Politics:
1. Central system
See: Three Provinces and Six Ministries, Sui Dynasty Official System After Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty came to the throne, he abolished the Six Official Offices of the "Zhou Rites" attached to the Northern Zhou Dynasty The established official system was replaced by a new official system: "The three divisions, three ministers, ministers, ministers, internal history, secretaries, internal servants and other provinces were established, and Yushitai, Taichang, Guanglu, Weiwei, Zongzheng, Taipu were established. , Dali, Honglu, Sinong, Taifu, Guozi, Jiangzuo and other governors, Zuowei, Zuowuwei and other prefectures"?
In order to strengthen the centralization of power and restore the tradition of the Han dynasty official system. The three-province system of Shangshu, Menxia and Neishi was the core of the central official system in the Sui Dynasty. Although the Third Master and the Third Master have a high status and are ranked first, they are actually just honors. The status of the Shangshu Province in the Sui Dynasty was very high. "Book of Sui Baiguan Zhi" said that "the Shangshu Province is responsible for everything", which reflects its status and power as the highest state administrative organ. ?
The political reforms implemented by Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty around the knighthood system were bound to break the "Guanzhong-based policy" implemented since Yuwentai of the Northern Zhou Dynasty. By restricting and weakening the power and influence of the Guanlong Group, In order to rectify the government affairs, centralization of power was strengthened and the social foundation of rule was expanded.
However, its political reform plan was not mature enough and was promoted too hastily. It failed to be combined with the establishment of a political situation where people's livelihood was smooth, unity and stability were achieved, and a serious governance crisis eventually broke out. ?
2. Imperial examination system
In order to select useful talents during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, imperial examination systems such as the "Ju Ming Jing" had emerged, but the nine-rank Zhongzheng system since the Wei and Jin Dynasties continued to be implemented.
In the seventh year of Emperor Kaihuang’s reign (587), Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty formally established a subject-specific examination system to replace the nine-rank Zhongzheng system. From then on, officials were selected regardless of their family background. In the early days of the imperial examination system, annual tributes were set up for each state, which stipulated that each state would select three people from each state to the central government to participate in the examinations of scholar and Ming Jing subjects. In the second year of Daye (606), Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty added the Jinshi subject, and the imperial examination system was formally formed.
At that time, scholars were tested on strategies, Jinshi were tested on current policies, and Ming Jing was tested on classics, forming a complete national talent selection system by subject.
At that time, the Ming Jing was the most senior, followed by the Jinshi Examination. At that time, the scholar selection system was only called the Scholarship Examination, which was still far from the imperial examination of the Tang Dynasty.
The Scholarly Examination can be said to be the beginning of the imperial examination. It is also an imperfect examination system and has little effect on the actual selection of scholars. However, it has changed the situation of family monopoly on official positions. The imperial examination system complied with the requirements of the common people landowners in the past dynasties to obtain their due political status, eased the conflicts between them and the imperial court, made them loyally support the central government, was conducive to the selection of talents, enhanced political efficiency, and played an active role in consolidating the centralization of power. role.
3. Legal system
The laws of the Northern Zhou Dynasty were sometimes loose and sometimes strict, which was difficult to control, leading to chaos in punishment. After Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty came to the throne, in the first year of Kaihuang (581), he ordered Gao Jiong and others to formulate laws with reference to the old laws of the Northern Qi and Northern Zhou Dynasties. In the third year of Kaihuang's reign (583), Su Wei and others were asked to revise it and complete the "Kaihuang Code".
The "Kaihuang Code" is based on the "Heqing Code" of the Northern Qi Dynasty, with reference to the codes of the Northern Zhou Dynasty and the Liang Dynasty in the Southern Dynasty, simplifying the text and taking the advantages of the laws of the north and the south. It has been said in history that "the criminal network is brief and sparse but not missing", and it stipulates that those who commit evil crimes must be severely punished.
The "Kaihuang Code" is divided into twelve volumes with 500 articles. The punishments are divided into five categories: death penalty, exile, imprisonment, rod punishment, and flogging. The abolition of tortures such as flogging, beheading, and chopping was the basis of the legal codes of the Tang Dynasty and subsequent dynasties.
Economy:
1. Agriculture
Land equalization order
The Sui Dynasty implemented the land equalization system and rectified household registration. The implementation of the "Dasuo Appearance Reading Law" required officials to regularly check the population and check the household registration based on appearance, which greatly increased the number of households. And implement the "registration loss sample" to determine the number of household registrations on the basis of the first, compile a "fixed book", and collect taxes based on this.
Currency reform
The Sui Dynasty unified the currency system, abolished other relatively chaotic ancient coins and privately minted coins, and recast the five-baht coin, which is known as the "Sui Five-Baht" in the world. The back of "Sui Five Baht" has good meat, both with Zhou Guo on it. It is as heavy as the text. Each thousand coins weighs four kilograms and two taels. "The chariots and books are mixed together, and the armor and soldiers have ceased." Weights and measures were reunified under Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty.
"The Sui family mixed together the north and the south, and all the old officials of Qi and Zhou, and old ministers of Liang and Chen, gathered together in Xian Dynasty and became a collection of articles." In addition, Yang Jian also promulgated " Benevolent policies such as "when a person is fifty years old, he will be exempted from service and accepted into mediocrity" and "the family who died in the war will be given another year".
Setting up granaries
The Sui Dynasty built many granaries in various places, among which the famous ones are Xingluo Cang, Huiluo Cang, Changping Cang, Liyang Cang, Guangtong Cang, etc. The amount of grain stored is more than one million dan. In the early years of the Tang Dynasty, Ma Zhou, the supervisory censor, told Emperor Taizong: "The Sui family was in charge of Luokou, and Li Mi was responsible for it. The treasury in Xijing was also used by the country and has not been exhausted to this day."
The Sui Dynasty has perished. Twenty years later, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty had been dead for 33 years, but the food and cloth had not been used up at that time. In 1969, a Sui Dynasty granary, the Hanjiacang ruins, was unearthed in Luoyang. It covers an area of ??more than 450,000 square meters and contains 259 grain cellars. There is also a grain cellar that still contains 500,000 kilograms of carbonized millet. This shows the prosperity and prosperity of the Sui Dynasty.
Handicraft Industry
The Sui Dynasty was an important stage of development of Chinese porcelain production technology. Its outstanding performance is that a batch of white glazed porcelain was unearthed from tombs in Anyang, Henan and Xi'an, Shaanxi.
Marsh white porcelain has a hard texture, crystal clear color, and vivid and beautiful shape. This is the earliest white porcelain that appeared in China.
The production of celadon-glazed porcelain in the Sui Dynasty was more extensive. Celadon porcelain was unearthed in Hebei, Henan, Shaanxi, Anhui and Jiangnan, and many Sui Dynasty kiln sites were discovered. Jiangnan was an area with developed handicraft industry. The development of porcelain in the Sui Dynasty also promoted the economic development at that time.
Business
Chang'an and Luoyang are not only the national political and economic centers, but also international metropolises. Chang'an has two cities: Dudu and Liren; Luoyang has three cities: Fengdu, Datong and Tongyuan. Tongyuan City is adjacent to the Tongji Canal. It is six miles around and has twenty gates leading into the city. Business travelers gather there and tens of thousands of boats are moored in the canal.
Fengdu City is eight miles around and has twelve gates, among which there are one hundred and twenty rows and more than three thousand forts. "The double towers and pavilions reflect each other, attracting business travelers and rare mountain accumulations." Such a large-scale and prosperous city was rare in the world at that time.
Culture:
1. Academic thought
In the early period, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty advocated harmonizing Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, and advocated simple literature, and opposed the gorgeous literary thought of the Southern Dynasty. He promoted Confucianism, elevated Confucianism to an indispensable position in governing the country, and encouraged people to learn and practice etiquette. Schools were built in various places. There were many scholars in the Central Plains area, and Confucianism flourished for a while.
There were different schools of Confucianism in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and each had its own interpretations of the classics. By the Sui Dynasty, there was no unified classic, which made it still difficult for the imperial examination system to test the Ming classics. In the later years of Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty, he advocated criminal law and openly supported Buddhism and anti-Confucianism.
In 601, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty believed that there were too many schools but not enough quality, so he ordered the abolition of all schools and only preserved the Imperial College of Imperial College in the capital, with a quota of 70 students. Liu Xuan wrote a letter to remonstrate, but Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty did not listen. At the same time, he ordered the construction of more than 5,000 temples and pagodas. Although schools in various places were restored during the reign of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, the status of Confucian students did not improve. The most famous Confucian scholars at this time were Liu Zhuo and Liu Xuan. Liu was rich in knowledge and admired by Confucian scholars at that time.
However, Liu Xuan took the opportunity of Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty to purchase books and forged more than a hundred volumes of books titled "Lianshan Yi", "Historical Records of Lu", etc., to defraud the rewards. Liu Zhuo also had a bad reputation because of his calculations about Shu Xiu. In his later years, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty helped Buddhism and opposed Confucianism, which caused many Confucian scholars to smear the rulers of the Sui Dynasty.
Wang Tong was a great Confucian scholar in the late Sui Dynasty and a famous thinker in the Sui Dynasty. He was posthumously named "Wen Zhongzi". He advocated that those in power should first be virtuous and then punish in order to be convinced; he advocated that Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism should coexist in harmony instead of resisting each other. He also advocates the idea that things between heaven and man are inseparable from the three talents of heaven, earth and man.
He is the author of "Twelve Strategies for Taiping", "Continuation of the Six Classics" and "Wen Zhongzi Zhongshuo". His grandson Wang Bo was one of the four heroes of the early Tang Dynasty, and his disciple Wei Zheng was also a famous official in the early Tang Dynasty. His theory had a profound influence on Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty.
Among the most prosperous Buddhists at that time, the Tiantai sect advocated the theory of samatha and vipassanā, while the Zen sect advocated the theory of sudden enlightenment. Samatha and vipassana, also known as tranquility and tranquility, advocates stopping all external situations and delusions, focusing on a specific object, and generating correct wisdom about that object. Sudden enlightenment is the method of "clearing the mind and seeing one's nature", which means advocating sudden enlightenment. It advocates that in everything, through correct cultivation methods, you can quickly understand the essentials, thereby guiding correct practice and achieving success.
2. Literature
Because the Sui Dynasty was short, it had little impact on Chinese literature. Although there were demands for reforming the frivolous style of writing, the success was interrupted, and it took until the middle of the Tang Dynasty for the classical prose movement to develop successfully. At that time, there were works devoted to the study of phonology, as well as good prose and poetry.
During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the literature of the Southern Dynasties emphasized rhythm and color, while the literature of the Northern Dynasties emphasized simplicity and practicality. Because the gorgeous literature of the Southern Dynasty conquered the Northern Dynasty, most Sui Dynasty literature inherited the Liang and Chen style of study without any new breakthroughs.
As for the famous scribes from the north and south of the Sui Dynasty, the total number was actually no more than ten. "Article Style" written by Du Zhengzang is helpful for learning the literature of the Southern Dynasties, and is called "Wengui". Even Goguryeo and Baekje also studied Du's book, which was called the "New Book of the Du Family". This made Southern Dynasty literature popular in foreign countries and had a greater influence. In 584, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty issued an order requiring simple literature. Li E suggested that talents should not be recruited based on their elegant writing.
However, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty also advocated the gorgeous literature of the Southern Dynasties. He was obsessed with the luxury of the Southern Dynasties. He was "three blessings for Jiangdu", "good for Wu language", "more noble than Qingqi" and "suitable for singing". The literature of the Southern Dynasties suited his taste. Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty was also a writer, the most famous of which is "Jiangdu Palace Music Song". Every poem or essay he wrote had to be reviewed by Yu Zizhi, a famous scholar in the Southern Dynasties, before it was published. This shows that he was a powerful advocate of literature in the Southern Dynasties.
3. Historiography
In terms of history, history books before the Sui Dynasty were either written by officials or written by private individuals. Its ideas are relatively free and its quality is good. However, because it is not easy to use the books collected by historians, it usually only has biographies and no chronicles, so it cannot be said to be a complete national history.
In 593, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty announced a ban on private writing of national history and commenting on figures. Since then, the history of the country in all dynasties has been compiled by officials. Although the official history compilation is not impartial enough, because it is written by professional historians and the materials provided by the court are relatively sufficient, it became a specialized undertaking of the court after the Sui and Tang Dynasties. ?
4. Phonology
Due to the integration of northern and southern cultures, the achievements in phonology and bibliography are particularly outstanding. In the early years of the founding of the Emperor, eight people, including Yan Zhitui, Xiao Gai, and Changsun Nayan, discussed phonology with Lu Fayan. They agreed that the tones of the four directions were very different, and that the rhymes used in the north and the south were different. In the past, the rhyme books of various schools lacked standards in determining rhyme and had errors.
Lu Fayan recorded the gist of everyone's discussions and wrote Qie Yun in five volumes in 601 AD.
This book unified written pronunciation and reflected the pronunciation of Chinese at that time. It was the earliest phonology book in China. The pronunciation system was completely preserved in later books such as Guangyun and Jiyun. .
5. Catalog
In terms of bibliography, the famous ones in the Sui Dynasty include the Buddhist "Bibliography of Great Sui Sutras", the Taoist "Catalogue of Taoist Scriptures", and the "Catalogue of Taoist Scriptures" written by Fei Changfang. "Records of the Three Treasures of the Past Dynasties" and "Records of the Sui Dynasty's Renshou Years" written by Shi Yancong.
The Sui Dynasty collected books from the Southern and Northern Dynasties and compiled the "Catalog of Sui Dayezheng Imperial Books". Wei Zheng of the Tang Dynasty compiled "Sui Shu·Jing Ji Zhi" based on this, which became a general record of writings before the Sui Dynasty. Its bibliographic status is the same as Ban Gu's "Han Shu·Yi Wen Zhi".
6. Religion
Since the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism have been collectively referred to as the three religions and have occupied a dominant position in the ideological field. Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty advocated reconciling religion and Confucianism, adopting a strategy of equal emphasis on the three religions, and allowing Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism to complement each other in governing the country. As the country opened up, Zoroastrianism, which was popular in West Asia, also spread widely in China.
Buddhism entered its peak stage in the early Sui Dynasty. This was because the emperor had a close relationship with Buddhism. When Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty destroyed Buddhism, Zhixian hid in the Yang family and predicted that Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty would become emperor in the future and revive Buddhism. Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty was convinced that he was blessed by Buddha and declared to his ministers, "I am inspired by Buddhism." Therefore, he actively promoted Buddhism and even rejected Confucianism in his later years. Buddhism became the state religion of the Sui Dynasty for a time.
In 581 AD, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty invited secluded monks to come out of the mountains, called on Buddhists to "do Taoism for the country", and allowed the people to become monks. During the reign of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, the imperial court adopted a policy of active support for Buddhism. Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty also received ordination from Master Zhizhe of the Tiantai Sect and became a disciple of Buddhism. However, the emperor also exercised strict control over Buddhism. For example, he gathered influential celebrities in Jiangnan Buddhism for control, and ordered "Sramana to pay tribute to the king."
The mainstream Buddhist sects at that time included Tiantai Sect, Sanlun Sect and Sanlun Sect. Tiantai Sect emphasizes the perfection and integration of "teaching" and "viewing", believing that the Dharma Realm has no form and all things are one.
Study on the Causes of Three Essays. It is famous for "The Theory of the Middle School", "The Theory of Twelve Doors" and "The Theory of One Hundred Theory". It advocates that all dharma in the world and beyond the world arises from the combination of many causes and conditions and is the product of many factors and conditions.
In the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty built more than 5,000 temples and pagodas, created tens of thousands of Buddhist statues, and translated tens of thousands of Buddhist scriptures, making the spread of Buddhist scriptures hundreds of times greater than that of Confucian scriptures. There are 83 relic pagodas built in various states, among which Daxingshan Temple is the most famous. He also ordered Jikou to pay for the construction of Buddha statues. He also wrote 46 Buddhist scriptures for Buddhist temples in the capital and major cities, with a total cost of 130,000.
Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty compiled 612 collections of old scriptures, more than 29,000 volumes, established a scripture translation hall and a scholar of translation, and ordered the revision of old scriptures. And wrote a new version, ***90 translations, 515 volumes
Extended information
Territory
National scope
After the Sui Dynasty destroyed Chen, its territory started from the Liaohe River in the east, the desert in the north, Dunhuang in the west, and Jiaozhi in the south. In the first year of Daye (605), Linyi was annexed, with a land area of ??4.27 million square kilometers. Soon Linyi was After the restoration of the country, in the fifth year of Daye (609), Tuyuhun and Yiwu were annexed, and the territory reached its peak, with a land area of ??4.67 million square kilometers.
Administrative divisions
Sui Dynasty administration. There were two major changes in the divisions in the Sui Dynasty. The local area was divided into three levels: prefectures, counties, and counties. After Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty basically unified the world, in view of the chaos of the three-level system of prefectures, counties, and counties that had begun in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the prefectures and counties were abolished and replaced with the state system. It is a two-level system of prefectures and counties, with prefectures directly governing counties. During the reign of Emperor Sui Yang, the prefectures were changed to counties. Soon after Emperor Sui Yang took the throne, all prefectures were changed to counties and a two-level system of prefectures and counties was implemented. There were 190 counties in the country. , 1,255 counties.
The governors of the Sui Dynasty went to Beijing to report on their duties at the end of each year, and they were called imperial envoys. The imperial court sent Si Litai officials or special envoys to inspect the provinces.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Sui Dynasty