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Yu Xin

Liang court poet who, stranded in the north when Western Wei took Jiangling, served the Northern Zhou and mourned the fall of the south in his Lament for the South

Also known as Zi Zishan · Xiaozi Lancheng

Yu Xin, courtesy name Zishan and childhood name Lancheng, was from Xinye in Nanyang, a son of the Liang official Yu Jianwu. Serving the crown prince with Xu Ling, he wrote ornate verse copied all over the capital as the Xu-Yu style. In Hou Jing's rebellion he was sent to hold the Zhuque pontoon bridge but fell back when the rebels arrived, then fled to Jiangling, where Emperor Yuan made him Marquis of Wukang. Sent as envoy to Western Wei in 554, he was in Chang'an when Wei armies took Jiangling and was never allowed home, serving the Northern Zhou as a general, governor of Luozhou and judicial minister. When peace with the Chen let other southern exiles return, only he and Wang Bao were kept back. In old age he wrote the Lament for the South (Ai Jiangnan fu), the Rhapsody on a Dead Tree and twenty-seven poems on his feelings; he died in 581. Du Fu wrote that Yu Xin's writing grew finer as he aged.

Life and times

  1. 513 CEBornNorthern and SouthernSui
  2. 581 CEDied

Works

  1. Literature · Rhapsodies4
    1. Rhapsody on Lament for the South (Preface)Northern and SouthernYu Xin's parallel-prose preface from exile in the north, mourning the fall of Liang
    2. Rhapsody on the Withered TreeNorthern and SouthernYu Xin's rhapsody on a dying tree, his own decline and lost homeland under northern captivity
    3. Rhapsody on a Small GardenNorthern and SouthernYu Xin's late rhapsody on a tiny garden in the north, a quiet front for longing for the south
    4. Rhapsody on SpringNorthern and SouthernYu Xin's early Liang court rhapsody of palace gardens in spring, all colour and cadence
  2. Literature · Sayings4
    1. Crouching Tiger, Hidden DragonNorthern and SouthernIdiom from a Yu Xin poem: hidden talents waiting to be discovered
    2. Late in the Day With the Road Still LongNorthern and SouthernIdiom from Yu Xin's preface to the Lament for the South: nightfall with the road unfinished
    3. The Willows I Planted in Years Gone ByNorthern and SouthernLine from Yu Xin's Rhapsody on a Withered Tree: old willows that mirror an ageing life
    4. Wild Blossoms Filling the Room in Yu Xin's Small GardenNorthern and SouthernFamous line from Yu Xin's Rhapsody on a Small Garden: blossoms drifting into an exile's room

Family tree

  1. Direct kin
    Yu Jianwu
    Father
    Yu Xin