Erudite Jiang Gong cherished profound fraternal love with his brothers and taught thousands of disciples. He declined countless official summons. Seeing the court controlled by corrupt factions, he fled by sea to evade appointment and died at seventy-seven at home.
Great Confucian Fa Zhen taught hundreds of disciples yet shunned officialdom. He turned down repeated imperial summons, citing Xu You’s tale of washing ears to guard his purity. Honored as Master of Mysterious Virtue, he lived to eighty-nine in seclusion.