Ministers › Statesman / Official
Pan Zuyin
Suzhou-born minister and collector of bronzes, owner of the Da Yu and Da Ke tripods, who defended Zuo Zongtang in 1860 and briefly sat on the Grand Council
In the courtyard of a district government hall, a line of petitioners waits before a raised bench with a long table and document boxes; a blue umbrella stands beside it, a large drum stands at the gate where a few people wait, and a lake with sailboats lies beyond.
Also known as Zi Boyin · Shi Wenqin
- Roles
- Statesman / Official
Pan Zuyin, courtesy name Boyin, styled Zheng'an, came from Wu county in Suzhou and was a grandson of the grand secretary Pan Shi'en. He took third place in the palace examination of 1852 and served for many years in the Southern Study. In 1860, when Zuo Zongtang was impeached over a quarrel with the general Fan Xie, Pan defended him in a memorial declaring that the state could not do without Hunan for a day, nor Hunan without Zuo. He headed the Boards of Rites and of Works, joined the Grand Council in 1882 and left it the next year to mourn a parent. A passionate collector of ancient bronzes and inscriptions, he owned the Da Yu and Da Ke tripods, catalogued his bronzes and printed a series of rare texts. He died in 1890 while minister of works and was named Wenqin; his descendants gave the two great tripods to the state in 1951, and they are now in museums in Beijing and Shanghai.
Life and times
Dates 1830 CE–1890 CE