Preface
Zhang Jiao, as the leader of the Yellow Turban Uprising, was a controversial historical figure. He was portrayed as a vigorous and ambitious revolutionary, but he was also criticized as an ambitious, unscrupulous rebel.
However, in the turbulent years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, a man from a civilian background was able to create a large-scale religious organization and launch a far-reaching peasant uprising?
What kind of character is he, and what kind of legend is his life experience? Let's walk into that turbulent era and solve this mystery.
1. The Rise of the Plebeian Pope
In this turbulent period at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Jiao, a man from a civilian background, with his extraordinary wisdom and courage, founded a large-scale religious organization - Taiping Dao, and launched the Yellow Turban Uprising that shocked the government and the opposition, thus becoming a generation of heroes.
Zhang Jiao was born in a poor peasant family in Julu County, Hebei Province. Since he was a child, he has personally felt the darkness and suffering of the society at that time. He saw all kinds of exploitation and oppression by the ruling class on the people at the bottom, and these experiences were deeply imprinted in his soul.
This dissatisfaction with the real society and his yearning for a better life became the driving force for him to resist tyranny and save the people in the future. When he was young, Zhang Jiao once traveled to study with famous teachers and studied Huang Lao's learning.
In the process of studying, he gradually discovered that the simple practice of quiet and inaction could no longer satisfy the people's yearning for an ideal society. Therefore, he began to reinterpret the doctrine of "Taiping" in the "Taiping Sutra", and put forward a religious concept of actively entering the WTO and relieving the suffering.
This was the emerging religion that came to be known as the "Taiping Dao". Zhang Jiao realized that in order to truly realize the ideals in his heart, religious belief alone was far from enough. He must have a strong mass base in order to promote social change.
As a result, he began to vigorously spread the Taiping Tao in his hometown, and soon attracted a large number of believers to join. Most of these believers came from poor backgrounds and had been exploited and oppressed by the ruling class for a long time, and they had a strong resonance with Zhang Jiao's social concept of resisting tyranny and establishing fairness and justice.
Second, the water cures the disease and the people's hearts return
With his extraordinary wisdom and courage, Zhang Jiao soon spread in his hometown and attracted a large number of believers to join. They did not charge a penny, but used the so-called "Fu Shui" to treat the people, so as to win the hearts of the people.
The so-called "runic water" is to add some herbs to the water and then bless a few Buddhist mantras. From the point of view of modern medicine, this practice simply does not cure the disease. However, in that era when there was a shortage of medical treatment, many people who improved their condition after drinking Fu Shui regarded Zhang Jiao as a god descending from heaven, and thus had an incomparable belief in Taiping Dao.
The reason why this kind of "Fushui Therapy" was so popular at that time was not only to satisfy the people's yearning for a miraculous cure, but more importantly, it embodied Zhang Jiao and his Taiping Dao's concept of relieving suffering. In those turbulent times, the common people had to endure not only exploitation by the ruling class, but also the ravages of war.
However, Zhang Jiao and Taiping Dao took the initiative to lend a helping hand and provide them with free medical services, which undoubtedly made them feel the warmth and care of Taiping Dao. With this "miraculous" treatment, Zhang Jiao soon won a high reputation in his hometown. A large number of poor people joined the Taiping Tao and became his followers.
In the end, the followers of Taiping Dao even spread all over Hebei, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu and other places, with a scale of hundreds of thousands, becoming the largest folk religious organization in the Eastern Han Dynasty. This also laid a solid mass foundation for Zhang Jiao to later launch the Yellow Turban Uprising.
3. Rebellion brews the Yellow Turban Uprising
With a large mass base, Zhang Jiao began to contemplate a revolt against the ruling class. They spread rumors that "the sky is dead, and the yellow sky should stand", and finally rebelled openly in the first year of Zhongping, setting off a sensational Yellow Turban Uprising.
In order to incite the masses to join the ranks of the uprising, Zhang Jiao and others spread rumors in various places that "the sky is dead, the yellow sky should stand, the age is in Jiazi, and the world is auspicious." These poetic slogans undoubtedly further ignited the aspirations of the people at the bottom to overthrow tyranny and build a new society.
These slogans not only expressed the dissatisfaction of the Taiping followers with the existing rule, but also declared their determination to overthrow the existing order and establish a new "Taiping" world. In the first year of Zhongping (184), Zhang Jiao and others finally openly launched an armed uprising against the imperial court. They burned down the government and plundered the powerful, setting off a wave of rebellion against tyranny everywhere.
Zhang Jiao called himself the "General of Tiangong", and his subordinates were called the "Yellow Turban Army" or "Moth Thieves". The Yellow Turban Army was undoubtedly a peasant rebel army composed of people from the bottom, whose goal was to overthrow the corrupt Eastern Han Dynasty and establish a new society that was more fair and just.
The outbreak of the Yellow Turban Rebellion undoubtedly brought a huge impact to the Eastern Han Dynasty. The imperial court had to mobilize a large army to suppress it. This war, which lasted for several years, not only caused large-scale casualties, but also exacerbated social unrest, laying the groundwork for the later establishment of the Three Kingdoms.
Fourth, the legacy of defeat and death is circulated
Although the Yellow Turban Rebellion had a significant impact in its early days, it was ultimately defeated by the imperial court. Zhang Jiao also died of illness in this uprising, but the Taiping Dao he founded and the Yellow Turban Rebellion he launched had a profound impact on later generations.
Faced with the harassment of the Yellow Turban Army, the Eastern Han Dynasty finally sent Zuo Zhonglang to defeat Huangfu Song. Under the attack of Huangfu Song, Zhang Jiao was forced to retreat to the county seat of Guangzong, and died of illness soon after. Huangfu Song even opened the coffin to kill the corpse in order to repay the merits, and humiliated Zhang Jiao's corpse.
This cruel act reflects the hatred and fear of the Eastern Han rulers for Zhang Jiao and his Yellow Turban Army. Despite Zhang Jiao's dismal end, the Yellow Turban Rebellion he launched had a profound impact on the Peasant War movement in later generations.
The Taiping Rebellion and the Boxer Rebellion at the end of the Qing Dynasty were more or less inspired by the Yellow Turban Rebellion. Although these movements were ultimately defeated, they all reflected the unremitting efforts of the Chinese peasant class to rebel against the ruling class. And the roots of this effort are precisely the seeds sown by Zhang Jiao and his Taiping Dao.
In addition, the Taiping Dao founded by Zhang Jiao also laid an important foundation for the development of orthodox Taoism in later generations. As a religion that actively joined the WTO, Taiping Tao marked the transformation of Taoism from "birth" to "accession to the WTO".
This transformation had a profound impact on the secularization of Taoism in the later Wei and Jin dynasties, and even the great revival of Taoism in the Ming and Qing dynasties. It can be said that Zhang Jiao and his Taiping Dao have made indelible contributions to the development of Taoism in China.
epilogue
Zhang Jiao's life is legendary. A commoner from a humble background, with his extraordinary wisdom and courage, founded the large-scale Taiping Dao, launched the sensational Yellow Turban Uprising, and became one of the most eye-catching figures in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.
Although his career ended in failure, his ideas and deeds had a profound impact on later generations and became an indispensable link in Chinese history.