Southern Qi literary master and judicial statesman (447–501 CE), author of the legendary satirical parallel prose 'Proclamation on North Mountain' (Beishan Yiwen).
Mural guide
In a study at night, a desk holds a brush pot, a porcelain vase with a plum branch, a lit red lantern, a folded fan and an unrolled blank scroll, with no one seated there, while through a round window the moon rises over a lake with a sailboat.
Kong Zhigui (447–501 CE), style name Dezhang, was a celebrated scholar-official of the Southern Qi dynasty. Renowned for legal expertise and literary artistry alongside Jiang Yan, his classic satire 'Proclamation on North Mountain' (Beishan Yiwen) used mountain spirits to scathingly lampoon hypocrites who used reclusion merely as a springboard for political power.
Proclamation of Mount BeishanNorthern and SouthernKong Zhigui's satirical parallel prose in which a mountain's spirits shut out a false hermit
Records
Kong Zhigui and Letters
Southern Qi
Kong Zhigui, courtesy name Dezhang, was a man of Shanyin in Kuaiji. Clear and relaxed in manner, he loved writing and chanting; because of his skill with the brush he was taken as record-keeping staff officer, sharing charge of written composition with Jiang Yan.
Kong Zhigui was transferred to Censor-in-Chief, then raised to chief clerk of the Cavalry General and General Who Supports the State; he later became Minister of Justice, moved to Crown Prince's Chamberlain, and was given the added title of Cavalier Attendant-in-Ordinary.