The Strongest Failed Examinee: Huang Chao Special

The nobles of the Jin State and Mongolia across numerous planes had failed to find Gao Shengyang's ancestor.

By rights, someone who was fair-skinned and handsome, had passed himself off as a descendant of the Xianbei, had been able to visit the Laundry Bureau, and had caught the eye of a noblewoman of the Jin State ought to have held a high position and been easy to find!

Gao Shengyang had not lied. He had transmigrated to this modern urban plane and become a descendant of Gao Huan's branch of the Gao Clan of Bohai. His ancestor really had done such a thing.

[The strongest failed examinee, who trampled the bones of nobles beneath the imperial avenue! #history #Huang Chao]

"The imperial avenue trampled over the bones of nobles! What an overbearing line of poetry! Stained with blood and slaughter."

"Hiss! Huang Chao? Why did the sky screen bring up that star of slaughter?!"

"Which dynasty of later ages did Huang Chao belong to? Did he kill all the nobles of later ages?"

"How will people in later ages judge me?" Huang Chao himself was curious about how later generations would judge him.

["Standing before you is the strongest failed examinee, the nightmare of the Five Surnames and Seven Clans, the terminator of aristocratic clans, the one who carried the Li Tang Royal Dynasty to its grave, the ruthless man who single-handedly broke their centuries-long monopoly over the imperial examinations, proved that fighting one's way into Chang'an was easier than passing the exams to enter it, and laid the foundation for commoners of humble birth to enter officialdom in later ages. He was also the first rebel leader to propose 'equalizing' the upper ranks through 'replacement appointments.'"]

["He was the Sky-Soaring Taibao, Great General of Equalization, who trampled the bones of nobles beneath the imperial avenue, slaughtered the aristocratic clans of Chang'an, and tore the great clans out by the roots: Huang Chao, leader of the peasant rebel army at the end of the Tang and emperor of Great Qi."]

"The strongest failed examinee?"

"The nightmare of the Five Surnames and Seven Clans?"

"The terminator of aristocratic clans?"

"The one who carried the Li Tang Royal Dynasty to its grave?"

As the great clans from the Wei and Jin through the Northern and Southern Dynasties to the Sui and Tang, and the emperors of Great Tang from different periods, listened to Huang Chao's titles one after another, their brows furrowed, their faces darkened, and killing intent flickered in their eyes.

Li Yuan said in a ringing voice, "This man actually managed to shake the foundations of my Li Tang as a mere commoner. He truly was a traitor and a villain!"

"The great clans monopolized the imperial examinations. That was indeed a difficult problem for Great Tang in later ages!" Li Shimin exclaimed. Then his tone changed. "Had I been born in that time, I would surely have led an army myself to wipe him out!"

To Li Shimin, the great clans were a problem.

But he had not expected someone in a later age to be so ruthless as to take up a blade and kill them outright.

"Traitor! We must never let him go!"

"Where did Huang Chao come from?"

The sky screen's words, "slaughtered the aristocratic clans of Chang'an and tore the great clans out by the roots," made the various great clans want nothing more than to find Huang Chao's ancestors and kill their entire families.

"Well done, Huang Chao! Kill all those disobedient great clans and bring down Li Tang's empire!" Yang Guang of Emperor Yang of Sui's plane clapped and cheered.

[A thousand years later, they came back to life.]

[They've always been there. They never disappeared; only the people changed.]

[Huang Chao was ruthless enough!]

[A cannibal.]

[History keeps repeating itself.]

[The salt peddler who failed the exams.]

[The strongest failed examinee!]

Reading these comments, the ancients who had not known who Huang Chao was could now form a rough idea.

[Without this ruthless man, we might have a caste system now #educational #Huang Chao]

"I know what a caste system is. You can tell just by hearing it: it divides people into high and low, noble and base, by surname."

"Huang Chao was ruthless, all right. He killed people and ate them. He did every monstrous thing that could offend heaven and conscience!"

["So we once came close to becoming a caste society like a certain neighboring country. For that, we have to thank a ruthless man named Huang Chao from the late Tang. He almost solved the problem of the aristocratic clans at its roots."]

["Without Huang Chao's rebellion, China might very well have suffered under a rigidly stratified caste system like India."]

["Just how outrageous was the aristocratic clan system back then?"]

["Put it this way: the clans were made of iron, while dynasties flowed past like water. Even when all under heaven fell into chaos and emperors took turns on the throne, the great aristocratic clans remained standing for centuries. Their descendants monopolized eighty percent of the official posts at court. They intermarried, each with ties in the other, forming a vast community of shared interests."]

At this, many emperors' faces darkened.

The clans were made of iron, while dynasties flowed past like water. Wasn't that telling everyone under heaven that the clans were more powerful than the emperor?

["Even the imperial examination system could not shake their powerful foundations. If a child of humble birth did not seek the protection of an aristocratic clan, he had almost no chance of promotion."]

["Why did Huang Chao choose to rebel?"]

["It could be said that Huang Chao's rebellion had something to do with the imperial examinations."]

["Because the imperial examinations were corrupt in the late Tang, he failed them time and again, never passing despite repeated attempts. Those chosen to serve at court were always the children of aristocratic clans. This filled Huang Chao with hatred, and so he wrote: 'When autumn comes on the eighth day of the ninth month, once my flower blooms, all other flowers shall perish. Its ranks of fragrance shall storm the heavens and pierce Chang'an, and the whole city shall be clad in golden armor.' Thus began Huang Chao's rebellion."]

["So, whatever you do, never provoke a failed examinee."]

["How did Huang Chao uproot the aristocratic clan system that had lasted a thousand years?"]

["After several years of war, Huang Chao fought his way into Chang'an. He had originally hoped to gain the support of the aristocratic clans, but they paid him no mind at all."]

["Settling the old grudges in his heart all at once, he dealt the aristocratic clans a ruthless blow, slaughtering so many that their family genealogies became the King of Hell's ledgers of life and death. He killed so many of the Cui Clan of the Five Surnames and Seven Clans that their surname fell dozens of places down the Hundred Family Surnames."]

What a way to turn family genealogies into the King of Hell's ledgers of life and death!

The members of the Cui Clan of Boling and the Cui Clan of Qinghe were furious!

["Huang Chao rid the society of his time of a malignant tumor that had existed for over six hundred years."]

["Why, then, do textbooks rarely mention Huang Chao's story?"]

["Because ancient officials considered him a taboo subject and rarely mentioned him."]

["History books are written by the victors, and much of real history has been cut out. For example, people know only that King Goujian of Yue slept on brushwood and tasted gall to steel his resolve, but not that, to exact his revenge, he sold boiled rice seed to the farmers of the Kingdom of Wu, leaving them without a single grain to harvest. At the same time, he wantonly seized large numbers of women and imprisoned them on a mountain, where soldiers who had rendered meritorious service on the battlefield could go to find their prey."]

King Goujian of Yue: Just talk about Huang Chao. There's no need to mention me.

[If in another year I become the Azure Emperor, I shall decree that my flowers bloom alongside the peach blossoms.]

[Its ranks of fragrance shall storm the heavens and pierce Chang'an, and the whole city shall be clad in golden armor.]

"Huang Chao wrote only a few poems in his life, and those he did write were either presumptuous or rebellious."

"Huang Chao's poetry was quite good!"

[The roots of the Five Surnames and Seven Clans probably weren't in Chang'an. You'd have to visit their home territories for it to count as pulling them out by the roots!]

[The clans north of the Yellow River were all wiped out. At the time, the great clans' foundations were all in the north.]

People of later ages, were you Huang Chao's relatives? Why were you even offering him strategies?

"The aristocratic clans truly went too far! A thousand years have passed from the end of the Tang to later ages, yet people of those ages sided with Huang Chao over his slaughter of the aristocratic clans. That says something."

[The aristocratic clans are back. It's time for Huang Chao to return too!]

[There was nothing to fault Huang Chao for at the start of the rebellion, but after his first military defeat, he became a butcher of men. His army's rations were made from human flesh.]

[Who knows whether the aristocratic clans slandered Huang Chao after his death?]

[Some of it was slander, and some wasn't.]