A massive collection of official correspondence (mostly “answers” 批, either to missives [稟] from subordinates or directly to litigants or petitioners) covering the period 1901-10, when the author was Shaanxi surveillance commissioner and acting (later incumbent) administration commissioner, and from 1908 Jiangning administration commissioner (the documents from this last period are in j. 20). There is no mulu. Published through the efforts of a certain magistrate Li Ruzhen 李茹真 (a native of Fan’s county), the collection is highly illustrative of the myriad problems an official in Fan’s position had to address, not infrequently returning petitioners to their local authorities. Fan notes in his preface that the problems in Jiangsu at the height of the New Policies (新政) made him several times more busy than he was in Shaanxi. He also claims that his pieces published in the Shaanxi official record (官報) were highly valued by his teacher, Zhang Zhidong 張之洞. One sees in j. 6 that the Shaanxi guanbao, first published in 1896-98, was revived by Fan in 1903; its office was attached to a training center for officials (課吏館) established at the same date, and it was intended to publicize the reformist effort both within and outside the province.