In the third year of the Taiqing Dynasty (549), Hou Jing conquered the city of Jiankangtai, and Xiao Yan, the founding emperor of Southern Liang and emperor of Liangwu, was starved to death. However, Hou Jing did not replace Southern Liang, but was eliminated in the first year of Chengsheng (552) by Emperor Wu of Liang's seventh son, Xiao Xuan the Prince of Xiangdong, and Chen Baxian. After Hou Jing's death, Xiao Xuan ascended the throne at Jiangling (江陵, in modern Jingzhou, Hubei Province) as Emperor Yuan of Southern Liang.
It is well known that the capital of the Southern Dynasty was Jiankang (present-day Nanjing, Jiangsu Province), and Jiankang had been recovered by Wang Shengquan and Chen Baxian after Hou Jing's death. According to common sense, Emperor Yuan of Liang should return to Jiankang after ascending the throne. Curiously, however, Emperor Yuan of Liang remained in Jiangling after retaking Jiankang, eventually leading to his own death at the hands of Western Wei. So why didn't Emperor Xiao of Liangyuan want to return to Jiankang?
The first thing to explain is that the reason why Emperor Liang Yuan refused to return to Jiankang is still inconclusive in the academic circles, and this ghost is just introducing his own ideas. There are three main reasons why The Ghost believes that Emperor Liang Yuan refused to return to Jiankang:
First, Xiao Xuan was the seventh son of Emperor Wu of Liang, and Emperor Wu of Liang never considered passing on the throne to Xiao Xuan. In the thirteenth year of Tianjian (514), Xiao Xuan, who was only six years old, left Jiankang and went to Jiangling to become the king of Xiangdong. As a result, Xiao Xuan had few connections in Jiankang, while Jiangling was the base of his business for many years. Xiao Xuan was naturally reluctant to leave Jiangling.
Second, the destruction of the Sanwu region centered on Jiankang by the Hou Jing Rebellion was devastating, and the history books recorded that "thousands of miles of smoke were extinct, people were rare, and white bones were gathered like hills and longyans." Compared with Jiankang, Jiangling was hardly affected by Hou Jing's rebellion, and neither population nor productivity was greatly damaged. Xiao Xuan is a person who "often serves eight sets in four seasons", and life in Jiangling at this time is more comfortable than Jiankang.
Third, the situation faced by Xiao Yi after he ascended the throne was not good, with Xiao Ji in the west who had "imitated Sun Liu and had a deep affection for Lu Wei" with Xiao Xuan and had already ascended the throne, while in the north was The Western Wei, which had gradually developed into a unified core. For Xiao Ji and Western Wei, Xiao Yi's strategy was to "lead Western Wei to destroy Xiao Ji". In order to successfully implement the "Introduction of Western Wei to Destroy Xiao Ji", Xiao Xuan decided not to leave Jiangling in order to personally micro-operate.
On the whole, years of operation, living enjoyment and so-called "strategic considerations" made Xiao Xuan refuse to return to Jiankang, but continued to stay in Jiangling. As a result, Xiao Xuan's Jiangling regime was wiped out by The Western Wei, and southern Liang never had any real-powered emperors after that, and thus survived in name only.