"Book of Southern Qi"
" Twenty-Four Histories " The seventh book is "Book of Southern Qi".
The author of "Book of Southern Qi" is Xiao Zixian .
Xiao, in China, it was a big surname during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, there were a total of four regimes, namely Song, Qi, Liang and Chen. The founding emperors with two regimes both had surnames Xiao.
The founding emperor of Southern Qi is called Xiao Daocheng , and Nanliang is called Xiao Yan , so the surname Xiao belongs to the national surname in both dynasties.
Of course, there were many people with the surname Li during the Tang Dynasty period. Not everyone was a relative of the emperor, but our Comrade Xiao Zixian was indeed a prominent identity. His father was the vassal king of Southern Qi Xiao Yi , and Xiao Yi's father was the founding emperor of Southern Qi Qi Gaodi Xiao Daocheng.
is the royal family, and it is also the true direct royal family, and the grandson of the founding emperor.
We must know that his father Xiao Yi was the second son of Emperor Gao of Qi, Xiao Daocheng, and he had great hope of inheriting the throne back then.
If Xiao Yi can inherit his status, it means that Xiao Zixian has a chance to become emperor.
This means that this gentleman could have become an emperor in the past.
But it's a pity that the Southern Qi Dynasty's destiny was really short, only twenty-four years, so when Xiao Zixian was thirteen years old, the Southern Qi Dynasty was overthrown by Xiao Yan, who was the governor of the local area.
(image of Emperor Wu of Liang)
Xiao Yan raised his troops to destroy Qi and established Southern Liang .
Generally speaking, for the orphans of the previous dynasty, the new emperor basically killed them if they could. After all, success, kings and defeats are all about eliminating the roots. Only when they are killed completely can they not leave hidden dangers. However, Emperor Wu of Liang Xiao Yan was extraordinary. This young comrade has always liked to eat vegetarian food and chant Buddha's name. He is a kind-hearted person, so he did not give a big butcher knife to the former Qi royal family, but instead gave preferential treatment.
thirteen-year-old Xiao Zixian is among the best treatments, and it is also a special treatment. Because Xiao Zixian has been outstanding since childhood and has two skills in literature. It just so happens that Emperor Wu of Liang also works in some literature in his spare time, so he pays special attention to Xiao Zixian and treats him very well. Not only did he not deal with him, he brought him to the Southern Liang court to work.
Generally speaking, in order to give preferential treatment to the old royal family of the previous dynasty, give them an ordinary job and let them come to the court to live a gangster life, because in essence, this is just a show, and the purpose is just to make an audience. However, Emperor Wu of Liang seemed to be quite sure of Xiao Zixian's talent and did not give him any idle jobs like Bi Ma Wen, but directly let him become the Minister of Personnel.
Friends, although the Minister of Personnel during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties could only be responsible for selecting some low-level officials, which was incomparable to the officials of the Tang, Song, Ming and Qing dynasties, at that time, this was also a first-class position.
work is very important, but Xiao Zixian obviously has no interest in working.
This kind of man lived to be forty-nine years, and his work performance did not improve much, but he compiled five major historical books, " Books of the Later Han ", "Shi Cao of Jin", "Southern Qi Books", "Ordinary Northern Expedition", and "Biography of Guijian".
But it’s a pity that all of them have been lost to this day except for a book called "The Book of Southern Qi".
(Jiangling Book Burning)
There were many ancient books, historical books and literary classics lost at that time, because later there was an emperor in Nanliang who liked to collect books, called Emperor Liang Yuan Xiao Yi. This Emperor Liang later became a state of ruin and his family was destroyed. Before he died, he burned all the 140,000 books he had collected for many years. Xiao Zixian's works were very likely to be included.
The only remaining book "The Book of Southern Qi" is also very legendary.
In ancient times, private historical books were prohibited. For example, when Sima Qian wrote "Records of the Grand Historian" in secret, Taishigong 's death, "Records of the Grand Historian" was only circulated. When Ban Gu wrote " Han Shu ", he did not report it, and later he was in prison for this matter.
However, Xiao Zi showed his outstanding identity, one was a royal family in the previous dynasty, and the other was a member of the current dynasty. Therefore, his writing of "Book of Southern Qi" was approved by Emperor Wu of Liang Xiao Yan.
Xiao Zixian was born in 487 AD, that is, the fifth year of Qi in the Southern Dynasties, and he began to write "Book of Southern Qi", which was in 502 AD, the first year of Tianjian in the Southern Dynasties. This year was also the year when Xiao Yan built Liang in the Qi Dynasty. Listing these times in
can illustrate a very interesting question, that is, when Xiao Zixian wrote "Book of Southern Qi", he was only fifteen years old, and he was a young historian, which was extremely rare in ancient history.
When Ma Qian wrote history, he could refer to very little information, because before Sima Qian, no one had written the general history of japanese style , but there were still quite a lot of information that Xiao Zixian could refer to when he wrote "Book of Southern Qi".
For example, Shen Yue has written "Qi Ji", Xiong Xiang has written "Qi Dian", Wu Jun has written "Qi Chunqiu", Jiang Yan has also written "Qi Shi".
There are so many reference books, and Xiao Zixian is of course very skillful when writing "Book of Southern Qi".
However, although it is easy to write, the idea when writing a book is a bit difficult for Xiao Zixian.
(Episode of Emperor Gao of Qi Xiao Daocheng)
If someone else wrote "Book of Southern Qi", it would be fine. Xiao Zixian was a royal family of the Southern Qi Dynasty and the grandson of the founding emperor of the Southern Qi Dynasty. Therefore, when he wrote books, he could not write the royal family of Southern Qi too much, but he was a minister of Southern Liang at this time, so he had to take more care of Emperor Wu of Liang in his words.
Therefore, we can often see in the behavior of "The Book of Southern Qi" that on the one hand, he protected the emperors of Southern Qi, saying that the demise of Southern Qi was not due to the king, but to the destiny of heaven. On the other hand, he was evasive about the fact that Xiao Yan usurped the throne and showed little traces. Therefore, although Xiao Zixian was a talented man and was very good at writing articles, he had great limitations in this "The Book of Southern Qi".
However, except for serving his grandfather and current leaders, Xiao Zixian is not merciless to others.
In "Book of Southern Qi", he criticized Prime Minister of the Southern Dynasty Song Chu Yuan that year was deeply trusted by Liu Yu, but when Emperor Ming died, he failed Emperor Ming and actively participated in the destruction and plotting against rebellion.
He criticized Wang Yan, a minister of Southern Qi, saying that Wang Yan and Emperor Gao of Qi were wearing a pair of pants, but later Emperor Wu of Qi died, Wang Yan also participated in the plot to rebel.
He criticized the Southern Qi general Xiao Chen for winning the trust of Emperor Qi Xiao Zhaoye , but later, for fame and fortune, when Emperor Ming of Qi usurped power and seized the throne, Xiao Chen rushed to the front. There are many criticisms like this incisively in the book
. He basically scolded everyone who Xiao Zixian disliked him.
Moreover, this guy has never had any dirty words in the book. After reading the whole book, the words are gorgeous and the words are even more particular.
The sixth book of "The Twenty-Four Histories" is the first book of "The Book of Southern Qi". The author is Shen Yue, a contemporary writer.
(Shen Yue's image)
Shen Yue is a man with a arrogant personality and no one is convinced, but he is convinced by Xiao Zi. After taking his "Book of Southern Qi", he thought it was written too well, and thought that even if the level of "Book of Southern Qi" cannot be compared with "Records of the Grand Historian", he could compete with "Book of Han".
The style of the Southern and Northern Dynasties is the most powerful in Nanliang.
We know that in every era, there are top literary celebrities, sometimes individuals, sometimes groups.
There were the Seven Sons of Jian'an during the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Forest, the Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties, , which were all the ceilings of literature at that time , and during the Southern and Northern Dynasties , there was also a top literary organization called " Jingling Eight Friends ", and our Emperor Wu of Liang Xiao Yan was one of the members of the organization.
Emperor Wu of Liang can write poetry, have good calligraphy, good music, and love to play chess. He is a complete literary youth. Historical books say that he "can be knowledgeable in ancient emperors after seeing the arts of ancient emperors, but rarely has it." This means that looking at the emperors of all dynasties, it is rare to be as knowledgeable as Emperor Wu of Liang.
The emperor loved literature and art, but as a result, the subjects worked hard and the downward trend was emerging across the country.
Therefore, Xiao Zi's gorgeous rhetoric is not necessarily his personal feature in literary creation, but also possible, it is the mark of that era.
Finally, let’s talk about Xiao Zixian.
(Xiao Zixian’s image)
Because he was a celebrity in front of the emperor and a member of the court, there were always guests in the gate of Xiao’s house.
Xiao Zixian doesn't care about these guests.
He once said in the preface of "The Book of Southern Qi", that is, the passage introducing himself:
If you climb up to the top of your eyes, send your eyes back to the water, the wind moves in spring, the moon is bright and the autumn night, the geese are blooming and the leaves are falling, and there is no way to go.
I like to climb mountains, like to stand in high places, see the gurgling water, and see the wind blowing the flowers in spring.
I like the bright moon, the autumn, the geese returning home, and the flowers bloom and fall.
In this frequently changing chaotic world, only the breath of nature can give me a moment of peace in my heart.
When guests from all walks of life came to my house to visit, I was unwilling to talk to them (see guests of nine walks of life, and did not talk to them), so I just waved the fan in my hand to signal.
In the third year of Datong, in 537 AD, Xiao Zixian died of illness and was posthumously named "Jiu". The word "pride" in
is really a summary of his life.
Most of the ancient literati were not afraid of death. When facing death, they could always show more calmness than those famous generals who had been through the battlefield.
As historical records, they have a completely new understanding of the concept of time.
(written by books)
The reason why they are not afraid of death is because they have developed new views on death in the process of researching and creating literature.
Like Xiao Zixian, they would think that there must be something in this world that can transcend the laws of life and death and the logic of death.
This thing may be a spirit, a thought, and it may be a poem behind them.
So, although their bodies will die, and although their bodies will rot, they still believe that ten years, hundred years, and millennia will eventually exist in another way.
This is not feudal superstition, but a belief in primitive life.
sounds very lingering, but obviously, Xiao Zixian did it.
Nowadays, people who open "Book of Southern Qi" will live again. The image of his elegant and arrogant talented man in Nanliang is vividly revealed on paper, transcending time and space, and has always existed.
