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The Sui Dynasty (; 581-618) followed the Southern and Northern Dynasties and preceded the Tang Dynasty in China. It ended nearly four centuries of division between rival regimes.
The Sui Dynasty, founded by Emperor Wen, or Yang Jian, held its capital at Chang'an (present-day Xi'an). It was marked by the reunification of Southern and Northern China and the construction of the Grand Canal, though it was a relatively short Chinese dynasty. It saw various reforms by Emperors Wen and Yang: the land equalization system, initiated to reduce the rich-poor social gap, resulted in enhanced agricultural productivity; governmental power was centralized, and coinage was standardized and unified; defense was improved, and the Great Wall was expanded. Buddhism was also spread and encouraged throughout the empire, uniting the varied people and cultures of China.
This dynasty has often been compared to the earlier Qin Dynasty in tenure and the ruthlessness of its accomplishments. The Sui dynasty's early demise was attributed to the government's tyrannical demands on the people, who bore the crushing burden of taxes and compulsory labor. These resources were overstrained in the completion of the Grand Canal--a monumental engineering feat-- and in the undertaking of other construction projects, including the reconstruction of the Great Wall. Weakened by costly and disastrous military campaigns against Korea in the early seventh century, the dynasty disintegrated through a combination of popular revolts, disloyalty, and assassination.
Buddhism and the Sui Dynasty
Buddhism was popular during the Six Dynasties period that preceded the Sui dynasty, spreading from India through Kushan Afghanistan into China during the Late Han period. Buddhism gained prominence during the period, when central political control was limited. Buddhism created a unifying cultural force that uplifted the people out of war and into the Sui Dynasty. In many ways, Buddhism was responsible for the rebirth of culture in China under the Sui.
Wendi and the Start of the Sui Dynasty
The Sui Dynasty began when Wendi entered a marriage alliance with the daughter of a ruler of the northern Zhou empire. Sensing power, Wendi took the throne by force and claimed himself to be emperor. He won the support of the nomads by recognizing their titles at the loss of support from the Confucian scholars that had powered previous dynasties. With their support, Wendi expanded the northern empire. An improvement he made during his rule was establishing granaries as sources of food and as a means to regulate market prices from the taxation of crops.
Yangdi
Yangdi gained the throne after his father's death (possibly by murder). He further extended the empire, but, unlike his father, he did not seek to gain support from the nomads. Instead, he restored Confucian education and the Confucian examination system for bureaucrats. By supporting educational reforms, he lost the support of nomads. He also started many expensive construction projects such as the Grand Canal of China. This combined with his failed invasions into Korea (with Chinese casualties exceeding well over 2 million in all the wars combined), invasions into China from Turkic nomads, and his growing life of decadent luxury at the expense of the peasantry, he lost public support and was assassinated by his own ministers.
Goguryeo-Sui wars
Main article: Goguryeo-Sui Wars
Arguably, the biggest factor that led to the downfall of Sui Dynasty was the numerous expeditions into the Korean Peninsula, by invading Goguryeo, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea. In one of the biggest war—the soldiers, both conscripted and paid, listed over 3000 warships, 1.15 million infantry, 50,000 cavalry, 5000 artillery, etc. and just as much support laborers and a very expensive military budget including mounds of equipment and rations (which most of the time never reached the Chinese avant-guard for they were captured by Goguryeo armies already) The war that conscripted the most soldiers was caused by Sui Yangdi. The army was so enormous it was actually recorded in historical texts that it took 30 days for all the armies to exit their last rallying point near Shanhaiguan before invading Korea. The army stretched to "1000 lis (a Chinese unit of length), or about 410 kilometers, across rivers and valleys, over mountains and hills."
In all 4 main campaigns the military conquest ended in utter failure. Often the number of returning soldiers were, at most, below 0.5% of the original headcount. Soldiers in summer conquests would return several years later, barely living through the cold and famishing winter. Many died of frostbite and hunger, due to remarkable tactics and defending capability (that is, waiting the enemy out so the harsh winter could kill them) of their adversary. Still much more were killed by the famed archers of Korea, with records showing they were able to shoot arrows with suk-gung (Korean bow, possibly crossbows) as far as 2000 feet (600 m).
Such was the dramatic losses that every time the Sui emperors ordered conscriptions of soldiers to be sent to invade Korea, people would go into hiding in fear. Eventually the sentiment for the emperor decreased, causing unhappy civilians to form massive riots to overthrow the Sui Emperor.
Rulers of Sui Dynasty
| Posthumous Name (Shi Hao 諡號) Convention: "Sui" + name | Birth Name | Period of Reign | Era Names (Nian Hao 年號) and their according range of years |
| Wendi (文帝 wen2 di4) | Yang Jian (楊堅 yang2 jian1) | 581-604 | Kaihuang (開皇 kai1 huang2) 581-600 Renshou (仁壽 ren2 shou4) 601-604 |
| Yangdi (煬帝 yang2 di4) | Yang Guang (楊廣 yang2 guang3) | 605-617 | Daye (大業 da4 ye4) 605-617 |
| Gongdi (恭帝 gong1 di4) | Yang You (楊侑 yang2 you4) | 617-618 | Yining (義寧 yi4 ning2) 617-618 |
Some colorful stories of the Sui Dynasty can be found under Legends of the Sui Dynasty
Further reading
Bingham, Woodbridge (1941). The Founding of the T'ang Dynasty: The Fall of the Sui and Rise of the T'ang. Baltimore: Waverly Press.
Wright, Arthur F. (1978). The Sui Dynasty. New York, Alfred A. Knopf.
See also
External links
Sui Dynasty | History of China | 581 establishments | 618 disestablishments
Tiernelezh Sui | Sui-Dynastie | Dinastía Sui | Dinastio Sui | Dynastie Sui | 수나라 | Dinasti Sui | Dinastia Sui | Sui dinastija | Sui-dynastie | 隋 | Sui-dynastiet | Династия Суй | Sui-dynastia | Suidynastin | Nhà Tùy | 隋朝
"Sui Dynasty"