Yellow Turban Rebellion
| Yellow Turban Rebellion | |||||||
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| Part of the wars of the Three Kingdoms | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Han Dynasty | Yellow Turbans | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| He Jin Huangfu Song Lu Zhi Zhu Jun Dong Zhuo |
Zhang Jiao Zhang Bao Zhang Liang |
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| Strength | |||||||
| Various | 360,000 | ||||||
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The Yellow Turban Rebellion, also translated as the Yellow Scarves Rebellion, (simplified Chinese: 黄巾之乱; traditional Chinese: 黃巾之亂; pinyin: huáng jīn zhī luàn) was a 184 AD peasant rebellion against Emperor Ling of Han. It is named for the color of the scarves which the rebels wore about their heads. The rebels were associated with secret Taoist societies and the rebellion marked an important point in the history of Taoism. The rebellion is the opening event in the Chinese literary classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
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Causes
A major cause of the Yellow Turban Rebellion was an agrarian crisis, in which famine forced many farmers and former military settlers in the north to seek employment in the south, where large landowners exploited the labor surplus to amass large fortunes. The situation was further aggravated by smaller floods along the lower course of the Yellow River. The peasants were further oppressed by high taxes imposed in order to fund the construction of fortifications along the Silk Road and garrisons against foreign infiltration and invasion. In this situation, landowners, landless peasants, and unemployed former-soldiers formed armed bands (around AD 170), and eventually private armies, setting the stage for armed conflict.
At the same time, the Han was weakening internally. The power of the landowners had become a longstanding problem (s. Wang Mang), but in the run-up to the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the court eunuchs in particular gained considerably in influence over the emperor, which they abused to enrich themselves. Ten of the most powerful eunuchs formed a group known as The Ten Regular Attendants and the emperor referred to one of them (Zhang Rang) as his "foster father". The government was widely regarded as corrupt and incapable and the famines and floods were seen as an indication that a decadent emperor had lost his mandate of heaven.
Because of its plan for a new beginning, the Yellow Turban sect of Zhang Jiao was to prove the Han dynasty's most dangerous enemy. In preparation for his revolt, Zhang sent disciples out to gain support and organize followers throughout North China. They were helped by local political discontent, and by droughts and plague among the people. The rebels even had allies in the imperial court, and they were able to make their preparations while government officials were either ignorant of their intentions or intimidated by their power.[1]
Zhang Jiao planned a rising throughout the empire, but before the call to arms had been issued the plan was betrayed, the rebel sympathizers in Luoyang were arrested and executed, and the revolt in the provinces had to begin ahead of time, in the second month of 184. Despite the premature call and an inevitable lack of co-ordination, tens of thousands of men rose in rebellion, government offices were plundered and destroyed and the imperial armies were immediately forced onto the defensive.[1]
The rebels
Founders
The Yellow Turban Rebellion was led by Zhang Jiao known as the "General of Heaven" (who is also referred to as Zhang Jue) and his two younger brothers Zhang Bao and Zhang Liang, who were born in the Julu district of the Ye Prefecture (today Pingxiang County in Hebei Province). The brothers had founded a taoist religious sect in Shandong Province. They were healers, usually accepting patients pro bono who could not afford to pay them. The two brothers saw the harshness of the world through their work with the peasants who were often abused by the local government, overburdened and hungry due to the heavy taxes that were levied upon them.
Daoist Sect
The Yellow Turbans were the first but not last followers of the "Way of Supreme Peace" (太平道, Taiping Dao) and venerated the deity Huang-lao, who according to Zhang Jiao had given him a sacred book called the Crucial Keys to the Way of Peace (太平要術, Taiping Yaoshu). Zhang Jiao was said to be a sorcerer and styled himself as the "Great Teacher". The sect taught the principles of equal rights of all peoples and equal distribution of land; when the rebellion was proclaimed, the sixteen-word slogan was created by Zhang Jiao: "The Blue Sky (ie. the Han Dynasty) has perished, the Yellow Sky (ie. the rebellion) will soon rise; in this year of Jia Zi, let there be prosperity in the world!" (蒼天已死，黃天當立。歲在甲子，天下大吉。) Since all three of the brothers were healers, they spread it easily by telling their patients to spread it amongst the peasants.
Religious practices
Zhang Jiao used a form of Taoism to cure the sick by confession of sins and by faith healing. The religion and the politics of the Zhang brothers were based on belief in an apocalyptic change in the order of the world, and they told their followers that in the jiazi (Chinese: 甲子; pinyin: jiǎzi) year, beginning of the new sexagenary cycle, the sky would become yellow, and that under this new heaven the rule of Han would end and a new era of government begin. The characters jiazi became a symbol of the coming change and later, when the followers of Zhang Jiao went to battle they wore a yellow cloth bound about their heads as a badge. From this there came the name Yellow Turbans.[1] Nearly all of the religious practices of the sect were communal activities (collective trances, fasts). A typical worship service consisted largely of music and chanting, the burning of incense, and sermons or anecdotes that could be given by any member of the congregation including women and those perceived as barbarians. Several Xiongnu such as Yufulao are known to have at least lent their support to the sect and a number of scholars have theorized that Zhang Jiao may have derived some of his teachings from Shamanism as he appeared as a mystical healer with a direct link to the heavens.
While many of the beliefs of the early Path of Supreme Peace have been lost, it is very likely that they had some relation to the Celestial Masters sect considering Zhang Jiao claimed to be a descendant of Zhang Daoling. It is further worthy to note that many of the writings found in the 52 surviving chapters of the Taiping Jing that are found in the Daozang have a direct relationship to the Celestial Masters sect. Regardless, it is quite likely that any discrepancies found within the Sect were suppressed by later Taoist sects. [2]
Military action
The Yellow Turban forces were mostly concentrated in three areas. The group led by Zhang Jiao and his two brothers gained their support from the region just north of the Yellow River, near Zhang Jiao's home territory of Julu and his base in Wei commandery. A second major rising took place in Guangyang and Zhuo commanderies in You province, in the neighborhood of present-day Beijing. The third center of rebellion was in the three commanderies of Yingchuan, Runan and Nanyang. This force had evidently been intended to co-operate with the traitors inside Luoyang in the attempt to seize the capital, but even without that support, the rebels in this region were a major threat.[1]
In the first weeks of the uprising, the government of Emperor Ling was chiefly concerned with finding and executing the traitors at the capital and with the immediate defense of the city. He Jin, the half-brother of Empress He, was placed in charge of putting the rebellion down in the capital. In the third month, when these preparations had been made, three armies were sent out to deal with the rebellion. One was sent east against Zhang Jiao. The other two, commanded by Huangfu Song and by Zhu Jun, were sent against the rebels in Yingchuan, Runan and Nanyang. Zhu Jun recommended Sun Jian's appointment to call up troops and join his forces. With such widespread rebellion to deal with, the imperial commanders were anxious to gain any reinforcements that they could, and the territory of the lower Yangzi, not directly affected by Zhang Jiao's movement, was close enough to be a convenient source of recruits for the imperial army. Sun Jian collected his troops, and he marched to join Zhu Jun's army with a thousand men under his command. The fighting against the Yellow Turbans of Yingchuan, Runan and Nanyang was frequently fierce, with varying success.[1]
In the third month of 184, soon after the rebellion had broken out, the Yellow Turban Zhang Mancheng defeated and killed the Grand Administrator of Nanyang, and in the fourth month, at the beginning of summer, the imperial army under Zhu Jun was defeated by the Yellow Turban Bo Cai in Yingchuan, while the Grand Administrator of Runan was defeated by another force of rebels.[1]
In the middle of the year 184, however, the tide turned. In the fifth month Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun combined their armies to defeat Bo Cai, and in the sixth month they destroyed the Yellow Turbans of Runan in a Battle at Xihua in Henan. Then the two generals went separate ways, Huangfu Song to join in the attack on the rebels north of the Yellow River, and Zhu Jun to deal with the Yellow Turbans of Nanyang. By this time, a new Grand Administrator had defeated Zhang Mancheng and killed him. In that campaign, however, the Yellow Turbans were able to capture the capital of the commandery, Wan city, and they took refuge there.[1]
For the next several months, the core of the campaign was the fighting in and around Wan city, until the place was finally stormed and the defenders massacred in the eleventh month, midwinter at the beginning of 185. The capture of Wan city was the last great defeat of the Yellow Turbans. Their forces in the North China plain had been destroyed in the field by the imperial armies during the summer, their strongholds were besieged and captured, and the three Zhang brothers were dead. The remaining, scattered rebels were pursued by commandery and county forces in various mopping-up operations, and in the twelfth month of the Chinese year, mid-February of 185, the government issued a proclamation of celebration, changing the reign title to Zhongping (中平), or "Pacification Achieved."[1]
The rebels were defeated in February AD 185, but only two months later, the rebellion broke out again. In AD 185, it spread to the Taihang Mountains on the western border of Hebei Province and in 186 it reached Shaanxi, Hebei, and Liaoning, in 188 it reached Shanxi. In the same year, a second independent uprising took place in Sichuan, but it wasn't coordinated with the Yellow Turban Rebellion in other parts of the country.[1]
In 192, Cao Cao was able to gain the submission of a rebel army after they marched into Yan province. The Yellow Turbans eventually ceased to pose a military challenge by the year 205.
Aftermath and impact
The Han armies had gained a glorious victory, and it was a remarkable achievement that they removed so quickly the threat of Zhang Jiao's rebellion. The cost, however, was very high. Over wide areas the offices of the government had been destroyed, magistrates had been killed, and whole districts were cut off from the writ of the central government. The enemy had been slaughtered in the hundreds and thousands, many innocent people had been left homeless or destitute by the wars, and the economy and society over great parts of this most populous region of the empire were left in ruins and without resources. Unrest remained and bandits appeared in every district; the government, in no position to put down all the lesser disturbances, was forced to patch up the situation as best it could. A long period of consolidation was needed to restore some measure of peace and prosperity, but that breathing space was not given.[1]
While the Yellow Turban rebellion was eventually defeated, the military leaders and local administrators gained self-governing powers in the process. This hastened the collapse of the Han Dynasty in AD 220. After Emperor Ling of Han died in AD 189, a power struggle between He Jin and the eunuchs ensued in which He Jin was assassinated on September 22, 189. He Jin's chief ally Yuan Shao retaliated by setting the emperor's palace on fire and slaughtering the eunuchs. Finally, the warlord Dong Zhuo was able to gain control over the underage heir to the throne which he used as a legitimation for occupying the capital, which was ransacked on the occasion. Because of his cruelty, Dong Zhuo was murdered in 192, setting the stage for Cao Cao's rise to power.
Despite the negativity portrayed in the Romance of Three Kingdoms, being a large scale rebellion against corrupted authority, several peasant uprisings in China were patterned after the Yellow Turban Rebellion or claimed to be its spiritual successors.
References
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