The other side of Emperor Wen of Sui

Stopping food waste, practicing strict economy, and opposing waste are great things that benefit the country and the people. However, the author actually saw many texts on the Internet that regarded Emperor Wendi of Sui as a "model" of frugality, which really made people feel a little afraid.

It is true that The Sui Wen Emperor Yang Jian, known as the "Emperor of the Ages", has admirable historical merits: ending the nearly 300-year division of the Wei and Jin Dynasties and the Northern and Southern Dynasties, known in history as "Emperor Wen Fu Han"; creating the imperial examination system, breaking the blood lineage and the monopoly of the clan, and helping the children of the common people realize the dream of "the dynasty is Tian Shelang, and the Tianzi Hall is ascended at dusk". However, although Emperor Wen of Sui was frugal all his life, he disregarded the livelihood of the people in order to hoard grain, violating the "way of governing the country" of "putting the country first for the people". Therefore, the dynasty he single-handedly created, which was called "the rich man of the national plan in ancient and modern times", which was called "the rich man of the national plan in ancient and modern times", was very short-lived, but people dumped the responsibility on his son Yang Guang.

This can be seen from many historical materials. Sima Guang's Zizhi Tongjian Sui Ji II says: In the fourteenth year of the kai emperor (594), there was a great drought in Guanzhong and many people were hungry, and Emperor Wen of Sui sent officials to check the food of the victims, and when he saw that the common people were eating "bean crumbs and chaff", he wept bitterly and wept bitterly, and "to show the people, deeply blamed themselves." To this end, Yang Jian insisted on "not drinking meat" for one year. In August of that year, Yang Jian personally led the officials of Chang'an to Luoyang for dinner. On the way, Yang Jian strictly ordered officials not to urge the people. Seeing the army of hungry people who were helping the old and the young and waddling, Yang Jian "led the horses to avoid them and went away with comfort", traveled to difficult places, encountered weak people who shouldered the burden, and he also "ordered the left and right to help them"...

However, the truth behind the "true love performance" of this good emperor who "loves the people like a son" is: "When the warehouse (Guanzhong) was overflowing, it was not allowed to give, but let the people chase grain." Not only that, Yang Jian also extended his hand to the "righteous warehouse" (the public accumulation of non-governmental associations). He issued a death order: "This is the righteous warehouse, to stop the drought, the disciples of the people, do not think for a long time, lightly donate, and lack in the future... Yun, Xia, Chang, Ling, Yan, Lan, Feng, Yan, Liang, Gan, Gua and other prefectures, all Yicang hybrids, and Na Ben Prefecture. If a person has drought and frugality and lacks grain, first give the bastards and the distant millet. "Not only is it not allowed to open warehouses for disaster relief, but it also completely blocks the way for the people to accumulate and self-help." Yang Jian also stipulated that if there is a real shortage of grain due to a disaster, it will be relieved with miscellaneous grains and aged grains.

In order to strengthen the management of the granary, in the second year of the Guanzhong drought, Yang Jian strictly ordered: "A liter of stolen grain has been raised, all of them have been cut off, and they still have no home." According to the Book of Sui and the Chronicle of Criminal Law, in the sixteenth year of the kai emperor (596), there were 7,000 stones less than 7,000 stones stored in the warehouse warehouse in the Hechuan area, and after receiving the result of the trial of "theft by the main code", Emperor Wen of Sui immediately ordered the official in charge of the warehouse to be beheaded and shown to the public, and his whole family was not a slave, and his family was even made to buy grain to fill the deficit of the grain depot. It is conceivable that even in the face of a severe drought in the sky and the hunger of the people everywhere, who official would dare to risk his life to open a warehouse for disaster relief? Therefore, the Sui Shu And Food Goods Chronicle states that the seventeenth year of the kaihuang (597) is even more "a warehouse at home and abroad, and there is no surplus." All the money is given, not more than the funds, and the Kyoji house is full and accumulated under the contour." By the last year of Emperor Wen of Sui, "counting the world's reserves, it was necessary to provide for fifty or sixty years." The "rule of Zhenguan", which has been praised by historians throughout the ages, was based on the huge material wealth accumulated by the Sui Dynasty.

The 1969 Archaeological Discovery in Luoyang, with an area of more than 450,000 square meters and 259 grain cellars, is more telling: it is better to say that it would rather pile up piles of grain to deteriorate than give alms to hungry victims. Such an act of treating the people as grass and mustard is already putting the cart before the horse, and it should really be spurned, let alone worthy of praise.

Source: Tonight's newspaper