Biography
Family Background and Early Life Xing was born in 1106, the fifth year of the Chongning era, in Xiangfu County, Kaifeng Prefecture. Her father, Xing Huan, attained the office of Court Gentleman for Consultation. The Xing family was not originally prominent, but after Xing became empress, members of the family received posthumous honors and ennoblements. Her great-grandfather Xing Yundi was posthumously appointed Grand Tutor and made Prince Gong; her grandfather Xing Zongxian was posthumously appointed Grand Preceptor and made Prince Yong; and her father Xing Huan was posthumously appointed Junior Preceptor and made Prince An. Her mother, of the Xiong clan, was granted the title Lady of Wei. Xing married Zhao Gou while he was still Prince Kang and was granted the title Lady of Jia. When Zhao Gou went on a mission to the Jin, Xing remained at his princely residence. ### The Jingkang Incident and Removal to the North In 1127, the second year of the Jingkang era, Jin forces captured Kaifeng, and Xing and other women of the imperial family were taken north. During the journey, Xing fell from a horse and suffered a miscarriage. She was subsequently forcibly assigned to Wanyan Zongxian, a member of the Jin imperial clan, and nearly took her own life. In 1135, the fifth year of the Tianhui era, the Jin court sent Xing and the others to Wuguocheng and granted her the title Lady Jianyan of Song. ### Remote Investiture as Empress and Death Away from Home In 1127, the first year of the Jianyan era, Zhao Gou ascended the throne at Yingtian Prefecture in Nanjing and remotely invested Xing as empress. Earlier, Emperor Huizong of Song had sent Cao Xun south. Xing removed one of her gold earrings and asked Cao Xun to deliver it to Gaozong as an expression of her wish to be reunited with him soon. Gaozong treasured the gold ring after receiving it. In 1139, the ninth year of the Shaoxing era, Xing died at Wuguocheng at the age of thirty-four. The Jin kept her death secret, and the Southern Song court remained unaware of it. ### Posthumous Honors In 1142, the twelfth year of the Shaoxing era, the Southern Song welcomed back Empress Dowager Wei and only then learned that Xing had died. Gaozong suspended court and granted her the posthumous title Yijie. In August of the same year, Xing's coffin returned to Song territory and was temporarily placed northwest of the coffin of Empress Dowager Shengxian. Gaozong often missed his first wife. To console him, Empress Wu requested that her nephews Wu Xun and Wu Ju respectively marry two daughters of the Xing family. Late in the Chunxi era, Xing's posthumous title was changed to Xianjie, and she was enshrined in Gaozong's ancestral temple.
Xing Bingyi was the principal wife of Zhao Gou, Emperor Gaozong of Song. At the Jingkang disaster she was taken by the Jin army at Kaifeng and carried north with the other imperial clansmen and consorts. After Zhao Gou took the throne in the south he made her empress by a distant investiture, but she never returned, dying in the Jin realm. Her posthumous name was Xianjie, and the histories accordingly call her Empress Xianjie.
Her case is a concrete instance of the northward removal of the Song imperial clan and consorts in the Jingkang disaster. Her lot in the Jin realm is described in several Song accounts, the details differing according to the standpoint of the sources.
After Zhao Gou took the throne he made Lady Xing empress by a distant investiture, a gesture that nominally maintained the palace ritual of the Southern Song court and expressed mourning for the captive clan. She never returned, and when word of her death came the court gave her the posthumous name Xianjie, a title of particular meaning among the consorts of the Southern Song.