Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty Yang Guang can be regarded as the most dissolute tyrant of the Sui Dynasty . But at the same time, some people think that he is not a simple "the last foolish king" . His life is complicated and changeable, and the things he has experienced are also endless. For Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty, the word "mediocre" does not seem to be enough to summarize him.
However, in various unofficial histories, we can see the stories of his debauchery with various beauties. There is a story among them that in order to favor the beauties, he established an unspeakable in the harem. The rules and made the palace ladies miserable.
Portraits of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty
Hidden Secrets
Yang Guang, as the second legitimate son of the founding emperor of the Sui Dynasty Yang Jian, according to the ancient rule of the feudal dynasty of "establishing the elder rather than the young", he was originally Not destined for the throne. However, Yang Guang was not willing to miss out on the throne. He believed that everything could turn around. He knew very well that his father Yang Jian advocated simplicity, so he followed his preference. He was simple and self-disciplined in life, treated his corporals with courtesy, and was humble and courteous. He was exactly the character of a humble gentleman. Therefore, he was well received both inside and outside the court. Even his mother Queen Dugu valued him particularly.
Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty
Not only that, Yang Guang also performed very well on the battlefield. Not only did he repeatedly make military exploits, but he also ate and lived with the soldiers, which gained a lot of military morale. When it comes to marriage, Yang Guang has always been loyal and unswerving, marrying only Xiao, his wife , and never taking concubines. Queen Dugu didn't like men having three wives and four concubines, so she was particularly fond of Yang Guang and praised his virtues many times.
On the other hand, the prince's brother Yang Yong was very extravagant in life, with many beauties around him. His military prestige was far from that of Yang Guang, so both Queen Dugu and Yang Jian were gradually disappointed with him. When the time came, Yang Guang falsely accused Queen Dugu that Yang Yong wanted to frame and kill him. Therefore, Yang Guang teamed up with Queen Dugu to deal with Yang Yong, causing Yang Jian to abandon the crown prince Yang Yong and make Yang Guang the crown prince.
Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty Yang Jian
killed his father to seize the throne
After Yang Guang became the crown prince, no one in the entire court could match him, so became more and more public, gradually exposing his ferocious nature. When Yang Jian was bedridden in his later years, he left everything in the court to Yang Guang to take care of. One day, Yang Guang, who was impatient, wrote to Yang Su asking how to deal with Yang Jian's funeral and what he should prepare for his ascension to the throne. Yang Su also responded to him with a letter to explain truthfully. Unexpectedly, these letters reached Yang Jian's hands.
In the film and television drama, the angry Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty Yang Jian
Yang Jian was furious after learning about this incident. After all, he began to care about the throne even though he was still alive. , so he rebuked Yang Guang for being an unfilial and unjust person, and angrily said: " This beast! How can I entrust the important affairs of the country to him!" So he called Yang Yong and prepared to draft an edict to abolish Yang Guang and make Yang Yong the crown prince. After Yang Su learned of the incident, he quickly informed Yang Guang.
Yang Guang immediately falsely delivered the imperial edict and imprisoned Yang Guang's cronies who were responsible for delivering the edict. He quickly mobilized soldiers from the East Palace to surround Yang Jian's palace. Soon after, news came out that Yang Jian had passed away. Some say that Yang Jian was poisoned to death by Yang Guang's crony Zhang Heng, while others say that Yang Jian was "splattered with blood on the screen" by Zhang Heng.
In the film and television drama, Yang Guang killed his father
After Yang Guang succeeded to the throne, he falsely passed on the will of Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty, forced Yang Yong to commit suicide, and deprived other brothers of their thrones by false accusations and put them under house arrest. The method can be described as extremely ruthless. All in all, Yang Guang killed his father and usurped the throne, and finally got his wish and became the second emperor of the Sui Dynasty. After taking power, Yang Guang completely exposed his true colors. During his reign, he conscripted more than two million young men every month, established camps and towns, and moved the capital to Luoyang.Luoyang is indeed suitable as the capital. It was once the ancient capital of six dynasties in history. However, Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty moved the capital to Luoyang not out of consideration for the future development of the Sui Dynasty, but because he liked the beauty and beauty of Luoyang.
Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty built the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal
While moving the capital to Luoyang, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty also carried out an epic-level mega-project, the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, and required the construction of dragon boats , floor ships and other ships decorated with gold and jade. Thousands of boats were built to facilitate Yang Guang's travels to Jiangdu. In order to satisfy his arrogant and luxurious life, Yang Guang also overhauled palaces across the country. Among them, the most splendid Xianren Palace was transported to Luoyang with exotic materials and stones from the south of the Yangtze River and the north of Wuling. It also used exotic materials from the sea. Rare animals and rare trees and herbs enrich the palace, and the furnishings in the palace are extremely gorgeous.
Hard work in building the Palace Canal
So, one can imagine the manpower and material resources consumed by the whole project. What is even more horrifying is that Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty did not give the people light taxes and low taxes during this period, causing countless hard laborers to die in the construction process of these projects, resulting in the tragic phenomenon of " people all over the world died in labor ". Not only that, during the construction of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, Yang Guang also launched an activity that further consumed the Sui Dynasty's money and material resources - expeditions and military campaigns to attack neighboring countries in the north.
Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty traveled with beautiful women
Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty's various extravagant and squandering behaviors aroused countless people's anger, but he did not care, and devoted all the remaining attention to his extravagant and lewd activities. For enjoyment. Now that he has won the throne, he no longer needs to pretend, so he is no longer satisfied with having only Mrs. Xiao as his wife. Instead, he recruits beauties to expand his harem. Every moonlit night, he will lead thousands of palace ladies on horseback rides on extravagant and gorgeous tours. Xiyuan , go boating on the artificial lake, sing and dance all night long.
Yang Guang, who is extravagant in film and television dramas,
, but this cannot satisfy his endless desires. In his eyes, thousands of palace ladies are just playthings. Therefore, in order to facilitate his own pleasure, he set up an unspeakable rule in the palace. The ladies in the palace were only allowed to wear crotchless pants . The purpose behind this rule is naturally self-evident.
In addition, Yang Guang also has a very perverted " pedophile" . It is said that he was very obsessed with girls and often asked the palace officials to search for girls of suitable age among the people and bring them to the palace to give to her. In order to protect these girls, Yang Guang even invented a "arbitrary car" to prevent the girls from kicking and moving around.
Portrait of the pleasure-obsessed Emperor Yang of Sui
It was precisely because of his absurd behaviors that he gradually lost the support of the people , so in the last years of the Sui Dynasty, peasant uprisings became more frequent, and the situation in the court was unstable. Yang Guang was also killed by the rebels. Ended his absurd life.
Merits and demerits
It is worth noting that although the evaluation of Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty is always negative, his private life is also unsightly and dissolute. However, he still made some political achievements that had a profound impact on future generations. For example, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, although it cost people and money, it did realize the great connection between the north and the south, broke the barriers between the north and the south, and strengthened all aspects of connections between the south and the north.
Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal Route Map
Since then, successive dynasties have also attached great importance to the maintenance and management of the Grand Canal, which shows the huge role played by the Grand Canal. It is a pity that Yang Guang was so eager for quick success and great success. In order to complete these great achievements, he ignored the dire straits of people's lives, which caused widespread resentment among the people. People all over the world hated him, which ultimately led to the " Wei Huan is nothing more than a knot of public resentment, and glory is all." "Blood Blur" is the disastrous ending of .
In addition to digging the Grand Canal, Yang Guang also vigorously promoted the imperial examination system and reopened the Silk Road. These played a non-negligible role in promoting China's subsequent development. Therefore, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty was a great tyrant, but he was not a foolish king. Although he had no virtue, he had merit.
Yang Guang in the film and television drama
Unfortunately, he did not unify his achievements with the happiness of the people, but was an absolute personal hero. He is very talented and is very suitable to consolidate the great cause created by his father, but his arrogant and extravagant obsession with the highest power has become the biggest failure of his imperial career.
Apart from politics, Yang Guang is actually quite accomplished in literature.. The king of a subjugated country is often vilified and praised, and his studiousness and good literary skills are often ignored. The famous "Spring River Flowers and Moonlight Night" is actually his handwriting. Its poetic style is beautiful but not showy, soft but not obscene, and has the style of righteousness and elegant language . Therefore, the merits and demerits of the tyrant Yang Guang may be far more complicated than we imagine.
Portrait of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty
When the situation was over, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty had a premonition that the end was coming and lost all determination. So in his later years, he often looked at himself in the mirror and said to his ministers while drinking: Who can cut off this good head? -It can be seen that in his later years, he had a bad attitude towards the world's royal power, and it is not surprising that he will be notorious for thousands of years.
