Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period/Hsü Fang
HSÜ Fang 徐枋 (T. 昭法, H. 俟齋, 秦餘山人), May 2, 1622–1694, Nov. 7, poet, scholar, and landscape painter, was a native of Wu-hsien (Soochow), Kiangsu. His father, Hsü Ch'ien 徐汧 (T. 九一, H. 勿齋, posthumous name 文靖, 1597–1645), a chin-shih of 1628, was made supervisor of instruction at Nanking under the southern Ming regime (1644). But having been dismissed from office for implication in Court intrigues, and unwilling to submit to the restrictions imposed by the Manchus after their conquest of Nanking and Soochow, he ended his life by drowning.
Hsü Fang became a chü-jên at the provincial examination of 1642. Deeply affected by his father's death three years later, and despondent over the political situation, he spent the remainder of his life in retirement, associating only with a few kindred spirits and members of his immediate family. At first he lived with his brother-in-law, Wu P'ei-yüan 吳佩遠 (d. 1679), at Lu-hsü 蘆墟 near the southern boundary of Kiangsu; later he resided in various places in the hilly country west of Soochow: in 1647 at Chin-shu 金墅, in 1659 at Chi-ts'ui 積翠, in 1660 at Têng-wei 鄧尉, and in 1661 at T'ien-ch'ih 天池. Finally, in 1663, he owned a house at the village of Shang-sha 上沙 (or Chien-shang 澗上). He lived by his own exertions, and though often in great need, refused to accept gifts. He avoided visits from guests in high position, and made it a rule never to enter the city. Nevertheless, his writings and brush work became well known and it was largely by the sale of these that he managed to support his family.
His writings were voluminous, and although most of them have evidently disappeared, it seems likely that the best are preserved in a collection entitled 居易堂集 Chü-i-t'ang chi, in 20 chüan, for which he wrote the preface in 1684 and which was edited by his disciple, P'an Lei [q. v.]. It was first printed by P'an Lei, reprinted in 1815 by Chao Yün 趙筠, and in 1919 in the 明季三孝廉集 Ming-chi san hsiao-lien chi by Lo Chên-yü (see under Chao Chih-ch'ien). Hsü's narratives are intimate and poignant portrayals of life as he saw and experienced it.
He had four sons, all of whom died before him. One of them, Hsü Wên-chih 徐文止 (1667–1690), left a son (b. 1690) who was later cared for by P'an Lei. After Hsü Fang's death the house at Chien-shang where he lived for the last thirty-one years of his life was, through the efforts of P'an Lei, made into a memorial shrine. This shrine was rebuilt in 1809 and again, after a fire, in 1867. In 1933 it was still standing. Hsü Fang's younger brother, Hsü K'o 徐柯 (T. 貫時, H. 東海一老, 1627–1700), who remained at home in comfortable circumstances, was also a writer, poet, and calligrapher.
[1/506/3a; 3/478/37a; Lo Chên-yü, 徐俟齋先生年譜 Hsü Ssŭ-chai hien-shêng nien-p'u (1919); Wu-hsien chih (1933) 67/43a; id. 33/19b; L.T.C.L.H.M., p. 226a, lists 35 scrolls and albums of paintings by Hsü Fang; M.1/267/8a has a life of Hsü Ch'ien; Chü-i-t'ang chi has a portrait.]
Dean R. Wickes