Tang Xianzu Stories | Zhanxiu Was Born in the Office of the Vice Minister of Rites

(Wang Shimao)

During his tenure as a doctoral official at the Ministry of Rites in Nanjing, Tang Xianzu incurred the displeasure of Wang Shizhen, a leading figure of the “Later Seven Masters” of the late Ming’s archaizing faction, owing to his divergent views on literary creation. Moreover, his superior, the Vice Minister of Rites, Wang Shimao, happened to be Wang Shizhen’s younger brother. Consequently, during the annual imperial inspection, the evaluation report and official assessment penned by Wang Shimao were hardly likely to be favorable.

Moreover, during the capital‑level inspection, it was brought to light that Tang Xianzu, in his everyday conversations with friends about current affairs, spoke without restraint and often employed rather vehement language. At this time, such remarks were seized upon by others as grounds for slander and defamation. Among these detractors were some young men, brash and barking like dogs, as well as seasoned elders who cast veiled accusations and deliberately spread calumnies. As a result of the inspection, Tang Xianzu was branded as “of loose conduct,” and though he escaped formal punishment, any prospect of promotion was dashed. This unspoken grievance left him deeply disheartened. In response, he composed the poem “A Brief Account After the Capital Inspection”:

The village boy longs for the cliffside firewood, and the elder too shakes his winnowing basket. Sand is blown again and again, yet a single ghost‑dart falls. Deeply moved, I sigh; not lightly do I find a kindred spirit. The croaking of the reed warbler mingles in uneven tones, while the constellation of the Scorpion fleetingly passes by. Thankfully spared the mournful drone of the green fly, I weary of listening to the cheery salutations of the oriole.

Upon the expiration of his term as a doctoral official at the Ministry of Rites, Tang Xianzu was transferred to the Office of the Grand Censor, where he served as chief clerk. The Office of the Grand Censor was one of the central institutions of the Ming dynasty, established during the Hongwu era, primarily responsible for the imperial household’s internal affairs and staffed with officials such as the Grand Censor and the Junior Grand Censor. Ironically, Tang Xianzu was appointed chief clerk of this office—hardly a position that would qualify him to tutor the crown prince.

Tang Xianzu served at the Nanjing Zhan-shi Fu. After Ming Chengzu Zhu Di moved the capital to Beijing, he kept central institutions in Nanjing, but they were largely nominal—there were offices, personnel appointments and salaries, yet little real work to do. At that time the crown prince was a thousand li away in Beijing. Consequently, Tang Xianzu’s post as chief clerk at the Nanjing Zhan-shi Fu was an even greater sinecure than a scholar-official at the Nanjing Ministry of Ceremonies; in effect, there was virtually nothing for him to do.

After the annual imperial inspection of the capital that year, Tang Xianzong first returned from Beijing to Nanjing; in the eleventh month, he again went to the capital to receive the emperor’s imperial enfeoffment for his parents. His father was granted the honorary title of Doctor at the Ministry of Rites in Nanjing, and his mother was enfeoffed as a “Ru Ren.” By December, he once more departed directly from the capital for Shouqin in Linchuan to hold the ceremony conferring these imperial honors upon his parents.

Tang Xianzu officially took up his post at the Office of the Grand Censor in the sixteenth year of the Wanli reign (1588). That year, his wife, Lady Zhao, gave birth to a daughter; since she was born within the Office of the Grand Censor, she was named Zhanxiu. Also in that same year, his concubine, Lady Fu, bore him three sons, including Kaiyuan. Though Tang Xianzu’s official career remained unsatisfactory, the steady addition of new family members over the course of the year brought him abundant joy and the warmth of familial bonds.

Tang Xianzu was deeply fond of his daughter, Zhan Xiu. Later, while serving as magistrate in Suichang, he even had his seven-year-old daughter learn to sing the Kunqu style. From an early age, Zhan Xiu was bright and quick-witted; under her father’s tutelage, she could both speak and sing, often amusing Tang Xianzu with laughter and bringing much joy to his otherwise dreary and monotonous life as a junior official.

Tang Xianzu had many friends, yet few truly understood him; among them, Liu Yingqiu, a fellow jinshi and the third‑ranked laureate of the same year, was one of the rare confidants. Liu Yingqiu (1547–1620), courtesy name Shihé, was a native of Jishui in Jiangxi. In the eleventh year of the Wanli reign (1583), he passed the imperial examination as the third‑ranked laureate under Zhu Guozuo, was appointed Compiler at the Hanlin Academy, and later promoted to Vice‑Director of the National Academy in Nanjing. Posthumously honored with the posthumous title Wenjie, he authored such works as the Collected Writings of Liu Dashí. His son, Liu Tongsheng, became the top scholar in the tenth year of the Chongzhen era (1637).

Tang Xianzu and Liu Yingqiu, bound by mutual admiration, became in-laws; Tang Xianzu betrothed his youngest daughter, Zhanxiu, to Liu Tongsheng, the son of the third‑rank laureate. Tragically, Zhanxiu died young, at the tender age of seven. With her gone, the prospect of their marriage naturally vanished, yet the two families continued to maintain their close ties as before. Throughout his life, Liu Tongsheng treated Tang Xianzu with the respect due to a father‑in‑law, while Tang Xianzu regarded him as a nephew. Even on the eve of Tang Xianzu’s passing, Liu Tongsheng made a special journey to Linchuan to pay his respects.