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Brother, Uncle, and Patriarch: a Northern Song “Family Man”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2021

Cong Ellen Zhang Open the ORCID record for Cong Ellen Zhang [Opens in a new window]
Cong Ellen Zhang*
Affiliation:
University of Virginia, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: cz5h@virginia.edu
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Abstract

This is a case study of Han Qi (1008–1075), one of the most influential statesmen in the Northern Song. Drawing on his funerary biographical work and other writing, it places at the forefront Han's family life and relationships, especially his role as a brother, uncle, and family head. The goal of the study is threefold: first, to establish Han as a “family man,” in contrast to his conventional image as an outstanding political figure; second, to illustrate how seemingly random occurrences shaped Han's life and fortune in significant ways. Finally, this essay aims to enrich scholarly understanding of family preservation in the Northern Song. For many years, the possibility of the Hans failing in this regard remained a source of anxiety for Han Qi. This fear shaped his interaction with members of the younger generations in tangible ways and created noticeable undertones in his writing on family matters.

Keywords

Han QiNorthern Songfamily relationscommemorationfunerary biographical writing
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Chinese History 中國歷史學刊 , Volume 6 , Special Issue 2: Family Relations in Chinese History , July 2022 , pp. 269 - 294
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

1 Three lengthy biographies, a xingzhuang (record of conduct) by Li Qingchen 李清臣 (1032–1102), a muzhiming (epitaph or funerary inscription) by Chen Jian 陳薦 (1016–1084), and his official biography in the Songshi 宋史, contain detailed portrayals of Han Qi's life and career. Li Qingchen, Quan Song wen (hereafter QSW), edited by Zeng Zaozhuang 曾棗莊 and Liu Lin 劉琳 (Shanghai: Shanghai shiji chuban youxian gongsi, Shanghai cishu chubanshe, Anhui chuban jituan, Anhui jiaoyu chubanshe, 2006), 79:1717.38–53; Chen Jian, QSW, 48:1052.334–344; Tuotuo 脫脫, Song shi (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1977), 312.10221–10230.

2 For some recent English language studies that situate Han Qi in Northern Song political history, see Levine, Ari, Divided by a Common Language: Factional Conflict in Late Northern Song China (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2008)Google Scholar; Michael McGrath, “The Reigns of Jen-tsung (1022–1063) and Ying-tsung (1063–1067)” and Smith, Paul, “Shen-tsung's Reign and the New Policies of Wang An-shih, 1067–1085,” in The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 5, Part One, Sung China, 960–1279 (Cambridge University Press, 2009), 279–414Google Scholar; Paul Smith, “Anatomies of Reform: The Qingli-Era Reforms of Fan Zhongyan and the New Policies of Wang Anshi Compared,” in State Power in China, 900–1400, edited by Patricia Ebrey and Paul Jakov Smith (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2016), 153–91. For a list of Chinese scholarship on Han Qi, see Liu Pubing 劉樸兵, “Jin shijinian lai Han Qi yanjiu zongshu” 近十幾年來韓琦研究綜述. Yindu xuekan 2003.2, 49–51.

3 Jing-shen Tao's 陶晉生 study of Song elite families has a chapter on Han Qi's family. See Tao, Beisong shizu: jiating, hunyin, shenghuo 北宋士族: 家庭, 婚姻, 生活 (Taipei: Zhongyang yanjiuyuan lishi yuyan yanjiusuo, 2001), 245–66. See also Zhang Yanxia 張彥霞, “Songdai Han Qi jiazu hunyin guanxi tezheng kaolun” 宋代韓琦家族婚姻關係特徵考論. Jining shizhuan xuebao 27.3 (2005), 32–37 and “Lun hunyin guanxi dui Han Qi jiazu shehui diwei de yingxiang” 論婚姻關係對韓琦家族社會地位的影響, Anyang shifan xueyuan xuebao, 2008.1, 73–76.

4 For some book-length studies on this large topic, see Bossler, Beverly, Powerful Relations: Kinship, Status and the State in Sung China (Cambridge, MA: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1998)Google Scholar; Clark, Hugh, Portrait of a Community: Society, Culture, and the Structures of Kinship in the Mulan River (Fujian) from the Late Tang through the Song (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2007)Google Scholar; Davis, Richard, Court and Family in Sung China, 960–1279: Bureaucratic Success and Kinship Fortunes for the Shih of Mingchou (Durham: Duke University Press, 1986)Google Scholar; Ebrey, Patricia, Family and Property in Sung China: Yuan Tsai's Precepts for Social Life (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984)Google Scholar and Inner Quarters: Marriage and the Lives of Chinese Women in the Sung Period (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993); Huang Kuanchong 黄寬重, Songdai de jiazu yu shehui 宋代的家族與社會 (Taipei: Dongda tushu gufen youxian gongsi, 2006); Robert Hymes, Statesmen and Gentlemen: The Elite of Fu-Chou, Chiang-hsi in Northern and Southern Sung (London: Cambridge University Press, 1986).

5 Yin Zhu, QSW, 28:590.103.

6 Li Qingchen, QSW, 79:1717.39; Han Qi, Anyang ji biannian jianzhu 安陽集編年箋注 (hereafter AYJ), annotated by Li Zhiliang 李之亮 and Xu Zhengying 徐正英 (Chengdu: Ba Shu shushe, 2000), 46.1425.

7 Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1415.

8 Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1417.

9 Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1419

10 Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1417.

11 Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1417.

12 Han Qi, AYJ, 22.728.

13 Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1421.

14 Han Qi, AYJ, 33.1007.

15 Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1436.

16 Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1421.

17 Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1425–1426.

18 It is unclear where Han Qu mourned his mother. Based on Han Qi's writing from this period Han Qu seemed to be apart from Ju and Qi.

19 Han Qi, AYJ, 22.732.

20 Han Qi, AYJ, 37.1153; 38.1161–1178.

21 Han Qi, AYJ, 3.115.

22 Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1425–1427.

23 Han Zhongyan's official biography can be found in Tuotuo, Songshi, 312.10230–10232. His xingzhuang by Bi Zhongyou is included in QSW, 111:2402.105–114.

24 For a comprehensive consideration of large family funerals, see Zhang, Cong Ellen, Performing Filial Piety in Northern Song China: Family, State, and Native Place (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2020), 83–117Google Scholar.

25 Han Qi, AYJ, 33.1007.

26 Han Qi, AYJ, 24.817–818.

27 Bossler, Beverly, Courtesans, Concubines, and the Cult of Female Fidelity (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2016), 66–67Google Scholar; Zhang, Performing Filial Piety in Northern Song China, 77–78.

28 Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1428–1429.

29 For some examples, see Han Qi, AYJ, 2.95–96, 8.320–323, 8.331–332, 8.343.

30 Han Qi described his father, mother, and wife as embodying these exact virtues. Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1407, 46.1411–1412, 46.1431–1433.

31 This is not to say that Han Qi acted out of the ordinary in this respect. Northern Song scholar-officials did not normally write about their roles in arranging family marriages, but they did discuss marriage-related matters in family letters.

32 Liu Fu 劉斧, Qingsuo gaoyi 青瑣高議 in Quan Song biji 全宋筆記, edited by Zhu Yi'an 朱易安 and Fu Xuancong 傅璇琮 (Zhengzhou: Daxiang, 2005), di er bian 第二編, di er ji 第二集, qianji 前集, 5.52.

33 Chao Buzhi, QSW, 127:2741.61.

34 Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1436.

35 Li Qingchen, QSW, 79:1717.51; Chen Jian, QSW, 48:1052.343.

36 Zhang, Cong Ellen, Transformative Journeys: Travel and Culture in Song China (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2011), 22–24Google Scholar.

37 Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1417.

38 Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1429–1430.

39 Han Qi, AYJ, 22.732.

40 Han Qi in Quan Song shi (hereafter QSS), edited by Beijing daxue guwenxian yanjiusuo (Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 1986–1998), 318.3971.

41 This was a common practice in the Song. For an example, see Fan Zhi's long poem, entitled “Instructions for My Sons and Nephews in Eight Hundred Characters” 誡兒侄八百字 in QSS, 1:3.47–49.

42 Han Qi in QSS, 318.3971.

43 Han Qi, AYJ, 48.1505.

44 See You Biao 遊彪, Songdai yinbu zhidu yanjiu 宋代蔭補制度研究 (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue, 2001).

45 Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1436–1441.

46 See, for example, Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1417, 46.1419, 46.1429, 33.1004–1005.

47 Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1441–1442, 49.1515–1516.

48 Tuotuo, Song shi, 312.10230.

49 Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1417.

50 Han Qi, AYJ, 2.71, 2.73, 46.1430.

51 Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1437.

52 Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1438.

53 Han Qi, AYJ, 48.1510–1511.

54 Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1441.

55 Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1441–1443, 49.1515–1516.

56 Han Qi, AYJ, 49.1515–1516.

57 Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1443–1444.

58 For a general discussion of changes in Tang-Song epitaph writing, see Beverly Bossler, Powerful Relations, 12–24.

59 See, for example, Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1419, 46.1429, 46.1436, 46.1441.

60 Han Qi, AYJ, 49.1515.

61 Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1438.

62 Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1438.

63 For studies on the representation of women in the Song, see Patricia Ebrey, Inner Quarters, and Beverly Bossler, Powerful Relations, 17–24.

64 Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1438, 48.1508, 48.1510–1511.

65 Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1510.

66 Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1511–1512.

67 Jender Lee 李貞德, “Tangdai de xingbie yu yiliao” 唐代的性別與醫療, in Tangsong nuxing yu shehui唐宋女性與社會, edited by Deng Xiaonan 鄧小南, 415–46 (Shanghai: Shanghai cishu, 2003).

68 See the autobiographical work of the famous Ming female doctor, Tan Yunxian 談允賢 (1461–1556), and her practice record. Tan Yunxian and Wang Jian 汪劍 (annotator), Nüyi zayan ping'an yishi《女醫雜言》評按譯釋 (Beijing: Zhongguo zhongyiyao, 2016). Charlotte Furth, A Flourishing Yin: Gender in China's Medical History, 960–1665 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), 285–97.

69 Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1396–1406.

70 Han Qi, AYJ, 22.745–746. Patricia Ebrey's study situated Han Qi in the evolution of writing about ritual in the Song. Ebrey, Confucianism and Family Rituals in Imperial China: A Social History of Writing about Rites (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991), 54–55, 75–76.

71 Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1430.

72 Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1430.

73 Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1430.

74 Han Qi, AYJ, 2.95–96.

75 Han Qi, AYJ, 22.729.

76 Han Qi, AYJ, 46.1397.

77 Han Qi, AYJ, 49.1516–1517.

78 For a discussion of Han Tuozhou's political career, see Richard L. Davis, Court and Family in Sung China, 960–1279: Bureaucratic Success and Kinship Fortunes for the Shih of Mingchou (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1986), 79–127.

79 An example is the family of Bao Zheng 包拯 (999–1062), an influential statesman and contemporary of Han Qi. The Baos of Luzhou declined rapidly and irrevocably due to the absence of an able heir and failure to develop a strategic approach to ensure the survival of the family. Zhang, Cong Ellen, “The Rise and Fall of a Northern Song Family: The Baos of Luzhou.” Chinese Historical Review 20.2 (2013), 138–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

80 Patricia Ebrey, Confucianism and Family Rituals in Imperial China, 45–67; and “The Early Stages in the Development of Descent Group Organization,” in Kinship Organization in Late Imperial China, edited by Ebrey, Patricia and Watson, James (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), 24–25Google Scholar.

81 Han Qi, AYJ, 48.1508.

82 Patricia Ebrey, Family and Property in Sung China.