Lü Huai

Life

His father was 呂賢 and his mother was Zhu; his great-grandfather was 呂昂 and his grandfather 呂茂輝. His brothers included 呂瑚, 呂某, and 呂愷, while his younger brothers were 呂悰, 呂㦢, 呂懌, 呂愉, 呂慎, 呂性, and 呂恜. His wife was Mao, and his four sons were 呂德宗, 呂德克, 呂德容, and 呂德齊.

Born on the twenty-ninth day of the fifth month, he was registered in the civilian households, studied the Book of Documents, and entered the Jiangxi provincial examination as a National Academy student, placing 105th among the successful candidates. In 1532, the eleventh year of the Jiajing reign, he passed the Renchen metropolitan examination at the age of forty-one, ranking 155th, and received the jinshi degree in the second class, forty-first place; he first served in the Ministry of Justice and was selected as a Hanlin shujishi.

In the thirteenth year of Jiajing he was appointed a supervising secretary in the Military Section (兵科給事中); in the fifteenth year he was promoted to 工科右 and returned home to mourn his mother. In the eighteenth year he became Left Rectifier of the Left Spring Palace concurrently with a Hanlin Academy Compiler (左春坊左司直兼翰林院檢討). In the twenty-fourth year he was promoted to Director of Studies of the Nanjing Directorate of Education (南京國子監司業); in the twenty-fifth year he became Right Zhongyun of the Right Spring Palace (右春坊右中允) and took charge of Nanjing Hanlin Academy affairs. In the twenty-ninth year he became a right assistant in the Nanjing Court of Transmission (南京通政使司右參議), in the thirty-first year Junior Vice Minister of the Nanjing Court of Imperial Stud (南京太僕寺少卿), and in the thirty-third year he retired.

Intellectual life and associations

Lu studied under Zhan Ruoshui (1466–1560) and was one of his foremost disciples; he was a fellow student of Hong Yuan. His students included Yang Shiqiao, Ye Maozhi, Ye Xianzhi, and Tang Boyuan, while Yu Chunsi also studied calendrical learning under him.

Zhan Ruoshui wrote a preface to Lu’s genealogy. Letters passed between Lu and Zhan Ruoshui, Qian Wei, and Zhou Yi, and Lu received poems and prose from Hu Song and Zhou Yi; Ye Maozhi read his Xin tong tu shuo. Lu held that Wang Shouren’s doctrine of innate knowledge and Zhan Ruoshui’s doctrine of heavenly principle shared the same fundamental aim, the key being transformation of one’s material endowment; he wrote Xin tong tu shuo to clarify the idea.

Works

Works listed for Lu include Xin tong tu shuo (《心統圖說》), Lülü guyi (《律呂古義》), Lülü guangyi (《律呂廣義》), Yunle buyi (《韻樂補遺》), Lei gao (Lü Huai) (《類稿（呂懷）》), Zhouyi gua bian tuchuan (《周易卦變圖傳》), Jinshi yibian (《巾石遺編》), Miao yi (《廟議》), Li kao (《曆考》), and Xiaoshao kaoyi (《簫韶考逸》). The titles 《類稿（呂懷）》 and 《巾石類稿》 are both found, as are 《律呂古義》 and 《律呂古逸》; 《新建興安縣誌》 is also listed.

Volume listings give Lei gao (Lü Huai) thirty-three juan, Zhouyi gua bian tuchuan two juan, Jinshi yibian one juan, Lülü guangyi three juan, Xiaoshao kaoyi two juan, and Yunle buyi two juan.