Wei Fu (; died July 14, 850''

Zizhi Tongjian ''Zizhi Tongjian'' () is a pioneering reference work in Chinese historiography, published in 1084 AD during the Northern Song dynasty in the form of a chronicle recording Chinese history from 403 BC to 959 AD, covering 16 dynast ...

'', vol. 249.),

courtesy name A courtesy name (), also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name. This practice is a tradition in the East Asian cultural sphere, including China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.Ulrich Theobald ...

Xiangzhi (相之), was an official of the Chinese

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...

, serving as a

chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

during the reign of Emperor Xuānzong. Very little is known about Wei's background despite his high status, as there was no biography for him in the official histories of Tang, the ''

Old Book of Tang The ''Old Book of Tang'', or simply the ''Book of Tang'', is the first classic historical work about the Tang dynasty, comprising 200 chapters, and is one of the Twenty-Four Histories. Originally compiled during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdo ...

'' and the ''

New Book of Tang The ''New Book of Tang'', generally translated as the "New History of the Tang" or "New Tang History", is a work of official history covering the Tang dynasty in ten volumes and 225 chapters. The work was compiled by a team of scholars of the So ...

''. According to the table of the chancellors' family trees in the ''New Book of Tang'', his grandfather was named Wei Ying (魏盈) and his father Wei Chang (魏昌), and neither was listed with any official titles. According to the brief introduction for him in the ''

Quan Tangshi (''Complete Tang Poems'') is the largest collection of Tang poetry, containing some 49,000 lyric poems by more than twenty-two hundred poets. In 1705, it was commissioned at the direction of the Qing dynasty Kangxi Emperor and published under ...

'', which collected three poems by him, he passed the

imperial examination The imperial examination (; lit. "subject recommendation") refers to a civil-service examination system in Imperial China, administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureaucrats by ...

s in the ''Jinshi'' class in 830, during the reign of Emperor Wenzong. As of 849, during Emperor Xuānzong's reign, Wei was serving as the deputy minister of defense (兵部侍郎, ''Bingbu Shilang'') and the director of taxation, when he was made a chancellor ''de facto'' with the designation ''Tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangzhi'' (同中書門下平章事).''Zizhi Tongjian'',

248 __NOTOC__ Year 248 ( CCXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Philippus and Severus (or, less frequently, year 1001 '' ...

. He died in 850, while still serving as chancellor.

Notes and references

* ''

'', vols.

, 249. 850 deaths Chancellors under Emperor Xuānzong of Tang Tang dynasty poets Year of birth unknown 9th-century Chinese poets {{China-bio-stub