As we all know, the fuse of the Sui Dynasty’s death was Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty’s expedition to Koguryo. The books like the Sui Shu compiled by the Tang Dynasty, Old Tang Shu, Tang Shu, Zi Zhi Tong Jian and other historical books appeared in the Five Dynasties and the Northern Song Dynasty and are so recorded. Obviously, in order to verify the legitimacy of the new dynasty, these rather tendentious records for the Tang Dynasty, which followed the Sui Dynasty, were undoubtedly the most normal thing. However, the existing 36 war witnesses’epitaphs, reviewing the atmosphere in the war and the deeds of the soldiers who died for the country, may correct the traditional views held since the early Tang Dynasty.

Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty; Koguryo; epitaph; the emperors and the officials in the early Tang Dynasty; the reason of the Sui Dynasty’s death