Speaking of the Sheng Tang Dynasty, everyone may know that the former Zhenguan Zhizhi and the Kaiyuan Prosperous Era were praised by later generations, but there is an underrated dynasty that is its former Sui Dynasty. It is still of great significance to future generations, although it has only existed for a short period of a few decades, and it is called the two shortest-lived dynasties in China along with the Qin Dynasty.
The development of the Sui Dynasty begins with Yang Jian, the founder of the Sui Dynasty, who was previously a general of the Northern Zhou Dynasty and held an official position in the dynasty as early as the time of Emperor Wu of Zhou, and died of overwork shortly after northern Zhou destroyed Northern Qi. Immediately after That, Yang Jian took advantage of the young lord's succession to the throne to seize the power of Northern Zhou himself, and later established the Great Sui to replace Northern Zhou. Immediately after that, the southern side destroyed the Chen Dynasty and completely unified the whole country.
First of all, the establishment of the Sui Dynasty ended the centuries-old division of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, followed by the Tang Dynasty. However, the foundation laid by Yang Jian, the founding emperor of the Great Sui Dynasty, was closely related, and the Sui Dynasty was the first dynasty in the history of the mainland to be subjected to the dynasty of all nations, and for the first time, the imperial examination system was implemented, monopolizing the atmosphere of the former clans of the Sui Dynasty as officials, and now the poor who have to pass the imperial examination can also enter the capital as officials.
In just over thirty years, there were only two emperors in the Great Sui Dynasty, one was Emperor Wen of Sui and the other was Emperor Sui. During the reign of Emperor Wen of Sui, he advocated frugality, saved some government expenditures, abolished some unnecessary heavy taxes and miscellaneous taxes, and set up barns to store food.
Politically, after the unification of Emperor Wen of Sui, on the one hand, he practiced frugality and simplicity, and on the other hand, he adopted many measures conducive to consolidating political power. Because Yang Jian understood the principle that "since the ancient emperors did not have good luxury and could be elderly for a long time", from the time of his reign, he advocated frugality in life, and the concubines in the palace were not beautifully decorated, and the general scholars mostly used cloth, and the belt was only made of copper and iron bone horns, not gold and jade. Emperor Wen of Sui had wanted to use hu powder and a woven collar, but he searched the palace and couldn't find it. Practicing frugality has reduced the people's burden and is conducive to the implementation of various measures. Appointing officials is not limited to the rank, meritocracy, pass the exam to get a soldier. Emperor Wen of Sui sent people to inspect the fifty-two prefectures of Hebei, dismissed more than 200 corrupt officials and corrupt officials, and laid off about three-tenths of the local redundant personnel. He also simplified the criminal law, cut down the torture of the previous generation, and formulated the Sui Law, a simplified criminal law, "replacing the heavy with the light, and turning death into life."
In terms of economy, following the Northern Wei Dynasty's Juntian system, the Juntian Law was promulgated, and Ding Dingnan divided the field into 80 mu and the Yongye field 20 mu. Women were exposed to forty acres. He also reduced his or her conscription, neglected his duties, and rested with the people. If the age of Ding is changed to twenty-one years old, Toda is still eighteen years old and serves three years less. It was also changed to 30 days of service per year to 20 days, and reduced the number of silk horses (4 zhang) to 2 zhang, etc. In addition, Emperor Wen of Sui ordered the reorganization of the household register, with five families as the guarantee, five guarantees as lu, and four lu as the clan. At the beginning of the KaiHuang Dynasty, there were more than 3.6 million households, and 500,000 in Pingchen, which later increased to 8.7 million (during the tang dynasty's strongest "rule of the Kaiyuan" period, there were 8.2 million households in the country, slightly more than the highest value of the Tang Dynasty). In order to prevent hunger in Jigu, the Sui Dynasty set up warehouses, divided into official warehouses and yi warehouses. The official warehouse is used for grain transfer and storage, and the righteous warehouse is used for relief. Emperor Wen also devoted himself to construction, building a new capital, Daxing City, southeast of the former Chang'an City; digging the Guangtong Canal to divert Weishui from Daxing to Tongguan to facilitate the transportation of water in the East of the Guandong.
In terms of academic culture, Emperor Wen of Sui vigorously advocated culture and education and widely sought books. In view of the long-term war and chaos in the previous generation, the official books were scattered, so he issued an edict to the book of the world, and every book was sacrificed to a horse. After one or two years, the books were prepared and more than 30,000 volumes were collected. In order to recruit talents, the Sui Dynasty abolished the Nine-Pin Zhongzheng system and began to select officials by means of sub-subject examinations, which also promoted the development of education and literature. In order to enlighten the whole country and restore the orthodoxy of Chinese culture, the edict was issued to formulate ritual music to enhance the cultural quality of the country.
In terms of military affairs, in view of the late Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Turks used their powerful military strength to invade Northern Zhou and Northern Qi from time to time. Therefore, after the establishment of the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Wen of Sui sent troops to attack the Turks, and later adopted a strategy of divisive differentiation, prompting the Turks to divide into east and west, fighting each other endlessly, and Sui was able to eliminate the worries of the north.
It is precisely because of the implementation of the above measures that during the more than twenty years of the reign of Emperor Wen of Sui, the politics was relatively clear, the population increased significantly, the treasury was more abundant, there were fewer external troubles, and the society presented a prosperous scene, which is known in history as the "rule of the emperor", which was the heyday of the Sui Dynasty.
After The death of Emperor Wen of Sui, the Sui Emperor succeeded to the throne, and many people said that he was the emperor who usurped and killed the Sui Emperor. Regardless of the fact that the national strength of the Sui Dynasty was still thriving in the early days of his reign, the Sui Emperor decided to build Luoyang in Tokyo at the beginning of his succession, with Luoyang as the center to excavate the Sui and Tang Grand Canal connecting the north and south of China, build a road and build the Great Wall, promote the economic, social, cultural exchanges and commercial development of the Central Plains and the southern and northern regions, and carry out conquests around the surrounding areas, expanding the territory of the Sui Dynasty. However, due to the Sui Emperor's excessive eagerness to make profits, these measures caused some damage to society.
Due to the Sui Emperor's haste to build the Grand Canal, it consumed a lot of manpower and financial resources, bringing a lot of burdens to the people. The people who dig the river work endlessly, and with the invasion of disease, the death toll accounts for more than half of the total. In the first year of Daye, at the same time that the Sui Emperor dug the Tongji Canal, he led a large number of people such as harems, kings, and guards to patrol the south along the canal, spending a lot of money and requisitioning many people along the way. In the third year of Daye, when the Sui Emperor inspected the north, he recruited the people of the north to dig a chi road through the Taihang Mountains to reach the prefecture, and asked the subordinate Turkic Qimin Khan to help the Turkic people to dig the chi road. During the reign of Emperor Wen of Sui, the Great Wall was built in Shuofang, Lingwu and other places. In the fourth year of Daye, the Sui Emperor went out to Yulin to mobilize more than one million people to build a Great Wall from Yulin to Zihe to protect the Turkic Qimin Khan.
In the end, due to the continuous natural disasters coupled with the repeated launching of wars to labor and the people to consume money, it was also the dredging of the Grand Canal that greatly depleted the national strength of the Sui, and eventually caused the crisis at the end of the Sui Dynasty. First, Yang Su's son Yang Xuan felt that the army rebelled, and then the rebel army wanted to become an irreversible force. Rebel armies in various places occupied their respective places, and finally in 618 the Sui Dynasty basically collapsed after the Sui Dynasty established himself as emperor by killing Yang Guang. Later, although Li Yuan and Yu Wenhua both left the Sui Emperor, they could only be said to be puppets. Therefore, in the time of Yang Guang, Sui had already perished, although it only existed for a few decades, but its impact on future generations was indelible!