In February 184, a man named Tang Zhou traveled day and night to Luoyang, the capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty (during the Eastern Han Dynasty, Luoyang was called "Luoyang", and Cao Pi called the emperor "Luoyang", for the convenience of writing, we all called "Luoyang").
Tang Zhou's identity was a messenger, and what he wanted to send was a secret letter, and the recipient was two eunuchs at the emperor's side, Feng Xu and Xu Feng.
The letter reads something like this:
On March 5th, we will officially rebel, and ask the two of us to be good ghosts as we have agreed, and cleanly kill the emperor's old son.
Feng Xu and Xu Feng's positions were zhongchang attendants, and their daily work was to be in charge of the emperor's documents and convey the emperor's edicts, which was equivalent to the confidential secretary who was now leading the side.
At that time, there were only twelve people in the whole country, and the power was extremely high, and the status was extremely high (the power of the people), which can be said to be "above ten thousand people under one person".
With such a status and status, why did the two eunuchs take the risk of participating in the rebellion?
Their motives are not clearly documented in history, and we can boldly guess.
There are two possibilities.
Some scholars say that after people's material desires are greatly satisfied, they must pursue spiritual desires. The same is probably true of the ancients, and those who have exhausted themselves and achieved material freedom in advance will also find ways to achieve something on the spiritual level.
Although the eunuchs were obviously different from ordinary people physically, they were not much different from ordinary people psychologically (perhaps a little perverted in individual aspects), so fengxu and Xu Feng's participation in rebellion may also be pursuing spiritual things—such as devoting themselves to the great cause of rebellion and establishing a brilliant, fair and just new dynasty.
But judging from the average political consciousness of the eunuchs at the end of the Han Dynasty, this possibility is not very likely.
Another possibility is that Feng Xu and Xu Feng hope that they can continue to live in the chaotic world, and it is best to live forever.
Why do the two of them think this way?
Because this rebellion was planned by the taiping dao, the largest religion in the late Han Dynasty, the religious advocate Jiao once promised the believers that "those who follow are the people, and those who do not follow are sunk", which probably means "brother who believes in the horn will live forever", and if he does not believe in the horn brother, he will die.
Therefore, the reason for the rebellion of Feng Xu and Xu Feng is more likely to be the second possibility.
What kind of character is that horn? Why did he rebel?
Zhang Jiao: Self-media expert
Zhang Jiao was a Julu native (in present-day Pingxiang County, Hebei), whose year of birth is unknown, and died in 184 AD.
Before Zhang Jiao founded the "Taiping Dao" and became the head of the church, he had no glorious deeds, and his "family lineage could not be examined."
After the Wei and Jin dynasties, they attached great importance to mendi, and if someone in the family had served as an official and a half-time official, it was necessary to record it in the history books.
Therefore, Zhang Jiao's "family history is not examinable" means that he came from a humble background, probably from a poor family, and may have read a little book, if what he wrote was not ghostwritten by someone.
But there is also a contrary view, the Western Jin Dynasty Ge Hong said in the book "Baopuzi" that Zhang Jiao was from the Hao clan, the family was full of gold and silver, the wives and concubines were numerous, and there were many dead soldiers.
Considering the distance between the Jin Dynasty and the end of the Han Dynasty, this statement also has a certain degree of credibility.
As for the statement in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms that Zhang Jiao was "not the first xiucai", it is certainly impossible, because the eastern Han Dynasty did not implement the imperial examination system.
Around 170 AD, Zhang Jiao called himself a "great sage and good teacher" and began to preach in Jizhou. Like many religious teachers in history, Zhang Jiao's mission began with treating people.
At that time, the plague was prevalent (the plague thing, which will be discussed later), many people were sick, Zhang Jiao claimed to have magic, recited a few incantations, and then drew a symbol to burn into ashes and mixed in water for the patient to drink, and the disease could be cured.
After someone drank the spell water, the illness was really better.
From a scientific point of view, it is obviously impossible to say that the spell burned to ashes can cure the disease, so Zhang Jiao either uses other hands to cure other people's diseases, or it is a pure "placebo effect" (psychological concept: the patient takes an ineffective drug, but "believes" that the treatment is effective, and the patient's symptoms are alleviated), and the patient relies on immunity to heal himself.
But Zhang Jiao did cure the patients - although a hundred people may have been cured at the same time, but in desperation, everyone is obviously more willing to spread the good news, Zhang Jiao's reputation spread, the traffic is getting bigger and bigger, and the fans are also increasing.
By creating "miracles" to spread religion, if you are familiar with the history of various religions in the world, you will not be unfamiliar with this method.
At the beginning, Zhang Jiao probably only wanted to get some money, at most to open a live broadcast room to sell drugs, but after believing in him, Zhang Jiao was no longer satisfied with small fights and small troubles, and was determined to make his career bigger.
First of all, Zhang Jiao sent people to all parts of the country to advertise and publicize the "Taiping Road". The history books record that Zhang Jiao sent eight disciples to set out in eight directions to propagate the Taiping teachings, and it is said that the propaganda method was to compose the teachings into songs and sing them as they walked.
In an era when the level of education of ordinary people was generally low, singing small songs was much more effective than handing out leaflets.
It is said that there are now some areas in Hebei Province, and this "Taiping Daole" is still circulating today.
Secondly, he began to write articles to influence fans.
Zhang Jiao put forward a set of "eschatology" (which is also a common trick used in the rise of various religions around the world), claiming that the plague arose because the heavens wanted to "eliminate the evil people and treat the good people", eliminate the bad people, leave the good people, and establish a new order in the world.
So how to judge who is the murderer and who is the good person?
Zhang Jiao said again:
"Those who follow are the people, and those who do not follow sink."
This means that those who believe in the Taiping Dao and follow me are all "people of the race", good people, who can continue to live, and even get immortals; those who do not follow me are "murderous people" and bad people, and they all have to die in the epidemic.
(The Taiping Jing, which is considered a forgery of the Taiping Jing, is quite similar to the theory proposed by Zhang Jiao, and is likely to be the source of his theory.) ）
Through the wide dissemination and construction of theoretical systems, the influence of the Taiping Dao expanded rapidly, and the number of believers grew at an exponential rate. For more than ten years, the number of taiping believers spread to hundreds of thousands in the eight prefectures of Qing, Xu, You, Ji, Jing, Yang, Yan, and Yu (including today's Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Shandong, Henan, hebei and other places).
According to historical records, at that time, people's belief in the Taiping Dao was very fanatical, and many people sold all their family property and traveled thousands of miles to Zhangjiao, and even the road to the giant deer was blocked.
Zhang Jiao not only has many fans, but also has influence out of the circle.
In the beginning, the people who believed in the Taiping Dao were the low-level people who were struggling on the brink of life and death, including peasants, small merchants and small craftsmen in towns, and later some readers and officials also began to believe in religion, including Fengxu and Xu Feng, which we mentioned above.
Some scholars say that the "Taiping Dao" can spread to the upper class because its teachings also contain the "art of rejuvenating the country and the broad heirs", which is to put it bluntly the "technique of the house", teaching you how to have a son, and by the way, teaching you a few more postures.
Therefore, Zhang Jiao is a master of self-media, there is innovation in form, and the content can also meet the needs of different audiences.
Out of the barrel of a gun comes the regime
There were more fans, and Zhang Jiao also began to swell, and decided to do a bigger career, for example, to overthrow the Eastern Han government and make an emperor himself.
If you want to rebel, you can't rely solely on the "barrel of the pen," but you also have to have the "barrel of the gun."
In order to effectively organize the believers to form a fighting force, Zhang Jiao divided hundreds of thousands of believers into thirty-six parties, with more than 10,000 people in the large and six or seven thousand people in the small side. Each "party" is arranged with a leader, called "Canal Shuai".
In this way, Zhang Jiao led Qu Shuai, and Qu Shuai led the believers, forming a clear and concise command system.
After mastering the army in his hands, Zhang Jiao put forward the slogan of "The sky is dead, the yellow sky is standing, the age is in the jiazi, the world is auspicious", which means that the "cangtian" represented by the Han Dynasty has been exhausted, and it should be replaced by the "yellow sky" represented by the "Taiping Dao" - later the rebels were wrapped in yellow turbans, representing the "yellow sky", known as the "yellow turban", but the hostile people were called "moth thieves" - probably the yellow turban on their heads, more like moths.
However, historian Lu Simian believes that Zhang Jiao's slogan is wrong, because according to the law of "five elements are born together", it should be "the red sky is dead, the yellow sky should be standing", according to the law of the five elements, it should be "the black sky is dead, the yellow sky should be standing".
As for "Koshi", it refers to 184 AD.
According to the traditional Chinese dry branch chronology, the year of the jiazi.
"Years in Koshi" means to revolt in 184.
Zhang Jiao's preference for 184 is because 184 has a special status in Chinese history and is the first officially recognized "year of the first year".
In 124 BC, The Han Emperor Liu Hu formally issued an edict to make the Ganzhi chronology the official chronology of the empire. By 184, it coincided with the arrival of the first "Koshi".
Emperor Han'an, an operation that did not make much sense, accidentally blew the funeral song of the empire.
The specific time of the uprising was set for March 5, 184, and the local commanders began to prepare.
Among them, tens of thousands of believers in Jingzhou and Yangzhou were transferred to the Taiping Dao headquarters in Yicheng, Jizhou (present-day Linzhangxi, Hebei), to prepare for an uprising.
At the same time, the walls and gates of Luoyang and other prefectures and county governments were marked with slogans such as "Nails" in lime by the followers of the "Taiping Dao".
Seeing this record behind me, I have some doubts: The "Taiping Dao" believers went to the walls of the official palace with great fanfare to make graffiti, did the official government not notice?
However, judging from the subsequent reactions, they really did not perceive (or did not dare to report it for fear of responsibility).
History is sometimes so weird.
Failed "decapitation operations"
In addition to preparing for the army, Zhang Jiao also developed an internal line around the emperor, that is, the above-mentioned FengXu and Xu Feng. At that time, a Qu Shuai named Ma Yuanyi went in and out of the capital several times, responsible for contacting Feng Xu and Xu Feng to discuss how to kill the emperor directly during the uprising.
This Ma Yuanyi is definitely a spy war master, he not only plotted against the eunuchs around the emperor, but also rebelled against the emperor's guards (equivalent to personal bodyguards).
If there had been no leaks later, the Yellow Turban Army might have killed the emperor and taken Luoyang overnight, and history may have been another face.
Ma Yuanyi, a really powerful character.
But not afraid of god-like opponents, afraid of pig-like teammates.
A month before the uprising (February 184), Ma Yuanyi went to Luoyang again, presumably to arrange some details of the operation.
However, not knowing the reason, Zhang Jiao sent another person named Tang Zhou to Luoyang, and the task was also to contact Feng Xu and Xu Feng to discuss the matter of internal and external cooperation during the uprising.
The principle of not maintaining a single line of contact for such a confidential matter shows that the level of underground work in ZhangJiao is very poor.
Put into the current domestic spy drama, probably can not survive the first episode.
Moreover, engaged in such an important work, Tang Zhou should be a close confidant of Zhang Jiao's cronies. But for unknown reasons, Tang Zhou defected after he arrived in Luoyang, and instead of contacting Fengxu and Xu Feng, he ran to Yamen and reported Fengxu, Xu Feng, and Ma Yuanyi, who was lurking in Luoyang.
It can be seen that Zhang Jiao's use of people's eyes is not bad, and it is not accurate to see people.
After Tang Zhou reported it, the frying pan in Luoyang City was gone. Feng Xu, Xu Feng, and Ma Yuanyi were all arrested, Ma Yuanyi was sentenced to chariot splitting, feng Xu and Xu Feng were also executed, and more than a thousand Taiping Dao believers in Luoyang were also killed.
After the news of Ma Yuanyi's execution reached Jizhou, Zhang Jiao decided to rebel in advance and sent people to inform the local Commanders overnight.
Zhang Jiao called himself "General of Tiangong", his brother Zhang Bao called himself "General of Digong", and his brother Zhang Liang called himself "General of Rengong" (the title comes from the Taiping Classic: "There is heaven rule, there is earth rule, there is rule ... The doctrine of the rule of all things" led the believers to revolt.
Believers elsewhere also revolted in response, and for a time, the flames of the uprising spread throughout the eight prefectures of Qing, Xu, You, Ji, Jing, Yang, Yan, and Yu.
At that time, the Eastern Han Dynasty was divided into thirteen states, and it can be said that the flames of the uprising affected most of the areas ruled by the Eastern Han government.
Because the main participants in the Yellow Turban Army were peasants, the uprising was later characterized as a "peasant uprising."
As we all know, the ancient Chinese peasants were the most tolerant class, and unless they were really anxious, they would not give up the boring and simple life of "wife and children hot kiln".
So, what was the reason that the peasants of the Eastern Han Dynasty were forced to be anxious?