As a result of famines in North China, (ed. after the crumbling of the Tang Dyansty) bands of robbers
grew up in 874 on the borders of Shangtung, Honan, Kiangsu. In the following year they found leaders
in the persons of two salt smugglers, the first of whom, Wang Hsien-chih, was to be executed in 878
after going over to the T'ang, and the second of whom, Huang Ch'ao, was to give his name to this
rebellion. Starting out from south-western Shantung, the bands of insurgents travelled all the main
roads of China, pillaging the richest towns and ravaging everything as they passed. They began by
attacking the townships on the Yellow River. In 878 they left the area south of Loyang for the middle
Yangtze and reached Lake P'o-yang. They then travelled round Anhwei and Chekiang, reaching Foochow
and in 879 Canton, where they massacred the rich foreign merchants. They then took the road for
Kwangsi and Hunan, occupying Loyang at the end of 880. The wave of insurgents, 600,000 strong, reached
Ch'ang-an the next year. The capital and the surrounding area were put to the sword and set aflame.
Driven out of Ch'ang-an by government troops, which took in their turn to pillaging, Huang Ch'ao
returned five days later and subjected the unfortunate city to what he himself called "a blood bath".
Only ruins were recaptured in 883 by the Sha-t'o Tatar troops commanded by Li K'o-yung (856-908), a
sinicized Turk in the service of the T'ang. In the period of chaos that marked the end of the dynasty
Li K'o-yung was to be one of the aspirants to the imperial power and succeeded in his aim by founding
the Later T'ang dynasty in 923. The T'ang emperors had now become the playthings of the most powerful
war-lords and after 885 no longer resided, except for short periods, in Ch'ang-an, the huge metropolis
which in the seventh and eighth centuries had symbolized the glory and splendour of the T'ang, but at Loyang.

A former lieutanant of Huang Ch'ao's who had been induced to support the legitimate government, a man called
Chu Wen (Chu Ch'uan-chung_ (852-912), who occupied the strategic point of K'ai-feng in eastern Honan, founded the
new empire of the Liang (Hou Liang, Later Liang) in 907.

- Jacques Gernet (Re.1987). A History of Chinese Civilization, p.267-268