A Chinese Biographical Dictionary/Chang Chih-ho
34Chang Chih-ho 張志和. 8th cent. A.D. A native of Chinhua in Chehkiang, who was of a romantic turn of mind and especially fond of Taoist speculations. He took office under the Emperor Su Tsung of the T'ang dynasty, but got into some trouble and was banished. Soon after this he shared in a general pardon; whereupon he fled to the woods and mountains and became a wandering recluse, calling himself 烟波釣叟 the Old Fisherman of the Mists and Waters. He spent his time in angling, but used no bait, his object not being to catch fish. When Lu Yü asked him why he roamed about, Chang answered and said, "With the empyrean as my home, the bright moon my constant companion, and the four seas my inseparable friends, — what mean you by roaming?" And when a friend offered him a comfortable home instead of his poor boat, he replied, "I prefer to follow the gulls into cloudland, rather than to bury my ethereal self beneath the dust of the world." Author of the 元真子, a work on the conservation of vitality.