He Jin 何進

The Records have no separate biography of He Jin. The biography of Yuan Shao calls him 'the Empress Dowager's elder brother, the General-in-Chief He Jin', and Chen Shou's main text records neither his origins nor how he became General-in-Chief. Records, Wei 6 §34

After the Yellow Turbans rose in the last years of Emperor Ling, the General-in-Chief He Jin sent the Commandant Guanqiu Yi to Danyang to recruit soldiers. Liu Bei, who had flogged an Investigator and abandoned his post, went along with him at this time, fought the bandits at Xiapi with merit and became Assistant of Xiami County. Bao Xin, Chief Commandant of Cavalry under Emperor Ling, also went east on He Jin's orders to recruit soldiers. Records, Shu 2 §6Records, Wei 12 §66

When Emperor Ling died, Jian Shuo, Colonel of the Upper Army of the Western Garden, was killed by He Jin. When the Crown Prince took the throne and the Empress Dowager presided over the court, He Jin assisted in the government and summoned more than twenty renowned scholars of the realm, among them Zheng Tai of Henan and Xun You and Hua Xin of Yingchuan. Records, Wei 8 §30–31Records, Wei 1 §5Records, Wei 13 §29Records, Wei 10 §52

He Jin plotted with the Colonel-Director of Retainers Yuan Shao to kill all the eunuchs, but the Empress Dowager would not agree. He then summoned Dong Zhuo to lead troops to the capital and had him secretly submit a letter. Dong Zhuo's letter said that the Regular Palace Attendant Zhang Rang and others had stolen imperial favour and were befouling and disordering the realm, and that he would sound bells and drums, march to Luoyang and attack Zhang Rang and the rest. With this He Jin meant to pressure the Empress Dowager. Ding Yuan, who had led troops to Luoyang after Emperor Ling's death, also plotted with He Jin to kill the eunuchs and became Bearer of the Golden Mace. Records, Wei 6 §5–6Records, Wei 7 §2

He Jin sent men in every direction to raise troops. The Chief Commandant of Cavalry Bao Xin returned having recruited soldiers in various places and urged Yuan Shao to attack Dong Zhuo while he was weary from his newly completed march, but Yuan Shao feared Dong Zhuo and did not dare to move. Zhang Liao, an Attendant Officer of Ding Yuan, gathered more than a thousand men in Hebei on He Jin's orders, but when he returned He Jin had already fallen, and he led his troops to join Dong Zhuo. Records, Wei 6 §7Records, Wei 17 §2

When He Jin summoned the commanders of all quarters to intimidate the Empress Dowager, his Registrar Chen Lin remonstrated: now that He Jin held the emperor's majesty and military power, he need only act decisively and swiftly, whereas summoning others instead was like holding a spear upside down and handing someone else the haft, and could only become a stairway to disorder. He Jin did not accept his advice and in the end met disaster. Records, Wei 21 §13–14

Hearing that Dong Zhuo had been summoned, the Regular Attendants and Yellow Gate eunuchs all came to He Jin to apologize and placed themselves at his disposal. Yuan Shao urged him two or three times to settle the matter then and there, but He Jin refused. He Jin had Yuan Shao set the tactically skilled military officers of Luoyang to watch over the eunuchs, and had Yuan Shao's younger brother Yuan Shu pick two hundred mild-mannered Rapid-as-Tigers guards to enter the palace and guard the steps and gates in place of the Yellow Gate eunuchs. Records, Wei 6 §34

The Regular Palace Attendant Duan Gui and others falsely invoked the Empress Dowager's command to summon He Jin into the palace, pretending to consult him, and killed him. When Yuan Shu led the Rapid-as-Tigers guards and burned the Qingsuo Gate of the Jiade Hall in the Southern Palace, Duan Gui and the others abducted the emperor and the Prince of Chenliu and fled to Xiaoping Ford, and Yuan Shao killed all the eunuchs regardless of age. He Jin's younger brother He Miao, General of Chariots and Cavalry, was killed by He Jin's followers, and the private troops of He Jin and He Miao all went over to Dong Zhuo. The Annals of Emperor Wu date this year to the 6th year of Zhongping (189). Dong Zhuo later deposed the emperor, making him Prince of Hongnong, and killed the Prince of Hongnong and Empress He. Records, Wei 6 §35 · 6 · 8Records, Wei 1 §6

He Jin's Chief Clerk Wang Qian was a descendant of a renowned family of the Three Excellencies, so He Jin, wishing to form a marriage alliance with him, showed him his two sons and let him choose, but Wang Qian refused. He Jin's grandson He Yan grew up in the palace because his mother, Lady Yin, became a consort of Cao Cao. Wu Ban, who rose to General of Agile Cavalry in Shu, was the son of Wu Kuang, a subordinate official of He Jin. Records, Wei 21 §2Records, Wei 9 §90Records, Shu 15 §56