Chapter 2 Chapter 1 The sky is dead, Huang Tian should stand

Although the Yellow Turban Uprising ended in failure, it directly led to the separatist regime in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, and the unification of Qin and Han was eventually replaced by the Three Kingdoms. The "death" of "Cangtian" and the "establishment" of "Huangtian" are not fate, but the inevitability of the aggregation of several chances. When talking about the history of the Three Kingdoms, we always talk about the Yellow Turban Uprising first. At the beginning of "Three Kingdoms", the title of "Wei Shu · Emperor Wu Ji" wrote: "At the end of Guanghe, the yellow scarf rises. Worship the captain of the rider, and fight against the bandits in Yingchuan." The opening account made it clear that Cao Cao stepped onto the stage of history and started from the beginning. By participating in the suppression of the Yellow Turban Uprising.From history to literature, the first recap is also "feasting the three brothers of the Taoyuan heroes, beheading the first hero of the Yellow Turban to make meritorious service", and it is the first event from the gathering of the three brothers Zhang Jiao, Zhang Bao, and Zhang Liang, which leads to the three brothers Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei Jinlan swore.Like Cao and Liu, Sun Jian, the founder of Soochow, also started his career by conquering the Yellow Turbans.It can be said that all the Nongtaoers who were in trouble before the formation of the Three Kingdoms and at the beginning of their formation were implicated in the Yellow Turban Uprising, otherwise they might not be able to succeed.If the Yellow Turban Uprising had never happened, there would be a Three Kingdoms period in the evolution of Chinese history, which may be a question mark.

The Yellow Turban Uprising broke out in the first year of Zhongping, Emperor Ling of the Eastern Han Dynasty, which was the year of Ganzhi Jiazi, 184 AD.Compared with the Chen Sheng and Wu Guang uprisings who rescued themselves from danger in the last years of the Qin Dynasty, raised their arms and raised their arms in a hurry, and gathered in the mountains and forests in the Xinmang years to succeed. The plan, with public opinion, is obviously unique, and it can be called the milestone first of the peasant uprisings in the past dynasties.As early as ten years before the uprising, although the Julu (now Yellow Turban) uprising ended in failure, it directly led to the separatist regime at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the unification of Qin and Han was eventually replaced by the Three Kingdoms. The "death" of "Cangtian" and the "establishment" of "Huangtian" are not fate, but the inevitability of the aggregation of several chances.

(Hebei) Zhang Jiao spread Taoism in Jizhou (now Hebei and northern Henan), known as "Taiping Tao".Using this form of religious organization, he dispatched his disciples to "envoy all over the world to teach the world with good ways" and at the same time "run water mantras to cure diseases" (see "Book of Later Han·Huangfu Song Biography").Many people believe in him as a god, with hundreds of thousands of believers throughout the eight prefectures of Qing, Xu, You, Ji, Yan, Henan, Jing, and Yang (including today's Shandong, Anhui, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, and Jiangsu) , Zhejiang and other provinces of the vast areas).Zhang Jiao organized believers from all over the country into thirty-six parties, with more than 10,000 people in the large area and six to seven thousand people in the small area. Both large and small areas were headed by Qu Shuai, who was in command.He also put forward the slogan "The sky is dead, the yellow sky should be established, the age is Jiazi, and the world is auspicious", which was widely spread by the disciples. "Just write the word "Jiazi" with white clay.Dafang Ma Yuanyi of Jingzhou also traveled to the capital many times, contacted Zhongchang Shi Feng Xuan, Xu Feng and others as internal correspondents, and agreed to launch an incident at the same time on March 3.However, due to his disciple Tang Zhou's rebellion and leakage of secrets, Ma Yuanyi was torn apart by a car in Luoyang, and more than a thousand disciples were also killed. Zhang Jiao had to decide to advance the uprising to February.Zhang Jiao called himself General Tiangong, his younger brother Zhang Bao called General Digong, and Zhang Liang called General Rengong.The rebels wore yellow scarves on their heads as a symbol, and the Eastern Han Dynasty officials called them "yellow scarf thieves" or "moth thieves".

During this period, what deserves special attention is the slogan put forward by Zhang Jiao.Mao Zedong had a famous saying: "Whoever wants to overthrow a political power, public opinion must first be formed. The revolutionary class is like this, and the counter-revolutionary class is also like this." From Zhang Jiao's point of view, it is said that he already had a conscious awareness of stage struggle at that time, and this applies to The last sentence of this famous saying is undoubtedly overstated.However, "Changtian" clearly refers to the regime of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and "Huangtian" refers to Zhang Jiao's side. The opposition between "death" and "establishment" has become a public opinion program and a revolutionary manifesto with the ultimate goal of overthrowing the existing regime.If we compare the personal ambitions of Chen Sheng, the leader of the peasant uprising at the end of the Qin Dynasty, who said that "the princes and generals are better than each other", Xiang Yu's saying "he can be replaced", and Liu Bang's saying "a man should be like this", such personal ambitions are compared. And the revolutionary manifesto has obviously touched the fundamental issue of the life-and-death struggle between classes throughout the ages, that is, the issue of political power. This is the first time in the history of Chinese peasant movements.Only in this way, the Yellow Turban Rebellion's rapid rise, like a prairie fire, caused a shock and impact on the ruling forces of the Eastern Han Dynasty, from the very beginning, it surpassed that of the Chen Sheng and Wu Guang uprisings to the Qin regime four hundred years ago, and the green forest two hundred years ago. 1. The deterrence and impact of the Red Eyebrow Uprising on the Xinmang regime.This is the only reason why different classes and factions of the ruling forces of the Eastern Han Dynasty, which originally had deep internal conflicts and brutal struggles, quickly gathered together and tried their best to suppress the Yellow Turbans who threatened their common interests.

As far as the strategic choice of public opinion is concerned, the "mandate of heaven" connotation of "heaven is dead, and yellow heaven should stand" has the effect of repaying the person in the same way as the person. The theory of "Mandate of Heaven" did not start in the Han Dynasty, but since Qin Xing in the Han Dynasty, the supreme ruler of the Han Dynasty surnamed Liu and his imperial literati insisted on pushing "Mandate of Heaven" to the extreme."Chunqiu Fanlu" written by Dong Zhongshu, a great Confucian in the Western Han Dynasty, repeatedly stated: "Only the emperor is ordered by the sky, and the world is ordered by the emperor." The study of "prophecy" prevailed, and it was attached to the "five elements" theory of the pre-Qin yin and yang family, using "five virtues from beginning to end" to explain the change of dynasties.

The "five virtues" are the "five elements": water, fire, wood, metal, and earth. "The five are popular and turn around. If they follow each other, they will grow together, and if they are passed, they will restrain each other. If so, each will be used to achieve its own way." ("San Ming Tong Hui" Volume 1) The order of mutual generation is: wood generates fire, fire generates Earth, earth begets gold, gold begets water, water begets wood.The order of mutual restraint is: wood restrains earth, earth restrains water, water restrains fire, fire restrains metal, and metal restrains wood.Previously, the Western Han Dynasty regarded Qin as the virtue of water, and itself as the virtue of soil. It was explained that the replacement of Qin by the Han was the virtue of soil to overcome the virtue of water.At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, it was changed to the theory of mutual generation, and the short-term Qin was removed, and Zhou was regarded as the virtue of wood and oneself as the virtue of fire.The slogan put forward by Zhang Jiao did not directly apply the "five virtues" to produce or restrain each other, but mixed the "five elements" (water, fire, wood, metal, and earth) with the "five colors" (blue, red, yellow, white, black) and The staggered correspondence between the "Five Emperors" (Eastern Cangdi, Southern Red Emperor, Central Yellow Emperor, Western White Emperor, and Northern Black Emperor) secretly takes the meaning of "water grows wood" and endows itself with the "mandate of heaven" that stands on behalf of the Han Dynasty. "rationality.Although such far-fetched accommodation is more difficult to justify than the changes of "Hande", at that specific historical period, the "Mandate of Heaven" thought of the ruling class was the ruling thought, and it was inevitable to use the spear of the ruling thought to attack the shield of the ruling thought. more subversive.And since it's public opinion building, what is needed is conciseness, clarity, and incitement, so why care about so many details?

After more than 1,800 years, scanning that period of history from the standpoint of contemporary people, we can say without hesitation that Zhang Jiao's judgment on the situation of "the sky is dead" is very suitable for the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.Although "the age of Jiazi" did not achieve "good luck in the world", the nominal Han Dynasty regime surnamed Liu, after the Ling Emperor Liu Hong, also experienced the Young Emperor Liu Bian and the Xian Emperor Liu Xie, lingering for 36 years until 220 AD It was officially replaced by the Cao Wei regime, but the emperor Liu, who claimed to be the "Mandate of Heaven", had already become a walking dead, and the regime they represented had long since existed in name only.The death knell of the Han Dynasty was indeed sounded by the Yellow Turban Uprising, but before the death knell sounded, political corruption and man-made disasters had already dug its grave.

Although the regimes of the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Western Han Dynasty both had the surname Liu, and their patriarchal lineages followed one another, their political foundations were not exactly the same.Liu Bang, the founding king of the Western Han Dynasty, and his founding heroes Xiao He, Cao Can, Zhou Bo, and Chen Ping all came from the lower classes of society and joined the landlord class after seizing power. The Qin Dynasty really eased.In the early Western Han Dynasty for more than 70 years, "resting with the people", there was a situation of governance by doing nothing, and the society was relatively peaceful.Liu Xiu, the master of "Zhongxing" in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and his "Zhongxing" fathers Deng Chen, Li Tong, Deng Yu, Kou Xun and others were either "two thousand stones for the world's officials" or "the surnames of the township". , all belonged to the powerful and powerful landlord class, thus leaving a clear birthmark on the Eastern Han regime that always represented the interests of the powerful and powerful landlord class.For a long time, powerful families have occupied a large amount of land and attached themselves to farmers, and the phenomenon of mergers in society has been unprecedentedly serious.As stated in Zhong Changtong's "Changyan", the powerful families in various places not only own large farms, but also form a highly self-sufficient rural economic form of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and vice, and extend their tentacles to control the lifeline of society and economy into the cities, reaching It has reached the level of "ships and carts, dealers, all over the world, abandoned houses and accumulation, full of capital".For example, Liu Kang, the king of Jinan, has as many as 800 hectares of land and as many as 1,400 servants. He is politically and economically overlord.Even if they do not serve as officials, the powerful landlords are "more honored and happy than being a king, and more powerful than obeying orders."Many powerful families also set up private armed forces, gathering some clans, guests, tenant farmers, and farm laborers to form "parties" and "police guards" in Datianzhuang to protect the feudal economy at ordinary times. Immediately turned into a separatist force.Political and economic power was highly concentrated in the hands of a very small number of people, and it was quite scattered because of their own affairs. It was like a double-edged sword to the Eastern Han Dynasty regime. One edge was to maintain it, and the other edge would hurt it.The more respected and richer the minority will inevitably lead to the lower and poorer the majority, the society is severely polarized.In the other pole of the polarization, a large number of self-cultivating farmers' land was merged, and their status was also reduced, or they were reduced to tenant farmers, hired farmers, or reduced to slaves; "Swallowed "little fish".

This has accumulated into an irresolvable social contradiction. Not only the vast peasants hate the powerful landlords extremely, but also the small landlords of the common clan have a life-and-death conflict with the powerful and powerful landlords. The supreme ruler of the Eastern Han Dynasty tried to control the unbridled power of powerful landlords. Guangwu Emperor Liu Xiu, Ming Emperor Liu Zhuang, and Zhang Emperor Liu Da all took measures to strengthen the autocratic imperial power.In addition to denying real positions and powers to the "Zhongxing" heroes and depriving them of military handles, at the central government level, the power of the "three princes" (Taiwei, Situ, and Sikong), who are extremely human ministers, is also abdicated. The operation of power was transferred to the Shangshutai of China and North Korea.The Shangshutai set up the Shangshu Order with a rank of one thousand stones and the Shangshu Pushe with a rank of six hundred stones. Under the orders and servants, there were Six Dynasties Shangshu who were in charge of the common affairs.In doing so, the power of the prime minister was weakened, the imperial power was strengthened, and the ruling order of the Eastern Han Dynasty was once stabilized.But from Hedi Liu Zhao onwards, this political strategy turned to the opposite, and it became that relatives and eunuchs alternately fought for power.Liu Zhao came to the throne at the age of 10. His mother, Empress Dowager Dou, came to the court and appointed Dou Xian as her attendant.In the fourth year of Hedi Yongyuan (92), the Dou family was wiped out by the eunuch Zheng Zhong, who led the forbidden army.During the reign of Emperor An and Liu Hu, Empress Dowager Deng and her brother Deng Zhi were in power first. After the death of Empress Dowager Deng, Emperor An conspired with eunuchs Li Run and Jiang Jing to get rid of Deng's forces. Together, eunuchs share power with their relatives.In the fourth year of Yanguang (125), the eunuch Sun Cheng and other 19 people killed Yan Yu, and supported the 11-year-old Jiyin King Liu Bao as Emperor Shun; You can also adopt a son to inherit the title.When Emperor Shun grew up a little, he successively worshiped his later father Liang Shang and Liang Ji, the son of Liang Shang, as generals, and used the power of his relatives to restrain the power of eunuchs.After Liu Bao's death, Empress Dowager Liang and Liang Ji successively elected Emperor Chong Liu Bing, Emperor Zhi Liu Zuan, and Emperor Huan Liu Zhi. They had been in power for nearly 20 years, and their relatives and party members were "prestige inside and outside".In the second year of Yanxi (159), when Empress Liang died, Emperor Huan conspired with the eunuch Shan Chao and others to destroy the Liang clan, and confiscated Liang Ji's family property worth more than 3 billion yuan, which was equivalent to half of the Eastern Han government's annual tax revenue.Five eunuchs including Shan Chao, Ju Yuan, Zuo Qu, and Xu Huang were conferred titles of Marquis for their meritorious service, and they were called "Five Marquises" in the world.They "hold the prince in their hands, and hold the constitution of heaven in their mouths" ("Book of the Later Han Dynasty Liang Ji Biography"), and they are more greedy, cruel and tyrannical than their relatives.By the time of Lingdi Liu Hong (168-189), 10 eunuchs including Zhang Rang, Zhao Zhong, Feng Xuan, Duan Gui, Cao Jie, Hou Lan, Jian Shuo, Cheng Kuang, Xia Yun, and Guo Sheng were known as the "Ten Permanent Attendants". ", friends are traitors, and they do all kinds of evil. The Lingdi actually made Zhang Rangru "father" and Zhao Zhongru "mother".In fact, relatives and eunuchs replaced the Han family surnamed Liu to control the imperial power of the Eastern Han Dynasty for a hundred years. This can be regarded as a unique alternative landscape in the history of the evolution of Chinese feudal society that lasted for more than two thousand years.In particular, the vicious expansion of the power of eunuchs (although Wei Zhongxian’s eunuch party in the Ming Dynasty surpassed it to a certain extent, but its system and continuity were not as good), it greatly damaged the vital interests of other power groups within the ruling class of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and thus also Intensifying the contradictions and struggles between different classes and classes, it is not surprising that the Yellow Turban Uprising broke out in the reign of Emperor Ling.

Within the ruling class, the class that suffered the most damage to its vital interests was the bureaucratic scholar-bureaucrats and their reserve army students.To meet the needs of feudal autocratic centralization, the bureaucratic team of the Eastern Han Dynasty was quite large, and there were even aristocratic families such as the Yuan family in Runan and the Yang family in Hongnong who served as high-ranking officials at the central and local levels for generations.In Taixue, the highest school, the number of Taixue students is also increasing, and it has increased to more than 30,000 during Emperor Shun's time.The eunuchs controlled the government, which not only hindered the promotion of many bureaucrats, but also blocked the advancement of many imperial students. The "Qingyi" faction among the bureaucrats often discussed the government and criticized the eunuchs, and Taixue gradually became the center of "Qingyi".They sit and discuss the Tao, but also stand up and walk. Li Ying, the captain of the Sili school, severely punished the illegal eunuchs and their party members, so that "all the Huangmen and the regular servants bowed and held their breath, and Xiu Mu dared not return to the government" ("Hou Hanshu·Danggu Biography" Biography of Li Ying").Naturally, the eunuchs would not let it go. In the ninth year of Yanxi (166), they instigated party feathers to imprison and falsely accuse Li Ying of "raising imperial scholars, making friends with disciples from various counties, and even driving each other. They were party members, slandered the court, and suspected customs." ("Book of the Later Han·Danggu Biography Preface"), encouraged Emperor Huan to accept Li Ying, and ordered the prefectures to arrest "party members", implicating as many as 200 people in prison.Although he was pardoned and released from prison in the second year, he was imprisoned in the village for life and could not resume his official position, which led to the first famous "party imprisonment" incident in history.After Lingdi succeeded to the throne at the age of 12, in the first year of Jianning (168), Taifu Chen Fan cooperated with the general Dou Wu, appointed Li Ying and other celebrities who were also imprisoned, and conspired to kill the eunuch. Clan relatives and guests were slaughtered, disciples and former officials were exempted from official imprisonment.In the second year, more than a hundred "partisans" including Du Mi and Li Ying were arrested and imprisoned. They all died in prison, and Zhang Jian was hunted down.

Three years later, more than a thousand "Party members" and Tai students were arrested, and all of them were killed, relocated, abolished, and banned.In the fifth year of Xiping (176), Emperor Ling also ordered the prefectures and counties to exempt all relatives, close relatives, disciples, and old officials of "party members" from official imprisonment.This is the second famous "party imprisonment" incident in history.The successive occurrence of the two "Dang Gu" incidents marked that the conflict of interests within the ruling group of the Eastern Han Dynasty, with eunuchs as one side and bureaucrats and scholar-bureaucrats (sometimes united with foreign relatives) as the other, had reached an intense level of life and death. The Han family surnamed Liu has no ability to reconcile or ease.The corruption of things must be seen in its own body, and the Eastern Han regime was corrupted in this way, self-defeating and heading for the historical grave.After the Yellow Turban Uprising broke out, a large number of "partisans" were lifted, but they were already determined to "kill thieves" and were unable to return to "heaven". Like all corrupt regimes, at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the court corrupted the law, extorted money, and sold and bought officials, which became a chronic systemic disease.In particular, Lingdi Liu Hong, after he became emperor from Houhou, took the position of "Son of Heaven" as a convenient way to accumulate "private collections", and built a "Wanjin Hall" in the West Garden to convert the treasury's reserves into private property.In addition, the official prices were set out for officials at all levels inside and outside the court, and the auction was held publicly.The "Three Dukes" in the imperial court offer 10 million yuan, and the "Nine Qings" and "Guanneihou" ask for 5 million yuan; the local officials outside the imperial court are better at collecting people than the Beijing officials, and the price is set higher accordingly. "Thousand stones" sell for 20 million yuan, and "four hundred stones" sell for 4 million yuan.This kind of "official price" can also fluctuate up and down. For example, Cui Lie, a famous scholar, only paid half the price of 5 million yuan for being one of the "Three Dukes". "One of them, Taiwei, paid ten times more than the price, and paid 100 million yuan.Generally, it is a cash transaction. If you don’t have enough money for the time being, you can pay on credit, and you will double the payment after you take the job.For those local officials who did not spend money to buy officials, another method was changed. In the name of helping the army and repairing the palace, they were required to pay tens of millions of dollars to Xiyuan, and at least several million dollars.All the money is first lost to the Central Administration, which is called "guide fee".The accumulated "private collection" was squandered, and Lingdi built a replica of a commercial street in the harem, ordering girls to sell in disguise, and they stole and fought with each other. He himself also wore merchant clothes to feast and have fun.What is good at the top must be bad at the bottom. Those who buy officials flock to them, and the cost of investment is appalling.According to the Eastern Han Dynasty's salary regulations, all officials, big and small, were paid on a monthly basis, with half the money and half the grain.In the reign of Emperor Shang Yanping (106), the monthly salary of the "two thousand stone" officials at the "provincial and ministerial level" was 6,500 yuan in money and 36 hu in rice (one hu and ten dou); it was equivalent to the current "county level" The monthly salary of "four hundred stone" officials is 2,500 yuan and 15 hu for rice.If there was no "salary increase" for officials during the reign of Emperor Ling, it means that buying an official with "two thousand shi" would have to invest an official fee equal to 3076 months of "two thousand shi". " Officials have to invest an official fee equal to 1,600 "four hundred shi" per month, which is much higher than the investment cost of buying officials today. "Wool" can only come from "sheep", and all kinds of buyers and their backers and party feathers are bound to intensify and exploit the people of Li people, "treating the people like enemies and taxing them like jackals", and let the people of Li people "for them" pay the bill".The wind of greed and turbidity is so rampant that even Lu Qiang, the regular servant of the middle school, can't see it. He repeatedly warns: "The top transforms the bottom, just like the grass of the wind. Today, there is no extravagance and frugality at the top, and there is indulgence at the bottom, so that animals eat it." The sweetness of the people, the wood and soil, the silk that clothes the people." "The people are poor, the money is too much, and the treacherous officials benefit from it, and the people suffer from it." But how could Lingdi listen to it?When the Yellow Turban incident started, Lu Qiang was falsely accused of "corruption" by Zhao Zhong and Xia Yun, who were also Zhongchang servants, and was forced to commit suicide. In stark contrast to selling and buying officials, the "Three Mutual Laws" were implemented at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, which made it difficult to select officials, and the guards and orders of some prefectures and counties were in vain for a long time. According to the "Book of the Later Han·Cai Yong Biography", the "Three Mutual Laws" were originally agreed upon to reduce the growing "states and counties, and the relationship between people and people".Therefore, it is stipulated that all family members who are married, as well as people from Youzhou (now northern Hebei and Liaoning), and Jizhou are not allowed to be officials.You and Ji prefectures were the main bases of the military power of the Eastern Han Dynasty. The lack of officials in the prefectures and counties did not make up for them. Not only did they fail to play the expected role, but they restricted or restrained those who formed cliques for personal gain and made friends with traitors. The struggle for power among the people has resulted in a waste of strength and local instability.The main source of the Yellow Turban Uprising was in Jizhou. The Yellow Turban Army in the Jizhou area captured the Liu clan, Anping King Liu Xu and Ganling King Liu Zhong, and killed Youzhou Assassin Guo Xun. "The evil result.Therefore, Cai Yong once went to the public to remonstrate, not to "sit down and set up three mutual relations, and leave gaps by oneself", and "should be more forbidden and use energy to save the times."It was in the fourth year of Lingdi Jianning (171), only 13 years earlier than the Yellow Turban Uprising, and the 16-year-old Lingdi simply ignored it.In this regard, Sima Guang made a comment in "Zi Zhi Tong Jian Han Ji Forty-Nine": Uncle Xiang said: "When a country is about to perish, there must be more rules." In the administration of the king of Ming Dynasty, the loyal and virtuous are chosen to be appointed.So why?Hold on to its root cause.And its decline, the appointment of hundreds of officials cannot choose people, and the more bans are made, the more secrets are prevented, the meritorious ones will not be rewarded because they are in the way, and the traitors will be exempted from punishment by clever methods.So why?By the end of the reason also.At the time of Xiaoling, the governor and Erqianshi were greedy like jackals and tigers, tyrannizing the people, but the imperial court kept the "three mutuals" ban.Looking at it now, wouldn't it be enough to be a joke, but a deep warning! A little extension of this comment, it is not difficult to come to two understandings.One is that, like the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, they played tricks on the legal system to curb corruption. Even the "three mutual laws" that restricted the status of officials were released. It is difficult to deceive oneself and the world.The second is that to truly rule the country by law, we must always adhere to the principle of "sticking to the foundation" and not "sticking to the end" by chance temporarily. The disaster of death, not to mention the "three mutual laws" are not good laws.Zhang Jiao's analysis and judgment on the situation of "the sky is dead" can be said to be to the point and shocking. As the regime of the Eastern Han Dynasty came to an end, the entire ruling class—from the emperor, the royal family, relatives, eunuchs, down to powerful landlords and local officials—had become more inclined towards the political oppression and economic exploitation of the ruled class with peasants as the main body. Harsh, the people of the Li people are in dire straits, and their wealth and lives are not guaranteed.During the reign of Emperor Huan, exorbitant miscellaneous taxes increased in different ways. For example, "field tax" was increased by ten dollars per mu, and "oral tax" (a kind of poll tax) was levied from the age of seven to the age of one.At the time of Emperor Ling, Wang Ji, the adopted son of the eunuch Wang Fu, served as Pei Xiang. ", killed more than 10,000 people in five years.Water conservancy was also neglected, which led to frequent floods and droughts. During the period of Huanling, there were 13 major floods in the country, accounting for one-half of the major floods in the entire Eastern Han Dynasty. There were also 6 major droughts, accounting for the entire Eastern Han Dynasty. One-third of the Great Drought.Insect plagues, locust plagues, wind disasters, hailstorms, and earthquake disasters continued year after year, and human and animal plagues occurred alternately. The miserable situation of "the land is too vast to cultivate, and the people have nothing to eat" appeared everywhere in the country, and even fell into cannibalism.The peasants who lost their livelihood went into exile. In the first year of Emperor Huan's Yongxing (153), the number of refugees reached hundreds of thousands of households.In the peasant uprisings in history, the basic masses were mainly refugees. They were displaced and had nowhere to go, so they had no choice but to choose riots and rebellion to gamble their fate.In the nearly 80 years from the third year of Yongchu (109) of Emperor An to the first year of Zhongping (184) of Emperor Ling, according to historical records alone, there were nearly a hundred peasant uprisings based on refugees.There was a folk song circulating at that time: Hair like leeks, cut back to life. The head is like a chicken, and it sings again after cutting. Officials don't have to be feared, and people don't have to be taken lightly! Folk songs are the hearts of the people, and they are the opinions of the people, which concentratedly express the desperate spirit of the uprising people who regard death as home and follow one after another.From the East China Sea to Xiliang, from northern Hebei to southern Lingnan, there were hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, and hundreds of thousands of refugee riots one after another, and some even echoed the anti-Han struggles of Qiang and barbarians. "The bandits who are hungry and steal grass in spring" and "the bandits who are poor and cold" ("Book of the Later Han Dynasty Yang Zhen Biography Attached to Yang Ci Biography") made the Eastern Han regime unable to cope.The leaders of the uprising called themselves "generals" and "emperors", or put on religious cloaks and called themselves "real people", "black emperors" and "yellow emperors", which showed that they no longer disdain to follow in the footsteps of the green forests and red eyebrows in the Xinmang period. The imperial family surnamed Liu came to make a call, but determined to overthrow the Han family surnamed Liu, seize power and change the dynasty.The Yellow Turban Uprising is just the continuation and development of these uprisings, and the essence of public opinion of "Yellow Heaven should stand" is also the generalization and sublimation of the ultimate goal of these uprisings. The Yellow Turban Uprising broke out in February of the first year of Zhongping (184). Immediately, seven prefectures and 28 counties rose up simultaneously, forming a prairie fire.In addition to the Julu Yellow Turbans directly led by the brothers Zhang Jiao, Zhang Bao, and Zhang Liang, the Yingchuan Yellow Turbans led by Bo Cai, the Nanyang Yellow Turbans led by Zhang Mancheng, Zhao Hong, Han Zhong, and Sun Xia, and Peng Tuo were also powerful. The Yellow Turbans of Runan and Chen Guo under the leadership, and the Dongjun Yellow Turbans under the leadership of Bu Ji.The Yellow Turban soldiers from various ministries killed the county guards, captured the clan, burned the government, gathered a few towns, and pointed directly at Luoyang, the capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty.Emperor Ling hurriedly appointed his relative He Jin as the general, gathered troops to guard Luoyang Duting, and set up eight Guandu captains of Hange, Guangcheng, Yique, Dagu, Zhiyuan, Shili, Xiaopingjin, and Mengjin to defend the capital.He also lifted the "party ban", pardoned "party members", integrated various forces within the ruling class, and then "distributed the best soldiers from all over the world, and selected generals", dispatching Bei Zhonglang General Lu Zhi, Zuo Zhonglang General Huangfusong, and You Zhonglang Zhu Jun and others led the army to various places to fight against the Yellow Turban Army.In the face of common interests, the various forces that had been fighting for a long time cooperated temporarily. The powerful local armed forces also waved butcher knives at the insurgents.The Yellow Turban rebel army fought bravely and defeated the government army of the Eastern Han Dynasty many times. They once besieged Huangfusong in the city of Changshe (now east of Changge, Henan), and the troops of Lu Zhi and Zhu Jun also fled repeatedly.It's a pity that the soldiers of the insurgent army based on refugees lacked military literacy. They either formed a camp based on grass and were attacked by fire, or they were paralyzed and severely injured by sneak attack, or they were scattered and defeated due to siege. After more than half a year of desperate fighting, they finally All were broken.In November of that year, following the death of Zhang Jiao, Zhang Liang and Zhang Bao died in battle one after another. Other leaders of the rebel army were either captured or surrendered. A large-scale peasant uprising was suppressed.The Eastern Han Dynasty was changed to Yuan Zhongping. Huangfusong, Zhu Jun and others made marquises, increased towns, and worshiped generals because of their meritorious service. Live in peace.” Later, the founding figures of Wei, Shu, and Wu also came to prominence because of their participation in suppressing the Yellow Turban Uprising. Cao Cao was moved from riding captain to Jinan chancellor, Liu Bei was appointed Anxi captain, and Sun Jian was appointed Sima of another department. Zhang Jiao's promotion of "the yellow sky should be established" did not realize the "years of Jiazi, the world will be prosperous" as expected.However, the successive failures of the main forces of the Yellow Turban Uprising Army did not mean that the uprising had all disappeared and fell silent, nor did it mean that "Chang Tian" did not "die" and "Huang Tian" did not "stand up".According to historical records, when the main force of the rebel army attacked Fang Chi, in July of that year, Zhang Xiu, the leader of another branch of Taoism, the "Five Dou Rice Road", also launched an uprising in Hanzhong. The official name of the Eastern Han Dynasty was "rice thief".Zhang Lu, who entered Hanzhong with Zhang Xiu, later called himself "Shijun" and established a separatist regime integrating politics and religion. He maintained Hanzhong for more than 20 years, and was destroyed by Cao Cao until the 20th year of Emperor Jian'an (215).After the main force of the Yellow Turbans failed, "Heishan, Huanglong, Baibo, Zuoxiao, Guo Daxian, Yu Digen, Qingniujiao, Zhang Baiqi, Liu Shi, Zuo Miaozhangba, Pinghan, Daji, Sili, Yuzai, and Lei Gong were restored. , Floating Cloud, Flying Swallow, White Sparrow, Yang Feng, Yu Du, Wulu, Li Damu, Bai Rao, Sui Gu, and Kushen all rise up in the valley, it is innumerable.”Its "big ones are two to thirty thousand, and the small ones are six to seven thousand."Zhang Yan (Zhang Feiyan), a native of Changshan, was the most powerful. "There are millions of people, and they are called 'Black Mountain Bandits'." ("Book of the Later Han·Zhu Jun Biography") to the fifth year of Zhongping (188), rebels from all over the country took the name "Yellow Turban" again and were active in Xihe, Runan, Qingxu, Yizhou and other places, and even affected the Jiangnan area.It wasn't until the fourth year of Chuping (193) that Zhang Yan's "Black Mountain Army" and Liu Shi, Qingniujiao, Huanglong, Zuoxiao, Gao Daxian, Li Damu, and Yu Digen were wiped out by Yuan Shao, who was then Jizhou Mu, and the rest were wiped out. Yuan Shao's incorporation made Yuan Shao the largest separatist force with hundreds of thousands of people.In the previous year, the Qingzhou Yellow Turban Army also suffered a defeat because of being ambushed by Cao Cao. Cao Cao received more than 300,000 soldiers, and selected the elite as "Qingzhou Soldiers", which became the relying force for continued expansion. From the peasant uprising fighters to the separatist armed forces, the change of roles certainly includes a change of nature, but it can reflect at least two points: 1. The large-scale and continuous Yellow Turban Uprising directly impacted the precarious Eastern Han Dynasty and accelerated this decadence. The final disintegration of the regime; 2. The displaced peasants were forced to become soldiers who fought hard. No matter what kind of political force they belonged to, they were the fundamental mass foundation for changing the dynasty and promoting historical changes. The Yellow Turban Uprising fully played an organizational role.More importantly, the public opinion appeal of "Huang Tian Dang Li" originated from the bottom of society and affected all classes and strata in society. Even representatives of political forces such as Dong Zhuo, Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, and Liu Biao no longer regard the Han family with the surname Liu as their own. As the stuff of "destiny", I think it can be played in the palm of the hand, and it can be replaced at any time, which shows that the "heaven" is indeed "dead", and the "yellow sky" to replace it is indeed "established".Although this "Huang Tian" is not Zhang Jiao and others, nor Dong Zhuo and Yuan Shao, but the Wei, Shu, and Wu kingdoms established by the Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Jian families who were still in the middle and lower ranks of the army when they suppressed the Yellow Turbans, the Yellow Turbans After all, the ultimate goal of the uprising was achieved in an alienated historical form.The individual cases have a deep commonality. When an autocratic regime has decayed and declined, and even ordinary people believe that it is "dead to heaven", its death is undoubtedly doomed.It doesn't matter what kind of power acts as the "yellow sky", the important thing is that such a power will always appear sooner or later.There is absolutely no fate in this period, but a variety of intricate and accidental factors work together to create the inevitability of history.