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Tie Xuan
Jianwen-era official who held Jinan against the future Yongle emperor for three months and was executed for refusing even to look at him after his victory
A walled hilltop city with a tall brick gate tower stands above a pine-covered cliff, its wall running along the ridge, while a long wooden bridge crosses a wide river below and plains, islets and layered mountains stretch into the distance, with no person in view.
Also known as Zi Dingshi
Tie Xuan, courtesy name Dingshi, came from Dengzhou in present-day Henan; as a judge in the Chief Military Commission his skill with difficult cases led the Hongwu emperor to give him the courtesy name Dingshi, a tripod's stone. Early in the Jianwen reign he was administrative vice commissioner of Shandong, and after Li Jinglong's army was routed he hurried to Jinan with Gao Wei to hold it with Sheng Yong. The Prince of Yan besieged the city for three months without taking it, and Tie even staged a false surrender in an attempt to trap the prince at the gate. Promoted minister of war, he advised Sheng Yong, who crushed the Yan army at Dongchang that winter and killed its general Zhang Yu. When the prince took the throne, Tie was brought before him, sat with his back turned, cursing, and would not look round; he was dismembered in the market at thirty-six. The Qianlong court later gave him the posthumous name Zhongding.
Life and times
Dates 1366 CE–1402 CE