1
林鴻附:鄭定等王紱附:夏昶沈度弟:粲附:滕用亨等聶大年劉溥附:蘇平等張弼張泰 〈（陸釴陸容）〉 程敏政羅儲巏李夢陽附:康海王九思王維楨何景明徐禎卿 〈（楊循吉祝允明唐寅桑悅）〉 邊貢顧璘弟:瑮附:陳沂等鄭善夫附:殷雲霄方豪等陸深附:王圻王廷陳李濂
Lin Hong, with appended biographies of Zheng Ding and others; Wang Fu, with Xia Chang appended; Shen Du, with his younger brother Can and appended biographies of Teng Yongheng and others; Nie Danian; Liu Pu, with Su Ping and others appended; Zhang Bi; and Zhang Tai. (Lu Yin and Lu Rong)〉 Cheng Minzheng; Luo Qi; Chu Guan; Li Mengyang, with appended biographies of Kang Hai, Wang Jiusi, Wang Weizhen, He Jingming, and Xu Zhenqing. (Yang Xunji, Zhu Yunming, Tang Yin, and Sang Yue)〉 Bian Gong; Gu Lin, with his younger brother Lin and appended biographies of Chen Yi and others; Zheng Shanfu, with Yin Yunxiao, Fang Hao, and others appended; Lu Shen, with Wang Qi, Wang Tingchen, and Li Lian appended.
2
林鴻附鄭定等
Appended biographies: Zheng Ding and others.
3
林鴻，字子羽，福清人。 洪武初，以人才薦，授將樂縣訓導，歷禮部精膳司員外郎。 性脫落，不善仕，年未四十自免歸。 閩中善詩者，稱十才子，鴻為之冠。 十才子者，閩鄭定，侯官王褒、唐泰，長樂高棅、王恭、陳亮，永福王偁及鴻弟子周玄、黃玄，時人目為二玄者也。
Lin Hong, whose style name was Ziyu, came from Fuqing. Early in the Hongwu era he was recommended for his ability, appointed county instructor in Jianglo, and eventually rose to vice director in the Ministry of Rites' Bureau of Refined Provisions. Free-spirited by nature and no good at official life, he resigned and went home before he was forty. The finest poets in Fujian were known as the Ten Talents, with Hong foremost among them. The Ten Talents comprised Zheng Ding of Fujian; Wang Bao and Tang Tai of Houguan; Gao Bing, Wang Gong, and Chen Liang of Changle; Wang Cheng of Yongfu; and Hong's pupils Zhou Xuan and Huang Xuan, whom their contemporaries called the Two Xuans.
4
鴻論詩，大指謂漢、魏骨氣雖雄，而菁華不足。 晉祖玄虛，宋尚條暢，齊、梁以下但務春華，少秋實。 惟唐作者可謂大成。 然貞觀尚習故陋，神龍漸變常調，開元、天寶間聲律大備，學者當以是為楷式。 閩人言詩者率本於鴻。
In his critical writings on poetry, Hong argued broadly that Han and Wei poetry, for all its vigor, lacked sufficient polish. Jin looked back to the abstruse style; Song favored smooth exposition; from Qi and Liang on, poets cared only for ornamental bloom and seldom for substantial harvest. Only Tang poets, in his view, achieved true mastery. Yet even Zhenguan poetry still bore old roughness; the Shenlong period slowly shifted the conventional style; and between Kaiyuan and Tianbao regulated verse reached its full development—students, he held, should take that as their standard. Fujian poets who theorized about verse generally traced their views back to Hong.
5
晉府引禮舍人浦源，字長源，無錫人也。 慕鴻名，逾嶺訪之。 造其門，二玄請誦所作，曰：「吾家詩也。」 鴻延之入社。
Pu Yuan, a ceremonial attendant in the Jin princely establishment whose style name was Changyuan, came from Wuxi. Drawn by Hong's fame, he crossed the mountains into Fujian to seek him out. At Hong's door the Two Xuans asked him to recite his work and declared, "This is poetry in our master's line." Hong then admitted him to their poetry circle.
6
鄭定，字孟宣，嘗為陳友定記室。 友定敗，浮海亡交、廣間。 久之，還居長樂。 洪武中，征授延平府訓導，歷國子助教。
Zheng Ding, whose style name was Mengxuan, had once been secretary to Chen Youding. After Youding's defeat he put to sea and wandered between Jiaozhi and Guangdong. After many years he returned to settle in Changle. In the Hongwu period he was called to office as prefectural instructor in Yanping and later served as assistant instructor at the National University.
7
王褒，字中美，鴻之兄子婿也。 為長沙學官，遷永豐知縣。 永樂中，召入，預修《大典》，擢漢府紀善。
Wang Bao, whose style name was Zhongmei, had married the daughter of Hong's elder brother. He served as a school official in Changsha and was later promoted to magistrate of Yongfeng. In the Yongle era he was summoned to court, helped compile the 《Yongle Encyclopedia》, and was appointed recorder of the Han princely establishment.
8
唐泰，字亨仲。 洪武二十七年進士。 歷陝西副使。
Tang Tai's style name was Hengzhong. He passed the civil examinations in the twenty-seventh year of Hongwu. He later served as vice commissioner in Shaanxi.
9
高棅，字彥恢，更名廷禮，別號漫士。 永樂初，以布衣召入翰林，為待詔，遷典籍。 性善飲，工書畫，尤專於詩。 其所選《唐詩品匯》、《唐詩正聲》，終明之世，館閣宗之。
Gao Bing, whose style name was Yanhui, later adopted the name Tingli and styled himself the Recluse of Idleness. Early in Yongle he was summoned to the Hanlin as a commoner, appointed awaiting-edict compiler, and later promoted to archivist. He loved wine, excelled at calligraphy and painting, and devoted himself above all to poetry. His anthologies 《Graded Treasury of Tang Poetry》 and 《Correct Sounds of Tang Poetry》 were revered in court literary circles throughout the Ming.
10
王恭，字安中，隱居七岩山，自稱皆山樵者。 永樂初，以儒士薦起待詔翰林，年六十余，與修《大典》。 書成，授翰林院典籍。
Wang Gong, whose style name was Anzhong, lived in seclusion on Qiyan Mountain and styled himself the Woodcutter of Jieshan. Early in Yongle he was recommended as a scholar and appointed Hanlin awaiting-edict compiler; already past sixty, he helped compile the 《Yongle Encyclopedia》. When the compilation was finished he was made Hanlin archivist.
11
陳亮，字景明。 自以故元儒生，明興累詔不出，作《陳摶傳》以見志。 結草屋滄洲中，與三山耆彥為九老會，終其身不仕。
Chen Liang's style name was Jingming. As a scholar of the former Yuan, he declined repeated summons after the Ming founding and wrote the 《Biography of Chen Tuan》 to declare his resolve to remain in reclusion. He built a thatched hut on the Cangzhou islet, joined the region's elder worthies in a Society of Nine Elders, and never held office for the rest of his life.
12
王偁，字孟易攵。 父翰仕元，抗節死，偁方九歲，父友吳海撫教之。 洪武中，領鄉薦，入國學，陳情養母。 母歿，廬墓六年。 永樂初，用薦授翰林檢討，與修《大典》。 學博才雄，最為解縉所重。 自負無輩行，獨推讓同官王洪。
Wang Cheng, whose style name was Mengyang. His father Han had served the Yuan and died refusing submission; Cheng was only nine, and his father's friend Wu Hai brought him up and educated him. In the Hongwu period he received provincial recommendation, entered the National University, and petitioned to return home and care for his mother. After his mother's death he mourned at her grave for six years. Early in Yongle, on recommendation he was appointed Hanlin reviser and helped compile the 《Yongle Encyclopedia》. Learned and formidably gifted, he won the highest esteem of Xie Jin. Though he considered himself without equal, he alone deferred to his colleague Wang Hong.
13
王洪者，字希范，錢塘人。 八歲能文，十八成進士，授吏科給事中。 改翰林檢討，偕偁等與修《大典》。 歷修撰、侍講。 帝頒佛曲於塞外，命洪為文，逡巡不應詔。 為同列所排，不復進用，卒官。 而偁後坐累謫交址，復以縉事連及，系死獄中。
Wang Hong, whose style name was Xifan, came from Qiantang. He could compose essays at eight; at eighteen he passed the examinations and was appointed supervising secretary in the Ministry of Personnel. He was transferred to Hanlin reviser and, with Cheng and others, helped compile the 《Yongle Encyclopedia》. He rose through the posts of compiler and lecturer. When the emperor sent Buddhist hymns to the frontier and ordered Hong to write an accompanying text, Hong hesitated and did not obey. His colleagues turned against him, he was never promoted again, and he died in office. Cheng was later implicated in a case, banished to Jiaozhi, and then caught up again in Xie Jin's downfall; he was imprisoned and died in jail.
14
黃玄，字玄之，將樂人。 聞鴻棄官歸，遂攜妻子居閩縣，以歲貢官泉州訓導。
Huang Xuan, whose style name was Xuanzhi, came from Jiangle. When he heard that Hong had left office and gone home, he moved his family to Min County and, as a tribute student, became county instructor in Quanzhou.
15
周玄，字微之，閩縣人。 永樂中，以文學征，授禮部員外郎。 嘗挾書千卷止高棅家，讀十年，辭去，盡棄其書，曰：「在吾腹笥矣。」 同時趙迪、林敏、陳仲宏、鄭關、林伯璟、張友謙亦以能詩名，皆鴻之弟子。
Zhou Xuan, whose style name was Weizhi, came from Min County. In the Yongle period he was summoned for his literary gifts and appointed vice director in the Ministry of Rites. He once brought a thousand books to Gao Bing's house, read there for ten years, and on leaving discarded them all, saying, "They are stored in the satchel of my belly." At the same time Zhao Di, Lin Min, Chen Zhonghong, Zheng Guan, Lin Bojing, and Zhang Youqian were also renowned as poets; all were Hong's pupils.
16
王紱附夏昶
Appended biography: Xia Chang.
17
王紱，字孟端，無錫人。 博學，工歌詩，能書，寫山木竹石，妙絕一時。 洪武中，坐累戍朔州。 永樂初，用薦，以善書供事文淵閣。 久之，除中書舍人。
Wang Fu, whose style name was Mengduan, came from Wuxi. Broadly learned, he excelled at lyric poetry and calligraphy, and his paintings of mountains, trees, bamboo, and rock were unrivaled in his day. In the Hongwu period he was implicated in a case and sent to garrison duty at Shuozhou. Early in Yongle, on recommendation, he served in the Wenyuan Pavilion on account of his calligraphy. After some time he was appointed secretarial draftsman in the Secretariat.
18
紱未仕時，與吳人韓奕為友，隱居九龍山，遂自號九龍山人。 於書法，動以古人自期。 畫不苟作，遊覽之頃，酒酣握筆，長廊素壁淋漓沾灑。 有投金幣購片楮者，輒拂袖起，或閉門不納，雖豪貴人勿顧也。 有諫之者，紱曰：「丈夫宜審所處，輕者如此，重者將何以哉！」 在京師，月下聞吹簫聲，乘興寫《石竹圖》，明旦訪其人贈之，則估客也。 客以紅氍毹饋，請再寫一枝為配。 紱索前畫裂之，還其饋。 一日退朝，黔國公沐晟從後呼其字，紱不應。 同列語之曰：「此黔國公也。」 紱曰：「我非不聞之，是必與我索畫耳。」 晟走及之，果以畫請，紱頷之而已。 逾數年，晟復以書來，紱始為作畫。 既而曰：「我畫直遺黔公不可。 黔公客平仲微者，我友也，以友故與之，俟黔公與求則可耳。」 其高介絕俗如此。
Before entering office Fu befriended the Suzhou scholar Han Yi; they lived in seclusion on Jiulong Mountain, and Fu styled himself the Recluse of Jiulong Mountain. In calligraphy he constantly held himself to the standard of the ancients. He never painted casually; on outings, once wine had loosened his hand, he would cover long corridors and blank walls in bold, soaking strokes. Anyone who offered gold for a single sheet would find him brush his sleeve and leave, or shut the door; he paid no attention even to the wealthy and powerful. When someone urged him to relent, Fu said, "A man must know his place; if I am careless in small matters, what will I do when great ones arise!" In the capital he heard a flute under the moon, painted the 《Stone Bamboo》 on impulse, and the next morning sought out the player to give him the picture—it was a merchant. The merchant offered a red felt rug and asked him to paint a matching spray. Fu demanded the earlier painting back, tore it up, and returned the gift. One day after court, Prince Mu Cheng of Qian called his style name from behind, and Fu did not respond. A colleague told him, "That was the Prince of Qian." Fu said, "I heard him well enough—he surely means to ask me for a painting." Cheng caught up with him and, as expected, asked for a painting; Fu merely nodded. Years later Cheng wrote again, and only then did Fu paint for him. Then he said, "I cannot simply give this painting directly to the Prince of Qian. The prince's guest Ping Zhongwei is my friend; I give it to him as a friend, and when the prince himself asks for it, that will be enough." Such was his lofty, uncompromising character.
19
昆山夏昶者，亦善畫竹石，亞於紱。 畫竹一枝，直白金一錠，然人多以饋遺得之。 昶，字仲昭，永樂十三年進士，改庶吉士，歷官太常寺卿。 昶與上元張益，同中進士，同以文名，同善畫竹。 其後，昶見益《石渠閣賦》，自謂不如，遂不復作賦。 益見昶所畫竹石，亦遂不復畫竹。 益死土木之難。
Xia Chang of Kunshan also excelled at bamboo and rock painting, though a step below Fu. A single spray of bamboo fetched a full ingot of silver, yet most people obtained his work as gifts rather than payment. Chang, whose style name was Zhongzhao, passed the examinations in the thirteenth year of Yongle, entered the Hanlin as a bachelor, and eventually became director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. Chang and Zhang Yi of Shangyuan passed the examinations together, shared a literary reputation, and both excelled at bamboo painting. Later, when Chang read Yi's rhapsody 《Stone Channel Pavilion》, he judged himself inferior and never wrote rhapsodies again. When Yi saw Chang's bamboo and rock paintings, he too gave up painting bamboo. Yi died in the Tumu crisis.
20
仲微，名顯，錢塘人。 嘗知滕縣事，謫戍雲南。 其為詩頗豪放自喜，雲南詩人稱平、居、陳、郭，顯其一也。
Zhongwei, whose personal name was Xian, came from Qiantang. He had served as magistrate of Teng County and was later banished to garrison duty in Yunnan. His poetry was boldly self-assured; Yunnan poets spoke of the quartet Ping, Ju, Chen, and Guo, and Xian was one of them.
21
沈度弟粲附滕用亨等
Shen Du, with his younger brother Can and appended biographies of Teng Yongheng and others.
22
昆山夏昺者，字孟晹，與其弟昶以善書畫聞，同官中書舍人，時號大小中書，而度、粲號大小學士。
Xia Bing of Kunshan, whose style name was Mengyang, and his younger brother Chang were renowned for calligraphy and painting; both served as secretarial draftsmen and were nicknamed the Greater and Lesser Secretaries, while Du and Can were nicknamed the Greater and Lesser Academicians.
23
度性敦實，謙以下人，嚴取與。 有訓導介其友求書，請識姓字於上。 度沈思曰：「得非曩訐奏有司者耶？」 遽卻之。 其友固請，終不肯書姓名。 其在內廷備顧問，必以正對。 粲篤於事兄，己有賜，輒歸其兄。
Du was sincere and steady by nature, humble toward others, and strict about what he accepted or gave. A county instructor introduced a friend who asked for a piece of calligraphy and requested that his name be inscribed on it. Du thought a moment and said, "Is this not the man who once denounced me to the authorities?" He refused at once. His friend pressed him again and again, yet he still refused to inscribe his name. As a consultant in the inner court, he always answered forthrightly and without evasion. Can was devoted to his elder brother; whatever gifts he received, he at once turned over to him.
24
滕用亨，初名權，字用衡。 精篆隸書。 被薦時年七十矣，召見，大書麟鳳龜龍四字以進，又獻《貞符詩》三篇。 授翰林待詔，與修《永樂大典》。 用亨善鑒古，嘗侍帝觀畫卷，未竟，眾目為趙伯駒，用亨曰：「此王詵筆也。」 至卷尾，果然。
Teng Yongheng was originally named Quan and styled Yongheng. He was a master of seal and clerical script. By the time he was recommended he was seventy. Called to audience, he wrote the four characters unicorn, phoenix, tortoise, and dragon in large script as his tribute, and also presented three poems from his 《Odes of Auspicious Signs》. He was appointed Hanlin awaiting-edict compiler and helped compile the 《Yongle Encyclopedia》. Yongheng had a keen eye for antiquities. Once, while attending the emperor as he viewed a painting scroll still unrolled to its end, all eyes took it for Zhao Boju's work. Yongheng said, "This is Wang Shen's brush." At the end of the scroll, he was proved right.
25
陳登，字思孝。 初仕羅田縣丞，改蘭溪，再改浮梁。 選入翰林，仍給縣丞祿，歷十年始授中書舍人。 登於六書本原，博考詳究，用力甚勤。 自周、秦以來，殘碑斷碣，必窮搜摩搨審度而辨定之。 得其傳者，太常卿南城程南雲也。
Chen Deng, styled Sixiao. He began as assistant magistrate of Luotian, then served in Lanxi and afterward in Fuliang. Chosen for the Hanlin, he continued to draw an assistant magistrate's salary for ten years before he was finally made a Secretariat drafter. In the origins of the Six Scripts, Deng read widely, examined closely, and labored with exceptional diligence. From Zhou and Qin times onward, he tracked down every broken stele and truncated tablet he could find, made rubbings, weighed the evidence, and settled their readings. His tradition passed to Cheng Nanyun of Nancheng, minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices.
26
聶大年
Nie Danian
27
聶大年，字壽卿，臨川人。 父同文，洪武中，官翰林侍書、中書舍人。 燕王入京師，迎謁，道曷死，死後五月而大年生，母胡撫之。 比長，博學，善詩古文。 葉盛稱其詩，謂三十年來絕唱也。 書得歐陽率更法。 宣德末，薦授仁和訓導。 母卒，歸葬，哀感行路。 裡人列其母子賢行上之有司，詔旌其門。 服闋，分教常州，遷仁和教諭。 景泰六年薦入翰林，未幾得疾卒。
Nie Danian, styled Shouqing, came from Linchuan. His father Tongwen served in the Hongwu era as Hanlin attendant scribe and Secretariat drafter. When the Prince of Yan entered the capital, Tongwen went out to greet him but died on the road. Danian was born five months later, and his mother Hu brought him up. Once grown, he was widely read and gifted in classical poetry and prose. Ye Sheng hailed his poetry as unmatched for thirty years. In calligraphy he mastered the style of Ouyang Xun. Late in Xuande, on recommendation he was appointed county instructor of Renhe. When his mother died, he went home to bury her, and his mourning moved all who passed by. Neighbors reported the mother and son's virtuous conduct to the authorities, and the court issued an edict honoring their household. After mourning, he was posted to teach at Changzhou and later promoted to county instructor of Renhe. In the sixth year of Jingtai he was recommended into the Hanlin, but soon afterward fell ill and died.
28
始，尚書王直以詩寄錢塘戴文進索畫，自序昔與文進交，嘗戲作詩一聯，至是十年始成之。 大年題其後曰：「公愛文進之畫，十年不忘。 使以是心待天下賢者，天下寧復有遣賢哉。」 直聞其言，不怒亦不薦。 及大年疾篤，作詩貽直，有「鏡中白髮孰憐我，湖上青山欲待誰」句，直曰，「此欲吾志其墓耳」，遂為之志。
Once, Minister Wang Zhi sent a poem to Dai Wenjin of Qiantang requesting a painting. In a preface he explained that he and Wenjin had long been friends, that they had once playfully drafted a couplet, and that only now, ten years later, had he finished the poem. Danian added an inscription at the end: "Your Excellency loves Wenjin's painting and has not forgotten it in ten years. If you treated every worthy man in the realm with such constancy, would any talent still be left neglected?" Zhi heard this, but neither took offense nor recommended him. When Danian's illness turned grave, he sent Zhi a poem with the lines, "Who in the mirror pities my white hair? On the lake, the green hills seem to wait for whom?" Zhi said, "He wants me to write his epitaph," and did so.
29
劉溥附蘇平等
Liu Pu, with Su Ping and others appended.
30
劉溥，字原博，長洲人。 祖彥，父士賓，皆以醫得官。 溥八歲賦《溝水詩》，時目為聖童。 長侍祖父游兩京，研究經史兼通天文、曆數。 宣德時，以文學征。 有言溥善醫者，授惠民局副使，調太醫院吏目。 恥以醫自名，日吟詠為事。 其詩初學西昆，後更奇縱，與湯胤勣、蘇平、蘇正、沈愚、王淮、晏鐸、鄒亮、蔣忠、王貞慶號「景泰十才子」，溥為主盟。
Liu Pu, styled Yuanbo, came from Changzhou. His grandfather Yan and his father Shibin both won office through medicine. At eight Pu wrote the 《Ditch Water Poem》, and people already hailed him as a prodigy. As a youth he accompanied his grandfather between the two capitals, studying the classics and histories while also mastering astronomy and calendrical science. In the Xuande era he was summoned for his literary attainments. When word reached the court that Pu was also skilled in medicine, he was made vice commissioner of the Bureau of Public Welfare Medicine and later transferred to clerk of the Imperial Medical Academy. Ashamed to be known as a physician, he devoted himself to poetry. His poetry began in the Western Kun manner and later turned bolder and more unrestrained. With Tang Yinji, Su Ping, Su Zheng, Shen Yu, Wang Huai, Yan Duo, Zou Liang, Jiang Zhong, and Wang Zhenqing he was known as one of the "Ten Talents of the Jingtai Era," and Pu was their acknowledged leader.
31
胤勣，東甌王和曾孫，自有傳。 蘇平，字秉衡，弟正，字秉貞，海寧人。 兄弟並以布衣終。 沈愚，字通理，昆山人，業醫終其身。 王淮，字柏源，慈溪人。 晏鐸，字振之，富順人。 由庶吉士授御史，歷按兩畿、山東，所至有聲。 坐言事謫上高典史，鄰境寇發，官兵不能討，鐸捕滅之，歸所掠於民。 鄒亮，字克明，長洲人。 用況鐘薦，擢吏部司務，遷御史。 蔣忠，字主忠，儀真人，徙居句容。 王貞慶，字善甫，駙馬都尉寧子也。 折節好士，有詩名，時稱金粟公子。
Yinji was the great-grandson of Prince He of Dong'ou and has his own biography. Su Ping, styled Bingheng, and his younger brother Zheng, styled Bingzhen, came from Haining. Both brothers lived out their lives as commoners. Shen Yu, styled Tongli, came from Kunshan and practiced medicine to the end of his days. Wang Huai, styled Baiyuan, came from Cixi. Yan Duo, styled Zhenzhi, came from Fushun. After serving as a probationary Hanlin compiler, he was appointed censor and toured the two capital regions and Shandong as inspecting commissioner, winning a reputation wherever he went. Demoted to county clerk of Shanggao for a memorial on public affairs, he later crushed bandits in a neighboring district when regular troops could not, and restored the loot to the people. Zou Liang, styled Keming, came from Changzhou. Recommended by Kuang Zhong, he was promoted to clerk in the Ministry of Personnel and later made censor. Jiang Zhong, styled Zhuzhong, was from Yizhen and later moved to Jurong. Wang Zhenqing, styled Shanfu, was the son of the Prince Consort of Ning. He humbled himself to befriend scholars, won renown as a poet, and was known in his day as the Young Master of Golden Millet.
32
張弼，字汝弼，松江華亭人。 成化二年進士。 授兵部主事，進員外郎。 遷南安知府，地當兩廣沖，奸人聚山谷為惡，悉捕滅之。 毀淫祠百數十區，建為社學。 謝病歸，士民為立祠。 弼自幼穎拔，善詩文，工草書，怪偉跌宕，震撼一世。 自號東海。 張東海之名，流播外裔。 為詩，信手縱筆，多不屬稿，即有所屬，以書故，輒為人持去。 與李東陽、謝鐸善。 嘗自言：「吾平生，書不如詩，詩不如文。」 東陽戲之曰：「英雄欺人每如此，不足信也。」 鐸稱其好學不倦，詩文成一家言。 子弘至，自有傳。
Zhang Bi, styled Rubi, came from Huating in Songjiang. He passed the palace examination in the second year of Chenghua. He was appointed secretary in the Ministry of War and later promoted to vice director. As prefect of Nan'an, a frontier post between the two Guang regions, he rooted out bandits who had gathered in the hills and ravines. He tore down more than a hundred illicit shrines and converted the sites into community schools. He retired citing illness, and local officials and people erected a shrine in his honor. Bi was precocious, gifted in poetry and prose, and a master of cursive script—bold, strange, and sweeping enough to startle his generation. He took the sobriquet Donghai, the Eastern Sea. The name Zhang Donghai spread even beyond the borders. He wrote poetry freely, seldom bothering with drafts; when he did, admirers of his calligraphy usually carried the pages off. He was close to Li Dongyang and Xie Duo. He once said of himself, "In my life, my calligraphy falls short of my poetry, and my poetry falls short of my prose." Dongyang teased him, "Heroes always talk like this—it is not to be believed." Xie Duo praised his tireless love of learning and said his poetry and prose formed a school of his own. His son Hongzhi has his own biography.
33
張泰 〈（陸釴陸容）〉
Zhang Tai (Lu Yin and Lu Rong)〉
34
張泰，字亨父，太倉人。 陸釴，字鼎儀，昆山人。 陸容，字文量，亦太倉人。 三人少齊名，號「婁東三鳳」。 泰舉天順八年進士，選庶吉士，授檢討，遷修撰。 為人恬淡自守，詩名亞李東陽。 弘治間，藝苑皆稱李懷麓、張滄洲，東陽有《懷麓堂集》，泰有《滄洲集》也。 釴與泰同年進士，殿試第二。 授編修，歷修撰、諭德。 孝宗立，以東宮講讀勞，進太常少卿兼侍讀，得疾歸。 泰、釴皆早卒。 容，成化中進士。 授南京主事，進兵部職方郎中。 西番進獅子，奏請大臣往迎，容諫止之。 遷浙江參政，罷歸。
Zhang Tai, styled Hengfu, came from Taicang. Lu Yin, styled Dingyi, came from Kunshan. Lu Rong, styled Wenliang, was also from Taicang. The three were equally famous from youth and were known as the "Three Phoenixes of Loudong." Tai passed the palace examination in the eighth year of Tianshun, entered the Hanlin as a probationer, and rose from reviser to compiler. Quiet and self-contained by nature, he stood second only to Li Dongyang in poetic reputation. In the Hongzhi era literary circles spoke of Li Huailu and Zhang Cangzhou—Dongyang with his 《Collection from the Hall of Reverence for the Foothills》 and Tai with his 《Collection from Cangzhou》. Yin and Tai passed the palace examination in the same year, with Yin ranking second. He was appointed compiler and later served as compiler and preceptor. When Emperor Xiaozong came to the throne, he was promoted to vice minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and concurrent palace reader for his service lecturing in the Eastern Palace, but soon fell ill and retired. Both Tai and Yin died young. Rong passed the palace examination in the Chenghua era. He was appointed secretary in Nanjing and later promoted to director in the Ministry of War's Bureau of Appointments. When Western tribes presented a lion, the court proposed sending a high minister to receive it, but Rong remonstrated and had the plan stopped. He was made vice commissioner of Zhejiang, then dismissed and sent home.
35
程敏政
Cheng Minzheng
36
程敏政，字克勤，休寧人，南京兵部尚書信子也。 十歲侍父官四川，巡撫羅綺以神童薦。 英宗召試，悅之，詔讀書翰林院，給廩饌。 學士李賢、彭時咸愛重之，賢以女妻焉。 成化二年進士及第，授編修，歷左諭德，直講東宮。 翰林中，學問該博稱敏政，文章古雅稱李東陽，性行真純稱陳音，各為一時冠。 孝宗嗣位，以宮僚恩擢少詹事兼侍講學士，直經筵。
Cheng Minzheng, styled Keqin, came from Xiuning and was the son of Xin, minister of war at Nanjing. At ten he accompanied his father to his post in Sichuan, and Grand Coordinator Luo Qi recommended him as a prodigy. Emperor Yingzong tested him, was delighted, and ordered him to study in the Hanlin Academy with a stipend. Academicians Li Xian and Peng Shi both cherished him, and Xian gave him his daughter in marriage. He placed first in the palace examination in the second year of Chenghua, was appointed compiler, rose to left preceptor, and lectured in the Eastern Palace. In the Hanlin, Minzheng was hailed for breadth of learning, Li Dongyang for classical prose, and Chen Yin for purity of character—each the leading figure of his day. When Emperor Xiaozong succeeded, he was promoted to junior grand secretary and concurrent expositor-in-waiting for his service in the Eastern Palace, and lectured at the Classics Colloquium.
37
敏政名臣子，才高負文學，常俯視儕偶，頗為人所疾。 弘治元年冬，御史王嵩等以雨災劾敏政，因勒致仕。 五年起官，尋改太常卿兼侍讀學士，掌院事。 進禮部右侍郎，專典內閣誥敕。 十二年與李東陽主會試，舉人徐經、唐寅預作文，與試題合。 給事中華昶劾敏政鬻題，時榜未發，詔敏政毋閱卷，其所錄者令東陽會同考官覆校。 二人卷皆不在所取中，東陽以聞，言者猶不已。 敏政、昶、經、寅俱下獄，坐經嘗贄見敏政，寅嘗從敏政乞文，黜為吏，敏政勒致仕，而昶以言事不實調南太僕主簿。 敏政出獄憤恚，發癰卒。 後贈禮部尚書。 或言敏政之獄，傅瀚欲奪其位，令昶奏之。 事秘，莫能明也。
As the son of a distinguished minister, Minzheng was gifted and proud of his literary attainments, often looked down on his peers, and drew considerable resentment. In the winter of the first year of Hongzhi, Censor Wang Song and others impeached Minzheng over rain disasters, and he was forced to retire. In the fifth year he was recalled, and soon made minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and concurrent reader-in-waiting, with charge of the academy. He was promoted to vice minister of rites on the right and put in charge of drafting edicts and commissions for the inner cabinet. In the twelfth year he and Li Dongyang presided over the metropolitan examination, and the candidates Xu Jing and Tang Yin were found to have prepared essays in advance that matched the examination topics. Supervising Secretary Hua Chang impeached Cheng Minzheng for selling examination topics. The results list had not yet been released, and an edict barred Minzheng from grading papers and ordered Li Dongyang and the examiners to re-check every candidate he had passed. Neither man's paper was among those selected. Li Dongyang reported this to the throne, but the accusers still would not let the matter rest. Minzheng, Chang, Jing, and Yin were all imprisoned. Jing was punished because he had once presented a gift when calling on Minzheng, and Yin because he had once asked Minzheng for compositions; both were demoted to clerks. Minzheng was forced to retire, while Chang, for lodging accusations not borne out by the facts, was transferred to chief secretary of the Southern Court of Imperial Stud. After leaving prison Minzheng was consumed by anger and resentment; an abscess broke out and he died. He was later posthumously granted the title of minister of rites. Some said that in Minzheng's case Fu Han had wanted to seize his post and had Hua Chang lodge the accusation. The affair was kept secret, and no one could establish the truth.
38
羅，字景鳴，南城人。 博學，好古文，務為奇奧。 年四十困諸生，輸粟入國學。 丘浚為祭酒，議南人不得留北監。 固請不已，浚罵之曰：「若識幾字，倔強乃爾！」 仰對曰：「惟中秘書未讀耳。」 浚姑留之，他日試以文，乃大驚異。 成化末，領京闈鄉試第一。 明年舉進士，選庶吉士，授編修。 益肆力古文，每有作，或據高樹，或閉坐一室，瞑目隱度，形容灰槁。 自此文益奇，亦厚自負。
Luo Qi, styled Jingming, came from Nancheng. Broadly learned, he loved ancient prose and strove to make his writing strange and abstruse. At forty he was still only a licentiate and paid grain to gain entry to the Imperial Academy. When Qiu Jun was chancellor, he proposed that southerners should not be allowed to remain at the northern Imperial Academy. Qi kept pressing his plea without letup. Qiu Jun berated him, saying, "You know only a handful of characters—how can you be so stubborn!" Qi looked up and replied, "It is only the books of the Central Secretariat that I have not yet read." Qiu Jun kept him for the time being, and when he later tested him with a composition was greatly astonished. At the end of the Chenghua era he placed first in the Beijing provincial examination. The next year he passed the palace examination, was selected as a Hanlin bachelor, and was appointed compiler. He devoted himself ever more fiercely to ancient prose. Whenever he set about composing, he would sometimes perch in a tall tree or shut himself alone in a room, close his eyes and inwardly measure his words, his face and form withered as ashes. From then on his prose grew ever stranger, and Qi became deeply proud of himself.
39
尤尚節義。 台諫救劉遜盡下獄，言當優容以全國體。 中官李廣死，遺一籍，具識大臣賄交者。 帝怒，命言官指名劾奏。 上言曰：「大臣表正百僚，今若此，固宜置重典。 然天下及四裔皆仰望之，一旦指名暴其惡，啟遠人慢朝廷心。 言官未見籍記，憑臆而論，安辨玉石？ 一經攻摘，且玷終身。 臣請降敕密諭，使引疾退，或斥以他事，庶不為朝廷羞，而仕路亦清。」 李夢陽下獄，言：「壽寧侯托肺腑，當有以保全之。 夢陽不保，為侯累。」 帝深納焉。 秩滿，進侍讀。
He especially valued integrity and righteousness. When the censors and remonstrators who had rescued Liu Xun were all thrown into prison, Qi argued that they should be treated leniently to preserve the dignity of the state. When the eunuch Li Guang died, he left behind a register fully recording which grand ministers had exchanged bribes with him. The emperor was enraged and ordered the remonstrating officials to impeach them by name. Qi memorialized, saying, "Grand ministers set the standard for all officials. If matters stand as they do now, it is indeed fitting to impose heavy punishment. Yet all under Heaven and the four quarters look up to them; to expose their wickedness by name all at once would awaken in distant peoples a mind to slight the court. The remonstrators have not seen the register; to argue from speculation—how can they distinguish jade from stone? Once attacked and exposed, their reputations would be stained for life. Your servant asks that secret edicts be issued instructing them to plead illness and withdraw, or remove them on other grounds, so that the court may not be shamed and the path of office may also be cleared." When Li Mengyang was imprisoned, Qi said, "The Marquis of Shouning is the emperor's own kin; he ought to have some means of preserving Mengyang. If Mengyang is not preserved, it will implicate the marquis." The emperor deeply accepted this. When his term expired he was promoted to palace reader.
40
正德初，遷南京太常少卿。 劉瑾亂政，李東陽依違其間。 ，東陽所舉士也，貽書責以大義，且請削門生之籍。 尋進本寺卿，擢南京吏部右侍郎。 遇事嚴謹，僚屬畏憚。 畿輔盜縱橫，而皇儲未建，疏論激切，且侵執政者。 七年冬，考績赴都，遂引疾致仕歸。 寧王宸濠慕其名，遣使饋，避之深山。 及叛，已病，馳書守臣約討賊，事未舉而卒。 嘉靖初，賜諡文肅，學者稱圭峰先生。
At the beginning of the Zhengde era he was transferred to vice minister of the Southern Court of Imperial Sacrifices. Liu Jin threw government into disorder, and Li Dongyang wavered between alternatives. Qi, whom Li Dongyang had recommended, sent a letter rebuking him on the great principle at stake and asking to be struck from the roll of his disciples. Soon he was promoted to minister of that court and elevated to vice minister of the right in the Southern Ministry of Personnel. In handling affairs he was strict and careful, and his colleagues feared him. Bandits ran rampant in the capital region, yet no heir had been established. Qi memorialized in heated language and even attacked those in power. In the winter of the seventh year he came to the capital for performance review, then pleaded illness, retired, and returned home. The Prince of Ning, Zhu Chenhao, admired his reputation and sent envoys with gifts; Qi avoided them by hiding deep in the mountains. When the prince rebelled, Qi was already ill; he sent an urgent letter to the defending officials arranging to strike the rebels, but died before the plan could be carried out. At the beginning of the Jiajing era he was granted the posthumous title Wensu, and scholars call him Master Guifeng.
41
儲巏，字靜夫，泰州人。 九歲能屬文。 母疾，刲股療之，卒不起。 家貧，力營墓域。 旦哭冢，夜讀書不輟。 成化十九年鄉試，明年會試，皆第一。 授南京考功主事。 孝宗嗣位，疏薦前直諫貶謫者，主事張吉、王純，中書舍人丁璣，進士李文祥，吉等皆錄用。 久之，進郎中。 吏部尚書耿裕知其賢，調北部，考注臧否，一齣至公。 嘗核實一官，裕欲改其評，巏正色曰：「公所執，何異王介甫！」 群僚咸在側，裕大慚，徐曰：「郎中言是，然非我莫能容也。」 擢太僕少卿，請命史官記注言動，如古左右史，時不能用。 進本寺卿。 武宗立，塞上有警，條御邊五事，又陳馬政病民者四事，多議行。 正德二年改左僉都御史，總督南京糧儲。 召為戶部右侍郎，尋轉左，督倉場，所至宿弊盡釐。 劉瑾用事，數陵侮大臣，獨敬巏，稱為先生。 巏憤其所為，五年春，引疾求去。 詔許乘傳，有司俟疾痊以聞。 其秋，瑾敗，以故官召，辭不赴。 後起南京戶部左侍郎，就改吏部，卒官。
Chu Guan, styled Jingfu, came from Taizhou. At nine he could compose prose. When his mother fell ill he cut flesh from his thigh to treat her, but she still did not recover. The family was poor, yet he strained himself to prepare the burial ground. By day he wept at the tomb; by night he read without cease. In the nineteenth year of Chenghua he took the provincial examination, and the next year the metropolitan examination; in both he placed first. He was appointed chief secretary in the Bureau of Evaluation at Nanjing. When Emperor Xiaozong succeeded, he memorialized recommending those who had remonstrated frankly and been demoted or exiled: chief secretaries Zhang Ji and Wang Chun, drafter Ding Ji, and presented scholar Li Wenxiang. Ji and the others were all appointed. After a long time he was promoted to director. Minister of Personnel Geng Yu knew his worth and transferred him to the northern directorate. In evaluating merit and demerit he was utterly impartial. Once when verifying the record of an official, Yu wanted to change Guan's assessment. Guan said sternly, "What you hold to—how is it different from Wang Jiepu!" All the colleagues were present at his side. Yu was deeply ashamed and said slowly, "The director speaks rightly—yet no one but I could tolerate him." He was promoted to vice minister of the Court of Imperial Stud and requested that historiographers be ordered to record words and deeds, as in the ancient Left and Right Historiographers—but the proposal could not be adopted at the time. He was promoted to minister of that court. When Emperor Wuzong came to the throne, there was alarm on the northern frontier. He set forth five measures for defending the border and also submitted four points on how horse policy harmed the people; most were discussed and enacted. In the second year of Zhengde he was made left censor-in-chief and put in overall charge of grain stores at Nanjing. He was summoned to be vice minister of the right in the Ministry of Revenue, soon transferred to the left, and directed the granaries; wherever he went, long-standing abuses were entirely swept clean. When Liu Jin held power he repeatedly insulted grand ministers, yet he alone respected Guan and called him Master. Guan was outraged at Jin's conduct; in the spring of the fifth year he pleaded illness and asked to leave office. An edict permitted him to travel by post relay; the responsible offices were to wait until his illness had healed and then report. That autumn, when Jin fell, he was summoned to his former office but declined to go. Later he was raised again as vice minister of the left in the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue, was then immediately transferred to the Ministry of Personnel, and died in office.
42
巏體貌清羸，若不勝衣； 淳行清修，介然自守。 工詩文。 好推引知名士，辟遠非類，不惡而嚴。 進士顧璘嘗謁尚書邵寶，寶語曰：「子立身，當以柴墟為法。」 柴墟者，巏別號也。 嘉靖初，賜諡文懿。
Guan's build was slight and thin, as if his clothes were too heavy for him; In conduct he was pure and self-cultivating, upright and self-restrained. He was skilled in poetry and prose. He liked to recommend and advance famous scholars, kept his distance from unworthy sorts, and was not harsh yet severe. The presented scholar Gu Lin once called on Minister Shao Bao. Bao told him, "In establishing yourself, you should take Chai Xu as your model." Chai Xu was Guan's sobriquet. At the beginning of the Jiajing era he was granted the posthumous title Wenyi.
43
李夢陽附康海王九思王維楨
Li Mengyang with appended biographies: Kang Hai, Wang Jiusi, Wang Weizhen
44
李夢陽，字獻吉，慶陽人。 父正，官周王府教授，徙居開封。 母夢日墮懷而生，故名夢陽。 弘治六年舉陝西鄉試第一，明年成進士，授戶部主事。 遷郎中，榷關，格勢要，構下獄，得釋。
Li Mengyang, styled Xianji, came from Qingyang. His father Zheng served as instructor to the Prince of Zhou's household and moved the family to Kaifeng. His mother dreamed that the sun fell into her bosom when she bore him, hence the name Mengyang. In the sixth year of Hongzhi he placed first in the Shaanxi provincial examination; the next year he passed the palace examination and was appointed secretary in the Ministry of Revenue. He was transferred to director, served at the transit tax office, blocked powerful figures, was framed and imprisoned, and was released.
45
十八年，應詔上書，陳二病、三害、六漸，凡五千余言，極論得失。 末言：「壽寧侯張鶴齡招納無賴，罔利賊民，勢如翼虎。」 鶴齡奏辨，摘疏中「陛下厚張氏」語，誣夢陽訕母后為張氏，罪當斬。 時皇后有寵，後母金夫人泣訴帝，帝不得已系夢陽錦衣獄。 尋宥出，奪俸。 金夫人訴不已，帝弗聽，召鶴齡閒處，切責之，鶴齡免冠叩頭乃已。 左右知帝護夢陽，請毋重罪，而予杖以泄金夫人憤。 帝又弗許，謂尚書劉大夏曰：「若輩欲以杖斃夢陽耳，吾寧殺直臣快左右心乎！」 他日，夢陽途遇壽寧侯，詈之，擊以馬箠，墮二齒，壽寧侯不敢校也。
In the eighteenth year, responding to an imperial summons he submitted a memorial setting forth two maladies, three harms, and six gradual evils—more than five thousand words in all—arguing the rights and wrongs to the utmost. At the end he wrote, "The Marquis of Shouning, Zhang Heling, gathers worthless men, pursues profit and wrongs the people, and his power is like a tiger with wings." Heling memorialized in his defense, seized on the phrase in the memorial "Your Majesty favors the Zhang clan," and falsely charged that Mengyang had slandered the empress dowager as belonging to the Zhang clan—a crime meriting decapitation. At the time the empress enjoyed favor, and her mother Lady Jin wept and appealed to the emperor. The emperor had no choice but to imprison Mengyang in the Brocade-Clad Guard prison. Soon he was pardoned and released, but his salary was stripped. Lady Jin kept appealing without stop. The emperor would not listen, summoned Heling to a private setting, and sharply rebuked him; Heling removed his cap and kowtowed to the ground before the matter ended. Those around the emperor knew he meant to protect Mengyang and asked that he not be heavily punished but instead be given the bastinado to vent Lady Jin's anger. The emperor again refused and said to Minister Liu Daxia, "You people mean to beat Mengyang to death with the rod. Would I rather kill an upright minister to satisfy those around me!" Another day Mengyang met the Marquis of Shouning on the road, cursed him, and struck him with a riding crop, knocking out two teeth; the marquis did not dare retaliate.
46
孝宗崩，武宗立，劉瑾等八虎用事，尚書韓文與其僚語及而泣。 夢陽進曰：「公大臣，何泣也？」 文曰：「奈何？」 曰：「比言官劾群奄，閣臣持其章甚力，公誠率諸大臣伏闕爭，閣臣必應之，去若輩易耳。」 文曰：「善」，屬夢陽屬草。 會語泄，文等皆逐去。 瑾深憾之，矯旨謫山西布政司經歷，勒致仕。 既而瑾復摭他事下夢陽獄，將殺之，康海為說瑾，乃免。 瑾誅，起故官，遷江西提學副使。 令甲，副使屬總督，夢陽與相抗，總督陳金惡之。 監司五日會揖巡按御史，夢陽又不往揖，且敕諸生毋謁上官，即謁，長揖毋跪。 御史江萬實亦惡夢陽。 淮王府校與諸生爭，夢陽笞校。 王怒，奏之，下御史按治。 夢陽恐萬實右王，訐萬實。 詔下總督金行勘，金檄布政使鄭岳勘之。 夢陽偽撰萬實劾金疏以激怒金，並構岳子涷通賄事。 寧王宸濠者浮慕夢陽，嘗請撰《陽春書院記》，又惡岳，乃助夢陽劾岳。 萬實復奏夢陽短，及偽為奏章事。 參政吳廷舉亦與夢陽有隙，上疏論其侵官，不俟命徑去。 詔遣大理卿燕忠往鞫，召夢陽，羈廣信獄。 諸生萬余為訟冤，不聽。 劾夢陽陵轢同列，挾制上官，遂以冠帶閒住去。 亦褫岳職，謫戍澐，奪廷舉俸。
When Emperor Xiaozong died and Emperor Wuzong came to the throne, Liu Jin and the other Eight Tigers held power. Minister Han Wen spoke of it with his colleagues and wept. Mengyang stepped forward and said, "You are a grand minister—why weep?" Wen said, "What can be done?" He said, "Just now the remonstrators impeached the eunuch clique, and the grand secretaries pressed their memorials hard. If you truly lead the grand ministers to prostrate yourselves at the palace gate in protest, the grand secretaries will surely respond—getting rid of people like them would be easy." Wen said, "Good," and charged Mengyang to draft the memorial. As it happened the plan leaked, and Wen and the others were all driven out. Jin deeply resented this, forged an edict banishing him to be administrator of the Shanxi provincial administration commission, and compelled him to retire. Soon afterward Jin again seized on other matters and had Mengyang thrown into prison, intending to kill him; Kang Hai pleaded with Jin on his behalf, and he was spared. After Jin was executed he was raised to his former office and transferred to vice commissioner for education in Jiangxi. By regulation a vice commissioner was subordinate to the grand coordinator; Mengyang resisted this, and Grand Coordinator Chen Jin hated him. Every five days the surveillance commissioners were to gather and bow to the touring censor; Mengyang again would not go to bow. He also instructed the students not to call on superiors; if they did call, they were to make a long bow and not kneel. Censor Jiang Wanshi also hated Mengyang. Retainers of the Prince of Huai's household quarreled with students, and Mengyang had the retainers beaten with the bamboo. The prince was enraged, memorialized about it, and the censor was sent down to investigate and punish. Mengyang feared Wanshi would favor the prince and impeached Wanshi. An edict ordered Grand Coordinator Jin to investigate the matter; Jin in turn dispatched Provincial Administration Commissioner Zheng Yue to conduct the inquiry. Mengyang forged a memorial in Wanshi's name impeaching Jin in order to enrage him, and also fabricated charges that Yue's son Dong had accepted bribes. The Prince of Ning, Chen Hao, professed admiration for Mengyang and once asked him to write 《Record of the Yangchun Academy》; he also hated Yue and therefore helped Mengyang impeach him. Wanshi memorialized again, citing Mengyang's faults and the matter of the forged memorial. Administrative Vice Commissioner Wu Tingju also had a grievance against Mengyang; he memorialized that Mengyang had overstepped his authority and left his post without awaiting orders. An edict sent Minister of Justice Yan Zhong to conduct the inquest, summoned Mengyang, and held him in Guangxin prison. More than ten thousand students petitioned on his behalf, but the court refused to hear them. Mengyang was impeached for riding roughshod over colleagues and coercing his superiors, and was dismissed to live at home while retaining honorary rank. Yue was also stripped of office and banished to military service at Yun, and Tingju's salary was confiscated.
47
夢陽既家居，益跅弛負氣，治園池，招賓客，日縱俠少射獵繁台、晉丘間，自號空同子，名震海內。 宸濠反誅，御史周宣劾夢陽黨逆，被逮。 大學士楊廷和、尚書林俊力救之，坐前作《書院記》，削籍。 頃之卒。 子枝，進士。
Once Mengyang was living at home, he grew even more unrestrained and proud; he laid out gardens and ponds, entertained guests, and every day led gallant youths in hunting between Fantai and Jinqiu. He styled himself Master Kongtong, and his fame resounded throughout the realm. After Chen Hao's rebellion was crushed and he was executed, Censor Zhou Xuan impeached Mengyang as a rebel sympathizer, and he was arrested. Grand Secretaries Yang Tinghe and Minister Lin Jun pleaded vigorously for him, but for having earlier written 《Record of the Academy》, he was struck from the rolls. Before long he died. His son Zhi became a jinshi.
48
夢陽才思雄鷙，卓然以復古自命。 弘治時，宰相李東陽主文柄，天下翕然宗之，夢陽獨譏其萎弱。 倡言文必秦、漢，詩必盛唐，非是者弗道。 與何景明、徐禎卿、邊貢、朱應登、顧璘、陳沂、鄭善夫、康海、王九思等號十才子，又與景明、禎卿、貢、海、九思、王廷相號七才子，皆卑視一世，而夢陽尤甚。 吳人黃省曾、越人周祚，千里致書，願為弟子。 迨嘉靖朝，李攀龍、王世貞出，復奉以為宗。 天下推李、何、王、李為四大家，無不爭效其體。 華州王維楨以為七言律自杜甫以後，善用頓挫倒插之法，惟夢陽一人。 而後有譏夢陽詩文者，則謂其模擬剽竊，得史遷、少陵之似，而失其真雲。
Mengyang's literary talent was bold and fierce; he conspicuously styled himself a restorer of antiquity. During the Hongzhi reign, Chancellor Li Dongyang held sway over literature and the realm looked to him as its model; Mengyang alone mocked his feebleness. He proclaimed that prose must follow Qin and Han and poetry the High Tang; anything else he would not discuss. With He Jingming, Xu Zhenqing, Bian Gong, Zhu Yingdeng, Gu Lin, Chen Yi, Zheng Shanfu, Kang Hai, Wang Jiusi, and others he was known as one of the Ten Talents; with Jingming, Zhenqing, Gong, Hai, Jiusi, and Wang Tingxiang he was also called one of the Seven Talents. They all looked down on their age, but Mengyang most of all. Huang Shengzeng of Wu and Zhou Zuo of Yue sent letters from a thousand li away, asking to become his disciples. By the Jiajing reign, when Li Panlong and Wang Shizhen came to prominence, they again revered him as their master. The realm acclaimed Li, He, Wang, and Li as the Four Great Masters, and all strove to imitate their style. Wang Weizhen of Huazhou held that since Du Fu, only Mengyang had mastered abrupt turns and inverted insertions in seven-character regulated verse. Yet later critics of Mengyang's poetry and prose said he merely imitated and plagiarized: he achieved the likeness of Sima Qian and Du Fu but lost their essence, or so they said.
49
康海，字德涵，武功人。 弘治十五年殿試第一，授修撰。 與夢陽輩相倡和，訾議諸先達，忌者頗眾。 正德初，劉瑾亂政。 以海同鄉，慕其才，欲招致之，海不肯往。 會夢陽下獄，書片紙招海曰：「對山救我。」 對山者，海別號也。 海乃謁瑾，瑾大喜，為倒屣迎。 海因設詭辭說之，瑾意解，明日釋夢陽。 逾年，瑾敗，海坐黨，落職。
Kang Hai, styled Dehan, was a native of Wugong. In the fifteenth year of Hongzhi he ranked first in the palace examination and was appointed Compiler. He exchanged poems with Mengyang and his circle, criticized the senior masters, and made many enemies. At the beginning of the Zhengde reign, Liu Jin threw the government into disorder. Because Hai was a fellow townsman, Jin admired his talent and wished to win him over, but Hai refused to go. When Mengyang was thrown into prison, he wrote on a slip of paper summoning Hai, saying, "Duishan, save me." Duishan was Hai's alternate style name. Hai then called on Jin; Jin was overjoyed and went out with slippers reversed to welcome him. Hai thereupon used devious words to persuade him; Jin's mind was eased, and the next day Mengyang was released. A year later Jin fell; Hai was punished as a partisan and lost his office.
50
王九思，字敬夫，鄠人。 弘治九年進士。 由庶吉士授檢討。 尋調吏部，至郎中，亦以瑾黨謫壽州同知。 復被論，勒致仕。
Wang Jiusi, styled Jingfu, was a native of Hu. He became a jinshi in the ninth year of Hongzhi. From Hanlin bachelor he was appointed Reviser. Soon he was transferred to the Ministry of Personnel, rose to bureau director, and was also demoted to assistant prefect of Shouzhou as a member of Jin's faction. He was impeached again and compelled to retire.
51
海、九思同里、同官，同以瑾黨廢。 每相聚沜東鄠、杜間，挾聲伎酣飲，制樂造歌曲，自比俳優，以寄其怫郁。 九思嘗費重貲購樂工學琵琶。 海搊彈尤善。 後人傳相仿效，大雅之道微矣。
Hai and Jiusi were from the same place and held the same offices; both were dismissed as members of Jin's faction. They often gathered between the Fen River east of Hu and Du, brought singing girls and drank freely, composed music and wrote songs, likened themselves to comic performers, and so gave vent to their resentment. Jiusi once spent a large sum to buy a musician and learn the pipa. Hai was especially skilled at strumming and playing. Later generations spread the tale and imitated them, and the way of high refinement declined.
52
王維楨，字允寧。 嘉靖十四年進士。 擢庶吉士，累官南京國子祭酒。 家居，地大震，壓死。 維楨頎而晰，自負經世才，職文墨，不得少效於世，使酒謾罵，人多畏而遠之。 於文好司馬遷，於詩好杜甫，而其意以夢陽兼此二人。 終身所服膺效法者，夢陽也。
Wang Weizhen, styled Yunning. He became a jinshi in the fourteenth year of Jiajing. He was selected as Hanlin bachelor and by successive promotions became chancellor of the National University at Nanjing. While living at home, a great earthquake occurred and he was crushed to death. Weizhen was tall and fair-skinned; he fancied himself talented for statecraft but served in literary posts and could achieve little in the world. He drank and reviled others freely, and most people feared him and kept their distance. In prose he favored Sima Qian and in poetry Du Fu, but in his mind Mengyang combined both. The man he revered and emulated all his life was Mengyang.
53
何景明
He Jingming
54
何景明，字仲默，信陽人。 八歲能詩古文。 弘治十一年舉於鄉，年方十五，宗籓貴人爭遺人負視，所至聚觀若堵。 十五年第進士，授中書舍人。 與李夢陽輩倡詩古文，夢陽最雄駿，景明稍後出，相與頡頏。 正德改元，劉瑾竊柄。 上書吏部尚書許進勸其秉政毋撓，語極激烈。 已，遂謝病歸。 逾年，瑾盡免諸在告者官，景明坐罷。 瑾誅，用李東陽薦，起故秩，直內閣制敕房。 李夢陽下獄，眾莫敢為直，景明上書吏部尚書楊一清救之。 九年，乾清宮災，疏言義子不當畜，邊軍不當留，番僧不當寵，宦官不當任。 留中。 久之，進吏部員外郎，直制敕如故。 錢寧欲交歡，以古畫索題，景明曰：「此名筆，毋污人手。」 留經年，終擲還之。 尋擢陝西提學副使。 廖鵬弟太監鑾鎮關中，橫甚，諸參隨遇三司不下馬，景明執撻之。 其教諸生，專以經術世務。 遴秀者於正學書院，親為說經，不用諸家訓詁，士始知有經學。 嘉靖初，引疾歸，未幾卒，年三十有九。
He Jingming, styled Zhongmo, was a native of Xinyang. At eight he could compose poetry and ancient-style prose. In the eleventh year of Hongzhi he passed the provincial examination at only fifteen. Princes and nobles of the imperial clans vied to send men to carry him in palanquins to see him, and wherever he went crowds gathered as thick as a wall. In the fifteenth year he ranked as jinshi and was appointed Secretary in the Grand Secretariat. He promoted ancient-style poetry and prose with Li Mengyang and his circle. Mengyang was the boldest and most forceful; Jingming came slightly later, and the two matched each other in rivalry. When the Zhengde reign began, Liu Jin usurped power. He wrote to Minister of Personnel Xu Jin urging him to hold firm in government and not yield; his language was extremely fierce. Presently he resigned on grounds of illness and returned home. A year later Jin dismissed all who were on sick leave from office; Jingming was consequently removed. After Jin was executed, on Li Dongyang's recommendation he was restored to his former rank and served in the Grand Secretariat's Edict Drafting Office. When Li Mengyang was thrown into prison, none dared speak for him; Jingming wrote to Minister of Personnel Yang Yiqing to save him. In the ninth year, when the Qianqing Palace burned, he memorialized that honorary sons should not be kept, frontier troops should not be retained, Tibetan monks should not be favored, and eunuchs should not be entrusted with office. The memorial was kept at court without action. After a long while he was promoted to vice director in the Ministry of Personnel, continuing his service in the Edict Drafting Office as before. Qian Ning wished to befriend him and asked him to inscribe an ancient painting; Jingming said, "This is the brushwork of a master—do not let it be soiled by human hands." He kept it for nearly a year and finally threw it back at him. Soon he was promoted to vice commissioner for education in Shaanxi. Liao Bin's younger brother, the eunuch Luan, garrisoned Guanzhong and was extremely overbearing; when visiting commissioners of the three offices encountered him they did not dismount, but Jingming seized a whip and beat him. In instructing students he focused on classical learning and practical affairs of the age. He selected outstanding students at the Academy of Correct Learning and personally expounded the classics without relying on the exegetical glosses of various schools; scholars then first came to know what classical learning was. At the beginning of Jiajing he cited illness and returned home; before long he died, aged thirty-nine.
55
景明志操耿介，尚節義，鄙榮利，與夢陽並有國士風。 兩人為詩文，初相得甚歡，名成之後，互相詆諆。 夢陽主摹仿，景明則主創造，各樹堅壘不相下，兩人交游亦遂分左右袒。 說者謂景明之才本遜夢陽，而其詩秀逸穩稱，視夢陽反為過之。 然天下語詩文必並稱何、李，又與邊貢、徐禎卿並稱四傑。 其持論，謂：「詩溺於陶，謝力振之，古詩之法亡於謝。 文靡於隋，韓力振之，古文之法亡於韓。」 錢謙益撰《列朝詩》，力詆之。
Jingming's integrity was upright and unyielding; he honored integrity and righteousness and despised honor and profit. He and Mengyang both had the bearing of men of national stature. The two in poetry and prose at first got on very well; after their fame was established they slandered each other. Mengyang championed imitation while Jingming championed creation; each built firm ramparts and would not yield, and their associates likewise took sides. Commentators said Jingming's talent was originally inferior to Mengyang's, yet his poetry was elegant, effortless, and well-balanced—regarded alongside Mengyang he was actually superior. Yet when the realm spoke of poetry and prose they always paired He and Li, and he was also paired with Bian Gong and Xu Zhenqing as the Four Outstanding Talents. His doctrine held: "Poetry sank into Tao; Xie strove to revive it—the ancient method of poetry perished with Xie. Prose grew decadent in the Sui; Han strove to revive it—the ancient method of prose perished with Han." Qian Qianyi compiled 《Poetry of Successive Dynasties》 and fiercely denounced him.
56
徐禎卿 〈（楊循吉祝允明唐寅桑悅）〉
Xu Zhenqing (Yang Xunji, Zhu Yunming, Tang Yin, and Sang Yue)〉
57
徐禎卿，字昌榖，吳縣人。 資穎特，家不蓄一書，而無所不通。 自為諸生，已工詩歌，與裡人唐寅善，寅言之沈周、楊循吉，由是知名。 舉弘治十八年進士。 孝宗遣中使問禎卿與華亭陸深名，深遂得館選，而禎卿以貌寢不與。 授大理左寺副，坐失囚，貶國子博士。 禎卿少與祝允明、唐寅、文徵明齊名，號「吳中四才子」。 其為讀，喜白居易、劉禹錫。 既登第，與李夢陽、何景明游，悔其少作，改而趨漢、魏、盛唐，然故習猶在，夢陽譏其守而未化。 卒，年二十有三。 禎卿體癯神清，詩熔煉精警，為吳中詩人之冠，年雖不永，名滿士林。 子伯虯，舉人，亦能詩。
Xu Zhenqing, styled Changgu, was a native of Wu County. His endowment was exceptionally sharp; his household kept not a single book, yet there was nothing he did not know. Even as a student he was already skilled in poetry and song. He was friendly with his fellow townsman Tang Yin, and when Yin spoke of him to Shen Zhou and Yang Xunji, he thereby became known. He passed the jinshi examination in the eighteenth year of Hongzhi. Emperor Xiaozong sent a palace messenger to ask after the names of Zhenqing and Lu Shen of Huating; Shen thereupon gained Hanlin selection, but Zhenqing because of his uncomely appearance was not included. He was appointed Left Vice Director of the Court of Review; for losing a prisoner he was demoted to Doctor of the National University. In youth Zhenqing was equally famous with Zhu Yunming, Tang Yin, and Wen Zhengming, and they were known as the "Four Talents of Wu." In his reading he favored Bai Juyi and Liu Yuxi. After passing the examinations he associated with Li Mengyang and He Jingming, regretted his youthful work, and turned toward Han, Wei, and the High Tang; yet old habits remained, and Mengyang mocked him for holding fast without being transformed. He died, aged twenty-three. Zhenqing was gaunt in body and clear in spirit; his poetry was smelted and refined, sharp and alert. He was foremost among Wu poets; though his years were not long, his fame filled the world of scholars. His son Bohao became a provincial graduate and could also compose poetry.
58
楊循吉，字君謙，吳縣人。 成化二十年進士。 授禮部主事。 善病，好讀書，每得意，手足踔掉不能自禁，用是得顛主事名。 一歲中，數移病不出。 弘治初，奏乞改教，不許。 遂請致仕歸，年才三十有一。 結廬支硎山下，課讀經史，旁通內典、稗官。 父母歿，傾貲治葬，寢苫墓側。 性狷隘，好持人短長，又好以學問窮人，至頰赤不顧。 清寧宮災，詔求直言，馳疏請復建文帝尊號，格不行。 武宗駐蹕南都，召賦《打虎曲》，稱旨，易武人裝，日侍御前為樂府、小令。 帝以優俳畜之，不授官。 循吉以為恥，閱九月辭歸。 既復召至京，會帝崩，乃還。 嘉靖中，獻《九廟頌》及《華陽求嗣齋儀》，報聞而已。 晚歲落寞，益堅癖自好。 尚書顧璘道吳，以幣贄，促膝論文，歡甚。 俄郡守邀璘，璘將赴之，循吉忽色變，驅之出，擲還其幣。 明日，璘往謝，閉門不納。 卒，年八十九。 其詩文，自定為《松籌堂集》，他所作又十余種，幾及千卷。
Yang Xunji, styled Junqian, was a native of Wu County. He became a jinshi in the twentieth year of Chenghua. He was appointed a clerk in the Ministry of Rites. He was often ill and loved reading; whenever he was pleased with himself his hands and feet would leap and dance beyond his control, and for this he earned the nickname "Mad Clerk." In the course of a year he several times took sick leave and did not go out. Early in the Hongzhi reign he petitioned to be transferred to an instructorship, but the request was denied. He then asked to retire and go home, though he was only thirty-one. He built a cottage at the foot of Mount Zhixie, devoted himself to the classics and histories, and also ranged widely through Buddhist texts and popular tales. After his parents died he poured out his fortune on their funeral and kept vigil on straw mats beside the grave. He was narrow-minded by nature, loved to dwell on others' faults, and delighted in trapping people with erudite argument, heedless even when faces turned crimson. After fire destroyed the Qingning Palace, the throne called for blunt counsel; he rushed off a memorial urging restoration of the Jianwen Emperor's honorific title, but the proposal was rejected. When Emperor Wuzong sojourned at the Southern Capital, he was called to write 《Tiger-beating Song》; the piece pleased the throne, and he donned martial garb, serving daily at court to compose yuefu lyrics and short tunes. The Emperor treated him as a court performer and gave him no official post. Xunji took this as a humiliation and, nine months later, resigned and went home. He was summoned to the capital again, but the Emperor died before matters could proceed, and he returned home. During the Jiajing reign he submitted 《Ode to the Nine Temples》 and 《Rites of the Huayang Hall for Praying for an Heir》, but received only routine acknowledgment. In old age he lived in lonely decline and clung ever more stubbornly to his eccentric ways. When Minister Gu Lin traveled through Wu, Xunji brought him gifts of silk; they sat close together discussing literature and were exceedingly happy. Soon the prefect invited Lin, and as Lin was about to accept, Xunji's face darkened; he drove Lin out and hurled back the gifts. The next day Lin came to apologize, but Xunji shut his door and refused him entry. He died at eighty-nine. He selected his own poetry and prose for the 《Pine-and-Abacus Hall Collection》; his other works came to more than ten titles and nearly a thousand volumes.
59
祝允明，字希哲，長洲人。 祖顯，正統四年進士。 內侍傳旨試能文者四人，顯與焉，入掖門，知欲令教小內豎也，不試而出。 由給事中歷山西參政。 並有聲。 允明以弘治五年舉於鄉，久之不第，授廣東興寧知縣。 捕戮盜魁三十余，邑以無警。 稍遷應天通判，謝病歸。 嘉靖五年卒。
Zhu Yunming, styled Xizhe, came from Changzhou. His grandfather Xian passed the jinshi examination in the fourth year of Zhengtong. Eunuchs relayed an order to test four men of literary talent, and Xian was one of them. Once inside the Rear Gate he saw they meant to make him tutor young eunuchs, so he refused the test and left. He advanced from supervising secretary to administration commissioner of Shanxi. Both were well regarded. Yunming passed the provincial examination in Hongzhi 5 but failed repeatedly at the capital; he was eventually appointed magistrate of Xingning in Guangdong. He captured and executed more than thirty bandit leaders, and the district knew peace. He was soon promoted to assistant prefect of Yingtian, then retired citing illness. He died in Jiajing 5.
60
允明生而枝指，故自號枝山，又號枝指生。 五歲作徑尺字，九歲能詩，稍長，博覽群集，文章有奇氣，當筵疾書，思若涌泉。 尤工書法，名動海內。 好酒色六博，善新聲，求文及書者踵至，多賄妓掩得之。 惡禮法士，亦不問生產，有所入，輒召客豪飲，費盡乃已，或分與持去，不留一錢。 晚益困，每出，追呼索逋者相隨於後，允明益自喜。 所著有詩文集六十卷，他雜著百余卷。 子續，正德中進士，仕至廣西左布政使。
Yunming was born with an extra finger, and so styled himself Zhishan and also the Supernumerary-Fingered Man. At five he could write characters a foot high; at nine he wrote poetry. As he matured he read widely, and his prose had a singular force; at banquets he wrote at speed, ideas pouring forth like a spring. He was especially gifted in calligraphy, and his renown spread throughout the realm. He loved wine, women, and dice, and excelled at new songs. Seekers of his writing and calligraphy came in endless succession, and he often let courtesans bribe their way in to get his work in secret. He scorned men of ritual propriety and cared nothing for livelihood. Whenever money came in he summoned guests for grand drinking until it was gone, or divided it among them and kept not a single coin. In later years he grew poorer still; whenever he went out, debt collectors shouting for payment trailed behind him, and Yunming seemed all the more pleased. His collected poetry and prose ran to sixty volumes, with more than a hundred additional volumes of miscellaneous works. His son Xu became a jinshi in the Zhengde reign and rose to left administration commissioner of Guangxi.
61
唐寅，字伯虎，一字子畏。 性穎利，與里狂生張靈縱酒，不事諸生業。 祝允明規之，乃閉戶浹歲。 舉弘治十一年鄉試第一，座主梁儲奇其文，還朝示學士程敏政，敏政亦奇之。 未幾，敏政總裁會試，江陰富人徐經賄其家僮，得試題。 事露，言者劾敏政，語連寅，下詔獄，謫為吏。 寅恥不就，歸家益放浪。 寧王宸濠厚幣聘之，寅察其有異志，佯狂使酒，露其醜穢。 宸濠不能堪，放還。 築室桃花塢，與客日般飲其中，年五十四而卒。
Tang Yin, styled Bohu, also known as Ziwei. He was quick-witted by nature and drank freely with the wild local student Zhang Ling, neglecting his scholarly duties. Zhu Yunming admonished him, and he shut himself indoors for a full year. He placed first in the Hongzhi 11 provincial examination. Examiner Liang Chu was astonished by his essays and, back at court, showed them to Academician Cheng Minzheng, who was equally impressed. Soon afterward Minzheng presided over the metropolitan examination, and Xu Jing, a wealthy man of Jiangyin, bribed his household servant and obtained the examination topics. When the scandal broke, critics impeached Minzheng and the accusations extended to Yin; he was imprisoned by imperial order and reduced to clerk status. Yin was too ashamed to accept the demotion and returned home to live ever more freely. Prince of Ning Chen Hao tried to hire him with rich gifts, but Yin saw treasonous ambition in him and feigned madness and drunkenness, displaying his own disgraceful behavior. Chen Hao could not endure it and sent him away. He built a house at Peach Blossom Mound and drank there daily with guests; he died at fifty-four.
62
寅詩文，初尚才情，晚年頹然自放，謂後人知我不在此，論者傷之。 吳中自枝山輩以放誕不羈為世所指目，而文才輕艷，傾動流輩，傳說者增益而附麗之，往往出名教外。
Yin's poetry and prose at first prized talent and feeling, but in later years he sank into self-abandonment, saying posterity would not remember him for this work, and critics mourned the waste. In Wu, from Zhishan's circle onward, these men were noted for wild and unrestrained lives, yet their literary gifts were bright and seductive and swayed their peers; storytellers embellished their legends until they often seemed to stand outside the bounds of propriety.
63
時常熟有桑悅者，字民懌，尤怪妄，亦以才名吳中。 書過目，輒焚棄，曰：「已在吾腹中矣。」 敢為大言，以孟子自況。 或問翰林文章，曰：「虛無人，舉天下惟悅，其次祝允明，又次羅。」 為諸生，上謁監司，曰「江南才子」。 監司大駭，延之較書，預刊落以試悅，文義不屬者，索筆補之。 年十九舉成化元年鄉試，試春官，答策語不雅訓，被斥。 三試得副榜，年二十余耳，年籍誤二為六，遂除泰和訓導。 學士丘浚重其文，屬學使者善遇之。 使者至，問：「悅不迎，豈有恙乎？」 長吏皆銜之，曰：「無恙，自負才名不肯謁耳。」 使者遣吏召不至，益兩使促之。 悅怒曰：「始吾謂天下未有無耳者，乃今有之。 與若期，三日後來，瀆則不來矣。」 使者恚，欲收悅，緣浚故，不果。 三日來見，長揖使者。 使者怒，悅脫帽竟去。 使者下階謝，乃已。 遷長沙通判，調柳州。 會外艱歸，遂不出。 居家益狂誕，鄉人莫不重其文，而駭其行。 初，悅在京師，見高麗使臣市本朝《兩都賦》，無有，以為恥，遂賦之。 居長沙，著《庸言》，自以為窮究天人之際。 所著書，頗行於世。
At that time in Changshu there was Sang Yue, styled Minyi, exceptionally eccentric and arrogant, also celebrated in Wu for his talent. Once he had read a book he burned it, saying, "It is already in my belly." He spoke grandly and compared himself to Mencius. When asked about Hanlin writing, he said, "There is virtually no one worth mentioning; in all the realm there is only Yue; next comes Zhu Yunming; after that, Luo Qi." As a student paying a call on the surveillance commissioner, he styled himself "Jiangnan Talent." The commissioner was greatly alarmed and invited him to compare texts, deliberately deleting passages to test Yue; where the meaning broke off, Yue asked for a brush and filled in the gaps. At nineteen he passed the Chenghua 1 provincial examination, but at the metropolitan examination his policy essay was judged improper in language and he was rejected. On three attempts he made the supplementary list; he was barely over twenty, but in the age register "two" was mistaken for "six," and he was appointed instructor at Taihe. Academician Qiu Jun valued his writing and asked the education intendant to treat him kindly. When the intendant arrived, he asked, "Yue did not come to welcome me—is he ill?" The senior officials, who resented Yue, said, "He is not ill; he simply trusts in his literary fame and refuses to pay calls." The intendant sent an official to summon him, but Yue did not come; he sent two more messengers to press him. Yue angrily said, "I once thought there was no one under Heaven without ears, but now I see there is. I will give you an appointment: come three days from now. If you offend me again, I will not come." The intendant was furious and wanted to arrest Yue, but because of Qiu Jun he did not. Three days later he came and gave the intendant a long bow. The intendant grew angry; Yue removed his cap and walked off. The intendant came down the steps to apologize, and the matter ended. He was transferred to assistant prefect of Changsha, then to Liuzhou. When his father died he returned home and never took office again. At home he grew ever wilder; his neighbors all respected his writing but were appalled by his behavior. Early on, while Yue was in the capital, he saw a Goryeo envoy trying to buy the court's 《Rhapsody on the Two Capitals》 and finding none; ashamed, he wrote one himself. While living in Changsha he wrote 《Ordinary Words》 and believed he had plumbed the meeting point of Heaven and man. His books circulated widely.
64
邊貢，字廷實，歷城人。 祖寧，應天治中。 父節，代州知州。 貢年二十舉於鄉，第弘治九年進士。 除太常博士，擢兵科給事中。 孝宗崩，疏劾中官張瑜，太醫劉文泰、高廷和用藥之謬，又劾中官苗逵、保國公硃暉、都御史史琳用兵之失。 改太常丞，遷衛輝知府，改荊州，並能其官。 歷陝西、河南提學副使，以母憂家居。 嘉靖改元，用薦，起南京太常少卿，三遷太常卿，督四夷館，擢刑部右侍郎，拜戶部尚書，並在南京。 貢早負才名，美風姿，所交悉海內名士。 久官留都，優閒無事，遊覽江山，揮毫浮白，夜以繼日。 都御史劾其縱酒廢職，遂罷歸。
Bian Gong, styled Tingshi, came from Licheng. His grandfather Ning served as magistrate of Yingtian prefecture. His father Jie was prefect of Daizhou. Gong passed the provincial examination at twenty and became a jinshi in Hongzhi 9. He was appointed Erudite of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and promoted to supervising secretary in the Bureau of Military Affairs. When Emperor Xiaozong died, he memorialized against the eunuch Zhang Yu and the imperial physicians Liu Wenta and Gao Tinghe for medical errors, and also against the eunuch Miao Kui, Defender Duke of the State Zhu Hui, and Censor-in-Chief Shi Lin for military failures. He became Vice Director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, then prefect of Weihui, then of Jingzhou, and proved capable in each post. He served as vice education commissioner in Shaanxi and Henan, then retired home to mourn his mother. When the Jiajing reign began, he was recommended and recalled as Vice Director of the Nanjing Court of Imperial Sacrifices; after three promotions he became its Director, supervised the Four Barbarians Hall, rose to Vice Minister of Punishments, and was appointed Minister of Revenue—all in Nanjing. Gong won early fame for talent and had a handsome bearing; his friends were celebrated men from across the realm. After long service in the secondary capital he lived at leisure, touring rivers and mountains, writing and drinking, day and night without pause. The censor-in-chief impeached him for drunken neglect of duty, and he was dismissed and sent home.
65
顧璘弟瑮附陳沂等
Gu Lin, with his younger brother Bao and appended biographies of Chen Yi and others.
66
顧璘，字華玉，上元人。 弘治九年進士。 授廣平知縣，擢南京吏部主事，晉郎中。 正德四年出為開封知府，數與鎮守太監廖堂、王宏忤，逮下錦衣獄，謫全州知州。 秩滿，遷台州知府。 歷浙江左布政使，山西、湖廣巡撫，右副都御史，所至有聲。 遷吏部右侍郎，改工部。 董顯陵工畢，遷南京刑部尚書。 罷歸，年七十余卒。
Gu Lin, styled Huayu, came from Shangyuan. He became a jinshi in Hongzhi 9. He was appointed magistrate of Guangping, then promoted to clerk in the Nanjing Ministry of Personnel and advanced to director. In Zhengde 4 he became prefect of Kaifeng; he repeatedly clashed with the garrison eunuchs Liao Tang and Wang Hong, was thrown into the Brocade-clad Guard prison, and demoted to magistrate of Quanzhou. When his term ended he was transferred to prefect of Taizhou. He served as left administration commissioner of Zhejiang, grand coordinator of Shanxi and Huguang, and vice censor-in-chief, winning renown wherever he went. He was transferred to Vice Minister of Personnel, then moved to the Ministry of Works. After overseeing completion of the Xianling tomb, he was transferred to Minister of Punishments in Nanjing. Dismissed and sent home, he died in his seventies.
67
璘少負才名，與何、李相上下。 虛己好士，如恐不及。 在浙，慕孫太初一元不可得見。 道衣幅巾，放舟湖上，月下見小舟泊斷橋，一僧、一鶴、一童子煮茗，笑曰：「此必太初也。」 移舟就之，遂往還無間。 撫湖廣時，愛王廷陳才，欲見之，廷陳不可。 偵廷陳狎游，疾掩之，廷陳避不得，遂定交。 既歸，構息園，大治幸舍居客，客常滿。
Lin won early fame for talent and ranked with He and Li. He humbled himself before men of talent, as though afraid he might never reach them in time. While in Zhejiang he admired Sun Yiyuan, styled Taichu, but could never manage to meet him. Dressed in Taoist robes and a scholar's headcloth, he put out on the lake; by moonlight he saw a small boat moored at Broken Bridge—a monk, a crane, and a boy brewing tea—and laughed, "This must be Taichu." He steered his boat over, and from then on they visited one another constantly. While grand coordinator of Huguang he admired Wang Tingchen's talent and wished to meet him, but Tingchen refused. He spied on Tingchen's casual outings and rushed in to corner him; unable to escape, Tingchen became his friend. After returning home he built the Rest Garden, greatly expanded the guest quarters, and his house was always full of visitors.
68
從弟瑮，字英玉，以河南副使歸，居園側一小樓，教授自給。 璘時時與客豪飲，伎樂雜作。 呼瑮，瑮終不赴，其孤介如此。
His younger cousin Bao, styled Yingyu, returned home after serving as vice commissioner of Henan and lived in a small tower beside the Rest Garden, supporting himself as a teacher. Lin often held lavish drinking parties with guests, with musicians and entertainers performing together. When Lin summoned him, Bao never came—such was his aloof integrity.
69
初，璘與同里陳沂、王韋，號「金陵三俊」。 其後寶應朱應登繼起，稱四大家。 璘詩，矩矱唐人，以風調勝。 韋婉麗多致，頗失纖弱。 沂與韋同調。 應登才思泉涌，落筆千言。 然璘、應登羽翼李夢陽，而韋、沂則頗持異論。 三人者，仕宦皆不及璘。
At first Lin, together with Chen Yi and Wang Wei of the same district, were styled the "Three Talents of Jinling." Later Zhu Yingdeng of Baoying rose in their wake, and they were called the Four Great Masters. Lin's poetry took Tang poets as its measure and excelled in tone and manner. Wei's verse was graceful and rich in feeling, yet tended toward excessive delicacy. Yi wrote in the same vein as Wei. Yingdeng's talent and thought poured forth like a spring, and a thousand words flowed from his brush. Yet Lin and Yingdeng supported Li Mengyang, while Wei and Yi held rather different views. Of the three, none matched Lin in official advancement.
70
陳沂，字魯南。 正德中進士。 由庶吉士歷編修、侍講，出為江西參議，量移山東參政。 以不附張孚敬、桂萼，改行太僕卿致仕。
Chen Yi, styled Lunan. He became a jinshi during the Zhengde era. From Hanlin bachelor he rose through compiler and lecturer, went out as commissioner of Jiangxi, and was later transferred to administration commissioner of Shandong. Because he would not align with Zhang Fuyi and Gui E, he was reassigned as Vice Minister of the Imperial Stud and retired.
71
王韋，字欽佩。 父徽，成化時給事中，直諫有聲。 韋舉弘治中進士，由庶吉士歷官太僕少卿。 子逢元，亦能詩。
Wang Wei, styled Qinpei. His father Hui was a censor during the Chenghua era, renowned for forthright remonstrance. Wei passed the jinshi examination in the Hongzhi era and, from Hanlin bachelor, rose to Vice Minister of the Imperial Stud. His son Fengyuan could also write poetry.
72
朱應登，字升之。 弘治中進士，歷雲南提學副使，遷參政。 恃才傲物，中飛語，罷歸。 子日籓，嘉靖間進士，終九江知府。 能文章，世其家。
Zhu Yingdeng, styled Shengzhi. He became a jinshi in the Hongzhi era, served as vice education commissioner of Yunnan, and was promoted to administration commissioner. Haughty with his talent and disdainful of others, he fell victim to slander and was dismissed and sent home. His son Rifan became a jinshi in the Jiajing era and ended as prefect of Jiujiang. Skilled in literary composition, he carried on the family tradition.
73
南都自洪、永初，風雅未暢。 徐霖、陳鐸、金琮、謝璿輩談藝正德時，稍稍振起。 自璘王詞壇，士大夫希風附塵，厥道大彰。 許谷，陳鳳，璿子少南，金大車、大輿、金鑾，盛時泰，陳芹之屬，並從之游。 谷等皆裡人，鑾僑居客也。 儀真蔣山卿、江都趙鶴亦與璘遙相應和。 沿及末造，風流未歇雲。
Since the Hongwu and Yongle eras, literary refinement in the Southern Capital had not flourished. When Xu Lin, Chen Duo, Jin Cong, Xie Xuan, and others discussed the arts during the Zhengde era, the literary scene stirred slightly. Once Lin held sway over the literary circle, scholar-officials sought his example and attached themselves to him, and that path was greatly manifest. Xu Gu, Chen Feng, Xuan's son Shaonan, Jin Dache, Dayu, and Jin Luan, Sheng Shitai, Chen Qin, and others all associated with him. Gu and the others were all locals; Luan alone was a sojourning guest. Jiang Shanqing of Yizhen and Zhao He of Jiangdu also exchanged verses with Lin from afar. Even into the dynasty's final years, the literary current did not cease.
74
鄭善夫附殷雲霄方豪等
Zheng Shanfu, with appended biographies of Yin Yunxiao, Fang Hao, and others.
75
鄭善夫，字繼之，閩縣人。 弘治十八年進士。 連遭內外艱，正德六年始為戶部主事，榷稅滸墅，以清操聞。 時劉瑾雖誅，嬖幸用事。 善夫憤之，乃告歸，築草堂金鰲峰下，為遲清亭，讀書其中，曰：「俟天下之清也。」 寡交游，日晏未炊，欣然自得。 起禮部主事，進員外郎。 武宗將南巡，偕同列切諫，杖於廷，罰跪五日。 善夫更為疏草，置懷中，屬其僕曰：「死即上之。」 幸不死，嘆曰：「時事若此，尚可靦顏就列哉！」 乞歸未得，明年力請，乃得歸。 嘉靖改元，用薦起南京刑部郎中，未上，改吏部。 行抵建寧，便道游武夷、九曲，風雪絕糧，得病卒，年三十有九。 善夫敦行誼，婚嫁七弟妹，貲悉推予之，葬母黨二十二人。 所交盡名士，與孫一元、殷雲霄、方豪尤友善。 作詩，力摹少陵。
Zheng Shanfu, styled Jizhi, came from Min County. He became a jinshi in Hongzhi 18. After successive bereavements for parents and wife, he became a clerk in the Ministry of Revenue only in Zhengde 6, collecting taxes at Xushu, and was known for his integrity. Though Liu Jin had been executed, favored minions still held power. Indignant, Shanfu resigned, built a thatched hall beneath Golden Turtle Peak, and made the Awaiting Clarity Pavilion, reading there and saying, "I await the world's clarity." He kept few social contacts; even when evening came with no meal cooked, he was content and at ease. He was recalled as clerk in the Ministry of Rites and advanced to vice director. When Emperor Wuzong was about to tour the south, he remonstrated sharply together with colleagues, was beaten at court, and punished to kneel for five days. Shanfu drafted another memorial, placed it in his bosom, and instructed his servant, saying, "If I die, submit it at once." Fortunately he did not die, and sighed, "When affairs are like this, how can one still bear to hold office with a straight face!" He requested retirement but was not granted it; the next year he pressed hard, and only then was allowed to return. When the Jiajing reign began, he was recalled on recommendation as director in the Nanjing Ministry of Punishments; before taking up the post he was transferred to the Ministry of Personnel. Traveling as far as Jianning, he took a side trip to Mount Wuyi and the Nine Turns; wind and snow cut off his provisions, he fell ill and died at thirty-nine. Shanfu was sincere in friendship and conduct: he arranged marriages for seven younger brothers and sisters and gave them all his assets, and buried twenty-two maternal clansmen. Those he befriended were all celebrated men; he was especially close to Sun Yiyuan, Yin Yunxiao, and Fang Hao. In poetry he strove to model Du Fu of Shaoling.
76
雲霄，字近夫，壽張人，善夫同年進士。 作蓄艾堂，聚書數千卷，以作者自命。 正德中，官南京給事中。 武宗納有娠女子馬姬宮中，雲霄偕同官疏諫，引李園、呂不韋事為諷，不報。 卒官，年三十有七。 鄉人穆孔暉畏雲霄峭直，曰：「殷子恥不善，不啻負穢然。」
Yunxiao, styled Jinfu, came from Shouzhang and was a jinshi of the same year as Shanfu. He built the Gather Mugwort Hall, collected several thousand volumes of books, and styled himself a creative writer. During the Zhengde era he served as censor in Nanjing. When Emperor Wuzong took into the palace Lady Ma, a pregnant woman, Yunxiao joined fellow officials in a memorial remonstrating, citing the cases of Li Yuan and Lü Buwei as admonitory parallels, but received no response. He died in office at thirty-seven. Fellow townsman Mu Konghui, who feared Yunxiao's stern uprightness, said, "Yinzi is ashamed of what is not good—nothing less than as though carrying filth on his back."
77
方豪，字思道，開化人。 正德三年進士。 除崑山知縣，遷刑部主事。 諫武宗南巡，跪闕下五日，復受杖。 歷官湖廣副使，罷歸。 一元，見《隱逸傳》。
Fang Hao, styled Sidao, came from Kaihua. He became a jinshi in Zhengde 3. Appointed magistrate of Kunshan, he was transferred to clerk in the Ministry of Punishments. He remonstrated against Emperor Wuzong's southern tour, kneeling beneath the palace gate for five days, and was beaten again. He served as vice commissioner of Huguang and was dismissed and sent home. Yiyuan is treated in the 《Records of Recluses》.
78
閩中詩文，自林鴻、高棅後，閱百餘年，善夫繼之。 迨萬曆中年，曹學佺、徐勃輩繼起，謝肇淛、鄧原岳和之，風雅復振焉。
Fujian poetry and prose, after Lin Hong and Gao Bing, languished for more than a hundred years before Shanfu revived the tradition. By the middle of the Wanli era, Cao Xuequan, Xu Bi Bo, and others rose in turn; Xie Zhaozhe and Deng Yuanyue harmonized with them, and literary refinement was revived.
79
學佺詳見後傳。 勃，字興公，閩縣人。 兄熥，萬曆間舉人。 勃以布衣終。 博聞多識，善草隸書。 積書鰲峰書舍至數萬卷。
Xuequan is treated in detail in a later biography. Bi Bo, styled Xinggong, came from Min County. His elder brother Cong became a provincial graduate during the Wanli era. Bi Bo ended his days as a commoner. Broadly learned and well informed, he was skilled in cursive and clerical script. He accumulated tens of thousands of volumes in the Golden Turtle Peak Bookroom.
80
肇淛，字在杭。 萬曆三十年進士。 官工部郎中，視河張秋，作《北河紀略》，具載河流原委及歷代治河利病。 終廣西右布政使。 原岳，字汝高，亦閩縣人，肇淛同年進士，終湖廣副使。
Zhaozhe, styled Zaihang. He became a jinshi in Wanli 30. He served as director in the Ministry of Works, inspected the river at Zhangqiu, and wrote the 《Northern River Gazetteer》, fully recording the river's origins and the benefits and harms of river control through the ages. He ended as Right Administration Commissioner of Guangxi. Yuanyue, styled Rugao, also came from Min County and was a jinshi of the same year as Zhaozhe; he ended as vice commissioner of Huguang.
81
陸深附:王圻
Lu Shen, with appended biography of Wang Qi.
82
陸深，字子淵，上海人。 弘治十八年進士，二甲第一。 選庶吉士，授編修。 劉瑾嫉翰林官亢己，悉改外，深得南京主事。 瑾誅，復職，歷國子司業、祭酒，充經筵講官。 奏講官撰進講章，閣臣不宜改竄。 忤輔臣，謫延平同知。 晉山西提學副使，改浙江。 累官四川左布政使。 松、茂諸番亂，深主調兵食，有功，賜金幣。 嘉靖十六年召為太常卿兼侍讀學士。 世宗南巡，深掌行在翰林院印，御筆刪侍讀二字，進詹事府詹事，致仕。 卒，諡文裕。 深少與徐禎卿相切磨，為文章有名。 工書，仿李邕、趙孟頫。 嘗鑒博雅，為詞臣冠。 然頗倨傲，人以此少之。
Lu Shen, styled Ziyuan, came from Shanghai. He became a jinshi in Hongzhi 18, ranking first in the second class. Selected as Hanlin bachelor, he was appointed compiler. Liu Jin resented that Hanlin officials put themselves above him and reassigned them all to outside posts; Shen was assigned chief clerk in Nanjing. When Jin was executed, Shen was restored to office, served as vice director and chancellor of the Imperial Academy, and served as lecturer at the Classics Colloquium. He memorialized that lecturers should draft and submit lecture chapters, and that grand secretaries should not alter them. Offending the chief minister, he was demoted to vice prefect of Yanping. He was promoted to vice education commissioner of Shanxi and then transferred to Zhejiang. He rose through successive posts to Left Administration Commissioner of Sichuan. When the tribes of Song and Mao rebelled, Shen advocated mobilizing troops and provisions, distinguished himself, and was rewarded with gold and silks. In Jiajing 16 he was summoned as Vice Minister of Imperial Sacrifices and Reader-in-waiting. When Emperor Shizong toured the south, Shen held the seal of the Hanlin Academy at the traveling palace; the emperor in his own hand struck out the two characters "Reader-in-waiting," and Shen was promoted to Grand Mentor of the Heir Apparent's Household and retired. When he died he was posthumously titled Wenyu. In youth Shen closely refined his craft with Xu Zhenqing and won fame for his literary compositions. Skilled in calligraphy, he modeled Li Yong and Zhao Mengfu. Once assessed for broad learning and refinement, he was foremost among literary officials. Yet he was rather haughty, and for this people thought less of him.
83
同邑有王圻者，字元翰。 嘉靖四十四年進士。 除清江知縣，調萬安。 擢御史，忤時相，出為福建按察僉事，謫邛州判官。 兩知進賢、曹縣，遷開州知州。 歷官陝西布政參議，乞養歸，築室淞江之濱，種梅萬樹，目曰梅花源。 以著書為事，年逾耄耋，猶篝燈帳中，丙夜不輟。 所撰《續文獻通考》諸書行世。
In the same district there was Wang Qi, styled Yuanhan. He became a jinshi in Jiajing 44. Appointed magistrate of Qingjiang, he was transferred to Wan'an. Promoted to censor, he offended the chief minister of the time, went out as surveillance commissioner of Fujian, and was demoted to assistant magistrate of Qiongzhou. Twice serving as magistrate of Jinxian and Cao County, he was transferred to prefect of Kaizhou. He served as administration commissioner of Shaanxi, requested leave to support his parents and returned home, built a house on the banks of the Song River, planted ten thousand plum trees, and named it Plum Blossom Source. He devoted himself to writing books; past eighty, he still kept a lamp burning in his tent at the third watch of the night without ceasing. The books he wrote, such as the 《Continuation of the Comprehensive Examination of Literature》, circulated in the world.
84
初，圻以奏議為趙貞吉所推。 張居正與貞吉交惡，諷圻攻之，不應。 高拱為圻座主，時方修隙徐階，又以圻為私其鄉人不助己，不能無恚，遂摭拾之。
At first Qi was recommended for his memorials by Zhao Zhenji. Zhang Juzheng feuded with Zhenji and pressed Qi to attack him, but Qi refused. Gao Gong, who had examined Qi, was then feuding with Xu Jie; he also believed Qi was protecting a fellow townsman and withholding support from him, and in resentment found grounds to impeach him.
85
王廷陳
Wang Tingchen
86
王廷陳，字穉欽，黃岡人。 父濟，吏部郎中。 廷陳穎慧絕人，幼好弄，父抶之，輒大呼曰：「大人奈何虐天下名士！」 正德十二年成進士，選庶吉士，益恃才放恣。 故事，兩學士為館師，體嚴重，廷陳伺其退食，獨上樹杪，大聲叫呼。 兩學士無如之何，佯弗聞也。 武宗下詔南巡，與同館舒芬等七人將疏諫，館師石珤力止之。 廷陳賦《烏母謠》，大書於壁以刺，珤及執政皆不悅。 已而疏上，帝怒，罰跪五日，杖於廷。 時已改吏科給事中，乃出為裕州知州。 廷陳不習為吏，又失職怨望，簿牒堆案，漫不省視。 夏日裸跣坐堂皇，見飛鳥集庭樹，輒止訟者，取彈彈之。 上官行部，不出迎。 已而布政使陳鳳梧及巡按御史喻茂堅先後至，廷陳以鳳梧座主，特出迓。 鳳梧好謂曰：「子候我固善，御史即來，候之當倍謹。」 廷陳許諾。 及茂堅至，銜其素驕蹇，有意裁抑之，以小過榜州吏。 廷陳為跪請，茂堅故益甚。 廷陳大罵曰：「陳公誤我。」 直上堂搏茂堅，悉呼吏卒出，鎖其門，禁絕供億，且將具奏。 茂堅大窘，鳳梧為解，乃夜馳去。 尋上疏劾之，適裕人被案者逸出，奏廷陳不法事，收捕系獄，削籍歸。 世宗踐阼，前直諫被謫者悉復官，獨廷陳以畦吏議不與。
Wang Tingchen, whose style name was Zhiqin, came from Huanggang. His father Ji was a director in the Ministry of Personnel. Tingchen was prodigiously clever; as a boy he loved pranks, and when his father thrashed him he would cry out, "Father, how can you mistreat a famous scholar of the empire!" He passed the examinations in the twelfth year of Zhengde, entered the Hanlin as a bachelor, and became still more insolent in his self-confidence. By custom two academicians served as Hanlin instructors with stern dignity; Tingchen waited until they had gone to eat, then climbed a tree alone and yelled at the top of his voice. The two instructors could do nothing and pretended not to hear. When the emperor ordered a southern tour, Tingchen and seven fellow bachelors, including Shu Fen, prepared to remonstrate by memorial, but their instructor Shi Yao forcibly dissuaded them. Tingchen wrote the 《Ballad of the Crow Mother》 in large characters on the wall as a satirical barb, to the displeasure of Yao and the chief ministers. When the memorial was submitted, the emperor was furious, ordered them to kneel for five days, and had them beaten in court. He had already been made supervising secretary in the Ministry of Personnel, but was now sent out as magistrate of Yuzhou. Unused to administrative work and bitter over his demotion, he let papers pile up on his desk and ignored them entirely. In summer he sat naked and barefoot in the yamen hall; when birds settled in the courtyard trees he would halt lawsuits, take a pellet bow, and shoot at them. When superiors made inspection tours he refused to go out and receive them. Later the administration commissioner Chen Fengwu and the touring censor Yu Maojian arrived in turn; Tingchen made a special point of going out to greet Fengwu, who had examined him. Fengwu said kindly, "It is good that you received me, but the censor is coming next—you should receive him with twice the courtesy." Tingchen agreed. When Maojian arrived, bearing a grudge against Tingchen's habitual arrogance, he deliberately sought to put him down and had a clerk beaten for a trifling offense. Tingchen knelt to intercede, and Maojian deliberately intensified the punishment. Tingchen burst out cursing, "Master Chen misled me!" He stormed into the hall and attacked Maojian, sent all clerks and runners out, locked the gates, cut off his supplies, and prepared to lodge a memorial against him. Maojian was utterly humiliated; Fengwu intervened, and he fled overnight. He soon memorialized against Tingchen; meanwhile a prisoner under investigation in Yuzhou escaped and reported Tingchen's misconduct; Tingchen was arrested, imprisoned, struck from the rolls, and sent home. When the Jiajing emperor ascended the throne, all who had been banished for bold remonstrance were restored—except Tingchen, excluded on account of his misconduct as a local magistrate.
87
屏居二十餘年，嗜酒縱倡樂，益自放廢。 士大夫造謁，多蓬髮赤足，不具賓主禮。 時衣紅紫窄袖衫，騎牛跨馬，嘯歌田野間。 嘉靖十八年詔修《承天大志》，巡撫顧璘以廷陳及顏木、王格薦。 書成，不稱旨，賜銀幣而已。 廷陳才高，詩文重當世，一時才士鮮能過之。 木，應山人，官亳州知州。 格，京山人，官河南僉事。
For more than twenty years in retirement he drank heavily, kept singers and musicians, and sank ever deeper into self-abandonment. When gentlemen came to visit, he often received them with tangled hair and bare feet, without proper ceremony. He would wear tight-sleeved red and purple shirts, ride oxen or horses, and sing his way through the countryside. In the eighteenth year of Jiajing the court ordered compilation of the 《Great Record of Chengtian》; Gu Lin recommended Tingchen along with Yan Mu and Wang Ge. When the work was finished it failed to please the emperor, and they received only silver and silk in reward. Tingchen was formidably gifted; his poetry and prose commanded his age, and few contemporaries could match him. Mu came from Yingshan and served as magistrate of Bozhou. Ge came from Jingshan and served as vice commissioner in Henan.
88
李濂，字川父，祥符人。 舉正德八年鄉試第一，明年成進士。 授沔陽知州，稍遷寧波同知，擢山西僉事。 嘉靖五年以大計免歸，年才三十有八。 濂少負俊才，時從俠少年聯騎出城，搏獸射雉，酒酣悲歌，慨然慕信陵君、侯生之為人。 一日作《理情賦》，友人左國璣持以示李夢陽，夢陽大嗟賞，訪之吹台，濂自此聲馳河、雒間。 既罷歸，益肆力於學，遂以古文名於時。 初受知夢陽，後不屑附和。 里居四十餘年，著述甚富。
Li Lian, whose style name was Chuanfu, came from Xiangfu. He topped the provincial examinations in the eighth year of Zhengde and passed the palace examinations the next year. He was appointed magistrate of Mianyang, later made vice prefect of Ningbo, and then promoted to vice commissioner in Shanxi. In the fifth year of Jiajing he was retired on the triennial evaluation and went home at only thirty-eight. As a youth Lian was brilliantly gifted; he often rode out with swashbuckling companions to wrestle game and shoot pheasants, and when wine had warmed him he would sing sadly, longing to live like Lord Xinling and Hou Sheng. One day he wrote the 《Rhapsody on Regulating Emotion》; his friend Zuo Guoji showed it to Li Mengyang, who was deeply impressed, sought him out at Chuitai, and from then Lian's reputation spread throughout the Yellow and Luo region. After his retirement he threw himself into study and soon won fame for his classical prose. He first won Mengyang's patronage, but later refused to follow his school. He lived at home for more than forty years and left a very large body of writings.