Zhong Xiang

Biography

Family Background and Early Life

Zhong Xiang was from Wuling in Dingzhou, in an area identified by the Chinese source with present-day Shuangyangang Village, Xujiaqiao Township, Dingcheng District, Changde, Hunan. He came from a small merchant family. His birth year is not recorded. Based on the period of his activity, the source places his birth roughly in the middle or later Northern Song.

In the late Northern Song, land concentration, heavy taxation, and political disorder placed great pressure on farmers around Dongting Lake. Zhong Xiang used religious activity as cover, traveled among rural communities, treated illness, and organized followers. He declared that a system dividing people into noble and lowly, rich and poor was not a good law and that his own law should equalize both rank and wealth. The source interprets this slogan as going beyond Wang Xiaobo's earlier demand to “equalize rich and poor” by adding an explicit claim for equality of social status.

Religion also provided the organizational framework for secret mutual-aid associations known as she. Members contributed small amounts of grain or money and participated in reciprocal aid. Zhong Xiang was called “Laoye” and “Heavenly Great Sage” by followers. Over more than twenty years his influence spread across the counties around Dongting Lake.

Aid to the Song and Preparations for Rebellion

In 1127, after Jin forces destroyed the Northern Song, Zhao Gou became emperor at Yingtian Prefecture. Zhong Xiang organized a militia of three hundred and sent his eldest son Zhong Ziang north to aid the dynasty. The unit was ordered home before it fought Jin troops. Zhong Xiang and his son retained the armed group and used it as a basis for later mobilization.

Conditions around Dongting Lake deteriorated further in the early Southern Song. Jin attacks, looting by regular and broken units, and heavy taxation all contributed to local disorder. In 1128 Zhong Xiang was briefly arrested after being denounced, but was released. In the second lunar month of 1130, troops led by Kong Yanzhou entered the region around Lizhou, threatening Dingzhou. With local officials fleeing, Zhong Xiang mobilized followers and launched an uprising.

Establishing Chu and the Height of the Uprising

In the second lunar month of 1130, Zhong Xiang formally rebelled. He established a state called Chu, adopted the era name Tianzai, also recorded as Tianzhan, called himself King of Chu, made Zhong Ziang crown prince, and appointed officials. The rebels burned government offices, urban buildings, temples, shrines, and the homes of powerful families; killed officials, scholars, clergy, diviners, healers, and personal enemies; and seized landlord property. They called the killing of officials “carrying out the law” and the redistribution of property “equalization.” They denounced Song law as an “evil law,” while claiming to protect ordinary cultivators, fishermen, and woodcutters. Members of the rebel movement were exempted from taxation and labor obligations and were not subjected to normal official law.

The uprising rapidly occupied nineteen counties across Dingzhou, Lizhou, Jingnan Prefecture, Xiazhou, Yuezhou, Chenzhou, and Tanzhou. The force reportedly grew to several hundred thousand, and communities across several prefectures responded to the movement.

Defeat and Capture

In the third lunar month of 1130, Kong Yanzhou's army fought Zhong Xiang's forces. After repeated direct attacks failed, Kong sent men into the rebel camp to act as internal agents. Zhong Xiang was caught off guard by a surprise assault and was captured and killed together with his wife Lady Yin and his eldest son Zhong Ziang. The initial uprising had lasted only a little over forty days.

After Zhong Xiang's death, the surviving forces moved into the Dongting Lake region under Yang Yao, Xia Cheng, and others. They established fortified lakeside bases and combined military activity with farming. Yang Yao and his allies named Zhong Xiang's younger son Zhong Ziyi crown prince and rebuilt a regime. Resistance continued for about six years until Yue Fei's forces suppressed it in 1135.

Zhong Xiang was a man of Wuling in Dingzhou at the end of the Northern Song who organized the people of his district through religious activity: those who joined his "village society" paid a little money and grain, and within it mutual aid was practiced, so that members prospered in farming and silk and lived well. He declared that "law that divides noble from base, rich from poor, is no good law; my law shall equalize noble and base, rich and poor," a political demand for equality of wealth and social standing that went beyond the earlier "equalize the rich and poor" ideas of the early Northern Song. He was therefore much supported by the people, called "the old master" or "the great sage," and the poor peasants for hundreds of li around joined in countless numbers over more than twenty years, his influence spreading through the counties about Lake Dongting.

Early in 1127 he raised three hundred militiamen under his eldest son Zhong Zi'ang to go north "to succor the throne," but the force was sent back by the newly enthroned Emperor Gaozong before it met the Jin. Taking this body as its core he prepared a rising. With the Jin crossing the Yangtze and leaving ruin behind them, with government troops and stragglers burning and plundering, and with the Southern Song ruling by heavy exactions and "vexatious government and heavy taxes," the people of the south were in extremity, and risings broke out in Jiangxi, Fujian and the Jinghu circuits. In the second month of 1130, as the Jin slaughtered the people of Tanzhou, Kong Yanzhou's troops invaded Lizhou and Dingzhou was in danger, Zhong Xiang raised his followers to defend their homes, named his state Chu with the era name Tianzai and styled himself King of Chu with officials appointed, and the peasants about Lake Dongting answered in numbers.

The rising was soon suppressed. Kong Yanzhou attacked while infiltrating men disguised as common people to work from within, and Zhong Xiang and his son were captured and killed. The remnants were led by Yang Yao and others, holding out in the Lake Dongting region until put down by Yue Fei's troops in 1135. Zhong Xiang's slogan, "equalize noble and base, rich and poor," is a famous political demand in the history of Chinese peasant warfare, and later study of Song social conflict and peasant risings draws heavily on it.

The rising in the Lake Dongting region could last so long because of local geography and economy. The area is a dense network of waters, and the rebels used the inlets and islands to elude government troops, their fleet notable for paddle-wheel boats with treadles that moved swiftly; after Zhong Xiang, Yang Yao held the strongholds in the lake in prolonged confrontation with the government. When Yue Fei was sent against him he combined offers of pardon with cutting off supplies, first breaking up the rebels from within and then using his fleet to storm their camps, and only then was the rising fully put down.

Zhong Xiang's slogan of equalizing noble and base, rich and poor holds an important place in the history of Chinese peasant warfare. Beside the demand to equalize rich and poor raised in the rising of Wang Xiaobo and Li Shun in the early Northern Song, his added a call to equalize noble and base, touching the inequality of social status; the "village society" that carried it was a local body bound by religion and mutual aid. Thinkers and officials of the Song generally criticized such demands, but the social conflicts behind them were real: in the Jinghu region at the beginning of the Southern Song taxes were heavy, magnates engrossed land, and war and marauding troops rapidly worsened the conditions of the people.

The Southern Song court's handling of the Dongting rising was entangled with its larger policy toward the Jin. At the time the emperor was establishing his rule south of the river and negotiating with the Jin, and the Jinghu region was both a shield and a source of revenue; the rebels' activity directly threatened the grain transport and local order, so that the court sent Kong Yanzhou, Cheng Changyu, Wang Xie and others against them in turn, and only under Yue Fei, appointed commissioner of Jinghu South and North and the Xiangyang prefectures in 1135, was the rising put down. Yue Fei's use of one fleet against another, and the military settlements arranged afterward, are notable parts of the episode.

After Zhong Xiang's defeat his remnant forces continued under Yang Yao. Yang Yao, originally Yang Tai, was named for being the youngest in the rebel ranks; with Huang Zuo, Zhou Lun and others he held the lake strongholds in separate commands, building a system centered on the water camps and at times negotiating terms with the Southern Song court. When Yue Fei campaigned against him in 1135 he combined division with blockade, winning over Huang Zuo and Yang Qin and then using his fleet to storm the camps of Xia Cheng and Yang Yao, Yang Yao being killed as he tried to break out and the rising ending there. Yue Fei settled the surrendered people and instituted military farming afterward, and order in the Jinghu region was gradually restored.

The rising of Zhong Xiang and Yang Yao was confined chiefly to Dingzhou, Lizhou and Tanzhou in the Jinghu North circuit, that is northern Hunan and southern Hubei. In the early Southern Song this region bore the tasks of defense and grain transport against the Jin and the puppet Qi while also gathering refugees and marauding troops, so that social tensions concentrated there. The standoff between the rebels and the court lasted six years, during which the court changed commanders several times, showing how weak its control of the provinces was at the dynasty's beginning.

The Important Documents since the Jianyan Years and similar works record the rising in some detail, and Kong Yanzhou's capture of Zhong Xiang and his son by deception is a case often cited in the history of Song peasant warfare. The political demands the rebels raised and their form of organization also provide material for the study of popular religion and local society under the Song.

The Song attitude toward demands to equalize rich and poor appears in official documents: such ideas were treated as inflammatory and disorderly, and those who raised them were commonly called sorcerous rebels. But the social roots of the risings lay in taxes, corvée and land engrossment, and this was reflected in the discussions of officials: memorials of the early Southern Song on conditions in the Jinghu region repeatedly mention heavy taxation and large numbers of displaced people.

After the rising failed, order in the Dongting region was gradually restored under Yue Fei's policy of military farming and pacification, and the Southern Song strengthened its control there. The deeds of Zhong Xiang and Yang Yao entered the histories and local gazetteers, and their slogan of equalizing noble and base, rich and poor has been repeatedly cited in accounts of Chinese peasant warfare.

The "village society" he relied on combined religious and mutual-aid functions, its organization related to the tradition of voluntary associations in Song popular life — a point often noted in studies of Song social history.

The Southern Song officially called them sorcerous rebels, a term directly tied to the religious coloring of their organization.

His story together with Yang Yao's later struggle forms one episode in the history of the Dongting region in the early Southern Song.

Major Activities

The Slogan “Equalize Noble and Lowly, Equalize Rich and Poor”

The central ideological feature attributed to Zhong Xiang's uprising is the slogan that a law distinguishing noble from lowly and rich from poor was not good law, and that his own law should “equalize noble and lowly, and equalize rich and poor.” The Chinese source interprets this as rejecting the social hierarchy of the time and combining a demand for economic redistribution with a demand for social equality. The rebel forces attempted to put these ideas into practice through what they called “carrying out the law” and “equalization,” though the source also records extensive violence and destruction under these practices.

Local Associations and Religious Activity

For more than twenty years before the uprising, Zhong Xiang used religious activity as cover to organize secret mutual-aid associations around Dongting Lake. Members paid small contributions, helped one another economically, and were told that their farming and household livelihoods would prosper. The Chinese source states that the religion may have been Manichaeism, while noting that the identification is not certain. Zhong Xiang styled himself “Heavenly Great Sage” and acquired extensive influence across the region.

Mobilization to Aid the Song Against the Jin

In 1127, Zhong Xiang organized three hundred militia and sent Zhong Ziang north to aid the Song court against the Jin. The force was turned back by Emperor Gaozong. Zhong Xiang retained the men under arms, providing an important core for his later rebellion. The source interprets this as evidence that Zhong Xiang at first had an intention to resist the Jin before turning against the Southern Song because of domestic oppression and corruption.

Establishment of the Great Chu Regime

In 1130 Zhong Xiang established a regime called Great Chu, styled himself King of Chu, adopted the era name Tianzai, also recorded as Tianzhan, named his son crown prince, and appointed officials. His movement occupied nineteen counties and grew to several hundred thousand people, making it one of the largest peasant uprisings of the early Southern Song. Although the regime lasted only a little over forty days, the source states that it provided a precedent for the later regime rebuilt by Yang Yao.

Personal Relations

• Zhong Ziang (eldest son; joined the uprising, was named crown prince, and was captured and killed with Zhong Xiang)
• Zhong Ziyi (younger son; after Zhong Xiang's death, reportedly made crown prince by Yang Yao)
• Lady Yin (wife; captured and killed together with Zhong Xiang)
• Yang Yao (also Yang Tai; became a principal leader after Zhong Xiang's death and rebuilt the regime; defeated and killed by Yue Fei in 1135)
• Xia Cheng (important rebel leader who held fortified lake positions)
• Yang Hua and Yang Guang (leaders who joined Yang Yao in commanding the remaining rebels)
• Yang Qin, Liu Heng, Jin Cong, Liu Shen, and Huang Zuo (rebel leaders later induced to surrender to Yue Fei)
• Kong Yanzhou (former Song military officer who later led irregular troops; captured and killed Zhong Xiang)
• Cheng Changyu (regional pacification official in Dingzhou and Lizhou who fought the rebels)
• Wang Gui (regional military commissioner responsible for campaigns across several prefectures)
• Yue Fei (suppressed the uprising in 1135 and defeated Yang Yao)
• Zhang Jun (senior military commander who coordinated suppression operations)
• Emperor Gaozong Zhao Gou (Southern Song emperor who ordered Zhong Ziang's militia home and later sent forces against the uprising)
• Li Cheng (general of the Qi regime who later sought coordination with Yang Yao against the Song)

Historical Assessment

Song and Contemporary Accounts

• Southern Song official sources such as the Chronological Record Since the Jianyan Era classified Zhong Xiang's movement as rebellion and banditry, describing the burning of government offices, towns, temples, shrines, and elite households and the killing of officials, scholars, Buddhist and Daoist clergy, healers, diviners, ritual specialists, and personal enemies. These accounts emphasized the destructive character of the uprising.
• The Southern Song court regarded the Zhong Xiang–Yang Yao movement as a serious internal threat. It sent troops to suppress the movement on seven occasions and dispatched more than twenty people on missions to seek its submission, illustrating the pressure the uprising placed on the Southern Song regime.
• After Yue Fei suppressed the uprising, the court adjusted local policy. Landless farmers were allowed to cultivate unused land, and rents, taxes, and miscellaneous payments owed by communities around the lakes from 1133 onward were suspended for three years. The Chinese source treats these measures as indirect acknowledgment of the social tensions exposed by the uprising.

Song and Yuan Periods

• The Yuan-compiled History of Song placed Zhong Xiang and Yang Yao among categories of rebels but also preserved information about the scale and course of the movement.
• Ma Duanlin's Comprehensive Examination of Literature recorded events connected with the uprising as part of the broader pattern of early Southern Song unrest.
• Other Yuan-period historical works preserved detailed chronological material that became a basis for later research.

Ming and Qing Periods

• Gu Zuyu's Essentials of Historical Geography mentioned Yang Yao's use of Dongting Lake's geography and emphasized the military value of lake fortifications.
• Qing chronological histories recorded the uprising as an important military and political event of the early Southern Song.
• Wang Fuzhi, in discussing early Southern Song unrest more generally, attributed popular rebellion to burdensome government, heavy taxation, and abusive officials; the source uses this broader argument as context for Zhong Xiang's movement.

Modern Assessments

• Marxist historiography often treated the uprising as a representative peasant struggle against feudal oppression and highlighted the slogan “equalize noble and lowly, and equalize rich and poor” as an explicit demand for political equality.
• Jian Bozan's Outline of Chinese History emphasized that Zhong Xiang and Yang Yao's slogan went beyond Wang Xiaobo's earlier demand for redistribution.
• Modern studies have also reassessed the movement's destructive side, noting indiscriminate killing and the burning of towns and other damage to local society and agriculture.
• Scholars generally consider the religion used by Zhong Xiang possibly related to Manichaeism, but some argue for a mixed local religious form; the issue remains unresolved.