Volume 189 Biographies 76: Confucian Scholars 1

列传第七十六儒学一

Biographies 76: Confucian Scholars, Part One

前代史传，皆以儒学之士，分而为二，以经艺颛门者为儒林，以文章名家者为文苑。然儒之为学一也，《六经》者斯道之所在，而文则所以载夫道者也。故经非文则无以发明其旨趣；而文不本于六艺，又乌足谓之文哉。由是而言，经艺文章，不可分而为二也明矣。

Earlier dynastic histories always split Confucian scholars into two groups: specialists in the classics and their arts went into the Forest of Scholars, while those renowned for literary writing went into the Garden of Letters. Yet Confucian learning is fundamentally one: the Six Classics are where the Way itself dwells, and literature is the vehicle that bears it. Without literary expression the classics cannot fully unfold their meaning; and writing not grounded in the Six Arts can hardly deserve the name of literature at all. From this it is plain that classical studies and literary art ought never to be treated as two separate things.

元兴百年，上自朝廷内外名宦之臣，下及山林布衣之士，以通经能文显著当世者，彬彬焉众矣。今皆不复为之分别，而采取其尤卓然成名、可以辅教传后者，合而隶之，为《儒学传》。

In the century since the Yuan rose to power, eminent courtiers and humble scholars in the hills alike—anyone distinguished in their day for mastering the classics and writing well—have been legion. We no longer maintain that split. Instead we gather the most eminent figures whose work can support teaching and endure for posterity into a single Biographies of Confucian Scholars.

赵复，字仁甫，德安人也。太宗乙未岁，命太子阔出帅师伐宋，德安以尝逆战，其民数十万，皆俘戮无遗。进杨惟中行中书省军前，姚枢奉诏即军中求儒、道、释、医、卜士，凡儒生挂俘籍者，辄脱之以归，复在其中。枢与之言，信奇士，以九族俱残，不欲北，因与枢诀。枢恐其自裁，留帐中共宿。既觉，月色皓然，惟寝衣在，遽驰马周号积尸间，无有也。行及水际，则见复已被发徒跣，仰天而号，欲投水而未入。枢晓以徒死无益：「汝存，则子孙或可以传绪百世；随吾而北，必可无他。」复强从之。先是，南北道绝，载籍不相通；至是，复以所记程、硃所著诸经传注，尽录以付枢。

Zhao Fu, styled Renfu, came from De'an. In the yimao year of Taizong's reign the heir apparent Kuochu led an army against Song. Because De'an had once fought back, its population of several hundred thousand was taken captive and wiped out to the last. Yang Weizhong served at the Secretariat army front. Yao Shu, by imperial order, searched the camp for Confucian, Daoist, Buddhist, medical, and divinatory experts. Any Confucian scholar on the captive rolls he freed and sent home; Fu was one of them. When Shu spoke with him he recognized a man of rare talent. With his entire clan destroyed, Fu refused to go north and took his leave of Shu. Fearing Fu might kill himself, Shu kept him in the tent and slept there with him. When he woke the moon was bright and only Fu's sleeping robe remained. Shu galloped off at once, shouting as he searched among the piled corpses, but Fu was gone. At the water's edge he found Fu barefoot with hair loose, wailing to heaven, poised to throw himself in but still on the bank. Shu reasoned with him that a pointless death would help no one: "If you live, your descendants may yet carry your line forward for generations; come north with me and you will surely be safe." Fu yielded and went with him. Until then the routes between north and south had been severed and books did not pass between them; now Fu transcribed from memory the classical commentaries of the Cheng brothers and Zhu Xi and handed the complete copies to Shu.

自复至燕，学子从者百餘人。世祖在潜邸，尝召见，问曰：「我欲取宋，卿可导之乎？」对曰：「宋，吾父母国也，未有引他人以伐吾父母者。」世祖悦，因不强之仕。惟中闻复论议，始嗜其学，乃与枢谋建太极书院，立周子祠，以二程、张、杨、游、硃六君子配食，选取遗书八千餘卷，请复讲授其中。复以周、程而后，其书广博，学者未能贯通，乃原羲、农、尧、舜所以继天立极，孔子、颜、孟所以垂世立教，周、程、张、硃氏所以发明绍续者，作《传道图》，而以书目条列于后；别著《伊洛发挥》，以标其宗旨。硃子门人，散在四方，则以见诸登载与得诸传闻者，共五十有三人，作《师友图》，以寓私淑之志。又取伊尹、颜渊言行，作《希贤录》，使学者知所向慕，然后求端用力之方备矣。枢既退隐苏门，乃即复传其学，由是许衡、郝经、刘因，皆得其书而尊信之。北方知有程、硃之学，自复始。

After Fu reached Yan, more than a hundred students came to study under him. While still heir apparent, Shizu once summoned Fu and asked, "I intend to conquer Song. Will you guide me?" Fu answered, "Song is my parents' homeland. No one has ever led outsiders to war against his own parents' country." Shizu was pleased and did not press him to serve. After hearing Fu lecture, Weizhong took up his learning with enthusiasm. He and Shu planned the Taiji Academy, built a shrine to Zhou Dunyi, and installed the two Chengs, Zhang, Yang Shi, You Mao, and Zhu Xi as associated sacrifices. They gathered more than eight thousand volumes of surviving texts and asked Fu to teach there. Finding that post-Zhou and Cheng scholarship had grown so vast that students could not master it whole, Fu traced how Fuxi, Shennong, Yao, and Shun had taken up Heaven's mandate, how Confucius, Yan Hui, and Mencius had handed down teaching to the world, and how Zhou Dunyi, the Chengs, Zhang Zai, and the Zhu school had carried the transmission forward. He composed A Chart of the Transmission of the Way and appended a reading list. He also wrote Elucidation of the Yi-Luo School to set out its core principles. Zhu Xi's disciples were scattered everywhere; Fu collected fifty-three names from published records and reliable report and drew up A Chart of Teachers and Friends to express his private admiration for the tradition. Drawing on the words and deeds of Yi Yin and Yan Hui, he also wrote A Record of Aspiring to the Worthy so students would know whom to emulate; with that, the path of finding one's footing and applying effort was fully laid out. When Shu retired to Sumen he carried on Fu's teaching. Xu Heng, Hao Jing, and Liu Yin all obtained his writings and held them in the highest regard. The north first learned of Cheng–Zhu learning through Fu.

复为人，乐易而耿介，虽居燕，不忘故土。与人交，尤笃分谊。元好问文名擅一时，其南归也，复赠之言，以博溺心、末丧本为戒，以自修读《易》求文王、孔子之用心为勉。其爱人以德类若此。复家江汉之上，以江汉自号，学者称之曰江汉先生。

Fu was genial yet firm in principle. Though he lived in Yan, he never forgot his homeland. In friendship he was especially faithful to the ties of duty and affection. Yuan Haowen was the leading literary name of his day. When he went south again, Fu sent him a parting message warning against erudition that floods the mind and specialization that loses the root, and urging him to cultivate himself through the Changes and recover the spirit of King Wen and Confucius. He loved others in this way—always through moral guidance rather than flattery. Fu's family had lived along the Jiang and Han rivers, and he styled himself Jiang-Han; scholars called him Master Jiang-Han.

张，字达善，其先蜀之导江人。蜀亡，侨寓江左。金华王柏，得硃熹三传之学，尝讲道于台之上蔡书院，从而受业焉。自《六经》、《语》、《孟》传注，以及周、程、张氏之微言，硃子所尝论定者，靡不潜心玩索，究极根柢。用功既专，久而不懈，所学益弘深微密，南北之士，鲜能及之。至元中，行台中丞吴曼庆闻其名，延致江宁学官，俾子弟受业，中州士大夫欲淑子弟以硃子《四书》者，皆遣从游，或辟私塾迎之。其在维扬，来学者尤众，远近翕然，尊为硕师，不敢字呼，而曰导江先生。大臣荐诸朝，特命为孔、颜、孟三氏教授，邹、鲁之人，服诵遗训，久而不忘。

Zhang Yue, styled Dashan, came from a family originally of Daojiang in Shu. After Shu fell they settled as exiles south of the Yangzi. Wang Bai of Jinhua held Zhu Xi's teaching at three removes and once lectured at the Shangcai Academy on Mount Tiantai; Yue studied under him there. He devoted himself to the commentaries on the Six Classics, the Analects, and Mencius, to the subtle teachings of Zhou Dunyi, the Chengs, and Zhang Zai, and to every point Zhu Xi had settled—working through each to its foundations. His study was concentrated and unremitting over many years, until his learning grew vast, deep, and exact. Few scholars anywhere could equal him. During the Zhiyuan reign Wu Manqing, regional vice censor-in-chief, invited him to Jiangning as a school officer so his sons and nephews could study with him. Central Plain families who wanted their sons trained in Zhu Xi's Four Books sent them to Yue or set up private academies to host him. At Weiyang his following was especially large. Students converged from far and near and honored him as a leading master; none would use his courtesy name, calling him only Master Daojiang. Senior officials recommended him to court, and he was specially appointed lecturer to the Kong, Yan, and Meng clans. The people of Zou and Lu received his teaching with reverence and remembered it for years.

气宇端重，音吐洪亮，讲说特精详，子弟从之者，诜诜如也。其高第弟子知名者甚多，夹谷之奇、杨刚中尤显。 无子。有《经说》及文集行世。吴澄序其书，以为议论正，援据博，贯穿纵横，俨然新安硃氏之尸祝也。至正中，真州守臣以及郝经、吴澄皆尝留仪真，作祠宇祀之，曰三贤祠。

Yue bore himself with dignified composure, spoke in a full resonant voice, and lectured with exceptional clarity. The young men who studied under him came in a steady stream. Many of his leading disciples became well known, especially Jiagu Zhiqi and Yang Gangzhong. Yue had no sons. His Expositions on the Classics and collected writings circulated widely. Wu Cheng wrote a preface to his works, praising their sound reasoning, wide citation, and comprehensive grasp—declaring him a true heir to the Zhu school of Xin'an. During the Zhizheng era the magistrates of Zhen prefecture, noting that Yue, Hao Jing, and Wu Cheng had all once lived at Yizhen, built a shrine to honor the three and called it the Shrine of the Three Worthies.

金履祥，字吉父，婺之兰溪人。其先本刘氏，后避吴越钱武肃王嫌名，更为金氏。履祥从曾祖景文，当宋建炎、绍兴间，以孝行著称，其父母疾，斋祷于天，而灵应随至。事闻于朝，为改所居乡曰纯孝。履祥幼而敏睿，父兄稍授之书，即能记诵。比长，益自策励，凡天文、地形、礼乐、田乘、兵谋、阴阳、律历之书，靡不毕究。及壮，知向濂、洛之学，事同郡王柏，从登何基之门。基则学于黄ＯＥ，而ＯＥ亲承硃熹之传者也。自是讲贯益密，造诣益邃。

Jin Lüxiang, styled Jifu, came from Lanxi in Wu prefecture. His forebears had been surnamed Liu; later, to avoid the taboo name of Wuyue's King Wusu, Qian Liu, they adopted the surname Jin. Lüxiang's great-uncle Jingwen, in the Jianyan and Shaoxing eras of Song, was renowned for filial piety. When his parents fell ill he fasted and prayed to Heaven, and miraculous responses came at once. When the court learned of it, his home township was renamed Pure Filiality. Lüxiang was clever as a boy; whatever his father and elder brothers taught him from books he could memorize at once. As he matured he drove himself harder still, mastering every field from astronomy and geography to ritual, agriculture, military strategy, yin-yang theory, and calendrical science. In adulthood he turned to the Lian–Luo tradition, studied under Wang Bai of his own prefecture, and through him entered He Ji's school. Ji had studied under Huang Gan, who had received Zhu Xi's teaching directly. From then on his study grew ever more rigorous and his attainment ever deeper.

时宋之国事已不可为，履祥遂绝意进取。然负其经济之略，亦未忍遽忘斯世也。会襄樊之师日急，宋人坐视而不敢救，履祥因进牵制捣虚之策，请以重兵由海道直趋燕、蓟，则襄樊之师，将不攻而自解。且备叙海舶所经，凡州郡县邑，下至巨洋别坞，难易远近，历历可据以行。宋终莫能用。及后硃瑄、张清献海运之利，而所由海道，视履祥先所上书，咫尺无异者，然后人服其精确。

By then Song's state was beyond saving, and Lüxiang gave up all thought of official advancement. Yet he still carried plans for ordering the state and could not bring himself to turn his back on the world. As the siege of Xiangyang and Fancheng grew desperate and Song forces dared not relieve it, Lüxiang proposed a diversion: send a strong fleet by sea straight at Yan and Ji, and the Xiang–Fan armies would collapse without a direct assault. He also mapped the sea route in detail—every prefecture, county, and harbor, every stretch of open ocean, with distances and difficulties noted so clearly that a fleet could follow his chart. Song never adopted the plan. Later, when Zhu Xuan and Zhang Qingxian proved the value of sea transport, the route they used matched Lüxiang's earlier memorial almost point for point, and posterity marveled at his accuracy.

德祐初，以迪功郎、史馆编校起之，辞弗就。宋将改物，所在盗起，履祥屏居金华山中，兵燹稍息，则上下岩谷，追逐云月，寄情啸咏，视世故泊如也。平居独处，终日俨然；至与物接，则盎然和怿。训迪后学，谆切无倦，而尤笃于分义。有故人子坐事，母子分配为隶，不相知者十年，履祥倾赀营购，卒赎以完；其子后贵，履祥终不自言，相见劳问辛苦而已。何基、王柏之丧，履祥率其同门之士，以义制服，观者始知师弟子之系于常伦也。

Early in the Deyou era he was summoned as a junior merit officer and historiography collator, but he declined. As the Song dynasty neared its end, banditry spread everywhere. Lüxiang withdrew to the Jinhua mountains. When fighting eased he wandered the peaks, chasing moonlight and clouds, finding solace in poetry, and treating worldly affairs with complete detachment. In daily life, when alone, he maintained a dignified bearing throughout the day; yet in company he was warm and entirely at ease. He taught younger scholars with tireless earnestness and was especially faithful to the bonds of duty and friendship. An old friend's son was implicated in a case and mother and son were sold into bondage in separate places, ignorant of each other's fate for ten years. Lüxiang spent his entire means to buy their freedom and reunited them; when the son later rose to high rank Lüxiang never mentioned what he had done; when they met he only asked after his welfare. At the funerals of He Ji and Wang Bai, Lüxiang led his fellow disciples in proper mourning dress, and onlookers saw for the first time how deeply the bond between teacher and pupil belongs to ordinary human duty.

履祥尝谓司马文正公光作《资治通鉴》，秘书丞刘恕为《外纪》，以记前事，不本于经，而信百家之说，是非谬于圣人，不足以传信。自帝尧以前，不经夫子所定，固野而难质。夫子因鲁史以作《春秋》，王朝列国之事，非有玉帛之使，则鲁史不得而书，非圣人笔削之所加也。况左氏所记，或阙或诬，凡此类皆不得以辟经为辞。乃用邵氏《皇极经世历》、胡氏《皇王大纪》之例，损益折衷，一以《尚书》为主，下及《诗》、《礼》、《春秋》，旁采旧史诸子，表年系事，断自唐尧以下，接于《通鉴》之前，勒为一书，二十卷，名曰《通鉴前编》。凡所引书，辄加训释，以裁正其义，多儒先所未发。既成，以授门人许谦曰：「二帝三王之盛，其微言懿行，宜后王所当法，战国申、商之术，其苛法乱政，亦后王所当戒，则是编不可以不著也。」他所著书，曰《大学章句疏义》二卷，《论语孟子集注考证》十七卷，《书表注》四卷，谦为益加校定，皆传于学者。天历初，廉访使郑允中表上其书于朝。

Lüxiang once observed that when Sima Guang wrote the Comprehensive Mirror, Liu Shu compiled an Outer Annals for earlier ages. Because it relied on the hundred schools rather than the classics, its judgments diverged from the sages and could not be trusted as reliable history. Events before Emperor Yao, not fixed by the Master's hand, are necessarily crude and hard to verify. Confucius drew on the Lu chronicle to compose the Spring and Autumn. Affairs of the royal house and the states could enter it only when Lu had diplomatic contact; much else lay outside the sage's editorial judgment. Moreover Zuo Qiuming's record is sometimes incomplete and sometimes false; none of this may be justified as supplementing the classic. Following the models of Shao Yong's Supreme Pivot Chronology and Hu Hong's Annals of Emperors and Kings, he weighed and harmonized their methods, took the Documents as his foundation, drew on the Odes, Rites, and Spring and Autumn, and supplemented them from older histories and the masters. He tabulated years and linked events from the age of Yao down to where the Comprehensive Mirror begins, and compiled twenty scrolls entitled Precedents to the Comprehensive Mirror. Every text he cited he glossed to settle its meaning, often articulating points earlier Confucians had never raised. When it was done he handed it to Xu Qian, saying, "The subtle words and noble conduct of the Two Emperors and Three Kings are what later rulers should emulate; the harsh legalism of Shen Buhai and Shang Yang in the Warring States is what they should shun. This work therefore must not be left unpublished." His other works included Expository Meaning of the Great Learning (two scrolls), Textual Verification of the Collected Commentaries on the Analects and Mencius (seventeen scrolls), and Tabular Commentary on the Documents (four scrolls). Qian revised them further, and all circulated among scholars. Early in the Tianli era surveillance commissioner Zheng Yunzhong presented his works to court.

初，履祥既见王柏，首问为学之方，柏告以必先立志，且举先儒之言：居敬以持其志，立志以定其本，志立乎事物之表，敬行乎事物之内，此为学之大方也。及见何基，基谓之曰：「会之屡言贤者之贤，理欲之分，便当自今始。」会之，盖柏字也。当时议者以为基之清介纯实似尹和静，柏之高明刚正似谢上蔡，履祥则亲得之二氏，而并充于己者也。

When Lüxiang first met Wang Bai he asked how to study. Bai told him to establish his will first and quoted earlier masters: "Maintain reverence to sustain your will; establish your will to fix your foundation. Will stands above affairs; reverence operates within them"—that, he said, is the great principle of learning. When he met He Ji, Ji told him, "Huizhi has often spoken of what makes the worthy worthy and of the divide between principle and desire. Take that as your starting point from today." Huizhi was Wang Bai's courtesy name. Contemporaries said Ji's purity and integrity recalled Yin Hejing, Bai's loftiness and firm rectitude recalled Xie Shangcai, and Lüxiang had received both traditions directly and made them fully his own.

履祥居仁山之下，学者因称为仁山先生。大德中卒。元统初，里人吴师道为国子博士，移书学官，祠履祥于乡学。至正中，赐谥文安。

Lüxiang lived below Mount Ren, and scholars called him Master Renshan. He died during the Dade era. Early in the Yuantong era his townsman Wu Shidao, then a National University lecturer, wrote to the local school authorities asking that Lüxiang be honored at the district academy. During the Zhizheng era he was granted the posthumous title Cultivated Tranquility.

许谦，字益之，其先京兆人。九世祖延寿，宋刑部尚书。八世祖仲容，太子洗马。仲容之子曰洸、曰洞，洞由进士起家，以文章政事知名于时。洸之子寔，事海陵胡瑗，能以师法终始者也。由平江徙婺之金华，至谦五世，为金华人。父觥，登淳祐七年进士第，仕未显以殁。

Xu Qian, styled Yizhi, came from a family originally of Jingzhao. His ninth-generation ancestor Yan Shou served Song as Minister of Justice. His eighth-generation ancestor Zhongrong was groom of the heir apparent's stables. Zhongrong had two sons, Guang and Dong. Dong entered office through the jinshi examination and was renowned for both literary talent and administrative skill. Guang's son Shi studied under Hu Yuan of Hailing and carried his teacher's method through to the end. The family moved from Pingjiang to Jinhua in Wu prefecture; five generations later Qian was a native of Jinhua. His father Gong passed the jinshi in the seventh year of Chunyou but died before achieving notable office.

谦生数岁而孤，甫能言，世母陶氏口授《孝经》、《论语》，入耳辄不忘。稍长，肆力于学，立程以自课，取四部书分昼夜读之，虽疾恙不废。既乃受业金履祥之门，履祥语之曰：「士之为学，若五味之在和，醯酱既加，则酸鹹顿异。子来见我已三日，而犹夫人也，岂吾之学无以感发子耶！」谦闻之惕然。居数年，尽得其所传之奥。于书无不读，穷探圣微，虽残文羡语，皆不敢忽。有不可通，则不敢强；于先儒之说，有所未安，亦不苟同也。

Qian lost his father when he was only a few years old. As soon as he could speak his step-grandmother Lady Tao taught him the Classic of Filial Piety and the Analects by heart, and he never forgot a word. As he grew he threw himself into study, set himself a daily schedule, and divided the four bibliographic divisions between day and night reading—even illness did not interrupt him. He then studied under Jin Lüxiang, who told him, "A scholar's learning is like blending the five flavors: add vinegar or sauce and sour and salty change at once. You have studied with me for three days and are still unchanged. Can it be that my teaching has failed to move you at all?" Qian took the rebuke to heart and redoubled his vigilance. Within a few years he had mastered the deepest teachings of his master. He read widely and probed the sages' subtlest meanings; even fragmentary passages and stray lines he refused to dismiss lightly. Where meaning would not cohere he refused to force an interpretation; and where earlier Confucians left him unconvinced he would not agree merely out of deference.

又有《自省编》，昼之所为，夜必书之，其不可书者，则不为也。其他若天文、地理、典章、制度、食货、刑法、字学、音韵、医经、术数之说，亦靡不该贯，旁而释、老之言，亦洞究其蕴。尝谓：「学者孰不曰辟异端，苟不深探其隐，而识其所以然，能辨其同异，别其是非也几希。」又尝句读《九经》、《仪礼》及《春秋三传》，于其宏纲要领，错简衍文，悉别以铅黄硃墨，意有所明，则表而见之。其后吴师道购得吕祖谦点校《仪礼》，视谦所定，不同者十有三条而已。谦不喜矜露，所为诗文，非扶翼经义，张维世教，则未尝轻笔之书也。

He also kept a Self-Examination Record: each night he wrote down the day's conduct, and what he could not bear to record he refused to do. He was equally versed in astronomy, geography, ritual codes, institutions, economics, penal law, philology, phonology, medicine, and numerology; he even penetrated deeply into Buddhist and Daoist writings. He once said, "Every scholar claims to reject heterodox teachings, but without probing their hidden logic and grasping why they arose, few can truly distinguish agreement from difference or right from wrong." He also punctuated the Nine Classics, the Rites, and the Three Commentaries on the Spring and Autumn, marking main themes, corruptions, and interpolations in colored ink and tabulating every clarification. Later Wu Shidao obtained Lü Zuqian's collated Rites and found only thirteen points of disagreement with Qian's text. Qian disliked self-display and never wrote poetry or prose unless it supported the classics or upheld public morals.

延祐初，谦居东阳八华山，学者翕然从之。寻开门讲学，远而幽、冀、齐、鲁，近而荆、扬、吴、越，皆不惮百舍来受业焉。其教人也，至诚谆悉，内外殚尽，尝曰：「己有知，使人亦知之，岂不快哉！」或有所问难，而词不能自达，则为之言其所欲言，而解其所惑。讨论讲贯，终日不倦，摄其粗疏，入于密微。闻者方倾耳听受，而其出愈真切。惰者作之，锐者抑之，拘者开之，放者约之。及门之士，著录者千餘人，随其材分，咸有所得。然独不以科举之文授人，曰：「此义、利之所由分也。」谦笃于孝友，有绝人之行。其处世不胶于古，不流于俗。不出里闾者四十年，四方之士，以不及门为耻，缙绅先生之过其乡邦者，必即其家存问焉。或访以典礼政事，谦观其会通，而为之折衷，闻者无不厌服。

Early in the Yanyou era Qian lived on Mount Bajua in Dongyang, and students flocked to him. He soon opened his school to the public. Students from as far as You, Ji, Qi, and Lu and as near as Jing, Yang, Wu, and Yue traveled a hundred leagues without hesitation to study with him. He taught with complete sincerity and tireless care, giving all he had within and without. He once said, "When I know something and can help another know it too, what greater joy is there?" When a student could not frame a question clearly, Qian would put the question into words for him and resolve his confusion. In discussion he never tired, drawing students from rough understanding into subtle mastery. Just as listeners leaned in to hear him, his words grew ever more direct and penetrating. He roused the lazy, checked the overbold, opened the narrow-minded, and restrained the reckless. More than a thousand students enrolled at his school, and each, according to his gifts, gained something real. Yet he alone refused to teach examination essays, saying, "This is where righteousness and profit part ways." Qian was deeply devoted to family duty and possessed conduct that set him apart from ordinary men. In worldly affairs he was neither rigidly antiquarian nor swept along by fashion. For forty years he never left his home district. Scholars from every quarter regarded failure to study with him as a disgrace, and officials passing through always called at his door. When asked about ritual or policy he weighed the issues comprehensively and offered balanced judgments that left every listener convinced.

大德中，荧惑入南斗句已而行，谦以为灾在吴、楚，窃深忧之。是岁大昆，谦貌加瘠，或问曰：「岂食不足邪？」谦曰：「今公私匮竭，道殣相望，吾能独饱邪！」其处心盖如此。廉访使刘庭直、副使赵宏伟，皆中州雅望，于谦深加推服，论荐于朝；中外名臣列其行义者，前后章数十上；而郡复以遗逸应诏；乡闱大比，请司其文衡。皆莫能致。至其晚节，独以身任正学之重，远近学者，以其身之安否，为斯道之隆替焉。至元三年卒，年六十八。尝以白云山人自号，世称为白云先生。朝廷赐谥文懿。

During the Dade era Mars entered the Southern Dipper, paused briefly, and moved on. Qian feared disaster for Wu and Chu and grieved in private. That year famine struck and Qian grew visibly thinner. Someone asked, "Are you going hungry?" Qian replied, "Public and private stores are empty and the starving lie along every road. How can I eat my fill alone?" His heart was always of this kind. Surveillance commissioner Liu Tingzhi and vice commissioner Zhao Hongwei were both men of high standing in the Central Plain. Qian admired them deeply and urged their recommendation to court; distinguished officials at court and in the provinces submitted dozens of memorials praising his conduct; the prefecture repeatedly nominated him as a reclusive worthy in response to imperial edicts; at major provincial examinations they asked him to serve as chief examiner— yet none could secure his acceptance. In his later years he alone bore the weight of orthodox learning on his shoulders. Scholars everywhere treated his well-being as the barometer of the tradition's fortunes. He died in the third year of Zhiyuan at the age of sixty-eight. He styled himself the Mountain Man of White Clouds, and the world called him Master White Cloud. The court granted him the posthumous title Cultivated and Virtuous.

先是，何基、王柏及金履祥殁，其学犹未大显，至谦而其道益著，故学者推原统绪，以为硃熹之世適。江浙行中书省为请于朝，建四贤书院，以奉祠事，而列于学官。

After He Ji, Wang Bai, and Jin Lüxiang died their teaching had not yet fully flourished. Under Qian it became conspicuous, and scholars traced the lineage back to declare him Zhu Xi's true heir in their generation. The Jiang-Zhe regional secretariat petitioned court to build the Academy of the Four Worthies for their cult and enrolled them among the official school sacrifices.

同郡硃震亨，字彦修，谦之高第弟子也。其清修苦节，绝类古笃行之士，所至人多化之。

Zhu Zhenheng of the same prefecture, styled Yanxiu, was one of Qian's leading disciples. His austere integrity recalled the earnest practitioners of antiquity, and wherever he went he transformed those around him.

陈栎，字寿翁，徽之休宁人。栎生三岁，祖母吴氏口授《孝经》、《论语》，辄成诵。五岁入小学，即涉猎经史。七岁通进士业。十五，乡人皆师之。宋亡，科举废，栎慨然发愤，致力于圣人之学，涵濡玩索，贯穿古今。尝以谓有功于圣门者，莫若硃熹氏，熹没未久，而诸家之说，往往乱其本真，乃著《四书发明》、《书集传纂疏》、《礼记集义》等书，亡虑数十万言，凡诸儒之说，有畔于硃氏者，刊而去之；其微辞隐义，则引而伸之；而其所未备者，复为说以补其阙。于是硃熹之说大明于世。

Chen Li, styled Shouweng, came from Xiuning in Hu prefecture. At three Li's grandmother Lady Wu taught him the Classic of Filial Piety and the Analects by heart, and he could recite them immediately. At five he began formal schooling and was already reading widely in the classics and histories. By seven he had mastered the jinshi examination curriculum. At fifteen his neighbors all looked to him as their teacher. When Song fell and the examinations ended, Li threw himself into the sages' learning with passionate resolve, immersing himself in it until it ran through past and present alike. He held that no one since the sage's school had served it better than Zhu Xi, yet soon after Xi's death rival schools had blurred his teaching. Li therefore wrote Elucidation of the Four Books, Collated Commentary on the Documents, Collected Meanings of the Book of Rites, and other works totaling hundreds of thousands of words, cutting away every interpretation that deviated from Zhu Xi; where Zhu's subtle meanings were compressed he drew them out and extended them; and where Zhu had left gaps he supplied explanations of his own. Thus Zhu Xi's teaching shone brightly throughout the world.

延祐初，诏以科举取士，栎不欲就试，有司强之，试乡闱中选，遂不复赴礼部。教授于家，不出门户者数十年。性孝友，尤刚正，日用之间，动中礼法。与人交，不以势合，不以利迁。善诱学者，谆谆不倦。临川吴澄，尝称栎有功于硃氏为多，凡江东人来受业于澄者，尽遣而归栎。栎所居堂曰定宇，学者因以定宇先生称之。元统二年卒，年八十三。

Early in the Yanyou era the court restored the examinations. Li did not wish to compete, but officials forced him. He passed the provincial examination and never went on to the capital examination. He taught at home and did not leave his gate for decades. By nature he was filial and upright, and in daily life his every act accorded with ritual propriety. In friendship he neither courted the powerful nor shifted with profit. He guided students with tireless earnestness. Wu Cheng of Linchuan said Li had done more for the Zhu school than anyone else, and sent every student from east of the Yangzi who came to him back to study with Li instead. His hall was called Dingyu, and scholars called him Master Dingyu. He died in the second year of Yuantong at the age of eighty-three.

揭傒斯志其墓，乃与吴澄并称，曰：「澄居通都大邑，又数登用于朝，天下学者，四面而归之，故其道远而章，尊而明。栎居万山间，与木石俱，而足迹未尝出乡里，故其学必待其书之行，天下乃能知之。及其行也，亦莫之御，是可谓豪杰之士矣。」世以为知言。

Jie Xisi wrote his tomb inscription and compared him with Wu Cheng: "Cheng lived in great cities, served repeatedly at court, and drew scholars from every quarter. His Way was therefore far-reaching, honored, and bright. Li lived among ten thousand mountains with only trees and stone for company and never left his home district. The world could know his learning only when his books circulated. Yet once they appeared, nothing could stop them. He was truly a man of heroic stature." The age judged this a penetrating verdict.

胡一桂，字庭芳，徽州婺源人。父方平。一桂生而颖悟，好读书，尤精于《易》。初，饶州德兴沈贵宝，受《易》于董梦程，梦程受硃熹之《易》黄ＯＥ，而一桂之父方平及从贵宝、梦程学，尝著《易学启蒙通释》。一桂之学，出于方平，得硃熹氏源委之正。宋景定甲子，一桂年十八，遂领乡荐，试礼部不敏，退而讲学，远近师之，号双湖先生。所著书有《周易本义附录纂疏》、《本义启蒙翼传》、《硃子诗传附录纂疏》、《十七史纂》，并行于世。

Hu Yigui, styled Tingfang, came from Wuyuan in Huizhou. His father was Fangping. Yigui was clever from childhood, loved books, and was especially accomplished in the Changes. Shen Guibao of Dexing in Raozhou had studied the Changes under Dong Mengcheng, who had received Zhu Xi's teaching from Huang Gan. Yigui's father Fangping studied with Guibao and Mengcheng and wrote Comprehensive Explanation of the Introduction to the Study of the Changes. Yigui's learning came through Fangping and preserved the authentic Zhu Xi lineage. In the jiazi year of Jingding, when he was eighteen, Yigui passed the provincial examination but failed at the Ministry of Rites. He withdrew to teach, and students came from far and near, calling him Master Twin Lakes. His works included Collated Commentary on the Appendix to the Original Meaning of the Changes, Winged Transmission of the Introduction to the Original Meaning, Collated Commentary on Zhu Xi's Odes, and Digest of the Seventeen Histories, all widely circulated.

其同郡胡炳文，字仲虎，亦以《易》名家，作《易本义通释》，而于硃熹所著《四书》，用力尤深。餘干饶鲁之学，本出于硃熹，而其为说，多与熹牴牾，炳文深正其非，作《四书通》，凡辞异而理同者，合而一之；辞同而指异者，析而辨之，往往发其未尽之蕴。东南学者，因其所自号，称云峰先生。炳文尝用荐者，署明经书院山长，再调兰溪州学正。

Hu Bingwen of the same prefecture, styled Zhonghu, was also renowned for the Changes and wrote Comprehensive Explanation of the Original Meaning of the Changes, but devoted his deepest effort to Zhu Xi's Four Books. Rao Lu of Yugan had studied Zhu Xi but often contradicted him. Bingwen corrected these errors in Comprehensive Guide to the Four Books, uniting passages that differed in wording but agreed in principle; and analyzing passages that looked alike but meant different things, often drawing out meanings his predecessors had left implicit. Southeastern scholars called him Master Cloud Peak from the name he chose for himself. Through recommendation Bingwen served as head of the Mingjing Academy and later as director of studies in Lanxi.

黄泽，字楚望，其先长安人。唐末，舒艺知资州内江县，卒，葬焉，子孙遂为资州人。宋初，延节为大理评事，兼监察御史，累赠金紫光禄大夫，泽十一世祖也。五世祖拂，与二兄播、揆，同年登进士第，蜀人荣之。父仪可，累举不第，随兄骥子官九江，蜀乱，不能归，因家焉。泽生有异质，慨然以明经学道为志，好为苦思，屡以成疾，疾止复思，久之，如有所见，作《颜渊仰高钻坚论》。蜀人治经，必先古注疏，泽于名物度数，考核精审，而义理一宗程、硃，作《易春秋二经解》、《二礼祭祀述略》。

Huang Ze, styled Chuwang, came from a family originally of Chang'an. Late in Tang, Shu Yi governed Neijiang in Zizhou, died there, and was buried there; his descendants became natives of Zizhou. Early in Song his ancestor Yanjie served as judicial reviewer and surveillance censor and was posthumously ennobled as Grand Master of the Gold Seal and Purple Ribbon—Ze's eleventh-generation forebear. His fifth-generation ancestor Fu and his elder brothers Bo and Kui all passed the jinshi in the same year, a glory for Shu. His father Yike failed the examinations repeatedly, followed his elder brother Jizi to an office at Jiujiang, and when Shu fell into chaos could not return home, settling there instead. Ze was gifted from birth and resolved to master the classics and pursue the Way. He thought so hard he often fell ill; when he recovered he thought again. After long effort he seemed to see clearly and wrote On Yan Yuan Looking Upward and Drilling Deep. Sichuan scholars traditionally began with ancient commentaries. Ze examined names, measures, and numbers with meticulous care while taking Cheng–Zhu doctrine as his standard, and wrote Exegesis of the Changes and Spring and Autumn and Outline of Sacrificial Rites in the Two Ritual Books.

大德中，江西行省相臣闻其名，授江州景星书院山长，使食其禄以施教。又为山长于洪之东湖书院，受学者益众。始泽尝梦见夫子，以为适然，既而屡梦见之，最后乃梦夫子手授所较《六经》，字画如新，由是深有感发，始悟所解经多徇旧说为非是，乃作《思古吟》十章，极言圣人德容之盛，上达于文王、周公。秩满即归，闭门授徒以养亲，不复言仕。

During the Dade era the Jiangxi regional chief minister appointed him head of the Jingxing Academy in Jiangzhou on salary so he could teach. He later headed the East Lake Academy in Hong, and his following grew still larger. Ze first dreamed of Confucius by chance, then dreamed of him again and again, and at last dreamed that Confucius handed him a freshly collated set of the Six Classics. Deeply moved, he realized how much of his earlier exegesis had merely followed old errors. He wrote ten Chants of Thinking on Antiquity celebrating the sage's virtue and bearing up to King Wen and the Duke of Zhou. When his term ended he went home, closed his doors to teach and support his parents, and never spoke of office again.

尝以为去圣久远，经籍残阙，传注家率多傅会，近世儒者，又各以才识求之，故议论虽多，而经旨愈晦；必积诚研精，有所悟入，然后可以窥见圣人之本真。乃揭《六经》中疑义千有餘条，以示学者。既乃尽悟失传之旨。自言每于幽闲寂寞、颠沛流离、疾病无聊之际得之，及其久也，则豁然无不贯通。自天地定位、人物未生已前，沿而下之，凡邃古之初，万化之原，载籍所不能具者，皆昭若发蒙，如示诸掌。然后由伏羲、神农、五帝、三王，以及春秋之末，皆若身在其间，而目击其事者。于是《易》、《春秋》传注之失，《诗》、《书》未决之疑，《周礼》非圣人书之谤，凡数十年苦思而未通者，皆涣然冰释，各就条理。故于《易》以明象为先，以因孔子之言，上求文王、周公之意为主，而其机括，则尽在《十翼》，作《十翼举要》、《忘象辩》、《象略》、《辩同论》。于《春秋》以明书法为主，其大要则在考核三传，以求向上之功，而脉络尽在《左传》，作《三传义例考》、《笔削本旨》。又作《元年春王正月辩》、《诸侯娶女立子通考》、《鲁隐公不书即位义》、《殷周诸侯禘祫考》、《周庙太庙单祭合食说》，作《丘甲辩》，凡如是者十餘通，以明古今礼俗不同，见虚辞说经之无益。尝言：「学者必悟经旨废失之由，然后圣人本意可见，若《易象》与《春秋》书法废失大略相似，苟通其一，则可触机而悟矣。」又惧学者得于创闻，不复致思，故所著多引而不发，乃作《易学滥觞》、《春秋指要》，示人以求端用力之方。其于礼学，则谓郑氏深而未完，王肃明而实浅，作《礼经复古正言》。如王肃混郊丘废五天帝，并昆仑、神州为一，赵伯循言王者禘其始祖之所自出，以始祖配之，而不及群庙之社，胡宏家学不信《周礼》，以社为祭地之类，皆引经以证其非。其辩释诸经要旨，则有《六经补注》；诋排百家异义，则取杜牧不当言而言之义，作《翼经罪言》。近代覃思之学，推泽为第一。

He believed that with the sages so far in the past and the texts damaged, commentators mostly forced their readings while modern scholars relied on personal cleverness, so debate multiplied even as the classics' meaning grew obscurer; only through accumulated sincerity and refined study, with genuine insight, can one glimpse the sages' authentic teaching. He therefore listed more than a thousand doubtful points in the Six Classics for his students. Eventually he fully grasped meanings long lost in transmission. He said insight came especially in solitude, exile, sickness, and idleness; sustained over time, everything suddenly opened and connected. From the ordering of Heaven and Earth down through ages before humanity, every remote origin and source of transformation that books could not fully record became clear as daylight, plain as the palm of his hand. From Fuxi and Shennong through the Five Emperors and Three Kings to the end of the Spring and Autumn era, it was as if he had been present and witnessed every event himself. Errors in commentaries on the Changes and Spring and Autumn, unresolved doubts in the Odes and Documents, the claim that the Rites of Zhou was not authentic—all puzzles he had wrestled with for decades melted away and fell into order. In the Changes he began with the images, used Confucius' words to recover King Wen and the Duke of Zhou, and treated the Ten Wings as the key. He wrote Essentials of the Ten Wings, On Forgetting the Images, Outline of the Images, and On Distinguishing Sameness. In the Spring and Autumn he focused on the Annals' brush method, tested the Three Commentaries to recover the original intent, and treated the Zuo Commentary as the thread. He wrote Examination of the Principles of the Three Commentaries and Original Aim of the Brush Editing. He also wrote more than ten works including On "The King's First Month of Spring in the First Year," Comprehensive Examination of Lords' Marriages and Heirs, Why Duke Yin Did Not Record His Accession, Di and Xia Sacrifices in Yin and Zhou, and Separate and Combined Temple Feasts, plus On the Hillock Jia, to show how ritual differed across ages and how empty commentary on the classics availed nothing. He said, "Students must grasp why the classics' meaning was lost before the sages' intent can reappear. The loss of the Changes' images and the Spring and Autumn's brush method are much alike: master one and you can awaken to the other by analogy." Fearing students would stop thinking after a first hearing, he often cited without fully expounding. He therefore wrote Sources of the Study of the Changes and Essentials of the Spring and Autumn to show how to find one's footing and apply effort. In ritual studies he held that Zheng Xuan went deep but left gaps, while Wang Su seemed clear but was actually shallow, and wrote Correct Words on Restoring Antiquity in the Rites Classic. He took on errors such as Wang Su's conflation of suburban and mount-qi rites and abolition of the five Heavenly Emperors, or merging Kunlun and Spirit Province into one; Zhao Boxun's claim that the king's di sacrifice honors only the lineage's founding ancestor without reaching the communal temple altars of earth; and Hu Hong's family school, which rejected the Rites of Zhou and treated she as mere sacrifice to the earth—all proved wrong by appeal to the classics. To clarify the essentials of the classics he wrote Supplementary Notes on the Six Classics; to refute rival schools he drew on Du Mu's insight about saying what should not be said and wrote Wings to the Classics: Words of Blame. Among scholars of his day who thought deeply, Ze was held first.

吴澄尝观其书，以为平生所见明经士，未有能及之者，谓人曰：「能言距杨、墨者，圣人之徒也，楚望真其人乎！」然泽雅自慎重，未尝轻与人言。李泂使过九江，请北面称弟子，受一经，且将经纪其家，泽谢曰：「以君之才，何经不可明，然亦不过笔授其义而已。若餘则于艰苦之餘，乃能有见，吾非邵子，不敢以二十年林下期君也。」泂叹息而去。或问泽：「自閟如此，宁无不传之惧？」泽曰：「圣经兴废，上关天运，子以为区区人力所致耶！」

Wu Cheng read his works and declared that in a lifetime among experts on the classics he had never met his equal. He said, "Those who can argue against Yangism and Mohism are true followers of the sages—is Chuwang really such a man?" Yet Ze was reserved by nature and rarely spoke freely with anyone. When the envoy Li Tong passed Jiujiang he asked to face north as a disciple, study one classic, and even manage Ze's household. Ze refused: "With your gifts any classic could be mastered—but that would only mean copying its meaning onto paper. As for me, insight comes only after hardship. I am no Master Shao, and I dare not bind you to twenty years in the woods with me." Tong sighed and left. Someone asked Ze, "By shutting yourself away like this, do you not fear your learning will die with you?" Ze replied, "Whether the sacred classics flourish or perish hangs on heaven's decree—do you imagine mere human effort could decide that?!"

泽家甚窭贫，且年老，不复能教授，经岁大侵，家人采木实草根以疗饥，晏然曾不动其意，惟以圣人之心不明，而经学失传，若己有罪为大戚。至正六年卒，年八十七。其书存于世者十二三。门人惟新安赵汸为高第，得其《春秋》之学为多。

His family was destitute and he too old to teach. Famine returned year after year; they lived on tree fruit and roots while he stayed unmoved, grieving only that the sages' intent was obscured and the classics lost—as though the fault were his alone. He died in the sixth year of Zhizheng, at eighty-seven. Only twenty or thirty percent of his writings survive. Of his students only Zhao Fang of Xin'an ranked highest and inherited most of his Spring and Autumn scholarship.

萧渼，字惟斗，其先北海人。父仕秦中，遂为奉元人。渼性至孝，自为兒时，翘楚不凡。稍出为府史，上官语不合，即引退，读书面山者三十年。制一革衣，由身半以下，及卧，辄倚其榻，玩诵不少置，于是博极群书，天文、地理、律历、算数，靡不研究。侯均谓元有天下百年，惟萧惟斗为识字人。学者及其门受业者甚众。尝出，遇一妇人，失金钗道旁，疑渼拾之，谓曰：「殊无他人，独翁居后耳。」渼令随至门，取家钗以偿。其妇后得所遗钗，愧谢还之。乡人有自城中暮归者，遇寇，欲加害，诡言「我萧先生也」，寇惊愕释去。

Xiao Mian, styled Weidou, came from Beihai by ancestry. His father took office in the Qin region, and the family became natives of Fengyuan. Deeply filial by nature, he stood out even as a boy. He briefly served as a prefectural clerk, but when his superior's views clashed with his he resigned and read facing the hills for thirty years. He wore a single leather coat from the waist down and, even in bed, propped it on his couch and kept reciting without rest until he had mastered every field—astronomy, geography, calendrics, and mathematics alike. Hou Jun remarked that in a century under the Yuan, Xiao Weidou alone truly knew the written word. Students and scholars who studied at his door were legion. Once abroad he met a woman who had lost a gold hairpin on the road. Suspecting he had taken it, she said, "There is no one else about—only you live back here, sir." He had her come to his house and gave her one of his family's hairpins in compensation. She later recovered the lost pin, returned his in embarrassment, and thanked him. A neighbor returning from town at dusk was seized by robbers; he cried, "I am Master Xiao," and they, awed, let him go.

世祖分籓在秦，辟渼与杨恭懿、韩择侍秦邸，渼以疾辞，授陕西儒学提举，不赴。省宪大臣即其家具宴为贺，使一从史先诣渼舍，渼方汲水灌园，从史至，不知其为渼也，使饮其马，即应之不拒，及冠带迎宾，从史见渼，有惧色，渼殊不为意。后累授集贤直学士、国子司业，改集贤侍读学士，皆不赴。大德十一年，拜太子右谕德，扶病至京师，入觐东宫，书《酒诰》为献，以朝廷时尚酒故也。寻以病力请去职，人问其故，则曰：「在礼，东宫东面，师傅西面，此礼今可行乎？」俄除集贤学士、国子祭酒，依前右谕德，疾作，固辞而归。卒年七十八，赐谥贞敏。

While Kublai held his Qin fief he invited Mian, Yang Gongyi, and Han Ze to his household; Mian pleaded illness, was named Shaanxi Commissioner for Confucian Learning, and still refused. Provincial officials prepared a celebratory feast at his home and sent a clerk ahead. Mian was watering his garden; the clerk, not recognizing him, ordered him to water his horse, and Mian obeyed without protest. When he dressed to receive the guests the clerk saw who he was and turned fearful, but Mian took no notice. Later posts as Direct Academician, National University Vice Director, and Attendant Academician followed; he accepted none. In Dade 11 he became Right Tutor to the Crown Prince. Ill but dutiful, he went to court, entered the Eastern Palace, and presented the Wine Admonition because drinking was fashionable at court. He soon begged leave on grounds of illness. Asked why, he said, "Ritual requires the Eastern Palace to face east and the tutor west—can that still be observed?" He was soon named Academician and University Libationer while keeping the tutorship, but when illness worsened he refused firmly and went home. He died at seventy-eight and was posthumously titled Zhenmin.

渼制行甚高，真履实践，其教人，必自《小学》始。为文辞，立意精深，言近而指远，一以洙、泗为本，濂、洛、考亭为据，关辅之士，翕然宗之，称为一代醇儒。所著有《三礼说》、《小学标题驳论》、《九州志》，及《勤斋文集》，行于世。

His conduct was exalted and his practice sincere; he always began instruction with the Elementary Learning. His writing aimed deep: plain on the surface yet far-reaching in import, rooted in Confucius and Mencius and grounded in the Song masters from Lian and Luo to Kaoting. Guanzhong scholars revered him as the age's purest Confucian. His works—Discourse on the Three Rites, Refutation of Titles in the Elementary Learning, Record of the Nine Provinces, and the Diligent Studio Collection—circulated widely.

韩择者，字从善，亦奉元人。天资超异，信道不惑，其教学者，虽中岁以后，亦必使自《小学》等书始。或疑为陵节勤苦，则曰：「人不知学，白首童心，且童蒙所当知，而皓首不知，可乎？」择尤邃礼学，有质问者，口讲指画无倦容。士大夫游宦过秦中，必往见择，莫不虚往而实归焉。世祖尝召之赴京，疾，不果行。其卒也，门人为服缌麻者百餘人。

Han Ze, styled Congshan, was likewise from Fengyuan. Gifted and steadfast in the Way, he required every student—even latecomers—to start with the Elementary Learning and related texts. When some thought this too rigorous he replied, "Without learning one stays childish to the grave. What a child must know, should a gray-haired man remain ignorant?" He excelled in ritual studies and lectured tirelessly, illustrating every point with his hands. Every official passing through Qin sought him out and left with more than they had hoped. Kublai once summoned him to court, but illness kept him from going. At his death over a hundred disciples wore mourning hemp for him.

侯均者，字伯仁，亦奉元人。父母蚤亡，独与继母居，卖薪以给奉养。积学四十年，群经百氏，无不淹贯，旁通释、老外典。每读书，必熟诵乃已。尝言：「人读书不至千遍，终于己无益。」故其答诸生所问，穷索极探，如取诸箧笥。名振关中，学者宗之。用荐者起为太常博士，后以上疏忤时相意，不待报可，即归休田里。

Hou Jun, styled Boren, was also from Fengyuan. Orphaned young, he lived with his stepmother and sold firewood to support her. Forty years of study left him master of every classic and school, with deep knowledge of Buddhist and Daoist texts as well. He would not set a book down until he had recited it through. He said, "Unless you read a text a thousand times, it never truly becomes yours." His answers to students were exhaustive, as if drawn straight from a cabinet. His reputation filled Guanzhong, and scholars looked to him as their standard. Recommended, he became Court of Imperial Sacrifices erudite; when a memorial angered the chief minister he did not wait for dismissal but retired to his fields at once.

均貌魁梧，而气刚正，人多严惮之，及其应接之际，则和易款洽。虽方言古语，世所未晓者，莫不随问而答，世咸服其博闻。

Tall and imposing, stern in bearing, he awed many—yet in conversation he was warm and easy. Obscure dialects and archaic phrases none else understood he answered on the spot, and all marveled at his erudition.

恕之学，由程、硃上溯孔、孟，务贯浃事理，以利于行。教人曲为开导，使得趣向之正。性整洁，平居虽大暑，不去冠带。母张夫人卒，事异母如事所生。父丧，哀毁致目疾，时祀斋肃详至。尝曰：「养生有不备，事犹可复，追远有不诚，是诬神也，可逭罪乎！」与人交，虽外无适莫，而中有绳尺。里人借骡而死，偿其直，不受，曰：「物之数也，何以偿为！」家无儋石之储，而聚书数万卷，扁所居曰榘庵。时萧渼居南山下，亦以道高当世，入城府，必主恕家，士论称之曰「萧同」。

Tong Shu's learning ran from Cheng and Zhu back to Confucius and Mencius, aiming to fuse principle with daily affairs so conduct would improve. He taught with patient, roundabout guidance until students found the right path. Fastidious by nature, he kept cap and sash even in midsummer heat. After Lady Zhang died he treated his stepmother exactly as his own mother. His father's death left him so grief-stricken that his sight failed; in ancestral rites he was meticulous to the last detail. He said, "Neglect while parents live can still be repaired; insincerity toward the dead deceives the spirits—how could guilt be avoided?" Outwardly he showed no favoritism, yet inwardly he held firm standards. When a neighbor's borrowed mule died he paid its worth but refused repayment, saying, "That was its fate—why take payment?" Though he lacked even a modest grain store, he owned tens of thousands of books and named his house Ju'an, the Square Cottage. Xiao Mian lived on the southern hills, likewise revered for his learning; whenever he entered town he stayed with Shu, and scholars paired them as "Xiao and Tong."

恕自京还，家居十三年，缙绅望之若景星麟凤，乡里称为先生而不姓。至顺二年卒，年七十八。制赠翰林直学士，封京兆郡侯，谥文贞。其所著曰《榘庵集》，二十卷。

Shu spent thirteen years at home after leaving the capital; officials regarded him as a rare treasure, and neighbors called him simply "the Master." He died in the second year of Zhishun at seventy-eight. The throne posthumously named him Hanlin Direct Academician, Marquis of Jingzhao, with the posthumous title Wenzhen. His Collected Works of Ju'an survives in twenty juan.

恕弟子第五居仁，字士安，幼师萧渼，弱冠从恕受学。博通经史，躬率子弟致力农亩，而学徒满门。其宏度雅量，能容人所不能容。尝行田间，遇有窃其桑者，居仁辄避之。乡里高其行义，率多化服。作字必楷整，游其门者，不惟学明，而行加修焉。卒之日，门人相与议易名之礼，私谥之曰静安先生。

Among Shu's disciples was Di Wuju Ren, styled Shi'an, who studied first with Xiao Mian and at twenty turned to Shu. Master of classics and histories, he worked the fields with his sons and brothers while his school overflowed with students. Broad-minded, he tolerated what others could not bear. Walking his fields one day he found a man stealing mulberries and simply turned aside. Neighbors honored his example, and many reformed their ways. He wrote only in regular script, and students at his door improved in learning and in conduct alike. When he died his students debated his posthumous style and privately honored him as Master Jing'an.

安熙，字敬仲，真定藁城人。祖滔，父松，皆以学行淑其乡人。熙既承其家学，及闻保定刘因之学，心向慕焉。熙家与因所居相去数百里，因亦闻熙力于为已之学，深许与之。熙方将造其门，而因己殁，乃从因门人乌叔备问其绪说。盖自因得宋儒硃熹之书，即尊信力行之，故其教人，必尊硃氏。然因之为人，高明坚勇，其进莫遏。熙则简靓和易，务为下学之功。其《告先圣文》有曰：「追忆旧闻，卒究前业。洒扫应对，谨行信言。餘力学文，穷理尽性。循循有序，发轫圣途，以存诸心，以行诸己，以及于物，以化于乡。」其用功平实切密，可谓善学硃氏者。

An Xi, styled Jingzhong, came from Gaocheng in Zhending. His grandfather Tao and father Song were both learned and virtuous, bringing honor to their community. Xi inherited his family's scholarship and, hearing of Liu Yin of Baoding, yearned to study with him. They lived hundreds of li apart, yet Yin had heard of Xi's devoted self-cultivation and held him in high regard. Xi set out to visit him, but Yin had already died; he then studied Liu's teachings with Wu Shubei, a disciple of Yin. Through Yin's line he received Zhu Xi's works, revered them, and put them into practice, so his teaching always took Zhu as the standard. Liu Yin himself had been lofty, resolute, and fearless, pressing forward without restraint. Xi was modest, serene, and approachable, stressing the foundations of learning. His Address to the Former Sage reads, "Recalling what I once heard, I carry on the work of those before. Sweeping floors and answering questions, acting with reverence and speaking with integrity. With spare strength I study texts, probing principle to fulfill human nature. Step by step I advance on the sage's road—keeping it in the heart, living it in the self, reaching outward to things, and transforming the countryside." His effort was steady, practical, and meticulous—a true follower of Zhu Xi.

熙遭时承平，不屑仕进，家居教授垂数十年，四方之来学者，多所成就。既殁，乡人为立祠于藁城之西筦镇。其门人苏天爵，为辑其遗文，而虞集序之曰：「使熙得见刘氏，廓之以高明，厉之以奋发，则刘氏之学，当益昌大于时矣。」

Living in peaceful times he scorned office and taught at home for decades; students came from every quarter and many distinguished themselves. After his death locals built him a shrine west of Gaocheng at Xiguan Town. His student Su Tianjue collected his remaining writings; Yu Ji wrote the preface: "Had Xi met Liu Yin, and Liu enlarged him with loftiness and urged him with vigor, Liu's school would have spread even wider in their time."

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