Zhi Dalun

Life and career

His great-grandfather was 支立, his grandfather was 支高, his father was 支祿, and his mother was 顧氏. His elder brothers were 支大緒, 支大烈, and 支大經; his younger brother was 支可大, and his wife was 嚴氏.

His educational and examination record includes the status of shengyuan, the xianggong juren qualification, and the jinshi degree. In 1574, the second year of the Wanli reign, he passed as a jinshi in the third class, 183rd place.

After serving provisionally in the Xicao (西曹), he was appointed professor at the Nanchang Prefecture School. In 1576, the fourth year of the Wanli reign, he became judicial officer of Quanzhou Prefecture; the following year, in the Hong Chaoxuan case, he was demoted to liwen in the Jiangxi Provincial Administration.

Seven years later, he was appointed to the Jiangxi provincial staff and became magistrate of Fengxin. After again falling out with his superiors, he turned back and withdrew from office, living in retirement and writing.

During his Xicao service, when Jiangling held power, white swallows and red lotuses were presented as auspicious omens. Dalun protested that high officials should not call them auspicious, arguing that the white swallow presaged warfare and that a lotus blooming out of season was a “grass demon.” When the minister Hong Chaoxuan incurred Jiangling’s displeasure and faced prosecution, Dalun wrote a letter setting out the principles of Heaven and human affairs and opposing the wrongful killing of a high official to curry favor; Jiangling’s resentment deepened, and Dalun was dismissed.

He was a friend of Yuan Huang, and the two were known together as “支袁”; he was also a friend of Xu Shang.

Works and posthumous name

His works included 《世穆兩朝編年史》 and 《華平先生集》. The latter is in forty juan with a one-juan appendix and also appears under the title 《華苹集》. He also compiled 《永昭兩陵史》, 《屯餘》, and 《耕餘》, and the Huaping collection circulated.

He died in 1604, the thirty-second year of the Wanli reign, at the age of seventy-one. His disciples privately bestowed on him the posthumous title Wenjie Xiansheng (“文介先生”).