A Book to Burn and a Book to Keep (Hidden) by Li Zhi

Author:Li Zhi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: LCO004000, Literary Collections/Asian, HIS008000, History/Asia/China
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2016-06-07T00:00:00+00:00

“IN MEMORIAM, MASTER LUO JINXI”

羅近谿先生告文

“LUO JINXI XIANSHENG GAOWEN”

This intensely personal testimony1 commemorates the life and thought of one of the most influential members of the Taizhou school, the itinerant teacher Luo Rufang 羅汝芳 (1515–1588). Luo, who went by the sobriquet Jinxi, exuded an air of simplicity and directness and welcomed students from all social classes and walks of life. Li admired Luo’s egalitarian spirit and, although the two met only once, regarded this elder teacher with the utmost respect. In the present essay, written in Macheng in 1589, Li expresses his intense grief upon learning of the master’s death.

The essay opens with Li’s narrating the shock he experienced upon receiving the news of Luo’s death. Stunned, he could find no words to express his sorrow. Li’s uncharacteristic silence puzzled the monks with whom he was residing. The abbot, Wunian, questioned him closely as to the reason for this silence and remonstrated with Li by recollecting how, in times past, Li had frequently praised Luo’s teachings. Chided by these recollections, Li set about composing a biographical sketch of the master next to whom Li hoped to reside. Li’s esteem for Luo is everywhere apparent, as is his desire to preserve and transmit the master’s teachings. Among the salient themes in this essay are the intimate bond between masters and disciples and the fear—which Li both raises and repeatedly attempts to quell—that Luo may have died without an intellectual heir. (RHS)

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