Bust of Emperor Wu of Liang".
In the second year of the Taiqing Dynasty, in 548 AD, Xiao Yan, the founding emperor of the Southern Liang Dynasty who ruled southern China for nearly half a century, was starved to death in a palatial palace.
The Northern and Southern Dynasties, the world is ruled across the Yangtze River, the Southern Dynasties are Liu Song, Xiao Qi, Xiao Liang, and Southern Chen, the four regimes alternately exist, and the Northern Dynasties are the Northern Wei Dynasty, and later the Northern Wei Dynasty became the Eastern Wei and Western Wei, the Eastern Wei Dynasty evolved into the Northern Qi, and the Western Wei Dynasty evolved into the Northern Zhou.
The cause of Emperor Wu of Liang's starvation was because the emperor received the rebel general Hou Jing who broke away from the Eastern Wei Dynasty of the Northern Dynasties, and then Hou Jing rebelled and occupied Jiankang, the capital of Southern Liang, which is today's Nanjing, and put Emperor Wu of Liang under house arrest.
Ladies and gentlemen, this Xiao Yan's life, quite legendary, for the monarch generation, he has made a lot of achievements in politics, economy and culture, military, science and technology diplomacy, in the turbulent times of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Xiao Yan reconstructed the social environment at that time as his ruler, repaired the hearts of the people at that time, he himself was full of talent, and brought a dazzling cultural charm and good economic prosperity to Nanliang.
He was diligent and thrifty, and it can even be said that he was diligent and thrifty, and he practiced it, and the emperor also became a monk several times to show this ambition.
But the emperor could not have imagined that his simplicity would be exchanged for the corruption of the bureaucrats, and his benevolence would be rewarded with the indulgence of the nobles.
In the seventh year of Tang Wenzong's reign, the famous poet Du Mu of the Tang Dynasty passed through Yangzhou, which coincided with the misty and rainy weather, so he wrote a poem of seven words:
Thousands of miles of warblers cry green and red, and the water village mountain Guo wine flag wind.
There are 480 temples in the Southern Dynasty, and how many buildings are in the smoke and rain.
Yes, Emperor Wu of Liang in the Southern Dynasty was the most prosperous, and when he was in power, many Buddhist temples were built in the south of the Yangtze River, and now they are not desolate and dilapidated, and they are still quietly shrouded in wind and rain.
The kind-hearted Emperor Wu of Liang gave everything mercifully to the monks, to the children of the clan, to the royal relatives and nobles, to the bureaucratic class, to the Jiangnan clan, to the visitors of the Northern Dynasty, and even to Hou Jing, who starved him to death, but he never really benefited the people of the world.
He has missed too many opportunities in his life, from the Six Towns Uprising of the Northern Wei Dynasty to the juxtaposition of the Eastern and Western Wei Dynasty, countless God-given opportunities have been placed in front of him, but he has always turned a blind eye.
There are so many glorious paths in life, all of them have been missed.
Self-gain, self-loss, this is Emperor Liang Wudi's last understanding of his life.
Emperor Wu of Liang sacrificed himself to Tongtai Temple).
Emperor Wu of Liang had a son, named Xiao Yi, when the Hou Jing Rebellion broke out, Xiao Yi served as the governor of Jingzhou, mastered the important town, and held heavy troops, but he turned a blind eye to his father's experience and never helped.
Before Nanliang did not experience this earth-shattering catastrophe, Xiao Yi was only the seventh son of Emperor Wu of Liang, and he was very ordinary among the sons.
Therefore, no matter how powerful the emperor's grace is, it will not be his turn to inherit the throne as a prince who is detrimental to the country.
The physical defects make Xiao Yi inexplicably burdened with a huge psychological burden, even if others don't laugh at him or despise him, he always hates the world.
Therefore, Xiao Yi did not inherit his father Emperor Wu of Liang's benevolence, and for a long time after his father's death, Xiao Yi killed the Southern Liang clan, and his purpose was only one, that is, to take advantage of the chaos in Southern Liang to expand his own power and eradicate the clan that threatened him, so as to seek the status of the new ruler of Southern Liang.
Xiao Yu, the king of Hedong, is his nephew of Xiao Yi, Xiao Yi sent troops to destroy him, Xiao Lun, the king of Shaoling, was his elder brother, Xiao Yi also sent troops to eliminate it, and Xiao Jing, the assassin of Yongzhou, was also a relative, and Xiao Yi directly forced him to the point of defecting to the Western Wei Dynasty.
The capital of Southern Liang was Nanjing, which was called Jiankang at that time, and was occupied by the rebellious Hou Jing, and Xiao Yi's sphere of influence was radiated to Jingzhou, which was called Jiangling in ancient times.
Xiao Yi's political team and forces are all native to Jiangling, so even if he controls most of the area of Southern Liang, he will not return to Jiankang, but will only directly claim the title of emperor in Laochao Jiangling, we call it Emperor Liang Yuan.
However, Xiao Yi's suppression of the clan was not complete, he had a younger brother named Xiao Ji, who was entrenched in Sichuan, and Xiao Yi was working against him, and he was also called the emperor, so that Nanliang had two emperors.
One mountain does not tolerate two tigers, Xiao Yi and Xiao Ji immediately launched a fierce battle, and in the end Xiao Ji failed, and Xiao Yi won the final victory.
Of course, Xiao Yi also paid a huge price for this victory, countless manpower, troops and financial resources were invested, and after this battle, his capital Jiangling almost became an empty city.
Emperor Xiao Yi of Liang Yuan).
When Emperor Wu of Liang was in power, he had the idea of the Northern Expedition, but Emperor Wu of Liang comprehensively assessed the strength of Southern Liang and believed that although Southern Liang was rich, it was still difficult to confront the Northern Regime in terms of military ability, so Emperor Wu of Liang pursued a policy of peaceful coexistence most of the time.
Although Emperor Liang Yuan generally stabilized the situation, the situation at that time was definitely not optimistic.
During the civil strife in Southern Liang, the Western Wei Dynasty took the opportunity to occupy a lot of land in the cities of Southern Liang, and now that Emperor Yuan of Liang ascended the throne, of course he wanted to go back.
If you should go back, because as an emperor, it is a basic requirement to have a plan to expand the territory and recover the lost territory, but the problem is that when you issue this edict to the Western Wei, you should first consider your own strength.
The current Southern Liang has just experienced several major wars, and the comprehensive strength has dropped to a low point, which can be said to be golden and jade on the outside, and it will be broken when touched on the inside, the best national policy at this time is to reduce their sense of existence as much as possible, not too ostentatious, not to attract the attention of others, anyway, the Northern Dynasty is not only a regime in the Western Wei, you let the Eastern Wei and the Western Wei ignore you, the two regimes are fighting each other, and you take the opportunity to develop Isn't it beautiful?
Emperor Liang Yuan was biased, not only did he send an edict to the Western Wei Dynasty asking for a renegotiation of the territory, but the words in the edict were also very arrogant, as if he had put himself in the position of the first state.
After the Northern Wei Dynasty, it became the Eastern Wei Dynasty and the Western Wei Dynasty, these two regimes, we regard them as the continuation of the Xianbei Northern Wei Dynasty, and the emperors of the Eastern Wei Dynasty and the Western Wei Dynasty are also relatives of the Northern Wei Dynasty, which can be said to be in the same lineage.
However, looking at the history of the two dynasties, we can say that these two regimes were essentially puppet regimes, the Eastern Wei Dynasty was regarded as a plaything by the powerful minister Gao Huan, while the Western Wei Dynasty can be said to be the small court of the powerful minister Yuwentai himself.
Therefore, the edict of Emperor Liang Yuan was sent to the Western Wei Dynasty, and it was immediately intercepted by Yuwentai.
If Emperor Nanliang said "Can you discuss it, and return some of the cities and land in Nanliang that you took away", Yuwentai may also consider it, because fighting with Nanliang is tantamount to invisibly setting up another enemy, but Emperor Liang Yuan's tone is "Give me back the land you occupy immediately, otherwise there will be no good fruit for you to eat", and Yuwentai was very angry after reading it, It was immediately decided to use troops against Nanliang.
The Western Wei Xing army of 50,000 attacked the Southern Liang, Emperor Yuan of Liang panicked, the Southern Liang army could not resist, and was repeatedly defeated, and the emperor had no choice but to surrender.
However, on the eve of the surrender, Emperor Liang Yuan did another thing that seems very unbelievable today, that is, he burned all the 140,000 books he had collected throughout his life.
We must know that since Qin Shi Huang, the people are not allowed to collect books, basically the first emperor has burned all of them, and those hundred classics since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period are only transmitted orally.
Han inherited the Qin system, but canceled the Qin Dynasty's decree to restrict books, to the reign of Emperor Liu Che of the Han Dynasty, the emperor even set up a special department for collecting books, roughly calculated, to the later years of the Western Han Dynasty, the collection of books has more than 30,000 volumes, and then Wang Mang usurped the Han Dynasty in the world, and the collection of books was damaged, and after the establishment of the Eastern Han Dynasty, he began to collect books again to store, about more than 10,000 volumes.
But we know that at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was divided into three kingdoms, and after the Three Kingdoms, the two Jin Dynasty did not stop, this successive years of war and chaos, it was good to be able to ensure basic life, and it was of course difficult to have higher achievements in cultural undertakings, so when it came to the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the imperial court treasury only had more than 3,000 volumes, and the era of the Northern and Southern Dynasties opened, although Liu Song, the first regime of the Southern Dynasties, had a rich collection of books, a total of 60,000 volumes, experienced Xiao Qi, Xiao Liang, and 10,000 more volumes, which is 70,000 volumes.
When the Hou Jing Rebellion broke out, the 70,000 volumes of books stored in Jiankang were acquired by Xiao Yi, who moved them to his capital Jiangling.
Xiao Yi is not as talented as Li Yu, and he is not as good as Zhao Ji, but in general, he is also a cultural person, likes to read and love painting, and usually has a richer collection of books, he has lived in Jiangling for so many years and has always paid attention to the protection of ancient books, so he himself has saved 70,000 volumes, plus the 70,000 volumes he moved from Jiankang, this is 140,000 volumes.
At this time, he was besieged in Gangneung City, and in desperation, he burned the 170,000 volumes of books in a fire.
In the deep palace of Jiangling City, Xiao Yi wandered alone, his face full of pain and disappointment.
These 170,000 volumes, which I once regarded as treasures and spent almost my whole life collecting, have now all been reduced to ashes.
Watching the fire burning, Emperor Liang Yuan said these eight words:
The way of civil and military affairs is all over tonight.
When the flames burned out, Emperor Yuan of Liang surrendered to the Western Wei Dynasty and was killed by the Dynamic Incentive Program in February. Judging from the life experience of Emperor Liang Yuan, he can hardly be regarded as one of the few emperors among the more than 500 emperors in China, and he cannot even be said to be distinctive.
Although he was a rare talented emperor during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, he was far from being the first in terms of talent, although he pacified the Hou Jing Rebellion and pulled Nanliang away from fire and water, but his terrible slaughter and attack on the clan royal family is more memorable, he has a bad face, only one eye, and even his concubines dare to draw only half a face to mock him, which is the so-called half-old.
The reason why Emperor Liang Yuan can be written is really because of the fire he set in 555 AD, which burned away the precious wealth of human civilization for thousands of years.
Xiao Yi, his life is over, but he will wait for him in the boundless darkness of another kingdom.