Tang Yuzhi 唐寓之

Tang Yuzhi 唐寓之 (d. 486) was a rebel during the Southern Qi period 南齊 (479-502). He rose in rebellion in 485 in Fuyang 富陽 in the Sanwu region 三吳 (Suzhou 蘇州, Jiangsu), commanding a peasant army of 30,000 men. A year later, he assailed Qiantang 錢塘 (Hangzhou 杭州, Zhejiang), adopted the title of Emperor of Wu 吳, with the reign motto Xingping 興平. His armies conquered Dongyang 東陽 (Jinhua 金華, Zhejiang) and assailed Shanyin 山陰 (Shaoxing 紹興, Zhejiang), but Tang died in battle against government troops.

Since the Eastern Jin 東晉 (317-420) and the Liu-Song 劉宋 (420-479) periods, many commoners as landowners had fraudulently changed their household registration status to join the ranks of eminent families or the gentry, which were exempt from certain taxes and from labour duties. From 467 to 476, over 71,000 households in the lower Yangtze region were found to have falsified their household records. In order to increase the revenue from the taxes delivered by regular household, Emperor Gao 齊高帝 (r. 479-482) decided to abolish the white registers (baiji 白籍) of northern immigrants. He established an office for the control of household registers (xiaoji guan 校籍官) and sent out Yu Wanzhi 虞玩之 for support in the transfer of white registers to the regular, tax-paying yellow registers (huangji 黃戶). The year 470 was set as the reference year for tax assessment. Yu was particularly interested in the illegal declaration as household of the "white registers". Households found to have engaged in falsification of their household registration were required to return to their original localities and were punished by military service, a process called expulsion from the [white] register (queji 卻籍). If the investigation revealed that a household had falsified its registration to avoid labour service or taxes, their original registration status was reinstated and they were required to resume their tax and service obligations. This was called "correction of registers" (zhengji 正籍). This policy seriously threatened the interests of landowners who had falsified their household records and led to the outbreak of Tang Yuzhi's rebellion.

Tang hailed from Fuyang 富陽, but his family had moved to Tonglu 桐廬 (in today's Zhejiang province), being registered as a 僑 household. In late 485, he started in Xincheng 新城 (Xindeng 新登, Zhejiang) to assemble a group of 400 rebels. In early 486, they used the chance that the local governor, Wang Jingze 王敬則, was at on court visit to the capital Jiankang (Nanjing 南京, Jiangsu), and rose their weapons. They conquered Fuyang, and their initial success attracted more rebels from the region of Sanwu 三吳 (Suzhou 蘇州 and surroundings), so his rebel army swell to 30,000 fighters. Because most adherents were northern immigrants only registered in provisional "white registers", they were dubbed "white bandits" (baizei 白賊). Tang then occupied Qiantang 錢唐 (Hangzhou 杭州), Yanguan 鹽官, Zhuji 諸暨, and Yuhang 余杭, assumed the title of Emperor of Wu 吳, and proclaimed the reign motto Xingping 興平. After establishing a government, he dispatched General Gao Daodu 高道度 to attack Dongyang 東陽 (Jinhua 金華, Zhejiang) and Sun Hong 孫泓 to conquer Shanyin 山陰 (today's Shaoxing 紹興, Zhejiang).

Emperor Gao of the Qi dynasty thereupon dispatched several thousand guard troops, supported by cavalry. This professional army crushed the rebel forces, and Tang Yuzhi was killed. Captured adherents of the rebel were forced to construct the walled city of Baixia 白下城 (i.e., Nan Langye 南瑯邪) close to the capital, while others were forced to serve as troops in the River Huai 淮河 region.

Although the rebellion was quickly suppressed, the struggle of commoner landlords against the household registration checks did not cease. In 490, the Qi regime was forced to halt the inspections and declared the canceled registrations invalid. Those who had been punished and sent to the frontier because of these canceled registrations were allowed to return to their hometowns, and their household status was restored to what it had been before the year 470. As a result, many commoner landlords and merchants gained the tax and labor exemptions enjoyed by the gentry class.