Zhang Nanshi, courtesy name Cunzhong, also known as Baota Shizhutang, is a famous poet, calligrapher, and literary critic in the Ming Dynasty. His ancestral home is Changshu, Jiangsu, and he was born in Shaoxing, Zhejiang. When he was young, he studied under Yang Shen, Shen Zhou, Yang Shiqi and other famous masters, and learned the essence of poetry, calligraphy, etiquette and music. His poetic style is fresh and refined, focusing on image description, full of appeal, and has a profound influence on later generations.
Zhang Nanshi served as a bachelor of the Ming Dynasty, editor of national history, and minister of the Ministry of Rites in Nanjing. In his early years, he participated in the war between the Ming Dynasty and Mongolia. Later, he lived in Zen at the foot of the pagoda mountain and concentrated on calligraphy and painting. He died at the age of seventy-five. His calligraphy was highly praised and imitated by many calligraphers and painters of later generations, and he was known as "the first school on Jiangyou".
Zhang Nanshi’s representative works include "Winter Night at Home", "Three Fables of Autumn Nights", "Occasionally Written at the Huangfengling Banquet on New Year's Day in Guisi", etc., as well as representative works of literary criticism in the mid-Ming Dynasty. "Collected Works of Mr. Wen Ding". His poems created a new style of sketch poetry in the Ming Dynasty and had an important influence on later poets.