(望溪), was a Chinese nobleman, courtier, orator, philosopher, poet, scholar, author and government official in the service of the
. He is best known as an icon of the Tongcheng school of literary prose which was influential during the mid-Qing dynasty.
Family origins
Fang Bao was born in Tongcheng, Zongyang County, Anhui Province in 1668 during the reign of the Kangxi Emperor. He was the second son in a family of the Qing nobility with landed interests at Jiangning, Liuhe County and at Tongcheng, an area in the southern vicinity of Nanjing.
His father was Fang Zhongshu (方仲舒), an imperial official and second son of Fang's grandfather. His paternal grandfather was Fang Zhi (方帜), a Xinghua County didactic and noted scholar of the Wuhe discipline. Fang Bao was the middle son of three boys, his elder brother was Fang Zhou (方舟; 1665-1701), a scholar of the Five Classics, and his younger brother was Fang Lin (方林).
Early life
At the time of Fang Bao's birth, the Kangxi Emperor had not yet fully assumed power and the real dominance over the throne was in the hands of two of the Four Regents, Ebilun and Oboi. In 1669, as the Kangxi Emperor consolidated power, Oboi was also brought up on imperial charges and put to death.
Fang Bao studied literature at a school which followed the teachings of Gui Youguang. He would go on to invent the concept of Yi Fa where Yi refers to the ideas or concept of an article and Fa to the structure and literary form. This concept is considered one of the basic theories of the Tongcheng School form of writing, which gained its name due to Tongcheng being Fang Bao's hometown.
From 1692 to 1695, Fang served in Beijing as a senior licentiate together with his friend Zhang Boxing who shared his philosophical allegiance surrounding the teachings of the brothers Cheng Xi and Zhu Xi.
Fang obtained his jinshi degree or advanced scholar degree following the imperial examination system in 1706 under the reign of the Kangxi Emperor and was given a posting at the Hall of Military Glory (武英殿) as its Director-General of Compilation (修书总裁). He was promoted within the hall to the position of Instructor-Bachelor (教习庶吉士) and then to Vice-Minister of Rights (礼部侍郎).
In either 1711 or 1713, whilst still at the Hall of Military Glory, Fang was involved in the Nanshan Incident (南山案). The incident surrounded the contents of a work written by Dai Mingshi, Fang's relation via his wife, titled Nanshan Ji (南山集) for which Fang had written a preface. The book was essentially a nostalgic history of one of the author's ancestors who had fought with Wu Sangui against the Qing Empire. As a result of a political realignment, the work had been judged seditious by the court of the Kangxi Emperor, who previously promoted scholarly officials. The political change on the part of the Qing court was due in large part to the emperor's awareness and perception of threat from political factions that were forming for the purpose of influencing the imperial succession. Fang was arrested by the Governor of Suzhou, his friend Zhang Boxing. Dai was executed by imperial order, but Fang was spared death and punished instead with dismissal from his post and exile to Gansu Province or (likely both) with the imprisonment of his entire family. Zhang would also later be accused of aiding Fang Bao before the court but he was unpunished.
In 1728, the death of an Eleuth leader provided an excuse for the new Yongzheng Emperor to continue his father's wars in Gansu Province. Fang Bao had written a bold critique of the Governor of Gansu Province, Xu Rong and the Yongzheng Emperor's strategy with regards to the effects of the war on the people of the region. Despite this writing, by the end of the Yongzheng era, Fang was back in the imperial court's favor and he was promoted to Vice-Director of the Board of Rights.
Fang Bao's critical work of the Yongzheng Emperor proved influential in around 1735 when the incoming Qianlong Emperor used it to indict Xu Rong as a part of his larger purge of government officials to cement his hold on power. Accordingly, Fang was made the Vice-Director of the Bureau for the compilation of the Three Ritual Classics. In this role, he gained imperial support to pursue one of his most famous works, the "Imperial Anthology of Essays on the Four Books" which transformed the entire imperial writing system.
Death and legacy
Fang Bao died in 1749. One of his lasting contributions to the imperial system apart from his literary writings was the establishment of the guwen style as the essay style of the imperial examination system which thereafter put emphasis on Song dynasty neo-Confucian theory. This influence drastically changed the imperial examination system which imposed standards and made the guwen essays the foundational part of scholarly writing across the Qing Empire.
Fang Bao is an ancestor of Fang Gongcheng, a tutor of the Qing imperial court, of Fang Guancheng, the Viceroy of Zhili, of Fang Chih, the influential cold war-era statesman of the Republic of China, Fang Dongmei a.k.a. Thomé H. Fang, a 20th century Taiwanese neo-Confucian philosopher, and of Anna Sui, the American fashion designer.
Published works
• The following is an incomplete list of the works of Fang Bao.
• Fang Bao's Random Notes From Prison
• Biographies of Four Gentlemen, Si Junzi Zhuan (zh: 四君子转)
• Critique and Punctuation of the Zuo Zuoshi Pingdian (zh: 做事评点)
• Zhouguan Jizheng (zh: 周官集证)
• Zhouguan Xiyi (zh: 周官析疑)
• Zhouguan Bian (zh: 周官辨)
• Yili Xiyi (zh: 仪礼析疑)
• Kaogongji Xiyi (zh: 考工记析疑)
• Liji Xiyi (zh: 礼记析疑)
• Chunqiu Zhijie (zh: 春秋直解)
• Sangli Huowen (zh: 丧礼或问)
• Chunqiu Tonglun (zh: 春秋通论)
• Chunqiu Bishi Mulu (zh: 春秋比事目录)
• Zuozhuan Yifa Juyao (zh: 左传义法举要)
• Shiji Zhu Buzheng (zh: 史记注补正)
• Lisao Zhengyi (zh: 离骚正义)
• Wangxi Wenji (zh: 望溪文)
方苞（1668年5月25日 - 1749年），字灵皋，一字凤九，晚号望溪，安徽桐城县人，清代文学家，首创文学流派桐城派。与刘大櫆、姚鼐合称桐城三祖。