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"Wait until September 8 in autumn, I will kill a hundred flowers after the flowers bloom" I believe everyone is no stranger to this poem, it is from the hands of the "Cupola General" Huang Chao, Huang Chao is known to everyone because of an uprising.
In the uprising, Huang Chao almost wiped out those wealthy and powerful people, and his hatred for the powerful was deep and evil, which was vividly shown in the poet Wei Zhuang's sentence "Heavenly Street stepped into the bones of the minister".
The background of the times
The Yellow Nest Rebellion, also known as the Yellow Nest Rebellion, in the history we have studied, every uprising has been described as a righteous act of oppression by the peasants against the landlord class, but the Yellow Nest Rebellion cannot be judged as good or bad as such.
In fact, since the Han Dynasty, China's political officialdom has been controlled by a family of gatekeepers, dominating the country's political situation, especially in the era of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
Although Emperor Wu used a series of means to weaken some powerful forces at that time, and also uprooted many powerful people, but later with the death of Emperor Wu and the weakening of the national strength, this road could not continue.
At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, social contradictions became increasingly intensified, and in order to further strengthen the power of the central government and weaken local forces, a huge "reform" movement was set off in the imperial court.
It is undeniable that this is indeed a good strategy, but no matter how good the strategy is, it is only scratching the surface, and the most important thing is to implement it.
Not only did they refuse to carry it out, but they also took advantage of this opportunity to loot when the country was in danger, and some even sent troops to confront the imperial court, and for a while, the entire imperial court became chaotic.
This situation lasted until the Tang Dynasty, although the imperial examination system was implemented at that time, but the political pattern of five surnames and seven hopes did not change, so it was also very difficult for ordinary people to enter the government through the imperial examination.
If this situation continues, then it is very likely that China will remain mired in a feudal society, with powerful and powerful people dominating the politics of the imperial court, and the whole society will be mired in a quagmire from which it will not be able to extricate itself.
This is a terrible thing to think about, and it wasn't until the appearance of the Yellow Nest that it completely changed the situation and dealt a hard blow to those powerful and powerful.
The son of a merchant from a humble background
Huang Chao was born in a merchant family who made a living selling salt, but at that time, this kind of family was most despised by the imperial court, so people like Huang Chao had a very humble status in society.
Despite this, Huang Chao is a very talented person, not only can he ride and shoot, but he is also very good at writing poetry, which can be described as both civil and military, and he is a well-known talent in the local area.
But a family like the Huang family, although protected by the Salt Gang, was often exploited by the imperial court, so Huang Chao had a natural "antagonism" with the court, which also made him full of hostility towards those families who had no merit but were in high positions since he was a child.
But this reason alone was not enough for Huang Chao to embark on the road of uprising, and the most important reason was because he failed in the imperial examination.
At that time, Huang Chao was full of resentment towards the politics of the family, and in his opinion, anyone could be an official and be the emperor, as Chen Sheng and Wu Guang shouted, "The prince will be Xiangning, there is a kind of him?"
So after Huang Chao grew up, he participated in a imperial examination, and although Huang Chao was talented, he eventually failed to make the list.
In Huang Chao's view, the reason why he fell off the list this time was not because of his lack of ability, but because of his humble background, those glamorous high positions had long been monopolized by the scholars, which made him hate those "in power" even more.
Later, in 874 AD, there was a drought in the eastern part of the country, and there was basically no harvest and famine, but the government still forced the people to pay food and labor labor, resulting in the people's lack of livelihood, and many people starved to death in the streets.
In the end, Wang Xianzhi launched an uprising, and after Huang Chao heard about this, his hatred for Haoquan in his heart was a little more, so he immediately responded to Wang Xianzhi's call and launched an uprising.
In just a few months, the two gathered more than 10,000 troops and successfully revolted, after which Wang Xianzhi was defeated in Huangmei and killed by Zeng Yuanyu, and all the rest of the people defected to Huangchao and supported him as the "Yellow King".
Massacre of wealthy nobles
In the first year of Zhonghe, Huang Chao led the rest of the army, one route from south to north, straight to Chang'an, in fact, when Huang Chao's rebels first entered Chang'an, they were still very disciplined, and they would also give money when they saw the poor.
For this reason, Huang Chao also specially ordered his staff Shang Liuzhao to tell the people: "Huang Chao's army is fighting for the common people in the world, and it is different from those powerful and powerful people who can only oppress the people", so at first they were still very loved by the people.
Huang Chao in the occupation of Chang'an eight days after the emperor, in the Daming Palace called the emperor, in order to relieve his hatred, he ordered people to search inch by inch, and then all the officials above the third grade, as well as the family at that time were all killed.
After such a massacre, the clans everywhere have been almost cleaned up, but if you want to say that what really makes those clans die out, it has to be the operation behind Huangchao.
In that dynasty at that time, the genealogy was a treasure in the eyes of those great families, which recorded the genealogy and the source of the side branches, which was the key to proving that they were from famous families and their status in the court.
In order to exterminate the nobles, Huang Chao ordered all the family trees to be burned, and many family trees disappeared as a result.
As a result, those big families can no longer confirm their identities, the family style is gone, and the family system gradually dies out.
Later, the poet Wei Zhuang witnessed the turmoil and tragedy of Chang'an City at that time, and the sentence "Heavenly Street stepped into the bones of the princess" in his "Qin Women's Yin" wrote the tragic situation of those nobles, which means that the bones of princes and nobles are all over the streets and alleys.
After dealing with the wealthy nobles, Huang Chao began to reorganize the imperial court, and he appointed some people from poor backgrounds in the rebel army as important ministers of the new dynasty, which was a big change for a former family in power.
Since then, the monarchs of the five dynasties and ten kingdoms have paid more attention to the actual ability of talents when selecting officials, rather than the door and the family.
The opening up of the social hierarchy also provided opportunities for many children from poor families to enter the political arena.
But the reason why later generations will have mixed reviews of Huang Chao is inseparable from his subsequent atrocities, when after Huang Chao occupied Chang'an, the Tang army launched an attack to force Huang Chao's army back.
With the help of the people, the Tang army was stationed in Bashang Town, and then the Huang Chao army was so angry that they took advantage of the night to counterattack and drive the Tang army out of Chang'an City, but Huang Chao also hated the people because of this, so he ordered a killing of the people.
They plundered and robbed the people of grain and grass, and many people died of starvation, and later when there was not enough food and grass to scavenge, they even cruelly used the flesh and blood of the people as "grain and grass".
In order to retaliate, almost every household in the city will have someone killed, and the singers of the big families have also become their slaves, and if there are people who resist, they will be beheaded under the knife.
Such brutal acts were chilling, and with the loss of people's hearts, Huangchao's rule soon came to an end, after which the Tang army recaptured Chang'an.
After that, the poet Wei Zhuang compiled what he saw and heard in Chang'an into a long narrative poem "Qin Women's Yin", which recorded the atrocities of Huangchao in detail, which not only expressed the author's grief and indignation at the chaotic times and the people's misery, but also expressed his yearning for stability.
summary
Since then, many people in history have recorded in detail the various atrocities of the Huang Chao Army, and Huang Chao has been named "Rogue Doctrine" by later generations.
But from a historical point of view, the Huangchao Uprising did completely destroy the foundation of the gate valve family, gave the civilian class a broader space for development, and made the selection of talents tend to be rational, so the views of Huangchao should also be judged from multiple angles.
Resources:
Because of Huang Chao's grief and indignation at the scientific expedition, he set off a bloody storm and put the Tang Empire in jeopardy!-China.com
Huangchao Uprising - Beijing Historical Illustrated Cultural Development Center
On the Yellow Nest Hero or the Devil!-China.com
Xiaolou and History: How much do you know about the demon Yellow Nest rumored in the Tang Dynasty in history-China.com