Fan Zhi
| Fan Zhi | |
|---|---|
| 1st chancellor of the Song Dynasty | |
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In office 5 March 960 – 26 February 964 Serving with Wang Pu and Wei Renpu |
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| Monarch | Emperor Taizu of Song |
| Succeeded by | Zhao Pu |
| chancellor of Later Zhou | |
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In office 27 July 951 – 3 February 960 |
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| Monarch |
Guo Wei Chai Rong Chai Zongxun |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 911 or January 912 likely Zongcheng, Later Liang (in today's Wei County, Hebei) |
| Died | 5 November 964 (aged 52–53) Kaifeng, Henan, China |
| Children | Fan Min (范旻), son |
| Full name |
Surname: Fàn () Given name: Zhì () Courtesy name: Wénsù () |
| Father | Fan Shouyu (范守遇) |
| Fan Zhi | |||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | |||||||||||||||
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| Simplified Chinese | |||||||||||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Fàn Zhì |
| Wade–Giles | Fan4 Chih4 |
| Yue: Cantonese | |
| Yale Romanization | Faan6 Jat1 |
| Jyutping | Faan6 Zat1 |
Fan Zhi (范質) (c. 911 – 5 November 964), formally the Duke of Lu (魯國公), was a civil official who served under 12 emperors of 6 dynasties during imperial China's Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period and the subsequent Song Dynasty. He was the Later Zhou chancellor from 951 until 960, and the Song Dynasty chancellor from 960 until 964, not long before his death. A strict adherent to legal guidelines, he had influenced Later Zhou and Song rulers to rely more on civil administration in an age dominated by the military.
Growing up, Fan Zhi's father Fan Shouyu (范守遇) was a staff supervisor (判官) serving the Later Liang. Biographer Jack Dull considers Fan Zhi a representative of the rise of "new families" which were gradually replacing the exclusive of the Tang Dynasty. At age eight, Fan Zhi was able to write essays, and by 12 he already mastered and began teaching the voluminous classic Book of Documents.
Later Liang was replaced by the Later Tang in 926, and Fan passed the imperial examination in 933. The chief examination administrator He Ning (和凝) reportedly liked Fan's writing the most that he intentionally assigned Fan 13th place, which was the placing he himself got back in the day. Fan became a prefectural judge (推官) for the Zhongwu Commandery (忠武軍; roughly governing today's central Henan), and was later promoted to the post of subprefect of Fengqiu which he served until Later Tang was overthrown in 936.
Under the new Later Jin, Fan's essays caught the eyes of chancellor Sang Weihan, who helped Fan become the imperial investigating censor (監察御史), a lowly position at the censorial offices. When Sang was subsequently appointed to other prefectures and eventually back as the chancellor, Fan followed him along the way. In 943, Fan Zhi was promoted to the post of assistant division chief of the Department of Hospitality (主客員外郎) and auxiliary official of the Institute of History (直史館). A year later, he became a Hanlin Academician and division chief (郎中) of the Department of Accounting, Ministry of Finance (比部), as well as special drafting of the Secretariat (知制誥).
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