• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.49
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• pp.365-399
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• 2024

Tang Taizong was regarded as the emperor with the idea of cherishing the common people, paying close attention to his subjects' military service, and mobilizing of the people as recorded in Zhenguan Zhengyao (Essentials for Government), from the Zhenguan period during the reign of Tang Taizong. Contrary to the above, in reality, Li Shimin, the name of Tang Taizong, mobilized many subjects in the construction of Luoyang Palace in second capital city called Dongdu and Jiucheng Palace, a summer palace during Sui-Tang dynasty, and he requisitioned the subjects of Guannei Province and Longyou Province to install and protect provisional powers and a county in the Gaochang Kingdom. Given his antinomic behavior, the evaluation of Li Shimin as an ideal Confucian monarch should be reconsidered based on Zhenguan zhengyao and other historical records. Dividing the 19 years before Goguryeo-Tang War in 645 into two periods, from the throne to 637 and from 639-644, the subjects were burdened by the construction of Luoyang Palace and Jiucheng Palace in the former period. In the latter period, after the conquest of the Gaochang Kingdom, there was a requisition for the transport of troops and supplies to be stationed in Xizhou, a reorganized prefecture and counties in the Gaochang Kingdom territory; probably mainly limited to the provinces of Guannei and Lungyou, which were geographically close to the West Regin that is now known as Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The burden in the latter period was relatively less than in the former period. Even so, the number of households in 639, fourteenth year of Tang Taizong's reign, was only 34.1% and 26.8%, respectively, in 609, the sixth year of Sui Yangdi's reign. In this situation, Taizong's Goguryeo Invasion was not conducted in an economically situation during the early days of the Tang Dynasty.