In the fourth year of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Yang Guang was born in Chang'an, and the history books say: "Beautiful posture, less intelligent and wise". During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, he was honored with the title of Duke of Yanmen Commandery (雁門郡公). In the fourth year of Renshou, that is, in 604, the Sui Wen Emperor Yang Jian died, and Yang Guang succeeded to the throne, historically known as the Sui Emperor.
Yang Guang reigned for fourteen years, but the time he spent in Chang'an City combined was less than a year.
It can be said that the most famous project planned by him is the Grand Canal. According to the records of Ye Shi, Yang Guang once got a famous painting "Guangling Map", and he looked at it for a long time and liked it very much. Empress Xiao saw that Yang Guangdu was fascinated, so she asked, "What kind of painting is this that can make the emperor so concerned about your stomach?" Yang Guang replied, "I don't like pictures, but this picture reminds me of Guangling, a place to play in the old days." ”
The Guangling here is Yangzhou, where Yang Guang stayed for ten years in the past. Empress Xiao was also very fascinated after hearing Yang Guang's story about the scenery of Jiangnan, so she said in passing: "The emperor's heart is in Yangzhou, why don't you go to play anymore?" As soon as this remark came out, it was right in Yang Guang's heart. Therefore, after the Tongji Canal was just repaired in the first year of Daye, Yang Guang could not wait to go down to Jiangnan again.
Yang Guang's dragon boat is very grand, the width and height of the dragon boat are forty-five feet, the length is about two hundred feet, and the entire dragon boat has a total of four floors. The uppermost floor is the main hall, and yang Guang receives the ministers on this floor and handles important matters; the middle two floors are houses with a total of one hundred and sixty carved beams and pillars; the lowest floor is the place where eunuchs and palace women live.
The empress also has her own four-story ship, its ship is called "Xiang Yan Zhou", although the scale is smaller than the emperor's ride, but the degree of eating and wearing is also readily available.
Moreover, there were thousands of smaller ships accompanying the two large dragon boats, including harem concubines, imperial relatives and nobles, and monks and monks. Of course, there are also many cargo ships that pay tribute from all over the world. Regarding the trip of the Sui Dynasty Emperor Yang Guang, historians even said: "Yang Guang's trip is as high as 180,000 people just as a porter pulling a boat. ”
The emperor must be protected by guards when he travels, and after the dragon boat, there are thousands of guards. In addition, the cavalry also guarded the safety of the dragon boat on both sides of the coast, which can be said to be huge. When Yang Guang ordered people to build these ships, they were confirmed according to each person's name, rank, and position. When the Sui Emperor took the big dragon boat, he was in a very comfortable mood, and then composed a poem "Pan Dragon Boat":
The ship returned to Yangzhou in a thousand miles, and the old town of Yangzhou was spoken.
Ask where Yangzhou is, the west end of the Huainan River and the North Sea.
Liu Ren chatted about stopping Yu Baizhang and temporarily suspended the Kaishan Song Gong.
It is like Jiangdong palm land, alone called the words of the book of travel.
It is said that all the ships on this trip totaled more than five thousand. Moreover, those who pulled boats for the dragon boat also had a name, called "temple foot", which means "foot of the water temple", and there were more than a thousand people. The men were divided into three shifts, with 360 people in each shift, ensuring that the dragon boat could travel day and night. Moreover, for the "foot of the temple", there is such a record in the history books:
Yang Guang selected thousands of beautiful women, let them wear white clothes, and pull fibers in front of the ship for Yang Guang to admire. Once, Yang Guang also took a fancy to a beautiful woman named Wu Daixian, who was good at thrushing, so his appearance was very high. As soon as Yang Guang saw Wu Nu, he liked her very much and accepted her as a concubine on the spot... He was always "leaning on the curtain and not going to go when he moved", and Yang Guang also said to others: "If the ancients said that if they can eat beautifully, such as Daixian, they can really cure hunger." ”
This story, which was further rendered in later generations, is recorded in the Zhang Hui novel "The History of the Sui Dynasty Emperor Yan".
Someone suggested to Yang Guang: "Your Majesty can use beautiful women to pull fibers." But Yang Guang asked suspiciously: "Such a big ship, how can only a hundred beautiful women be involved?" Unless you add some more foot power. The speaker then said: "Using beautiful women to pull fibers is only to appreciate beauty, if you add another man, I am afraid that it will affect the sense of beauty, so why not drive the boat with a tender sheep?" ”
Yang Guang felt that this idea was very good, so he ordered someone to choose a thousand young sheep, and each rope matched ten sheep, and Yang Guang seemed to be sitting on a sheep boat, at the same time, he did not forget to look at the beauty.
It is said that the Jiangnan clans all regard themselves as orthodox culture, so they are not accustomed to the GuanlongXunqi who founded the Sui Dynasty, which also led to one of the purposes of Yang Guang's descent to Jiangnan, which is to subdue them. At this time, He Chou, a famous craftsman, architect and craftsman from the Northern Zhou To the early Tang Dynasty, suggested to Yang Guang that His Majesty could draw the sun, moon and stars on the dragon robe, and then decorate the honor guard with feathers, making all this look extremely luxurious.
After that, in order to meet the needs of the royal feathers, the ships tried their best to search everywhere they went, regardless of the size of the feathers, beauty or ugliness, and took them all. At that time, in the land of Huzhou in present-day Zhejiang, a large tree more than 100 feet tall was found with a crane nest on it, and some people wanted to pluck their feathers and contribute to the emperor. The crane was afraid that the young bird would be injured, so he pulled off his feathers and threw them on the ground, which was regarded as a good omen at the time.
The Sui Emperor's second cruise was in the sixth year of Daye, that is, in 610 AD, and he was going to stay in the Jiangdu Palace, which had only been completed the year before. At this time, the national strength of the Sui Dynasty was in its heyday, and foreigners also saw what is called the scene of "silk winding trees", which is enough to see the breadth of every household. Except for Goguryeo, envoys from various countries gathered in Jiangdu to prepare to meet Yang Guang.
At this moment, Yang Guang suddenly had the idea of conquering Goguryeo in the east, because he wanted this small country in Liaodong, which did not know what to do, to see the national strength of the Great Sui. Then, after gathering the world's financial and material resources to conquer Goguryeo three times, Yang Guang knew that Goguryeo was not so easy to attack. Just thirty years after the end of the centenary schism, new upheavals are on the horizon.
The first to rebel against the Sui was Yang Xuangan, whose father was Yang Su, who had helped Yang Guang to take his wife. However, Yang Xuangan's rebellion was soon suppressed, and the military master Li Mi escaped and became one of the tomb diggers of the Sui Dynasty. In the fourteenth year of Daye, Yang Guang, seeing the chaos in the world, was discouraged and had no intention of returning to the north, so he ordered people to build Danyang Palace (present-day Nanjing) and prepare to move there.
Soon after, Yang Guang wanted to commit suicide by drinking poisonous wine, but the rebels did not allow it. After being rejected, Yang Guang chose to untie his clothes and ordered his subordinates to strangle him alive at the age of fifty.
Resources:
[Zizhi Tongjian Sui Ji, Sui Shu Di Ji No. 3, Emperor Jue, New Book of Tang, Liechuan 140 Shang]