Lu Shusheng

Life

As a young man, he worked the fields and studied in his spare time. In 1540, he ranked fifth in the Yingtian provincial examination; in 1541, he ranked first in the metropolitan examination and received a second-rank result in the palace examination. The palace result is also specified as fourth place within the second rank; he then resumed the surname Lu and entered the Hanlin Academy as a shujishi.

After completing his mourning, he was appointed a compiler in the twenty-fourth year of the Jiajing reign. He returned home in 1552 and was later recalled as an assistant director of the Nanjing Imperial Academy. In the forty-third year of Jiajing, he became zuo chunfang zuo yude and took charge of Nanjing Hanlin Academy affairs, while also serving as a Hanlin reader and managing imperial edicts; in the following years he became a minister of the Taichang Temple, managed the Nanjing Imperial Academy, and served as Vice Minister of Personnel concurrently with a Hanlin academician appointment.

In the first year of Longqing (1567), illness prevented him from taking office, and he requested leave to recuperate at home. He was restored to his original office the following year but again pleaded illness; in the third year of Longqing he was allowed to return home for treatment, recalled at the end of the year, and restored to the Lu surname while managing the Directorate of the Heir Apparent and teaching shujishi. In the fourth year of Longqing he again received leave because illness prevented him from taking office. In the sixth year of Longqing (1572) he was promoted in July to Minister of Rites concurrently with a Hanlin academician appointment, took office in the first year of Wanli (1573), and submitted five memorials requesting retirement in December; he was granted post-horse transportation home and was later recalled after recovering.

While overseeing the Nanjing Imperial Academy, he enforced academic regulations and personally drafted twelve articles to instruct and encourage the students. He was retiring by temperament and refused to curry favor with powerful figures. When Zhang Juzheng was in power, he sought to recruit Lu Shusheng for important service, but Lu remained aloof. Lu Shusheng also memorialized on disasters in the four regions and submitted ten discussions of current affairs in forthright language; his formal career covered sixty-four years, with repeated requests for leave and fewer than ten years of service in the two capitals.

He died in the seventh month of the thirty-third year of Wanli (1605), at the age of ninety-seven. He was posthumously granted the title Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent (太子太保) and the posthumous name Wending (文定); he also held the title Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent (太子少保). His younger brother was Lu Shude, and his son was Lu Yanzhang. Yanzhang, whose courtesy name was Boda, passed the metropolitan examination in the jichou year of Wanli, was appointed an usher, sought to retire after two years of service to care for his aged father, and later rose to Vice Minister of Justice in Nanjing; he was accomplished in poetry and prose and skilled in calligraphy.

Works

While serving at the Imperial Academy, Lu Shusheng personally drafted the twelve articles entitled 《國學訓諸生十二條》. He was an enthusiastic tea drinker and wrote 《茶寮記》 and 《煎茶七類》, as well as 《清暑筆談》. His other works include 《適園語錄》, 《長水日鈔》, 《陸學士雜著》, 《陸文定公集》, 《善俗裨議》, 《汲古叢語》, 《病榻寤言》, 《耄餘雜識》, 《陸學士題跋》, 《陸氏家訓》, 《適園雜著》, and 《禪林餘藻》.