趙孟頫の活動とその背景

Abstract

In recent years, most studies of Zhao Mengfu, as with studies of other members of the intelligentsia during the Yuan dynasty, have been made from the standpoint of research into Chinese fine art or literary history. In this paper, I examine aspects of his activities and personal background based on an investigation of the Songxuezhai Wenji 松雪齋文集, as well as on investigation of inscriptions for which the sentences had been drafted or letters had been written by Zhao. Based on research into the birthplaces, the official posts and the social positions of persons whose names appear in the Songxuezhai Wenji, it becomes clear that Zhao Mengfu had formed close personal relationships not only with members of Nanren 南人, but also with members of Hanren 漢人 and with members of other racial or regional groups. The preferential treatment given to him by the Yuan government in the early days of his bureaucratic career depended not so much on his reputation as one of the most skillful literati and artists of the era, but rather on his lofty lineage as a descendant of the Song dynasty's imperial family. As a result of this, even when he was appointed as a local official and had to leave the capital, his new post was a relatively significant one-vice commander of Ji'nanlu 濟南路同知. Thereafter, Zhao took a position as a bureaucrat in the Academy of Scholar-Worthies 集賢院, and he was later promoted to the position of the office of the supervisor of the Confucian school 儒學提擧司. As a bureaucrat of the latter, he played a prominent role in various kinds of cultural activities, as well as being active in school education and book publication. Zhao's ultimate promotion to such high official rank owed much to the imperial favor granted him by Renzong 仁宗.