Fang Yang

Life

He is listed as a shengyuan and a provincial recommended candidate; in the fifth year of the Longqing reign (1571), he passed the Xinwei examination as a jinshi, placing seventeenth in the second class. After passing, he was initially appointed prefect of Shan Prefecture, promoted to assistant director in the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue, and later advanced to langzhong in that ministry. While serving as langzhong in Nanjing, a powerful man privately appropriated public land, falsely called it community land to provide relief for the poor, and asked Fang to write a record; Fang refused and was consequently falsely accused. In the eleventh month of 1578, he was demoted to serve as prefect of Suizhou, then promoted to assistant prefect of Jiaxing; in 1582, he became prefect of Hangzhou in Zhejiang. After half a year in office, he requested leave to return home because of illness and died soon afterward, aged forty-four.

Family

His great-grandfather was Fang Shechang (方社昌), his grandfather Fang Jingying (方景英), and his father Fang Congben (方從本); his mother was Huang (黃氏). He had two elder brothers, Fang Zhong (方忠) and Fang Lian (方廉), and his wife was Hong (洪氏).

Writings and associations

His works include the sixteen-volume 《方初庵先生集》, as well as 《方初庵集》, 《初菴槀》, 《山中集》, 《孝經句義》, 《中州藁》, 《朞月守考》, 《南中草》, 《湖中藁》, and 《仕學巵言》. His collected writings preserve letters sent to Huang Hongxian (黃洪憲) and Lu Guangzu (陸光祖), as well as replies to Xu Shi (徐栻) and Yin Zhengmao (殷正茂). Fang wrote a preface for a book by Jiao Hong (焦竑); Wang Shizhen (王世貞) and Li Weizhen (李維楨) composed his epitaph, while Wang Daokun (汪道昆) wrote his biography.