Yellow Turban Rebellion 黃巾之亂

In the 1st year of Zhongping (184), Zhang Jue, leader of the Yellow Turbans, rose in Wei Commandery. Claiming the authority of the spirits, he sent out eight emissaries, saying they would convert the realm with the good Way, while secretly linking his followers together, and he styled himself 'Huangtian Taiping' (Yellow Heaven, Great Peace). On the jiazi day of the 3rd month, when thirty-six bands rose together in a single morning, the realm responded, burning commanderies and counties and killing the senior officials. The Annals of Emperor Wu record this rising as an event of "the end of Guanghe," and the Biography of the First Sovereign as one of "the end of Emperor Ling's reign." Records, Wu 1 §6Records, Wei 1 §3Records, Shu 2 §6

The Han court gave troops to Huangfu Song, General of Chariots and Cavalry, and Zhu Jun, General of the Household, to suppress them. When Zhu Jun memorialized to make Sun Jian his Assistant Army Major, the young men of his home district who had followed Sun Jian at Xiapi all went with him, and Sun Jian recruited merchants, travelers and elite troops of the Huai and Si regions besides, leading a little over a thousand men. Fighting together with Zhu Jun, he met no one who could stand before him wherever he went. When the bandits of Runan and Yingchuan, hard pressed, fled to hold Wan City, Sun Jian personally took charge of one side and was the first to climb the wall, his men swarming up after him like ants, and he dealt them a heavy defeat. On Zhu Jun's report Sun Jian became a Major of a Separate Command. Cheng Pu, who followed Sun Jian, also attacked the Yellow Turbans at Wan and Deng. Records, Wu 1 §6–7Records, Wu 10 §2

Other generals also joined the campaign. Cao Cao was appointed Chief Commandant of Cavalry and attacked the bandits of Yingchuan, and was afterward transferred to Chancellor of Jinan. When the provinces and commanderies each raised volunteer troops, Liu Bei led his own followers under the Colonel Zou Jing against the Yellow Turban bandits and, having won merit, became Commandant of Anxi County. Dong Zhuo was transferred to General of the Household and campaigned against the Yellow Turbans, but his army was defeated and he was punished. Zhang He answered the call for recruits at the end of the Han, campaigned against the Yellow Turbans, became an Army Major and was attached to Han Fu. Records, Wei 1 §3Records, Shu 2 §6Records, Wei 6 §3Records, Wei 17 §42

The rising found support in many places. At Dong'e County in Dong Commandery, the county deputy Wang Du answered the Yellow Turbans and burned the granaries, and the magistrate climbed over the wall and fled. Cheng Yu secretly sent a few horsemen to raise banners on the hill to the east and had Xue Fang and others, on seeing them, shout "The bandits have already come!", leading the officials and people who had fled back to the city; then, holding the city together with the magistrate, he opened the gates, charged out and drove off Wang Du's band. Zhang Yan of Zhending in Changshan gathered young men into a bandit troop when the Yellow Turbans rose, and his following later reached a million and was called the Heishan (Black Mountain). When the Yellow Turbans rose in Xu Province, the court made Tao Qian Inspector of Xu Province, and Tao Qian defeated them and drove them off. Records, Wei 14 §2–4Records, Wei 8 §52–53 · 24

Gongsun Zan's cousin Gongsun Fan helped Gongsun Zan with the troops of Bohai to defeat the Yellow Turbans of Qing and Xu Provinces. In Beihai, Kong Rong, Chancellor of Beihai, went out to station himself at Douchang because of the Yellow Turbans' raids and was surrounded by the bandit Guan Hai. When Taishi Ci broke through the encirclement, went to Pingyuan and asked Liu Bei for help, Liu Bei sent 3,000 elite troops with him, and the bandits, hearing that relief was coming, lifted the siege and scattered in flight. Records, Wei 8 §12Records, Wu 4 §21–22 · 25–26

In the 3rd year of Chuping (192), the Yellow Turbans of Qing Province, a host of a million, entered Yan Province, killed Zheng Sui, Chancellor of Rencheng, and moved on into Dongping. Bao Xin advised that since the bandits had no baggage train and lived only by plunder, they should first hold firm and wait for them to scatter, but Liu Dai did not listen, fought them and was killed. Bao Xin came to Dong Commandery with the provincial officer Wan Qian and others and welcomed Cao Cao to take charge as Governor of Yan Province. Cao Cao attacked the Yellow Turbans east of Shouzhang; Bao Xin fought hard and died, and they were barely defeated. When Cao Cao pursued them as far as Jibei, the Yellow Turbans asked to surrender, and in winter Cao Cao took in more than 300,000 surrendered soldiers and over a million men and women, calling the elite among them the Qingzhou troops. Records, Wei 1 §22–23

In the 1st year of Jian'an (196), He Yi, Liu Pi, Huang Shao, He Man and others of the Yellow Turbans of Runan and Yingchuan each had a following of tens of thousands; they first answered Yuan Shu and then attached themselves to Sun Jian. In the 2nd month Cao Cao advanced and defeated them, beheading Liu Pi, Huang Shao and others, and He Yi and his followers all surrendered. The Biography of Yu Jin records that when Huang Shao and others raided Cao Cao's camp by night, Yu Jin led his own troops to defeat them, beheaded Huang Shao and the others and made all their followers surrender. Yet the Biography of the First Sovereign records that in the 5th year of Jian'an (200), when Cao Cao faced Yuan Shao at Guandu, the Runan Yellow Turban Liu Pi and others betrayed Cao Cao and answered Yuan Shao, so that Liu Pi, whom the Annals of Emperor Wu say was beheaded in 196, appears again. Records, Wei 1 §38Records, Wei 17 §28Records, Shu 2 §16–17

The later records concern the suppression of bands that remained in various places. After attacking Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang at Liyang, Yue Jin separately defeated the Yellow Turbans and pacified Le'an Commandery. When the Yellow Turbans of Jinan and Le'an under Xu He, Sima Ju and others attacked cities and killed senior officials, Xiahou Yuan crushed them with the troops of the Taishan, Qi and Pingyuan commanderies and beheaded Xu He, and Lü Qian and Zang Ba also attacked them together with Xiahou Yuan. In Wu, Zhu Zhi, who became Administrator of Wu Commandery in the 7th year of Jian'an (202), captured or beheaded the Yellow Turban remnants Chen Bai, Wan Bing and others. Records, Wei 17 §21Records, Wei 9 §15Records, Wei 18 §43 · 25Records, Wu 11 §5

Chen Shou gave no separate assessment of this rebellion. The edict of the 5th month of the 18th year of Jian'an (213) making Cao Cao Duke of Wei counted among his merits that when the Yellow Turbans invaded three provinces and the calamity reached the common people, Cao Cao cut them down and brought peace to the eastern lands. Xing Yong said, "It is more than twenty years since the Yellow Turbans rose; the realm seethes like a cauldron and the people wander," and Deng Ai held that after the Yellow Turbans were defeated in former times, the occasion was used to open military farms, store grain at Xudu and so control the four quarters. Records, Wei 1 §121 · 123Records, Wei 12 §58Records, Wei 28 §51