Ding Du

Also known as Zi Gongya · Posthumous name Wenjian

Ding Du, styled Gongya, came from a family originally of Qinghe in Enzhou and was a native of Kaifeng in the Northern Song, born in 990 and died in 1053. During the Dazhong Xiangfu years he passed the Fuqin Cixue examination, served as judicial reviewer of the Court of Judicial Review, assistant prefect of Tongzhou and member of the Jixian Academy, and later became Hanlin academician in charge of drafting edicts. In 1046 he was made vice commissioner of military affairs, then deputy chief minister; after a quarrel with the commissioner Xia Song he was dismissed from that post and became grand academician of the Guanwen Hall. By imperial order he led scholars in compiling the forty-chapter Wujing Zongyao, and he also compiled the Libu Yunlue and the Jiyun and wrote the Er Ying Shenglan and the Guijian Jingyi. He died in 1053 and was posthumously granted the office of minister of personnel and the posthumous name Wenjian.