Lín Xīyuán 林希元 (1481–1565), zì Màozhēn 茂貞, hào Cìyá 次崖, was a mid-Míng Confucian scholar from Tóng’ān 同安 (Quánzhōu 泉州, Fújiàn 福建) and a principal figure of the Quánzhōu Mǐnxué 閩學 school in the second generation after Cài Qīng 蔡清 (蔡清). He passed the jìnshì examination in Zhèngdé dīngchǒu 正德丁丑 = 1517 and held office as Provincial Surveillance Vice-Commissioner in Guǎngdōng (Guǎngdōng tíxué qiānshì 廣東提舉僉事). His biography is appended to that of Cài Qīng in the Míng shǐ rúlín zhuàn 明史儒林傳.
The catalog meta gives his lifedates as ca. 1480 – ca. 1560; CBDB and standard biographical sources give 1481–1565, which is followed here. The Sìkù tíyào on his Yìjīng cún yí 易經存疑 (KR1a0095) corrects the Quánzhōu fǔ zhì 泉州府志, which had erroneously promoted him to Vice-Director of the Court of Judicial Review (Dàlǐsì chéng 大理寺丞) — a posting his self-preface confirms he had only briefly held in passage.
Lín’s principal work is the Yìjīng cún yí in twelve juàn (1542), a sequel to Cài Qīng’s Yìjīng méng yǐn (KR1a0092) within the Mǐnxué tradition; the Sìkù tíyào and Yáng Shíqiáo’s 楊時喬 Zhōuyì gǔjīn wén 周易古今文 both characterize it as continuing where the Méng yǐn leaves off. He also produced the Sìshū cún yí 四書存疑 (a parallel work on the Four Books) and miscellaneous prose.