Ming · Painter Poet Calligrapher and Hermit

Shen Zhou 沈周

Attested AD 1509

Passages: 13
Chapters: 1
Histories: 1

Overview

The translated histories identify Shen Zhou as a calligrapher, hermit, painter, and poet. This record brings together 13 passages from 1 chapter across 1 history, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Shen Zhou	沈周	Shen Zhou
Title	Master Shen	沈先生
Courtesy	Qinan	啟南	Qinan

Identity

Historicity: Historical
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Strongly inferred · mingshi:298:s0144

Roles

Calligrapher
Hermit
Painter
Poet

Life and dates

Death

Age: 83
Strongly inferred · mingshi:298:s0177, mingshi:298:s0178

Age

Age: 80 · Reckoning: sui
Explicit · mingshi:298:s0177

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: 正德四年 · Western Year: AD 1509
Explicit · mingshi:298:s0178

Family

Immediate source-linked family. Drag to pan, scroll or pinch to zoom, and select a person to open their record.

Descendant of Shen Cheng (沈澄)
Kinship Term: grandfather / 祖 · Generation Distance: 2 · Line: paternal
Kin of Shen Zhenji (沈貞吉)
Kinship Term: father's elder brother / 伯父 · Line: paternal
Child of Shen Hengji (沈恆吉)
Kinship Term: father / 父 · Parentage: biological
Child of Mother of Shen Zhou
Kinship Term: mother / 母 · Parentage: biological

Places and affiliations

Place: Changzhou / 長洲
Explicit · mingshi:298:s0144

Learning and skills

Skill: painting / 畫 · Level: Ming-first
Explicit · mingshi:298:s0156

Works and attributed material

Kind: speech · Role: speaker
Explicit · mingshi:298:s0160, mingshi:298:s0161, mingshi:298:s0166

Events and relationships

Kind: political · Role: refuser · Action: resolved-to-withdraw-after-divination
Explicit · mingshi:298:s0157
Kind: labor · Role: conscript · Action: wall-painting-corvee · Other Person Id: Prefect who conscripted Shen Zhou
Explicit · mingshi:298:s0164, mingshi:298:s0165, mingshi:298:s0167
Relation: student-of · Person Id: Chen Mengxian (陳孟賢)
Explicit · mingshi:298:s0151

Assessments and attributes

Assessment: finest-painter-of-Ming · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
Explicit · mingshi:298:s0156

References in the histories

Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.

History of Ming, Chapter 298Volume 298 Biographies 186: Recluses · 13 passages

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

沈周，字啟南，長洲人。 Shen Zhou, courtesy name Qinan, was a native of Changzhou.

周少從之游，得其指授。 Zhou studied under him in youth and received his instruction.

面試《鳳凰台賦》，援筆立就，恭大嗟異。 Gong tested him in person on the Rhapsody of Phoenix Terrace. Zhou took up the brush and finished at once, and Gong marveled greatly.

郡守欲薦周賢良，周筮《易》，得《遁》之九五，遂決意隱遁。 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.

裡人疾周者，入其姓名，遂被攝。 A villager who bore ill will toward Zhou entered his name on the roster, and Zhou was seized for corvée labor.

或勸周謁貴游以免，周曰：「往役，義也，謁貴游，不更辱乎！」 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?"

已而守入覲，銓曹問曰：「沈先生無恙乎？」 Later the prefect went to audience in the capital, and the Board of Personnel asked: "Is Master Shen well?"

見內閣，李東陽曰：「沈先生有牘乎？」 When he met the Grand Secretariat, Li Dongyang said: "Has Master Shen sent a memorial?"

守出，倉皇謁侍郎吳寬，問「沈先生何人？」 After leaving the audience, the prefect hurried to visit Vice Minister Wu Kuan and asked: "Who is Master Shen?"

比還，謁周舍，再拜引咎，索飯，飯之而去。 When he returned home, he visited Zhou's house, bowed twice and acknowledged his fault, asked for a meal, was fed, and left.

周以母故，終身不遠游。 Because of his mother, Zhou never traveled far in all his life.

母年九十九而終，周亦八十矣。 His mother died at the age of ninety-nine, and Zhou was also eighty.