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Emperor Yang of Sui

Given / Temple NameYang Guang

The controversial tyrant who dug the Grand Canal and lost the dynasty over three campaigns against Goguryeo

Holders of the Mandate · Emperors & Kings

The Grand CanalThe examinationsThree campaigns against Goguryeo

Who they are

The life of Yang Guang is the extreme case of "merit for the ages, guilt in his own age." He formally created the presented-scholar examination, giving the examination system its shape; he dug the Grand Canal linking north and south, along which China’s economic lifeline would flow for more than a thousand years; he built the eastern capital of Luoyang, campaigned three times against Goguryeo, and managed the Western Regions. The trouble is that he compressed the works of several generations into a dozen years: each project conscripted labor by the million, and "the realm died of the corvée." As rebellions rose he hid in his Jiangdu palace in drunken oblivion, and in 618 was strangled by his own guards. Tang scholars gave him the posthumous name "Yang" — indulgent within, negligent of government, courting chaos without and within — and he became the number-one negative example in every later emperor’s education.

Key stories

The Grand Canal

From 605, Emperor Yang opened the Tongji Canal, the Han Ditch, the Yongji Canal, and the Jiangnan Canal in succession, joining them into a Grand Canal running from Zhuo commandery in the north to Yuhang in the south, over two thousand kilometers long, conscripting millions. The Tang poet Pi Rixiu gave the fairest verdict: "All say the Sui fell for this canal, yet to this day a thousand miles ride its waters. Were it not for the dragon-boat pleasure barge, his merit might rank near Yu’s own." Had he not sailed his own dragon-boat down to Yangzhou, the canal’s merit could stand beside Yu the Great’s.

The upheaval at Jiangdu

With the realm already in chaos, Emperor Yang led his Xiaoguo guards to shelter at Jiangdu with no wish to return north, feasting day after day. Gazing at himself in the mirror, he said to Empress Xiao, "Such a fine head and neck — who will cut it off?" In 618 the homesick Xiaoguo guards mutinied, led by Yuwen Huaji breaking into the palace. Emperor Yang said a Son of Heaven has his own way to die, and finding no poison, untied his silk sash and handed it to the rebels, who strangled him. Empress Xiao and the palace women broke up bed boards for his coffin. A clever man who could recite every lesson of every dynasty played out the whole script of a last emperor.