Two Models for Writing about Good Officials in Middle Antiquity
Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)
No.3, 2014
Two Models for Writing about Good Officials in Middle Antiquity
Sun Zhengjun
In middle antiquity, "The Fierce Tiger Crossing the River (Menghu Duhe猛虎渡河)" and "Locusts Leaving the Region (Feihuang Chujing飞蝗出境)" were templates for constructing and depicting the image of local good officials (liangli良吏) in historical records. Originating in the Eastern Han and widely used in subsequent histories, the two models generated a number of variants. Their emergence owed something to the prevalence of ideas of good and bad auguries and the Han Dynasty's commendation of good officials at the local level, but they also drew on the earlier textual model of "No More Thieves and Robbers (Daozei Zhixi盗贼止息)". Although, by the Song Dynasty, changes had occurred in the thinking about auguries which had constituted their theoretical background, the two writing models persisted in Song histories and their successors with tenacious vitality. Many such writing models, including these two, made their way into historical records, to some extent weakening their authenticity and rendering them stereotyped, stylized and lacking in individualized description.