Yu Xin (Yu Hsin) (Writer)

 

(513-581) poet

Yu Xin was born in Chiang-ling, China, in 513. His father, Yu Jianwu, worked directly for two sons of the Liang dynasty’s Emperor Wu and was able to provide Yu Xin with an excellent education; it is likely that some studies were at the Imperial Library. When he was 14, Yu Xin also attended classes taught by one of Emperor Wu’s sons.

After Yu Xin passed the governmental examinations, he began a career in the imperial service. He spent most of his early career working for one of the Wu princes, Xiao Gang, in the Liang dynasty capital, Jiankang (Chien-k’ang; modern-day Nanjing [Nanking]). In 548, after a series of political and military miscalculations by Emperor Wu, Jiankang was attacked and conquered, and Yu Xin was forced to flee the city.

Despite the political turmoil that continued for years, Yu Xin remained affiliated with the Liang dynasty. In 554, he was sent as an ambassador to Chang’an, the capital of the Western Wei dynasty in the North, with the purpose of preventing an invasion of Liang territory. While there, he was held under house arrest for three years and not allowed to return to southern China for the rest of his life. Despite this, Yu Xin was well respected by the Western Wei and had numerous honorary titles bestowed upon him. He was recognized as the greatest poet of his century and treated as a cultural icon.

One of Yu Xin’s most famous works is “The Lament for the South,” which was written (ca. 578 a.d.) during his time in Chang’an, where he held mostly symbolic posts while devoting his life to writing. He helped compose the Zhou (Chou) ritual hymns and was the author of the congratulatory memorial on their completion. The “Lament for the South,” a long rhapsodic poem, or fu, provides a historical commentary on the wars and political upheavals of the Liang dynasty. The work also expresses Yu’s sorrow in the North and his wish to return to his native region. In relating the events of a decade ending with the fall of the Liang dynasty, Yu’s poem is brimming with historical allusions. His own homesickness while in exile in the North, however, permeates the final verses of the lament:

As an honored guest . . . I see bells and cauldrons … I hear servings and song… But how can they know that.. . Among the commoners of Hsien— Yang, not only the prince Longs for home.

An English Version of a Work by Yu Xin

“The Lament for the South”: Yu Hsin’s “Ai Chiang-nan Fu.” Edited and translated by William T. Graham, Jr. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1980.

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