On Chen Guan and His Si Ming Zun Yao Ji ——With a Look at Factional Strife during the Reign of Emperors Zhezong and Huizong in the Northern Song Dynasty

Chen Guan, whose grandfather had laid a firm ground for the family's official career, was born in Nanjianzhou Prefecture (present Shaxian, Fujian) under the Northern Song Dynasty. In terms of his academic origin, Chen Guan studied under Yang Shi, belonging to the school of learning. During the reign of Emperor Huizong, he was twice a court official and spared no effort to censuring the ministers in favor of political reformers, including Zhang Dun, Zeng Bu, Cai Bian, and Cai Jing. He strongly opposed the rule of Shaosheng, while advocating the restoration of the original political state of reign, thus becoming one of the targets of attack from the reformers for being a member of the Yuanyou clique. Having been banished to many places, Chen Guan lived an unstable life, with many of his relatives and friends involved in trouble. During his exile, he wrote Zun Yao Ji (Collections in Respect for Emperor Yao) twice to reprove Wang Anshi's Ri Lu (Daily Records), with an intention to expose and criticize the reformers theoretically. Therefore, he became a standard-bearer attacking the new school of learning and the reformers, which brought him more political persecutions. During the reign of Emperor Huizong, instead of settling the up-going fractional strife, most of Chen's deeds, such as his blaming Zeng Bu for his adjustment in the Jianzhong Period, and his personal attack on Wang Anshi in his book S Mming Zun Yao Ji, made the political conditions even worse. The fractional strife that went on in the late Northern Song Dynasty turned from the difference in political viewpoints to emotional disputes and finally to personal attacks. Clinging to narrow factionalism, the old and new parties tried their utmost to do down each other and attack each other. It was true that the new party should be partially responsible for such a political situation, but Chen Guan and the old party were by no means free from accountability. Under the Southern Song Dynasty, with the gradual decline of the new learning and the rising of the academic learning, Chen Guan and his Si Ming Zun Yao Ji gained popularity. From then on, Chen Guan's moral ideology, academic achievements and works began to be well received, even during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.