After the fall of the Jin dynasty's capital city of Chang'an during the Uprising of the Five Barbarians, the Yan family migrated south below the Yangtze River in 317.
When Emperor Wu of Liang assumed the throne and control over southern China, Yan Jianyuan starved himself to death in an act of piety towards the dynasty he once served.
Yet, when he was eighteen years old the infamous military general Hou Jing came to power in southern China in a rebellion against the Liang dynasty.
[2] In 552, Yan Zhitui fled to Jiangling (江陵, in what is modern Jingzhou, Hubei), accompanying the Liang prince he served prior to Hou Jing's revolt.
The Liang prince established a rival court, yet it was destroyed when Western Wei invaded from the north and captured Jiangling in January 555.
In 556, his family managed to escape Chang'an, and prepared to move east in hopes of returning to the Liang dynasty over southern China.
[2] Although he stressed the need for mastering calligraphy, painting, and playing the musical instrument of the lute (guqin), he warned against them from practicing too much and gaining too much skill.
This was because those of higher rank, in a degrading and humiliating fashion, could easily call upon them to constantly entertain and produce fanciful calligraphy, poetry, or a musical song on the spot.
[7] In 589 AD Yan Zhitui wrote: "Paper on which there are quotations or commentaries from Five Classics or the names of sages, I dare not use for toilet purposes".