Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty

Agriculture

Because everyone owned land, agriculture was a big thing in the Sui Dynasty. It was said that there was enough food saved for 50 years of use. Because of this there was a stable and cheap food supply for the people therefore everyone could afford to eat.

Conclusion

Equal Field System

The system worked on the basis that all land was owned by the government, which would then assign it to individual families. Every individual, including slaves, was entitled to a certain amount of land, the amount depending on their ability to supply labor.

Though the Sui Dynasty had a very short life, it was very influencial. Because of all the new ideas in government, the expansion of China and all of the work that Yang did for the Dynasty, I feel that he helped China to strive and it helped to shape the way we know China today.

Birth of a Dynasty

Sui Dynasty

Economy

The Sui dynasty started after Wen took complete control of China. He started by becoming the emperor of South China by force as his daughter was the new empress of the South. He then built an army of thousands and attacked to gain control of all of China. It is said that Emperor Wen sent about 500,000 troops across the Yangtze River in 588. In 589, he conquered the Chen Empire capital called Jiankang that is now called Nanjing. This is how the Sui Empire began.

Yang Jian was the first to introduce a kind of government that tried to reduce the gap in wealth to try and minimalize as much poverty as he possibly could.

The Sui dynasty was created in 581 AD and was later destroyed in 618 AD. The Sui Dynasty was very significant because it was the first time China was united as one country (instead of North and South) after a century of it being separated. In its time it had 3 emperors Wen being the first.

Yang's Conquest

By the time he was done his reign, the Turkish had split into East and West and was no longer really a threat to the safety of the Chinese. This is because Yang had expanded his army and had started to conquer other lands around China for example Vietnam.

Neighboring Enemies

Military

At the beginning of his reign, there was the Great Turkish Horde, a few other minor barbarian hordes to the north, Tibetan tribes to the west, Goguryeo in the northeast, and a Vietnam kingdom encroaching on Sui lands from the south.

Yang Jian had had military history throughout almost his whole life. When he was 14 he was chosen to serve in the military. Once he grew older he received many official ranks including the title of the Duke of Chengji.

Yang Jian

Advancements to Society

Yang Jian helped China in many ways while emperor by getting the economy to strive, by building large monumental projects, and helped the military to be the most powerful it had been in hundreds of years.

Emperor Wen was the creator, and the first leader of the Sui Dynasty, a very important dynasty in Ancient Chinese history.

Construction

Yang Jian was played an important role in the building of China. He constructed many small buildings as well as some very important ones for example the extension of the Great Wall and the Grand Canal.

The Great Wall

While Yang Jian was emperor there were 4 major expantions to the wall and they are:

Religious Beliefs

1). In April of 581, the first section of the Sui Dynasty Great Wall was built. This project took only twenty days but in December, the eastern sections attributable to the Northern Wei and the Northern Qi were repaired.

2). Historical research shows that a section was started in 585 from the east bank of the Yellow River near Lingwu County in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, through Hengshan County to Suide County of Shaanxi Province. This ran for about 350 kilometers (217 miles) from west to east.

3). In 586, a twenty-day repair was undertaken. In addition, construction of several fortresses was commenced along the Great Wall to the east of present Hengshan County of Shaanxi Province in order to protect the Sui border in that region.

4). In 587, a further section of the Great Wall was constructed but there is no surviving record providing detailed information about this.

Yang Jian was born into a Buddhist family and was actually born in a Buddhist temple. While there, a Buddhist nun was impressed with his appearance, and raised him in his early years.

The Grand Canal

Negatives of the Canal

Positives of the Canal

While Yang Jian was emperor, he had the grand canal (the worlds largest artificial river) made, which is still a large tourist attraction today.

The Grand Canal didn't have very many things wrong with it once it was built. The worst thing about the Canal was the labor that went into making it. Yang Jian had almost every able bodied man in the dynasty working. The work they did was very vigorous and often lead to injuries and even death

Its main role throughout its history was the transport of grain to the capital. The institution of the Grand Canal by the Sui also obviated the need for the army to become self-sufficient farmers while posted at the northern frontier, as food supplies could now easily be shipped from south to north over the pass.

Buddhism in the Sui Dynasty

Emperor Wen was a Buddhist and tried to spread Buddhism. Mahayana Buddhism had spread and became popular in the region in the various kingdoms during the preceding several hundreds of years. The religion was taught by monks and others from Central Asia and by various kings and emperors starting from the Eastern Han era.

What is Buddhism

Yang Jians views

Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty

“All the people within the four seas may, without exception, develop enlightenment and together cultivate fortunate karma, bringing it to pass that present existences will lead to happy future lives, that the sustained creation of good causation will carry us one and all up to wondrous enlightenment.”

Buddhism is a nontheistic religion or dharma, "right way of living", that encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices largely based on teachings attributed to Gautama Buddha, commonly known as the Buddha ("the awakened one")