In the 13th year of Daye (617 AD), Li Yuan raised an army at Jinyang, and in November of the same year, he invaded Chang'an, supporting Yang You as emperor and Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty as emperor. In 618, Yu Wenhua and launched a mutiny, Yang Guang was captured, and he was not allowed to commit suicide by drinking poisoned wine, so he was hanged at the age of 50. The Sui Dynasty collapsed with the death of the second emperor, Yang Guang. As a failed emperor, he died without peace, and was tossed several times, first buried in the palace, then buried under the Wu Gongtai of Yangzhou, and in 620 AD, Tang Gaozu Li Yuan buried him in Leitang, northwest of Yangzhou, which was considered to be settled.
Yang Guang (569–618 CE), the ancestor of the Sui Dynasty, reigned for 14 years. There are three reasons why he has been criticized by posterity in his life, and we will look at them one by one.
1. Usurp the throne by killing his father, calculating and killing his brother Yang Yong. Originally, the emperor's eldest son Yang Yong was the crown prince, and Yang Guang had the intention of replacing him because of his military exploits above his brother, and found that Emperor Wen of Sui was dissatisfied with his brother. So he deliberately disguised himself to his father's favor: knowing that his parents were frugal, he also pretended to be very simple. When he heard that his parents were coming, he let his concubines go into hiding, and let some elderly, ordinary-looking women serve their parents in worn-out clothes. At the same time, he often gives benefits to the attendants around his parents and asks them to help them say good things about themselves. After seeing that his parents were more and more fond of him, he began to frame his brother Yang Yong for plotting to kill him. Originally, his parents had a bad impression of Li Yong, so soon Emperor Yang Jian of Sui deposed Yang Yong and made Yang Guang crown prince. In July 604, when Emperor Wen of Sui was bedridden, Yang Guang wrote to Yang Su to ask for advice on how to handle Emperor Wen of Sui's affairs and his own ascension to the throne. Unexpectedly, this letter was obtained by Emperor Wen, and Yang Guang simply launched a coup d'état and killed his father to ascend the throne. After taking the throne, he falsely passed on Emperor Wen's will and forced Yang Yong to commit suicide.
Yang Suwenzhi took the title of Prince bai and ordered the edict to be the governor of Dali Prison; the soldiers of the Eastern Palace were posted on the guards, the door was forbidden to enter and exit, and Yuwen Shu and Guo Yanjie were sent; the right son Zhang Heng was sent to the palace to serve the sick, and the harem was sent out of the room; and the Russian collapsed. ...... He was called the edict of Gao Zu and gave the late prince the courage to die and hang him. (Zizhi Tongjian)
From the historical point of view, it is only suspected that Yang Guang killed his father, "there is quite a difference in the Forbidden City", and there is no direct evidence to prove that Yang Jian was killed by his son Yang Guang, or it may be that he was "lying ill", learning that his son wanted to ascend the throne, and arranged various matters in the palace, so that he died of anger. In fact, Tang Taizong Li Shimin had the same crime as him, the same killing of his brother, forcing his father to give way, but the historical evaluation was completely different. Brothers and sons fight for power, and it is not uncommon in the history of the dynasty, but Yang Guang's crime is unforgivable? If he even dared to flirt with his father's favored Lady Xuanhua, Lady Chen, then was it not a crime for Li Shimin to kill Li Yuanji and then include the concubines of his father's harem in his harem? Why hasn't Li Shimin been criticized on these? Maybe that's the point of becoming a king and losing a king.
2. Labor and wealth, and build a lot of civil engineering. In 605, Yang Guang began to build the city of Luoyang and excavated the Grand Canal. Yang Guang successively excavated and dredged the Tongji Canal, Hangou, Jiangnan River, and Yongji Canal, which is the famous Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal in history. Qin Shi Huang and Yang Guang both bore the insult and left a world-famous gift to future generations, but the Great Wall of Ten Thousand Miles has only an ornamental role so far, and its defensive role in history is extremely limited, but the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal has been running through the north and south, which not only strengthened the Sui Dynasty's military and political rule over the south, but also enabled the cotton silk and rice in the south to be smoothly transported to Chang'an, so that the culture between the north and the south can be well exchanged. Later Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties all relied on the Grand Canal for material supply, and from a historical point of view, Yang Guang had foresight and was a historical hero!
3, covet pleasure, three times to the south of the River, the Slender West Lake, which was only six or seven meters wide at that time, as its own special waterway. First of all, to explore the purpose of Yang Guang's travel, he once issued an edict saying: "Listen to the opinions of the people and consult with the people on the suggestions of governing the country, so that we can govern the country well." I will inspect the Huaihai area and examine the people's feelings. This shows that he has political ambitions, and the purpose of his going to Jiangnan is also obvious: to listen to the people's feelings and public opinions.
Peng Shen, edict: "Listening to the praises of public opinion and conspiring with the common people, so that they can judge the gains and losses of the criminal government; now they will tour Huaihuai and the sea, and observe the customs of the province." (Zizhi Tongjian)
His starting point is good, perhaps just like the future generations, when the leader comes, the local extravagance and waste of reception, not to mention that he only dedicated slender West Lake for a period of time. Secondly, compared to the later Qianlong Six Lower Jiangnan, he was a little witch! Under the South of the Qianlong River, someone expanded the original Slender West Lake into tens of meters wide, "the two banks of flowers and willows are all by the water, all the way to the mountain", which is much wasted than Yang Guang. But Qianlong's descent into Jiangnan has become a good historical story, so why did Yang Guang go to hell? There are many extravagant emperors in history, and how many of them can Yang Guang rank among them?
In fact, in history, Yang Guang was also a great figure, but unfortunately he had great ambitions, but he died first, but left a name for eternity.
First of all, Yang Guang has the same Gaishi martial arts as Li Shimin. He was "beautiful and wise", and at the age of 13, he was made the Duke of Yanmen County, and in 581 AD he was made the King of Jin and participated in the destruction of the Chen Dynasty. The 20-year-old Yang Guang, as the commander-in-chief of the Chen Dynasty, entered Jiankang (present-day Nanjing), killed the traitorous minister of Chen Hou's master Uncle Bao, sealed the treasury of the palace, did not covet money, and was known as "Xian" by the world, and he was also made a lieutenant. In 590, he served as governor of Yangzhou to quell the rebellion of Gao Zhi in the south of the Jiangsu Province; in 600 AD, he led his troops north to defeat the Turkic invasion. As a prince, he made great achievements in battle, which were also not available to other princes of the same dynasty.
Secondly, Yang Guang created the imperial examination system, established schools, and promulgated the Law of Great Causes. The imperial examination system had a far-reaching impact on future generations, and the establishment of the Jinshike provided an excellent opportunity for the selection of outstanding intellectuals at the lower levels, and this system was extended to the Qing Dynasty. He built schools, visited and protected scattered books, restored the Guozijian, Taixue, and Zhouxian studies that had been abolished during the Sui WenDi period, and organized people to compile the "Changzhou Jade Mirror" and "Ou Yu Tuzhi", which contributed to the preservation of ancient texts on the mainland. In 607, he promulgated the Law of Great Cause, which reformed the harsh laws of Emperor Wen of Sui's last years.
Then there is the development of the western region and the conquest of the surrounding areas. In addition to digging the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, Yang Guang also used troops everywhere, which also showed his political ambitions. In order to develop the Western Regions, he sent troops to defeat the Western Turks, defeated Tuguhun, built his territory into four counties, and sent officials to govern, ensuring the smooth flow of the Western Regions. In 610, Chen Ling and Zhang Zhenzhou were sent to lead troops to recruit Liuqiu, kill Liuqiu's lord and take 10,000 prisoners. Fearing that Goguryeo would collude with the Turks and pose a threat to the Central Plains, he launched several wars against Goguryeo in 612 and 613, defeating Goguryeo and forcing goguryeo to surrender. Although the expedition to Goguryeo severely damaged the Sui Dynasty's vitality, so that the rebels could take advantage of it, this did not erase Yang Guang's ambitions.
Finally, Yang Guang was also one of the representative poets of the Sui and Tang dynasties. He was young and studious, liked poetry, his poetic style was vast, there were thousands of troops and horses to march out of the majestic "thousands of flags moving, drinking horses and great wall caves", there were also peaceful river scenery when the sunset set in the west, "the sunset is quiet, the clouds are scattered in the distant mountains and the sky, the herons fly outside the forest, the lotus opens on the water red", and in his later years, the poetic style is lonely and multi-sensory, "the sun wants to fall, and the soul is eclipsed at a glance", which may be a premonition that the emperor's fate will be over!
It can be seen that Yang Guang, the ancestor of the Sui Dynasty, was actually an ambitious and ambitious person, and he was quite talented, but unfortunately he was too eager to make quick profits, and finally let his aunt and cousin Li Yuan pick up an emperor. If he can recuperate, slowly, maybe history will be rewritten. He has his own faults, but because of this, he has been thrown into eighteen layers of hell, saying that he is arrogant and lascivious, that he has brought calamity to the country and the people, and that he has been given the name "Jiao", but this is not the truth of history!
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Yang Guang stills
Yang Guang stills