**Wan Fan Incentive Plan Among the emperors of ancient China, Yang Guang, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, has always been a unique existence.
In many folk romances**, Emperor Yang of Sui is often portrayed as a brutal monarch. His recklessness, labor, and expropriation led to the short reign of the Sui Dynasty and his own tragic end, and he was strangled to death by the forbidden army.
However, Emperor Yang of Sui also left outstanding contributions to later generations. The imperial examinations he created have influenced the history of China for thousands of years, and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, which he excavated, is still in use today.
It is difficult for us to judge this historical figure with a simple "good" or "bad". The word tyrant, perhaps, suits him best.
Although Yang Guang is brutal, he is not mediocre. However, what did the most famous tyrant in history do wrong to make the Sui Dynasty go down the old path of the Qin Dynasty and perish in just two generations?
Among them, the construction of the Grand Canal can be regarded as a contribution to the achievements of Yang Guang and the Sui Dynasty at that time, but it also brought them contemporary disasters.
This great Grand Canal, since its birth, has been a major transportation route between the north and the south. The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal has four sections: Yongji Canal, Tongji Canal, Hangou and Jiangnan River, connecting the five major water systems of Haihe River, Yellow River, Huai River, Yangtze River and Qiantang River.
After the opening of the canal, materials and grain from the south could be directly transported to the land of Youyan in the north by water, and could also be transported to the Guanzhong area. During the Sui Dynasty, the birth of this canal was significant.
On the one hand, the Sui Dynasty was established during the turbulent period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties. During the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Central Plains region experienced hundreds of years of war and chaos, and lacked a sense of unity. The emergence of this canal connects several major water areas, making traffic more convenient and conducive to the unification of the country.
On the other hand, there were no modern modes of transportation such as railways or airplanes in ancient times, and water transportation was the fastest and most convenient mode of transportation. Without water transport, transporting grain from Jiangnan to Guanzhong and then to the northern front could have consumed ten times as much grain as it finally arrived.
The opening of the canal has greatly reduced traffic losses. In the long run, the canal's economic boost is immeasurable.
Yang Guang advocated the construction of the Grand Canal, and although this crazy move brought great benefits to later generations, it also brought a heavy burden to the country. This Grand Canal with a total length of nearly 1,800 kilometers, even today, the construction of a canal of this scale requires the strength of the entire country to complete, not to mention the Sui Dynasty more than a thousand years ago, there were no modern excavators and forklifts, and people could only rely on people's hands to dig with a shovel, and the amount of work was undoubtedly a huge challenge.
The establishment of the imperial examination system has different social significance in different periods.
In our history textbooks, the imperial examination system is often associated with the Baguwen. Therefore, in the eyes of many, the imperial examination system is seen as the main culprit that hinders the progress of ideas, and is the dross of ancient culture.
This view is not entirely wrong, as in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, the imperial examination system did lead to this. However, if we move back a thousand years and go back to the Sui Dynasty, the situation will be very different.
Do you know how important the imperial examination system was to China at that time? Before Yang Guang proposed the imperial examination system, China's talent selection system was mainly the nine-rank Zhongzheng system. Under this system, talents need the recommendation of local large families to enter the imperial court for official positions.
At first, these families were primarily there to recommend talents, but they soon discovered that this was the best way to consolidate their power. Because the low-level poor people have to rely on these families in order to enter the court as officials.
Therefore, from the Han Dynasty to the Sui Dynasty, the Central Plains has always been ruled by a family. These families often last for thousands of years, even longer than a dynasty in a country.
The imperial examination system created by Yang Guang fundamentally subverted the old situation. Whether you have a recommendation or not, no matter what your background is, as long as you are able to pass the exam organized by the state, you can get the opportunity.
The advent of the imperial examination system also further strengthened the supremacy of imperial power, because the content of the examination was about respect for imperial power. Therefore, after the implementation of the imperial examination system, the history of China was dominated by the Great Unification Dynasty.
To some extent, the imperial examination system has played an important role in maintaining the unity of the country! However, the emergence of the imperial examination system also completely broke the control of the gate valve family on people's promotion paths.
Relative to wealth, land, or official position, the power of recommendation is the most fundamental foundation of those great families.
Yang Guang's implementation of the imperial examination system shook the foundation of the great family, causing them to no longer support him, but instead develop feelings of disgust and hatred. When Emperor Wen of Sui established the Sui Dynasty, his capital was in Chang'an, but after Yang Guang ascended the throne, he first moved the capital to Luoyang, and then wanted to move to Jiangdu.
Yang Guang moved the capital, in fact, there are deep-seated reasons. If you want to go deeper, I'm afraid you have to write a 100,000-word **. However, one of the most important reasons is to get rid of the restrictions of the Guanlong aristocracy on imperial power.
Tracing this history, we can find that before the founding of the Sui Dynasty, the north was ruled by the Northern Wei Dynasty. Soon after, the Northern Wei Dynasty became the Eastern Wei Dynasty and the Western Wei Dynasty. In order to thank several meritorious heroes, the emperor of the Western Wei Dynasty specially named them the Shangzhu Kingdom.
Because a total of eight people were sealed at that time, later generations called them the Eight Pillars Kingdom.
The reward of eight people triggered a series of promotions. One thing these people have in common is that they are all from the Guanlong region, and their descendants are therefore called the Guanlong aristocratic group.
The Western Wei Dynasty was usurped by the Northern Zhou Dynasty, and the Northern Zhou Dynasty was usurped by the Sui Dynasty. During the Sui Dynasty, although the emperor's surname was Yang, the group of ministers was not much different from that of the Northern Zhou Dynasty.
Although the Sui Dynasty unified the world, the Guanlong family still had an advantage in the upper echelons of the Sui Dynasty, and its influence far exceeded that of other regions.
Although Yang Guang sat on the throne of the emperor, he was still restrained by the Guan Long family in major decisions. Because most of his ministers came from these families. One of the reasons why Yang Guang wanted to move the capital to Luoyang or Jiangdu was also to get rid of the influence of the Guan Long family.
Almost all of them are in the Guanzhong region, and their influence will decline after the capital is moved. But Yang Guang saw through this, and the Guan Long family was not stupid, so they naturally understood.
Yang Guang's plan to move the capital will definitely lose their support. Therefore, in the last years of the Sui Dynasty, when Li Yuan raised troops from Taiyuan, the Guanlong family began to support Li Yuan one after another.
This is also the reason why Li Yuan was able to quickly unify the Guanzhong region in just one year after Taiyuan raised troops.
During his reign, Yang Guang made a series of decisions that challenged established interests, including the construction of the Grand Canal, the expedition to Goryeo, and the relocation of the capital to Luoyang. These decisions led to conflicts between him and various interest groups such as the low-level people, the thousand-year-old family, and the traditional Guanlong military aristocracy.
His actions made him a real loner, and no one really supported him. Therefore, his defeat and the fall of the Sui dynasty are not surprising.