“The Epitaph of Tang Yan” in Cursive Script (handscroll)

Zhu Yunming (1460–1526) was born in Changzhou (today’s Suzhou, Jiangsu Province), also known by his courtesy name Xizhe and literary name Zhishan. He passed the Provincial Exam in the fifth year of the Hongzhi period in the Ming Dynasty (1429). He was selected as District Magistrate of the Xingning county in Guangdong province and was later promoted to be Second-Class Sub-Prefect of Yingtian (today’s Nanjing). He claimed illness and retired in the fourteenth year of the Zhengde period (1519). Zhu was good at writing poems and proses. He was a well-known calligrapher, one of the “Four Talents in Wuzhong,” with the other three being Xu Zhenqing, Tang Yin, Wen Zhengming. He was also renowned as one of the “Three Outstanding Calligraphers in the mid-Ming Dynasty”.