Opening Up Territory
4 min readYang Jian had repealed the system of nine-graded official ranks practiced during the Wei-Jin period so that people with various family status were all eligible for governmental posts. Yang Guang followed his father’s policy. He ran schools all over the country and brought talented people to the fore. In 606 he held examinations to openly select officials, thus formally establishing the imperial civil examination system.
Twin botles with a pair of dragon-shapedhandles, white glazed porcelain, the sui Dynasty After the country was unified, Yang Guang continued pushing out the boundary line. He had sent officials to Liuqiu(present Taiwan Island) twice, in 607 and 610, to announce imperialedicts. In 609 he went on an inspection tour of the west. When stopping over in Zhangye(in present Gansu Province) he received the chieftains of various ethnic groups from the Western Regions 21.The same year，he conquered the Kingdom of Tuyuhunl and included a majority of what’s now Qinghai as part of his empire’s territory.He also set up four prefectures–Xihai（in the west of present Qinghai Lake），Heyuan（in the northeast of present Xinghai County of Qinghai），Shanshan（present Ruoqiang County of Xinjiang），and Qiemo（the same-named county in present Xinjiang）–in the northwestern frontier region，and stationed troops there.
Going in for Large-scale Construction
As the national power had been greatly enhanced，Yang Guang began to seek ease and comfort.He launched several immense construction projects which included the East Capital and the Grand Canal.
In the eleventh lunar month of 604，Yang Guang issued an imperial edict to build the East Capital in Yiluo（present Luoyang）.Employing two million civilian laborers each month，he spent more than one year on the project.Patterned after Chang’an，the new capital with a perimeter of 55 li comprised the imperial city，the inner city and the outer city.The majestic Xianren Palace at the southwest corner compared well with the Epang Palace of the Qin Dynasty.Yang Guang also constructed two massive granaries（named Xingluo and Huiluo）in the suburbs to ensure a good supply of grain.
Roughly at the same time，he conscripted millions of laborers from all over the country to dig the Grand Canal.From the newly finished East Capital the canal which was more than 2，000 kilometers long in total extended north to Zhuo Prefecture（present Zhuozhou of Hebei，in the southwest of Beijing）and south to Yuhang（present Hangzhou of Zhejiang）.Its completion took six years（605-610）.
Sketch Map of the Sui Grand Canal
Yang Guang then ordered artisans to build for him a four-storey,15-meter-high,70-meter-long”dragon boat”which had 120 cabins all decorated with gold and jade. Along with his queen and numerous concubines, he climbed aboard to travel to the Southland. Throughout the journey there were a total of 80,000 people serving as boat trackers.
Night View of the Yangzhou sector of the Beijing Hangzhou Grand Canal The Sui-Goguryeo Wars In 598, King Yeong-yang (reigning 590-618) of Goguryeol4] led more than 10,000 troops to intrude into Liaoxil5], which provoked a war with the newly-established Sui Dynasty. Commanding an army of 300,000 men, Yang Liang(575-605, Yang Jian’s fifth son who was Prince of Han then) launcheda counterattack, but his military operation was foiled by an epidemic disease spreading among the Sui soldiers. Yeong-yang thus broke with the convention of paying tribute yearly to the Chinese emperor.
After mounting the throne, Yang Guang made an inspection tour in 607 of Yulin Prefecture(in what’s now Dzunger Banner of Inner Mongolia),a region inhabited by the submissive Eastern Turksl.
At the banquet hosted by Qimin Khan(named Ashina Rangan), Yang Guang asked the Goguryeo’s envoy who happened to be there to pass on a message to Yeong-yang that he should resume presenting tribute as soon as possible. Nevertheless, Yang Guang didn’t receive any response.
In 611, Yang Guang issued an imperial edict in exasperation to send a punitive expedition against Goguryeo. To prepare for the war,a number of workmen were assembled at the seaport of Donglai(inpresent Shandong Province) to make ships day and night whilst standing in the water. With maggots growing in the lower parts of their bodies, nearly half of the workmen died miserably.
In the second lunar month of 612, Yang Guang personally led a large army of 1,130,000 claiming to be two million strong to invade Goguryeo. Though with superior military strength, his invasion ended in utter failure. The entire vanguard, comprising some 300,000 men, was wiped out.
The following year the Sui army made inroads again and laid siege to Pyongyang for nearly a month. However, the rebellion of general Yang Xuangan in Liyang(near the East Capital, situated northeast of present Jun County of Henan) turned the campaign into an abortion.
In 614, Yang Guang who wouldn’t resign himself to defeat made a third incursion, and this time forced Yeong-yang to offer surrender in the end.
