When it comes to tyrants in ancient Chinese history, there must be many people who think of Qin Shi Huang. He burned books to pit Confucianism and practiced tyranny, and the Qin Dynasty was overthrown after two lifetimes, which had a lot to do with him. But for the first time, he achieved the unification of the world, and after becoming the empress, he carried out drastic reforms to the country, dividing the feudal system, unifying the weights and measures of writing, conquering the north and fighting the northern war, and building the Great Wall, all of which were groundbreaking measures. Later generations had different views on his merits and demerits, but it did not prevent him from becoming an emperor in people's minds.
Compared to him, the other tyrant seemed less powerful. Perhaps because his tyranny was so obvious that people almost forgot that one of his great contributions to history was that he was the Sui Emperor. Although he was profligate and disregarded the strength of the country, he fought for years and years, labored the people and hurt the wealth, and the country was quickly destroyed. But his excavation of the Grand Canal and the smoothing of the Silk Road were also definitely pioneering feats. Today, Xiaobian will talk about this Grand Canal, its historical significance is extraordinary.
As we all know, during the reign of Emperor Wen of Sui, although the unification of the world was achieved in terms of territory, the north and south were still in fact still in harmony. After all, the north and south have been separated and isolated for more than three hundred years, and although the wounds carved in history have stopped bleeding, the invisible and huge crack between them is difficult to be stitched up by the superficial unity in a short period of time. This rift is inevitably manifested in political, economic, cultural, social customs, folk customs and other aspects, seriously weakening the cohesion and stability that a unified country should have.
Economically, the southern economy developed better, but the Sui capital Chang'an could not move its political center south. Therefore, the state needs to strengthen its management of the South. In addition, the long-term division has blocked the economic exchange between the north and the south of the society, and with the improvement of the level of productivity, the development of the economy has urgently required the strengthening of economic ties between the north and the south during this period. Politically, after the unification of the Sui Dynasty, some of the Mongol clans still had powerful forces in an attempt to compete with the central government. This posed a serious threat to the Sui regime, and it was imperative for the Sui rulers to exercise effective rule over the south, and it was imperative to penetrate the north-south canal. Not only that, the minority regimes on the northern border were also a great problem for the Sui, and the Sui Dynasty sent a large number of troops to the border, but the army needed to rely on the grain supply of Jianghuai and the Central Plains. In order to solve the problem of long distances, the excavation of canals is called the key to solving the problem.
Therefore, the Sui Emperor used his existing economic strength to start digging a Grand Canal running from north to south in 605 AD, known in history as the Sui and Tang Grand Canals. He used millions of migrant workers to dig the Tongji Canal, dredge the Han ditch, dig the Yongji Canal, dredge the Jiangnan Canal, and build a total of four Grand Canals. It took a total of six years, and the Grand Canal was completed with a total length of more than 2,700 kilometers, making it one of the world's greatest projects.
The Sui-Tang Grand Canal stretches from Hangzhou in the south to Beijing in the north, with its center in Luoyang. Along the way, it passed through six provinces and communicated with five major river systems. Through the Sui and Tang Dynasties Grand Canal, grain, silk, and porcelain produced in Jiangsu and Zhejiang could finally be transported in large quantities and economically to Luoyang, the political center of the north. Since then, the Grand Canal has played a great role in promoting the economic development of later generations, and the Grand Canal has also become a political, economic and cultural link for the development of its routes. It is still used today.