Xiao Yan Replaces Southern Qi With Liang

Northern Wei moved its capital to Luoyang, and Emperor Xiaowen's reforms deepened.

That staged "southern campaign" also made Southern Qi nervous. In Jiangnan, the Southern Dynasty was about to change again.

Hidden Worries After Yongming

After Xiao Daocheng replaced Liu Song with Qi, he ruled for only three years before dying. His son Xiao Ze succeeded him as Emperor Wu of Qi.

Emperor Wu ruled for more than ten years. Southern Qi had no large-scale internal disorder during this period. Compared with the royal killings of late Liu Song, it was a rare stretch of stability, later called the Yongming era of good rule.

But in his later years, Emperor Wu grew ill. Worse, his crown prince died suddenly.

An old father had lost his heir, and succession became unstable at once. At the same time, reports came from the north that Northern Wei was storing large amounts of grain near the frontier, as if preparing to invade.

Emperor Wu first doubted the reports. But Emperor Xiaowen's army moved toward Luoyang with growing force, looking more and more like a southern campaign. Southern Qi could not avoid fear.

Emperor Wu did not know that Xiaowen's true goal was moving the capital. Under multiple pressures, he soon died.

The stable period did not continue naturally. Succession became the first crack.

Xiao Zhaoye Acts His Way to the Throne

With the crown prince dead, Emperor Wu made his grandson Xiao Zhaoye heir.

Xiao Zhaoye was chosen not because he could govern, but because he could perform. Whenever Emperor Wu was ill, Xiao Zhaoye entered the palace, knelt by the bed, and cried bitterly.

Once back in his own residence, he immediately changed expression, ate, drank, and laughed as usual.

After Emperor Wu died, Xiao Zhaoye took the throne.

His nature soon appeared.

On the day of the funeral procession, once the coffin carriage left the palace gate, Xiao Zhaoye said he was still ill and could not go to the tomb. Ministers had to urge him back to rest.

Once back inside, he called for music and entertainment.

His excess went much further. He lived extravagantly and gave rewards without limit. In less than a year, he spent more than half the money and treasure accumulated in the imperial storehouses.

Palace attendants and favorites even smashed precious vessels for amusement.

The treasury was not a toy. It supported war, disaster relief, and military rewards. Xiao Zhaoye treated it like palace play money and poured away Southern Qi's financial base.

The regent Xiao Luan admonished him many times. Xiao Zhaoye ignored him and instead suspected Xiao Luan of rebellion.

Xiao Luan Takes Power

Xiao Luan was a nephew of Qi's founder Xiao Daocheng and a cousin of Emperor Wu Xiao Ze.

He had lost his father young and had been raised by Xiao Daocheng, so the founder and Emperor Wu trusted him deeply.

When Xiao Zhaoye wanted to kill Xiao Luan, Xiao Luan understood that if he did not move first, he would die.

In 494, Xiao Luan launched a coup.

His men rushed into the palace. Guards first thought of resisting, but Xiao Luan's men shouted that the matter had nothing to do with them and that anyone who wished to live should step aside. The guards scattered.

Xiao Zhaoye was killed.

Xiao Luan then raised Xiao Zhaoye's younger brother as emperor. Three months later, that new emperor was also deposed and killed. Xiao Luan took the throne as Emperor Ming of Qi.

Because Xiao Luan came from a collateral branch, he never felt secure. He feared that descendants of the founder and Emperor Wu would grow up and take revenge. He placed royal relatives under close watch.

When he became seriously ill, suspicion deepened. On New Year's Day in 498, descendants of the founder and Emperor Wu entered the palace in groups to offer greetings. Xiao Luan saw them young and grown, then thought of how young his own sons and nephews were. Fear overcame judgment.

He began slaughtering descendants of the earlier line.

Before each killing, Xiao Luan burned incense before Buddhist images, wept, and repented. After crying, he still ordered the deaths.

Before dying, he killed many high-ranking officials too. He called his son Xiao Baojuan to the bedside and told him that anyone who made him uneasy should be struck down immediately.

Xiao Baojuan remembered.

Xiao Luan's purge frightened the royal clan and ministers. The throne was safer, but trust inside the court had been smashed.

Xiao Baojuan Pushes Qi Toward Collapse

After Xiao Luan died, the sixteen-year-old Xiao Baojuan took the throne.

He later became known as the Marquis of Donghun. The title itself tells the result.

Xiao Baojuan was extremely extravagant. He loved Pan Yu'er and ordered golden lotus flowers laid on the ground so she could walk across them, leaving behind the story of lotuses at every step.

The treasury emptied quickly. More dangerous was the way he applied his father's final advice.

He wanted everything to be exquisitely made. Palace construction, rewards, music, and entertainments kept growing. The more Pan Yu'er was favored, the more government was cast aside.

Regents and ministers who displeased him were killed. Royal relatives and officials were repeatedly purged. More and more people prepared to resist.

One of them was Xiao Yan, governor of Yongzhou.

Xiao Yan also carried the Xiao surname, but his blood relationship to Xiao Baojuan was distant. Tradition traced his line to Xiao He, the Han chancellor. Watching the court collapse, he quietly recruited soldiers in Yongzhou.

He first contacted his elder brother Xiao Yi, who served at court, hoping the brothers could act together.

Xiao Yi refused. He chose loyalty to the court.

Loyalty did not save him.

Someone at court envied Xiao Yi's power and slandered him to Xiao Baojuan, saying he might repeat the old pattern of a powerful minister killing the ruler. Xiao Baojuan believed it and sent poisoned wine.

Xiao Yi had a chance to flee to Xiangyang and join Xiao Yan, but he refused. He asked to meet the emperor and defend himself. The envoy denied him, and he drank the poison.

When the news reached Yongzhou, Xiao Yan rose.

For Xiao Yan, his brother's death was both personal revenge and public justification.

The Jing-Yong Alliance

In late 500, Xiao Yan gathered his commanders and declared that Xiao Baojuan was foolish and cruel. He would depose him and raise a new ruler.

Xiao Yan held the troops of only one province. Taking Jiankang directly would not be easy. He needed nearby Jingzhou.

The court sent Liu Shanyang west, intending to join Jingzhou against Yongzhou.

Xiao Yan moved first. He spread word in Jiangling that Liu Shanyang's western march was really meant to attack both Jingzhou and Yongzhou.

The governor of Jingzhou, Xiao Baorong, was young. Real power lay with the administrator Xiao Yingzhou.

When Xiao Yingzhou heard the rumor, he grew afraid. Xiao Baojuan's killings were well known, and Xiao Yi's death was fresh. No one could be sure he would not be next.

Jingzhou officials also urged him to act. Better to join Xiao Yan than wait for the court to strike.

Xiao Yingzhou agreed, but set a condition. They had to enthrone Xiao Baorong of Jingzhou.

Xiao Yan accepted immediately.

Jingzhou and Yongzhou joined. When Liu Shanyang came west, he found himself isolated. Xiao Yan had turned a court army into a threat in Jingzhou's eyes, then turned Jingzhou into his ally.

In early 501, the allied forces raised Xiao Baorong as emperor at Jiangling, changed the reign title to Zhongxing, and formally attacked Xiao Baojuan.

Southern Qi Becomes Liang

By the end of 501, the Jing-Yong army pressed toward Jiankang.

Xiao Baojuan still believed the walls would protect him and continued his pleasures inside the palace. He did not understand that nearly everyone had abandoned him.

Soon an insider opened the palace gates, and the allied army entered Jiankang.

Xiao Baojuan was still enjoying himself in the palace when he heard disorder in the distance. He tried to flee into the inner chambers, but a eunuch struck his knee. Soldiers arrived and killed him.

The nineteen-year-old ruler left the stage.

After Xiao Yan entered Jiankang, his power rose quickly. He became King of Liang and controlled military and civil government.

He first wanted to keep Pan Yu'er, but ministers warned that Southern Qi's fall was tied to her favor and that keeping her would bring criticism. Xiao Yan ordered her death.

Next, he had to deal with Xiao Baorong in Jiangling.

In 502, Xiao Yan ordered Xiao Baorong brought east. On the road, Xiao Baorong was forced to abdicate.

Southern Qi ended after twenty-three years.

Xiao Yan ascended the throne at Jiankang and founded Liang. He is known as Emperor Wu of Liang.

He argued that he had not taken the realm of Qi's founder Xiao Daocheng and Emperor Wu Xiao Ze. Instead, he claimed to have removed the branch of Xiao Luan and Xiao Baojuan and restored the old order.

The Southern Dynasty had moved from Qi to Liang. Jiangnan had a little breathing room. But in the north, Northern Wei's reforms and capital move were creating new cracks.