52 China in World History
TurfanTurfanKhotanKhotanKashgarKashgar YarkandYarkandSamarkandSamarkand
TRANSOXIANASOGDIANA DZUNGARIA
Tian ShanTian Shan
DunhuangDunhuangChang’an LuoyangTaiyuanHangzhou
ChengduGuangzhouTurfan
Dunhuang
Khotan
KabulKashgar YarkandSamarkandBukhara Sea of
JapanYellow
Sea
East
China
SeaSouth
China
Bay ofBengal SeaArabian
SeaIndian OceanYangzi
Riv
erYellowRiverTaiwanPhilippinesSumatra BorneoCeylonBOHAIKHMERPYUINDIATIBETFERGHANATRANSOXIANAKIRGHIZ
WESTERN
TURKESTANTURKS
SOGDIANAKHAZARSDZUNGARIAEASTERN
TURKS
NINGXIANEPALMALAYASIL
LA
JAPANANNAMCHAMPAHim
alay
anMo
untainsTian ShanKunlunMountains0
0 600 km400 miTang Empire
Under temporary Tang control
Area of Chinese cultural influence
Trade route
Great Wall of China
Grand Canal
CityTHETANGDYNASTY
(618 to 907 CE)The Tang Empire,
Sogdiana and Ferghana
were briefly Tang
military protectorates
from 659 to 665 CE.lifetime, it was to become within a century the largest and greatest city
in the world.
Yang Jian’s wife died in 602, after which he felt increasingly vulner-
able and alone, and he himself fell ill and died in 604. His successor was
their second son, Yang Guang, whom his mother had favored over his
brothers in part because he appeared to her as more devoutly Buddhist
and less sexually promiscuous. It is thus ironic that Yang Guang, who
was given the reign title Sui Yangdi, was eventually portrayed by Confu-
cian historians as the polar opposite of his father, a “bad last emperor”
who quickly and wastefully lost the Mandate of Heaven. The reality is
more complicated than this, to be sure, but it is undeniable that the Sui
dynasty collapsed within a decade after Yangdi took power.
When a massive land and sea military expedition against the king-
dom of Koguryo (in the northern part of today’s Korea) failed in 612,
Yangdi could not accept defeat and cut his losses. Instead, he mounted
two more massive attacks on Koguryo in 613 and 614, and both were
equally disastrous. These futile battles required excessive tax increases,
lost much popular support for the dynasty, and revealed the growing