Why do we view the YTR as negative?

[CaTigeReptile]

As for history being written by the winners, didn't the Simas 'win' the Three Kingdoms with the founding of the Jin dynasty? They're certainly not looked upon as good people (although that's probably more because of how tumultuous the Jin dynasty was and how it ultimately failed).

I view the YTR not as the cause of the collapse of the Han, but rather as the straw that broke the camel's back. There was dissent all around: not only among the peasants, but also among the intellectuals - such as the student protest at the Imperial University and how Emperor Huan handled that (which reminds me of another Incident in recent Chinese history) with the Partisan Prohibitions, which effectively alienated the gentry along with the economic crises and famine and natural disasters that plagued the peasants - and how Emperor Ling did absolutely nothing about it. Like has been said earlier, if it wasn't the YTR, it would have been something else - after all, the Red Eyebrows didn't cause the collapse of the Han Dynasty. Well, not in the same way.

I think the guys viewed as the ultimate baddies in this situation (besides Dong Zhuo) were the eunuchs. They represented corrupt government, heavy taxes, the selling of official titles, and overall sliminess.

[Sun Fin]

+1

The Chinese version of "History is written by the victors" is "Those who win are kings; those who lose are bandits." Han was founded by basically a peasant rebellion, but history praised Liu Bang for overthrowing the despotic Qin. I suspect if the YTR was successful, Zhang Jiao et al would have been praised for overthrowing a corrupt, eunuch-run regime. Plus they could also claim the Mandate of Heaven (i.e. "we won only because Heaven was on our side, which means Heaven had already sanctioned our rule due to our righteousness" etc.) after the fact.

I like this bolded quote. Does anyone know where it comes from?