Shao Yong

Timeline

1. 1011–1035Fanyang · FanyangBorn in the fourth year of Dazhong Xiangfu under Emperor Zhenzong, ancestral home Fanyang. His father Shao Gu moved to Gongcheng (modern Huixian, Henan); as a youth Yong studied diligently on his own, living plainly in cloth and vegetables, already resolved to live in reclusion and not serve in office.
2. c. 1035–1049Gongcheng · GongchengThe magistrate of Gongcheng, Li Zhicai, taught him the learning of principle, nature, and destiny along with the prior-heaven diagram; Shao Yong thus built a numerological system of the Changes, deducing yuan, hui, yun, and shi, laying the foundation for Huangji Jingshi, and never sat the imperial examinations in his life.
3. 1049–1070Luoyang · LuoyangAround the Huangyou era he moved to Luoyang, where Fu Bi, Sima Guang and others bought him a garden residence; he styled it Anle Wo (Cave of Contentment). Writing and teaching in Luoyang, he completed Huangji Jingshi, using numerological principles to trace the rise and fall of ages; his poetry collection Yichuan Jirang Ji was also finished then.
4. 1070–1077Luoyang · LuoyangDuring the Xining era he associated with Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi, Zhang Zai and others, renowned in Luoyang yet holding no office. He died of illness in Luoyang in the tenth year of Xining; Cheng Hao wrote his epitaph, and later generations posthumously named him Kangjie, honoring him as one of the Five Masters of Northern Song Neo-Confucianism.