The image of the Sui Dynasty Emperor Yang Guang in the TV series has always appeared in the eyes of the world as a dark monarch and a tyrant, and many people have the same evaluation of him, even directly putting him together with Qin II and Ji Han Liu Chan, so is this emperor really so unbearable? This has to start with the establishment of the Sui Dynasty. Since the Sui Wen Emperor Yang Jian ascended the throne, he unified the north and south, established a unified dynasty, and at the same time Yang Jian reformed the tax system, stabilized the social situation, and reduced the burden on the people, according to statistics, in 589 AD, the population of the Sui Dynasty was registered as seven million households, and by 604 AD, the registered population was 8.9 million households, and in fifteen years, the Sui Dynasty increased the population to nearly two million households, which is enough to explain the merits of Emperor Wen of Sui. However, Emperor Wen of Sui had one more thing that had been haunting him and made him feel uneasy. If a dynasty wants to be strong and rule for a long time, it is impossible to rely on an emperor alone, even if Emperor Wen of Sui established immortal merits, but if the successor king cannot continue his policy, then the Sui Dynasty cannot escape the fate of extinction, and the previously created prince Yang Yong does not seem to be a good successor to the throne.
Emperor Yang Jian of sui had always been frugal, and the degree of eating and wearing followed the word "Jane", while the crown prince Yang Yong lived a luxurious life, and the degree of eating and wearing was all luxurious, which ran counter to Yang Jian's concept, which had to make Yang Jian extremely disappointed in this prince who had begun to be extravagant and eroded before he ascended the throne, and Yang Jian had to start considering establishing a new prince. Emperor Wen of Sui had five sons with Empress Dugu, the eldest son being The Crown Prince Yang Yong; the second son being Yang Guang, the Prince of Jin, who left the town of Yangzhou; the third son, Yang Jun, the Prince of Qin, who left the town of Luoyang; the fourth son, the King of Shu, who left the town of Yizhou; and the younger son, Yang Yu, the Prince of Han, who remained in Chang'an. Among them, the second son, Yang Guang, was highly valued by Yang Jian, why? Although the battle to destroy Chen unified the world, the people in the south were uncertain, and soon an anti-Sui rebellion broke out, and Yang Guang was sealed yangzhou to suppress the rebellion, which shows that Yang Jian attaches great importance to Yang Guang. The rebellion was quickly quelled, but how to recover the hearts of the southern soldiers and people became another difficult problem in front of Yang Guang. In order to regain the hearts of the people of Jiangnan and expand the influence of the people's hearts of the people in Jiangnan, Yang Guang decided to use the power of Buddhism. For hundreds of years, Buddhism in Jiangnan has developed well, and Buddhism has a very high status in Jiangnan, among which master Zhiyan is even more famous. Zhi Yan was the founder of one of the most important sects in the history of Chinese Buddhism, and if Yang Guang could make friends with him and establish good relations, he would not only improve his prestige in Jiangnan and win the hearts and minds of the people of Jiangnan, but also change the image of the Sui Dynasty in which jiangnan people could only kill.
Sui Dynasty Emperor Yang Guang
Twenty years after the opening of the emperor, after thinking about it again and again, The Sui Wen Emperor Yang Jian made up his mind to change the heir to the throne, he deposed the crown prince Yang Yong and replaced his second son Yang Guang as the heir to the throne. This matter is related to the national fortunes of the Sui Dynasty, and in the next hundred years, it is not known whether Yang Jian will regret his decision. In 604 AD, Yang Jian died of illness, but he unified China, changed the rule of officials, emphasized the people's livelihood, created an excellent system of electing officials, and developed the national economy, which was undoubtedly a monarch with great achievements, which created a solid foundation for the Sui Dynasty and left Yang Guang with a rich family property. So when Yang Guang ascended the throne and held the great advantage in his hands, could he create glory again and go further?
After the Sui Dynasty Emperor Yang Guang ascended the throne, he changed his era name to "Great Cause", highlighting his ambition, and he hoped to create a great cause. In the Sui Shu Dynasty, it was recorded that "the rules of Shang Qin and Han" were recorded, and he wanted to become an emperor of the ages like The Qin Emperor Han Wu. First of all, he founded the Jinshi Section in the early years of Daye, and improved the talent selection system, that is, the examination system, but at that time it was called "Tribute Juju", forming a Changgong with the three branches of Xiucai, Mingjing, and Jinshi. In the early Tang Dynasty, many famous courtiers such as Hou Junji and Fang Xuanling were selected by the Sui Dynasty.
The Sui Dynasty completed the great unification, but the country was not stable, not to mention that there were often rebellions in the homeland of the Chen Dynasty in the south, and the local governments in Hebei, Shandong and other places in the north were also dissatisfied, Yang Guang considered how to change this situation, he was determined to re-choose a capital city with convenient transportation and good economic conditions in the center of the Chinese land, strengthen the exchange between the north and the south, east and west, and facilitate rule, and Luoyang entered his eyes. The eastern capital of Luoyang, surrounded by mountains on three sides, has dangerous terrain, and is densely packed with rivers and canals in its territory, which belong to the three major river systems of the Yellow River, the Huai River, and the Yangtze River, and more than 10 rivers, such as the Yellow River, the Luo River, the Yi River, the Qing River, the Ci River, the Tieluan River, the Jian River, and the Ying River, meandering in between, and the water resources are abundant, and Luoyang is close to the north of Shandong Province, and it is close to the grain land in Jiangnan, which is the most suitable choice as a capital city. However, this requires a large number of migrant workers to complete the work, millions of migrant workers were requisitioned to Luoyang to build a palace, and a large number of migrant workers died every day, and the vehicles transporting corpses were endless, it can be said that Dongdu, a magnificent city with a circumference of 27.5 kilometers, was built on corpses. After the completion of Luoyang, more than 3,000 craftsmen and tens of thousands of wealthy merchants in Henan, Hebei, moved into the eastern capital Luoyang at the request of the imperial court, and for a time Luoyang was full of people and vehicles came and went, laying the foundation for the prosperity of Luoyang. To complete such a project, the people need to recuperate, but Yang Guang began a new project, digging the Grand Canal. In 605 AD, Yang Guangzheng excavated the Tongji Canal (Yellow River and Huaihe River) for millions of migrant workers, and later hundreds of thousands of migrant workers in Huainan to dig the Hangou (Yangtze River and Huaihe River). In 608 AD, a million migrant workers were requisitioned to dig the Yongji Canal. In 610 AD, the people were recruited again to dig the Jiangnan River, and Yang Guang spent six years to complete the work of the Grand Canal, which is the largest artificial canal in the world today, twice as large as the Panama Canal. However, is it really a good thing to consume a lot of people's labor in a short period of time?
Excavation of the Grand Canal
Luoyang
The Sui Emperor's gaze was not only in The Country, he also set his sights on the Western Regions. It is mentioned above that the Sui Emperor wanted to rival the Qin Emperor Han Wu, so he could not only build a domestic country, but also publicize the national prestige of the Sui Dynasty, and the Sui Emperor wanted to restore the Silk Road. Since the Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms, the Silk Road has long been cut off due to the incessant wars and frequent changes in political power. The Sui Dynasty Emperor personally commanded the Sixth Army, swept away Tuguhun, set up prefectures and towns, implemented the county management system, and reopened the Silk Road. The Sui Emperor hosted a banquet at Yanzhi Mountain to entertain King Wentai of Gaochang and the Twenty-Seven Kingdoms of the Western Regions, and a large number of merchants gathered in Zhangye to trade, and the Silk Road was able to prosper again.
Map of the Silk Road of the Sui Dynasty Emperor
The Sui Emperor reigned for 14 years, touring the Turks in the north, touring the right side of the river in the west, passing through the southwest, recruiting Ryukyu, and most of the rest of the time was in the parade around the country, the time in Chang'an was less than two years, and in the eastern capital luoyang for less than four years, he went to Yangzhou twice to inspect his own land to see if he had completed the great feats of the Qin Emperor Han Wu. However, when he completed his great cause, he neglected the people, bringing a heavy burden to the people, and at the same time, the three marches of Goguryeo sounded the bell of the demise of the Sui Dynasty. The first conquest of Goguryeo, due to the unfavorable water battle, the Sui army was defeated miserably, and 300,000 troops fled back to less than 3,000 people; the second conquest of Goguryeo, seeing that Goguryeo was about to surrender, at this time Yang Xuan felt that the army was in rebellion, Yang Guang could only withdraw his troops, and the victory in hand was abandoned; the third conquest of Goguryeo, Goguryeo's conquest for many years had long been overdrawn, and could only bow down to his subjects. It seems that the Sui Dynasty regained Liaodong and won victory, but it was not only Goguryeo that overdrawn for many years, but also the Sui Dynasty, the internal people complained, turmoil broke out, the three conquests of Goguryeo almost sucked the blood of the Sui Dynasty dry, the strength used exceeded the sum of the previous projects, and soon, the war began, not only formed three peasant army groups, but also broke out contradictions within the ruling class, Li Yuan, Wang Shichong and other generations rose up one after another, dividing one side, and the Sui Dynasty was crumbling.
Road map for Goguryeo
The Sui Emperor went down to Jiangnan for the third time, but this time he could not go back. On March 14, 14, the rebels invaded Yang Guang's palace, and eventually Yang Guang died in Jiangdu, and the Sui Dynasty collapsed.
How should future generations evaluate Yang Guang? He opened canals to strengthen north-south exchanges, accelerate the integration of the north and the south, open up the Silk Road, develop the western regions, march on Goryeo three times, recover Liaodong, and complete the great cause of reunification; many of the policies he promoted were in line with the trend of history, but they were only eager to achieve results, and ignored the difficulties of the people. Later generations for him three times in Jiangnan, excessive beautification, and eventual demonization, far from the real situation, coupled with some distortions of him in literary and artistic works, the image of his useless emperor and tyrant has penetrated the hearts of the people, but he is not so unbearable, for the country he is a promising monarch, for the people he is a faint monarch, he is eager to achieve, want a generation to complete the things that generations should do, can only end up in a country broken and dead. In short, to borrow a sentence, the merits of the Sui Dynasty Emperor Yang Guang may really be "living in the contemporary era, and the merits are in the thousand autumns".