Huang Chao

Chinese rebel leader (835–884)
the badminton player

It is not known when Huang was born, but it is known that he was from Yuanqu (within the present day Mudan District of Heze, Shandong). His family had been salt privateers for generations (with the salt trade officially monopolized by the state ever since the Anshi Rebellion), and the Huang family became wealthy from smuggling. It was said that Huang was capable in swordsmanship, riding, and archery, and was somewhat capable in writing and rhetoric. He used his wealth to take in desperate men who then served under him. He had at least one older brother, Huang Cun (黃存), and at least six younger brothers, Huang Ye (黃鄴) or Huang Siye (黃思鄴), Huang Kui (黃揆), Huang Qin (黃欽), Huang Bing (黃秉), Huang Wantong (黃萬通), and Huang Sihou (黃思厚). He repeatedly participated in the imperial examinations, but was not able to pass them, and thereafter resolved to rebel against Tang rule.

Late in the Xiantong era (860–874) of Emperor Yizong, there were severe droughts and floods that caused terrible famine. Despite this, the Tang imperial government largely ignored the victims of these natural disasters—instead of granting tax exemptions for affected areas, taxes were increased to fund Emperor Yizong's luxurious lifestyle and military campaigns. As a result, survivors grouped themselves into bands and rose to resist Tang rule. In 874, Wang Xianzhi (who, like Huang Chao, was a salt privateer) and Shang Junzhang (尚君長) raised an army at Changyuan (長垣, in modern Xinxiang, Henan). By 875, he had repeatedly defeated Xue Chong (薛崇), the military governor of Tianping Circuit (天平, headquartered in modern Tai'an, Shandong), in battle. Huang had by this point also raised several thousand men, and joined forces with Wang's now veteran troops. In the summer of 877, he joined forces with Shang Junzhang's brother Shang Rang at Mount Chaya (查牙山, in modern Zhumadian, Henan). He and Wang Xianzhi then briefly joined forces again and put the Tang general Song Wei (宋威) under siege at Song Prefecture (宋州, in modern Shangqiu, Henan). However, the Tang general Zhang Zimian (張自勉) then arrived and defeated them, and they lifted the siege on Song Prefecture and scattered. had previously sacked Guangzhou; the port was subsequently closed for fifty years. As subsequent relations were rather strained, their presence came to an end during Huang Chao's revenge. Arab sources claim that the foreigm Arab and Persian Muslim, Zoroastrian, Jewish, and Christian victims numbered tens of thousands. However, Chinese sources do not mention the event at all. Mulberry groves in south China were ruined by his army, leading to a decline in silk exports along the Maritime Silk Road.

However, as Huang Chao's army was in the Lingnan region, his soldiers were stricken by illnesses, and some 3–40% died. His key subordinates suggested that he march back north, and he agreed. He thus made rafts at Gui Prefecture (桂州, in modern Guilin, Guangxi) and took them down the Xiang River, reaching Hunan's capital Tan Prefecture (in modern Changsha, Hunan) in winter 879. He attacked Tan Prefecture and captured it in a day, and Li Xi fled to Lang Prefecture (朗州, in modern Changde, Hunan). Shang Rang then attacked Jingnan's capital Jiangling Municipality, where Wang Duo was. Wang panicked and fled as well, leaving the city to be defended by his officer Liu Hanhong, but as soon as Wang left the city, Liu mutinied, pillaged the city, and took his soldiers to become bandits. He also tried to persuade the former Tang chancellor Zheng Tian, the military governor of nearby Fengxiang Circuit (鳳翔, headquartered in modern Baoji, Shaanxi), to submit, but Zheng resisted, and when he sent Shang and Wang Bo (王播) to try to capture Fengxiang, Zheng defeated Qi forces that he sent in spring 881.

Although Huang Chao was one of many rebel leaders in Chinese history, the impact of his rebellion can be compared to that of the Taiping Rebellion or the Yellow Turbans. Huang Chao's rebellion greatly weakened Tang and it eventually led to the demise of the Tang dynasty in 907, by Huang Chao's former follower Zhu Wen, when he usurped the throne from Emperor Ai of Tang and initiated several decades of civil war called the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Political scientist Yuhua Wang argues that the Huang Chao rebellion marks a turning point not just in the Tang dynasty but in Chinese imperial history, as the carnage in the capital region wiped out most of the great aristocratic families which had dominated politics since the Han dynasty. The Song and subsequent dynasties relied on more dispersed regional families who rose to prominence through the examination system.