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Xiao Tong

Type Figure Region China Time c. 501–531 Also known as Crown Prince Zhaoming、Deshi (style name)

Xiao Tong (c. October 501 – May 7, 531), style name Deshi, eldest son of Emperor Wu of the Liang dynasty of the Southern Dynasties, was made crown pr…

Timeline

  1. 501–514Jiankang · YangzhouXiao Tong was born in Xiangyang in the ninth year of the Zhongxing era of Qi, the legitimate eldest son of Liang's Emperor Wu, Xiao Yan. He was made crown prince in the eleventh month of the first year of Tianjian (502). The Book of Liang states that at five he had read all the Five Classics and could recite them; after moving to the Eastern Palace he was renowned for benevolence, filial piety, and love of learning.
  2. 514–531Jiankang · YangzhouIn the Eastern Palace Xiao Tong gathered many literati and oversaw the compilation of the thirty-volume Wenxuan, selecting poetry and prose from the pre-Qin to the Liang period by literary genre. He died of illness on May 7, 531, aged twenty-nine (thirty-one by East Asian reckoning), posthumously titled Zhaoming, and later generations called him Crown Prince Zhaoming.

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