When Literati Beg: Informal, Voluntary, and Collective Support in Song and Yuan Presentation Prefaces

Describing the desperate situation of the poet Zhang Cheng 張澄 (b. 1196), Yuan Haowen 元好問 (1190–1257) listed Zhang’s needs, which included assistance from an “interested person” together with more ordinary resources like salary and land. The implication is that informal, voluntary material aid was a normal part of literati life. But who would play the role of “interested person” and how would one get him interested in providing help when it was needed? On a small scale, informal assistance in the form of individual mutual aid regularly existed within circles of relatives and associates. Giving was based on personal relationships, with the backing of the cultural concepts or moral principles that were associated with those relationships. However, in