Yuán-period 元 Neo-Confucian patriarch and Imperial Academy Jìjiǔ; successor to Xǔ Héng 許衡 as the principal northern Yuán Lǐxué institutional figure. Zì Wéidǒu 維斗; hào (collection-name) Qínzhāi 勤齋; posthumous shì Zhēnmǐn 貞敏. Native of Fèngyuán 奉元 (modern Xīān 西安).
CBDB 690674 records 1241–1318; catalog meta alternative dates 1230–1307. Standard sources (Yuánshǐ Rúlín zhuàn) support the CBDB dates.
Career.
- Jíxián xuéshì 集賢學士
- Guózǐ jìjiǔ 國子祭酒 (Imperial Academy Chancellor) — succeeding Xǔ Héng
Foundational retreat. Originally dug a chamber in the earth at the base of Mt. Zhōngnán 終南山; arranged the Six Classics and the Hundred-Schools commentaries on left and right; pursued sīsuǒ qí yì zhì yú wàngmèi (sought-and-pondered their meaning to the point of forgetting sleep) for thirty years — emerging with comprehensive scholarly mastery.
Scholarly distinction. Expert across the Six Classics and Hundred Schools; especially profound in:
- Sānlǐ 三禮 (the three Confucian ritual classics: Yílǐ, Lǐjì, Zhōulǐ)
- Yì 易 (Classic of Changes)
- Liùshū 六書 (six script-categories — the canonical Chinese paleographical-classification scheme)
Teaching method. Strictly required the Xiǎoxué 小學 as the entry-point for all students.
Doctrinal lineage. Yuánshǐ characterization: “Uniformly takes ZhūSì (Confucius and Mencius) as origin, with LiánLuò Kǎotíng (the Zhōu Dūnyí / Chéng Brothers / Zhū Xī lineage) as basis.”
Collection. Qínzhāi jí KR4d0490 — original 15 juàn compiled by Sū Tiānjué 蘇天爵 in Zhìzhèng 4 (1344), cut at Huáidōng. The Sìkù Yǒnglè dàdiǎn reconstruction preserves 8 juàn.
Within the Kanripo corpus. KR4d0490 Qínzhāi jí 勤齋集 (撰).
Reference. Yuánshǐ Rúlín zhuàn (j. 189); Sū Tiānjué’s Zīxī jí preserves the Mùzhì míng for Xiāo.