Hao Jing

Life and career

Hao Jing's grandfather was Hao Tianting. After the fall of Jin and amid war, his family moved to Shuntian. He lodged in the households of the commanders Zhang Rou and Jia Fu, read widely, and was successively engaged as tutor to their sons; he also discussed the methods of poetry and prose with Yuan Haowen.

His career entries include the staff post of muguan, entered through recruitment and dated 1260. When Kublai, then the imperial prince, established his appanage, Hao was summoned to an audience. During the campaigns in Jing and E, he submitted a memorial arguing that Song should not yet be conquered and advocating moral cultivation, beneficence, and waiting for the right moment; under Möngke, he was appointed deputy in the Jiang-Huai, Jing, and Hunan-and-Hubei pacification offices.

In the first year of Zhongtong (1260), after Kublai's accession, he was appointed a Hanlin shidu xueshi (翰林侍讀學士); his embassy is also associated with the title Hanlin shijiang xueshi (翰林侍講學士). He carried a golden tiger tally, served as a national-trust envoy, and took a letter to Song to negotiate peace. Jia Sidao, claiming credit for the lifting of the siege of Ezhou and fearing that Hao's mission would expose the situation, detained him at Zhenzhou. He remained there for sixteen years, from 1260 to 1275.

In the eleventh year of the Zhiyuan era, Boyan's southern campaign led to Hao's courteous release and return north. He fell ill and died at Yanjing at the age of fifty-three. He was successively granted the posthumous honors of Grand Academician of the Zhaowen Hall, Situ, and Duke of Ji, and received Wenzhong as his posthumous name.

Family and associations

His father was Hao Siwen (1191–1258), his brother was Hao Yi, and his sons-in-law were Wang Liangjie and Xiao Jie. His sons included Hao Abao (1244–1246), Hao Achang (1255–1259), and Hao Cailin; the first two are both identified as the eldest or first son, while Cailin is identified as the third son.

Hao Jing was also a retainer of Zhang Rou and Jia Fu and composed epitaphs for both men. Song Lian and Wang Yun wrote biographies of him, while Lu Zhi and Yan Fu composed his epitaphs.

Learning and writings

His learning was directed toward practical use; under the severe confinement of his detention at Zhenzhou, he devoted still greater effort to writing. His works included 《續後漢書》, 《春秋外傳》, 《易外傳》, and 《太極演原》, as well as 《陵川文集》; 《陵川集》 also appears, and the titles 《易春秋外傳》 and 《太極演》 are also found. The size of his corpus is variously given as "several juan" and "several hundred juan."

In the fifth year of the Yanyou era, an imperial order directed Jiangxi provincial authorities to print the collection. His prose was described as rich and expansive, his poetry as unusual and rugged, and his Zhenzhou poems as especially mournful. At Wuchang in the late Song and early Yuan, he wrote the five-character old-style poem 《黃鶴樓》, which depicts the tower, surrounding mountains and rivers, famous sites, and legends while expressing a sense of historical reflection.

In the year of his return north, people in the capital shot a wild goose at Jinming Lake and found a silk note attached to it. The note included the following poem and identified him as the national-trust envoy writing at the new quarters of the Zhenzhou Zhongyong Army: “霜落風高恣所如，歸期回首是春初。上林天子援弓繳，窮海孤臣有帛書。中統十五年九月一日放雁，獲者勿殺，國信大使郝經書于真州忠勇軍營新館。” Because north and south were cut off, the note still used the date “the fifteenth year of Zhongtong,” unaware that the era name had changed to Zhiyuan. Yuan writers admired his integrity and compared him with Su Ziqing.