Riot of the red eyebrows
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The Red Eyebrow Revolt ( Chinese 赤眉 之 亂 / 赤眉 之 乱 , Pinyin Chìméi Zhī Luàn ) was a peasant revolt in China that lasted from 18 to 27 AD. It was caused by two shifts in the Yellow River (Huanghe) and the famine resulting from the floods.
Natural disaster
At the time of Emperor Ping and Imperial Administrator Wang Mang , 44 million people lived in northern China, in the south only 13.7 (count: August of the year 2 AD). Soon after this census (in summer 3, 4 or 5) a natural disaster broke out: the Yellow River divided its course, part of the water now flowed south of the Shandong Peninsula into the Huai River . In addition, in 11 the northern arm shifted its mouth (up until then near Tianjin ) southwards.
The floods caused famine and epidemics. All of these catastrophes left many lives. There was mass emigration to the south. Even at the time of Emperor Han Wudi , during whose reign the empire had been stable, it took 23 years to close a minor breach of the dike, and here the southern arm of the Huanghe could not be cut off until April 8, 1970. (Incidentally, in 1194 the Huanghe split its course again.)
The uprising began until Wang Mang died
The worst was in Shandong , cut off from the water , where a poorly organized army of starving people formed unnoticed by the government. Its first leader was Fan Chong , who in the year 18 was able to rally 10,000 men behind him within a year. Four other captains joined him. That year, Emperor Wang Mang was forced to act, but the sent army was unsuccessful. In the year 22 he again sent an army to Shandong, which crossed the river in winter when the water level was low. She was defeated, her general killed. With that, Wang Mang had lost the eastern provinces.
The peasants had their foreheads painted red to distinguish them from the imperial soldiers with real paint ( henna or safflower) and were therefore given the name Red Eyebrows . Otherwise there were no banners, no military idiosyncrasies, and no political programs. Their leaders gave themselves simple titles. The discipline of this army was also simple: whoever killed someone was killed, whoever injured someone had to compensate them. Nor is there any evidence that the Red Eyebrows were an ideologically motivated sect: their sole aim was to find ways out of hunger.
Eventually, the Red Eyebrow Army grew so large that it was divided into three divisions. One of them marched on Nanyang (in present-day Henan ) in the summer of 22 and spread terror among the landowners in this region. Liu Yan alias Liu Bosheng, a descendant of the founder of the Han dynasty in the 8th generation, now built an army to face Wang Mang on the one hand and the red eyebrows on the other. He relied on allied warlords and other rebel gangs.
Liu Bosheng finally triumphed over Wang Mang's troops in January or February 23, but was not proclaimed emperor because his allies distrusted him. Instead, his cousin Liu Xuan was proclaimed emperor of a Han dynasty on July 7, 23. The new emperor, now called Gengshi, defeated Wang Mang's army again, this time at Kunyang. He then had Liu Bosheng killed. Then he marched on the capital Chang'an , so that the local residents and rulers turned against Wang Mang and killed him before the arrival of the Han army. Shortly afterwards, the second capital, Luoyang , also fell .
Eastern Han seizure of power and end of the uprising
Emperor Gengshi now made three mistakes:
- if he failed to reach an agreement with the Red Eyebrows, whose army was already east of Luoyang by the end of 23rd. Though he received the leaders like Fan Chong and gave them titles, he did not integrate them, with which the mass of peasants were dissatisfied.
- he released Liu Bosheng's younger brother, Liu Xiu, from his area. He was now able to bring about 13% of the population behind him in the north and set up his own army.
- he moved the capital to Chang'an and thus turned his supporters against him, who found themselves trapped in the valley in view of the threat posed by the Red Eyebrows.
Emperor Gengshi controlled only about a quarter of the population, there was even scuffle in the palace, and his supporters withdrew with their troops. In February or March 25, the Red Eyebrows installed the puppet emperor Liu Penzi , appointed some of the illiterate leaders ministers, and advanced on Chang'an. The basin now actually turned out to be a trap; Emperor Gengshi was captured, deposed, and finally strangled (October 25). The city has been looted, pillaged and destroyed. The body of the first Han Empress Lü Zhi was dragged from her grave.
Simultaneously with these events, Liu Bosheng's younger brother, Liu Xiu, ascended the imperial throne as Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han on August 5, 25 . He chose Luoyang as the capital and gradually expanded his sphere of influence. In Chang'an, the Red Eyebrows had taken no precautions, so they suffered military setbacks, frosts and blizzards in winter. By March 26, the city and the surrounding area were exhausted; the troops had to withdraw. They returned to Chang'an on October 26th and stayed there until January 27th. When the imperial army then advanced, they were, still weakened, in the same trap as Wang Mang and Liu Xuan and surrendered to Emperor Guangwu.
literature
- Hans Bielenstein : Wang Mang, the restoration of the Han dynasty, and Later Han. In: Denis Twitchett , Michael Loewe (eds.): The Cambridge History of China. Volume 1. Cambridge et al. a. 1986, p. 223ff. [not fully evaluated for the article]
Web links
Remarks
- ^ Hans Bielenstein : Wang Mang, the restoration of the Han dynasty, and Later Han. In: Denis Twitchett , Michael Loewe (eds.): The Cambridge History of China. Volume 1. Cambridge et al. a. 1986, p. 223ff., Here p. 250.