The Three Kingdoms Era - Opposition to Dong Zhuo

The events described in today's blogpost can be seen in episodes 4 and 5 of the 1994 edition of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which you can find here:

Last week I outlined Dong Zhuo's rise to power; it may be remembered that the rise of Dong Zhuo caused certain eyebrows to be raised. Among those that opposed Dong Zhuo's usurpation of power in the Imperial Capital of Luoyang was Cao Cao (style name Mengde). He left the Imperial Capital and removed to Chenliu (Southeast of modern day Kaifeng, Henan) and built up his army, joining with other regional warlords to form a coalition against Dong Zhuo in February of 190. Called the Guandong Coalition, the armies of thirteen prominent warlords gathered east of Hangu Pass. Cao Cao's forces served under Yuan Shao, who was elected leader of the coalition. 

Cao Cao

The coalition forces blockaded the east of Luoyang, cutting off the eastern part of the Empire from the capital. This caused a massive reduction in tax revenue. To combat this, Dong Zhuo melted statues and other treasures for bronze to mint new coins, causing inflation throughout the empire.

Although the coalition forces arrayed before Dong Zhuo were impressive, they were made up of opportunists and family retainers with little or no battle experience. Yuan Shao too had limited participation in military affairs, whereas Dong Zhuo's forces were battle hardened veterans with experienced commanders. 

However, alarmed by the formation of the coalition, Dong Zhuo shifted the capital from Luoyang to Chang'an (modern day Xi'an, Shaanxi Province). On April 9 190, Dong Zhuo implemented his proposal, ordering his soldiers to loot the rich households of Luoyang and to drive the civilian population towards Chang'an. He forced the Emperor, nobles and officials towards Chang'an as well. Those who refused to obey the evacuation orders were executed on the spot. Dong Zhuo also ordered Lu Bu to raid ancient tombs and burial mounds for valuables. After the evacuation, Luoyang was burnt to the ground. 

Meanwhile, Cao Cao led his men westward to pursue Dong Zhuo's forces. He was defeated by Dong Zhuo's forces in the Battle of Xingyang, being wounded in the battle. 

At the same time, Sun Jian who had joined Yuan Shu (Yuan Shao's brother) with 20,000 to 30,000 was made the vanguard of Yuan Shu's forces. In March of 191 Sun Jian advanced to Liangdong, but was outnumbered and encircled by Dong Zhuo's general Xu Rong. With a few dozen men, Sun Jian fought his way through the encirclement and withdrew. 

Gathering his survivors, he advanced to Yangren, where he was met by a force sent by Dong Zhuo led by Hua Xiong, Hu Zhen and Lu Bu. Internal quarrels between Lu Bu and Hu Zhen led to the force being defeated, with Hua Xiong being captured by Sun Jian and executed. As Sun Jian advanced towards the capital of Luoyang, Yuan Shu feared that if he captured the capital he would be uncontrollable. As such, he stopped sending supplies to Sun Jian. Sun rode fifty kilometres in one night to reach Yuan Shu's base of operations, and convinced Yuan Shu to continue forwarding supplies to his troops.

Winning a further battle with Dong Zhuo at the battle of Dagu Pass, Sun Jian broke into Luoyang, where he routed the forces of Lu Bu. Whilst in Luoyang, Sun Jian found the Imperial Jade Seal in a well in the city. After having secured the city and sealing the tombs of the Emperors, he withdrew, fearing counter attacks.

Despite Sun Jian's successes against Dong Zhuo, the coalition was not unified enough to stand together against the warlord, and broke up later in the year.

In Fiction

Cao Cao's Assassination Attempt on Dong Zhuo

Wang Yun, a co-conspirator against Dong Zhuo lent Cao Cao a precious sword  to kill Dong Zhuo. Cao Cao went to Dong Zhuo's bedroom, and attempted to stab him in the back as he turned away for a mid day nap. However, the bed had a mirror so that Dong Zhuo could see behind him, and saw Cao Cao's attempt. Cao Cao quickly knelt in front of him and pretended to present the sword as a gift. After this, he fled the city a wanted man.

In Cao Cao's biography in the Record of the Three Kingdoms no mention is made of any assassination attempt.

Cao Cao is Arrested and Released by Chen Gong

Cao Cao fled Luoyang after his failed assassination attempt, and Dong Zhuo had notices for Cao Cao's arrest put up. He was spotted by the local magistrate Chen Gong and was arrested. In a private conversation, Chen Gong was impressed by Cao Cao's sense of righteousness, giving up his post and becoming Cao Cao's travel companion.

There is no mention of Chen Gong in the Record of the Three Kingdoms until 192, although Cao Cao was briefly arrested and released in Zhongmu County.

Cao Cao murders Lu Boshe

After fleeing with Chen Gong, Cao Cao sought refuge with Lu Boshe, who was Cao Cao's father's sworn brother. During their stay, Cao Cao overheard a conversation among the servants about whether to 'kill or to tie up first', and suspecting murder, he and Chen Gong indiscriminately killed everyone in the household. After finding out that the servants were actually talking about slaughtering a pig, they realised that they had killed innocents. Chen Gong and Cao Cao then fled the house. As they left, they ran into Lu Boshe, returning from an errand. When Lu asked them to stay, Cao Cao made an excuse, then killed him.

When Chen Gong asked him why, Cao Cao said 'If he goes home and sees his family dead, do you think he'll let us go?' when Chen Gong said that it is a 'grave sin to kill someone with the intention of doing so', Cao Cao said one of the most famous phrases in Chinese literary history: 

宁教我负天下人，休教天下人负我

"I'd rather wrong the world, than let the world wrong me". Chen Gong left him that night.

Although Cao Cao did in fact kill Lu Boshe's family due to a misunderstanding over a feast being prepared for him, Lu Boshe was not the sworn brother of Cao Cao's father, and Chen Gong was not with him - furthermore, he did not say the famous quotation above.

Battle of Sishui Pass

Sun Jian was crippled in front of Sishui Pass, due to Yuan Shu's refusal to send supplies. The general defending Sishui Pass, Hua Xiong, rode to the coalition camp and taunted them to dual him. After several generals were slain, Guan Yu, sworn brother of Liu Bei volunteered to fight Hua Xiong. Although Yuan Shu ridiculed him because of his low rank, Cao Cao intervened and told him to let Guan Yu go. Cao Cao offered him a cup of warm wine to bolster his spirit, but Guan Yu refused, saying that he would be back soon. He returned soon after with Hua Xiong's head while the wine was still warm.

This is a fictional battle invented by Luo Guanzhong. 

Battle of Hulao Pass

Dong Zhuo personally led an army to Hulao Pass, Lu Bu accompanying him. Lu Bu challenged the coalition forces to dual him in person. After killing a few generals, he was challenged by Zhang Fei, Liu Bei's sworn brother. As the battle was going poorly, Guan Yu joined in, followed soon after by Liu Bei, causing a three on one dual, which Lu Bu fought to a draw. This forced Dong Zhuo to withdraw to the west.

This is a fictional battle invented by Luo Guanzhong.

The Three Kingdoms Era - Rise of Dong Zhuo

The events described in this blog post are covered in episodes 2 to 3 of the 1994 edition of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which can be found here

Last week we examined the Yellow Turban Rebellion - an uprising that saw the further diffusion of central Han power and the rise of local warlords. One of those local warlords that rose in stature during the period of the Yellow Turban Rebellion was Dong Zhuo. Commander of forces in Liang Province (modern day Wuwei, Gansu Province) Dong Zhuo was able to build his power base during and after the Yellow Turban Rebellion.

Dong Zhuo

In Fiction

There are a couple of fictional stories pertaining to Dong Zhuo that come out of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Dong Zhuo is said to have been defeated by rebel leader Zhang Jiao and his forces were being routed. Nearby, Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were with their forces and came to Dong Zhuo's rescue. After the battle, Dong Zhuo asked the three brothers what positions they held in the government. When they responded with 'none', Dong Zhuo ignored them. 

This story is probably bollocks, introduced in order to firstly establish Dong Zhuo's character and to make the Three Brothers seem more noble in comparison.

In Reality

After Emperor Ling died in 189, the chief general He Jin (Overall commander during the Yellow Turban Rebellions) ordered Dong Zhuo to move troops to the Imperial Capital of Luoyang to eliminate the Eunuch Faction. Before he was able to arrive with his forces, He Jin was assassinated by the Eunuchs, and turmoil engulfed the city. Taking Emperor Shao hostage, the eunuchs fled the city, though ran into Dong Zhuo's forces and were stopped, Dong Zhuo taking the emperor back to the palace.

During the chaos, the General of Chariots and Cavalry, He Miao was killed for allegedly colluding with the eunuchs, and both He Jin and He Miao's forces came under Dong Zhuo's command. After Dong Zhou arrived in the city with his Liang Province troops, he also schemed to have Lu Bu kill his adopted father and Imperial Commandant of the Capital Guards, Ding Yuan, bringing Lu Bu under his command as his foster son. With fresh troops from Liang, combined with the capital guards and troops stationed in Luoyang under his control, Dong Zhuo became the target of the eastern warlords, who did not wish to have Dong Zhuo become influential. To counter their threat, Dong Zhuo had his forces march out of the city at night and reenter through the front gate at noon,  fooling the warlords that he had a massive army and cowing them into submission.

In 190, Dong Zhuo Emperor Shao and replaced him with the Emperor's brother, Liu Xie, who became Emperor Xian. Dong Zhuo declared himself Chancellor, and gave himself special permission to carry his sword to the Imperial Court, something that others were forbidden to do. He was also allowed to enter the court without removing his shoes. It is said that he even slept in the Emperor's bed and had sex with palace maids. 

Lu Bu

A sufferer of Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, Lu Bu was considered a great warrior of his age, though he was pretty bad as a commander of troops. Chen Shou, who wrote his biography in the Records of the Three Kingdoms said that he 'possessed the might of a tiger, but he lacked the planning skills of a talented person.' That about sums up Lu Bu. His role in Dong Zhuo's life will be seen later on, but at the current moment he killed his foster father, joined Dong Zhuo, then became Dong Zhuo's foster son.

Lu Bu. Look at dem helmet tail things.

In Fiction

In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Lu Bu is described as an invincible warrior but incapable leader. In order to get him on side, Dong Zhuo bribes him with gifts of weapons, promotions, women and most importantly, Red Hare, a horse said to be faster than any other under heaven. It was said to be capable of travelling over 1,000li (500 km) in a day, cross rivers and climb mountains like it was on flat land, and neighed like it had the ambition of 'soaring into the sky or diving into the sea'. Basically, Red Hare was a Skyrim Horse.

Most of this portrayal is an exaggeration of the facts of Lu Bu's life - certainly, the Red Hare was valued enough to be rewarded as a gift following Lu Bu's death, but it definitely wasn't a Skyrim horse.

The Three Kingdoms Era - Yellow Turban Rebellion

Thus far in this blog series I've been going through the eras in Chinese history at a breakneck pace. The original intention had been to give a broad overview of each dynasty and era, and then go back and fill in the blanks later on. However, I'd not expected at the start of the series to have rediscovered my love for the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, so we're going to be spending a few weeks examining this period in detail. So this week we look at the event that kickstarts the Romance of the Three Kingdoms: The Yellow Turban Rebellion

Before I get cracking, I'd like to note that if this interests anyone, you can find a very accurate portrayal of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms online here. The subtitles are terrible, but that's just part of the fun! Keep in mind that the Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a historical novel, and is 50/50 fact/fiction at best.

So like I mentioned in the previous post, the Eastern Han Dynasty was beset by all manner of problems, including corruption, a loss of central power, heavy burdens of taxes and so on. In 184 CE, the Yellow Turban or Yellow Scarves Rebellion broke out, so called because of the scarves they wore on their heads. Led by three brothers (Zhang Jue, Zhang Bao, Zhang Liang) of the Daoist sect the 'Way of Supreme Peace', the uprising caused massive disruptions to Imperial Commanderies throughout the North of the Empire, near modern day Beijing and even threatening the Imperial Capital of Luoyang (Modern day Luoyang, Henan Province). For the first few months of 184 the rebels steadily gained ground, pushing back Imperial forces wherever they met them. By the middle of 184 however, the Imperial forces had pushed back the rebels and besieged them in the city of Wan (near modern day Nanyang, Henan Province) capturing the city and putting the rebels to the sword in 185. Although this ostensibly ended the rebellion, later in 185 more rebellions broke out, not fully ending as a military threat until 205. In 192 the Warlord Cao Cao (he'll be important later) gained the submission of a rebel army in Yan Province.

In the middle of all of this slaughter and fighting three very important figures step onto the stage. As the call to arms went out from the central government, a distant Imperial Uncle, Liu Bei (style name Xuande) meets Guan Yu (style name Yunchang) and Zhang Fei (style name Yide). According to folklore, the three swear an oath of brotherhood in a peach garden, and go off to fight the Yellow Turban Rebellion.

In reality, history tells us that the three were close like brothers, often sleeping in the same bed, but say nothing about an actual oath of brotherhood. These three people are important because later on in the Three Kingdoms era Liu Bei goes on to form the Kingdom of Shu-Han in the west of the nation. Guan Yu in particular was deified following his death, and is the God of War and of Bean Merchants (not making this up) in the Chinese cosmology.

Liu Bei from a Tang Dynasty print

Guan Yu

Zhang Fei

Two very important things came out of the Yellow Turban Rebellion. Firstly, the rebellion was widespread, and ended in the sack of many government centres, and also resulted in the deaths of a large number of Imperial Magistrates. Secondly, the local generals and warlords who were instrumental in putting down the rebellion were given local military and administrative power, further diluting central authority and hastening the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Eastern Han Dynasty

The Eastern Han Dynasty was founded after by Emperor Guangwu of Han in 25 CE, following the overthrow of Wang Mang's Xin Dynasty. Guangwu established the Imperial Capital in the modern city of Luoyang, Henan Province. Though it started off on a high note, with the height of the Empire coming in the reign of Emperor Zhang (75-88 CE), the Eastern Han was founded on much weaker foundations than the Western Han. Emperor Guangwu was forced to rely on the big landholding families in order to gain power - and he was largely unable to centralise power back to the extent that it had been under the Western Han Empire.

Emperor Guangwu

Additionally, following the reign of Emperor Zhang, the Royal Family increasingly fell under the influence of the Eunuch Faction. Though eunuchs had been present in the Western Han Dynasty (Sima Qian, the author of Records of the Grand Historian was a eunuch), they began to hold larger and larger influence, in the same way that the families of Emperors' wives were able to acquire power over the course of the Western Han Dynasty. In fact, the eunuchs were often in conflict with the families of these great families, and over time the power struggles came to dominate the internal affairs of the Imperial Court.

In terms of foreign policy, the Eastern Han were able to largely maintain their holdings in northern Korea and Vietnam, along with finally ending the Xiongnu threat in the north through a series of military campaigns. Han power and culture were projected along the Silk Road, reaching as far as Central Asia and maintaining contact with the Parthian Empire of modern day Near Asia, along with civilisations in India. In CE 97, the Han organised an attempt at reaching Da Qin (Rome), but reportedly got as far as the Southern Mediterranean before turning back; in CE 166 a Roman embassy from Emperor Marcus Aurelius (likely merchants) did reach the court of Emperor Huan, though any interactions between the two great Empires on opposite ends of the Eurasian continent did not get more intricate than that.

Despite these foreign policy successes, the corruption in internal matters eventually weakened the central authority of the Imperial Court greatly. The eunuch faction's propensity to auction off court positions caused offense with the bureaucrats, who were further alienated when Emperor Huan (125-144 CE) sided with the eunuchs.

By the time the Yellow Turban and Five Pecks of Rice (I swear I am not making these names up) Rebellions flared up in 184 CE, the power of the central government was weak enough that the courts were forced to rely on regional strongmen to raise forces to combat these rebellions - a decision that saw warlords springing up all over the country, and leading to the Three Kingdoms era.

NEXT WEEK: An overview of the Three Kingdoms era.