Military Organization of the Yellow Turbans

When Zhang Jue (張角), Zhang Bao (張寶) and Zhang Liang (張梁) prepared themselves for Rebellion they somewhat organized their followers. Their followers were divided into several Divisions (方) and every Division had its own leader. This is where talk of so-called Division Leaders comes from.

Howard S. Levy, Carl Leban and Paul Michaud have used the term "Fang" to describe a Division. Fang is the Romanization of '方'. They chose not to use the word 'Division' (which Rafe de Crespigny uses as a translation of 'Fang'), because they believe that we do not know enough about 'Fang' to give it a proper translation.

Levy, Michaud and Leban, also use the term "Ta-Fang", which Rafe de Crespigny would translate as 'Large Division'. Michaud, Leban and Levy also use Ta-Fang to describe Ma Yuanyi (馬元義), a Large Division Leader according to Rafe de Crespigny. By following these historians we can say that there were indeed ranks in the army of the Yellow Turbans, and thus some sort of military organization.

List of Ranks & Titles of Yellow Turbans

 * Main article: List of Yellow Turban Ranks and Titles

Before we order all ranks and their corresponding wielders, we make a list of all ranks and titles we can find, which are:
 * Commander-in-Chief
 * Large Division Leader
 * Local Leader (Bandit Leader)
 * Lord of Earth General
 * Lord of Heaven General
 * Lord of Man General
 * (Small) Division Leader

Zhang Jue, Zhang Bao and Zhang Liang took the titles of Heaven, Earth and Man. Since they were head of the Yellow Turbans, these titles were probably the highest. Below them are the Division Leaders, or Fang: "The Grand Adepts (ta-fang) controlled over ten thousand adherents, while the Lesser Adepts (hsiao-fang) commanded from six to eight thousand men. The Great Leaders (ch'ü-shuai) served under the Adepts, above whom there were only Chang Chüeh and his two younger brothers."

- Howard S. Levy in Yellow Turban Religion and Rebellion 217.

From this we also learn that below the Fang were the Local Leaders, (qu shuài; also known as Great Leaders and Bandit Leaders).

Then there remains the title of Commander-in-Chief (帥), which was wielded by Wu Ba (吳霸). This title is only seen on the website Kongming's Archives and it doesn’t tell us anything of what it means to be a Commander-in-Chief. It seems probable that Commander-in-Chief is actually the same as a Division Leader. After all, it's up to the translator to choose a western title or rank that fits most with the Chinese title or rank.