Late-Míng (Wànlì-era) lay Buddhist scholar, native of Fújiàn 福建. The DILA Buddhist Studies Person Authority (A001870) gives sobriquets Yīlì dàorén 一笠道人 (“Single-Hat Daoist Person”) and Mòhúshì 默壺氏 / Mòhú Xièzǐ 嘿壺謝子 (“Master Xiè of the Silent Pot”); a jūshì lay devotee, not a monk. The DILA record notes: “lifetime details unknown; resident in Fújiàn; composed Bōrě xīnjīng shìyì and Bōrě xīnjīng shìyí, each in one fascicle; self-preface dated Wànlì 15 (1587).”
His two attested works are paired Heart Sūtra commentaries:
- Bōrě xīnjīng shìyì 般若心經釋義 (X540 = KR6c0159), composed at 錢塘 紫陽洞天 (“Cyan-Sun Cave Heaven” in Hángzhōu) in 1587 — a line-by-line interlinear fùzhù 附註 (“appended commentary”) of the Heart Sūtra following Fǎzàng’s Lüèshū and Wéncái’s Huìdēng jí.
- Bōrě xīnjīng shìyí 般若心經釋疑 (X541 = KR6c0160) — a “questions and doubts” supplement.
The two works circulated as a paired Heart Sūtra study set in late-Míng jūshì circles. The 1587 composition during a temporary residency at Hángzhōu’s Zǐyángdòng suggests Xiè was travelling between Fújiàn and the Yangtze-delta scholastic centres in the late-Wànlì period.
He represents the late-Míng jūshì (lay devotee) commentarial tradition that flourished alongside the Wànlì-era monastic Buddhist revival; like other lay commentators of the period (Yuánlàng Liánchí 蓮池 circle laymen, the disciples of Zǐbǎi 紫柏, and the lay editors associated with 錢謙益), he combined classical literary learning with serious Buddhist textual scholarship.