Volume 282 Biographies 170: Confucian Scholars 1

粵自司馬遷、班固創述《儒林》，著漢興諸儒修明經藝之由，朝廷廣厲學官之路，與一代政治相表裏。後史沿其體制，士之抱遺經以相授受者，雖無他事業，率類次為篇。《宋史》判《道學》、《儒林》為二，以明伊、雒淵源，上承洙、泗，儒宗統緒，莫正於是。所關於世道人心者甚巨，是以載籍雖繁，莫可廢也。

Ever since Sima Qian and Ban Gu first created the "Confucian Scholars" section, later histories have used it to show how Han scholars restored and illuminated the classics, how the court opened the way for state-sponsored learning, and how all of this mirrored the political life of the dynasty. Later official histories kept to that model: scholars who devoted themselves to transmitting the inherited classics, even when they accomplished nothing else, were usually arranged together in their own chapters. The History of Song split "Learning of the Way" and "Confucian Scholars" into separate sections, thereby tracing the Luoyang lineage of the Cheng brothers back to the teaching of Confucius at Zhu and Si; in fixing the orthodox succession of the Confucian school, no arrangement was more authoritative. The subject bears greatly on the morals of the age and the minds of the people; for that reason, however many the historical records, this section cannot be omitted.

明太祖起布衣，定天下，當幹戈搶攘之時，所至征召耆儒，講論道德，修明治術，興起教化，煥乎成一代之宏規。雖天亶英姿，而諸儒之功不為無助也。制科取士，一以經義為先，網羅碩學。嗣世承平，文教特盛，大臣以文學登用者，林立朝右。而英宗之世，河東薛瑄以醇儒預機政，雖弗究於用，其清修篤學，海內宗焉。吳與弼以名儒被薦，天子修幣聘之殊禮，前席延見，想望風采，而譽隆於實，詬誶叢滋。自是積重甲科，儒風少替。白沙而後，曠典缺如。

The Ming Founding Emperor rose from humble origins to pacify the realm. Even amid the chaos of war, he summoned senior scholars wherever he went, debated moral principle, refined the arts of government, and revived education—together forming a splendid blueprint for the dynasty. Heaven had indeed endowed him with extraordinary gifts, yet the scholars' work was by no means without effect. The civil service examinations gave priority to classical interpretation above all else and drew in the leading scholars of the land. In the peaceful generations that followed, literary culture flourished as never before, and ministers who had risen through scholarship stood in great numbers on the right hand of the throne. Under Emperor Yingzong, Xue Xuan of Hedong, a scholar of the purest integrity, joined in confidential deliberations on state affairs. Though never fully put to use, his upright life and devoted scholarship won reverence throughout the empire. Wu Yubi was recommended as a celebrated scholar, and the emperor honored him with the special ceremony of silk gifts, drawing his mat forward to receive him in eager anticipation. Yet his fame outran his achievement, and criticism and abuse soon piled up. From then on, success in the highest examination degree counted for ever more, and the spirit of pure scholarship waned. After Chen Baisha, such grand imperial invitations to scholars were no longer to be seen.

原夫明初諸儒，皆朱子門人之支流余裔，師承有自，矩矱秩然。曹端、胡居仁篤踐履，謹繩墨，守儒先之正傳，無敢改錯。學術之分，則自陳獻章、王守仁始。宗獻章者曰江門之學，孤行獨詣，其傳不遠。宗守仁者曰姚江之學，別立宗旨，顯與朱子背馳，門徒遍天下，流傳逾百年，其教大行，其弊滋甚。嘉、隆而後，篤信程、朱，不遷異說者，無復幾人矣。要之，有明諸儒，衍伊、雒之緒言，探性命之奧旨，錙銖或爽，遂啟岐趨，襲謬承訛，指歸彌遠。至專門經訓授受源流，則二百七十余年間，未聞以此名家者。經學非漢、唐之精專，性理襲宋、元之糟粕，論者謂科舉盛而儒術微，殆其然乎。

At root, the early Ming scholars were all offshoots of Zhu Xi's school; their line of transmission was clear, and their standards were firmly set. Cao Duan and Hu Juren lived out their principles with rigor, kept strictly to the established rules, and upheld the orthodox teaching of the earlier Confucians without deviation. The split in scholarly schools began with Chen Xianzhang and Wang Shouren. Those who followed Xianzhang formed the Jiangmen school. It pursued its own solitary course, and its line did not spread widely. Those who followed Shouren formed the Yaojiang school. It set up a separate doctrine openly at odds with Zhu Xi; its disciples spread across the empire, its teaching endured for more than a century, gained wide influence, and produced ever graver abuses. After the Jiajing and Longqing reigns, only a handful of scholars still held firmly to the Cheng-Zhu teaching and refused to adopt other doctrines. In short, Ming scholars elaborated the Luoyang legacy and probed the deepest questions of human nature and moral principle. The slightest deviation opened new and divergent paths; errors were passed down and compounded, until the true aim receded ever farther away. As for scholars who made their reputation solely through the transmission and exegesis of the classics, none arose in the dynasty's two hundred and seventy-odd years. Classical learning never regained the precision of Han and Tang times, while moral metaphysics merely recycled the leavings of Song and Yuan. Critics hold that the rise of the examination system coincided with the decline of true scholarship—and perhaps they are right.

今差別其人，準前史例，作《儒林傳》。有事功可見，列於正傳者，茲不復及。其先聖、先賢後裔，明代亟為表章，衍聖列爵上公，與國終始。其他簪纓逢掖，奕葉承恩，亦儒林盛事也。考其原始，別自為篇，附諸末簡，以備一代之故云。

We now distinguish these figures according to the precedent of earlier histories and compose the "Biographies of Confucian Scholars." Those whose public achievements are already recorded in the main biographies are not treated again here. The Ming repeatedly honored the descendants of the ancient sages. The Duke Who Extends Sagehood was ennobled as a supreme duke and held that rank from the dynasty's founding to its fall. Other scholar-official families received imperial favor generation after generation—another great episode in the annals of Confucian learning. Tracing their origins, we treat them in a separate chapter appended at the end, so that the full story of the dynasty may be preserved.

○範祖幹〈（葉儀等）〉謝應芳汪克寬梁寅趙汸陳謨薛瑄〈（閻禹錫周蕙等）〉胡居仁〈（余祐）〉蔡清〈（陳琛林希元等）〉羅欽順曹端吳與弼〈（胡九韶等）〉陳真晟呂柟〈（呂潛等）〉邵寶〈（王問）〉楊廉劉觀〈（孫鼎李中）〉馬理魏校〈（王應電王敬臣）〉周瑛潘府崔銑何瑭唐伯元黃淳耀〈（弟淵耀）〉

Fan Zugan (Ye Yi and others)〉 Xie Yingfang; Wang Kekuan; Liang Yin; Zhao Fang; Chen Mo; Xue Xuan (Yan Yuxi, Zhou Hui, and others)〉 Hu Juren (Yu You)〉 Cai Qing (Chen Chen, Lin Xiyuan, and others)〉 Luo Qinshun; Cao Duan; Wu Yubi (Hu Jiushao and others)〉 Chen Zhencheng; Lu Nan (Lu Qian and others)〉 Shao Bao (Wang Wen)〉 Yang Lian; Liu Guan (Sun Ding, Li Zhong)〉 Ma Li; Wei Jiao (Wang Yingdian, Wang Jingchen)〉 Zhou Ying; Pan Fu; Cui Rui; He Tang; Tang Boyuan; Huang Chunyao (his younger brother Yuanyao)〉

範祖幹，字景先，金華人。從同邑許謙遊，得其指要。其學以誠意為主，而嚴以慎獨持守之功。太祖下婺州，與葉儀並召。祖幹持《大學》以進，太祖問治道何先，對曰：「不出是書。」太祖令剖陳其義，祖幹謂帝王之道，自修身齊家以至治國平天下，必上下四旁，均齊方正，使萬物各得其所，而後可以言治。太祖曰：「聖人之道，所以為萬世法。吾自起兵以來，號令賞罰，一有不平，何以服眾。夫武定禍亂，文致太平，悉是道也。」深加禮貌，命二人為諮議，祖幹以親老辭歸。李文忠守處州，特加敬禮，恒稱之為師。祖幹事親孝，父母皆八十余而終。家貧不能葬，鄉里共為營辦，悲哀三年如一日。有司以聞，命表其所居曰純孝坊，學者稱為純孝先生。

Fan Zugan, styled Jingxian, came from Jinhua. He studied under Xu Qian of his own district and mastered the essentials of his teaching. His learning centered on sincere intention and placed strict emphasis on solitary vigilance and moral self-discipline. When the Founding Emperor took Wuzhou, he and Ye Yi were summoned together. Zugan presented the Great Learning to the emperor, who asked what should come first in governing the realm. He answered, "Nothing lies outside this book." The emperor asked him to explain its meaning in detail. Zugan said that the way of kingship, from self-cultivation and family order through governing the state and pacifying the realm, requires balance and rectitude in every direction, so that all things find their proper place—only then can one speak of true governance. The Founding Emperor said, "The Way of the sages is the model for all ages. Since I first raised my army, if my orders, rewards, and punishments had been the least bit unfair, how could I have won men's obedience? Using force to end turmoil and using culture to achieve peace are both expressions of this same Way." He treated them with great respect and appointed both men as advisers, but Zugan declined and returned home to care for his elderly parents. When Li Wenzhong held Chuzhou, he treated Zugan with special deference and always addressed him as his teacher. Zugan was deeply filial toward his parents; both lived into their eighties before they died. The family was too poor to bury them, so the neighbors joined together to arrange the funerals. He mourned for three years with undiminished grief. When officials reported this to the throne, the court ordered an archway erected at his home bearing the title "Pure Filiality," and scholars came to call him Master Pure Filiality.

葉儀，字景翰，金華人。受業於許謙，謙誨之曰：「學者必以五性人倫為本，以開明心術、變化氣質為先。」儀朝夕惕厲，研究奧旨。已而授徒講學，士爭趨之。其語學者曰：「聖賢言行，盡於《六經》、《四書》，其微詞奧義，則近代先儒之說備矣。由其言以求其心，涵泳從容，久自得之，不可先立己意，而妄有是非也。」太祖克婺州，召見，授為諮議，以老病辭。已而知府王宗顯聘儀及宋濂為《五經》師，非久亦辭歸，隱居養親。所著有《南陽雜槁》。吳沈稱其理明識精，一介不茍。安貧樂道，守死不變。

Ye Yi, styled Jinghan, came from Jinhua. He studied under Xu Qian, who instructed him: "A scholar must ground himself in the five virtues and human relations, and must above all seek to clarify the mind and transform his temperament." Day and night Yi applied himself with diligence and probed the deepest meaning of the teaching. He then took disciples and lectured, and scholars flocked to study with him. He told his students, "Everything the sages said and did is contained in the Six Classics and Four Books, and the subtle and profound points are fully explained in the commentaries of the great scholars of recent times. Seek their intent through their words; immerse yourself patiently and at ease, and in time understanding will come of itself. Do not first impose your own opinions and rashly decide what is right or wrong." When the Founding Emperor captured Wuzhou, he was summoned to audience and appointed an adviser, but he declined on account of age and illness. Later Prefect Wang Zongxian engaged Yi and Song Lian as teachers of the Five Classics, but Yi soon declined again and withdrew to live in seclusion while caring for his parents. Among his writings is Miscellaneous Drafts of Nanyang. Wu Shen praised him for lucid reasoning and keen insight, and for being scrupulous even in the smallest matters. He was content in poverty, devoted to the Way, and held to his principles unto death.

門人何壽朋，字德齡，亦金華人。窮經守誌，不妄幹人。洪武初，舉孝廉，以二親俱老辭。父歿，舍所居宅易地以葬。學者因其自號，稱曰歸全先生。

His disciple He Shoupeng, styled Deling, was also from Jinhua. He devoted himself to mastering the classics, held firmly to his principles, and never presumptuously sought favors from others. In the early Hongwu period he was recommended as a filial and upright candidate, but declined because both parents were elderly. When his father died, he gave up his home and exchanged land elsewhere for a burial plot. Scholars, taking his chosen style name, called him Master Guiquan.

同邑汪與立，字師道，祖幹門人。其德行與壽朋齊名而文學為優。隱居教授，以高壽終。

Wang Yuli of the same district, styled Shidao, was a disciple of Fan Zugan. His moral conduct matched Shoupeng's reputation, while his literary learning surpassed it. He lived in retirement as a teacher and died at a great age.

謝應芳，字子蘭，武進人也。自幼篤誌好學，潛心性理，以道義名節自勵。元至正初，隱白鶴溪上。構小室，顏曰「龜巢」，因以為號。郡辟教鄉校子弟，先質後文，諸生皆循循雅飭。疾異端惑世，嘗輯聖賢格言、古今明鑒為《辨惑編》。有舉為三衢書院山長者，不就。及天下兵起，避地吳中，吳人爭延致為弟子師。久之，江南底定，始來歸，年逾七十矣。徙居芳茂山，一室蕭然，晏如也。有司征修郡誌，強起赴之。年益高，學行益劭。達官縉紳過郡者，必訪於其廬，應芳布衣韋帶與之抗禮。議論必關世教，切民隱，而導善之誌不衰。詩文雅麗蘊藉，而所自得者，理學為深。卒年九十七。

Xie Yingfang, styled Zilan, came from Wujin. From youth he was deeply committed to learning, devoting himself to moral metaphysics and holding himself to the standards of the Way, righteousness, and personal integrity. At the beginning of the Yuan Zhizheng reign, he withdrew to live on White Crane Stream. He built a small study and inscribed it "Turtle Nest," which he took as his style name. The prefecture engaged him to teach the boys of the district school. He emphasized moral character before literary polish, and his students were uniformly orderly and well mannered. Distressed that heterodox teachings were misleading the world, he compiled the sayings of sages and instructive examples from history into a work entitled Discerning Delusion. He was recommended as head of the Sanqu Academy but declined the post. When war engulfed the realm, he fled to the Wu region, where people competed to engage him as a teacher. After many years, when Jiangnan had been pacified, he at last returned home—already past seventy years of age. He moved to Fangmao Mountain and lived in a single bare room, yet remained content. When officials pressed him to help compile the prefectural gazetteer, he was obliged to accept despite his reluctance. As he grew older, his scholarship and moral conduct became ever more exemplary. High officials and local gentry passing through the district invariably visited his home, and Yingfang, dressed as a common scholar, received them as equals. His conversations always bore on the moral welfare of society and the hidden hardships of the people, and his resolve to lead others toward goodness never flagged. His poetry and prose were elegant and richly nuanced, but what he truly mastered was the depth of moral metaphysics. He died at the age of ninety-seven.

汪克寬，字德一，祁門人。祖華，受業雙峰饒魯，得勉齋黃氏之傳。克寬十歲時，父授以雙峰問答之書，輒有悟。乃取《四書》，自定句讀，晝夜誦習，專勤異凡兒。後從父之浮梁，問業於吳仲迂，誌益篤。元泰定中，舉應鄉試，中選。會試以答策伉直見黜，慨然棄科舉業，盡力於經學。《春秋》則以胡安國為主，而博考眾說，會萃成書，名之曰《春秋經傳附錄纂疏》。《易》則有《程朱傳義音考》。《詩》有《集傳音義會通》。《禮》有《禮經補逸》。《綱目》有《凡例考異》。四方學士，執經門下者甚眾。至正間，蘄、黃兵至，室廬貲財盡遭焚掠。簞瓢屢空，怡然自得。洪武初，聘至京師，同修《元史》。書成將授官，固辭老疾。賜銀幣，給驛還。五年冬卒，年六十有九。

Wang Kekuan, styled Deyi, came from Qimen. His grandfather Hua studied under Rao Lu of Shuangfeng and received the teaching handed down from Huang Mianzhai. When Kekuan was ten, his father gave him Rao Lu's question-and-answer text, and he grasped it at once. He then took up the Four Books, punctuated them himself, and recited them day and night with a diligence far beyond that of ordinary boys. Later he accompanied his father to Fuliang and studied under Wu Zhongqian, becoming ever more devoted in his purpose. During the Yuan Taiding reign he took the provincial examination and passed. At the metropolitan examination he was rejected for the blunt directness of his policy essay. He then abandoned the examination track entirely and devoted himself to classical scholarship. On the Spring and Autumn Annals he took Hu Anguo as his main authority, but also surveyed many other commentaries and compiled them into a work entitled Collected Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Classic and Commentary with Supplementary Records. On the Book of Changes he wrote A Study of the Pronunciation of the Cheng-Zhu Commentaries on the Meaning. On the Book of Poetry he wrote Comprehensive Study of the Sound and Meaning of the Collected Commentary. On the Ritual Classics he wrote Supplement to Lost Passages of the Ritual Classic. On Zhu Xi's Outline and Details he wrote Examination of Variants in the General Principles. Scholars from all quarters came in great numbers to study the classics under him. During the Zhizheng reign, when rebel forces from Qi and Huang swept through, his home and possessions were burned and plundered. Though often left with scarcely a meal in his bowl, he remained content and at ease. In the early Hongwu period he was summoned to the capital to help compile the History of Yuan. When the work was finished and an official post was offered, he firmly declined on account of age and illness. The court granted him silver and silk and sent him home by official relay. He died in the winter of the fifth year at the age of sixty-nine.

梁寅，字孟敬，新喻人。世業農，家貧，自力於學，淹貫《五經》、百氏。累舉不第，遂棄去。辟集慶路儒學訓導，居二歲，以親老辭歸。明年，天下兵起，遂隱居教授。太祖定四方，征天下名儒修述禮樂。寅就征，年六十余矣。時以禮、律、制度，分為三局，寅在禮局中，討論精審，諸儒皆推服。書成，賜金幣，將授官，以老病辭，還。結廬石門山，四方士多從學，稱為梁五經，又稱石門先生。鄰邑子初入官，詣寅請教。寅曰：「清、慎、勤，居官三字符也。」其人問天德王道之要，寅微笑曰：「言忠信，行篤敬，天德也。不傷財，不害民，王道也。」其人退曰：「梁子所言，平平耳。」後以不檢敗，語人曰：「吾不敢再見石門先生。」寅卒，年八十二。

Liang Yin, styled Mengjing, came from Xinyu. His family had farmed for generations. Though poor, he supported himself through study and mastered the Five Classics as well as the writings of the hundred schools. After failing the examinations repeatedly, he gave up the pursuit altogether. He was appointed instructor at the Jiqing Circuit Confucian school, served two years, and resigned to return home to care for his elderly parents. The following year war engulfed the realm, and he withdrew to live in retirement as a teacher. After the Founding Emperor pacified the realm, he summoned renowned scholars from across the empire to compile the rites and music. Yin answered the summons though he was already over sixty. Rites, law, and institutions were assigned to three separate bureaus. Yin served in the rites bureau, where his deliberations were precise and thorough, and all the scholars acknowledged his authority. When the work was completed, he was granted gold and silk and offered an official post, but he declined on account of age and illness and returned home. He built a cottage on Shimen Mountain, where scholars from all quarters came to study with him. They called him Liang of the Five Classics, and also Master Shimen. A young man from a neighboring district who had just taken up his first official post came to Yin for guidance. Yin said, "Purity, caution, and diligence—these are the three watchwords of public service." When the man asked about the essentials of Heavenly virtue and kingly governance, Yin smiled and said, "To speak with loyalty and trustworthiness and to act with earnest reverence—that is Heavenly virtue. Not to waste public funds and not to harm the people—that is kingly governance." The man withdrew, remarking, "What Master Liang said is quite ordinary." Later he ruined himself through lack of self-restraint and told others, "I dare not face Master Shimen again." Yin died at the age of eighty-two.

趙汸，字子常，休寧人。生而姿稟卓絕。初就外傅，讀朱子《四書》，多所疑難，乃盡取朱子書讀之。聞九江黃澤有學行，往從之遊。澤之學，以精思自悟為主。其教人，引而不發。汸一再登門，乃得《六經》疑義千余條以歸。已，復往，留二歲，得口授六十四卦大義與學《春秋》之要。後復從臨川虞集遊，獲聞吳澄之學。乃築東山精舍，讀書著述其中。雞初鳴輒起，澄心默坐。由是造詣精深，諸經無不通貫，而尤邃於《春秋》。初以聞於黃澤者，為《春秋師說》三卷，復廣之為《春秋集傳》十五卷。因《禮記》經解有「屬辭比事《春秋》教」之語，乃復著《春秋屬辭》八篇。又以為學《春秋》者，必考《左傳》事實為先，杜預、陳傅良有得於此，而各有所蔽，乃復著《左氏補註》十卷。當是時，天下兵起，汸轉側幹戈間，顛沛流離，而進修之功不懈。太祖既定天下，詔修《元史》，征汸預其事。書成，辭歸。未幾卒，年五十有一。學者稱東山先生。

Zhao Fang, styled Zichang, came from Xiuning. From birth he was endowed with extraordinary talent. When he first studied under an outside teacher and read Zhu Xi's Four Books, he encountered many difficulties. He then read through all of Zhu Xi's writings. Learning that Huang Ze of Jiujiang was a scholar of both learning and moral conduct, he went to study with him. Huang Ze's teaching emphasized deep reflection and self-realization. In teaching, he drew students out without supplying the answers himself. Fang visited him repeatedly and eventually returned home with more than a thousand difficult points in the Six Classics resolved. He returned and stayed two more years, receiving oral instruction in the great meaning of the sixty-four hexagrams and the essentials of studying the Spring and Autumn Annals. He later studied with Yu Ji of Linchuan and learned the teaching of Wu Cheng. He then built the Eastern Mountain Hermitage, where he read and wrote. At the first crow of the rooster he would rise, compose his mind, and sit in silent meditation. Through this discipline his learning grew profound. He mastered every classic, and was especially deep in the Spring and Autumn Annals. He first wrote Teacher's Explanations of the Spring and Autumn Annals in three juan based on what he had learned from Huang Ze, then expanded it into Collected Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals in fifteen juan. Because the Record on the Subject of Education in the Book of Rites speaks of "linking words and comparing events" as the teaching of the Spring and Autumn Annals, he also wrote Linked Words of the Spring and Autumn Annals in eight chapters. He also held that students of the Spring and Autumn Annals must first examine the factual events recorded in the Zuo Commentary. Du Yu and Chen Fuliang each grasped part of this truth, yet each was also partially blind to it, so he wrote Supplementary Notes to Master Zuo in ten juan. At that time war engulfed the realm. Fang was tossed about amid the fighting, destitute and displaced, yet he never slackened in his scholarly efforts. After the Founding Emperor had pacified the realm, he ordered the compilation of the History of Yuan and summoned Fang to take part. When the work was completed, he declined further service and returned home. Before long he died at the age of fifty-one. Scholars called him Master Dongshan.

陳謨，字一德，泰和人。幼能詩文，邃於經學，旁及子史百家，涉流探源，辨析純駁，犁然要於至當。隱居不求仕，而究心經世之務。嘗謂：「學必敦本，莫加於性，莫重於倫，莫先於變化氣質。若禮樂、刑政、錢谷、甲兵、度數之詳，亦不可不講習。」一時經生學子多從之遊。事親孝，友於其弟。鄉人有為不善者，不敢使聞。洪武初，征詣京師，賜坐議學。學士宋濂、待制王祎請留為國學師，謨引疾辭歸。屢應聘為江、浙考試官，著書教授以終。

Chen Mo, styled Yide, came from Taihe. From youth he could write poetry and prose. He was deeply versed in the classics and also ranged through the masters, histories, and hundred schools, tracing ideas to their sources, distinguishing sound doctrine from error, and settling firmly on what was right. He lived in retirement without seeking office, yet devoted himself to the practical affairs of statecraft. He once said, "Learning must be grounded in fundamentals: nothing matters more than human nature, nothing is weightier than human relations, and nothing should come before transforming one's temperament. The details of rites and music, law and administration, finance, military affairs, and weights and measures must also be studied." Many students of the classics of the time came to study with him. He was filial toward his parents and devoted to his younger brother. When neighbors did wrong, they dared not let him know. In the early Hongwu period he was summoned to the capital, granted a seat, and invited to discuss learning. Academician Song Lian and Attendant-Drafter Wang Yi asked that he be retained as a teacher at the National University, but Mo pleaded illness and returned home. He repeatedly served as an examination official in Jiang and Zhe and spent his final years writing and teaching.

薛瑄，字德溫，河津人。父貞，洪武初領鄉薦，為元氏教諭。母齊，夢一紫衣人謁見，已而生瑄。性穎敏，甫就塾，授之《詩》、《書》，輒成誦，日記千百言。及貞改任滎陽，瑄侍行。時年十二，以所作詩賦呈監司，監司奇之。既而聞高密魏希文、海寧範汝舟深於理學，貞乃並禮為瑄師。由是盡焚所作詩賦，究心洛、閩淵源，至忘寢食。後貞復改官鄢陵。瑄補鄢陵學生，遂舉河南鄉試第一，時永樂十有八年也。明年成進士。以省親歸。居父喪，悉遵古禮。宣德中服除，擢授御史。三楊當國，欲見之，謝不往。出監湖廣銀場，日探性理諸書，學益進。以繼母憂歸。

Xue Xuan, styled Dewen, came from Hejin. His father Zhen received provincial recommendation in the early Hongwu period and served as instructor in Yuanshi. His mother Qi dreamed that a man in purple robes came to pay his respects; afterward she gave birth to Xuan. By nature he was quick and keen. As soon as he entered school and was taught the Book of Poetry and Book of Documents, he could recite them from memory and memorized a thousand or more words each day. When his father was transferred to Xingyang, Xuan accompanied him. At the age of twelve he presented his poetry and rhapsodies to the surveillance commissioner, who was greatly impressed. Learning that Wei Xiwen of Gaomi and Fan Ruozhou of Haining were deeply versed in moral metaphysics, Zhen ceremonially engaged both as Xuan's teachers. Thereupon he burned all the poetry and rhapsodies he had written and devoted himself to the Luoyang and Fujian traditions of learning, often forgetting to eat or sleep. Later his father was transferred again, this time to Yanling. Xuan enrolled as a student at Yanling and then placed first in the Henan provincial examination in the eighteenth year of the Yongle reign. The following year he passed the metropolitan examination. He returned home to visit his parents. During mourning for his father, he observed the ancient rites in full. When his mourning ended during the Xuande reign, he was promoted and appointed censor. The Three Yangs were in power and wished to see him, but he declined. He was sent to supervise the Huguang silver mines, where he spent his days studying works on moral metaphysics and advanced further in his learning. He returned home to mourn his stepmother.

正統初還朝，尚書郭琎舉為山東提學僉事。首揭白鹿洞學規，開示學者。延見諸生，親為講授。才者樂其寬，而不才者憚其嚴，皆呼為薛夫子。王振語三楊：「吾鄉誰可為京卿者？」以瑄對，召為大理左少卿。三楊以用瑄出振意，欲瑄一往見，李賢語之。瑄正色曰：「拜爵公朝，謝恩私室，吾不為也。」其後議事東閣，公卿見振多趨拜，瑄獨屹立。振趨揖之，瑄亦無加禮，自是銜瑄。

At the beginning of the Zhengtong reign he returned to court, and Minister Guo Jin recommended him as educational intendant of Shandong. He began by posting the regulations of White Deer Grotto Academy to guide his students. He received students in audience and lectured to them personally. Capable students welcomed his generosity, while less capable ones feared his strictness; all called him Master Xue. Wang Zhen asked the Three Yangs, "Who from my home district is fit to serve as a capital minister?" They named Xuan, and he was summoned to serve as Left Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review. The Three Yangs, knowing that Xuan's appointment came at Wang Zhen's suggestion, wanted Xuan to pay him a visit; Li Xian conveyed this to him. Xuan said sternly, "To receive rank in the public court and then offer thanks in a private chamber—I will not do that." Later, when deliberating in the Eastern Pavilion, most ministers hurried forward to bow when they saw Wang Zhen; Xuan alone stood upright. Wang Zhen hurried forward to bow to him, but Xuan offered no additional courtesy in return; from that point Zhen bore a grudge against him.

指揮某死，妾有色，振從子山欲納之，指揮妻不肯。妾遂訐妻毒殺夫，下都察院訊，已誣服。瑄及同官辨其冤，三卻之。都御史王文承振旨，誣瑄及左、右少卿賀祖嗣、顧惟敬等故出人罪，振復諷言官劾瑄等受賄，並下獄。論瑄死，祖嗣等末減有差。系獄待決，瑄讀《易》自如。子三人，願一子代死，二子充軍，不允。及當行刑，振蒼頭忽泣於爨下。問故，泣益悲，曰：「聞今日薛夫子將刑也。」振大感動。會刑科三覆奏，兵部侍郎王偉亦申救，乃免。

When a certain commander died, his concubine was beautiful. Wang Zhen's nephew Shan wished to take her as his wife, but the commander's wife refused. The concubine then accused the wife of murdering her husband with poison. The case was sent to the Censorate for trial, and the wife had already been induced to confess falsely. Xue Xuan and his colleagues pleaded her innocence, but their arguments were turned aside three times. Censor-in-Chief Wang Wen, acting on Wang Zhen's wishes, accused Xue Xuan and the Left and Right Vice Ministers He Zusi and Gu Weijing, among others, of deliberately releasing criminals. Wang Zhen also prompted the censorial officials to impeach them for taking bribes, and all were thrown into prison. Xue Xuan was sentenced to death, while He Zusi and the others received reduced punishments of varying severity. Held in prison awaiting execution, Xue Xuan continued to read the Book of Changes with his usual composure. He had three sons. One offered to die in his stead, and the other two volunteered for military exile, but the court would not allow it. On the day the sentence was to be carried out, one of Wang Zhen's personal servants suddenly burst into tears beneath the kitchen hearth. When asked why, he wept even more bitterly and said, "I have heard that Master Xue is to be executed today." Wang Zhen was deeply moved. At that moment the Office of Scrutiny for Punishments completed its triple review of the death sentence, and Vice Minister of War Wang Wei also intervened on his behalf, and Xue Xuan was spared.

景帝嗣位，用給事中程信薦，起大理寺丞。也先入犯，分守北門有功。尋出督貴州軍餉，事竣，即乞休，學士江淵奏留之。景泰二年，推南京大理寺卿。富豪殺人，獄久不決，瑄執置之法。召改北寺。蘇州大饑，貧民掠富豪粟，火其居，蹈海避罪。王文以閣臣出視，坐以叛，當死者二百余人，瑄力辨其誣。文恚曰：「此老倔強猶昔。」然卒得減死。屢疏告老，不許。英宗復辟，拜禮部右侍郎兼翰林院學士，入閣預機務。王文、於謙下獄，下群臣議，石亨等將置之極刑。瑄力言於帝，後二日文、謙死，獲減一等。帝數見瑄，所陳皆關君德事。已，見石亨、曹吉祥亂政，疏乞骸骨。帝心重瑄，微嫌其老，乃許之歸。

After Emperor Jing ascended the throne, he was recalled on the recommendation of Supervising Secretary Cheng Xin to serve as Assistant Director of the Court of Judicial Review. When Esen invaded, he held the northern gate under divided command and distinguished himself. He was soon sent to supervise military provisions in Guizhou. When the assignment was complete he immediately asked to retire, but Academician Jiang Yuan memorialized the throne to keep him in office. In the second year of the Jingtai reign he was promoted to Chief Minister of the Nanjing Court of Judicial Review. When a wealthy man committed murder and the case dragged on unresolved, Xue Xuan insisted on applying the law and having him executed. He was summoned to the capital and transferred to the Northern Court of Judicial Review. During a severe famine in Suzhou, the poor looted grain from the wealthy, burned their homes, and fled across the sea to escape prosecution. Wang Wen went out as a Grand Secretary to investigate and charged them with rebellion. More than two hundred were sentenced to death, but Xue Xuan forcefully argued that they had been falsely accused. Wang Wen said angrily, "That stubborn old man is just as obstinate as ever." In the end, however, the death sentences were reduced. He repeatedly submitted memorials asking to retire, but permission was denied. When Emperor Yingzong was restored to the throne, Xue Xuan was appointed Vice Minister of Rites and concurrent Academician of the Hanlin Academy, entering the Grand Secretariat to take part in confidential state affairs. Wang Wen and Yu Qian were imprisoned, and the court ordered the ministers to deliberate their cases. Shi Heng and others intended to impose the harshest penalties. Xue Xuan pleaded forcefully with the emperor on their behalf. Two days later Wang Wen and Yu Qian were executed, but their sentences were reduced by one degree. The emperor often received Xue Xuan, and everything he presented concerned the moral conduct of the ruler. Later, seeing Shi Heng and Cao Jixiang corrupting government, he submitted a memorial requesting retirement. The emperor held Xue Xuan in high regard but was somewhat reluctant because of his age, and so allowed him to return home.

瑄學一本程、朱，其修已教人，以復性為主，充養邃密，言動鹹可法。嘗曰：「自考亭以還，斯道已大明，無煩著作，直須躬行耳。」有《讀書錄》二十卷，平易簡切，皆自言其所得，學者宗之。天順八年六月卒，年七十有二。贈禮部尚書，謚文清。弘治中，給事中張九功請從祀文廟，詔祀於鄉。已，給事中楊廉請頒《讀書錄》於國學，俾六館誦習。且請祠名，詔名「正學」。隆慶六年，允廷臣請，從祀先聖廟庭。

Xue Xuan's learning took the Cheng-Zhu school as its sole foundation. In self-cultivation and teaching others he made restoring one's true nature the central aim. His inner discipline was deep and meticulous, and his words and conduct were all worthy of emulation. He once said, "Since Zhu Xi, the Way has already been fully illuminated. There is no need for further writing; one need only live it out in practice." He wrote Records of Reading in twenty chapters—plain, concise, and entirely his own account of what he had attained—and scholars revered him. He died in the sixth month of the eighth year of the Tianshun reign, at the age of seventy-two. He was posthumously enfeoffed as Minister of Rites and given the posthumous title Wengqing, "Cultured and Pure." During the Hongzhi reign, Supervising Secretary Zhang Jiugong asked that he be enshrined in the Confucian temple, but an edict ordered worship at a local shrine instead. Later, Supervising Secretary Yang Lian asked that Records of Reading be distributed at the Imperial Academy for recitation and study in the Six Halls. He also asked that the shrine be given a name, and an edict named it "Orthodox Learning." In the sixth year of the Longqing reign, the court granted the ministers' request and enshrined him in the courtyard of the Temple of Confucius.

其弟子閻禹錫，字子與，洛陽人。父端，舉河南鄉試第一，為教諭，卒。禹錫方九歲，哭父幾滅性。長博涉群書，領正統九年鄉薦，除昌黎訓導。以母喪歸，廬墓三年，詔以孝行旌其閭。聞河津薛瑄講濂、洛之學，遂罷公車，往受業。久之，將歸，瑄送至裏門，告之曰：「為學之要，居敬窮理而已。」禹錫歸，得其大指，益務力行。

His disciple Yan Yuxi, styled Ziyu, came from Luoyang. His father Duan placed first in the Henan provincial examination, served as an instructor, and died. Yuxi was only nine years old and mourned his father so bitterly that he nearly wasted away. As an adult he read widely in the classics, received provincial recommendation in the ninth year of the Zhengtong reign, and was appointed Assistant Instructor of Changli. He returned home upon his mother's death, lived in a mourning hut beside her grave for three years, and an edict commended his filial conduct in his village. When he heard that Xue Xuan of Hejin was teaching the Lian-Luo tradition of learning, he gave up the journey to the capital examinations and went to study under him. After a long stay, when he was about to return, Xue Xuan escorted him to the inner gate and said, "The essential point of learning is simply to maintain reverence and exhaust principle." Yan Yuxi returned home, grasped the main point, and strove all the more to put it into practice.

天順初，大學士李賢薦為國子學正。請嚴監規以塞奔競，復武學以講備禦，帝皆從之。尋升監丞，忤貴幸，左遷徽州府經歷。諸生伏闕乞留，不允。再遷至南京國子監丞，掌京衛武學，四為同考官，超拜監察御史。督畿內學，取周子《太極圖》、《通書》為士子講解，一時多士皆知響學。成化十二年卒，年五十一。

At the beginning of the Tianshun reign, Grand Secretary Li Xian recommended him as Instructor of the National University. He asked for stricter regulations at the Imperial Academy to curb the scramble for advancement and for the restoration of the Military School to teach defense. The emperor approved both requests. He was soon promoted to Assistant Director, but after offending a powerful favorite he was demoted to Administrative Assistant of Huizhou Prefecture. The students prostrated themselves at the palace gate begging that he be retained, but the court would not allow it. He was promoted again to Assistant Director of the Nanjing Imperial Academy, took charge of the Capital Garrison Military School, served as co-examiner four times, and was suddenly elevated to Investigating Censor. He supervised education within the capital region, lectured to students on Zhou Dunyi's Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate and Penetrating the Classic of Changes, and for a time scholars throughout the region turned toward serious study. He died in the twelfth year of the Chenghua reign, at the age of fifty-one.

周蕙，字廷芳，泰州人。為臨洮衛卒，戍蘭州。年二十，聽人講《大學》首章，惕然感動，遂讀書。州人段堅，薛瑄門人也，時方講學於裏。蕙往聽之。與辨析，堅大服。誨以聖學，蕙乃研究《五經》。又從學安邑李昶。昶，亦瑄門人也，由舉人官清水教諭。學使者嘆其賢，薦昶代己，命未下而卒。蕙從之久，學益邃。恭順侯吳瑾鎮陜西，欲聘為子師，固辭不赴。或問之，蕙曰：「吾軍士也，召役則可。若以為師，師豈可召哉？」瑾躬送二子於其家，蕙始納贄焉。後還居泰州之小泉，幅巾深衣，動必由禮。州人多化之，稱為小泉先生。以父久遊江南不返，渡揚子江求父，舟覆溺死。蕙門人著者，薛敬之、李錦、王爵、夏尚樸。

Zhou Hui, styled Tingfang, came from Taizhou. He was a soldier of Lintao Guard, stationed at Lanzhou. At the age of twenty, hearing someone lecture on the opening chapter of the Great Learning, he was deeply stirred and began to study in earnest. Duan Jian, a native of the prefecture and a disciple of Xue Xuan, was then lecturing at home. Zhou Hui went to listen. He joined in discussion, and Duan Jian was greatly impressed. Duan Jian instructed him in the learning of the sages, and Zhou Hui thereupon undertook a thorough study of the Five Classics. He also studied under Li Chang of Anyi. Li Chang was also a disciple of Xue Xuan. A provincial graduate, he served as Instructor of Qingshui. The educational commissioner admired his worth and recommended Li Chang to succeed him, but the appointment had not been issued when Li Chang died. Zhou Hui studied under him for a long time, and his learning grew ever deeper. Marquis of Gongshun Wu Jin, commanding Shaanxi, wished to engage him as tutor to his son, but Zhou Hui firmly declined. When someone asked him about this, Zhou Hui said, "I am a soldier. If I am summoned for corvée labor, that is acceptable. But if I am to be a teacher, can a teacher simply be summoned?" Wu Jin personally escorted his two sons to Zhou Hui's home, and only then did Zhou Hui accept them as pupils. Later he returned to live at Xiaoquan in Taizhou, wearing a cloth cap and deep robes, and in every movement he observed ritual propriety. Many people in the prefecture were transformed by his example and called him Master Xiaoquan. Because his father had long been away in Jiangnan without returning, he crossed the Yangzi River to search for him and drowned when his boat capsized. Among Zhou Hui's notable disciples were Xue Jingzhi, Li Jin, Wang Jue, and Xia Shangpu.

敬之，字顯思，渭南人。五歲好讀書，不逐群兒戲。長從蕙遊，雞鳴候門啟，輒灑掃設座，跪而請教。嘗語人曰：「周先生躬行孝弟，學近伊、洛，吾以為師。陜州陳雲逵忠信狷介，事必持敬，吾以為友。」憲宗初，以歲貢生入國學，與同舍陳獻章並有盛名。會父母相繼歿，號哭徒行大雪中，遂成足疾。母嗜韭，終身不食韭。成化末，選應州知州，課績為天下第一。弘治九年遷金華同知。居二年，致仕，卒年七十四。所著有《道學基統》、《洙泗言學錄》、《爾雅便音》、《思庵埜錄》諸書。思庵者，敬之自號也。其門人呂柟最著，自有傳。

Xue Jingzhi, styled Xiansi, came from Weinan. At the age of five he loved reading and did not join the other children at play. As an adult he studied under Zhou Hui. At cockcrow he would wait for the gate to open, then sweep the room, set out a seat, kneel, and request instruction. He once told others, "Master Zhou personally practices filial piety and brotherly respect, and his learning is close to that of the masters of the Yi and Luo tradition. I take him as my teacher. Chen Yunkui of Shaan Prefecture is loyal, trustworthy, upright, and uncompromising, and in all affairs he maintains reverence. I take him as my friend." At the beginning of the Chenghua reign he entered the Imperial Academy as an annual tribute student and, together with his roommate Chen Xianzhang, enjoyed great renown. When his parents died in succession, he wailed and walked barefoot through heavy snow, and thereby developed a foot ailment. His mother had loved leeks, and he never ate leeks for the rest of his life. At the end of the Chenghua reign he was selected as Prefect of Yingzhou, and his performance assessment ranked first in the empire. In the ninth year of the Hongzhi reign he was transferred to Vice Prefect of Jinhua. After two years in office he retired and died at seventy-four. His writings include Foundations of the Learning of the Way, Records of Learning at Zhu and Si, Convenient Readings for the Erya, Wild Records of the Si Hermitage, and other works. "Si Hermitage" was the name Xue Jingzhi gave himself. His most notable disciple was Lü Shan, who has his own biography.

錦，字名中，鹹寧人。舉天順六年鄉試。入國學，為祭酒邢讓所知。讓坐事下吏，錦率眾抗章白其非辜。幼喪父，事母色養，執喪盡禮，不作浮屠法。巡撫余子俊欲延為子師，錦以齊衰不入公門，固辭。所居僅蔽風雨，布衣糲食，義不妄取。成化中選松江同知，卒官。

Li Jin, styled Mingzhong, came from Xianning. He passed the provincial examination in the sixth year of the Tianshun reign. He entered the Imperial Academy and won the appreciation of Chancellor Xing Rang. When Xing Rang was imprisoned on account of an affair, Li Jin led the students in submitting memorials declaring his innocence. He lost his father in childhood, served his mother with filial devotion in life, fully observed mourning rites, and refused to perform Buddhist funeral rites. Grand Coordinator Yu Zijun wished to engage him as tutor to his son, but Li Jin, still in second-degree mourning garb and refusing to enter official gates, firmly declined. His dwelling barely kept out wind and rain. He wore coarse cloth and ate plain food, and would not accept anything unearned. During the Chenghua reign he was selected as Vice Prefect of Songjiang and died in office.

爵，字錫之，泰州人。弘治初，由國學生授保安州判官，有平允聲。其教門人也，務以誠敬為本。

Wang Jue, styled Xizhi, came from Taizhou. At the beginning of the Hongzhi reign, as a student of the Imperial Academy he was appointed Assistant Magistrate of Bao'an Prefecture and earned a reputation for fairness. In teaching his disciples he made sincerity and reverence the foundation.

胡居仁，字叔心，余幹人。聞吳與弼講學崇仁，往從之遊，絕意仕進。其學以主忠信為先，以求放心為要，操而勿失，莫大乎敬，因以敬名其齋。端莊凝重，對妻子如嚴賓。手置一冊，詳書得失，用自程考。鶉衣簞食，晏如也。築室山中，四方來學者甚眾，皆告之曰：「學以為己，勿求人知。」語治世，則曰：「惟王道能使萬物各得其所。」所著有《居業錄》，蓋取修辭立誠之義。每言：「與吾道相似莫如禪學。後之學者，誤認存心多流於禪，或欲屏絕思慮以求靜。不知聖賢惟戒慎恐懼，自無邪思，不求靜未嘗不靜也。故卑者溺於功利，高者騖於空虛，其患有二：一在所見不真，一在功夫間斷。」嘗作《進學箴》曰：「誠敬既立，本心自存。力行既久，全體皆仁。舉而措之，家齊國治，聖人能事畢矣。」

Hu Juren, styled Shuxin, came from Yugan. When he heard that Wu Yubi was teaching at Chongren, he went to study under him and abandoned all thought of pursuing office. His learning took upholding loyalty and trustworthiness as its first principle and recovering the lost mind as its essential task. To hold the mind and not lose it, nothing mattered more than reverence, and so he named his studio the Reverence Studio. Dignified and grave in bearing, he treated wife and children with the same formality he would show honored guests. He kept a notebook at hand in which he recorded his gains and losses in detail, using it to measure his own progress. Dressed in patched clothes and eating plain food, he was perfectly content. He built a home in the mountains, and students flocked there from every quarter. He always told them: "Study for your own sake; do not court others' acclaim. When the topic turned to governance, he would say: "Only the kingly Way can allow all things to find their proper place in the world." His chief work was Records of Dwelling in Practice, a title drawn from the Analects' principle of establishing sincerity through cultivated speech. He often remarked: "No teaching resembles our own as closely as Chan Buddhism. Later students, mistaking what it meant to preserve the mind, often slid toward Chan practice, or tried to banish all thought in order to achieve quietude. They failed to see that the sages relied on constant vigilance and reverent fear alone; with no deviant thoughts to begin with, stillness came without having to seek it. The lesser sort became mired in profit and advantage, while the loftier sort chased after empty abstraction. Their failings came down to two things: seeing without true insight, and breaking off one's moral effort before it took root. In his Advance Learning Admonitions he wrote: "Once sincerity and reverence are firmly established, the original mind will hold fast on its own. Persevere in moral effort long enough, and one's whole being becomes humane. Put this into practice, and families will be harmonized and states well governed—the sage's task is fulfilled."

居仁性行淳篤，居喪骨立，非杖不能起，三年不入寢門。與人語，終日不及利祿。與羅倫、張元禎友善，數會於弋陽龜峰。嘗言，陳獻章學近禪悟，莊昶詩止豪曠，此風既成，為害不細。又病儒者撰述繁蕪，謂朱子註《參同契》、《陰符經》，皆不作可也。督學李齡、鐘成相繼聘主白鹿書院。過饒城，淮王請講《易傳》，待以賓師之禮。是時吳與弼以學名於世，受知朝廷，然學者或有間言。居仁暗修自守，布衣終其身，人以為薛瑄之後，粹然一出於正，居仁一人而已。卒年五十一。萬歷十三年從祀孔廟，復追謚文敬。其弟子余祐最著。

Hu Juren was pure and steadfast in character. While in mourning he grew so emaciated that he could not rise without a staff, and for three years he never crossed the threshold of the inner quarters. In conversation he could talk all day without ever touching on salary or advancement. He was close friends with Luo Lun and Zhang Yuanzhen, and they often met at Guifeng in Yiyang. He once observed that Chen Xianzhang's learning bordered on Chan-style enlightenment, while Zhuang Chang's poetry went no further than bold expansiveness. When such trends took hold, the damage was considerable. He also criticized literati for their bloated writings, arguing that Zhu Xi need never have annotated the Cantong qi and the Yin fu jing. The provincial education commissioners Li Ling and Zhong Cheng, one after another, invited him to serve as head of Bailu Academy. While passing through Raocheng, the Prince of Huai invited him to lecture on the Yi zhuan and treated him with the honor due a guest and teacher. By then Wu Yubi was celebrated for his learning and had won the court's favor, though some scholars voiced reservations about him. Hu Juren pursued his inner cultivation in quiet and lived out his days as a commoner. After Xue Xuan, people felt, he alone embodied the pure orthodox tradition without deviation. He died at the age of fifty-one. In the thirteenth year of the Wanli reign he was enshrined in the Confucian temple, and was posthumously granted the title Wen Jing. His most distinguished disciple was Yu You.

祐字子積，鄱陽人。年十九，師事居仁，居仁以女妻之。弘治十二年舉進士。為南京刑部員外郎，以事忤劉瑾，落職。瑾誅，起為福州知府。鎮守太監市物不予直，民群訴於祐。涕泣慰遣之，雲將列狀上聞。鎮守懼，稍戢，然恚甚，遣人入京告其黨曰：「不去余祐，鎮守不得自遂也。」然祐素廉，摭拾竟無所得。未幾，遷山東副使。父憂，服闋，補徐州兵備副使。中官王敬運進禦物入都，多挾商船，與知州樊準、指揮王良詬。良發其違禁物，敬懼，詣祐求解，祐不聽。敬誣奏準等毆己，遂並逮祐，謫為南寧府同知。稍遷韶州知府，投劾去。嘉靖初，歷雲南布政使，以太仆寺卿召，未行，改吏部右侍郎，祐已先卒。祐之學，墨守師說，在獄中作《性書》三卷。其言程、朱教人，專以誠敬入。學者誠能去其不誠不敬者，不患不至古人。時王守仁作《朱子晚年定論》，謂其學終歸於存養。祐謂：「朱子論心學凡三變，存齋記所言，乃少時所見，及見延平，而悟其失。後聞五峰之學於南軒，而其言又一變。最後改定已發未發之論，然後體用不偏，動靜交致其力，此其終身定見也。安得執少年未定之見，而反謂之晚年哉？」其辨出，守仁之徒不能難也。

Yu You, styled Ziji, came from Poyang. At nineteen he became Hu Juren's student, and Juren gave him his daughter in marriage. In the twelfth year of Hongzhi he passed the metropolitan examination. As a vice director in the Nanjing Ministry of Justice, he ran afoul of Liu Jin over a matter and was stripped of his post. When Liu Jin was executed, he was reappointed prefect of Fuzhou. The eunuch superintendent of the garrison bought goods without paying fair prices, and crowds of people brought their grievances to Yu You. He wept as he comforted them and sent them off, promising to submit a formal report to the throne. The superintendent was frightened and moderated his behavior for a time, but he burned with resentment and sent a messenger to Beijing to tell his allies: "The garrison superintendent will never have free rein as long as Yu You remains. But Yu You had always been honest, and despite their efforts to dig up evidence against him, they found nothing at all. Before long he was promoted to vice commissioner in Shandong. After his father's death and the mourning period concluded, he was appointed vice commissioner for military defense at Xuzhou. The eunuch Wang Jing, escorting imperial tribute to the capital, frequently commandeered merchant ships and clashed with the prefect Fan Zhun and the commander Wang Liang. Wang Liang uncovered contraband among Wang Jing's cargo. Jing, alarmed, came to Yu You to plead for leniency, but You refused. Wang Jing falsely reported that Fan Zhun and the others had assaulted him, and Yu You was arrested along with them and demoted to vice prefect of Nanning. He was later promoted to prefect of Shaozhou, but soon submitted his resignation and left office. In the early Jiajing years he rose to administrative commissioner of Yunnan. He was summoned to serve as Minister of the Court of the Imperial Stud, but before he could depart the appointment was changed to Vice Minister of the Right in the Ministry of Personnel—by which time Yu You had already died. Yu You's learning held rigidly to his master's teaching, and while imprisoned he wrote his three-volume Book on Nature. In it he argued that the Cheng brothers and Zhu Xi taught people to approach the Way through sincerity and reverence alone. If students can truly rid themselves of insincerity and irreverence, there is no reason they cannot measure up to the ancients. At the time Wang Shouren published his Final Determinations of Zhu Xi's Later Years, claiming that Zhu Xi's mature teaching came down to preservation and cultivation of the mind. Yu You responded: "Zhu Xi's views on mind-learning changed three times. What appears in the Record of the Preservation Studio reflects his youthful opinions; it was only after he studied under Yanping that he saw where he had gone wrong. Later he absorbed the teaching of Wufeng through Nanxuan, and his views shifted again. Finally he reworked his theory of the aroused and unaroused mind, achieving a balanced understanding of substance and function in which movement and stillness alike received full attention—this was the settled view he held for the rest of his life. How can one take the uncertain opinions of his youth and call them the conclusions of his later years? When this argument appeared in print, even Wang Shouren's followers could find no way to answer it.

蔡清，字介夫，晉江人。少走侯官，從林比學《易》，盡得其肯綮。舉成化十三年鄉試第一。二十年成進士，即乞假歸講學。已，謁選，得禮部祠祭主事。王恕長吏部，重清，調為稽勛主事，恒訪以時事。清乃上二劄：一請振紀綱，一薦劉大夏等三十余人。恕皆納用。尋以母憂歸，服闋，復除祠祭員外郎。乞便養，改南京文選郎中。一日心動，急乞假養父，歸甫兩月而父卒，自是家居授徒不出。正德改元，即家起江西提學副使。寧王宸濠驕恣，遇朔望，諸司先朝王，次日謁文廟。清不可，先廟而後王。王生辰，令諸司以朝服賀。清曰「非禮也」，去蔽膝而入，王積不悅。會王求復護衛，清有後言。王欲誣以詆毀詔旨，清遂乞休。王佯挽留，且許以女妻其子，競力辭去。劉瑾知天下議己，用蔡京召楊時故事，起清南京國子祭酒。命甫下而清已卒，時正德三年也，年五十六。

Cai Qing, styled Jiefu, came from Jinjiang. As a young man he traveled to Houguan to study the Book of Changes under Lin Bi, mastering it down to its essential knots. In the thirteenth year of Chenghua he came in first in the provincial examinations. In the twentieth year he passed the metropolitan examination, and immediately asked for leave to return home and devote himself to teaching. He then reported for official assignment and was appointed a director in the Ministry of Rites, in the section for sacrificial affairs. When Wang Shu served as Minister of Personnel, he held Cai Qing in high regard, transferred him to the Records section, and regularly consulted him on affairs of the day. Cai Qing then submitted two memorials—one calling for a revival of political discipline, another recommending Liu Daxia and more than thirty others for office. Wang Shu accepted all of his recommendations and acted on them. Soon after, he returned home to mourn his mother, and when the mourning period ended he was reappointed vice director in the Sacrificial Affairs section. He asked for a posting that would allow him to care for his parents more easily and was transferred to director of Literary Selection in Nanjing. One day he felt a sudden premonition and urgently requested leave to care for his father. He had been home barely two months when his father died, and from then on he stayed home teaching students and never left. When the Zhengde reign began, he was called from his home to serve as vice educational commissioner of Jiangxi. Prince Ning Zhu Chenhao was proud and overbearing. On the new and full moon days, officials paid their respects at the prince's residence first and visited the Confucian temple only on the following day. Cai Qing would not tolerate this arrangement and insisted on visiting the Confucian temple before calling on the prince. On the prince's birthday he ordered officials to attend the celebration in full court dress. Cai Qing declared, "This is improper," removed the ceremonial apron from his robe, and entered anyway—and the prince's resentment only deepened. When the prince petitioned to have his personal guard restored, Cai Qing spoke out against it afterward. The prince tried to accuse him of defaming an imperial edict, and Cai Qing thereupon requested retirement. The prince made a show of trying to retain him and even offered his daughter in marriage to Cai Qing's son, but Qing firmly declined and left. Liu Jin, aware that public opinion had turned against him, followed the precedent by which Cai Jing had summoned Yang Shi and recalled Cai Qing to serve as rector of the Nanjing Imperial Academy. The appointment had scarcely been issued when Cai Qing died—it was the third year of Zhengde, and he was fifty-six years old.

清之學，初主靜，後主虛，故以虛名齋。平生飭躬砥行，貧而樂施，為族黨依賴。以善《易》名。嘉靖八年，其子推官存遠以所著《易經》、《四書蒙引》進於朝，詔為刊布。萬歷中追謚文莊，贈禮部右侍郎。其門人陳琛、王宣、易時中、林同、趙逮、蔡烈並有名，而陳琛最著。

Cai Qing's learning initially emphasized stillness and later turned toward emptiness, which is why he named his studio the Emptiness Studio. Throughout his life he disciplined himself and refined his conduct. Though poor, he took pleasure in generosity, and his clan relied on him. He was known above all for his mastery of the Book of Changes. In the eighth year of Jiajing, his son Cunyuan, then serving as an investigating censor, presented to the throne his father's Classic of Changes and Introductory Expositions of the Four Books, and the court ordered them published. During the Wanli reign he was posthumously granted the title Wen Zhuang and the honorary rank of Vice Minister of the Right in the Ministry of Rites. His disciples Chen Chen, Wang Xuan, Yi Shizhong, Lin Tong, Zhao Dai, and Cai Lie all achieved renown, but Chen Chen stood out above the rest.

琛，字思獻，晉江人，杜門獨學。清見其文異之，曰：「吾得友此人足矣。」琛因介友人見清，清曰：「吾所發憤沈潛辛苦而僅得者，以語人常不解。子已盡得之，今且盡以付子矣。」清歿十年，琛舉進士，授刑部主事，改南京戶部，就擢考功主事，乞終養歸。嘉靖七年，有薦其恬退者，詔征之，琛辭。居一年，即家起貴州僉事，旋改江西，皆督學校，並辭不赴。家居，卻掃一室，偃臥其中，長吏莫得見其面。

Chen Chen, styled Sixian, came from Jinjiang and studied in seclusion behind closed doors. When Cai Qing read his writings, he was astonished and declared: "Finding a friend like this man would be enough for me. Chen Chen was introduced to Cai Qing through a mutual friend. Cai Qing told him: "What I gained only through fierce dedication, deep immersion, and painstaking effort—when I try to explain it to others, they rarely understand. You already understand it fully—and now I am ready to entrust it all to you." Ten years after Cai Qing's death, Chen Chen passed the metropolitan examination and was appointed a director in the Ministry of Justice, then transferred to the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue and promptly promoted to director in the Merit Records section before requesting leave to care for his parents and returning home. In the seventh year of Jiajing someone recommended him for his modest retirement from office, and though the throne summoned him, Chen Chen declined. A year later he was called from his home to serve as intendant in Guizhou, and soon after was reassigned to Jiangxi—both posts overseeing provincial schools—but he declined both and never took up either appointment. He stayed home, shut himself in a single room, and lay within it with the door barred—local officials could not even get a glimpse of him.

同郡林希元，字懋貞，與琛同年進士。歷官雲南僉事，坐考察不謹罷歸。所著《存疑》等書，與琛所著《易經通典》、《四書淺說》，並為舉業所宗。

Lin Xiyuan of the same county, styled Maozhen, passed the metropolitan examination in the same year as Chen Chen. He served as intendant in Yunnan but was dismissed and sent home after a performance review found him negligent. His works such as Preserving Doubt, along with Chen Chen's Comprehensive Canon of the Changes and Brief Expositions of the Four Books, became standard texts for examination preparation.

王宣，晉江人。弘治中舉於鄉，一赴會試不第，以親老須養，不再赴。嘗曰：「學者混朱、陸為一，便非真知。」為人廓落豪邁，俯視一世。

Wang Xuan came from Jinjiang. During the Hongzhi reign he passed the provincial examinations and went once to the capital for the metropolitan examination, but failed. His parents were elderly and needed care, so he never went again. He once remarked: "When students treat Zhu Xi and Lu Xiangshan as if they taught the same thing, they have not truly understood either. He was free-spirited and bold in character, and looked down on the world around him.

易時中，字嘉會，亦晉江人。舉於鄉，授東流教諭，遷夏津知縣，有惠政。稍遷順天府推官。以治胡守中獄失要人意，將中以他事，遂以終養歸。道出夏津，老稚爭獻果脯。將別，有哭失聲者。母年九十一而終，時中七十矣，毀不勝喪而卒。

Yi Shizhong, styled Jiahui, also came from Jinjiang. After passing the provincial examinations, he was appointed instructor at Dongliu, then promoted to magistrate of Xiajin, where he governed with notable benevolence. He was subsequently promoted to reviewing officer of Shuntian Prefecture. His handling of the Hu Shouzhong case had offended powerful interests, and when he was about to be framed on another charge, he resigned citing the need to care for his parents in their final years. When he passed through Xiajin on his way home, young and old alike competed to bring him preserved fruits. When the time came to part, some wept so loudly they could not hold back their grief. His mother died at ninety-one; Yi Shizhong was then seventy, and he died of grief that overwhelmed his strength to endure the mourning rites.

趙逮，字子重，東平人。弘治中舉鄉試，受《易》於清。蔡氏《易》止行於閩南，及是北行齊、魯矣。居母喪毀瘠，後會試不第，遂抗誌不出。生平好濂、洛諸子之學，於明獨好薛氏《讀書錄》。

Zhao Dai, styled Zizhong, came from Dongping. During the Hongzhi reign he passed the provincial examinations and studied the Book of Changes under Cai Qing. The Cai school's interpretation of the Changes had previously been known only in southern Fujian; from this point it spread north into Qi and Lu. During mourning for his mother he grieved himself thin; when he later failed the metropolitan examinations, he held firm to his resolve and never entered public life again. Throughout his life he cherished the teachings of the Lian and Luo masters, and among Ming scholars he especially favored Xue Xuan's Records of Reading.

蔡烈，字文繼，龍溪人。父昊，瓊州知府。烈弱冠為諸生，受知於清及莆田陳茂烈。隱居鶴鳴山之白雲洞，不復應試。嘉靖十二年詔舉遣佚，知府陸金以烈應，以母老辭。巡按李元陽檄郡邑建書院，亦固辭。忽山鳴三日，烈遂卒。主簿詹道嘗請論心，烈曰：「宜論事。孔門求仁，未嘗出事外也。堯、舜之道，孝弟而已。夫子之道，忠恕而已。」學士豐熙戍鎮海，見烈，嘆曰：「先生不言躬行，熙已心醉矣。」

Cai Lie, styled Wenji, came from Longxi. His father, Hao, served as prefect of Qiongzhou. While still in his early twenties, Lie became a licentiate and won the esteem of Cai Qing and of Chen Maolie of Putian. He withdrew to White Cloud Cave on Heming Mountain and never again sat for the examinations. In the twelfth year of the Jiajing reign, an edict called forth neglected men of talent; Prefect Lu Jin recommended Lie, but he declined because his mother was old. Investigating censor Li Yuanyang ordered the prefecture and its counties to build an academy for him, but he again firmly refused. Suddenly the mountain rumbled for three days, and Lie died shortly thereafter. Registrar Zhan Dao once asked to discuss the mind, but Lie replied, "One ought to discuss affairs. In Confucius's school, the pursuit of humaneness never took one outside the realm of concrete affairs. The way of Yao and Shun was nothing more than filial piety and brotherly respect. The Master's way was nothing more than loyalty and forbearance. Academician Feng Xi, stationed at Zhenhai, met Lie and exclaimed, "Though the Master never spoke of personal practice, Xi was already lost in admiration."

羅欽順，字允升，泰和人。弘治六年進士及第，授編修。遷南京國子監司業，與祭酒章懋以實行教士。未幾，奉親歸，因乞終養。劉瑾怒，奪職為民。瑾誅，復官，遷南京太常少卿，再遷南京吏部右侍郎，入為吏部左侍郎。世宗即位，命攝尚書事。上疏言久任、超遷，法當疏通，不報。大禮議起，欽順請慎大禮以全聖孝，不報。遷南京吏部尚書，省親乞歸。改禮部尚書，會居憂未及拜。再起禮部尚書，辭。又改吏部尚書，下詔敦促，再辭。許致仕，有司給祿米。時張總、桂萼以議禮驟貴，秉政樹黨，屏逐正人。欽順恥與同列，故屢詔不起。裏居二十余年，足不入城市，潛心格物致知之學。王守仁以心學立教，才知之士翕然師之。欽順致書守仁，略曰：「聖門設教，文行兼資，博學於文，厥有明訓。如謂學不資於外求，但當反觀內省，則『正心誠意』四字亦何所不盡，必於入門之際，加以格物工夫哉？」守仁得書，亦以書報，大略謂：「理無內外，性無內外，故學無內外。講習討論，未嘗非內也。反觀內省，未嘗遺外也。」反復二千余言。欽順再以書辨曰：「執事云：『格物者，格其心之物也，格其意之物也，格其知之物也。正心者，正其物之心也。誠意者，誠其物之意也。致知者，致其物之知也。』自有《大學》以來，未有此論。夫謂格其心之物，格其意之物，格其知之物，凡為物也三。謂正其物之心，誠其物之意，致其物之知，其為物也，一而已矣。就三而論，以程子格物之訓推之，猶可通也。以執事格物之訓推之，不可通也。就一物而論，則所謂物，果何物耶？如必以為意之用，雖極安排之巧，終無可通之日也。又執事論學書有云：『吾心之良知，即所謂天理。致吾心良知之天理於事物，則事事物物皆得其理矣。致吾心之良知者，致知也。事事物物各得其理者，格物也。」審如所言，則《大學》當云『格物在致知』，不當云『致知在格物』，與『物格而後知至』矣。」書未及達，守仁已歿。

Luo Qinshun, styled Yunsheng, came from Taihe. In the sixth year of the Hongzhi reign he passed the jinshi examinations and was appointed a compiler. He was promoted to vice-director of the Nanjing Directorate of Education, where he and Chancellor Zhang Mao instructed the students through practical example. Before long he went home to attend his parents and petitioned to remain with them until their deaths. Liu Jin was furious and stripped him of office, reducing him to the status of a commoner. After Jin was put to death, Qinshun was restored to office, promoted to vice minister of the Nanjing Court of Imperial Sacrifices, then to right vice minister of the Nanjing Ministry of Personnel, and finally entered the capital as left vice minister of the Ministry of Personnel. When Emperor Shizong took the throne, Qinshun was ordered to serve as acting minister. He submitted a memorial arguing that long tenure and abrupt promotion ought, by law, to be loosened and regulated, but received no reply. When the Grand Rites controversy erupted, Qinshun petitioned that the grand rites be handled with caution so as to preserve the emperor's filial devotion, but again received no reply. He was promoted to minister of the Nanjing Ministry of Personnel and petitioned to return home and visit his parents. He was reassigned as minister of the Ministry of Rites, but entered mourning before he could take up the appointment. When summoned again as minister of the Ministry of Rites, he declined. He was again reassigned as minister of the Ministry of Personnel; the court issued an edict pressing him to serve, but once more he declined. He was allowed to retire, and the local authorities provided him with stipends of grain. At the time Zhang Cong and Gui E had risen swiftly to power through the rites controversy, dominated the government, built factions, and drove out upright officials. Qinshun was ashamed to serve alongside such men, and so repeatedly ignored summonses to return to office. He lived at home for more than twenty years without ever setting foot in the city, devoting himself to the study of investigating things and extending knowledge. Wang Shouren founded his teaching on the Learning of the Mind, and men of talent flocked to take him as their master. Qinshun wrote to Shouren, saying in substance: "The sage's school establishes teaching through both literary cultivation and conduct; there is explicit instruction to be broadly learned in culture. If one holds that learning does not depend on seeking outside oneself but need only turn inward in reflection, then what would the four words 'rectify the mind and make the intentions sincere' fail to cover? Why must the work of investigating things be added at the very threshold of entry? Shouren received the letter and wrote back, saying in substance: "Principle has no inner and outer, nature has no inner and outer, and therefore learning has no inner and outer. Lecturing, study, and discussion have never been anything other than inner. Turning inward in reflection has never meant abandoning the outer world." Back and forth they exchanged more than two thousand words. Qinshun wrote again to rebut him, saying: "Your honor writes: 'Investigating things means investigating the things of the mind, the things of intention, and the things of knowledge. Rectifying the mind means rectifying the mind of things. Making the intentions sincere means making sincere the intentions of things. Extending knowledge means extending the knowledge of things. Since the Great Learning was written, there has never been such a doctrine. If one speaks of investigating the things of the mind, of intention, and of knowledge, then things become three. If one speaks of rectifying the mind of things, making sincere the intentions of things, and extending the knowledge of things, then things become only one. Taken as three, and measured against Master Cheng's interpretation of investigating things, the account can still be made coherent. Measured against your honor's interpretation of investigating things, it cannot be made coherent. Taken as one thing, what after all is this so-called thing? If it must be understood as the functioning of intention, then however cleverly one arranges the terms, there will never come a day when the doctrine can be made coherent. Moreover, in your honor's letter on learning you write: 'The innate knowing of my mind is what is called Heavenly principle.' If one extends the Heavenly principle of the innate knowing of one's mind to affairs and things, then in each affair and each thing its proper principle is attained. Extending the Heavenly principle of the innate knowing of one's mind is extending knowledge. Each affair and each thing attaining its principle is investigating things.' If this is truly so, then the Great Learning ought to read 'investigating things lies in extending knowledge,' not 'extending knowledge lies in investigating things,' and 'once things are investigated, knowledge is complete.' Before the letter reached him, Shouren had already died.

欽順為學，專力於窮理、存心、知性。初由釋氏入，既悟其非，乃力排之，謂：「釋氏之明心見性，與吾儒之盡心知性，相似而實不同。釋氏之學，大抵有見於心，無見於性。今人明心之說，混於禪學，而不知有千里毫厘之謬。道之不明，將由於此，欽順有憂焉。」為著《困知記》，自號整庵。年八十三卒，贈太子太保，謚文莊。

Qinshun devoted his learning to exhaustively probing principle, preserving the mind, and knowing nature. At first he entered the Way through Buddhism; once he saw its error, he forcefully rejected it, saying, "Buddhism's doctrine of illuminating the mind and seeing nature resembles, but is in fact unlike, our Confucian ideal of fully exhausting the mind and knowing nature. Buddhist learning, taken as a whole, apprehends the mind but not nature. Talk today of illuminating the mind is mingled with Chan learning, without realizing that a hairsbreadth's deviation can lead to an error a thousand li wide. That the Way fails to be illumined will stem from this, and Qinshun was deeply troubled by it. Accordingly he wrote Awakening through Strenuous Effort and took the style Zheng'an. He died at eighty-three and was posthumously appointed Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent, with the posthumous title Wenzhuang.

曹端，字正夫，澠池人。永樂六年舉人。五歲見《河圖》、《洛書》，即畫地以質之父。及長，專心性理。其學務躬行實踐，而以靜存為要。讀宋儒《太極圖》、《通書》、《西銘》，嘆曰：「道在是矣。」篤誌研究，坐下著足處，兩磚皆穿。事父母至孝，父初好釋氏，端為《夜行燭》一書進之，謂：「佛氏以空為性，非天命之性。老氏以虛為道，非率性之道。」父欣然從之。繼遭二親喪，五味不入口。既葬，廬墓六年。

Cao Duan, styled Zhengfu, came from Mianchi. In the sixth year of the Yongle reign he passed the provincial examinations. At the age of five, upon seeing the Hetu and Luoshu, he traced them on the ground to ask his father about them. When he grew older, he devoted himself to the study of nature and principle. His learning emphasized personal practice and real application, with quiet preservation of the mind as its core. Reading the Song masters' Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate, Penetrating the Classic, and Western Inscription, he sighed and said, "The Way is here. He fixed his will on study with single-minded devotion; the two bricks beneath the place where he sat were worn through. He was utterly filial toward his parents; his father had at first favored Buddhism, and Duan presented him with a work entitled Night Lamp for Walking, saying, "Buddhism takes emptiness as nature, but that is not the nature ordained by Heaven. Daoism takes vacuity as the Way, but that is not the Way of following one's nature. His father gladly accepted his guidance. Later he mourned the death of both parents and abstained from all five flavors of food. After the burial he built a mourning hut at the grave and observed filial mourning there for six years.

端初讀謝應芳《辨惑編》，篤好之，一切浮屠、巫覡、風水、時日之說屏不用。上書邑宰，毀淫祠百余，為設裏社、裏谷壇，使民祈報。年荒勸振，存活甚眾。為霍州學正，修明聖學。諸生服從其教，郡人皆化之，恥爭訟。知府郭晟問為政，端曰：「其公廉乎。公則民不敢謾，廉則吏不敢欺。」晟拜受。遭艱歸，澠池、霍諸生多就墓次受學。服闋，改蒲州學正。霍、蒲兩邑各上章爭之，霍奏先得請。先後在霍十六載，宣德九年卒官，年五十九。諸生服心喪三年，霍人罷市巷哭，童子皆流涕。貧不能歸葬，遂留葬霍。二子瑜、琛，亦戶端墓，相繼死，葬墓側，後改葬澠池。

Early on Duan read Xie Yingfang's Refutation of Delusion and took it to heart; he rejected all talk of Buddhist monks, shamans, geomancy, and lucky days. He wrote to the district magistrate urging the destruction of more than a hundred illicit shrines, and had village altars and village grain altars set up so the people could pray and give thanks. In years of famine he urged grain relief and saved a great many lives. Serving as director of studies in Huozhou, he revived and clarified the sage's learning. The students submitted to his instruction, and the people of the prefecture were transformed, until they were ashamed even to quarrel and sue one another. When Prefect Guo Sheng asked him about governing, Duan replied, "Is it not fairness and integrity? If the ruler is fair, the people dare not deceive him; if he is incorruptible, his clerks dare not cheat him. Sheng bowed and accepted this as his instruction. When he returned home to observe mourning, many students from Mianchi and Huo came to the graveside to receive his teaching. When his mourning period ended, he was reassigned as director of studies in Puzhou. Both Huo and Pu submitted memorials competing to retain him, and Huo's petition was granted first. In all he served sixteen years in Huo; in the ninth year of the Xuande reign he died in office at the age of fifty-nine. The students observed heart-mourning for three years; the people of Huo closed their markets and wept in the lanes and alleys, and even children shed tears. Too poor to return home for burial, he was interred in Huo. His two sons Yu and Chen also kept vigil at Duan's grave, died in turn, and were buried beside the tomb; later they were reburied in Mianchi.

端嘗言：「學欲至乎聖人之道，須從太極上立根腳。」又曰：「為人須從誌士勇士不忘上參取。」又曰：「孔、顏之樂仁也，孔子安仁而樂在其中，顏淵不違仁而不改其樂，程子令人自得之。」又曰：「天下無性外之物，而性無不在焉。性即理也，理之別名曰太極，曰至誠，曰至善，曰大德，曰大中，名不同而道則一。」初，伊、洛諸儒，自明道、伊川後，劉絢、李<頁>輩身及二程之門，至河南許衡、洛陽姚樞講道蘇門，北方之學者翕然宗之。洎明興三十余載，而端起崤、澠間，倡明絕學，論者推為明初理學之冠。所著有《孝經述解》、《四書詳說》、《周易乾坤二卦解義》、《太極圖說通書》《西銘》釋文、《性理文集》、《儒學宗統譜》、《存疑錄》諸書。

Duan once said, "If one wishes to learn in order to reach the sage's Way, one must take root in the Supreme Ultimate. He also said, "In living as a human being one must learn from the steadfast spirit of men of purpose and warriors who never forget what is higher and take it to heart." He also said, "Confucius and Yan's joy in humaneness: Confucius rested in humaneness and found joy within it; Yan Yuan never departed from humaneness and never changed his joy; Master Cheng taught people to attain this for themselves." He also said, "Under Heaven there is nothing outside nature, and nature is present in all things. Nature is principle; principle is also called the Supreme Ultimate, utmost sincerity, utmost goodness, great virtue, and great centrality — the names differ, but the Way is one." Earlier, the Luoyang scholars — after Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi, Liu Ji, Li Tong, and others of their generation who had entered the two Chengs' school in person, down to Xu Heng of Henan and Yao Shu of Luoyang teaching the Way at Sumen — were revered in unison by northern scholars. More than thirty years after the founding of the Ming, Duan arose in the region between Mount Xiao and Mianchi and revived the lost learning; critics hailed him as the foremost Neo-Confucian of early Ming. His writings include Exposition of the Classic of Filial Piety, Detailed Exposition of the Four Books, Interpretation of the Qian and Kun Hexagrams of the Book of Changes, Expository Text on the Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate, Penetrating the Classic, and Western Inscription, Collected Works on Nature and Principle, Genealogy of the Orthodox Line of Confucian Learning, Record of Preserved Doubts, and other works.

霍州李德與端同時，亦講學於其鄉。及見端，退語諸生曰：「學不厭，教不倦，曹子之盛德也。至其知古今，達事變，末學鮮或及之。古雲『得經師易，得人師難』，諸生得人師矣。」遂避席去。端亦高其行誼，命諸生延致之，講明正學。初，端作《川月交映圖》擬太極，學者稱月川先生。及歿，私謚靜修。正德中，尚書彭澤、河南巡撫李楨請從祀孔子廟庭，不果。

Li De of Huozhou was Duan's contemporary and also lectured on learning in the same region. After meeting Duan, he withdrew and told his students, "Never weary of learning, never weary of teaching — such is Master Cao's abundant virtue. As for his knowledge of past and present and his grasp of changing affairs, few later scholars could match him. The ancients said, "It is easy to find a teacher of the classics, but hard to find a teacher of men." The students have found such a teacher." With that he rose from his seat and withdrew. Duan likewise held Li De's conduct and integrity in high regard, had the students invite him, and together they expounded orthodox learning. Early on, Duan composed the Diagram of the River and Moon Shining Together, modeled on the Supreme Ultimate, and scholars called him Master River-Moon. After his death, he was given the private posthumous title Quiet Cultivation. During the Zhengde reign, Minister Peng Ze and Henan Provincial Commissioner Li Zhen asked that he be enshrined in the Confucian temple, but the request was denied.

吳與弼，字子傳，崇仁人。父溥，建文時為國子司業，永樂中為翰林修撰。與弼年十九，見《伊洛淵源圖》，慨然響慕，遂罷舉子業，盡讀《四子》、《五經》、洛閩諸錄，不下樓者數年。中歲家益貧，躬親耕稼，非其義，一介不取。四方來學者，約己分少，飲食、教誨不倦。正統十一年，山西僉事何自學薦於朝，請授以文學高職。後御史塗謙、撫州知府王宇復薦之，俱不出。嘗嘆曰：「宦官、釋氏不除，而欲天下治平，難矣。」景泰七年，御史陳述又請禮聘與弼，俾侍經筵，或用之成均，教育胄子。詔江西巡撫韓雍備禮敦遣，竟不至。天順元年，石亨欲引賢者為己重，謀於大學士李賢，屬草疏薦之。帝乃命賢草敕加束帛，遣行人曹隆，賜璽書，賫禮幣，征與弼赴闕。比至，帝問賢曰：「與弼宜何官？」對曰：「宜以宮僚，侍太子講學。」遂授左春坊左諭德，與弼疏辭。賢請賜召問，且與館次供具。於是召見文華殿，顧語曰：「聞處士義高，特行征聘，奚辭職為？」對曰：「臣草茅賤士，本無高行，陛下垂聽虛聲，又不幸有狗馬疾。束帛造門，臣慚被異數，匍匐京師，今年且六十八矣，實不能官也。」帝曰：「宮僚優閑，不必辭。」賜文綺酒牢，遣中使送館次。顧謂賢曰：「此老非迂闊者，務令就職。」時帝眷遇良厚，而與弼辭益力。又疏稱：「學術荒陋，茍冒昧徇祿，必且曠官。」詔不許。乃請以白衣就邸舍，假讀秘閣書。帝曰：「欲觀秘書，勉受職耳。」命賢為諭意。與弼留京師二月，以疾篤請。賢請曲從放還，始終恩禮，以光曠舉。帝然之，賜敕慰勞，賫銀幣，復遣行人送還，命有司月給米二石。與弼歸，上表謝，陳崇聖誌、廣聖學等十事。成化五年卒，年七十九。

Wu Yubi, styled Zichuan, was from Chongren. His father Pu had been Vice President of the Imperial Academy under Emperor Jianwen and Hanlin Compiler under the Yongle Emperor. At nineteen, Wu Yubi encountered the Diagram of the Sources of the Yi-Luo Tradition and was moved to profound admiration. He abandoned the civil service examinations and devoted himself to reading the Four Books, the Five Classics, and the writings of the Luoyang and Fujian schools, remaining upstairs without coming down for several years. In middle age his family grew still poorer; he worked the fields himself and would not accept even the smallest gift that was not rightfully his. Students came from all quarters; he kept himself frugal and gave them less than his own share, yet never tired of feeding them or teaching them. In the eleventh year of the Zhengtong reign, He Zixue, Judicial Commissioner of Shanxi, recommended him to the throne and asked that he be given a high literary office. Later the censor Tu Qian and Wang Yu, prefect of Fuzhou, recommended him again, but he still refused to serve. He once sighed and said, "If eunuchs and Buddhists are not removed, it will be hard to bring peace and good order to the realm." In the seventh year of the Jingtai reign, Censor Chen Shu again asked that Wu Yubi be invited with full ceremonial honors to attend the Classics Lecture Hall, or be employed at the Imperial College to educate the crown prince's sons and other students. The court ordered Jiangxi Provincial Commissioner Han Yong to prepare the proper honors and earnestly summon him, but he still did not come. In the first year of the Tianshun reign, Shi Heng wished to bolster his own standing by associating with worthy men; he conspired with Grand Secretary Li Xian and had him draft a memorial recommending Wu Yubi. The emperor then ordered Li Xian to draft an edict adding silk gifts, dispatched the messenger Cao Long bearing a sealed imperial letter and ceremonial gifts, and summoned Wu Yubi to court. When Wu Yubi arrived, the emperor asked Li Xian, "What office should Wu Yubi hold?" Li Xian replied, "He should serve as a palace official and instruct the crown prince in learning." Accordingly he was appointed Left Tutor of the Left Secretariat of the Crown Prince, but Wu Yubi submitted a memorial declining the post. Li Xian asked that the emperor grant him an audience and provide lodging and provisions. He was then summoned to an audience in the Wenhua Hall. The emperor addressed him directly: "I have heard that you, recluse, are lofty in integrity; I sent envoys especially to invite you—why do you decline office?" Wu Yubi replied, "Your servant is a humble commoner without any lofty conduct. Your Majesty has listened to empty reputation, and I am also, alas, afflicted with illness. Silk gifts came to my door, and I am ashamed to receive such special treatment. I have crawled my way to the capital; I am nearly sixty-eight this year and truly cannot hold office." The emperor said, "The duties of a palace official are leisurely and unburdensome; you need not decline." He granted patterned silks, wine, and livestock, and sent a eunuch to escort him to his lodging. Turning to Li Xian, he said, "This old man is not an obstinate pedant; see that he takes up his post." The emperor's favor was generous throughout, yet Wu Yubi declined all the more forcefully. He memorialized again: "My learning is crude and shallow; if I rashly sought a salary, I would surely neglect my duties." The edict did not permit his resignation. He then asked to stay at an official residence in plain dress and borrow books from the Secret Archive. The emperor said, "If you wish to read the secret archives, you need only accept office." He ordered Li Xian to convey this to him. Wu Yubi remained in the capital for two months, then pleaded that his illness had grown grave. Li Xian asked that the emperor graciously grant his release while maintaining the full honors due a special invitation, so that the grand recommendation might retain its luster. The emperor agreed, granted an edict of consolation, sent silver and silk, again dispatched a messenger to escort him home, and ordered local officials to supply him with two piculs of rice each month. On returning home, Wu Yubi submitted a memorial of thanks and presented ten proposals, including Venerating the Sage and Expanding Sage Learning. He died in the fifth year of the Chenghua reign at the age of seventy-nine.

與弼始至京，賢推之上座，以賓師禮事之。編修尹直至，令坐於側。直大慍，出即謗與弼。及與弼歸，知府張貴謁見不得，大恚。募人代其弟投牒訟與弼，立遣吏攝之，大加侮慢，始遣還。與弼諒非弟意，友愛如初。編修張元楨不知其始末，遣書誚讓，有「上告素王，正名討罪，豈容先生久竊虛名」語。直後筆其事於《瑣綴錄》。又言與弼跋亨族譜，自稱門下士，士大夫用此訾與弼。後顧允成論之曰：「此好事者為之也。」與弼門人後皆從祀，而與弼竟不果。所著《日錄》，悉自言生平所得。

When Wu Yubi first arrived in the capital, Li Xian offered him the seat of honor and treated him with the courtesy due a guest and teacher. When Compiler Yin Zhi arrived, he was made to sit at the side. Yin Zhi was greatly angered and, as soon as he left, began slandering Wu Yubi. When Wu Yubi returned home, Prefect Zhang Gui could not obtain an audience and was greatly enraged. He hired someone to lodge a complaint against Wu Yubi in his brother's name, immediately dispatched officials to summon him, treated him with great contempt, and only then sent him away. Wu Yubi understood that this was not his brother's intent and maintained their affection as before. Compiler Zhang Yuanzhen, not knowing the full story, sent a letter reproaching him with the words, "One should appeal to the Uncrowned King to rectify names and demand punishment—how can a gentleman be allowed to long clutch an empty reputation?" Later Yin Zhi wrote about the affair in Records of Trifles. It was also said that Wu Yubi wrote a postface for Shi Heng's clan genealogy, calling himself a follower, and literati used this to criticize him. Later Gu Yuncheng commented, "This was the work of busybodies." Wu Yubi's disciples were later all enshrined in the Confucian temple, but Wu Yubi himself was never approved. His Record of Daily Reflections sets forth everything he gained through his life.

其門人最著者曰胡居仁、陳獻章、婁諒，次曰胡九韶、謝復、鄭伉。胡九韶，字鳳儀，少從與弼學。諸生來學者，與弼令先見九韶。及與弼歿，門人多轉師之。家貧，課子力耕，僅給衣食。成化中卒。謝復，字一陽，祁門人。聞與弼倡道，棄科舉業從之遊。身體力行，務求自得。居家孝友，喪祭冠婚，悉遵古禮。或問學，曰：「知行並進，否則落記誦詁訓矣。」晚卜室西山之麓，學者稱西山先生。弘治末年卒，年六十五。鄭伉，字孔明，常山人。為諸生，試有司，不偶，即棄去，師與弼。辭歸，日究諸儒論議，一切折衷於朱子。事親孝。設義學，立社倉，以惠族黨。所著《易義發明》、《讀史管見》、《觀物余論》、《蛙鳴集》，多燼於火。

His most distinguished disciples were Hu Juren, Chen Xianzhang, and Lou Liang; next came Hu Jiushao, Xie Fu, and Zheng Kang. Hu Jiushao, styled Fengyi, studied under Wu Yubi from youth. When students came to study, Wu Yubi had them meet Jiushao first. After Wu Yubi's death, many disciples transferred their allegiance to him. His family was poor; he set his sons to work the fields and barely had enough for food and clothing. He died during the Chenghua reign. Xie Fu, styled Yiyang, was from Qimen. Hearing that Wu Yubi was championing the Way, he abandoned the civil service examinations and became his disciple. He embodied the Way in action and strove to gain genuine understanding for himself. At home he was filial and friendly; in mourning, sacrifice, capping, and marriage he followed the ancient rites throughout. When asked about learning, he said, "Knowledge and action must advance together; otherwise one falls into memorizing glosses and commentaries." In later years he chose a dwelling at the foot of West Mountain, and scholars called him Master West Mountain. He died near the end of the Hongzhi reign at the age of sixty-five. Zheng Kang, styled Kongming, was from Changshan. He was a student, failed the prefectural examinations, abandoned them, and became Wu Yubi's disciple. He took leave and returned home, daily investigating the discussions of the various Confucians and reconciling them all with Zhu Xi. He was filial toward his parents. He established a charity school and a community granary to benefit his clan and neighbors. His writings—Illuminating the Meaning of the Changes, Glimpses from Reading History, Further Discussions on Observing Things, and Collection of Frog Cries—were mostly destroyed by fire.

陳真晟，字晦德，漳州鎮海衛人。初治舉赴鄉試，聞有司防察過嚴，無待士禮，恥之棄去，由是篤誌聖賢之學。讀《大學或問》，見朱子重言主敬，知「敬」為《大學》始基。又得程子主一之說，專心克治，嘆曰：「《大學》，誠意為鐵門關，主一二字，乃其玉鑰匙也。」天順二年詣闕上《程朱正學纂要》。其書首取程氏學制，次采朱子論說，次作二圖，一著聖人心與天地同運，一著學者之心法天之運，終言立明師、輔皇儲、隆教本數事，以畢圖說之意。書奏，下禮部議，侍郎鄒幹寢其事。真晟歸，聞臨川吳與弼方講學，欲就問之。過南昌，張元禎止之宿，與語，大推服曰：「斯道自程、朱以來，惟先生得其真。如康齋者，不可見，亦不必見也。」遂歸閩，潛思靜坐，自號漳南布衣。卒於成化十年，年六十四。真晟學無師承，獨得於遺經之中。自以僻處海濱，出而訪求當世學者，雖未與與弼相證，要其學頗似近之。

Chen Zhencheng, styled Huide, was from Zhenhai Guard in Zhangzhou. Initially he pursued the examinations and went to the provincial tests; hearing that local officials supervised candidates with excessive severity and showed scholars no courtesy, he was ashamed and abandoned the attempt, thereby devoting himself wholeheartedly to the learning of the sages. Reading Or Questions on the Great Learning, he saw Zhu Xi's repeated emphasis on maintaining reverence and understood that reverence was the foundation of the Great Learning. He also grasped Cheng Yi's doctrine of maintaining unity, devoted himself to self-restraint, and sighed: "In the Great Learning, making one's intentions sincere is the iron gate; the words 'maintaining unity' are its jade key." In the second year of the Tianshun reign he went to court and submitted Essentials of the Orthodox Learning of Cheng and Zhu. The book first takes the Cheng brothers' system of learning, next collects Zhu Xi's discussions, then presents two diagrams—one showing that the sage's mind moves in concert with Heaven and Earth, one showing that the scholar's mind models Heaven's movement—and finally discusses establishing enlightened teachers, assisting the crown prince, and elevating the foundation of education, thereby completing the intent of the diagrams and exposition. When the book was submitted, it was sent to the Ministry of Rites for deliberation; Vice Minister Zou Gan shelved the matter. Zhencheng returned home; hearing that Wu Yubi of Linchuan was lecturing on learning, he wished to go and inquire of him. Passing through Nanchang, Zhang Yuanzhen detained him for the night; after conversing with him, he was greatly impressed and said, "Since the time of the Cheng brothers and Zhu Xi, only you, sir, have grasped the true Way. Someone like Kangzhai is not to be sought, nor need he be sought." He then returned to Min, reflected in quiet sitting, and styled himself the Plain-Clothed Man of South Zhang. He died in the tenth year of the Chenghua reign at the age of sixty-four. Zhencheng had no teacher in his learning; he gained it alone from the transmitted classics. Considering himself remote on the seacoast, he went forth to seek out scholars of the age; although he never met Wu Yubi in person to verify his learning, in essence his learning was quite close to Wu's.

呂柟，字仲木，高陵人，別號涇野，學者稱涇野先生。正德三年登進士第一，授修撰。劉瑾以柟同鄉欲致之，謝不往。又因西夏事，疏請帝入宮親政事，潛消禍本。瑾惡其直，欲殺之，引疾去。瑾誅，以薦復官。乾清宮災，應詔陳六事，其言除義子，遣番僧，取回鎮守太監，尤人所不敢言。是年秋，以父病歸。都御史盛應期，御史朱節、熊相、曹珪累疏薦。適世宗嗣位，首召柟。上疏勸勤學以為新政之助，略曰：「克己慎獨，上對天心；親賢遠讒，下通民誌，庶太平之業可致。」大禮議興，與張、桂忤。以十三事自陳，中以大禮未定，諂言日進，引為己罪。上怒，下詔獄，謫解州判官，攝行州事。恤煢獨，減丁役，勸農桑，興水利，築堤護鹽池，行《呂氏鄉約》及《文公家禮》，求子夏後，建司馬溫公祠。四方學者日至，御史為辟解梁書院以居之。三年，御史盧煥等累薦，升南京宗人府經歷，歷官尚寶司卿。吳、楚、閩、越士從者百余人。晉南京太仆寺少卿。太廟災，乞罷黜，不允。選國子監祭酒，晉南京禮部右侍郎，署吏部事。帝將躬祀顯陵，累疏勸止，不報。值天變，遂乞致仕歸。年六十四卒，高陵人為罷市者三日。解梁及四方學者聞之，皆設位，持心喪。訃聞，上輟朝一日，賜祭葬。

Lu Nan, styled Zhongmu, was from Gaoling; his alternative style was Jingye, and scholars called him Master Jingye. In the third year of the Zhengde reign he ranked first in the jinshi examinations and was appointed Compiler. Liu Jin, because Nan was a fellow townsman, wished to recruit him; he declined and did not go. Also on account of the Western Xia affair, he memorialized asking the emperor to enter the palace personally to handle state affairs, thereby quietly eliminating the root of disaster. Jin hated his forthrightness and wished to kill him; Nan pleaded illness and withdrew. After Jin was executed, he was restored to office through recommendation. When the Qianqing Palace caught fire, he responded to the edict by presenting six proposals; his words on removing adopted sons, sending away Tibetan monks, and recalling frontier eunuch commissioners were especially what others dared not speak. That autumn he returned home because of his father's illness. Censor-in-Chief Sheng Yingqi and Censors Zhu Jie, Xiong Xiang, and Cao Gui repeatedly recommended him in memorials. Just as Emperor Shizong succeeded to the throne, Nan was the first to be summoned. He submitted a memorial urging diligent study to aid the new reign, stating in part, "Restrain the self and be careful in solitude—this aligns with Heaven's mind above; draw close to the worthy and keep slanderers at a distance—this connects with the people's will below; then the enterprise of great peace may be achieved." When the Great Rites Controversy arose, he opposed Zhang and Gui. He stated thirteen matters in self-accusation, among them that since the Great Rites were unsettled, flattering words entered daily—he took this as his own fault. The emperor was angered, had him imprisoned by imperial edict, demoted him to Vice Magistrate of Jiezhou, and had him administer the prefecture's affairs. He cared for the solitary and orphaned, reduced corvée labor, encouraged agriculture and sericulture, promoted water conservancy, built dikes to protect the salt ponds, implemented the Lu Clan Community Compact and Zhu Xi's Family Rituals, sought descendants of Zixia, and built a temple to Sima Guang. Scholars from all quarters arrived daily, and the censor had Jieliang Academy set aside to house them. In the third year, Censor Lu Huan and others repeatedly recommended him; he rose to Registrar of the Nanjing Court of the Imperial Clan and eventually served as Director of the Court of Imperial Seals. More than a hundred scholars from Wu, Chu, Min, and Yue followed him. He was promoted to Vice Minister of the Nanjing Court of the Imperial Stud. When the Imperial Ancestral Temple caught fire, he asked to be removed from office, but the request was denied. He was appointed Chancellor of the Directorate of Education, promoted to Right Vice Minister of the Nanjing Ministry of Rites, and directed affairs of the Ministry of Personnel. The emperor was about to sacrifice in person at the Xian Mausoleum; he memorialized repeatedly urging him to stop, but received no reply. When a celestial portent occurred, he requested retirement and returned home. He died at sixty-four; the people of Gaoling closed their shops in mourning for three days. When scholars at Jieliang and from all quarters heard the news, they set up mourning seats and mourned him in spirit. When word of his death reached the throne, the emperor suspended court for one day and granted sacrificial rites and burial honors.

柟受業渭南薛敬之，接河東薛瑄之傳，學以窮理實踐為主。官南都，與湛若水、鄒守益共主講席。仕三十余年，家無長物，終身未嘗有惰容。時天下言學者，不歸王守仁，則歸湛若水，獨守程、朱不變者，惟柟與羅欽順雲。所著有《四書因問》、《易說翼》、《書說要》、《詩說序》、《春秋說志》、《禮問內外篇》、《史約》、《小學釋》、《寒暑經圖解》、《史館獻納》、《宋四子抄釋》、《南省奏槁》、《涇野詩文集》。萬歷、崇禎間，李禎、趙錦、周子義、王士性、蔣德璟先後請從祀孔廟，下部議，未及行。柟弟子涇陽呂潛，字時見，舉於鄉。官工部司務。張節，字介夫。鹹寧李挺，字正五。皆有學行。

Nan studied under Xue Jingzhi of Weinan and inherited the teaching of Hedong's Xue Xuan; his learning took investigating principle and putting it into practice as its core. While serving in the Southern Capital, he shared the lectern with Zhan Ruoshui and Zou Shouyi. For more than thirty years in office, his home held nothing beyond the essentials, and throughout his life he never once wore a look of idleness. At the time, those who spoke of learning either followed Wang Shouren or Zhan Ruoshui; only Nan and Luo Qinshun, it is said, held unwaveringly to Cheng and Zhu. His writings include Four Books Inquiries, Wings to the Commentary on the Changes, Essentials of Commentary on the Documents, Preface to Commentary on the Odes, Intentions of Commentary on the Spring and Autumn, Inner and Outer Chapters of Ritual Inquiries, Abridged History, Explication of the Elementary Learning, Diagrammatic Exposition of the Cold and Heat Classic, Memorials Submitted from the Historiography Institute, Selected Expositions of the Four Song Masters, Memorial Drafts from the Southern Examination Bureau, and the Collected Poems and Essays of Jingye. Between the Wanli and Chongzhen reigns, Li Zhen, Zhao Jin, Zhou Ziyi, Wang Shixing, and Jiang Dejing successively asked that he be enshrined in the Confucian temple; the request was sent to the ministries for deliberation but never implemented. Nan's student Lu Qian of Jingyang, styled Shijian, passed the provincial examination. He served as Clerk in the Ministry of Works. Zhang Jie, styled Jiefu. Li Ting of Xianning, styled Zhengwu. Both were men of learning and integrity.

潛裏人郭郛，字維藩，由舉人官馬湖知府。藍田王之士，字欲立。由舉人以趙用賢薦，授國子博士。兩人不及柟門，亦秦士之篤學者也。

Lu Qian's fellow townsman Guo Fu, styled Weifan, became prefect of Mahu Prefecture by way of the provincial examination. Wang Zhishi of Lantian, styled Yuli. Having passed the provincial examination, he was recommended by Zhao Yongxian and appointed Erudite of the Directorate of Education. Neither studied under Nan, but both were also devoted scholars of Qin.

邵寶，字國賢，無錫人。年十九，學於江浦莊昶。成化二十年舉進士，授許州知州。月朔，會諸生於學宮，講明義利公私之辨。正潁考叔祠墓。改魏文帝廟以祠漢湣帝，不稱獻而稱湣，從昭烈所謚也。巫言龍骨出地中為禍福，寶取骨，毀於庭，杖巫而遣之。躬課農桑，仿朱子社倉，立積散法，行計口澆田法，以備兇荒。

Shao Bao, styled Guoxian, was from Wuxi. At nineteen he studied under Zhuang Chang of Jiangpu. In the twentieth year of the Chenghua reign he passed the jinshi examination and was appointed prefect of Xuzhou. On the first day of each month he gathered the students at the school shrine and expounded the distinction between righteousness and profit, public and private. He restored the shrine and tomb of Ying Kaoshu. He converted the shrine of Emperor Wen of Wei to honor Emperor Min of Han; he did not use the title Xian but Min, following the posthumous title Liu Bei had bestowed. A shaman claimed that dragon bones emerging from the earth brought fortune or misfortune; Bao seized the bones, destroyed them in the courtyard, beat the shaman, and sent him away. He personally supervised agriculture and sericulture, modeled Zhu Xi's community granary, established a system of storing and distributing grain, and implemented per-capita irrigation allotments to guard against famine.

弘治七年入為戶部員外郎，歷郎中，遷江西提學副使。釋菜周元公祠。修白鹿書院學舍，處學者。其教，以致知力行為本。江西俗好陰陽家言，有數十年不葬父母者。寶下令，士不葬親者不得與試，於是相率舉葬，以千計。寧王宸濠索詩文，峻卻之。後宸濠敗，有司校勘，獨無寶跡。遷浙江按察使，再遷右布政使。與鎮守太監勘處州銀礦，寶曰：「費多獲少，勞民傷財，慮生他變。」卒奏寢其事。進湖廣布政使。

In the seventh year of the Hongzhi reign he entered the capital as Vice Director in the Ministry of Revenue, rose to Director, and was transferred to Vice Education Commissioner of Jiangxi. He performed the vegetable-offering ceremony at the shrine of Lord Yuan of Zhou. He repaired the study halls of Bailu Academy to house scholars. In his teaching he took extending knowledge and putting it into practice as the foundation. In Jiangxi the custom favored yin-yang geomancy, and some went decades without burying their parents. Bao ordered that scholars who had not buried their parents could not sit for the examinations; thereupon they buried their parents in droves, numbering in the thousands. The Prince of Ning, Zhu Chenhao, asked him for poems and essays, and he sternly refused. Later, when Chenhao was defeated, the officials examined the records and found that Bao alone had left no trace. He was transferred to Surveillance Commissioner of Zhejiang, then promoted again to Right Administration Commissioner. Together with the frontier eunuch commissioner he inspected the silver mines of Chuzhou; Bao said, "The costs are high and the yield low; it labors the people and wastes resources, and I fear it will breed further trouble." In the end he memorialized and had the project halted. He was promoted to Administration Commissioner of Huguang.

寶三歲而孤，事母過氏至孝。甫十歲，母疾，為文告天，願減己算延母年。及終養歸，得疾，左手不仁，猶朝夕侍親側不懈。學以洛、閩為的，嘗曰：「吾願為真士大夫，不願為假道學。」舉南畿，受知於李東陽。為詩文，典重和雅，以東陽為宗。至於原本經術，粹然一出於正，則其所自得也。博綜群籍，有得則書之簡，取程子「今日格一物，明日格一物」之義，名之曰日格子。所著《學史》、簡端二錄，巡撫吳廷舉上於朝，外《定性書說》、《漕政舉要》諸集若干卷。學者稱二泉先生。

Bao lost his father at three and served his mother, née Guo, with the utmost filial devotion. At just ten, when his mother fell ill, he wrote a prayer to Heaven offering to shorten his own allotted years to prolong his mother's life. After completing mourning and returning home, he fell ill and lost the use of his left hand, yet morning and evening he attended his parents without slackening. He took the Luoyang and Fujian schools as his standard and once said, "I wish to be a true scholar-official, not a false devotee of learning." He passed the provincial examination in the Southern Capital region and won the esteem of Li Dongyang. In poetry and prose he wrote in a classical, weighty, and elegant style, taking Dongyang as his model. When it came to grounding his work in the classics and achieving a pure correctness born of orthodoxy, that was his own attainment. He read widely across many books, and whenever he gained insight he wrote it on a slip, taking Cheng Yi's words, "today investigate one thing, tomorrow investigate one thing," and naming the practice his Daily Grid. His writings include Learning History and the two Slip-End Records; Surveillance Commissioner Wu Tingju submitted them to the court, along with other collections such as Commentary on Determining Nature and the Documents and Essentials of Canal Administration, in several volumes. Scholars called him Master Two Springs.

其門人，同邑王問，字子裕，以學行稱。嘉靖十七年成進士。授戶部主事，監徐州倉，減羨耗十二三。以父老，乞便養，改南京職方，遷車駕郎中、廣東僉事。行未半道，乞養歸。父卒，遂不復仕。築室湖上，讀書三十年，不履城市，數被薦不起。工詩文書畫，清修雅尚，士大夫皆慕之。卒年八十，門人私謚曰文靜先生。

Among his disciples, Wang Wen of the same district, styled Ziyu, was famed for learning and conduct. In the seventeenth year of the Jiajing reign he passed the jinshi examination. He was appointed Director in the Ministry of Revenue, supervised the Xuzhou granary, and reduced surplus wastage by twelve or thirteen percent. Because his father was elderly, he asked for a post that would allow him to support his parents, was transferred to the Nanjing Bureau of Military Appointments, and was promoted to Director in the Directorate of Imperial Carriages and Assistant Surveillance Commissioner of Guangdong. Before he had gone half the distance, he asked leave to return home and support his parents. After his father died, he never again took office. He built a studio by the lake, read for thirty years without setting foot in the city, and though repeatedly recommended, he would not take office. Skilled in poetry, prose, calligraphy, and painting, he was refined and lofty in taste, and scholar-officials all admired him. He died at eighty; his disciples gave him the private posthumous title Quiet Culture.

子鑒，字汝明。嘉靖末年進士。累官吏部稽勛郎中。念父老，謝病歸，奉養不離側。父歿久之，進尚寶卿，改南京鴻臚卿，引年乞休。進太仆卿，致仕。鑒亦善畫，有言勝其父者，遂終身不復作。

His son Jian, styled Ruming. In the late Jiajing period he passed the jinshi examination. He rose through the offices to Director in the Ministry of Personnel's Bureau of Merit Records. Mindful that his father was elderly, he resigned on grounds of illness and returned home, never leaving his side. Long after his father's death he was promoted to Director of the Court of Imperial Seals, then transferred to Director of the Nanjing Court of State Ceremonial, and requested retirement on account of age. He was promoted to Minister of the Court of the Imperial Stud and retired. Jian was also skilled at painting; when someone said he surpassed his father, he never painted again for the rest of his life.

楊廉，字方震，豐城人。父崇，永州知府，受業吳與弼門人胡九韶。廉承家學，早以文行稱。舉成化末年進士，改庶吉士。弘治三年，授南京戶科給事中。明年，京師地震，劾用事大臣。五年以災異上六事。一，經筵停罷時，宜日令講官更直待問。二，召用言事遷謫官，不當限臺諫及登極以後。三，治兩浙、三吳水患，停額外織造。四，召林下恬退諸臣。五，刪法司條例。六，災異策免大臣。末言，遇大政，宜召大臣面議，給事、御史隨入駁正。帝頗納之。吏部尚書王恕被讒，廉請斥讒邪，無為所惑。母喪，服闋，起任刑科。請祀薛瑄，取《讀書錄》貯國學。明年三月有詔以下旬禦經筵。廉言：「故事，經筵一月三舉，茍以月終起以月初罷，則進講有幾？且經筵啟而後日講繼之，今遲一日之經筵，即輟一旬之日講也。」報聞。以父老欲便養，復改南京兵科。中貴李廣死，得廷臣通賄籍。言官劾賄者，帝欲究而中止。廉率同官力爭，竟不納。已，請申明祀典，謂宋儒周、程、張、朱從祀之位，宜居漢、唐諸儒上。闕里廟，當更立木主。大成本樂名，不合謚法。皆不果行。遷南京光祿少卿。正德初，就改太仆，歷順天府尹。時京軍數出，車費動數千金，廉請大興遞運所余銀供之。奏免夏稅萬五千石，慮州縣巧取民財，置歲辦簿，吏無能為奸。乾清宮災，極陳時政缺失，疏留中。明年擢南京禮部右侍郎。上疏諫南巡，不報。帝駐南京，命百官戎服朝見。廉不可，乞用常儀，更請謁見太廟，俱報許。世宗即位，就遷尚書。

Yang Lian, styled Fangzhen, was from Fengcheng. His father Chong served as prefect of Yongzhou and studied under Hu Jiushao, a disciple of Wu Yubi. Lian inherited the family learning and was early famed for literary accomplishment and conduct. He passed the jinshi examination in the late Chenghua period and was appointed Hanlin Bachelor. In the third year of the Hongzhi reign he was appointed Supervising Secretary in the Nanjing Bureau of Revenue. The next year, when an earthquake struck the capital, he impeached the powerful ministers then in charge. In the fifth year, on account of calamities and portents, he submitted six proposals. First, when the Classics Lecture was suspended, lecturing officials should take turns waiting daily to answer questions. Second, officials who had spoken out and been transferred or banished should be recalled without limiting this to censors and remonstrators or to those punished after the accession. Third, address the water disasters of the Two Zhe and Three Wu regions and halt extra quota weaving. Fourth, summon retired officials of the forests who had withdrawn in quiet contentment. Fifth, prune the legal precedents of the judiciary. Sixth, on account of calamities and portents, dismiss the chief ministers. At the end he said that on major policies the chief ministers should be summoned to discuss matters face to face, with supervising secretaries and censors entering afterward to rebut and correct. The emperor largely accepted his proposals. When Minister of Personnel Wang Shu was slandered, Lian asked that slanderers and the wicked be expelled and that the emperor not be misled. When his mother died he observed mourning; when mourning ended he resumed office in the Bureau of Punishments. He requested sacrifice to Xue Xuan and that Records of Reading be stored in the Directorate of Education. The next year, in the third month, an edict was issued that the Classics Lecture would be held in the last ten days of the month. Lian said, "By precedent the Classics Lecture is held three times a month; if it begins at month's end and ends at month's beginning, how many sessions of lecturing will there be? Moreover, once the Classics Lecture opens, daily lectures follow; to delay the Classics Lecture by one day is to suspend daily lectures for ten days." The report was noted. Because his father was elderly and he wished to support him conveniently, he was again transferred to the Nanjing Bureau of Military Appointments. When the eunuch Li Guang died, a register was found listing court officials who had communicated bribes to him. The remonstrating officials impeached the bribe-givers, but the emperor wished to investigate and then stopped. Lian led his colleagues in forceful protest, but in the end the emperor would not act. Later he requested clarification of the sacrificial canon, saying that the enshrinement positions of the Song scholars Zhou, Cheng, Zhang, and Zhu should rank above those of the Han and Tang scholars. At the temple in Qufu, new wooden spirit tablets should be installed. Employing dacheng as a music name did not accord with the norms governing posthumous titles. None of these proposals were ultimately implemented. He was transferred to Vice Minister of the Nanjing Court of Imperial Entertainments. Early in the Zhengde reign, he was reassigned to the Court of the Imperial Stud and served successively as Prefect of Shuntian. At that time the capital troops made frequent sorties, and cart expenses often ran to several thousand taels; Lian asked that surplus silver from the Daxing relay-transport offices be used to pay for them. He memorialized for an exemption of fifteen thousand shi of summer tax, fearing that local officials would craftily wring money from the people; he set up annual-provision registers so that clerks could not cheat. When the Palace of Heavenly Purity burned, he set forth at length the failings of current policy; his memorial was kept at court. The next year he was promoted to Right Vice Minister of the Nanjing Ministry of Rites. He submitted a memorial urging the emperor not to undertake a southern tour, but received no response. The emperor was lodged at Nanjing and ordered officials to attend court in military dress. Lian objected and asked that the usual ceremonies be used; he also requested an audience at the Imperial Ancestral Temple—both were granted. When Emperor Shizong ascended the throne, he was promptly promoted to Minister.

廉與羅欽順善，為居敬窮理之學，文必根《六經》，自禮樂、錢谷至星歷、算數，具識其本末。學者稱月湖先生。嘗以帝王之道莫切於《大學》，自為給事即上言，進講宜先《大學衍義》，至是首進《大學衍義節略》。帝優詔答之。疏論大禮，引程頤、朱熹言為證，且言：「今異議者率祖歐陽修。然修於考之一字，雖欲加之於濮王，未忍絕之於仁宗。今乃欲絕之於孝廟，此又修所不忍言者。」報聞。八疏乞休，至嘉靖二年，賜敕、馳驛，給夫廩如制。家居二年卒，年七十四。贈太子少保，謚文恪。

Lian was close to Luo Qinshun and devoted himself to the study of preserving reverence and investigating principle; his writings always grounded themselves in the Six Classics, and from ritual and music and fiscal affairs through astronomy, calendrics, and calculation, he grasped each subject's origins and ends. Scholars called him Master Yuehu. He held that nothing was more essential to the way of emperors and kings than the Great Learning; ever since he had served as a supervising secretary he had urged that imperial lectures begin with Extension of the Meaning of the Great Learning, and now he was first to present an abridgement of that work. The emperor answered with a gracious edict. In a memorial on the Great Rites Controversy, he cited the words of Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi as evidence and said, "Those who dissent today generally follow the precedent of Ouyang Xiu. Yet in Xiu's use of the character for honoring, though he wished to apply it to Prince Pu, he could not bear to sever it from Emperor Renzong. Now they wish to sever it from the Xiaomiao; this is what Xiu himself could not bring himself to say." The report was noted. He submitted eight memorials asking to retire; in the second year of Jiajing he was granted an imperial letter, relay horses, and bearers and provisions according to regulation. After two years at home he died at the age of seventy-four. He was posthumously made Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent and given the posthumous title Wenke.

劉觀，字崇觀，吉水人。正統四年成進士。方年少，忽引疾告歸。尋丁內艱，服除，終不出。杜門讀書，求聖賢之學。四方來問道者，坐席嘗不給。縣令劉成為築書院於虎丘山，名曰「養中」。平居，飯脫粟，服浣衣，翛然自得。每日端坐一室，無懈容。或勸之仕，不應。又作《勤》、《儉》、《恭》、《恕》四《箴》，以教其家，取《呂氏鄉約》表著之，以教其鄉。冠婚喪祭，悉如《朱子家禮》。族有孤嫠不能自存者周之。或請著述，曰：「朱子及吳文正之言，尊信之足矣。復何言。」吳與弼，其鄰郡人也，極推重之。

Liu Guan, styled Chongguan, was a native of Jishui. In the fourth year of the Zhengtong reign he passed the metropolitan examination. Though still young, he suddenly pleaded illness and asked to retire home. Soon afterward he entered mourning for his mother; when mourning ended, he never took office again. He shut his doors to study and sought the learning of the sages. Seekers from all quarters who came to inquire about the Way often overflowed the seats available. Magistrate Liu Cheng built an academy for him on Tiger Hill, naming it "Nourishing the Center." In daily life he ate unpolished grain and wore washed clothes, serene and content. Each day he sat upright in one room, never lapsing in demeanor. When some urged him to serve in office, he would not agree. He also wrote four admonitions—On Diligence, Frugality, Respect, and Forbearance—to instruct his household, and took Lü's Village Compact and displayed it publicly to instruct his village. Capping, marriage, mourning, and sacrifice all followed Master Zhu's Family Rituals. Within the clan he supported orphaned widows who could not fend for themselves. When asked to write books, he said, "The words of Master Zhu and Wu Wenzheng need only be honored and believed—that is enough. What more need be said?" Wu Yubi of a neighboring prefecture greatly esteemed him.

觀前有孫鼎，廬陵人。永樂中為松江府教授，以孝弟立教。後督學南畿，人稱為貞孝先生。又有李中，吉水人，官副都御史，號谷平先生，在觀後。是為吉水三先生。

Before Guan came Sun Ding of Luling. During the Yongle reign he served as prefectural instructor at Songjiang, grounding his teaching in filial piety and brotherly duty. Later he supervised education in the southern capital region; people called him Master Zhenxiao. There was also Li Zhong of Jishui, who rose to Vice Censor-in-Chief and was called Master Guping; he followed Guan in time. These were known as the Three Masters of Jishui.

馬理，字伯循，三原人。同里尚書王恕家居，講學著書。理從之遊，得其指授。楊一清督學政，見理與呂柟、康海文，大奇之，曰：「康生之文章，馬生、呂生之經學，皆天下士也。」登鄉薦，入國學，與柟及林慮馬鄉，榆次寇天敘，安陽崔銑、張士隆，同縣秦偉，日切劘於學，名震都下。高麗使者慕之，錄其文以去。連遭艱，不預試。安南使者至，問主事黃清曰：「關中馬理先生安在，何不仕也？」其為外裔所重如此。

Ma Li, styled Boxun, was a native of Sanyuan. In his home district, Minister Wang Shu lived in retirement, lecturing and writing books. Ma Li studied under him and received his personal instruction. When Yang Yiqing supervised academic affairs, he saw the writings of Ma Li, Lü Nan, and Kang Hai and was greatly struck, saying, "Student Kang's literary compositions and Students Ma's and Lü's classical learning are all scholars of the realm. Having passed the provincial examination, he entered the Directorate of Education; together with Nan, Ma Xiang of Linlü, Kou Tianxu of Yuci, Cui Shuai and Zhang Shilong of Anyang, and Qin Wei of his county, he pressed hard at his studies each day until their reputation shook the capital. Korean envoys admired them and copied their writings to carry home. After successive bereavements he did not sit for the examinations. When an Annam envoy arrived, he asked the director Huang Qing, "Where is Master Ma Li of Guanzhong, and why does he not serve in office? Such was the esteem in which he was held abroad.

正德九年舉進士。一清為吏部尚書，即擢理稽勛主事。調文選，請告歸。起考功主事，偕郎中張衍瑞等諫南巡。詔跪闕門，予杖奪俸。未幾，復告歸。教授生徒，從遊者眾。嘉靖初，起稽勛員外郎，與郎中余寬等伏闕爭大禮。下詔獄，再予杖奪俸。屢遷考功郎中。故戶部郎中莊繹者，正德時首導劉瑾核天下庫藏。瑾敗，落職。至是奏辨求復，當路者屬理，理力持不可，寢其事。五年大計外吏，大學士賈詠、吏部尚書廖幻以私憾欲去廣東副使魏校、河南副使蕭鳴鳳、陜西副使唐龍。理力爭曰：「三人督學政，名著天下，必欲去三人，請先去理。」乃止。明年大計京官，黜張總、桂萼黨吏部郎中彭澤，總、萼竟取旨留之。理擢南京通政參議，請急去。居三年，起光祿卿，未幾告歸。閱十年，復起南京光祿卿，尋引年致仕。三十四年，陜西地震，理與妻皆死。

In the ninth year of the Zhengde reign he passed the metropolitan examination. When Yang Yiqing became Minister of Personnel, he promptly promoted Ma Li to Director in the Bureau of Merit Records. He was transferred to the Bureau of Appointments and asked to retire home. Recalled as Director in the Bureau of Evaluations, he joined Secretary Zhang Yanrui and others in remonstrating against the southern tour. An edict ordered them to kneel at the palace gate; they were beaten with staves and deprived of salary. Before long he again asked to retire home. He taught disciples, and many followed him. Early in the Jiajing reign he was recalled as Vice Director in the Bureau of Merit Records and, with Secretary Yu Kuan and others, prostrated himself at the palace gate to contest the Great Rites Controversy. He was imprisoned by imperial edict, beaten with staves again, and stripped of salary. He rose repeatedly to Secretary in the Bureau of Evaluations. Former Secretary of Revenue Zhuang Yi had, during the Zhengde reign, been the first to lead Liu Jin in auditing treasuries nationwide. When Jin fell, Zhuang was dismissed. Now he memorialized arguing for his reinstatement; those in power left the decision to Ma Li, who firmly opposed it, and the matter was dropped. In the fifth year, at the grand assessment of regional officials, Grand Secretary Jia Yong and Minister of Personnel Liao Huan sought, out of private resentment, to remove Wei Jiao, Education Vice Commissioner in Guangdong; Xiao Mingfeng, Vice Commissioner in Henan; and Tang Long, Vice Commissioner in Shaanxi. Ma Li argued forcefully, saying, "These three men supervised educational policy and are famed throughout the realm; if you must remove these three, remove me first." The plan was abandoned. The next year, at the grand assessment of capital officials, Peng Ze, Secretary in the Ministry of Personnel and an ally of Zhang Cong and Gui E, was marked for dismissal; yet Cong and E still secured an edict to keep him. Ma Li was promoted to Vice Commissioner in the Nanjing Office of Transmission and urgently asked to leave. After three years at home he was recalled as Director of the Court of Imperial Entertainments; before long he again asked to retire. Ten years later he was again made Director of the Nanjing Court of Imperial Entertainments and soon retired on account of age. In the thirty-fourth year, an earthquake in Shaanxi killed both Ma Li and his wife.

理學行純篤，居喪取古禮及司馬光《書儀》、朱熹《家禮》折衷用之，與呂柟並為關中學者所宗。穆宗立，贈右副都御史。天啟初，追謚忠憲。

Ma Li's learning and conduct were pure and earnest; in mourning he drew eclectically on ancient ritual and on Sima Guang's Book of Ritual Etiquette and Zhu Xi's Family Rituals, and together with Lü Nan he was revered by scholars of Guanzhong. When Emperor Muzong ascended the throne, he was posthumously made Right Vice Censor-in-Chief. Early in the Tianqi reign he was posthumously given the title Zhongxian.

魏校，字子才，昆山人。其先本李姓，居蘇州葑門之莊渠，因自號「莊渠」。弘治十八年成進士。歷南京刑部郎中。守備太監劉郎藉劉瑾勢張甚，或自判狀送法司，莫敢抗者。校直行己意，無所徇。改兵部郎中，移疾歸。嘉靖初，起為廣東提學副使。丁憂，服闋，補江西兵備副使。累遷國子祭酒，太常卿，尋致仕。

Wei Jiao, styled Zicai, was a native of Kunshan. His ancestors had originally borne the surname Li and lived at Zhuangqu, outside Feng Gate in Suzhou; he therefore styled himself Zhuangqu. In the eighteenth year of the Hongzhi reign he passed the metropolitan examination. He served as Secretary in the Nanjing Ministry of Punishments. The eunuch defender Liu Lang leaned on Liu Jin's power and grew dangerously arrogant; sometimes he personally adjudicated cases and sent them to the judicial offices, and no one dared resist. Wei Jiao acted on his own convictions and deferred to no one. Transferred to Secretary in the Ministry of War, he resigned citing illness. Early in the Jiajing reign he was recalled as Education Vice Commissioner in Guangdong. After observing mourning for a parent, he was appointed Military Vice Commissioner in Jiangxi. He rose successively to Chancellor of the Directorate of Education and Director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, then soon retired.

校私淑胡居仁主敬之學，而貫通諸儒之說，擇執尤精。嘗與余祐論性，略曰：「天地者，陰陽五行之本體也，故理無不具。人物之性，皆出於天地，然而人得其全，物得其偏。」又曰：「古聖賢論性有二：其一，性與情對言，此是性之本義，直指此理而言。其一，性與習對言，但取生字為義，非性之所以得名，蓋曰天所生為性，人所為曰習耳。先儒因『性相近』一語，遂謂性兼氣質而言，不知人性上下不可添一物，才著氣質，便不得謂之性矣。荀子論性惡，楊子論性善惡混，韓子論性有三品，眾言淆亂，必折之聖。若謂夫子『性相近』一言，正論性之所以得名，則前後說皆不謬於聖人，而孟子道性善，反為一偏之論矣。孟子見之分明，故言之直捷，但未言性為何物，故荀、楊、韓諸儒得以其說亂之。伊川一言以斷之，曰『性，即理也』，則諸說皆不攻自破矣。」所著有《大學指歸》、《六書精蘊》。卒，謚恭簡。唐順之、王應電、王敬臣，皆其弟子也。順之，自有傳。

Wei Jiao privately revered Hu Juren's teaching on preserving reverence, mastered the doctrines of the various Confucians, and chose his convictions with exceptional precision. Once, discussing human nature with Yu You, he said in summary, "Heaven and earth are the substance of yin-yang and the five phases; therefore principle is fully present in all things. The natures of human beings and things all issue from heaven and earth; yet humans receive it whole while things receive it in part. He also said, "The ancient sages discussed human nature in two senses: in one, nature is spoken of in contrast to emotion—this is nature in its proper meaning, pointing directly to this principle. In the other, nature is spoken of in contrast to habit, taking only the sense of birth—this is not why the term nature got its name; it means what heaven produces is called nature, and what humans do is called habit. Earlier Confucians, because of the phrase 'natures are close,' said that nature includes temperament as well; they did not know that in human nature nothing may be added above or below—for once temperament is attached, it can no longer be called nature. Xunzi discussed nature as evil, Yangzi as a mixture of good and evil, Han Yu as having three grades—when many sayings muddle the issue, one must settle it by the sage. If one holds that the Master's phrase 'natures are close' is precisely why the term nature got its name, then all earlier and later doctrines are not in error against the sage, while Mencius's doctrine of the goodness of nature becomes a one-sided doctrine. Mencius saw it clearly and therefore spoke directly and swiftly, but he did not say what nature is; thus the various Confucians Xun, Yang, and Han were able to confuse the issue with their doctrines. "Master Yichuan settled it in a single phrase, saying 'Nature is precisely principle'—then all doctrines collapsed without needing to be refuted. His writings included Guidelines to the Great Learning and Essentials of the Six Scripts. When he died he was given the posthumous title Gongjian. Tang Shunzhi, Wang Yingdian, and Wang Jingchen were all his disciples. Shunzhi has his own biography elsewhere.

王應電，字昭明，昆山人。受業於校，篤好《周禮》，謂《周禮》自宋以後，胡宏、季本各著書，指摘其瑕釁至數十萬言。而余壽翁、吳澄則以為《冬官》未嘗亡，雜見於五官中，而更次之。近世何喬新、陳鳳梧、舒芬亦各以己意更定。然此皆諸儒之《周禮》也。覃研十數載，先求聖人之心，溯斯禮之源；次考天象之文，原設官之意，推五官離合之故，見綱維統體之極。因顯以探微，因細而繹大，成《周禮傳詁》數十卷。以為百世繼周而治，必出於此。嘉靖中，家毀於兵燹，流寓江西泰和。以其書就正羅洪先，洪先大服。翰林陳昌積以師禮事之。胡松撫江西，刊行於世。

Wang Yingdian, styled Zhaoming, was a native of Kunshan. He studied under Wei Jiao and devoted himself to the Rites of Zhou. He observed that since the Song, Hu Hong and Ji Ben had each written works picking apart its flaws in hundreds of thousands of words. Yu Shouweng and Wu Cheng, however, held that the Offices of Winter had never been lost but appeared scattered among the five offices and needed only to be reordered. In recent times He Qiaoxin, Chen Fengwu, and Shu Fen had likewise each reworked it according to their own views. Yet all of these were the Rites of Zhou as reconstructed by individual scholars. After more than ten years of intensive study, he first sought the mind of the sage and traced this ritual system to its source; next he examined the texts on celestial signs, recovered the intent behind the establishment of offices, worked out why the five offices had been separated and reunited, and grasped the ultimate governing structure of the whole system. Proceeding from the manifest to probe the subtle and from the minute to unfold the great, he completed his Commentary and Glosses on the Rites of Zhou in several tens of juan. He believed that any state seeking to carry on Zhou's governance for generations must take this as its foundation. During the Jiajing reign his home was destroyed in the flames of war, and he took refuge in Taihe, Jiangxi. He brought his book to Luo Hongxian for review, and Hongxian was deeply impressed. Hanlin Academician Chen Changji treated him with the respect due a master. When Hu Song served as grand coordinator of Jiangxi, he had the work published.

應電又研精字學，據《說文》所載為訛謬甚者，為之訂正，名曰《經傳正訛》。又著《同文備考》、《書法指要》、《六義音切貫珠圖》、《六義相關圖》。卒於泰和。昌積為經紀其喪，歸之昆山。

Yingdian also pursued the study of characters with great rigor; where the Shuowen contained serious errors, he corrected them in a work titled Corrections of Errors in the Classics and Commentaries. He also wrote Supplementary Studies of Unified Script, Essentials of Calligraphy, Diagram of the Six Categories Linked by Sound and Cut, and Diagram of the Interrelations of the Six Categories. He died at Taihe. Changji arranged his funeral and had his remains returned to Kunshan.

時有李如玉者，同安儒生，亦精於《周禮》，為《會要》十五卷。嘉靖八年詣闕上之，得旨嘉獎，賜冠帶。

At the time there was Li Ruyu, a Confucian scholar of Tong'an, who was also expert in the Rites of Zhou and compiled fifteen juan of Essentials. In the eighth year of Jiajing he went to court and presented it; he received an edict of commendation and was granted the cap and girdle of office.

王敬臣，字以道，長洲人，江西參議庭子也。十九為諸生，受業於校。性至孝，父疽發背，親自吮舐。老得瞀眩疾，則臥於榻下，夜不解衣，微聞謦咳聲，即躍起問安。事繼母如事父，妻失母歡，不入室者十三載。初，受校默成之旨，嘗言議論不如著述，著述不如躬行，故居常杜口不談。自見耿定向，語以聖賢無獨成之學，由是多所誘掖，弟子從遊者至四百余人。其學，以慎獨為先，而指親長之際、衽席之間為慎獨之本，尤以標立門戶為戒。鄉人尊為少湖先生。萬歷中，以廷臣薦，征授國子博士，辭不行。詔以所授官致仕。二十一年，巡按御史甘士價復薦。吏部以敬臣年高，請有司時加優禮，詔可。年八十五而終。

Wang Jingchen, styled Yidao, was a native of Changzhou and the son of Ting, Assistant Commissioner of Jiangxi. At nineteen he became a student and studied under Wei Jiao. By nature he was deeply filial; when his father developed a carbuncle on his back, he personally sucked and licked the wound. When his father grew old and suffered from dizziness, he slept on the floor beside the couch, never undressing at night; at the slightest cough he would leap up to ask after him. He served his stepmother as he served his father; his wife lost the stepmother's favor and did not enter their bedchamber for thirteen years. At first, having received Wei Jiao's teaching of silent completion, he once said that discussion was inferior to writing, and writing inferior to putting principles into practice; therefore in daily life he kept silent and would not engage in debate. After meeting Geng Dingxiang, who told him that the sages had no doctrine of solitary completion, he thereafter offered much guidance, and more than four hundred disciples came to study with him. His teaching placed watchfulness in solitude first, and took one's conduct toward elders and in the privacy of the bedchamber as the foundation of such watchfulness; above all he warned against founding a separate school. People of his district honored him as Master Shaohu. During the Wanli reign, on the recommendation of court officials, he was summoned and appointed Doctor of the Directorate of Education, but he declined to serve. An edict granted him retirement with the rank he had been offered. In the twenty-first year touring censor Gan Shijia recommended him again. The Ministry of Personnel, citing Jingchen's advanced age, requested that local officials periodically extend him special honors; the edict approved. He died at the age of eighty-five.

周瑛，字梁石，莆田人。成化五年進士。知廣德州，以善政聞，賜敕旌異。遷南京禮部郎中，出為撫州知府，調知鎮遠。秩滿，省親歸。弘治初，吏部尚書王恕起瑛四川參政，久之，進右布政使，鹹有善績，尤勵清節。給事、御史交章薦，大臣亦多知瑛，而瑛以母喪歸。服除，遂引年乞致仁。孝宗嘉之，詔進一階。正德中卒，年八十七。瑛始與陳獻章友，獻章之學主於靜。瑛不然之，謂學當以居敬為主，敬則心存，然後可以窮理。自《六經》之奧，以及天地萬物之廣，皆不可不窮。積累既多，則能通貫，而於道之一本，亦自得之矣，所謂求諸萬殊而後一本可得也。學者稱翠渠先生。子大謨，登進士，未仕卒。

Zhou Ying, styled Liangshi, was a native of Putian. He passed the jinshi examination in the fifth year of Chenghua. As magistrate of Guangde Prefecture he was known for good governance and received an edict of special commendation. He was promoted to Director in the Nanjing Ministry of Rites, then served as Prefect of Fuzhou and was later reassigned as magistrate of Zhenyuan. When his term expired he returned home to visit his parents. At the beginning of Hongzhi, Minister of Personnel Wang Shu appointed Ying Assistant Administrator of Sichuan; after some time he was promoted to Right Provincial Administration Commissioner, and all acknowledged his fine record, especially his strict maintenance of incorrupt integrity. Supervising secretaries and censors submitted successive memorials recommending him, and many senior officials also knew Ying well, but he returned home to mourn his mother. When mourning ended, he cited his age and requested retirement. Emperor Xiaozong commended him and ordered his rank advanced one step. He died during the Zhengde reign at the age of eighty-seven. Ying was at first a friend of Chen Xianzhang, whose teaching emphasized stillness. Ying did not agree, saying that learning should take preserving reverence as its mainstay; with reverence the mind is preserved, and only then can principle be fully investigated. From the profundities of the Six Classics to the vastness of heaven, earth, and the myriad things, nothing may be left uninvestigated. Once one's learning has accumulated sufficiently, one can achieve comprehensive mastery, and the single root of the Way may also be grasped for oneself—what is called seeking among the myriad particulars before the single root can be obtained. Scholars called him Master Cuiqu. His son Damo passed the jinshi examination but died before taking office.

潘府，字孔修，上虞人。成化末進士。值憲宗崩，孝宗踐阼甫二十日，禮官請衰服禦西角門視事，明日釋衰易素，翼善冠、麻衣腰绖。帝不許，命俟二十七日後行之。至百日，帝以大行未葬，麻衣衰绖如故。府因上疏請行三年喪，略言：「子為父，臣為君，皆斬衰三年，仁之至，義之盡也。漢文帝遺詔短喪，止欲便天下臣民，景帝遂自行之，使千古綱常一墜不振。晉武帝欲行而不能，魏孝文行之而不盡，宋孝宗銳誌復古，易月之外，猶執通喪，然不能推之於下，未足為聖王達孝也。先帝奄棄四海，臣庶銜哀，陛下惻恒由衷，麻衣視朝，百日未改。望排群議，斷自聖心，執喪三年一如三代舊制。詔禮官參考載籍，使喪不廢禮，朝不廢政，勒為彜典，傳之子孫，豈不偉哉。」疏入，衰绖待罪。詔輔臣會禮官詳議，並持成制，寢不行。

Pan Fu, styled Kongxiu, was a native of Shangyu. He passed the jinshi examination at the end of the Chenghua reign. When Emperor Xianzong died, Emperor Xiaozong had been on the throne only twenty days; the ritual officials requested that he conduct affairs at the West Corner Gate in unhemmed mourning dress, and the next day set aside mourning and change to plain dress, the Yishan crown, hemp garments, and a waist mourning band. The emperor did not permit this and ordered that it be carried out only after the twenty-seventh day. At the hundredth day the emperor, because the late emperor had not yet been buried, still wore hemp garments and mourning bands as before. Fu therefore submitted a memorial requesting three-year mourning, stating in summary, "A son for a father, a minister for a ruler—both observe the severest three-year mourning; this is the utmost of benevolence and the fullness of righteousness. Emperor Wen of Han in his death edict shortened mourning, intending only to ease matters for officials and people throughout the realm; Emperor Jing then carried it out himself, causing the eternal norms of human relations to collapse and never recover. Emperor Wu of Jin wished to carry it out but could not; Emperor Xiaowen of Wei carried it out but not fully; Emperor Xiaozong of Song was keen to restore antiquity and, beyond changing the month of mourning, still observed extended mourning, yet could not extend it to the people below—insufficient to count as the penetrating filial piety of a sage king. The late emperor suddenly departed the realm; officials and commoners bore grief in their hearts; Your Majesty's compassion arose from the depths of your being, attending court in hemp garments for a hundred days without change. I hope Your Majesty will set aside the crowd of opinions, decide from your sacred heart, and observe three years of mourning just as in the old institutions of the Three Dynasties. Order the ritual officials to consult the records so that mourning does not abandon ritual and court does not abandon governance; establish this as a permanent statute to be transmitted to your descendants—would this not be magnificent? When the memorial was submitted, he wore mourning garments and awaited punishment. An edict ordered assisting ministers to meet with ritual officials for detailed deliberation; they all upheld the established regulations, and the proposal was shelved and not carried out.

謁選，得長樂知縣，教民行《朱子家禮》。躬行郊野，勞問疾苦，田夫野老鹹謂府親己，就求筆劄，府輒欣然與之。遷南京兵部主事，陳軍民利病七事。父喪除，補刑部。值旱蝗、星變，北寇深入，孔廟災，疏請內修外攘，以謹天戒。又上救時十要。以便養乞南，改南京兵部，遷武選員外郎。尚書馬文升知其賢，超拜廣東提學副使。雲南晝晦七日，楚婦人須長三寸，上弭災三術。以母老乞休，不待命輒歸。已而吏部尚書楊一清及巡按御史吳華屢薦其學行，終不起。嘉靖改元，言官交薦，起太仆少卿，改太常，致仕。既歸，屏居南山，布衣蔬食，惟以發明經傳為事。時王守仁講學其鄉，相去不百里，頗有異同。嘗曰：「居官之本有三：薄奉養，廉之本也；遠聲色，勤之本也；去讒私，明之本也。」又曰：「薦賢當惟恐後，論功當惟恐先。」年七十三卒。故事，四品止予祭。世宗重府孝行，特詔予葬。

At the appointment selection he was assigned magistrate of Changle and taught the people to practice Master Zhu's Family Rituals. He personally traveled the countryside, inquiring after hardships and afflictions; farmers and old men in the fields all said Fu treated them like family, and when they came asking for brief writings he always gladly gave them. He was transferred to Secretary in the Nanjing Ministry of War and set forth seven matters of benefit and harm to soldiers and civilians. When mourning for his father ended, he was assigned to the Ministry of Justice. When drought, locusts, and celestial anomalies occurred, northern invaders penetrated deeply, and the Confucian temple suffered disaster, he memorialized requesting internal cultivation and external resistance to heed heaven's warnings. He also submitted Ten Essentials for Saving the Age. Citing the need to care for his parents, he requested a southern post, was reassigned to the Nanjing Ministry of War, and was promoted to Vice Director in the Bureau of Military Appointments. Minister Ma Wensheng recognized his worth and specially appointed him Vice Education Intendant of Guangdong. When Yunnan was dark at midday for seven days and a woman in Chu grew a beard three inches long, he submitted three methods for allaying calamities. Citing his mother's old age, he requested leave and returned home without awaiting orders. Thereafter Minister of Personnel Yang Yiqing and touring censor Wu Hua repeatedly recommended his learning and conduct, but he never accepted office again. When the Jiajing reign began, censorial officials submitted successive recommendations; he was recalled as Vice Minister of the Court of the Imperial Stud, transferred to the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, and then retired. After returning home he lived in seclusion on South Mountain, wearing plain clothes and eating simple food, devoting himself solely to elucidating the classics and commentaries. At the time Wang Shouren lectured in the same region, less than a hundred li away, and they differed considerably in their views. He once said, "There are three foundations of holding office: meager provision for oneself is the foundation of integrity; keeping distant from sounds and colors is the foundation of diligence; removing slander and private interest is the foundation of clarity. He also said, "In recommending the worthy one should fear only coming too late; in assessing merit one should fear only coming too soon. He died at the age of seventy-three. By precedent, officials of the fourth rank received only sacrificial offerings at their death. Emperor Shizong valued Fu's filial conduct and specially ordered that he be granted burial honors.

崔銑，字子鐘，安陽人。父升，官參政。銑舉弘治十八年進士，選庶吉士，授編修。預修《孝宗實錄》，與同官見太監劉瑾，獨長揖不拜，由是忤瑾。書成，出為南京吏部主事。瑾敗，召復故官，充經筵講官，進侍讀。引疾歸，作後渠書屋，讀書講學其中。世宗即位，擢南京國子監祭酒。嘉靖三年集議大禮，久不決。大學士蔣冕、尚書汪俊俱以執議去位，其他擯斥杖戍者相望，而張總、桂萼等驟貴顯用事。銑上疏求去，且劾總、萼等曰：「臣究觀議者，其文則歐陽修之唾余，其情則承望意響，求勝無已。悍者危法以激怒，柔者甘言以動聽。非有元功碩德，而遽以官賞之，得毋使僥幸之徒踵接至與？臣聞天子得四海歡心以事其親，未聞僅得一二人之心者也。賞之，適自章其私昵而已。夫守道為忠，忠則逆旨；希旨為邪，邪則畔道。今忠者日疏，而邪者日富。一邪亂邦，況可使富哉！」帝覽之不悅，令銑致仕。閱十五年，用薦起少詹事兼侍讀學士，擢南京禮部右侍郎。未幾疾作，復致仕。卒，贈禮部尚書，謚文敏。

Cui Shu, styled Zizhong, was a native of Anyang. His father Sheng served as Assistant Administrator. Shu passed the jinshi examination in the eighteenth year of Hongzhi, was selected as a Hanlin bachelor, and was appointed Compiler. While participating in compiling the Veritable Records of Emperor Xiaozong, he and his colleagues met the eunuch Liu Jin; he alone made a deep bow without kneeling, thereby offending Jin. When the work was completed he was sent out as Secretary in the Nanjing Ministry of Personnel. When Jin fell, he was recalled to his former post, served as lecturer at the Classics Colloquium, and was promoted to Reader-in-Waiting. He cited illness and returned home, built the Houqu Studio, and read and lectured there. When Emperor Shizong took the throne, he was promoted to Chancellor of the Nanjing Directorate of Education. In the third year of Jiajing the court assembled to deliberate the Great Rites, and for a long time no decision was reached. Grand Secretaries Jiang Mian and Minister Wang Jun both left office for holding to their views; others were successively expelled, beaten, and banished to frontier service, while Zhang Cong, Gui E, and the like suddenly rose to wealth and power and held sway. Shu submitted a memorial requesting dismissal and also impeached Cong, E, and the rest, saying, "Your subject has thoroughly observed the debaters: their writings are the leftover spittle of Ouyang Xiu, and their sentiments are those of echoing anticipated wishes, seeking victory without end. The fierce endanger the law to provoke anger; the soft use sweet words to sway the listener. Lacking eminent merit and great virtue, yet suddenly rewarding them with office—will this not cause a succession of opportunists to arrive? Your subject has heard that the Son of Heaven wins the hearts of all within the four seas to serve his parents; he has never heard of winning only the hearts of one or two men. To reward them is merely to display their private favoritism. To hold to the Way is loyalty; loyalty then means opposing the imperial will; To court the emperor's wishes is to turn perverse, and perversity means abandoning the Way. Today the loyal are pushed further aside each day, while the sycophants grow richer in favor by the day. A single sycophant can throw the state into disorder—how much less should such men be allowed to prosper! The emperor read the memorial with displeasure and ordered Shu to retire from office. Fifteen years later, on recommendation he was recalled as Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent and Concurrent Reader-in-Waiting, then promoted to Right Vice Minister of Rites in Nanjing. Before long he fell ill and retired once more. After his death he was posthumously granted the title Minister of Rites and given the posthumous name Wenmin.

銑少輕俊，好飲酒，盡數鬥不亂。中歲自厲於學，言動皆有則。嘗曰：「學在治心，功在慎動。」又曰：「孟子所謂良知良能者，心之用也。愛親敬長，性之本也。若去良能，而獨挈良知，是霸儒也。」又嘗作《政議》十篇，其《序》曰：「三代而上，並田封建，其民固，故道易行，三代而下，阡陌郡縣，其民散，故道難成。況沿而下趨至今日乎。然人心弗異，系乎主之者而已。」凡篇中所論說，悉仿此意。世多有其書，故不載。

In youth Shu was quick-witted and spirited, fond of wine, and could drink several dou without losing his composure. In midlife he applied himself rigorously to learning, and his words and conduct all followed strict principle. He once said, "Learning lies in governing the mind; its fruit lies in being cautious in every action. He also said, "What Mencius called innate knowledge and innate ability are the mind's own powers. Loving one's parents and respecting one's elders are the root of human nature. If one sets aside innate ability and seizes on innate knowledge alone, that is the overbearing Confucian. He also wrote ten essays titled Political Discourses, whose preface says, "Before the Three Dynasties, with the well-field system and enfeoffment, the people were settled and the Way was easy to put into practice; after the Three Dynasties, with divided fields and commandery-county rule, the people were scattered and the Way became hard to realize. How much more so as one follows that downward course to the present day! Yet human hearts have not changed; everything depends on whoever leads them. Every argument in the essays follows this same line of thought. His works were widely circulated, so they are not reproduced here.

何瑭，字粹夫，武陟人。年七歲，見家有佛像，抗言請去之。十九讀許衡、薛瑄遺書，輒欣然忘寢食。弘治十五年成進士，選庶吉士。閣試《克己復禮為仁論》，有曰：「仁者，人也。禮則人之元氣而已，則見侵於風寒暑濕者也。人能無為邪氣所勝，則元所復，元年復而其人成矣。」宿學鹹推服焉。劉瑾竊政，一日贈翰林川扇，有入而拜見者。瑭時官修撰，獨長揖。瑾怒，不以贈。受贈者復拜謝，瑭正色曰：「何仆仆也！」瑾大怒，詰其姓名。瑭直應曰：「修撰何瑭。」知必不為瑾所容，乃累疏致仕。後瑾誅，復官。以經筵觸忌諱，謫開州同知。修黃陵岡堤成，擢東昌府同知，乞歸。嘉靖初，起山西提學副使，以父憂不赴。服闋，起提學浙江。敦本尚實，士氣丕變。未幾，晉南京太常少卿。與湛若水等修明古太學之法，學者翕然宗之。歷工、戶、禮三部侍郎，晉南京右都御史，未幾致仕。

He Tang, styled Cuifu, was a native of Wuzhi. At the age of seven, seeing a Buddhist image in the house, he spoke up and demanded that it be removed. At nineteen, reading the posthumous writings of Xu Heng and Xue Xuan, he would lose himself in them and forget to eat or sleep. In the fifteenth year of Hongzhi he passed the jinshi examination and was selected as a Hanlin bachelor. In the palace examination essay "On Restraining the Self and Returning to Ritual as Benevolence," he wrote, "Benevolence is what makes us human. Ritual is simply the original vital energy of a person; when that energy is invaded by wind, cold, heat, and damp, the person is affected. If a person can keep from being overcome by perverse influences, the original energy is restored; once that primal energy returns, the person is truly formed. Senior scholars all admired and deferred to him. When Liu Jin usurped power, one day he sent Sichuan fans as gifts to the Hanlin Academy, and some academicians entered to bow and pay their respects. Tang was then serving as Compiler and alone bowed deeply without kneeling. Jin was angered and refused to give him a fan. Those who had received gifts bowed again in thanks; Tang said sternly, "Why such abject bowing! Jin flew into a rage and demanded his name. Tang answered without hesitation, "Compiler He Tang. Knowing Jin would never tolerate him, he submitted successive memorials requesting retirement. Once Jin was executed, he was restored to office. Because he touched taboo subjects at the Classics Colloquium, he was demoted to Assistant Prefect of Kaizhou. After completing the Huanglinggang embankment, he was promoted to Assistant Prefect of Dongchang Prefecture and requested to return home. At the beginning of Jiajing he was recalled as Vice Education Intendant of Shanxi but declined to go because he was mourning his father. After mourning ended, he was appointed Education Intendant of Zhejiang. He honored fundamentals and valued practical learning, and scholarly morale was transformed throughout the province. Soon afterward he was promoted to Vice Minister of the Nanjing Court of Imperial Sacrifices. Together with Zhan Ruoshui and others he restored the ancient methods of the Imperial Academy, and scholars rallied to him as their leader. He served as Vice Minister in the Ministries of Works, Revenue, and Rites, was promoted to Right Censor-in-Chief in Nanjing, and retired before long.

是時，王守仁以道學名於時，瑭獨默如。嘗言陸九淵、楊簡之學，流入禪宗，充塞仁義。後學未得遊、夏十一，而議論即過顏、曾，此吾道大害也。裏居十余年，教子姓以孝弟忠信，一介必嚴。兩執親喪，皆哀毀。後謚文定。所著《陰陽律呂》、《儒學管見》、《柏齋集》十二卷，皆行於世。

At that time Wang Shouren was famed for his doctrine of the Way, but Tang alone kept silent. He once said that the teaching of Lu Jiuyuan and Yang Jian had drifted into Chan Buddhism and crowded out benevolence and righteousness. Later students had not attained even a tenth of the achievement of You and Xia, yet in debate they already claimed to surpass Yan and Zeng—this is a grave harm to our Way. Living at home for more than ten years, he taught his sons and clansmen filial piety, brotherliness, loyalty, and trustworthiness, and was strict even about the smallest gift. Twice he observed mourning for his parents, both times grieving until his body was wasted. He was later given the posthumous name Wendding. His works Yin-Yang Pitch Pipes, Glimpses of Confucian Learning, and the twelve-juan Baizhai Collection all circulated widely.

唐伯元，字仁卿，澄海人。萬歷二年進士。歷知萬年、泰和二縣，並有惠政，民生祠之。遷南京戶部主事，進郎中。伯元受業永豐呂懷，踐履篤實，而深疾王守仁新說。及守仁從祀文廟，上疏爭之。因請黜陸九淵，而躋有若及周、程、張、朱五子於十哲之列，祀羅欽順、章懋、呂柟、魏校、呂懷、蔡清、羅洪先、王艮於鄉。疏方下部，旋為南京給事中鐘宇淳所駁，伯元謫海州判官。屢遷尚寶司丞。吏部尚書楊巍雅不喜守仁學，心善伯元前疏，用為吏部員外郎。歷考功、文選郎中，佐尚書孫丕揚澄清吏治，苞苴不及其門。秩滿，推太常少卿，未得命。時吏部推補諸疏皆留中，伯元言：「賢愚同滯，朝野咨嗟，由臣擬議不當所致，乞賜罷斥。」帝不懌，特允其去，而諸疏仍留不下。居二年，甄別吏部諸郎，帝識伯元名，命改南京他部，而伯元已前卒。伯元清苦淡薄，人所不堪，甘之自如，為嶺海士大夫儀表。

Tang Boyuan, styled Renqing, was a native of Chenghai. He passed the jinshi examination in the second year of Wanli. He served successively as magistrate of Wannian and Taihe counties, governing both with benevolence, and the people built shrines in his honor. He was transferred to Secretary in the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue and later promoted to Director. Boyuan studied under Lü Huai of Yongfeng, lived his principles with solid earnestness, and deeply detested Wang Shouren's new doctrine. When Shouren was enshrined in the Confucian temple, he submitted a memorial in protest. He therefore asked that Lu Jiuyuan be removed from the temple, that You Ruo and the Five Masters Zhou, Cheng, Zhang, and Zhu be raised to the ranks of the Ten Sages, and that Luo Qinshun, Zhang Mao, Lü Nan, Wei Xiao, Lü Huai, Cai Qing, Luo Hongxian, and Wang Gen be enshrined in their home districts. The memorial had just reached the relevant ministry when Nanjing Supervising Secretary Zhong Yuchun rebutted it; Boyuan was demoted to Assistant Magistrate of Haizhou. He was eventually promoted to Assistant Director of the Court of Imperial Treasures. Minister of Personnel Yang Wei had always disliked Shouren's teaching and approved of Boyuan's earlier memorial; he appointed him Vice Director in the Ministry of Personnel. He served as Director in the Bureaus of Merit Evaluation and Civil Appointments, assisting Minister Sun Piyang in reforming official governance; no bribe ever reached his door. When his term expired he was recommended for Vice Minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, but the appointment never came through. At the time all the Ministry of Personnel's recommendation memorials for appointments were held at court; Boyuan said, "The worthy and the unworthy alike are stalled, and court and countryside groan in complaint—this is caused by my improper nominations; I beg to be dismissed. The emperor was displeased but specially permitted him to leave, while the memorials remained held at court and unissued. Two years later, when the various directors of the Ministry of Personnel were being evaluated, the emperor recognized Boyuan's name and ordered him transferred to another Nanjing ministry, but Boyuan had already died. Boyuan lived in austere simplicity that others could not endure, yet he accepted it contentedly and became the model for gentry and officials of the Lingnan coast.

黃淳耀，字蘊生，嘉定人。為諸生時，深疾科舉文浮靡淫麗，乃原本《六經》，一出以典雅。名士爭務聲利，獨淡漠自甘，不事征逐。崇禎十六年成進士。歸益研經籍，缊袍糲食，蕭然一室。京師陷，福王立南都，諸進士悉授官，淳耀獨不赴選。及南都亡，嘉定亦破。愾然太息，偕弟淵耀入僧舍，將自盡。僧曰：「公未服官，可無死。」淳耀曰：「城亡與亡，豈以出處貳心。」乃索筆書曰：「弘光元年七月二十四日，進士黃淳耀自裁於城西僧舍。嗚呼！進不能宣力王朝，退不能潔身自隱，讀書寡益，學道無成，耿耿不寐，此心而已。」遂與淵耀相對縊死，年四十有一。

Huang Chun'ao, styled Yunsheng, was a native of Jiading. As a student he deeply detested the florid excess of examination essays, grounded himself in the Six Classics, and wrote in a style of classical elegance. While famous scholars all strove for reputation and profit, he alone was content with detachment and did not join their pursuits. In the sixteenth year of Chongzhen he passed the jinshi examination. Back home he studied the classics still more deeply, wearing patched robes and eating coarse food in a bare single room. When the capital fell and the Prince of Fu established the Southern Court, all jinshi were granted office, but Chun'ao alone refused to accept appointment. When the Southern Court fell, Jiading was taken as well. He sighed in indignation and, together with his younger brother Yuanyao, entered a monk's quarters intending to take his own life. The monk said, "Sir, you have never held office; you need not die. Chun'ao said, "When the city falls, one should perish with it—how could one let office or withdrawal divide one's loyalty? He then asked for a brush and wrote these words: "On the twenty-fourth day of the seventh month of the first year of Hongguang, jinshi Huang Chun'ao took his own life in a monk's quarters west of the city. Ah! In public life I could not serve the dynasty; in withdrawal I could not preserve myself in seclusion; my reading brought little benefit, my pursuit of the Way achieved nothing; restless and sleepless—this heart alone remains. He and Yuanyao then faced each other and hanged themselves together; he was forty-one.

淳耀弱冠即著《自監錄》、《知過錄》，有誌聖賢之學。後為日歷，晝之所為，夜必書之。凡語言得失，念慮純雜，無不備識，用自省改。晚而充養和粹，造詣益深。所作詩古文，悉軌先正，卓然名家。有《陶庵集》十五卷。其門人私謚之曰貞文。淵耀，字偉恭，諸生，好學敦行如其兄。

From his capping age Chun'ao already wrote Records of Self-Supervision and Records of Recognizing Faults, showing his resolve to follow the learning of the sages. Later he kept a daily journal: whatever he did by day, he wrote down that night. Every gain or loss in speech, every purity or mixture in thought, was fully recorded so he could examine himself and reform. In later years his inner cultivation grew full, harmonious, and pure, and his attainment deepened still further. The poetry and prose he wrote all followed the standards of earlier masters and established him as a writer of note. He left behind the fifteen-juan Ta'an Collection. His disciples privately posthumously styled him Zhenwen. Yuanyao, styled Weigong, was a student who loved learning and lived earnestly, just like his elder brother.

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