Xin Ping 辛評

Xin Ping has no separate biography in the Records. In Chen Shou's main text his name appears four times in all, in the biographies of Xun Yu, Xin Pi and Guo Jia and in the biography of Yuan Shao (Biographies of Dong Zhuo, the Two Yuans and Liu Biao, Records of Wei 6). Records, Wei 10 §4Records, Wei 25 §2Records, Wei 14 §31Records, Wei 6 §60

Xun Yu was a man of Yingyin County in Yingchuan Commandery. When Xun Yu led his clan to Ji Province, Yuan Shao had already seized Han Fu's position, and he treated Xun Yu with the courtesy due to an honoured guest. At this time Xun Yu's younger brother Xun Chen and Xin Ping and Guo Tu of the same commandery had all been employed by Yuan Shao. Judging that Yuan Shao would never accomplish anything great, Xun Yu left him in the 2nd year of Chuping (191) and followed Cao Cao. Records, Wei 10 §2 · 3–4

Xin Pi's biography records that Xin Pi was a man of Yangdi County in Yingchuan Commandery, and that his ancestors had moved east from Longxi during the Jianwu era. Xin Pi followed his elder brother Xin Ping in serving Yuan Shao; when Cao Cao became Minister of Works he summoned Xin Pi, but Xin Pi could not answer the summons. Records, Wei 25 §2

When Guo Jia first went north and met Yuan Shao, he said this to Yuan Shao's advisers Xin Ping and Guo Tu: 'A wise man is careful in assessing his lord, and so in a hundred undertakings he is a hundred times secure and can establish merit and fame. Lord Yuan merely wishes to imitate the Duke of Zhou's humbling himself before scholars, but does not know the key to employing men. He has many lines of approach but few essentials, and loves scheming but lacks decision; to try to rescue the realm from its great difficulties and establish the enterprise of a hegemon-king together with him would be hard.' Guo Jia then left Yuan Shao. Records, Wei 14 §31

After his army's defeat Yuan Shao fell ill, and in the 7th year of Jian'an (202) he died of anxiety. Yuan Shao loved his youngest son Yuan Shang and wished to make him his heir, but had not yet made this known. Shen Pei and Feng Ji contended for power with Xin Ping and Guo Tu; Shen Pei and Feng Ji attached themselves to Yuan Shang, and Xin Ping and Guo Tu to Yuan Tan. Most people wished to set up Yuan Tan because he was the eldest, but Shen Pei and the others, fearing that if Yuan Tan were set up Xin Ping and his associates would harm them, used Yuan Shao's long-held intention as a pretext and installed Yuan Shang as Yuan Shao's successor. When Yuan Tan arrived and could not be set up, he styled himself General of Chariots and Cavalry, and from this a rift arose between Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang. Records, Wei 6 §58 · 60

Later, when Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang attacked each other and Yuan Tan fled to Pingyuan, Yuan Tan sent Xin Ping's younger brother Xin Pi to Cao Cao to ask for help. After this Xin Ping's name no longer appears in Chen Shou's main text. He is also absent from the passage in which Cao Cao took Nanpi in the 1st month of the 10th year of Jian'an (205) and beheaded Yuan Tan, Guo Tu and others, and his death is not recorded. Records, Wei 6 §62 · 67Records, Wei 25 §2