600-649

Chinese Emperor

T'ai-Tsung was one of China's greatest emperors. During his reign, China achieved perhaps her highest cultural peaks and regained much of her national identity. T'ai-Tsung and his father helped to expel foreign forces and reunify China, setting the stage for a return to former power.

T'ai-Tsung was born as Li Shih-min around 600 in a China alive with the memory of past glories. Little is known of his early life except that he had at least two older brothers. His father, a general in the imperial army, tired of China's status as a former great power and rose against the government, taking power himself in about 617. This uprising was the final blow for the Sui dynasty and established the T'ang dynasty with Tsung's father as the first T'ang emperor. Although many accounts claim that T'ai-Tsung played a major role in...