Les « Hommes singuliers » (duxing) dans le Livre des Han postérieurs (Hou Hanshu, 5e s. apr. J.-C.)

Abstract

Abstract Fan Ye’s Hou Hanshu (“The Book of Later Han”, 5th AD) devotes a (collective) biographical chapter to the duxing, i.e. “[men of] singular conduct” (ch. 81, “Duxing liezhuan”), namely twenty-four men singled out for their infallible loyalty, strong sense of friendship or filial piety. This paper attempts to grasp the nature of these moral figures, notably in relation to other biographic categories like hermits and knight-errants, with whom the duxing share a number of traits: to some extent, the duxing can be understood as tamed variations of such political outsiders; notably, several duxing refused employment out of loyalty for the Han regime, in ways reminiscent of hermits or recluses declining to accept office out of moral reasons. The duxing chapter is also potentially informative of the moral values of lower social strata such as the regional nobility or even local servants, in supposed contrast with the higher, “Confucian” values of the court and the central administration. A conclusion is that the duxing represent a transition category between (late) Han dynasty values and medieval categories. The duxing chapter is also instructive in historiographical terms, because the nature of the materials collected gives clues to the methods of the historian.