From the perspective of later generations, if Zhang Jiao did not rebel, his status in later generations would most likely be on par with Zhang Daoling, and it was even possible to surpass Zhang Daoling!
And if he chooses to wait until the Eastern Han Dynasty is completely chaotic, and then rely on his own religious influence to raise troops! Then, there is a high probability that Zhang Jiao will establish a very powerful regime, and it is very likely that he will sweep away Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Jian, and finally he is very likely to establish a dynasty that integrates politics and religion.
Don't think this is an exaggeration! In the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhengyi, founded by Zhang Daoling, was only limited to Sichuan and Guanzhong. It wasn't until later, with Zhang Lu's surrender to Cao, that Cao Cao moved Zhengyi's followers inward, which gradually spread.
And the Taiping Dao founded by Zhang Jiao had spread to the eight states of the thirteen states of the Eastern Han Dynasty before the world was in turmoil. In terms of influence at that time, Zhang Jiao actually threw off Zhang Daoling several streets!
If we really understand that period of history, we will find that the real Zhang Jiao in history is actually a person who can be called a 'system vulnerability'!
According to historical records, Zhang Jiao was born in Pingxiang, Hebei. There is no record in the history books of what their family does, it is possible that their family is also from the bottom, which is basically equivalent to a commoner.
Then, one day, Zhang Jiao got a book called "Taiping Yaoshu", also called "Taiping Sutra".
After that, Zhang Jiao became enlightened.
Stories like this have been repeated in many religions around the world. However, there is a high probability that Zhang Jiao's book is true! Because later this "Taiping Sutra" was really handed down! Moreover, according to historical records, this book was still complete until the time of the Song Dynasty! It was not until after the Ming Dynasty that part of it was lost. Today, all we can see is a fragment.
In this book, most of the content is not particularly mysterious, but is about curing diseases and saving people, as well as normal Taoist thoughts.
Therefore, many historians in later generations speculated that this book was probably written by someone who adhered to Huang Lao's thoughts in the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Or it may have been written by many people one after another, and finally fell into Zhang Jiao's hands.
And after Zhang Jiao got this book, at the beginning, he actually didn't think about directly taking this book to rebel. His initial reaction was to learn the medical knowledge in this book to treat diseases and save people.
According to historical records, after Zhang Jiao got this book, he called himself a 'great sage and good teacher'. Then, Zhang Jiao used the medical skills recorded in the book and began to walk in all directions to help the people. He used something called 'Fu Shui' and gave it to his patients. Many patients have recovered after taking it.
As a result, these cured patients soon became Zhang Jiao's faithful followers and began to help Zhang Jiao preach.
For a long time, when it came to Zhang Jiao's miraculous deeds, everyone would say that Zhang Jiao was engaged in 'feudal superstition'. The so-called runic water is only a psychological effect, and it cannot play a role in curing diseases at all. Including in ancient times, when the feudal dynasties mentioned this matter, they also said that Zhang Jiao was 'doing things like gods and ghosts'.
But in modern times, many historians have come up with a new interpretation.
Many people believe that the runic water made by Zhang Jiao at that time may be rice soup, or simple herbs. Then use Taoist methods to draw talismans, burn these talismans, and put them in water, which becomes the so-called 'talisman water'.
And what really works, of course, is not those Taoist talismans, but the herbs and rice soup inside. Many of the people who were cured by Zhang Jiao may have just had a minor illness, or they simply fell from hunger. Therefore, after Zhang Jiao's bowl of runic water was drunk, it naturally had an effect.
At that time, many people who were rescued by Zhang Jiao actually knew about it.
Is this talisman water really useful? Can we not know? Do you think we drink it as talisman water? In fact, we drink it with hope!
For those who were rescued by Zhang Jiao, what they needed was actually just a little hope. At that time, because of serious land annexation and class exploitation, it was becoming more and more difficult for the people at the bottom to live, or even impossible to survive at all.
So, during the period of Zhang Jiao's preaching, what were the middle and upper echelons of the Eastern Han Dynasty doing?
In fact, during Zhang Jiao's preaching, the high-level leaders of the Eastern Han Dynasty were in the reign of Emperor Huan of Han and Emperor Ling of Han. These two emperors in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, in order to sit on the throne, had to vigorously support the eunuch group to confront the scholar group. After the rise of the eunuch group, in order to strive for more benefits, it began to collude with many local rich and powerful businessmen.
After that, in order to compete for power, the two sides began an all-round war, and then there was the famous disaster of party power. And this struggle has also continued at the local level. In order to give their own side a greater advantage, whether it was those local nobles, or the rich merchants and powerful who followed the eunuch group, they began to increase their exploitation and take advantage of it.
In this way, it will naturally be even more difficult for ordinary people who are already living in difficulty.
Therefore, when Zhang Jiao began to walk the world and treat diseases and save people, he soon discovered a very embarrassing thing: no matter how hard he tried, he could not save all the people! On the contrary, as time passed, more and more people fell!
Can't be saved!
Therefore, in the process of gradually walking the world, Zhang Jiao began to think: if a person is sick, he can use his medical skills to save him. So if you get sick in this world, how can you treat it?
Nobody knows.
In that era, in fact, not only Zhang Jiao didn't know the answer, but also those ministers and bigwigs in the temple, down to the peddlers and pawns in the streets and alleys, everyone didn't know the answer. From the emperor to the commoners, everyone felt that life was getting worse day by day. But no matter how hard you try, you can't reverse this trend!
So, what's the problem?
If Zhang Jiao or the rest of the late Han dynasty had been fortunate enough to be born in modern times and had heard of a term called 'Malthusian trap', they might have been able to give the answer. To put it simply, the real crux of the Eastern Han Dynasty at that time was actually the land annexation and the contradiction between man and land.
When the Eastern Han Dynasty was founded, because the total population of the Central Plains was small, and after the war, land resources were redistributed, and the contradiction between man and land was naturally relatively small.
However, after more than 100 years of development, the population of the Eastern Han Dynasty at this time has nearly tripled compared with the time when the country was first founded! Moreover, after years of stable development, land has been highly concentrated in the hands of a small number of people.
In modern times, we can easily give the answer to this question: if we want to solve the problem of land annexation, we can only break the original land ownership system and redistribute the land across the country.
As for the contradiction between man and land, there are three solutions. Either the total population can be drastically reduced in a very short period of time. For example, if the total population of the Eastern Han Dynasty was reduced from about 60 million to about 20 million at once, all contradictions would be solved in an instant.
Either it is to obtain a large amount of new arable land in a very short period of time, and then distribute this arable land to those landless people to alleviate the contradictions. Or in a short period of time, the production technology will be greatly improved, and the yield of grain per mu will be greatly increased, so as to alleviate the contradiction between man and land.
But obviously, in the social context of the time, no one could have thought of this. Moreover, even if you think of the answer, you can't implement it.
And Zhang Jiao at that time, because he walked at the bottom of society all the year round, saw a lot of worlds that the top elites could not see. So in the end, he got his answer.
Zhang Jiao's answer was: The world is sick! And the cause of the world lies in the ruling class at that time! Because they are too greedy and exploit the people without limits, this is why everyone's life is getting harder and harder!
In this case, if we want to cure the diseases of the world, we must eliminate the ruling class!
So then, one of the most exaggerated miracles in ancient Chinese history gradually appeared. With Zhang Jiao's efforts, soon, more and more people began to join the Taiping Dao organization. In just over a decade, the number of followers of Taiping Dao has expanded to hundreds of thousands!
For such a large-scale religious spread, those local officials of the Eastern Han Dynasty were naturally aware of it. But in their opinion, the appearance of Zhang Jiao can make the local people easier to manage, and it belongs to 'educating the people'. Therefore, instead of stopping it, many officials began to help Zhang Jiao spread it.
And within this organization, everyone believes that Huang Tian is the supreme god. And everyone's ideal is to create a peaceful world. In this peaceful world, there is neither exploitation and oppression, nor hunger, cold and disease, and everyone can live a very happy life!
As the Taoist master of Taiping Dao, Zhang Jiao has been running hard in these years, planning to realize his dreams, and striving to create the most ideal world.
It is hard to imagine that this is an ideal that the ancients fought for all their lives more than 1,800 years ago.
Later, under Zhang Jiao's arrangement, those Taiping Daoists were divided into '36 parties'. The leader of each side is called Qu Shuai, and they are directly managed by Zhang Jiao, and then Qu Shuai manages the disciples below.
After that, there was the famous Yellow Turban Uprising.
Therefore, if Zhang Jiao had not rebelled in history, his status in later generations would have been unimaginably high! Perhaps in the history of later generations, Taoism was founded by him, not by Zhang Daoling.
Moreover, as long as Zhang Jiao does not rebel and relies on the offerings of believers, he can live the most luxurious life in the world and enjoy supreme power.
This kind of power is not inferior to those princes and ministers at all. The most important thing is that even if the world is in turmoil in the future, no matter who wins in the end and ascends the throne as the emperor, he has to win over such a horn, because his influence is too great!
As long as Zhang Jiao doesn't rebel, he can easily get everything.
But in the end, in order to realize the ideal in his heart and create a peaceful world in his heart, he still rebelled.
Moreover, the Yellow Turban Rebellion led by Zhang Jiao was also a unique special event in the entire history of mankind. The other uprisings were basically sparks that ignited the prairie fires. At the time of the initial uprising, the number of people was actually very small. It was not until after the uprising that it grew rapidly.
But the Yellow Turban Uprising was different.
The Yellow Turban Uprising first attracted hundreds of thousands of followers, and then hundreds of thousands of people began to revolt at the same time, quickly sweeping the entire world! Moreover, at the beginning of the uprising, their goal was to directly occupy the government at all levels and directly take over the state apparatus.
This is unique in the entire history of mankind.
The only pity is that he died of illness shortly after Zhang Jiao raised his army. Moreover, at that time, the Eastern Han Dynasty still had a strong military force and could easily suppress the uprising. If Zhang Jiao had lived twenty more years, and had revolted a few years later, the outcome might have been very different.
Therefore, the real Zhang Jiao in history is actually a person who can be called a 'loophole'. Before him, there had never been a person like him. And after him, the later feudal dynasties patched this loophole and no longer allowed this kind of large-scale preaching, so there was no one to come.
He could have attained great power and wealth at his fingertips, and he would have gone down in history and enjoyed supremacy in posterity. But in the end, he was willing to embark on a road of no return for the sake of those ordinary people and in order to realize his ideals.
With such a Zhang Jiao, perhaps, he should be regarded as a great person.