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Biography of Fan Chung-yenName: Fan Chung-yenBirth Date: 989 Death Date: 1052 Place of Birth: N/A Nationality: Chinese Gender: Male Occupations: politician, reformer Fan Chung-yen The Chinese statesman Fan Chung-yen (989-1052) initiated the first important Sung reform program. He was famous for defining the ideal Confucian scholar as "one who is first in worrying about the world's troubles and last in enjoying its pleasures."Fan Chung-yen was born into an old scholar-official family of modest importance which had settled in Soochow in the 9th century. When Fan's father died in 990, his mother remarried and took her infant son along to her new home in Shantung, where he was given the new family surname, Chu. At the age of 21 he was shocked to learn of his true father's identity and left the Chu family. In 1017 he received official permission to resume his original surname. Intense family feeling remained a strong motive force throughout Fan's life, as exemplified by the well-known charitable estate he later established for the Fan clan.After study in Ying-t'ien, Honan Province, Fan obtained …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…As a provincial official, too, Fan was concerned with economic matters and even implemented work relief projects.Although Fan's reforms were modest, the opposition was strong. Fan was dismissed in 1044, and most of his reforms were rescinded the following year. Fan again served in various provincial posts and did not return to power. His reforms became the precursors of the more ambitious program of Wang An-shih. Further Reading For Fan's reforms see James T. C. Liu's "An Early Sung Reformer: Fan Chung-yen" in John K. Fairbank, ed., Chinese Thought and Institutions (1957) as well as Liu's Ou-yang Hsiu: An Eleventh-Century Neo-Confucianist (1967). An important study of a different aspect of Fan's activities is Denis Twitchett's "The Fan Clan's Charitable Estate, 1050-1760" in David S. Nivison and Arthur F. Wright, eds., Confucianism in Action (1959). Recommended for general background is James T. C. Liu and Peter Golas, eds., Change in Sung China: Innovation or Renovation? (1969). |