page_title: Xin Qiji
section_title: Life
hierarchical_section_title: Xin Qiji / Life
caption_attribution_description: English: Jiaxuan Ancestral Hall at Daming Lake, Jinan, Shandong, China.
context_page_description: Xin Qiji was a Chinese poet and military leader during the Southern Song dynasty.
context_section_description: During Xin's lifetime, northern China was occupied during the Jin–Song Wars by the Jurchens of the Jin dynasty, a semi-nomadic people who moved to what is now north-east China. Only southern China was ruled by the Han Chinese Southern Song dynasty. Xin was born in the modern city of Jinan in Shandong Province, then governed by the Jin Dynasty. Xin was raised by his grandfather because of Xin's father's early dearth. In his childhood, his grandfather told him about the time when the Han Chinese ruled the north and told him to be an honorable man and seek revenge against the barbarian for the nation. It was then when he developed his patriotic feelings. At the ages of 14 and 17, Xin attended the imperial examination twice, but failed both of them. However, on Xin's way to Jin's capital for examinations, he followed his grandfather's instruction to inspect the military and geographic situation in Jin dynasty. His grandfather named him after a legendary military commander from the Western Han, Huo Qubing. Both "Qubing" and "Qiji" mean to deliver oneself from diseases.
  Xin started his military career at the age of twenty-two. He commanded an insurrection group of fifty men and fought the Jurchen alongside Geng Jing's much larger army that consisted of tens of thousands of men. Although they had some small-scale victories, in 1161, because the Jurchen were becoming more united internally, Xin persuaded Geng Jing to join forces with the Southern Song army in order to fight the Jurchen more effectively. Geng Jing agreed but just as Xin finished a meeting with the Southern Song Emperor, who endorsed Geng Jing's troops, Xin learned that Geng Jing had been assassinated by their former friend-turned-traitor, Zhang Anguo (张安国/張安國). With merely fifty men, Xin fought his way through the Jurchen camp and captured Zhang Anguo. Xin then led his men safely back across the border and had Zhang Anguo decapitated by the emperor.
  Xin's victory gained him a place in the Southern Song court. However, because the emperor was surrounded by people who supported "an appeasement policy" rather than open warfare with the Jin, Xin was sidelined. From 1161 to 1181, he held a series of minor posts that never amounted to anything momentous. Although during the same period, he tried to offer the emperor his treatises on how to manage the invasions by the Jin as well as other state affairs, he was never taken seriously. Finally he resolved to do things on his own. He improved the irrigation systems in his district, relocated poverty-struck peasants and trained his own troops. His ambition soon aroused suspicion against him. In 1181, he was forced to resign. He left for Jiangxi where he then stayed and perfected his famous ci form of poetry for ten depressing years.
  In 1192, Xin was recalled to the Song court to take up another minor post because the previous incumbent had died. This job did not last long because once he completed the requirements of his job, he started training men for military purposes again. He was soon discharged.
  From 1192 to 1203, Xin lived in seclusion around Jiangxi Province. Xin gave himself an art name - "Jiaxuan" (稼轩), which meant "Life should be diligent and take farming as the prime importance".
  In 1188, Xin met another patriotic poet, Chen Liang, in E hu Temple (around Piao Spring, Jiangxi Province). They conferred the strategy to fight against Jin dynasty and revive their home country.
  During Xin's seclusion, Xin also traveled with Zhu Xi, the master of Neo Confucianism, in Wuyi Mountain. In 1200, upon Zhu xi's death, none of Zhu's old friends or students mourned him because of the political restriction. However, Xin attended the funeral and wrote lament for Zhu.
  In 1203, as the Jin began pressing harder against the Southern Song border, Han Tuozhou, the consul of the Southern Song court, in need of militarists, took Xin under his wing. However, Han Tuozhou disregarded Xin's sincere advice for effective military moves, and he removed Xin from his team the next year, accusing Xin of being lubricious, avaricious, and many other 
caption: Jiaxuan Ancestral Hall at Daming Lake, Jinan, Shandong, China.
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