1
《易》曰：「君子遁世無悶，獨立不懼。」 孔子稱長沮、桀溺隱者也。 古之隱者，或恥聞禪代，高讓帝王，以萬乘爲垢辱，之死亡而無悔。 此則輕生重道，希世間出，隱之上者也。 或託仕監門，寄臣柱下，居易而以求其志，處汙而不愧其色。 此所謂大隱隱於市朝，又其次也。 或裸體佯狂，盲喑絕世，棄禮樂以反道，忍孝慈而不恤。 此全身遠害，得大雅之道，又其次也。 然同不失語默之致，有幽人貞吉矣。 與夫沒身亂世，爭利干時者，豈同年而語哉！ 《孟子》曰：「今人之於爵祿，得之若其生，失之若其死。」 《淮南子》曰：「人皆鑒於止水，不鑒於流潦。」 夫可以揚清激濁，抑貪止競，其惟隱者乎！ 自古帝王，莫不崇尚其道。 雖唐堯不屈巢、許，周武不降夷、齊； 以漢高肆慢而長揖黃、綺，光武按法而折意嚴、周； 自茲以來，世有人矣！ 有梁之盛，繼紹風猷。 斯乃道德可宗，學藝可範，故以備《處士篇》云。
The Changes says, "The noble man may leave the world yet feel no vexation; he may stand alone yet feel no fear." Confucius praised Changju and Jieni as men who had withdrawn. Men of old who withdrew, shamed by tales of abdication, refused the throne and treated imperial power as stain and shame, facing death without regret. They prized the Way above life and sought to step outside the world—the highest sort of recluse. Some served as gatekeepers or clerks under the pillar, living simply to pursue their purpose and dwelling in corruption without losing their color. This is the great recluse who hides in market and court—the next rank. Some stripped naked and played mad, blind and mute, rejecting the age, casting off rites and music for the Way and enduring without filial kindness. These kept body whole and harm distant, attaining the great Odes' Way—again the next rank. Yet all alike kept the balance of silence and speech and possessed the reclusive man's steadfast fortune. How can they be named in the same breath as men who waste their lives in chaos and scramble for profit? Mencius says, "Today's men treat rank and salary as they do life itself—gain feels like birth, loss like death." The Huainanzi says, "Everyone takes his mirror from still water, never from a rushing torrent." Who can clarify what is foul, lift what is pure, and curb greed and rivalry? Only the recluse. Every emperor and king since antiquity has honored this Way. Tang Yao would not bow to Chao and Xu, and King Wu would not humble himself before Yi and Qi; yet Han Gaozu, for all his rudeness, met Huang and Qi with a long bow, and Guangwu bent the law for Yan and Zhou; and since then every age has known such men. Liang at its height carried on this tradition. Their conduct could be honored and their arts imitated—hence this "Biographies of Retired Gentlemen."
2
何點字子晳，廬江灊人也。 祖尚之，宋司空。 父鑠，宜都太守。 鑠素有風疾，無故害妻，坐法死。 點年十一，幾至滅性。 及長，感家禍，欲絕婚宦，尚之強爲之娶琅邪王氏。 禮畢，將親迎，點累涕泣，求執本志，遂得罷。
He Dian, styled Zishe, came from Qian in Lujiang commandery. His grandfather Shangzhi had been Song Minister of Works. His father Shuo was grand administrator of Yidu. Shuo had long suffered a wind disorder and, without cause, killed his wife; he was executed by law. At eleven Dian nearly destroyed himself in mourning. Grown, he wished to renounce marriage and office after the family tragedy; Shangzhi forced him to wed a woman of the Wang clan of Langya. When the rites ended and he was to fetch the bride, Dian wept and begged to keep his resolve until the wedding was called off.
3
容貌方雅，博通羣書，善談論。 家本甲族，親姻多貴仕。 點雖不入城府，而遨遊人世，不簪不帶，或駕柴車，躡草矰，恣心所適，致醉而歸，士大夫多慕從之，時人號爲「通隱」。 兄求，亦隱居吳郡虎丘山。 求卒，點菜食不飲酒，訖于三年，要帶減半。
Square and refined in bearing, he mastered many books and excelled in talk. His house was of the highest clans, with many noble connections. Though he never entered the prefectural city, he roamed the world bareheaded, sometimes in a brushwood cart and grass sandals, wandering until drunk while scholars flocked to him—men called him the Universal Recluse. His elder brother Qiu also dwelt in seclusion on Tiger Hill in Wu commandery. When Qiu died, Dian ate only vegetables and drank no wine for three years, his sash and belt half their former width.
4
宋泰始末，徵太子洗馬。 齊初，累徵中書郎、太子中庶子，並不就。 與陳郡謝𤅢、吳國張融、會稽孔稚珪爲莫逆友。 從弟遁，以東籬門園居之，稚珪爲築室焉。 園內有卞忠貞塚，點植花卉於塚側，每飲必舉酒酹之。 初，褚淵、王儉爲宰相，點謂人曰：「我作《齊書贊》，云『淵旣世族，儉亦國華； 不賴舅氏，遑恤國家』。」 王儉聞之，欲候點，知不可見，乃止。 豫章王嶷命駕造點，點從後門遁去。 司徒、竟陵王子良欲就見之，點時在法輪寺，子良乃往請，點角巾登席，子良欣悅無已，遺點嵇叔夜酒杯、徐景山酒鐺。
Late in Song Taishi he was summoned as crown prince's household steward. Early in Qi he was repeatedly summoned as palace secretary and crown prince's household vice-attendant and always refused. With Xie Tiao of Chen commandery, Zhang Rong of Wu, and Kong Zhigui of Kuaiji he was inseparable friend. His cousin Dun lived in the Eastern Hedge Gate garden; Zhigui built him a house there. In the garden lay the tomb of Bian the Loyal Martyr; Dian planted flowers beside it and never drank without pouring a libation. When Chu Yuan and Wang Jian were chancellors, Dian said, "In my Praise for the Qi Annals I wrote, 'Yuan is already a great clan, Jian also a national flower; not relying on maternal kin—how could they spare thought for the state?' Wang Jian wished to visit when he heard this but knew Dian would not receive him and desisted. Prince Jingling of Yuzhang drove to visit him; Dian fled by the back gate. Prince Ziliang of Jingling wished to see him; Dian was at Falun Temple and Ziliang went to invite him; Dian took the mat in a kerchief while Ziliang rejoiced and sent Ji Kang's wine cup and Xu Jingshan's wine kettle.
5
點少時嘗患渴痢，積歲不愈。 後在吳中石佛寺建講，於講所晝寢，夢一道人形貌非常，授丸一掬，夢中服之，自此而差，時人以爲淳德所感。 性通脫，好施與，遠近致遺，一無所逆，隨復散焉。 嘗行經朱雀門街，有自車後盜點衣者，見而不言，傍有人擒盜與之，點乃以衣施盜，盜不敢受，點命告有司，盜懼，乃受之，催令急去。 點雅有人倫識鑒，多所甄拔，知吳興丘遲於幼童，稱濟陽江淹於寒素，悉如其言。
In youth he suffered wasting thirst and dysentery for years without cure. Later at Stone Buddha Monastery in Wu he lectured; napping in the hall he dreamed a Taoist of strange aspect gave him a handful of pills; he swallowed them in the dream and recovered—men called it the reward of pure virtue. Free and generous by nature, he accepted gifts from far and near and soon gave them all away again. Once on Vermilion Bird Gate Street a man stole clothes from behind his cart; Dian saw but said nothing; when a bystander caught the thief and returned the clothes, Dian gave them to the thief; the thief refused until Dian threatened to report him, then fled in haste. He judged men finely and advanced many; as a boy he marked Qiu Chi of Wu and Jiang Yan of Jiyang in poverty—both proved as he said.
6
點旣老，又娶魯國孔嗣女，嗣亦隱者也。 點雖婚，亦不與妻相見，築別室以處之，人莫喻其意也。 吳國張融少時免官，而爲詩有高尚之言，點答詩曰：「昔聞東都日，不在簡書前。」 雖戲也，而融久病之。 及點後婚，融始爲詩贈點曰：「惜哉何居士，薄暮遘荒婬。」 點亦病之，而無以釋也。
In old age he again married the daughter of Kong Si of Lu, himself a recluse. Though married, he never met his wife face to face but lodged her in a separate room—no one fathomed why. Zhang Rong of Wu, dismissed young, wrote lofty verse; Dian replied, "Long ago I heard of the eastern capital's sun—not yet before the bamboo annals." Though jest, Rong brooded on the barb. When Dian married at last, Rong sent verse: "Alas, Master He—at dusk you meet debauched lewdness." Dian smarted too but could not answer.
7
高祖與點有舊，及踐阼，手詔曰：「昔因多暇，得訪逸軌，坐脩竹，臨清池，忘今語古，何其樂也。 暫別丘園，十有四載，人事艱阻，亦何可言。 自應運在天，每思相見，密邇物色，勞甚山阿。 嚴光排九重，踐九等，談天人，敘故舊，有所不臣，何傷於高？ 文先以皮弁謁子桓，伯況以縠綃見文叔，求之往策，不無前例。 今賜卿鹿皮巾等。 後數日，望能入也。」 點以巾褐引入華林園，高祖甚悅，賦詩置酒，恩禮如舊。 仍下詔曰：「前徵士何點，高尚其道，志安容膝，脫落形骸，棲志窅冥。 朕日昃思治，尚想前哲； 況親得同時，而不與爲政。 喉脣任切，必俟邦良，誠望惠然，屈居獻替。 可徵爲侍中。」 辭疾不赴。 乃復詔曰：「徵士何點，居貞物表，縱心塵外，夷坦之風，率由自遠。 往因素志，頗申宴言，眷彼子陵，情兼惟舊。 昔仲虞邁俗，受俸漢朝； 安道逸志，不辭晉祿。 此蓋前代盛軌，往賢所同。 可議加資給，並出在所，日費所須，太官別給。 旣人高曜卿，故事同垣下。」
Gaozu had known Dian; on taking the throne he wrote, "Long ago in leisure I visited your hidden path, sat in bamboo by a clear pool, forgot present for ancient talk—what joy! I left your hill garden fourteen years; affairs were hard—what more can be said. Since Heaven's mandate fell to me I have longed to meet you and searched the mountains in secret with great labor. Yan Guang brushed past the nine gates, walked the nine ranks, spoke of Heaven and man and old ties—what harm in one who would not bow? Wen first visited Zihuan in skin cap; Bozhuang met Wenshu in gauze silk—former ages offer precedents enough. Now I send you a deer-skin kerchief and the like. In a few days I hope you will come in." Dian entered Hualin Garden in kerchief and homespun; Gaozu rejoiced, set out verse and wine, and treated him with the old kindness. An edict followed: "Former recluse He Dian—lofty in the Way, content with a knee's breadth of room, casting off the body, nesting his aim in the deep dark. I toil at government till sunset and still look up to former sages; how much more when I hold one of the same age and do not govern with him. Throat and lips have urgent work and must await the state's good men; I truly hope you will come and bend to counsel. Let him be summoned as palace attendant." He pleaded illness and did not go. Another edict said: "Recluse He Dian dwells in integrity beyond things and lets his heart roam outside the dust; the easy wind he leads comes from afar by nature. Formerly, following his constant aim, we spoke freely at banquet; I cherish Ziling in feeling and old friendship alike. In former ages Zhongyu transcended the vulgar and took salary from Han; Andao in reclusive will did not decline Jin stipend. This is the great track of former generations, what past worthies shared. Let additional stipend be discussed and granted from his place of residence; daily needs shall be separately supplied by the Imperial Commissary. Since your virtue shines high, the precedent is the same as below the palace wall."
8
天監三年，卒，時年六十八。 詔曰：「新除侍中何點，棲遲衡泌，白首不渝。 奄至殞喪，倍懷傷惻。 可給第一品材一具，賻錢二萬、布五十匹。 喪事所須，內監經理。」 又敕點弟胤曰：「賢兄徵君，弱冠拂衣，華首一操。 心遊物表，不滯近跡； 脫落形骸，寄之遠理。 性情勝致，遇興彌高； 文會酒德，撫際逾遠。 朕膺籙受圖，思長聲教。 朝多君子，旣貴成雅俗； 野有外臣，宜弘此難進。 方賴清徽，式隆大業。 昔在布衣，情期早著，資以仲虞之秩，待以子陵之禮，聽覽暇日，角巾引見，窅然汾射，茲焉有託。 一旦萬古，良懷震悼。 卿友於純至，親從凋亡； 偕老之願，致使反奪； 纏綿永恨，伊何可任。 永矣柰何！」 點無子，宗人以其從弟耿子遲任爲嗣。
In Tianjian year three he died, aged sixty-eight. An edict said: "The newly appointed palace attendant He Dian lingered at his ford-side hermitage and did not change to the end. Suddenly he died; my grief redoubles. Grant one set of first-rank funeral timber, twenty thousand in condolence money, and fifty bolts of cloth. Funeral needs shall be managed by the inner directorate." He also charged Yin, Dian's younger brother: "Your worthy brother the recluse at a tender age brushed away office and held one course to hoary head. His heart wandered outside things and did not cling to near traces; he cast off the body and lodged it in far principle. His nature's winning reach rose higher when stirred; in literary gatherings and wine virtue he touched ever farther distances. I received the mandate and took the chart, thinking to extend sound teaching. At court many gentlemen have already honored and perfected custom; in the wild there are outer ministers—this hard-to-advance path should be enlarged. I was about to rely on your pure emblem to loft the great enterprise. Long ago in plain cloth our bond was early; I gave you Zhongyu's rank and Ziling's rites; on days of leisure I received you in kerchief—remote as Fen and She, here was my trust. In one morning ten thousand years—my heart is shaken with mourning. You were friendly in pure utmost; kin and followers have withered; the wish to grow old together makes the reversal all the harder; enduring regret wound tight—how can it be borne? Gone forever—what can be done!" Dian had no son; the clan made his younger cousin Geng's son Chi heir.
9
胤字子季，點之弟也。 年八歲，居憂哀毀若成人。 旣長好學。 師事沛國劉瓛，受《易》及《禮記》、《毛詩》，又入鐘山定林寺聽內典，其業皆通。 而縱情誕節，時人未之知也，唯瓛與汝南周顒深器異之。
Yin, styled Ziji, was Dian's younger brother. At eight he mourned with grief and waste like an adult. Grown, he loved learning. He studied under Liu Huan of Pei, taking the Changes, the Record of Rites, and the Mao Odes, and entered Dinglin Temple on Bell Mountain for the inner canon—mastering all. Yet he gave free rein to wild conduct; his age did not yet know him—only Huan and Zhou Yong of Runan deeply prized him.
10
起家齊秘書郎，遷太子舍人。 出爲建安太守，爲政有恩信，民不忍欺。 每伏臘放囚還家，依期而返。 入爲尚書三公郎，不拜，遷司徒主簿。 注《易》，又解《禮記》，於卷背書之，謂爲《隱義》。 累遷中書郎、員外散騎常侍、太尉從事中郎、司徒右長史、給事黃門侍郎、太子中庶子、領國子博士、丹陽邑中正。 尚書令王儉受詔撰新禮，未就而卒。 又使特進張緒續成之，緒又卒； 屬在司徒竟陵王子良，子良以讓胤，乃置學士二十人，佐胤撰錄。 永明十年，遷侍中，領步兵校尉，轉爲國子祭酒。 鬱林嗣位，胤爲后族，甚見親待。 累遷左民尚書、領驍騎、中書令、領臨海、巴陵王師。
He first left home as Qi secretary in the palace and became crown prince's household attendant. Sent out as Jian'an administrator, he ruled with grace and trust, and the people would not deceive him. Each Fu and La he sent prisoners home, and they came back on time. He entered as Secretariat aide to the Three Excellencies, declined, and became registrar of the Minister of Rites. He annotated the Changes and explicated the Record of Rites on scroll backs, titling the work Hidden Meanings. He rose through secretariat gentleman, supernumerary attendant, grand marshal aide, right chief clerk, yellow-gates gentleman, heir-apparent aide, national university erudite, and Danyang rectifier. Wang Jian, director of the Masters of Writing, was ordered to draft the new rites but died unfinished. Zhang Xu, specially promoted, was set to finish it, and he too died; It fell to Minister of Rites Prince Ziliang of Jingling; Ziliang gave it to Yin, appointed twenty scholars, and had them help Yin compile. Yongming year ten he became palace attendant and colonel of footsoldiers, then chancellor of the national university. When Yulin succeeded, Yin was the empress's kin and was treated with great favor. He rose through left minister of the people, agile-cavalry commander, director of the secretariat, and tutor to the princes of Linhai and Baling.
11
胤雖貴顯，常懷止足。 建武初，已築室郊外，號曰小山，恒與學徒游處其內。 至是，遂賣園宅，欲入東山，未及發，聞謝朏罷吳興郡不還，胤恐後之，乃拜表辭職，不待報輒去。 明帝大怒，使御史中丞袁昂奏收胤，尋有詔許之。 胤以會稽山多靈異，往游焉，居若邪山雲門寺。 初，胤二兄求、點並棲遁，求先卒，至是胤又隱，世號點爲大山； 胤爲小山，亦曰東山。
Though noble and prominent, Yin always knew when enough was enough. Early Jianwu he had built a suburban house called Little Hill and constantly lived there with his students. He sold his estate to enter Eastern Hills; before leaving he heard Xie Tiao had quit Wuxing and would not return—fearing to be second, Yin resigned and left without waiting for approval. Emperor Ming raged and had vice director Yuan Ang move to arrest Yin; soon an edict allowed it. Yin found Kuaiji's mountains full of wonders, traveled there, and lived at Cloud Gate Monastery on Mt Ruoye. His brothers Qiu and Dian had both recluded; Qiu died first, and now Yin withdrew too—the age called Dian Great Hill; Yin was Little Hill, also called Eastern Hills.
12
永元中，徵太常、太子詹事，並不就。 高祖霸府建，引胤爲軍謀祭酒，與書曰：「想恒清豫，縱情林壑，致足歡也。 旣內絕心戰，外勞物役，以道養和，履候無爽。 若邪擅美東區，山川相屬，前世嘉賞，是爲樂土。 僕推遷簿官，自東徂西，悟言素對，用成睽闋，傾首東顧，曷日無懷。 疇昔歡遇，曳裾儒肆，實欲臥遊千載，畋漁百氏，一行爲吏，此事遂乖。 屬以世道威夷，仍離屯故，投袂數千，剋黜釁禍。 思得矚卷諮款，寓情古昔，夫豈不懷，事與願謝。 君清襟素托，棲寄不近，中居人世，殆同隱淪。 旣俯拾青組，又脫屣硃黻。 但理存用捨，義貴隨時，往識禍萌，實爲先覺，超然獨善，有識欽嗟。 今者爲邦，貧賤咸恥，好仁由己，幸無凝滯。 比別具白，此未盡言。 今遣候承音息，矯首還翰，慰其引領。」 胤不至。
In Yongyuan he was summoned as grand commandant and heir-apparent steward and accepted neither. When Gaozu set up the hegemon's office he made Yin army-planning libationer and wrote: "I imagine you are always serene, roaming forests and ravines—joy enough. Inwardly you have dropped strife, outwardly you spare toil; you nourish harmony by the Way and keep every season without fault. Ruoye holds the east's beauty, mountains and streams unbroken, praised by former ages—a happy land. I have been shuffled through petty posts east to west; our talks became estrangement; I look east every day without end of longing. Once we trailed robes in the halls of learning, wishing to roam a thousand years in books and hunt the hundred schools—but one turn to office ended it. Then the age's might was broken and we left our base; I rallied thousands and put down disaster. I wished to read your scrolls and speak heart to heart of the past—how could I not long for it? Yet affairs and wishes parted. Your pure heart and simple trust, dwelling not near the court—in the human world you are nearly a recluse. You have both taken up green ribbons and cast off vermilion rank like shoes. Yet principle is use and rejection, righteousness is timeliness; you saw calamity coming and stood apart in goodness—the knowing admire you. Today to serve the state, even the poor feel shame if they do not love benevolence—do not hesitate. I will explain more elsewhere; this letter does not say all. Now I send a messenger for your word; look up and write back to ease my waiting. Yin did not come.
13
高祖踐阼，詔爲特進、右光祿大夫。 手敕曰：「吾猥當期運，膺此樂推，而顧己蒙蔽，昧於治道。 雖復劬勞日昃，思致隆平，而先王遺范，尚蘊方策，自舉之用，存乎其人。 兼以世道澆暮，爭詐繁起，改俗遷風，良有未易。 自非以儒雅弘朝，高尚軌物，則汩流所至，莫知其限。 治人之與治身，獨善之與兼濟，得失去取，爲用孰多。 吾雖不學，頗好博古，尚想高塵，每懷擊節。 今世務紛亂，憂責是當，不得不屈道岩阿，共成世美。 必望深達往懷，不吝濡足。 今遣領軍司馬王果宣旨諭意，遲面在近。」 果至，胤單衣鹿巾，執經卷，下床跪受詔書，就席伏讀。 胤因謂果曰：「吾昔於齊朝欲陳兩三條事，一者欲正郊丘，二者欲更鑄九鼎，三者欲樹雙闕。 世傳晉室欲立闕，王丞相指牛頭山云：『此天闕也』，是則未明立闕之意。 闕者，謂之象魏。 縣象法於其上，浹日而收之。 象者，法也； 魏者，當塗而高大貌也。 鼎者神器，有國所先，故王孫滿斥言，楚子頓盡。 圓丘國郊，舊典不同。 南郊祠五帝靈威仰之類，圓丘祠天皇大帝、北極大星是也。 往代合之郊丘，先儒之巨失。 今梁德告始，不宜遂因前謬。 卿宜詣闕陳之。」 果曰：「僕之鄙劣，豈敢輕議國典？ 此當敬俟叔孫生耳。」 胤曰：「卿詎不遣傳詔還朝拜表，留與我同遊邪？」 果愕然曰：「古今不聞此例。」 胤曰：「《檀弓》兩卷，皆言物始。 自卿而始，何必有例。」 果曰：「今君遂當邈然絕世，猶有致身理不？」 胤曰：「卿但以事見推，吾年已五十七，月食四斗米不盡，何容得有宦情？ 昔荷聖王跂識，今又蒙旌賁，甚願詣闕謝恩，但比腰腳大惡，此心不遂耳。」
When Gaozu took the throne he made Yin specially promoted and right grand master of splendid happiness. A handwritten edict said: "I unworthily met the age and received elevation, yet I am benighted in the way of rule. Though I toil from sun to sun seeking peace, the former kings' models lie in the scrolls—who is raised depends on the man. Moreover the age is thin and deceit flourishes—changing custom is not easy. Unless Confucian elegance exalts the court and lofty standards guide things, the muddy current has no limit. Governing others or the self, solitary good or aiding all—which matters more? Though I do not study, I love antiquity, still think on lofty men, and beat the measure in admiration. Today affairs are tangled; duty calls—you must bend the Way to the cliffs and help complete the age's beauty. I hope you understand my old wish and do not refuse to wet your feet. Now I send army-inspecting chief Wang Guo to announce my meaning—we shall meet soon. Guo arrived; Yin wore a single robe and deer cap, held a classic scroll, knelt to receive the edict, then read it prone at his seat. Yin told Guo: "In Qi I wished to present three things: correct the suburban altar and mound, recast the nine tripods, and raise twin gate-towers. Tradition says Jin wished to raise towers; Chief Minister Wang pointed at Ox Head Mountain and said "This is Heaven's tower"—they never understood what a tower was for. A tower is called the Elephant-Dawning. Laws are displayed on it and gathered in at the full of day. "Elephant" means law; "Dawning" means towering height on the road of rule. The tripod is the sacred vessel states put first—hence Wangsun Man's rebuke and the Chu lord's feast cut short. Round Mound and state suburban rites differed in the old canons. The southern suburb sacrifices to the Five Thearchs and Spiritual Majesty Yang; the Round Mound to the Celestial Sovereign and Pole Star—that is the distinction. Merging suburb and mound was a great error of the early Confucians. Now Liang's virtue begins; we should not follow the old error. You should go to court and present this. Guo said: "I am crude and low—how dare I discuss state canons? That should await a Master Shusun." Yin said: "Will you not send the messenger back with a memorial and stay to roam with me? Guo said in astonishment: "Past and present have no such precedent. Yin said: "The two scrolls of Tann Gong all speak of beginnings. Begin with you—why need a precedent? Guo said: "Now you withdraw from the world—is there still any reason to take office? Yin said: "You only push me with business; I am fifty-seven, and four pecks of rice a month do not finish me—how could I want office? Once the sage king favored me; now I am honored again—I wish to thank at court, but my waist and legs are too bad, and this heart cannot be fulfilled."
14
果還，以胤意奏聞，有敕給白衣尚書祿，胤固辭。 又敕山陰庫錢月給五萬，胤又不受。 乃敕胤曰：「頃者學業淪廢，儒術將盡，閭閻搢紳，鮮聞好事。 吾每思弘獎，其風未移，當扆興言爲歎。 本欲屈卿暫出，開導後生，旣屬廢業，此懷未遂，延佇之勞，載盈夢想。 理舟虛席，須俟來秋，所望惠然，申其宿抱耳。 卿門徒中經明行脩，厥數有幾？ 且欲瞻彼堂堂，置此周行。 便可具以名聞，副其勞望。」 又曰：「比歲學者殊爲寡少，良由無復聚徒，故明經斯廢。 每一念此，爲之慨然。 卿居儒宗，加以德素，當敕後進有意向者，就卿受業。 想深思誨誘，使斯文載興。」 於是遣何子朗、孔壽等六人於東山受學。
Guo returned and reported; an edict granted plain-robes masters-of-writing salary—Yin firmly refused. Again fifty thousand from the Shanyin treasury each month—Yin again refused. Then an edict to Yin said: "Learning has lately sunk and Confucian arts nearly end; in lanes and wards few gentry are heard doing good. I ever wish to encourage it, yet the wind does not change—I sigh at the throne. I wished you would come out briefly and guide the young; since learning is abandoned, this wish fails—the wait fills my dreams. I ready the boat and empty the seat for next autumn; I hope you will come and speak the wish long held. Among your disciples, how many are clear in the classics and cultivated in conduct? I also wish to see the stately ones and set them in the grand procession. Submit their names at once to match their labor and hope. He also said: "Scholars are especially few lately—because there are no more gathered disciples, mastery of the classics is abandoned. Each time I think of this I sigh. You are head of Confucian teaching and plain in virtue—order those among the young who wish it to study under you. I trust you will teach and entice deeply and make this civilization rise again. Thereupon he sent He Zilang, Kong Shou, and six others to study on Eastern Hills.
15
太守衡陽王元簡深加禮敬，月中常命駕式閭，談論終日。 胤以若邪處勢迫隘，不容生徒，乃遷秦望山。 山有飛泉，西起學舍，卽林成援，因岩爲堵。 別爲小閤室，寢處其中，躬自啓閉，僮僕無得至者。 山側營田二頃，講隙從生徒遊之。 胤初遷，將築室，忽見二人著玄冠，容貌甚偉，問胤曰：「君欲居此邪？」 乃指一處云：「此中殊吉。」 忽不復見，胤依其言而止焉。 尋而山發洪水，樹石皆倒拔，唯胤所居室巋然獨存。 元簡乃命記室參軍鐘嶸作《瑞室頌》，刻石以旌之。 及元簡去郡，入山與胤別，送至都賜埭，去郡三里，因曰：「僕自棄人事，交遊路斷，自非降貴山藪，豈容復望城邑？ 此埭之游，於今絕矣。」 執手涕零。
Grand administrator Prince Yuan Jian of Hengyang deeply honored him; each month he often drove to his lane and talked all day. Ruoye was cramped and could not hold students, so Yin moved to Mt Qinwang. The mountain had a flying spring; westward he built a study hall, the forest as posts and the cliff as wall. He made a small sleeping chamber, opened and closed it himself—servants could not enter. On the mountainside he farmed two qing; between lectures he walked there with students. When Yin first moved to build, he suddenly saw two men in black caps, very imposing, who asked: "Do you wish to live here? Pointing to a place they said: "This spot is especially auspicious. Suddenly they vanished; Yin followed their words and stopped there. Soon the mountain flooded; trees and stones were uprooted—only Yin's house stood intact. Yuan Jian had recorder Zhong Rong compose "Ode on the Auspicious Chamber" and carved stone to honor it. When Yuan Jian left the commandery he entered the hills to bid Yin farewell, escorting him to Capital Gift Dam three li out, and said: "I have cast off human affairs and cut off friendship—unless nobles descend to the hills, how could I look on cities again? This dam outing ends today. They clasped hands in tears.
16
何氏過江，自晉司空充並葬吳西山。 胤家世年皆不永，唯祖尚之至七十二。 胤年登祖壽，乃移還吳，作《別山詩》一首，言甚悽愴。 至吳，居虎丘西寺講經論，學徒復隨之，東境守宰經途者，莫不畢至。 胤常禁殺，有虞人逐鹿，鹿徑來趨胤，伏而不動。 又有異鳥如鶴，紅色，集講堂，馴狎如家禽焉。
The He clan crossed the river; from Jin minister of works Chong onward all were buried on Wu's Western Hill. Yin's family never lived long—only grandfather Shangzhi reached seventy-two. When Yin reached his grandfather's span he moved back to Wu and wrote "Farewell to the Mountains," very mournful. At Wu he lived at Tiger Hill West Monastery lecturing on classics; students followed, and eastern magistrates on the road all came. Yin always forbade killing; a gamekeeper chased a deer that ran straight to Yin, crouched, and did not move. A strange red crane-like bird settled in the lecture hall, tame as poultry.
17
初，開善寺藏法師與胤遇於秦望，後還都，卒於鐘山。 其死日，胤在般若寺，見一僧授胤香奩並函書，云「呈何居士」，言訖失所在。 胤開函，乃是《大莊嚴論》，世中未有。 又於寺內立明珠柱，乃七日七夜放光，太守何遠以狀啓。 昭明太子欽其德，遣舍人何思澄致手令以褒美之。
Earlier monk Zang of Kaishan Monastery met Yin on Mt Qinwang; later he returned to the capital and died on Zhongshan. On the day he died Yin was at Prajna Monastery; a monk gave Yin an incense casket and boxed letter saying "For Layman He," then vanished. Yin opened the box and found the Treatise on the Great Majestic—unknown anywhere in the world. A pearl pillar was raised in the temple and glowed seven days and nights; Governor He Yuan memorialized the court. Crown Prince Zhaoming, honoring his virtue, sent He Sicheng with a handwritten commendation.
18
中大通三年，卒，年八十六。 先是胤疾，妻江氏夢神人告之曰：「汝夫壽盡。 旣有至德，應獲延期，爾當代之。」 妻覺說焉，俄得患而卒，胤疾乃瘳。 至是胤夢一神女，幷八十許人，並衣帢，行列至前，俱拜床下，覺又見之，便命營凶具。 旣而疾動，因不自治。
He died in the third year of Zhongdatong, at eighty-six. Before his death, while Yin was ill, Lady Jiang dreamed a spirit say, "Your husband's life is spent. His virtue merits a reprieve—you must die in his stead." She told him on waking; soon she sickened and died, and Yin recovered. Then he dreamed a goddess and eighty attendants in headcloths, ranked before his bed and bowing; waking he saw them again and ordered his coffin made. His illness soon worsened beyond his power to tend it.
19
胤注《百法論》、《十二門論》各一卷，注《周易》十卷、《毛詩總集》六卷、《毛詩隱義》十卷、《禮記隱義》二十卷、《禮答問》五十五卷。
He wrote commentaries: one scroll each on the Hundred Dharmas and Twelve Gates; ten on the Changes; six on the Mao odes; ten on their hidden meanings; twenty on ritual hidden meanings; fifty-five of ritual Q and A.
20
子撰，亦不仕，廬陵王辟爲主簿，不就。
His son Zhuan would not serve either; the Prince of Luling made him chief clerk, and he declined.
21
阮孝緒
Ruan Xiaoxu
22
阮孝緒字士宗，陳留尉氏人也。 父彥之，宋太尉從事中郎。
Ruan Xiaoxu, styled Shizong, came from Wei in Chenliu. His father Yanzhi served as attendant gentleman to the Song Grand Marshal.
23
孝緒七歲，出後從伯胤之。 胤之母周氏卒，有遺財百餘萬，應歸孝緒，孝緒一無所納，盡以歸胤之姊琅邪王晏之母，聞者咸歎異之。
At seven he was adopted by his father's cousin Yinzhi. When Yinzhi's mother died, a million-plus legacy was Xiaoxu's by right; he took nothing and gave all to Yinzhi's sister, Wang Yan's mother—hearers marveled.
24
幼至孝，性沉靜，雖與兒童遊戲，恒以穿池築山爲樂。 年十三，遍通《五經》。 十五，冠而見其父，彥之誡曰：「三加彌尊，人倫之始。 宜思自勖，以庇爾躬。」 答曰：「願迹松子於瀛海，追許由於穹谷，庶保促生，以免塵累。」 自是屏居一室，非定省未嘗出戶，家人莫見其面，親友因呼爲「居士」。
Filial and withdrawn from childhood, he played only at digging ponds and building miniature mountains. At thirteen he had read through the Five Classics. Capped at fifteen and presented to his father, Yanzhi warned him: "Three investitures, growing honor—that is where human duty begins. Strive to brace yourself and shelter your own life." He answered, "I would trace Master Zi on the eastern sea and Xu You in the deep valley, keep my life brief, and slip the world's dust." He shut himself in one room, leaving only for obligatory visits to his parents; kin called him "the Recluse," for none saw his face.
25
外兄王晏貴顯，屢至其門，孝緒度之必至顛覆，常逃匿不與相見。 曾食醬美，問之，云是王家所得，便吐飧覆醢。 及晏誅，其親戚咸爲之懼，孝緒曰：「親而不黨，何坐之及？」 竟獲免。
His cousin Wang Yan, risen high, came often; Xiaoxu foresaw his ruin and hid, refusing every meeting. He once ate a fine sauce; learning it came from the Wangs, he vomited his meal and dashed the dish aside. At Yan's execution his kin trembled; Xiaoxu said, "One may love kin without siding with them—why would I be punished?" He was spared after all.
26
義師圍京城，家貧無以爨，僮妾竊鄰人樵以繼火。 孝緒知之，乃不食，更令撤屋而炊。 所居室唯有一鹿床，竹樹環繞。 天監初，御史中丞任昉尋其兄履之，欲造而不敢，望而歎曰：「其室雖邇，其人甚遠。」 爲名流所欽尚如此。
As the righteous army besieged the capital, they were too poor to cook; a servant stole a neighbor's firewood to feed the hearth. Learning this, he refused food and had them dismantle the house for firewood. He lived in a room with only a deer-hide couch, surrounded by bamboo and trees. Early Tianjian, censor Ren Fang sought his brother Lüzhi, wanting to visit yet afraid; he sighed from afar, "Near the house, far the man." So the famous honored him.
27
十二年，與吳郡范元琰俱徵，並不到。 陳郡袁峻謂之曰：「往者，天地閉，賢人隱； 今世路已清，而子猶遁，可乎？」 答曰：「昔周德雖興，夷、齊不厭薇蕨； 漢道方盛，黃、綺無悶山林。 爲仁由己，何關人世！ 況僕非往賢之類邪？」
In year twelve he and Fan Yuanyan of Wu were summoned together; neither came. Yuan Jun of Chen said to him, "Once Heaven and Earth were closed and worthies hid; now the way is open—yet you still flee. How can that be right?" He answered, "Though Zhou's virtue was rising, Boyi and Shuqi still lived on ferns; when Han flourished, Huang and Qi were untroubled in the hills. Benevolence is one's own affair—what has it to do with the age! And am I their kind of man?"
28
後於鐘山聽講，母王氏忽有疾，兄弟欲召之。 母曰：「孝緒至性冥通，必當自到。」 果心驚而返，鄰里嗟異之。 合藥須得生人參，舊傳鐘山所出，孝緒躬歷幽險，累日不值。 忽見一鹿前行，孝緒感而隨後，至一所遂滅，就視，果獲此草。 母得服之，遂愈。 時皆歎其孝感所致。
Later, lecturing on Zhongshan, he heard his mother was ill; his brothers meant to call him home. His mother said, "Xiaoxu's filial nature pierces the unseen—he will come on his own." His heart indeed started and he returned; neighbors marveled. The prescription needed fresh ginseng, said to grow on Zhongshan; he searched the wild ravines for days without success. A deer appeared; he followed it in wonder, and where it vanished he found the plant. His mother took it and recovered. All said filial feeling had wrought it.
29
時有善筮者張有道謂孝緒曰：「見子隱跡而心難明，自非考之龜蓍，無以驗也。」 及布卦，旣揲五爻，曰：「此將爲《咸》，應感之法，非嘉遁之兆。」 孝緒曰：「安知後爻不爲上九？」 果成《遁卦》。 有道歎曰：「此謂『肥遁無不利。』 象實應德，心迹幷也。」 孝緒曰：「雖獲《遁卦》，而上九爻不發，升遐之道，便當高謝許生。」 乃著《高隱傳》，上自炎、黃，終於天監之末，斟酌分爲三品，凡若干卷。 又著論云：「夫至道之本，貴在無爲； 聖人之跡，存乎拯弊。 弊拯由跡，跡用有乖於本，本旣無爲，爲非道之至。 然不垂其跡，則世無以平； 不究其本，則道實交喪。 丘、旦將存其跡，故宜權晦其本； 老、莊但明其本，亦宜深抑其跡。 跡旣可抑，數子所以有餘； 本方見晦，尼丘是故不足。 非得一之士，闕彼明智； 體二之徒，獨懷鑒識。 然聖已極照，反創其跡； 賢未居宗，更言其本。 良由跡須拯世，非聖不能； 本實明理，在賢可照。 若能體茲本跡，悟彼抑揚，則孔、莊之意，其過半矣。」
The diviner Zhang Youdao told him, "You hide your tracks and your heart is obscure; only tortoise and yarrow can test you." Casting the lines, he stopped at five and said, "This becomes Influence—responsive feeling, not noble retreat." Xiaoxu said, "Who says the next line is not top nine?" It became Retreat. Youdao sighed, "This is 'Fat retreat—nothing unfavorable. Image and virtue match; heart and trail are one." Xiaoxu said, "Though I get Retreat, top nine never stirs—the high path of withdrawal will soon make me quit Xu You's company." He wrote the Record of High Reclusion from Yan and Huang to Tianjian's end, sorted into three grades in several tens of scrolls. He argued in a treatise: "The utmost Way's root is nonaction; the sage's traces remain in rescuing decay. Rescuing decay needs traces, yet traces war with the root; the root is nonaction, so action is not the Way's fullness. Yet without traces the world cannot be leveled; without pursuing the root, the Way itself is lost in the crossing. Confucius and the Duke of Zhou kept their traces and rightly veiled their root for a time; Laozi and Zhuangzi clarified the root and rightly pressed their traces down. Traces can be restrained, so those masters have something left over; the root was hidden, so Confucius falls short. Men of one side lack that bright wisdom; those who hold both carry the mirror of insight. Yet the sage, already utmost in light, still made traces; the worthy, not yet chief, again spoke of the root. Traces must save the age—only a sage can; the root clarifies principle—in the worthy it can shine. Grasp root and trace, their restraint and display, and you hold more than half of Confucius and Zhuangzi."
30
南平元襄王聞其名，致書要之，不赴。 孝緒曰：「非志驕富貴，但性畏廟堂。 若使麏䴥可驂，何以異夫驥騄。」
Prince Yuanxiang of Nanping summoned him by letter; he would not go. He said, "I do not scorn wealth, but I fear the court. If deer and roebuck could be harnessed, how would that differ from thoroughbreds?"
31
初，建武末，青溪宮東門無故自崩，大風拔東宮門外楊樹。 或以問孝緒，孝緒曰：「青溪皇家舊宅。 齊爲木行，東者木位，今東門自壞，木其衰矣。」
Late Jianwu, Qingxi Palace's east gate fell without cause, and a great wind uprooted the Eastern Palace poplars. Asked about it, Xiaoxu said, "Qingxi was the imperial clan's old seat. Qi ruled by Wood; east is Wood's place—the east gate fell by itself: Wood is failing."
32
鄱陽忠烈王妃，孝緒之姊。 王嘗命駕，欲就之遊，孝緒鑿垣而逃，卒不肯見。 諸甥歲時饋遺，一無所納。 人或怪之，答云：「非我始願，故不受也。」
His elder sister was princess-consort of Poyang, styled loyal and fierce. The prince once drove out to visit him; Xiaoxu broke through the wall and fled, and never would meet him. Nephews' yearly gifts he refused entirely. Asked why, he said, "It was never what I first wished for, so I will not take it."
33
其恒所供養石像，先有損壞，心欲治補，經一夜忽然完復，衆並異之。
A stone image he worshipped had been damaged; he meant to mend it, and overnight it was whole—everyone marveled.
34
大同二年，卒，時年五十八。 門徒誄其德行，諡曰文貞處士。 所著《七錄》等書二百五十卷，行於世。
He died in the second year of Datong, at fifty-eight. Disciples praised his conduct; he was titled Recluse Wen Zhen. Works including the Sevenfold Bibliography, 250 scrolls in all, circulated in his time.
35
陶弘景
Tao Hongjing
36
陶弘景字通明，丹陽秣陵人也。 初，母夢青龍自懷而出，幷見兩天人手執香爐來至其所，已而有娠，遂產弘景。 幼有異操。 年十歲，得葛洪《神仙傳》，晝夜研尋，便有養生之志。 謂人曰：「仰青雲，睹白日，不覺爲遠矣。」 及長，身長七尺四寸，神儀明秀，朗目疏眉，細形長耳。 讀書萬餘卷。 善琴棊，工草隸。 未弱冠，齊高帝作相，引爲諸王侍讀，除奉朝請。 雖在朱門，閉影不交外物，唯以披閱爲務。 朝儀故事，多取決焉。 永明十年，上表辭祿，詔許之，賜以束帛。 及發，公卿祖之於征虜亭，供帳甚盛，車馬填咽，咸云宋、齊以來，未有斯事。 朝野榮之。
Tao Hongjing, styled Tongming, came from Moling in Danyang. His mother dreamed a green dragon left her womb and two celestial men with censers came to her; then she bore Hongjing. As a boy he was unlike others. At ten he found Ge Hong's Biographies of Immortals, studied it day and night, and resolved to seek long life. He said, "Raise your eyes to blue clouds and the white sun—they do not seem far." Grown, he stood seven feet four; bright of spirit, clear-eyed, sparse-browed, slender, long-eared. He read over ten thousand scrolls. He played zither and chess and wrote draft and clerical script well. Before his capping year, with Qi Gaodi as prime minister, he became princes' lecturer and palace attendant. Though he lived in the great house, he hid from the world and read without cease. Court ritual mostly followed his judgment. Yongming year ten he memorialized to resign his stipend; the emperor agreed and gave him silks. At his departure nobles feasted him at the Pacifying-the-Barbarians Pavilion—carriages choked the road; none since Song and Qi had seen the like. Court and country honored him.
37
於是止于句容之句曲山。 恒曰：「此山下是第八洞宮，名金壇華陽之天，周回一百五十里。 昔漢有咸陽三茅君得道，來掌此山，故謂之茅山。」 乃中山立館，自號華陽隱居。 始從東陽孫游岳受符圖經法。 遍歷名山，尋訪仙藥。 每經澗谷，必坐臥其間，吟詠盤桓，不能已已。 時沈約爲東陽郡守，高其志節，累書要之，不至。
He settled on Mt Gouqu in Jurong. He always said, "Below this mountain lies the eighth grotto-palace—the Golden Altar Huayang Heaven, one hundred fifty li around. In Han the Three Mao lords of Xianyang attained the Way and ruled this mountain—hence Mt Mao." He built a lodge on Mt Zhong and called himself the Recluse of Huayang. First he studied talismans and charts under Sun Yoyue of Dongyang. He ranged famous mountains seeking elixirs. At every ravine he sat or lay, chanting and lingering, unable to leave. Shen Yue, Dongyang prefect, prized his integrity and wrote again and again; Hongjing never came.
38
弘景爲人，圓通謙謹，出處冥會，心如明鏡，遇物便了，言無煩舛，有亦輒覺。 建武中，齊宜都王鏗爲明帝所害，其夜，弘景夢鏗告別，因訪其幽冥中事，多說秘異，因著《夢記》焉。
Rounded and modest, he matched occasion in silence; his mind was a mirror—things cleared at a glance, speech never snarled, fault felt at once. In Jianwu Prince Keng of Yidu died by Mingdi's hand; that night Hongjing dreamed him farewell, asked of the shades, heard strange secrets, and wrote Dream Records.
39
永元初，更築三層樓，弘景處其上，弟子居其中，賓客至其下，與物遂絕，唯一家僮得侍其旁。 特愛松風，每聞其響，欣然爲樂。 有時獨游泉石，望見者以爲仙人。
Early Yongyuan he raised a three-story tower—Hongjing above, disciples between, guests below—world cut off; one boy alone served at his side. He loved pine wind; at its sound he always rejoiced. Sometimes he roamed springs and stone alone; watchers thought him an immortal.
40
性好著述，尚奇異，顧惜光景，老而彌篤。 尤明陰陽五行，風角星算，山川地理，方圖產物，醫術本草。 著《帝代年曆》，又嘗造渾天象，云「修道所須，非止史官是用」。
He loved to write and prized the strange, hoarded daylight, and in old age grew keener still. He excelled at yin-yang and five phases, wind and stars, land and maps, drugs and herbs. He wrote Imperial Eras Chronology and once built an armillary sphere, saying cultivation needs more than historians use.
41
義師平建康，聞議禪代，弘景援引圖讖，數處皆成「梁」字，令弟子進之。 高祖旣早與之遊，及卽位後，恩禮逾篤，書問不絕，冠蓋相望。
When the righteous army took Jiankang and abdication was debated, Hongjing cited omens where Liang formed again and again and sent disciples to present them. Gaozu had known him early; enthroned, his grace deepened—letters without end, coaches in sight.
42
天監四年，移居積金東澗。 善辟穀導引之法，年逾八十而有壯容。 深慕張良之爲人，云「古賢莫比」。 曾夢佛授其菩提記，名爲勝力菩薩。 乃詣鄮縣阿育王塔自誓，受五大戒。 後太宗臨南徐州，欽其風素，召至後堂，與談論數日而去，太宗甚敬異之。 大通初，令獻二刀於高祖，其一名善勝，一名成勝，竝爲佳寶。
Tianjian year four he moved to Golden Accumulation's eastern stream. Skilled in fasting and breath guidance; past eighty he still looked hale. He deeply admired Zhang Liang, saying no sage of old could equal him. He once dreamed the Buddha gave him a bodhi record and named him the Bodhisattva Victorious Power. He went to King Asoka's stupa in Mao, vowed, and took the five great precepts. Later Taizong held southern Xuzhou, prized his character, called him to the rear hall, talked days, and sent him off in deep respect. Early Datong he presented two swords to Gaozu—Good Victory and Achieved Victory—both prized blades.
43
大同二年，卒，時年八十五。 顏色不變，屈申如恒。 詔贈中散大夫，諡曰貞白先生，仍遣舍人監護喪事。 弘景遺令薄葬，弟子遵而行之。
Datong year two he died, at eighty-five. His color held; his limbs moved as ever. The court made him palace attendant posthumously, titled Master Zhenbai, and sent a steward to oversee the rites. Hongjing ordered a plain burial; disciples obeyed.
44
諸葛璩
Zhuge Ju
45
諸葛璩字幼玟，琅邪陽都人，世居京口。 璩幼事徵士關康之，博涉經史。 復師徵士臧榮緒。 榮緒著《晉書》，稱璩有發擿之功，方之壺遂。
Zhuge Ju, styled Youmin, came from Yangdu in Langye; his clan had long dwelt at Jingkou. Ju as a boy served the recluse Guan Kangzhi and ranged classics and history. He also studied under the recluse Zang Rongxu. Rongxu's Jin history credits Ju with uncovering sources and compares him to Hu Sui.
46
齊建武初，南徐州行事江祀薦璩於明帝曰：「璩安貧守道，悅《禮》敦《詩》，未嘗投刺邦宰，曳裾府寺，如其簡退，可以揚清厲俗。 請辟爲議曹從事。」 帝許之，璩辭不去。 陳郡謝朓爲東海太守，教曰：「昔長孫東組，降龍丘之節； 文舉北輜，高通德之稱。 所以激貪立懦，式揚風範。 處士諸葛璩，高風所漸，結轍前脩。 豈懷珠披褐，韜玉待價？ 將幽貞獨往，不事王侯者邪？ 聞事親有啜菽之窶，就養寡藜蒸之給，豈得獨享萬鐘，而忘茲五秉？ 可餉穀百斛。」 天監中，太守蕭琛、刺史安成王秀、鄱陽王恢並禮異焉。 璩丁母憂毀瘠，恢累加存問。 服闋，舉秀才，不就。
Early Jianwu Jiang Si of southern Xuzhou told Mingdi: "Ju keeps poverty and the Way, loves Rites and Odes, never visits a magistrate or haunts offices--such withdrawal could purify custom. Please summon him as advisory aide." The emperor assented; Ju refused and stayed away. Xie Tiao of Chen, Donghai prefect, wrote: "Once Sun Qiu bound his sash and lowered Dragon Hill's banner; Kong Wenju drove north in light carts and won fame for lofty virtue. So they stirred the greedy and stiffened the timid, setting conduct for others. Recluse Zhuge Ju, touched by lofty winds, follows earlier worthies' tracks. Does he hide pearl in sackcloth, jade in his breast, waiting for price? Or does he walk alone in hidden integrity, serving no lord? I hear he serves his mother on bean broth and can barely feed her greens—how enjoy ten thousand bushels and forget five pecks? Grant him a hundred bushels of grain." Under Tianjian Prefect Xiao Chen, Inspector Prince Xiu of An Cheng, and Prince Hui of Poyang all treated him with special honor. Ju wasted away in mourning his mother; Hui wrote again and again to comfort him. Mourning done, he was nominated cultivated talent and refused.
47
璩性勤於誨誘，後生就學者日至，居宅狹陋，無以容之，太守張友爲起講舍。 璩處身清正，妻子不見喜慍之色。 旦夕孜孜，講誦不輟，時人益以此宗之。
Ju taught tirelessly; students came daily until his house would not hold them, and Prefect Zhang You built a lecture hall. Ju was pure in conduct; wife and children never saw joy or anger on his face. Morning and night he lectured without pause, and the world honored him the more.
48
七年，高祖敕問太守王份，份卽具以實對，未及徵用，是年卒於家。 璩所著文章二十卷，門人劉曒集而錄之。
Year seven Gaozu asked Prefect Wang Fen, who told the truth; before Ju could be called he died at home that year. His writings ran twenty scrolls; disciple Liu Xiao compiled them.
49
沈顗字處默，吳興武康人也。 父坦之，齊都官郎。
Shen Yan, styled Chumo, came from Wukang in Wuxing. His father Tanzhi was Qi director of the Ministry of Justice.
50
顗幼清靜有至行，慕黃叔度、徐孺子之爲人。 讀書不爲章句，著述不尚浮華。 常獨處一室，人罕見其面。 顗從叔勃，貴顯齊世，每還吳興，賓客填咽，顗不至其門。 勃就之，顗送迎不越於閫。 勃歎息曰：「吾乃今知貴不如賤。」
As a boy he was quiet and of utmost conduct, admiring Huang Shidu and Xu Jizi. He read without chasing glosses and wrote without chasing ornament. He often sat alone in one room; few ever saw his face. His uncle Bo was grand in Qi; when Bo returned to Wuxing guests choked the court, but Yan never came to his gate. Bo visited him; Yan's courtesy never crossed the threshold. Bo sighed: "Only now I know rank is worse than low estate."
51
俄徵爲南郡王左常侍，不就。 顗內行甚脩，事母兄弟孝友，爲鄉里所稱慕。 永明三年，徵著作郎； 建武二年，徵太子舍人，俱不赴。 永元二年，又徵通直郎，亦不赴。
Soon summoned as left attendant to the Prince of Nan—he refused. His inner life was strict; filial to mother, friendly to brothers—the district praised him. Yongming year three he was called drafting secretary; Jianwu year two as crown prince attendant—he went to neither. Yongyuan year two he was called courier gentleman and again refused.
52
顗素不治家產，值齊末兵荒，與家人幷日而食。 或有饋其梁肉者，閉門不受。 唯以樵采自資，怡怡然恒不改其樂。
He never kept house; at Qi's end, war and famine, his household ate once a day. Offered grain and meat, he shut the door and would not take it. He lived by firewood alone, yet stayed easy and never lost his joy.
53
天監四年，大舉北伐，訂民丁。 吳興太守柳惲以顗從役，揚州別駕陸任以書責之，惲大慚，厚禮而遣之。 其年卒於家。 所著文章數十篇。
Tianjian year four a great northern campaign levied the people. Prefect Liu Yun pressed Yan into corvee; Yangzhou vice-prefect Lu Ren rebuked him in writing; Yun was ashamed, honored him, and released him. That year he died at home. His writings ran to several dozen pieces.
54
劉慧斐
Liu Huifei
55
劉慧斐字文宣，彭城人也。 少博學，能屬文，起家安成王法曹行參軍。 嘗還都，途經尋陽，游於匡山，過處士張孝秀，相得甚歡，遂有終焉之志。 因不仕，居於東林寺。 又於山北構園一所，號曰離垢園，時人乃謂爲離垢先生。
Liu Huifei, styled Wensuan, came from Pengcheng. Young, broadly learned and able to write, he began as law-bureau aide to the Prince of An Cheng. Returning to court he passed Xunyang, roamed Mt Kuang, met recluse Zhang Xiaoxiu, delighted in him, and resolved to end his days there. He left office and dwelt at East Grove Temple. North of the mountain he built the Garden Free of Defilement; men called him Master Free of Defilement.
56
慧斐尤明釋典，工篆隸，在山手寫佛經二千餘卷，常所誦者百餘卷。 晝夜行道，孜孜不怠，遠近欽慕之。 太宗臨江州，遺以几杖。 論者云：自遠法師沒後，將二百年，始有張、劉之盛矣。 世祖及武陵王等書問不絕。 大同二年，卒，時年五十九。
He excelled in Buddhist canon and seal script, copied two thousand sutra scrolls by hand on the mountain, and daily recited over a hundred. Day and night he walked the Way without slackening; near and far admired him. Taizong governing Jiang sent him couch and staff. Critics said nearly two hundred years after Master Yuan died before Zhang and Liu rose again. Shizu and the Prince of Wuling wrote without cease. Datong year two he died, at fifty-nine.
57
范元琰
Fan Yuanyan
58
范元琰字伯珪，吳郡錢唐人也。 祖悅之，太學博士徵，不至。 父靈瑜，居父憂，以毀卒。 元琰時童孺，哀慕盡禮，親黨異之。 及長好學，博通經史，兼精佛義。 然性謙敬，不以所長驕人。 家貧，唯以園蔬爲業。 嘗出行，見人盜其菜，元琰遽退走，母問其故，具以實答。 母問盜者爲誰，答曰：「向所以退，畏其愧恥。 今啓其名，願不泄也。」 於是母子秘之。 或有涉溝盜其筍者，元琰因伐木爲橋以渡之。 自是盜者大慚，一鄉無復草竊。 居常不出城市，獨坐如對嚴賓，見之者莫不改容正色。 沛國劉瓛深加器異，嘗表稱之。
Fan Yuanyan, styled Bogui, came from Qiantang in Wu commandery. His grandfather Yuezhi was summoned imperial erudite and would not go. His father Lingyu died mourning his father, destroyed by grief. Yuanyan was still a child; his mourning fulfilled every rite, and kin marveled. Grown, he loved learning, ranged classics and history, and knew Buddhist teaching. Yet modest by nature, he never flaunted what he knew. Poor, he lived only on garden vegetables. Once walking out he saw a man steal his greens; Yuanyan hurried away. His mother asked; he told all. She asked who stole. He said, "I fled lest I shame him. Now I name him—please do not tell." Mother and son kept silence. When a man waded a ditch to steal bamboo shoots, Yuanyan built a wooden bridge. Then the thief was ashamed, and the village stopped stealing plants. He rarely left town; sitting alone as before stern guests, viewers straightened face and bearing. Liu Huan of Pei prized him and once memorialized praise.
59
齊建武二年，始徵爲安北參軍事，不赴。 天監九年，縣令管慧辨上言義行，揚州刺史、臨川王宏辟命，不至。 十年，王拜表薦焉，竟未徵。 其年卒於家，時年七十。
Jianwu year two he was first summoned aide to the Army Pacifying the North and refused. Tianjian year nine the magistrate Guan Huibian praised his conduct; Prince Linchuan of Yangzhou summoned him, and he stayed away. Year ten the prince recommended him in a memorial, but no summons ever came. He died at home that year, at seventy.
60
劉訏字彥度，平原人也。 父靈真，齊武昌太守。 訏幼稱純孝，數歲，父母繼卒，訏居喪，哭泣孺慕，幾至滅性，赴吊者莫不傷焉。 後爲伯父所養，事伯母及昆姊，孝友篤至，爲宗族所稱。 自傷早孤，人有誤觸其諱者，未嘗不感結流涕。 長兄潔爲之娉妻，剋日成婚，訏聞而逃匿，事息乃還。 本州刺史張稷辟爲主簿，不就。 主者檄召，訏乃掛檄於樹而逃。
Liu Xu, styled Yandu, came from Pingyuan. His father Lingzhen had been Qi administrator of Wuchang. As a boy he was famed for filial piety; his parents died in turn while he was still small, and his mourning weeping, childlike and desperate, nearly killed him and broke every visitor's heart. His uncle raised him; toward the uncle's wife and his elder sisters he showed such filial love that the clan spoke of him with praise. Still wounded by early orphanhood, he wept whenever someone blundered into a name he could not bear to hear. His brother Jie arranged a bride and fixed the wedding day; Xu fled and hid until the plan collapsed. Provincial inspector Zhang Ji offered him chief clerk; he refused. When a summons arrived he nailed it to a tree and ran.
61
訏善玄言，尤精釋典。 曾與族兄劉歊聽講於鐘山諸寺，因共卜築宋熙寺東澗，有終焉之志。 天監十七年，卒於歊舍，時年三十一。 臨終，執歊手曰：「氣絕便斂，斂畢卽埋，靈筵一不須立，勿設饗祀，無求繼嗣。」 歊從而行之。 宗人至友相與刊石立銘，諡曰玄貞處士。
He excelled at Dark Learning and knew the Buddhist canon deeply. With his kinsman Liu Shao he heard lectures on Mt Zhong and chose a site east of Songxi Monastery where both meant to live out their lives. Tianjian year seventeen he died in Shao's lodging, at thirty-one. Dying, he gripped Shao's hand: "When I stop breathing, wrap me and bury me—no spirit altar, no funeral feast, no heirs." Shao did exactly as he asked. Kin and friends raised a stone inscription and gave him the posthumous name Recluse of Mysterious Integrity.
62
劉歊字士光，訏族兄也。 祖乘民，宋冀州刺史； 父聞慰，齊正員郎。 世爲二千石，皆有清名。
Liu Shao, styled Shiguang, was Xu's elder kinsman. His grandfather Chenmin had been Song inspector of Jizhou; his father Wenwei, a Qi regular attendant. For generations the family had held two-thousand-bushel office, each man leaving a spotless name.
63
歊幼有識慧，四歲喪父，與羣兒同處，獨不戲弄。 六歲誦《論語》、《毛詩》，意所不解，便能問難。 十一，讀《莊子·逍遙篇》，曰：「此可解耳。」 客因問之，隨問而答，皆有情理，家人每異之。 及長，博學有文才，不娶不仕，與族弟訏並隱居求志，遨遊林澤，以山水書籍相娛而已。 常欲避人世，以母老不忍違離，每隨兄霽、杳從宦。 少時好施，務周人之急，人或遺之，亦不距也。 久而歎曰：「受人者必報，不則有愧於人。 吾固無以報人，豈可常有愧乎？」
Clever from childhood, he lost his father at four and would not join the other boys at play. At six he knew the Analects and Mao Odes and pressed hard questions on whatever puzzled him. At eleven he read Zhuangzi's "Free and Easy Wandering" and said, "I can make sense of this." Guests tested him; he answered every question with sense, and his family marveled each time. Grown, he was learned and literary, never married, never served. With cousin Xu he withdrew to seek his purpose, roaming wild country and finding joy only in landscape and books. He yearned to leave the world yet could not abandon his aged mother and so often trailed his brothers Ji and Yao on their posts. Young, he loved giving and rushed to ease others' distress; gifts offered him he never turned away. In time he sighed: "To receive is to owe; without repayment one lives in debt to others. I have nothing with which to repay—how can I bear perpetual shame?"
64
天監十七年，無何而著《革終論》。 其辭曰：
Tianjian year seventeen he suddenly wrote the Discourse on Changing the End. It reads:
65
死生之事，聖人罕言之矣。 孔子曰：「精氣爲物，遊魂爲變，知鬼神之情狀，與天地相似而不違。」 其言約，其旨妙，其事隱，其意深，未可以臆斷，難得而精核，聊肆狂瞽，請試言之。
On death and life the sages say little. Confucius said, "Refined breath becomes things, the wandering soul becomes change—to know ghosts and spirits is to be like Heaven and earth and not oppose them." The words are few, the aim subtle, the matter hidden, the meaning deep—no guesswork can sever it, no reckoning nail it down; forgive my rashness if I try to speak.
66
夫形慮合而爲生，魂質離而稱死； 合則起動，離則休寂。 當其動也，人皆知其神； 及其寂也，物莫測其所趣。 皆知則不言而義顯，莫測則逾辯而理微。 是以勳、華曠而莫陳，姬、孔抑而不說，前達往賢，互生異見。 季札云：「骨肉歸於土，魂氣無不之。」 莊周云：「生爲徭役，死爲休息。」 尋此二說，如或相反。 何者？ 氣無不之，神有也； 死爲休息，神無也。 原憲云：「夏后氏用明器示民無知也； 殷人用祭器，示人有知也； 周人兼用之，示民疑也。」 考之記籍，驗之前志，有無之辯，不可歷言。 若稽諸內教，判乎釋部，則諸子之言可尋，三代之禮無越。 何者？ 神爲生本，形爲生具。 死者神離此具，而卽非彼具也。 雖死者不可復反，而精靈遞變，未嘗滅絕。 當其離此之日，識用廓然，故夏后明器，示其弗反。 卽彼之時，魂靈知滅，故殷人祭器，顯其猶存。 不存則合乎莊周，猶存則同乎季札，各得一隅，無傷厥義。 設其實也，則亦無，故周人有兼用之禮，尼父發游魂之唱，不其然乎？ 若廢偏攜之論，探中途之旨，則不仁不智之譏，於是乎可息。
Form and thought unite—that is life; soul-substance parts—that is death; united, the body stirs; parted, it falls still. While it moves, everyone knows the spirit is there; when still, nothing can measure where it goes. What all know needs no words; what none can measure grows dimmer the more one argues. So the deeds of Xun and Hua lie vast and unspoken; Ji and Kong held back—and sages of old disagreed. Ji Zha said, "Flesh and bone return to earth; breath and soul go everywhere." Zhuang Zhou said, "Life is forced labor; death is rest." Set the two sayings side by side—they seem to contradict. Why? "Goes everywhere" admits spirit; "Death is rest" denies spirit. Yuan Xian said, "Xia used bright vessels to show the people had no knowing; Yin used sacrificial vessels to show they had knowing; Zhou used both, to leave the people in doubt." Records and chronicles show the debate over being and non-being cannot be told whole. Weigh the inner teaching in the Buddha's fold and the masters' words align while the three dynasties' rites stay in bounds. Why? Spirit is life's root; form is its gear. When we die the spirit leaves this gear and is no longer this gear. The dead do not return, yet spirit and soul shift in turn and are never snuffed out. The day they leave the body, knowing is empty—so Xia bright vessels show no return. Then soul and spirit know extinction—so Yin sacrificial vessels show they still remain. No remainder agrees with Zhuang Zhou; remainder with Ji Zha—each holds one corner, neither breaks the sense. Grant the reality and there is also non-being—hence Zhou's rite of both, and the Master's song of the wandering soul—is it not so? Drop partial doctrines and take the middle way and the charge of lacking benevolence and wisdom can rest.
67
夫形也者，無知之質也； 神也者，有知之性也。 有知不獨存，依無知以自立，故形之於神，逆旅之館耳。 及其死也，神去此而適彼也。 神已去此，館何用存？ 速朽得理也。 神已適彼，祭何所祭？ 祭則失理。 而姬、孔之教不然者，其有以乎！ 蓋禮樂之興，出於澆薄，俎豆綴兆，生於俗弊。 施靈筵，陳棺槨，設饋奠，建丘隴，蓋欲令孝子有追思之地耳，夫何補於已遷之神乎？ 故上古衣之以薪，棄之中野，可謂尊盧、赫胥、皇雄、炎帝蹈於失理哉？ 是以子羽沉川，漢伯方壙，文楚黃壤，士安麻索。 此四子者，得理也，忘教也。 若從四子而游，則平生之志得矣。
Form is substance without knowing; spirit is nature with knowing. Knowing cannot stand alone; it leans on the unknowing—so form to spirit is an inn on the road. At death spirit leaves this and goes elsewhere. Spirit has left—what use the inn? Quick decay is reasonable. Spirit is already there—what is sacrifice for? Sacrifice misses reason. Yet Ji and Kong taught otherwise—there must be a reason! Rites and music rose from a thin age; offering stands and grave mounds from vulgar rot. Spirit altars, coffins, funeral feasts, mounds and ridges—all so the filial son might mourn; what help to a spirit already gone? High antiquity wrapped the dead in firewood and cast them in the wild—were Chonglu, Hexu, Huangxiong, and Yandi wrong? Ziyu sank in the river, Han Bo in a great mound, King Wen in yellow earth, Shi An in hemp rope. These four grasped reason and forgot the teaching. Follow the four and a lifetime's aim would be fulfilled.
68
然積習生常，難卒改革，一朝肆志，儻不見從。 今欲剪截煩厚，務存儉易； 進不裸尸，退異常俗； 不傷存者之念，有合至人之道。 孔子云：「斂首足形，還葬而無槨。」 斯亦貧者之禮也，余何陋焉？ 且張奐止用幅巾，王肅唯盥手足，范冉殮畢便葬，奚珍無設筵幾，文度故舟爲槨，子廉牛車載柩，叔起誡絕墳隴，康成使無卜吉。 此數公者，尚或如之； 況於吾人，而當華泰！ 今欲仿佛景行，以爲軌則，儻合中庸之道，庶免徒費之譏。 氣絕不須復魂，盥洗而斂。 以一千錢市治棺、單故裙衫、衣巾枕履。 此外送往之具，棺中常物，及餘閣之祭，一不得有所施。 世多信李、彭之言，可謂惑矣。 余以孔、釋爲師，差無此惑。 斂訖，載以露車，歸於舊山，隨得一地，地足爲坎，坎足容棺，不須磚甓，不勞封樹，勿設祭饗，勿置几筵，無用茅君之虛座，伯夷之杅水。 其蒸嘗繼嗣，言象所絕，事止余身，無傷世教。 家人長幼，內外姻戚，凡厥友朋，爰及寓所，咸願成余之志，幸勿奪之。
Habit becomes custom and is hard to break overnight; to act at once on one's will—perhaps none would follow. Now I would cut the cumbersome and keep what is spare and easy; not bare the corpse, yet differ from common custom; not wounding the living, yet matching the perfected man's Way. Confucius said, "Wrap head and feet and shape, bury without inner coffin." That is the poor man's rite—what is base in me? Zhang Huan used only a headcloth, Wang Su washed only hands and feet, Fan Ran buried at once, Xi Zhen set no altar, Wen Du made his boat the coffin, Zilian used an ox cart, Shuji warned against mounds, Kang Cheng forwent divination. These men at least did so; how much more should I parade pomp and splendor! Now I take their bright conduct as measure; if it fits the middle way I may escape vain waste. When breath fails, do not recall the soul—wash and wrap. Spend a thousand cash on a plain coffin, old skirt and jacket, clothes, towel, pillow, and shoes. Beyond that, whatever goes with the bier, ordinary coffin goods, and side offerings—nothing may be laid out. The age mostly believes Li and Peng—call that delusion. I take Confucius and the Buddha as teachers and am somewhat free of this delusion. When wrapping is done, load on an open cart to the old hill; wherever a pit fits the coffin—no brick, no mound, no funeral feast, no altar, no Lord Mao's empty seat, no Yi Bo's libation water. Seasonal offerings and heirs—what image and speech cut off—let it stop with my body and not harm the world's teaching. Family, kin, friends, and every lodging I have known—all wish to fulfill my will; pray do not wrest it away.
69
明年疾卒，時年三十二。
The next year he died of illness, at thirty-two.
70
歊幼時嘗獨坐空室，有一老公至門，謂歊曰：「心力勇猛，能精死生； 但不得久滯一方耳。」 因彈指而去。 歊旣長，精心學佛。 有道人釋寶志者，時人莫測也，遇歊於興皇寺，驚起曰：「隱居學道，清淨登佛。」 如此三說。 歊未死之春，有人爲其庭中栽柿，歊謂兄子弇曰：「吾不見此實，爾其勿言。」 至秋而亡，人以爲知命。 親故誄其行跡，諡曰貞節處士。
Young, Shao sat alone in an empty room; an old man at the door said, "Mind and strength are fierce; you can penetrate death and life— only you cannot long linger in one place." He snapped his fingers and left. Grown, he devoted his mind to Buddhism. The monk Shibao Zhi, whom no one could fathom, met Shao at Xinghuang Monastery and cried: "Reclusion and the Way, purity and Buddhahood." He said this three times. The spring before Xiao died someone planted a persimmon in his yard; he told his nephew Yan, "I will not live to see this fruit—say nothing of it." He died that autumn; people took it as knowledge of fate. Kin and friends eulogized his life and gave him the posthumous title Recluse of Chaste Integrity.
71
庾詵字彥寶，新野人也。 幼聰警篤學，經史百家無不該綜，緯候書射，棊釐機巧，並一時之絕。 而性託夷簡，特愛林泉。 十畝之宅，山池居半。 蔬食弊衣，不治產業。 嘗乘舟從田舍還，載米一百五十石，有人寄載三十石。 旣至宅，寄載者曰：「君三十斛，我百五十石。」 詵默然不言，恣其取足。 鄰人有被誣爲盜者，被治劾，妄款，詵矜之，乃以書質錢二萬，令門生詐爲其親，代之酬備。 鄰人獲免，謝詵，詵曰：「吾矜天下無辜，豈期謝也。」 其行多如此類。
Yu Shen, styled Yanshi, came from Xinye. Clever and studious from youth, he mastered classics, history, and every school—weft-texts, divination, writing, archery, go, and ingenious craft were unrivaled in his day. Yet he was plain and simple by nature and loved woods and streams above all. Half his ten-mu home was hill and pond. He ate plain food, wore threadbare clothes, and kept no estate. Once boating back from his fields with a hundred fifty piculs of rice, a man asked to ship thirty piculs with him. At home the loader said, "You have thirty hu; I have a hundred fifty piculs." Shen said nothing and let him take what he would. A neighbor wrongly charged as a thief was beaten into confession; Shen pitied him, pawned books for twenty thousand cash, and had a student pose as kin to pay the damages. The neighbor was cleared and thanked him; Shen said, "I pity the innocent everywhere—why expect thanks?" Most of his deeds were like this.
72
高祖少與詵善，雅推重之。 及起義，署爲平西府記室參軍，詵不屈。 平生少所遊狎，河東柳惲欲與之交，詵距而不納。 後湘東王臨荊州，板爲鎮西府記室參軍，不就。 普通中，詔曰：「明敭振滯，爲政所先； 旌賢求士，夢佇斯急。 新野庾詵，止足棲退，自事卻掃，經史文藝，多所貫習； 潁川庾承先，學通黃、老，該涉釋教； 並不競不營，安茲枯槁，可以鎮躁敦俗。 詵可黃門侍郎，承先可中書侍郎。 勒州縣時加敦遣，庶能屈志，方冀鹽梅。」 詵稱疾不赴。
Gaozu knew Shen from youth and held him in high regard. At the uprising he made Shen staff officer of the Pacify-the-West headquarters; Shen refused. He kept few close friends; Liu Yun of Hedong sought his friendship, but Shen turned him away. Later Prince Xiangdong at Jingzhou made him Pacify-the-West staff officer; he declined. Putong era edict: "To raise the stalled is government's first duty; to honor talent and seek scholars is the urgent dream of rule. Yu Shen of Xinye, knowing when to stop and live apart, keeps his own threshold; he is deeply versed in classics, history, and letters; Yu Chengxian of Yingchuan masters Huang-Lao learning and knows Buddhist teaching; both unambitious and unworldly, content in austerity—they can calm hot tempers and thicken custom. Shen is appointed Gentleman Attendant at the Yellow Gates; Chengxian, Vice Director of the Secretariat. Let provinces and districts urge them in season, hoping to win their assent—we count on them as salt and plum." Shen pleaded illness and stayed away.
73
晚年以後，尤遵釋教。 宅內立道場，環繞禮懺，六時不輟。 誦《法華經》，每日一遍。 後夜中忽見一道人，自稱願公，容止甚異，呼詵爲上行先生，授香而去。 中大通四年，因晝寢，忽驚覺曰：「願公復來，不可久住。」 顏色不變，言終而卒，時年七十八。 舉室咸聞空中唱「上行先生已生彌陁淨域矣」。 高祖聞而下詔曰：「旌善表行，前王所敦。 新野庾詵，荊山珠玉，江陵杞梓，靜侯南度，固有名德，獨貞苦節，孤芳素履。 奄隨運往，惻愴於懷。 宜諡貞節處士，以顯高烈。」 詵所撰《帝曆》二十卷、《易林》二十卷、續伍端休《江陵記》一卷、《晉朝雜事》五卷、《總抄》八十卷，行於世。
In old age he devoted himself still more to Buddhism. He built a dharma hall at home and ceaselessly circled it in repentance, six times daily without rest. Each day he chanted the Lotus Sutra once through. One night he saw a priest calling himself Master Yuan, oddly composed, who hailed Shen as Master of the Higher Path, gave incense, and left. Zhongdatong year four, waking from a nap, he started and said, "Master Yuan returns—I cannot linger." His face unchanged, he died as he finished speaking, at seventy-eight. All in the house heard a voice from the sky: "Master of the Higher Path is born in Amitabha's Pure Land." Gaozu heard and decreed: "To honor virtue and show conduct is what former kings enjoined. Yu Shen of Xinye—Jingshan pearl, Jiangling timber; when the quiet marquis fled south his name and virtue were sure; alone in harsh integrity and pure solitary walk. Suddenly taken by fate, the heart is sore with grief. Let him be titled Recluse of Chaste Integrity, that his high virtue may shine." His works included twenty scrolls each of Imperial Calendars and Forest of Changes, one scroll continuing Wu Duanxiu's Record of Jiangling, five of Miscellaneous Affairs of Jin, and eighty of General Collection—all in circulation.
74
子曼倩字世華，亦早有令譽。 世祖在荊州，辟爲主簿，遷中錄事。 每出，世祖常目送之，謂劉之遴曰：「荊南信多君子，雖美歸田鳳，清屬桓階，賞德標奇，未過此子。」 後轉諮議參軍。 所著《喪服儀》、《文字體例》、《莊老義疏》，注《算經》及《七曜歷術》，幷所制文章，凡九十五卷。
His son Manqian, styled Shihua, won early fame as well. Shizu at Jingzhou made him chief clerk, then central recorder. Whenever Manqian left, Shizu watched him go and told Liu Zhilin, "Jingnan has true gentlemen—Gui Tianfeng is fair and Huan Jie is clear, but for honoring virtue none outdoes this lad." Later he became advisory staff officer. He wrote Mourning Garb Rites, Character Forms and Rules, Exegesis on Zhuangzi and Laozi, commentaries on the Classic of Computation and Seven Luminaries Calendar Methods, and his own essays—ninety-five scrolls all told.
75
子季才，有學行。 承聖中，仕至中書侍郎。 江陵陷，隨例入關。
His son Jicai had scholarship and character. Under Chengsheng he rose to Vice Director of the Secretariat. When Jiangling fell he went into the north with the others.
76
張孝秀
Zhang Xiaoxiu
77
張孝秀字文逸，南陽宛人也。 少仕州爲治中從事史。 遭母憂，服闋，爲建安王別駕。 頃之，遂去職歸山，居于東林寺。 有田數十頃，部曲數百人，率以力田，盡供山衆，遠近歸慕，赴之如市。
Zhang Xiaoxiu, styled Wenyi, came from Wan in Nanyang. Young, he was provincial aide to the inspector. After his mother's mourning he became vice-administrator to the Prince of Jian'an. Soon he quit office for the hills and lived at East Grove Temple. He held dozens of qing and hundreds of retainers who farmed for the monastery; admirers near and far flocked to him like a market.
78
孝秀性通率，不好浮華，常冠穀皮巾，躡蒲履，手執幷櫚皮麈尾。 服寒食散，盛冬能臥於石。 博涉羣書，專精釋典。 善談論，工隸書，凡諸藝能，莫不明習。 普通三年，卒，時年四十二，室中皆聞有非常香氣。 太宗聞，甚傷悼焉，與劉慧斐書，述其貞白雲。
Plain and unpretentious, he usually wore a grain-husk cap, straw shoes, and carried a palm-bark flywhisk. He used cold-food powder and in deep winter could sleep on bare stone. He read broadly and mastered Buddhist scripture. He debated well, wrote clerical script expertly, and knew every craft worth knowing. Putong year three he died at forty-two; a strange fragrance filled the room. Taizong mourned him and wrote Liu Huifei praising his pure life.
79
庾承先
Yu Chengxian
80
庾承先字子通，潁川𨻳陵人也。 少沉靜有志操，是非不涉於言，喜慍不形於色，人莫能窺也。 弱歲受學於南陽劉虯，強記敏識，出於羣輩。 玄經釋典，靡不該悉； 九流《七略》，咸所精練。 郡辟功曹不就，乃與道士王僧鎮同游衡岳。 晚以弟疾還鄉里，遂居于土臺山。 鄱陽忠烈王在州，欽其風味，要與遊處。 又令講《老子》，遠近名僧，咸來赴集，論難鋒起，異端競至，承先徐相酬答，皆得所未聞。 忠烈王尤加欽重，徵州主簿； 湘東王聞之，亦板爲法曹參軍； 並不赴。
Yu Chengxian, styled Zitong, came from Dingling in Yingchuan. Quiet and principled from youth, he never spoke of right and wrong and never showed joy or anger—no one could read him. As a boy he studied with Liu Ou of Nanyang; his memory and wit surpassed his fellows. Dark learning and Buddhist scripture—he knew them all; the Nine Currents and the Seven Summaries—all he had mastered. Summoned as commandery merit officer, he refused and roamed Mt Heng with the Daoist Wang Sengzhen. Later, his brother fell ill; he went home and settled on Mt Tutai. Prince Zhonglie of Poyang, governing the province, prized his character and asked his company. He had him expound the Laozi; famous monks gathered from afar; debate flared and odd doctrines piled in—Chengxian answered calmly, and all heard things new to them. Prince Zhonglie honored him still more and summoned him as provincial chief clerk; Prince Xiangdong heard and also made him legal bureau staff officer; he accepted neither post.
81
中大通三年，廬山劉慧斐至荊州，承先與之有舊，往從之。 荊陝學徒，因請承先講《老子》。 湘東王親命駕臨聽，論議終日，深相賞接。 留連月餘日，乃還山。 王親祖道，幷贈篇什，隱者美之。 其年卒，時年六十。
Zhongdatong year three Liu Huifei of Lushan reached Jingzhou; Chengxian, an old friend, went to him. Students of Jing and Shan asked Chengxian to lecture on the Laozi. Prince Xiangdong drove out to hear him; they debated all day and the prince greatly favored him. He stayed over a month, then went back to the hills. The prince saw him off in person and gave him poems; recluses admired them. That year he died, at sixty.
82
陳吏部尚書姚察曰：世之誣處士者，多云純盜虛名，而無適用，蓋有負其實者。 若諸葛璩之學術，阮孝緒之簿閥，其取進也豈難哉？ 終於隱居，固亦性而已矣。 [1]
Yao Cha, Chen Minister of Personnel, said: Men who slander recluses call them empty fame with no use—but some gifted men simply never deploy their gifts. For men like Zhuge Ju in learning and Ruan Xiaoxiu in genealogy—was high office ever hard to win? They ended in withdrawal—it was only their nature. Editorial footnote marker in the source text.
83
全文以中華書局、一九七三年五月版《梁書》爲本校。
The full text was collated against the Zhonghua Shuju edition of the Book of Liang (May 1973).