Life of an Exile: Sun Di's (1081-1169) Letters Pertaining to His Banishment to Xiangzhou.

• Author: Chu, Ming-Kin

What kind of impact did social networks of Song literati have on their lives in exile? This paper focuses on Sun Di [phrase omitted] (1081-1169), a prominent literary figure in the Northern to Southern Song transition, and studies his epistolary writings in connection with his banishment to Xiangzhou [phrase omitted] in the years 1133 and 1134. Through an in-depth analysis of the contents of his letters, the paper shows how Sun Di established ties with officials in different localities and how he responded to the humiliation of banishment. I argue that Sun Di's reputation as a literary stylist among his contemporaries helped him to develop a good rapport with local officials, particularly in the Guangnan West circuit, which was essential to creating a relatively comfortable exile journey and a pleasant life during his confinement. This study highlights the value of letters as historical sources pertaining to Song political and literati culture and sheds light on literati responses to life's many challenges.

The practice of establishing social networks among literati of the Song dynasty (960-1279) can be traced to the dynasty's founding, as noted by Fan Zhi [phrase omitted] (911-964), a one-time chief councilor, "the whole world seems to value socializing with friends" [phrase omitted] Throughout the different stages in the lives of Song literati, their social networks might well extend from relatives and friends at home to schoolmates and examination cohorts (tongnian [phrase omitted] from civil service colleagues to literati from other locales. (2) Such networks often helped to advance one's career, or at least secure a stable tenure of office, at the personal level. More broadly, they contributed to the formation of a "shih-oriented culture" among

Song literati, while facilitating a collective response to changing circumstances in the arenas for politics, society, or culture. (3) This study focuses on a life-threatening experience of certain literati, namely, banishment to the Lingnan region, (4) and how literati reacted by buttressing their social networks by identifying with Sun Di's banishment to Xiangzhou in the early 1130s. In this way, the paper aims to shed light on the patterns of behavior among literati in exile.

The invasions of the Jurchen, founders of the Jin dynasty (1115-1234), in the 1120s and 1130s served to aggravate factional disputes among courtiers of the day. (5) Countless officials were purged or banished. What sorts of circumstances did banished officials encounter and how did they respond? How did exiled officials relate to local officials in prefectures and counties they passed by on their exile journey and in their new homes? To what extent did social networks moderate the lives of men-in-exile? Previous studies of literary works of Song literati in exile, most famously those of Su Shi [phrase omitted] (1037-1101), tend to highlight their subject's mentality--attitudes toward service and retirement or views on their own predicament. (6) In addition to the mindset of men in exile, their experience about different geographical areas and cultures throughout the exile journey, their activities en route, together with their responses to changing political and social circumstances have also been articulated in recent scholarship about Song literati's travel. (7) Drawing insights from Hirata Shigeki's recent work exploring Wei Liaoweng's [phrase omitted] (1178-1237) social networks and his interactions with contemporary Song literati during his exile in Jingzhou [phrase omitted] (8) this study examines how the social networks of literati in exile evolved over time, with a particular focus on Sun Di [phrase omitted] (1081-1169), a prominent literary figure in the Northern to Southern Song transition and a man banished to Xiangzhou [phrase omitted] (in modern Guangxi province) sometime between 1132 and 1135. Based on a careful reading of Sun's epistolary writings, a literary genre that has attracted more scholarly attention in recent years, (9) this paper reconstructs his social networks during his period of exile and discusses how he exploited such networks to moderate his sufferings in exile.

Unlike medieval Europe's tradition of preserving letters in manuscript form, most of the letters written by literati in Song China were preserved in the collected works of the authors or as anthologies compiled by them, their students, or descendants. It is therefore not surprising that the writers themselves or the anthology compilers would have purged letters to men who later suffered infamy or persons with whom the subject experienced personal frictions. They might also have modified or even purged any letters containing problematic materials from the compiler's perspective. Hence the social networks that we reconstruct based on these sources do not provide a full picture. The case of Sun Di's correspondence with Zou Tao v (1085-1153) is highly illustrative for a correspondence's prospects for survival. Sun recalled in the epitaph composed for Zou that he had written to Zou repeatedly over twenty years, correspondence that filled several hundred sheets. (10) Yet only thirteen sheets exist today, so the vast majority of Sun's correspondence was not preserved. " Due to the scarcity of sources, even less may be known about the response of the intended letter recipients. In addition to the unilateral nature of surviving letters, letter writers in the Song often

[phrase omitted], Songdai liiyou yanjiu [phrase omitted] (Baoding: Hebei daxue chubanshe, 2007); Wu Yating [phrase omitted] "Bu'an de xiehou: Songren yu liisu changsuo de hudong yu qi kongjian yinxiang" [phrase omitted] [phrase omitted] Xin shixue 2010.4: 141-202; eadem, "Jingkang qianhou richang zhixu de biandiao: Li Gang de xingji yu shijiao" [phrase omitted] Taida lishixuebao 59 (2017): 1-48; and eadem, "San Su Nanxingji suojian Songdai shidafu de xinglii huodong yu liixing shuxie" [phrase omitted] [phrase omitted] Zhongshan daxue xuebao 2017.2: 89-99. did not explicitly name the recipients or provide temporal references, making it difficult for contemporary researchers to identify the intended recipients or date the letters. Despite such limitations, surviving letters of Song literati can still shed light on how writers related to their contemporaries in response to their own political or professional situation. A careful analysis of surviving letters hence helps reconstruct the social lives of the authors.

This paper seeks to show how Sun Di, who for his literary talent and ability "was viewed as a successor to Su Shih," (l2) established close ties with officials in various localities through which he passed and how such networks affected his life in exile. A close survey of Sun's letters not only sheds light on Sun Di's journey to his place of banishment, it also reveals how he spent time in exile in early Southern Song times, a time of political instability in the absence of a permanent base from which to resist the Jurchen. Moreover, it shows how Sun responded to his contemporaries' requests for his composition of commemorative writings. I would argue that Sun's reputation as a literary stylist was a cultural capital that he exploited to strengthen his network associations. I believe that Sun's good rapport with local officials, particularly in the Guangnan West circuit, proved essential to creating a relatively comfortable exile journey and a pleasant life during his confinement. This study also aims to underscore the value of letters as historical sources for the political, social, and cultural history of the Song dynasty.

PASSAGE TO X1ANGZHOU

Born in 1081, Sun Di was a native of Changzhou [phrase omitted] in modern Jiangsu province. After briefly studying at the Imperial University, he qualified for the advanced scholar degree in 1109 and entered the civil service. After serving in a number of lower positions in the central government, Sun was promoted to censor (yushi [phrase omitted]), followed by Secretariat drafter (zhongshu sheren [phrase omitted]) in early 1126. On the heels of Gaozong's (1107-1187, r. 1127-1162) accession, Sun was temporarily removed from office in 1127/6. Sun's career would peak with promotion to probationary vice-minister of personnel (shi libu shilang [phrase omitted] [phrase omitted]) in 1128/10. He then served twice as prefect of two strategically important cities, in Pingjiang [phrase omitted] in 1129/4 and subsequently in Lin'an [phrase omitted] in 1131/1. (13) It was during his tenure at Lin'an that Sun offended Chief Councilor Qin Gui [phrase omitted] (1090-1155) by sending him a congratulatory note that Qin perceived as satirical. (14) The chief councilor thus incited Li Guang [phrase omitted] (1078-1159), then a strong supporter, to malign Sun starting in 1132/1. Li accused Sun of misappropriating military supplies worth 40,000 strings of cash. Qin then turned this accusation over to the Court of Judicial Review (Dalisi [phrase omitted]), which was responsible for tracing the money. It was found that Sun had used some of the funds to purchase writing paper worth 1,800 strings of cash to bribe travelers, based on accounts of numerous witnesses. Initially, Sun was sentenced to death, a punishment that was later reduced to disenrollment (churning [phrase omitted] and house arrest (jiguan [phrase omitted] at Xiangzhou [phrase omitted] in modern Guangxi [phrase omitted]. in 1132/14. (15) Located in the south of the Southern Ranges (Nanling [phrase omitted], the remote Guangxi "was thought to be infested by miasmas and malaria, populated by spear wielding, tattooed, and aggressive 'barbarian' peoples, and home to dense forests infested with savage beasts, venomous snakes, and leeches detachable from the body only by fire." (16) Such unfamiliar climate and geography were challenges lying ahead of Sun Di and most scholar-officials in the Song period who were dispatched to Guangxi on official...