After Xiao Yan himself returned to Buddhism, he gradually lived a Buddhist life. He promulgated the "article on abstaining from wine and meat", forbidding monks from eating meat, and he himself was a vegetarian. In his later years, he often ate a meal in the sun, and all he ate was thick rice soup and bean soup. He used secular criminal law to punish those who dared to drink and eat meat. He also issued an imperial edict to kill ancestral temples, which was against Confucian etiquette, but he insisted on it. He was also formally appointed. According to the record in Volume 6 of Continued Biography of Monks, Tian Jian was in prison for eighteen years (5 19), and he "made a big oath and was ordained by the Bodhisattva" (Biography of Yue Hui). One of his most prominent acts of worshipping Buddha is that he laid down his life for the temple slave many times and for the Thai temple four times. Every time, the court spent a lot of money to redeem him. His fourth sacrifice was in March of the first year of Taiqing (547), which lasted for one month and cost "100 million yuan", which brought huge funds to Tongtai Temple.
Xiao Yan himself can be classified as "Yi Xue". He is very good at studying Buddhist scriptures, especially Prajna Sutra, Nirvana Sutra and critical eye. He often lectured for everyone, held various dharma meetings, held thousands of monks' meetings and naked meetings. In the first year of China Datong (529), the number of participants reached more than 50,000. His Buddhist works include Notes on the Maha Prajna Paramita Sutra (the only remaining preface), Notes on the Three Wisdom Sutra (the Three Wisdom Sutra is the product of the three wisdom in the Maha Prajna Sutra, and Xiao Yan thinks this product is the most important, so it is listed separately), Notes on Nirvana Sutra, Notes on the Justice of the Pure Name, and Records of Rectification.
Xiao Yan's contribution to China's Buddhist righteousness is manifested in the combination of China's traditional theory of mind and nature, immortality and Buddhist nirvana. He belongs to Nirvana School and advocates "Immortals become Buddhas". The so-called "God" refers to the eternal spiritual entity and is the internal basis for all beings to become Buddhas. He also put forward the homology theory of the three religions, arguing that Confucianism and Taoism both originated from Buddhism, and that Laozi and Confucius were both disciples of Sakyamuni, so from this perspective, the three religions can be interlinked, and their social functions are the same, all for educating people to be good.
In addition to his own worship of Buddhism, Xiao Yan also strongly supported the development of Buddhism. He is very supportive of translating the scriptures of foreign monks. He called the Sanskrit to five translation sites to translate the classics, and asked Bao Sang and others to write them for him. He even "bowed to his knees, accepted his writings, and then paid the translator" (Volume I of the Biography of the Sangha-gita. The true meaning is also treated with courtesy under Xiao Yanmen, but the translation of the true meaning is difficult to apply because of the Hou Jing Rebellion. Xiao Yan is also closely related to domestic monks, such as Baoliang, Zhizang, Fayun and Minsheng, all of whom are highly valued by ZSZSZSZ. He organized monks to compile Buddhist works, and compiled at least twelve kinds. He also built a wide range of temples, including eleven temples, such as Da Ai Jing Temple, Du Zhi Temple, Guangzhai Temple and Tongtai Temple. Every temple has a statue of Buddha, the Great Aijing Temple has a bronze statue of gold, the main hall of Du Zhi Temple has a statue of Buddha with infinite life, and Tongtai Temple has ten silver statues.
With the support of Xiao Yan, Buddhism in the Liang Dynasty reached its peak in the Southern Dynasties. For Buddhism, Xiao Yan is a monk. He died of hunger and disease in the Hou Jing uprising.
After Xiao Yan, Jian Wendi and Yuan Di also worshipped Buddha.