In the last twenty years of his life, the Northern Song (960-1127) scholar-official Han Qi (1008-1075) served three times in his native place of Xiangzhou (Anyang, Henan). Among his most prominent activities during these sojourns were the construction and representation of the prefectural government complex. Han’s preoccupation with this project can be seen from his voluminous work, which include ji accounts, poems, and letters. Drawing on Han’s writing and that of his contemporaries, this paper begins with an introduction of Han’s various undertakings and their designated, official functions. The second part of the study examines the way the office space and government buildings were represented in the larger context of literati culture and emerging naming practices. The last part of the paper focuses on the highly visible usage of the complex as a place of leisure and entertainment. Overall, this case study aims to achieve three goals: (1) to establish Han Qi as a leading cultural figure of the eleventh century, as opposed to his “traditional” image as a statesman and military strategist; (2) to highlight the centrality of the prefectural and county office compounds in the lives of Song literati; and (3) to demonstrate a flourishing culture of building, naming, and representing both official/public and unofficial/private spaces in the Northern Song.
