Xiao Yan (464-549 AD), styled Shuda, was from Southern Lanling (northwest of modern Changzhou of Jiansu Province) and was the the founder of Liang in the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties.

Xiao Yan was a distant cousin of Xiao Daocheng, founder of the Qi Dynasty. He had been an ardent lover of reading since his childhood and enjoyed the same popularity as the famous scholar Shen Yue when he was young. In 498, he was appointed governor of Yongzhou entrusted with the defence of Xiangyang. In the closing years of the Southern Qi Dynasty, Xiao Baorong mounted the throne on the strength of the exclusive support of Xiao Yan amidst the fratricidal fightings among the royal family members who simply neglected state affairs. In 501, however, Xiao Yan led his troops and captured the capital Jiankang. He killed Xiao Baorong before assuming the title of emperor and founding the Liang Dynasty.

The new emperor made a lot of efforts to reconcile the relations between the scholar families and the common people, but he connived at the corruption of the royal family members and officials. Itr was said that he lived a very simple life, eating a simple diet for the three meals of the day, and using the same old quilt for two years on end. That, however, was the deceptive side of this emperor. As a devout believer of Buddhism, he spent large amounts of money building temples and moulding Buddhist statues. There were temples all around the capital extending for 20 kilometres in all directions, with as many as 100,000 monks and nuns. At that time, there were even servants and maids in the temples throughout the country accounting for almost half of the total population. Later, the emperor even declared that he would abdicate to become a Buddist monk, and for four times he dedicated himself to Tongtai Temple, the largest of its kind in the capital city, but each time he was brought back by the court with a large sum of ransom which totalled 400 million coins, and he was thus called "Emperor Bodhisattva". In addition, the emperor organized some scholars for the composition of 200 volumes of Notes to the Classics and 600 volumes of General History.

As a result of the various kinds of preferential treatment granted to the temples in Xiao Yan's efforts to advocate Buddhist, there grew up quite a number of rich Buddhist monk landlords as well as very rich royal family members and influential families that formed the ruling class at the time. Once at the sight of his enormous piles of gold, silver and other treasures owned by his younger brother Xiao Hong, he said in praise: "Brother, you are indeed good at arranging you life." In contrast, the common people of the country were reduced to "all skin and bone" under the heavy exploitation of the rich.

In 548, when the rule of the Liang Dynasty was on the verge of collapse, a general Hou Jing, who had betrayed Eastern Wei and surrendered to Liang, started a revolt and captured the capital Jiankang following the besiege of the city for 130 days. Xiao Yan died of starvation at the age of 85 as his food supply had been cut off. He was later granted the posthumous title of Wu Di.