Fuzi 傅子

Fuzi 傅子 "Master Fu" is a Confucian treatise written during the Western Jin period 西晉 (265-316) by Fu Xuan 傅玄 (217-278, during the Qing period 清 called Fu Yuan 傅元, in order to avoid the personal name of the Kangxi Emperor 康熙帝, Xuanye 玄燁), courtesy name Xiuyi 休奕. Fu's original oeuvre comprised 120 juan, of which little is left. The Fuzi is only 1-juan long, including 23 chapters, of which 12 are preserved in total, and the others are only in fragments. Apart from the book Fuzi, Fu Xuan wrote many rhapsodies, poems, essays, odes, inscriptions which were assembled in the collection Fu Xuan ji 傅玄集, which in turn only survived in a fragmentary form, namely the collection Fu Haogu ji 傅鶉觚集, compiled by Zhang Pu 張溥 (1602-1641), which is found in the collection Han-Wei-Liuchao sanbai jia ji 漢魏六朝百三家集.

The Fuzi stresses the moral values of Confucianism, as broad-mindedness, not being selfish, to restrain oneself in one's desires, to rectify the heart, and to exert - as a ruler - a benevolent government. Fu Xuan also stresses that a ruler has to govern with both rewards and punishment and to apply both correctly, which is a legalist influence in his thinking. Sparingness and austerity in his thinking go back to the influence of Daoism.

For the series Siku quanshu 四庫全書, a manuscript version of the Fuzi was used and printed by the printing shop of the Hall of Military Glory (Wuyingdian 武英殿) in the Imperial Palace. The Qing-period scholar Yan Kejun 嚴可均 (1762—1843) included the surviving fragments of Fu Xuan in the Quan Jin wen 全晉文. Ye Dehui 葉德輝 (1864-1927) revised this version and amended the errors. It was included in the series Baizi quanshu 白子全書 and printed in 1912. In was again published as part of the series Congshu jicheng 叢書集成.