Читать книгу Asia Past and Present - Peter P. Wan - Страница 46

The emperor is a ship, and the common people are the water. The water can lift the ship, and it can capsize it.

—Li Shimin

The Sui (581–618) and Tang (618–907) Dynasties repeated the earlier Qin and Han pattern of a short dynasty paving the road for a long and stable dynasty to follow. They are sometimes seen as a continuum constituting China’s Second Empire. Together, the two dynasties reigned a little over three centuries. The Tang, building on the Sui foundation, became the crowning glory of China’s imperial rule.