Liang Wu-ti (464-549) was probably the most famous and most cultured Chinese emperor of the Southern dynasties, and his reign is generally considered their economic and cultural culmination.

Liang Wu-ti was born Hsiao Yen. He had made a name for himself as a literatus, a general, and a perfect when, in 500, his cousin, the reigning emperor Kao-tsu of the Southern Ch'i dynasty, killed Hsiao Yen's elder brother, Hsiao I. In order to avenge his brother's death, and incidentally rid the country of an extremely dissolute sovereign, Hsiao Yen attacked the capital Chien-k'ang (Nanking) and dethroned and killed the Emperor. After a short interregnum Hsiao Yen mounted the throne himself as the first emperor of the Liang dynasty on April 30, 502, assuming the name of Liang Wu-ti, or Emperor Wu of the Liang dynasty.

In the first half of his reign Emperor Wu devoted himself to his tasks with indefatigable...