Dou Yan

Career

He came of age and passed the jinshi examination in the sixth year of the Tianfu era (941) of the Later Jin. He served in provincial governors' offices as prefectural aide at Hua Prefecture, assistant judge under the Yicheng Army commandery and army secretary under the Tianping Army, and then entered the central administration as assistant editorial director (著作佐郎) and collator of the Jixian Academy, receiving appointment as left remonstrator (左拾遺). His scholarship was praised by Zhang Yun, and he served under Shi Kuanghan.

Under the Later Han he was a compiler of the History Office, rising to director of the Jinbu and Shanbu bureaux. Early in the Guangshun era of the Later Zhou founder he was promoted to left buque (左補闕; some accounts say right buque) and, with Jia Wei and Wang Shen, took part in compiling the veritable records of the Later Jin emperors Gaozu and Shaodi and of the Later Han founder; he was then made gentleman of the Host-Guest Bureau and drafter of edicts, and promoted to Secretariat Drafter. Early in the Xiande era he became an academician of the Jixian Hall and administrator of its affairs.

Under Emperor Shizong he was once sent as envoy to Jingnan. In the fifth year of Xiande (958) he was appointed Hanlin Academician, put in charge of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, and given charge of the examinations; according to another account, he took charge of the Ministry of Rites examinations in the sixth year of Xiande (959) and was shortly afterwards appointed Hanlin Academician. He accumulated the prestige titles of Chaosan dafu, Zhong dafu, Tai zhong dafu, Tongyi dafu and Zhengyi dafu, rose from Pillar of State to Supreme Pillar of State, and was enfeoffed as a founding baron.

At the beginning of the Song he was transferred to the post of vice minister of rites, concurrently placed in charge of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and of the examinations; many of the sacrificial hymns and temple posthumous names were drafted by him, and his erudition was acknowledged by his contemporaries. When Emperor Taizu campaigned against Ze and Lu, he did not accompany the army on account of illness and died. Accounts of his death differ: one gives the second year of Jianlong (961) or a little later, at the age of forty-two; another gives the second year of Kaibao (969), and questions whether the age of forty-two should not be fifty-two. He died at Junyi and was buried in Henan.

Scholarship and works

Dou Yan was of a calm and generous disposition, fond of good men and given to good deeds, and skilled in astronomical calculation. While in charge of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices he was ordered to correct the court music, checking the numbers of bells, chime stones, pipes and flutes, distinguishing the degrees of clear and muddy pitch, and reviving the method of rotating the pitch standards to serve as the tonic. He wrote the Yixun in ten juan and the Zhou zhengyue in one hundred and twenty juan, and also a collected works in seventy juan, which is no longer extant; a poem written before he entered Song service is preserved in the Yudi jisheng, juan 64 and 5, and was included in the Quan Tang shi xushi. He also took part in compiling the Veritable Records of the Three Courts of the Later Jin.

Family

His great-grandmother was of the Ping family and his grandmother of the Zong family; his mother was of the Cui family. He married successively daughters of Zhang Xu, Zhang Chusu and Bian Guizhang, the first two of whom, both surnamed Zhang, died in 947 and 959. He had a son, Dou Xin, and a daughter, who married He Xian; he adopted his nephew Dou Yue as his heir. His epitaph was composed by his younger brother Dou Xi and written out in calligraphy by his disciple Zhao Fu.