Writers › Writer / Poet
Ma Zhongxi
Mid-Ming official and writer, Right Censor-in-Chief, whose fable 'The Wolf of Zhongshan' satirizes ingratitude.
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 Tianlu · Hao Dongtian
Ma Zhongxi, courtesy name Tianlu, from Gucheng, passed the jinshi examination in 1475 and served as a supervising secretary and vice-minister of the Court of Judicial Review, known for blunt remonstrance that once landed him in prison after offending the eunuch Liu Jin. In the Zhengde era he became Right Censor-in-Chief and was sent to pacify the Liu Liu and Liu Qi uprising; impeached for favouring negotiation, he died in prison. His collected works include the fable 'The Wolf of Zhongshan', the source of the phrase 'to drag out a feeble existence'.
Life and times
Dates 1446 CE–1512 CE