Writers › Writer / Poet
Xiao Tong
Liang crown prince, eldest son of Emperor Wu, who died before he could reign and gave his name to the Selections of Refined Literature compiled at his court
In a study at night, a desk holds a brush pot, a porcelain vase with a plum branch, a lit red lantern, a folded fan and an unrolled blank scroll, with no one seated there, while through a round window the moon rises over a lake with a sailboat.
Also known as Zi Deshi · Zhaoming Taizi
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Xiao Tong, courtesy name Deshi, eldest son of Emperor Wu of Liang by Consort Ding, was born at Xiangyang in 501 and made crown prince the following year. He read the Classic of Filial Piety and the Analects at three and the Five Classics at five; once of age he took part in government at his father's wish and was known for leniency in judging cases. He gathered books and writers at his court, where the library held nearly thirty thousand scrolls and men such as Liu Xiaochuo attended him, and he compiled the thirty-chapter Selections of Refined Literature (Wenxuan), which arranges poetry, rhapsodies and prose from pre-Qin times to the Liang by genre. In 530 he memorialised against conscripting labourers from three eastern commanderies to dig a channel draining Lake Tai. He fell ill in the spring of 531 and died in the fourth month, aged thirty, receiving the posthumous name Zhaoming. Li Shan's Tang commentary on the Wenxuan made its study a discipline of its own.
Life and times
Dates 501 CE–531 CE