Divided by a Common Language: Factional Conflict in Late Northern Song China

3. Categorical Propositions: Faction Theory and the Political Imagination of the Northern Song

CHAPTER THREE Categorical Propositions Faction Theory and the Political Imagination of the Northern Song But howsoe’er, no simple man that sees This jarring discord of nobility, This shouldering of each other in the court, This factious bandying of their favourites, But that it doth presage some ill event. —Shakespeare, 1 Henry VI In 4.1044, the state councilor Fan Zhongyan (989–1052) stood accused of factionalism , confronting the unreceptive Emperor Renzong (r. 1022–1063), who had a proclivity toward issuing admonitory edicts to his officials about the dangers of factionalism and toward purging ministers whom he personally deemed factious.1 Fan Zhongyan’s reforming coalition and its conservative political opponents had exchanged charges of factionalism ever since the mid-1030s.2 Yet in political practice, defining a faction was a highly subjective exercise, since opportunistic rhetoric could sway a monarch’s judgment. Accusations of factionalism had shadowed Fan as early as 4.1036, when the Grand Councilor Lü Yijian (979–1044) excluded his rival from the metropolitan bureaucracy on the pretext that he had “recommended and promoted a faction,” and demoted him to prefectural administration on Censorial charges that “his faction was slandering the court.”3 Unless Fan Zhongyan could convince Renzong otherwise, his councilorship would end, and his reform policy agenda would evaporate.4 Renzong demanded to know if Fan’s ministerial coalition was a treacherous faction. “Since antiquity,” he intoned, “petty men have often formed factions, but indeed, have factions of superior men ever existed?”5 The usual answer to such a loaded question would have been a blanket denial, followed by a reversal of the charges. But Fan Zhongyan staked his political future and his coalition’s survival on a bold move. He answered Renzong’s question in the affirmative, overturning established definitions of factional rhetoric by claiming that politi42 Categorical Propositions 43 cal affiliations of superior men could be called factions and implying that he and his comrades comprised a faction of superior men. Fan made an anecdotal argument that factionalism was a recurring natural phenomenon, but not necessarily a destructive one: When Your servant was serving on the border, [I] observed that those who delighted in war formed a faction (pengdang) on their own and that those who feared war also formed a faction on their own. When [they] are at court, the factions of the wicked and the righteous (xiezheng zhi dang) are also like this. This is something that Your sagacious mind can scrutinize. If [officials] affiliate (peng) beneficially, then how can they possibly harm the state?6 Fan flattered Renzong by proclaiming him a modern-day sage-king who could discern superior from petty men, even as he claimed that both could form factions . Soon thereafter, Fan’s ally Ouyang Xiu (1007–1072), then serving as a remonstrance official (jianguan), elaborated his comrade’s assertions into a formal “Discourse on Factions” (Pengdang lun). The most accomplished literatus of his time, Ouyang intended to persuade the emperor and the bureaucratic opposition that Fan Zhongyan’s admission of factionalism was neither impolitic nor suspicious. In this revolutionary treatise of political theory, Ouyang reimagined factions as inherently ethical affiliations of superior men who selflessly served the public good, whereas cliques of petty men were just self-serving: Generally speaking, when superior men affiliate with superior men, their affiliations (peng) are based on a common Way (tongdao). When petty men affiliate with petty men, their affiliations are based on common gain (tongli). This is a natural pattern.7 Ministers who were not bound by a shared sense of loyalty and ideology were inherently selfish, expediently maneuvering for power at the expense of the dynastic polity. Indeed, these cliques of petty men were not even worthy of the name “faction,” because self-serving ministers would invariably squabble over the spoils of office. Only superior men could form a true faction, a horizontal association of loyal ministers whose shared ethical dispositions enabled them to act in concert in support of the public good.8 Squabbling and dissent were signs of disloyalty, whereas ideological conformity served monarchical interests, which would be poorly served by accommodating a diverse range of ministerial opinion. While Northern Song ministers refrained from explicitly identifying themselves as superior men, Ouyang was attempting to persuade Renzong to ignore the baseless accusations made by Fan’s petty-man adversaries and entrust this true faction with authority. In spite of, or perhaps because of, their...