China: Military History (inc. Wars, Battles, Treaties, etc.) and Notable Events (inc. Natural Disasters, Diseases, Destructions of Cities, Periods of a series of Events, Debates, Conferences, etc.)

687 BCE - Lyrid Meteror Shower (All Facts)

• A popular astronomical event that occurs in April, it was first recorded in China in 687 BCE

679 BCE - Main Events in China (All Facts)

• In this year, the warlords continued to pay ceremonial deference to the Zhou, the dynasty never regained its effective central power

  • As a result, the warlords fought amongst themselves and with the non-Chinese people who still occupy some part of the country

  • Cities have been destroyed and the countryside ravaged

602 BCE - Main Events in China (All Facts)

• In this year, the Yellow River changed course, entering the sea near Tian after a 100-mile move to the east

133 BCE - 188 CE - Han-Xiongnu Wars (All Facts)

• Series of conflicts fought between the agrarian Chinese Han Empire and the nomadic Xiongnu confederacy

81 BCE - Discourses on Salt and Iron (All Facts)

• Series of debates which were later written down that involved the intellectual, political, social, and economic issues of the day during the Han Dynasty under Emperor Zhao and initiated by his regent Huo Guang

  • The record of this debate between the most brilliant minds of the empire reveals a deep split on almost every aspect of life between the supporters of the government and the powerful reform movement

  • Emperor Zhao ordered the debate to look into matters such as the state’s monopoly of the salt and iron industries, a policy of his predecessor, but made it clear that he wanted to examine the suffering of the people more broadly

• On one side were the Reformists / Idealists

  • These were largely Confucian scholars who opposed the policies of Emperor Wu

  • They demanded the abolition of the monopolies on salt and iron

    • In addition, they demanded

      • an end to the state price stabilization schemes

      • huge cuts in government expenditures to reduce the burden on the citizenry

  • They argued that the present government, with its stern rule and profit-seeking, was unfit to uphold the principles of humanitarian rule

• On the other side were the Modernists / Pragmatists

  • These were largely government officials who argued that their duty lay in satisfying the people’s practical needs

  • They supported the continuation of Emperor Wu’s policies

  • This was done in order to appropriate the profits of private merchants into state coffers to fund the government's military and colonization campaigns in the north and west

• The results were mixed with no one side clearly winning but rather with a compromise having been made

17 CE - 23 CE - Red Eyebrows’ Revolt (All Facts) 

• One of two successful peasant revolts against the usurper king Wang Mang 

  • Revolt which was named after the namesake color of the namesake body part of the rebels while they were fighting

  • The peasants painted their foreheads the namesake color

• Wang Mang promised agrarian reform, but the forces of nature made the mighty Yellow River change its course during his reign, inflicting widespread famine in the countryside

  • Thus, this triggered the namesake revolt in which massive numbers of peasants left their land and formed armed bands

  • They became an army and defeated the Xin government’s troops

• Anarchy unraveled until the Han regained control of the situation

17 CE - 23 CE - Lulin Revolt (All Facts)

• One of two successful peasant revolts against the usurper king Wang Mang 

79 - The Consultations in the White Tiger Hall (All Facts)

• Series of conferences that occurred in which debates were held over the true meaning of the classics

• Prompted after protests had broken out against excesses of official scholarship

184 - 185 - Yellow Turban Rebellion (All Facts)

• Peasant revolt which broke out under the reign of Emperor Ling of Han, it was led by Zhang Jue

• Zhang Jue gathered an army of 300K followers known as the namesake because of their distinctive headdresses

• The peasant rebels were fearless and made a good deal of progress against the government forces

• The peasant rebels were opposed not to the emperor but to the eunuchs and other government officials who imposed a tyrannical and rapacious administration on the Chinese countryside

• Rebellion which began when Zhang Jue sent a delegation of his followers to the court and they were murdered by the imperial court eunuchs who were already gaining power over their Han rulers

• The rebels fought under the Taoist text “a new kingdom of harmony, justice, and peace” 

• Rebellion which was eventually suppressed, but which significantly weakened the Han Dynasty and led to its downfall  

383 - Battle of the Fei River (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Jin Dynasty defeated the non-Chinese Fu Jian and his attempted Former Jin Empire that grew rapidly in northern China up to that point, eliminating the threat of extinction of the Chinese Jin Dynasty

626 - Xuanwu Gate Incident (All Facts)

• Coup d’etat of Emperor Gaozu of Tang by his son, Li Shimin, who became Emperor Taizong of Tang and took his father’s place after he forced him to abdicate and killed all his brothers

751 - Battle of Talas (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Tang Chinese were defeated by the Abbasid Caliphate on the namesake river

• Battle which allowed the Abbasid Caliphate to expand Islamic influence into Central Asia

• Battle which occurred after the Tang Chinese occupied Tashkent, Samarkand, and Bokhara

• Battle in which, famously, two Tang Chinese POWs revealed to their Arab captors how to make paper, which contributed to the Islamic Golden Age experienced during the Abbasid Caliphate as a result of this battle

755 - 763 - An Lushan Rebellion (All Facts)

• One of the bloodiest revolts in history

• Revolt which began when the namesake Mongolian military general was embroiled in a bitter rivalry with Emperor Xuanzong’s favorite cousin and chief minister Yang Guozhong in Tang China after invading Hebei and moving south and capturing Loyang, where he led a conflict between the namesake Mongolian military general and the Tang court

• The namesake general blamed Yang Guozhong for corruption, leading to the collapse of central Tang power, Yang Guozhong’s death, immense devastation across China, and the namesake ruler’s enthroning of himself as emperor of a new “Xia” dynasty within the longer-lasting Tang Dynasty of China

• Upon the namesake leader’s assassination, millions died as a result of the rebellion and millions more fled to the south of China as refugees

822 - Changqing Treaty (All Facts)

• Treaty signed by Emperor Muzong of the Tang and Ralpachen of Tibet which

  • Recognized the independence of Tibet

  • Served as the basis for Tang-Tibetan relations

1211 - 1234 - Mongol-Jin War (All Facts)

• Conflict in which Genghis Khan and the Mongols defeated and conquered the Jin Dynasty of China

• Conflict during which Genghis Khan and his Mongol horsemen

  • Besieged and conquered Beijing in which they

    • Seized and razed Beijing

    • Set ablaze the Jin Emperor’s palace

    • Butchered Beijing’s inhabitants in a dreadful orgy of killing

    • Carried the Jim Emperor’s treasury of gold and precious stones, silver, and silk away

    • Relaxed near Lake Dolonor beyond the Great Wall

    • Left the remainder of the battle / siege of Beijing to his captain Muqali

• Conflict during which Genghis Khan cunningly sought easy ransom rather than a hard and expensive victory in which the Jin Emperor gave him everything he asked for including treasure, horses, girls, a royal princess for his own bed, and then went away

  • When the Jin Emperor fled Beijing and demoralized its citizens and its army mutinied, Muqali had returned to finish what Genghis Khan had started

• War and conquest which ended with the Siege of Kaifeng, completing the destruction of the Jin Dynasty and Empire of China

1351 - 1368 - Red Turban Rebellions (All Facts)

• Peasant Revolt which broke out in the Huai Province after the government had sent 20K troops and coerced 150K men from surrounding towns as laborers to reroute the mighty Yellow River, which had just previously rampaged, bursting its dykes, flooding 6K square miles and inundating 17 walled cities causing famine, plague, and widespread banditry until the great river changed its course and the Grand Canal became useless as the waters threatened the vital salt works at Heijan, and so the Emperor demanded that the water be tamed

  • In response, the government’s assembling of the labor force gave the revolutionary “White Lotus” secret society the opportunity to cause trouble for the Yuan government, fomenting the namesake revolts among the peasants as trouble spread quickly throughout northern China at the time

1449 - Tumu Crisis (All Facts)

• Conflict in which Emperor Yingzong and his forces were defeated by Esen Taishi of the Northern Yuan Dynasty and his forces

• Conflict in which the powerful Chinese army was ambushed, in which thousands of men were killed and the emperor was captured

• Conflict in which the Mongols supposedly found Emperor Yingzong seated on a carpet surrounded by the bodies of his slaughtered bodyguard

• Conflict which began when the overweening eunuch Wang Jin persuaded Emperor Yingzong to lead an army against the raiding Mongols of the Northern Yuan Dynasty, contrary to the advice of court officials

• Conflict which was a disaster for China as Wang Jin had no military experience and had exposed the army to attack in a position in which it had neither food nor water

• Conflict in which Wang Jin and even most of the experienced generals died while Emperor Yingzong was held hostage, leaving Beijing wide open for Esen Taishi and the Mongols of the Northern Yuan Dynasty to plunder

• Conflict after which successive Ming Emperors worked to rebuild the Great Wall of China in order to maintain effective defenses against the successive waves of barbarians from the north including the Mongols, who had defeated the Ming army and captured the Ming emperor Yingzong in this conflict

1512 - Peasant Uprising (All Facts)

• Uprising of Peasants in the central province of Szechuan against taxes

1580s - Great Ming Famine (All Facts)

• Period during which famine and pestilence swept China

  • which was caused by drought

  • in which

    • China witnessed a catastrophic decline in the population

    • whole provinces were being depopulated

    • villagers were being wiped out by hunger and the diseases that come with

      • starvation

      • foul sanitary conditions

    • people ate goose droppings

    • people ate human beings (it was rife with cannibalism)

    • there were unbroken lines of beggars at the gruel kitchens

    • children were abandoned

    • infants were killed for food

    • peasants grinded stones into flour

    • diseases spread in which

      • people’s resistance to disease was lowered by their hunger

      • people fell prey to the diseases that lurked in their filthy homes and in the towns where the houses crowded together surrounded by excrement and filth

      • people contracted “Big Head” fever, in which the head and neck swell up

    • so many people died in the southern capital that it was said that if you count a bean for every coffin going out of the south gate you will be counting by the pint

    • more than half of the population of Honan died

    • banditry increased, in which starving peasants became robbers

    • rice boats were attacked on the rivers

    • the soldiers sent against the robbers were themselves starving and living off the land

1592 - 1598 - Imjin War (All Facts)

• War in which Yi-Sun-Sin and his Korean and Chinese forces defeated Toyotomi Hideyoshi and his Japanese forces

  • Conflict that was essentially a failed invasion of Korea by Japan

  • Conflict that began when the Korean government refused Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s trade terms and he responded by invasion

• Conflict in which the Japanese

  • thoroughly prepared prior to the invasion

  • landed at Pusan, having nearly met disaster at the outset when the Japanese navy failed to rendezvous with the troop convoys, however the Korean ships missed their opportunity to attack at this juncture

  • poured ashore and broke the feeble defenses of the Koran army, lopping off 8K heads in the first few days

  • captured Seoul, where the Joseon King of Korea fled to Pyongyang while the Japanese looted Seoul

  • ended up losing a third of their forces

• Conflict in which the Koreans

  • recovered from the Japanese surprise attack

  • conducted a damaging series of raids on the Japanese supply ships and troop-carriers, sinking Japanese supply-ships

  • stiffened in their resistance, especially amongst their peasants who were fiercely aroused by the passage of the Japanese through the Korean countryside

  • banded into guerrillas which hounded in the Japanese invaders

  • took advantage of when the winter set in

  • were reinforced by Ming Chinese forces, which proved to be the turning point of the war

• Conflict in which the Chinese

  • intervened near its end

  • marched in great strength across the Yalu River

  • forced the Japanese invaders to evacuate Seoul

  • forced Toyotomi Hideyoshi into peace talks

  • expelled Hideyoshi and his Japanese forces when they tried to invade a second time

• Conflict during which

  • Konishi Yukinaga and his Japanese forces captured the Castle of Pusan

  • Korea’s “Turtle Ship” nearly wiped out the entire Japanese fleet upon its deployment

• Conflict which ended when Toyotomi Hideyoshi died

  • After his death, Japanese troops withdrew from Korea

1628 - 1644 - Late Ming Peasant Rebellions / Collapse of the Ming Dynasty (All Facts)

• Series of peasant rebellions against the Ming Dynasty,

  • which

    • culminated in the overthrow of the Ming Dynasty by Li Zicheng

      • By the end of these rebellions, many of Chongzhen of Ming’s generals eunuchs had gone over to Li Zicheng and his Shun Dynasty, their presence of which enabled Li to take over the capital of Beijing (Peking) in an orderly fashion, though most of his men were more interested in loot than in peaceful administration

    • ended the long and glorious history of the Ming Dynasty

  • caused by

    • heavy taxation

    • Manchu incursions from the north

    • the breakdown of Ming government

• The Ming Dynasty had collapsed due to these rebellions but also due to

  • its soldiers having been neither paid nor fed

  • its imperial treasuries and granaries having been empty

  • the lack of morale, where one general reported that “when you whip one soldier, he stands up; but at the same time another is lying down”

1618 - 1683 - Manchu Conquest of China (All Facts)

• Series of conflicts which include

  • The Revolt of the Three Feudatories

1661 - 1662 - Siege of Fort Zeelandia (All Facts)

• Battle in which Koxinga and his Chinese (Taiwan) forces defeated the Dutch (the Dutch East India Company) forces and garrison there and ended Dutch rule over Taiwan, expelling its traders, during the Sino-Dutch Conflicts

• Battle in which Koxinga

  • was unable to storm the namesake fort, which was powerful, built with bricks, and imported from Holland; despite being overwhelmingly superior in numbers

  • exasperated by his initial failures, wrote to the Dutch commander: “You Dutch people, a few thousand in number, how can you carry on war against us, who are so powerful by our numbers? Really, it is as if you were bereft of your senses”

  • eventually settled down to siege warfare and starved out the defenders

  • showed mercy and allowed the defenders of the namesake fort who survived to sail away with their possessions

  • used the namesake fort in Taiwan as a base for an attack on the Chinese mainland in the hope of restoring the Ming Dynasty

1673 - 1681 - Revolt of the Three Feudatories (All Facts)

• Revolt of Wu Sangui and the namesake semiautonomous princes in the south and southeast of China against Emperor Kangxi of Qing and his government which firmly established Qing (Manchu) rule over all of China

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• Revolt in which Wu Sangui was killed