Makers › Engineer / Architect
Yuwen Kai
Sui architect who laid out the capital Daxing, later Tang Chang'an, and the eastern capital Luoyang, and built Emperor Yang's movable audience hall
A stone arch bridge is being built across a river gorge, with wooden centering under the arch and bamboo scaffolding around the piers; many small workers haul stone blocks up a ramp with ropes and pulleys, and blocks and logs lie in the foreground below a distant city wall.
Yuwen Kai, courtesy name Anle, was the younger brother of Yuwen Xin, Duke of Qi, and grew up in a Northern Zhou family of meritorious officers, receiving a noble title at the age of two. Unlike his soldier brothers, he read widely and turned to building. When Emperor Wen founded the new capital of Daxing in 582, Gao Jiong was in overall charge but the actual plan was largely Yuwen Kai's, and in 584 he directed the digging of the Guangtong canal from the capital east to Tongguan. When the emperor massacred the Zhou imperial Yuwen clan, Kai was spared because his line was a separate branch and his brother had served the Sui well. Under Emperor Yang he was director of construction for the eastern capital at Luoyang, built a movable audience hall on wheels that held several hundred people, and drew up plans for a Hall of Light. He died in office as minister of works in 612, aged fifty-seven, with the posthumous name Kang.
Life and times
Dates 555 CE–612 CE
- 605Yuwen Kai Building Sui Luoyangage 50