This sample Sui Yangdi Research Paper is published for educational and informational purposes only. Free research papers are not written by our writers, they are contributed by users, so we are not responsible for the content of this free sample paper. If you want to buy a high quality research paper on history topics at affordable price please use custom research paper writing services.
The reign of Sui Yangdi was marked by the building of canals, the construction of grand palaces, and extravagant entertaining. The expense associated with these achievements, along with huge loss of life and burdensome taxation due to wars against the Korean state of Koguryo, resulted in widespread rebellion, Yangdi’s ultimate death, and the downfall of the Sui dynasty.
Sui Yangdi was the reign name of Yang Guang, the second son of Yang Jian (Sui Wendi), the Sui dynasty’s founder. Sui Yangdi has generally been portrayed by Confucian historians as an immoral ruler and despot. Ruling from 605 to 618, Sui Yangdi not only continued the construction of the Grand Canal, a project begun by his father, but also initiated several other major projects of his own, including work on the Great Wall, and the rebuilding of the cities of Luoyang on the Huang (Yellow) River to serve as an eastern capital and Yangzhou on the Yangzi (Chang) River to serve as a southern capital. Sui Yangdi also moved to extend Chinese control over neighboring territories by sending armies to the west against the nomadic peoples of Central Asia, to the south against the Vietnamese, and to the east in an attempt to conquer the Korean kingdom of Koguryo. These wars, coupled with the taxes and forced labor that were required for the massive public-works projects, resulted in widespread hardship and resentment, and eventually led to the collapse of the dynasty.
Yang Guang’s career began early, when at the age of thirteen he received from his father the titles Prince of Jin and Governor of Bingzhou, a strategically important post on the northern frontier. The emperor also arranged for his son to be married to a princess from the former Liang kingdom in southern China. At the age of twenty, Yang Guang was charged with leading an expedition against the state of Chen, the last independent state in southern China. The campaign was a success and marked the culmination of the Sui reunification of China. Yang Guang was rewarded for his role in the pacification of the south with his appointment to the position of viceroy stationed at the capital of Yangzhou. Aside from periodic trips to report to his father and mother at the imperial capital of Chang’an, Yang Guang remained in Yangzhou for much of the next decade, where he supervised the integration of the southern population and economy into the newly unified empire.
Although his family’s roots lay in the northwest region of China, Yang Guang, perhaps due to the influence of his wife, became increasingly fond of the culture of southern China. While serving as viceroy in Yangzhou, Yang Guang worked to cultivate the loyalty of the empire’s new southern population. Using his increasing fluency in the regional Wu dialect as well as the personal relationships made possible by his marriage, Yang Guang emerged as a champion of his subjects and secured their support for the new dynasty. In an effort to diffuse anti-Sui sentiments among the former Chen aristocracy, Yang Guang appealed to their religious convictions and issued orders for court-appointed scholars to recopy Buddhist scriptures and texts that had been destroyed during the civil war. He also supported the repair and construction of Buddhist temples and monasteries throughout the area under his command, in addition to hosting banquets for local monks and abbots. Yang Guang not only patronized the dominant religion of southern China, he also supported the building of two Daoist monasteries in the southern capital and the appointment of Confucian scholars who had formerly served the Chen kingdom to positions within his administration.
During a visit to his mother at the imperial capital in 600, Yang Guang became convinced that his elder brother, the crown prince, was unsuitable to succeed to the throne. Yang Guang began to gather allies from among the military commanders and aristocracy and to plot against his brother. Later that year he presented his father with enough real and manufactured evidence that the emperor issued an edict deposing the crown prince. Yang Guang was shortly afterwards proclaimed crown prince and left southern China to assume his new position at Chang’an. Following his mother’s death in 602, Yang Guang was charged with much of the day-to-day administration of the empire. When his father died in the summer of 604, Yang Guang assumed the throne under the reign name Sui Yangdi.
In an effort to placate the powerful gentry and aristocratic families of northern and central China, and to have his administration closer to the eastern and southern reaches of the empire, Sui Yangdi moved the capital 300 kilometers east to the city of Luoyang. Between 612 and 614, in an attempt to restore the former borders of the Han period, Sui Yangdi also initiated three failed attempts to conquer the Koguryo kingdom in northern Korea. These expeditions were unsuccessful, as were similar attempts to pacify the Turks in the northwest in 615 and 617. Despite these military failures, Sui Yangdi did establish military colonies along his borders and some political control over the lesser tribes of the northern steppes.
The military defeats, coupled with the hardship brought about by the construction of the Grand Canal, the capital city of Luoyang, and the repairs to the Great Wall, led to rebellion throughout the empire. By 617 rival claims to the throne were appearing throughout China as civil war broke out. In 618 Sui Yangdi was assassinated and the dynasty that his father had founded collapsed. China remained divided into many petty states and kingdoms until the new rulers of the Tang dynasty reunified China five years later.
Bibliography:
- Bingham, W. (1941). The founding of the T’ang dynasty: The fall of Sui and rise of T’ang. Baltimore: Waverly Press.
- Dien, A. E. (1990). State and society in early medieval China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
- Fairbank, J. K., & Twitchett, D. C. (Eds.). (1979) The Cambridge history of China: Vol. 3, Part I. Sui and T’ang China, 589–906. New York: Cambridge University Press.
- Hucker, C. O. (1975). China’s imperial past: An introduction to Chinese history and culture. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
- Pan Yihong. (1997). Son of Heaven and heavenly aaghan: Sui- Tang China and its neighbors. Bellingham, WA: Center for East Asian Studies, Western Washington University.
- Wright, A. F. (1975). Sui Yang-ti: Personality and stereotype. In A. F. Wright (Ed.), The Confucian persuasion (pp. 47-76). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
- Wright, A. F. (1978). The Sui dynasty. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
- Xiong, V. C. (1993). Sui Yangdi and the building of Sui-Tang Luoyang. The Journal of Asian Studies 52(1), 66–89.
See also:
Free research papers are not written to satisfy your specific instructions. You can use our professional writing services to order a custom research paper on political science and get your high quality paper at affordable price.
ORDER HIGH QUALITY CUSTOM PAPER
Always on-time
Plagiarism-Free
100% Confidentiality
