《隋书·帝纪·卷四》
于是，这些饥寒交迫的百姓相聚在芦苇丛生的地方，聚众起事的多如猬毛，大的造反队伍则跨州连郡，称帝称王，小的造反队伍就千百人会合为群，攻城掠邑，血流成河成泽，死人如乱麻堆积，做饭的来不及把骨头劈开就做柴禾烧，饥饿的人没空闲交换儿子就把他们当饭吃了。
于是相聚萑蒲，胃毛而起，大则跨州连郡，称帝称王，小则千百为群，攻城剽邑，流血成川泽，死人如乱麻，炊者不及析骸，食者不遑易子。
Therefore, these starving and freezing people gathered together in reed thickets, and rebellions broke out like mushrooms after the rain. The large-scale rebellions spread over counties and prefectures and even established emperors and kings, while the small-scale rebellions joined forces in groups of thousands or hundreds of people, attacking cities and raiding villages, the blood flowing in rivers and marshes and piles of dead bodies accumulating like tangled hemp. Those who cooked their meals had no time to cut up the bones, so they burned the whole bodies as firewood, and the starving people were so hungry that they had no time to exchange their sons for rice, and they ate the sons as food.