During the final years of the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Yang Guang ruled with brutal extravagance, launching massive construction projects and endless military campaigns that drove the people to desperation and rebellion.
Among the many peasant rebel armies, one was led by Zhai Rang. Based at Wagang Stronghold (south of present-day Huaxian County, Henan), it was known as the Wagang Army. Many of its members were fishermen and hunters, brave and skilled in battle. Zhai Rang, bold and resourceful, quickly grew his force to over ten thousand men.
In 613 AD, during Emperor Yang's reign, the Duke of Yue, Yang Xuangan, rebelled against the Sui dynasty amid widespread peasant uprisings but was soon defeated and killed. His subordinate Li Mi was captured during the escape but managed to slip away while being transported. By 617, Li Mi had joined the Wagang rebel army, where he persuaded the leader Zhai Rang to unite with nearby rebel forces, securing victories against the Sui army and earning Zhai Rang's trust. The following year, Li Mi took full command of the army and declared himself Duke of Wei.
After seizing power, Li Mi sought to unite rebel forces and attract Sui officials to his cause. During his assault on Luoyang, the Sui capital, he issued a manifesto calling for the overthrow of Emperor Yang. The proclamation listed the emperor's ten great crimes—tyranny, corruption, and ruin of the state—then declared: "Even if the ruler's heart were made of stone, it would surely be moved by such suffering."
"Even if all the bamboo on the southern mountains were used to make writing slips, it would not be enough to record Yang Guang's crimes; even if the waters of the Eastern Sea were drained, they could not wash away his sins."
Zhai Rang was later killed by Li Mi, a devastating blow to the Wagang Army. In the fourteenth year of the Daye era, Emperor Yang was strangled by imperial guard general Yuwen Huaji and his conspirators in Jiangdu, present-day Yangzhou, Jiangsu.
Later, the idiom "crimes too numerous to record" came to describe evils too many to list.
Source: *Old Book of Tang*, "Biography of Li Mi"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "罄竹难书" came to describe evils too many to list.