Listen to this articleThe founding emperor of the Western Han Dynasty
Overview
Chinese Name: 杨坚
English Name: Yang Jian
Other Names: Emperor Wen of Sui隋文帝，Sui Wen Di隋文帝
Born: July 21, 541
Died: August 13, 604
Achievements:
Establish the Sui Dynasty建立隋朝
Unify north and South统一南北
Brief Biography of Yang Jian
Yang Jian, Emperor Wen of Sui Dynasty, was the founding emperor of Sui Dynasty. Yang Jian adopted military defense and political appeasement policies towards the surrounding ethnic groups, effectively handled ethnic contradictions, and was honored as “Sage Khan” by the northern ethnic minorities.
On July 21, 541, Yang Jian was born in Huayin, Hongnong county (now Huayin City, Shaanxi Province).
Young Yang Jian was deep and quiet. When he first entered Imperial College, even very close people dared not tease him.
In 568, after the death of his father Yang Zhong, Yang Jian inherited the title of Duke.
In 578, Yang Lihua, Yang Jian’s eldest daughter, was granted the title of Queen. Yang Jian was promoted to the rank of general of Zhu state and grand Sima because she was the father of the queen.
Yang Jian’s status and prestige grew day by day. In 580, Yang Jian became the prime minister and began the plan to usurp the power of the Northern Zhou Dynasty.
In 581, Yang Jian successfully won the throne and named the country “Sui”.
Yang Jian seized power and built the Sui Dynasty
In 580, Emperor Xuan of Zhou appointed Zheng Yi as the “commander of Chen Dayuan”. Zheng Yi recommended Yang Jian to go south to participate in the Crusade, and appointed him as the “manager of Yangzhou” to command the three armed forces. At first, Emperor Xuan disagreed, but after Zheng Yi’s repeated persuasion, he allowed his proposal.
When the army was ready to leave, Emperor Xuan was critically ill and called Liu Fang and other ministers into the palace to discuss future affairs. Yang Jian pretended to be ill and didn’t go south with the army.
At that time, Emperor Xuan was speechless. Liu Fang thought that emperor Jing was young, and Yang Jian was the Queen’s father. He was highly respected, so he negotiated with Zheng Yi, the internal history minister, and others to let Yang Jian assist the government. Yang Jian began to refuse to accept it and accepted it after Liu Fang’s repeated persuasion.
On that day, Emperor Xuan died of illness and was not in mourning. Liu Fang and Zheng Yi falsely preached the imperial edict, saying that Emperor Xuan of Zhou ordered Yang Jian to enter the palace as regent and take charge of internal and external power. Yang Jian, on the other hand, called himself the “prime minister” and took charge of important military and political affairs throughout the country.
Yang Jian was afraid that the kings of the imperial clan would change outside, so he summoned the five kings of Zhao, Chen, Yue, Dai and Teng into the palace on the pretext that the golden princess was about to marry the Turks. Yang Jian asked them for a seal and a jade seal, and seized their military power.
So the five kings deprived of their military power united with another king to enlist Yang Jian, but soon ended in failure. Then Yang Jian executed the five kings one by one in the name of “rebellion”.
When dealing with Emperor Xuan’s younger brother Yu wenzan, Yang Jian appointed him as Minister of Shangzhu state and right minister, and offered beautiful prostitutes to let him no longer interfere with the government.
So far, the royal power of the Northern Zhou Dynasty was completely eradicated by Yang Jian. The stumbling block of Yang Jian’s road to power was completely cleared.
In February of the first year of Dading in the Northern Zhou Dynasty (581), Yang Jian was granted the king of Sui by the Duke of Sui. In the same month, Emperor Jing of the Northern Zhou Dynasty issued an imperial edict to announce his surrender in the hope of Yang Jian. Yang Jiansan was appointed by heaven and often served into the palace from the prime minister’s house. The ceremony was that the emperor was located in the Linguang hall, named the country “Sui”, changed the yuan to open the emperor and announced an amnesty.
