Title

Lüfu as Sources for Northern Song Intellectual History

Author

Douglas Edward Skonicki

Genre

Article

Pages

387-430

DOI

10.6503/THJCS.202103_51(2).0005

Download

PDF

Language

Chinese

Key words

rhapsodies, Northern Song intellectual history, Tian Xi 田錫, Wang Yucheng 王禹偁, Fan Zhongyan 范仲淹, Ouyang Xiu 歐陽修

Abstract

Scholars of Northern Song lüfu 律賦 have observed that the authors of the time wrote lüfu to voice arguments, resulting in compositions that expressed important opinions about significant intellectual issues of the time. Yet, despite this well-established consensus, and the survival of numerous lüfu by the leading intellectuals of the period, Northern Song lüfu have by and large failed to attract the interest of intellectual historians. In this paper, I attempt to address this gap in our understanding of the Northern Song intellectual milieu by conducting a preliminary examination of the function and import of lüfu during the period. I focus my analysis on the lüfu composed by four early Song proponents of guwen 古文: Tian Xi 田錫, Wang Yucheng 王禹偁, Fan Zhongyan 范仲淹 and Ouyang Xiu 歐陽修. In my examination of Tian Xi and Wang Yucheng, I look at how lüfu can shed light on their individual thought, whereas in my analysis of Fan and Ouyang, I attempt to situate their lüfu within larger historical contexts in an effort to determine their intellectual significance. Through these four case studies, I hope to demonstrate the value of lüfu as sources for Northern Song intellectual history and show that they have the potential to broaden our understanding of this important period.