Shàozǐ 少子
The Younger Master by 沈麟士 (Shěn Línshì, 419–503, 梁)
About the work
A long LiúSòng / Southern-Qí / early Liáng-period zǐbù treatise by the celebrated recluse-scholar Shěn Línshì 沈麟士. The reconstructed fragments are unusually rich — preserved in 《南齊書·張融傳》, 《南齊書·顧歡傳》, 《弘明集》 (especially Sēng Yòu’s 釋僧祐 collection), 張融’s 《門律》, the Dá Zhōu Yóng shū 答周顒書 polemics, and other xuán–Buddhist debate documents. Not in the Sìkù quánshū; sourced from CHANT (CH2a1459).
Abstract
Shěn Línshì was a major Wúxīng 吳興 classicist-recluse, refusing office from Sòng through Liáng, and a participant in the famous yíxià 夷夏 (Daoist-vs-Buddhist) polemics of the Southern Qí. His biography is in Nán Qí shū 南齊書 j. 54 and Liáng shū 梁書 j. 51; he was eighty-five when he died in 503. The Shàozǐ — composed in his later years, after he had retired permanently to Wúxīng — is among the longest zǐ-house texts of the Southern Dynasties; the Suí shū jīngjí zhì records it in 22 juàn, the Liáng shū mentions 4 juàn, and the Yìwén lèijù preserves multiple long passages. The work covers classical exegesis, xuánxué metaphysics, Buddhist–Daoist polemic (Shěn was a participant in the Yíxià lùn 夷夏論 debate begun by Gù Huān 顧歡 and continued by Zhāng Róng 張融 and Zhōu Yóng 周顒), and ritual and prosodic discussion. The composition window is bracketed by Shěn’s life. The received recension is a 19th-century jíyì.
Translations and research
- Robert Hymes, Way and Byway, and Stephen Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures, both reference the Southern Qí yí-xià polemic; Shěn Lín-shì is a peripheral but consistent participant.
- Hóngmíng jí 弘明集 (Sēng Yòu, c. 515) preserves Shěn’s most substantial polemical writings.
- Standard fragment-compilation: 嚴可均 Quán Liáng wén 全梁文 j. 21.
Links
- Nán Qí shū 南齊書 j. 54 (高逸傳).
- Liáng shū 梁書 j. 51 (處士傳).