Refers to the culture, style, and period of the southern Chinese dynasty of the period 557 to 589 CE that was the last of the Six Dynasties. The dynasty was founded in 557 when Chen Baxian deposed the Liang emperor but the territory controlled by the Chen was smaller than that of its dynastic predecessors. Jiankang, the capital of the Six Dynasties, was a great cultural, political, and religious center to which merchants and Buddhist missionaries travelled from Southeast Asia and India. Painting, calligraphy, music, and poetry flourished with the help of Chen imperial and aristocratic patrons. The development of literary and art criticism is seen in the works of Yao Zui and Xie He. After consolidating power in the north, General Yang Jian, Duke of Sui, took Jiankang in 589, establishing the Sui dynasty and reuniting all of China.
