Yang Tong

Yang Tong, Prince of Yue, was the last ruler to claim the Sui throne. A grandson of Emperor Yang, he was proclaimed emperor by loyal officials at the eastern capital, Luoyang, in 618 and reigned under the era name Huangtai until the general Wang Shichong forced him to abdicate in 619.

Traditional histories do not all count him as a Sui emperor, and his reign was confined to a city under siege. It matters, though, because it spans the final collapse of the Sui dynasty and the first year of the Tang.

The Sui (581–618) reunited China after nearly three centuries of division and, in less than four decades, rebuilt its administration, currency and canal system. Its two recognised emperors are remembered for those reforms and for the disasters that ended the dynasty. Yang Tong, a boy caught between rival generals, has received far less attention.

Who Was Yang Tong?

Yang Tong was the second of the three sons of Yang Zhao, Emperor Yang's crown prince, and the elder brother of Yang You, who became Emperor Gong. His mother was a consort rather than Yang Zhao's principal wife. The histories describe him as handsome, kind and serious in manner.

Yang Zhao died in 606, and Emperor Yang never named another crown prince. None of the three grandsons was designated heir, and Yang Tong's birth to a consort made him an unlikely one. He was created Prince of Yue.

While still a boy, he was left in nominal charge of Luoyang, assisted by the official Fan Zigai, while his brother Yang You held the western capital, Chang'an. In 613 Luoyang held out against the rebellion of the general Yang Xuangan, which imperial armies put down.

Holding Luoyang

From 616 Emperor Yang stayed in the south at Jiangdu (modern Yangzhou), and rebellion spread across the north. Rebel armies, above all Li Mi's, attacked the region around Luoyang and seized the great granaries that fed the city. The generals Yang Tong sent against them were repeatedly defeated.

Reinforcements sent by Emperor Yang, led by Wang Shichong, reached Luoyang in 617, but the city remained under pressure. In 618 Emperor Yang was killed at Jiangdu. In Chang'an, Yang You, whom Li Yuan had placed on the throne the previous year, abdicated in Li Yuan's favour, and the Tang dynasty began. In Luoyang, the officials still loyal to the Sui proclaimed Yang Tong emperor.

Prince of Yue: His Short Reign

Yang Tong's government was run by a group of seven senior officials, known as the “Seven Nobles”: Yuan Wendu, Duan Da, Wang Shichong, Guo Wenyi, Huangfu Wuyi, Lu Chu and Zhao Changwen.

When Yuwen Huaji, whose followers had killed Emperor Yang, led his army north towards Luoyang, Yuan Wendu and Lu Chu proposed making peace with the rebel Li Mi by giving him official Sui honours as Duke of Wei, so that he would fight Yuwen Huaji on Luoyang's behalf.

Li Mi accepted and defeated Yuwen Huaji. The plan pleased many in Luoyang, but Wang Shichong objected to rewarding a rebel, and distrust grew among the Seven Nobles.

Wang then staged a coup, killing Yuan Wendu and Lu Chu. Yang Tong was unhappy with what had happened but received Wang in the palace, where Wang swore loyalty to him. From then on, real power in Luoyang lay with Wang Shichong.

The End of the Sui Dynasty

Later in 618 Wang Shichong attacked Li Mi, whose army had been weakened by the fighting, and defeated him. Much of Li Mi's former territory then submitted to Wang rather than to Yang Tong, and Li Mi fled to the Tang.

Wang was made Prince of Zheng. In 619 he pressed Yang Tong to abdicate, promising to return the throne when the young emperor was older, and then issued an edict in Yang Tong's name that made himself emperor of a new state, Zheng.

Yang Tong was soon put to death on Wang's orders. According to the traditional account, he was given poison and, when it did not kill him, was strangled. With his death the Sui line of emperors came to an end.

Wang gave him the posthumous name Emperor Gong, the same name that the Tang gave to his brother Yang You. The official Book of Sui, compiled under the Tang, recognises only Yang You as Emperor Gong, and Yang Tong's status as an emperor has remained disputed in traditional Chinese history. Li Yuan, who had founded the Tang in 618, reigned as Emperor Gaozu.

Ceramics of the Reign

Nothing is known of ceramics made for Yang Tong's besieged court at Luoyang, and a reign of less than a year is too short to define a style. The wares of these years are those of the Sui, whose potters stood between the traditions of the Northern Dynasties and those of the Tang. Kilns in Hebei and Henan, notably at Xing in Hebei, were refining white wares, and under the Tang the Xing kilns became famous for fine white porcelain.

Plain bottles with long necks and dished mouths under a thin, pale glaze, like the one shown here, are typical of Sui burials. Green-glazed stonewares remained the common ware of north and south, and lead-glazed earthenware was made for the tomb.