Background

Xie Daoyun was born in 340. She was a daughter of Xie Yi. It is known that she was one of six children. Xie Daoyun was a sister of the general Xie Xuan and also the favorite niece of prime-minister Xie An.

Education

It is known that Xie Daoyun's uncle (Xie An) enjoyed gatherings of young people with whom he could talk about literature and philosophy and he often asked them questions as a kind of test to see which of them were outstanding. Xie Daoyun would excel in answering these questions.

Career

About 360, Xie Daoyun married Wang Ningzhi, a young man from the extremely prestigious Wang clan. She bore him several sons and at least one daughter. It is known that while her husband enjoyed a life of comparative freedom, Xie Daoyun participated in debates. One well-known example was the time she offered to rescue her brother-in-law Wang Xianzhi from defeat at the hands of his guests. Seated behind a green silk screen, she extended Wang Xianzhi’s argument and none of his guests, all famous scholars, was able to defeat her.

Xie Daoyun and her children accompanied Wang Ningzhi when he was sent to Jiangzhou (present-day Jiangxi Province) to become a regional inspector. This must have been fairly late in her life as she was already a grandmother by then. When Sun En led a rebellion, he promised divine intervention. Since none came, he and their sons were killed by rebels. Xie Daoyun and her maids then went to meet the rebels. She is said to have killed several insurgents before being taken prisoner. When the rebel leader Sun En planned to kill her grandson as well, she told him to kill her first. It is said that Sun En, cruel and ruthless though he was, was moved by Xie Daoyun’s courage and spared the child.

After her husband’s death, Xie Daoyun lived a widow’s life in the Wang ancestral home in Kuaiji (present-day Shaoxing in Zhejiang Province), managing her household with strict discipline. Yet she did not retire from society entirely.

Achievements

• Xie Daoyun was known in Chinese history and literature as a famoust scholar. She was seen as a role model for literary creativity, but above all, she was admired by her contemporaries and by posterity for her outspokenness and courage as well as for her moral strength.

Religion

There were strong Daoist tendencies in Xie Daoyun’s personality and her thought.

Connections

Xie Daoyun was the wife of Wang Ningzhi. However, didn't like her husband and complained bitterly about him. Despite her scorn for Wang Ningzhi, she stayed in the marriage and bore him several sons and at least one daughter.

Father:

Xie Yi

Uncle:

Xie An

Xie An was a Jin Dynasty statesman who, despite his lack of military ability, led Jin through a major crisis attacks by Former Qin.

Brother:

Xie Xuan

Xie Xuan was a Jin Dynasty general who is best known for repelling the Former Qin army at the Battle of Fei River, preventing the Former Qin emperor Fu Jiān from destroying Jin and uniting China.

husband:

Wang Ningzhi

Brother:

Xie Quan

Brother:

Xie Kang

Brother:

Xie Jing

References

• Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women: Antiquity Through Sui, 1600 B.C.E. - 618 C. This new volume of the "Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women" spans more than 2,000 years from antiquity to the early seventh century. It recovers the stories of more than 200 women, nearly all of them unknown in the West.
  1998
• Shih-shuo Hsin-yu. A New Account of Tales of the World By Liu I-ch'ing, Liu Chun. Translated by Richard B. Mather.
  1976
• Historical Dictionary of Medieval China The Historical Dictionary of Medieval China fills an urgent need for a standard reference tailored to the interest of Western academics and readers. The history of medieval China is related through the book's introductory essay, maps, a table of Dynastic Periods, a bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on key people, historical geography, arts, institutions, events, and other important terms.
  2008