Seeing that the teachers he is familiar with are named one by one, Zhu Zhishan must also work hard, in addition to reading, he must also practice regular script, Zhu Zhishan strictly follows the teachings of his predecessors and makes solid efforts, Zhu Zhishan often combines reading and writing to study.

Zhu Zhishan is one of the three masters of calligraphy in the Wumen calligraphy school, and the other two are Wen Zhengming and Wang Chong. His calligraphy absorbs the calligraphy of Tang Yu Shinan and Yuan Zhao Mengzhuo, and the calligraphy of Wang Xizhi and Wang Xian of the Jin Dynasty, and the cursive script of Tang Huaisu, which is integrated and self-contained, and develops into its own unique wild grass, which is known as the first in the Ming Dynasty, and has the painting of Tang Bohu and the word of Zhu Zhishan.

Zhu Zhishan is funny and free-spirited, talented, good at traveling in the mountains and rivers without being informal, he is often resourceful, eloquent, and helpful. Zhu Zhishan's poetry and calligraphy have been famous in the township, and everyone knows his talent, so Li Yingzhen, who was a scholar at that time, married his eldest daughter to him. Later, he gave birth to a son, named Xu, a jinshi during the Zhengde period, and an official to the political envoy of Guangxi Zuobu, Zhu Zhishan's progress in calligraphy was guided by his father-in-law.

Li Yingzhen is proficient in calligraphy, has studied all kinds of calligraphy, he advocates innovation, has his own style in practice, and he is also Wen Zhengming's calligraphy teacher, so he has a great influence on the formation of the Wumen calligraphy school. Zhu Zhishan made a lot of mentors and friends during his hard study, he worshipped Wang Wei, who was ten years older than him, as his teacher, and made friends with Du Mu and Yang Xunji, who were of the same age, and even socialized with Tang Bohu and Zhang Ling, who were younger than him. They often compose poems and sing together, learn calligraphy and painting, and have a deep relationship, but he is middle-aged and unambitious, and he has a talented life, and Zhu Zhishan's talent is already quite outstanding after thirty.

When Zhu Zhishan was thirty-three years old, he participated in the township examination and was promoted in the examination, and the chief examiner Wang Wei praised his essay very much. With his own talents, Zhu Zhishan is very confident, thinking that it is easy to enter the Beijing examination and admit Gaodi, who knows that the seven examinations will not be successful in the future, which is beyond his expectations.

The frustration and blow of the official career played an important role in the second half of Zhu Zhishan's life, which made his mood and personality change greatly. Zhu Zhishan's middle age was spent in such a transformation, and in the first half of his middle age, he worked tirelessly on the imperial examination, and his thoughts were the Confucian concept of actively joining the WTO.

Then the failures again and again made him more and more disheartened, and gradually turned to Lao Zhuang's negative birth and began to play life. In addition to his daily behavior, his state of mind can only be expressed in poetry and calligraphy, and his calligraphy has gradually turned to cursive writing, and the development and success of cursive writing after the age of 50 are inseparable from this state of mind.

At the age of thirty-seven, he and the young Tang Bohu and his neighbor Zhang Ling often drank and played. Tang Bohu is fun and not good at reading, Zhu Zhishan knew that he went to persuade him, and then Tang Bohu read wholeheartedly, and he also accepted Zhang Ling as his student, and when he was writing poems or books, he asked Zhang Ling to wait for the pen inkstone next to him, so Zhang Ling also made rapid progress.

During that time, the people of Suzhou called Zhu Zhishan, Tang Bohu, Wen Zhengming, and Xu Zhenqing the four great talents in the south of the Yangtze River, and they all studied in a proper manner to gain fame.

One year on Chinese New Year's Eve, a rich man surnamed Qian asked Zhu Zhishan to write a Spring Festival couplet, and Zhu Zhishan thought that this rich man usually looted the township and oppressed the people.

"Tomorrow is not bad luck in spring, but there is little surplus in the coming year. ”

When people in the past saw this couplet, they all read it like this: "Tomorrow is spring, so it is not bad luck, but in the coming year, there is little surplus wealth." ”

The rich man was angry when he heard this, and knew that Zhu Zhishan deliberately insulted him, so he went to the county government to complain, saying that Zhu Zhishan used couplets to insult the good people, and asked the lord to deal with it for him, and the rich man also secretly sent some gold and silver property to the county lord.

At that moment, the county magistrate sent someone to Zhu Zhishan and asked, "Mr. Zhu, why are you insulting Boss Qian with a couplet?"

Zhu Zhishan replied with a smile: "My lord's words are wrong, I am a scholar, I have no power and no power, how dare I use couplets to scold people? ”

So he took out the couplet and read it to everyone on the spot: "Tomorrow is a good spring, and it will not be unlucky; ”

After hearing this, the county magistrate and the rich man were dumbfounded, speechless to answer, and for a long time, the county lord woke up like a dream, and scolded the rich man and said: "It's only because you are ignorant and shallow, and you take such wonderful and auspicious words as insults, and don't you quickly make amends to Mr. Zhu?"

The rich man had no choice but to apologize again and again, Zhu Zhishan laughed, bid farewell to the county order, and left.

Tang Bohu and Zhu Zhishan are good friends, and Tang Bohu likes to talk to Zhu Zhishan very much about chasing girls. Tang Bohu often said that there was no woman in the world that he couldn't handle, and Zhu Zhishan was skeptical.

One day, Zhu Zhishan told Tang Bohu: "There is a widow living in the back mountain, she has been widowed for three years, regards chastity as life, and only raises an eagle to depend on each other. ”

Tang Bohu thought about it for a while, so he asked Zhu Zhishan to listen to the news in a few days. Two days later, it was pouring rain, and Tang Bohu waited until midnight, climbed the back mountain, and came to the door of the widow's house. Tang Bohu knocked on the door and asked, "Can you let me take shelter from the rain?"

The widow opened the door, it turned out to be Tang Bohu, a genius from Jiangnan, and hurriedly let him into the house, Tang Bohu entered the door, thanked him again and again, and then asked, "Can you take off your wet clothes?"

When the widow saw that the clothes were all wet, she hurriedly took the clothes to the stove to dry, and then Tang Bohu asked again: "Sister-in-law, I am thirsty, can you lend me a scoop and let me drink saliva?" The widow hurriedly took a scoop and gave it to Tang Bohu.

Tang Bohu drank the water, saw that it was late, and asked the widow, "Sister-in-law, can you let me spend the night here?"

The widow thought about it, and it was raining heavily outside the house, so she agreed, and led Tang Bohu to the guest room.

At dawn the next day, Tang Bohu got up early, quietly walked into the yard, and sure enough, he saw the eagle that depended on each other. Tang Bohu grabbed the eagle, plucked all the hairs, and then went home without saying hello to the widow.

A few days later, Tang Bohu and Zhu Zhishan were playing chess at home when they heard someone knocking on the door. Zhu Zhishan opened the door, it turned out to be the widow, and as soon as the widow saw Tang Bohu, she scolded: "Tang Bohu, Tang Bohu, you are a Jiangnan literati, a generation of talents, why do you want to do such a dirty thing? I saw that you were very pitiful that day, and I kindly opened the door to let you in." If you want to take shelter from the rain, I will let you take it off, if you want to take it off, I will let you take it off, if you want a scoop, I will give you a scoop, and if you want to spend the night, I will let you stay overnight. Say, "Why did you pluck out all my eagle feathers?"

Zhu Zhishan was dumbfounded.

"Alas......" Tang Bohu sighed again: "Since I saw Qiu Xiang, I wanted to see the lighthouse of life, found a confidant, and did not hesitate to sell myself into Washington, but I still can't give my true identity to marry Qiu Xiang." ”

Tang Bohu's eyes blinked a few times, and there seemed to be a crystal liquid spilling out of his eyes slightly: "My Fair Lady, looking back and smiling adds to the brilliance of everything, Hui Zhilan has a heart, but he smiles at me three times, but I ......"

"Alas, I can't marry Qiu Xiang, what's the point of me going out?" Tang Bohu sighed and looked sad, and Zhu Zhishan looked at each other.

At this time, I heard a strange noise outside the firewood room, and with a clang, the firewood door opened, and a person flashed in, reading in his mouth: "Don't look at the gentleman's incivility, don't listen to it, don't say it, I'm Wen Zhengming to visit your comrades." ”

The person who came in was Wen Zhengming, one of the four great talents in Jiangnan, and he was also a close comrade-in-arms of Tang Bohu and Zhu Zhishan.

Wen Zhengming, called Hengshan, Wen Zhengming's noble sentiments were very respected by the literati at that time, plus the all-round talent of poetry, literature, calligraphy and painting, so he became the leader of Wumen, and also became the most influential figure in the calligraphy and painting circles at that time.

Many famous calligraphers have been smart since childhood, can write poetry and writing, and even have the talent of never forgetting the ten lines at a glance, but Wen Zhengming is an exception. Because Wen Zhengming was very dull when he was a child, he didn't speak very well when he was eight or nine years old. What is surprising is that Wen Zhengming opened up when he grew up a little, and his brain suddenly became flexible, and he could still recite hundreds of thousands of words every day, which is really a trick on people.

Due to his background in a scholarly family, Wen Zhengming's teachers such as Wu Kuan, Li Yingzhen, and Shen Zhou were all celebrities in the art world at that time, so the teaching of his teachers Wen Zhengming has made great progress in poetry, literature, calligraphy, and painting, and his reputation is growing, and Wen Zhengming is also ambitious, hoping to seek fame through the imperial examination.

At that time, Wen Zhengming had already achieved great success in poetry, literature, calligraphy, and painting, and Tang Bohu, Zhu Zhishan, and Xu Zhenqing were known as the four great talents in Jiangnan. Under such conditions, according to common sense, you can get at least one official and a half position if you participate in the imperial examination. But it's really God playing tricks on people, Wen Zhengming was the worst for the first time, and during the student exam, he was listed as a third-class because the words were too ugly, and he couldn't participate in the township exam. had to go back and continue to practice calligraphy, but he never took the exam every three years.

A total of ten exams, all of which are named Sun Shan, are really old and learned. Later, although he was recommended by Li Chongsi, the governor of Suzhou, he participated in the examination of the Ministry of Officials with the age of tribute, and was awarded the edict of the Hanlin Academy, that is, a petty official of the Hanlin Academy who copied official documents. Later, because he was not accustomed to the bureaucratic culture of crowding out each other and competing for fame and fortune in the palace, he resigned after four years and returned to his hometown.

After Wen Zhengming resigned and returned to his hometown, his prestige was even higher, and those who came to ask for calligraphy and painting came one after another, but Wen Zhengming set a three-ought for himself, that is, not to sell vassal nobles, eunuchs and foreigners. On the contrary, some literati and ordinary people, as long as they prepared wine on the boat and invited him to swim in the lake and mountains, they could get his calligraphy and paintings.

It is also because Wen Zhengming is so popular, so some paintings imitating his name appear. One of them is named Zhu Lang, the imitation is almost real, and it is also very popular, Wen Zhengming didn't care about it after knowing it, and later accepted him as a student. Sometimes Wen Zhengming really didn't have time to paint, so he asked Zhu Lang to paint on his behalf, and then asked Wen Zhengming to sign the payment after the painting was completed.