My armour has been worn so long that lice breed in it,įor a thousand li not even a cock is heard. 155-220 CE), who, like many leaders of the period, had a serious literary bent.

The confusion, constant warring, and deprivation of the Chinese people were summarised in a poem attributed to the warlord Cao Cao (c. The whole of the country was now split into pockets held by rebels, warlords, or regional governors still loyal to the state. The Han claimed justification for rule based on the same principles the rebels were espousing to overthrow them but Zhang Jue and the rebels insisted they were fully justified in that they were identified with the earlier principle of earth/yellow which they claimed the Han had forsaken and betrayed in favor of fire/red.

It is an interesting aspect of the rebellion that, philosophically, the two sides were operating from the same principles of Taoism and the same understanding of what was right and true. These changes in association with the elements may have to do with the focus of the dynasty at different times but this is unclear. Taoism was favored by most of the Han emperors and, when the Han first came to power, they associated their dynasty with heaven/blue but at some point changed to earth/yellow and, by the time of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, claimed rule by the power of fire/red. Above the five elements was Tian (heaven) which was represented by the color blue. Taoist philosophy understood the workings of the universe through the operation of the principle of Yin- Yang and the interaction of the Five Elements: earth, wood, metal, fire, and water. The rebellion was so called because the protagonists wore a turban whose colour represented earth, an element they identified with and which they hoped would put out the fire element associated with their enemy the Han. Amongst its more appealing principles was the belief that illness came from sin but, especially good news to a peasantry short on medicines, diseases could be removed by confession of those sins. The Yellow Turban Rebellion exploded in 184 CE, led by the charismatic Taoist mystic Zhang Jue (died 184 CE), and wreaked havoc on the land.Ī popular religious movement, the Yellow Turban cult was closely associated with Taoism. In the final two decades of the 2nd century CE, the steady decline of the Han and the now constant rumblings of provincial discontent suddenly burst out of control with one of the most serious and long-lasting rebellions ever witnessed by shocked Chinese rulers and quivering local bureaucrats. China was very quickly becoming a free-for-all. Those who could not rely on a rich benefactor fled to the hills or elsewhere - resulting in large-scale migrations and attendant instability - and sometimes even whole villages relocated to higher ground where they surrounded themselves with fortifications and hoped for the best. Landlords with the means to do so organised their own private armies, recruited from their tenants and local farmers.

Locals had only one course of action: arm oneself as best as possible for self-defence. Regional governors had to find their own way of raising revenue, and there was no guiding policy handed down from the capital.

Three kingdoms china