-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!!
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