The unnamed East Sea Hermit was once friends with official Wang Liang. After Wang resigned from high office, the hermit reproached him for craving political posts despite insufficient virtue, cut off contact forever, and won great admiration for his strict moral standards.
Niu Lao was Emperor Guangwu’s childhood friend. He once claimed an upright man should not befriend an emperor. After Liu Xiu took the throne, Niu kept declining imperial summons by feigning illness and wearing plain clothes, clinging to his integrity.
Yan Guang, Emperor Guangwu’s old classmate, hid as a fisherman after the emperor took power. He treated the emperor and ministers casually, rejecting the official post of remonstrator. He farmed and fished at Fuchun Mountain and declined later summons till his death at eighty.
Upright scholar Min Gong valued dignity above all. He quit Hou Ba’s service for being ignored on state affairs and rejected later imperial summons. Declining local officials’ meat supply to avoid burdening townsfolk, he spent his final years in Pei County.
Li Hong’s moral conduct harmonized his neighborhood. Summoned as magistrate, he delayed departure for a month then fled to avoid office. Scholar Yang Xiong admired his balanced stance, neither extreme reclusiveness like Boyi nor over-accommodation like Liuxia Hui.
Scholar Han Shun declined official summons and hid in Zhongnan Mountains amid late Wang Mang turmoil. Warlord Wei Xiao sent lavish gifts to invite him as tutor, yet Han insisted Wei visit him in mountains. While Wei’s faction perished, Han lived purely in seclusion till death.
The unnamed Daoist Old Man of Pengcheng lived secluded over ninety years. He mourned Gong Sheng, who starved himself rather than serve Wang Mang, lamenting fame brought the scholar’s premature death, seeing such martyrdom contradict Daoist self-preservation.
Daoist hermit Yan Zun earned a living by divination in Chengdu and declined official offers. He argued true wealth lies in inner peace rather than material gains, rejecting a rich man’s aid and claiming fortune and fame harm one’s spirit.
Zhang Zhongwei and Wei Jingqing studied Dao De Jing and lived in seclusion without official posts. Skilled in astronomy, nature studies and writing, he dwelt in a shabby grassy cottage, shunning fame. Only his friend Liu Gong appreciated his wisdom.