Yáng Jiǎn 楊簡 (1141–1226), zì Jìngzhòng 敬仲, hào Cíhú 慈湖, of Cíxī 慈谿 in Míngzhōu 明州 (modern Cíxī district, Níngbō, Zhèjiāng). The principal disciple of Lù Jiǔyuān 陸九淵 (Xiàngshān, 1139–1193), and the leading Sòng exponent of xīnxué 心學 (“mind-doctrine”) applied to the canonical literature. Jìnshì of Qiándào 5 (1169).
His career began with provincial magistracies (Fùyáng 富陽 zhǔbù 主簿, etc.); Censorate posts under Guāngzōng / Níngzōng; brief capital service; periodic withdrawal. Late in life he held Bǎomógé xuéshì 寶謨閣學士 and the honorific Tàizhōng dàfū 太中大夫. Died in Bǎoqìng 2 (1226), aged 86 suì.
The transformative event of his intellectual life was the shànbǐng 扇柄 (“fan-handle”) encounter with Lù Jiǔyuān: while Yáng was holding a fan, Lù Jiǔyuān asked “This — what is this?”, precipitating an awakening of xīn 心 (mind) as the encompassing principle of Yì-and-Lǐ canon-reading. Yáng’s Cíhú yíshū 慈湖遺書 narrates the episode.
Wrote a xīnxué commentary on every major canonical text. Within the Kanripo corpus he is the author of KR1a0037 Yángshì Yì zhuàn (originally also Cíhú Yì jiě 慈湖易解 + Yǐ Yì 已易, the present 20-juan recension reflecting Míng editorial reorganization). Also: Cíhú Shī zhuàn 慈湖詩傳, Yángshì jì lǐ shū 楊氏記禮書, Cíhú yíshū 慈湖遺書 (collected works).
Funerary inscription preserved in his collected works (per CBDB). Biography in Sòngshǐ; treated extensively in SòngYuán xuéàn (juan 74, Cíhú xuéàn 慈湖學案). CBDB id 15072.
Catalog-vs-external dating: the Kanripo catalog gives 1140–1225; the Sòngshǐ, CBDB, and the standard secondary literature give 1141–1226. The latter (1141–1226) is followed here as more authoritative.
Sìkù-period reception of Yáng Jiǎn was highly polemical: Yáng Shíqiáo 楊時喬 (Míng) judged him outright heterodox, and the Qīng Sìkù editors record his Yì zhuàn explicitly as a negative exemplar, citing Zhū Xī’s Yǔlèi judgment “Yáng Jìngzhòng’s writings can be destroyed.” Yet Yáng was the dominant xīnxué exegete of the entire Sòng dynasty, and his Yì-readings are the proximate ancestor of the late-Míng YìChán 易禪 synthesis (Sū Jùn 蘇濬’s Míngmíngpiān 冥冥篇 named in the Sìkù tiyao as the endpoint of this trajectory).