The fall
and reconstruction of the Han dynasty.
What happned
in China....?
There
were many complicated factors that brought about the fall and reconstruction
of the Han dynasty.
"The
Han dynasty began in 206 BC, and lasted until 220 AD. It is said,Around
180,the Han Empire began to weaken in power due to nonsupport of the general
populace,with the Empire blaming the quick rise of Buddhism and calling
for the burning of many temples.Buddhism was swiftly eclipsing Confucianism
and open rivalry even erupted between Taoist andBuddhist supporting factions.
Eventually, Chinese Buddhism incorporated many of the ideas ofTaoism to
create a distinctly Chinese brand of Buddhism and tensions lessened between
the two.Barbarian tribes began raiding the northern Yellow River lands
of China to such a degree that mostof the original Chinese population left
the area to them and made large-scale migrations to the southernYangtze
River, causing the Han treasury to become dissolute. Large land holding
families tookadvantage of this situation and established their own private
armies in the provinces, decentralizing theEmpire"(Jin 1998,http://deall.ohio-state.edu/jin.3/c231/handouts/h8.htm).
Having secured a larger territory and developed a more complex economy
than any of its predecessors, the Han had given new historic form to China.
However, the Emperor’s ruling circle has become corrupted and oppressive,
and a secret society known as the Yellow Scarves initiated a major rebellion.
The Emperor’s appeal went out to loyal subjects to join the army and fight
the rebels(Lo Kuan-chung: 1976).
In 169 AD in Chou country, a young man named, Liu-Pei,
a remote descendant of a son of
the fourth Han emperor, was considering putting down the
rebellions
faction known as the Yellow Scarves in order to revive the Han dynasty
for people suffering from oppression of the Yellow Scarves. He met two
great heroes; one Kuan-Yu, and one Chang-Fei,
both of them having the same motivation as Liu-Pei. These three young
men declared in a peach garden that “We were born separately, but we are
three brothers from now on. We live and die as one in the service of our
country and its people”(Lo Kuan-chung 1976: 7). This is the early
beginning of the romance of The Three Kingdoms(Lo Kuan-chung: 1976).
These three young men attempted to reconstruct the Han Dynasty. Ts’ao-Ts’ao,
Liu-Pei’s rival, was also one who tried to revive the Han dynasty. He dedicated
himself to destroying the Yellow Scarves and taking back the Han dynasty
from Pong-Zhuo, who overpowered the Han emperor and controlled the Han
dynasty for a few months. Doing such a good job, Ts’ao-Ts’ao was richly
rewarded by the Han emperor’s and his estate became larger and he earned
more esteem and authority from year to year. For this reason, after a while,
Ts’ao-Ts’ao had a strong desire to control the entire empire just as Pong-Zhuo
had done. The emperor’s mother realized and had been afraid of Ts’ao-Ts’ao’s
power, consequently, she made an attempt to assassinate Ts’ao-Ts’ao. Knowing
her intention, Ts’ao-Ts’ao murdered her. Observing this action, Liu-Pei
was exasperated and determined to fight with the treasonous, Ts’ao-Ts’ao.
Unfortunately, he didn’t possess a sufficient army. In addition, he didn’t
have any talent for strategic warfare, so he decided to seek out a great
strategist. During this time, Liu-Pei got some information about K’ung-ming,
who was known as “ The Sleeping Dragon” and visited his hermitage(Lo Kuan-chung:
1976).
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