Lei Cizong 雷次宗

Lei Cizong 雷次宗 (386-448), courtesy name Zhonglun 仲倫, was a Confucian scholar of the Liu-Song period 劉宋 (420-479).

He hailed from Nanchang 南昌 (in today's Jiangxi province) and was, in his youth, an adherent of the Buddhist master Huiyuan 慧遠 (334-416). Later on, he became a specialist in the ritual Classics and the Maoshi 毛詩. However, he did not aspire an official position, but remained a private teacher.

In 438, he opened his Academy of Mt. Jilong 雞籠山 close to the capital Jiankang 建康 (Nanjing 南京, Jiangsu), where he received many hundred students. Later on, he moved to the Zhaoyin Lodge 招隱館 at the foot of Mt. Zhongshan 鐘山. At that time, he specialised in the teaching of funeral rituals (see sangfu 喪服). At the time, when the Directorate of Education was not yet established, state-sponsored scholarship was divided into four main schools, namely Confucianism (ruxue 儒學), the School of the Mystery (xuanxue 玄學), history writing (shixue 史學), and literature (wenxue 文學).

His writings, Maoshi yi 毛詩義, Maoshi xuyi 毛詩序義 and Lüezhu Sangfu jingzhuan 略注喪服經傳, have not survived.