Real name
祝允明; 'Zhishan' was his style-name (
号), referring to a small extra finger on his hand (
枝指) — the nickname literally puns on 'branch-finger mountain'. He is one of the
江南四大才子 (Four Great Talents of Jiangnan) alongside
唐伯虎 (Tang Bohu),
文徵明 (Wen Zhengming) and
徐祯卿 (Xu Zhenqing).