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Emperor Xuan of Western Liang ((
Emperor Xuan of Western Liang | |||||||||||||
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Emperor of the Western Liang dynasty | |||||||||||||
Reign | 7 February 555[1] – 562 | ||||||||||||
Predecessor | Emperor Yuan of Liang (Liang dynasty) | ||||||||||||
Successor | Emperor Ming | ||||||||||||
Liang Emperor(s) | Emperor Min Emperor Jing | ||||||||||||
Born | 519 | ||||||||||||
Died | 562 (aged 42–43) | ||||||||||||
Spouse | Empress Wang Consort Cao | ||||||||||||
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Father | Xiao Tong | ||||||||||||
Mother | Empress Dowager Gong |
Early life edit
Xiao Cha was born in 519, as the third son of Xiao Tong, then the crown prince to Liang Dynasty's founder Emperor Wu.[5] His mother was Xiao Tong's concubine Consort Gong. He was considered studious, concentrating particularly on Buddhist sutras, and as Emperor Wu was a devout Buddhist, he was happy that his grandson studied sutras in this manner. When Emperor Wu created Xiao Tong's sons dukes sometime between 520 and 527, Xiao Cha was created the Duke of Qujiang (
In May 531, Xiao Tong died, but instead of creating Xiao Tong's oldest son Xiao Huan (
Struggles against Xiao Yi (Emperor Yuan) edit
In 548, the general Hou Jing rebelled and attacked the capital Jiankang, capturing it in 549 and taking Emperor Wu and Crown Prince Gang hostage. (Emperor Wu died later that year and was succeeded by Crown Prince Gang (as Emperor Jianwen), albeit under Hou's control.) Meanwhile, also in 548, Emperor Wu had made Xiao Cha's older brother Xiao Yu (
Xiao Yu was initially able to repel Xiao Yi's attack and cause Xiao Yi's heir apparent Xiao Fangdeng (
In the summer of 550, Western Wei offered to declare Xiao Cha the Emperor of Liang to inherit Emperor Wu's throne. Xiao Cha declined, but accepted the lesser title of Prince of Liang and also assumed acting imperial authority. Later that year, made a trip to the Western Wei capital Chang'an to pay homage to Emperor Wen of Western Wei and Yuwen. In spring 551, when his uncle Xiao Guan (
In 552, after defeating Hou, Xiao Yi declared himself emperor (as Emperor Yuan) and set his capital at Jiangling. Believing himself to be strong, he was arrogant in his dealings with Western Wei, drawing attention from Yuwen, who began to consider invading Liang. When Xiao Cha became aware of this, he paid additional tribute to Western Wei to try to fan the flame. Subsequently, in spring 553, when Emperor Yuan not only made the Western Wei envoy Yuwen Renshu (
Reign edit
Western Wei created Xiao Cha Emperor of (Western) Liang, and he declared himself as such in spring 555 (as Emperor Xuan). Western Wei forces transferred Jiangling and the surrounding area to Emperor Xuan, but required him to transfer control of the Xiangyang region in exchange, and further left a military garrison at Jiangling, both to protect Emperor Xuan and to make sure that he would not rebel. Further, Western Wei troops pillaged Jiangling and took most of the inhabitants and the Liang imperial treasures back to Chang'an. While Western Wei troops under Yu were still at Jiangling, Emperor Xuan's subordinate Yin Deyi (
Emperor Xuan posthumously honored his father Xiao Tong and Xiao Tong's wife Crown Princess Cai as emperor and empress, and honored his mother Consort Gong as empress dowager. He created his wife Princess Wang empress, and as his heir apparent Xiao Liao had died by this point, he created Xiao Liao's younger brother Xiao Kui as crown prince. He entrusted much of the governmental matters to Cai Dabao and Wang Cao (
Later in 555, Wang Sengbian declared Emperor Yuan's cousin Xiao Yuanming emperor. In fall 555, after Wang Sengbian was killed by his lieutenant Chen Baxian, Chen deposed Xiao Yuanming and declared Emperor Yuan's son Xiao Fangzhi emperor (as Emperor Jing). After Chen had Emperor Jing yield the throne to him in 558, establishing Chen Dynasty as its Emperor Wu, Wang Lin declared Emperor Yuan's grandson Xiao Zhuang emperor, thus maintaining a competing claim for the Liang throne.
In late 558, with Wang Lin having advanced east to try to attack Chen, Emperor Xuan sent Wang Cao to try to seize the commanderies forming modern Hunan from Xiao Zhuang's domain, although the scope of success for this action was unclear. In any case, however, when Hou Tian (
In fall 560, Hou Tian continued his advance, intending to take Xiang Province from Emperor Xuan. Northern Zhou generals Heruo Dun (
Emperor Xuan, depressed that his territory was small and heavily damaged by warfare, soon began to suffer from a serious skin lesion on his back. He died in spring 562. Xiao Kui succeeded him (as Emperor Ming).
The historian Li Yanshou (
- Xiao Cha had great ambitions from his youth, and he was not bogged down with details. Although he often suspected others, he was gracious to his soldiers and received their loyalty. He did not drink and was content with frugal living. He served his mother with great filial piety, and did not preoccupy himself with feasting. He particularly disliked women, and even when they were several steps away from him, he would state that he could smell them. Any clothes he wore while having sexual contact with women would be discarded thereafter. After having sexual intercourse with a consort, he would have to take a day to recuperate. He also disliked seeing human hair, and his servants had to either wear turbans or hats so that their hairs would not be exposed.
Emperor Xuan wrote 15 volumes of literary works and 36 volumes of commentary on Buddhist sutras.
Era name edit
- Dading (
大 定 dà dìng) 555-562
Family edit
Consorts and issues:
- Empress Jing, of the Wang clan (
靜 皇后 王 氏 , d. 563)- Xiao Liao, Crown Prince Xiaohui (
孝惠 太子 蕭 嶚,d. 550), first son
- Xiao Liao, Crown Prince Xiaohui (
- Consort Dowager Xiao, of the Cao clan (
孝 皇 太 妃 曹氏,d. 562)- Xiao Kui, Emperor Ming (
明 帝 蕭 巋, 542 – 585), second son
- Xiao Kui, Emperor Ming (
- Unknown
- Xiao Yan, Prince of Anping (
安平 王 蕭 巖 , d. 588), third son - Xiao Ji, Prince Xiao of Dongping (东平
孝 王 蕭 岌, d. 566), fourth son - Xiao Cen, Prince of Wu Commandery (吴郡
王 蕭 岑), fifth son - Princess Xuancheng (
宣 成 公主 ), first daughter- married Cai Yanshou (蔡延
寿 ), second son of Cai Dabao (蔡大宝 )
- married Cai Yanshou (蔡延
- Xiao Yan, Prince of Anping (
References edit
- ^ ren'wu day of the 1st month of the 1st year of the Shao'tai era, per vol.166 of Zizhi Tongjian. The day was also the first day of the lunar year.
- ^ According to Xiao Cha's biography in Book of Zhou, he died aged 44 (by East Asian reckoning) in the 2nd month of the 2nd year of the Bao'ding era of Yuwen Yong's reign. The month corresponds to 21 Mar to 18 Apr 562 in the Julian calendar. (察
在位 八 载,年 四 十 四 ,保 定 二 年 二 月 ,薨。) Zhou Shu, vol.48. Thus by calculation, his birth year should be 519. - ^ Knechtges, David R.; Chang, Taiping, eds. (2014). Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature (vol.3 & 4): A Reference Guide, Part Three & Four. BRILL. p. 1468. ISBN 9789004271852.
- ^ In the Twenty-Four Histories, the biographies of the emperors of Western Liang were listed as zhuan (传) rather than ji (纪), a term reserved for emperors' biographies. Xiao Cha had a biography in volume 48 of Book of Zhou (presumably because of his status as a vassal of Northern Zhou), while his son Xiao Kui and grandson Xiao Cong had biographies in volume 79 of Book of Sui, as Xiao Kui's daughter was Emperor Yang's wife. Xiao Cha and his male descendants also had biographies in volume 93 of History of the Northern Dynasties; the volume was titled "False (emperors) and vassals" (僭伪
附 庸 ). - ^ (萧察
字 理 孙,兰陵人 也,梁 武 帝 之 孙,昭明 太子 统之第 三子 。) Zhou Shu, vol.48. - ^ 6th year of the Pu'tong era of Xiao Yan's reign, per Xiao Cha's biography in Book of Zhou
- ^ ji'wei day of the 7th month of the 4th year of the Da'tong era, per Emperor Wu's biography in Book of Liang
- ^ yi'hai day of the 10th month of the 1st year of the Zhong Da'tong era, per Emperor Wu's biography in Book of Liang