In China's imperial society of more than two thousand years, the emperor was the supreme ruler of the country and the symbol and representative of authoritarian rule. According to statistics, from the time when the Qin emperor was proclaimed emperor, to the abdication of the "last emperor" Puyi in 1912, there were 422 emperors in China. There is a distinction between large and small emperors (emperors of large and small countries), and there is also a distinction between orthodox and unorthodox. For the last emperor Puyi, historians define him as "the last orthodox emperor in China's feudal society", which does not mean that Puyi is the last emperor of China, such as Yuan Shikai later called him emperor.
After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, China's imperial society of more than two thousand years was ended, and after the founding of New China, the people really lived a good life as masters, but there were still some people who still had the "emperor dream". The person I want to talk about today (in 1981) was the "earth emperor" in the mountains for 9 years, and he also raised 55 concubines, the youngest of whom was only in his 10s.
This "Earth Emperor" named Ding Xinglai was born in 1925 in Dingjia Nanchong Village (now Macheng City), Zhangjiafa Town, Macheng County, Hubei Province, and this person had an eye disease from an early age and was a blind man. So, how could he have the idea of becoming emperor? Going back to the roots, this is also related to his early experiences. From 1943 to 1945, Ding Xinglai successively joined a number of Daomen organizations such as gufomen and Yaochimen, and was later absorbed by the Daoshou of Luotian County to join the Daode Golden Gate (Daomen Organization). In the early days of the founding of New China, due to the swindling and poisoning of the people by the Daomen organization, many places in Hubei Province set off a large-scale campaign to ban Daomen.
Later, the more powerful Daode Kinmen organization (in Macheng) even organized the so-called "Daode Kinmen Founding Army" and developed more than 10,000 Daoists, led by a man named Lei Jin'an, who even claimed to be the emperor and led the Daoists to launch a rebellion. After being surrounded and suppressed by troops sent from Huanggang County at that time, the rebellion was finally put down. More than 30 major backbones of the Moral Golden Gate were sentenced to capital punishment, and Ding Xinglai was sentenced to 5 years in prison for this. The matter of Lei Jin'an "calling himself emperor" had a great impact on Ding Xinglai, and when he was in prison, Ding Xinglai had the idea of calling himself emperor.
After Ding Xinglai was released from prison, he first secretly contacted the remnants of the Moral Golden Gate in an attempt to plot to restore the Moral Golden Gate (after the rebellion was quelled, the Moral Golden Gate was banned). At that time, the overall development of China was relatively slow, and the education level of many people in remote areas was very low, and the transportation was also very inconvenient, because it was in the mountainous area, which became one of the important reasons for Ding Xinglai's later "emperor". In the Mountains of Dabie, Ewan Province, where mountains and rivers dance, and are sparsely populated, transportation is very inconvenient, and the local people's thinking is generally ignorant and rigid, coupled with the relatively backward local medical conditions, Ding Xinglai saw the opportunity to pretend to be a ghost in the deep mountains.
Since 1980, Ding Xinglai has developed nearly 10,000 Taoist disciples in the border area of Hubei and Anhui, under the name of "exorcising evil spirits and curing diseases" and "Pudu Yuanren". According to Ding Xinglai's own description, during this period, he also used methods such as "immortal qi" to coax and intimidate with demons, and insulted 55 women, including even children in their 10s, which was infuriating. In 1981, Ding Xinglai announced to believers in Luotian County under the pretext of "possessed by the gods" that he was about to "become emperor". Not only that, Ding Xinglai also knighted 30 henchmen, and also followed the example of the ancient emperor in setting up his own "harem" in the mountains, raising 55 concubines, the youngest of whom was only in his 10s, which was ridiculous.
Another "emperor"
In the summer of 1990, under the guidance of the Public Security Department of the Huanggang Bureau, the public security organs of Macheng City, Hubei Province, worked closely with the public security bureaus of Luotian County, Jinzhai County and other places to carry out a coordinated operation to ban the Golden Gate of Morality. In the end, the police destroyed 9 Strongholds of Daode Golden Gate activities and arrested 9 backbone members, and Ding Xinglai was arrested for this. Ding Xinglai was the emperor for 9 years before he was arrested, and even the police in charge of the arrest work sighed that it was crazy. Ding Xinglai's incident further illustrates the horror of feudal thought, if the people can receive education, there may be no similar things happening, which makes people sigh.