Xià Shùfāng 夏樹芳
A late-Míng jǔrén lay-Buddhist scholar and prolific author. Zì Màoqīng 茂卿; hào Bīnglián Dàorén 冰蓮道人 (“Ice-Lotus Daoist”). Native of Jiāngyīn 江陰 (the Yánlíng / Jǐnlíng region of Chángzhōu, Jiāngsū). Lifedates approximately 1551–1635; passed the jǔrén (provincial) examination in Wànlì 萬曆 13 = 1585 but never advanced to the jìnshì level, instead devoting his life to lay-Buddhist scholarship and literary composition. Known to his contemporaries as a model 儒釋兼修 (“Confucian-Buddhist dual cultivation”) layman who maintained Confucian moral commitments alongside intensive Chán study.
His major Buddhist work is the 《名公法喜志》 Mínggōng fǎxǐ zhì KR6r0169 (X1649, 4 juǎn), a chronologically-organised biographical compendium of literati-officials who took joy in the Buddhist Dharma (fǎxǐ 法喜) from the Jìn-Wèi through the end of the Sòng-Yuán. The work was compiled under the direct influence of Xià’s friendship with the late-Míng monastic reformers — including Yúnqī Zhūhóng 雲棲袾宏 and Hānshān Déqīng 憨山德清 — and circulated widely in late-Míng / early-Qīng Buddhist publishing.
Xià’s other works include the 《茅園集》 Máoyuán jí (his collected literary works), the 《棲真志》 Qīzhēn zhì (a Daoist-tinged geographical-biographical compendium), and various local-history and miscellaneous compilations of Jiāngyīn and Chángzhōu materials.