On Fan Zhongyan's Friends In His Later Years

In the social atmosphere where the Song Dynasty attaches importance to socializing with friends,the friends chosen by scholars can be regarded as the reflection and expression of their spiritual content.Fan Zhongyan wrote Yueyang Pavilion in his later years,which reflected his pessimism and optimism view.This pessimism and optimism view is the most valuable virtue of Fan Zhongyan and the most accurate spiritual expression of the Song Dynasty scholars.This article intends to understand his social principles and psychological thinking in his later years by analyzing Fan Zhongyan's friends and related literary works.Fan Zhongyan had three types of friends in his later years.The first type includes his predecessors and famous ministers.The second type includes those who were admitted in the imperial examination in the same year and colleagues from government work.The last type is the younger generation and his followers.By analyzing Fan Zhongyan's literary works and his friends' before 1045 and after 1045,we can know that Fan Zhongyan's friends in his later years were mostly friends he had known for a long time with strong friendships.From 1045 to 1052,Fan Zhongyan is in the last stage of his life.After he was dismissed from the assistant administrator position,he worked as a leader in Dengzhou,Hangzhou,and Qingzhou.In this stage,Fan Zhongyan no longer considered promotion.Therefore,he did not consider whether his friend can help him to promote.He only cared if the friend had the same ambitions and values as him.So,the characteristics of these friends can be seen as Fan Zhongyan's more realistic expressions.He valued the talents of his friends.This reflected his cherishing of talents and his political consciousness of selecting talents for the country.He treated his friends very sincerely,which shows that he is a grateful person and attaches great importance to friendship.At the same time,he would not infuse personal feelings when dealing with official duties.He made friends with those with different political views.This shows that Fan Zhongyan is fair,kind,and loyal to the emperor.Letters,poems and epitaphs written to friends all reflect Fan Zhongyan's thoughts in mind in his later years.His thoughts are mainly reflected in three aspects:firstly,to concern before anyone else and enjoy himself only after everyone else finds happiness.Secondly,he was not thrown into ecstasies over his personal success,nordid he feel depressed about his failures.Third,he reduce his anxieties and stress by travelling and engaging in social gatherings with friends.Through research,we can have a clearer understanding of Fan Zhongyan's social life in his later years.At the same time,we can better understand Fan Zhongyan's outlook on life and personal values.