Du Ben

Life

Du Ben was broadly learned and skilled at literary composition. Early in life he submitted a plan for famine relief to Hulumu (忽剌木), the chancellor of the Jiangzhe provincial administration, who was greatly impressed and recommended him to the court; he was summoned to the capital, but when Emperor Wuzong (武宗) died he withdrew and lived in retirement in the Wuyi Mountains (武夷山). While Emperor Wenzong (文宗) was still in Jiangnan he heard of Du Ben's name, and on his accession he sent gifts to recruit him; Du declined and instead transcribed the Wuyi chapter of the Book of Zhou (周書·無逸篇) and presented it. Under Emperor Shundi (順帝) he was recommended as a recluse and summoned to the posts of Hanlin daizhi (翰林待制) and fengyi dafu (奉議大夫), concurrently compiler of the National History Office (國史院編修官); the year of the appointment is given as either the second year of the Zhizheng era (至正二年, 1342) or the spring of the third year (至正三年春, 1343). Chancellor Toqto'a (脫脫) recommended him as a recluse, and envoys pressed him to set out, but on reaching Hangzhou (杭州) he pleaded grave illness and returned home. He repeatedly declined summonses, withdrew on grounds of ill health, and never sought office.

He was calm and of few desires, never harsh in speech or countenance, and especially devoted to upright conduct. He mastered astronomy, geography, harmonics and calendrical calculation, and was especially skilled in seal and clerical scripts. He died at the age of seventy-five in the Wuyi Mountains. His father was Du Qian (杜謙); his sons were Du Sui (杜燧) and Du Wei (杜煒); his son-in-law was Zhan Jun (詹濬).

Works

His writings include the Sijing biaoyi (四經表義), the Liushu tongbian (六書通編) and the Shiyuan (十原). His disciple Cheng Sizu (程嗣祖) collected his surviving poems into the Qingjiang bizhang ji (清江碧嶂集), for which Jiang Yi (蔣易) wrote a preface; two medical works, the Shanghan jinjing lu (傷寒金鏡錄) and the Ao shi Shanghan jinjing lu (敖氏傷寒金鏡錄), are also transmitted under his name. He claimed to have received the poetic method of Yang Zhonghong (楊仲弘) of Pucheng, and compiled the Guyin (谷音), an anthology of one hundred poems by twenty-nine loyalists of the late Song. He seldom kept drafts of his poems; when asked about it he replied that of the collected works of the ancients recorded in the bibliographies only one or two in a hundred survived, and so there was no need to keep them.

Circle and legacy

Among his friends were Xu Qian (許謙), Wu Shidao (吳師道), Liu Guan (柳貫) and Ke Jiusi (柯九思). He wrote tomb inscriptions for Tang Yuan (唐元) and Wu Shidao, and composed "Crying for Messrs. Yang and Fan" (哭楊范二君) in mourning for Yang Zai (楊載) and Fan Peng (范梈). Yu Ji (虞集) wrote a record of his Sixue Studio (思學齋記), and poems were addressed to him by Ma Zuchang (馬祖常), Fan Peng, Fu Ruojin (傅若金), Zhang Zhu (張翥), Sadula (薩都剌), Li Yu (李昱) and Zheng Shouren (鄭守仁), while Xue Han (薛漢) wrote "Seeing off Du Qingbi to the Capital, Two Poems" (送杜清碧入京二首). His followers included Jiang Yi (蔣易) and Tao Zongyi (陶宗儀). After his death Wei Su (危素) wrote his tomb stele, and Lan Ren (藍仁) composed poems in his memory.