Relationships Between Xin Qiji,Emperors And Officials Of The Southern Song Dynasty

Xin Qiji was undoubtedly a top-notched composer of ci poetry of the Southern Song.He was born in Jinan city of the Shandong province which was,at that time,seized by and under the control of the Jin Dynasty.As the southward aggression initiated by the Jin emperor Wanyan Liang proceeded,Xin gathered a small army to fight against the Jin regime and eventually pledged his allegiance to the South.For the rest of his life,Xin served four emperors of the Southern Song and experienced three ups and three downs in his career while he persisted in reinstating his homeland.Nonetheless,due to circumstantial constraint,his aim was not fulfilled and he died in despair.Vicissitudes of his career thus exerted a strong influence on his artistic works.The thesis,comprising five chapters,focused on the relationships and mutual interactions between Xin Qiji,the four emperors he served,four prime ministers who worked with him and seven"tai jian" officers during his time in the Southern Song,with a view to investigating the cultural and historical implications behind these associations.The first Chapter was dedicated to the study of relations between Xin Qiji and Song Gaozong.When Xin settled in the South,Song Gaozong was the emperor.They met with each other twice,respectively while Xin submitted their statement of allegiance and offered the captive Zhang Anguo at the "resident city".The aims of the Chapter were to inquire about Xin's decision to pledge allegiance to the Sothern Song,his motives to return to Shandong to capture the traitor,the underlying causes for Gaozong to keep Xin's rank after his heroic deed and Xin's opinion and attitude on him as the founding emperor.The second Chapter was devoted to the study of relations between Xin Qiji and Song Xiaozong.Soon after Xin returned to the South,Song Gaozong abdicated in favour of his adopted son,Zhao Shen,who became Song Xiaozong,when Xin was twenty-three.Xiaozong always nursed a desire to regain the lost territories and his comments from?Song Si?were:"Vise and persevering,distinguishing himself as the most capable emperor of the Sothern Song".He was crowned at thirty-five years of age and was full of ambition.He then remained on the throne for twenty seven years.As Xin was an all-rounder and shared the same vision of fighting back,it was expected that Xin would be well-trusted with real responsibilities.On the contrary,notwithstanding Xin's good performance and eventual aspiration to take charge of a state-province,he was finally dismissed at the prime of his career.On the whole,Xin was linked with countless ties with the emperor with times of glory as well as detestation.Xin's duration of serving the empire was the longest in the Xiaozong era,reaching about twenty years so analyses and studies of this particular period of time were the main thrust of the thesis.There were nine Sections in Chapter Two,researching on an array of topics like Xin's achievements and expertise,his "Gui Zheng Ren" identity,his strong and weak points and reasons for him being treated ungenerously and abandoned once and for all.The third Chapter focused on the relations between Xin Qiji,Song Guangzong and Song Ningzong respectively.Xin was called upon to serve the empire once again during the Song Guangzong and the Song Ningzong era.Despite his age,health conditions and long idling,he took up the appointments without any hesitation and forged ahead towards his goal.The reasons for Xin to be reactivated and the roles of the emperors were detailed in this Chapter.Chapter Four centered on the relationships between Xin and the prime ministers.A prime minister was the chief advisor of the emperor and head of all officials.He assisted the emperor in all matters.Xin spent forty five years in the South and served four emperors in a row.Despite being posted to work mostly in regional administration rather than the central Government,Xin had numerous official and personal dealings with the prime ministers and these were important to his career as well as literary creation.Of the many prime ministers whom he worked with,four were selected for study based on their differing opinions on Xin,namely Yu Yunwen,Ye Heng,Zhou Bida and Han Tuozhou.Yu Yunwen basically advocated war against the Jin.So,he and Xin had the same goal and Xin also submitted his?Nine Proposals?to Yu.Yu was a person of talents and virtue.His attitude towards Xin had been fair and just.Ye Heng made good judgements on Xin's talents and was considered as Xin's "Bo Le".He appreciated Xin's strong points and took little care about his shortcomings.He thought that Xin was generous and righteous and was the person Southern Song should use for reform.He recommended Xin to take charge of the armed suppression of the tea-traders rebellion,enabling him to display his military prowess.Zhou Bida was directly opposite.Although he was considered as a competent prime minister,he often criticized Xin and was fault-finding.This was because he resented Xin's harshness and cruelty.Han Tuozhou had never been a prime minister but as relative of the imperial family,he was appointed as "Chief of Army and Nation" during the Northern Expedition in the Kai Xi years.Ranking of the post was even higher than a prime minister.As the de facto controller of the empire and mastermind of the said Expedition,Han was included in the study.His relations with Xin was complicated,interlinking with exploitation,suppression and conflicts between political parties in the Ningzong era.Rather than attaching importance to Xin's proposals and tactics,Han apparently exploited on Xin's reputation in the waging of the war.Chapter Five entailed the study of relationships between Xin and the "tai jian" officers who impeached him,namely Wang Lin,Huang Ai,Xie Shenfu,He Dan,"two other colleagues" and Ni Si.Xin had been impeached a number of times and the charges were nearly identical:"corruption and cruelty".The study focused on the career,disposition and behavior of the "Tai jian" officers with a view to ascertaining whether Xin deserved the punishment or they cooked up charges for political purge.Ni Si had drawn favourable comments and affirmation of his decision while working under Xin.After Xin's death,however,Ni Si impeached Xin on the ground that he had abetted the Northern Expedition.This resulted in the deprivation of all the honours and benefits bestowed on him and his family was also incriminated.Many scholars thus held in contempt with regard to what Ni Si had done.On the other hand,Ni Si was a righteous person and seldom pandered to the rich and famous.So,it was suspected that there must be some reasons behind.A detailed investigation was carried out to chart the underlying causes and events of the impeachment in an objective manner.Based on the accusation that Xin owned luxury homes and led an extravagant lifestyle even after being dismissed for a long while and adopting the modern concept of "wealth was not commensurate with official income",certain scholars concluded that he was a corruptive officer.This fallacy,however,was reputed by others.This controversial issue was addressed in this Chapter,taking into account disparities in corruption standards between different eras,emperors and societal acceptance.The question of whether Xin had led a miserable life was briefly discussed in the Conclusion.Xin was an unfaltering warrior aiming to fight back to his Northern motherland.However,he wallowed in mediocrity in his career after his return to the South,with spans of working on trivial issues or frequent postings within a short time such that his talents were not totally exploited.He thus had to count on wine and writing as his emotional release.His pain and gloom were expected and could be seen in his various compositions.From another viewpoint,nonetheless,Xin was endowed with many aspects that would enable him to lead a happy,blissful and satisfying life.Therefore,the key to happiness in his life was indeed held in his own hands.Southern Song was highly developed in culture and historical records were extensive.Xin's work was multifarious in forms of context and his great achievement in ci poetry also resulted in many fruitful research.While making reference to the colossal literature mass available on hand,certain modern theories and methodologies were adopted or mirrored in the thesis to analyze and validate the various issues aroused in an objective and vigorous manner with a view to further expanding the frontiers on the research of Xin.