Yellow Turban Rebellion - Aftermath and Impact

Aftermath and Impact

The Han armies had gained a glorious victory, and it was a remarkable achievement that they removed so quickly the threat of Zhang Jue's rebellion. The cost, however, was very high. Over wide areas the offices of the government had been destroyed, magistrates had been killed, and whole districts were cut off from the writ of the central government. The enemy had been slaughtered in the hundreds and thousands, many innocent people had been left homeless or destitute by the wars, and the economy and society over great parts of this most populous region of the empire were left in ruins and without resources. Unrest remained and bandits appeared in every district; the government, in no position to put down all the lesser disturbances, was forced to patch up the situation as best it could. A long period of consolidation was needed to restore some measure of peace and prosperity, but that breathing space was not given.

While the rebellion was eventually defeated, the military leaders and local administrators gained self-governing powers in the process. This hastened the collapse of the Han Dynasty in 220. After Emperor Ling of Han died in 189, a power struggle between He Jin and the eunuchs ensued in which He Jin was assassinated on September 22, 189. He Jin's chief ally Yuan Shao retaliated by setting the palace on fire and slaughtering the eunuchs. Finally, the warlord Dong Zhuo was able to gain control over the underage heir to the throne which he used as a legitimation for occupying the capital, which was ransacked on the occasion. Because of his cruelty, Dong was murdered in 192, setting the stage for Cao Cao's rise to power.

Despite the negativity portrayed in Luo Guanzhong's historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, being a large scale rebellion against corrupted authority, several peasant uprisings in China were patterned after the Yellow Turban Rebellion or claimed to be its spiritual successors.