of Chu Hsi's daily life. Chu Hsi, we learn, liked to sing, especially after drinking wine. He generally avoided riding in sedan chairs, preferring to ride carriages or travel by horse- back. He often could not afford to hire messengers to carry letters to friends, a practice his contemporaries with better incomes treated as routine. To supplement his income, Chu Hsi turned to publishing books, an activity at least one friend, Chang Shih, tried to discourage. Among Chu Hsi's expenses were the gifts routinely exchanged among friends and visitors. For instance, he received from a Buddhist monk gifts of dried bamboo-shoots and dried laver and later reciprocated by sending tea powder, rubbings, and a book of T'ang poetry. At Chu Hsi's academies, discussions with his students generally took place in the evenings, and Chu Hsi would complain if his students did not ask him any questions. Chu Hsi's memory was extraordinary, and in conversations he could cite accu- rately from a great range of texts. From Professor Chan's careful reconstruction of these and many other details of Chu Hsi's life, we get a much better sense of his character, his social milieu, and his personal experiences. |
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