Xiaocang Zhu, known as Huosheng (courtesy name) and Qiangcun (pseudonym), was born in Zhejiang, China. Zhu is a renowned scholar, poet, and calligrapher specializing in running regular-script. He excelled at Ci-poetry and published several books related to that. Based on his achievement, Zhu is recognized as one of the four Ci-poetry masters in the late Qing dynasty. Politically, Zhu still respected Puyi (the last emperor of Qing dynasty) after his abdication. When they met in Tianjin, China, Zhu remained ancient rituals and reverence to Puyi as if he is still an emperor.