Zhang Shiche

Life

As a boy, he studied with an outside tutor and became a disciple of his kinsman Zhang Bangqi; he was already teaching at seventeen and studied Cheng–Zhu learning. One account says that he passed the provincial and jinshi examinations at twenty. Another account places him forty-seventh in the Zhejiang provincial examination of 1519, and in 1523 it places him seventy-first in the metropolitan examination and sixty-third in the second degree of the palace examination.

After becoming a jinshi in 1523, he was appointed a secretary in the Nanjing Ministry of Rites, and was promoted through the posts of yuanwailang and langzhong; in 1531 he became Jiangxi educational vice commissioner, later transferring to Shandong as a vice commissioner of the provincial surveillance administration. In 1535 he became a provincial administration assistant commissioner in Fujian, and subsequently served as surveillance commissioner in Yunnan, right provincial administration commissioner in Shandong and Huguang, and left provincial administration commissioner in Henan.

As Jiangxi educational vice commissioner, he selected talent and dismissed the unworthy with great severity, admitting no lobbying. After a palace-temple fire, detractors accused him of harsh treatment of students, and he was demoted to military commissioner at Linqing. After serving as left provincial administration commissioner in Henan, he was promoted to vice censor and governor of Sichuan, where he pacified the Baicao Fan; rumors later brought his dismissal, but he was subsequently recalled to govern Jiangxi.

In 1549 he was concurrently made vice minister of war and vice censor while governing Jiangxi; the following year he became vice minister of justice in Nanjing, returned to the Ministry of War as vice minister, and in 1552 became left vice minister. While in the Ministry of War, he advised Nie Bao to have Yan Song surrender his military reward rather than force the ministry clerks into a formal review of Yang Jisheng’s impeachment; he also refused to yield to the favored grand general Qiu Luan, and after Qiu’s death memorialized the injustice suffered by the censor Shang Dajie, for which he was reprimanded and lost two pay allotments.

During a period of mourning, Japanese raiders attacked the southern capital, and he was summoned in mourning dress to serve as Minister of War in Nanjing, assisting with military affairs. Just over a month after his arrival, the raiders attacked; the commander he sent failed to repel them, and he retired to his native place. He was promoted to Minister of War in Nanjing in 1555; accounts differ on whether he was fifty-three or fifty-five when he left office and returned home.

His great-grandfather was Zhang Shuyi and his grandfather was Zhang Gongyan. His kinsman Zhang Bangqi (1484–1544) was both a clan relative and his early teacher. His sons included Zhang Bangren, Zhang Bangdai, Zhang Bangtong, and Zhang Bangyi; his grandsons included Zhang Zixu, Zhang Zipeng, Zhang Zixiang, Zhang Ziyong, Zhang Yingsong, Zhang Ziting, and Zhang Zisui, and a later direct descendant was Zhang Lizhong.

Scholarship and writings

After returning home, he turned to wine and poetry without abandoning his ambition to serve the public. He wrote poetry, classical prose and ci, as well as works of discourse and household maxims, in dozens of volumes; he also compiled an anthology of major writers from the Hongwu and Jianwen eras as the 《文範》, produced the 《文苑》, compiled a prefectural gazetteer, and continued the 《四明風雅》.

Together with Fan Qin and Tu Dashan, he was known as one of the “Three Sima of the Eastern Sea.” He frequently recommended younger scholars, many of whom later became eminent scholar-officials; at his Maoyu Thatched Hall and Wuling Estate he hosted distinguished guests for wine and verse, while young men from modest families gained a reputation through his appraisal.

His poetry and prose were accomplished. Some critics described his poetry as drawing on Su and Li, synthesizing the Three Tang periods, while praising his yuefu as archaic in manner and his recent-style verse as graceful; other assessments called his four- to six-character verse at once tranquil and richly concentrated, deep and vigorous, regarded his regulated verse as close to the early Tang, and praised his parallel prose.

His editorial and literary work included the 《明文範》, 《四明風雅》, 《寧波府志》, 《定海縣志》, 《張司馬集》, 《東沙史論》, and 《芝園定集》. Other bibliographical entries associated with him include the 《明文范》, 《善行錄》, 《救急良方》, 《文苑》, 《皇明文範》, 《攝生衆妙方》, 《芝園全集》, 《芝園集》, and 《說林》. The titles 《明文範》, 《明文范》, and 《皇明文範》 reflect variant forms, while 《救急良方》 also appears as 《急救良方》; he also paid particular attention to pharmacology and compiled the 《救急良方》.

The recorded lengths of the Zhiyuan collections differ. The 《芝園定集》 is described as having fifty juan. The 《芝園集》 is listed at fifty-six juan, while the 《芝園全集》 is listed at eighty-five juan.

Associations and legacy

Zhang Shiche valued friendship: after friends died, he had their collections printed and inscriptions carved on their tombs, while helping younger writers gain recognition through recommendation and literary appraisal. Decades after his death, local scholars still regretted not having lived at the same time as “Grand Marshal Zhang,” and in his native region he was especially honored as Master Dongsha.