On The Evaluation Of The Emperor In The Tang Dynasty

Sui Yangdi is one of the most important emperor during the Sui and Tang Dynasties.He has had a great impact not only on the history of the Sui Dynasty, but also on the society of Tang Dynasty.The people in the Tang Dynasty are the closest historical subject to Sui Yangdi,so they made a lot of comments on him.People’s comment on SuiYangdi has had many influences on the society in the Tang Dynasty,and also on the future generations to know and evaluate him.Therefore, the study for People’s comment in the Tang Dynasty on SuiYangdi is the responsibility of scholars who study the history of the Tang Dynasty.From a historical perspective, this study has some academic value and theoretical significance.According to related literature,different people had different views on Sui Yangdi in the Tang Dynasty.Due to changes of society,these comments showed some characteristics of the times and had many differences betweent the early and late on the status of the subjectes,the number,the main content and the form of comments.And these comments also related to many aspects of Sui Yangdi.Such as his hypocritical, arrogant,jealous, reject the advice of others,cover up his mistakes, suspicion and talented but poor moral character;his abilities to deal with political, economic, cultural and foreign military affairs; excavation of the Grand Canal, his frequent cruises and the related images in the Tang’poetry about the Sui embankment,Sui willow,Sui abandoned palace,the mausoleum of Sui Yangdi etc.If think about it carefully,we will find that these factors,which influence evaluations of people in the Tang Dynasty,are composed of political, economic and cultural conditions. In the beginning of Tang Dynasty,the rulers need to look for validity of the new dynasty and draw lessons by criticizing Sui Yangdi.For the purpose of consolidating power, the ruling group also attaches great importance to the development of history.The emperors and their ministers often explored the rise and fall of history through the evaluation of Sui Yangdi.So the evaluations during this period are more than other periods,and the debate about politics as main form.From Tang Gaozong period,the Tang Dynasty had been very safe,most people are immersed in social prosperity and the national culture policy takes the literature as the center,people not to think about history calmly.On the other hand, the political struggles for power within the ruling group one after another resulting in having no time to reflect history.So evaluation is less and less.After rebellion of An and Shi,the Tang Dynasty began to be from flourishing to decline.In order to revive the imperial power and restore prosperity,some scholars hope to pay attention to history again.However,in the late Tang Dynasty emperors are mostly stupid,the monopoly on power of eunuch,increasingly independent local military commanders and the growing intensification of class conflicts.The scholar bureaucrat’s efforts of the rehabilitation Dynasties continued to fail.The death of the Tang Dynasty became the inevitable trend.Compared with the practical attitude in the early Tang Dynasty,their evaluations are only moved by what one sees,and a lament to the society and history.With the rapid development of the southern economy,State finance is increasingly dependent on the South and the Grand Canal play a more important role in southern and northern exchanging,and a canal economic and cultural belt gradually formed. Some scholars began to doubt the Bible and to recognize the previous views.People gradually had a new understanding of the Sui Yangdi and canal.Besides,because of the prosperous of poems on history and fiction in the late Tang Dynasty,the form of making comments on Sui Yangdi has the big difference compared with the early.Through the evaluation on him, the Tang Dynasty’ rulers learned many historical lessons and formed some positive thoughts of governing,contributing to the stability and prosperity of the early society.The late literaries reflected on history and observed reality with these evaluations.Tang’evaluations saved a lot of precious literatures for the future generations to know him,and also affected evaluations on Sui Yangdi of the posterities.The innovation of my paper lies in the followings.From the perspective of history,I thoroughly analyze these contents and forms of people’s evaluations on Sui Yangdi.And combining with evaluations on Sui Yangdi in the Song Dynasty, Yuan Dynasty and Ming Dynasty, I attempt to outline the evolution of the image of Sui Yangdi in the history and determine the historical status of these evaluations.Besides,I also hope that my research can expand the current academic vision of the study of the Sui Yangdi and make some contributions to the current study.However,my ability is limited at present,the depth of my research is not enough and still need to improve.