Lü Nangong

Life and career

He came from a poor family of scholars and travelled beyond his native area at the end of the Zhiping era. In the early Xining era, he sat the Ministry of Rites examination and failed repeatedly over more than a decade; another account describes a single unsuccessful attempt at the examination hall.

Concluding that he could not follow the fashions of the age, he abandoned the examination route, built a house, tended a garden, and no longer pursued official advancement.

At the beginning of the Yuanyou era, the court established ten categories for recommending scholars. Zeng Zhao recommended him, praising his learning and writing, independence from conventional learning, contentment with poverty, adherence to principle, and aspiration to emulate the ancients; he was considered suitable for the "teacher and exemplar" category. Many court officials spoke in his favor and proposed appointing him, but he died before an appointment could be made, at the age of forty.

His father-in-law was Li Mian (1025–1064). Zeng Jingchu was his friend, Cai Tian studied under him, and he wrote to Zeng Gong and Zeng Zhao.

Works and ideas

After withdrawing from the examination path, he devoted himself to writing and teaching, using historical writing to praise and censure. His writings are associated with 《灌園先生集》 (Guanyuan xiansheng ji) and 《灌園集》 (Guanyuan ji). His son Lü Yu collected his surviving manuscripts and compiled a thirty-volume edition, which was later lost; Qing editors used material from the Yongle dadian to compile twenty volumes of Guanyuan ji.