Founded Sui and completed reunification through the conquest of Chen.
Monarch / Emperor · 541 CE–604 CE
Other names: Xiao Zi Na Luo Yan
Yang Jian, childhood name Naluoyan, was the son of the Northern Zhou general Yang Zhong; he inherited the title Duke of Sui, and his eldest daughter became empress to Emperor Xuan of Zhou. When Emperor Xuan died in 580 he took control as chancellor and crushed the rising of Yuchi Jiong. In 581 he accepted the abdication of the child emperor Jing, named his dynasty Sui and adopted the reign title Kaihuang. He issued the Kaihuang Code, built the new capital of Daxing, abolished the commanderies in 583 so that counties answered directly to prefectures, and organized the central government into Three Departments and Six Ministries. In 589 his armies took Jiankang and captured the last Chen ruler, reuniting north and south. He died at the Renshou Palace in 604, with the temple name Gaozu. The historians of the Book of Sui (Suishu) judged that, though he fell short of perfect rule, he was a good sovereign by the standards of recent times.
Promoted canal and cultural projects whose mobilization formed part of Sui's final crisis.
Monarch / Emperor · 569 CE–618 CE
Other names: Yi Mingying · Xiaozi Achuang · Emperor Yang of Sui
Yang Guang, also called Ying, was the second son of Emperor Wen of Sui and Empress Dugu; he was made Prince of Jin in 581 and in 588 led the expedition that conquered the Chen. In 600 he displaced his elder brother Yang Yong as crown prince, and he took the throne in 604, adopting the reign title Daye the next year. From 605 he built the eastern capital at Luoyang and opened the Tongji Canal, followed by the Yongji Canal and the Jiangnan Canal, forming a waterway network centred on Luoyang; in 609 he toured west to Zhangye and set up the Xihai and other commanderies. His three campaigns against Goguryeo between 612 and 614 all failed, while Yang Xuangan rebelled and uprisings spread. Lingering at Jiangdu in 618, he was strangled in a mutiny led by Yuwen Huaji, and the Tang gave him the condemnatory posthumous name Yang. His tomb, with its epitaph, was found at Caozhuang in Yangzhou in 2013.
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