Hu Sanxing

Timeline

1. 1230–1256Ninghai, Taizhou · TaizhouHu Sanxing was born in Ninghai, Taizhou, courtesy name Shenzhi, one account says he also used Jingshen. He passed the jinshi examination in Bao-you 4, entering the late Southern Song officialdom. In youth he had already read Sima Guang's Zizhi Tongjian closely, laying the textual foundation for his later commentary.
2. 1257–1276Lin'an · Lin'anAfter passing the examination Hu Sanxing held local and central posts in the late Southern Song without high rank. During the Deyou era the Song house collapsed; he did not serve the new dynasty, carrying his Tongjian manuscript to refuge in his home region, turning the unfinished commentary of his official years into a loyalist undertaking.
3. 1276–1285Ninghai · TaizhouAfter entering the Yuan Hu Sanxing lived in retirement without office, elucidating the Zizhi Tongjian through phonetic glosses, geography, official systems and textual variants. In Zhiyuan 22 he completed the Phonetic Commentary on the Zizhi Tongjian with a preface, explaining that the manuscript had nearly been lost in the upheavals but was finally written out. This commentary became the standard companion text for reading the Tongjian in later ages.
4. 1286–1302Ninghai · TaizhouAfter completing the phonetic commentary Hu Sanxing remained in his home region as a loyalist scholar, holding no Yuan office. He died in Dade 6. His commentary was thereafter printed together with Sima Guang's text, becoming the basic reading for Tongjian studies in the Yuan, Ming and Qing.