Who Was When

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Sui dynasty隋

ChinaHeartland today: China

Before and after

  • In the Central Plains of China:Came before: Three Kingdoms Came after: Tang dynasty

    The Jin dynasty and the Northern and Southern dynasties came in between, 266 to 589 CE.

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Meanwhile…

A single reign reunited China after nearly four centuries of division, rebuilding a shared bureaucracy and digging a canal system that still shapes the country's map. It burned through that gain in one generation, exhausted by canal labour and a failed war in Korea, and fell within 37 years of its founding.

Also alive at the same time

Key events

  1. General Yang Jian deposes the Northern Zhou child emperor and founds the Sui as Emperor Wen

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  2. Emperor Wen begins selecting officials through written examination rather than birth, a system later dynasties would keep for 1,300 years

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  3. Sui armies conquer the southern Chen state, reuniting China for the first time in nearly 370 years

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  4. – Emperor Yang orders the digging and linking of canals that become the Grand Canal, joining the Yellow River and Yangtze basins

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  5. – Three huge, failed invasions of Goguryeo in Korea drain the treasury and cost hundreds of thousands of conscripted lives

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  6. Emperor Yang is assassinated by his own officers at Jiangdu as rebellions spread; the Sui dynasty ends

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