Yellow Turban Rebellion
| Yellow Turban Rebellion | |||||||
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| Part of the wars at the end of the Han dynasty | |||||||
Map showing the extent of the Yellow Turban Rebellion in China in 184 CE | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Han dynasty | Yellow Turban Army | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Emperor Ling He Jin Huangfu Song Lu Zhi Zhu Jun |
Zhang Jue † Zhang Bao † Zhang Liang † | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 350,000 | 2,000,000 (360,000 were initially followers of Zhang Jue) | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | |||||||
| Yellow Turban Rebellion | |||||||||||||||
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| Traditional Chinese | 黃巾之亂 | ||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 黄巾之乱 | ||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | Yellow turban conflict | ||||||||||||||
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The Yellow Turban Rebellion, alternatively translated as the Yellow Scarves Rebellion, was a peasant revolt during the late Eastern Han dynasty of ancient China. The uprising broke out in 184 CE, during the reign of Emperor Ling. Although the main rebellion was suppressed by 185 CE, it took 21 years for full suppression of resistant areas and emerging rebellions by 205 CE. The weakening of the imperial court and the rising political influence of ultra-autonomous regional military-governors, who helped suppress the rebellion, eventually led to rampant warlord dominance and the resultant Three Kingdoms period.
The rebellion, which got its name from the color of the rebels' headwear (巾 jīn, defined as more of a scarf than the turban of South Asia) marked an important point in the history of Taoism due to the rebel leaders' association with the then secret Taoist societies. The revolt was also used as the opening event in the 14th-century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms.