Who is Ban Si 班嗣?

Ban Si （班嗣）was a Taoist during the transition period between the Western and Eastern Han dynasties. A native of Anling, Fufeng (now northeast of Xianyang, Shaanxi), he was the cousin of Ban Biao. His family possessed imperial-bestowed books and enjoyed abundant wealth. He once studied alongside Ban Biao and associated with figures like Yang Xiong and Huan Tan. Although he pursued Confucian studies, he revered the thoughts of Laozi and Zhuangzi, especially those of Zhuangzi.  

He stated that Zhuangzi "rejected sages and discarded wisdom, cultivated life and preserved authenticity, embraced emptiness and indifference, returned to nature, took only creation as teacher and friend, and was not enslaved by the mundane. Fishing in a ravine, all things could not interfere with his will; lingering on a hill, the world could not change his joy. He did not follow the net of sages, nor flatter the bait of lords, freely indulging his aspirations—those who discussed him could not define him" (Hanshu: Biography of Xu). He admired and praised Zhuangzi's advocacy of "nature," despising those who "were bound by the fetters of benevolence and righteousness, tied by the reins of fame, followed the tracks of Zhougong and Confucius, and raced on the path of Yan Yuan and Min Ziqian" (ibid.). He believed that nature and moral teachings were opposed, asserting that "worldly education" was incompatible with the great way of "nature." He said, "If one is already bound by worldly education, why use the great way to show off? There was once a man who learned to walk in Handan: before mastering even a semblance, he forgot his original gait and crawled back" (ibid.). On the premise of affirming the opposition between nature and moral teachings, he argued that embracing both moral teachings and the natural way of Laozi and Zhuangzi was akin to the Handan gait imitator—impossible to achieve. His deeds and words are recorded in Volume 100 of Hanshu.