Emperor Wu of Southern Qi
Southern Qi Emperor
Emperor Wu of Southern Qi (南齊武帝) (440– 27 August 493), personal name Xiao Ze (蕭賾), courtesy name Xuanyuan (宣遠), childhood name Long'er (龍兒), was the second emperor of the Chinese Southern Qi dynasty. He is generally considered to be an able and diligent emperor, although he is also criticized for leading a lavish lifestyle.
Background
Xiao Ze was born in the Liu Song capital Jiankang in 440, when his father Xiao Daocheng was just 13 years old. He was the oldest son of his father, and his mother Liu Zhirong was Xiao Daocheng's wife.
By 466, when Xiao Daocheng was a Liu Song general, Xiao Ze was a county magistrate at Gan County (贛縣, in modern Ganzhou, Jiangsi), when he was stuck in the civil war between Emperor Ming, whose claim his father Xiao Daocheng supported, and Emperor Ming's nephew Liu Zixun, who also claimed the throne. Because of Xiao Daocheng's support for Emperor Ming, Xiao Ze, who was deep in the territory controlled by Liu Zixun, was arrested and imprisoned. His associate Huan Kang (桓康) fled with Xiao Ze's wife Pei Huizhao and his two sons Xiao Zhangmao and Xiao Ziliang (蕭子良), and then organized some 100 people, along with Xiao Ze's distant relative Xiao Xinzu (蕭欣祖), to make a surprise attack on Gan and rescue Xiao Ze. Xiao Ze then started an uprising at Gan against Liu Zixun. After Liu Zixun was defeated later that year, for Xiao Ze's contributions, Emperor Ming created him the Viscount of Gan, but he declined.
In 477, after Xiao Daocheng assassinated Emperor Ming's violent and arbitrary son and successor Emperor Houfei, the general Shen Youzhi, from his base of Jing Province (荊州, modern central and western Hubei), started a campaign against Xiao Daocheng.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Emperor Wu of Southern Qi” as southern Qi Emperor. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as southern Qi Emperor. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q940037. VIAF identifies the subject as 3027168172570348620002. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Emperor Wu of Southern Qi”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Emperor Wu of Southern Qi primary sources, Emperor Wu of Southern Qi archive and Emperor research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Emperor Wu of Southern Qi”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Emperor Wu of Southern Qi” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.