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Xie An
Eastern Jin statesman who left his retreat at Dongshan past the age of forty and directed the defence that defeated Fu Jian of the Former Qin at the Fei River in 383
Mural of the event “Battle of Fei River”, which this person took part in.
In the north, the Former Qin emperor Fu Jian had basically pacified all rivals and yearned to unify the realm. He personally led an army self-described as a million-strong steppe-and-infantry tide and stormed south to swallow the partial Eastern Jin in Jiangnan.
Also known as Zi Anshi
Xie An, courtesy name Anshi, came from Yangxia in Chen commandery (modern Taikang, Henan). Famous from youth, he refused office and lived at Dongshan in Kuaiji among friends such as Wang Xizhi, joining the Orchid Pavilion gathering of 353. Past forty he became adjutant to the general Huan Wen, the origin of the phrase about rising again from the eastern hills. When the ageing Huan Wen sought the nine honours that herald usurpation, Xie An and Wang Tanzhi stalled until the matter lapsed, and Xie went on to head the Department of State Affairs. In 383, as Fu Jian of the Former Qin invaded, he sent his brother Xie Shi and nephew Xie Xuan with eighty thousand men, who broke the Qin army at the Fei River; he read the victory dispatch over a game of go without a change of expression, but broke his clog on the threshold as he went inside. Edged out by Sima Daozi, he withdrew to Guangling and died in 385 aged sixty-six, named Wenjing.
Life and times
- 320 CEBorn
Jin - 353Lanting Canon & Literati Aesthetic
Took partage 33Wang Xizhi's masterpiece anchoring the paramount aesthetic canon of Chinese calligraphy and literati landscape poetry.- Wang Xizhi Writes the Lanting PrefaceAt the Orchid Pavilion in 353 CE, Wang Xizhi joined forty-two scholars in poetry and wine, brushwriting the greatest masterpiece in Chinese calligraphy.
- Wang Xizhi Writes the Lanting Preface
- 383Battle of Fei River
Took partage 63Xie Xuan's Beifu Army defeated Fu Jian's Former Qin forces at the Fei River, precipitating Qin's collapse and preserving Eastern Jin.- Battle of Fei RiverXie An's 80,000 Beifu Army Routing Fu Jian's Host at Fei River
- Battle of Fei River
- 385 CEDied
Family tree
- Direct kin
- Other kin2
