In the fourth year of the Northern Zhou Dynasty (569), a historic moment occurred in Chang'an (present-day Chang'an City, Xi'an, Shaanxi). This person was Yang Guang, the later founding emperor of the Sui Dynasty.
His birth was destined for his extraordinary life. Yang Guang is not only naturally beautiful, but also smart. His father, Yang Jian, was an important minister of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, serving as the Shangzhu State and the Great Sima, and was a high-ranking and powerful figure.
As a result, Yang Guang was also named the Duke of Yanmen County, with a noble status. However, Yang Jian is not satisfied with the status quo. He privately controlled the kings of the Northern Zhou Dynasty and pacified the ethnic minorities in the north, and gradually, the Northern Zhou emperor was overthrown by him.
In desperation, Emperor Jing of the Zhou Dynasty gave the throne to Yang Jian. In 581 AD, Yang Jian ascended the throne in Chang'an and proclaimed himself emperor, changed the name of the country to "Sui", and changed the Yuan to "Kaihuang".
This is the story of Yang Guang's birth and growth. His wisdom and courage eventually made him one of the great emperors in Chinese history.
Emperor Wen of Sui, Yang Jian, was an outstanding emperor known for his hard work. He personally led his ministers in praying for rain to alleviate the difficulties caused by the drought.
At the age of thirteen, Yang Jian was crowned King of Jin and held many important official positions such as the Governor of the Pillar State and the Governor of Bingzhou, and his career was smooth sailing.
However, one day Yang Jian found a fortune teller to show himself and his son. The fortune teller Daxian Er believes that Yang Guang, the king of Jin, is an extraordinary person with excellent qualities and talents.
Yang Jian was a little confused by this conclusion, but soon after he visited the Jin Palace, where he found that most of the instruments there were broken and covered with a thick layer of dust.
This made him change his opinion of Yang Guang, thinking that he was not keen on ** and dance. However, in fact, this was specially arranged by Yang Guang in order to leave a good impression on Yang Jian.
He made himself look more virtuous and filial by carefully designing. Yang Guang's acting skills were very superb, not only deceived Yang Jian, but also won the respect and praise of the people at that time.
During the Sui Dynasty, activities such as temple sacrifices were popular, and traditional cultures such as physiognomy and Zhou Yi were also widely disseminated.
In the eight years of the emperor's campaign, Yang Guang, who was only 20 years old, was appointed as the commander of the army, on the surface he was the head of the army, but in fact it was Gao Gong, He Ruobi, Han Baohu and others who really led the troops to win a thousand miles.
These generals were so powerful that they wiped out the Chen State of the Southern Dynasty by dividing them by two. After the end of the war, Yang Guang was awarded the title of Tai Lieutenant (equivalent to today's chairman of the ** Military Commission) because of his good command, and received a large amount of gold and silver treasures as a reward.
Although Yang Guang was ostensibly the commander of the army, his actual role was very different, and it was the powerful generals who really led the army to victory.
The "Rouge Well" witnessed the history of the treasure of the Chen Dynasty Emperor Chen Shu, and the Jiangnan Rebellion in the first ten years of the emperor made Yang Guang be arranged to Yangzhou as the secretary of the municipal party committee.
Ten years later, when the Turks invaded, Yang Guang could only personally lead his troops to the battle, but he showed his cowardice because there was no one to help, and finally fought to a draw with the Turks, and nothing was gained.
In the early years of the Sui Dynasty, nomads frequently infested the border fortresses, and the Sui army repeatedly went on northern expeditions. The young Yang Guang seemed to have little talent, but the crown prince at that time, Yang Yong, was a talented person who loved to learn, especially good at reciting poems, and was a real literary and artistic youth.
His gentle personality and frankness are in stark contrast to Yang Guang's hypocrisy. However, Yang Guang and his cronies, including Zhang Heng, Yang Su, and Queen Dugu, teamed up to frame Yang Yong and constantly spoke ill of him.
Especially because Yang Yong likes to be merciful and pampered by beautiful women, they even seized on this matter to make a big fuss. After going back and forth, Emperor Wen of Sui became disgusted with Yang Yong, and abolished him in the twentieth year of the emperor's reign (600) and made Yang Guang the crown prince.
It turned out that the crown prince Yang Yong was not at fault, but he was framed by the ministers and deposed. However, during the serious illness of Emperor Wen of Sui Emperor Yang Jian, Yang Guang wrote a letter to ask Yang Su what to do after his father's death.
After Yang Su replied to the letter, he sent the letter back to Emperor Wen of Sui, but the person who sent the letter mistakenly sent the letter to the emperor's bedroom. When Emperor Wen of Sui saw the letter, he was very angry because he had not yet died.
At that time, Lady Chen, the concubine of Emperor Wen of Sui, went home and told Yang Guang, the crown prince of Emperor Wen of Sui, that he was trying to insult her. This made Emperor Wen of Sui even more angry, and felt that the prince was too unreasonable. So, he ordered to find the former crown prince Yang Yong.
However, the entire palace has been controlled by Yang Guang, and his arrest and murder are all carried out under the false decree of the Holy Messenger. In the end, Emperor Wen of Sui could not control the situation and died, and Yang Guang ascended to the throne of the emperor, known as Emperor Yang of Sui, and the name of the country was the great cause.
Yang Guang coveted his father, Emperor Wen's concubine, Lady Chen, and finally revealed his true nature when he was about to ascend the throne as emperor.
Regarding the cause of Emperor Wen's death, the historical records are different, some say that he was poisoned to death by Zhang Heng, a close confidant of the crown prince, and some say that he was hacked to death by Zhang Heng with a knife, there are different opinions, but it is certain that the founding emperor did not get a good death.
After Yang Guang ascended the throne, his family's purge campaign intensified.
His own brothers and nephews were eliminated by him, and ministers who were dissatisfied with his policies, such as Gao Xi, were regarded as a thorn in his side because of their preferential treatment of the Turkic peoples.
When Yang Guang heard Gao Xi's criticism, he had him executed the next day. Soon after, Yu Wenbi, He Ruobi and other important officials of the court were also executed.
Under his rule, he became emperor, he did whatever he wanted, he did what he wanted, no one could challenge his authority, and whoever challenged him, he would make them pay with their lives.
In the new version of "Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties", actor Fu Dalong plays Emperor Yang of Sui. In 605 AD, Yang Guang had a whim and ordered the construction of the imperial palace, which took ten months, and two million migrant workers had to be mobilized every month.
After the completion of the imperial palace, Yang Guang ordered the canal dug by the previous dynasty to be sorted out and repaired, and finally a grand canal was built.
This Grand Canal is indeed extraordinary, stretching from Yuhang (now Hangzhou) in the south to Zhuojun (now Beijing) in the north, spanning more than ten latitudes on the earth, running through the southeast coast and the North China Plain, in short, one word: "cattle".
The canal was built from 605 A.D. to 610 A.D., which cost a lot of money and mobilized a lot of manpower and material resources. Although the canal was well built, it inevitably brought about the consequences of the people's livelihood.
In addition, Yang Guang also manufactured a lot of supporting equipment, such as dragon boats and clippers, etc., and built tens of thousands of them in total.
After that, he drove these big boats around the world, especially his favorite Yangzhou, where there were blooming qionghua, so he often went there.
The Grand Canal is the main artery of north-south transportation in ancient China, which carries the wisdom and sweat of the working people and is a great project of the Chinese nation.
During the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty spent most of the years after his accession to the throne building palaces and canals.
He traveled all over the world in a luxurious ship, and it was extremely luxurious. However, this excessive luxury has made the people miserable.
In order to satisfy his extravagance, a large amount of manpower and material resources were consumed, and many people were forced to work for the emperor without getting due remuneration.
They have no money to eat, no money to live, and some have even lost their lives. The emperor's extravagant life deprived the peasants of their livelihoods and led to social unrest.
These events make us reflect on how leaders should balance their own desires with the needs of the people for the benefit of the people, rather than abusing their power and making the people suffer.
During the reign of Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty, although he made some achievements in architecture, at the same time, he brought a profound population reduction to the land of China in the process of conquering the Goryeo Kingdom, reducing the population by more than two million.
He sent troops to Goryeo three times, and the first time he sent troops, he led the main force of the million-strong army and forced the Goryeo people to surrender.
However, Yang Guang was not satisfied, and the next year he led his troops to the battle, but at this time, Yang Xuangan, the military commissar of the army, was saddened by the suffering of the people and decided to rebel.
Backyard**, Yang Guang could only withdraw his troops. Although he sent troops to Goryeo again after suppressing Yang Xuangan's uprising, at this time the peasant uprising of the Sui Dynasty had spread rapidly throughout the country like a spark, and Yang Guang was unable to resist it, and was finally forced to negotiate peace with Goryeo and end the war.
Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty's three expeditions to Goryeo all ended in failure, and the peasants revolted because of the ** of the Sui Dynasty, and Wang Bo led the people to revolt in Zhangqiu, Shandong, with a clear banner against the rule of the Sui Dynasty.
The rebel armies in various places echoed each other from afar, and Dou Jiande, Sun Zuan, Liu Badao, Zhang Jincheng and others rose up one after another, and smoke broke out all over the country.
Faced with such a turbulent world, Yang Guang hurriedly left Luoyang and fled to Yangzhou for refuge.
In the thirteenth year of the Great Cause (617), Li Yuan raised troops in Jinyang, captured Chang'an, and without Yang Guang's consent, abolished his throne on his own, and appointed his grandson Yang Yu as emperor, making Yang Guang the emperor.
Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty ruled unpopularly, and peasant uprisings continued. Yang Guang was disheartened and decided to stay in the south and not return to his homeland in the north. However, most of his soldiers were northerners, homesick, and fled.
At this time, some ill-intentioned people began to take advantage of the soldiers' homesickness and incite them to rebel. The right guard general Yu Wenhua was elected as the leader and launched a mutiny.
Caught on the run, Yang Guang begged to kill himself by drinking poisoned wine, but the rebels did not agree, and he was eventually strangled to death at the age of fifty. His wife, Empress Xiao, could only make a rudimentary coffin out of bed boards and secretly buried him in Yangzhou.
Emperor Yang of Sui, who was once infinitely beautiful, finally ended up with a bleak ending.
The life of Yang Guang, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, is known to the world for his political, military, economic and cultural reforms.
He reformed the system of electing officials, formulated the legal provisions of the "Law of the Great Cause", moved the capital to Luoyang, and conquered the Tuyuhun Khanate, Linyi, Khitan and Liuqiu.
He dug canals, pioneered imperial examinations, and built libraries. These achievements have left a lasting impact on history.
However, despite the many good deeds done by Emperor Yang of Sui in the political, military, economic and cultural aspects, he forgot the most important thing about being an emperor, which is to be benevolent and love the people.
Governing the country is permanent, and the people are the foundation. "If you don't love the people of the world, what's the use of hegemony? Emperor Yang of Sui may be very clever and may have many good ideas, but he ignores the power of the people.
He pursued power and prestige excessively, ignoring the lives and needs of the people. He caused the people to suffer, caused social upheaval, and ultimately led to his demise.
The story of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty tells us that to be an emperor is not only to have outstanding talents and lofty ideals, but also to have love and respect for the people.
Only by truly benevolent government and loving the people can we win the support and love of the people and achieve true national prosperity and stability.
February** Dynamic Incentive Program