Emperor Wen of Sui's empress was Empress Dugu Jialuo (544–602), commonly known as The Dugu Empress.
She was a native of Luoyang, Henan, belonging to the Sinicized Xianbei people, her father was Du Guxin, an important member of the Northern Zhou Weiguo and Guanlong cliques, and her mother was from the Cui clan of the famous Qinghe family.
At the age of fourteen, the Dugu Empress married Yang Jian, the eldest son of the Northern Zhou general Yang Zhong. Her husband Yang Jian was a chancellor of Northern Zhou before claiming the title of emperor, and was suspected by the courtiers at the imperial court. The Dugu Empress eliminated the disaster for her husband Yang Jian, and helped Yang Firm to establish the great plan of the next Zhou Li Sui, and was made empress after the establishment of the Sui Dynasty.
The Dugu Empress was very important to Emperor Wen of Sui, and perhaps without the help of Dugu Jialuo, Emperor Wen of Sui might not have been called emperor. Perhaps Emperor Wen of Sui claimed that the empress dowager would not make so many correct decisions and create a great dynasty. Together with Emperor Wen of Sui, she was known as the "Second Saint".
But everything has a good and a disadvantage.
The dugu empress's personality also has shortcomings such as being too strong, vicious, mean, jealous, and scheming, which has some negative effects on the demise of her husband, son, and the Great Sui Jiangshan, and has caused some bad consequences.
First, she caused Yang Jian to lose important pillars such as Gao Ying, an important assistant minister.
Gao Ying was a founding father of the Sui Dynasty, who strategized and won thousands of victories, repeatedly relieved Yang Jian's dangers and difficulties, and became Yang Jian's right and left hand and national pillar. However, once he accidentally offended the Dugu Empress because of a small matter, and the Dugu Empress said a lot of bad things about him in front of Yang Jian, causing Yang Jian to lose his favor and resign. Here's why it went:
The Lone Queen is known as a "jealous woman" in the main history. One day, in his later years, Yang Jianlin was fortunate to have a palace girl, and after the Lone Empress knew about it, she had a strong jealous heart attack and took advantage of Yang Jian's gap in handling political affairs to send someone to kill the palace girl privately. Yang Jian was extremely angry when he learned of this, but he did not dare to face the Lone Queen, so he jumped on a war horse in one breath, and ran wildly in the middle of the night to the valley for more than twenty miles. When Gao Xi heard about it, he rushed to persuade him, and Emperor Wen of Sui sighed and said, "I am the Son of Heaven and must not be free!" (It is said that this is the earliest example of the Chinese word "freedom")". Gao Hao exhorted, "Does Your Majesty despise the world with a woman?" Emperor Yang Jian of Sui obeyed the persuasion and returned to the palace.
Gao Ying did not expect that his words reached the ears of the LoneLy Queen and became the fuse of his future doom. After the Lone Empress repeatedly waited for opportunities to retaliate and frame Gao Ying, viciously saying bad things about Gao Ying in front of Yang Jian, her husband finally lost trust in Gao Ying and resigned. A few years later, Gao Ying was killed by the Sui Emperor for defaming the government. At that time, he Ruobi, a general who was also a pillar of the imperial court, was also killed. Therefore, it is the lone empress that caused the Sui Dynasty to lose several important pillars.
Second, she caused Yang Jian to replace the heir to the throne, which indirectly led to the death of Sui Dynasty II.
Historians generally believe that Empress Dugu played a key role in deposing the original crown prince Yang Yong and replacing Yang Guang (later the Sui Emperor) as crown prince. The Lone Empress "interfered in the politics of the dynasty without authorization", so she was considered to be a representative of a woman with an excessive personality and too much jealousy.
When the original crown prince Yang Yong was young, his mother, the Dugu Empress, selected a Yuan clan concubine for him, but the Yuan clan was snubbed by Yang Yong, and he could not be summoned for many years and died of a sudden heart attack. Yang Yong favored Concubine Yun, Concubine Gao, and Concubine Cheng, and gave birth to a large number of children with these women. In this regard, the Dugu Empress was very angry, and constantly sent people to spy on her son, to visit his actions, and constantly blew wind in Emperor Wen's ear to accuse Yang Yong of his transgressions. Although the crown prince Yang Yong was somewhat lustful and extravagant, he was generous, spontaneous and arrogant, did not have a pretentious personality, and often treated the ministers with courtesy and courtesy.
Yang Guang, another son of the Dugu Empress, was extremely ambitious and good at disguise. Yang Guang completely inherited his mother's vicious, mean, cunning, jealous, and scheming personality.
Yang Guang is very good at disguise. He and Concubine Xiao were the original match, in order to show their affection, he and other concubines slept and became pregnant, all of them had to be lazy, they were not allowed to have children, only let Concubine Xiao have children, so the lonely queen repeatedly praised Yang Guang in front of her husband for not being. For the ministers who held real power, Yang Guang was devoted to making friends. Emperor Wen of Sui and Empress Dugu repeatedly sent people around them to Yang Guang's residence, and Yang Guang, regardless of their nobility, had to personally go out to greet them, give them good food and drink, and send them generous gifts before parting. He was praised by the emperor and empress, both up and down.
Emperor Wen of Sui and the Dugu Empress came to Visit Yang Guang's mansion, and Yang Guang hid all the beautiful women, leaving only some elderly, ugly-looking servants with no patterns on their clothes; the curtains in the house were all changed to plain silk, and Yang Guang also deliberately broke the strings of the musical instrument to prevent the dust from blowing away. After returning to the palace, Emperor Wen of Sui told the left and right attendants about this matter. As a result, the ministers also took the opportunity to congratulate the emperor.
After that, the Dugu Empress made a determination to depose Yang Yong, and said bad things about Yang Yong in front of Yang Jian countless times, and Yang Su and other ministers also contributed to the situation.
In the winter and October of 600, Emperor Yang Jian of Sui sent someone to summon his son Yang Yong into the palace, deposed him as crown prince, and sent him back to the Eastern Palace to be guarded. He also made Yang Guang the Prince of Jin crown prince and put Yang Guang in charge of guarding Yang Yong.
The future history is known to everyone: the Sui Dynasty was violently levied at the hands of the Sui Emperor, the people were not happy, and finally the heavens and people were angry, and the second died. Tracing back to the source, the Lone Empress had a certain responsibility for the demise of the Sui Dynasty.