Biography
Family Background and Early Life
Xi Jin came from the Xi, or Daxi, clan of Dai Commandery, whose members had long been responsible for horse breeding. His father Xi Dan was favored during the state of Dai under Tuoba Shiyiqian and was known for physical strength. According to the *Book of Wei*, a fine horse once disappeared and was discovered hidden underground after being stolen by the southern tribal leader Liu Kuren. Xi Dan rode out to recover it. Liu Kuren, relying on his status as the ruler's nephew, resisted, but Xi Dan seized him by the hair, pulled him down, and injured his chest. The account illustrates Xi Dan's fierce temperament and also foreshadows later conflict with Liu Kuren.
After Fu Jian of Former Qin destroyed Dai, he appointed Liu Kuren and Liu Weichen to command different groups of the former Dai population. Fearing revenge from Liu Kuren, Xi Dan hid with his family among the people and eventually fled west to Liu Weichen. He did not return until Emperor Daowu Tuoba Gui destroyed Liu Weichen, and because his submission came relatively late his formal standing among old followers remained comparatively low.
Xi Jin was described as quick-witted, intelligent, perceptive, and dignified from childhood. Early in the Dengguo era he and Zhangsun Fei commanded palace guards. Emperor Daowu later appointed him a Palace Attendant and treated him as a trusted close retainer.
Campaigns in All Directions
In 395, Xi Jin followed Emperor Daowu in the decisive victory over Later Yan under Murong Bao at Canhe Slope, a battle that laid important foundations for Northern Wei's conquest of Later Yan. In 396, when Emperor Daowu launched a major campaign into the Central Plains, Xi Jin accompanied him as Chief Clerk of the Eastern Expedition and Colonel of the Yue Cavalry and was placed in charge of the guards.
After Emperor Daowu returned to the capital at Pingcheng, bandits rose in Boling, Bohai, and Zhangwu commanderies and killed Northern Wei officials. Xi Jin and Tuoba Zun, Duke of Lüeyang, led forces east of the Taihang Mountains and suppressed them. Xi Jin then joined campaigns against Gaoche groups, defeating the Kudi and Youlian and relocating their dependent communities south of the desert. He subsequently attacked the Houmochen, captured more than one hundred thousand animals, pursued them to Da'e Valley, established garrisons, and returned to court.
Because of these achievements, he was promoted to Waterways Commissioner, then appointed General of Jin Troops and governor of Youzhou, and enfeoffed as Marquis of Shanyang.
Senior Minister under Emperor Mingyuan
After Emperor Mingyuan Tuoba Si took the throne in 409, Xi Jin became General of Zheng Troops and toured the prefectures and commanderies to investigate popular conditions. When Liu Ya of Zhangwu Commandery gathered followers in rebellion, Xi Jin led troops and suppressed the revolt. The court then cited his family's generations of loyalty and filial conduct and posthumously enfeoffed his father Xi Dan as Viscount of Changning.
When Emperor Mingyuan traveled to Yunzhong, Xi Jin remained to guard Pingcheng. Murong Boer, Prince of Changli, gathered several hundred frustrated retainers led by Li Shen and plotted rebellion. Xi Jin summoned Murong Boer beneath the eastern gallery of the Tianwen Hall, interrogated him until he confessed, and arrested and executed the conspirators. Emperor Mingyuan then ordered Xi Jin, Zhangsun Song, Duke of Nanping, and others to jointly review judicial cases at court, demonstrating Xi Jin's high standing.
During a major military review in the eastern suburbs, Emperor Mingyuan made Xi Jin acting Left Chancellor and had him conduct another great review at Shihui Mountain. On a western imperial tour, Xi Jin was sent as vanguard against the Yuele at Luna Mountain. He defeated them, captured fifty thousand horses and two hundred thousand cattle and sheep, and relocated more than twenty thousand households. Thereafter Xi Jin and seven other high officials including Zhangsun Song sat together to the right of the Zhiche Gate to handle court affairs and were known as the “Eight Dukes.” When the Rouran invaded the frontier, Xi Jin pursued them, but heavy snow and severe cold caused frostbite among roughly twenty to thirty percent of his troops and even some deaths.
Xi Jin was later appointed Tianbu Daren and promoted to Duke of Shanyang. He was permitted ceremonial carriage and escort. When Crown Prince Tuoba Tao began participating in government, Xi Jin was appointed his Left Assistant.
Southern Campaign against Liu Song
In 422, after Emperor Wu of Liu Song, Liu Yu, died and his son Liu Yifu succeeded him amid political divisions, Emperor Mingyuan ordered Xi Jin to recover territories south of the Yellow River that Liu Yu had previously seized. Xi Jin received a tally of authority and was appointed commander of all vanguard military affairs, Minister over the Masses, General-in-Chief of Jin Troops, and acting governor of Yangzhou. He led forces south with commanders including Gongsun Biao.
Xi Jin adopted Gongsun Biao's plan to attack Huatai but failed to take it and requested reinforcements. Emperor Mingyuan angrily criticized him for attacking the city before securing surrounding territory and personally moved south to Zhongshan to supervise the campaign. Soon the Liu Song administrator Wang Jingdu abandoned the city, while Sima Chuzhi and others sent envoys to surrender. Xi Jin shifted from Huatai toward Luoyang. At Hulao, the Liu Song defender Mao Dezu sent Sima Zhai Guang, General Yao Yongcuo, Dou Ba, and five thousand men to hold an earthen fortification. Xi Jin attacked and destroyed the force; Zhai Guang and a few others escaped alone. Xi Jin drove forward to Hulao, camped east of the Si River, left Gongsun Biao to guard the baggage, and with light troops captured territory in Henan, Yingchuan, Chen Commandery, and farther south. Local people submitted, and the Liu Song administrator of Chenliu, Yan Leng, surrendered his commandery.
In 423, Xi Jin pacified the commanderies of Yanzhou and Yuzhou and returned to besiege Hulao. Mao Dezu resisted for several months before the city fell. The source notes that, among early Northern Wei generals, only Zhangsun Song in resisting Liu Yu and Xi Jin in the Henan campaign received a clepsydra and twelve ceremonial gate banners, showing the court's special regard. Emperor Mingyuan died in the eleventh lunar month of the same year, and Xi Jin returned north.
Western Campaign against Hu Xia
After Emperor Taiwu Tuoba Tao ascended the throne, Xi Jin was promoted to Prince of Yicheng while remaining Minister over the Masses. In 426, Emperor Taiwu campaigned against Hu Xia emperor Helian Chang and sent Xi Jin with General Feng Li and 45,000 men in a surprise attack on Puban. The Hu Xia defender Helian Yisheng sent a messenger to Helian Chang at Tongwan. Seeing Northern Wei forces around the city, the messenger returned and falsely reported that Helian Chang had already been defeated. Believing the report, Helian Yisheng abandoned Puban and fled west. Xi Jin pursued and defeated him, occupied Puban, seized military supplies, and restored local order.
Helian Chang's brother Helian Zhuxing had been guarding Chang'an, but after Helian Yisheng arrived the two abandoned the city and fled west to Anding. Xi Jin occupied Chang'an, and Di and Qiang groups in Qinzhou and Yongzhou submitted. Xi Jin then confronted Helian Ding and repeatedly defeated him. When Helian Ding heard that Helian Chang had been defeated, he fled toward Shanggui. Xi Jin pursued him as far as Yongcheng before turning back.
Emperor Taiwu ordered Xi Jin to withdraw, but Xi Jin repeatedly memorialized for more troops so that Hu Xia could be destroyed completely. The emperor initially refused, but Xi Jin persisted. Eventually he was given another ten thousand men and three thousand horses under General Liu Ba.
Defeat and Capture
In 428, Xi Jin advanced from Chang'an to Anding against Helian Chang, who withdrew to Pingliang. Xi Jin remained at Anding. An epidemic killed many army horses and food became scarce, so Xi Jin fortified his position and sent Grand Coachman Qiu Dui to press local people for grain. Helian Chang defeated Qiu Dui and grew more aggressive, raiding daily so that men gathering grass and grazing animals could no longer leave the defenses.
Supervising Censor An Jie urged Xi Jin to fight. Xi Jin refused because of the shortage of horses. An Jie argued that remaining trapped in the fortress could not solve the problem, but Xi Jin again cited the lack of mounts. An Jie therefore secretly conspired with Wei Juan and selected cavalry on his own. When Helian Chang attacked the fortifications, An Jie came out to fight. A strong wind suddenly raised dust and darkened the sky, throwing the enemy into disorder. Helian Chang's horse fell, and An Jie captured him and sent him to the capital.
Ashamed that the capture of Helian Chang had not been his achievement even though he was commander-in-chief, Xi Jin abandoned baggage and took only three days of provisions to pursue Helian Ding toward Pingliang. E Qing advised advancing by the waterways, but Xi Jin ignored him and attempted to block Helian Ding from the north. Just as Helian Ding's troops prepared for battle, a junior Northern Wei officer fearing punishment defected and revealed Xi Jin's dispositions. Helian Ding attacked from front and rear, crushing Xi Jin's army. Xi Jin, E Qing, Liu Ba, and others were captured, and six to seven thousand Northern Wei soldiers were killed.
Xi Jin did not return until 430, when Northern Wei captured Anding. Emperor Taiwu ordered him to approach on his knees and pour wine for the general Dou Daitian who had found him. He was then demoted to a food-service post and required to carry wine and food beside the imperial party on the return journey as a public humiliation.
Later Years
After returning, Xi Jin was appointed General Who Pacifies the East and reduced to Duke of Yicheng. In 432, during Northern Wei's attack on Northern Yan, he requisitioned civilians from Youzhou and Dingling from Miyun to transport siege equipment. In 435 he became Chamberlain for the Palace Garrison, was enfeoffed as Prince of Hongnong, and was appointed General Who Conquers the South, later transferring to General of Ten Thousand Cavalry.
In 439, Emperor Taiwu intended to attack Northern Liang. Cui Hao supported the campaign, while Xi Jin and more than thirty other officials opposed it. The emperor proceeded and destroyed Northern Liang that year. Because Xi Jin was by then elderly, Emperor Taiwu gave him an easy carriage and allowed him to participate in judicial decisions and hear government affairs.
Xi Jin died in 448 at the age of eighty. Emperor Taiwu personally attended the funeral and grieved deeply, granting the posthumous title Prince Zhao. During the reign of Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei, Xi Jin was honored in the ancestral temple.
Xi Jin was a native of Dai commandery, his family holding the office of horse herding for generations. His father, Xi Dan, was favored by the Shizheng emperor, Tuoba Shiyijian. A fine horse of the realm named Guailiu vanished one night and could not be found; it emerged that the southern chief Liu Kuren had stolen it and kept it in a cellar. Xi Dan rode at once to take it back, and Liu Kuren, relying on his favor as the ruler's nephew, met him in shame and fought him; Xi Dan tore out his hair and wounded one of his breasts. When Fu Jian afterward had Liu Kuren and Liu Weichen divide the old Dai domains, Xi Dan took fright and hid his family among the people; Liu Kuren's search was urgent, so Xi Dan fled west to Liu Weichen, and when Emperor Daowu destroyed Weichen he came over only late, his name and standing therefore below those of the older followers.
Xi Jin himself was quick-witted, with judgment and presence. He was already in the field early in the Dengguo years and served through the reigns of Daowu, Mingyuan and Taiwu, one of the most important civil and military ministers of the early Northern Wei. Under Mingyuan, in the Taichang years, the court ordered Zhangsun Song, Xi Jin, An Tong, Cui Hong and four others to sit at the right of the Zhiche gate and deliberate on all affairs, Xi Jin among them — a measure of his weight at court. In 422 Mingyuan, taking advantage of the death of the Song emperor Wu, campaigned south and sent Xi Jin as commander against Huatai and Hulao, winning the Northern Wei a large part of Henan. Under Taiwu he took part in the wars against Xia and the Rouran, on one occasion being taken prisoner by the Xia ruler Helian Chang through overconfidence and later escaping back. He rose to minister of works and Duke of Shanyang, a key figure in the Northern Wei's passage from tribal confederation to state, his family history and career reflecting the changed position of the old Dai followers after the dynasty's founding.
His military service in the early Northern Wei fell chiefly into two areas: campaigns south into the central plains, and campaigns west and north against Xia and the Rouran. In the southern campaign of 422 he commanded the attack that took Huatai and Hulao, giving Wei a foothold in Henan; the north-south frontier thereafter swung roughly along the Huai and the Han, and his expedition is an early link in that story.
He served three reigns, rising to minister of works and Duke of Shanyang and ranking among the most senior of the old ministers. His father, having come over late, stood below the older followers in name and position, while Xi Jin himself was employed for his ability — a contrast the *Book of Wei* makes plain: family precedence did not determine a man's place in the regime, military merit and capacity being the main grounds for appointment in the early Northern Wei.
The military aristocracy of the early Northern Wei came largely from the old Dai followers and the chiefs of submitted tribes. Xi Jin's family, long in charge of the horse pastures, belonged to the northern houses whose core function was pastoral and military service; such families entered the center of power in the early dynasty by riding and fighting, their standing rising and falling with military merit and imperial favor. Xi Jin's passage from attendant to general to minister of works is a typical instance of that group's ascent.
Institutionally the group of eight whom Mingyuan ordered to sit at the Zhiche gate and deliberate on all affairs may be seen as a form of transition from tribal consultation to bureaucratic decision: the emperor still dominated, while routine business passed to a few senior ministers in council. Xi Jin's place among them shows that he was valued not only for arms but for the conduct of state business, such combined civil and military ministers being of great importance in the early Northern Wei.
The war with Xia ended in Northern Wei victory. After Helian Bobo's death Xia was riven by internal strife, and Taiwu campaigned several times until its destruction in 431, bringing Guanzhong and the Ordos under Wei. Xi Jin's part in these campaigns, including his capture and escape, is one facet of the fluctuations of war in the early dynasty.
Taiwu's expansion included campaigns against the Rouran, the Northern Yan, the Northern Liang and the Liu Song as well as Xia. As a minister of the preceding reigns, Xi Jin took part in some of them, his seniority also giving him considerable influence at court.
The foreign wars of the early Northern Wei aimed to consolidate rule over the central plains and remove northern threats. Xi Jin's part lay chiefly in the southern and western theaters, his merit also providing the basis for his family's standing in the dynasty.
His capture under Taiwu was one of the few reverses in the early Northern Wei's wars. That he was afterward still employed shows both the dynasty's tolerance toward old ministers and the weight of his record.
The *Book of Wei* gives him a biography with fairly full detail on his family and offices, important material for studying early Northern Wei military and political figures and the old Dai followers.
The family's fortunes are bound up with the changing military and political scene of the early Northern Wei; members still held office in the middle period, though less prominently than his generation.
Early Northern Wei emperors generally combined personal campaigns with the delegation of trusted ministers, and Xi Jin more often than not commanded independently — unusual at the time.
The Northern Wei arrangement of eight ministers deliberating at the Zhiche gate was transitional under Mingyuan: as the bureaucracy developed, such devices gave way to fixed central organs.
The three reigns he served span the crucial period in which the Northern Wei turned from Dai precedents toward a Chinese-style dynasty: Daowu founding the state, Mingyuan consolidating control of the plains, Taiwu completing the unification of the north. Xi Jin took part in all three stages, his career itself a miniature of early Northern Wei political and military history.
His seniority in the army matched his rank at court, such ministers combining military and civil roles being common in the early Northern Wei and showing that the state apparatus was not yet fully differentiated.
His descendants still appear in the records of the middle Northern Wei, but clearly below the standing of his generation, a change connected with the dynasty's growing use of Chinese scholars and its reorganization of offices.
His father's quarrel with Liu Kuren over a horse is vividly told in the *Book of Wei*, reflecting both feuds among the old Dai followers and early Touba personal relations.
He was repeatedly given command under Mingyuan and Taiwu, his campaigns covering what are now Shanxi, Henan and Shaanxi, in keeping with the direction of Northern Wei territorial expansion.
The advance of his offices and titles is clearly recorded in the *Book of Wei*, a usable case for understanding the early Northern Wei system of meritorious nobles.
Northern Wei rewards to meritorious ministers rested chiefly on military merit, Xi Jin's titles being tied directly to the outcomes of his campaigns.
His standing at court and his family's place among the old Dai followers supported each other.
The year of his death and his posthumous name are recorded, showing the scale of the honors the dynasty gave him.
The *Book of Wei* places him among the meritorious ministers, alongside Zhangsun Song and An Tong.