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張介福倪瓚徐舫楊恆陳洄楊引吳海劉閔楊黼孫一元沈周陳繼儒
Zhang Jiefu, Ni Zan, Xu Fang, Yang Heng, Chen Hui, Yang Yin, Wu Hai, Liu Min, Yang Fu, Sun Yiyuan, Shen Zhou, and Chen Jiru
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韓愈言：「《蹇》之六二曰『王臣蹇蹇』，而《蠱》之上九曰『高尚其事』，由所居之時不一，而所蹈之德不同。」 夫聖賢以用世為心，而逸民以肥遁為節，豈性分實然，亦各行其志而已。 明太祖興禮儒士，聘文學，搜求岩穴，側席幽人，後置不為君用之罰，然韜跡自遠者，亦不乏人。 迨中葉承平，聲教淪浹，巍科顯爵，頓天網以羅英俊，民之秀者，無不觀國光而賓王廷矣。 其抱瑰材，蘊積學，槁形泉石，絕意當世者，靡得而稱焉。 由是觀之，世道升降之端，系所遭逢，豈非其時為之哉。 凡徵聘所及，文學行誼可稱者，已散見諸傳。 茲取貞節超邁者數人，作《隱逸傳》。
Han Yu wrote: "The second line of the Hexagram Jian reads, 'The king's ministers are in distress,' while the top line of Gu reads, 'Noble in his deeds'—for the age each man lived in was not the same, and the virtue each man embodied was not the same. Sages and worthies set their hearts on serving the world, while men of retirement take luxuriant withdrawal as their standard of conduct. Was their nature utterly different? Each simply followed his own resolve. When the Hongwu Emperor revived ritual and honored Confucian scholars, he recruited men of letters, sought out hermits in mountain caves, and waited eagerly for recluses to appear. Later he imposed penalties on those who refused to serve the throne, yet men who hid their tracks and kept their distance were never in short supply. By the mid-dynasty, in an age of peace, civilization had spread to every corner. Grand examinations and high offices cast the great net to gather the gifted, and none of the finest men among the people failed to behold the nation's splendor and present themselves at the royal court. Those who held rare gifts, hoarded learning, wasted their bodies among springs and stones, and turned their backs on the world could scarcely be named at all. Seen in this light, whether the age rises or falls turns on what fortune brings—was it not the times that shaped it? All those reached by summons and appointment whose learning and conduct were worthy of note have already appeared in scattered biographies elsewhere. Here several men of steadfast integrity and extraordinary character are gathered to form the "Biographies of Recluses."
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張介福
Zhang Jiefu
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張介福，字子祺，自懷慶徙吳中。 少受學於許衡。 二親早終，遂無仕進意。 家貧，冬不能具夾襦，或遺以糹寧絮，不受，纖介必以禮。 張士誠入吳，有卒犯其家，危坐不為起。 刀斫面，僕地，醒復取冠戴之，坐自若。 卒怪，以為異物，走去。 介福恐發其先墓，往廬焉。 士誠聞而欲致之，不可。 使其弟往問，答曰：「無樂亂，無貪天禍，無忘國家。」 饋之，力辭。 已，病革，謂其友曰：「吾志希古人，未能也。 惟無污於時，庶幾哉。」 遂卒。
Zhang Jiefu, courtesy name Ziqi, moved from Huaqing to the Wu region. As a youth he studied under Xu Heng. Both his parents died while he was young, and he lost all desire to pursue an official career. His family was poor, and in winter he could not afford a lined coat. When someone sent him cotton wadding for warmth, he refused it. Even the smallest courtesy had to be observed with strict propriety. When Zhang Shicheng entered Wu, a soldier broke into his home, but Jiefu sat upright and would not rise. A blade struck his face and he fell to the ground. When he came to, he put his cap back on and resumed his seat as if nothing had happened. The soldier was unnerved, took him for something uncanny, and fled. Jiefu feared his ancestors' graves would be disturbed and went to live in a hut beside them. Shicheng heard of him and wished to bring him into service, but could not. He sent his younger brother to inquire after him. Jiefu answered: "Take no joy in rebellion, covet no disaster sent by Heaven, and do not forget the nation. When gifts were sent to him, he firmly refused them. Later, when his illness grew critical, he told his friends: "My aspiration was to emulate the ancients, but I have not achieved it. Only that I have not been stained by my age—perhaps that much. With that he died.
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倪瓚，字元鎮，無錫人也。 家雄於貲，工詩，善書畫。 四方名士日至其門。 所居有閣曰清閟，幽迥絕塵。 藏書數千卷，皆手自勘定。 古鼎法書，名琴奇畫，陳列左右。 四時卉木，縈繞其外，高木修篁，蔚然深秀，故自號雲林居士。 時與客觴詠其中。 為人有潔癖，盥濯不離手。 俗客造廬，比去，必洗滌其處。 求縑素者踵至，瓚亦時應之。 至正初，海內無事，忽散其貲給親故，人咸怪之。 未幾兵興，富家悉被禍，而瓚扁舟箬笠，往來震澤、三泖間，獨不罹患。 張士誠累欲鉤致之，逃漁舟以免。 其弟士信以幣乞畫，瓚又斥去。 士信恚，他日從賓客游湖上，聞異香出葭葦間，疑為瓚也，物色漁舟中，果得之。 抶幾斃，終無一言。 及吳平，瓚年老矣，黃冠野服，混跡編氓。 洪武七年卒，年七十四。
Ni Zan, courtesy name Yuanzhen, was a native of Wuxi. His family was immensely wealthy. He was accomplished in poetry and excelled at calligraphy and painting. Renowned men of letters from every quarter came to his door each day. His residence held a pavilion called Qingbi, secluded and utterly removed from the dust of the world. He kept several thousand volumes in his library, every one collated by his own hand. Ancient bronzes, masterworks of calligraphy, famous zithers, and extraordinary paintings were arrayed all around him. Flowers and trees of every season encircled the pavilion outside, and tall timber and slender bamboo rose in lush, deep beauty. He therefore styled himself the Recluse of Cloud Forest. He would often drink and compose poetry there with his guests. By nature he was fastidiously clean and never stopped washing his hands. When common visitors came to his lodge, he would wash wherever they had sat as soon as they left. Those seeking silk scrolls for his paintings came in an endless stream, and Zan would sometimes oblige them. At the beginning of the Zhizheng era, when the realm was at peace, he suddenly gave away his wealth to relatives and friends, and everyone thought it strange. Before long warfare broke out, and wealthy families were ruined one after another. Zan alone, in a small boat and bamboo hat, moved between Lake Zhen and the Three Marshes and suffered no harm. Zhang Shicheng repeatedly tried to lure him into service, but he escaped aboard fishing boats to avoid capture. His younger brother Shixin sent gifts begging for a painting, and Zan drove him away once more. Shixin was furious. One day, while touring the lake with his guests, he caught a strange fragrance rising from the reeds, suspected it was Zan, searched the fishing boats, and found him. They beat him nearly to death, yet he never uttered a word. When Wu was pacified, Zan was already old. In a Daoist cap and rustic dress he mingled among the common people. He died in the seventh year of Hongwu, at the age of seventy-four.
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徐舫，字方舟，桐廬人。 幼輕俠，好擊劍、走馬、蹴踘。 既而悔之，習科舉業。 已，復棄去，學為歌詩。 睦故多詩人，唐有方干、徐凝、李頻、施肩吾，宋有高師魯、滕元秀，號睦州詩派，舫悉取步聚之。 既乃游四方，交其名士，詩益工。 行省參政蘇天爵將薦之，舫笑曰：「吾詩人耳，可羈以章紱哉。」 竟避去。 築室江皋，日苦吟於雲煙出沒間，翛然若與世隔，因自號滄江散人。 宋濂、劉基、葉琛、章溢之赴召也，舟溯桐江，忽有人黃冠鹿裘立江上，招基而笑，且語侵之。 基望見，急延入舟中。 琛、溢競歡謔，各取冠服服之，欲載上黟川，其人不可乃止。 濂初未相識，以問。 基曰：「此徐方舟也。」 濂因起共歡笑，酌酒而別。 舫詩有《瑤林》、《滄江》二集。 年六十八，丙午春，卒於家。
Xu Fang, courtesy name Fangzhou, was a native of Tonglu. In youth he was rakish, fond of swordplay, horse-racing, and cuju. Later he repented of this and took up examination studies. Then he abandoned that as well and turned to writing songs and poetry. Mu had long produced many poets. In the Tang there were Fang Gan, Xu Ning, Li Pin, and Shi Jianwu; in the Song, Gao Shilu and Teng Yuanxiu—the so-called Muzhou school of poetry—and Fang took them all as models. He then traveled widely, befriended celebrated men, and his poetry grew ever more accomplished. Su Tianjue, provincial administration commissioner, was about to recommend him. Fang laughed and said: "I am only a poet—how can you bind me with official robes and regalia? In the end he slipped away and avoided appointment. He built a house on the riverbank and spent his days composing poetry amid drifting mist and cloud, detached as if cut off from the world. He therefore styled himself the Wanderer of the Cang River. When Song Lian, Liu Ji, Ye Chen, and Zhang Yi were traveling to answer the imperial summons, their boat went up the Tong River. Suddenly a man in a yellow cap and deerskin cloak stood on the bank, beckoned to Ji with a laugh, and spoke to him in mocking tones. Ji saw him from afar and hastily invited him aboard. Chen and Yi joined in merry banter, each took cap and robe and dressed him in them, and wanted to carry him upriver to Yichuan, but the man refused and they desisted. Lian did not know him at first and asked who he was. Ji said: "This is Xu Fangzhou. Lian then rose and joined in laughter, poured wine, and they parted. Fang's poetry survives in two collections, Yaolin and Cangjiang. He was sixty-eight years old when he died at home in the spring of the bingwu year.
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楊恆，字本初，諸暨人。 外族方氏建義塾，館四方游學士，恆幼往受諸經，輒領其旨要。 文峻潔，有聲郡邑間。 浦江鄭氏延為師，閱十年退居白鹿山，戴棕冠，披羊裘，帶經耕煙雨間，嘯歌自樂，因自號白鹿生。 太祖既下浙東，命欒鳳知州事。 鳳請為州學師，恆固讓不起。 鳳乃命州中子弟即家問道。 政有缺失，輒貽書咨訪。 後唐鐸知紹興，欲辟起之，復固辭。 宋濂之為學士也，擬薦為國子師，聞不受州郡辟命，乃已。 恆性醇篤，與人語，出肺肝相示。 事稍乖名義，輒峻言指斥。 家無儋石，而臨財甚介，鄉人奉為楷法焉。
Yang Heng, courtesy name Benchu, was a native of Zhuji. His mother's clan, the Fang family, built a charity school and housed traveling scholars from every quarter. Heng went there as a boy to study the classics and always grasped their essentials at once. His writing was austere and refined, and his reputation spread throughout the district. The Zheng family of Pujiang invited him to serve as their teacher. After ten years he retired to Bailu Mountain, wore a palm-fiber cap and sheepskin cloak, carried the classics while farming amid mist and rain, and sang for his own delight. He styled himself the Man of White Deer. After the Taizu had pacified eastern Zhejiang, he appointed Luan Feng to administer the prefecture. Feng asked him to serve as teacher of the prefectural school, but Heng firmly declined and would not accept. Feng then ordered the young men of the prefecture to come to Heng's home to study the Way. Whenever governance fell short, Feng would send letters seeking his counsel. Later, when Tang Duo governed Shaoxing, he wished to summon Heng to office, but Heng again firmly declined. When Song Lian became a Hanlin academician, he planned to recommend Heng as teacher of the National University, but hearing that he would accept no appointment from prefecture or district, he let the matter drop. Heng was by nature sincere and earnest; in conversation he laid bare his heart without reserve. Whenever a matter fell even slightly short of right principle, he would rebuke it in stern words. His household held scarcely a bushel of grain, yet he was scrupulous in the face of wealth, and the villagers took him as their standard of conduct.
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時有陳洄者，義烏人。 幼治經，長通百家言。 初欲以功名顯，既而隱居，戴青霞冠，披白鹿裘，不復與塵事接。 所居近大溪，多修竹，自號竹溪逸民。 常乘小艇，吹短簫，吹已，叩舷而歌，悠然自適。 宋濂俱為之傳。
At the time there was also Chen Hui, a native of Yiwu. In youth he studied the classics; as an adult he mastered the teachings of the hundred schools. At first he wished to win fame through official achievement; later he withdrew from the world, wore the azure-cloud cap and white-deer cloak, and would have no more dealings with worldly affairs. His dwelling lay beside a great stream surrounded by tall bamboo, and he styled himself the Recluse of Bamboo Stream. He often took a small boat, played a short flute, and when he finished would strike the gunwale and sing, utterly content in his own world. Song Lian wrote biographies for both Yang Heng and Chen Hui.
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楊引，吉水人。 好學能詩文，為宋濂、陶安所稱。 駙馬都尉陸賢從受學，入朝，舉止端雅。 太祖喜，問誰教者，賢以引對，立召見，賜食。 他日，賢以褻服見，引太息曰：「是其心易我，不可久居此矣。」 復以纂修征，亦不就。 其教學者，先操履而後文藝。 嘗揭《論語鄉黨》篇示人曰：「吾教自有養生術，安事偃仰吐納為。」 乃節飲食，時動息，迄老視聽不衰。 既歿，安福劉球稱其學探道原，文范後世，去就出處，卓然有陶潛、徐穉之風。
Yang Yin was a native of Jishui. He loved learning and was accomplished in poetry and prose, and was praised by Song Lian and Tao An. The imperial son-in-law Lu Xian studied under him, and when Xian entered court his bearing was dignified and refined. The Taizu was pleased and asked who had taught him. Xian named Yin, and Yin was immediately summoned to audience and given a meal. Another day Xian came to see him in informal dress. Yin sighed deeply and said: "His heart has turned away from me—I cannot remain here much longer. When he was summoned again to join the compilation project, he again refused. In teaching his students, he put conduct before literary accomplishment. He once displayed the Xiangdang chapter of the Analects to others and said: "My teaching has its own way of nurturing life—why bother with breathing exercises and postures? He regulated his food and drink and kept regular movement and rest, and to the end of his life his sight and hearing never failed. After his death, Liu Qiu of Anfu praised his learning for probing the origin of the Way, his writing as a model for later ages, and his conduct in withdrawal and emergence as bearing the unmistakable spirit of Tao Qian and Xu Zhi.
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吳海，字朝宗，閩縣人。 元季以學行稱。 值四方盜起，絕意仕進。 洪武初，守臣欲薦諸朝，力辭免。 既而徵詣史局，復力辭。 嘗言：「楊、墨、釋、老，聖道之賊，管、商、申、韓，治道之賊，稗官野乘，正史之賊，支詞艷說，文章之賊。 上之人，宜敕通經大臣，會諸儒定其品目，頒之天下，民間非此不得輒藏，坊市不得輒粥。 如是數年，學者生長不涉異聞，其於養德育才，豈曰小補。」 因著書一編曰《書禍》，以發明之。 與永福王翰善。 翰嘗仕元，海數勸之死，翰果自裁。 海教養其子偁，卒底成立。 平居虛懷樂善，有規過者，欣然立改，因顏其齋曰聞過。 為文嚴整典雅，一歸諸理，後學咸宗仰之。 有《聞過齋集》行世。
Wu Hai, courtesy name Chaozong, was a native of Min County. In the late Yuan he was famed for learning and conduct. When bandits rose throughout the realm, he abandoned all thought of an official career. In the early Hongwu period the local officials wished to recommend him to court, but he firmly declined. Later he was summoned to the historiography bureau and again firmly declined. He once said: "Yang Zhu, Mozi, Buddhism, and Daoism are enemies of the sage's Way; Guan Zhong, Shang Yang, Shen Buhai, and Han Fei are enemies of good governance; unofficial histories and wild records are enemies of orthodox history; florid and seductive writings are enemies of true literature. Those in authority should order great ministers versed in the classics to assemble the Confucian scholars, fix the approved categories of books, and promulgate them throughout the realm, so that the people may not keep what is not on the list and markets may not sell what is forbidden. If this were done for several years, scholars would grow up untouched by heterodox learning. In nurturing virtue and forming talent, would this not be a great benefit? He therefore wrote a book in one fascicle called Writings as Calamity to expound this view. He was on good terms with Wang Han of Yongfu. Han had once served the Yuan. Hai repeatedly urged him to take his own life, and Han did so. Hai raised and educated Han's son Cheng, who in the end grew into a fully accomplished man. In daily life he was open-minded and delighted in doing good. When someone pointed out a fault, he gladly corrected it at once, and named his study Hearing Fault. His writing was austere, orderly, and elegant, always grounded in principle, and later students all looked up to him as a model. His collected works, the Hearing Fault Studio Collection, circulated in his day.
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劉閔，字子賢，莆田人。 生而純愨。 早孤，絕意科舉，求古聖賢禔躬訓家之法，率而行之。 祖母及父喪未舉，斷酒肉，遠室家。 訓鄰邑，朔望歸，則號哭殯所，如是三年。 婦失愛於母，出之，獨居奉養，疾不解衣。 母或恚怒，則整衣竟夕跪榻前。 祭享奠獻，一循古禮，鄉人莫不欽重。 副使羅璟立社學，構養親堂，延閔為師。 提學僉事周孟中捐俸助養。 知府王弼每祭廟社，必延致齋居，曰：「此人在座，私意自消。」 置田二十余畝贍之，並受不辭。 及母歿，即送田還官，廬墓三年。 弟婦求分產，閔闔戶自撾，婦感悟乃已。
Liu Min, courtesy name Zixian, was a native of Putian. From birth he was pure and sincere. Orphaned early, he abandoned the civil examinations, sought out the ways in which ancient sages cultivated themselves and instructed their households, and followed them in all things. His grandmother and father had died but their funerals had not yet been performed. He abstained from wine and meat and kept away from wife and home. He taught in a neighboring district, but on the first and fifteenth of each month he returned home and wailed at the place where the coffins lay. He did this for three years. When his wife fell out of his mother's favor, he sent her away and lived alone to care for his mother. When his mother was ill, he never removed his clothes. When his mother grew angry, he would straighten his clothes and kneel all night before her couch. In sacrifices and offerings he followed the ancient rites in every detail, and the villagers all held him in reverence. Vice Commissioner Luo Jing established a community school, built a Hall for Nurturing Parents, and invited Min to serve as teacher. Education Intendant Zhou Mengzhong donated his salary to help support Min's mother. Whenever Prefect Wang Bi performed sacrifices at the temple and altar of soil and grain, he would invite Min to join him in ritual fasting, saying: "With this man present, private motives naturally vanish. Wang set aside more than twenty mu of fields to support him, and Min accepted the gift without declining. When his mother died, he immediately returned the fields to the government and lived in a mourning hut beside her tomb for three years. His younger brother's wife sought to divide the family property. Min shut the door and beat himself in remonstrance, and the woman, moved to repentance, desisted.
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楊黼，雲南太和人也。 好學，讀《五經》皆百遍。 工篆籀，好釋典。 或勸其應舉，笑曰：「不理性命，理外物耶？」 庭前有大桂樹，縛板樹上，題曰桂樓。 偃仰其中，歌詩自得。 躬耕數畝供甘膬，但求親悅，不顧余也。 注《孝經》數萬言，證群書，根性命，字皆小篆。 所用硯乾，將下樓取水，硯池忽滿，自是為常，時人咸異之。 父母歿，為傭營葬畢，入雞足，棲羅漢壁石窟山十餘年，壽至八十。 子遜迎歸，一日沐浴，令子孫拜，曰：「明日吾行矣。」 果卒。
Yang Fu was a native of Taihe in Yunnan. He loved learning and read each of the Five Classics a hundred times. He was skilled in seal and ancient script and fond of Buddhist scriptures. When someone urged him to take the civil examinations, he laughed and said: "If one does not put one's nature and fate in order, is one putting external things in order? Before his courtyard stood a great cassia tree. He bound boards in its branches and inscribed it Cassia Tower. He lay back within it, singing poetry in perfect contentment. He personally farmed several mu to provide savory food for his parents, seeking only their delight and caring for nothing else. He annotated the Classic of Filial Piety in tens of thousands of words, citing books from every tradition and grounding it in nature and fate. Every character was written in small seal script. Once, when his inkstone had dried and he was about to go downstairs for water, the ink pool suddenly filled. After that it happened constantly, and people of the time all marveled at it. When his parents died he worked as a hired laborer until their burial was complete, then entered Chicken Foot Mountain and lived in the stone grottoes of Luohan Cliff for more than ten years. He lived to the age of eighty. His son Xun welcomed him home. One day he bathed, had his descendants bow before him, and said: "Tomorrow I depart. And so he died.
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孫一元
Sun Yiyuan
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孫一元，字太初，不知何許人，問其邑里，曰：「我秦人也。」 嘗棲太白之巔，故號太白山人。 或曰安化王宗人，王坐不軌誅，故變姓名避難也。 一元姿性絕人，善為詩，風儀秀朗，蹤跡奇譎，烏巾白帢，攜鐵笛鶴瓢，遍游中原，東逾齊、魯，南涉江、淮，歷荊抵吳越，所至賦詩，談神仙，論當世事，往往傾其座人。 鉛山費宏罷相，訪之杭州南屏山，值其晝寢，就臥內與語。 送之及門，了不酬答。 宏出語人曰：「吾一生未嘗見此人。」 時劉麟以知府罷歸，龍霓以僉事謝政，並客湖州，與郡人故御史陵昆善，而長興吳珫隱居好客，三人者並主於其家。 珫因招一元入社，稱「苕溪五隱」。 一元買田溪上，將老焉。 舉人施侃雅善一元，妻以妻妹張氏，生一女而卒，年止三十七。 珫等葬之道場山。
Sun Yiyuan, courtesy name Taichu, was of unknown origin. When asked where he came from, he said: "I am a man of Qin. He once lived on the summit of Mount Taibai and therefore styled himself the Man of Taibai Mountain. Some say he was a clansman of the Prince of Anhua. When the prince was executed for sedition, he changed his name to escape persecution. Yiyuan's gifts were extraordinary. He was skilled in poetry, his bearing elegant and bright, his tracks strange and uncanny. In a black cap and white headcloth, carrying an iron flute and a wine gourd, he traveled throughout the central plains, east beyond Qi and Lu, south across the Yangtze and Huai, through Jing to Wu and Yue. Wherever he went he composed poetry, spoke of immortals, and discussed affairs of the age, often overwhelming everyone seated with him. Fei Hong of Qianshan, having left the chancellorship, visited him at Nanping Mountain in Hangzhou. Finding him asleep in broad daylight, Hong spoke with him there in his bed. When Yiyuan escorted him to the door, he made no reply at all. Hong went out and told others: "In all my life I have never met a man like this. At the time Liu Lin had returned home after leaving office as prefect, and Long Ni had retired from his post as commissioner. Both were staying in Huzhou and were friendly with the former censor Ling Kun of the prefecture, while Wu Qiong of Changxing lived in seclusion and loved to entertain guests. All three presided as hosts in Qiong's home. Qiong therefore invited Yiyuan into their circle and called them the Five Recluses of Tiaoxi. Yiyuan bought fields beside the stream and planned to grow old there. The juren Shi Kan was on excellent terms with Yiyuan and gave him his wife's younger sister, née Zhang, in marriage. She bore a daughter and then died. Yiyuan was only thirty-seven. Qiong and the others buried him on Mount Daochang.
15
沈周，字啟南，長洲人。 祖澄，永樂間舉人材，不就。 所居曰西庄，日置酒款賓，人擬之顧仲瑛。 伯父貞吉，父恆吉，並抗隱。 構有竹居，兄弟讀書其中。 工詩善畫，臧獲亦解文墨。 邑人陳孟賢者，陳五經繼之子也。 周少從之游，得其指授。 年十一，游南都，作百韻詩，上巡撫侍郎崔恭。 面試《鳳凰台賦》，援筆立就，恭大嗟異。 及長，書無所不覽。 文摹左氏，詩擬白居易、蘇軾、陸游，字仿黃庭堅，併為世所愛重。 尤工於畫，評者謂為明世第一。
Shen Zhou, courtesy name Qinan, was a native of Changzhou. His grandfather Cheng was recommended as a man of talent in the Yongle era but refused to accept office. His dwelling was called West Manor. Each day he set out wine to entertain guests, and people compared him to Gu Zhongying. His father's elder brother Zhenji and his father Hengji both refused office and lived in seclusion. They built the Bamboo Dwelling, where the brothers studied together. They were skilled in poetry and painting, and even the household servants understood letters and brushwork. A townsman named Chen Mengxian was the son of Chen Jizhi, master of the Five Classics. Zhou studied under him in youth and received his instruction. At the age of eleven he traveled to the southern capital, composed a poem in a hundred rhymes, and presented it to Surveillance Commissioner Cui Gong. Gong tested him in person on the Rhapsody of Phoenix Terrace. Zhou took up the brush and finished at once, and Gong marveled greatly. When he grew up, there was no book he did not read. His prose modeled Zuo Qiuming, his poetry Bai Juyi, Su Shi, and Lu You, and his calligraphy Huang Tingjian. All were loved and esteemed in his day. He was especially skilled in painting, and critics called him the finest painter of the Ming age.
16
郡守欲薦周賢良，周筮《易》，得《遁》之九五，遂決意隱遁。 所居有水竹亭館之勝，圖書鼎彝充牣錯列，四方名士過從無虛日，風流文彩，照映一時。 奉親至孝。 父歿，或勸之仕，對曰：「若不知母氏以我為命耶？ 奈何離膝下。」 居恆厭入城市，於郭外置行窩，有事一造之。 晚年，匿跡惟恐不深，先後巡撫王恕、彭禮咸禮敬之，欲留幕下，並以母老辭。
The prefect wished to recommend Zhou as a worthy and able man. Zhou divined with the Book of Changes and obtained the fifth line of Dun, and so resolved to withdraw from the world. His dwelling had the beauty of water, bamboo, pavilions, and halls. Books, bronzes, and ritual vessels filled it in profusion. Famous men from every quarter visited without a vacant day, and his elegant literary brilliance illuminated the age. In serving his parents he was supremely filial. When his father died, some urged him to take office. He replied: "Do you not know that my mother lives for me alone? How could I leave her side? He always disliked entering the city and set up a traveling hut outside the wall. When he had business in town, he would go there only once. In his later years he hid his tracks, fearing they were not deep enough. The surveillance commissioners Wang Shu and Peng Li in succession treated him with ritual respect and wished to keep him on their staffs, but he declined both on the grounds that his mother was old.
17
有郡守征畫工繪屋壁。 裡人疾周者，入其姓名，遂被攝。 或勸周謁貴游以免，周曰：「往役，義也，謁貴游，不更辱乎！」 卒供役而還。 已而守入覲，銓曹問曰：「沈先生無恙乎？」 守不知所對，漫應曰：「無恙。」 見內閣，李東陽曰：「沈先生有牘乎？」 守益愕，復漫應曰：「有而未至。」 守出，倉皇謁侍郎吳寬，問「沈先生何人？」 寬備言其狀。 詢左右，乃畫壁生也。 比還，謁周舍，再拜引咎，索飯，飯之而去。 周以母故，終身不遠游。 母年九十九而終，周亦八十矣。 又三年，以正德四年卒。
A prefect summoned painters to decorate the walls of a building. A villager who bore ill will toward Zhou entered his name on the roster, and Zhou was seized for corvée labor. Some urged Zhou to visit powerful patrons to escape service. Zhou said: "Going to perform labor is one's duty. Visiting powerful patrons—would that not be a greater shame? In the end he completed the labor service and returned home. Later the prefect went to audience in the capital, and the Board of Personnel asked: "Is Master Shen well? The prefect did not know how to answer and casually replied: "He is well." When he met the Grand Secretariat, Li Dongyang said: "Has Master Shen sent a memorial?" The prefect was still more astonished and again answered casually: "There is one, but it has not yet arrived." After leaving the audience, the prefect hurried to visit Vice Minister Wu Kuan and asked: "Who is Master Shen?" Kuan described him in full detail. Inquiring of those beside him, the prefect learned that he was the wall-painting laborer. When he returned home, he visited Zhou's house, bowed twice and acknowledged his fault, asked for a meal, was fed, and left. Because of his mother, Zhou never traveled far in all his life. His mother died at the age of ninety-nine, and Zhou was also eighty. Three years later, in the fourth year of Zhengde, he died.
18
陳繼儒
Chen Jiru
19
陳繼儒，字仲醇，松江華亭人。 幼穎異，能文章，同郡徐階特器重之。 長為諸生，與董其昌齊名。 太倉王錫爵招與子衡讀書支硎山。 王世貞亦雅重繼儒，三吳名下士爭欲得為師友。 繼儒通明高邁，年甫二十九，取儒衣冠焚棄之。 隱居昆山之陽，構廟祀二陸，草堂數椽，焚香晏坐，意豁如也。 時錫山顧憲成講學東林，招之，謝弗往。 親亡，葬神山麓，遂築室東佘山，杜門著述，有終焉之志。 工詩善文，短翰小詞，皆極風致，兼能繪事。 又博文強識，經史諸子、術伎稗官與二氏家言，靡不較核。 或刺取瑣言僻事，詮次成書，遠近競相購寫。 征請詩文者無虛日。 性喜獎掖士類，屨常滿戶外，片言酬應，莫不當意去。 暇則與黃冠老衲窮峰泖之勝，吟嘯忘返，足跡罕入城市。 其昌為築來仲樓招之至。 黃道周疏稱「志尚高雅，博學多通，不如繼儒」，其推重如此。 侍郎沈演及御史、給事中諸朝貴，先後論薦，謂繼儒道高齒茂，宜如聘吳與弼故事。 屢奉詔征用，皆以疾辭。 卒年八十二，自為遺令，纖悉畢具。
Chen Jiru, courtesy name Zhongchun, was a native of Huating in Songjiang. In youth he was exceptionally bright and able to write essays. Xu Jie of the same prefecture especially valued him. As an adult he became a student and was equally famed with Dong Qichang. Wang Xijue of Taicang invited him to study on Mount Zhijin with his son Heng. Wang Shizhen also greatly esteemed Jiru, and celebrated gentlemen of the Three Wu all vied to have him as teacher or friend. Jiru was clear-sighted and lofty in spirit. At only twenty-nine he took his Confucian cap and robes and burned them. He lived in seclusion on the south slope of Kunshan, built a shrine to the two Lu brothers, and had a thatched hall of several bays where he burned incense and sat at ease, his mind broad and clear. At the time Gu Xiancheng of Wuxi lectured at the Donglin Academy and invited him, but Jiru declined. When his parents died he buried them at the foot of Mount Shen, then built a house on East She Mountain, shut his door to write, and resolved to end his days there. He was skilled in poetry and prose. His short letters and brief lyrics all reached the utmost elegance, and he could also paint. Moreover he was broadly learned and had a powerful memory. The classics and histories, the masters, technical arts, unofficial histories, and the teachings of Buddhism and Daoism—none escaped his careful examination. Sometimes he culled trivial anecdotes and obscure matters, arranged them into books, and readers near and far all vied to purchase and copy them. Not a day passed without someone seeking his poetry or prose. By nature he delighted in encouraging scholars. Visitors' shoes often filled the space outside his door, and with even a brief reply none failed to depart satisfied. In his leisure he joined Daoist priests and old monks to explore the beauties of peaks and the Mao waterways, chanting and whistling until he forgot to return. His footsteps rarely entered the city. Qichang built the Laizhong Tower to invite him there. Huang Daozhou in a memorial praised him as having "lofty and elegant aspirations, broad learning and wide accomplishment—none equal to Jiru." Such was the esteem in which he was held. Vice Minister Shen Yan and various eminent officials among censors and supervising secretaries successively recommended him, saying Jiru's Way was lofty and his years advanced, and that he should be invited as Wu Yubi had been. He received repeated imperial summons to office, but each time declined on grounds of illness. He died at the age of eighty-two, having drawn up his own final instructions down to the last detail.