Zhou Xingsi was an official and writer of the Liang dynasty. Chapter 49 of the Book of Liang says that Zhou Xingsi, courtesy name Zhizuan, was from Xiang in Chen commandery. Wikidata gives the name in traditional characters with the English label Zhou Xingsi, so the heading stays the personal name. The structured record gives 470 to 521, while the body of the Chinese Wikipedia article writes the birth year as 469.[1][3][2]
Origins and study
The Book of Liang says he was a descendant of Zhou Kan, grand tutor of the Han crown prince, and that his great-great-grandfather Zhou Ning was a staff officer and grand administrator of Yidu under the Jin. The family lived for generations at Gushu. At thirteen he went to the capital to study and spent more than ten years there, becoming widely learned in the records and skilled at writing. The biography also preserves a tale: while walking from Gushu he stayed at an inn, and in the night a man said to him that his talent exceeded his age, that he would first be recognized by a noble minister and in the end be known by an enlightened ruler, and then disappeared.[3]
Career
In the Longchang era of Qi, the palace attendant Xie Fei was grand administrator of Wuxing and spoke with him only of literature and history. After Xie Fei finished his term and returned, he praised and recommended him greatly. His home province recommended him as a flourishing talent and he became assistant administrator of Guiyang, where the administrator Wang Rong treated him generously. After Emperor Gaozu founded the Liang, Zhou Xingsi presented the Rhapsody on Peace and Rest, which was very beautiful and pleased the emperor. He was made gentleman attendant to the Prince of Ancheng and was posted at the Hualin office. That year, when Henan presented dancing horses, the emperor ordered him, with Dao Kang and Zhang Shuai, to write rhapsodies, and judged his the best. He was promoted to supernumerary mounted attendant and posted to the Wende and Shouguang offices. When the emperor turned his old house at Sanqiao into the Guangzhai temple, he ordered Zhou Xingsi and Lu Chui each to write the temple stele, and when both were presented he used Zhou Xingsi's. After that the Inscription on the Bronze Tablet, the Stele of the Zhe Pond, the Proclamation for the Northern Campaign, and the verse arrangement of a thousand characters of Wang Xizhi's writing were all assigned to him, and each time the emperor praised them and added gifts of gold and silk. In the ninth year he became assistant administrator of Xin'an, and after his term he again served as supernumerary mounted attendant, helping to compile the state history. In the twelfth year he became palace attendant and went on writing as before.[3]
Illness and death
The Book of Liang says that both his hands already suffered from sores and wind disease, and that in that year he caught a malignant illness and went blind in the left eye. The emperor stroked his hand and sighed, saying that such a man should have such an illness. He wrote out a remedy for the sores with his own hand and gave it to him. Ren Fang loved his talent and often said that if Zhou Xingsi had not been ill he would have reached censor-in-chief within ten days. In the fourteenth year he became assistant administrator of Linchuan, and in the seventeenth he was again palace attendant, posted at the western office, where the guard commander Zhou She, ordered to annotate the emperor's rhapsodies of past ages, asked for his help. He died in the second year of Putong. His works included the Imperial Veritable Record, Record of the Emperor's Virtue, Diary of Activity and Duties and Ceremonies, over a hundred chapters in all, and a collected works in ten chapters.[3]
The Thousand Character Classic
The Verse Arrangement of a Thousand Characters of Wang Xizhi's Writing named in the Book of Liang is what later came to be called the Thousand Character Classic. The Chinese Wikipedia article says that, according to the records, he put it together in a single night and that his hair turned white from the strain, and that the work has endured.[3][2]