Three Kingdoms Era
The time of the Three Kingdoms ( Chinese 三國 / 三国, Pinyin Sanguo , approximately 208-280 n. Chr.) Is an epoch in the history of China .
By the end of the Han Dynasty , three major competitors emerged, none of which were strong enough to crush his two rivals. The Empire of China was divided into three kingdoms : Wei in the north, Wu in the south and Shu Han in the west. The latter was ruled by a prince who claimed to come from a side branch of the Han imperial family. Chinese historians, however, have never been able to decide whether the Han even had a legitimate successor; so this period is called the Three Kingdoms .
Strictly speaking, this section of Chinese history begins with the abdication of the last Han emperor Xian in favor of Cao Pi in 220 and ends with the unification of the country by Jin Wudi (280), the first emperor of the Western Jin dynasty . It is generally stated, however, that the central government has practically no longer been able to act since the year 189 and that the division of the country was already a fact at that time.
“Empires grow and shrink. States come and go. As the rule of the Zhou Imperial family neared its end, seven states fought for power and the Qin Princely House won. When the power of the Qin died out, the royal houses of Chu and Han fought for priority and the throne fell to the House of Han. The glorious rule of the Han had lasted for almost four centuries, when they too began to deteriorate and their luster to fade. "
The Yellow Turbans Revolt and the Rise of the Warlords
The Eastern Han Dynasty was plagued by internal weaknesses shortly after it was founded. The social problems that had already led to the overthrow of the Western Han Dynasty remained unsolved, and there was a lack of strong leadership within the highest ranks of government. Almost all emperors of the dynasty ascended the throne as minors, the youngest at three months of age. So they remained puppets of the imperial widows, powerful eunuchs or power-hungry ministers.
The Yellow Turbans were a secret society with DaoistColoring. They appealed to the discontent of the lower class - the farmers and craftsmen - and propagated a fairer social order. The federal government was so successful and well organized that when it called for an uprising in 184, insurgency cells were active all over the country within a very short time and the empire plunged into a serious crisis. In order to cope with the situation, the weak central government was forced to seek help from the provincial governors and local paramilitary forces organized by the landowners for their own protection. The imperial court endowed these local powers with extensive military and civil rights. Although the measure had an effect insofar as the uprising collapsed quickly, semi-autonomous regional powers remained behind,
At the same time, the power struggles at the imperial court came to a head. The warring parties included the eunuchs , whose power rested on their proximity to the emperor and the imperial widows, the relatives of the imperial family - mainly the relatives of the empress and empress widows - and the ministers and generals within the central government. These disputes were characteristic of the entire Eastern Han Dynasty. The fact that they were bloody was not a singular event of the year 189. The novelty of the year 189 was the involvement of the regional rulers - so-called warlords - in this power struggle. Until then, internal aristocratic disputes were limited to the imperial court and the capital. All of this was promoted by another development: the steadily growing influence of very rich and powerful large landowning families, who gained more and more power locally, which was also at the expense of the imperial central government. In the provinces, their patronage was often more important for military leaders than a connection to the distant imperial court.
Emperor Ling had died in 189 and the question of the succession to the throne gave rise to a bloody argument. General He Jin (何 進), the half-brother of the imperial widow, attacked the ten most powerful eunuchs who had determined the policy of the central government until then. Although He Jin was able to kill some of them, he lost his life in battle. In return, the eunuchs wanted to depose Hes aide, Yuan Shao , but he got ahead of them, resolutely set fire to the imperial palace and massacred most of them. However, some of them quickly kidnapped the two heir to the throne, Liu Bian and Liu Xieand fled. Yuan Shao therefore called on the most powerful of the provincial governors, Dong Zhuo (董卓), for help. This gave a local prince the opportunity to represent his interests at court himself. At the same time, he broke the taboo that local military rulers were not allowed to bring their armies near the capital.
Dong Zhuo was only too willing to answer the call. He was able to quickly catch the fleeing eunuchs and save the emperor, but did not think of giving up the position of power he had now gained. The apparent weakness of the central government only increased his thirst for power. He unceremoniously deposed the 13-year-old emperor, had him killed later and installed a new emperor, Xian, who was only nine years old. It was obvious that he would have loved to ascend the throne himself, and that sooner or later he would have done so. But Dong Zhuo was finally murdered by his henchman Lü Bu .
Cao Cao unites the north
There is a weighty reason why many historians set the beginning of the Three Kingdoms Period to be 189 instead of 220: With the seizure of power by Dong Zhuo , the central Han government de facto ceased to exist. The local rulers, who so far obeyed imperial orders, at least apparently, now openly renounced the central government. Alliances were forged to oppose Dong. But there was also local fighting between the warlords. The Book of the Later Han ( Chinese 後 漢書, Pinyin Hou Hanshu) documents: “Well-known metropolises are empty and without inhabitants. There are countless areas of land that are deserted for hundreds of miles! "(名 都 空 而不 居 ， 百里 絕 而無 民 者！ 不可勝數。)
Dong was killed in 192 by intrigues within his own power bloc. But his death did not bring peace to the country, because the struggle for the not yet completely disintegrated Han Empire had only really begun. Of the warlords who determined the events of this time, some were former provincial governors, others had only gained power and prestige through the fight against the Yellow Turbans . Still others had been insurgents themselves and were now able to establish themselves mainly in the peripheral areas.
The following warlords prevailed in the northern heartland of China:
- Yuan Shao (袁绍) was initially the stronger. He came from a distinguished family that had made powerful ministers in the central government for over a century.
- Cao Cao (曹操), on the other hand, was an upstart who owed his rise to the fight against the Yellow Turbans. Numerous former turban fighters also served in his army. After Dong Zhuo's death, he took Emperor Xian under his protection and was thus able to give his deeds a touch of legitimation. He was also more far-sighted than his closest competitor, Yuan Shao. For example, he pursued an active policy of land recreation in order to create the economic basis for his campaigns.
In 200 a decision was made between the two opponents. In the Battle of Guandu (官渡 之 戰), Cao Cao was able to crush Yuan's main force, although Yuan's army was ten times the majority. However, Cao turned out to be the more brilliant tactician and strategist. With only 5,000 men, he launched a risky surprise attack, crossed the Yellow River unnoticed and attacked the poorly defended main camp of Yuan Shao's troops. This attack destroyed the main supplies of Yuan's army and completely demoralized his army. Moved out with a hundred thousand men to unite the country, Yuan returned to his capital with only 800 men. He fell into depression and died the following year. Cao Caobecame the undisputed ruler of the heartland. By 207 he was also able to defeat the rest of Yuan's sons and generals, thus unifying the entire north.
The battle of Chibi
In 208, Cao Cao began to advance south. His first victim was to be Liu Biao (劉 表), who ruled what is now Hubei Province . He belonged to the imperial family and had always been the provincial governor of the region, but did not seek to expand power. He neither took part in the upheavals in the capital nor showed any interest in them. He was primarily concerned with maintaining his own local power; he was also old and sickly. It was obvious that he would not stand up to Cao Cao's army. Liu Bei (劉備), allegedly also a member of the imperial family and at that time under the protection of Liu Biao, did not want to surrender to Cao Cao without a fight. From his advisorWhen Zhuge Liang (諸葛亮) was asked to do so, Liu Bei decided to take the reins and put up resistance to Cao.
However, he was unsuccessful. After Cao Cao easily destroyed Liu Biao, Liu Bei fled to what is now Wuhan and asked Sun Quan (孫權) for help.
Sun Quan had brought the fertile area south of the Yangtze River , which corresponds to the present-day provinces of Jiangxi and Zhejiang , under his control and was one of Cao Cao's strongest remaining opponents. A negotiator from Cao Cao reached him and blatantly warned him not to help Liu Bei. But Sun Quan knew that Cao Cao intended to destroy one warlord after another. If he did nothing now, he too would have his turn in the end. To seal the alliance with Liu Bei, he gave him his sister as a wife. Cao Cao then decided to cross the Yangtze and attack Sun Quan.
To do this, he first had to prepare his armed forces, which are used to land operations, to cross the Yangtze. At Chibi (赤壁, red rock) he set up a base that should serve as a base for his water force. So that his land forces could use their usual tactics on the water and thus stand up to the Navy of Sun Quan, he had the ships tied together to form oversized rafts so that the waves would be reduced. Wooden pallets were placed over these rafts so that even his cavalry could operate on them. Sun Quan, however, took advantage of the weaknesses of these giant rafts: their immobility and the fact that the ships were made of wood. With ten small ships that are deserterscamouflaged and fully loaded with fuel, he set fire to Cao Cao's entire fleet. At the same time, Liu Bei's army attacked Cao Cao's forces in the countryside. He was only able to save himself with difficulty.
The Battle of Chibi in 208 halted Cao Cao's advance south and sealed the tripartite division of the country. With the Battle of Guandu, it is one of the most important battles in this period of Chinese history.
Tripartite
After the Chibi debacle, Cao Cao returned north to recover and regain strength.
Liu Bei was able to use the time to seize Sichuan and today's Hunan Province .
Without the external threat, however, the alliance between Liu Bei and Sun Quan quickly fell apart. Liu Bei failed against Sun Quan, who took Hunan and Hubei away from his brother-in-law. In addition, Sun Quan was able to expand his empire further south in the direction of today's Fujian and Guangdong , areas that were previously on the outskirts of China.
220 Cao Cao died, his son Cao Pi followed him. He forced the Han Emperor Xian to abdicate in his favor and established the Wei Dynasty . A year later, Liu Bei, who believed he was the rightful heir, proclaimed himself Han emperor in Sichuan. This is why his empire was called Shu Han in history . The next year, Liu Bei tried unsuccessfully to recapture the lost provinces of Hunan and Hubei in a large campaign. Shortly afterwards he died. Sun Quan called himself King of Wu from 222 and emperor of the Wu dynasty from 229 .
Between the years 220 and 260 there was a stalemate between the three states, with armed conflicts mainly taking place on the border between Shu Han and Wei. Shu's Chancellor, Zhuge Liang, tried five times in vain during his Northern Expeditions to advance into the Chinese heartland to restore the Han Dynasty.
In 249 there was a coup d'etat in Wei by the Commander-in-Chief Sima Yi (司馬 懿). Although the Wei emperor was officially left as head of state, the Sima family became the dominant family in the state.
In 263, Sima Yi's son Sima Zhao (司 馬昭) took advantage of Shu Han’s inner quarrels and invaded Sichuan. Shu Han collapsed in no time. In 265, Sima Zhao's son Sima Yan (司馬炎) deposed the last Wei emperor and established the Jin dynasty . At the same time, the first preparations against Wu were made. After years of preparation, Jin was finally able to come up with its own navy on the Yangtze. In November 279, the Jin Army crossed the river. Five months later, Wu surrendered. With that the time of the three kingdoms came to an end.
Religious life
The Confucianism experienced in this era a time of decline. He got lost in rigid teaching systems and endless commentary. Since it was no longer able to satisfy people's needs for speculative-philosophical ideas in this form, there was a revival of old folk religions, which were combined with elements of Daoism , and a strengthening of Buddhism. Under the influence of Buddhism - that already in the Han Dynastywas introduced in the first rudiments, but apparently did not expand significantly - a significant transformation of the Chinese spirituality and civilization took place in this epoch. It was preached both verbally and in writing by Chinese and non-Chinese missionaries during the Three Kingdoms Period. However, Buddhism was only able to establish itself broadly with the beginning of the Tang dynasty in China.
reception
In the general Chinese perception, the three kingdoms later became the heroic era. Even today, Chinese of all social classes are usually better acquainted with the people of this epoch than with those of the other epochs.
The epoch from the fall of the Han to the emergence of the three kingdoms is themed in the PC strategy game Total War: Three Kingdoms , which sold particularly well in China due to the plot.
Time of the Three Kingdoms in Later Literature
The novel The Story of the Three Realms mixes historical events with literary inventions and describes the adventures of three generals involved in the suppression of the " Yellow Turbans ". This period is familiar to all Chinese thanks to the many versions of the history of the Three Kingdoms in poetry and drama. The most popular heroes of these stories are Guan Yu , the later god of war, who stands for loyalty and sincerity, and Zhuge Liang , who is characterized by wisdom and intellect.
swell
literature
- Rafe de Crespigny : The Three Kingdoms and Western Jin. A History of China in the 3rd Century I . In: East Asian History 1, 1991, pp. 1 ff.
- Rafe de Crespigny: The Three Kingdoms and Western Jin. A History of China in the 3rd Century II . In: East Asian History 2, 1991, p. 143 ff.
- Albert E. Dien, Keith N. Knapp (Eds.): The Cambridge History of China . Volume 2: The Six Dynasties, 220-589. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2019.
- John E. Hill: The Peoples of the West from the Weilue魏 略by Yu Huan魚 豢: A Third Century Chinese Account Composed between 239 and 265. 2004 ( Draft annotated English translation ).
Web links
- Publications on the subject term Drei Reiche in the catalog of the German National Library
- Chen Shou Sanguo Zhi (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ H. Frankel: China to 960. In: Propylaea world history . Volume VI. Ullstein, Frankfurt a. M. 1964, pp. 207-210.
- ^ H. Frankel: China to 960. In: Propylaea world history. Volume VI. Ullstein, Frankfurt a. M. 1964, p. 206.