Han Zhong 韓忠 was a leader of Yellow Turbans during the Yellow Turban Rebellion in 184 AD. He commanded the remnant forces of Zhang Mancheng and Zhao Hong. He opposed Zhu Jun 朱儁 at Wan city and survived several of his attacks, but was eventually killed.
Biography[]
Han Zhong’s home was Nanyang commandery of Jing province.[1] Like his fellow Yellow Turbans he probably joined the Zhang brothers somewhere between the early 170’s and 184 AD.
During the Yellow Turban Rebellion he was part of Zhang Mancheng's force which attacked and killed Nanyang commandery’s Grand Administrator Chu Gong 褚貢 on 23 April. Following their victory they laid camp in Wan city in Nanyang commandery.[3]
When Zhang Mancheng was attacked and killed by Chu Gong’s successor Qin Jie 秦頡 in the sixth lunar month of 184, his remnant troops picked Zhao Hong 趙弘 as their new leader. The rebels occupied Wan city once more. The General of the Gentlemen on the Right Zhu Jun attacked Zhao Hong and after two months Zhao Hong was killed. His troops then chose Han Zhong as their new leader.[2]
The rebels again occupied Wan city and opposed Zhu Jun once more. Zhu Jun sent an attack from the southwest, supported by drums and battle cries. Han Zhong and all his men went to deal with the attack. What Han Zhong did not notice was that Zhu Jun led picked troops secretly to the northeast. They climbed Wan’s walls and entered the city. Following this, Han Zhong retreated to hold the citadel, he was frightened and asked to surrender. Zhu Jun, however, declined the request saying that killing all Yellow Turbans would be a sufficient warning to everyone that they should avoid all evil conduct. After several battles, Zhu Jun hadn’t made any progress, so he climbed a hill of earth to look over the scene and came up with the plan to break through Han Zhong’s siege ring, which would force Han Zhong out of the citadel. Zhu Jun’s forces opened the siege and Han Zhong and his forces indeed came out. Han Zhong was completely defeated and more then ten thousand of his men lost their heads.[2]
Han Zhong died at the hands of Qin Jie, the Grand Administrator of Nanyang.[1][2] He was succeeded by Sun Xia 孫夏.
Notes[]
Fact vs. Fiction[]
- Historically, Han Zhong did not battle Liu Bei at Wan city.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 de Crespigny, A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms, biography of Han Zhong, page 511 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "dC100" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid<ref>tag; name "dC100" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 de Crespigny, Emperor Huan and Emperor Ling, Zhongping 1
- ↑ de Crespigny, A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms, biography of Zhang Mancheng, page 1068
Sources[]
- de Crespigny, Rafe. A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23 - 220 AD). Leiden: BRILL, 2007.
- —. Emperor Huan and Emperor Ling. Canberra: National Library of Australia, 1989.
- Fan Ye 范曄 (398–445). Hou Han shu 後漢書 “History of the Later Han”.
- Sima Guang 司馬光 (1019–1086). Zizhi tongjian 資治通鑒 “Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government”.