Xiao Tong
 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification.(October 2021) |
| Xiao Tong | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crown Prince of Liang Dynasty | |||||||||
 Portrait of Xiao Tong fromSancai Tuhui | |||||||||
| Born | c.October 501 | ||||||||
| Died | 7 May 531(aged 29) | ||||||||
| Spouse | Crown Princess Cai(fl.508 - 531[1]) Empress Dowager Gong | ||||||||
| Issue | Xiao Huan, Prince An of Yuzhang Xiao Yu, Prince Wuhuan of Hedong Emperor Zuan of Western Liang Xiao Pi, Prince of Wuchang Xiao Jian, Prince of Yiyang | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Father | Emperor Wu of Liang | ||||||||
| Mother | Ding Lingguang | ||||||||
Xiao Tong(traditional Chinese:Tiêu thống;simplified Chinese:Tiêu thống;pinyin:Xiāo Tǒng;Wade–Giles:Hsiao T'ung,c.October 501[2]– 7 May 531[3]),courtesy nameDeshi(Đức thi), formallyCrown Prince Zhaoming( chiêu minh Thái Tử, literally "Accomplished and Understanding Crown Prince" ), was acrown princeof theChineseLiang Dynasty,posthumously honored asEmperor Zhaoming(Chiêu minh hoàng đế). He was the oldest son ofEmperor Wu of Liang,whom he predeceased. Xiao Tong's enduring legacy is the literary compendiumWen Xuan(Selections of Refined Literature).
Birth and childhood
[edit]Xiao Tong was born to Xiao Yan, then aSouthern Qigeneral nearing final victory in a civil war against the cruel and violent emperorXiao Baojuan,in winter 501. He was born at Xiao Yan's power base ofXiangyang,to Xiao Yan'sconcubineDing Lingguang (Đinh lệnh quang). (Xiao Yan's wife Chi Hui (Hi huy) had died in 499, and from that point on he had only concubines and never made any of them his wife.) After Xiao Yan's victory later in 501, he forcedEmperor He of Southern Qi,whom he had supported as a rival claimant to the Southern Qi throne, to yield the throne to him in 502, ending Southern Qi and starting Liang Dynasty (as its Emperor Wu). The officials requested that he make Xiao Tong, then an infant, the crown prince. While Emperor Wu initially declined on account that the empire had not been pacified, he did so on 24 December 502,[4]when Xiao Tong was only one year old. After Xiao Tong was created crown prince, his mother Consort Ding, while not madeempress,was given a special status co-equal with her son.
Xiao Tong was said to be intelligent, kind, and obedient to his parents from his childhood. As per customs of the time, in 506, he was housed in the Yongfu Mansion (Vĩnh Phúc tỉnh), the residence for the crown prince, in his childhood, but he missed his parents, and so every few days or so Emperor Wu would spend several days at Yongfu Mansion. (Whether Consort Ding did the same is not recorded in history.)
On 17 May 508,[5]he was wedded to his main wife Lady Cai.[6]
On 31 January 515,[7]he went through hisrite of passageand was declared an adult, and Emperor Wu bestowed him a crown.
As adult
[edit]As Emperor Wu was an avidBuddhist,Xiao Tong also became one, and he studiedsutrasintently, often inviting Buddhist monks to his palace to preach and to discuss Buddhist doctrines. After his rite of passage, Emperor Wu also began to gradually have him handle more and more matters of state, becoming less involved in the day-to-day operations of the empire.
On 9 December 522,[8]Xiao Tong's uncle Xiao Dan (Tiêu 憺) the Prince of Shi xing died. By custom, a crown prince would not hold a mourning period for an uncle, but Xiao Tong believed this custom to be unfilial, and therefore requested the officials to further discuss the matter. After the official Liu Xiaochuo (Lưu hiếu xước) suggested that he hold a one-month mourning period, he agreed, and in fact made this a precedent for the Liang Dynasty.
During this period, Xiao Tong and others compiled a compendium of ancient poetry and texts, which he referred to asWenxuan( văn tuyển, "Selections of Refined Literature" ), which was later known after his death as theZhaoming Wenxuan(Chiêu minh văn tuyển,"Zhaoming" being his posthumous name). It is a work of historical importance, as it preserved many ancient texts which otherwise might have been lost.
In late 526, Consort Ding grew ill, and Xiao Tong spent his days attending to her without rest. She died on 3 January 527,[9]and Xiao Tong was so saddened that he ate nothing. It was after Emperor Wu tried to console him by pointing out that he should not harm his body and that he still had his father that Xiao Tong began to takeporridge,but he ate nothing further. He was described to be fairly obese until that point, but he lost a lot of weight during the mourning period for Consort Ding.
Death
[edit]The death of Consort Ding brought about a disastrous effect in Xiao Tong's relationship with his father, however. Xiao Tong sought out an appropriate place to bury Consort Ding, but while he was doing so, a landowner bribed theeunuchYu Sanfu (Du ba bộ) into convincing Emperor Wu that that piece of land would bring good fortune for the emperor, and so Emperor Wu bought the land and buried Consort Ding there. However, once Consort Ding was buried, aTaoistmonk informed Xiao Tong that he believed that the land would bring ill fortune for Consort Ding's oldest son—Xiao Tong. Xiao Tong therefore allowed the monk to bury a few items intended to dissolve the ill fortune, such as wax gooses, at the position reserved for the oldest son. Later on, when one of Xiao Tong's attendants, Bao Miaozhi (Bào mạc chi), was squeezed out of Xiao Tong's inner circles by another attendant, Wei Ya (Ngụy nhã), he, in resentment, reported to Emperor Wu that Wei had carried out sorcery on Xiao Tong's behalf. When Emperor Wu investigated, waxed gooses were found, and Emperor Wu became surprised and angry, and wanted to investigate further. He only stopped the investigation when he was advised to do so by the prime ministerXu Mian,executing only the Taoist monk who had suggested the burial of wax gooses. Xiao Tong became humiliated in the affair, and was never able to clear himself completely in his father's eyes.
Xiao Tong died in May 531. Even when he was very ill, because he was afraid to make Emperor Wu be concerned about him, he still personally wrote submissions to his father. After his death, Emperor Wu personally attended his wake and buried him at a tomb appropriate for an emperor. He also summoned Xiao Tong's oldest son, Xiao Huan (Tiêu hoan) the Duke of Huarong back to the capitalJiankang,preparing to create Xiao Huan crown prince to replace his father. However, still resentful over the wax goose affair, he hesitated for days without carrying out the creation, and finally did not do so. Instead, against popular opinion, he created Xiao Tong's younger brother, also by Consort Ding,Xiao Gangcrown prince. In 551, when Xiao Gang, then emperor (as Emperor Jianwen) but under control and virtual house arrest by the generalHou Jing,Hou, to try to show off his power, deposed Emperor Jianwen and made Xiao Tong's grandsonXiao Dongthe Prince of Yuzhang emperor. It was then that Xiao Tong was posthumously honored an emperor.
Literary legacy
[edit]Xiao Tong is survived by his great literary compendium, theWenxuan,an anthology of literature divided into 60 chapters. Chapter 29 preserves theNineteen Old Poems,[10]a major source for earlyClassical Chinese poetry.Xiao appears to consider these to be anonymous works, a view supported by modern scholarship, despite the claims ofXu Lingin hisNew Songs from the Jade Terrace.[11]
Family
[edit]Consorts and Issue:
- Empress Zhaode, of the Cai clan ( chiêu đức Hoàng Hậu Thái thị )
- Xiao Huan, Prince An of Yuzhang ( dự chương an vương tiêu hoan, d. 21 January 541[12]), first son
- Empress Dowager Yuan,of the Gong clan ( nguyên Thái Hậu Cung thị, d.562)
- Xiao Cha,Emperor Xuan ( tuyên đế tiêu sát; 519–562), third son
- Unknown
- Xiao Yu, Prince Wuhuan of Hedong ( Hà Đông võ Hoàn vương tiêu dự, 519? – 22 June 550[13]), second son
- Xiao Pi, Prince of Wuchang ( Võ Xương quận vương tiêu thí, d. 17 September 546[14]), fourth son
- Xiao Jian, Prince of Yiyang ( nghĩa dương quận vương tiêu giám, d. 7 August 537[15]), fifth son
- Princess Luling ( lư lăng công chúa ), first daughter
- married Wang Kuan ( vương 㳬)
Notes
[edit]- ^Lady Cai was recorded to have outlived her husband as after his death, she moved to Jinhua Palace ( kim hoa cung ) with Lu Xiang ( lục tương ) as the official in charge of the palace. ( trung đại thông ba năm, chiêu minh Thái Tử hoăng, quan thuộc bãi, phi Thái thị đừng cư kim hoa cung, lấy tương vì trung tán đại phu, lãnh bộ binh giáo úy, kim hoa cung gia lệnh, biết kim hoa cung sự. )Book of Liang,vol. 27. Lu Xiang's biography indicate that he received his next appointment in 535 (7th year of theZhong Da'tongera, although the era name was changed toDa'tongon 18 Feb 535 (1st day of the lunar year)). Thus, it is possible (but not certain) that Lady Cai died in late 534/early 535.
- ^9th month of the 1st year of theZhong' xingera of Xiao Baorong's reign, per Xiao Tong's biography inBook of Liang.The month corresponds to 28 Sep to 27 Oct 501 in the Julian calendar.
- ^yi'siday of the 4th month of the 3rd year of theZhong Da'tongera, per Emperor Wu's biography inBook of Liang
- ^jia'ziday of the 11th month of the 1st year of theTian' gianera, per Emperor Wu's biography inBook of Liang
- ^yi'maoday of the 4th month of the 7th year of theTian' gianera, per Emperor Wu's biography inBook of Liang
- ^Lady Cai being the Crown Princess Consort was found in her great-grandfather Cai Kuo's ( Thái khuếch ) biography inNan Shi,under the entry for her father Cai Zun ( Thái tỗn ). ( khi đế đem vì chiêu minh Thái Tử nạp phi, ý ở Tạ thị. Viên ngẩng rằng: “Đương kim trinh tố giản thắng, chỉ có Thái tỗn.” Nãi khiển Lại Bộ thượng thư từ miễn nghệ chi, dừng xe tam thông không báo. Miễn cười rằng: “Đương cần ta triệu cũng.” Toại đầu thích nãi nhập. )Nan Shi,vol.29. The entry in Emperor Wu's biography inBook of Liangmerely mentioned that the Crown Prince was wedded on the day.
- ^1st day of the 1st month of the 14th year of theTian' gianera, per Xiao Tong's biography inBook of Liang
- ^jia'wuday of the 11th month of the 3rd year of thePu'tongera, per Emperor Wu's biography inBook of Liang
- ^geng'chenday of the 11th month of the 7th year of thePu'tongera, per Emperor Wu's biography inBook of Liang.On the same day, a general amnesty was declared.
- ^Davis, v
- ^Davis, v-vi
- ^ren'ziday of the 12th month of the 6th year of theDa'tongera, per Emperor Wu's biography inBook of Liang
- ^xin'weiday of the 5th month of the 1st year of theDa'baoera, per vol.05 ofBook of Liang.Vol.163 ofZizhi Tong giangave another date: thexin'siday (2nd day) of the 4th month of the same year, which corresponds to 3 May 550 in the Julian calendar. However, the entry for Xiao Yu's death is listed later than other entries which occurred later in the 4th month of that year.
- ^According to Emperor Wu's biography inBook of Liang,Xiao Pi died on theding'chouday of the 8th month of the 1st year of theZhong Da'tongera. This corresponds to 17 Sep 546 in the Julian calendar. ([ trung đại đồng nguyên niên ] tám tháng Đinh Sửu, đông Dương Châu thứ sử Võ Xương vương 𧫷 hoăng. )Liang Shu,vol.03
- ^ji'youday of the 7th month of the 3rd year of theDa'tongera, per Emperor Wu's biography inBook of Liang
References
[edit]- Davis, A. R. (Albert Richard), Editor and Introduction (1970),The Penguin Book of Chinese Verse.(Baltimore: Penguin Books).
External links
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