He Jingming

Life

At eight he could compose prose, and at fifteen he passed the provincial examination. He was registered as a shengyuan; in Hongzhi 15 (1502) he passed the jinshi examination, ranking in the third class, 173rd place, and received appointment as a zhongshu sheren.

At the beginning of Zhengde, while Liu Jin was in power, He Jingming withdrew on grounds of illness; after Liu Jin’s defeat, he was recommended for reappointment to the Secretariat. One account says that He’s memorial denouncing the eunuch Liu Jin led to his dismissal, and that he returned to office in Zhengde 6 (1511). In Zhengde 12 he was promoted to a Ministry of Personnel vice-director, and in Zhengde 13 he became Shaanxi Deputy Education Commissioner; the former post is also styled Vice-director of the Ministry’s Office of Verification and Sealing. He later submitted a plea to retire because of illness and died after reaching home; one account gives his age as thirty-nine and his death date as 5 August 1521.

Family and associations

His father, He Xin, had served as a post-station assistant at Weiyuan. The prefect Li Ji, having heard that He Xin had a gifted son, summoned Jingming to study with his own son. When He Xin retired and returned home, he was very poor; Li Ji sent carriages and horses to see him off outside the city, addressing the father as an “old friend” and Jingming as a “young friend.”

His great-grandfather was He Hai, his grandfather He Jian, his mother was née Li, and his stepmother née Lu; his elder brothers were He Jingshao, He Jingyang, and He Jinghui, and his wife was née Zhang. His second son was He Li. His grandson He Luowen was born in 1536; other descendants included a granddaughter surnamed He, identified as Liu Yongtai’s stepmother, the son of a granddaughter named Liu Yongyu, and the great-grandsons He Yujia, He Yijia, and He Qijia.

Literary activity and thought

He was recognized for literary skill and was celebrated alongside Li Mengyang as “He and Li”; contemporaries said that poetry and prose in the realm had to be discussed as “He–Li.” He advocated the maxim that “prose must follow Qin and Han, and poetry must follow the High Tang.” He was also counted with Bian Gong and Xu Zhenqing among the Four Eminent Men, and with Kang Hai, Wang Jiusi, and Wang Tingxiang among the Seven Talents, the group known as the Former Seven.

Between the Zhengde and Jiajing reigns, He Jingming and Li Mengyang promoted a revivalist learning modeled on antiquity; it spread throughout the realm and changed literary style. After He and Li became famous, they often disagreed over poetry: some criticism contrasted He’s junyi, or graceful brilliance, with Li’s cuohao, or rugged force, while other criticism said that Li prevailed in qigu and He in fengshen, though the two pursued different paths and each had strengths.

Commentators traced He’s poetry back to the Han and Wei and said that it took purity and distance as its interest and junyi as its ideal. His classical verse was described as clear and elegant, his regulated verse as finely wrought, and his seven-character regulated poems as sharing a source with Li Mengyang while flowing in a different direction; another assessment emphasized his reliance on Du Fu. The poems 《種麻篇》, 《搗衣》, and 《詠懷》 were praised as powerful imitations of the Six Dynasties, while 《聽琴》, 《獵圖》, 《送徐少參》, 《津市》, and 《打魚》 were said to capture the manner of Du Fu.

His students included Dai Guan and Sun Jifang. He exchanged literary prefaces with Kang Hai, Wang Shizhen, Li Kaixian, and Chen Wenzhu, and exchanged poems with Zheng Zuo. His collected writings also preserve letters addressed to Li Dongyang, Li Mengyang, He Tang, Yang Yiqing, Li Panlong, and Xu Huan. When he was gravely ill, he still insisted that his epitaph be written by Li Mengyang; by then the two had long been estranged after their dispute over poetry.

Works

Works associated with him include 《大復集》, 《雍大記》, 《四箴雜言》, 《大復論》, 《學約書程》, and 《何子雜言》. A 38-volume 《何大復先生集》 is also listed; another 38-volume work appears as 《大復巢》, alongside the title 《大復山人集》. 《學約書程》, 《大復論》, and 《何子雜言》 are each listed as one volume.