Collected Illustrations of the Three Realms (Volume 27)

Zhen Xishan—whose given name was Dexiu and courtesy name was Xiyuan—was a native of Pucheng in Min Min is a historical name for modern-day Fujian Province. His original surname was Shen original: 慎, but he changed it to avoid the taboo personal name of Emperor Xiaozong In imperial China, it was a sign of respect—and often a legal requirement—to avoid using characters that appeared in the Emperor's name.

He presented his work, The Extended Meaning of the Great Learning Daxue Yanyi: A seminal text in Neo-Confucian political philosophy intended to guide the Emperor's moral and political education, to the throne, and His Majesty highly praised it. When his residence at Yueshan was completed, he named his personal study "Learning the Changes" Referring to the I Ching or Book of Changes, one of the oldest and most profound Chinese classics.

A poem written for the Spring Festival stated:

Fu Xi and King Wen are the legendary figures credited with creating the trigrams and hexagrams of the Book of Changes.

Having attained the rank of Jinshi The highest degree in the imperial examination system, he served as an Academician of the Palace of Assisting Governance, Superintendent of the Longevity Observatory, and concurrently held the position of Imperial Reader A prestigious role involving the selection and explanation of classical texts for the Emperor's education.