Emperor Yang of the Sui dynasty
Subtitle: his life, times, and legacy
By: Victor Cunrui Xiong.
Series: SUNY series in Chinese philosophy and culture
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Albany
Language: eng
Number of pages: 357
Subjects: Sui Yangdi, Emperor of China, 569-618.; China -- History -- Sui dynasty, 581-618.; China -- Kings and rulers -- Biography.
Genres: Biography.
Description: "Looking at the life and legacy of Emperor Yang (569-618) of the brief Sui dynasty in a new light, this book presents a case for his importance to Chinese history. Author Victor Cunrui Xiong utilizes traditional and secondary literature from China, Japan, and the West to go beyond the common perception of Emperor Yang as merely a profligate tyrant. Xiong accepts neither the traditional verdict against Emperor Yang nor the apologist effort to revise it, and instead offers a reassessment of Emperor Yang by exploring the larger political, economic, military, religious, and diplomatic contexts of Sui society. This reconstruction of the life of Emperor Yang reveals an astute visionary with literary, administrative, and reformist accomplishments.

While a series of strategic blunders resulting from the darker side of his personality led to the collapse of the socioeconomic order and to his own death, the Sui legacy that Emperor Yang left behind lived on to provide the foundation for the rise of the Tang dynasty, the pinnacle of medieval Chinese civilization."--Jacket.
Table of contents: title: Part I: From Prince to Sovereign. The making of a crown prince; title: Yangdi and his reign; title: The collapse of the Sui; title: Part II: Yangdi and his Empire. Luoyang and the Grand Canal; title: The palace network; title: The bureaucracy; title: The educational, ritual and legal institutions; title: Religions; title: Economic order; title: Foreign policy.