2 - Conspirators in Violence

Summary

This essay consists principally of a tandem historical dissection of the two most notoriously consequential uprisings in the history of China’s late medieval age. These cataclysmic domestic revolts were those led by the rebels Huang Chao (d. 884) at the close of the ninth century and Fang La (d. 1121) at the beginning of the twelfth, respectively. The analysis herein seeks to reveal how integrally and thoroughly an ongoing culture of insurgency belied what has emerged as an anachronistic mythology of imperially sanctioned order. Spanning throughout these centuries as it did, we must indeed regard internal disorder as having been a hallmark of Chinese life during that time. Moreover, with shockingly regularized frequency and brutality, the resolution of disorder pitted the weaponized citizenry of the empire against the very armies that were nominally intended to protect it. No less enigmatic or ironic is the revelation that these armies – especially through the abuses that attended their increasing reliance on conscription in transitioning from elite into professionalized forces – played just as pivotal a role in fomenting of the very resistance waged against them as they did in being chiefly responsible for its suppression.