Zhou Zizhi

Life

Born into poverty, he studied diligently. He sat the Ministry of Rites examination twice in his early years but failed both times; in 1127, the first year of Jianyan, he answered an imperial summons by submitting a memorial.

In 1142, the twelfth year of Shaoxing, he passed the jinshi examination, placed third in the palace examination, and entered official life at the age of sixty-one. An examination entry confirms his jinshi status but gives 1112 as the indexed year, conflicting with 1142.

In 1145, as a Di Gong Lang, he served in the jia-ge offices of the Ministries of Rites and War. In 1147, as a Chengyi Lang, he became a redactor in the Office for Revising Regulations and an editor in the Privy Council; he was soon promoted to Right Xuanjiao Lang and concurrently appointed an editor in the Institute for Veritable Records.

His offices also included Auxiliary Officer in the Right Department of the Secretariat and Reviewing Editor in the Institute for Veritable Records. The date of his appointment as prefect of Xingguo Army is disputed: one account places it in Shaoxing 21 (1153), while another gives a term from 1157 to 1160. His administration favored simplicity and quiet.

After completing his term, he retired under a shrine appointment or sought retirement, settled at Mount Lu in Jiujiang, and spent his final years there. His death is variously placed at the end of Shaoxing, around 1155, or left unknown; the first account says that he was nearly eighty.

Zhou wrote prefaces for works by Wang Anzhong, Zhao Gou, Wang Xiangru, and Liu Jing. The Taicang Timi Collection had prefaces by Tang Wenruo and Chen Tianlin, and Zhou was also a member of a poetry society with Lei Feiqing, Zhang Yuanming, and Luo Zhong.

Poetry and works

Zhou wrote poetry and ci verse, admired Mei Yaochen and Su Shi, and argued that poetic composition should first observe strict tonal patterns and only then attend to syntax; he was described as a later force in the Su–Huang literary lineage.

Many poems in his collection flatter Qin Hui and his son, leading to the condemnation that he was “old and shameless, a stain upon the annals.”

His works include the seventy-juan Taicang Timi Collection, whose title derives from Huang Tingjian’s words “Writing is truly but a single grain of millet in the great granary”; the title is also found as Taicang Timi written with a different Chinese character. Other works include Shiyan in one juan, Ancient and Modern Songs of Various Masters in thirty juan, Mao Shi Jieyi, and the three-juan Zhupo ci collection, also found under the title Zhupo Laoren ci. His poetry treatise appears as Zhupo Shihua in one juan and also as Zhupo Laoren Shihua in three juan.