Academically, ZSZSZSZ is famous for his study of Confucian classics and history. In the study of Confucian classics, he wrote more than 200 volumes, such as Zhouyi Shushu, Answering Questions in the Spring and Autumn Period and Confucius Yan Zheng, but most of them have not been handed down. In the eleventh year of Tian Jian Prison (5 12), five gifts of good luck, fierceness, military service, hospitality and kindness were made, with more than a thousand volumes and 80 19 articles, which were promulgated and implemented. In historiography, he was dissatisfied with the writing methods of dynastic history such as Hanshu, thinking that it cut off history, so he presided over the compilation of 600 volumes of general history, and "bowed his head." He was quite conceited about this book, and once his opponent said, "I made up a general history." If this book is successful, all history can be abolished. " It's a pity that this book was lost in the Song Dynasty, which is really a pity. Xiao Yan's greatest works are General History (600 volumes), Golden Sea (30 volumes), Notes on the Five Classics (200 volumes) and Ode, Preface, Imperial Decree, Ming, Ode, Wen and Play 120.
Xiao Yan also devoted a lot of energy to the study of Buddhism, and wrote hundreds of Buddhist works such as Nirvana, Great Works, Jingming and Sanhui. He is also very good at Taoism. On this basis, he combined the Confucian "rites" and Taoist "nothingness" with the nirvana and karma of Buddhism, and founded the "three religions homology theory", which occupied an extremely important position in the history of ancient Buddhist thought in China.
Poetry and prose
Xiao Yan's poems and essays are also excellent. During the period of Emperor Wu of Qi (485-493), the poetic creation was in full swing, and many literati gathered around Wang Xiao in Jingling to show their poetic creation talents. Among these scholars, there are eight famous scholars, such as Xie X, Ren F and Fan Yun, who are called "Eight Friends of Jingling". Xiao Yan is also one of the "Eight Friends of Jingling". Many of his poems were written during this period. After Liang Jian proclaimed himself emperor, he never lost his elements. He often recruits talented people and takes poetry as his pleasure. His literary creation promoted the prosperity of literary atmosphere in Liang Dynasty.
There are more than 80 poems written by ZSZSZSZ, which can be roughly divided into four categories according to their contents and themes: love poems, Zen poems, banquet poems and object-chanting poems. Xiao Yan's love poems are concentrated in the new Yuefu poems, also known as quasi-Yuefu poems, accounting for almost half of all his poems. Yuefu was the official department in charge of music in ancient times. According to scholars' research, there was a Yueguan in the Zhou Dynasty at the latest, named Dasile, and Yuefu was named Yueguan in Qin Dynasty. Huidi had the post of Yuefu Order in Han Dynasty. During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the nature and scale of Yuefu were quite different from before. At that time, Yuefu not only made music movements and trained musicians, but also widely collected folk songs and sang them with music. All the songs produced and collected by Yuefu institutions and poems written by scholars with Yuefu as their theme are called Yuefu poems in later generations. Among them, folk songs are the most vivid part of Yuefu poems.
During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Yuefu stopped collecting folk songs, and Yuefu poems at that time also showed an increasingly elegant tendency. In the Southern Dynasties, the new folk songs with different styles in the south of the Yangtze River once again attracted the attention of the upper class. Through the adoption and singing of Yuefu institutions, it has had a great influence on literati's poetry creation. Because the theme, content and exquisite style of Jiangnan folk songs adapted to the ruling class's love for melody and sound at that time, they were widely simulated.
As a secretariat of Yongzhou, ZSZSZSZ loved local folk songs very much when he lived in Xiangyang. Many of his quasi-Yuefu poems, such as Fang Shu, Thinking and Lingaotai, were written at this time. Even after he proclaimed himself emperor, Xiao Yan's interest in Yuefu poetry remained unchanged. In the 11th year of Tian Jian (5 12), he personally changed to western music (Yuefu folk songs in the Southern Dynasties were divided into Wu Ge and western music). The former was born in Jiankang area, which is named Wudi, so its folk songs are called Wu Ge. The latter originated in Jing, Ying, Fan, Deng and other places in the Hanshui River Basin. It is the military center and economic and cultural center of the western part of the Southern Dynasties, so its folk songs are called Xiqu), with 14 pieces of "Jiangnan Music" and seven pieces of "Jiangnan Lane", which shows its addiction.
Like Yuefu folk songs, Yuefu in Xiao Yan is also a love song, mainly written for women. Most of his poems describe women's yearning for love, feelings of parting from lovesickness, lingering feelings, aesthetic style, plain language and strong flavor of Jiangnan folk songs. For example, "One year will be over, and Wan Li people have not returned. Your ambition is innate, but I am driven by nothingness. " A song at four o'clock in the morning. Winter song "); "The grass tree is not fragrant, and there are hundreds of colors of flowers and leaves. Send a message to an old lover until I remember it in my heart. "("Xiangyang Hugh ") and so on. Mr Zheng Zhenduo thinks that "Xiao Yan's new Yuefu poems are the most charming and lovely". There is some truth in this statement.
What deserves special attention is Xiao Yan's seven-character poem. Xiao Yan's seven-character Yuefu poems include Song of the River, Jiangnan Lane and Song of Shrike Flying East. Among them, the song of shrike flying east is the most famous: "Flying shrike flying west to swallow, Huanggu meeting Weaver Girl. Whose daughter lives across the hall and has a bright face. South window and north window, the fragrance is overflowing. This year, the woman will be fifteen or sixteen years old, slim, beautiful, white and beautiful. In the third spring, the flowers have gone with the wind, so who should I pity? " The creation of seven-character poems began with Cao Pi, whose Ge Yanxing is the oldest and most complete seven-character poem for literati. Since then, Bao Zhao, Tang Huilin, Shi and others in the Song and Qi Dynasties have occasionally published such works, but the impact is not great. It was not until Xiao Yan that the seven-character poem was further developed. Although Cao Pi's Ge Yanxing is a pioneering work, the whole poem rhymes sentence by sentence, which is monotonous and lacks the interest of intonation. Liang Wudi's seven-character poems are original and have a staggered sound and rhyme. Since then, imitators have appeared everywhere. His sons Xiao Gang (Emperor Wen) and Liang, the minister and Wu Yun all wrote seven-character poems. By the time of Chen, the sentence pattern and structure of seven-character poems were more perfect and the rhythm was more harmonious. Later, in the Tang Dynasty, Li Bai, Du Fu, Gao Shi and others creatively used this poetic style and wrote many magnificent poems, especially the seven-character poems. The pioneering work of ZSZSZSZ and others is undeniable.
Xiao Yan's Zen poems are second only to his Yuefu poems. He believed in Buddhism in his early years and became a Buddhist in his later years. His Zen poems are self-portraits of his belief in Buddhism. Like the proverbs of religious philosophy, these poems are very boring and have no art at all.
Xiao Yan's third kind of poems is the poem of thanking the banquet, which is more complicated than the first two kinds. There are works that show religious philosophy, promote Buddhist thought and persuade ministers to believe in Buddhism, such as "Love Temple in Zhongshan" and "Feeling New Ideas for Jiangge". There are travel notes and landscape works such as Poems of Early Summer in Pan-Tianchi Lake, Traveling to North Gu Lou, and Park Tree Hall in Tianan Temple. There are farewell poems, such as "Ren Dianzong's Poems in the Book of Wang Zhongshu". There are many excellent poems of this kind, such as "the boat exchanges guests, and the algae and apples move forward." Bichi Honglian, white sand and green ripples; Sina tide blows old stones, and residual flowers fall on old branches; Soft leaves are easy to come out, but dense grass roads are difficult to cover. A thin tour of Zhu Mingjie, a general Tianyuan pool. "("Early Summer Pan-Tianchi Poetry ") This poem is beautiful and colorful, and it is quite charming to read. Another example: "Blue Flower didn't talk, just worried ... he didn't stop talking, and his feelings were attached to it. "(Poems Written by Wang Zhongshu in the Archives of Zhongren Hall) It is also a masterpiece in farewell poems to write about the deep and sincere attachment of friends when they leave.
Xiao Yan's fourth kind of poems are poems about objects, such as dance poems, candle poems and pen poems. Although this kind of poetry is struggling to catch up with the new, its content is shallow and few people can praise it.
His "Giving Yimin Eleven": "If there are trees in the mountains, there is no disloyalty. Birds sing in the forest. Birds have different voices. You Jiang fish, for example, have ups and downs. Rocky Mountain is high and deep. The deeds are easy to see, but the truth is hard to find. " This poem explains the nature and laws of everything in the world, and it is really hard to be found by some incredible things, such as the falsehood of trees, the strange sounds of birds, the ups and downs of fish, and the depth of mountains.
The evaluation of Liang Shi by later scholars is generally not high, and most of them think that he is "mocking romantic and gardening" (Bai Juyi's language) and "less romantic and more affectionate". The poets in Qi and Liang Dynasties lack the lofty ideal of saving the world and a serious sense of social responsibility, and there are few works that reflect social reality and express their heartfelt feelings. At that time, the literary world was full of poems describing landscapes, chanting things and eroticism. Xiao Yan's poetry embodies the characteristics of Qi Liang's poetry without exception in subject matter, content and style. This is of course related to the long and rich aristocratic living environment before he ascended the throne. Although he was the king of founding a country and starting a business, he had been in a high position before he ascended the throne, pampering himself and not being hit too much; It only took more than a year to destroy Qi Liangjian, and it was very smooth. Therefore, it is not surprising that in Xiao Yan's poems, there are more "be immersed in love with children" and "immortal spirit", less "Fengyun spirit" and less words to express one's ambition and positive progress.
Because of Xiao Yanya's good poems, ministers have followed suit, and even a brave warrior can occasionally recite a few good poems. In the sixth year of Jian 'an (507), Liang defeated Cao and Wei Jun in Xuzhou. After returning to Korea, he gave a banquet in the hall to celebrate. During the dinner, the monarch and his subjects recited poems in succession. In view of Cao's incompetence in poetry and prose, he was afraid that he would be embarrassed if he could not give rhyme, so the minister in charge of arranging rhyme shot him if he didn't give him rhyme. Cao was deeply wronged and insisted on using rhyming poems. Xiao Yan had long known Cao Jingzong's unwilling character, so he comforted him and said, "The general is an outstanding talent, so why care about writing a poem!" By this time, Cao had some drunkenness, so he asked for it again and again. Xiao Yan didn't want to spoil his fun, so he ordered Shen Yue to give him poems. At this time, the rhyme has almost been divided, leaving only the words "competition" and "illness". Under this restriction, it is difficult for poetry to rhyme. However, Cao only thought about it for a moment, and then he wrote another poem: "My daughter went to be sad and came back to have a competition." Ask passers-by, how is Huo Qubing? " The poem is written naturally and smoothly, which is very suitable for the reality of triumph in front of us. As soon as this poem came out, the language was shocked, and the literati sighed, even ZSZSZSZ lamented that the historian was recorded in the national history.
Under the influence and advocacy of Xiao Yan, the development of cultural undertakings in the Liang Dynasty reached the most prosperous stage since the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Li yanshou, the author of Southern History, commented: "It has been more than 200 years since Jiangzuo, and the prosperity of cultural relics is unique." This sentence can quite reflect the reality at that time.
music
Xiao Yan is also good at music. He wrote many new songs. "Sui Shu Music" said: Xiao Yan "is good at the rhythm of the clock and knows the past in detail, so he created his own rites and music". Such as "advocating the use of Han songs in Song and Qi Dynasties, with sixteen songs in full court" and "going to four songs and keeping twelve songs is also in the four seasons. Create more songs to describe merits. "
Xiao Yan wrote many songs praising Buddhism, such as "Doing Good, Being Happy, Being Happy, Avenue, Fairy Road, King of God, Dragon King, Eliminating Evil, Eliminating love the water, Breaking Bitter Bricks", etc., which are all called positive joy and all describe Buddhism.
Xiao Yan attaches great importance to rites and music. He is good at clock rhythm and created four kinds of quasi-tones, which are called "Tong". Pass three strings to push the moon at a time. He also made twelve flutes, corresponding to twelve laws. Each piece is equipped with chimes and chimes, which enriches the expressive force of China traditional instrumental music.
draw
Xiao Yan likes painting very much, especially flowers, birds and animals. Zhang Sengyou, a famous painter, is good at portraying characters and is highly appreciated by Xiao Yan. At that time, Xiao Yan's philosophers were all in other places and often missed them, so he ordered Zhang Sengyou to go to various counties to paint portraits of the philosophers and hang them in the bedroom. When Xiao Yan saw this photo, he saw his son, and his thoughts diminished. Xiao Yan believes in Buddhism. During his reign, he built many Buddhist temples and pagodas and ordered Zhang Sengyou to paint.
calligraphy
Xiao Yan also had profound attainments in calligraphy, and he was among the best emperors who were good at calligraphy in ancient times. Even if we abandon the imperial status and judge his calligraphy by the standard of a calligrapher, it has its own considerable points. At that time, Xiao Yan often discussed the topic of calligraphy with Tao Hongjing, and Tao Hongjing was good at cursive writing, learning from Zhong You and Wang Xizhi. The dialogue between them was compiled into On Books with Liang Wudi, which was handed down to later generations and became one of the classic works in the history of calligraphy. At the same time, Xiao Yan was also the first emperor in history to highly praise Wang Xizhi's calligraphy achievements. Before that, Wang Xizhi's reputation was often covered by his son Wang Xianzhi. Because of his admiration, the first wave of learning Wang's calligraphy rose from the Liang Dynasty at that time. At the same time, he also left four works by calligraphy theory, Twelve Meanings of Zhong You's Calligraphy, Cursive Script, Tao's Seclusion and Comments on the Merits and Disadvantages of Ancient and Modern Calligraphers, all of which are excellent works in calligraphy theory's ancient books.
Liang Wudi's achievements.