Changzhou: Mystery and Flow

The first Xiao emperor was Xiao Daocheng (427-482), who established the Qi, or as historians refer to it, the Southern Qi. He excelled both in military skills and literature. History records him as saying, “I’ll have a Qi Dynasty where gold is the price of earth.” Two decades later, another branch of the Xiao clan toppled the Qi and founded the Liang. The founder was Xiao Yan, who remained on the throne, incredibly enough, for 48 of the 78 years of the Qi and Liang dynasties. Xiao Yan was a lenient ruler, and also a man of letters. He championed Confucianism and promoted education. His eldest son Xiao Tong, titled posthumously Zhaoming, compiled China’s earliest existing collection of literature, Selected Literature (Wenxuan, now popularly known as Zhaoming Wenxuan). It had a direct influence on its contemporary work, Carving a Dragon at the Core of Literature (Wenxin Diaolong), which is celebrated as the greatest work of literary aesthetics in the history of China. Xiao Yan’s third son Xiao Gang was a giant in poetry circles. As imperial members, the three Xiaos had great political and literary influence during the Qi and Liang periods. They are likened to the three Caos of the Wei during the Three Kingdoms Period (220-280).

Another peak in Changzhou history occurred during the Ming and Qing dynasties when a group of creative and active scholars seized the responsibility to adapt classical learning to the promotion of political and social progress. The Changzhou School made a great splash, particularly in the late Qing Dynasty, when it helped inspire the Reform Movement that triggered the fall of imperial rule and heralded the beginning of modern China.

Famous Persons

In the early days of modern Chinese history, reformists started some 30 industrial enterprises, and one third of them were launched by Sheng Xuanhuai (1844-1916), who was born and raised in Qingguo Lane of Changzhou. His adventures laid a solid industrial foundation for the city, and made Changzhou a pioneer in the country’s industrial revolution. In the 1980s, Changzhou earned new fame during the country’s reform and opening-up, becoming an industrial model for small and medium-sized cities.

In fact, most of Changzhou’s celebrities came from Qingguo Lane and along the Baiyun Stream. The lane was a compact community inhabited by aristocratic families and social celebrities during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Baiyun Stream is an inner river of Changzhou flowing parallel to the Grand Canal. In ancient times, households living along its banks produced four zhuangyuan (No. 1 Scholars) and seven officials at the ministerial level and above. The great poet Su Dongpo also moved here in his later years and passed away in his riverside home.

The famous celebrity closest to our time might be Liu Haisu (1896-1994), an artist and art educator from a banker’s family in Changzhou. In the 1920s, Liu thumbed his nose at traditional morality by using nude female models in Western painting classes and made himself the most controversial artist in China. But the most moving part of the story for me was about his younger cousin Yang Shouyu. In support of her cousin, the Ninth Brother, she embroidered a “messy-stitch” style nude female figure. Yang loved her cousin very much, and this was her quiet way of siding with his cause.