Background
It is not known when Zhong Shaojing was born, but it is known that he was from Qian Prefecture (虔州, roughly modern Ganzhou, Jiangxi). His clan traced its ancestry to a number of officials of Han Dynasty, Cao Wei, Jin Dynasty (265-420), Northern Wei, Southern Qi, Liang Dynasty, Sui Dynasty, and Tang Dynasty. Both Zhong Shaojing's great-grandfather Zhong Baoshen (鍾寶慎) and grandfather Zhong Ziwei (鍾子威), however, were only minor local officials, and Zhong Shaojing's father Zhong Fazun (鍾法遵) did not carry any official titles. In Zhong Shaojing's youth, during the reign of Wu Zetian, he served as a Sinong Lushi (司農錄事), a low-level official at the ministry of agriculture, but as he was well known for his calligraphy, was requested by the legislative bureau of government (鳳閣, Fengge) to serve there. Many plaques of important public works projects built during Wu Zetian's reign, including the imperial meeting hall (明堂, Mingtang) and the palaces, and the odes to the nine dings that Wu Zetian built, were physically written by Zhong.
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