Emperor Yang of Sui

Who was Emperor Yang of Sui?

Emperor Yang of Sui, personal name Yang Guang, alternative name Ying, nickname Amo, known as Emperor Ming during the brief reign of his grandson Yang Tong, was the second son of Emperor Wen of Sui, and the second emperor of China's Sui Dynasty.

Emperor Yang's original name was Yang Ying, but was renamed by his father, after consulting with oracles, to Yang Guang. Yang Guang was made the Prince of Jin after Emperor Wen established Sui Dynasty in 581. In 588, he was granted command of the five armies that invaded the southern Chen Dynasty and was widely praised for the success of this campaign. These military achievements, as well as his machinations against his older brother Yang Yong, led to him becoming crown prince in 600. After the death of his father in 604, generally considered, though unproven, by most traditional historians to be a murder ordered by Yang Guang, he ascended the throne as Emperor Yang.

Emperor Yang, ruling from 606 to 618, committed to several large construction projects, most notably the completion of the Grand Canal. He commanded the reconstruction of the Great Wall, a project which took the lives of nearly six million workers. He also ordered several military expeditions that brought Sui to its greatest territorial extent, one of which, the conquest of Champa in what is now central and southern Vietnam, resulted in the death of thousands of Sui soldiers from malaria. These expeditions, along with a series of disastrous campaigns against Goguryeo, left the empire bankrupt and a populace in revolt. With northern China in turmoil, Emperor Yang spent his last days in Jiangdu, where he was eventually strangled in a coup led by his general Yuwen Huaji.