This study endeavors to investigate the chiang-hai 講會 (discussion meetings) oftheYang-ming scholars, as well as their ideas about friendship. Through this study, I hope to reveal a close relationship between the activities of social institutions and certain philosophical ideas. Many Yang-ming scholars envisioned the chiang-hui as an ideal setting for moral cultivation with like-minded friends, as well as a source of psychological wellbeing. In addition to providing mutual spiritual support, like-minded friends also helped each other out with material needs. For the sake of realizing their moral ideals, some scholars even traveled thousands of miles to pursue true like-minded friendship, even sacrificing traditional family life. In regard to the Yang-ming scholars' ideas about friendship, three points are discussed here. First, friendship was defined as a prerequisite of moral cultivation, a principle that helped Yang-ming philosophy avoid the pitfalls of excessive subjectivity. Second, friendship was associated with the Confucian ideal of humanity. This idea assisted in legitimizing the existence of the chiang-hui and their entanglement in local politics. Finally, some Yang-ming scholars promoted friendship as the most important type of relationship, thereby changing the traditional order of the five human relationships.