Chapter Ⅰ
Historical Background of the Opera
1.The Rise of the Tang Dynasty
2.Li Shimin， Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty
3.Wei Zheng， the Great Imperial Admonisher
4.The Peculiar Relationship Between Li Shimin and Wei Zheng
Chapter Ⅱ
Creation of the Opera
1.The Playwrights and the Libretto
2.The Major Performers
3.Chronicle of Events in Creating and Developing the Opera
Chapter Ⅲ
Aspects of the Opera
1.Synopsis of the Five Scenes
2.Main Characters in the Oroera
3.Critiques of the Opera
The Script of Beijing Opera Grand Occasion in the Golden
Years of Zhenguan
The Beijing Opera ABC
Endnotes
Bibiliography
About the Author
In 607,he ordered to build an imperial highway from Chang'an to Jinyang.In 608, he conscripted over a million men to construct the Yongji Canal.Later, when there were not enough men, he started to conscript women as well.When Emperor Yang went on the tours on the Grand Canal, he would take splendid imperial barges that were said to be sufficiently large and luxurious to serve as floating palaces.Specially recruited laborers and palace servants dressed in brocades pulled the barges by means of ropes.The fleet was one hundred kilometers in length.The cost in human life in these canal projects was tremendous: four to five out of every ten died.Emperor Yang also conscripted large numbers of men to fortify the borders along the line of the Great Wall.In one day during 607 more than a million men were sent out to work on the Great Wall in the north of today's Shaanxi Province.Five or six out of every ten laborers died there.
The harshness of the Sui system of forced labor was the major cause of the peasant uprisings in Emperor Yang's last years.There were also many desertions from the Sui army and rebellions headed by previous Sui generals and court officials.Those uprisings and rebellions occurred in widely separated parts of the empire.They made the conditions of the people even more miserable.One account in the Book of Sui presents a harrowing picture:
At this time (in 615) the people abandoned their family homesteads to assemble within the fortifications of walled towns.
