Northern Song official who led the Qingli reforms and guarded the frontier against the Western Xia. His essay 岳阳楼记 sets out the ideal of worrying before the world worries: 先天下之忧而忧.
Xiān tiānxià zhī yōu ér yōu, hòu tiānxià zhī lè ér lè, zhè shì Fàn Zhòngyān de míngjù.
'Worry before the world worries, rejoice after the world rejoices' - this is Fan Zhongyan's famous line.
Tips
history
His father died when he was one and his mother remarried, so he grew up as 朱说 (说 read yuè, 'joy') and took back the surname 范 only as a young official. As a poor student he cut one pot of porridge into four meals a day.
culture
He wrote the essay in 1046 in 邓州, far from the tower, at the request of his friend 滕子京, who had rebuilt it; whether he ever saw it is still argued. Its full line gave the idiom 先忧后乐, 'worry first, enjoy last'.
