Yuan Cai (袁采

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

: Yuán Cǎi, ''c.'' 1140–1195) was a Chinese essayist and politician during the Song dynasty, best known for penning the ''Yuan shi shi fan'' (''Precepts for Social Life''), a manual of advice addressed to family heads on the subject of how to handle their responsibilities. Yuan was born in Xin'an, the capital of

Quzhou Quzhou is a prefecture-level city in western Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. Sitting on the upper course of the Qiantang River, it borders Hangzhou to the north, Jinhua to the east, Lishui to the southeast, and the provinces o ...

prefecture, to an established

gentry Gentry (from Old French ''genterie'', from ''gentil'', "high-born, noble") are "well-born, genteel and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past. Word similar to gentle imple and decentfamilies ''Gentry'', in its widest ...

family. In the 1150s he was a student at the National University (大学) at the

Southern Song The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. ...

capital of

Hangzhou Hangzhou ( or , ; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), also romanized as Hangchow, is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang, China. It is located in the northwestern part of the province, sitting at the head of Hangzhou Bay, whi ...

. After passing the ''

jinshi ''Jinshi'' () was the highest and final degree in the imperial examination in Imperial China. The examination was usually taken in the imperial capital in the palace, and was also called the Metropolitan Exam. Recipients are sometimes referre ...

'' degree in 1163, Yuan Cai served in several prefectures outside the capital. Altogether Yuan Cai served as

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...

of four

counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

. During this time, he spent much of his time writing. Two of his early works, ''Zhenghe za ji'' ("Mischellaneous Notes from Zhenghe) and ''Xianling xiao lu'' ("Minor Records of Magistrates"), are no longer extant. From the

bibliography Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliography ...

chapter of the ''

Book of Song The ''Book of Song'' (''Sòng Shū'') is a historical text of the Liu Song Dynasty of the Southern Dynasties of China. It covers history from 420 to 479, and is one of the Twenty-Four Histories, a traditional collection of historical records. I ...

'' and

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

gazetteer A gazetteer is a geographical index or directory used in conjunction with a map or atlas.Aurousseau, 61. It typically contains information concerning the geographical makeup, social statistics and physical features of a country, region, or co ...

s of Quzhou, he is also known to have written a number of other books, all of which are also lost. Most of them were concerned with the administration of local and central government. At least one detailed ways in which the central government could improve its capacity to fend off the

Jurchens Jurchen (Manchu language, Manchu: ''Jušen'', ; zh, 女真, ''Nǚzhēn'', ) is a term used to collectively describe a number of East Asian people, East Asian Tungusic languages, Tungusic-speaking peoples, descended from the Donghu people. They ...

who had seized

north China North China, or Huabei () is a List of regions of China, geographical region of China, consisting of the provinces of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia. Part of the larger region of Northern China (''Beifang''), it lies north ...

in the

Jin–Song wars The Jin–Song Wars were a series of conflicts between the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty (1115–1234) and the Han-led Song dynasty (960–1279). In 1115, Jurchen tribes rebelled against their overlords, the Khitan-led Liao dynasty (916–1125) ...

. Serving as magistrate of Yueqing from 1178 onwards, Yuan acted as compiler of a ten-chapter gazetteer of the county. He probably completed and published the ''Yuan shi shi fan'' around this time. Liu Zhen, one of the members of the local families, whom Yuan had met at the National University, wrote the preface for Yuan's work. The ''Yuan shi shi fan'' was reprinted in 1190, whilst Yuan Cai was at Wuyuan in what is now southern

Anhui Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...

. In 1192 he was recommended for promotion by the poet Yang Wanli. Yuan Cai's last post was in the capital, as director of the Public Attention Drum Bureau. He probably died sometime in the mid-1190s. After his death, his second son and a cousin also attained the ''jinshi'' degree in 1205.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yuan, Cai 1140s births 1190 deaths Politicians from Quzhou Song dynasty essayists Song dynasty government officials Writers from Quzhou