A hermit is a hermit. The first is the "scholar", that is, intellectuals, otherwise there would be no seclusion. Don't be an official, don't be famous, work as a farmer in the countryside all your life, or do business in seclusion in rivers and lakes, or live in caves to cut wood. There are countless hermits in the past dynasties, and no one can be called a hermit. Ci Hai's explanation that "hermit" is "hermit who is not an official" and does not emphasize "scholar" is really inaccurate. "Southern History Seclusion" says: Hermits "need moral cultivation, literature needs art.. If you don't do it, you will do it. Husband and firewood are in the mountains. " Moreover, the ordinary scholar is not enough to be called a hermit, but a famous scholar, that is, a saint. Yi said, "Heaven and earth are in harmony, but saints are hidden." He said, "Seclusion is not boring." He said, "This is noble." ..... is a "saint" rather than an ordinary person. In a word, a talented, learned and official person is called a hermit. "South History, Seclusion" says that "all take the universe as the heart and the wind and cloud as the spirit". So "hermits" are not ordinary people.

There was a layman's name in ancient China. Zhao Qingyi's Textual Research (Volume 3, Volume 6) quoted Wu Zeng's Random Records of Nengbian Zhai, saying that there were many lay scholars, which began in Shang and Zhou Dynasties. At the beginning of Buddhism, it was an orthodox religion that resisted India, and it was called "Shaman Thought Tide" by later generations. Shaman is a monk. At first, Buddhism was practiced as a monk. Later, in the development exhibition, there appeared a person who converted to Buddhism but did not become a monk, called a layman. Vimalakīrti, a famous Buddhist theorist, is a layman. After Buddhism was introduced into China, it gradually appeared as a layman in China. In particular, the spread of Zen Buddhism and Pure Land Buddhism attracted a large number of intellectuals and others who were stumped by secular affairs to believe in Buddhism, which greatly increased the number of Buddhists. Quanzhen School belongs to the Jin Dynasty. Wang Zhongyang abandoned his family when he created Tao, and his disciple Ma Yu and other seven sons also became monks. Because of this, Quanzhen began to implement the system of becoming a monk. Later, in Quanzhen religion, there were also people who converted to Buddhism and never became monks, called laymen. Because orthodoxy only needs to be educated, that is, orthodox younger brother. There are no hard and fast rules on whether to become a monk or not, so there is no need to make a distinction between becoming a monk at home. Taoist priests at home now generally refer to laymen.