biography
| name: |
Yangdi
|
| |
also spelled Yang-ti
|
pronunciation:
[yangdee]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (569–618)
|
| biography:
| Second Chinese Sui dynasty emperor (604–18). As Yang Guang he murdered his father, Wendi. To strengthen Chinese unification he married a southern princess. He received the first Japanese envoys, sent ambassadors to the Indies, India, and Turkestan, invaded Korea on four occasions with huge armies of over a million men (611–14), conquered Taiwan (610), and established colonies on the W trade routes. Retaining Changan (Xian) as a capital, he sumptuously rebuilt Luoyang as a second, and Yangzhou as a third. Six state granaries were constructed, the Great Wall fortified, and the Grand Canal built (610). The expense of his reign provoked insurrection in the NW, and he was killed. The new Tang dynasty later propagandized him as a feckless womanizer. |
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