Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)

No.1, 2013

 

A New Probe into the Issue Settling the Enmity between the Fan Zhongyan and Lü Yijian Families  

(Abstract)

 

Wang Ruilai

 

The period from the Northern to the Southern Song saw a succession of unresolved arguments over the hostile relations between Fan Zhongyan and Lü Yijian, both of whom had been famous statesmen under Emperor Renzong, and over the banishment of enmity by the two families after both men were dead. Following detailed studies by contemporary scholars, it can be said that the dust has settled. However, the real intention behind Ouyang Xiu’s writing on this issue does not appear to have been demonstrated. By exploring the process by which this enmity grew and was resolved and the reason Ouyang Xiu hesitated for more than a year before writing the epitaph on Fan Zhongyan’s tomb, and by further analyzing the different opinions on this issue held by the Southern Song school of textual research and that of the school of fundamental principles, we can see that, in fact, both Fan Chunren’s view that the enmity should be continued and the opposing view put forward by Ouyang Xiu are factual at different cognitive levels. If we leave aside the historical complication of whether the two families did resolve their enmity and scrutinize the issue of the dissolution of enmity between the two and the subsequent debates on this issue against the historical background of the Song dynasty, and thence discuss the question of identifying and interpreting historical facts, the case may provide us with some methodological pointers for historical interpretation in a broader sense.