Jing Hengyi (1877–1938) was an educationalist of the Republic of China period who rose to prominence as principal of the Zhejiang Provincial First Normal School in Hangzhou. He became known for his promotion of renge jiaoyu (“personality” or “character” education) and his efforts to reform China’s traditional education system. Jing’s philosophy of education was informed by both native and foreign moral and pedagogical theory; this study will examine the influence of foreign ideologies on his thought. Like many of his contemporaries, Jing studied in Japan in the years following the First Sino-Japanese War and encountered Western learning entirely through the spectrum of Japanese translation and interpretation. He would later credit Yoshida Seichi (1872–1945), his ethics professor at the Tokyo Higher Normal School, as an inspiration. Yoshida was a European-educated philosopher and a major figure in early twentieth-century Japanese educational discourse. It will be argued that Yoshida’s moral philosophy, particularly his understanding of the concept of jinkaku, exerted a significant impact on Jing. In addition, the German pedagogical trend of Persönlichkeits-Pädagogik (personality education), which Jing learned of through the work of Nakajima Hanjirō (1871–1926), will be explored.