The Red Eyebrows () was one of the two major peasant rebellion movements against Wang Mang's short-lived Xin dynasty, the other being Lülin. It was so named because the rebels painted their eyebrows red.
The rebellion, initially active in the modern Shandong and northern Jiangsu regions, eventually led to Wang Mang's downfall by draining his resources, allowing Liu Xuan (the Gengshi Emperor), leader of the Lülin, to overthrow Wang and temporarily reestablish an incarnation of the Han dynasty. The Red Eyebrows later overthrew the Gengshi Emperor and placed their own Han descendant puppet, teenage emperor Liu Penzi, on the throne, who ruled briefly until the Red Eyebrows leaders' incompetence in ruling the territories under their control caused the people to rebel against them, forcing them to retreat and attempt to return home. When their path was blocked by the army of Liu Xiu's (Emperor Guangwu) newly established Eastern Han regime, they surrendered to him.
Rise and first rebellion
Circa 17 CE, due to Wang Mang's incompetence in ruling—particularly in his implementation of his land reform policy—and a major Yellow River flood affecting the modern Shandong and northern Jiangsu regions, the people who could no longer subsist on farming were forced into rebellion to try to survive. The rebellions were numerous and fractured. Two key examples are discussed below.
Fan Chong
Fan Chong (樊崇, who would eventually become the leader of the Red Eyebrows, albeit in a collective leadership) started his own rebellion in 18 CE, in the Ju and Langya counties (near modern Rizhao region). He used Mount Tai as his base, and he was able to gather about 10,000 men. He soon entered into an alliance with other rebel leaders Pang An (逄安), Xu Xuan (徐宣), Xie Lu (謝祿), and Yang Yin (楊音), pooling resources with them, and they soon became powerful and unstoppable for the local governments.
Mother Lü
The case of Mother Lü was a highly unusual one. Her son was a minor official at the Haiqu county (海曲, in modern Rizhao, Shandong) government, who was accused of a minor offence and executed by the county magistrate. Mother Lü, who was a substantial landowner, sold off her property and used the proceeds to recruit poor young men. When she gathered thousands, she stormed the county seat in the year 17 CE and killed the magistrate to avenge her son's death. Mother Lü's success inspired numerous people all over the country to rebel against Wang Mang's rule, and her own force grew rapidly to tens of thousands of soldiers, but she soon died of an illness in 18 CE. After her death, most of Lü's followers joined forces with Fan Chong.
Joining of the forces
In 19 CE, at the behest of his key official Tian Kuang (田況), Wang Mang reacted inappropriately to the agrarian rebellions by raising taxes. This action only aggravated the agrarian rebels. In 21 CE, Wang sent vice generals Jing Shang (景尚) and Wang Dang (王黨) to try to put down the rebellions, but Jing and Wang's soldiers were so lacking in military discipline that they further angered the populace which had not rebelled, which caused them to join or help the rebels. Tian, who had earlier aggravated the rebellions, however, had some success against them, and he advocated a policy where the villagers would be evacuated to the cities to force the rebels into attacking fortifications. Wang, who by this point had come to distrust Tian due to his military successes, refused to support Tian and summoned him back to the capital Chang'an.
About this time, Mother Lü died, and her followers joined forces with Fan Chong's forces.
By this point, Fan and the other rebel leaders still lacked any real political ambition, even as they were showing genuine military abilities. The only rules of law that they had among the rebels was that one who murders would die, and one who wounds would be responsible for the care of the victim until he or she heals. The only titles for the rebel leaders were "county educator" (三老, sanlao), "county clerk" (從事, congshi), and "sheriff" (卒史, zushi), not more grandiose titles such as "general" or "prince".
Confrontation with Xin forces
By 22 CE, the forces that Jing and Wang led against Fan and other rebel generals were in a shambles, and in 22 CE, Fan killed Jing in battle.
Wang Mang reacted by sending two of his senior generals, Wang Kuang (王匡) and Lian Dan (廉丹) with a massive regular force of over 100,000 men against these rebels. Fan and the other rebel leaders, concerned that during battles it would become impossible to tell friend or foe, ordered that their men colour their eyebrows red. It was from this action that the name Chimei (which literally means "red eyebrows") derived.