Mianzhu is known for its spirits, but its depth also comes from its people. More than eight hundred years ago this county produced one of the great Neo-Confucian thinkers of the Southern Song dynasty: Zhang Shi.
Master Nanxuan from Mianzhu
Zhang Shi (1133–1180), courtesy name Jingfu and literary name Nanxuan, was a native of Mianzhu in Hanzhou 1. His father, Zhang Jun, was a leading statesman of the Southern Song who served as chief minister. As a young man Zhang Shi followed his father's postings across the country, and later studied Neo-Confucian thought under Hu Hong of the Huxiang school.
His life's work was bound up with academies. He led the Chengnan Academy in Changsha and lectured at the Yuelu Academy, becoming the leading figure of the Huxiang school. In 1167 Zhu Xi travelled from Fujian to Changsha to debate with him at Yuelu, an event remembered as the "Zhu–Zhang lectures" that set a precedent for scholars of different schools meeting to discuss ideas in the academies 2. Zhang Shi, Zhu Xi and Lü Zuqian were regarded by their contemporaries as equals, known together as the "Three Worthies of the Southeast." Zhang Shi died in his forties and was given the posthumous name Xuan.
Right before profit
At the heart of Zhang Shi's teaching was the distinction between rightness (yi) and profit (li). He opened his preface to his lectures on Mencius with these words:
For one devoted to Confucius and Mencius, nothing comes before making clear the distinction between rightness and profit.
— Zhang Shi, Preface to Lectures on Mencius 3
For him, the first step in studying the sages was not memorising texts but learning to tell what is right from what is merely advantageous. Before doing anything, ask whether it should be done, and only then whether it pays. The principle is simple to state and takes a lifetime to practise. Zhang Shi also stressed that knowing and doing strengthen each other, so that learning shows itself in how one lives and treats others.
A local worthy and the Qifu family motto
For people in Mianzhu, Zhang Shi is more than a name in the history books. He is a local worthy to be proud of. His teaching on rightness and profit, and on knowledge and action moving forward together, connects closely with how a family keeps its values and how a craft is handed down.
Qifu is a family distillery in Mianzhu, run by the family since 1978. The first line of its family motto is de ye shuang xiu, "cultivate virtue and enterprise together." Those four characters echo Zhang Shi's insistence on putting what is right before what is profitable: make the spirit well, and be a good person first. The motto's last line, "character above the wine," says the same.
In distilling, cutting corners is easy; what is hard is holding to the old way. Pure grain, solid-state fermentation in yellow-mud pits under a red-grain cap, about two months a batch and then slow ageing in clay jars: these traditional methods cost time and effort, and keeping to them takes exactly that sense of what is right. From an everyday cup of Jin Qifu to the flagship Bainian Qifu · 8, Qifu hopes every bottle lives up to the integrity of the scholar its hometown produced.
Reading Zhang Shi goes well with a cup of tea. If you would rather raise a glass in his honour, pour small, sip slowly and drink responsibly.
