ABSTRACT
As a boy Chang Chih-ho showed great promise, and by the age of sixteen was passing classical examinations. He entered government service and was employed in the Han-lin Academy, proof alone of outstanding literary ability. He lost his post for a period, but when the offer of reinstatement came he refused to return and instead retired to a life on the water, living and moving about in boats. This was his abiding interest; he enjoyed fishing - he called himself The Fisherman in the Mist’ - but was said to do so, at any rate in later life, without using bait. Here he followed in the footsteps of Chiang Tzu-ya, one of the early creators of the Chou Dynasty (1122-255 b.c.), who ‘fished with a straight hook’.
