Han Shimou

Changes brought about by the Yellow Turban Rebellion in history

The Yellow Turban Rebellion

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was political corruption. Within the ruling class, there was a struggle between relatives and eunuchs to seize power. They took turns to seize power, and at the same time, they exploited and oppressed the people more cruelly. The royal landlords occupied the land, making it appear that "houses are distributed in the state and counties, and the fields are connected to Fang Kingdom." The imposition of taxes on the people, coupled with droughts and floods, have occurred year after year, resulting in the vast number of farmers living in poverty and ruining their families. There is a bleak scene of "exile out of ravines, marrying wives and selling children". There is a desolate scene of "a wide land but not plowing, and the people have nothing to eat" everywhere. The working people were so desperate that they had to raise the flag and rebel. In 184 A.D., the farmers in Jizhou first revolted under the leadership of Zhang Jiao, and then the farmers in Yingchuan, Nanyang and other places rose up to respond. "In the ten days, the world responded, and the capital was shocked." In the end, the peasant uprisings in various places were defeated by the suppression of the Eastern Han court and local powerful armed forces.

In the process of suppressing the Yellow Turban Peasant Uprising, landlords from all over the country took the opportunity to expand their power and occupy the land, thus forming a song force, "both business and being self-reliant". For example:

Gongsun Du occupies Liaodong.

Liu Yu and Gongsun Zan successively occupied Youzhou.

Yuan Shao occupies Jizhou, Qingzhou and Bingzhou.

Cao Cao occupied Yanzhou.

Sun Ce occupied Jiangdong.

Yuan Shu first occupied Nanyang, and then part of Yangzhou.

Liu Biao occupies Jingzhou.

Liu Yan, occupying Yizhou.

Zhang Lu occupied Hanzhong.

Tao Qian, Liu Bei and Lv Bu occupied Xuzhou one after another.

Dong Zhuo, Li Yu and others have successively occupied Sili.

Ma Teng, Han Sui, occupy Liangzhou.

Zhang Xiu, occupy Wan.