Literary Collection of Fan Zhongyan

Fan Zhongyan (989-1052), Song dynasty
1328 Yuan dynasty edition by Fan's Sui-han Hall with additions and corrections

Fan Zhongyan (style name Xiwen), also known as Fan Wenzheng, was a native of Wuxian, Jiangsu province. Left fatherless when still an infant, he went on to become a diligent student with high ambitions, talent, and a strong sense of social duty. Throughout his life, he was loyal and hard working. He advocated justice, the promotion of talented people, and relief for the poor. Among his peers, he was unsurpassed in moral character and personal accomplishment. The "Ssu-k'u ch'uan-shu tsung-mu" (Full List of the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries) describes him as "A scholar of profundity and virtue that in his affairs sought to have a clear conscious before the virtuous and in his studies sought to aid the world. His thought was grounded in traditional Chinese culture, and in government he sought to serve society for the betterment of the people. These things were achieved by Master Fan Wenzheng." In his writing, Fan displays his mastery of the classical arts and the workings of government. His work was so widely read that in Song times there was a saying that "Among the literati and officials who visited Wu county, none failed to read the work of Wenzheng."

Fan Zhongyan's collected writings were originally entitled "Tan-yang chi" (Tan-yang Anthology), though after the author's death it was re-named as "Wenzheng." According to Fu Tseng-hsiang's "Ts'ang-yuan ch'un-shu t'i-chi," there are no extant copies of the Northern Song editions of Fan Zhongyan's work. The earliest known edition is the Jao-chou Circuit edition published during the Qiandao period (1165-1173) in the Southern Song dynasty. Although this version was revised successively in the Guoxi and Jiading periods later in the Southern Song dynasty, only slight modifications were made. The "Wenzheng kung chi" edition in the National Palace Museum collection was reproduced from the Ch'ien-tao edition in the Tianli period (1328-1329) of the Yuan dynasty. It is identical to its Song predecessor in terms of both classic elegance and arrangement of text. The reproduction was in fact so perfect that the Qing imperial edition of the "T'ien-lu lin-lang hsu-mu" (Additional Catalog of the T'ien-lu lin-lang) mistakenly records it as the original Qiandao edition. The edition was dated to the Yuan dynasty only after it was discovered, in the course of editing the catalog of rare books in the National Palace Museum collection, that the block print engraving--the work of Chang Yun, Chou Ch'eng, Chang I, Ch'en Tzu-jen and others--matched the engraving style of the Tianli edition recorded in Wang Wen-chin's "Wen-lu-Tang fan-shu chi." The characters are engraved in a round, animated style and the paper and ink bear an ancient hue, faithful to the Qiandao edition. Though not the Song original, its value is in no way diminished. Each volume of the set bears the imperial seal of the "T'ien-lu lin-lang" collection.