The Sui Dynasty Emperor Yang Guang was a famous tyrannical monarch in Chinese history. During his reign, he single-handedly destroyed the great rivers and mountains left by his father, Emperor Wen of Sui, making the powerful and unified Sui Dynasty a short-lived empire and died in the second. Therefore, the Sui Emperor, like the King of Shang, the King of Zhou You, and others, was regarded by later generations as a generation of Emperor Xia, whose reputation was ruined for thousands of years, and was despised by the people of the world, and simply became a negative model for the Emperor who had brought calamity to the country and the people.
And Tang Taizong Li Shimin, in the historical evaluation, and the Sui Emperor just came to a hundred and eighty degree turn. How black the image of the Sui Emperor is, how white he is, how stinky the reputation of the Sui Emperor is, how fragrant he is. When Li Shimin is mentioned, people regard him as a model of the Ming Emperor throughout the ages, forever in history. He is a man of great talent, a broad-minded man who is as broad-minded as the sea, and can be humble in his selection of talents, and he can hardly pick out a single fault from head to toe.
In fact, if you carefully read the life experience of the two people, you will have a jaw-dropping discovery: the trajectory of the lives of the Ancient Emperor and the Ancient Ming Jun, the degree of overlap is so high, many of the experiences of the two have highly similar characteristics, the Sui Emperor and the Grand Canal, this great cause of the Millennium, so that Li Shimin can not be compared. What is puzzling is that the same life experience, in the eyes of posterity, has come up with a completely different historical evaluation, Li Shimin is praised by everyone on the clouds, but the Sui Emperor is like being stuffed into the eighteenth layer of hell and can never turn over.
First of all, the origins of the two are very similar, both are from the family of nobles. Yang Guang was born in the Hongnong Yang clan, his grandparents were all important ministers of the state during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and Li Shimin was born in the Guanlong Li clan, and his ancestors were also famous generals during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the ancestors of the two families, Li Hu and Yang Zhong, were even officials in the same dynasty as the Northern Zhou Dynasty.
Secondly, both of them are young and promising, and they are alone in fighting at a young age. In 588, the 20-year-old Yang Guang served as commander and commanded more than 100,000 troops to cross the river south and destroy the Chen Dynasty. In 618, when Li Shimin was 20 years old, he led a large army in a major battle against the Warlord Xue Ju of Longxi, losing first and then winning, all of which showed great military talent and extraordinary courage at a very young age.
Third, the process of the two becoming emperors was full of twists and turns, both seized the position of prince by illegal means, and both had fought each other for imperial power. Yang Guang and Li Shimin were both the second in line, and both had a crown prince's brother pressed on them. In other words, neither of them was originally eligible to inherit the throne. But neither of them accepted defeat and took drastic measures to change the situation.
In order to seek the position of prince, Yang Guang went to great lengths to fight with each other and frame him, and finally brought down the prince's brother and replaced him. Li Shimin was more direct, and he set up an ambush during the Xuanwumen Rebellion, killing the crown prince Li Jiancheng and his younger brother Li Yuanji on the spot, and became the crown prince as he wished. In comparison, Yang Guang's means still take some care of face, and some are hidden. Li Shimin's methods are even more fierce, and they are simply undisguised.
Fourth, after the two became emperors, they both behaved well and with great achievements, exhausted their military strength, and dreamed of becoming the emperor of the eternal world. During their reigns, both organized large-scale foreign wars on many occasions, "conquering the storm in the south, conquering the north and conquering the north, subjugating the four ethnic groups, and ordering what they did.", while opening up the territory and establishing the great martial arts, it also caused a heavy tax and labor burden to the people.
However, highly similar life experiences, the Sui Dynasty Emperor and the blessing of the Grand Canal, will strangely lead to a far-reaching historical evaluation. In fact, it is not surprising at all to put it bluntly, because of the famous saying: history is written by the victors. In other words, the law of the winner and the prince and the loser thief once again worked.
Although the Sui Emperor failed to realize his ambitions and ideals, he still left China with the great cause of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, which was really beneficial to future generations, but he was eventually destroyed in the smoke and fire of the peasant war at the end of the Sui Dynasty. Although Li Shimin only left a false name, he became the final winner of this imperial power competition. After he ascended the throne, in order to promote that the legitimacy of the Tang Dynasty to replace the Sui Dynasty was "the destiny of heaven", he instructed the imperial literati to make a meticulous and deliberate beautification of his life, and at the same time expanded and highlighted the defects and faults of the Sui Emperor as much as possible, which eventually led to such a result.
References: Book of Sui, Old Book of Tang