Emperor Ling of Han
Encyclopedia
Emperor Ling of Han, trad. ch.
漢靈帝;, sim. ch.
汉灵帝, py
. hàn líng dì, wg
. Han Ling-ti, (156 – May 13, 189) was an emperor
of the Chinese Han Dynasty
. He was a great-great-grandson of Emperor Zhang
. The Yellow Turban Rebellion
broke out during Emperor Ling's reign.
Emperor Ling's reign saw yet another repetition of government domination by corrupt eunuch
s. This time Zhang Rang
and his accomplices succeeded in completely dominating the political scene after prevailing over Empress Dowager Dou
's father Dou Wu
and his ally, the Confucian scholar Chen Fan (陳蕃) in 168. Emperor Ling, even after he grew to adulthood, was not interested in governmental affairs, instead indulged himself in women and a decadent lifestyle. At the same time corrupt officials levied heavy taxes on the peasants causing public outcries and rebellions. He further exacerbated the situation by selling political offices for money.
Emperor Ling died in 189 at the age of 34, after reigning for 21 years. After his death the power fell into the hands of Dong Zhuo
, who despised him. Emperor Ling was one of the rare examples of history in which an emperor whose throne was inherited by a son who received a highly derogatory (but accurate) posthumous name.
Emperor Ling's reign left the Eastern Han Dynasty weak and ready to crumble. After his death, the empire broke apart, and for several decades warlords battled, until eventually his son Emperor Xian
was forced to abdicate in favor of Cao Pi
, ushering in the era of the Three Kingdoms period. (See End of Han Dynasty
.)
that would be one village or, in rarer cases, two or three villages.) His was a third generation creation, as his father Liu Chang (劉萇) and grandfather Liu Shu (劉淑) were both Marquesses of Jieduting as well. His great-grandfather was Liu Kai (劉開), the Prince of Hejian, and a son of Emperor Zhang
. His mother Lady Dong
was Marquess Chang's wife.
When Emperor Huan died in 168 without a son to be heir, his wife Empress Dou Miao
became empress dowager
and regent
, and she examined the rolls of the imperial clan to consider the next emperor. For reasons unknown, her assistant Liu Shu (劉儵) recommended Marquess Hong, and after consulting with her father Dou Wu
and the Confucian scholar official Chen Fan, Empress Dowager Dou made him emperor, at age 12. Empress Dowager Dou continued to serve as regent. Emperor Ling posthumously honored his father and grandfather as emperors, and his grandmother as an empress. His mother, because of Empress Dowager Dou's presence, was not honored as an empress or empress dowager, but as an imperial consort.
After the destruction of the Dou clan, in 169, Emperor Ling honored his mother Consort Dong as an empress dowager, but continued to also honor Empress Dowager Dou (now placed under house arrest
by the eunuchs) as an empress dowager. Members of the Dong clan began to enter government, but did not have substantial influence. Later that year, the eunuchs persuaded Emperor Ling that the "partisans" (i.e., Confucian
officials and university students who supported them) were plotting against him, and a large number of partisans were arrested and killed; the others had their civil liberties stripped completely, in what later was known as the second Disaster of Partisan Prohibitions
.
In 172, Empress Dowager Dou died. Despite suggestions by eunuchs to have her only buried as an imperial consort and not be honored as Emperor Huan's wife, Emperor Ling had her buried with honors due an empress dowager, with Emperor Huan. In the aftermaths of her death, a vandal wrote on the palace door:
The eunuchs were angered, and more than 1,000 people were arrested in the investigation to try to discover who the vandal was, but nothing eventually came of the investigation. In that year, the eunuchs also falsely accused Emperor Huan's brother Liu Kui (劉悝), the Prince of Bohai, of treason
, and Prince Kui was forced to commit suicide
. The members of his entire household, including wife, concubines, children, assistants, and principality officials, were all executed. The eunuchs continued to be corrupt, and the people received heavier and heavier tax burdens. As Emperor Ling grew older, he not only took no remedial actions, but continued to tolerate the eunuchs' corruption, for the large part. A major defeat by the Xianbei
in 177 further drained the imperial treasury.
In 178, Emperor Ling's wife Empress Song
, whom he made empress in 171 but did not favor, fell victim to the eunuchs. Her aunt Lady Song was Prince Kui's wife, and so the eunuchs were concerned that if she became powerful, she would avenge her aunt. They, in alliance with the imperial consorts who wanted to replace Empress Song, falsely accused her of using witchcraft to curse the emperor. Emperor Ling believed them and deposed Empress Song. She was imprisoned and died in despair. Her father Song Feng (宋酆) and her brothers were all executed.
In 180, Emperor Ling created Consort He
as the new empress and made her brother He Jin
a key official in his government. (According to legends, she was initially selected as an imperial consort because her family bribed the eunuchs.) She received the empress position because she had given birth to Emperor Ling's son Liu Bian
(劉辯).
During these years, Emperor Ling became interested in heavy spending to build imperial gardens, and to finance them he ordered the commanderies and principalities to offer tributes to him personally. This in turn created pressures for officials to be corrupt. However, he also did listen to good advice at times, but did not follow them consistently. For the more honest of his officials, it became a frustrating exercise to try to persuade Emperor Ling on points that were beneficial to the people—because he was in fact persuadable but not usually so.
) -- the Taiping Sect (太平教), led by Zhang Jiao
, who claimed he had magical powers to heal the sick. By 183, his teachings and followers had spread to eight provinces—Qing (青州, modern central and eastern Shandong
), Xu (徐州, modern northern Jiangsu
and Anhui
), You (幽州, modern northern Hebei, Liaoning
, Beijing
, and Tianjin
), Ji, Jing (荊州, modern Hubei
and Hunan
), Yang (揚州, modern southern Jiangsu
and Anhui
, Jiangxi
, and Zhejiang
), Yan (兗州, modern western Shandong
), and Yu (豫州, modern central and eastern Henan
). Several key imperial officials became concerned about Zhang's hold over his followers, and suggested that the Taiping Sect be disbanded. Emperor Ling did not listen to them.
Zhang in fact planned a rebellion. He commissioned 36 military commanders and set up a shadow government, and he wrote a declaration:
(Under China's traditional sexagenary cycle
calendar method, 184 would be the first year of the cycle, known as Jiazi.) Zhang had his supporters wrote Jiazi in large characters with white talc everywhere they could—including on the doors of many imperial offices in the capital Luoyang
and other cities. One of Zhang's commanders, Ma Yuanyi
entered into a plan with two powerful eunuchs, and they planned to start a rebellion to overthrow the Han Dynasty from inside.
Early in 184, this plot was discovered, and Ma was immediately arrested and executed. Emperor Ling ordered that Taiping Sect members be arrested and executed, and Zhang immediately declared a rebellion. Every member of the rebellion wore a yellow turban as the symbol—and therefore the rebellion became known for it. Within a month, Zhang controlled large areas of territory. Under suggestion by the eunuch Lü Qiang (呂強), who was sympathetic to the partisans, Emperor Ling pardoned the partisans to ward off the possibility they would join the Yellow Turbans. (Lü himself became a victim, however, when the other eunuchs, in retaliation, falsely accused him of wanting to depose the emperor, and he committed suicide later that year.)
Emperor Ling sent out a number of military commanders against the Yellow Turbans, and in these campaigns several of them distinguished themselves—including Huangfu Song
, Cao Cao
, Fu Xie (傅燮), Zhu Jun
, Lu Zhi, and Dong Zhuo
. A key military development with great implications later was that the Yellow Turbans were largely combatted with battle-tested Liang Province (涼州, modern Gansu
) troops, who had been accustomed to fight the Qiang rebellions. In late 184, Zhang Jiao was killed, and while the rest of the Yellow Turbans were not defeated immediately, in the following year they gradually dissipated. Because of the Liang forces' contributions to the campaign, they began to be feared and began to look down on troops from all other provinces. During and in the aftermaths of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, many people from other provinces, in order to ward off pillaging by Yellow Turbans or governmental forces, also organized into military organizations, and a good number resisted government forces, and even after the Yellow Turbans were defeated, the central government's control of the provinces was no longer what it used to be.
In 188, under the suggestions of Liu Yan, Emperor Ling greatly increased the political and military power of the provincincial governors and selected key officials to serve as provincial governors.
In 189, as Emperor Ling grew ill, a succession issue came into being. Emperor Ling had two surviving sons—Liu Bian, the son of Empress He, and Liu Xie
, the son of Consort Wang. Because Emperor Ling had, earlier in his life, frequently lost sons in childhood, he later believed that his sons needed to be raised outside the palace by foster parents. Therefore, when Prince Bian was born, he was entrusted to the magician Shi Zimiao (史子眇) and known by the circumspect title "Marquess Shi." Later, when Prince Xie was born, he was raised personally by Emperor Ling's mother Empress Dowager Dong and known by the circumspect title "Marquess Dong." Prince Bian was born of the empress and was older, but Emperor Ling viewed his behavior as being insufficiently solemn and therefore considered creating Prince Xie crown prince
, but hesitated and could not decide.
When Emperor Ling died later that year, a powerful eunuch that he trusted, Jian Shuo
, wanted to first kill Empress He's brother He Jin and then make Prince Xie emperor, and therefore set up a trap at a meeting he was to have with He. He found out, and preemptorily declared Prince Bian emperor (later known as the Prince of Hongnong
).
Traditional Chinese character
Traditional Chinese characters refers to Chinese characters in any character set which does not contain newly created characters or character substitutions performed after 1946. It most commonly refers to characters in the standardized character sets of Taiwan, of Hong Kong, or in the Kangxi...
漢靈帝;, sim. ch.
Simplified Chinese character
Simplified Chinese characters are standardized Chinese characters prescribed in the Xiandai Hanyu Tongyong Zibiao for use in Mainland China. Along with traditional Chinese characters, it is one of many standard character sets of the contemporary Chinese written language...
汉灵帝, py
Pinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
. hàn líng dì, wg
Wade-Giles
Wade–Giles , sometimes abbreviated Wade, is a romanization system for the Mandarin Chinese language. It developed from a system produced by Thomas Wade during the mid-19th century , and was given completed form with Herbert Giles' Chinese–English dictionary of 1892.Wade–Giles was the most...
. Han Ling-ti, (156 – May 13, 189) was an emperor
Emperor of China
The Emperor of China refers to any sovereign of Imperial China reigning between the founding of Qin Dynasty of China, united by the King of Qin in 221 BCE, and the fall of Yuan Shikai's Empire of China in 1916. When referred to as the Son of Heaven , a title that predates the Qin unification, the...
of the Chinese Han Dynasty
Han Dynasty
The Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms . It was founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang...
. He was a great-great-grandson of Emperor Zhang
Emperor Zhang of Han
Emperor Zhang of Han, ch. 漢章帝, py. hàn zhāng dì, wg. Han Chang-ti, was an emperor of the Chinese Han Dynasty from 75 to 88. He was the third emperor of the Chinese Eastern Han Dynasty....
. The Yellow Turban Rebellion
Yellow Turban Rebellion
The Yellow Turban Rebellion, also translated as Yellow Scarves Rebellion, was a peasant revolt that broke out in 184 AD in China during the reign of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty...
broke out during Emperor Ling's reign.
Emperor Ling's reign saw yet another repetition of government domination by corrupt eunuch
Eunuch
A eunuch is a person born male most commonly castrated, typically early enough in his life for this change to have major hormonal consequences...
s. This time Zhang Rang
Zhang Rang
Zhang Rang was a eunuch of the late Han Dynasty, who served Emperor Ling of Han; he was also the leader of the Ten regular attendants , a group of court eunuchs who held great influence in the Han imperial court...
and his accomplices succeeded in completely dominating the political scene after prevailing over Empress Dowager Dou
Empress Dou Miao
Empress Dou Miao , formally Empress Huansi , was an empress during Han Dynasty. She was the third wife of Emperor Huan...
's father Dou Wu
Dou Wu
Dou Wu , courtesy name Youping , was a Han Dynasty politician who was known as a Confucian scholar and served as a low-level official during the reign of Emperor Huan until his daughter Dou Miao was elevated from imperial consort to empress, which caused him to be promoted, eventually to become...
and his ally, the Confucian scholar Chen Fan (陳蕃) in 168. Emperor Ling, even after he grew to adulthood, was not interested in governmental affairs, instead indulged himself in women and a decadent lifestyle. At the same time corrupt officials levied heavy taxes on the peasants causing public outcries and rebellions. He further exacerbated the situation by selling political offices for money.
Emperor Ling died in 189 at the age of 34, after reigning for 21 years. After his death the power fell into the hands of Dong Zhuo
Dong Zhuo
Dong Zhuo was a politician and warlord during the late Han Dynasty period of Chinese history. He seized control of the capital city Luoyang in 189 when it was in a state of turmoil following the death of Emperor Ling and a clash between the eunuch faction and some court officials led by...
, who despised him. Emperor Ling was one of the rare examples of history in which an emperor whose throne was inherited by a son who received a highly derogatory (but accurate) posthumous name.
Emperor Ling's reign left the Eastern Han Dynasty weak and ready to crumble. After his death, the empire broke apart, and for several decades warlords battled, until eventually his son Emperor Xian
Emperor Xian of Han
Emperor Xian of Han , personal name Liu Xie, style name Bohe, was the last emperor of the Han Dynasty period of Chinese history...
was forced to abdicate in favor of Cao Pi
Cao Pi
Cao Pi , formally known as Emperor Wen of Wei, was the first emperor of the state of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history. Born in Qiao County, Pei Commandery , he was the second son of the late Han Dynasty warlord Cao Cao.Cao Pi, like his father, was a poet...
, ushering in the era of the Three Kingdoms period. (See End of Han Dynasty
End of Han Dynasty
The End of the Han Dynasty refers to the period from 189 to 220, which roughly coincides with the reign of the Han Dynasty's last ruler, Emperor Xian. During this period, the Han empire's institutions were destroyed by the warlord Dong Zhuo, and fractured into regional regimes ruled by various...
.)
Family background and ascension to the throne
Liu Hong was a hereditary marquess—the Marquess of Jieduting. (A "ting marquess had a marchMarches
A march or mark refers to a border region similar to a frontier, such as the Welsh Marches, the borderland between England and Wales. During the Frankish Carolingian Dynasty, the word spread throughout Europe....
that would be one village or, in rarer cases, two or three villages.) His was a third generation creation, as his father Liu Chang (劉萇) and grandfather Liu Shu (劉淑) were both Marquesses of Jieduting as well. His great-grandfather was Liu Kai (劉開), the Prince of Hejian, and a son of Emperor Zhang
Emperor Zhang of Han
Emperor Zhang of Han, ch. 漢章帝, py. hàn zhāng dì, wg. Han Chang-ti, was an emperor of the Chinese Han Dynasty from 75 to 88. He was the third emperor of the Chinese Eastern Han Dynasty....
. His mother Lady Dong
Empress Dowager Dong
Empress Dowager Dong , personal name unknown, formally known as Empress Xiaocheng , was an empress dowager of Han Dynasty period of Chinese history. However, she was never empress, because she became mother to an emperor...
was Marquess Chang's wife.
When Emperor Huan died in 168 without a son to be heir, his wife Empress Dou Miao
Empress Dou Miao
Empress Dou Miao , formally Empress Huansi , was an empress during Han Dynasty. She was the third wife of Emperor Huan...
became empress dowager
Empress Dowager
Empress Dowager was the title given to the mother of a Chinese, Korean, Japanese or Vietnamese emperor.The title was also given occasionally to another woman of the same generation, while a woman from the previous generation was sometimes given the title of Grand empress dowager. Numerous empress...
and regent
Regent
A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...
, and she examined the rolls of the imperial clan to consider the next emperor. For reasons unknown, her assistant Liu Shu (劉儵) recommended Marquess Hong, and after consulting with her father Dou Wu
Dou Wu
Dou Wu , courtesy name Youping , was a Han Dynasty politician who was known as a Confucian scholar and served as a low-level official during the reign of Emperor Huan until his daughter Dou Miao was elevated from imperial consort to empress, which caused him to be promoted, eventually to become...
and the Confucian scholar official Chen Fan, Empress Dowager Dou made him emperor, at age 12. Empress Dowager Dou continued to serve as regent. Emperor Ling posthumously honored his father and grandfather as emperors, and his grandmother as an empress. His mother, because of Empress Dowager Dou's presence, was not honored as an empress or empress dowager, but as an imperial consort.
Early reign
The empress dowager's father Dou Wu and Chen became the most important officials in the imperial government, and they sought to purge the government of eunuch influences. Later in 168, they even proposed to exterminate all of the powerful eunuchs, a proposal that Empress Dowager Dou rejected. However, word of the plot was leaked, and the eunuchs, after kidnapping the empress dowager and taking the young emperor into custody (after persuading him that it was for his own protection) arrested and executed Chen. Dou Wu resisted, but was eventually defeated, and he committed suicide. The Dou clan was slaughtered. The powerful eunuchs, led by Cao Jie (曹節) and Wang Fu (王甫), became the most powerful individuals in the imperial government.After the destruction of the Dou clan, in 169, Emperor Ling honored his mother Consort Dong as an empress dowager, but continued to also honor Empress Dowager Dou (now placed under house arrest
House arrest
In justice and law, house arrest is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to his or her residence. Travel is usually restricted, if allowed at all...
by the eunuchs) as an empress dowager. Members of the Dong clan began to enter government, but did not have substantial influence. Later that year, the eunuchs persuaded Emperor Ling that the "partisans" (i.e., Confucian
Confucianism
Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius . Confucianism originated as an "ethical-sociopolitical teaching" during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han...
officials and university students who supported them) were plotting against him, and a large number of partisans were arrested and killed; the others had their civil liberties stripped completely, in what later was known as the second Disaster of Partisan Prohibitions
Disasters of Partisan Prohibitions
The Disasters of Partisan Prohibitions refers to two incidents in which a number of Confucian scholars who served as officials in the Han imperial government and opposed to powerful eunuchs, and the university students in the capital Luoyang who supported them The Disasters of Partisan...
.
In 172, Empress Dowager Dou died. Despite suggestions by eunuchs to have her only buried as an imperial consort and not be honored as Emperor Huan's wife, Emperor Ling had her buried with honors due an empress dowager, with Emperor Huan. In the aftermaths of her death, a vandal wrote on the palace door:
- All that is under the heaven is in upheaval. Cao and Wang murdered the empress dowager. The key officials only know how to be officials and had nothing faithful to say.
The eunuchs were angered, and more than 1,000 people were arrested in the investigation to try to discover who the vandal was, but nothing eventually came of the investigation. In that year, the eunuchs also falsely accused Emperor Huan's brother Liu Kui (劉悝), the Prince of Bohai, of treason
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
, and Prince Kui was forced to commit suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
. The members of his entire household, including wife, concubines, children, assistants, and principality officials, were all executed. The eunuchs continued to be corrupt, and the people received heavier and heavier tax burdens. As Emperor Ling grew older, he not only took no remedial actions, but continued to tolerate the eunuchs' corruption, for the large part. A major defeat by the Xianbei
Xianbei
The Xianbei were a significant Mongolic nomadic people residing in Manchuria, Inner Mongolia and eastern Mongolia. The title “Khan” was first used among the Xianbei.-Origins:...
in 177 further drained the imperial treasury.
In 178, Emperor Ling's wife Empress Song
Empress Song (Ling)
Empress Song was an empress during the Han Dynasty. She was Emperor Ling's first wife, who later became a victim of the powerful eunuchs.- Family background and marriage to Emperor Ling :...
, whom he made empress in 171 but did not favor, fell victim to the eunuchs. Her aunt Lady Song was Prince Kui's wife, and so the eunuchs were concerned that if she became powerful, she would avenge her aunt. They, in alliance with the imperial consorts who wanted to replace Empress Song, falsely accused her of using witchcraft to curse the emperor. Emperor Ling believed them and deposed Empress Song. She was imprisoned and died in despair. Her father Song Feng (宋酆) and her brothers were all executed.
Middle reign
In 178, Emperor Ling carried out a plan that greatly damaged the authority of the imperial government and harmed the people even more—he sold offices of all kinds for money. The people who purchased these offices would then become extremely corrupt while in office—and in fact, that was what Emperor Ling contemplated, for he allowed people who did not have the money to start to set up installment payment plans after they were placed in office.In 180, Emperor Ling created Consort He
Empress He (Ling)
Empress He , personal name unknown, formally known as Empress Lingsi was an empress of the Han Dynasty period of Chinese history. She was Emperor Ling's second wife...
as the new empress and made her brother He Jin
He Jin
He Jin was the elder half-brother of Empress He, consort to Emperor Ling of the late Eastern Han Dynasty in China. He shared power with his sister as regents in 189, following the death of Emperor Ling. In the ensuing struggle with the influential eunuch faction for power, He Jin was assassinated...
a key official in his government. (According to legends, she was initially selected as an imperial consort because her family bribed the eunuchs.) She received the empress position because she had given birth to Emperor Ling's son Liu Bian
Prince of Hongnong
The Prince of Hongnong , was briefly an emperor of China during the Han dynasty. He is also known as "Emperor Han Shao" , a name which he shares with several other emperors with brief reigns...
(劉辯).
During these years, Emperor Ling became interested in heavy spending to build imperial gardens, and to finance them he ordered the commanderies and principalities to offer tributes to him personally. This in turn created pressures for officials to be corrupt. However, he also did listen to good advice at times, but did not follow them consistently. For the more honest of his officials, it became a frustrating exercise to try to persuade Emperor Ling on points that were beneficial to the people—because he was in fact persuadable but not usually so.
The Yellow Turban Rebellion
Sometime before 183, a major Taoist movement had emerged from Ji Province (冀州, modern central HebeiHebei
' is a province of the People's Republic of China in the North China region. Its one-character abbreviation is "" , named after Ji Province, a Han Dynasty province that included what is now southern Hebei...
) -- the Taiping Sect (太平教), led by Zhang Jiao
Zhang Jiao
Zhang Jue was the leader of the Yellow Turban rebels during the late Han Dynasty period of Chinese history. He was said to be a follower of Taoism and a sorcerer. His name is sometimes read as Zhang Jiao, since the Chinese character of Zhang's given name can be read as either "Jiao" or "Jue"...
, who claimed he had magical powers to heal the sick. By 183, his teachings and followers had spread to eight provinces—Qing (青州, modern central and eastern Shandong
Shandong
' is a Province located on the eastern coast of the People's Republic of China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history from the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River and served as a pivotal cultural and religious site for Taoism, Chinese...
), Xu (徐州, modern northern Jiangsu
Jiangsu
' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. The name comes from jiang, short for the city of Jiangning , and su, for the city of Suzhou. The abbreviation for this province is "苏" , the second character of its name...
and Anhui
Anhui
Anhui is a province in the People's Republic of China. Located in eastern China across the basins of the Yangtze River and the Huai River, it borders Jiangsu to the east, Zhejiang to the southeast, Jiangxi to the south, Hubei to the southwest, Henan to the northwest, and Shandong for a tiny...
), You (幽州, modern northern Hebei, Liaoning
Liaoning
' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the northeast of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is "辽" , a name taken from the Liao River that flows through the province. "Níng" means "peace"...
, Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, and Tianjin
Tianjin
' is a metropolis in northern China and one of the five national central cities of the People's Republic of China. It is governed as a direct-controlled municipality, one of four such designations, and is, thus, under direct administration of the central government...
), Ji, Jing (荊州, modern Hubei
Hubei
' Hupeh) is a province in Central China. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Lake Dongting...
and Hunan
Hunan
' is a province of South-Central China, located to the south of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and south of Lake Dongting...
), Yang (揚州, modern southern Jiangsu
Jiangsu
' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. The name comes from jiang, short for the city of Jiangning , and su, for the city of Suzhou. The abbreviation for this province is "苏" , the second character of its name...
and Anhui
Anhui
Anhui is a province in the People's Republic of China. Located in eastern China across the basins of the Yangtze River and the Huai River, it borders Jiangsu to the east, Zhejiang to the southeast, Jiangxi to the south, Hubei to the southwest, Henan to the northwest, and Shandong for a tiny...
, Jiangxi
Jiangxi
' is a southern province in the People's Republic of China. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze River in the north into hillier areas in the south, it shares a border with Anhui to the north, Zhejiang to the northeast, Fujian to the east, Guangdong to the south, Hunan to the west, and Hubei to...
, and Zhejiang
Zhejiang
Zhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital...
), Yan (兗州, modern western Shandong
Shandong
' is a Province located on the eastern coast of the People's Republic of China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history from the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River and served as a pivotal cultural and religious site for Taoism, Chinese...
), and Yu (豫州, modern central and eastern Henan
Henan
Henan , is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the central part of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is "豫" , named after Yuzhou , a Han Dynasty state that included parts of Henan...
). Several key imperial officials became concerned about Zhang's hold over his followers, and suggested that the Taiping Sect be disbanded. Emperor Ling did not listen to them.
Zhang in fact planned a rebellion. He commissioned 36 military commanders and set up a shadow government, and he wrote a declaration:
- The blue heaven is dead. The yellow heaven will come into being. The year will be Jiazi. The world would be blessed.
(Under China's traditional sexagenary cycle
Sexagenary cycle
The Chinese sexagenary cycle , also known as the Stems-and-Branches , is a cycle of sixty terms used for recording days or years. It appears, as a means of recording days, in the first Chinese written texts, the Shang dynasty oracle bones from the late second millennium BC. Its use to record years...
calendar method, 184 would be the first year of the cycle, known as Jiazi.) Zhang had his supporters wrote Jiazi in large characters with white talc everywhere they could—including on the doors of many imperial offices in the capital Luoyang
Luoyang
Luoyang is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province of Central China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast.Situated on the central plain of...
and other cities. One of Zhang's commanders, Ma Yuanyi
Ma Yuanyi
Ma Yuanyi was a Yellow Turban rebel during the late Han Dynasty period of Chinese history. He brought gifts from the rebel leader Zhang Jiao to the eunuch officials in the imperial court to gain their support. He also led an attack on Luoyang, but was defeated and beheaded by He Jin.-See...
entered into a plan with two powerful eunuchs, and they planned to start a rebellion to overthrow the Han Dynasty from inside.
Early in 184, this plot was discovered, and Ma was immediately arrested and executed. Emperor Ling ordered that Taiping Sect members be arrested and executed, and Zhang immediately declared a rebellion. Every member of the rebellion wore a yellow turban as the symbol—and therefore the rebellion became known for it. Within a month, Zhang controlled large areas of territory. Under suggestion by the eunuch Lü Qiang (呂強), who was sympathetic to the partisans, Emperor Ling pardoned the partisans to ward off the possibility they would join the Yellow Turbans. (Lü himself became a victim, however, when the other eunuchs, in retaliation, falsely accused him of wanting to depose the emperor, and he committed suicide later that year.)
Emperor Ling sent out a number of military commanders against the Yellow Turbans, and in these campaigns several of them distinguished themselves—including Huangfu Song
Huangfu Song
Huangfu Song , style name Yizhen , was a military general of the late Han Dynasty period of Chinese history. He is best known for helping to suppress the Yellow Turban Rebellion and Liang Province Rebellion. He was one of three imperial commanders when the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out, along...
, Cao Cao
Cao Cao
Cao Cao was a warlord and the penultimate chancellor of the Eastern Han Dynasty who rose to great power during the dynasty's final years. As one of the central figures of the Three Kingdoms period, he laid the foundations for what was to become the state of Cao Wei and was posthumously titled...
, Fu Xie (傅燮), Zhu Jun
Zhu Jun
Zhu Jun , style name Gongwei , was a politician during the late Han Dynasty period of Chinese history. As a character in Luo Guanzhong's historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he was attributed certain actions that he did not actually carry out.Zhu Jun achieved a number of victories over...
, Lu Zhi, and Dong Zhuo
Dong Zhuo
Dong Zhuo was a politician and warlord during the late Han Dynasty period of Chinese history. He seized control of the capital city Luoyang in 189 when it was in a state of turmoil following the death of Emperor Ling and a clash between the eunuch faction and some court officials led by...
. A key military development with great implications later was that the Yellow Turbans were largely combatted with battle-tested Liang Province (涼州, modern Gansu
Gansu
' is a province located in the northwest of the People's Republic of China.It lies between the Tibetan and Huangtu plateaus, and borders Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Ningxia to the north, Xinjiang and Qinghai to the west, Sichuan to the south, and Shaanxi to the east...
) troops, who had been accustomed to fight the Qiang rebellions. In late 184, Zhang Jiao was killed, and while the rest of the Yellow Turbans were not defeated immediately, in the following year they gradually dissipated. Because of the Liang forces' contributions to the campaign, they began to be feared and began to look down on troops from all other provinces. During and in the aftermaths of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, many people from other provinces, in order to ward off pillaging by Yellow Turbans or governmental forces, also organized into military organizations, and a good number resisted government forces, and even after the Yellow Turbans were defeated, the central government's control of the provinces was no longer what it used to be.
Late reign
Even after what happened, however, Emperor Ling did not change his wasteful and corrupt ways. He continued to levy heavy taxes and continued to sell offices. As a result, the agrarian and other military rebellions multiplied.In 188, under the suggestions of Liu Yan, Emperor Ling greatly increased the political and military power of the provincincial governors and selected key officials to serve as provincial governors.
In 189, as Emperor Ling grew ill, a succession issue came into being. Emperor Ling had two surviving sons—Liu Bian, the son of Empress He, and Liu Xie
Emperor Xian of Han
Emperor Xian of Han , personal name Liu Xie, style name Bohe, was the last emperor of the Han Dynasty period of Chinese history...
, the son of Consort Wang. Because Emperor Ling had, earlier in his life, frequently lost sons in childhood, he later believed that his sons needed to be raised outside the palace by foster parents. Therefore, when Prince Bian was born, he was entrusted to the magician Shi Zimiao (史子眇) and known by the circumspect title "Marquess Shi." Later, when Prince Xie was born, he was raised personally by Emperor Ling's mother Empress Dowager Dong and known by the circumspect title "Marquess Dong." Prince Bian was born of the empress and was older, but Emperor Ling viewed his behavior as being insufficiently solemn and therefore considered creating Prince Xie crown prince
Crown Prince
A crown prince or crown princess is the heir or heiress apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The wife of a crown prince is also titled crown princess....
, but hesitated and could not decide.
When Emperor Ling died later that year, a powerful eunuch that he trusted, Jian Shuo
Jian Shuo
Jian Shuo was the leader of the eunuch faction in the imperial court of the late Eastern Han Dynasty period of Chinese history. Along with Zhang Rang, Jian Shuo eventually became a leading member of the Ten Attendants, who became the most powerful eunuchs during the time...
, wanted to first kill Empress He's brother He Jin and then make Prince Xie emperor, and therefore set up a trap at a meeting he was to have with He. He found out, and preemptorily declared Prince Bian emperor (later known as the Prince of Hongnong
Prince of Hongnong
The Prince of Hongnong , was briefly an emperor of China during the Han dynasty. He is also known as "Emperor Han Shao" , a name which he shares with several other emperors with brief reigns...
).
Era names
- Jianning (建寧 py. jìan níng) 168–172
- Xiping (熹平 py. xī píng) 172–178
- Guanghe (光和 py. gūang hé) 178–184
- Zhongping (中平 py. zhōng píng) 184–189
Personal information
- Father
- Liu Chang (劉萇), the Marquess of Jiedu, son of Liu Shu (劉淑) the Marquess of Jiedu, son of Liu Kai (劉開) Prince Xiao of Hejian, son of Emperor Zhang of HanEmperor Zhang of HanEmperor Zhang of Han, ch. 漢章帝, py. hàn zhāng dì, wg. Han Chang-ti, was an emperor of the Chinese Han Dynasty from 75 to 88. He was the third emperor of the Chinese Eastern Han Dynasty....
- Liu Chang (劉萇), the Marquess of Jiedu, son of Liu Shu (劉淑) the Marquess of Jiedu, son of Liu Kai (劉開) Prince Xiao of Hejian, son of Emperor Zhang of Han
- Mother
- Lady DongEmpress Dowager DongEmpress Dowager Dong , personal name unknown, formally known as Empress Xiaocheng , was an empress dowager of Han Dynasty period of Chinese history. However, she was never empress, because she became mother to an emperor...
(d. 189)
- Lady Dong
- Wives
- Empress SongEmpress Song (Ling)Empress Song was an empress during the Han Dynasty. She was Emperor Ling's first wife, who later became a victim of the powerful eunuchs.- Family background and marriage to Emperor Ling :...
(created 171, deposed and d. 178) - Empress HeEmpress He (Ling)Empress He , personal name unknown, formally known as Empress Lingsi was an empress of the Han Dynasty period of Chinese history. She was Emperor Ling's second wife...
(created 180, d. 189), mother of the Prince of Hongnong
- Empress Song
- Major concubines
- Consort Wang Rong (王榮), mother of Emperor Xian (d. 181)
- Children
- Liu Bian (劉辯), later emperor (deposed 189 and created the Prince of HongnongPrince of HongnongThe Prince of Hongnong , was briefly an emperor of China during the Han dynasty. He is also known as "Emperor Han Shao" , a name which he shares with several other emperors with brief reigns...
, d. 190) - Liu Xie (劉協), initially the Prince of Bohai (created 189), later the Prince of Chenliu (created 189), later Emperor Xian of HanEmperor Xian of HanEmperor Xian of Han , personal name Liu Xie, style name Bohe, was the last emperor of the Han Dynasty period of Chinese history...
- The Princess Wannian (name unknown, created 180)
- Liu Bian (劉辯), later emperor (deposed 189 and created the Prince of Hongnong