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~~The Three Kingdoms
period (Simplified Chinese: ýú; Traditional Chinese:
ýø; Pinyin S¡ngu®) is a period in the history
of China. In a strict academic sense it refers to the period between
the foundation of the Wei in 220 and the conquest of the Wu by the
Jin Dynasty in 280. However, many Chinese historians and laypeople
extend the starting point of this period back to the uprising of
the Yellow Turbans in 184.
The earlier, "unofficial" part of the period, from 190
to 220, was marked by chaotic infighting between warlords in various
parts of China. The middle part of the period, from 220 and 263,
was marked by a more militarily stable arrangement between three
rival states, Wei , Han, and Wu.
To distinguish these states from earlier states of the same name,
historians prepended a character: Wei is also known as Cao Wei ,
Han is also known as Shu Han , which later became more commonly
known as Shu, and Wu is also known as Eastern Wu . The later part
of this period was marked by the destruction of Shu by Wei (263),
the overthrow of Wei by the Jin Dynasty (265), and the destruction
of Wu by Jin (280).
The term "Three Kingdoms" itself is somewhat of a mistranslation,
since each state was eventually headed by an Emperor who claimed
legitimate succession from the Han Dynasty, not by kings. Nevertheless
the term has become standard among sinologists and will be used
in this article.
Although relatively short, this historical period has been greatly
romanticised in the cultures of China, Japan, Korea and throughout
Southeast Asia. It has been celebrated and popularised in operas,
folk stories, novels and in more recent times, films, television
serials, and video games. The best known of these is undoubtedly
the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a fictional account of the period
which draws heavily on history. The authoritative historical record
of the era is Chen Shou's Sanguo Zhi, along with Pei Songzhi's later
annotations of the text.
The Three Kingdoms period is one of the bloodiest in Chinese history.
A population census in late Eastern Han dynasty reported a population
of approximately 56 million, while a population census in early
Western Jin dynasty (after Jin re-unified China) reported a population
of approximately 16 million. Even taking into account the inaccuracies
of these census reports, it's safe to assume that a large percentage
of the population was wiped out during the constant wars waged during
this period.
This article will trace outline the major developments leading
to the establishment of the Three Kingdoms and their subsequent
history.
Collapse of dynastic power
The series of events leading to the collapse of dynastic power and
the rise of Cao Cao are extremely complex. The death of Emperor Ling
in May 189 led to an unstable regency under General-in-chief He Jin
and renewed rivalry between the factions of the eunuchs and regular
civil bureaucracy. Following the assassination of He Jin, his chief
ally the Colonel-Director of Retainers Yuan Shao led a massacre of
the eunuchs in the imperial palaces. The ensuing turmoil at the capital
allowed the frontier general Dong Zhuo to enter Luoyang from the northwest
and take control of the imperial court, ushering in a period of civil
war across China.
Dong Zhuo manipulated the succession so that the future Emperor
Xian could take the throne in lieu of his elder half-brother. In
190 a coalition led by Yuan Shao was formed in the eastern provinces
of the empire against him. The mounting pressure drove the Han Emperor
and later Dong Zhuo himself west to Chang'an in May 191. A year
later he was killed in a coup d'etat and the Emperor passed through
a number of warlords in the years that followed.
The rise of Cao Cao
In 191 there was some talk among the coalition of appointing an emperor
of their own, and gradually its members began to fall out. Open warfare
broke out as soon as Dong Zhuo left Luoyang. In August 195 Emperor
Xian left Chang'an and made a year-long hazardous journey east in
search of supporters. By 196, when he was received by Cao Cao, most
of the smaller contenders for power had either been absorbed by larger
ones or destroyed. The Han empire was divided between a number of
regional warlords. Yuan Shao occupied the northern centre of Ye and
extended his power north of the Yellow River against Gongsun Zan,
who held the northern frontier. Cao Cao, directly to Yuan's south,
was engaged in a struggle against Yuan Shu and Liu Biao, who respectively
occupied the Huai River basin and Middle Yangzi regions. Further south
the young warlord Sun Ce was establishing his rule in the Lower Yangzi.
In the west, Liu Zhang held Yizhou province whilst Hanzhong and the
northwest was controlled by a motley collection of smaller warlords
such as Ma Teng of XiLiang.
Cao Cao, who would become the effective founder of Wei, had raised
an army in the winter of 189. He had absorbed some 300,000 Yellow
Turbans into his army as well as a number of clan-based military
groups. In 196 he established an imperial court at Xuchang and developed
military agricultural colonies (tuntian) to support his army. After
destroying Yuan Shu in 197, and the eastern warlords L¹ Bu
(198) and Liu Bei (199) in rapid succession, Cao Cao turned his
attention north to Yuan Shao, who himself had eliminated his northern
rival Gongsun Zan that same year.
Following months of planning, the two sides met in force at Guandu
in 200. Overcoming Yuan's superior numbers, Cao Cao decisively defeated
him and crippled the northern army. In 202, Cao Cao took advantage
of Yuan Shao's death and the resulting division among his sons to
advance north of the Yellow River. He captured Ye in 204 and occupied
the provinces of Ji, Bing, Qing and You. By the end of 207, after
a lightning campaign against the Wuhuan people, Cao Cao had achieved
undisputed dominance of the North China Plain.
Red Cliffs and its aftermath
Traditional site of Red Cliffs.In 208, Cao Cao marched south with
his army hoping to quickly unify the empire. Liu Biao's son Liu Zong
surrendered the province of Jing and Cao was able to capture a sizeable
fleet at Jiangling. Sun Quan, the successor to Sun Ce in the Lower
Yangzi, continued to resist however. His advisor Lu Su secured an
alliance with Liu Bei, himself a recent refugee from the north. Their
combined armies of 50,000 met Cao Cao's fleet and 200,000-strong force
at Red Cliffs that winter. After an initial skirmish, an attack with
fireships inflicted a decisive defeat on Cao Cao, forcing him to retreat
in disarray back to the north. The allied victory at Red Cliffs ensured
the survival of Liu Bei and Sun Quan, and provided the basis for the
states of Shu and Wu.
After his return to the north, Cao Cao contented himself with absorbing
the northwestern regions in 211 and consolidating his power. He
progressively increased his titles and power, eventually becoming
King of Wei in 217. Liu Bei entered Yi province and later in 214
displaced Liu Zhang as ruler, leaving his commander Guan Yu in charge
of Jing province. Sun Quan, who had in the intervening years being
engaged with defenses against Cao Cao in the southeast at Hefei,
now turned his attention to Jing province and the Middle Yangzi.
Tensions between the allies were increasingly visible. In 219, after
Liu Bei successfully seized Hanzhong from Cao Cao and as Guan Yu
was engaged in the siege of Fan, Sun Quan's commander-in-chief L¹
Meng secretly seized Jing province.
Tripartite of China
In the first month of 220, Cao Cao died and in the tenth month his
son Cao Pi deposed the Emperor Xian and ended the Han Dynasty. He
named his state Wei and made himself emperor at Luoyang. In 221, Liu
Bei named himself Emperor of Han, in a bid to restore the fallen Han
dynasty. (His state is known to history as "Shu" or "Shu-Han".)
In the same year, Wei bestowed on Sun Quan the title of King of Wu.
A year later, Shu-Han troops declared war on Wu and met the Wu armies
at the Battle of Yiling. At Xiaoting, Liu Bei was disastrously defeated
by Sun Quan's commander Lu Xun and forced to retreat back to Shu,
where he died soon afterward. After the death of Liu Bei, Shu and
Wu resumed friendly relations at the expense of Wei, thus stabilizing
the tripartite configuration. In 229, Sun Quan renounced his recognition
of Cao Pi's regime and declared himself emperor at Wuchang.
Dominion of the north completely belonged to Wei, whilst Shu occupied
the southwest and Wu the central south and east. The external borders
of the states were generally limited to the extent of Chinese civilization.
For example, the political control of Shu on its southern frontier
was limited by the Tai tribes of modern Yunnan and Burma, known
collectively as the Southern Barbarians .
Population
In terms of manpower, the Wei was by far the strongest, retaining
more than 660,000 households and 4,400,000 people within its borders.
Shu had a population of 940,000, and Wu 2,300,000. Thus, Wei had
more than 58% of the population and around 40% of territory. With
these resources, it is estimated that it could raise an army of
400,000 whilst Shu and Wu could manage 100,000 and 230,000 respectively:
roughly 10% of their registered populations. The Wu-Shu alliance
against the Wei proved itself to be a militarily stable configuration;
the basic borders of the Three Kingdoms almost unchanging for more
than forty years.
Trade and transport
In economic terms the division of the Three Kingdoms reflected a
reality that long endured. Even in the Northern Song, seven hundred
years after the Three Kingdoms, it was possible to think of China
as being composed of three great regional markets. (The status of
the northwest was slightly ambivalent, as it had links with the
northern region and Sichuan). These geographical divisions are underscored
by the fact that the main communication routes between the three
main regions were all man-made: the Grand Canal linking north and
south, the hauling-way through the Three Gorges of the Yangzi linking
southern China with Sichuan and the gallery roads joining Sichuan
with the northwest. The break into three separate entities was quite
natural and even anticipated by such political foresight as Zhuge
Liang (see Longzhong Plan )
Consolidation
In 222 Liu Chan rose to the throne of Shu following his father's defeat
and death. The defeat of Liu Bei at Yiling ended the period of hostility
between Wu and Shu and both used the opportunity to concentrate on
internal problems and the external enemy of Wei. For Sun Quan, the
victory terminated his fears of Shu expansion into Jing province and
he turned to the aborigines of the southeast, whom the Chinese collectively
called the "Shanyue" peoples (see Yue). A collection of
successes against the rebellious tribesmen culminated in the victory
of 234. In that year Zhuge Ge ended a three year siege of Danyang
with the surrender of 100,000 Shanyue. Of these, 40,000 were drafted
as auxiliaries into the Wu army. Meanwhile Shu were also experiencing
troubles with the indigenous tribes of their south. The South-western
Yi peoples rose in revolt against Han authority, captured and looted
the city of Yizhou. Zhuge Liang, recognising the importance of stability
in the south, ordered the advance of the Shu armies in three columns
against the Yi. He fought a number of engagements against the chieftain
Meng Huo, at the end of which Meng submitted. A tribesman was allowed
to reside at the Shu capital Chengdu as an official and the Yi formed
their own battalions within the Shu army.
Zhuge Liang's Northern Expeditions
At the end of Zhuge Liang's southern campaign, the Wu-Shu alliance
came to fruition and Shu was free to move against north. In 227
Zhuge Liang transferred his main Shu armies to Hanzhong, and opened
up the battle for the northwest with Wei. (See Northern Expeditions)
The next year, he ordered general Zhao Yun to attack from Ji Gorge
as a diversion whilst Zhuge himself led the main force to Qishan.
The vanguard Ma Su, however, suffered a tactical defeat at Jieting
and the Shu army was forced to withdraw. In the next six years Zhuge
Liang attempted several more offensives, but supply problems limited
the capacity for success. In 234 he led his last great northern
offensive, reaching the Wuzhang Plain south of the Wei River. Due
to his untimely death, however, the Shu army was forced once again
to withdraw.
Wu and development of the south
In the times of Zhuge Liang's great northern offensives, the state
of Wu had always been on the defensive against invasions from the
north. The area around Hefei was under constant pressure from Wei
after the Battle of Red Cliffs and the scene of many bitter battles.
Warfare had grown so intense that many of the residents chose to
migrate and resettle south of the Yangzi. After Zhuge Liang's death,
attacks on the Huainan region intensified but nonetheless, Wei could
not break through the line of the river defenses erected by Wu,
which included the Ruxu fortress.
Sun Quan's long reign is regarded as a time of plenty for his southern
state. Migrations from the north and the settlement of the Shanyue
increased manpower for agriculture, especially along the lower reaches
of the Yangzi and in Kuaiji commandery. River transport blossomed,
with the construction of the Zhedong and Jiangnan canals. Trade
with Shu flourished, with a huge influx of Shu cotton and the development
of celadon and metal industries. Ocean transport was improved to
such an extent that sea journeys were made to Manchuria and the
island of Taiwan. In the south, Wu merchants reached Linyi (southern
Vietnam) and Fu'nan (Cambodia). As the economy prospered, so too
did the arts and culture. In the Yangzi delta, the first Buddhist
influences reached the south from Luoyang. (See Buddhism in China)
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