The Han fall and the Three Kingdoms
Rebellion, warlords and a fragmentation that Chinese literature never stopped retelling.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 96 years
- Known to
- ± 2 years
- Era
- Classical, Holocene
The Yellow Turban rebellion of 184 CE, a millenarian Daoist uprising, breaks the Han state's authority, and power passes to regional warlords. By 220 the empire is formally divided into Wei, Shu and Wu. Census figures collapse — probably reflecting administrative breakdown as much as mortality, though the wars and epidemics were severe. The period becomes the setting for the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, one of the most widely known works in East Asia.