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Wen Tianxiang

Given / Temple NameWen Wenshan

The Southern Song top graduate and chancellor who "left his loyal heart to shine in history"

Vessels of the Civilization · Pathfinders & Historians
Song of the Righteous SpiritResisting the YuanYashan

Who they are

Wen Tianxiang took first place in the examinations at twenty, and as the Southern Song faced ruin he spent his whole fortune raising troops to defend the throne. Detained while negotiating in the Yuan camp, he escaped and kept up resistance in the southeast, was defeated and captured at Wupoling, and swallowed poison but did not die. Escorted past Lingding Ocean, he wrote, "Since ancient times, what man has not died? Let my loyal heart shine in the pages of history." Held at Dadu for three years, the Yuan exhausted every means to make him yield: the surrendered Song Emperor Gong came to persuade him, family letters from his enslaved wife and daughters came to persuade him, Kublai Khan himself offered him the chancellorship — and he answered from his cell with the "Song of the Righteous Spirit." In 1283 he was executed at the Chaishi market, bowing once more to the south before he died. In his sash were found his last words: "Confucius spoke of achieving benevolence, Mencius of choosing righteousness; only when righteousness is fulfilled is benevolence attained."

Key stories

On Lingding Ocean, lamenting his loneliness

After his capture, the Yuan general Zhang Hongfan pressed Wen Tianxiang to write a letter summoning the surrender of Zhang Shijie, who fought on at sea. What Wen Tianxiang wrote was a poem: "Through hardship I rose by mastering one classic, and now four bleak years amid shield and spear… Since ancient times, what man has not died? Let my loyal heart shine in the pages of history." Zhang Hongfan read it, laughed, set it aside, and pressed him no more. The next year, at the naval battle of Yashan, Lu Xiufu leapt into the sea with the boy emperor on his back and the Southern Song fell — Wen Tianxiang watched it all from a Yuan ship, weeping and composing poems.

Martyrdom at the Chaishi market

Before the execution, Kublai Khan summoned him one last time in person: "Serve me as you served the Song, and I will make you chancellor of the Secretariat." Wen Tianxiang answered, "I was the Song’s top graduate and chancellor; the Song is gone, and I can only die, not live." At the execution, he asked which way was south, straightened his robes and cap, and bowed once more to the south: "My work is done." He met death calmly at forty-seven. When his wife collected his body, she found in his sash a eulogy: "Reading the books of the sages, what did I learn? From this day on, I may be nearly without shame."

Relationships

Nemesis
🌏Kublai Khan　Offered the chancellorship by Kublai Khan in person, and refused it

Appears in

The Two SongsThe Naval Battle of Yashan; the Fall of the Southern Song
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