Gong Kui

Life

By the age of ten, he could compose prose, and he was known for his literary talent from youth. His father was Gong Shijun and his brother Gong Zhongjian; his sons included Gong Shitai and his eldest son, Gong Shiqian; Gong Shidao was a nephew and Gong Yingzhi a grandnephew.

He first served as head of Qishan Academy in Chizhou Circuit. After completing his term, during the reign of Chengzong, he was appointed Taichang fengli lang on a memorial from the Secretariat; he submitted memorials on ritual institutions, and the court adopted many of his proposals. He was then transferred to the Hanlin National History Academy as a compiler, promoted to yingfeng Hanlin wenzi, and concurrently served as a compiler of the national history.

In the first years of the Yan you era (1314), he became educational intendant for the various schools of Jiangxi. He was subsequently appointed a Hanlin daizhi; during the Taiding era, after completing mourning for his mother, he was appointed a zhixueshi of the Jixian Hall. At the beginning of the Zhizhi era, because his mother was nearly ninety, he requested leave and returned home. He improved his garden, planted flowers and trees, and built a pavilion called Airi; the brothers entertained their mother there, to the admiration of their fellow villagers.

At the beginning of the Tianli era, he was ordered to perform substitute sacrifices at Beiyue, the Ji River, and Nanzhen. In the following spring he returned from Kuaiji, went home to Nanhu because of illness, and recovered by autumn. On the first day of the tenth month, after rising early, he told his nephew Shiwen that he had dreamed of a poem containing the lines “Bamboo and trees rustle around the springs and rocks” and “When the ninefold elixir is complete, I shall grow wings,” and asked what omen they signified. He died peacefully immediately afterward, aged sixty-one. He was posthumously presented with the title Hanlin zhixueshi, enfeoffed as Marquis of Guangling Commandery, and given the posthumous name Wenjing.

Literature and ritual thought

His prose was expansive and vigorous, yet did not cling to narrow or commonplace modes. In the Dade era, as the court discussed the suburban-sacrifice rites, senior ministers, impressed by his clear and far-reaching judgment, brought him into the ritual administration, where he took part in many discussions. Late in life he gathered ritual texts, intending to formulate them into a system of his own, but did not complete the work.

While serving in the Hanlin, he exchanged literary compositions with Yuan Fuchu, Yuan Bolang, Deng Shanzhi, Ma Boyong, Wang Jixue, and Yu Bosheng, all renowned talents of their day. He also wrote a preface for Hu Zhu’s *Hu Guyu shiji*, exchanged poems with Hu Kuan, wrote postscripts to works of calligraphy and painting by Yu Ji and Li Kan, and composed a sacrificial text for Cheng Jufu; Ma Zuchang wrote his epitaph.

Works and posthumous transmission

His works included the *Yunlin ji*. His collected poetry and prose comprised the *Yunlin xiaogao*, *Tingxuezhai ji*, *Qingshan manyin*, *Juanyou ji*, *Yuzhang gao*, *Shangyuan xinlu*, and *Nanzhou jixing*—120 juan in all, kept in the imperial repository. During the Hongzhi era of the Ming, his great-grandson Yuanli, an official of the Ministry of Personnel, edited what survived as the *Yunlin shiji* and published it.