The Taiping Taoist principles of equal rights of all peoples and equal distribution of land threatened the privileges of landholding families and the Mandate of Heaven held by the emperor. The peasants were reacting to the high taxes imposed on them in order to build fortifications along the Silk Road and garrisons against foreign infiltrations and invasions. The adverse conditions further deteriorated due to widespread famine, which the rebels believed to indicate that the emperor no longer had the favor of heaven.
A ragtag mob of rebels led by firebrand Zhang Jiao and his two younger brothers Zhang Bao and Zhang Liang ravaged in the North China Plain and engaged the emperor's forces. The emperor was able to put down the rebellion, but in the process his generals and local adminstrators gained self-governing powers, leading to the collapse of the dynasty in AD 220.
The Yellow Turban Rebellion is the opening event in the Chinese literary classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It also marked an important point in the history of Taoism.
The YellowTurban Rebellion, sometimes also translated as the YellowScarves Rebellion, (Traditional Chinese: 黃巾之亂, Simplified Chinese: 黄巾之乱; pinyin: Huáng Jīn Zhī Luàn) was a 184 AD peasant rebellion against Emperor Lingdi of the Han Dynasty of China.
A major cause of the YellowTurban Rebellion was an agrarian crisis, in which famine forced many farmers and former military settlers in the north to seek employment in the south, where large landowners took advantage of the labor surplus and amassed large fortunes.
The YellowTurban Rebellion was led by Zhang Jiao (who is referred to as Zhang Jue in the Moss Roberts' English translation of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms) and his two younger brothers Zhang Bao and Zhang Liang, who were born in the Ju Lu district of the Ye Prefecture.
Zhang Jiao or Zhang Jue (140-188) (Simplified Chinese: 张角; Traditional Chinese: 張角; Pinyin: Zhāng Jiǎo or Zhāng Jué) was the leader of the YellowTurbans during the period of the late Eastern Han Dynasty in China.
The YellowTurbans claimed to be Taoists, and rebelled against the Han because of the high taxes placed against them.
The YellowTurbans, however, were still a strong threat until the death of Zhang Jiao, when, due to a lack of a good leader, it imploded on itself.
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