• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.48
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• pp.407-443
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• 2024

The relationship between finance, natural disasters and epidemics, the Liang Province Rebellion of mostly Qiang ethnic groups, and the occurrence of displaced persons in the Later Han Dynasty, is examined in this article. Also explored is the financial crisis that had started accumulating in the Later Han Dynasty, as well as the Yellow Turban Rebellion and the displacement of the people. It is argued in this research that the financial crisis had an influence on the occurrence. The Yellow Turban Rebellion began in 184, seventeenth year of Lingdi's reign. The rebellion was an incident that occurred due to a complex combination of natural calamities and man-made disasters. Various natural disasters during the Lingdi period, poor measures for immigration, and Lingdi's refusal to accept Yangci and Liu Tao's advice that the immigrants should return home were the direct causes of the Yellow Turban Rebellion. In short, the increase in military spending due to natural disasters and the Liang Province Rebellion caused financial deterioration were the direct causes of the Yellow turban rebellion. The Yellow Turban Rebellion was suppressed in less than a year. Therefore, the Yellow Turban Rebellion itself was not the cause of the collapse of the Later Han Dynasty. It was rather case that the great fire in South Palace in Luoyang, the capital of Later Han Dynasty, in 185, the increase in taxes of 10 qian per mu (畝) to rebuild the palace, the open and compulsory encouragement of the trafficking of official posts, and the exploitation of civil servants, which destabilized the population. Thereupon, rebellions broke out among the people in various places. Therefore, unlike the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the collapse of the Later Han Dynasty should be viewed as primarily the result of man-made calamities rather than natural disasters.