Sui Yangdi's Scandalous History

Author: Qi Dongye Ren
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-05-01
Features: The novel takes the extravagant and luxurious life of Emperor Yang of Sui as its main thread, revealing the rise and fall of a feudal dynasty. Emperor Yang was deeply loved by his predecessor and mother, and with the help of corrupt ministers, he deposed the crown prince and seized the throne. After that, he indulged in pleasure every day in the palace, went on northern hunts, exhausted the nation's wealth, moved the capital from Chang'an to Dongjing, carved mountains into gardens, dug lakes from the ground, undertook massive construction projects, selected three thousand beautiful women from across the nation for the sixteen courtyards, indulged in debauchery day and night without restraint, traveled to Jiangdu, set up countless temporary palaces along the way, exhausted the people and wasted resources, and when he went to the Jiangnan region again, he mobilized the nation's labor and wealth to excavate the Grand Canal, build Jiangdu, and became lost in pleasure, forgetting his duties. When his subordinates presented a palace carriage with hidden mechanisms, he enjoyed the company of a Jiangnan girl in the carriage for a night. Afterward, he became even more debauched, neglected state affairs, and thus provoked the people to turn against him. Overnight, he was forced to commit suicide by strangulation to atone for his sins. This book is the first to be systematically compiled and published after the founding of the nation and is rare domestically. Literary historian Zheng Zhenduo called it a "comprehensive work that leaves no stone unturned," which greatly influenced later novels and holds high literary value. It also has significant historical value in the history of fiction.