Zhōu Yí 周怡 (1505–1569), zì Shùnzhī 順之, originally hào Dūfēng 都峰, later changed to Nèxī 訥谿, was a Míng remonstrance official from Tàipíng 太平 (modern Ānhuī). He passed the jìnshì in Jiājìng wùxū 嘉靖戊戌 (1538) and was conferred lìyuán (a gěishìzhōng post). His life is recorded in the Sìkù tíyào and the Míng shǐ as one of the most extreme cases of yánguān persecution under Jiājìng: he was beaten and imprisoned in the Jǐnyī dungeon for three years for offending Yán Sōng 嚴嵩; freed by the emperor’s jīxiān spirit-divination prompting; re-imprisoned for two more years after Xióng Jiā 熊浹 impeached the spirit-divination as a fraud (which inflamed Jiājìng); and finally released after the emperor calmed.
Recalled in early Long-qìng (1567) as Tàichángsì shǎoqīng 太常寺少卿, he again offended a court eunuch, was transferred out as Shāndōng ànchásī qiānshì 山東按察司僉事, then back to Sīyè 司業 (Director of Studies of the Guózǐ jiān) and again as Tàichángsì shǎoqīng. He died in office in 1569.
His biography is summed up in the Sìkù tíyào’s line: “Throughout his life he offended the powerful and favoured, twice and thrice; broken and stumbling in succession, with barely a breath remaining, yet his will did not bend through a hundred reverses; firm in uprightness and loyal-bright — he stood as a complete man of his age.” Posthumous title Gōngjié 恭節.
His memorials are preserved in the KR2f0028 Nèxī zòushū 訥谿奏疏 in 1 juàn (11 memorials from his Lìyuán tenure plus 2 from his Tàicháng tenure), edited by his younger brother Zhōu Kè 周恪. Míng shǐ j. 209 has his biography. CBDB id 68478 (1505–1569).