Xu Shouhui () (1320–1360) was a 14th-century Chinese rebel leader who proclaimed himself emperor of the Tianwan (天完) dynasty during the late

Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty ( ; zh, c=元朝, p=Yuáncháo), officially the Great Yuan (; Mongolian language, Mongolian: , , literally 'Great Yuan State'), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after Div ...

period of China. He was also known as Xu Zhenyi (徐真一 or 徐真逸, romanized in Wade–Giles as Hsü Chen-i). Born in Luotian (羅田, now in

Hubei Hubei is a province of China, province in Central China. It has the List of Chinese provincial-level divisions by GDP, seventh-largest economy among Chinese provinces, the second-largest within Central China, and the third-largest among inland ...

), Xu was a cloth vendor by profession.

Emperor

In August 1351, he worked with others in Qízhōu () to establish the rebel army of Red Turbans under the pretense of the

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

White Lotus Society. In the following months of the

Red Turban Rebellion The Red Turban Rebellions () were uprisings against the Yuan dynasty between 1351 and 1368, eventually leading to its collapse. Remnants of the Yuan imperial court retreated northwards and is thereafter known as the Northern Yuan in historiogr ...

, they captured Qishui () and made it the command centre of the Red Turbans and the capital of the newly declared Empire of Tianwan (), originally called Song () with himself as the emperor with the

era name A regnal year is a year of the reign of a sovereign, from the Latin meaning kingdom, rule. Regnal years considered the date as an ordinal, not a cardinal number. For example, a monarch could have a first year of rule, a second year of rule, a t ...

of "Zhiping" (). The number of his supporters increased rapidly as he claimed to be Maitreya Buddha () who sought to "destroy the rich to benefit the poor" (). In 1352, he invaded more of Hebei, and moved on to take

Jiangxi ; Gan: ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = , translit_lang1_type3 = , translit_lang1_info3 = , image_map = Jiangxi in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_caption = Location ...

Anhui Anhui is an inland Provinces of China, province located in East China. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze and Huai rivers, bordering Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the east, Jiang ...

Fujian Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...

Zhejiang ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = ( Hangzhounese) ( Ningbonese) (Wenzhounese) , image_skyline = 玉甑峰全貌 - panoramio.jpg , image_caption = View of the Yandang Mountains , image_map = Zhejiang i ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu is a coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province in East China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its capital in Nanjing. Jiangsu is the List of Chinese administra ...

, and

Hunan Hunan is an inland Provinces of China, province in Central China. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the Administrative divisions of China, province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to the east, Gu ...

. After being temporarily defeated by the army of the Yuan dynasty, he fled to Huangmei Mountain (), but returned in 1355 to invade once again and move the capital to

Hanyang District Hanyang District () forms part of the urban core of and is one of 13 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, China. Currently, it is a district and stands between the Han River (right/southern bank) ...

. In 1358, after

Chen Youliang Chen Youliang (; 1320 – 3 October 1363For those cross-referencing the Mingshi, in the old Chinese calendar refers to the year 1363 CE, refers to 8月29日 or 29 August, and refers to 10月3日 or 3 October.) was the founder and first ...

took control of the city Longxing (now Nanchang 南昌市), Xu Shouhui wanted to move the capital from Hanyang to Longxing. Chen Youliang opposed this idea, as Longxing was not far from Jiangzhou, which would make Xu Shouhui a threat to him. However, Xu Shouhui insisted on the relocation, and in December of 1359 ordered his troops to sail down the

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ) is the longest river in Eurasia and the third-longest in the world. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and flows including Dam Qu River the longest source of the Yangtze, i ...

to Jiangzhou. Anticipating this, Chen Youliang ordered his men to lay an ambush to the city. Once Xu Shouhui arrived, he and his men fell ambush and Chen Youliang detained him, killing the rest of his men before proclaiming himself King of the

State of Han Han was an ancient Chinese state during the Warring States period. Scholars frequently render the name as Hann to clearly distinguish it from China's later Han dynasty. It was located in central China (modern-day Shanxi and Henan) in a region ...

. Xu Shouhui would die shortly in 1360 in Chen Youliang's captivity, however, it is not known if he was executed or died from an illness.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Xu, Shouhui Red Turban rebels Emperors of China Generals from Hubei People from Huanggang Yuan dynasty people 14th-century Chinese people 14th-century births 1360 deaths Year of birth unknown Founders of Imperial Chinese dynasties White Lotus people

Emperor

See also

References