According to Wu Genealogy, Xu Xiake's lineage began in the Yin Ruins in Kaifeng at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty. On the occasion of the invasion of the nomads from the south, Xu Gu, the ancestor of the Xu family in Wuchouli, moved to Hangzhou with a large number of Central Plains documents with the Song royal family, and his descendants were scattered in Jingxi (now Yixing), (now Songjiang) and Qinchuan (now Changshu). The fourth ancestor, Xu Shoucheng, moved to Suzhou during the reign of Ningzong Qingyuan in the Southern Song Dynasty and served as the county magistrate of Wuxian County. Qian XI, the fifth ancestor, moved to the remote Jiangyin in the early Yuan Dynasty, and all his descendants vowed not to be an official, hiding for decades. Qian 1 1 is the ancestor of the Xu family in Wucheng, Jiangyin. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, Xu Qi, the ninth ancestor, was summoned by Bai Yi and ordered to go to West Shu to win over the Qiang people. After his success, he retired and returned to his hometown in a royal costume. "Hiding heroes in Jiangcun is more elegant than poetry and wine" (preface to Hu Guang's "Mr. Xin Yuan Yu Shu Tu"), "It is an important event at the beginning of the country to present scholars and write poems to bid farewell" and "and". On the one hand, Xu Qi reclaimed land in his hometown on a large scale, and on the other hand, he collected a wide range of collected works, making JOE a prominent family in the south of the Yangtze River with "several hectares of fields and tens of thousands of books". Xu Qi took Jingnan and Jingzhou as his two sons' words to show that he did not forget the ancestral style of "Zhou Nan Gao Shi". Xue Mei and Xue Zhu are the names of Jingnan and Jingzhou, respectively, to show their lofty aspirations. The two brothers lived in seclusion by building "five roads and ten scenes", "observing the imperial court's training, paying attention to farming, studying hard and being filial; Great wealth, but cautious cultivation and extraordinary virtue. If you take it and leave it, you must take its meaning "("People's Spectrum "Volume 53" Old Biography "). Xu Jingnan built Mei Xuexuan, which has a history and a tea stove pen bed, and several plum trees were planted outside the Xuan. After reading the book, he "missed Lin Bu by the window, made tea in the small pottery valley" (Lou Hong wrote poems) and sang with the guests for fun. During the famine and border disaster, the brothers Xu Jingnan went out to help the border and were praised by the world. They were crowned as righteous men by the court and their father's tomb was honored as. Xu Jingnan wholeheartedly served Huang En and sent his son Xu Yi to Beijing for a job. Since then, Xu has been active for five generations and won a reputation.
The 11th Xu Yi, with his rich family property and exquisite calligraphy, took China's calligraphy as a legal person and was later promoted to China calligrapher. After returning to China due to illness, he personally urged his descendants to study. Li Dongyang's "Ming Dynasty Calligrapher Xu Jun's Epitaph" said that his "godson is very strict, does not waste clothes, does not pay attention to meat, puts the collection in the backyard, so that it is not connected with the city, and bows to the class every day until night." Xu Yi also spared no expense to hire famous teachers for his descendants. When Qian Hetan, the champion of Huating, was dismissed from office and went home, he was invited to his family school with 500 gold. My grandfather is a gifted scholar in Wuzhong and a teacher of the Xu family. Wen Zhiming's "Praise of the Portrait of Xu Gong in the Inner Han Dynasty" says: "Xu Gong in Jiangyin, the Inner Han Dynasty, died for 30 years and was born late, but failed. However, the first father temple was built and the museum was given to the public; Wenzhou, the first gentleman, kept it, which was particularly humiliating. " In addition, when commenting on Zhang Hengfu's seclusion, Hanlin also offered a teacher to Xu Yi's eldest son, Xu Yuan. Li Dongyang wrote the preface to Xu Yi's 60th birthday, and later wrote an epitaph for him. This epitaph was later lost. Xu Xiake and his brother Zhong Zhaobai searched for it and bought it with three acres of land. Zhu Yunming, Gu and others wrote inscriptions.
Xu Xiake's great-grandfather Xu, whose real name is Shang Xian, was born in Zitong. At the age of 65,438+00, he was gifted in poetry and prose. When he grew up, he learned calligraphy, read ancient classics and historical biographies, Qin and Han Ci. In the 16th year of Chenghua (1480), Ming Xianzong took part in the provincial examination, and was appreciated by the examiners Luo and Li Bin, who ranked third in the examination, and carved and passed on the scriptures for him. Participate in the second year; After failing in the exam, he died at the age of 29, and a few months later his father, Xu Yi, also died. Xu is the first genius of the Xu family in Wucheng. He is the author of several volumes of "Da Yi Draft", which is the first work of the Xu family to express their feelings and aspirations.
Xu Jing, the great-grandfather of Xu Xiake, was named Xiwu. The fifty-third volume of "People's Spectrum" and "The Old Biography of the West Wu in the Spring and Yuan Dynasties" said: "I am less isolated in mechanics, less isolated in the world, and less isolated in learning. Although there are thousands of buildings, I have never paid attention to them. Only wise men and scholars from all directions came. " Then sit and talk about competing with the sun and forget how tired you are. In order to inherit his father's footsteps and become the top scholar, Xu Jing gave all his possessions to his mother and wife, and hid himself in the "Wanjuanlou" to study hard. Qian Hetan's "Wan Juan Lou Ji" says: "Zilou is also the essence of Chuanyue, shedding the secrets of ghosts and gods, studying ancient and modern Olympics, and winding up bullfighting, and knowing whether you can see Jingu Pingquan. "Mao Yi, Yu Hongzhi, Xu Jing (1495) worked hard to be a juren in middle school, and Tang Yin and others at the meridian gate attached great importance to talent, fame and appearance. Plus, he "has money without giving" and is jealous. Hongzhiwei (1499) Xu Jing and Tang Yin went to Beijing by boat to catch the exam. After arriving in Beijing, "Liu Ru (Tang Yin) had a very good reputation, and people or officials invited him to stay in the alley, and Xu Youtong also had several people. From six days in this city, people have attracted attention. " (Anecdotes of the Complete Works of Tang Bohu, Volume II). After three meetings, the competition spread all over the city, and it was widely rumored that "the rich man of Xu Jing Jiangyin got the test questions in advance through bribery". After investigation by the court, the theory of trickling water was completely untrue, but in order to calm public opinion, they were still removed from the official records and sent back to the county government to be used as small officials. After Tang Yin returned to China, he was ashamed of not being an official, and the husband and wife turned against each other, so he was depressed and passive, so he built a "Peach Blossom Temple" to amuse himself. Go back to Wu, close the door and thank the guests for reading. After the death of Emperor Xiaozong of the Ming Dynasty, Xu hoped that the court would pardon him. He went to the capital in Bingyin (1506) to get information, fell ill in the capital, and died in a foreign land in Dingmao (1507), repeating the tragedy of his father's ambition. "Ben Gan Ji" has been handed down from generation to generation, and critics have commented that its poems are "like Lu Guimeng" (the biography of the West Wu in the Spring and Yuan Dynasties) and "no less than Cui Hao" (Yuan Shou; Preface).
Xu Jing is rich, with nearly 40,000 mu of land in Wucheng and Nanqi Shashan of Jiangyin. The third son governs, negotiates and clings, while the second son negotiates, inherits his father's ambition and attacks his son's business. Xu Qia, also known as Xu Xiake's great grandfather, is the ancestor of the Xu family in Nanqi Banner. Xu Qia Yingmin is knowledgeable, and doctoral students make up for students in imperial academy. He is "the best in every attempt", but he has been absent from the list for 7 times. The worst time was Jiajing Xinmao (153 1), which had been accepted, but failed because the number of reference students exceeded the prescribed proportion. Later, he donated money to the preface class of Li Hong, and the official said, "His poems are magnificent and elegant, and rich in self-interest" in Volume 53 of Li Hong's main book, Biography of People, and Yun Qi's small manuscripts have been handed down from generation to generation.
Xu Qia has five sons. The eldest son, Yan Fang, was originally named Run, and the word Rusheng, named Chai, was Xu Xiake's grandfather. Xu Yanfang's "comprehensive allusions are elegant and elegant, and ancient Chinese words are appreciated by ordinary people" (Min Pu, Volume 53, Old Biography, Guanglu Zuozhuan and Chai Shigong Biography). Frustrated, my father had high hopes for Yanfang and built a bookstore for him to study. When the brothers split up, although Xu Yanfang was the eldest son, he voluntarily gave up his ancestral home and lived in huzhuang Bookstore to study hard for scientific wisdom. As a result, he was "tired and curious" like his father, and Chai's grass was passed down from generation to generation. Xu Yanfang has six sons, and the third son, Xu Youmian, is Xu Xiake's father. Looking at Xu Xiake's family background, there are two outstanding characteristics: one is the high style of hermit, and the other is that poetry and books are handed down from family to family, which complement each other. The hermit peak, for the Xu family, has a long history, and the distant ancestor Xu Zhi has always been their pride and example. We can directly see the continuation of "Nangao Poetic Style" in Qian Yi, Xu Qi, Xu Jingnan and Xu Yingzhou. Although from Xu Yi, the hometown of Gao Shi has been striving for merit for generations, the "wind of Gao Shi" is still heard. Xu Yi, the 11th ancestor, died of illness shortly after donating money to the official position, claiming to be "anti-raising an official without ambition" (Li Dongyang's Epitaph of Xu Jun in Ming Taizu); Taizu Yuan recommended himself as a modest man, and "those who are arrogant and extravagant are far away from the world" ("People's Spectrum" Volume 53 "Old Biography"); High-impedance Xu Jing is lighter than the world, cooler than taste, and fond of learning; Great-grandfather Xu Qia resigned and returned to the field, traveling around the nymphs, not stained with worldly things; Grandpa Xu Yanfang came and went, indifferent to the secular flavor, and wrote the spirit with poetry and wine. Seclusion can be said to be the grand landscape of the life of ancient intellectuals in China, so that some people think that the ancient history of China can be alternately divided into two periods: "official culture" and "hidden culture". However, it is rare that the style of an aristocratic scholar like Xu has been passed down from generation to generation. Therefore, not only the Xu nationality is proud of its conscious mode, but also the world talks about it and highly praises it. In Castle Peak Tang Tie, people have praised Xu Zhimo's hermit peak many times. Wang Dashan wrote a poem saying: "High fitness makes its name endless"; Jie Jin wrote a poem saying: "Zhou Nan's faithfulness is well known all over the world"; Su Ping wrote an inscription: "A noble man named Zhou Nan is immortal, and he was planted in the south of the Yangtze River." . Huang You's Mei Xuexuan Collection says: "I have tasted the name of Mu Naizu's shunza in Zhou Nan, so there is a hope for those who take Jingnan as their ci"; Zhang Hong's "Preface to Mei Xuexuan" said that Xu Jingnan "is a senior scholar, hence his name" Nature "and" seeking worldly virtue ". The Ming Dynasty calligrapher Li Dongyang's Epitaph of Xu Jun said that Xu Yi "lived in the southeast for a long time, although he lived in the forest valley. Jun's old genealogy was handed down by Gao Shi's descendants in Hannan Prefecture, and it was "a poem handed down from family to family". Compared with the hermit peak, the Xu family's academic tradition is more striking. Xu Yin, the ancestor, brought a large number of Central Plains documents with the Song Dynasty, which laid the foundation for JOE's book collection. Xu Junping, the eighth ancestor, was a good friend of Ni Zan, and his son Xu Qi had a strange summer dining state when he was 10. Ni Zan chose the Chinese word for him.