A Chinese Biographical Dictionary/Fang Hsiao-ju
551 Fang Hsiao-ju 方孝孺 (T. 希直 and 希古. H. 正學 and 遜志). A.D. 1357-1402. A native of 緱城 Hou-ch'êng in Chehkiang, near the T'ien-t'ai mountains, whence he is sometimes spoken of as 天台先生. As a child he was precocious and clever, and by his skill in composition earned for himself the nickname of 小韓子 the little Han Yü. In 1373 he accompanied his father to the official post of the latter in Shantung, and remained there until his father's execution. After conveying the body home, he set to work to study under Sung Lien. About 1390 he became tutor to one of the sons of the Emperor, and followed him to his Principality in Ssŭch'uan. The Emperor Hui Ti loaded him with honours and made him a Minister of State. And when that monarch vanished so mysteriously from the scene, Fang Hsiao-ju absolutely refused to place his services at the disposal of the new Emperor who ruled under the year-title of Yung Lo. For this refusal he was cut to pieces in the market-place, his family being as far as possible exterminated, and his philosophical writings burned. A small collection of his miscellanies, known as 方正學集, was preserved by a faithful disciple and afterwards republished. Himself a poet, he edited in conjunction with Sung Lien the poems of Chang K'o-chiu of the Yuan dynasty. He was canonised as 文正 and in 1863 his tablet was placed in the Confucian Temple.