廣弘明集 3.30

3.30

[Ruan] Xiaoxu was a native of Chenliu, the great-grandson of Song Senior General of the Capital Army [Ruan] Xinzhi, grandson of Huizhen, the Grand Administrator of Linghe, and son of Yan, Attendant Officer of the Commander-in-Chief. At the age of thirteen, Xiaoxu roughly grasped the main principles of the Five Classics. Accompanying his father, who served as an administrative clerk in Xiangzhou, he would not write upon southern paper so as to uphold his father's incorruptibility. At the age of sixteen he was struck by mourning and completed the mourning period; he did not wear padded silk garments, and though he ate simple vegetarian food, whenever it was flavorful he immediately spat it out. While listening to lectures at Zhongshan, his mother, the lady Wang, suddenly fell ill; Xiaoxu felt an alarm in his heart at his lecture seat and returned home. Compounding the medicine required wild ginseng; he personally gathered it on the high peaks of Zhongshan, but for whole days he did not encounter any. Suddenly a deer walked in front of him; wondering at it in his heart, he reached the place where the deer rested, and indeed found ginseng there, whereupon his mother's illness was cured. Wang Yan, the Prefect of the Masters of Writing of the Qi, who had long-standing family ties and was an eminent noble of high power, came to call upon him, his heralds calling out with great honor; Xiaoxu abhorred it and fled through a hole in the hedge. When Yan sent gifts, he refused and would not accept them. Once he was eating bean paste and found it delicious; when he inquired about it, it was a gift from the Wang house, whereupon he ordered the condiments thrown out. When Yan was later executed, Xiaoxu was spared because he was not of his clique. He constantly made Deer Forest (Lulin) his retreat, surrounding it with groves and ponds, and cut off social interactions; few were those who ever got to see him. Ren Fang, the Palace Attendant and Imperial Censor, wished to visit him but did not dare; going forward to gaze upon Deer Forest, he said to Xiaoxu's elder brother Lü: 'His dwelling is near, yet the man is far.' Grand Master of the Palace Yin Yun presented him with a poem; Ren Fang restrained him, saying: 'If our paths of taking and leaving differ, why disturb each other?' Thereupon the court nobility ceased making calls or invitations, and he only kept company with Pei Zhenzi (Zhenzi was the posthumous title of Ziye). In the twelfth year of the Tianjian reign era, the Supervisor of the Palace Library Fu Zhao recommended him, but he never presented himself. The Son of Heaven considered that he was only establishing an empty reputation to seek fame and honor, and thereafter no longer summoned or engaged him. Thus He Yin and Xiaoxu were both able to fulfill their lofty aspirations. The Prince of Nanping, [Xiao] Weimou, said to Lü: 'In former times, your grandfather's actions did not incur blame through idle wandering; why is it that your worthy younger brother alone clings so stubbornly to his purpose?' Xiaoxu said: 'If the roe deer and the river deer could all be harnessed alongside horses, how would they differ from steeds of fine breed?' The Prince composed the 'Treatise on Two Kinds of Darkness' and the 'Discourse on Nature and Emotions', and showed them both to him, requesting that he polish them. When Gaozu composed the Biographies of Loyal Subjects, compiled the Inscriptions and Epitaphs of the Buddhist Sages, and the Governor of Danyang recorded the Record of the Gracious and Divine, all were first submitted to the Upāsaka for selection before being put into effect. The Prince Zhonglie of Poyang was Xiaoxu's brother-in-law; the Prince and his sons sent gifts throughout the seasons, but he did not accept a single thing. He once cast hexagrams for his own time of death, saying: 'It is the same year as Editorial Director Liu.' That autumn Liu Yao died; Xiaoxu glanced aside and said: 'How much time do I have left?' Several tens of days later he indeed passed away, at the age of fifty-eight. The Crown Prince sent an emissary to offer condolences and sacrifices, presenting very lavish mortuary gifts; his son Shu, reiterating his late father's intentions, firmly declined and did not accept them. His disciples conferred on him the posthumous title of Recluse Wenzhen.