Chen Xianzhang (1428–1500), also known as Chen Baisha, was a Ming-dynasty Chinese Confucian scholar, thinker, calligrapher, and painter. His courtesy name was Gongfu; his sobriquet was Shizhai, and in later life he used Shiweng. He came from Baisha village in Xinhui, Guangdong, and was known among scholars as Baisha Xiansheng; he was also called “Living Mencius.” Other names included Chen Baisha, Biyu Laoren, Jiangmen Yufu, and Nanhai Qiaofu.
Life
In 1447 he passed the juren examination and twice failed at the Ministry of Rites; he then abandoned the examination route. He studied Neo-Confucianism with Wu Yubi (1391–1469) in Jiangxi for six months before returning home. There he built Yangchun Terrace, read, practiced quiet sitting, and remained indoors for several years.
Later he went to the capital and entered the Imperial Academy, where its libationer, Xing Rang, was astonished to find a true Confucian returned. In 1483, he was appointed to the Hanlin Academy as a jian-tao on recommendation and requested leave to care for his parents; later recommendations did not bring him back to office. His friends included Luo Lun, Zhou Ying, Wu Yun, Zhuang Chang, and Zhang Yuanzhen.
Thought and teaching
Early in life he followed the Cheng-Zhu school; after learning through difficulty he turned to “learning takes nature as its basis” (學宗自然), which went beyond Cheng-Zhu thought, and founded the Lingnan school. At home he lectured and founded the Baisha school, opening the way for Ming learning of the mind.
His learning centered on stillness: he taught students to sit upright and clear the mind, cultivating the first stirrings of awareness in stillness; his regimen of quiet sitting sought still realization and self-attainment. His disciples included Zhan Ruoshui, Lin Jixi, Ye Hong, Li Chengqi, Zou Zhi, and Liang Chu.
Calligraphy, painting, and works
He was skilled in calligraphy and painting. When he lacked brushes in his mountain residence, he substituted bundled thatch, developing a style of his own known as maobi-zi (茅筆字); his paintings were mainly ink plums, and his late calligraphy was likewise associated with the thatch brush. His poetry received divergent evaluations: some praised its tonal resonance, citing 《崖山大忠祠》; others found his five-character verse plain, with the flavor of Tao Yuanming, and criticized some seven-character regulated verse, while still others valued its freedom from conventional form and its occasional natural phrasing.
His works include 《白沙詩教解》 and 《白沙集》; other titles are 《白沙語要》, 《白沙先生語錄》 in two juan, and 《白沙子全集》 in nine juan with one appendix. The transmission of his poetry includes He Jiuchou’s six-juan edition of 《白沙子全集》 printed in the forty-ninth year of the Kangxi reign, He Shangxin’s nine-juan edition printed in the ninth year of the Wanli reign, and He Ziming’s twenty-one-juan 《白沙先生全集》 printed in the first year of the Wanli reign; edited collections also preserve 29 poems outside the collection and 59 poems assembled from other books.
Posthumous honors
During the Wanli reign he was enshrined in the Confucian Temple and posthumously titled Wengong; the date is variously given as the early Wanli period and Wanli 13 (1585). He was later honored as the “First Great Confucian of Guangdong.”
References
- CBDB Chen Xianzhang (29570)
- 搜韵 陳獻章 (50364)
- 法鼓佛教人名规范数据库 陳獻章 (A007523)
- Wikidata Chen Baisha (Q698543)