Zhang Jue 張角

Chapter 1 of the Romance introduces three brothers of Julu Commandery: Zhang Jue, Zhang Bao and Zhang Liang. Zhang Jue is originally a scholar who has failed the examinations, and going into the mountains to gather herbs, he meets an old man with green eyes and a child's face. The old man calls him into a cave and gives him three volumes of a heavenly book called the 'Essential Arts of Great Peace', telling him to spread the teaching on Heaven's behalf and save the people of the world far and wide, but that if he harbors any other intent, he will surely be punished. The old man gives his name as the Old Immortal of Nanhua and vanishes as a pure breeze, and Zhang Jue studies the book day and night until he can summon wind and rain, and is called the 'Daoist of Great Peace'. Romance, Ch. 1 §7–8

When a pestilence spreads in the 1st month of the 1st year of Zhongping (184), Zhang Jue hands out water in which talismans have been burned to cure the sick and styles himself the 'Great Worthy and Good Teacher'. More than five hundred disciples roam in all directions, and as his following grows he sets up thirty-six 'fang' (districts), calling the chief of each a general. He spreads the false saying, 'The Blue Heaven is already dead; the Yellow Heaven shall arise. When the year is jiazi, the realm will have great fortune,' and has people write the two characters 'jiazi' on their gates in white clay, and in eight provinces every household reveres his name. Romance, Ch. 1 §8–9

Zhang Jue sends his disciple Ma Yuanyi with gold and silk to join hands with the eunuch Feng Xu and make him an inside agent in the palace. He consults with his two younger brothers, secretly has yellow banners made and sets a date for the rising, but his disciple Tang Zhou, who is carrying a letter to Feng Xu, reports the rebellion to the authorities. When the General-in-Chief He Jin seizes and beheads Ma Yuanyi and throws Feng Xu and the others into prison, Zhang Jue raises troops that very night and styles himself 'General of Heaven', while Zhang Bao calls himself 'General of Earth' and Zhang Liang 'General of Man'. Those who wrap their heads in yellow turbans and follow him number four to five hundred thousand, and the court sends the Generals of the Household Lu Zhi, Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun to attack them along three routes. Romance, Ch. 1 §10–12

When one of Zhang Jue's armies invades the borders of You Province, Liu Yan, Administrator of You Province, posts a notice calling for volunteer troops, and when the notice reaches Zhuo County, Liu Bei comes forth into the world. Zhang Jue, with a following of one hundred and fifty thousand, faces Lu Zhi's fifty thousand troops at Guangzong; Lu Zhi says that he could not win at once because Zhang Jue used sorcery, and he is arrested on Zuo Feng's slander, with Dong Zhuo taking over his troops. Zhang Jue routs Dong Zhuo and pursues him on the strength of his victory with the 'General of Heaven' banner at the front, but when the three men Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei charge into him, his army falls into great confusion and flees more than fifty li. Romance, Ch. 1 §13–14 · 34 · 43–46

In Chapter 2, a scout sent by Zhu Jun reports that by the time Huangfu Song arrived Zhang Jue had already died, and that after Huangfu Song beheaded Zhang Liang, who had taken command of the followers, at Quyang, he dug up Zhang Jue's coffin, cut the head from the corpse and sent it to the capital. In the same chapter, the Yellow Turban remnants Zhao Hong, Han Zhong and Sun Zhong loudly declare that they will avenge Zhang Jue. In Chapter 28, Pei Yuanshao calls himself 'a subordinate commander of Zhang Jue, the General of Heaven' and says that since Zhang Jue's death he has had no master to serve, and in Chapter 29, Sun Ce calls the Daoist Yu Ji 'one of the ilk of the Yellow Turban bandit Zhang Jue' and orders him beheaded. Romance, Ch. 2 §8 · 10Romance, Ch. 28 §17–18Romance, Ch. 29 §14