Sui Yangdi Research Paper

Sui Yangdi was the emperor of the Sui Dynasty, established by his father Yang Jian, “after nearly four centuries of internal division” (Duiker and Spielvogel 314; ed.8) that was left after the fall of the Han. Both Yangdi and his father were well known for their construction projects such as the Great Canal. The Sui also affected the nearby countries by putting them on guard, as Yangdi tried to conquer its nearby neighbor countries despite failing multiple times. The goal of this paper is to describe how the Yangdi came to power, his legacy to the Chinese and his effect on outside civilizations. As previously stated, the Sui dynasty came to be after China was in a period of instability, thus the fact that it was able to be rejoined was a huge achievement for the empire. Sui Yangdi came to power, in 604, after his father’s death, while that much may be true; it is believed he “did so after assassinating his father (the Wendi emperor) and his elder brother” (Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica, britannica.com). While this may seem alarming, it is also worth to mention that Emperor Wendi came to power after he “killed about 60 of his brothers and relatives and made himself the emperor of his kingdom” (Wu chinahighlights.com).

While the construction of the canal began in his father’s lifetime, Yangdi completed it. This canal was used to “facilitated trade between northern and southern China” (Bentley, et al. 758; ed. 2) and to communicate. In addition to this “he strengthened China’s northern border by rebuilding, at great expense, the Great Wall separating China from Inner Asia” (Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica, britannica.com) thus strengthening its defenses. Despite everything that Yangdi might have done for his empire and all the Chinese the dynasty immediately ended after his