Liu Xie

Also known as Zi Yanhe

Liu Xie, courtesy name Yanhe, came from Ju in Dongguan; his grandfather was a younger brother of the Liu-Song minister Liu Xiuzhi. Orphaned and too poor to marry, he lived for more than ten years with the monk Sengyou, mastered the Buddhist canon and sorted the scriptures held at Dinglin Monastery. Early in the Tianjian era he entered Liang service as secretary to Xiao Hong, magistrate of Taimo, palace secretary to the crown prince and colonel of foot, and won approval for ending animal offerings at the suburban altars. His fifty-chapter The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons (Wenxin diaolong), was ignored until he waylaid Shen Yue's carriage with it; Shen judged that it grasped the principles of writing and kept it on his desk. Late in life, after editing scriptures at Dinglin by imperial order, he burned off his hair, took vows under the name Huidi and died within a year. The bibliography of the History of the Sui lists the work in ten scrolls.