Eastern Han 漢

At the end of the Guanghe era the Yellow Turbans rose, and Bian Zhang and Han Sui of Jincheng killed the Inspector and the Administrators and rebelled, throwing the realm into turmoil. When Emperor Ling died and the Crown Prince took the throne, the Empress Dowager presided over the court. The General-in-Chief He Jin plotted with Yuan Shao to kill the eunuchs, but when the Empress Dowager would not listen he summoned Dong Zhuo in order to intimidate her, and he was killed before Dong Zhuo arrived. When the Regular Palace Attendant Duan Gui and others abducted the emperor and fled to Xiaopingjin, Dong Zhuo met the emperor at Beimang and brought him back to the palace. Dong Zhuo had Lü Bu kill the Bearer of the Golden Mace Ding Yuan and absorbed his troops, so that military power in the capital lay with Dong Zhuo alone. Records, Wei 1 §3 · 5Records, Wei 6 §6

On the grounds that it had not rained for a long time, the Minister of Works Liu Hong was dismissed by written decree and Dong Zhuo took his place, soon moving on to Grand Commandant. Dong Zhuo then deposed the emperor, made him Prince of Hongnong, and set up Emperor Ling's young son the Prince of Chenliu; this was Emperor Xian. The year was the 6th year of Zhongping (189). Dong Zhuo next killed Empress He and the Prince of Hongnong, and on becoming Chancellor of State he received the privileges of not being announced by his personal name at audiences and of ascending the hall wearing his sword and shoes. Records, Wei 6 §8Records, Wei 1 §5–6

In the 1st month of the 1st year of Chuping (190), ten men including Yuan Shu, Han Fu and Yuan Shao raised troops at the same time and chose Yuan Shao as leader of the alliance. In the 2nd month Dong Zhuo moved the Son of Heaven to make Chang'an the capital, burned the palaces of Luoyang and dug up the imperial tombs to take their treasures. Yuan Shao and Han Fu wanted to make Liu Yu, Governor of You Province, emperor, but Liu Yu never dared to accept. On reaching Chang'an, Dong Zhuo became Grand Preceptor and was styled Shangfu ("Esteemed Father"), and his clansmen all took their places at court. Records, Wei 1 §7 · 15–16Records, Wei 6 §11 · 12

In the 4th month of the 3rd year of Chuping (192), the Minister over the Masses Wang Yun, the Supervisor of the Imperial Secretariat Shisun Rui and Dong Zhuo's general Lü Bu plotted together, and on the day of a grand assembly in the Weiyang Hall, held when the Son of Heaven had just recovered from an illness, they killed Dong Zhuo and exterminated his three sets of kin. Li Jue, Guo Si and others, who had been Colonels under Niu Fu, followed Jia Xu's plan and marched on Chang'an; by the time they arrived their host numbered more than a hundred thousand, and after ten days they took the city and exposed Wang Yun's corpse in the marketplace. Li Jue, Guo Si and Fan Chou seized control of the court's government, and within two years the people of the Three Adjuncts had eaten one another until almost none were left. Records, Wei 6 §16 · 19–21 · 23

The generals fought over power and killed Fan Chou, and Guo Si and Li Jue came to suspect each other and fought within Chang'an. Li Jue held the Son of Heaven hostage in his own camp and burned the palace halls and city gates, while Guo Si detained all the high ministers whom Li Jue had sent to ask for peace. Zhang Ji reconciled the two and the Son of Heaven got away, but Li Jue and Guo Si pursued him again, and in the winter of the 2nd year of Xingping (195) they routed Yang Feng's troops at Caoyang in Hongnong and killed the high ministers and officials. The Son of Heaven crossed the Yellow River on foot, followed only by the Empress and the Honored Ladies. Records, Wei 6 §24–26 · 78

Yang Feng, Han Xian and others had the Son of Heaven make Anyi his capital, and the officials who followed him ate jujubes and wild greens. Han Xian, Hu Cai and Li Le were made generals and shared the government with Yang Feng and Dong Cheng, but the generals would not submit to one another's command and the food ran out. When Yang Feng, Han Xian and Dong Cheng escorted the Son of Heaven back to Luoyang, the palaces had all burned down, and the officials cut through thorns and brambles to shelter among the broken walls. The provinces and commanderies each kept their troops for themselves and none came, and the Gentlemen of the Imperial Secretariat and those below them went out in person to gather firewood and wild plants, some of them starving to death. Records, Wei 6 §27–28

At the urging of Xun Yu and Cheng Yu, Cao Cao sent Cao Hong to receive the Son of Heaven, but the General of the Guards Dong Cheng and Yuan Shu's general Chang Nu held the passes against him and he could not advance. When the Son of Heaven returned to Luoyang in the 7th month of the 1st year of Jian'an (196), Cao Cao came to Luoyang to guard the capital, and the Son of Heaven lent him the tally and axe and made him Intendant of the Affairs of the Imperial Secretariat. At the urging of Dong Zhao and others, in the 9th month the imperial carriage came out to the east and the capital was established at Xu County, and Cao Cao became General-in-Chief. Chen Shou wrote that the court, which had grown more chaotic by the day since the Son of Heaven moved west, only now had the institutions of the ancestral temple and the altars of state established. Records, Wei 1 §37–39Records, Wei 6 §30

Yang Feng and Han Xian raided the lands between Xu and Yang Provinces and were killed by Liu Bei; in the 2nd year of Jian'an (197) the Supervisor of the Internuncios Pei Mao led the generals of Guanxi to execute Li Jue and exterminate his three sets of kin, and Guo Si was attacked by his own general Wu Xi and died at Mei County. After the Son of Heaven's defeat at Caoyang, Yuan Shu declared that the Liu clan had declined and presumptuously proclaimed himself emperor. In Xu, Dong Cheng, General of Chariots and Cavalry and maternal uncle of Emperor Xian, said he had received a secret edict hidden in the emperor's sash and that Cao Cao must be killed, and plotted with Liu Bei and others, but in the 1st month of the 5th year of Jian'an (200) the plot leaked and all of them were executed. Records, Wei 6 §30 · 78–79Records, Shu 2 §15Records, Wei 1 §58

In the 13th year of Jian'an (208) the Han court abolished the offices of the Three Excellencies and established a Chancellor and an Imperial Counsellor, and Cao Cao became Chancellor. In the 17th year the Son of Heaven allowed Cao Cao not to be announced by his personal name at audiences and to ascend the hall wearing his sword and shoes. In the 5th month of the 18th year (213) the Son of Heaven sent the Imperial Counsellor Xi Lü to make Cao Cao Duke of Wei, granting him ten commanderies of Ji Province as his fief and adding the Nine Bestowments. In that patent of appointment Emperor Xian said that when he had met with calamity in his youth and wandered in the western lands, he had been as precarious as tassels hanging from a banner. That year the Son of Heaven took three of Cao Cao's daughters as Honored Ladies. Records, Wei 1 §103 · 118 · 121 · 129 · 134

In the 11th month of the 19th year of Jian'an (214) it came to light that Empress Fu had once written in a letter to her father Fu Wan that the emperor resented Cao Cao over the execution of Dong Cheng; the Empress was deposed and died, and her brothers were also executed. In the 1st month of the following year the Son of Heaven made Cao Cao's middle daughter Empress. In the 5th month of the 21st year (216) Cao Cao became King of Wei, and in the 1st month of the 23rd year (218) the Han Imperial Physician Ji Ben rose in rebellion with the Privy Treasurer Geng Ji and the Director of Rectitude Wei Huang and attacked Xu, but they were suppressed by Wang Bi and others. Records, Wei 1 §142 · 145 · 154 · 159

When Cao Cao died at Luoyang in the 1st month of the 25th year of Jian'an (220), the Crown Prince Cao Pi succeeded him as Chancellor and King of Wei and changed the era name to Yankang. That year the Han emperor, holding that the hopes of the people rested with Wei, summoned the high ministers and officials, made an announcement at the temple of Gaozu, and had Zhang Yin, acting Imperial Counsellor, bear the tally and present the imperial seal and ribbons to abdicate the throne. The King of Wei mounted an altar built at Fanyang, ascended the imperial throne and changed the era from Yankang to Huangchu. In the 11th month of the 1st year of Huangchu the Han emperor was enfeoffed as Duke of Shanyang with the 10,000 households of the town of Shanyang; he was to keep the Han calendar, perform the suburban sacrifices with the rites of a Son of Heaven, and not call himself a subject when submitting writings. The Duke of Shanyang died in the 3rd month of the 2nd year of Qinglong (234). Records, Wei 1 §171–172Records, Wei 2 §1 · 13 · 16–17Records, Wei 3 §35

In his assessment in the Annals of Emperor Wu, Chen Shou said that at the end of the Han the realm fell into great chaos and heroes rose up all at once, and that Cao Cao was able in the end to take full control of the imperial authority and accomplish a great enterprise because his clear-sighted strategy was the most outstanding. In his assessment in the Biographies of Dong Zhuo, the Two Yuans and Liu Biao, he said of Dong Zhuo that since the invention of writing there had probably been no one like him. Records, Wei 1 §173Records, Wei 6 §96