Fei River
Xie Lingyun was a descendant of two of the most important families of the later Eastern Jin times, the Xie and the Wang families. His paternal grandfather was the general Xie Xuan, a general who is best known for repelling the Former Qin army at the Battle of Fei River, thus preventing the Former Qin emperor Fu Jiān from destroying Jin, and thus allowing the continuation of the southern dynastic kingdoms. His maternal grandmother was Wang Mengjiang, the only daughter of calligrapher, writer and politician Wang Xizhi.