Preface
He forced the palace ladies to wear open crotch pants just so that he could satisfy his selfish desires at any time, and he forcibly occupied his stepmother, Mrs. Xuanhua, without even the slightest scruples.
However, behind all this, is Yang Guang also consolidating his empire through these means, from an ordinary prince to the founding emperor, what is he thinking deep down?
Forced the palace maid to wear open crotch pants and sleep at any time to satisfy her desires
After Yang Guang succeeded to the throne, his personality changed greatly. He began to indulge in women's sex, and asked the harem to have a number of young and beautiful palace maids to serve at any time. In order to be able to obtain the body of the palace maid more freely, he ordered that all the women in the palace must wear special open crotch pants.
This kind of clothing was very humiliating for the women, but they could not resist the emperor's will, so they could only endure the humiliation. Whenever Yang Guang has a desire, he will randomly choose a palace maid to commit a prisoner and let him be happy under him. Those who refused to submit would be brutally punished and even killed.
In Yang Guang's opinion, instead of doing nothing in the deep palace, these women should serve themselves for entertainment. Their life is all about being by their side and pleasing themselves. In order to satisfy his endless selfish desires, Yang Guang even did not hesitate to spend the treasury to build a splendid dragon boat, and also selected thousands of stunning beauties from the people to indulge in lust with these women on the boat.
This scene of prodigal music is simply comparable to the grand scene in the harem. Yang Guang was addicted to the physical pleasure brought by beauty, as if he could never satisfy his desires. He repeated this obscene life day after day, almost forgetting himself to the extreme.
In the eyes of others, Yang Guang is undoubtedly a faint gentleman who is extremely absurd. He ignored national affairs, indulged in women all day long, and formulated all kinds of absurd rules to restrict palace maids.
However, for Yang Guang, this was an important means for him to consolidate the throne and stabilize the regime. Through these means, he made everyone deeply feel his supreme authority as emperor, and no one could disobey him in the slightest. This will undoubtedly suppress and deter dissident forces and prevent them from plotting rebellion.
Forcibly seizing one's own stepmother to assert supreme authority
The young and beautiful Mrs. Xuanhua is Yang Guang's stepmother, who was originally the wife of her father Yang Jian. After Yang Jian's death, she should have been courteous and spent the rest of her life in peace. However, this high-ranking woman did not escape Yang Guang's debauchery hand.
Long before Yang Guang ascended the throne, he had unspeakable thoughts about the beautiful and moving Mrs. Xuanhua. It's just because she is his stepmother that Yang Guang has no way to start. Now that he has the power, Yang Guang's first thought is to include Mrs. Xuanhua in the harem and share the joy of fish and water with him.
In order to achieve this goal, Yang Guang first placed Mrs. Xuanhua under house arrest and prevented her from contacting others. Then he personally came to the door to offer his courtesy and confessed his heart to Mrs. Xuanhua. How could Mrs. Xuanhua agree to such an outrageous request? She flatly refused and angrily accused Yang Guang of being unethical.
This aroused Yang Guang's possessiveness even more. He forcibly placed Mrs. Xuanhua under house arrest and threatened to imprison her forever without her freedom if she did not comply. Lady Xuanhua resisted and struggled, and after all, she could not defeat the supreme power of the emperor. She had no choice but to turn over the clouds and rain on the couch with her stepson. In order to show off his victory, Yang Guang also publicly announced that he would canonize Mrs. Xuanhua as a concubine. Mrs. Xuanhua could no longer face the world, and was depressed all day until she died.
Yang Guang's move is undoubtedly declaring his supreme power to the government and the opposition. As the emperor, even his stepmother has to forcibly occupy him, which fully shows that he has the right to dominate every woman in the harem.
Yang Guang established his prestige through this unethical act, so that everyone did not dare to exceed the authority of his monarch. This was an important part of consolidating his dominance after he seized the throne. Anyone who would aspire to the throne would be terrified when they saw him behave like this, knowing how cruel and ruthless this emperor was. This will undoubtedly greatly curb their ambitions.
Tampering with the elder brother stepped on the throne with bloodstains
To understand what Yang Guang did, we cannot fail to mention the beginning and end of his ascension to the throne. Yang Guang was originally a highly decorated prince, and his elder brother Yang Yong was the heir to the crown prince. Father Yang Jian also admired Yang Yong's eldest son more, and Yang Guang was naturally dissatisfied. In order to ascend to the throne, Yang Guang designed to frame Yang Yong for the crime of incest, and killed his own sister to blame his brother. Yang Jian was furious and deposed Yang Yong, and Yang Guang was able to inherit the unification.
Yang Guang did not hesitate to kill his siblings for the throne, and such a personnel conspiracy allowed him to sit on the fragile throne at the beginning of his ascension to the throne. Yang Guang must find a way to consolidate his rule and prevent others from questioning his legitimacy and rebelling against him. So he used his power to the extreme, constantly suppressing dissidents, and at the same time doing everything in his power to assert his authority.
This is why Yang Guang wantonly looted people's daughters after his reign, and openly insulted his stepmother. He must always declare to his subjects that he is the lord of the world and has supreme power. No one can doubt that absolute obedience and service must be made.
Behind the absurdity of the emperor lies the intrigue necessary for him to consolidate the empire. Yang Guang must continue to use practical actions to tell everyone that he is the master of this world. He wants to make everyone afraid of him, and dare not transgress the slightest. This is the inevitable consequence of this tyrannical rule.
In order to secure himself on this throne, Yang Guang can do whatever it takes. He can kill people, he can rape people's daughters, and he can even rape his own mother. In the face of power, all human ethics and morality can be left behind.
The consequences of great merit but infamy
As the founding emperor, Yang Guang laid a solid foundation for the Sui Dynasty. He quelled civil strife and built the Grand Canal, which made the whole country traffic-free. He went on many expeditions to expand his territory and strengthen the centralization of power, and the country was unprecedentedly strong.
These exploits earned Yang Guang the reputation of "Maven". However, because of its debauchery and brutal methods, the infamy of "faint king" finally coexisted at the same time. Yang Guang also became one of the most notorious monarchs in Chinese history.
Yang Guang's debauchery and intrigue added uncertainty to his rule. He tried his best to secure the throne by various means, but he paid a terrible price for it. Yang Guang did not realize that the power of a monarch needs to be supported by internal legitimacy, not by actual violence and intimidation.
When the common people and courtiers were generally disappointed with it, the fall of the Yang Guang Empire was inevitable. In 617 AD, Yang Guang had to end his life by self-immolation in Jiangdutai. He spent his life in exchange for the empire, but he also destroyed the empire with his own hands because of the absurd way of rule. Yang Guang's life is undoubtedly a suffocating tragedy.
History will give a fair evaluation to every emperor after all. Yang Guang has both merit and fault. His debauchery and corruption certainly gave him notoriety, but it also reflected his practical need to consolidate power as a ruler.
An emperor is destined to survive in the midst of all kinds of contradictions and conflicts. Yang Guang could not escape this fate after all. However, what he did was overdone after all. A monarch should have a degree even if he wants to use various tricks, and Yang Guang has obviously stepped far beyond that line. This also doomed him to the fate of failure in the end.
Yang Guang, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, was a brilliant and sad emperor
The impression left by Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty in history is undoubtedly extremely sad and complicated. As the second emperor of the Sui Dynasty, he would have had the opportunity to continue to push this powerful empire to the pinnacle of glory.
However, due to various reasons, Yang Guang's rule went to a dead end. Let's take a look at the apparently contradictory but rightly coexisting qualities of this emperor.
An ambitious usurper who uses scheming to seize the throne
Before Yang Guang succeeded to the throne, he had been living in the shadow of his elder brother Yang Yong, who was the crown prince. He worked diligently and made great achievements in military affairs. But his father Yang Jian favored Yang Yong, the eldest son, and Yang Guang was naturally depressed. In order to prove that he was better than his brother and more qualified to inherit the throne, Yang Guang designed to frame Yang Yong, causing him to be deposed as a concubine. Yang Guang then won the throne as he wished.
Yang Guang, who ruthlessly tampered with his brother's throne with his heart, proved that he was an extremely ambitious person. For the sake of the power he aspires to, he can give up all moral ethics. However, it is also destined that he must be careful to beware of the powerful ministers who have high achievements in the court, for fear that they will seek power and usurp the throne like he did back then.
This vigilance and vigilance propelled Yang Guang to establish a centralized system of absolute monarchy. He constantly promoted and reused his own henchmen and reduced the power of other powerful ministers. This provided a solid foundation for the smooth functioning of the state apparatus of the Sui Dynasty.
A desolate monarch who is obsessed with gentleness
After Yang Guang succeeded to the throne, his originally strong and pragmatic personality has changed a lot. He gradually indulged in beauty, and there were many beauties in the harem. In order to obtain a woman's body at any time, Yang Guang even stipulated that palace maids should wear open crotch pants to make it easier for them to be pampered. He also built dragon boats, and selected beautiful women from all over the world to sing songs with prostitutes on the boat. Yang Guang is obsessed with women all day long and can't extricate himself.
An emperor with such a strong desire for power also has such a debauched side. This may seem paradoxical. However, this also shows that Yang Guang is a typical Oriental absolutist monarch. He has the power of all vehicles in his hands, and he can do whatever he wants to satisfy all his selfish desires. This unbridled profligacy of pleasures also became his way of establishing his majesty and demonstrating his supremacy. Let the subjects clearly understand that the emperor does not need to give an account to anyone for what he has done.
A bad emperor who ignores human ethics and forcibly occupies his stepmother and uses power to satisfy his desires
Yang Guang's passion for women eventually developed into a preoccupation with his stepmother, Mrs. Xuanhua, the wife of the former emperor Yang Jian. He first put Mrs. Xuanhua under house arrest and prevented her from going out. Then he blatantly begged her for pleasure, met with strong rejection and humiliation. Yang Guang actually forcibly imprisoned Mrs. Xuanhua and forced her to submit. In the end, Mrs. Xuanhua was canonized as a concubine. Mrs. Xuanhua lived in pain and shame and soon died.
This is undoubtedly the worst thing Yang Guang has ever done. As a stepson who raped his stepmother, ignoring human morality is simply outrageous. This fully exposed the evil and corruption in Yang Guang's heart. He has no moral bottom line at all, and can do whatever it takes to satisfy his desires. Perhaps this is the common problem of power, which can corrode a person's soul. Yang Guang, who held great power, could not avoid falling to this.
A wise monarch with great achievements
However, even so, we cannot deny the fact that Yang Guang laid a good foundation for the Sui Dynasty as his successor. He governed the country well, pacified civil strife, cleaned up the rule of officials, built the Grand Canal to smooth traffic, expanded the territory of the country several times, strengthened the centralization of power, and made the national strength unprecedentedly strong. All these prove that Yang Guang was a resourceful monarch with the vision and ambition to govern the country.
It can be seen that Yang Guang, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, is a self-contradictory aggregate. He was ambitious and seized power by stratagem; The character is changeable, from strong to lewd; unscrupulous means to achieve the goal, ignoring human ethics; At the same time, he is also a bright gentleman who can make a difference.
How can such mutually exclusive traits exist in one person at the same time? This is the complex personality created by power. Yang Guang is a tragic figure who loses himself in pursuit of power. Perhaps it was such a dramatic emperor who would finally end up in the empire he had built with his own hands, deplorable and spurned by future generations.
epilogue
Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty lived a short and brilliant life, with both achievements and failures. He laid the foundation for the Sui Dynasty and was also infamous for his desolation. Yang Guang has always struggled between the maintenance of power and the bottom line of morality. In the end, it lost this game, but its historical status and influence are indelible. It can be said that without Yang Guang, a legendary tyrant, there would have been no unprecedented glory of the Sui Dynasty. As with every legend in history, extreme and stark are their labels.