Yellow turbans
| date | 184-205 AD |
|---|---|
| place | China |
| output | Victory of the Han Dynasty |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
|
Yellow turbans |
|
| Commander | |
|
Zhang Jue
|
|
The uprising of the Yellow Turban ( Chinese 黄巾 之 乱 / 黃巾 之 亂 , Pinyin Huáng Jīn Zhī Luàn ) was a religious and social peasant uprising of the Taiping movement ( Chinese 太平道 , Pinyin Tàipíng dào ) in the late Han Dynasty at the end of the 2nd century. Their followers were recognizable by their yellow headscarves (hence turbans ).
The cause of the uprising was the agrarian crisis of that time. Many uprooted peasants and former military settlers were looking for land, increasing the workforce in the south and becoming dependent on the rich landowners who amassed huge fortunes and set up their own militias . Homeless farmers formed wandering gangs (approx. 170). The situation was exacerbated by minor floods on the lower reaches of the Yellow River .
The excessive power of the large landowners already existed at the beginning of the late Han dynasty (cf. Wang Mang ) and intensified in the 2nd century. The ministers and eunuchs of that time left huge fortunes and fought at court for influence over the weak government. Officials were seen as "demoralized and hollowed out", which favored the sects .
The uprising was organized by Zhang Jiao and his two brothers Zhang Bao and Zhang Liang in Shandong . Zhang Jiao was the first patriarch of a Daoist sect of the "Great Peace" (Taiping Dao), which propagated the equality of all and the commonality of all goods. The god of this sect was Huanglao , a mixture of the Lord of the Yellow Earth ( Huangdi ) and Laozi . It was also characterized by festivals and ceremonies lasting several days , with the confession of sins , common trance , magic and sorcery and sometimes sexual rites .
This Daoist sect had a whole hierarchy of leaders who had military, administrative and religious functions at the same time, and that since 175 in eight provinces . These people were also married and had social responsibilities.
The Zhang brothers called themselves "Generals Lords of Heaven, Earth, and Men". Their uprising broke out in Shandong and Henan on the second moon of the year 184 . At the beginning of the uprising, the Yellow Turban troops numbered 360,000 men. The Empress's half-brother, He Jin , was given high command and victorious in February 185, but after two months the uprising broke out again. The Zhang brothers were killed at the beginning of the uprising.
In 185 the movement covered the area of Taihangshan (a mountain range in Hebei), and expanded in 186 to Shaanxi , Hebei and Liaoning , 188 also to Shanxi . In 188 there was a second uprising in Sichuan . Its leader confessed to the yellow turbans, but did not establish any cooperation and called himself Heavenly Son. Through the uprising of the Yellow Turbans, the generals who were entrusted with the suppression of this uprising came to power.
December 188 / early 189 the rebels threatened the capital Luoyang , whereupon the imperial guards were sent to the west and south into the field. The Southern Army achieved a success, but its commander was imprisoned anyway.
When Emperor Ling died shortly afterwards (189), there was a dispute over the succession to the throne, which was fought between He Jin and the eunuchs - the previous rulers in the state. The eunuchs murdered He Jin and then tried to depose his sub-commander Yuan Shao . He acted promptly, set fire to the imperial palace and massacred the eunuchs.
The success, however, was borne by someone else: Dong Zhuo , a warlord, seized the underage prince and with this legitimation and a few troops occupied the capital Luoyang , which was terribly plundered. In 192 he was murdered for his cruelty, and Cao Cao's rise began. In this sense, the uprising ushered in the overthrow of the Han dynasty .
In 192 Cao Cao triumphed over allegedly 300,000 men of the Yellow Turbans and integrated them largely into his own army. But even after that there were still activities of the Yellow Turbans, which supported one or the other warlord and finally disappeared around 207. Even the youthful Emperor Xiandi was repeatedly in their hands between 192 and 196, and although they disliked the Han, they dared not kill the powerless emperor.
See also
literature
- Denis Twitchett , Michael Loewe (Eds.): The Cambridge History of China . Volume 1: The Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 BC – AD 220 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 1986, ISBN 0-521-21447-5 .