Scholars › Philosopher / Thinker
Xie Liangzuo
Northern Song Neo-Confucian from Shangcai, one of the four leading disciples of the Cheng brothers, whose sayings Zhu Xi edited as the Shangcai yulu
A thatched pavilion open on three sides stands among tall bamboo; one person sits with their back turned at the veranda rail beside a zither and a stack of bamboo slips, while a stone path runs to a calm pond reflecting clouds and distant hills.
Also known as Zi Xiandao · Shang Cai · Shangcai Xiansheng
Xie Liangzuo, courtesy name Xiandao, came from Shangcai and studied first with Cheng Hao and then with Cheng Yi; with You Zuo, Lu Dalin and Yang Shi he was counted among the four masters of the Cheng school. He passed the jinshi examination in 1085 and served in local posts, becoming magistrate of Yingcheng in 1098. Summoned to an audience early in Huizong's reign, he displeased the court and was sent to supervise a timber yard at Luoyang; later he was jailed for his words and struck from the official rolls. He described humaneness as awareness and explained reverence as constant wakefulness of mind, and students called him Master Shangcai. His *Discourses on the Analects* (*Lunyu shuo*) was printed in the Southern Song, and Zhu Xi edited his sayings as the *Shangcai yulu*. Quan Zuwang gave him a chapter of his own in the *Records of Song and Yuan Scholars* (*Song Yuan xue'an*).
Life and times
Dates 1050 CE–death unknown (1103 or 1121 by different accounts)