Zhuang Chang

Life and career

Early records list him as a shengyuan (庠生) and a provincial recommended candidate; in Chenghua 2 (1466) he passed the jinshi examination, ranking 50th in the third class, was selected as a shujishi, and appointed a Hanlin Academy Compiler.

While serving as a Hanlin compiler, he joined the compilers Zhang Mao and Huang Zhongzhao in memorializing against lantern displays in the inner court; after offending the emperor, he received twenty strokes at court, was demoted to the prefectural judge of Guiyang, and then transferred to Vice Director of the Office of Transmission in Nanjing.

After his mother's death he entered mourning, and after his father's death he was overcome with grief; he lived at Dingshan for more than twenty years.

In Hongzhi 7 (1494), a recommendation brought an imperial order recalling him to office: he resumed as Vice Director of the Office of Transmission and was later promoted to a langzhong of the Nanjing Ministry of Personnel; from Hongzhi 8 through 10 (1495–1497), he served as langzhong of its Office of Seal Verification.

The following year he sought retirement because of illness, but the ministry did not forward the request; at the next metropolitan review, Minister Ni Yue dismissed him for age and illness, and he died after two years in retirement.

Family and associations

His father was 莊詡 and his mother 任氏; his great-grandfather was 莊武, while his grandfather's name appears as 莊志甫 or 莊智甫.

His elder brothers were 莊文, 莊顒, and 莊昂.

His younger brothers were 莊旻, 莊昊, 莊昱, 莊晟, 莊晏, 莊昇, 莊杲, and 莊昪.

His wife was 李氏; his sons were 莊介, 莊仝, 莊全, and 莊會, and his son-in-law was 張織.

His friends included 陳獻章, 羅倫, and 徐志文.

Literature and learning

He deliberately cultivated poetry and was skilled in prose; his prose often expounded the meaning of the Taiji diagram, while his verse often adopted the manner of the Jichang Collection.

He already had a reputation for poetry before passing the examination, composing with painstaking refinement and sometimes taking days to complete a stanza; in old age his verse became more exuberant and departed from established forms.

His poetry collection was printed during his lifetime, and some of his late poems were considered fine enough to stand beside those of the Tang poets; criticism also included judgments that his weaker passages were rustic.

Works and posthumous title

His works include the ten-volume *Dingshan ji*, also known as the ten-volume *Dingshan xiansheng ji*; the title *Zhuang Dingshan ji* is also found.

At the beginning of the Tianqi era, he was posthumously given the title Wenjie.