Hong Zicheng

Hong Yingming, styled Zicheng, with the Daoist name Huanchu, lived in the Wanli reign of the Ming dynasty, in the late sixteenth century; almost nothing is known of his life. His writings suggest that as a young man he was eager for an official career, and that he later withdrew to the mountains to study Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism, blending them into a wisdom of his own. His Vegetable Roots Discourse was for a time forgotten in China but was widely read in Japan, where it was treasured as a guide to self-cultivation and conduct, and in modern times it returned to China from Japan and has been popular ever since.