< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > introduction</h1>
Although the emperor is a noble and noble, high in the sky, and holds great power, in today's words, this is actually a high-risk profession, often dying. Yang Wanli of the Song Dynasty said in the "Qing Xuan Zi This Junxuan Endowment": "May the festival of Jian Late be in the cold of the year." The reason why these kings have fallen to a very sad point is often because of the "late season."
For example, Jiang Xiaobai, the Duke of Qi Huan, as the head of the famous Spring and Autumn Five Hegemons, appointed Guan Zhong as a chancellor, vigorously promoted reforms, and became the first hegemon of the Central Plains at that time. However, in his later years, Duke Huan of Qi was close to the villain Yuan Xianchen, which led to chaos in the political situation of the country, and when he was sick, no one cared about it, until he was starved to death alive, and no one collected the body for 67 days after his death.
▲Qi Huangong stills
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right">01</h1>
Another emperor was the founder of the Southern Dynasty Liang State, Emperor Xiao Yan of Liangwu. Xiao Yan is also a legendary emperor in history, and his ancestors can be traced all the way back to Xiao He of the Han Dynasty. During Xiao Yan's reign, he fought a decades-long war with the Northern Wei Dynasty, a powerful enemy of the Northern Dynasty, and started a grand cause in the Southern Dynasty, and he studied Buddhism quite a bit. However, in his later years, he suffered the calamity of the subjugation of the country, and was starved to death like the Duke of Qi Huan.
Xiao Yan was a descendant of the Lanling Xiao clan, so after he became an adult, he naturally entered the Southern Qi court to serve. Xiao Yan's poetic talent was also very outstanding, and at that time, he could be called "Eight Friends of Jingling" together with Xie Xian, Shen Yue and others.
▲Portrait of Xiao Yan, Emperor Wu of Southern Liang
In the last year of Southern Qi, Xiao Yan, who was then the Assassin of Xiangyang, and his brother Xiao Yi jointly raised an army to overthrow southern Qi's Emperor Dong xiahou and formally established the Liang Dynasty in the second year of Zhongxing (502 AD). After becoming emperor, Xiao Yan summed up the experience of the failure of the previous monarchs, adopted a relaxed ruling policy for the country after the war, vigorously restored and developed domestic economic and cultural undertakings, and the overall national strength was gradually recovering and showing a good momentum of rise.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right">02</h1>
At the same time, Xiao Yan did not relax his strategy to the outside world, he commanded the army to confront the old enemy Northern Wei several times, because he appointed a very suitable general and deployed the correct strategy, so the Liang army won the Battle of Hefei and the Battle of Zhongli. This period was a period of confrontation between the North and the South, and the advantages of the Southern Dynasty were rare. There were also many very famous generals under Xiao Yan, of which Wei Rui was particularly famous, and was called "Wei Hu" by the Northern Wei people.
▲ Portrait of ancient war
But if he hadn't lived as long, his evaluation might have been more brilliant in history. In Xiao Yan's later years, the political situation underwent a surprising reversal, and the reputation of Xiao Yan, the Emperor of Liangwu, was completely changed.
After decades of prosperity, many social contradictions and political systems of the Liang Dynasty began to be gradually exposed, and the officials of the imperial court began to become corrupt, the political atmosphere began to deteriorate, and the overall national strength began to decline. However, as the supreme ruler, Xiao Yan has lost the wisdom and ambition of his prime, and the aging of his body will inevitably lead to mental disillusionment, and he has turned a blind eye to these problems that have emerged, and at first he could not accept opinions, only to accept praise.
▲ Emperor stills
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right">03</h1>
Originally, if the matter of establishing the crown prince was maintained, then many concubines would not have any ideas, but Xiao Yan let his sons float in their minds and started the idea of the throne. Each of them gathered their forces and recruited forces, and the Liang Dynasty began to disperse internally.
At such a dangerous time, Xiao Yan did something even more stupid: he accepted Hou Jing. He had successively turned to Erzhu Rong, Gao Huan and others, and later wanted to defect to Yuwen Tai, but Yu Wentai was highly wary of this person and was unwilling to accept it.
▲ Yuwen Tai stills
Xiao Yan accepted Hou Jing, which was equivalent to opening the door of the country to accept a thief. Hou Jing soon rebelled in the territory of the Liang Dynasty, and at this time Xiao Yan's sons were each pregnant with ghosts and were unwilling to attack Hou Jing's rebels with all their might. Hou Jing seized this opportunity, did not entangle with the princes, and directly attacked Jiankang, the capital of the Liang Dynasty.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > concluding remarks</h1>
Although the Liang Dynasty did not perish immediately after Xiao Yan's death, Xiao Gang, the crown prince who had been created before Xiao Yuan, was still proclaimed emperor by Hou Jing. The other two sons, Xiao Yi and Xiao Ji, also declared themselves emperors, but they were all destroyed by the Northern Dynasty soon after. In fact, when Xiao Yan died, the Liang Dynasty had already embarked on the road to extinction.
Resources:
"Qing Xuan Zi This Junxuan Endowment"
Book of Liang