Writers › Writer / Poet
Xie Huilian
Liu Song poet of Yangxia, younger kinsman of Xie Lingyun, a precocious talent who died at twenty-seven.
In a study at night, a desk holds a brush pot, a porcelain vase with a plum branch, a lit red lantern, a folded fan and an unrolled blank scroll, with no one seated there, while through a round window the moon rises over a lake with a sailboat.
Also known as Xie Facao, 'Military Judge Xie'
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Xie Huilian of Yangxia in Chenjun lived at Kuaiji and died in 433 at twenty-seven. A kinsman of Xie Lingyun, he was writing essays at ten and won Lingyun's admiration. In 430 he served as military judge on the staff of Liu Yikang, Prince of Pengcheng. Tradition says Lingyun's line 'spring grass grows by the pond' came after he dreamed of Huilian, and Li Bai praised the Xie cousins by saying all were 'Huilians'. His six-volume collection is lost and survives only in later reconstructions; works such as the Snow Rhapsody are in the Wen xuan.
Life and times
Dates 407 CE–433 CE