Southern Girls or Tibetan Knights:A Liang (502-557) Court Performance

摘要

Xiao Yan af(j- (464-549; r. 502-549; posthumously Wudi jiM), the founding emperorof the Liang dynasty (502-557)1 was born into a devout Taoist family, yet was theonly Chinese monarch consciously to enact the role of an "Emperor-Bodhisattva." Hisrulership was a combination of the Chinese "sage emperor" and the Indian cakravartin.2Xiao Yan was also well known for his patronage of scholarship and literature. During hisreign, he sponsored the compilation of an unprecedented number of scholarly projects.3His own writings, covering a broad range of topics, show that he was a polymath versedin classical scholarship, ritual matters, music, calligraphy, and go (i.e., encirclement