Gao Panlong

Gao Panlong (1562 to 1626) was a Chinese Neo-Confucian philosopher and scholar-official of the Ming dynasty, from Wuxi in present-day Jiangsu Province, and one of the leaders of the Donglin Academy and its movement. He earned the jinshi rank in 1589 and began an official career in 1591, but after protesting the dismissal of officials he was transferred to Guangdong, where he had a spiritual awakening that moral improvement depends on one's own heart and mind. He retired in 1595, proposed the Donglin Academy in 1603 as a centre for teaching and public debate, and led it after Gu Xiancheng died in 1612 until its dissolution in 1625. A member of the Cheng-Chu school who was also influenced by Zhang Zai and Wang Yangming, he stressed the investigation of things, meditation, respect and tranquility, and rejected the idea that goodness is naturally present in the heart and mind. Later a vice minister of justice and left censor-in-chief, he drowned himself in a pond in 1626 to escape an arrest warrant against Donglin activists.