East Asia · The Sixteen Kingdoms and the Northern and Southern dynasties
Liang Dynasty
502–557
The Liang (502–557), founded by Emperor Wu (Xiao Yan, r. 502–549)—one of China's longest-reigning and most devoutly Buddhist emperors—was a cultural golden age (the Zhaoming Anthology, a flourishing of letters). It ended in catastrophe with the Hou Jing rebellion (548–552), which devastated Jiankang.
- Existed
- 502–557
- Shown on the map
- AD 510–560
- Peak area
- 2.4M km²
- Region
- East Asia
Overview
The Liang (502–557), founded by Emperor Wu (Xiao Yan, r. 502–549)—one of China's longest-reigning and most devoutly Buddhist emperors—was a cultural golden age (the Zhaoming Anthology, a flourishing of letters). It ended in catastrophe with the Hou Jing rebellion (548–552), which devastated Jiankang. The dynasty fragmented; Emperor Yuan ruled from Jiangling until killed by Western Wei (555), and the throne passed to the Chen in 557 (with the rump Western Liang continuing under Western Wei protection).
Common questions
- What was the Liang Dynasty?
- The Liang (502–557), founded by Emperor Wu (Xiao Yan, r. 502–549)—one of China's longest-reigning and most devoutly Buddhist emperors—was a cultural golden age (the Zhaoming Anthology, a flourishing of letters). It ended in catastrophe with the Hou Jing rebellion (548–552), which devastated Jiankang.
- When did the Liang Dynasty exist?
- The Liang Dynasty existed 502–557. On this map it is drawn AD 510–560.
- How large was the Liang Dynasty?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, the Liang Dynasty covered about 2.4 million km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia article for each polity as the basis of these profiles, supplemented by Encyclopaedia Britannica, chinaknowledge.de, the World History Encyclopedia, museum and university sources, and the academic works it lists. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Liang dynasty en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liang_dynasty
This entry was last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
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