Huo Tao

Life

At the metropolitan examination in the ninth year of the Zhengde era (1514), he became huiyuan, the top candidate, and ranked first in the second class at the palace examination; another version simply calls him the first-ranked jinshi of that year. After passing, he returned home to marry and studied on Xiqiao Mountain. After the accession of the Jiajing Emperor in 1521, he was appointed Master of the Bureau of Military Topography in the Ministry of War (兵部職方司主事) and served until the fifth year of Jiajing (1526).

He repeatedly submitted memorials, which the emperor accepted favorably; because his position in the Great Rites controversy accorded with imperial wishes, he was rapidly promoted. In the fourth year of Jiajing (1525), he became Junior Expositor of the Directorate of the Heir Apparent and Attendant Lecturer (少詹事兼侍講學士); in the sixth year (1527), he became Expositor of that directorate and Hanlin Academician (詹事兼翰林學士). During this period he also served as daily lecturer at the Classics Banquet, compiler, deputy chief compiler, and metropolitan examination examiner. After completion of a book on the Great Rites, he was elevated to Minister of Rites and placed in charge of the Directorate of the Heir Apparent, but he declined the appointment.

In the ninth year of Jiajing (1530), he was impeached by Xia Yan for remonstrating over the suburban rites, imprisoned, and soon restored to office. After a mourning period, he returned to office and served successively as Left and Right Vice Ministers of Personnel, later becoming Nanjing Minister of Rites. Because he was fond of competing with others, the emperor came to dislike him; in Nanjing he made the preservation of ritual teaching central to policy, but his conduct often failed to accord with public opinion. From the fifteenth through the eighteenth year of Jiajing (1536–1539), he served as Nanjing Minister of Rites; from the eighteenth through the nineteenth year (1539–1540), he again served as Minister of Rites and was successively appointed Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent. He died in office in the tenth month of the nineteenth year of Jiajing, aged fifty-four; he was posthumously awarded the title Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent and named Wenmin.

Family and connections

His great-grandfather was Huo Xuanzhen and his grandfather Huo Houyi. His sons are listed as Huo Yuxia (霍與瑕), Huo Yuwei (霍與瑋), and Huo Yupu (霍與璞); Yuxia appears in the examination register for the thirty-eighth year of Jiajing as third-class, 101st place. The compilers of the ten-juan *Weiya wenji* are, however, named as his sons Yuxia and Yuqi, so the son lists are not identical.

In his official career, he recommended Huang Zhengse and Wang Zhongcheng. The association with Huang also involved an examination-patron relationship: although a kinsman of Huang had violated the law, Huo still valued Huang and recommended him for the office of Nanjing Censor. He wrote prefaces for works by Wang Ao, Xu Jin, Zhang Cong, Li Xishuo, and Gu Heng, and wrote epitaphs for Hou Yiyuan and Liu Shuxiang; Li Kaixian and Jiang Yida wrote his epitaph.

Scholarship and writings

Huo worked in both classical learning and historiography. Works named in connection with him include *Shijing jie* (*Explanation of the Classic of Poetry*), *Xiangshan xue bian*, *Cheng-Zhu xunshi*, *Xihan biping*, and *Weiya ji*; related titles include *Shijing jie zhu* and *Xihan shu zuanping*, as well as *Jingjie xuebian*, *Shishu xulüe*, and *Shishu zhijie*.

Other titles connected with him include *Gujin zhengyao*, *Dali yi*, *Mingliang ji* in twelve juan, *Ming zhaozhi* in eight juan, *Donggong shengxue tu*, *Weiya shuyao*, *Hu Wenmin ji*, *Hu shi jiaxun*, *Hu Wenmin gong quanji* in ten juan, *Shitou lu* in eight juan, and *Jiaxun* in one juan; the last is explicitly identified as an authored work. The ten-juan *Weiya wenji* was compiled and printed by his sons Yuxia and Yuqi in the fourth year of the Wanli era. Part of juan 7 consists of poetry and ci, while the remainder is prose; in a later editorial treatment, the prose and ci were removed from juan 7, lost poems were added, and the poems were consolidated into one juan. The work was also collated against the eighteenth year of the Jiaqing era edition of *Yuedong shihai* and the ten-juan edition of *Hu Wenmin gong quanji* carved by the Nanhai Shitou Academy in the first year of the Tongzhi era.