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53-588: The dynasty began in 479, when Xiao Daocheng forced the Emperor Shun of Liu Song (宋顺帝) into yielding the throne to him, ending Liu Song and starting Southern Qi, as its Emperor Gao . The dynasty's name was taken from Xiao's fief, which roughly occupied the same territory as the Warring States era Kingdom of Qi . The Book of the Qi does not mention whether or not Xiao had any blood relationship to either

106-504: A brief two months, he had Emperor Shun create him the Duke of Qi, and then the Prince of Qi, and bestow upon him the nine bestowments , all progressive steps toward the throne. In summer 479, he forced the fearful Emperor Shun into yielding the throne to him, ending Liu Song and starting Southern Qi, as its Emperor Gao. A major trend that Emperor Gao tried to start after he took the throne was

159-494: A campaign of killing most of his brothers and some high-level officials in fear that they would not be loyal to his son Liu Yu the Crown Prince after his death – became suspicious of Xiao, particularly because there were rumors that Xiao was secretly communicating with Northern Wei. Emperor Ming sent his general Wu Xi ( 吳喜 ), a friend of Xiao's, with a sealed pot of wine to Huaiyin to deliver to Xiao. Xiao became fearful that

212-409: A commanding general of Crown Prince Yu's guards. (In secret, Xiao told his followers that he believed that Liu Song would not last much longer and that he would need their support when opportunity presented itself.) When Emperor Ming grew gravely ill in 472, on the recommendation of the high-level official Chu Yuan (to whom, along with Yuan Can , Emperor Ming entrusted the care of Crown Prince Yu), who

265-587: A failed siege of Shouyang . Realizing that Jiankang was relatively defenseless (as throughout Jin and Liu Song, a wall had never been built around Jiankang), he started a construction project to build a wall around Jiankang. Northern Wei and Southern Qi forces would continue to have minor border battles for another year, until spring 481, but there would be no further major campaigns by either side. In spring 482, Emperor Gao died. Crown Prince Ze succeeded him as Emperor Wu. Consorts and Issue: Confucian classics The Chinese classics or canonical texts are

318-495: A major military strategy session, although there were a number of high-level officials, powerful associates of the emperor, and senior generals present, no one dared to speak first. Then Xiao Daocheng proposed the strategy of not sending an army to engage Liu Xiufan but rather defend the strong defensive posts in the outskirts of Jiankang and not actively engage Liu Xiufan, forcing him into a stalemate and causing him to run out of food supplies. Without significant opposition, Xiao's plan

371-410: A move against wastefulness and luxury and a move toward frugality. He appeared to be fairly frugal, although the effects his edicts on those subjects had on his officials and nobles are unclear. Later in 479, when someone was riding a horse near the mansion of the former Emperor Shun (now the Prince of Ruyin), the guards whom Emperor Gao posted to watch over the former emperor panicked, believing someone

424-465: A number of generals and preparing to rise. However, Liu Bing panicked during the preparation stage and fled to Yuan's defense post at the fortress of Shitou Cheng several hours before the scheduled time, alarming Xiao and allowing him to further start a counterinsurrection, arresting and killing several generals aligned with Yuan and Liu Bing before they could act. Xiao's troops then besieged Yuan's defenses at Shitou, killing Yuan and Liu Bing. Meanwhile,

477-428: A rebellion, Xiao coordinated the campaign against Liu Jingsu (although he did not personally command troops), and Liu Jingsu was defeated and killed. In 477, Emperor Houfei, by now age 14, was growing increasingly impulsive and violent, often wandering outside the palace with his guards and killing all people or animals they encountered. One day, he suddenly charged into Xiao's headquarters and saw Xiao sleeping naked. He

530-488: A set collection, and to be called collectively the "Five Classics". Several of the texts were already prominent by the Warring States period , but the literature culture at the time did not lend itself to clear boundaries between works, so a high degree of variance between individual witnesses of the same title was common, as well as considerable intertextuality and cognate chapters between different titles. Mencius ,

583-579: The Biographies of the Immortals , a collection of Taoist hagiographies and hymns. Liu Xiang was also a poet, being credited with the " Nine Laments " that appears in the Chu Ci . The works edited and compiled by Liu Xiang include: This work was continued by his son, Liu Xin , who finally completed the task after his father's death. The transmitted corpus of these classical texts all derives from

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636-835: The Classic of Poetry and the Book of Documents , which meant that these texts would have been exempted, and that the Book of Rites and the Zuo Zhuan did not contain the glorification of defeated feudal states which the First Emperor gave as his reason for destroying them. Nylan further suggests that the story might be based on the fact that the Qin palace was razed in 207 BC and many books were undoubtedly lost at that time. Martin Kern adds that Qin and early Han writings frequently cite

689-709: The House of Jiang or House of Tian , the two dynasties which had previously ruled that kingdom. During its 23-year history, the dynasty was largely filled with instability, as after the death of the capable Emperor Gao and Emperor Wu , Emperor Wu's grandson Xiao Zhaoye (萧昭业) was assassinated by Emperor Wu's intelligent but cruel and suspicious cousin Xiao Luan (萧鸾), who took over as Emperor Ming, and proceeded to carry out massive executions of Emperor Gao's and Emperor Wu's sons, as well as officials whom he suspected of plotting against him. The arbitrariness of these executions

742-649: The Song dynasty to serve as general introduction to Confucian thought, and they were, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, made the core of the official curriculum for the civil service examinations. They are: The official curriculum of the imperial examination system from the Song dynasty onward are the Thirteen Classics . In total, these works total to more than 600,000 characters that must be memorized in order to pass

795-669: The Southern dynasties who defected and moved north to join the Northern Wei. Tuoba Xianbei Princess Nanyang (南阳长公主) was married to Xiao Baoyin (萧宝夤), a Han Chinese member of Southern Qi royalty. Xianbei Tuoba Emperor Xiaozhuang of Northern Wei 's sister the Shouyang Princess was wedded to the Han Chinese Liang dynasty ruler Emperor Wu of Liang 's son Xiao Zong 蕭綜 . In 479, after Xiao Daocheng usurped

848-652: The Classics, especially the Documents and the Classic of Poetry , which would not have been possible if they had been burned, as reported. The Five Classics ( 五經 ; Wǔjīng ) are five pre-Qin texts that became part of the state-sponsored curriculum during the Western Han dynasty , which adopted Confucianism as its official ideology. It was during this period that the texts first began to be considered together as

901-556: The Confucian Classics and their secondary literature; history; philosophy; and poetry. There are sub-categories within each branch, but due to the small number of pre-Qin works in the Classics, History and Poetry branches, the sub-categories are only reproduced for the Philosophy branch. The philosophical typology of individual pre-imperial texts has in every case been applied retroactively, rather than consciously within

954-525: The Prince of Wuling and governor of Ying Province into stopping and putting the well-fortified Yingcheng under siege. In 478, with his forces unable to capture Yingcheng, Shen Youzhi's soldiers began to desert. Shen aggravated the situation by imposing severe punishments on the commanding officers of deserting soldiers — which caused them to desert. Shen's officer Liu Rangbing ( 劉攘兵 ) surrendered to Liu Shilong, causing his forces to collapse. Shen tried to retreat to Jiangling (the capital of Jing Province). By

1007-488: The Prince of Xunyang and governor of Kuaiji Commandery along the southern shore of Hangzhou Bay . He subsequently defeated the army sent south by Xue Andu ( 薛安都 ) the governor of Xu Province (徐州, modern northern Jiangsu and northern Anhui ). For these contributions, Emperor Ming created him the Marquess of Xiyang and made him the acting governor of South Xu Province (南徐州, modern western central Jiangsu). Later, he became

1060-459: The aftermaths of Liu Xiufan's defeat, Xiao was promoted. He, with Yuan Can, Chu Yuan, and Emperor Houfan's distant uncle Liu Bing , were in charge of the affairs of government and known as the "four nobles" ( 四貴 ). In 476, when Emperor Houfei's cousin Liu Jingsu ( 劉景素 ) the governor of South Xu Province, who received wrong information that Jiankang had fallen into a state of confusion, started

1113-486: The alleged Qin objective of strengthening Legalism, the traditional account is anachronistic in that Legalism was not yet a defined category of thought during the Qin period, and the "schools of thought" model is no longer considered to be an accurate portrayal of the intellectual history of pre-imperial China. Michael Nylan observes that despite its mythic significance, the " burning of books and burying of scholars " legend does not bear close scrutiny. Nylan suggests that

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1166-419: The ancient virtuous rulers. Li Si believed that if the people were to read these works they were likely to invoke the past and become dissatisfied with the present. The reason for opposing various schools of philosophy was that they advocated political ideas often incompatible with the totalitarian regime. Modern historians doubt the details of the story, which first appeared more than a century later. Regarding

1219-460: The command of the emperor, Liu Xiang (77–6 BC ) compiled the first catalogue of the imperial library, the Abstracts ( 別錄 ; 别录 ; Bielu ), and is the first known editor of the Classic of Mountains and Seas , which was finished by his son. Liu also edited collections of stories and biographies, the Biographies of Exemplary Women . He has long erroneously been credited with compiling

1272-520: The cultivation of jing , 'essence' in Chinese medicine. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Four Books and Five Classics were the subjects of mandatory study by those Confucian scholars who wished to take the imperial examination and needed to pass them in order to become scholar-officials . Any political discussion was full of references to this background, and one could not become part of

1325-413: The examination. Moreover, these works are accompanied by extensive commentary and annotation, containing approximately 300 million characters by some estimates. It is often difficult or impossible to precisely date pre-Qin works beyond their being "pre-Qin", a period of 1000 years. Information in ancient China was often by oral tradition and passed down from generations before so was rarely written down, so

1378-760: The first emperor of China , unified China in 221 BC, his chancellor Li Si suggested suppressing intellectual discourse to unify thought and political opinion. This was alleged to have destroyed philosophical treatises of the Hundred Schools of Thought , with the goal of strengthening the official Qin governing philosophy of Legalism . According to the Shiji , three categories of books were viewed by Li Si to be most dangerous politically. These were poetry, history (especially historical records of other states than Qin), and philosophy. The ancient collection of poetry and historical records contained many stories concerning

1431-436: The governor of Southern Yan Province (南兗州, modern eastern central Jiangsu), defending the important city of Huaiyin (淮陰, in modern Huaian , Jiangsu ). It was said that, while at this post, he began to engage a group of talented followers. During Emperor Ming's reign, there were rumors that Xiao Daocheng's facial features were unusual and were signs that he would become emperor. By 471, Emperor Ming – who had already carried out

1484-600: The leading Confucian scholar of the time, regarded the Spring and Autumn Annals as being equally important as the semi-legendary chronicles of earlier periods. Up to the Western Han, authors would typically list the Classics in the order Poems-Documents-Rituals-Changes-Spring and Autumn. However, from the Eastern Han the default order instead became Changes-Documents-Poems-Rituals-Spring and Autumn. In 26 BCE, at

1537-679: The literati—or even a military officer in some periods—without having memorized them. Generally, children first memorized the Chinese characters of the Three Character Classic and Hundred Family Surnames and they then went on to memorize the other classics. The literate elite therefore shared a common culture and set of values. According to Sima Qian 's Records of the Grand Historian , after Qin Shi Huang ,

1590-399: The news was not known initially. Liu Xiufan's forces intensified their siege against the various defense positions. Xiao was barely able to hold his position, but Liu Xiufan's general Ding Wenhao ( 丁文豪 ) was able to defeat and kill Liu Mian ( 劉勔 ) and Wang Daolong ( 王道隆 ) and put the palace under siege. Soon, news of Liu Xiufan's death became gradually known, and Ding's forces collapsed. In

1643-712: The older the composition of the texts may not be in a chronological order as that which was arranged and presented by their attributed "authors". The below list is therefore organized in the order which is found in the Siku Quanshu ( Complete Library of the Four Treasuries ), the encyclopedic collation of the works found in the imperial library of the Qing dynasty under the Qianlong Emperor . The Siku Quanshu classifies all works into 4 top-level branches:

Southern Qi - Misplaced Pages Continue

1696-412: The provincial governors whom Shen invited to join him all declined and either resisted him or stood by. Shen nevertheless had a strong army, and the imperial army generals were apprehensive about facing him. He initially progressed quickly toward Jiankang. But as he went past Yingcheng (郢城, in modern Wuhan , Hubei ), he was provoked by insults of Liu Shilong ( 柳世隆 ), the chief of staff for Liu Zan ( 劉贊 )

1749-595: The reason Han dynasty scholars charged the Qin with destroying the Confucian Five Classics was partly to "slander" the state they defeated and partly because Han scholars misunderstood the nature of the texts, for it was only after the founding of the Han that Sima Qian labeled the Five Classics as Confucian. Nylan also points out that the Qin court appointed classical scholars who were specialists on

1802-458: The reigns of Emperors Wen and Xiaowu (Emperor Wen's son). By the time that Emperor Xiaowu's brother Emperor Ming and Emperor Xiaowu's son Liu Zixun were fighting for the throne in 466 after the brief reign and assassination of Emperor Xiaowu's son Emperor Qianfei , Xiao Daocheng was a general, and his allegiance was with Emperor Ming. He participated in the campaign against the army nominally commanded by Liu Zixun's brother Liu Zifang ( 劉子房 )

1855-443: The techniques by which works of this period were bound into volumes. Texts may include shi ( 史 , ' histories ') zi ( 子 'master texts'), philosophical treatises usually associated with an individual and later systematized into schools of thought but also including works on agriculture, medicine , mathematics, astronomy , divination, art criticism, and other miscellaneous writings) and ji ( 集 'literary works') as well as

1908-518: The throne of Liu Song, the Northern Wei emperor prepared to invade under the pretext of installing Liu Chang, son of Emperor Wen of Liu Song who had been in exile in Wei since 465 AD. Wei troops began to attack Shouyang but could not take the city. The Southern Qi began to fortify their capital, Jiankang, in order to prevent further Wei raids. Multiple sieges and skirmishes were fought until 481 but

1961-481: The throne. Yuan Can and Liu Bing also believed that that was Xiao's intent. As Xiao prepared for a campaign against Shen, they secretly planned another uprising within Jiankang to overthrow Xiao. Yuan, believing that the plot would not succeed without Chu Yuan's support, told Chu of the plot as well. Chu, who was friendly with Xiao, quickly informed Xiao. Yuan, not aware of this, continued his preparations, aligning with

2014-485: The time he did so, Zhang Jing'er, whom Xiao had made the governor of Yong Province (雍州, modern southwestern Henan and southwestern Hubei ) with the intent of having him attack Shen from the rear, had already captured Jiangling and killed Shen Yuanyan, whom Shen Youzhi had left in charge of Jiangling. Shen's remaining army, seeing that Jiangling had fallen, collapsed, and he initially tried to flee, but realizing that his escape route had been cut off he committed suicide. Xiao

2067-528: The versions edited down by Liu Xiang and Liu Xin. Michael Nylan has characterised the scope of the Liu pair's editing as having been so vast that it affects our understanding of China's pre-imperial period to the same degree as the Qin unification does. The Four Books ( 四書 ; Sìshū ) are texts illustrating the core value and belief systems in Confucianism . They were selected by Zhu Xi (1130–1200) during

2120-594: The war did not witness any major campaign. A peace treaty was signed in 490 with the Emperor Wu . Xiao Daocheng Emperor Gao of Southern Qi ((南)齊高帝; 427– 11 April 482 ), personal name Xiao Daocheng (蕭道成), courtesy name Shaobo (紹伯), childhood name Doujiang (鬥將), was the founding emperor of the Southern Qi dynasty of China. He served as a general under the preceding dynasty Liu Song 's Emperor Ming and Emperor Houfei . In 477, fearful that

2173-685: The wine was poisoned and was preparing to flee to Northern Wei. Wu secretly told Xiao that the wine was not poisoned and drank some himself, before Xiao would dare to drink. Once Wu returned to the capital Jiankang , he assured Emperor Ming that Xiao was loyal. But after details of Wu's leaking the information to Xiao became known to Emperor Ming, Emperor Ming forced Wu to commit suicide; he did not take any actions against Xiao. Soon thereafter he recalled Xiao to Jiankang. Xiao's followers largely suspected that Emperor Ming would kill him and suggested that he resist, but Xiao believed that Emperor Ming would not do so. He therefore returned to Jiankang, where he became

Southern Qi - Misplaced Pages Continue

2226-617: The works of Chinese literature authored prior to the establishment of the imperial Qin dynasty in 221 BC. Prominent examples include the Four Books and Five Classics in the Neo-Confucian tradition, themselves an abridgment of the Thirteen Classics . The Chinese classics used a form of written Chinese consciously imitated by later authors, now known as Classical Chinese . A common Chinese word for "classic" ( 經 ; 经 ; jīng ) literally means ' warp thread ', in reference to

2279-537: The young, cruel Emperor Houfei would kill him, he assassinated Emperor Houfei and seized power, eventually taking the throne in 479 to start Southern Qi. Xiao Daocheng was born in 427. His ancestors traced their line to the famed Western Han dynasty chancellor Xiao He . If their records were accurate, Xiao Daocheng was Xiao He's 24-generation descendant. During the Jin and Liu Song dynasties, Xiao's ancestors served as low-level officials. His father Xiao Chengzhi ( 蕭承之 )

2332-410: Was a friend of Xiao, Xiao became a commanding general of the capital defense force. Emperor Ming soon died, and Crown Prince Yu took the throne as Emperor Houfei. In 474, Emperor Houfei's uncle Liu Xiufan ( 劉休範 ) the Prince of Guiyang and governor of Jiang Province (江州, modern Jiangxi and Fujian ), angry that he had not been made the regent , rebelled and made a quick advancement toward Jiankang. At

2385-527: Was a general under Emperor Wen of Song , and for his contributions in campaigns against rival Northern Wei was created the Baron of Jinxing. Xiao Daocheng first studied the Confucian classics at the imperial university set up by Emperor Wen and headed by the hermit and scholar Lei Cizong ( zh:雷次宗 ) when he was 12, but by age 15 he was serving in the military. He continued serving as a military officer during

2438-439: Was about to make an attack and claim to be trying to reestablish Liu Song on the behalf of Liu Chang ( 劉昶 ) the Prince of Danyang, a son of Liu Song's Emperor Wen who had in 465 fled to Northern Wei over fears that Emperor Qianfei would kill him. Emperor Gao prepared the northern borders in anticipation of a major attack, which Northern Wei launched in winter 479. The Northern Wei attack ended, however, after Northern Wei forces made

2491-440: Was about to start a rebellion. They killed the former emperor. Emperor Gao did not punish these guards, but rewarded them and further carried out a massacre of Liu Song's imperial clan. Later that year, he made princes of his son Xiao Ze (who had by that point been known as an able general, now crown prince ), his other sons, as well as Xiao Ze's oldest son Xiao Zhangmao . Meanwhile, Emperor Gao received reports that Northern Wei

2544-487: Was adopted. Liu Xiufan's forces soon arrived. He made a direct assault against Xiao's defensive position. With Xiao's approval, his officers Huang Hui ( 黃回 ) and Zhang Jing'er ( 張敬兒 ) falsely surrendered to Liu Xiufan and then further informed Liu Xiufan that Xiao wished to surrender as well. While pretending to secretly convey the information, Zhang and Huang then assassinated Liu Xiufan. However, because they had to then discard Liu Xiufan's head to avoid Liu Xiufan's guards,

2597-415: Was asleep. Xiao then forced Yuan and Liu Bing to effectively grant him near-imperial powers, leading to concerns that Xiao would next take the throne. Xiao Daocheng made Emperor Houfei's brother Liu Zhun the Prince of Ancheng emperor (as Emperor Shun). In response, the general Shen Youzhi arose with the troops of his Jing Province (荊州, modern central and western Hubei ), accusing Xiao of wanting to usurp

2650-418: Was exacerbated after Emperor Ming was succeeded by his son Xiao Baojuan , whose actions drew multiple rebellions, the last of which, by the general Xiao Yan (萧衍) led to Southern Qi's fall and succession by Xiao Yan's Liang Dynasty . More than fifty percent of Tuoba Xianbei princesses of the Northern Wei were married to southern Han Chinese men from the imperial families and aristocrats from southern China of

2703-404: Was intrigued by the large size of Xiao's belly. He woke Xiao up, drew a target on Xiao's belly, and prepared to shoot him with arrows. Xiao pleaded for his life, and Emperor Houfei's attendant Wang Tian'en ( 王天恩 ) pointed out that if he killed Xiao with an arrow, he would lose Xiao's belly as a wonderful target. So, at Wang's suggestion, Emperor Houfei shot Xiao with bone-made round-point arrows and

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2756-481: Was now without substantial opposition, particularly after he killed Huang Hui, who had been implicated in conspiracies with Liu Jingsu and Yuan Can, later that year after Huang showed signs of insubordination. He began to put his sons into important posts as well. He also engaged the nobly born official Wang Jian as a key assistant and, with Chu's tacit agreement, started making moves toward the throne, including quietly assassinating Emperor Houfei's brothers. In 479, over

2809-422: Was pleased when he was able to target Xiao's bellybutton successfully. Xiao became fearful after the incident; he initially discussed with Yuan and Chu the possibilities of deposing the emperor but could not get them to go along with his plan. Xiao therefore acted on his own, associating with Emperor Houfei's attendants and eventually getting one of them, Yang Yufu ( 楊玉夫 ), to kill Emperor Houfei while Emperor Houfei

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