Liang Wudi (梁武帝) (502-549) was the first Emperor of China of the short-lived Liang Dynasty. He has been described by many to be one of the more interesting emperors of his dynasty, and his reign was among the more long and stable of many of the Southern Dynasty's. His given name was Xiao Yan (蕭衍 Xiāo Yǎn). Events End of the Qi Dynasty and beginning of the Liang Dynasty in southern China. ... Events Emperor Jinwen succeeds Emperor Wu as ruler of the Liang Dynasty in China. ... The emperor or huangdi (皇帝 in pinyin: huang2 di4) of China was the head of government and head of state of China from the Qin dynasty in 221 BC until the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911. ... Liang Dynasty (also: Leung in Cantonese,) 梁朝 (502-557) was the third of Southern dynasties in China, followed by the Chen Dynasty. ... Emperor is also a Norwegian black metal band; see Emperor (band). ... The Southern dynasties 南朝 (nanchao in pinyin: nan2 chao2) include Song Dynasty, Qi Dynasty, Liang Dynasty and Chen Dynasty whose capital were all at Jiankang See also:Chinese history, Southern and Northern Dynasty, Chinese sovereign ...

He began by creating universities and extending the Confucian civil service exams, demanding that sons of nobles study the classics. He was well read himself and wrote poetry and patronized the arts. Although for governmental affairs he was Confucian in values, he embraced Buddhism as well. He himself was attracted to many Indian traditions. He banned the sacrifice of animals and was against execution. He actually at some points entered a Buddhist monastery. He also received in the Five Precepts and the Bodhisattva Precepts. A university is an institution of higher education and of research, which grants academic degrees. ... A civil servant or public servant is a civilian career public sector employee working for a government department or agency. ... In the traditional sense of the term, a classic book is one written in ancient Greece or ancient Rome (see classics). ... Poetry (ancient Greek: ποιεω (poieo) = I create) is traditionally a written art form (although there is also an ancient and modern poetry which relies mainly upon oral or pictorial representations) in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ... A precise definition of the arts can be contentious, but the following areas of activity are usually included: Art / Visual arts Architecture Crafts Dance Drawing Film Literature Music Painting Photography Pottery Sculpture Theater Unlike art, design focuses less on the aesthetics of a thing and more on the functionality of... Confucianism (儒家 Pinyin: rújiā The School of the Scholars), sometimes translated as the School of Literati, is an East Asian ethical, religious and philosophical system originally developed from the teachings of Confucius. ... The term Buddha is a word in ancient Indian languages including Pāli and Sanskrit which means one who has awakened. It is derived from the verbal root budh, meaning to awaken or to be enlightened, and to comprehend. It is written in devanagari script as Hindi: and pronounced as... Sacrifice (from a Middle English verb meaning to make sacred, from Old French, from Latin sacrificium : sacer, sacred; sacred + facere, to make) is commonly known as the practice of offering food, or the lives of animals or people to the gods, as an act of propitiation or worship. ... A monastery is the habitation of monks, derived from the Greek word for a hermits cell. ... This article is about the Buddhist concept; see Pancasila Indonesia for the Indonesian state philosophy. ... In the Bodhisattva vows (sometimes called the Bodhisattva Precepts) of Mahayana Buddhism, the bodhisattvas take vows stating that they will not realize or attain Nirvana until all sentient beings have done so. ...

His love of literature and the arts however came at a price. The Toba Wei continued to attack the kingdom and rebellions frequented the kingdom eventually laying the seeds for the end of the short lived Liang dynasty. ... Northern Wei Buddha Maitreya, 443 AD. A Buddhist stela from the Northern Wei period, build in the early 6th century. ...

Buddhist Legends

Emperor Wu is remembered by many Buddhists today for the many contributions he gave to the faith. There are a few stories that revolve around his involvement with Buddhism.

The Emperor's encounter with Bodhidharma

According to tradition, around 520, during the period of the Southern Dynasties, Bodhidharma, the first Zen patriarch of China according to legend, came to visit Emperor Wu in hopes of converting him. Fortunately, the emperor was already Buddhist, so there was no need to do so. Events February 20 - Epiphanius elected Patriarch of Constantinople. ... Bodhidharma, woodblock print by Yoshitoshi, 1887. ... Bodhidharma, woodblock print by Yoshitoshi, 1887. ...

The Emperor started to talk about his building of temples and giving financial support to monastics. He then asked Bodhidharma how much merit he accumulated in the process. Emperor Wu felt that the patriach might not know about of the good deeds that he made, so he pointed them out to Bodhidharma. The patriarch felt that Emperor Wu was providing his own promotion campaign rather than seeking the Dharma to end birth and death; instead, he wanted to boast of his own merit and virtue. Thinking that the emperor might have been drunk on his own ego, Bodhidharma replied, "Actually, you have no merit and virtue. In truth, no merit and virtue at all."

Perplexed, the Emperor then asked, "Well, what is the fundamental teaching of Buddhism?" The bewildering reply was "vast emptiness."

"Listen," said the Emperor, now losing all patience, "just who do you think you are?" Bodhidharma replied, "I have no idea."

Bodhidharma originally had went to Emperor Wu with the idea of saving him. However, he was too conceited; he hadd too high an opinion of himself. Being an emperor was already something, he thought. He had built many temples, enabled people to leave home, given away a lot of money, and made a lot of offerings to the Triple Gem. So, he thought that he had created a tremendous amount of merit and virtue. Bodhidharma, wanting to shatter the emperor's attachment, replied that he had no merit and virtue at all. The Triratna or Three Jewels symbol, on a Buddha footprint. ...

Receiving Retribution

From then on, the emperor refused to listen to whatever Bodhidharma had to say. Although Bodhidharma came from India to China to become the first patriarch of China, the emperor refused to recognize him. Since he refused to believe in what Bodhidharma told him, he practically missed his chance to come face to face with someone who was important to Buddhism. Bodhidharma knew that he would face difficulty in the near future, but had the emperor been able to leave the throne and yield it to someone else, he could have avoided his fate of starving to death.

According to the teaching, Emperor Wu's past life was as a bhikshu. While he cultivated in the mountains, a monkey would always steal and eat the things he planted for food, as well as the fruit in the trees. One day, he was able to trap the monkey in a cave and blocked the entrance of the cave with rocks, hoping to teach the monkey a lesson. However, after two days, the bhikshu found that the monkey had died of starvation. Categories: Buddhism-related stubs | Buddhist terms ...

Supposedly, that monkey was reincarnated into Hou Jing of the Northern Wei Dynasty, who led his soldiers to attack Nanjing. After Nanjing was taken, the emperor was held in captivity in the palace and was not provided with any food, and was left to starve to death. Though Bodhidharma wanted to save him and brought forth a compassionate mind toward him, the emperor failed to recognize him, so there was nothing Bodhidharma could do. Thus, Bodhidharma had no choice but to leave Emperor Wu to die and went into meditation in a cave for nine years. Northern Wei Buddha Maitreya, 443 AD. A Buddhist stela from the Northern Wei period, build in the early 6th century. ...

The Emperor Liang Repentance Service

A major Buddhist repentance service is named after Emperor Wu. It is called the Emperor Liang Repentance Service, which talks about his wife's transformation and what he could do to allow her to rest peacefully. It also involves prostrations to a number of Buddhas. Repentance is the feeling and act in which one recognizes and tries to right a wrong, or gain forgiveness from someone that they wronged. ...

According to legend, because of the empress' negative karma in the years of her life, she turned into a huge snake. Emperor Wu asked the Venerable Bao Zhi, a Buddhist monk, for advice to help relieve the suffering of his wife. Venerable Bao Zhi then gathered many high ranking monastics to help the emperor. Together, they created a 10 chapter repentance booklet for the emperor. Today, it is performed annually in many Buddhist temples, usually during the Qingming Festival or the Ghost Festival. e Tiananmen Incident were major events involving Qing Ming Jie that took place in the history of the Peoples Republic of China. ... This article is about the Chinese Ghost Festival. ...

The Liberation Rite of Water and Land

Emperor Wu and Venerable Bao Zhi were also the creators of the most grandest Buddhist function in Chinese Buddhism, called the The Liberation Rite of Water and Land (水陸普度大齋法會, Shuilu Pudu Dazhai Fahui). The function basically invites the beings of the higher realms to help the beings in the lower realms get out of their sufferings. The function is composed of seven shrines, each of them holding their own smaller ceremony; the chanting of sutras are involved in each shrine. (Emperor Liang's repentance is one of the texts recited.) The heart of the ceremony's activities is the "Inner Shrine", where access is strictly limited to higher monastics and wealthy participants. The service also requires the attendance of over one hundred monastics, and a limitless amount of laypersons. Because of cost, it is extremely rare for a Buddhist temple to hold such a ceremony, since it can affect a temple financially. This article explores how Buddhism, a Indian origin, has affected and been affected by Chinese culture, politics, literature and philosophy. ... Sutra (सूत्र) in Sanskrit is derived from the verb √siv, meaning to sew. ...

According to legend, the emperor had a dream in which a monk advised, “The suffering of the beings in the lower realms is immense, why don’t you make offerings to liberate them from their suffering? Among all good deeds, the accumulation of merits through such services is the greatest.” So the emperor called on Venerable Bao Zhi again to organize such a ceremony. Venerable Bao Zhi spent three years creating the concept and compiling the texts for this seven day festival.

Emperor Wu's "order" of the Execution of the Kowtow Monk

Emperor Wu was also fond of playing Go, an ancient board game. There was a famous and knowledgeable monk who was nicknamed the "Kowtow Monk", whom the Emperor respected highly and summoned him often to chat with him. ... Kowtowing Kowtow, from the Chinese term kòu tóu (Cantonese: kau tàuh) (叩頭), is the act of deep respect shown by kneeling and bowing so low as to touch the head to the ground. ...

One day, the Kowtow Monk paid a visit to the palace when the Emperor was playing Go with an official. The Emperor surrounded a big group of stones on the board and was so excited that he yelled, "Kill!" All of a sudden, guards rushed into the palace, seized the Kowtow Monk and executed him outside the palace gate.

Unfortunately, the Emperor was so absorbed in the game that he didn't even know what had transpired. After the game, he remembered the monk and summoned him. The Emperor's guards reported to him that the monk was executed per his order, and the Emperor regretted deeply. On the other hand, the Kowtow Monk didn't know why he was executed, and thought that it was the judgement for killing an earthworm when he was young.