How can the reign of Wen Ti, the first Sui Dynasty emperor, be described?
1 Answer
Very productive. Wen Ti accomplished a lot in his lifetime, up until the day he died in 601.
Explanation:
Wen Ti, who was born Yang Jian, was born into a powerful family that held office in a powerful non-Chinese dynasty that controlled much of northern China. His ancestors married into powerful non-Chinese clans which resulted in his mixed culture.
Until the age of thirteen, he was raised primarily by a Buddhist nun. He went to a school where some of the other prominent Chinese officials' sons went, where instead of learning about math and science, they learned about military strategy, falconry, horsemanship, and hunting. As a result, at the age of 14, he received his first military appointment under the Yuwen, who would control much of northern China under the Zhou dynasty. He quickly rose up through the ranks, and as a reward for his dedication, he was allowed to marry a Zhou princess who was heir to the Chinese crown.
When the Zhou emperor died at the age of 35, many successors fought for the crown, which resulted in Yang Jian defeating the other successors through harsh military ruthlessness and winning the crown.
Yang Jian was now known as Wen Ti, who held an audience on March 4, 501, and established the Sui Dynasty. One of the first things he did was move the capital southeast of the old Han Dynasty capital of Chang'an. This building project was absolutely huge, as in nothing had ever been done like it. The next thing he did was remove old officials from offices. He replaced them with men with similar backgrounds to his, which helped him establish a centralized government with a really supportive bureaucracy.
Also, he conquered Turkistan and Mongolia and died at the age of 63 after converting to Buddhism and building shrines all over China.
