He Xinyin

Biography

Family Background and Early Years

He Xinyin was born in 1517, the twelfth year of the Zhengde era, in Yongfeng County, Ji'an Prefecture, Jiangxi. From childhood he was regarded as exceptionally intelligent: sources describe him as “outstanding and unusual from a young age, devoted to the classics and histories, and always aspiring to great things.” He received a conventional Confucian education and studied the classics and histories diligently. In 1546, the twenty-fifth year of the Jiajing era, at age twenty-nine, he took the Jiangxi provincial examination and placed first, becoming the jieyuan. Success in the examination did not lead him into official service. After encountering the teachings of Wang Yangming's School of Mind, and especially those of the Taizhou school, he became skeptical of the conventional pursuit of status through the examination system. He ultimately abandoned that path and became a student of Yan Shannong, also known as Yan Jun, a disciple of Wang Gen and transmitter of the Taizhou school. Yan's teaching on the unity of mind and nature and on benevolence as the substance of the mind deeply influenced him. He Xinyin and Yan Shannong, however, did not share the same intellectual priorities in every respect. After several years, He left his teacher and returned to Yongfeng, beginning an independent scholarly career.

The Hall of Collective Harmony Experiment and Midlife Setbacks

In 1553, the thirty-second year of the Jiajing era, He Xinyin established the Hall of Collective Harmony in his native place as a major practical experiment in social reform. The Hall of Collective Harmony was a lineage-based autonomous organization headed by two leaders called the “leader of instruction” and the “leader of nurture.” Their authority extended not only over education but also economic distribution, social relief, and moral instruction. Through this institutional experiment, He sought to realize his ideal of a system centered on education and nurture in which a morally accomplished “senior teacher” would replace a hereditary monarch as the highest arbiter of social affairs. The experiment did not last. In 1559, the thirty-eighth year of the Jiajing era, the Hall of Collective Harmony organized lineage members to resist taxation. Local officials framed He and imprisoned him, and he was sentenced to exile in Guizhou. His friend Cheng Xueyan secured his release by arranging for Hu Zongxian to send an official communication to Jiangxi governor He Qian. The episode marked the failure of He's lineage-based social experiment and forced him into a broader sphere of itinerant activity.

Beijing and the Anti–Yan Song Affair

In 1560, the thirty-ninth year of the Jiajing era, Cheng Xueyan was promoted to assistant minister in the Court of the Imperial Stud and He Xinyin accompanied him to Beijing. There he met the brothers Geng Dingxiang and Geng Dingli and, through Geng Dingxiang, met Zhang Juzheng, who was then serving as an official of the Directorate of Education. The two men had sharp intellectual disagreements and clashed at their first meeting, an encounter later presented as a prelude to He's tragic end. In 1561, the fortieth year of the Jiajing era, He Xinyin joined the Daoist adept Lan Daoxing in using the Jiajing Emperor's interest in Daoism to promote a covert campaign that accelerated the fall of Chief Grand Councilor Yan Song. The following year Lan Daoxing was arrested after the affair was exposed and died in prison. He Xinyin was then pursued by Yan Song's remaining supporters, changed his name, and fled Beijing. From that point he traveled under the name He Xinyin. Qian Tongwen accompanied him south. Over the following years He moved through Fujian, Jiangxi, Hubei, Chongqing, and other regions, visiting Lin Zhao'en, Luo Rufang, Cheng Xuebo, and others while teaching Taizhou-school thought.

Late Exile and Death in Prison

In 1567, the first year of the Longqing era, He accompanied Cheng Xuebo to Chongqing Prefecture when Cheng became prefect and assisted in suppressing a White Lotus Rebellion. He continued to travel and lecture. In 1573, the first year of the Wanli era, he began teaching in Xiaogan, Hubei, and his influence grew. As Zhang Juzheng gained control of government in the early Wanli era and strongly restricted private lecturing, He's position became increasingly dangerous. In 1576, the fourth year of the Wanli era, the governor of Huguang sent the registrar of Yunmeng with troops to arrest him. Warned by Cheng Xuebo's younger brother, He escaped by boat to Taizhou. In 1577 he returned to Yongfeng to bury his parents, but was again placed under pursuit and fled to Qimen, where he stayed for more than a year in the home of his disciple Hu Shihe. In 1579, the seventh year of the Wanli era, Zhu Xinxue, a military officer of Nan'an, arrested He Xinyin and took him from Qimen to Nan'an Prefecture, passing through Fuliang, Raozhou, Jinxian, and Nanchang before reaching Wuchang in Huguang. On the second day of the ninth lunar month, September 22, he was beaten to death in prison by order of Governor Wang Zhiyuan. He was sixty-two.

Major Activities

Intellectual Contributions

He Xinyin's thought centered on the proposition that “the mind is the substance.” In metaphysics, he explicitly argued that “the mind is the substance, and benevolence is the substance of the mind.” He wrote that the human being is the heart of Heaven and Earth and that benevolence, as the heart of humanity and the world, is Taiji. By identifying benevolence with Taiji, he treated it as the source and governing principle of the myriad things. This line of thought inherited the tradition of Yangming learning and was closely connected to the Taizhou school, especially Yan Shannong's teaching on the unity of mind and nature and benevolence as the substance of the mind.

In his theory of human nature, He advanced distinctive doctrines of “few desires” and “nurturing desire.” He affirmed sensory desires for taste, sound, beauty, and comfort as part of human nature, arguing that such desires themselves belonged to human nature. He strongly criticized the Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucian doctrine of “preserving heavenly principle and eliminating human desire.” In his essay Disputing the Absence of Desire, he criticized Zhou Dunyi's doctrine of desirelessness, contending that the Way of Confucius and Mencius did not demand the eradication of desire but rather “few desires”—the regulation of desire. He further proposed the idea of nurturing desire, arguing that rulers and ordinary people alike had material and spiritual desires; the important task was to cultivate reasonable desires so that human wants could receive legitimate satisfaction.

Ideal of Social Reform

He proposed replacing hereditary monarchy with a system centered on education and nurture. At the Hall of Collective Harmony he designed an institutional structure centered on the two highest leaders, the leader of instruction and the leader of nurture, who combined authority over education, the economy, relief, and moral instruction. In his view, a true ruler should possess the moral quality of holding fast to the mean rather than simply inheriting power through bloodline. Only those capable of “awakening those who know later through prior knowledge”—the leaders of instruction and nurture—could be rulers of a state, senior teachers in a school, or teachers and leaders of the people. The source text characterizes this as the first appearance in Chinese history of a political model in which a morally perfected senior teacher possessed final authority to judge right and wrong within a social body.

He also proposed replacing hierarchical social relations with a theory centered on friendship. Of the traditional Five Relationships—ruler and subject, father and son, husband and wife, elder and younger brothers, and friends—he held that friendship alone could fully embody the highest good. The first four, because they were grounded in kinship or narrow private interests, were in his account prone to partisanship, pairing, domination, or excessive intimacy. Friendship, by contrast, rested on moral principle and could transcend narrow blood ties as an association of people sharing common aspirations. He advocated “uniting all under associations,” drawing households of scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants into a common network in which families differed only in occupational function. These ideas later influenced Huang Zongxi, Gu Yanwu, and others.

Teaching and Travel

He Xinyin devoted much of his life to itinerant teaching, traveling through Jiangxi, Beijing, Fujian, Hubei, Chongqing, Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and other regions. In 1563 he and Qian Tongwen and Zhu Xi visited Lin Zhao'en and stayed in Lin's residence for fifty-four days before leaving because of intellectual differences. He then passed through Pengze to Ningguo, where he met prefect Luo Rufang. In 1565, after Luo left office to observe mourning for his father, He had to leave Ningguo and, through Geng Dingxiang's arrangements, went to Cheng Xuebo in Xiaogan, Hubei. In 1567 he accompanied Cheng Xuebo to Chongqing and assisted in suppressing a White Lotus Rebellion. In 1572 he went first to Daozhou to meet Zhou Liangxiang, then returned to Xiaogan, and later went to Huang'an to meet Geng Dingxiang, staying with the Geng family for almost a year. In 1573 he began lecturing in Xiaogan and his influence expanded. His teaching activity helped popularize Confucian learning and spread the ideas of the Taizhou school among broader social groups.

Relations with Contemporaries

He Xinyin maintained a wide network of relationships with scholars and officials. He was close to the brothers Cheng Xueyan and Cheng Xuebo and repeatedly received their help. He had close ties with Geng Dingxiang and Geng Dingli, and Geng Dingxiang assisted him on several occasions. He also interacted intellectually with Luo Rufang, Qian Tongwen, Xia Daonan, Zhou Liangxiang, and others. He spent fifty-four days in intensive discussion with Lin Zhao'en before their intellectual differences led them apart. He first met Zhang Juzheng in 1560; their disagreements in scholarship produced conflict, and after Zhang gained control of the government, the source narrative presents his persecution of He as the principal cause of He's tragic end.

Personal Relations

Intellectual Lineage

• Yan Shannong (Yan Jun): teacher and transmitter of the Taizhou school; He studied Wang Gen's “teaching on establishing the root” under him
• Wang Gen: intellectual grand-teacher and founder of the Taizhou school; an important source of He's thought
• Wang Yangming: broader intellectual source; He inherited the proposition that “the mind is heavenly principle”

Friends and Associates

• Cheng Xueyan: close friend who repeatedly helped rescue He
• Cheng Xuebo: friend and younger brother of Cheng Xueyan; a major source of support in Hubei
• Geng Dingxiang and Geng Dingli: friends met in Beijing who repeatedly assisted him
• Luo Rufang: friend and prefect of Ningguo; an important associate
• Qian Tongwen: follower who traveled south with He and later died of illness
• Xia Daonan: friend met in Hangzhou
• Zhou Liangxiang: friend met in Daozhou
• Lin Zhao'en: partner in intellectual exchange; the two later separated over scholarly differences
• Hu Shihe: disciple who sheltered He during his flight to Qimen

Adversaries

• Yan Song: political adversary; He participated in the anti–Yan Song movement and was pursued by his faction
• Zhang Juzheng: intellectual and political opponent; after taking control of government Zhang suppressed lecturing, and He was ultimately arrested and killed
• Wang Zhiyuan: governor of Huguang who had He beaten to death in prison

Historical Assessment

Ming / Contemporary

• Li Zhi praised He Xinyin as a “sage,” writing that among the Five Human Relationships He set aside four and placed himself among teachers, friends, worthies, and sages. Li Zhi also argued in Reply to Magistrate Deng that He's death had nothing to do with Zhang Juzheng and that Zhang had never wished to kill him.
• Zou Yuanbiao's “Biography of Liang Fushan” records that He “gathered students and lectured in the environs of the capital,” repeatedly disagreed with Zhang Juzheng when Zhang served in the Directorate of Education, and thereby generated conflict. Zou strongly sympathized with He's death and condemned Wang Zhiyuan for killing a scholar to flatter the powerful.
• Many leading members of the Taizhou school worked to rescue He, demonstrating his influence and personal appeal within the school.

Early and Mid-Qing

• Huang Zongxi included He Xinyin among the important transmitters of the Taizhou school in the Records of Ming Scholars, affirming his intellectual independence and critical spirit. Huang's later criticism of hereditary ruler–subject relations and his proposal that schools should deliberate on public affairs were evidently influenced, according to the source, by He's idea of replacing monarchy with a system centered on education and nurture.
• Gu Yanwu's criticism of the hereditary “family possession of the realm” system was likewise influenced by He's ideas, and early Qing scholars reflecting on the fall of Ming often viewed his critical spirit positively.
• In the official History of Ming, He was placed in a biography of Confucian scholars or a related section, but because of the accusation of being a “heterodox rebel,” the official assessment was comparatively negative.

Late Qing and Republican Period

• As Western learning and anti-autocratic thought spread in the late Qing and early Republic, He's ideas received renewed attention, and some scholars treated him as a representative of early Chinese Enlightenment thought.
• Liang Qichao mentioned He in Academic History of China in the Last Three Hundred Years, linking his ideas to modern democratic concepts and regarding his model centered on education and nurture as having early Enlightenment significance.
• Republican-era scholar Rong Zhaozu devoted special discussion to He in Intellectual History of the Ming Dynasty, affirming his importance in Ming intellectual history.

Modern Assessments

• The multivolume General History of Chinese Thought edited by Hou Wailu characterized He as an “early Enlightenment thinker,” arguing that his thought reflected the development of commodity economy and the rise of urban social groups in the mid-Ming period.
• Modern scholar Wu Zhen, in “The Social Engagement of a Sixteenth-Century Thinker of the School of Mind: He Xinyin of the Taizhou School,” analyzed He's social participation and practice and viewed his thought as historically progressive.
• Liu Kewen's Essentials of Major Thinkers: He Xinyin systematically surveys He's life and ideas and argues that his conception of natural human nature gained broad resonance and carried a positive early-Enlightenment significance.