Background
He was born in Hangzhou into a family with the surname Shen.
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Zhu Hong
Edit Profile祩宏
monk Buddhist leader Master of Yunqi
Career
He was known as the “Master of Yunqi”, after a monastery restored in his honor. Zhu was an excellent student, although he never succeeded along the path of officialdom. Zhu Hong died at the age of eighty-one.
The English translation of heshang (和尚) as “monk” by the late Ming is perhaps inappropriate.
A better rendition might be “priest” as it is often used in Japan to describe those specialist practitioners of funeral rites and memorial services. Zhu Hong himself complained that “Monks are also geomancers, diviners, physiognomists, physicians, gynecologists, potion makers, spirit healers and alchemists.
Zhu’s Tianshuo (天说, Explanation of Heaven) appeared in his Sanbi collection in 1615. Matteo Ricci’s monumental theological work Tienzhu shiyi (天主實義) had already appeared in 1596.
Zhu Hongs polemic coincided with the political appointment of Shen Quebec (沈隺, d 1624) as vice minister of rites in Nanking (Nanjing) and his initiation of an anti-Catholic campaign from official circles in 1616.
Zhu Hongs collected essays, the Zhuzhuang suibi was written and published in three sections, the Chubi (初笔), Erbi (二笔) and the Sanbi (三笔), modeled after the classic Song period collection Rongzhai suibi. Zhu Hong’s first collection was published in 1600 at age 70, the second and third at age 81 in 1615.
