Xu Shouhui

Emperor

In the eighth month of 1351, Xu Shouhui joined forces with others in Qizhou to set up the Red Turban rebel army, using the Buddhist White Lotus Society as a cover. Over the next few months of the Red Turban Rebellion, they seized Qishui and turned it into both the rebels’ headquarters and the capital of a new state they proclaimed, first called Song and later renamed Tianwan. Xu took the title of emperor and adopted the era name Zhiping. His following grew quickly because he claimed to be the Maitreya Buddha and vowed to destroy the wealthy to help the poor. In 1352, he pushed deeper into Hebei and then captured territory in Jiangxi, Anhui, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Hunan. After a setback against Yuan forces, he fled to Huangmei Mountain, but came back in 1355 to launch new attacks and shifted his capital to Hanyang District. In 1358, after Chen Youliang took control of Longxing, Xu wanted to move the capital there. Chen opposed the plan, since Longxing was too close to Jiangzhou and would put Xu in a position to threaten him. Xu insisted, and in December 1359 he ordered his troops to sail down the Yangtze toward Jiangzhou. Chen anticipated this move and set an ambush. When Xu arrived, he and his men were caught; Chen detained Xu, killed the rest of his followers, and declared himself King of the State of Han. Xu Shouhui died in 1360 while in Chen’s custody, though whether he was executed or succumbed to illness remains unclear.