Zhōu Xùzhī 周續之
Zì Dàozǔ 道祖. Eastern-Jìn / Liú-Sòng classicist and Buddhist lay-scholar from Yànmén 鴈門 / Yángzhōu 雁門 (his family was originally Yǔzhōu but relocated south during the Yǒngjiā disturbance, settling in Yùzhāng 豫章 in modern Jiāngxī). Orphaned at eight; raised by relatives; studied the Five Classics from age twelve. After completing his classical training he withdrew to Mount Lú 廬山 to study under the Buddhist master 慧遠 Huì Yuǎn, and became one of the celebrated “Eighteen Worthies of the Eastern Grove” (Dōnglín shí-bā xián 東林十八賢), the group of lay-Confucian Lú-shān associates of Huì Yuǎn’s vihāra. He maintained close intellectual contact with the principal Eastern-Jìn poet 陶淵明 Táo Yuānmíng and the Buddho-Confucian scholar Liú Yímín 劉遺民; the three are remembered as the “Three Recluses of Xúnyáng” (Xúnyáng sān-yǐn 潯陽三隱).
Repeatedly summoned to court — first by the Eastern-Jìn court, then more insistently by Sòng Wǔ-dì 宋武帝 (Liú Yù 劉裕) after the dynastic transition in 420 — and on each occasion lectured on the Five Classics for the emperor and his sons; his court-lectures on Lǐ jì and the Máo Shī were particularly admired. He repeatedly refused permanent office, returning to Mount Lú after each summons, and Liú Yù granted him the courtesy-title guāng jūn 光君 in recognition of his unwillingness to enter regular service.
His principal classical works — a Máo Shī xù yì 毛詩序義 KR1c0070, a Gōng-yáng zhuàn yì 公羊傳義, a Lǐ-jì yì 禮記義, and an Ér yǎ yì 爾雅義 — were lost as integral texts by the Sòng period; substantial fragments of the Máo Shī xù yì survive in the Běitáng shūchāo, Yán-shì jiāxùn, Kuāng miù zhèng sú, and Jīngdiǎn shìwén, and are reconstructed in Mǎ Guóhàn’s Yùhán shānfáng jíyì shū. His ritual correspondence — particularly on the three-year mourning question (when zhǎn cuī 斬縗 gives way to qí cuī 齊縗 after the zú kū 卒哭 ceremony) — is widely cited by later lǐ xué writers.
Biography: Sòng shū j. 93 (隱逸傳), Nán shǐ j. 75. No CBDB id; CBDB coverage of Eastern-Jìn / Liú-Sòng classicist recluses is patchy and the homonyms recorded in the current dump (王續之 etc.) are not relevant.