A Brief History of the Sui Dynasty
After the fall of the Han dynasty in 220, China was divided for most of the next three and a half centuries, apart from a brief reunification under the Western Jin. From the 5th century the country was split between the Northern and Southern Dynasties, part of the era often called the Six Dynasties.
Yang Jian, a leading official and regent of the Northern Zhou, seized the throne in 581 and founded the Sui, reigning as Emperor Wen. In 589 his armies conquered the Chen dynasty in the south, and China was united under a single government once more.
Emperor Wen reformed the administration and the legal code, and built a new capital, Daxing, beside the old city of Chang'an.
His son, Emperor Yang, who succeeded him in 604, undertook enormous public works: the Grand Canal linking north and south, a new eastern capital at Luoyang and repairs to the Great Wall. They were built with forced labour at a huge cost in lives. Three failed campaigns against the Korean kingdom of Goguryeo, between 612 and 614, turned discontent into open rebellion.
As the empire broke apart, Emperor Yang withdrew to Jiangdu (modern Yangzhou), where he was murdered in 618. Rival warlords set up boy emperors of their own: Emperor Gong at Chang'an in 617, under the control of Li Yuan, and Yang Tong at Luoyang in 618, under Wang Shichong. In 618 Li Yuan deposed Emperor Gong and founded the Tang dynasty, and in 619 Wang Shichong deposed Yang Tong.
Sui ceramics are scarce. Potters in the north were already making high-fired white wares in this period, forerunners of the white porcelain of the Tang.
