Maoxiang (AD 1611-1693), named Pijiang, nicknamed Chaomin, No. 1 Pu'an, also named Puchao, privately named Mr. Qianxiao, was a litterateur in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties.
The surname Mao originated from the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty. The Mongolian aristocrats in Taizhou were virtuous and avoided war. Their sons were surnamed "Mao". The eldest son Mao Zhizhong was kidnapped by Zhang Shicheng and brought to Suzhou. He crossed the river from Mengdu to "Jiayan" in Chenhexi in the east of Rugao. He was the founder of the Hexi sect in Rugao. The second son Mao Qizhi lived in Taizhou and was the founder of Taizhou. The third son traveled from Taizhou to Tianchang by traveling from Taizhou to Tianchang, and often came to the "Jiayan" of Chen Hedong in Rugao East. He was the founder of Rugao Hedong Sect. Maoxiang is the descendant of Rugao Maoxiang.
Maoxiang was born in a family of officials for generations. He studied with his grandfather at the office when he was young. At the age of 14, he published a collection of poems "Xiangli Garden Occasionally Exists". Dong Qichang, a literary giant, compared him to Wang Bo in the early Tang Dynasty and hoped that He "embellished the scenery of the poetry and prose of the prosperous Ming Dynasty". He wrote 8 volumes of "Collected Poems of Chao Min", 6 volumes of "Collected Works", 1 volume of "Reminiscences of Yingmei'an", and compiled 12 volumes of "Collection of Fans".
Attached to the "Manuscript of Qing History" are two hundred and eighty-eight biographies of Maoxiang:
Maoxiang, whose courtesy name was Bijiang, was also known as Chaomin, and was from Rugao. His father founded the clan and became the deputy envoy of the Ming Dynasty. Xiang was able to write poems at the age of ten, and Dong Qichang wrote the preface. Chongzhen Renwu deputy list Gongsheng was appointed as a recommendation officer, but he behaved in a disorderly manner and could not come out. Together with Tongcheng Fang Yizhi, Yixing Chen Zhenhui, and Shangqiu Hou Fangyu, they are also known as the "Four Young Masters". The young man in Xiang is full of arrogance and talent, and he is especially able to impress people. After tasting the wine, I went to Taoye Crossing to meet the six gentlemen and all the orphans. At that time, celebrities gathered together. Drunk, he often sings wild and sad songs, and he is in Huaining and Ruan Dacheng. Dacheng is also dying of the party. Among all the singing and dancing groups in Jinling at that time, Huaining was the most popular, and the lyrics were all outstanding. Dacheng wanted to make friends with other people in the community, and asked the singers to come. He would scold and praise the singer for his good deeds, but Dacheng heard about it and became angry. The Jiashen Party was imprisoned, and Xiang Lai was spared. The family has a wonderful garden, pond, pavilion and pavilion, which welcomes guests and leads to endless days. Since then, the family has been happy and has no regrets. Since Xiang lived in seclusion, his reputation became more and more prosperous. Governors and governors are recommended by supervising the army, and censors are recommended by talents. They are all recommended by relatives. During the reign of Kangxi, he was recommended by his mountains and forests for seclusion and his erudition, but it was not enough. His writings are very rich and he is well-known in the world, including the emblems of his ancestors, a collection of poems and essays by teachers and friends in the past sixty years, a collection of Pu Chao's poems and essays, and a collection of poems and essays on Shuihuiyuan. His calligraphy is exquisite, and he likes to write "Baida" characters, which are treasured by everyone. He died in the thirty-second year of Kangxi's reign at the age of eighty-three. His posthumous title is Mr. Qianxiao.
Between 1627 and 1642, Maoxiang went to Nanjing to take the provincial examination six times, and failed six times. He only made it to the second place twice and was not even awarded the title of candidate. He deeply felt that his talent was not being appreciated. The Ming Dynasty has been in decline since the Wanli period, especially when the eunuchs took over power and the court fell into decline, reaching its peak. Faced with this dangerous situation, how can intellectuals with a sense of justice not be worried? In 1636, Maoxiang formed an alliance with Zhang Mingbi and joined Fushe. He was closely associated with Chen Zhenhui, Fang Yizhi and Hou Chaozong, and was known as the "Four Young Masters". They are similar in age and have similar minds. They sometimes travel together, sing poems and wines, criticize eunuchs, or discuss government affairs, hoping to reform politics and save the country from danger. In 1639, Wu Yingji drafted and signed by more than 140 members of the society, such as Mao Xiang, "Remaining in the Capital to Prevent Rebellion and Public Disclosure", which had a great influence and made Ruan Dacheng and his like like rats crossing the street. In 1644 AD, Li Zicheng's peasant army invaded Beijing and the Ming Dynasty was destroyed. Subsequently, Qing troops entered the country and established the Qing Dynasty. Former officials of the Ming Dynasty in Nanjing established the Hongguang regime. Ruan Dacheng, a remnant of the eunuch party, took refuge with Ma Shiying and became the Minister of War and Deputy Capital Censor of Nanming. He wanted to take revenge on the gentlemen who restored society. It happened that Maoxiang and his family fled to Nanjing because they heard that Gao Jie would be stationed in Rugao. In Nanjing, after Ruan Dacheng's lobbying against Maoxiang failed, he sent Jin Yiwei to arrest him. It was not until the following year that Ma and Ruan fled Nanjing and escaped from prison. Another theory is that he fled to Yangzhou overnight and relied on Shi Kefa's shelter to escape the disaster. In June 1645 AD, Chen Junyue, a hero against the Qing Dynasty in Rucheng, organized volunteers to resist Qing officials. Maoxiang fled with his family to Yanguan, Zhejiang again. From summer to winter, he traveled a lot. In Ma'anshan, he "encountered a large number of soldiers, and they were killed and plundered terribly." All this brought about drastic changes in his thinking, and the next year he returned to his hometown from Yanguan to live in seclusion.
After the Qing troops pacified the country, Chen Mingxia, a member of the Restoration Society who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, wrote to him from Beijing. The letter conveyed that people in power praised him as "the red clouds in the sky and the white crane among the people" and that he wanted to be "special." Recommend him. But Maoxiang refused because of his chronic illness. During the Kangxi period, the Qing court established the "Erudition and Confucianism" and issued an edict to conquer "mountain and forest seclusion". Maoxiang was also among the candidates, but he regarded it as a worn-out shoe and refused to go.
All these fully demonstrate his mentality and integrity that he regards himself as a survivor of the Ming Dynasty, is indifferent to his ambitions, and will never be an official in the Qing Dynasty. At the same time, he cherished the memory of his deceased friends and adopted the orphans of Donglin, Fushe and Jiangnan anti-Qing patriots. For example, the Biluo Cottage was built in the Water Painting Garden to commemorate Dai Jian, a friend who died on hunger strike during the Ming Dynasty. This is an example. As the years went by, Maoxiang was in his twilight years and his life was so poor that he could only survive by selling calligraphy. He recounted: "I am eighty years old. In the past ten years, I have been burned by fire and knife. It has been extremely miserable in ancient and modern times! The tomb field is full of nobles and nobles, so that the four generations of the family cannot be reunited. The two sons are exhausted, and there is no place for dogs and horses to be raised. "Nai moved to his home and lived alone in the back alleys, still holding on to his scrolls, laughing and amusing himself. Every night he wrote thousands of small regular scripts under the lamp, "Chaoyi rice wine" expresses his mentality of being a remnant who does not care about the two surnames. The most shining place.
Maoxiang wrote quite a lot in his life, including "Records of the Past", "Pu Chao's Poems and Essays", "Shuihuiyuan Poems and Essays", "Yingmei'an Reminiscences", "Hanbi" "Lonely Yin" and "Collection of Poems and Essays of Sixty Years of Teachers and Friends", etc. Among them, "Yingmei'an Yiyu" has 4,000 words, recalling the lingering and pathos love life between him and Dong Xiaoyuan, and is the originator of Chinese style writing.