Xie Ping

Xie Ping was born on January 26, 1857, in a courtyard household near Chengzhuang in northern Anhui, Qing China. The family spoke local Northern Mandarin and lived by dry-field farming on the plain—wheat and beans, a few chickens, and a patched earth-walled room for storing straw and tools. His father, Xie Dahe, worked the fields with his own father, Old Master Xie, while Old Madam Xie ran the women’s side of the household. They burned incense at the household altar, kept a small tablet for ancestors, and set out bowls of food at New Year.

Ping’s mother labored in late winter. She died a few days after the birth, and the family buried her with a brief chanting service. Old Madam Xie took charge of the baby. She arranged feeding help from a lactating neighbor, Auntie Liu, and at night wrapped Ping tight and kept him near the heated brick bed.

He stayed small and quiet. Through spring he took little milk and failed to gain strength. On May 21, 1857, Ping died in the women’s room. Old Master Xie set the baby’s body in a shallow burial plot near the family’s fields, and Dahe burned joss paper at the grave.