Gāo Dēng 高登 (d. 1148), zì Yànxiān 彥先, hào Dōngxī 東溪, native of Zhāngpǔ 漳浦 (Fújiàn). Tàixué shēng (Imperial Academy student) during Xuānhé (1119–25). At the Jīngkāng (1126) crisis, with Chén Dōng 陳東 and other students fúquè (prostrated-at-palace-gate), submitting letter requesting the execution of Cài Jīng, Tóng Guàn etc. liù zéi (six bandits) and the appointment of Lǐ Gāng 李綱 and Zhǒng Shīdào 种師道. When Qīnzōng then promoted Wú Mǐn 吳敏 and Zhāng Bāngchāng 張邦昌 to prime minister and was about to recall Lǐ Bāngyàn 李邦彥, Gāo again submitted a strong-protest letter.
In Shàoxīng 2 (1132) achieved Lǐbùjǔ graduation; placed in low rank for qièzhí (incisive-uprightness) in the palace examination. Appointed Fùchuānbù; transferred to Gǔxiàn lìng. When Hú Shùnzhì 胡舜陟 was Pacification Commissioner of Jìngjiāng and proposed to build a shrine for Qín Guì 秦檜’s father, Gāo refused; falsely accused by Hú; arrested-and-tried; on Hú’s own subsequent fall, Gāo’s punishment commuted to death-spared-and-banished to Róngzhōu 容州.
After Gāo’s death, 20 years on, Prime Minister Liáng Kèjiā 梁克家 and Zhāngzhōu prefect Hé Wàn 何萬 memorialised for restoration; further 10 years on, Zhū Xī (then prefect of Zhāngzhōu) submitted a zòuzhuàng requesting bāolù (commendation-and-recording) and posthumous grant of Chéngwùláng. Per the Sìkù tíyào, the Sòng shǐ běnzhuàn incorrectly records that Liáng Kèjiā had successfully restored Gāo’s Dígōngláng status; Zhū Xī’s actual memorial preserved in the present collection clarifies that earlier officials had stymied the request, and that after a further 50 years’ delay Zhū Xī took up the case.
Per Chén Zhènsūn’s Zhízhāi shūlù jiětí KR3h0011, the entry under Dōngxī jí records “Dígōngláng Gāo Dēng composed” — confirming the Dígōngláng (not Chéngwùláng) was the post-restoration office, and that Liáng Kèjiā’s restoration was unsuccessful at the time. Catalog meta records Gāo Dēng as fl. 1132; CBDB id 27773 gives deathyear 1148. The d. 1148 figure is followed.
His collection is Dōngxī jí 東溪集 KR4d0190, compiled in the Míng by Lín Xīyuán 林希元 李希元’s relation. Originally 20 juǎn per Wénxiàn tōngkǎo; 12 juǎn per Chén Zhènsūn and Sòng shǐ Yìwénzhì. The Míng recension is 2 juǎn — shàng + xià — with the upper juǎn containing 20 letter-and-discussion pieces, 31 poems, 5 encomia, 26 inscriptions, 12 cí, 2 qǐ, plus 1-juǎn appendix containing Zhū Xī’s bāolù memorial, two shrine-records, and 10 yánxínglù entries.