Chen Xianzhang

Timeline

1. 1447–1458Linchuan · JiangxiIn the twelfth year of Zhengtong he passed the Guangdong provincial exam; the next year he placed only on the supplementary list in the metropolitan exam and entered the academy. After failing again in the second year of Jingtai he went to Linchuan, Jiangxi, to study the Yi-Luo learning under Wu Yubi. Before long he returned to Xinhui, reading and sitting quietly behind closed doors at Chuntai Terrace, gradually shifting from Zhu Xi's memorization to seeking his own original mind, establishing the starting point of Baisha learning.
2. 1465–1482Baisha, Xinhui · XinhuiAfter more than a decade of quiet sitting and self-realization, around the beginning of Chenghua he set up his lecture hall at Baisha, advocating quiet sitting before reading and valuing doubt in learning. In the second year of Chenghua he briefly visited the National University, where his poetry was admired by Chancellor Xing Rang and he became famous in the capital, then returned south. In 1469 he failed the jinshi exam a third time and thereafter made teaching his livelihood, with scholars from Lingnan coming to study.
3. 1482–1500Baisha, Jiangmen · XinhuiIn the eighteenth year of Chenghua, recommended by Peng Shao, Zhu Ying and others, he entered the capital but refused the Ministry of Personnel examination, petitioning to return home to care for his aged parent, and was appointed Hanlin compiler before returning to his native place. Thereafter he repeatedly declined summons, teaching at Jiangmen that 'nature is the model'; his disciples Zhan Ruoshui and others transmitted his learning. He died at home in the thirteenth year of Hongzhi. His turn toward mind-learning preceded Wang Yangming's, making him a key link in the Ming transition from Neo-Confucianism to mind-learning.