Hu Zhu

Life

Hu Zhu was fond of reading and was richly endowed with literary talent. He was slight in build, as though unable to bear his clothes. His career involved both recommendatory recruitment and selection through the maocai, caixing, wugong, and lianren categories; after selection as a maocai, he was appointed academic registrar in the Jiankang Route, a post also styled 諸路總管府學錄. He was recommended for appointment as a compiler in the Hanlin National History Institute, promoted to xiuzhuan, and later retired as a Taichang boshi (太常禮儀院博士) and died.

Other offices included instructor at a county school, professor of Confucian learning in the regional supervisory offices, head of an academy, and manager of the archival storehouse of the Six Ministries (管勾尚書六部架閣庫). During Wu Cheng Boqing’s visit to Jinling, he saw Hu Zhu’s poetry and prose and praised them highly, comparing Hu’s five- and seven-character old-style and regulated verse to newly sprouting orchids and bamboo still sheathed, refreshed by dew and rain, fragrant and pure.

Hu Zhu instructed that no one should be asked to write his xingzhuang or epitaph; Ye Jinweng was his friend and wrote his xingzhuang. Wang Shidian was his student; Hu Zhu wrote prefaces for works by Wu Lai and Zhang Yining and exchanged poems with Xu Qian and Huang Jin.

Works

His writings appear under two titles, Pure White Studio Literary Collection (《純白齋類稿》) and Pure White Literary Collection (《純白類稿》), the latter in thirty juan. He also wrote Lanpo xiaolu (《鑾坡小錄》) and his own Pure White Master’s Biography (《純白先生傳》).

Family

His father was Hu Youzhi (胡祐之), and his wife was Chen (陳氏; 1271–1346). His father-in-law was Chen AA (陳AA), and his mother-in-law was Xu (徐氏). He had a daughter whose husband was Chen (陳槱); his eldest son, Hu Zhang (胡璋), is also identified as a son of a concubine. An adopted son, Hu Yu (胡瑜), was born in 1309; he is also called Ziyu (子瑜), courtesy name Jicheng (季城), held a post in the Hangzhou Route archives, was accomplished in poetry and prose, and had a collection titled Zhenshan cungo (《甑山存稿》).