission to Jin as a document officer; on his return, he wrote 《北行日錄》. He then served as a reviser in the Office for the Revision of Edicts and took part in compiling the Chunxi Code, before becoming an Assistant in the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs and successively serving as an Assistant in the Palace Provisioning Office and the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs; he was then appointed prefect of Wenzhou.

After Guangzong's accession, he served as a Controller of Merit concurrently with the Ministry of Rites, then as Director of the Imperial University, and was promoted to Recorder and concurrently Central Secretariat Drafter and later to Drafter in the Academy; he subsequently became a Palace Remonstrator. After Ningzong's accession, he was made Minister of Personnel, but offended Han Tuozhou in remonstrance and was stripped of office, receiving the appointment of Academician of the Xianmo Pavilion and supervisor of Jiangzhou's Taiping Xingguo Palace. He was soon made prefect of Wuzhou and transferred to Ningguo Prefecture, but was again stripped of office and retired.

After Han Tuozhou was killed, Lou Yue was recalled as a Hanlin Academician and made Minister of Personnel concurrently Lecturer in the Hanlin Academy. In the first year of Jiading (1208), he became Academician of the Duanming Palace, Secretary of the Privy Council, then Associate Director of the Privy Council, and finally Vice Councillor of State. He held a place in the two chief councils for five years; after repeatedly requesting retirement, he was appointed Academician of the Zizheng Palace and prefect of Taiping, declined the appointments, was advanced to Grand Academician, and was assigned to supervise Wanshou Abbey.

He died in the sixth year of Jiading (1213) at the age of seventy-seven, was posthumously presented the rank of Junior Preceptor, and received the posthumous name Xuanxian; Yixian is also attested.

Politics and associations

During Ningzong's reign, Lou Yue argued that Han Tuozhou's head should be sent to Jin in order to restore peace, and he sought to clear Zhao Ruyu's name. When Zhu Xi was stripped of office and assigned to a commandery after offending Han Tuozhou in remonstrance, Lou Yue asked for his return to the lecture hall; when Peng Guinian opposed Han and was sent to serve outside the capital, Lou Yue memorialized to retain him but was unsuccessful.

His friends included Zheng Ruochong (鄭若冲), Xie Jie (謝傑), Hong Fan (洪蘩), Jiang Kui (姜夔), Bao Junde (鮑俊德), and Xie Yu (謝雩); he also wrote a preface for a work by Chen Fuliang (陳傅良), and recommended Yang Jian (楊簡) and Lin Yi (林椅).

Scholarship and writings

Lou Yue was well versed in the classics and histories, wrote prose of broad and polished learning, and was regarded as upright in office; he is also classified as a Neo-Confucian scholar.

His writings included the 120-volume 《攻媿集》, 《北行日錄》, 《樂書正誤》, 《攻媿題跋》, and the one-volume 《范文正公年譜》, also found as 《范文正年譜》.

The poems of 《攻媿集》 were edited from a Southern Song woodblock edition of the Lou family of Siming, held by Peking University Library; lacunae were supplied from the Wuying Palace movable-type edition of the Complete Library of the Four Branches, collated against the Wenyuange edition, with poems from outside the collection appended at the end.