釋氏稽古略 4.338

4.338

In the Xinsi year of the Jin, in the seventh month of autumn, Liang, the ruler of Jin, moved his capital to Bianjing. In the ninth month, Liang broke the treaty and attacked the Song. The Song emperor issued an edict to lead a personal expedition. Liang was prone to slaughter and raised troops, creating disasters. At that time, heroic figures rose up together: Wang Youzhi of Daming, Geng Jing of Jinan, and Chen Jun of Taihang initiated the gathering of righteous troops; Yelü Wowo, a descendant of the Khitan, simultaneously rose up in the desert. Thereupon, an army of ten thousand men of Bohai rebelled against Liang, returned to Huining Prefecture, and established Xiu as emperor (Xiu changed his name to Yong; he was a grandson of Taizu and the son of Zongfu, King of Ji). On the first day, Gengshu, of the tenth month, Xiu ascended the imperial throne and changed the reign era to Dading. The Grand Councillor of the Left, Zhang Hao, copied Xiu's amnesty text from Bianjing and rushed to report it to Liang. Liang sighed and said: "I intended to wait until the south of the Yangtze was pacified to take the meaning of 'a single military campaign bringing great stability' (yirong dading) to designate the reign era. Has this boy anticipated me?" He ordered a fascicle of writings to be fetched and shown to him; it had indeed prophetically foretold the matter of changing the reign era. In the eleventh month, on the day Yiwei, various generals gathered more than ten thousand troops and, drawing their bows, entered directly into Liang's sleeping tent. His surrounding personal guards scattered and fled. The generals shot into the tent, arrows falling like rain. Liang immediately perished. His imperial son Guangying remained in Bianjing and was also killed by the multitude. Xiu posthumously demoted Liang to King of Hailing with the posthumous title Yang, and his empress, Lady Tudan, was made Lady of Hailing. Xiu changed his name to Yong and made Yanjing his capital. Benevolent, generous, kind, and frugal, he reigned for twenty-nine years and was referred to as a "lesser Yao and Shun" (Jin zhi).