Xie Hui

Biography

Family Background and Early Life Xie Hui came from the Xie clan of Chen Commandery, one of the most prominent aristocratic families of Eastern Jin. His great-great-grandfather Xie Pou rose to Minister of Ceremonies; his great-grandfather Xie Ju was an elder brother of Xie An; his grandfather Xie Lang served as governor of Dongyang; and his father Xie Zhong had been Chief Clerk of the General of Agile Cavalry under Sima Daozi, Prince of Kuaiji. The Xie clan reached its height after the Battle of Fei River, when figures such as Xie An and Xie Xuan held major political and military roles. By the time of Xie Hui's birth the clan's position had begun to decline, but its accumulated status still provided him with education and access to official life. Little is recorded in the source about Xie Hui's earliest years. Relying on his family position and personal ability, he entered the service of Meng Chang, General Who Establishes Might, as a military staff officer. In 410, the sixth year of Yixi, Meng Chang committed suicide as Lu Xun's rebellion approached Jiankang. After Meng's death, Grand Commandant Liu Yu asked Liu Muzhi which of Meng's former staff could be brought into his own office. Liu Muzhi recommended Xie Hui, who then became a staff officer under Liu Yu. Soon after joining Liu Yu's headquarters, Xie Hui demonstrated considerable administrative ability. When the staff officer responsible for criminal cases became ill, Xie Hui took over litigation work. Although the office faced numerous complicated cases and a large backlog, the source says he answered questions and decided cases without error. Liu Yu was greatly impressed and that same day appointed him to the criminal-investigation bureau; he was later transferred to serve as administrative assistant in Yuzhou. This episode established his position with Liu Yu and marked the beginning of his political career in the regime that would become Liu Song. ### Service on Liu Yu's Staff In 412, the eighth year of Yixi, Liu Yu carried out the household-registration consolidation known as the “Yixi land registration reform.” Xie Hui was responsible for assigning the populations of émigré commanderies and counties between Yangzhou and Yuzhou. His handling was described as fair and balanced and won broad approval, after which he became Registrar to the Grand Commandant. He later accompanied Liu Yu in the campaign against Sima Xiuzhi, governor of Jingzhou. In 415, the eleventh year of Yixi, during the campaign against Sima Xiuzhi, vanguard commander Xu Kuizhi was defeated and killed at Pozhong. Liu Yu became furious and wanted to put on armor and personally force a landing. His generals remonstrated, but he grew angrier and refused to listen. Xie Hui went forward and physically held him back. Liu Yu shouted that he would behead him. Xie Hui replied that the realm could survive without Xie Hui but could not survive without Liu Yu, and that Xie Hui's death therefore did not matter. At that moment Hu Fan successfully landed and Sima Xiuzhi's troops withdrew, so Liu Yu abandoned the attempt. The source uses the episode to illustrate Xie Hui's courage and loyalty. In 416, the twelfth year of Yixi, Xie Hui accompanied Liu Yu on the northern expedition against Later Qin and managed internal and external military administration. Liu Muzhi, who remained in Jiankang, repeatedly sent messengers reporting government affairs, but Xie Hui often proposed different policies, arousing Liu Muzhi's strong resentment. When Liu Yu considered appointing Xie Hui Gentleman of the Bureau of Personnel and asked Liu Muzhi's opinion, Liu Muzhi firmly opposed it. Xie Hui therefore failed to advance while Liu Muzhi remained alive. In 417, when Liu Muzhi died, Liu Yu was deeply grieved while Xie Hui was privately pleased. Xie Hui personally entered the inner office to confirm the death and was appointed Gentleman of the Bureau of Personnel that same day. The source presents this as evidence of the deep conflict between the two men. In 418, when Liu Yu was created Duke of Song and established the Principality of Song, Xie Hui became General of the Right Guard and soon additionally Attendant. In 420, when Liu Yu proclaimed himself emperor and founded Liu Song, Xie Hui commanded mobile troops responsible for security at the accession ceremony. He was then promoted to Central General of the Guards and, for his founding contribution, enfeoffed as Duke of Wuchang County with two thousand households. ### Regent and the Deposition of Emperor Shao In 422, the third year of Yongchu, Emperor Wu of Liu Song, Liu Yu, became gravely ill. Xie Hui, together with Liu Daolian, Prince of Changsha and Grand Commandant, Xu Xianzhi as Minister over the Masses, Fu Liang as Vice Director of the Department of State Affairs, and Tan Daoji as General of the Guarding Army, attended the emperor during his illness. Liu Yu died in the fifth lunar month and Crown Prince Liu Yifu succeeded as Emperor Shao. Xie Hui received the testamentary order to assist the young emperor, was promoted to Director of the Secretariat, and governed together with Xu Xianzhi and Fu Liang. According to the source, Liu Yifu had already associated with petty men and behaved improperly while in the Eastern Palace. Xie Hui once warned Emperor Wu that because the emperor was advanced in age he should consider how to preserve the dynasty permanently and that the throne could not be entrusted to an incapable person, implicitly questioning Liu Yifu. Emperor Wu also asked him about Liu Yizhen, Prince of Luling. After observing Liu Yizhen, Xie Hui judged that his virtue was lighter than his talent and that he too was unsuitable as successor. After Emperor Shao's accession, the source says that he failed to observe mourning rites properly, pursued amusement, and lacked virtue. Xie Hui, Xu Xianzhi, and Fu Liang therefore plotted deposition. In 424, the second year of Jingping, they first reduced Liu Yizhen, Prince of Luling and the strongest alternative heir, to commoner status and then had him killed. In the fifth lunar month Xu Xianzhi summoned Tan Daoji to court and secured his support. Xie Hui gathered soldiers in his office under the pretext of repairing the General of the Guards headquarters. Tan Daoji and Xie Hui then led troops into the inner palace, took the imperial seals and ribbons, and in the name of the empress dowager deposed Emperor Shao as Prince of Yingyang. He was killed soon afterward. Xu Xianzhi, Fu Liang, Xie Hui, and their allies then brought Liu Yilong, Prince of Yidu, to the throne as Emperor Wen. Xu Xianzhi feared that Liu Yilong, once enthroned, might place the strategic command of Jingzhou in someone else's hands, so he quickly appointed Xie Hui commander of military affairs over Jingzhou, Xiangzhou, and five additional provinces, General Who Pacifies the Army, and governor of Jingzhou, positioning him outside the capital as military support for the regents. ### Command in Jingzhou, Rebellion, and Defeat After Emperor Wen took the throne, Xie Hui was formally confirmed as governor of Jingzhou and Bearer of the Imperial Tally and soon promoted to General of the Guards and Duke of Jianping Commandery. He firmly declined the dukedom and instead received a ceremonial music unit. Because Liu Yizhen and Emperor Shao had both been killed, Xie Hui knew that he, Xu Xianzhi, and Fu Liang bore responsibility for killing members of the imperial house and feared Emperor Wen's resentment. After reaching Jiangling he deliberately cultivated the emperor's trusted Attendant Wang Hua in hope of avoiding disaster. Emperor Wen also recalled his confidant Dao Yanzhi to the capital; Dao visited Xie Hui in Jiangling and gave him horses, sharp swords, and fine blades, leading Xie Hui to relax somewhat. In the eleventh lunar month of 425, Xie Hui ordered his wife Lady Cao and eldest son Xie Shixiu to escort two daughters to the capital for marriage to Liu Yikang, Prince of Pengcheng, and Liu Yibin, Marquis of Xinye. By then Emperor Wen, persuaded by trusted ministers Wang Hua, Wang Hong, and Wang Tanshou, had decided to kill Xu Xianzhi, Fu Liang, and Xie Hui. On the pretext of a northern expedition and visiting the imperial tombs, he mobilized troops and repaired ships in preparation for an expedition against Jingzhou. In the first lunar month of 426, the third year of Yuanjia, Xie Hui's younger brother Xie Jiao, Yellow Gate Gentleman, sent word that the emperor intended to attack Jingzhou. Xie Hui initially dismissed the warning and showed a letter from Fu Liang to his adviser He Chengtian, saying that Wan Youzong would soon arrive. Soon Cheng Daohui, administrator of Jiangxia, received a letter suggesting that the court was about to make a major decision, and Xie Hui finally became convinced that action against him was imminent. He decided to fight, first held mourning for Xu Xianzhi and Fu Liang, and then memorialized claiming injustice and accusing the emperor of being misled by Wang Hua and other “treacherous ministers,” presenting his uprising as an attempt to clear the ruler's side. Emperor Wen declared martial law and ordered Dao Yanzhi, Tan Daoji, Duan Hong, Liu Cui, Zhang Shao, and other commanders to attack Xie Hui. Xie Hui left his younger brother Xie Dun to guard Jiangling and personally led twenty thousand troops east along the Yangzi. The fleet stretched nearly one hundred li from Jiangjin to Pozhong, with banners said to cover the sky. In the second lunar month Xie Hui reached the mouth of the river and sent his chief clerk Yu Dengzhi to occupy Baling. Yu was timid and repeatedly delayed battle, claiming that persistent rain made fire attacks unfavorable. Only after half a month did he attack Pengcheng Isle and defeat the Song general Xiao Xin, forcing Dao Yanzhi to withdraw to Yinqi. Emperor Wen, however, entrusted the main campaign to Tan Daoji. When Xie Hui learned that Tan was approaching, he became alarmed. Tan Daoji joined Dao Yanzhi and arranged ships along the riverbank, blocking the Yangzi. On seeing the large opposing fleet, Xie Hui's forces broke without fighting. Xie Hui fled by night toward Jiangling, but his followers had already scattered, and he fled north with his younger brother Xie Dun. Because Xie Dun was heavy and unable to ride, their progress was slow. At Yantou in Anlu they were captured by Guang Shunzhi and sent to Jiankang. Xie Hui, Xie Jiao, Xie Dun, and his nephews Xie Shiji and Xie Shiyou were executed together. Xie Hui was thirty-seven.

Xie Hui came of the Xie family of Chenjun, being a great-great-grandson of Xie Wan, younger brother of the famous Eastern Jin minister Xie An, and a son of Xie Lang. He began as a judicial officer in the staff of a general, and once, taking over the cases of an ailing superior, disposed of a great backlog as he heard them without a single error, winning the notice of Liu Yu, who kept him in his staff on confidential business.

In Liu Yu's northern campaign and his replacement of the Jin with the Song he did much, holding the posts of general of the right guard, palace attendant and director of the Secretariat, one of the most powerful civil ministers of the early Liu Song. Under the young Emperor Shao he shared the regency with Xu Xianzhi and Fu Liang; because the emperor misconducted himself they deposed and killed him and raised Liu Yilong as Emperor Wen. On taking power Wen at once took up the matter of the deposition, and Xie Hui rose in arms from Jingzhou, was defeated and taken, and was killed in 426 at thirty-seven.

His career reflects the tension between clan and regents in the early Liu Song: the regents deposed and installed emperors to protect themselves and the new ruler established his authority by settling old scores, a cycle recurring throughout the dynasty. His career is recorded in the histories of Song and of the Southern Dynasties, his collected works still extant in the Tang.

His collected works and memorials survived into the Tang, parts of them cited in encyclopedias and histories.

His years in power and his destruction both fall within the dozen years after the founding of the Song.

His cooperation with Xu Xianzhi and Fu Liang and their later destruction form one main line of early Liu Song politics.

The regency of the early Liu Song consisted of Xu Xianzhi, Fu Liang and Xie Hui with Tan Daoji and others. The deposition of Emperor Shao and the elevation of Emperor Wen were decided and carried out by these regents, and the new emperor's handling of them became the crucial turn of the dynasty's early politics.

In rising at Jingzhou Xie Hui circulated a proclamation setting out the merits and faults of Xu Xianzhi and the rest in hope of a general response, but his call came to nothing and the troops of the region would not take up arms against the court. Defeated and taken, he was sent to Jiankang and executed, Xu Xianzhi and Fu Liang being dealt with at the same time. The government then passed into Wen's own hands, the tension between clan and ministers easing somewhat though the structural problem remained.

His collected works survived into the Tang but are now mostly lost.

His career provides an instance for the study of the regency system in the early Liu Song.

In 412, when Liu Yu carried out the "land-cutting" that re-registered the households of the émigré commanderies, Xie Hui was charged with apportioning the households of Yang and Yu provinces and was praised for fairness; he then entered the secretariat of the grand commandant and followed Liu Yu against Sima Xiuzhi. In 415 the vanguard commander Xu Kui was killed in defeat, and Liu Yu in fury wished to put on armor and go ashore himself; his generals' remonstrances went unheeded, until Xie Hui threw his arms about him. Liu Yu threatened to behead him, and Xie Hui answered that the world could do without Xie Hui but not without him; Hu Fan having gained the shore and the enemy withdrawn, Liu Yu gave up the attempt. In 416 Xie Hui accompanied the northern campaign, handling all business within and without the army; because he often disagreed with Liu Muzhi, who held the base, he received no promotion while Liu Muzhi lived. When Liu Muzhi died in 417 Xie Hui was made a confidential attendant the same day, and in 418, at the founding of the dukedom of Song, he became general of the right guard and soon one of the attending secretaries.

When Liu Yu ascended the altar to receive the abdication, Xie Hui commanded the roving guards for the ceremony's security, then became commander of the central army and was enfeoffed duke of Wuchang county with two thousand households for his part in the founding. In 421 he lost office for sending out by mistake a commission intended for the governor of Nanjun. After Liu Yu's death Xie Hui and Xu Xianzhi and Fu Liang received the testamentary charge of government; in 424 they deposed the young emperor and set up the Wen emperor, and Xie Hui went out as governor of Jingzhou with the military power of the upper river. In 426 the emperor took up the matter of the deposition, and Xie Hui rose in arms at Jiangling, was defeated, taken and executed at the capital. Trusted throughout his life by Liu Yu for his competence and quickness, he came to ruin through the deposition of an emperor — the most representative fate among the regents of the early Liu Song.

Major Activities

Political Activities Xie Hui's political career began on Liu Yu's staff. In 412 he participated in the Yixi registration reform, dividing the population of émigré commanderies between Yangzhou and Yuzhou and earning praise for fair administration. The source presents the policy as important for regularizing household registration and increasing state revenue in the late Eastern Jin. He became one of Liu Yu's principal advisers during the creation of Liu Song and took part in major campaigns including the war against Sima Xiuzhi and the northern expedition against Later Qin. After Liu Yu became emperor, Xie Hui served as General of the Right Guard, Attendant, and Central General of the Guards and was made Duke of Wuchang County. In 422, together with Xu Xianzhi, Fu Liang, and Tan Daoji, he received a testamentary command to assist Emperor Shao. In 424 Xie Hui, Xu Xianzhi, and Fu Liang plotted to depose Emperor Shao and then supported Emperor Wen. This was one of the most consequential political changes in early Liu Song. Xie Hui was consequently sent to Jingzhou, but the same episode later prompted his rebellion and death. ### Military Activities Although an aristocrat, Xie Hui also played military roles. In the 415 campaign against Sima Xiuzhi, after vanguard commander Xu Kuizhi was killed, Liu Yu wanted to lead a dangerous assault personally; Xie Hui risked his life to restrain him and thereby, according to the source, protected the commander. In 416 he accompanied Liu Yu's northern expedition against Later Qin and handled both internal and external military administration. The source states that of ten military strategies proposed during the campaign, Xie Hui alone contributed nine, although their specific contents were not fully preserved. In 426 Xie Hui rebelled from Jingzhou and personally led twenty thousand men east along the Yangzi, with a fleet extending nearly one hundred li. His forces initially defeated a Song vanguard but collapsed without battle when confronted by the combined armies of Tan Daoji and Dao Yanzhi. Xie Hui was captured and executed. ### Travels and Areas of Activity Xie Hui's life was centered mainly on Jiankang, present-day Nanjing, and Jingzhou around Jiangling in present-day Hubei. In his early career he served in Jiankang, and during Liu Yu's northern expedition he traveled through the Guanzhong and Luoyang regions. After taking command in Jingzhou he used Jiangling as his base and held military authority over Jingzhou, Xiangzhou, Yongzhou, Yizhou, Ningzhou, and the northern and southern Qin regions, making him one of Liu Song's most powerful provincial military administrators. ### Relations with Contemporaries Xie Hui's closest political relationship was with Liu Yu, who treated him as one of his most trusted senior officials in later years. He was allied with Xu Xianzhi and Fu Liang as a fellow regent and partner in the deposition of Emperor Shao. By contrast, his relationship with Liu Muzhi was poor because of repeated policy disagreements during the northern expedition; Liu Muzhi blocked his promotion until his own death. Xie Hui's relationship with Tan Daoji was complex. Both served as regents and cooperated in deposing Emperor Shao, but Tan later commanded the army that defeated Xie Hui. Xie Hui also tried to cultivate Emperor Wen's confidant Wang Hua in order to avoid punishment but ultimately failed.

Personal Relations

• Great-great-grandfather: Xie Pou, Eastern Jin Minister of Ceremonies.
• Great-grandfather: Xie Ju, elder brother of Xie An.
• Grandfather: Xie Lang, Eastern Jin governor of Dongyang.
• Father: Xie Zhong, Chief Clerk of the General of Agile Cavalry under Sima Daozi, Prince of Kuaiji.
• Brothers: Xie Xuan, Xie Zhan, Xie Jiao, Xie Dun.
• Son: Xie Shixiu.
• Daughters: elder daughter married Liu Yikang, Prince of Pengcheng; younger daughter married Liu Yibin, Marquis of Xinye. ### Friends and Colleagues
• Liu Muzhi: recommended Xie Hui to Liu Yu's staff; their relationship later deteriorated over policy disagreements.
• Xu Xianzhi: regent and political ally; jointly planned the deposition.
• Fu Liang: regent and political ally; jointly planned the deposition.
• Tan Daoji: regent; cooperated in the deposition but later led the army against Xie Hui.
• He Chengtian: Xie Hui's advisory officer and an important counselor during the rebellion. ### Ruler–Minister Relations
• Liu Yu, Emperor Wu of Liu Song: Xie Hui's patron and ruler; one of the officials most trusted by Liu Yu in his final years.
• Liu Yifu, Emperor Shao of Liu Song: ruler whom Xie Hui assisted as regent and then helped depose and kill.
• Liu Yilong, Emperor Wen of Liu Song: ruler whom Xie Hui helped enthrone and who later ordered his destruction. ### Conflicts
• Liu Muzhi: political disagreements during the northern expedition led Liu Muzhi to block Xie Hui's advancement.
• Wang Hua, Wang Hong, Wang Tanshou: trusted officials of Emperor Wen who urged action against Xie Hui and his allies.

Historical Assessment

Southern Dynasties

• The “Biography of Xie Hui” in the Book of Song described him as quick to understand changing circumstances and clear and practiced in strategy, while also recording his pleasure at Liu Muzhi's death and thereby suggesting a narrowness of character.
• Shen Yue's Book of Song described Xie Hui's rebel fleet extending from Jiangjin to Pozhong with banners blotting out the sunlight, conveying both the scale of his power and, in the source's interpretation, the futility of his challenge.
• Before Xie Hui departed for Jingzhou, Cai Kuo predicted that while deposing a bad ruler and enthroning a better one could be justified, killing two imperial brothers and then holding a dominant military command upstream made it difficult for Xie Hui to escape future suspicion; the prediction was later seen as fulfilled. ### Tang Period
• Fang Xuanling and other compilers of the Book of Jin did not give Xie Hui a separate biography but treated him in related accounts as both a founding contributor to Liu Song and a later rebel.
• Tang historian Liu Zhiji, in the Shitong, discussed Xie Hui together with Xu Xianzhi and Fu Liang as examples of powerful ministers who deposed rulers and exercised excessive authority. ### Song and Yuan Periods
• Sima Guang's Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government disapproved of the deposition of Emperor Shao and characterized Xie Hui and his associates as failing in loyalty to the ruler they served.
• Southern Song scholar Hong Mai, in Random Notes from the Rongzhai Studio, remarked that Xie Hui possessed the merit of assisting the dynasty's founding and commanded powerful troops yet failed to protect himself, judging him rich in schemes but lacking broader judgment.
• Yuan commentator Hu Sansheng acknowledged aspects of Xie Hui's military ability in his annotations to the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government but regarded his armed resistance to imperial orders as self-destructive. ### Ming and Qing Periods
• Wang Fuzhi, in Reflections on Reading the Comprehensive Mirror, argued that Xie Hui's participation in deposition sprang from a desire for the merit of deciding the succession and that his later defeat was a disaster of his own making.
• Zhao Yi, in Critical Notes on the Twenty-Two Histories, discussed Xie Hui together with Xu Xianzhi and Fu Liang among regents who carried out a deposition and, despite claims of loyal purpose, could not avoid disaster.
• Qian Daxin, in Textual Criticism of the Twenty-Two Histories, examined details in the historical accounts of Xie Hui, including the wording of his memorials. ### Modern Assessments
• Lü Simian, in History of the Jin and the Northern and Southern Dynasties, argued that although Xie Hui, Xu Xianzhi, and Fu Liang's deposition of Emperor Shao had an element of ministerial overreach, Emperor Shao's failure to observe mourning and his excessive amusement gave the action some rationale.
• Tian Yuqing, in Aristocratic Politics of the Eastern Jin, treated Xie Hui as an important Liu Song-era representative of the Xie clan of Chen Commandery and saw his career as reflecting the complex relationship between aristocratic clans and imperial power.
• Wang Zhongluo, in History of the Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties, regarded Xie Hui as one of the most capable founding officials of Liu Song, while arguing that his role in deposition and later rebellion made him a victim of the dynasty's consolidation of imperial authority.