#119 - Tang 31: Reap the Whirlwind

The History of China

Chris Stewart

History

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 15 March 2017

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The poison seeds that have been planted across China for the last century and longer will all begin to sprout, as the rebel commander Huang Chao takes command of the latest and greatest of internal threats to imperial stability. Yet it won't be the rebels themselves that will prove the decisive factor in the chaos to come... but instead the Empire's own supposedly "loyal" generals and soldiers... already looking ahead to their own places in the post-Tang world. Time Period Covered: 878-882 CE Major Historical Figures: Tang Dynasty: Emperor Xizong of Tang (Li Yan/Xuan) [r. 874-888] General Zhang Zimian Governor-General Li Tiao of Guangdong [d. 879] General Gao Pian, "The General Who Lost the North" Xi Dynasty: Huang Chao, "The Heaven-Storming General" [d. 884] Sources Referenced: Levy, Howard S. (1955). Biography of Huang Ch'ao Somers, Robert M. (2008). "The end of the T'ang" in The Cambridge History of China, vol. 3: Sui and T'ang China, 589–906 AD, Part One(ed. Denis C. Twitchett) Wei, Chuang(881). "Lament of the Lady of Qin"(tr. Lionel Giles) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast.
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0:22.4	geographic restrictions and
0:23.3	teasencies apply 18 plus. Hello and welcome to the history of China.
0:34.0	Episode 119, reap the whirlwind.
0:41.0	Last time we followed the early stages of the bandit
0:44.6	rebellions that had sprung up in the lower yellow and Hawaii River valleys in the
0:48.5	870s, led by none other than Wang Xienzhe and Huang Chao.
0:53.7	We'd ended off with the death of General Wang Xhienzheu at the hands of the Imperial
0:57.2	Subcommander Zeng Yu in mid-878, which left the rebel forces in near
1:02.0	total disarray and only Huang Chow left to carry on the
1:05.2	raiding and plundering of the Chinese countryside.
1:07.2	Today then we'll pick up right where we left off with Huang Chow now in sole command of the
1:12.2	rebel forces of the Huai River Valley,
1:14.0	and having proclaimed himself Chong-Tien-DA-jiang Jun, or the Heaven Storming General.
1:20.0	Professor Robert Summers gives us some clue as to the meaning behind Huang Chow taking up such a title.
1:26.0	He writes that it might have been intended to show a decision on the Rebel generals part to, quote,
1:30.0	wage all-out warfare against the dynasty, end quote, a decision that, as we mentioned last time,
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