Xu Heng

Xu Heng () (1209–1281) was a

Confucianist Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or ...

and

educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

of the

Yuan Dynasty The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongols, Mongol-led Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after Division of the M ...

in China. Xu Heng was born in present-day

Xinyang Xinyang (; postal: Sinyang) is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Henan province, People's Republic of China, the southernmost administrative division in the province. Its total population was 6,234,401 according to the 2020 census. As of t ...

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

Province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...

, which was then governed by the Jin dynasty. At the age of 16, he studied Confucian Classics and became enamoured of it. In early 1230s, when the Jin dynasty was annihilated by the Mongols, he was captured, but soon freed. He then became a famous educator in Confucianism. After

Kublai Khan Kublai ; Mongolian script: ; (23 September 1215 – 18 February 1294), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Shizu of Yuan and his regnal name Setsen Khan, was the founder of the Yuan dynasty of China and the fifth khagan-emperor of the ...

's enthronement in 1260, Xu Heng, along with many other Confucianists such as

Liu Bingzhong Liu Bingzhong (; 1216–1274), or Liu Kan () was a Yuan dynasty court adviser and architect. He was born in Ruizhou (Rui prefecture), during the Jin dynasty. In 1233, he entered the Jin's bureaucracy. He still was an officer after the Mongol Emp ...

and Wang Xun, was invited by Kublai Khan to the court. He resigned next year, but was invited again later by Kublai Khan, and became an official of the Central Secretariat (Zhongshu Sheng). In 1271, Kublai Khan founded the

, and established the National

Academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...

() of the dynasty, with Xu Heng being its first leader (). Xu Heng was then devoted to education, and actively supported the spread of

Neo-Confucianism Neo-Confucianism (, often shortened to ''lǐxué'' 理學, literally "School of Principle") is a moral, ethical, and metaphysical Chinese philosophy influenced by Confucianism, and originated with Han Yu (768–824) and Li Ao (772–841) in ...

. Later, he helped Guo Shoujing to formulate a new Chinese calendar known as Shoushili (). In 1280 he resigned and returned home, and died in the next year. {{DEFAULTSORT:Xu, Heng 1209 births 1281 deaths Chinese Confucianists Yuan dynasty people People from Xinyang 13th-century Chinese philosophers Neo-Confucian scholars Yuan dynasty politicians