Three Kindoms |
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![]() About Three Kingdoms Era The Three Kingdoms period is a period in the history of China, part of an era of disunity called the Six Dynasties. In a strict academic sense it refers to the period between the foundation of the Wei in 220 and the conquest of the Wu by the Jin Dynasty in 280. However, many Chinese historians and laymen extend the starting point of this period back to the uprising of the Yellow Turbans in 184. ![]() The earlier, "unofficial" part of the period, from 190 to 220, was marked by chaotic infighting between warlords in various parts of China. The middle part of the period, from 220 and 263, was marked by a more militarily stable arrangement between three rival states, Kingdom of Wei (魏), Kingdom of Shu (蜀), and Kingdom of Wu (吴). The later part of this period was marked by the collapse of the tripartite situation: first the destruction of Shu by Wei (263), then the overthrow of Wei by the Jin Dynasty (265), and the destruction of Wu by Jin (280). ![]() The Three Kingdoms period is one of the bloodiest in Chinese history. A population census in late Eastern Han Dynasty reported a population of approximately 56 million, while a population census in early Western Jin dynasty (after Jin re-unified China) reported a population of approximately 16 million. Even taking into account the inaccuracies of these census reports, it is safe to assume that a large percentage of the population was wiped out during the constant wars waged during this period. Collapse of dynastic power What is traditionally thought of as the beginning of the "unofficial" Three Kingdoms Period is ![]() The year long revolt devastated northern China, as Zhang's religious sect, the Way of Peace, battled the weakened Han Empire, whose army was led by He Jin. The Way of Peace was primarily composed of farmers who had suffered greatly under the corrupt government system and thus easily converted by Zhang Jiao to create a "new and peaceful world." The rebellion ended when Zhang Jiao died of illness, but the chaos the rebellion wrought, when combined with the natural disasters that had overrun China in the same period, destabilized the Han Dynasty and doomed it to fall. The rebellion also caused the central government to increase the allowance of military power of the local governments, which is one of the cause of the warring period that followed. The series of events leading to the collapse of dynastic power and the rise of Cao Cao are extremely complex. The death of Emperor Ling(汉灵帝) in May 189 led to an unstable regency under General-in-chief He Jin and renewed rivalry between the factions of the eunuchs and regular civil bureaucracy. Following the assassination of He Jin, his chief ally the Colonel-Lieutenant of Retainers Yuan Shao(袁绍) led a massacre of the eunuchs in the imperial palaces in Luoyang. This event prompted the invitation of frontier general Dong Zhuo(董卓) to enter Luoyang from the northwest boundary of China. ![]() Dong Zhuo then manipulated the succession so that the future Emperor Xian(汉献帝) could take the throne in lieu of his elder half-brother. (Dong Zhuo, while ambitious, genuinely wished for a more capable emperor. On his way to Luoyang, he encountered a small team of soldiers protecting the two sons of Emperor Ling fleeing the war zone. In the encounter Dong Zhuo acted arrogantly and threatening, causing the elder half-brother to be paralyzed with fear; but the younger brother, future Emperor Xian, responded calmly with authority and commanded Dong Zhuo to protect the royal family with his army to return to the Imperial Court.) While Dong Zhuo originally wanted to re-establish the authority of Han Empire and manage all the political conflict properly, his political capability proved to be much worse than his military leadership. His behaviour grew more and more violent and authoritarian, executing or sending into exile all that opposed him, and showed less and less respect to the Emperor. He ignored all royal etiquette and openly carried weapons into the imperial court frequently. In 190 a coalition led by Yuan Shao was formed between nearly all the provincial authorities in the eastern provinces of the empire against Dong Zhuo. The mounting pressure from repeated defeat on the southern frontline against the Sun Jian forces drove the Han Emperor and later Dong Zhuo himself west to Chang'an in May 191. Dong Zhuo again demonstrated his lack of management of a country by forcing millions of residents of Luoyang to migrate to Chang'an, then set fire to Luoyang to destroy the biggest city in China at that time, so that his enemies would not gain useful supplies from occupying it. In addition, he ordered his army to slaughter a whole village of civilians, cutting off their heads and carried them into Chang'an to show off as war trophies, pretending to have had a great victory against his enemies. A year later Dong Zhuo was killed in a coup d'etat by Wang Yun(王允) and Lü Bu(吕布) (who was Dong Zhuo's godson). The rise of Cao Cao ![]() In 191 there was some talk among the coalition of appointing Liu Yu(刘裕), an imperial relative, as emperor, and gradually its members began to fall out. Most of the warlords in the coalition, with a few exceptions, sought the increase of personal military power in the time of instability instead of seriously wishing to restore Han Dynasty's authority. The Han empire was divided between a number of regional warlords. ![]() Dong Zhuo, confident in his success, ![]() In August 195, Emperor Xian fled the tyranny of Li Jue at Chang'an and made a year-long hazardous journey east in search of supporters. By 196, when he was received by Cao Cao, most of the smaller contenders for power had either been absorbed by larger ones or destroyed. This is an extremely important move for Cao Cao with the suggestion from his primary advisor, Xun Yu, commenting that by supporting the authentic Emperor, Cao Cao would have the formal legal authority to control the other warlords and force them to comply in order to restore the Han dynasty. Cao Cao, whose zone of control was the precursor to the Kingdom of Wei, had raised an army in the winter of 189. In several strategic movements and battles, he controlled the Dui ![]() In 194, Cao Cao went to war with Tao Qian(陶谦) of Xuzhou. Tao Qian received the support of Liu Bei (刘备)and Gongsun Zan, but even then, it seemed as if Cao Cao's ![]() In the south, Sun Ce, then an independent general under the service of Yuan Shu, defeated the warlords of Yangzhou, including Liu Yao, Wang Lang, and Yan Baihu. The speed with which Sun Ce accomplished his conquests led to his nickname, "Little Overlord" (小霸王), a reference to the late Xiang Yu. In 197, Yuan Shu, who was at odds with Cao Cao, Yuan Shao, and Liu Bei, felt assured of victory with his subordinate's conquests, and thus declared himself emperor of the Cheng Dynasty. The move, however, was a tactical blunder, as it drew the ire of many warlords across the land, including Yuan Shu's own subordinate Sun Ce, who had advised Yuan Shu ![]() Afterwards, Lü Bu betrayed Liu Bei and seized Xuzhou, forming an alliance with Yuan Shu's remnant forces. Liu Bei fled to Cao Cao, who accepted him. Soon, preparations were made for an attack on Lü Bu, and the combined forces of Cao Cao and Liu Bei besieged Xia Pi. Lü Bu's officers deserted him, Yuan Shu's forces never arrived as reinforcements, and he was bound by his own soldiers and executed along with many of his officers. Thus, the man known as the mightiest warrior in the land was no more. In 200, Dong Cheng, an officer of the Imperial Court, received a secret edict from the Emperor to assassinate Cao Cao. He collaborated with Liu Bei on this effort, but Cao Cao soon found out about the plot and had Dong Cheng and his co-conspirators executed, with only Liu Bei surviving and fleeing to the Yuan Shao in the north. ![]() In 200, after winning a decisive battle against Liu Biao at Shaxian and putting down the rebellions of Xu Gong and others, Sun Ce was struck by an arrow and fatally wounded. On his deathbed, he named his younger brother, Sun Quan(孙权), as his heir. Following months of planning, Cao Cao and Yuan Shao met in force at Guandu. Overcoming Yuan's superior numbers, (actual numbers vary in different sources, but Yuan Shao having absolute superior number manyfolds is universally accepted) Cao Cao decisively defeated him by setting fire to his supplies, and in doing so crippled the northern army. Liu Bei fled to Liu Biao of Jing province, and many of Yuan Shao's forces were destroyed. In 202, Cao Cao took advantage of Yuan Shao's death and the resulting division among his sons to advance north of the Yellow River. He captured Ye in 204 and occupied the provinces of Ji, Bing, Qing and You. By the end of 207, after a lightning campaign against the Wuhuan barbarians, Cao Cao had achieved undisputed dominance of the North China Plain. Red Cliffs and its aftermath ![]() In 208, Cao Cao marched south with his army hoping to quickly unify the empire. Liu Biao's son Liu Cong surrendered the province of Jing and Cao was able to capture a sizeable fleet at Jiangling. Sun Quan, the successor to Sun Ce in the Lower Yangzi, continued to resist however. His advisor Lu Su(鲁肃) secured an alliance with Liu Bei, himself a recent refugee from the north, and Sun Ce's sworn brother Zhou Yu(周瑜) was placed in ![]() After his return to the north, Cao Cao contented himself with absorbing the northwestern regions in 211 and consolidating his power. He progressively increased his titles and power, eventually becoming the Prince of Wei in 217, a title bestowed upon him by the puppet Han emperor that he controlled. Liu Bei, having defeated the weak Jing warlords Han Xuan, Jin ![]() Three emperors ![]() In the first month of 220, Cao Cao died and in the tenth month his son Cao Pi forced Emperor Xian to abdicate to him, thus ending the Han Dynasty. He named his state Wei and made himself emperor at Luoyang. In 221, Liu Bei named himself Emperor of Han, in a bid to restore the fallen Han dynasty. (His state is known to history as ![]() Dominion of the north completely belonged to Wei, whilst Shu occupied the southwest and ![]() Population The population could be derived from the official record of Chen Shou's Sanguo Zhi. In terms of manpower, the Wei was by far the largest, retaining more than 660,000 households and 4,400,000 people within its borders. Shu had a population of 940,000, and Wu 2,300,000. Thus, Wei had more than 58% of the population and around 40% of territory. With these resources, it is estimated that it could raise an army of 440,000 whilst Shu and Wu could manage 100,000 and ![]() Trade and transport In economic terms the division of the Three Kingdoms reflected a reality that long endured. Even in the Northern Song, seven hundred years after the Three Kingdoms, it was possible to think of China as being composed of three great regional markets. (The status of the northwest was slightly ambivalent, as it had links with the northern region and Sichuan). These geographical divisions are underscored by the fact that the main communication routes between the three main regions were all man-made: the Grand Canal linking north and south, the hauling-way through the Three Gorges of the Yangzi linking southern China with Sichuan and the gallery roads joining Sichuan with the northwest. The break into three separate entities was quite natural and even anticipated by such political foresight as Zhuge Liang(诸葛亮) (see Longzhong Plan 隆中对). Consolidation In 223 Liu Chan(刘禅) rose to the throne of Shu following his father's defeat and death. The defeat of Liu Bei at Yiling ended the period of hostility ![]() Meanwhile Shu was also experiencing troubles with the indigenous tribes of their south. The South-western Nanman peoples rose in revolt against Han authority, captured and looted the city of Yizhou. Zhuge Liang, recognising the importance of stability in the south, ordered the advance of the Shu armies in three columns against the Nanman. He fought a number of engagements against the chieftain Meng Huo, at the end of which Meng submitted. A tribesman was allowed to reside at the Shu capital Chengdu as an official and the Nanman formed their own battalions within the Shu army. Zhuge Liang's Northern Expeditions ![]() At the end of Zhuge Liang's southern campaign, the Wu-Shu alliance came to fruition and Shu was free to move against north. In 227 Zhuge Liang transferred his main Shu armies to Hanzhong, and opened up the battle for the northwest with Wei. (See Northern Expeditions) The next year, he ordered the general Zhao Yun to attack from Ji Gorge as a diversion whilst ![]() Zhuge Liang had five ![]() Wu and development of the south In the times of Zhuge Liang's great northern offensives, the state of Wu had always been on ![]() Sun Quan's long reign is regarded as a time of plenty for his southern state. Migrations from the north and the settlement of the Shanyue increased manpower for agriculture, especially ![]() Decline and end of the Three Kingdoms From the late 230s tensions began to become visible between the imperial Cao clan and the Sima clan. ![]() Fall of Shu The decreasing strength of the Cao clan was mirrored by the decline of Shu. Zhuge Liang gained large amounts of Wei's land. After Zhuge Liang's death, his position as Lieutenant ![]() Fall of Wei Cao Huan succeeded to the throne in 260 after ![]() Fall of Wu Following Sun Quan's death and the ascension of the young Sun Liang as emperor in 252, the ![]() ![]()
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