Writers › Writer / Poet
Zhou Xingsi
Liang-dynasty writer who, at Emperor Wu's command, arranged a thousand characters from Wang Xizhi's calligraphy into the Thousand Character Classic.
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.
Also known as Zi Sizuan
Zhou Xingsi, courtesy name Sizuan, from Xiang in Chen commandery, served the Liang dynasty as a cavalier attendant and supervising secretary and was known for his prose. Emperor Wu ordered him to arrange one thousand non-repeating characters taken from Wang Xizhi's calligraphy into rhymed verse, producing the Thousand Character Classic, reputedly in a single night. It became one of the most widely used primers for over a thousand years; he died in 521.
Life and times
Dates birth unknown–521 CE