Xiao Yi 蕭繹, Emperor Yuan of Liang

Xiao Yi 蕭繹 (508–555), Emperor Yuan 元 of Liang (r. 552–555), zi Shicheng 世誠, childhood name Qifu 七府. Liang emperor, poet, and literary thinker.

Xiao Yi's ancestral home was Nan Lanling 南蘭陵 (northwest of modern Changzhou 常州, Jiangsu). He was the seventh son of the Liang founding ruler Xiao Yan 蕭衍 (464–549, r. 502–549). His mother was Ruan Lingying 阮令贏 (474–540), who had been a concubine of the Qi prince Xiao Yaoguang 蕭遙光 (468–499). At the end of the Southern Qi she resided in the palace of the Marquis of Donghun 東昏, Xiao Baojuan 蕭寶卷 (r. 499–501). At the beginning of the Liang Xiao Yan selected her as a “lady of elegance,” a low-concubine rank. After she gave birth to Xiao Yi in 508, she was given the title Xiurong 修容 (Lady of cultivated countenance).

Xiao Yi was a child prodigy who despite being blind in one eye was able to read texts and compose verse at an early age. In 514, at the age of seven, he was enfeoffed as Prince of Xiangdong 湘東, a title by which is frequently known. In 524, he was put in charge of military affairs at the Shitou 石頭 fortress near the capital. In October 526 Xiao Yi was appointed regional inspector of Jingzhou 荊州 which had its administrative headquarters in Jiangliang 江陵 (modern Jingzhou municipality, Hubei) where he remained until 539 when he was summoned back to the capital only to be sent out the next year as regional inspector of Jiangzhou 江州 (administrative headquarters in Nanchang 南昌, modern Nanchang, Jiangxi). In 547, Xiao Yi was transferred to Jingzhou where he remained until his death in 555.

Xiao Yi established his own power base in most of the upper and middle Yangzi area. In April 549 the capital of Jiankang fell to Hou Jing 侯景 (503–552). Although some of his advisers urged Xiao Yi to declare himself emperor, Xiao Yi did not immediately do so even after the death of his father on 12 June 549. However, he did not recognize the legitimacy of the accession of his elder brother Xiao Gang 蕭綱 (503–551, r. 549–551), and instead declared himself minister of education and area commander-in-chief of all internal and external military affairs. After Xiao Gang was killed on 15 November 551, Xiao Yi's army led an attack against Hou Jing whom they captured and killed in April 552. They also gathered up 80,000 scrolls of books from the imperial library and had them transported to Jiangling.

After observing the customary rite of refusing the offer of the throne three times, Xiao Yi ascended the throne on 13 December 552. However, Xiao Yi's position was precarious, for he was under assault from the north by the forces of the Western Wei and the army of his brother Xiao Ji 蕭紀 (508–553), who had established a regime in the southwest. In November 554 the Western Wei launched an attack on Jiangling. Xiao Cha 蕭詧 (519– 562), Xiao Tong's third son, defected to the Western Wei. On 14 December the Western Wei army laid siege to Jiangliang. Xiao Yi and his family were captured and killed on 27 January 555. Before Jiangling was stormed by the enemy, Xiao Yi ordered 100,000 scrolls from his collection burned (the Sui shu monograph on bibliography gives the number as 70,000 scrolls).

Although Xiao Yi is described as an insidious opportunist who was capable of acts of great cruelty, he devoted himself to scholarship and the arts. His writings reputedly numbered over 600 juan. However, not all of the works attributed to him were actually by him but were done by members of his entourage in his name. Xiao Yi's most famous work is Jinlouzi 金樓子 (Master of golden tower), a work that he began in his fourteenth year and completed one year before his death. Originally in ten juan, the received version consists of six juan recovered in the Qing from the Yongle dadian 永樂大典. The Yongle daidian version was based on an edition prepared by Ye Sen 葉森 in the Zhizheng 至正 (1341–1368) era of the Yuan.

While in Jingzhou Xiao Yi had in his entourage some of the most distinguished literary men of the time including such luminaries as Yan Xie 顏協 (498–539), Yin Keng 陰鏗 (d. ca. 565), Wang Ji 王藉 (d. 547), Liu Zhilin 劉之遴 (477–548), Liu Xiaochuo 劉孝綽 (481–539), Liu Xiaoxian 劉孝先 (fl. 537–553), Liu Xiaosheng 劉孝勝 (537–553), Pei Ziye 裴子野 (469–530), Wang Bao 王褒 (513?–576), Yu Jianwu 庾肩吾 (ca. 487–551), Yu Xin 庾信 (513–581), Xu Ling 徐陵, and Xu Jian 徐儉 (d. 588).

According to the “Basic Annals of Emperor Yuan” in the Liang shu, Xiao Yi's collected writings amounted to fifty juan. The monograph on bibliography in the Sui shu lists two collections, one in fifty-two juan and what is called a “smaller” collection in ten juan. There are similar listings in the monographs on bibliography of both Tang histories. These collections seem to have disappeared in the Song. Later collections are all reconstructions.

Xiao Yi's extant works include 107 poems, 21 of which are yuefu. His most famous yuefu is a heptasyllabic “Yange xing” 燕歌行 (Ballad of Yan) that he wrote to match a piece by the same title by Wang Bao 王褒 (513?– 576). Eleven of his poems are included in the Yutai xinyong.

Eight of Xiao Yi's fu are extant. The most distinctive piece is “Xuan lan fu” 玄覽賦 (Fu on darkly observing) a long autobiographical piece that he wrote in 545. In 549, Xiao Cha sent the scholar Cai Dabao 蔡大寶 (d. 564) as an envoy to Xiao Yi's court in Jiangling. Xiao Yi commissioned Cai to write a commentary to this fu. Xiao Yi also wrote many grave memoirs for literary men such as Liu Xiaochuo, Pei Ziye, Yu Jianwu, and Lu Chui 陸倕 (470–526). Xiao Yi was a prolific writer of stele inscriptions. He also is credited with compiling a collection of Buddhist inscriptions, the Neidian beiming jilin 內典碑名集林 (Collection of inscriptions from the Buddhist Canon). His preface to the collection is extant.

Xiao Yi was also a literary critic. His chapter titled “Li yan” 立言 (Establishing words) in the Jinlouzi is an important treatise on literature. The Bunkyō hifuron attributes to him a treatise on poetry titled Shi ping 詩評 (Evaluation of poetry), which is the same as the original title of the Shi pin 詩品 of Zhong Rong. However, Xiao Yi's Shi ping, if indeed he wrote such a work, is not otherwise known.

Collections

• Xue Yingqi 薛應旂 (jinshi 1535), ed. Liang Yuandi ji 梁元帝集. 1 juan. Liuchao shiji 六朝詩集.
• Zhang Xie 張燮 (1574–1640), ed. Liang Yuandi yuzhi ji 梁元帝御制集. 10 juan + 1 juan supplement. Qishier jia ji 七十二家集.
• Zhang Pu 張溥 (1602–1641), ed. Liang Yuandi ji 梁元帝集. 1 juan.
• Li Daoying 李道英, ed. Zhongguo diwang shiwen xuanzhu 中國帝王詩文選注, 163– 93. Nanning: Guangxi renmin chubanshe, 1989.

DRK