Lü Dalin

Life

His father was Lü Fen and his father-in-law was Chen Anren; Lü Zhishan was a paternal uncle and Lü Yishan a nephew. The sibling relationship is variously given: Lü Dazhong and Lü Dafang are listed as elder brothers, while other accounts call him Lü Dajun’s younger brother or Lü Dafang’s younger brother.

Early in his studies he learned from Zhang Zai and later from Cheng Yi, and he also associated with Cheng Hao. Alongside Xie Liangzuo, You Zuo, and Yang Shi, he was counted among the Four Teachers of Cheng’s School.

He entered government through hereditary privilege, although his entry is also associated with recruitment by summons, and he later attained the jinshi degree. He also held the office of 殿中省尚舍奉御. In the early Yuanyou era—elsewhere described simply as the middle of Yuanyou—he became a Taixue boshi (太學博士) and was later transferred to the post of mishu sheng zhengzi (秘書省正字).

In the seventh year of Yuanyou, Fan Zuyu recommended him as a lecturer, praising his learning and self-cultivation, saying that his conduct was like that of the ancients and that he could serve as a guide in learning; he died before he could take up the appointment. Some accounts give his age at death as forty-seven.

Scholarship and writings

He mastered the Six Classics; his expertise in the Rites is variously described as especially proficient or especially profound, and he was also said to have read widely and written well.

His works include the sixteen-scroll Liji zhuan (禮記傳) and the ten-scroll Kaogu tu (考古圖), both extant, as well as the Yuxi ji (玉溪集). The Yuxi ji is lost, but twelve poems are now recorded; a one-scroll Jiaji yi (家祭儀) is also listed among his works.