Career
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Career
Xie Lingyun served as an official in the Eastern Jin, during which time the rebellion was quashed by general Liu Yu; however, this would turn out to be just a step in the general's career, later on he would overthrow the Eastern Jin dynasty and establish the Liu Song dynasty, as Emperor Wu. The Xie family backed an alternative general, and the factional intrigues went on for years, before and after the eventual triumph of the Liu as the Liu Song dynasty. Liu Yu gained more and more power, at the expense of the Xie and the other old families, but at first was content to have the services of Xie Lingyun, nominally as an official of Jin. However, in the year 420 Liu Yu declared the end of Jin and the beginning of his new dynasty, the Liu Song (he just called it Song, but later we call it Liu Sung to help to keep it distinct from synonymous states or kingdoms). At this point, as an official in the Liu Song government, Xie Lingyun received a demotion, to marquis, with only 500 households in fee. He then was demoted to a position in a remote area, and so effectively exiled, to Yongjia (永嘉, modern Wenzhou in Zhejiang). Yongjia was a coastal seaport surrounded by scenic hills, and the setting for Xie Lingyun's Yongjia poetic period, when he wrote some of his finest poems. After a year in office here, however, Xie claiming health problems, resigned and returned home to the family estate in Shangyu.
