Biography

Zhu was born in 1461 in Changzhou County, modern Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. His courtesy name was Xizhe (希哲), and art name Zhishan (枝山). Born with a supernumerary thumb on one hand, Zhu gave himself the sobriquet "Zhizhi Scholar" (枝指生; zhizhi refers to preaxial polydactyly in Chinese). He was said to have been able to write calligraphy with large characters at the tender age of four and compose poetry by the age of eight. He became a certified student at 16, and succeeded in the provincial examination of 1492, but never passed metropolitan examinations.

Zhu was appointed as the county magistrate of Xingning, Guangdong, in 1514. He served as the principal editor of the Gazetteer of Xingning County (in the reign of Zhengde), during his five-year term. In 1521, he was promoted to Controller-General of Yingtian Prefecture (modern Nanjing). He resigned in less than a year on a plea of illness. He dedicated the rest of his life to writing and died in 1527.

Together with Tang Yin, Wen Zhengming and Xu Zhenqing, Zhu was one of the "Four Talents of Wu (Suzhou)", his calligraphy is the most noted in the quartet. He excelled at small standard script (xiaokai), but was of wild-cursive (kuangcao) fame. His friends attributed his affinity for this highly expressive calligraphy to his impetuous personality.

Zhu was also known as an unorthodox thinker against Neo-Confucianism. In his later life, he described himself as a "wild man". He finished various collections of miscellaneous notes. Some scholars believe that his work of judgements on historical personalities influenced Li Zhi's Cang Shu.

In popular culture

Zhu's nonconformist thinking and lifestyle have made him a subject of popular legends. Stories about him have been written into a novel, The Romance of Zhu Yunming.

Selected works

• 懷星堂集 of Huaixing Hall

• 蘇材小纂 Biographies of Eminent People from Suzhou

• 前闻記 of By-gone Events

• 猥谈 Talks

生平

祖父祝顥字維清，正統四年進士，工書法。父祝瓛，早卒。母徐氏，武功伯徐有貞之女。妻李氏，中書舍人李應禎（後升太僕少卿）長女。祝允明是一名多指畸形病患者,但自幼天資聰穎，勤奮好學，5歲時就能書一尺見方的大字，9歲便能作詩文，被稱為「神童」。10歲已博覽群書，文章瑰麗，才智非凡。17歲即中秀才，弘治五年，32歲中壬子科舉人，此後屢試不第。授廣東興寧縣知縣，不久遷任應天府通判。謝病歸里，嘉靖五年（1526年）卒。

成就

擅長詩文和書法，特別是其狂草頗受世人讚譽，流傳有「唐伯虎的畫，祝枝山的字」之說。王世貞在《藝苑卮言》中評價道：「天下書法歸吾吳，祝京兆允明為最，文待詔征明、王貢士寵次之」。祝枝山所書寫的「六體書詩賦卷」、「草書杜甫詩卷」、「古詩十九首」、「草書唐人詩卷」及「草書詩翰卷」等都是傳世墨跡的精品。

祝允明的著作有，《懷星堂集》30卷、《蘇材小纂》6卷、《祝子罪知》7卷、 《浮物》1卷、《野記》4卷、《前聞記》 1卷、《誌怪錄》5卷、《讀書筆記》1卷。

註釋