Jiang Xin

Life

His great-grandfather was Jiang Mou; his grandfather was Jiang Cheng and his father Jiang Jing, while his mother was Lady Wan and his elder brother was Jiang Jie. His wife was Jiang, his later wives were Li and Liu, and his sons were Jiang Rulin and Jiang Ruchuan.

In 1528, the seventh year of the Jiajing era, he placed ninth in the Yingtian provincial examination of the Wuzi cycle; the xianggong qualification is also given as rank 97, while the shengyuan rank is 9. In 1532, the eleventh year of the Jiajing era, he passed the Renchen examination as a Presented Scholar, thirty-sixth in the second class.

After passing the examination, he observed administration in the Ministry of Revenue and was selected as its Fujian Office Secretary. He was then promoted to Vice Director in the Ministry of War; the office is also given as Vice Director in the Ministry of War's Office of Carriages or as Vice Director of a Ministry of War office. He served as Surveillance Vice Commissioner in Sichuan and, in the ninth month of 1540, became Education Vice Commissioner in Guizhou.

While serving as Education Vice Commissioner in Guizhou, he established the Zhengxue and Wenming academies. In the eighth month of the twenty-second year of Jiajing (1543), he sought retirement because of illness and returned to his native place before awaiting a reply. Inspecting Censor Wei Hongmian impeached him for leaving his post without authorization; he was consequently removed from office and reduced to commoner status for acting arbitrarily and playing with the law.

Learning and associations

Jiang studied under Wang Shouren and Zhan Ruoshui. He was a Yangming-school Neo-Confucian and thinker, and was also described as a Daoist. He was a friend of Ji Yuanheng and wrote a preface for a work by Zhan Ruoshui.

Writings

His collected writings include Jiang Daolin xiansheng wen cui (《蔣道林先生文粹》), a work in nine volumes.