Xin Qiji was a Song lyric poet who also participated in resistance to the Jin and held office in the Southern Song. His poems often address the landscape and service to his country. He also wrote about rural life, everyday scenes, and personal feelings. Describing him only as a bold and unrestrained poet can obscure the breadth of his subjects.
A life shaped by divided China
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 Northeastern China. Only southern China was ruled by the Han Chinese during the 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 death. 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 the recovery of territory from Jin rule. 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.
Military action and public service
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. 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.
Poetry and later reputation
Scholars considered Xin's literary caliber to be equally talented in ci as his Song dynasty counterpart, Su Shi. Their difference, however, is that the content of Xin's poetry spans an even greater range of topics. Xin is also famous for employing many allusions in his poems.
The 20th-century Chinese diplomat and philosopher Hu Shih asserts that Xin Qiji ranks first among authors in creative lyrics. According to Hu, Xin shows great talent, keen intellect, intensive and sincere feeling in writing lyrics.
The Chinese ethnologist and historian Bai Shouyi stated that Xin Qiji aimed his life at recovering the lost territories and contributing to his country. Unfortunately, Xin was ill-fated and repressed, and so failed to realize his ambitions. However, Xin never shook his patriotic resolve, and put all his enthusiasm and worries about national destiny to the creation of poetry.