Shixue guifan 仕學規範

Shixue guifan 仕學規範 “Guided studies of the officialdom” is a collection of biographies compiled during the Southern Song period by Zhang Zi 張鎡 (born 1153), courtesy name Gongfu 功父 (also written 功甫) or Shike 時可, style Yuezhai 約齋, from Lin’an 臨安 (today’s Hangzhou 杭州, Zhejiang). He was 承事郎、直秘閣、權通判臨安府事。開禧三年(1207)為左司郎官，參與謀誅韓侂胄。For his insubordination to Counsellor-in-chief Shi Miyuan 史彌遠 (1164-1233), he was sent to lifelong exile in Xiangtai 象臺 (today’s Xiangxian 象縣, Guangxi). Zhang Zi’s collected writings are Nanhu ji 南湖集. The book of 40 juan length is a collection of stories about eminent state officials, arranged according to six categories, namely scholarship (xue 學), upright conduct (xingji 行己), good administration (liguan 涖官), covert virtues (yinde 陰德), literary achievements (zuowen 作文), and poetic merits (zuoshi 作詩). The book collects the biographies of renowned ministers from the Song period, citing original texts and providing references for each entry. It has considerable value, as it draws from works such as 九朝名臣傳, which were relied upon by historians and thus broadly align with historical records. Moreover, it serves to supplement omissions in official histories. For example, it reports how Fan Zhongyan 范仲淹, while governing Qingzhou 青and Shezhou 社, devised methods to spare the people of Qingzhou from the hardship of forced labour, leading them to build a shrine in his honour. Similarly, Zhao Bian 趙抃, while administering Yuezhou 越州 during a famine, ordered grain hoarders to sell at a higher price (to prevent panic purchases), which later fell, saving many lives. Additionally, Zhang Fangping 張方平, as the district magistrate of Kunshan昆山, used surplus tax revenue 余賦 to aid the poor and successfully ended decades of disputes over land encroachment. Zhang Zi quotes from books that have not survived, such as Sike shishi 四科事實 or Zhezong mingchen zhuan 哲宗名臣傳. Even if the scholarly quality of Zhang’s book is not at pair with Zhu Xi’s 朱熹 famous Mingchen yanxing lu 名臣言行錄, it is a valuable supplement to historical reports. The text can be found in the imperial series Siku quanshu 四庫全書.