Why was the world-famous granary of Sui Dynasty overthrown by hungry people? Isn't Yang Guang unwilling to distribute food?

There are two widely known but contradictory understandings about the Sui Dynasty:

First, the two emperors of the Sui Dynasty built a large number of granaries with huge capacity. At the peak, the stored grain is said to be available for the whole country for 50 years.

Second, the main force to overthrow the Sui Dynasty was the hungry people who rose up everywhere. Both Li Yuan, an aristocrat who occupied Chang 'an, and Wagang Army who controlled Luokoucang used food as a weapon to buy people's hearts.

Then the question comes: Why did Yang Guang, Emperor Yangdi Yang Di and officials at all levels sit back and watch the people rebel but not open the warehouse for disaster relief? Is it really true that these grains are only for official use and can never be given to the people, as rumored on the Internet?

Let's talk about the ancient food problem first.

Huiluocang site

Fill your stomach? It is a matter of life and death for the feudal dynasty.

"Food is the most important thing for the people". In today's peacetime when the productive forces are highly developed, we don't feel much about it. But in ancient society, the primary criterion of "prosperous times" was to let all people have a full stomach, and it was best to have some food. Historical Records describes the grand occasion of the Western Han Dynasty under the rule of Wenjing.

The millet in Taicang is full of dew and accumulated outside, so that it is corrupt and inedible.

After the Anshi Rebellion, Du Fu wrote when recalling the Kaiyuan flourishing age initiated by Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty:

Rice is fat and white, and public and private warehouses are rich.

Du Fu's recollection of the past

And these two prosperous dynasties, regarded as the benchmark of China feudal society, eventually perished because of economic problems, specifically, they did not solve the problem of food and clothing for farmers:

The government of the Western Han Dynasty was usurped by Wang Mang because it could not deal with social contradictions such as the displacement of farmers caused by land annexation. The core of the reform plan put forward by Wang Mang, a "traveler", is to solve the farmers' problems at that time with the ancient "well field system". In the end, the reform failed, and the Qinglin and the Red Eyebrow Army, which were developed in order to grab food, quickly overthrew the new dynasty.

As for the demise of the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was also the Yellow Scarf Uprising, which originated from the problem of agricultural production. It not only seriously shook Liu's ruling foundation, but also provided an opportunity for various warlords.

The Tang Dynasty, which fought a tug-of-war with the northern provinces for hundreds of years, was fatally hit by Huang Chao, which also gave warlords of all walks of life the opportunity to stand on their own feet. Zhu Wen was born in the rebel army, and later turned against the uprising and simply forced Tang Shi to abdicate.

Therefore, food can be regarded as the cornerstone of feudal society.

Huang Chao (875-884)

So, is it so difficult to feed the people?

This is really difficult for several reasons:

First, the productivity is too low. Take the most powerful Tang Dynasty as an example. According to the New Tang Book and other data, the grain yield per mu in normal years is about 1 stone, which is about 53 kilograms today. In 20 18, China's grain yield per mu was 375 kg. In other words, the same land can only produce the grain equivalent to today's 1/7.

Second, natural disasters. The above data is the output in an ideal state. But since ancient times, agricultural production has never been able to get rid of the embarrassing situation of "relying on the sky to eat". Until recent years, the increasing development of agricultural technology has eased this situation.

In the history of China, droughts, floods and locust plagues left all dynasties unprepared. Here are two examples:

In BC 14 1 year, Liu Che, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, ascended the throne, taking over the unprecedented prosperity of the dynasty after Wenjing. However, only three years later, the Yellow River flooded, causing widespread famine:

The river overflowed the plain, and people were hungry and killed each other.

Yes, literally: people eat people.

At the beginning of Emperor Taizong's accession to the throne, Li Shimin suffered from floods, droughts and locusts for two consecutive years. In order to survive, the people in Guanzhong have to sell their children. "The people sell their children and women to get enough food and clothing." Fortunately, the court paid for the redemption of these children and avoided a large-scale human tragedy.

Drought-stricken land