A spectacularly bright apparition of Halley's Comet was meticulously recorded by imperial astronomers in Luoyang, China, during the reign of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty. In Chinese political theology, comets were viewed as an explicit manifestation of the 'Mandate of Heaven' warning that the ruler was failing. The comet's appearance coincided with massive peasant rebellions and failed military campaigns against Korea, which quickly led to the collapse of the short-lived Sui Dynasty.

The event became a recurring motif in Tang Dynasty court poetry, where writers used the Sui comet as a classical moral metaphor to praise the righteousness of the new Tang rulers while warning them against imperial pride and decadence.