Fang Bao Explained

Fang Bao (; 25 May 1668 – 29 September 1749), courtesy names Fengjiu (Chinese: 鳳九), Linggao (Chinese: 靈皋), and Wangxi (Chinese: 望溪),[1] was a Chinese nobleman, courtier, orator, philosopher, poet, scholar, author and government official of the Qing dynasty. He is best known as a founder of the Tongcheng school of literary prose which was influential during the mid-Qing dynasty.[2] [3]

Family origins

Fang Bao was born in Tongcheng, Zongyang County, Anhui Province in 1668 during the reign of the Kangxi Emperor. He was the second son in a family of the Qing nobility with landed interests at Jiangning, Liuhe County and at Tongcheng, an area in the southern vicinity of Nanjing.[4]

His father was Fang Zhongshu (Chinese: 方仲舒), an imperial official and second son of Fang's grandfather. His paternal grandfather was Fang Zhi (Chinese: 方帜), a Xinghua County didactic and noted scholar of the Wuhe discipline. Fang Bao was the middle son of three boys, his elder brother was Fang Zhou (方舟; 1665-1701), a scholar of the Five Classics, and his younger brother was Fang Lin (Chinese: 方林).[5]

Early life

At the time of Fang Bao's birth, the Kangxi Emperor had not yet fully assumed power and the real dominance over the throne was in the hands of two of the Four Regents, Ebilun and Oboi. In 1669, as the Kangxi Emperor consolidated power, Oboi was also brought up on imperial charges and put to death.[6]

Fang Bao studied literature at a school which followed the teachings of Gui Youguang. He would go on to invent the concept of Yi Fa where Yi refers to the ideas or concept of an article and Fa to the structure and literary form. This concept is considered one of the basic theories of the Tongcheng School form of writing, which gained its name due to Tongcheng being Fang Bao's hometown.[7]

From 1692 to 1695, Fang served in Beijing as a senior licentiate together with his friend Zhang Boxing who shared his philosophical allegiance surrounding the teachings of the brothers Cheng Xi and Zhu Xi.[8]

Fang obtained his jinshi degree or advanced scholar degree following the imperial examination system in 1706 under the reign of the Kangxi Emperor and was given a posting at the Hall of Military Glory (Chinese: 武英殿) as its Director-General of Compilation (Chinese: 修書總裁). He was promoted within the hall to the position of Instructor-Bachelor (Chinese: 教習庶吉士) and then to Vice-Minister of Rights (Chinese: 禮部侍郎).[9]

In either 1711[10] or 1713, whilst still at the Hall of Military Glory, Fang was involved in the Nanshan Incident (Chinese: 南山案). The incident surrounded the contents of a work written by Dai Mingshi, Fang's relation via his wife, titled Nanshan Ji (Chinese: 南山集) for which Fang had written a preface. The book was essentially a nostalgic history of one of the author's ancestors who had fought with Wu Sangui against the Qing Empire. As a result of a political realignment, the work had been judged seditious by the court of the Kangxi Emperor, who previously promoted scholarly officials. The political change on the part of the Qing court was due in large part to the emperor's awareness and perception of threat from political factions that were forming for the purpose of influencing the imperial succession.[11] Fang was arrested by the Governor of Suzhou, his friend Zhang Boxing. Dai was executed by imperial order, but Fang was spared death and punished instead with dismissal from his post and exile to Gansu Province[12] or (likely both) with the imprisonment of his entire family.[13] [14] Zhang would also later be accused of aiding Fang Bao before the court but he was unpunished.[15]

In 1728, the death of an Eleuth leader provided an excuse for the new Yongzheng Emperor to continue his father's wars in Gansu Province. Fang Bao had written a bold critique of the Governor of Gansu Province, Xu Rong and the Yongzheng Emperor's strategy with regards to the effects of the war on the people of the region.[16] Despite this writing, by the end of the Yongzheng era, Fang was back in the imperial court's favor and he was promoted to Vice-Director of the Board of Rights.

Fang Bao's critical work of the Yongzheng Emperor proved influential in around 1735 when the incoming Qianlong Emperor used it to indict Xu Rong as a part of his larger purge of government officials to cement his hold on power. Accordingly, Fang was made the Vice-Director of the Bureau for the compilation of the Three Ritual Classics. In this role, he gained imperial support to pursue one of his most famous works, the "Imperial Anthology of Essays on the Four Books" which transformed the entire imperial writing system.[17]

Death and legacy

Fang Bao died in 1749. One of his lasting contributions to the imperial system apart from his literary writings was the establishment of the guwen style as the essay style of the imperial examination system which thereafter put emphasis on Song dynasty neo-Confucian theory. This influence drastically changed the imperial examination system which imposed standards and made the guwen essays the foundational part of scholarly writing across the Qing Empire.[18]

Fang Bao is an ancestor of Fang Gongcheng, a tutor of the Qing imperial court, of Fang Guancheng, the Viceroy of Zhili, of Fang Chih, the influential cold war-era statesman of the Republic of China, Fang Dongmei a.k.a. Thomé H. Fang, a 20th century Taiwanese neo-Confucian philosopher, and of Anna Sui, the American fashion designer.

Published works

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Book: Wenquxing Fang Bao . 1 . zh . Yuedu.163.com . Netease Cloud Reading . 29 October 2015 .
  2. Web site: Tongcheng School of Literature . 11 July 2013 . www.ah.gov.cn . Anhui China Daily . 14 October 2015 . Fang Bao (1668-1749) carried on the tradition of Gui Youguang's works and made Yi Fa (Yi refers to the central ideas of an article).
  3. Web site: Tongcheng School . www.chinaculture.org . China Culture . 14 October 2015 . The Tongcheng School is the most distinguished among the mid-Qing Dynasty schools of literature. Its representative writers include Fang Bao, Liu Dakui and Yao Nai, who are all natives of Tongcheng County in Anhui Province, hence the name Tongcheng School. . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20081202030717/http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_artqa/2003-09/24/content_41759.htm . 2 December 2008 .
  4. Book: Wenquxing Fang Bao . 1 . zh . Yuedu.163.com . Netease Cloud Reading . 29 October 2015 .
  5. Web site: 桐城人物(大全)录 . 11 October 2008 . Anhui Cultural Network . 29 October 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20151222164629/http://www.ahage.net/anqing/7205_9.html . 22 December 2015 . dead .
  6. Book: Wenquxing Fang Bao . 1 . zh . Yuedu.163.com . Netease Cloud Reading . 29 October 2015 .
  7. Web site: Tongcheng School . www.chinaculture.org . China Culture . 14 October 2015 . The Tongcheng School is the most distinguished among the mid-Qing Dynasty schools of literature. Its representative writers include Fang Bao, Liu Dakui and Yao Nai, who are all natives of Tongcheng County in Anhui Province, hence the name Tongcheng School. . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20081202030717/http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_artqa/2003-09/24/content_41759.htm . 2 December 2008 .
  8. Book: Guy . R. Kent . R. Kent Guy . 2010 . Qing Governors and Their Provinces: The Evolution of Territorial Administration in China, 1644-1796, A China Program Book . University of Washington Press . 978-0295990194 . illustrated . Google Books . 255–257 .
  9. Web site: Persons in Chinese History - Fang Bao 方苞 . Theobald . Ulrich . 4 February 2014 . chinaknowledge.de . ChinaKnowledge . 28 October 2015 .
  10. Book: Pollard . David . David Pollard (Sinologist) . The Chinese Essay . 2000 . C. Hurst & Co. Publishers . 1850655375 . illustrated . Google Books . 100 .
  11. Book: Pang . Pu . 龐樸 . Zhongguo Ruxue 中國儒學 . 223 . zh . Shanghai . Dongfang Chuban Zhongxin . 1997 . 2 .
  12. Book: Guy . R. Kent . R. Kent Guy . 2010 . Qing Governors and Their Provinces: The Evolution of Territorial Administration in China, 1644-1796, A China Program Book . University of Washington Press . 978-0295990194 . illustrated . Google Books . 255–257 .
  13. Book: Pollard . David . David Pollard (Sinologist) . The Chinese Essay . 2000 . C. Hurst & Co. Publishers . 1850655375 . illustrated . Google Books . 100 .
  14. Book: Ebrey . Patricia . Walthall . Anne . 2013 . East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History, Volume II: From 1600 . https://books.google.com/books?id=EZ0WAAAAQBAJ&dq=fang+bao&pg=PA270 . Fang Bao's Random Notes From Prison . 978-1285546209 . 278–279 . Cengage Learning . Google Books .
  15. Book: Guy . R. Kent . R. Kent Guy . 2010 . Qing Governors and Their Provinces: The Evolution of Territorial Administration in China, 1644-1796, A China Program Book . University of Washington Press . 978-0295990194 . illustrated . Google Books . 255–257 .
  16. Book: Guy . R. Kent . R. Kent Guy . 2010 . Qing Governors and Their Provinces: The Evolution of Territorial Administration in China, 1644-1796, A China Program Book . University of Washington Press . 978-0295990194 . illustrated . Google Books . 129 .
  17. Book: Yao . Xinzhong . Xinzhong Yao . 2015 . The Encyclopedia of Confucianism: 2-volume Set . London . Routledge . 978-1317793496 . Google Books . 206 .
  18. Book: Gibbs Hill . Michael . Michael Gibbs Hill . 2013 . Lin Shu, Inc.: Translation and the Making of Modern Chinese Culture . OUP USA . 978-0199892884 . 43 . Google Books .