This study explores the Buddhist view of the historic courtier Xiao Zixian based on the Buddhist narration of the Book of Southern Qi. As contemporary history written by modern people, Book of Southern Qi mixed the elements of Buddhism with the writings of secret principles of prophecyominous so that the later generations criticize it as “following the trend and neglecting the errors.” According to statistics, Buddhist elements in Book of Southern Qi are shown in the descriptions of politics, society, academy, scholars’ lives, and material culture, and are mentioned more than 60 times. The abovementioned materials were distributed over the short history of the Southern Qi dynasty (479-502). The amount of mentioned Buddhist elements was the highest in the official history of the Southern dynasties, which is considered an epitome of how the Buddhist culture impacted on the traditional Chinese society. What the political and social criticism has shown is the interaction with the traditional historical view upon cultural legitimacy of the Liang Xiao dynasty. It reveals the situation of Yongming Buddhism at the end of the fifth century.
