--- title: Emperor Yang (r. 604–618), Sui Dynasty url: https://realrareantiques.com/sui-dynasty-emperors/emperor-yang/ language: en description: "Emperor Yang of Sui (r. 604–618): his rise as Prince of Jin, the Grand Canal and new Luoyang, the failed Korean wars, and his murder at Jiangdu in 618." alternates: zh-Hant: https://realrareantiques.com/zh-hant/sui-dynasty-emperors/emperor-yang/ zh-Hans: https://realrareantiques.com/zh-hans/sui-dynasty-emperors/emperor-yang/ --- *Portrait: public domain, via [wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Yang_of_Sui#/media/File:Sui_Yangdi_Tang.jpg)* Sui Dynasty604–618 # Emperor Yang 大業 **Reign facts** **Reigned:** 604–618 (14 years) **Lived:** 569–618 **Personal name:** Yang Guang 楊廣 **Era name:** Daye 大業 605–618 [Sui Dynasty Emperors](https://realrareantiques.com/sui-dynasty-emperors/) **On this page** 1. Prince of Jin 2. The Grand Canal and Building Works 3. Frontier Wars and the Korean Campaigns 4. Rebellion and Death at Jiangdu 5. Sui Ceramics Yang Guang (楊廣, 569–618) was the second emperor of the [Sui Dynasty](https://realrareantiques.com/sui-dynasty/) and the son of its founder, [Emperor Wendi](https://realrareantiques.com/sui-dynasty-emperors/emperor-wendi/). He came to the throne in 604 and from the following year reigned under the era name Daye (大業), "Great Undertaking". He rebuilt Luoyang as an eastern capital and completed the Grand Canal, but three failed invasions of the Korean kingdom of Goguryeo exhausted the empire and set off rebellions across it. In 618 he was killed by his own officers at Jiangdu. "Yang" is the unflattering posthumous name given to him by the Tang; the court of his grandson Yang Tong honoured him as Emperor Ming. His original given name was Ying, and as a child he was called Amo. ## Prince of Jin Yang Guang was born in 569, the second son of Yang Jian, then a leading general of the Northern Zhou, and his wife Dugu Qieluo. He was first named Yang Ying; according to tradition his father renamed him Yang Guang on the advice of diviners. On account of his father's standing he was made Duke of Yanmen while still a boy, and when Yang Jian took the throne as Emperor Wendi in 581, he created his son Prince of Jin. He was the favourite son of both parents and was given important commands young. In 588 and 589 he held the overall command, at least in name, of the great campaign against the Chen dynasty in the south, which ended with the fall of its capital, Jiankang (modern Nanjing), and the reunification of China. After a rising in the south in 590, Yang Guang spent much of the next decade as governor at Yangzhou, then known as Jiangdu. He set out to win over the southern elite, who resented rule from the north. His wife, the future Empress Xiao, was a princess of the southern Liang royal house; he learned the southern dialect, and he was a generous patron of southern Buddhism, above all of the monk Zhiyi, founder of the Tiantai school. Under his rule the south settled and accepted the Sui. ### Becoming Crown Prince The crown prince was his elder brother, Yang Yong, who lived extravagantly and kept many concubines, offending both the frugal emperor and Empress Dugu. Yang Guang took care to appear the opposite: modest, thrifty and devoted to his wife. With the empress's support and the help of the powerful minister Yang Su, he persuaded his father that Yang Yong was unfit to rule. In 600 Wendi deposed Yang Yong and named Yang Guang crown prince, and the new heir was widely praised. ### Accession Wendi died at the Renshou Palace in 604, and Yang Guang succeeded him. It was widely believed that he had hastened his father's death. There is no evidence to prove it, but the suspicion became fixed in the traditional picture of a man who would remove anyone who threatened his throne, whether brothers or nephews. Yang Yong was put to death soon after the accession, and a younger brother, Yang Liang, who rose in revolt in the north, was defeated and imprisoned. ## The Grand Canal and Building Works Emperor Yang continued his father's public works on a far greater scale. In 605 he began rebuilding Luoyang as an eastern capital, with new palaces and markets, and huge state granaries were built nearby to store the grain of the east and south. The same year work started on the Tongji Canal, which linked Luoyang by way of the Yellow River and the Huai to the Yangzi. In 608 the Yongji Canal was cut north towards the region of modern Beijing, the base for his later wars in Korea, and in 610 the Jiangnan Canal carried the system south to Hangzhou. Joined to the canals his father had begun, these works formed the Grand Canal, which tied the rice-growing south to the political centres of the north and remained the empire's main artery for centuries. He also had sections of the Great Wall rebuilt against the Turks. The cost was enormous. Hundreds of thousands of labourers, perhaps more than a million, were called up, and later tradition held the emperor responsible for vast numbers of deaths among them, a claim that cannot be verified. He travelled the canals with fleets of palace barges and built pleasure palaces and gardens around his capitals. Heavy taxes and labour demands, and the corruption that came with them, turned many of his subjects against him. ### Learning and Letters Emperor Yang was a gifted poet and a serious patron of learning. He revived the state schools that his father had cut back, enlarged the imperial library and gathered scholars at court. Traditional accounts date the first *jinshi* examination, later the most prestigious degree in the civil service, to his reign. Tradition also holds that he had writers he saw as rivals put to death. ## Frontier Wars and the Korean Campaigns Early in the reign a Sui army attacked the kingdom of Linyi (Champa), in what is now central Vietnam, and Chinese rule over the Red River delta was maintained. In 609 the emperor campaigned against the Tuyuhun in the north-west and toured the Gansu corridor, where envoys from the states of Central Asia came to meet him. His great ambition was the conquest of Goguryeo, the northern Korean kingdom that had defeated his father's army in 598. In 612 he led an enormous army into Liaodong. The campaign stalled before the Goguryeo fortresses, and a force sent on towards Pyongyang was destroyed on its retreat at the Salsu River. A second invasion in 613 was abandoned when the official Yang Xuangan rebelled behind the lines, and a third in 614 ended with a nominal submission from Goguryeo that changed nothing. The Korean wars broke the empire. Conscription and requisitions fell hardest on the north-east, where the armies were raised and supplied, and rebel bands multiplied across the north. In 615 the emperor himself was besieged by the Eastern Turks at Yanmen and was saved only when relief armies arrived. ## Rebellion and Death at Jiangdu In 616, with much of the north in revolt, Emperor Yang left for Jiangdu, the southern city he had governed as a prince, and never returned. Rebel leaders such as Li Mi and Dou Jiande took control of large parts of the country. In 617 the Sui general Li Yuan rose at Taiyuan, captured Chang'an and placed the emperor's grandson Yang You on the throne there as Emperor Gong. At Jiangdu the emperor's guards, mostly northerners, grew desperate to return home. In the spring of 618 their officers, led by Yuwen Huaji, staged a coup and broke into the palace. According to the traditional account, Emperor Yang asked to be allowed to take poison, but the rebels refused and strangled him with his own scarf. Supporters, senior officials and members of his family were killed with him. The dynasty did not long survive him. When the news reached Chang'an, Li Yuan had Emperor Gong abdicate and proclaimed the Tang dynasty, reigning as [Emperor Gaozu](https://realrareantiques.com/tang-dynasty-emperors/emperor-gaozu/). In Luoyang another grandson, [Yang Tong](https://realrareantiques.com/sui-dynasty-emperors/yang-tong/), was proclaimed emperor, but he was a puppet of the general Wang Shichong, who deposed him in 619. Wendi and Yang were the only Sui emperors to rule in their own right. ### Reputation The histories of the Sui were written under the Tang, whose founders had overthrown it, and they present Emperor Yang as the classic bad last ruler: extravagant, cruel and vain. Many of the stories told about him should be read with that in mind. Modern historians give more weight to what he built. The Grand Canal, the new Luoyang and the institutions of Sui government all passed to the Tang, whose prosperity owed much to foundations laid by Wendi and his son. ## Sui Ceramics Ceramics of Emperor Yang's reign are rare, and none can be connected with the emperor himself. The period nonetheless saw important advances. Green-glazed stonewares remained the main production in both north and south, while northern kilns were making some of the earliest true white porcelain, the forerunner of the Xing wares of the Tang. White wares were among the contents of the tomb of Li Jingxun, a young girl related to the imperial family who was buried in Chang'an in 608. Our guide to [antique Chinese porcelain](https://realrareantiques.com/antique-chinese-porcelain/) follows the story through the later dynasties. *Museum exampleA Sui dynasty vase with loop handles under an olive-green glaze, typical of the green-glazed stonewares that were the main production in Emperor Yang's time.[Cleveland Museum of Art, 1954.784. Public domain (CC0).](https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1954.784)* See [pieces in the collection](https://realrareantiques.com/shop/) in our collection, or ask us about a piece. [Ask about a piece](https://realrareantiques.com/contact-us/) ## The wares that followed: Song porcelain The collection begins with the Song dynasty. These pieces show the porcelain that followed this period. - Song Dynasty Porcelain [Ewer with a Pale Glaze and a Ridged Shoulder, Song Dynasty](https://realrareantiques.com/shop/song-dynasty-ewer-with-a-pale-glaze/)Song DynastyPrice on request - Song Dynasty Porcelain [Celadon Jar with a Fluted Melon-Shaped Body, Song Dynasty](https://realrareantiques.com/shop/antique-chinese-song-dynasty-celadon-jar/)Song DynastyPrice on request - Song Dynasty Porcelain [Celadon Vase with Carved Peony Medallions, Song to Yuan Dynasty](https://realrareantiques.com/shop/v-rare-antique-chinese-porcelain-vase-song-yuan-dynasty/)Song to YuanPrice on request - Song Dynasty Porcelain [Celadon Vase with Two Loop Handles and Carved Lotus, Song Dynasty](https://realrareantiques.com/shop/antique-song-dynasty-celadon-vase-elephant-shaped-handles/)Song DynastyPrice on request [View all pieces in the collection](https://realrareantiques.com/shop/)[Ask about a piece](https://realrareantiques.com/contact-us/) Be the first to see new pieces Join our collectors' list for new arrivals, rare finds and private offers.