Xú Miǎo 徐邈
Zì Xiānmín 仙民. Eastern-Jìn 東晉 scholar from Dōngguān-jùn Gūmù-xiàn 東莞郡姑幕縣 (modern Zhūchéng 諸城, Shāndōng). His grandfather Xú Chéngzhī 徐澄之 crossed the Yangtze during the Yǒngjiā disturbance. Recognised by Xiè Ān 謝安 as one of the principal scholars of the eastern provinces, Xú was summoned to court under Xiào-wǔ-dì 孝武帝 and rose through zhōngshū shèrén 中書舍人, zhōngshū shìláng 中書侍郎, and tàizǐ qián wèi shuài 太子前衞率, charged with tutoring the heir-apparent Sīmǎ Dézōng 司馬德宗 (the future Ān-dì 安帝) in the canonical texts; concurrently he held the post of dà zhōngzhèng 大中正 of his native commandery. On Dézōng’s accession he was appointed xiāoqí jiāngjūn 驍騎將軍. He died in 397, aged 54, his health broken by mourning for his father Xú Zǎo 徐藻.
Xú composed phonological glosses (yīn 音) for all of the Five Classics, and his readings were one of the principal authorities drawn upon by 陸德明 Lù Démíng in the Jīngdiǎn shìwén 經典釋文. His individual phonological treatises — Zhōuyì yīn 周易音, Gǔwén Shàngshū yīn 古文尚書音 KR1b0061, Máoshī yīn 毛詩音, Lǐjì yīn 禮記音, Chūnqiū Zuǒshì yīn 春秋左氏音, Lùnyǔ yīn 論語音, Zhuāngzǐ yīn 莊子音, and others — were lost as integral works after the Táng, but their citations in the Shìwén (and, for the Shàngshū yīn, in 丁度 Dīng Dù’s Jíyùn 集韻) provided enough material for 馬國翰 Mǎ Guóhàn to reconstruct several of them in Yùhán shānfáng jíyì shū 玉函山房輯佚書. His readings are a foundational source for the historical phonology of Eastern-Jìn southern Mandarin and have generated a substantial modern philological literature (e.g. on his ability to distinguish heavy and light labials). Biography: Jìn shū j. 91 (儒林傳).