The main culprit for the death of Emperor Yang of Sui was the dispute between the northern and southern scholars
When it comes to the most peculiar dynasties in ancient China, the Sui Dynasty is definitely on the list. The Sui Dynasty was the first dynasty in Chinese history to unify the Tang Dynasty after the Northern and Southern Dynasties. In February 581, Emperor Jing of the Northern Zhou Dynasty ceded the throne to Prime Minister Yang Jian, and the Northern Zhou Dynasty was destroyed.
After Emperor Wen of Sui Emperor Yang Jian established the capital of Daxing (Xi'an, Shaanxi Province), he declared the country name "Sui". After founding the Sui Dynasty, Yang Jian fought everywhere and successfully pacified the warlord forces in various places.
After 8 years of struggle, in 589 AD, the Sui army went south to eliminate the Chen Dynasty and unify China, finally ending the situation that lasted for nearly 300 years since the end of the Western Jin Dynasty.
Under the reign of the emperor, Emperor Wen of Sui made great efforts to establish a prosperous era. Chinese culture once again stands at the top of world civilization. However, 37 years later, the prosperous country collapsed and collapsed under the rule of Emperor Yang of Sui, and quickly collapsed.
Emperor Yang of Sui died tragically in the Jiangdu Palace, and the trusted minister Yu Wenhua killed him.
A magnificent picture depicting a generation of empires, but it was overthrown in an instant, this magnificent historical turn, can not help but make people full of curiosity about the fall of the Sui Dynasty.
Recently, after in-depth research, some historians have found that the fall of the Sui Dynasty and the death of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty may be inextricably related to the dispute between the northern and southern scholars at that time.
So, what kind of story is this?
Since ancient times, the division between the north and the south has always existed, especially in the land of China after the Wuhu Rebellion, which has been in turmoil for a long time. Until the end of the Jin Dynasty, the "Rebellion of the Eight Kings" broke out, the national strength was greatly affected, internal contradictions arose, and foreign tribes took the opportunity to go south and occupy the hinterland of the Central Plains.
As a result, a large number of Chinese lands in the north fell into the hands of the Hu people, and the nomads brutally oppressed the local Han people.
In order to survive and protect their own rights and interests, some large families began to gather, led a large number of people to move south, and re-established the Han Chinese regime in the local area, which is known in history as "Yiguan Nandu".
Since then, the Chinese region has experienced a period of secession that lasted for nearly 300 years. In 420 AD, Liu Yu overthrew the Eastern Jin Dynasty and ordered the execution of the Sima family, and subsequently established the Southern Song Dynasty (also known as Liu Song).
From this moment on, the North and South dynasties officially began, after 170 years of confrontation.
The Southern Dynasty was inherited from the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and from the Liu Song Dynasty, there were three dynasties of the Southern Qi Dynasty, the Southern Liang Dynasty, and the Southern Chen Dynasty, all of which took Jiankang (now Nanjing, Jiangsu) as the capital. The Northern Dynasties, on the other hand, originated from the chaotic situation of the Sixteen Kingdoms.
In 439 AD, Emperor Taiwu of the Northern Wei Dynasty Tuoba Tao completed the unification of the north, and from then on, the Northern Dynasty also officially began. Similar to the Southern Dynasties, regime changes in the Northern Dynasties were also quite frequent.
After the Northern Wei Dynasty, the Northern Dynasties went through the changes of the Eastern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Qi and Northern Zhou, and Yang Jian established the Sui Dynasty and inherited the Northern Zhou regime. This long period of ** led to serious differences between the interest groups of the north and the south, and also laid the groundwork for the demise of the Sui Dynasty.
Although Emperor Wen of Sui came from the Guanlong clique in the north, he and Emperor Yang of Sui still attached great importance to the governance of the south. After the conquest of the Chen Dynasty, Yang Jian's first action was to collect information on the hukou of the south and carry out hukou reform.
According to the collected data on the Chen dynasty's hukou, in the first year of the Sui dynasty's unification, the number of hukou in the south was only 500,000. Although the south has just experienced war and the population has dropped significantly, because it has been in a rich area for a long time, and the degree of sinicization is much higher than that of the north, which has integrated with foreign races, the population of the south cannot be only so little.
Most people are likely to be displaced or on the way. In ancient times, population represented productivity, and both war and production required a large number of people to participate.
If the population is not effectively controlled, it will have a significant impact on the country's economy and future development. Although Yang Jian was eager to recall the displaced population, it was difficult for the Sui dynasty to recall"Outsiders", it is difficult to gain the trust of the southerners.
Therefore, in desperation, Yang Jian offered rich rewards to the great families in the south and elevated their status, hoping to use these prestigious local forces to help him gather the population and govern the south.
As a result, these scholars, who had been adrift in the south for more than two hundred years, re-emerged from this moment. Although Yang Jian supported them to a certain extent, it was still as difficult as a dream for these scholars to compete with the powerful Guanlong group in the north in the short term.
Yang Jian was suspicious of those who had served in the Chen dynasty, so he sent a large number of northerners to the south to take up official positions as a way to monitor the southern scholars.
Therefore, the competition pattern during the period of Emperor Wen of Sui still maintained a state that the north was stronger than the south, which led to the fact that the southern scholars were often suppressed by the northern scholars, and also made the existing contradictions worse.
However, by the time of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, the competitive situation between the two sides began to quietly change.
Emperor Yang of Sui's ambitionAlthough Yang Guang's personality was extremely mediocre and brutal, and he obtained the throne through intrigue and intrigue, he had great ambitions deep down.
Upon his ascension to the throne, he was eager to showcase his talent and ambitions, so he instituted a series of national policies. However, in the process of implementing these policies, Yang Guang found that the power of the Guanlong clique was too powerful and posed a serious threat to his imperial power.
He began to seek a way to balance the northern scholars, and the southern scholars, because they were suppressed by the northern scholars, became the best ** in his hands. As early as when he was the king of Jin to crusade against Nan Chen, he got acquainted with many southern scholars who saw the opportunity to act.
He recruited them into the royal palace and used their prestige and talents to raise the flag for him and expand his sphere of influence. In the later succession incident, these southern strategists also played a key role.
Therefore, he began to vigorously support the southern nobles to enter the ** power structure.
He sent the literati to the field of education, and the samurai to the army. This allowed the southern scholars to rapidly expand in the north, gradually approaching the Guanlong group, which had an absolute advantage, and forming a balanced situation between the north and the south in the imperial court.
For example, in the decision-making team of Emperor Yang of Sui, there was a small group called the "Five Guis", who were Nayan Su Wei, Zuo Yiwei General Yu Wenshu, Huangmen Shilang Pei Ju, Imperial Shi Dafu Pei Yun, and Neishi Shilang Yu Shiji.
Pei Yun and Yu Shiji represent the Southern Shi clan, and the other three are from the Guanlong Group. This shows that during the period of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, the power of the southern scholars gradually kept pace with the northern scholars.
However, maintaining the balance of power was extremely complex and difficult for the emperor. If it is not handled properly, it is like a sailboat rocking from side to side, and sooner or later it will completely capsize.
After the failure of the northern expedition to Goryeo, the empire collapsed in an instant, but Emperor Yang of Sui was obsessed with building palaces for fun, which led to a rapid decline in national strength and misery for the people. The situation was the same as that of the Qin State after the unification of the Six Kingdoms, when large-scale peasant uprisings broke out across the country, and the stable situation was broken.
However, in this chaotic situation, Emperor Yang of Sui turned a deaf ear and lived a ** life as always. He even heeded the advice of the southern scholars, moved the capital south from Luoyang to Jiangdu (present-day Yangzhou), and recruited Jiangnan women on a large scale for his own pleasure.
Under his indulgent rule, the contradictions between the northern and southern nobles intensified day by day. In the fourteenth year of the Great Cause in 618 AD, seeing the chaos in the world, Emperor Yang of Sui began to be disheartened and had no intention of returning to the north.
Therefore, he ordered the construction of Danyang Palace (present-day Nanjing) to be accelerated, and prepared to move here.
At that time, most of the guards around Yang Guang were from the north, and they missed their hometown deeply and were unwilling to follow Yang Guang south, so they chose to flee one after another.
At this moment, a large vacancy appeared around Yang Guang. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Hu Benlang, who had already expressed dissatisfaction with Yang Guang's trust in the southern scholars, Yuanli and Pei Qiantong of the Zhige, elected Yu Wenshu's son Yu Wenhua as the leader, led his troops to attack the palace of Emperor Yang of Sui, and directly killed him.
The original ministers of the southern scholar clan beside Emperor Yang of Sui also chose to betray and flee as soon as they saw that the situation was wrong.
On the stage of history, the powerful Sui Dynasty came to an abrupt end in the infighting of the scholars, which made people sigh. The death of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty once again plunged the land of China into the quagmire of warlord warfare.
It was not until Li Yuan and Li Shimin established the Tang Dynasty and defeated the heroes that the land of China was unified again.