Xin Dynasty - Part II - The Red Eyebrow Rebellion

-10 AD- Wáng Mǎng’s Xīn dynasty was a disaster.

   -Apparently, he and his officials spent so much time poring over old Confucian and arcane texts that they’d neglected actually running the empire, so this resulted in widespread corruption and just everything going to shit in general.

-11 AD- the Yellow River floods, resulting in widespread famine due to the loss of crops. 

   -This is what really seemed to shift public opinion against Wáng Mǎng and soon there were whispers that this flood was solid proof that the new emperor had lost the Mandate of Heaven (or if he’d even ever had it in the first place!).

-16 AD- in order to fight corruption, Wáng Mǎng decided to introduce a new salary system which involved adjusting workers’ salaries relative to the prosperity of their land (again, very USSR-esque), but this never actually worked out because “prosperity” wasn’t ever defined quantitatively and was therefore subjective (meaning it never worked).

-17 AD- at this point, rebellions start to break out across the empire, the most significant being:

   -Guātián Yí- in modern-day Sūzhōu, Jiāngsū Province.

   -Mother Lǚ- first female rebel leader in Chinese history (and possibly the first to lead one of these major rebellions against Wáng Mǎng, which resulted in a domino effect)! Based out of modern-day Rìzhào, Shāndōng Province (I’m pretty sure).

   -Zhāng Bà- in modern-day Jīngzhōu, Húběi Province.

   -Yáng Mù- in modern-day Xiàogǎn, Húběi Province.

   -Lùlín Mountain Rebels (AKA the Xīnshì Rebels)- in modern-day Yíchāng, Húběi Province.

   -The Chìméi (the “Red Eyebrows” (they got this nickname (later on I think) because they…painted their eyebrows red for whatever reason haha))- in modern-day southern Shāndōng and northern Jiāngsū Provinces.

-19 AD- Wáng Mǎng reacts to these rebellions by…raising taxes?  Haha why would you do that?? 

   -Obviously, this just pissed everyone off even more.

   -Wáng Mǎng also ordered for at least some of these rebel armies to disband, but because some of these armies (like Lùlín Mountain Rebels) had formed as a way to not starve to death (by raiding and pillaging), disbanding wasn’t really an option because it meant that they’d all die from starvation!  So, it was really just a shitty situation all around.

      -Unfortunately, Wáng Mǎng sided with his advisers who claimed that the rebels were simply evil men who were trying to cause chaos in the empire and undermine his authority.

-21 AD- an imperial force of 20,000 soldiers is raised to crush the Lùlín Mountain Rebels.

   -Surprisingly, the imperial force lost the battle!  In the aftermath, the Lùlín Mountain Rebels ranks swelled to around 50,000!

      -However, these numbers quickly went down a few months later when they were hit by a nasty plague which cut their numbers by about half.  After that they ended up splitting into two factions- one went to modern-day Jīngzhōu, Húběi Province, the other went to modern-day Nányáng, Hénán Province.

         -It looks like this didn’t last too long, though, because eventually they got back together after joining forces with another rebel army led by a dude named Líu Yǎn (and distant member of the royal Líu clan of the Hàn dynasty), who I guess had a reputation for being brash and arrogant.

            -Among this particular army was also Líu Xiù, younger brother of Líu Yǎn.  Líu Xiù was a well-respected farmer in the area or something so him joining Líu Yǎn’s army really boosted the numbers (since Líu Yǎn was so obnoxious). 

               -They ended up being really successful overall against the imperial forces, despite some losses.

-22 AD- Wáng Mǎng was struggling against the Chìméi (led by a dude named Fán Chóng), so he decided to cut the bullshit- he raised an army with 100,000 (!) soldiers and then immediately sent them out (led by Wáng Mǎng himself!) on a forced march in order to crush the Red Eyebrows once and for all!

   -I guess it was some trip to the Chìméi stronghold of Liáng because by the time Wáng Mǎng and his forces arrived there everyone was exhausted, but Wáng Mǎng forced them to attack. 

      -They must have been pretty exhausted because they ended up just collapsing and getting fucked up by the Chìméi; Wáng Mǎng ended up fleeing the battlefield, abandoning his army. 

         -This defeat marked the beginning of the end for Wáng Mǎng and the Xīn dynasty. 

            -OK, question why did the ancient historians call it the “Xīn dynasty”?  Did other usurpers before this get their own dynasty names, too?  I don’t think they did.  So why did Wáng Mǎng get his own dynasty it didn’t even last to one succession!  What’s the deal with that?  Just wondering.

-23 AD- at this point Líu Yǎn’s army was getting quite powerful and started quickly gaining territory. 

   -Soon they began to plan for the inevitable regime change after Wáng Mǎng’s fall in order to restore the Hàn dynasty (i.e. the Líu clan) to power.

      -Unfortunately, this led to other rebel armies getting jealous and conspiring against Líu Yǎn, deciding to nominate the (incompetent) rebel leader “Gēngshǐ General” (AKA Líu Xuán (same clan but I guess wasn’t closely related to Líu Yǎn and Líu Xiù); I’m also not entirely sure what “Gēngshǐ” means here, exactly) to be emperor instead (since it was presumed that Líu Yǎn would probably be the emperor after Wáng Mǎng was defeated). 

          -Their conspiracy actually worked!  Líu Yǎn was shouted down and General Gēngshǐ was thus pronounced the “Gēngshǐ Emperor” (I’m not exactly sure what “Gēngshǐ” means here) of the Hàn dynasty (AKA Eastern Hàn (“Dōnghàn”)).

   -In a desperate, final act to remain in power, Wáng Mǎng raised an army of 430,000 (!!), led by his cousin Wáng Yì and (another relative?) Prime Minister Wáng Xún to finally put an end to the rebel forces.

      -So at this point there were two main rebel armies (both of whom were vastly outnumbered by Wáng Mǎng’s massive new army)- one led by Líu Xiù (holed up in the city of Kūnyáng (in modern-day Píngdǐngshān, Hénán Province)), and another led by Líu Yǎn (which was at that time laying siege to the provincial capital city of Wǎnchéng (in modern-day Nányáng, Hénán Province)).

         -Luckily for the rebels (and due to some brilliant tactics ordered by Líu Xiù), they were able to actually kill Wáng Xún in battle and emerge victorious, with the imperial army falling into chaos and collapsing.

         -Soon after this, Wǎnchéng was captured by rebel forces and the Gēngshǐ Emperor declared it to be the temporary capital of the (almost) newly restored Hàn dynasty. 

-The rebellion was clearly in great shape at this point and with Wáng Mǎng on his way out, but it didn’t take long for the rebellion itself started to fray due to infighting and drama.

   -The Gēngshǐ Emperor feared that Líu Yǎn would usurp him since Líu Yǎn was much more charismatic and popular, so during some drama he had Líu Yǎn arrested and executed.

      -Luckily, Líu Xiù was able to survive this purge, and soon found himself promoted to become the Marquess of Wǔxìn.

   -The Gēngshǐ Emperor then sent his army to besiege Cháng'ān itself.

      -It didn’t take long before they finally were able to break through the city’s defenses.  Soon after this, as the city was sacked and looted, Wáng Mǎng found himself completely surrounded by rebel forces.  Thus, he was ultimately captured, imprisoned, and executed via decapitation.

         -Although his body was hung outside of Wǎnchéng’s city walls (before being cut down and torn to pieces as a result of the chaos during the aftermath of the siege), Wáng Mǎng’s head was actually saved and preserved in a palace vault (before being destroyed in a fire 2-4 centuries later)!

            -By the end of his reign, it’s estimated that after the wars of rebellion, famine, and corruption, more than 25 million people had died!  Fuck!!

Xin Dynasty - Part I - Han, Interrupted

-1 BC- Emperor Āī dies and the throne is passed to Liú Jīzǐ (Emperor Āī’s cousin (his father was Prince Liú Xīng, one of Emperor Yúan’s sons)), who's enthroned as Emperor Píng (AKA Emperor Xiàopíng).

   -Liú Xīng was a weak and sickly child and apparently had brutal heart/circulation problems.

   -However, Emperor Píng was only like eight years old at this time, so there was a power struggle between Empress Dowager Zhào Fēiyàn and Grand Empress Dowager Wáng Zhèngjūn. 

      -It seems like Grand Empress Dowager Wáng ultimately ended up the winner, as she was able to appoint her nephew, Wáng Mǎng (former commander of the armed forces and a strict Confucian), as regent (as well commander of the armed forces again).  Fearing that his time had run out, Dǒng Xián committed suicide (due to all the drama that had gone down when he was rising in power because of his intimate relationship with Emperor Āī).

         - Empress Dowager Zhào Fēiyàn also ended up committing suicide as well (since she’d quickly be stripped of her powers as well (she was now to go by Empress Xiàochéng instead of keeping the “empress dowager” title (but ultimately she’d be demoted to commoner status) by Wáng Mǎng).

-Wáng Mǎng knew that the only way to get anything done would be to somehow take control of the court (which was extremely divided at the time).

   -In order to restore order back to the way things were back in the day, he kicked out the Dīng and Fù clans and exiled them back to their ancestral lands (among other things).

   -Wáng Mǎng also wanted to continue Emperor Yúan’s vision of restoring the old-school Confucian values of the dynasties of old (pre-Qín), although it’s impossible to know for sure what was really going on in his mind.  Was he really a conservative traditionalist or was he just after power?  Or maybe both? Who knows.

   -Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for Wáng Mǎng to seemingly let the power go to his head, and he began to manipulate people and situations so that he’d start to be identified with semi-legendary figures of earlier dynasties (such as the Duke of Zhōu (key figure during the early days of the Zhōu dynasty)), and this really helped him further expand his power and influence. 

      -Soon, he was the most powerful man in the land, and was very popular with the commoners as well.  It was also around this time that he ended up executing the entire Wèi clan (except for Emperor Píng’s mom, Consort Wèi) and terrorizing, torturing, and purging anyone he deemed a threat to his power (including members of his own family!).

-4 AD- Wáng Mǎng marries his daughter to the emperor, so she becomes Empress Wáng (AKA Empress Xiàopíng).

-5 AD- Wáng Mǎng insists on receiving the Nine Bestowments- “ancient” and “traditional” (Zhōu dynasty-era) awards that was meant to show off the power of the ruler: (copy/paste)

   1. Gift of a wagon and horses: when the official is appropriate in his modesty and walking in an appropriate manner, so that he does not need to walk any more.

   2. Gift of clothes: when the official writes well and appropriately, to show his good deeds.

   3. Gift of armed guards: when the official is brave and willing to speak the truth, so that he can be protected.

   4. Gift of written music: when the official has love in his heart, so that he can teach the music to his people.

   5. Gift of a ramp: when the official is appropriate in his acts, so that he can walk on the ramp and maintain his strength.

   6. Gift of a red door: when the official maintains his household well, so that his household can be shown to be different.

   7. Gift of arms, bow, and arrows: when the official has good conscience and follows what is right, so that he can represent the central government to stamp out treason.

   8. Gift of an axe: when the official is strong, wise, and loyal to the imperial household, so that he can execute the wicked.

   9. Gift of wine: when the official is filially pious, so that he can sacrifice the wine to his ancestors.

   -It’s also entirely possible that the Nine Bestowments may not have actually been a traditional practice from the Zhōu dynasty and maybe this was all just made up by Wáng Mǎng and his allies in order to further solidify his power.

      -Regardless, in the future the Nine Bestowments would come to be associated with a potential usurper who was rising fast among the ranks and wanted to add some legitimacy to his claim on power.

-5 (6?) AD- Emperor Píng dies at the age of 15, apparently poisoned by Wáng Mǎng 🙁

   -Under Wáng Mǎng’s direct “supervision”, the infant Liú Yīng (a great-great-grandson of Emperor Xuān) was then crowned Emperor Rúzi (AKA Rúzi Yīng (“Infant Yīng”)) although he wasn’t actually technically “enthroned” (whatever that means exactly in this particular situation) and his official title was actually crown prince.

   -Wáng Mǎng then started to make claims that he actually was of royal blood as well once it was “revealed” to him that he was actually a direct descendant of the Yellow Emperor, himself.   It wasn’t long after this before Wáng Mǎng forced Grand Empress Dowager Wáng to name him “jiǎ huángdì” (“acting emperor”).  After this, Wáng Mǎng had his wife named as Empress Wáng (AKA Empress Xiàomù (“Filial and Congenial”)).  

      -Wáng Mǎng being enthroned as the official emperor kicked off his short-lived Xīn (“New” (boring name haha)) dynasty.

         -One of his sons, Wáng Lín, was named crown prince.

-As emperor, Wáng Mǎng began to implement various policies (basically trying to “Make Hàn Great Again”) that would have disastrous effects:

   -He decreed that in order to take the empire back to the old school all the place names must be reverted back to their old names they had during the Zhōu dynasty (which had existed centuries ago at this point!).

   -He introduced sweeping reforms in terms of private property, as he decreed that all lands under the Xīn dynasty were to become the property of the state (the “wáng tián” (“king’s field”) system).  These lands would then be redistributed among the population so that everyone would get their own plot of land (which I guess is how the Zhōu kings rocked it back in the day with their well-field system (jǐngtián zhìdù)).

      -Here’s a simplified way of how it worked- aristocrats were allowed to keep owning and operating their estates, but their property now resembled a “#” in that it was divided up into nine five-acre plots of land with the surrounding eight plots being worked and inhabited by serfs and with the middle plot going to the aristocrats, who in turn were required to give a portion of their earnings to the state (very similar to how it had been with the Zhōu dynasty’s well-field system). 

      -He also abolished slavery!

      -He also set up a new state agency which controlled the prices of goods and also acted as a national bank (which offered loans at fair interest rates) in order to combat shady, predatory black-market loan organizations.

      -He also implemented a “sloth tax”- if you were lazy and didn’t clean up your property or refused to work or whatever then you’d become an “employee of the state” (i.e. state-owned slave).

      -Also, for the first time in Chinese history, we see the debut of income tax (apparently, it had only previously existed in Ancient Egypt and the early days of the Roman Republic)!  Wáng Mǎng set it at a rate of 10% for profits made by “professionals and skilled labor” (whatever the fuck that means).

      -Thus, it’s for this reason primarily why so many historians trace China’s communist roots back to Wáng Mǎng; he’s an example of an ancient form of socialism roughly 1,800 years before Karl Marx! 

         -Interestingly enough, Wáng Mǎng would probably defend his actions by saying that he was simply reinstating the way things had been under the Zhōu dynasty, which he (at least on the surface) considered to be the “correct” (i.e. Confucian) way things should be.

   -He also demanded the recall of all gold-based currency in order to implement his new system of currency- one that involved 28 (!) different coins (made of various materials)!!  Obviously, this was way too complicated to realistically work.  The coinage system was also nonsensical because the value of the coins didn’t reflect the value of the metal contained within (does that make sense?).  So, it had become a system of fiat currency as opposed to having the value of the coins correspond to the value of the metal contained within (i.e. the way it used to be).

      -By confiscating all the gold in circulation, the economy quickly began to struggle to function at even the most basic level.

      -The effects of this disastrous policy would be felt across civilizations, all the way to the Roman Empire!

         -Augustus Caesar had to ban the practice of paying for the importation of silks from the Hàn dynasty with gold coins since all of the gold was “mysteriously” disappearing from circulation!

         -It didn’t take long for inflation to grow out of control and counterfeit currency to spread in circulation throughout the empire.  As a result, the empire essentially went back to a barter system since the currency system was fucked (although to be fair, this was probably already the norm for most people anyway).

-Of course, there were rebellions as well during this time, as the aristocrats/elites really hated all of Wáng Mǎng’s reforms, but Wáng Mǎng gave zero fucks and quickly stamped these out, seeing his victories as further proof that he had the Mandate of Heaven.

   -However, because so many aristocrats refused to go ahead with Wáng Mǎng’s reforms, it’s possible that a significant portion of commoners didn’t even know that any reforms had been passed at all! Thus, only a couple years passed before Wáng Mǎng was forced to rescind his slavery ban and his king’s field system.  Nice try, buddy.

-10 AD- drama starts up once again with the Xiōngnú Empire!

   -Wáng Mǎng sent an envoy to the Xiōngnú chanyu, Wūzhūliú,asking for them to return the seal which denoted their status (in terms of how they were to be recognized by the Hàn dynasty) since his new Xīn dynasty was now in power; thus, a new seal was to be made which would reflect this change. 

      -However, the new seal they issued to the Xiōngnú wasn’t a seal at all- it was a badge (which was given to vassal states as opposed to seals which were given to sovereign states)!

         -On the surface, Wūzhūliú Chanyu accepted what had been given to him by the Xīn dynasty, but he also knew that war would probably be inevitable if this new dynasty saw the Xiōngnú Empire as a vassal state rather than a respected rival empire.

            -He immediately began to build fortifications and invite other Xīyù (Western Regions) nations/kingdoms/tribes to join the Xiōngnú in preparation for war with the Xīn dynasty. 

               -Of course, when Wáng Mǎng found out what Wūzhūliú Chanyu was doing, he declared war on the Xiōngnú Empire.  His plan- invade the Xiōngnú Empire with 12 armies (about 300,000 soldiers in total!) and then, once it was securely conquered, he would divide the territory up into 15 vassal kingdoms which were to be ruled by various members of Wūzhūliú Chanyu’s family.

                  -So, Wáng Mǎng began to consolidate his forces along the northern border, but he didn’t realize that in order to raise the kind of massive army that he had planned for, it was probably going to take months, if not years, and soon the infrastructure in these border regions began to reach their breaking point due to the strain of the prolonged accommodation for these armies in these areas (which weren’t really set up for this kind of thing).

   -Similar shit was going on with the southwestern tribes/kingdoms of modern-day Guìzhōu, Yúnnán, and Sìchuān provinces, where Wáng Mǎng had decided to demote all of the chieftains (who had been granted titles of “prince”) so that they were now to just be considered marquesses, which of course pissed all of them off immensely.  Who did this Wáng Mǎng jerk think he is?

   -MORE similar shit was also going down with the Korean kingdom of Gogoryeo. 

      -In order to strengthen his forces for the invasion of the Xiōngnú Empire, Wáng Mǎng forced the Korean tribes technically living in the Xīn Empire to join his armies.  However, these tribes refused and quickly fled to Goguryeo, which of course pissed off Wáng Mǎng. 

         -After the murder of Zōu (a marquess of Goguryeo) was killed during a meeting with a Xīn army, Goguryeo had fucking had it with the Xīn dynasty and began raiding nearby Xīn territory.

-By now, Wáng Mǎng was on a roll with so many problems fucking up the Xīn Empire domestically, and on top of that had also now pissed off all of his neighbors (Goguryeo, the Xiōngnú Empire, the Xīyù tribes, the southwestern tribes, etc.) too!  

   -The Xīn dynasty was in pretty bad shape, and it had only been around for about a year at this point!