Dynasties of ChinaNorthern and Southern DynastiesXiao Liang
Tianjian and others · Reign 502—549
The erudite and talented founder of the country reigned for forty-eight years. In his early years, he worked diligently and promoted literature. In his later years, he surrendered to the Buddha and died in the Hou Jing Rebellion.
Xiao Yan, courtesy name Shuda, was born in the Xiao family of Nanlanling and was of the same clan as the Southern Qi royal family. He was erudite and talented. When he was young, he traveled with Shen Yue, Xie Tiao and others to the sect of King Jingling Xiao Ziliang, and was known as the "Eight Friends of Jingling". Qi Emperor Ming served as the governor of Yongzhou and guarded Xiangyang. In 500, his elder brother Xiao Yi was unjustly killed by Xiao Baojuan, the Marquis of Donghun. Xiao Yan raised troops in Xiangyang and supported Xiao Baorong, Nanking Kang. In the following year, he invaded Jiankang and established the Liang Dynasty in 502 with accession following abdication.
In the early days of his reign, he was diligent in political affairs. He began to review official documents, revised laws and regulations, and changed the official rank to eighteen classes in the fourth watch of winter. He established a doctorate in the Five Classics, opened five libraries, recruited children from poor families and awarded officials through examinations. Jiangnan society was stable and prosperous, and culture and academics flourished. In 507, Liang Jun defeated the Northern Wei Dynasty at Zhongli. However, in 514, the Fushan Weir was built to flood Shouyang, but the weir collapsed, causing a huge disaster.
He was a devout believer in Buddhism, stopped drinking and eating, and banned the use of animals in the ancestral temple. He sacrificed his life in Tongtai Temple four times and was redeemed by his ministers with huge sums of money. He was lenient and indulgent towards the children of the clan, and his officialdom was gradually weakened. In 547, he accepted the rebel general Hou Jing of the Eastern Wei Dynasty despite the objections of his courtiers. The following year, Hou Jing rebelled and besieged Taicheng. Taicheng fell in 549, and Xiao Yan was placed under house arrest. He died of illness and starvation in May at the age of eighty-six.
Emperor Wu of Liang Dynasty was erudite and versatile. He was diligent and frugal in the early years of his reign. He revised laws and regulations, established schools, and emphasized culture and education, which brought stability and prosperity to Jiangnan for decades. Liang Dynasty literature, history, and Buddhism all reached the peak of the Southern Dynasties. However, in his later years, he indulged in Buddhism, tolerated the clan and the powerful, neglected the administration of officials, and lax military armaments. He also accepted Hou Jing rashly, which eventually led to the ruin of the country and his death. The prosperity of Jiangnan was destroyed in one day, and the Southern Dynasty never recovered.
MilitaryXiangyang raises troops
His elder brother Xiao Yi was unjustly killed by Marquis Donghun. In November, Xiao Yan raised troops in Xiangyang. The following year, he proclaimed Xiao Baorong the emperor of Nanking Kang and led his army eastward to besiege Jiankang. In December, Donghunhou was killed by his subordinates, and Xiao Yan entered the city and took power.
Politicsaccession following abdicationJianliang
In the fourth month of Qi Emperor Heabdication, Xiao Yan ascended the throne as emperor in Jiankang, the country was named Liang, and he was changed to Yuan Tianjian. Emperor and Xiao Baorong were soon killed.
CultureCompiled "Thousand Character Essay"
During the Tianjian period, Liang Emperor Wu ordered Zhou Xingsi to select a thousand unique characters from Wang Xizhi's calligraphy and compile them into a "Thousand Character Essay" with four characters and one sentence, with antithetical rhymes, for the prince to learn calligraphy.
Lasting legacy"The Thousand-Character Classic" has been one of the most popular textbooks for elementary school students for more than a thousand years. Word sequences such as "Heaven and Earth Xuanhuang" are often used as numbers for examination halls and deed files.
PoliticsPromulgation of Liang Law
Cai Fadu and others were ordered to revise the code with reference to the old laws of the Southern Qi Dynasty, promulgate twenty chapters of "Liang Code", and at the same time promulgate "Liang Ling" and "Liang Ke", making the legal system relatively complete.
CultureOpened five halls
The Doctor of the Five Classics was established and five libraries were opened to recruit students. Each library had hundreds of people. Food and drinks were provided by the government. Those who passed the examination could be awarded officials regardless of their family background. This opened up a road for officials from poor families.
MilitaryZhongli victory
Hundreds of thousands of troops from the Northern Wei Dynasty besieged Zhongli. Wei Rui and Cao Jingzong led their troops to rescue them. Taking advantage of the swollen Huai River, they burned the Wei army's pontoon bridge with fire. The Wei army was defeated, with more than 100,000 people drowned and killed. The northern border of Liang Dynasty turned the corner.
CultureBesieging "The Theory of God's Destruction"
Fan Zhen adheres to "Theory on the Destruction of Gods" and advocates that "if the form exists, the spirit will exist, and if the form disappears, the spirit will be destroyed." Emperor Liang Wu issued an edict to denounce him for violating the classics, and organized more than 60 princes and nobles to write articles and besiege Fan Zhen, but Fan Zhen remained unyielding.
PoliticsOfficials are divided into eighteen classes
The official system was changed, and the nine-rank officials were subdivided into eighteen classes. Those with more classes were valued. Seven more classes were set up to accommodate scholars from humble backgrounds, in an attempt to strike a balance between family background and talent.
Science & technologyIssue the Great Ming Calendar
After Zu Chongzhi's son Zu Xun recommended it many times, the imperial court officially promulgated the "Da Ming Calendar" compiled by Zu Chongzhi during his lifetime. Precession was used in the official calendar for the first time.
CultureCut off meat and wine
He wrote "A Treatise on the Abstinence of Wine and Meat", summoned monks and nuns to give lectures, and asked monks to abstain from wine and meat. In 517, he also ordered the ancestral temple to use pasta, vegetables and fruits instead of slaughtering livestock.
Lasting legacyThe tradition of universal vegetarianism among Chinese Buddhist monks and nuns is generally believed to have begun with the initiative of Emperor Wu of Liang Dynasty and continues to this day.
SocietyFushan Weir bursts
In order to recapture Shouyang, 200,000 soldiers and civilians were recruited to build Fushan Weir on the Huaihe River in order to flood the city with water. In April 516, the weir was completed. In September, the Huaihe River surged, and the weir burst. More than 100,000 villages along Huaicheng garrison floated into the sea.
CultureSacrifice Tongtai Temple
After the Tongtai Temple was completed, Liang Emperor Wu personally sacrificed himself as a temple slave, and then sacrificed his life three times in 529, 546, and 547. In 529 and 547, the ministers paid him 100 million to redeem him from the palace.
MilitaryWhite Robe Army Northern Expedition
Chen Qingzhi was sent to lead seven thousand white-robed troops to escort Wang Yuanhao of the Northern Wei Dynasty to the north. They fought thousands of miles and invaded Luoyang, but they were ultimately defeated because they were alone and without help.
PeopleZhaomingCrown Prince passed away
Crown Prince Xiao Tong died of illness at the age of thirty-one. The "Selected Works" compiled by him during his lifetime includes more than 700 poems and essays by 130 authors from Early China to the Liang Dynasty. Emperor Liang Wu then established his third son Xiao Gang as Crown Prince.
Lasting legacy"Selected Works" is the earliest extant collection of poems and essays. There is a saying in the Song Dynasty that "if the selected works are bad, only half a scholar will be talented." It is still the basic classic for studying literature from Early China to the Southern Dynasties.
MilitaryAccept Hou Jing
General Hou Jing of the Eastern Wei Dynasty came to surrender from the Thirteen Prefectures of Henan. Liang Emperor Wu accepted the offer despite the objections of the courtiers, and sent his nephew Xiao Yuanming north to meet him. He was defeated and captured in Hanshan. The Eastern Wei Dynasty then negotiated peace with Liang, and Hou Jing became suspicious and fearful.
MilitaryHou Jing raises troops
After August, Jing raised troops in Shouyang, with Xiao Zhengde as his internal response. In October, he crossed the Yangtze River, invaded the outer city of Jiankang, and besieged Taicheng. Although there are many reinforcements from various places, they are waiting and watching.
PoliticsFall of Taicheng
After March Jing captured Taicheng, Liang Emperor Wu was placed under house arrest in the Jingju Hall, his food and drink were withheld, and he died of illness and starvation in May at the age of eighty-six. After this catastrophe in Jiangnan, "there is no smoke for thousands of miles, and there are few human traces."
One of the Eight Friends of Jingling, he helped Xiao Yan to build Liang Dynasty in Qi Dynasty, and he was promoted to Shangshu Ling. He wrote 100 volumes of "Song Book", and together with Xie Tiao and others proposed the theory of four tones and eight diseases, which promoted the formation of metrical poetry.
The leader of the battle of Zhongli built forts and attacked hundreds of thousands of people in the Northern Wei Dynasty. The Wei people called him "Wei Hu".
Born into a poor family, he was originally a follower of Emperor Wu of Liang. In 529, he led 7,000 white-robed troops northward to invade Luoyang. There was a nursery rhyme from time to time, "Famous teachers and generals should not keep themselves in prison; thousands of soldiers and horses should avoid white-robed troops."
The master of the Shangqing sect of Taoism lived in seclusion in Maoshan. Emperor Wu of Liang often sent envoys to consult on important national affairs, and he was called the "chief minister in the mountains" at that time. Proficient in medicine, he compiled "Compendium of Materia Medica".
The eldest son of Emperor Wu of Liang Dynasty was kind-hearted and eager to learn. He recruited scribes to compile thirty volumes of "Selected Works". He died young in 531 and was given the posthumous title Zhaoming.
On the order of Emperor Wu of Liang Dynasty, a thousand characters in Wang Xizhi's calligraphy were compiled into "The Thousand Character Essay". According to legend, it was compiled in one night, and his beard and hair were all white.
Proficient in etiquette and current affairs, he has been in charge of secrets for a long time, and is good at ingratiating himself. He urged Emperor Liang Wu to accept Hou Jing. Hou Jing raised an army under the name "Zhu Zhu Yi" and died of illness during the siege of Taicheng.
He was originally a general of the Eastern Wei Dynasty. In 547, he surrendered Henan to Liang. The following year, he rebelled and captured Taicheng. He successively deposed Emperor Jianwen and others. In 551, he proclaimed himself emperor and named his country Han. In 552, he was defeated and killed by his subordinates.