The Eastern Han Dynasty Collapse (159 - 190)

[@gatesofkilikien]

Thank you all for your patience in waiting for this video! As you can tell from the video length I’ve put a lot more information in this video than in any of my previous videos. The main purpose of this video is to set the stage to discuss the Three Kingdoms Period properly in the upcoming videos, so I’ve had to include a number of details that might not be immediately relevant, but will be useful background information for later events. The Three Kingdoms Period is one of the most enduringly popular periods in Chinese history, and for very good reasons - there is a certain richness to the events from this period, even before any dramatizations, that few other periods could match. Up until now I’ve been reluctant to make videos about it because I want to do it justice, especially since I didn’t feel comfortable with my mapmaking skills at the time. I’ve finally gotten better at making the maps, so I feel more comfortable with being able to illustrate the events properly :-) This video is supposed to be the first video in my Medieval Chinese History series. I’ve technically already covered this period in previous videos, however their levels of detail are rather lacking, and so I will have to remake them. My preliminary outline for the remake is as follow: 1) The Eastern Han Dynasty Collapse 159 - 190 2) Cao Cao’s Conquest of Northern China 190 - 208 3) The Formation of the Three Kingdoms 208 - 223 4) The Cao Wei and Shu Han Dynasties 220 - 266 5) The Western Jin Dynasty 266 - 316 The last video would require me to remake the Western Jin Dynasty video, which I’m generally happy with about the detail level, but I still need to reorganize the sequence in which certain events are discussed and also add a lot more details about the Eastern Wu Dynasty. I’ve already started writing the next video about Cao Cao’s conquest of northern China, and I’m hoping to get it done much faster than this one since I’ve already made almost all of the maps I need for it. I’m aiming to release it in the next 1-2 months, knock on wood of course. Once I’m done with these remakes I’ll go back to covering the Northern and Southern Dynasties and then the Sui and Tang Dynasties. I’ve been feeling pretty impatient about getting started on these later time periods but need to finish up on the Three Kingdoms Period first. I also have a number of incomplete drafts on other topics, some on Chinese history and some on non-Chinese history, and will pace myself to finish up some of them too.

[@speedwagon6-e1b]

You are so based

[@danielbwest]

Haven't you already done a three kingdoms video?

[@pyrodude5119]

Thanks man. Yours is the best ancient Chinese history channel on YT.

[@aryantiwari845]

Super excited to see what you have in store. Do you have any idea how many periods you are going to cover? Will you stop at the Tang dynasty or are you considering covering Chinese history through the Song - Qing dynasties?

[@vinhny2406]

Take your time king always look forward to your video 🙏

[@ivanhu]

This is genuinely the best channel for Chinese history. Made by a Chinese person, who understands and can convey Chinese cultural nuances, speaks English, and has videos in Chronological order so you can enjoy the content like a historical epic.

[@zhylkos]

Right? I can't believe it's free

[@papupapu7055]

I've been searching so long for a channel like this 😭

[@Notimportant3737]

A hidden gem for sure

[@andyc3012]

Not really, because he chooses to use the word barbarian instead of foreigner...

[@Ethan-cz8xq]

@@andyc3012 "Barbarian" is the term often used in historiography, for example the "Five Barbarians" that were prevalent in this period. So the word choice is a good here

[@michaelli574]

This is the best content on Chinese history I have ever seen. No books, even written by supposed modern Chinese experts, come close to the clarity you convey. A new upload from you never fails to bring a smile to my face.

[@josephplagge6883]

It's good but another great source is serious trivia. He digs deeeeeep!

[@Mr_Stew]

Bro dropping this the day before my exam

[@MenwithHill]

"The answer is, in many situations - not very well." 山高皇帝远 is one of my favorite phrases. Thank you as always for an extremely in depth, interesting and thorough video.

[@Ordoscc]

I thought it's 天高帝远

[@MenwithHill]

​@@Ordoscc Both versions exist, I find the mountain variant more evocative personally

[@Ordoscc]

​@@MenwithHillI like the punny qualities of the latter, since ground (地）and Emperor (帝）sound similar, and it's like saying "sky high ground far."

[@SeverusFelix]

Learning about Chinese History as a fan of Western History is like finding out a game you've played forever was part of a series, and the other installments are just as good.

[@Terralncognita]

Exactly!

[@shasta_ganti]

Lmao try Indian History! It’s pretty easy to get into from Chinese via Central Asian history (also really good) or from Western via Post Roman Mediterranean/Middle Eastern history

[@SeverusFelix]

@shasta_ganti I'm just glad there's so many good history presenters I can listen to at work, these days.

[@Levon_RnD]

@@shasta_ganti Could you recommend any good channels about Indian history on youtube?

[@mikechiam2032]

holy shit. 1 hour and a half just dedicated for the Fall of eastern han. I need more, i need a 10 hour one. subscribed

[@DensetsuVII]

Three Kingdoms have entered the chat~ Like the death of Caesar, the moment us Chinese history nerds have all been waiting for!

[@DuckDudgers]

Some of the best China content on KZbin. Great stuff!

[@MenwithHill]

When you started getting philosophical in the introduction to Emperor Ling's section I knew what was coming. That was a great breakdown.

[@michaeladu6120]

46:03 The amount of information that survives from ancient China 2000 years ago just amazes me. I'm from Ghana and due to very low levels of literacy in historical times, it's difficult finding even the exact borders of ancient kingdoms that existed here, much more their population estimates. And you're telling me that we not only know the exact population of the Han dynasty but even the populations of specific provinces and commanderies?! This is what makes Chinese history so fascinating to me. Even for the great Roman empire, we could only make educated guesses at the exact populations of specific provinces.

[@刘永红-n5i]

甚至能计算出一些历史大事件的具体日期与时间，因为有完整的历法时间，配合天文记录进行校对。

[@Ordoscc]

Literacy generally comes about when you can produce enough food to employ scribes, who don't farm or hunt. Ancient Egypt also had a lot of records. Both the Nile River and the Chinese rivers produced incredibly fertile farmlands.

[@Levon_RnD]

China was way more developed the other states for millenia. Europe basically changed the game around 15-18th centuries. During the times of the Han empire, China was more modern than even Medieval Europe in many ways.

[@Elm0xz]

@@Levon_RnD Not really true, Rome and Han China were peers for the most part. In the Middle Ages however China was clearly dominant technologically.

[@Levon_RnD]

@@Elm0xz Not really true because there was one exception. Yes, Rome was at the same level in many aspects, somewhere better, somewhere worse. But it was for the period from the 2nd century BCE to the 3rd century CE. Before Rome became developed enough and after it split and started to fall apart, China was number one pretty much all the way until the 15th century.

[@deiansalazar140]

Honestly this went back further than I expected and I love it! Though I am very much looking forward to your next video in your northern and southern Dynasty series

[@nateatkins4593]

your grilling of emperor ling was fantastic, cutting, hilarious. thank you for your fantastic historical analyses. one of the goats of this site

[@bearcatben4762]

Can't say how much I've missed this. You should do a collab with Strategy Stuff, his series about the northern nomads reminded me of you very much so.

[@unironically1]

i just realized something about your videos. i'm also a scholar that uses mapforfree a lot and i see that the coastline & river path in your videos are not the same as the one on the website. you actually researched, edited, and credited the maps in your vids accordingly! that's very respectable and you deserve a lot more audience for the amount of work you did

[@Elm0xz]

Lot of pop history channels neglect to take into account changes in geography which sometimes leads to hilarious stuff like Soviet-era reservoirs on Dnieper showing up in video about Renaissance. Maybe not a huge deal for a common viewer, but personally irks me a lot.

[@iohannesz8096]

the clarity of this video genuinely puts all other chinese history content on youtube to shame, great work please keep it up

[@spacebunny4335]

Wow, what a great video probably the single most comprehensive video on KZbin about this topic. Can't wait for more videos.

[@melissacorbett4180]

Fantastic video! This is definitely my favourite Chinese history channel!

[@hitojo]

It's always a pleasure to see a new upload👍

[@sebastienhardinger4149]

Fantastic stuff, love your channel. One tiny tiny critique - at least to me, the greenish color for provinces looks too much like the terrain colors, so makes me think "unconquered", not a separate color for provinces. Extremely minor thing, make it orange or something lol. Keep it up, as an english speaker Chinese history is often hard to get into and your channel is amazing

[@gatesofkilikien]

Thanks for the suggestion! I'm not a fan of the green color myself - it was the fourth and final color I used. I'll experiment with other colors for the upcoming videos and should be able to come up with something, even if it has to be a boring color like gray. One challenge is because the background terrain map already has a wide variety of colors, there are certain colors that end up blending in too well with certain parts of the map.

[@pigboykool]

Finally a new video! Have been waiting for your videos a long time. Good to see you are back with high quality video again. Looking forward for more of your videos soon.

[@w4terbucket]

Very excited!! Was just checking if it was out yesterday :)

[@sahrazad8213]

I know these videos do not make bazinga bucks, but this channel is probably 90% of my learning about China on yt in the last 2 years. Thank you

[@marshmilo4588]

I was just checking ur channel today and was happy to see a new upload.

[@notdpanda9525]

Great videos. Hope you come back soon. I would say don't feel pressured to make really long videos every upload, but focus on interesting events to put into more succinct videos. This means less work for you and more great content for us.

[@gatesofkilikien]

Thanks for the support. I’m finally close to finishing up the next video and plan to wrap it up and post it in the near future. You are right though that as the videos get longer the level of complexity goes up exponentially, so after this I want to find a more sustainable way of pacing myself too. There’s also a bigger and bigger backlog of videos I want to produce so this way I can do more. Maybe 20-40 minutes would be the sweet spot. I do like to be able to develop a topic fully and go over the different nuances to something, so currently don’t have any sub-20 minute videos planned, but that could be an option too if the right topics come up.

[@speedwagon6-e1b]

This bout to be the longest dishwashing session 🔥

[@MKfanmomo]

Thank you, i love this channel. I hope you continue this trend until the last emperor!

[@Tinil0]

As always, one of the best sources of Chinese history in English on KZbin! I really, really appreciate what you are doing.

[@xcjsmith5310]

HOLY !!! you are back !!!

[@clearlypellucid]

Wow, your English accent is excellent. Very clear pronunciation of many sounds that are difficult for non-native speakers. Three Kingdoms is my favorite period of Chinese history so I really appreciate this video.

[@achao1234]

Some of the best English content on the Eastern Han I've ever seen. Really clears up mystery around the Han collapse.

[@lewhensilvar3521]

I really loved the little geography intermission explaining some background on the provinces.

[@YaminoSeigi]

Quality content as usual!

[@kibo6548]

I love your videos. How detailed it is, structured and overall easy to understand, Keep up the good work and please do the later periods such as the sui and tang dynasties. There isn't really any other channel that comes close to the amount of detail you provide. I have had to resort to reading the wikipedia articles. If you have a detailed book of Chinese history in English, I would be very thankful.

[@frankuschold8796]

The way you set Emperor Ling up to have some redeemable trait and then utterly destroy his legacy was peak 😂

[@deiansalazar140]

That's how you know how utterly in the wrong and completely incompetent he was and how he created the extraordinarily bad circumstances necessary for China to collapse as bad as it did.

[@szymonnowicki8412]

Very good video, I never learned much about chinese history outside of pure basics and this is very helpful to explore this fascinating subject. Also you're use of maps is great as I think many people outside of China are not that familiar with its geography

[@GregMcNeish]

This is absolutely sensational. Thank you for you care in presenting such a fascinating and thorough program on a part of history that can often be so impenetrable for Western audiences.

[@user-if4nx2jn8r]

Impressive work as always, I won't necessarily be able to retain all the information in these videos in one sitting but I'm glad you try to be thorough.

[@Thor13332]

Great content.

[@dragomirw.844]

Absolutely loving your videos, this kind of long content on history is everything I could want.

[@fiddleriddlediddlediddle]

If there's one thing that keeps me subscribed it's the fact he still uses BC and AD, the objectively superior notation.

[@zhillan_arf]

As a great man once said, I've been waiting for this.

[@jeremybds1901]

I forgot how good this channel is

[@Alsemenor]

Amazingly well presented. Concise and exciting. I really look forward to the next part! The three kingdoms era is very interesting.

[@cmaven4762]

Yay!!! I have been watching and waiting and hoping for a new video... This makes me very happy!!! Thank you for this in depth presentation of one of the time periods in Chinese history that I find challenging to synthesize on my own!!!!

[@christophernakhoul3998]

As usual, a very good video!

[@christophernakhoul3998]

After learning a relatively surface level of Chinese history, I have to say that the military history of imperial China is underwhelming and disappointing to say the least. Near the peak of the Tang dynasty they got their teeth kicked in by an only recently established and unstable Abbasid Caliphate. For reference the Abbasids had only seized power from the Umayyads the year prior, and yet they managed to beat the Tang army in the West which is shocking to say the least. What could be the reason for such an "underwhelming" military record. Did the Chinese prior logistics and training over battlefield tactics, or was it due to the eras of peace China had for centuries at a time? Or is it a result of a reason I have never heard of, or do I have a false notion on the Chinese military. If anyone knows, I'd like to know myself.

[@KK-zc3wy]

​@@christophernakhoul3998 Just study chinese civil wars

[@anthonybird546]

No wonder Wei won over the other two kingdoms afterwards. Even for Cao Cao, geography is destiny.

[@RadicalCaveman]

No Wei!

[@jasonstormsong4940]

At least, that would have been the case if Jin (Sima Clan) didn’t replace Wei (and the Caos) after the invasion of Shu Han.

[@Telopead]

@@jasonstormsong4940 the problem for Cao Wei was that, Cao Cao never really took control politically over the region. Despite his military might, he still had to rely on those elite families to “control” what he conquered. For example Ru Nan region had multiple insurgencies when Guan Yu had a realistic chance of winning before he’s killed. And the Si Ma clan was able to rise and usurp was because of the support of Xun clan of Ying Chuang. All of Cao’s followers, including Cao Cao himself, were just too short lived to leave any political legacy to take care of these powerful elites. Cao Clan lost because because the social and political climate was too harsh for anyone to rule over the realm. The realm had been united for too long and was destined to divide at that time. Hence after the three kingdoms, the realm stayed divided for over 300 years.

[@njwolf22]

Hey man just want to say i love your videos!

[@gatesofkilikien]

Thanks for the kind words! I've been a lot busier than expected lately, although I'm slowly getting back into things with this channel and working on the next video in this series now.

[@ryanmbira3968]

what a great channel, 非常感谢!

[@mtp234]

Awesome video. Thank you for your hard work and clear presentation. An easy subscription for me. Can't wait to see what other content there is on this channel :)

[@dt7baloncesto]

Best channel, good luck my friend

[@ondracienciala7209]

We Gettin Out of the Nanjing With This One 🔥🔥🗣️🗣️ Killer videos bro, singlehandedly got me into chinese history

[@syjiang]

Another great video. Keep up the good work

[@freshhands9461]

I learned to love this period of history first through video Games and then by reading the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. A powerful lesson in how all good things come to an end. Thank you for your work :)

[@Black.Templar_002]

Worth the wait, as always

[@Jinke888]

The best channel on chinese history

[@ahumpierrogue137]

I figured I'd go over some of the less visible and character-driven problems with the Eastern Han since this video is more focused on the sort of "Historical narrative" aspect of things rather than the sort of processes. Which is fine and fun to be clear, and I love this stuff, but I think the processes by which these things worked are also very, very interesting. Most of what I'm writing is from "The Early Chinese Empires Qin and Han" by Mark Edward Lewis. One of the major problems as ever throughout history facing your average chinese peasant was taxes and land ownership. Land ownership during the Han was actually relatively laissez faire, compared to the mythologically idealized(and probably not accurate to history) well-field system of earlier times or the Equal Fields of the Tang. However, this lack of regulation was not good, as we'll see. Taxes during the Han consisted of a harvest tax as you'd expect, being about 1/15th of the harvest during the western Han though it sometimes came to be as low as 1/30th. However another major obligation of han peasantry was work as corvee laborers and military service. However, the state quickly during the Western Han came to have major issues with that. The whole corvee labor and enforced military service thing made a lot of sense for the Qin to conquer their empire and build the massive infrastructure projects needed to unify it and feed the army, but it was a system that required constant fuel in the form of new conquests. It was not built to rule over a period of peace or of necessary stalemate. The qin utterly ruined themselves on vanity projects and pointlessly clinging to massive armies and hosts of laborers that were ruinous to the people. And militarily, the enenmy the Han state needed to face was increasingly very different, especially after the Han had successfully pacified their subject kings and established rule over the east. The primary enemy of the Han thus became the nomads on the frontiers, an enemy whose lands were hard if not impossible to conquer and instead required entirely new ways of dealing with them. Recruiting a conscript army simply was not going to work against them, with the frontline being further from where the people lived having them be peasant conscripts was both infeasible for the lengthy campaigns and garrison duties the state required as well as the training that your average conscript got being simply insufficient for the needs of the military. As such, under Emperor Wu the Han slowly but surely transitioned to a professional army, and this obviously required paying for these troops(and supplying them year round, for their years and years of service). As such, things like corvee labor(though this was often still called up for things like roadwork, water control, and various other government needs) and especially military service came to instead be replaced by a tax that was to be paid in cash. As such, farmers needed to not only give up an(admittedly small) portion of their harvest but also sell enough of it to reach the required tax. And since literally every farmer was putting grain on the market, the price of grain was incredibly low, requiring a larger and larger portion of the harvest to be sold to pay for the tax. The end result was that farmers were forced to take loans to pay the tax since they obviously had to eat before worrying about paying the tax, and obviously since they'd fail to repay the loan in the following years they would eventually have to either offer their land to the loaner, sell themselves/family into slavery, or become a tenant to the rising landlord families(especially prominent in Guandong). As such, people were suffering and the governments control over people and their labour and the ability to extract wealth was becoming poorer and poorer, while individuals and great lineages were becoming wealthier and more prominent. These lineage groups(clans, if you will) could have many patrons and be local leaders as explained in the video like the Yuan clan, and as china militarized when warlords were needed to put down the rebels, these lineage groups could summon forth armies of hundreds or even thousands, composed of their extremely large extended families and families who were tied to them by patronage or as tenants. Having clans that could muster small armies was not conducive to a stable political environment, as you'd expect. Additionally, another major aspect of the period was the composition of the state armies. As said, under Wu the armies increasingly relied on professional troops. The government also wanted to incentivize keeping their tax base as intact as possible as you'd expect, so additionally foreign auxilaries(such as the Wuhuan, who were even used to quell rebellions within China proper, not unlike mercenaries in early modern europe) and convict troops became increasingly large and dominant portions of the armed forces. The Eastern Han outright discentivized recruiting from and stopped mandatory training of native Han forces especially in the east, partly because the landowners wanted people working their farms and also partly because it was the conscript trained troops of the western Han that became the core of the rebellions that lead to the deposing of Wang Mang, which was convenient but also recognized as dangerous if it could be used against them. As such, reliance on professionalsn nomads and convict troops was extremely high. Which is quite insidious if you really think about it. Basically, the average Han peasant in the eastern han was sort of shielded from war because they had convicts and nomads doing most of the fighting for them, wars could be fought without much concern for the exhaustion of the people(It's also likely this definitely incentivized processing of convicts, who were also essential as basically slave labor forces). Ultimately, the types of men which composed the frontier armies were societal rejects. Long-term soldiers, even if they were Han, ultimately had no family to return to. Convicts were rejects as well, and foreign troops were not considered part of chinese society proper. Coinciding with this, during the Eastern Han, unlike the western han who regularly rotated officers and troops out of the frontlines, long term commands became increasingly commonplace. The officers thus became both the glue that kept these social rejects together and the sources of their livelihood. As such, was it any surprise that they would become loyal to their superiors like Dong Zhuo, rather than the cold and distant Imperial court?

[@gatesofkilikien]

Thanks for your comment, and it's really cool to be able to have such detailed discussions. Overall I'm still experimenting with finding the right balance in my videos for discussing politics vs other topics, and I've gotten more interested in discussing broader socioeconomic topics in my more recent videos. I'll be discussing some aspects of what you wrote about in the upcoming few videos, especially in regards to the new socioeconomic order as the Three Kingdoms came into being. With that said I do eventually plan to do a series on Ancient Chinese history that ends with the late Eastern Han Dynasty, so a lot of these topics I plan to keep for that series. There's definitely a lot of very fascinating discussions on economic policies, such as what took place during the reign of Emperor Wu, that I want to delve into.

[@ahumpierrogue137]

@@gatesofkilikien No worries, glad you responded! My video was more intended for the rest of the audience, but it's still good to hear you'll be delving into some of this stuff as well. I'll look forward to your Han series as well, then!

[@cyberiansailor9741]

I love your channel and your videos dude! Keep it up!

[@groege6291]

very good video! i do think it would be improved by introducing general geography earlier and maybe including a brief explanation of a timeline of events near the beginning. amazing and interesting video though!

[@altaraiser1054]

Thank you so much for the subtitles man.

[@themagickalmagickman]

Love these videos, thank you!

[@Walterw21]

Please more content!!! I really love so much!!!

[@LevisonDavid]

this channel is pure gold.first I thought this is the best english speaking chinese history channel on youtube.now I think this could be the best chinese history channel on youtube.the author explains chinese history with great depth and insights that most english speaking chinese history channels lacks and does not pollute by common chinese bullsh*ting and bluffing.hats off to you sir for spreading some true knowledge.

[@samadams2203]

Thanks very much for this video, it was very thorough. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms period is somewhat well known, but also rather fantastical, so hearing about the hard fact of how it came about was very interesting!

[@TTminh-wh8me]

It's remarkable how enormous cities like Chang'an and Luoyang were repeatedly razed to the ground, with their populations either killed or deported, yet were rebuilt time and time again to become capitals once more. Imagine if that happens to rome or constantinople.

[@ihl0700677525]

Carthage (Modern day Tunis) was razed and rebuilt at least 4 times, Rome was sacked multiple times (at least 3 times), City of Byzantium exist long before it became Constantinople/Istanbul, and was sacked multiple times too, since the times of ancient Greece. So too cities like Aachen (once was the center of Holy Roman Empire), Ravenna, Mediolanium (Milan), Londinium (London), Kyiv/Kiev, even rather younger cities like Moscow and Berlin (both established during Medieval time) was sacked and destroyed multiple times.

[@Othaur]

It kind of did happen to Rome and Constantinople. When Constantinople was conquered by the Ottomans the city which once had a population of 750,000 was down to about 40,000. Rome had 1 million and during the middle ages barely had a population above 35k. Just because they weren't as dramatic as three kingdom period downfalls, these two cities met slow excrutiating deaths, only to be revived by later entities or concerted efforts.

[@zico739]

Great stuff as usual.

[@judeeihyu4984]

This is terrific. Thank you.

[@infinitemess]

Thank you for the inclusion of extensive detail while not getting lost in the weeds. Compares favorably with the History of China podcast which ended up being a recitation of Wikipedia articles that rarely added up to a better overall understanding of the period.

[@Nom_AnorVSJedi]

Great video! Can you do a vid on the structure of the Han dynasty government? Specifically how it was inspired by the Zhou and Qin dynasties? What were the functions of the Three Excellencies and Nine Ministers? Was Legalism really dead?

[@SlimeJime]

Really looking forward to this series. The Three Kingdoms era usually gets sensationalized by proximity to ROTK, but the real history of it is plenty dramatic and interesting on its own. I was converted to this perspective a while back by somebody who made the argument that Yuan Shao was the greediest, dumbest, most irresponsible lump in an empire of lumps. It really helped put things in perspective! Where the novel likes to add narratives and personas to these people, their real deeds are so much more human. Readers aren't going to buy that a character would suggest something as hare-brained as Yuan Shao's plan for political domination (invite the suspicious rogue general to burn down the capital so you can kill some eunuchs???), but in consideration of some current events, it does everyone good to know that people really do get that short-sighted and desperate.

[@gatesofkilikien]

Thanks, the regular history of this period can be extremely hard to separate from the RoTK events, although like you said the real history is dramatic enough on its own. Regarding Yuan Shao's actions, there's a number of subplots, which I left out of the video, that would put him in a more favorable light. The first is that Yuan Wei was the head of the Yuan Clan at the time, and how much influence Yuan Shao really had is questionable. It's not inconceivable, although the history books don't mention it, that Yuan Wei was behind the plots and that Yuan Shao was just a facilitator between Yuan Wei and He Jin. Yuan Shao also had an older brother named Yuan Ji who was executed alongside Yuan Wei, and we don't know how much of an influence Yuan Ji played in things. The 50 or so members of the Yuan Family whom Dong Zhuo executed might also have contained budding politicians who just didn't leave behind their names. Basically, with Yuan Shao there may have been a certain amount of survivorship bias, that because he ended up being important, ancient historians retroactively gave him a larger role in the events of 189-190 than he actually played. The second factor was Ding Yuan. When He Jin called in armies to Luoyang he recalled both Ding Yuan's and Dong Zhuo's, and Ding Yuan was actually trusted more than Dong Zhuo because he was allowed to enter the capital whereas Dong Zhuo was not. Ding Yuan also had two subordinates Zhang Yang and Zhang Liao (of Hefei fame), both of whom were sent away from the capital by He Jin to recruit soldiers when He Jin was assassinated. So it's possible that Lv Bu only managed to assassinate Ding Yuan because much of Ding Yuan's support base was away at the time. The third factor was He Jin's own army. It was probably strong enough to take on Dong Zhuo's army on its own, but after He Jin's death its commanders attacked each other, so by the time Dong Zhuo entered the capital it was weak and leaderless. And finally, members of the Yuan Clan may have thought they could control Dong Zhuo's army and used Dong Zhuo as their attack dog. Because the events of 189-190 were so significant, there's all kinds of explanations on what happened behind the scenes. I left most of them out because some come across as conspiracy-theory like and others required me to get into too much details. With this said I'm thinking I should have spent a few extra minutes on Ding Yuan to highlight just how much of a fluke it was for Dong Zhuo to seize power the way he did. Ding Yuan's story is just extremely difficult to piece together though, and the ancient records only mention him sporadically with lots of holes in the narrative. Ironically this morning I'm starting to do research on the next video, and one of the first things I've read is a pretty good account on Ding Yuan's role in Dong Zhuo's takeover. Oh well...

[@grandadmiralzaarin4962]

Long united the Empire must divide Long divided the Empire must unite Thus it has ever been

[@coorenshima3912]

Given the repetition, What are the chances all of those emperors were killed by their consorts to gain power as empress regnant?

[@syjiang]

Statistically....a none zero probability shall we say.

[@demeterruinedmylife3199]

Well, both palace conspiracies and genetic dysfunctions are popular guesses for the Eastern Han emperors’ short lifespans.

[@C-Farsene_5]

I feel so bad for Emperor Zhi 😭 imagine a mature thinking person like that growing up and being raised by good tutelage

[@josemolinanavarro5741]

Wait a minute... isn't this a remake of a vid you already did? Well... better a remake than total inactivity. We missed you, man!

[@planescaped]

I was always curious about this stuff when playing Dynasty Warriors and ROTK back in the day. Made me want to know about the latter Han and the eras preceding and following the three kingdoms. Same thing with the Song after I read the Water Margin. Glad to find videos explaining them so well.

[@lucasvanderhoeven3760]

Simply amazing!

[@Amesang]

*FUN FACT:* The print ad for the NES game, _Destiny of an Emperor,_ claimed that these events took place over 18,000 years ago. Eighteen _THOUSAND_ Years ago. (That was one heck of a typo! XÞ Although it'd explain the ability to ride mammoths in some _Dynasty Warriors_ games!)

[@adzi6164]

those were elephants

[@yoshihammerbro435]

yay the best person made another video! 😍

[@nevernerevarine8071]

Love your vids, made my day you uploaded

[@lobstereleven4610]

Another great video! Thanks

[@MatZee27]

Gotta love more deep insight into Eastern Han period

[@azatooth1]

Babe wake up, new Gates of Kilikien video just dropped

[@arielquelme]

Very good, contimur your works

[@lyn2335]

1:04:09 1. Qin Shihuang 2. Emperor Wu of Jin 3. Qianlong Emperor 4. Emperor Yingzong of Ming 5. Wanli Emperor 6. Chongzhen Emperor 7. ??? No idea who was “outwardly weak but still enacted good policies” 8. Emperor Gaozong of Song 9. Emperor Huizong of Song 10. Emperor Xuanzong of Tang 11. Emperor Hui of Han

[@demeterruinedmylife3199]

No.7 appears to be Emperor Dezong of Tang.

[@gatesofkilikien]

Great job both of you - I threw those images in as a fun little challenge. Yes #7 is indeed Emperor Dezong of Tang. #11 is supposed to be Emperor Hui of Jin, but Emperor Hui of Han works too. Pretty much any posthumous name of "Hui" should work actually, considering the name pretty much goes only to incompetent nice guys.

[@laturnich9507]

Awesome video! These just get better and better. One question I have is, are there any theories as to why the emperors kept dying so young?

[@gatesofkilikien]

Thanks again for your support! It's certainly been a nice journey so far and each video have been a chance to grow. I've seen a hodgepodge of different explanations as to why the emperors kept dying so young, but nothing too persuasive. A common traditional explanation is that the child emperors indulged themselves to death. I suppose for these child emperors, their formative years must have been a combination of extreme social isolation and high stress, all while being allowed to indulge in whatever vice they wanted, which can't have been good for healthy development. But still, this amount of early deaths is still excessive. It's also possible that the consort kins purposefully chose kids who were already frail to begin with to be the new emperors since they'd be easier to control. Assassinations were also possible considering the high level of palace intrigue, but there's no way to ascertain any of this. Even Emperor Zhi's cause of death presumably only became public knowledge after Liang Ji was purged. And then there could just be bad luck. Being a Chinese emperor was a high-stress job, and even in other dynasties it's quite common for them to die in their 30s to 40s of natural causes (again, assassinations behind the scenes notwithstanding). It's not like Chinese emperors were regularly living into their 60s or 70s to begin with.

[@ReZeroCultLeader7594]

This is beastly. Can't wait for three kingdoms

[@Svevsky]

China is truly fascinating. Billions of people living in what amounts to an enclosed space, with desert in the north, sea in the east, and mountains to the west and south. Its like a separate universe, and yet it developed so similarly to europe in so many ways

[@ydk1k253]

I'm not sure if this related but the fact that China has hundreds of million of internet users isolated from the rest of the world is mindblowing

[@cliterally1791]

listening and learning, thank you gatesofkilikien

[@aful3091]

Chinese history is so fascinating yet difficult to access for westerners, I love the proper pronunciation in this videos it gives me a much better appreciation for the sounds of Chinese.

[@frankuschold8796]

Great video

[@XIXCentury]

I was just going through your entire catalogue 😂

[@captainmurphy4720]

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH. THE MAPS!

[@michaeladu6120]

OMG! Now how am I supposed to study for my test on Monday 😭?

[@OmegaTaishu]

Fantastic video

[@ahumpierrogue137]

Arguably, the Eastern Han was kind of doomed from the start to descend into political squabbling. The nature of the Guangzhong-Guangdong divide was fairly beneficial to the internal stability of the empire, both because it essentially allowed for a semi-artificial "Imperial" culture to flourish around Chang'an and its nearby tomb cities which provided a counterweight to the traditional core of China in the floodplains of the yellow river. Additionally, it was of course well postured to defend against the nomads, while also being placed well to defend against its own people to the east. The Eastern Han meanwhile, essentially was always surrendered to the landowning families. Its supporters who first raised it up were from among said families, and the capital had no distance from them to provide safety and a more controlling perpsective instead being enmeshed amongst the east, and ultimately floundering.

[@jebise6656]

will you be making a comprehensive video/series on the tang dynasty?

[@gatesofkilikien]

Yes eventually. I want to do a medieval Chinese history series in chronological order so want to get through the centuries of division first.

[@jebise6656]

@@gatesofkilikien That's great, keep up the good work

[@HistoryOfRevolutions]

Fantastic video. I am very interested in Chinese history

[@RadicalCaveman]

FYI: We pronounce 19 as "nineteen," not "one-nine."

[@nguyennhutquang4450]

1:22:38 it's so interesting to see Tian Kai 田楷 as a warlord in Qing province since some 500 years earlier, the ruling dynasty of the state of Qi 齊 in the same area also had the surname Tian 田. I wonder if they were related?

[@gatesofkilikien]

No connection that I could find in the historical records, although it very well could have been the case. Would have been a neat connection though, and great catch on your par to notice this!

[@Junbug92]

What were the names of the six client kingdoms you mentioned at 52:10

[@rockethola3515]

Bro do you have a patreon or something?

[@gatesofkilikien]

Thanks for bringing up the topic. I don't have a Patreon - I might create one in the future although no concrete plans for it, and realistically since I don't upload regularly enough Patreon may just not be well-suited for a channel like this. Really appreciate your support, and my main goal right now is just to create content that people find helpful and to connect with like-minded people.