Emperor Yang of Sui in the context of "604"

34°43′43″N 112°37′21″E / 34.72861°N 112.62250°E / 34.72861; 112.62250

The Old City of Luoyang is a site located 15 kilometers east of the urban area of modern Luoyang. It was the capital of the Northern Wei dynasty. Emperor Yang of Sui rebuilt the city in 605. The Old City was listed as major cultural heritage sites under national-level protection in 1961, and as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site in 2014, as one part of the larger Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor designation.

Jinshi (Chinese: 進士; pinyin: jìnshì) was the highest and final degree in the imperial examination in Imperial China. The examination was usually taken in the imperial capital in the palace, and was also called the Metropolitan Exam. Recipients are sometimes referred to in English-language sources as Imperial Scholars.

The jinshi degree was first created after the institutionalization of the civil service exam. Initially it had been "for six categories" but was later consolidated into a single degree. The examination system first appeared during the Han dynasty, but the jinshi degree first appeared under the reign of Emperor Yang of Sui. During the Tang dynasty, every year around one to two percent of test takers would obtain a jinshi title out of a total of one to two thousand test takers. By the second half of the Tang dynasty, the majority of senior government officials were jinshi degree holders.

Yang Yong (Chinese: 楊勇; died August 604), Xianbei name Xiandifa (睍地伐), also known by his posthumous title of Prince of Fangling (房陵王), was a crown prince of Sui dynasty. He was the oldest son of Emperor Wen and Empress Dugu. He drew ire from his parents for wastefulness (which Emperor Wen disliked) and having many concubines (which Empress Dugu disliked), while his younger brother, Yang Guang, whom Emperor Wen and Empress Dugu thought lacked these faults, was favored by them. In 600, Emperor Wen deposed Yang Yong and replaced him with Yang Guang. Subsequently, after Emperor Wen died on 13 August 604 (a death that most historians, while acknowledging a lack of conclusive evidence, believed to be a murder ordered by Yang Guang), Yang Guang had Yang Yong put to death.