佛祖統紀 26.35

26.35

Zhou Xuzhi, courtesy name Daozu, was a native of Yanmen. His father later crossed the Yangtze River, so they settled in Yuzhang. At eight years of age, he lost his mother, and his sorrow and grief exceeded that of an adult. At twelve he went to Fan Ning to receive instruction. Comprehending the Five Classics and the Five Apocrypha, he was called at the time the 'Boy of the Ten Classics'. Nourishing his aspirations in quiet retirement, he exhaustively studied Laozi and the *Book of Changes*. Dukes and ministers repeatedly recruited him, but he accepted nothing. He entered Mount Lu to serve Master Yuan and joined the Lotus Society. Considering that while the body could not be discarded, all other entanglements should be severed, he never married throughout his life, wearing hemp garments and eating vegetarian food. When Liu Yi governed Gushu, he appointed him to the pacification army, and further recruited him as an Erudite of the National Academy, neither of which he accepted. Because Ji Kang's *Biographies of Eminent Scholars* attained the correctness of taking office or retiring, he wrote a commentary on it. When Emperor Wu of the Song campaigned to the north, the Crown Prince remained behind to guard the capital; he welcomed Xuzhi to lodge at Anle Temple to enter and lecture on the *Rites*. After a month or so, he returned to the mountain. Liu Liu, Governor of Jiangzhou, recommended him to Emperor Wu, who summoned him to be an assistant to the Grand Commander, but he did not accept. When Emperor Wu ascended the throne, he summoned him to the capital to lodge in a quiet residence outside the eastern outer wall. The imperial carriage visited him to ask about three meanings in the *Book of Rites*: 'Arrogance must not be allowed to grow', 'Grant me nine more years', and archery at the Quepu. His discriminative analyses were subtle and extraordinary, and the Emperor was exceedingly pleased. Someone asked him, 'Being a retired scholar yourself, why do you at times tread upon the royal court?' He replied, 'Those whose hearts gallop toward the imperial palace view the rivers and lakes as fetters; but for those whose sentiments have forgotten both, the marketplace and the court are themselves mountain caves.' At the time, he was called Master Tongyin (the Universally Reclusive). Xuzhi had long suffered from rheumatic paralysis and could no longer bear lecturing, so he moved due to illness to Mount Zhong. In the first year of Jingping, he died at sixty-seven years of age.