Taoism is the indigenous religion of the mainland and has an early origin.
Probably at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, with the establishment of folk religious groups such as Taiping Dao and Tianshi Dao, Taoism gradually developed and grew and became popular among the people.
In the late Tang Dynasty, one of the Taoists, the Ming Sect, became popular. The toiling masses at the bottom of society often used the Ming Religion to organize themselves against the brutal oppression of the ruling class. For example, the Red Turban Army Uprising at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the White Lotus Sect and the Red Flower Society of the Qing Dynasty all have the shadow of the Ming Sect. Among the founders of Taoism, there was a very powerful one, and he was Zhang Jiao. Later generations of Ming Sect believers all revered Zhang Jiao as the ancestor.
Who is Zhang Jiao? He was the leader of the Yellow Turban Rebel Army at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and it is said that he could summon the wind and rain, and use thunder and lightning as a weapon on the battlefield to whip the enemy army. At this time, the wind and clouds between heaven and earth change color, and the ghosts cry and howl, which is frightening. Once the enemy army heard that it was going to fight against Zhang Jiao, basically it would collapse without a fight before it was exchanged, and they avoided each other one after another, lest they be afraid of being late.
At the peak of the Yellow Turban Army, the scale reached more than half a million people, and Zhang Jiao's followers reached more than one million, and he ascended to a high call, which can really be said to be able to call the wind and rain.
So, what does Zhang Jiao rely on to do this?
He relied on religion. The Taiping Dao mentioned above was founded by Zhang Jiao. Taiping Dao belongs to one of many schools of Taoism. Its teachings declare that there are ghosts in heaven who monitor man's behavior at all times, increasing or decreasing his lifespan and blessings according to his good deeds or evil deeds.
Zhang Jiao was very intelligent from an early age, went to school, achieved top grades, and belonged to intellectuals. He had high ambitions and wanted to create a career, but no one ever recommended him. At that time, there was no college entrance examination, no selection examination such as civil service examination, and even the imperial examination had not yet come out. Those who become officials are either the children of the traditional door valve family, or the squires who are elected by others, such as "filial piety and honesty".
Perhaps because Zhang Jiao was born too lowly, until he was in his thirties, there was still no one to recommend him to go to the government department to do things, Zhang Jiao was empty of skills, but no one cared about it.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the degree of bureaucratic corruption was not to mention, and the local chaos made the central imperial court even more chaotic. The emperor is not a director, the eunuchs are in power, and the mercenary is only interested. All levels of government, layer by layer, bear-like. Those who are promoted, reused, and able to hold power are all those who will engage in relationships and give gifts. As soon as these people took office, they seized every opportunity to earn money, after all, in order to become this official, they have made a lot of money.
Therefore, the people are miserable, being exploited over and over again, with no end in sight. In order to pay all kinds of well-established taxes, they had to sell land and houses, and even sell their children and daughters. Later, there was no food and clothing, hunger and cold, and the number of people who had fallen into extreme poverty in the country soared.
Zhang Jiao, who is in his thirties, is also destitute, which is equivalent to being a down-and-out talent. He learned some medical skills, and in order to eat, he practiced medicine in the countryside. They are all poor people, the fees for opening corners are extremely low, and many of them are free.
Once, Zhang Jiao went into the mountains to collect medicine and met an old man. The old man, with a childlike face and a quinoa stick in his hand, led Zhang Jiao into a hole, took out three volumes of the Book of Heaven and said to him, "This book is called the Taiping Technique, you take it back and study it well, and after you learn it, you will save the world." If you have a different heart, you will be punished badly. ”
Zhang Jiao asked the old man's name, and the old man said, "I am the old immortal of South China." "After saying that, I flew away with a breeze.
After Zhang Jiao returned home, he studied this book day and night, and finally learned it all, and from then on he was superb in medical skills and superb in magic, and was called "Taiping Daoist".
At that time, there was a plague epidemic, and Zhang Jiaoguang applied water to cure people's diseases. Because of his strong skills and great powers, he can often rise from the dead and come back to life, and people are incomparably convinced of him.
Zhang Jiao alone was too busy to come, so he recruited a large group of big disciples, a total of more than five hundred people. They traveled in all directions, all of them could draw spells and chant mantras, heal diseases and save people.
These five hundred people are like five hundred seeds, sown throughout the country. Almost overnight, Zhang Jiao's name became a household name, and everyone enthusiastically became his disciple, especially the poor people.
There were already millions of disciples, and in order to facilitate management, Zhang Jiao divided the disciples of the whole country into thirty-six parties by region, and each side set up a "canal marshal" to command.
The process of Zhang Jiao's preaching is simple to say, in fact, after a long period of development of more than ten years, his younger brothers Zhang Bao and Zhang Liang are also very capable and are his right-hand men.
In 184 AD, Zhang Jiao had been founding Taiping Dao for twenty years.
The court of the Eastern Han Dynasty became more and more corrupt, and the people did not have a good life. Zhang Jiao felt that it was time, and he mobilized his disciples and prepared to raise an incident. The slogan is: The sky is dead, the yellow sky is standing, the age is in the nail, the world is auspicious. Every household writes the word "甲子" on the door panel as a code in response. The rebel army wrapped its head in a yellow scarf, called the Yellow Turban Army.
At a critical juncture, there was a traitor within the Yellow Turban Army, this traitor was named Tang Zhou, who carried the roster of rebels into Beijing to inform. The great general He Jin hurriedly dispatched troops to encircle and suppress them.
When Zhang Jiao saw that things were exposed, he revolted in advance, calling himself "General Tiangong", Zhang Bao called himself "General of Digong", Zhang Liang called "General Rengong", and the people of Heaven and Earth were all together.
Since then, the Yellow Turban Army has been deadlocked with the officers and soldiers. The Yellow Turban Army has the ability to do magic, calling the wind and rain, sprinkling beans as soldiers, and the officers and soldiers are not opponents at all.
The Yellow Turban Army attacked the prefecture and plundered the capital all the way, and the momentum was like a bamboo. However, in this excellent situation, Zhang Jiao actually fell ill and soon died.
The leader died, the Yellow Turban Army suffered a heavy setback, and the situation took a sharp turn for the worse. After that, the officers and troops quickly counterattacked, Zhang Bao Zhang Liang was killed in battle, and the Yellow Turban Rebellion was declared a failure.
Although it failed, the rebel army's spirit of resistance that can be sung and wept is always worthy of respect.