Conference on the Rise of Fourth-Wave Turbanism and Implications of Viet Turbanism on the Southeast Asian Region
AUC 2772 - Federation of Elysiumic Kingdoms
“Turbanism, once nothing more than an incoherent collection of differing ideas only accustomed to the Plains of Northern Sina, now has evolved into a true ideological force throughout the globe. From the Turbanist Colonies in Northern Elysium in the 2500’s, to the Third Federation of Harmonious Peoples in Sina, there has never been any sign that this ideology will recede. More so, it has only seen itself diverge into a competing number of ideological strains. Take for example the Black Turbans in Viet Nam. This group of Turbanists mimics the original Turbans: violent, fanatical, almost anarchic. Yet this group displays a predisposition to ethnic supremacism the likes of which has not been seen. They have been involved in massacres of several ethnic groups in the interior, combined with their disposition for expansionism, makes them a group to be feared through and through. This strain is commonly known in academic circles as Viet Turbanism, a more radicalized branch of Fourth-Wave Turbanism, which is itself a continuation of the original Yellow Turbans.
Now, the main reason this conference was called was not to wallow in how the Black Turbans have caused mayhem for Southern Asia, but to analyse the central issues that allowed for Viet Turbanism to arise in the first place. And we cannot do that without analyzing the ideology itself, how it arose, and how it managed to survive over the centuries to the Modern Era. Unlike the fate of Christian sects in the Roman Empire, such as the Nestorians, Turbanism has continued to adapt and improve itself along the way from its original days. It first began as an anarchic mess of communes, but over time it became the monster that we now see in Viet Nam.
To understand Turbanism, one must go to where it all began; the Yellow Turban Rebellion of 937 AUC. The event that set forth the fate of the Sinic sphere. The main perpetrator of the collapse of the Han Dynasty, the rise of the Federation of Harmonious Peoples, and the beginning of the Six Kingdoms Period. This is what caused, in some historians’ opinion, a chain of events that would ultimately lead to the colonization of the Southern Asian sphere, the eventual discovery of Upper and Lower Elysium, and other events that have defined our world.
You will have noticed that there is a packet containing all the information required to help create a fruitful discourse as we try to figure out the main implications for the Black Turban Rebellion in Viet Nam. Turn to page 25. You will see in that page a summary by a bureaucrat whose name has been forgotten to the sands of time. Mainly, it describes the immediate years of the rebellion and the years following it. While it might not be as informative as most modern books, it does provide us with an invaluable insight to the mind of someone who has experienced what can only be described as ‘hell’.”
Summary of the Years During the Rebellion - Written in 220 AD
“‘The Azure Sky is dead! The Yellow Sky has risen!’ -Zhang Jue
Luoyang was in ashes, the world was crashing down on itself, and the Yellow Sky was everywhere. Zhang was triumphant, his Yellow Army was everywhere for they did not stop in the North. Oh no, he did not stop when Luoyang was burning, for he continued exporting his ideals to the south. Even if the South wanted nothing to do with the butchers of the North, they were going to get a taste of what was to come from Zhang and his ‘army’. They would try time and time again to bring it under his heel, but the Southerners knew that if they gave up an inch of their land, they would face the sword. But what caused this? What caused this dynasty, this seemingly impenetrable fortress, to be taken down by nothing more than a failed examinee?
Well, that is a story of bad luck, treachery, and the Mandate itself.
It all began some time before Zhang had his ‘revelation’, whatever that might have been. For some time in the province of Liang, there was quite the disturbance by some groups who were not yet part of our civilization. They hadn’t been truly cultured yet, and so they stuck to their ways, constantly harassing those who were cultured, but this was not entirely their fault. The local government was treating both uncultured and cultured horribly, taxing them intensively, starving them of their livelihoods, and only becoming a replica of the degenerated court in Luoyang. It was only more proof that the Middle Kingdom has lost its mandate, but I digress.
This is a story after all, not a commentary. So where was I? Right.
The Rebellion started not as a classical peasant rebellion, where the peasants simply got mad and killed some imperial representative, but as something more… fanatical. It had clear goals, clear motives. It was an actual movement, determined to bring down the empire, and replace it with something different, something that goes against everything that has been tried and tested. Yet it did not start out in the fields, nor in the countryside. Oh no, far from it. It started in the beating heart of the empire, the brain, the central system that everything relies on. Luoyang. On the 3rd month, and on the 5th day of the 7th year of Lingdi’s reign… they did it. They actually did it. They…they rose up…and with the speed and efficiency of an army, they took the capital… and what did they do with it?
Well, like any self-respecting rebel group, they burned it down. They burned down the ‘root of all evil in Zhongguo’. It didn’t matter that there were men, women, and children in Luoyang. To them, they were just as bad as the eunuchs, the commanders, and the concubines that brought this vast land to ruin.
Then everything went downhill from there. Day after day, there were reports of yellow-turbaned fanatics slaughtering imperial bureaucrats, farmers dropping their tools or fashioning weapons out of them, and all sorts of disorder. They then started on their march, their march to free Sina of this failed dynasty. To finally bring about the end of the Azure Sky, and then usher in the Yellow one. They began by liberating the East from the corrupt inspectors of the Qing and You provinces. What they did to those provinces could only be described as an absolute nightmare. Every bureaucrat who refused to join was massacred. Burned, tortured, mutilated, all just punishment for losing the Mandate.
Next on their agenda was the East. Past the ruins of Luoyang lies Liang Province, home of Zuang Guo, the corrupt governor of the frontier province. He was swiftly dealt with when the Yellow Turbans came. What happened after his fall was the cycle that burned down Luoyang. The cycle of barbaric acts, acts that could only be committed by savage, uncultured swine, or fanatic peasants who do not know the meaning of civilization. Once that was out of the way, then began their march south, yet there were complications. Mainly in the form of resistance. You see, the south is not like the tumultuous north, where once the head was chopped off and everything descended into madness. Oh no, while the north burned, the south got its act together under a series of former inspectors turned warlords. Mainly Shi Xie, Liu Yao, and Yuan Shu. Together, with all their skills, manpower, and determination pooled into one force, they managed to hold back the Yellow Turbans at the cities of Jiangxia and Jingzhou. This would signal the end of the Yellow Turbans’ first attempt to break the south…
That’s right, this wasn’t the first time they did this. They tried multiple times, 5 months after the first battle of Jiangxia, they tried again, but failed under the weight of the Jade Coalition. Again and again, they were pushed back. For the same reason… fear. The fear of what would happen if they showed any signs of weakness. They knew what happened in the north, and they were not going to let it happen to the south.
And so, they fought with fury of 10,000 tigers, showing no signs of weariness. They were going to make sure that for every Jade soldier who perishes, they would take at least twenty Yellow Turbans with them to the afterlife. Day after day, month after month, they fought with an ever intensifying hatred of the Turbans. They saw their brothers perish in the North, now… now they will pay for destroying the wor-”
“While this is an invaluable piece of information gathered from scouring the Historical Archives in Hejing, they are only part of it. Turn to page 34, and you’ll see fragmentary passages from the Five Kingdoms Period.”
Excerpts from the Five Kingdoms Period
“It seems that the Yellow Turbans have finally ceased their advances into the Kingdom of Lin. Thank the heavens for that miracle. When they ended the reign of Lingdi all those years ago, I thought they would never stop their ceaseless march South”
“When will this nightmare end? I lost everything. My lover, my estate, my wealth. Everything. I have been reduced to the status of a filthy peasant...can this get any wor-”
“This would imply that there was a period of instability in the south, evidenced by the almost floodlike migration of refugees from the First Federation of Harmonious Peoples to the Six Kingdoms of the south. Mainly the kingdoms of Lin, Shu, and Shen.
Another vital piece of information is the rather depressing transcription of raids following the failure of the Southern Campaign. The piece of text describes a weary commander who has a heightened sense of paranoia following a lack of daily raids by the Federation. Turn to page 35, and you’ll understand the context of this man.”
Update on the Situation with the Federation
“Everything seems quiet on the Yangtze Commandery. There hasn’t been an attack by the Turbans for over three months now. While this may seem relieving to the lower ranking troops, it disturbs me greatly. This could only signify that they are planning an attack of an immeasurable size. How many, who knows! 50,000? 100,000? Possibly a million Turbans? All we know is that they stopped their raids, and that’s about the only piece of info we have so far.”...
I fear...I fear that they will plan a strike so magnificent, that they will destroy us. That they will break through the Commandery’s defenses, and show no mercy for holding back for so long their tidal wave. By the heavens, when will this end!?”
"Now, we must add some clarity to these texts and excerpts. While these valuable pieces of information do describe the Eastern and Southern Campaigns in some capacity, it does not describe the main reasons for why the rebellion was a massive success. Now granted, when the rebellion started in Luoyang, most people saw it as a completely random and unexpected event. Yet a ‘spontaneous riot’ would not have the support of several eunuchs, nor would it have occurred in the highly defended capital. Many scholars today have regarded the Luoyang ‘uprising’ a well-coordinated effort by the Yellow Turbans and the Zhang brothers. They had several eunuchs knowingly prepare uprising in Luoyang by supplying them with swords, crossbows, and most important of all, recruits.
Another factor as to why the Rebellion was a success was the less mentioned, but still crucial Liang Province Rebellion. The rebellion, caused by the now-extinct Qiang peoples, was in response to the ever-corrupting inspectorial rule of Liang Province. Huangfu Song, a well respected military general before the Yellow Turban Rebellion, was killed by a stray arrow during a minor skirmish with the rebellion. The murder of an effective general, along with the length of the Liang rebellion, distracted most competent soldiers from the real chaos in Luoyang, at least for a while.
While these factors also caused the rebellion to be as successful as they were, these do not underlie the main cause of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, and the subsequent Black Turban Rebellion we all know in recent history. The main factor to these two rebellions was an ever-corrupting local and national government, a combination of natural disasters, and a lack of basic necessities caused by the former two. Take for example the Black Turban Rebellion. The former Viet Nam regime was notorious for its widespread corruption, extending down to even the lowliest bureaucrat. It lead to citizens being stripped of their property, their farms, and their way of life. With this, many turned to Turbanism, but due to the peculiar nature of Viet Nam, it morphed into an ethno-supremacist variant of Fourth-Wave Turbanism. This strain of Turbanism, known as Viet Turbanism has carved a path of destruction throughout Southeast Asia. It’s crimes cannot be mistaken for a fluke, and its ideology cannot be denied for how effective, and how ideologically similar they are to the Original Turbanists of 937 AD.
Now, with the preliminary information out of the way, shall we begin?"
I would like to thank my good friend
@Sirion , who helped me with the writeup of the map, as well as helping me solidify the lore within the world of A Yellow Sky. As well as
@deleonism for the Latin translations
