The “Black sheep” of the early Daoxue community: the making of Xing Shu's historical image

Abstract

Abstract By focusing on a controversial figure in Northern Song China (960–1127), namely Xing Shu 邢恕, this paper traces the historiographical construction of particular scholar-officials in Chinese historical accounts. Xing Shu, one of the best students of the Daoxue 道學 master Cheng Yi 程頤 (1033–1107), was depicted in most historical writings as a betrayer of his teacher and a political opportunist, including in his biography in the official Song dynastic history. This article demonstrates how the testimonies of Xing Shu's contemporaries offered rich materials for the construction of his treacherous character in later written records. Through a careful examination of these testimonies, the article reveals various historiographical operations through which contemporary testimonies were modified and transformed into seemingly reliable documents of historical figures and thus passed to later generations.