Xiè Fāngdé 謝枋得 (1226–1289), zì Jūnzhí 君直, sobriquet Diéshān 疊山 (“Stacked-Mountain”; his own choice); posthumous appellation Wénjié 文節 (“Cultured-Steadfast”), bestowed by his disciples. Native of Yìyáng 弋陽 in Xìnzhōu 信州 (modern Shàngráo 上饒, Jiāngxī 江西). After Wén Tiānxiáng (文天祥) the second most-iconic loyalist-martyr of the SòngYuán transition.
Lifedates. 1226–1289: the catalog meta gives 1226–1289; CBDB 27801 records 1225–1289. The Sòngshǐ (juàn 425) gives 1226. The 1226 reading is followed here.
Family. His father served as Vice-Prefect (Tōngpàn) of Xúnzhōu 潯州 tōngpàn and was put to death after impeachment by the Mongol-leaning Commissioner Dǒng [Sòngchén 董宋臣]. This early family tragedy fixed Xiè’s lifelong moral identity around the twin imperatives of zhōng (loyalty) and xiào (filial piety).
Examination and career. Jìnshì of Bǎoyòu 4 (1256) — the same examination cohort as Wén Tiānxiáng (文天祥). After obtaining the degree, Xiè swore not to meet Dǒng face-to-face and refused to make the customary audience call.
Resistance. When the Yuán armies advanced on Jiāngnán in 1275, Xiè raised an independent resistance force in his native Yìyáng, holding a portion of eastern Jiāngxī briefly against Yuán pressure. The cause failed in 1276; his wife and children were killed in prison, along with several brothers and nephews. Xiè escaped capture, retreated into Fújiàn under disguise, and lived in poverty as an itinerant fortune-teller for over a decade.
Refusals of Yuán office. Khubilai’s southern recruitment policy under Chéng Jùfū 程鉅夫 (sobriquet Xuělóu 雪樓) sought systematically to recruit Sòng yímín 遺民 into Yuán service. Xiè was repeatedly summoned and repeatedly refused. His two famous letters — to Chéng Jùfū (the Censor Xuělóu) and to the former Sòng chancellor Liú Mèngyán 留夢炎 (sobriquet Zhōngzhāi 忠齋, now in Yuán service) — are the central documents of Sòng yímín refusal of accommodation, and were widely studied as moral exemplars in the late Míng and Qīng.
Forcible transport and death. In Zhìyuán 25 (1288) Xiè was finally seized by force and transported north to Yān (Dàdū 大都, modern Běijīng). On the road and on arrival he refused food, and died in early 1289 at age 64. His final journey northward produced his most famous cí-poem, Hánshí Yùnzhōu dàozhōng 寒食鄆州道中, set to the tune Qìnyuán chūn 沁園春.
Other attributed work. Xiè is traditionally credited with the compilation of the Qiānjiā shī 千家詩 (“Poems by a Thousand Masters”), the late-imperial elementary poetry anthology that became — alongside the Sānzì jīng and the Bǎijiā xìng — one of the three most widely circulated traditional schoolbooks. The attribution is contested (Wáng Xiàngzhī of the Míng is sometimes credited), but the chronological ordering and critical principles are consistent with Xiè’s known preferences.
Sources. Sòngshǐ 宋史 juàn 425 (biography); Liú Jùn 劉儁 preface to KR4d0367 (Jǐngtài 5, 1454); shéndàobēi (spirit-way stele) of Xiè Wénjié; Jennifer W. Jay, A Change in Dynasties: Loyalism in Thirteenth-Century China (1991), with extensive treatment.
Works in the Kanripo corpus. KR4d0367 Diéshān jí 叠山集, 5 juàn (Sìkù recension; the Míng 1454 recension was in 16 juàn).