MUZIChinese Matrix
Writers › Writer / Poet
Eastern Han official and political essayist, grandson of Cui Yin, who wrote the Zhenglun and the estate calendar Simin yueling.
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 Zizhen · Cui Tai · Zi Yuanshi
Cui Shi, courtesy name Zizhen, also called Cui Tai with the courtesy name Yuanshi, came from Anping in Zhuo commandery; he was the grandson of Cui Yin and son of Cui Yuan. Early in Emperor Huan's reign he submitted dozens of proposals on current affairs, collected as the Zhenglun (Discourse on Government), which urged strict law. He served as court counsellor and as marshal to the regent Liang Ji, then governed Wuyuan, where he taught the people to spin and weave and strengthened the frontier defences. Appointed to Liaodong, he withdrew to mourn his mother; he later served briefly as Imperial Secretary and died in the Jianning era so poor that his family could not pay for his burial. His Simin yueling sets out an estate's farming, sericulture, brewing and sacrifices month by month; it is lost and survives in reconstructed form.
Hanactive under Emperors Huan and Ling of Eastern Han, died in the Jianning era (168–172)
Literature · Prose1
Cui ShiCui Shi was sent out as Grand Administrator of Wuyuan. The land suited hemp, but the people did not know how to spin and weave and had no clothes in winter, lying in piled fine grass. On arrival he sold off the official stores and made spinning and weaving tools to teach them, and the people were spared the cold.
Cui Shi understood the workings of government and had ample talent as an official. He set out dozens of practical matters of his day in a work titled Zhenglun, and his writings also include stelae, essays, admonitions, inscriptions, replies, seven-character pieces, sacrificial texts, memorials, records and letters, fifteen pieces in all.