China's feudal society is the most complete and the country with the longest extension of feudal society. After more than two thousand years of development, the idea of "the whole world can not be the king's land, and the coast of the land can not be the king's subject" has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. But we know that the oppression of the people at the bottom in feudal society is very serious, which makes the class contradictions very profound, and since Chen Sheng and Wu Guang, the peasants have carried out many uprisings to resist feudal oppression.
Of course, these uprisings need to be led by a leader, and they also need a political goal or political program that everyone agrees on to guide. Given that China is a feudal society, to a large extent, religion can lead the people at the bottom as a political program, and the political program extended from religious doctrine can most control people's hearts, such as the White Lotus Religion.
We can find depictions of the White Lotus Sect in many film and television works, but these descriptions are not very positive, and the White Lotus Sect either does some evil things or overthrows the Central Dynasty. Especially in the Ming and Qing dynasties, they were present in almost every riot or uprising. So what exactly is the White Lotus Sect? On what basis did it rebel?
To sum up, the White Lotus Sect and Buddhism are still quite related, and they believe in Amitabha Buddha like Buddhism and advocate Buddha's precepts. His founder, according to the research, is the Northern Song Dynasty and the body maoziyuan. His early teachings required believers not to kill, not to steal, not to commit adultery, not to speak falsely, not to drink alcohol. Because the teachings are simple and have roots in Buddhism, the followers are very widespread. Of course, when such a large number of believers suddenly popped out, the rulers would certainly not let it go, so the early White Lotus Sect was not allowed to preach.
In the Yuan Dynasty, some believers began to convert to Maitreya Buddha, and gathered together to make trouble, which caused headaches for the government. At that time, the Yuan Dynasty squeezed the chinese people at the bottom very much, causing the people's resentment to boil, and some people with ulterior motives used the teachings of the White Lotus Sect as a political program to guide the people to revolt.
At this moment, the Yuan Dynasty government defined the White Lotus Sect as a cult and sent troops to suppress it. However, the followers of the White Lotus Sect are widespread, and the government has suppressed it for a long time without completely eliminating it, but the White Lotus Sect has been suppressed more and more, and the government is difficult to resist. Many of them joined Zhu Yuanzhang's rebel army and helped Zhu Yuanzhang attack the Yuan Dynasty.
Zhu Yuanzhang regarded it as an ally when he used the White Lotus Sect, but he also learned of the horrors of the White Lotus Sect in private, so after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the spread of the White Lotus Sect would be strictly prohibited, and once it was discovered, it would be banned immediately, and the people who spread the white lotus cult would be killed. However, the White Lotus Sect had lasted for a hundred years, and it was not something that Zhu Yuanzhang could extinguish at once. Zhu Yuanzhang's encirclement and suppression even brought the followers of the White Lotus Sect more and more together, often rioting, and together with ethnic minorities, it was especially strong in the southwest region.
Among them, the teachings of the White Lotus Sect have changed again, and many branches have also been produced, and the gods of faith have also changed from the original Amitabha Buddha and Maitreya Buddha to the later Taoist gods, which are mixed, and the original pure teachings have long become tools used by some people to win people over and hold uprisings.
After the Qing army entered the customs, the White Lotus Sect began to oppose the Qing and restore the Ming Dynasty, helping the Southern Ming government to resist the Qing army, and the main force of it was a branch of the White Lotus Sect, the Tianli Sect. After the Qing Dynasty gained a firm foothold in the Central Plains, the White Lotus Sect continued to hold uprisings, such as the Qingshui Sect Wang Lun Uprising in the 39th year of Qianlong, the peasant uprising in the five provinces during the Jiaqing period, and the Li Wencheng uprising in the eighteenth year of Jiaqing.
The emergence of the White Lotus Sect is not accidental, its appearance is inseparable from the corruption and oppression of the government, and the people at the bottom of China will not rebel if they have a way to live, unless they are cornered. The White Lotus Sect has had a far-reaching impact on the history of our country, and there are good and bad ones, and we cannot generalize them.