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The first year of Zhongping (184) was a year of great calamity for Emperor Ling. The storm of the Yellow Turban Rebellion swept over the world - it was a storm that had been brewing for more than ten years.
During the period of Emperor Shun, there was an extraordinary book in the world, which was called "Taiping Qing Lingshu". During the reign of Emperor Ling, this unusual book was able to circulate and played a great catalytic role in the brewing of the Yellow Turban Uprising.
1. The background of the appearance of "Taiping Qing Lingshu".
During the period of Emperor Shun, Gong Chong, the evil man of Lang, presented a "divine book" to Emperor Shun. This so-called sacred book, the Taiping Qing Lingshu, has 170 volumes, and was later called the Taiping Sutra, which is the earliest Taoist classic that has been handed down to this day.
This Taiping Sutra, which is regarded as a book of heaven or a sacred book, inherits Taoist philosophy, the theory of yin and yang and the five elements, traditional religious thought, witchcraft and Confucian ethics, and absorbs the achievements of natural sciences such as astronomy, medicine, and health care at that time, and establishes a set of complex theoretical systems of religious theology.
It expounds the origin of heaven, earth, man and all things and the laws of survival that cooperate with each other, depicts the blueprint of the peaceful world of fairness, great happiness and no disaster, develops the theory of retribution for good and evil induced by heaven and man, puts forward the missionary basis of "happy life" and "good goodness", and emphasizes the teachings of the code of conduct such as respect for heaven and earth, loyalty, filial piety, obedience, benevolence, and integrity.
The Taiping Jing reflects the desire of reformist thinkers to save the dynastic ruling crisis with reform.
Social reform theories similar to the Taiping Jing have appeared in the late Western Han Dynasty.
When the Western Han Dynasty became the emperor, there was a crisis in the rule of the dynasty, and the Qi people Gan Zhongke fabricated the 12 volumes of the "Tianguan Calendar Baoyuan Taiping Sutra" to say that "the Han family is at the end of heaven and earth, and it should be more ordered by heaven, and heaven and earth make real people red sperm, and teach me this way."
Gan Zhongke tried to use the power of the gods to do the way for the heavens, strengthen the power of the regime, and overcome the crisis of the Han family. However, his public idea of "being more ordained" was not tolerated by the powerful people of the current dynasty, and he was punished for the crime of "false ghosts and gods to confuse the people" and died of illness in prison.
When Emperor Wai was in power, the crisis of his reign had deepened, and Xia Heliang, a disciple of Gan Zhongke, took the opportunity to say to Emperor Wai Chen the idea of "more ordained", and Emperor Ai reluctantly accepted the suggestion of "more ordained" and staged a farce of changing his name to "Emperor Chen Shengliu Taiping".
At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Gan Zhongke and others combined the idea of heaven and man with the idea of immortals under the increasingly serious crisis of dynastic rule.
The "Taiping Sutra" that appeared in the late Eastern Han Dynasty was widely used and exerted in their desire to save the ruling crisis through reform, and the Emperor Tuotian made the gods descend to the earth with Taoist techniques.
Since Anshun in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the political situation has become increasingly corrupt, natural disasters have continued, the people have struggled to make a living, social turmoil, and a ruling crisis has appeared.
2, the cold reception of "Taiping Qing Lingshu".
In this context, Gong Chong dedicated the Taiping Sutra to Emperor Shun as the "Art of King An". The "Taiping Sutra" expounds from different angles that peace is coming, and the monarch and the people should work together to achieve fairness, great happiness, and no disasters. He advocated alleviating social contradictions by controlling exploitation and oppression within certain limits, so as to seek the stability of dynastic rule.
Although the Taiping Sutra fundamentally defended the interests of the rulers, it was not an official orthodox theology, and there were many accusations against dark realities, so the rulers of the time took an extremely cautious attitude towards it.
Gong Chong's "Taiping Sutra" dedicated to Emperor Shun was denounced by the powerful people of the current dynasty as "bewitching and ignorance" and entered the cold palace. In the life of Emperor Huan, Xiangkai rededicated this book, and claimed that "it is based on the five elements of Fengtian and Tiandi, and there is also the art of rejuvenating the country", and at the same time, it is also particularly emphasized that Emperor Shun is because he does not use the "Taiping Sutra", so "the country is not prosperous". However, the fate of the "Taiping Sutra" has not been changed.
If any kind of idea or doctrine is not tolerated by those in power, it is bound to be difficult to spread.
Therefore, in the world of Shun and Huan, the "Taiping Sutra" can only be secretly circulated within a very limited range of the people. By the time of Emperor Ling, the situation had changed a lot, and the Taiping Sutra was gradually spread.
During the reign of Emperor Ling, theology as the ruling ideology further declined, and its function of maintaining rule was also lost, and the crisis of rule that had arisen before An and Shun had developed to the point of no return. Under these circumstances, the ruling class urgently needed to seek a new ideological pillar beyond Confucianism in order to reform politics, change customs, comfort people, and restore the stability of the social order.
Emperor Ling's preference for the Taiping Sutra, and the fact that many local officials regarded the Taiping Sutra as a "good way" to assist the imperial court in educating the people, undoubtedly reflected the need for "heretical theology" of the times.
This need of the times and the tolerance of the authorities to heretical theology provided an important opportunity for Zhang Jiao and others to launch a great uprising with religious organizations.
3. The religious uprising of the Eastern Han Dynasty
Since Emperor An, the people, who were unbearable to the dark rule of the Eastern Han Dynasty, have set off riots and uprisings one after another. In the course of the growing uprisings, a remarkable phenomenon emerged, namely, the gradual increase in the number of uprisings with religious overtones. The more important revolts with religious overtones were once in Emperor An, twice in Emperor Shun, once in Emperor Chong, and eight in Emperor Huan.
Since the Qin Dynasty, in order to meet the needs of the ruling class to use theocracy to maintain its rule, the ruling ideology has become increasingly religious. By the time of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Dong Zhongshu's Zongtian theology and the subsequent theology of prophecy were mixed with each other, forming a general climate of theological flooding.
The increasingly serious social crisis in the late Eastern Han Dynasty further promoted the spread of the theological atmosphere. In the crisis of domination, which cannot be saved by manpower, the ruling class and the broad masses of the people are trying to use the power of the gods to protect their vital interests.
As a result, Taoist ideas and superstitions aimed at maintaining rule further spread. At the same time, the spontaneous religious sentiment of the general public is also increasing, and folk religious activities are frequently appearing in various places, and the poor people hope that the gods will defeat evil and save them from the sea of reality and suffering. With the deepening of the social crisis and the in-depth development of the religious socialization movement, religion has a unique appeal and organizational power in the uprising. It was in this context that in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, there were more and more religiously colored uprisings.
The countless revolts with religious overtones that had appeared before Emperor Ling were relatively scattered, and they were generally suppressed by the imperial court within a few months. Despite this, the countless religious uprisings had a profound and direct impact on the large-scale nationwide uprisings during the Lingdi period.
In the third year of the first year of An Diyong (109), a "pirate" uprising led by Zhang Bolu broke out in Shandong. Zhang Bolu proclaimed himself a general, led more than 3,000 people, and fought in the nine counties along the coast of Shandong, killing 2,000 stones and commanding the chief, and his prestige was greatly enhanced.
In the following year, Liu Wenhe, Zhou Wenguang and other troops of the rebel army of Bohai and Pingyuan counties joined forces with Zhang Bolu's department to attack and enter the Gaotang Dynasty, kill the chiefs, and burn the official mansion, and the momentum was even greater.
The Eastern Han Dynasty transferred tens of thousands of troops, and it was not until the fifth year of Yongchu (111) that the uprising was suppressed. This uprising was the first large-scale uprising after the establishment of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the formation of the scale of the uprising showed the role of religion in calling and organizing the uprising.
At the beginning of the uprising led by Zhang Bolu, his subordinates were all "crowned with red clothes, dressed in silk clothes, and called themselves 'generals'", and the information that the rebels were all wearing red scarves and red clothes, and the leaders were called "generals" showed that these more than 3,000 people were accumulated through some kind of religious force.
In the course of the development of the uprising, more than 3,000 people claimed to be "messengers" with a certain divinity to organize and mobilize the masses.
The most valuable enlightenment for the successors of the uprising led by Zhang Bolu is that religion has an extremely important appeal and organizational power for the uprising.
Throughout the religious uprisings in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, almost all of them played the name of a certain god, and called themselves with him as the leader, and the historical books have seen "Yellow Emperor", "Yellow Emperor", "Black Emperor", "Supreme General", "True Man", "Taichu Emperor" and so on.
These names are by no means arbitrary, and each name represents a certain religious belief. According to the Five Elements Theory, yellow is earthy and black is watery.
The Eastern Han Dynasty was still on fire, symbolized by red. Under the influence of the popular theology of the Five Virtues and the theology of prophecy, the rebels who called themselves "Emperor", "Yellow Emperor", and "Black Emperor" respectively showed that they would stand on behalf of the Han Dynasty from the perspectives of the Five Elements of Earth and Fire and the Five Elements of Water and Fire.
Other titles such as "real person" and "emperor of the primordial emperor" should also be combined with a certain religious belief that was prevalent in the area of the uprising, and the title of a certain god who could represent a certain religious belief was used as the "name" of the uprising, which undoubtedly provided a theoretical basis for the rebels from a religious point of view, thus forming an ideological and theoretical basis for the uprising to varying degrees.
Taking a certain religious theory or religious belief as the common ideological basis of the uprising can greatly enhance the cohesion of the uprising, which is another valuable experience of countless religious uprisings to the large-scale uprisings of the Lingdi period.
4. The rise of Zhangjiao's "Taiping Road".
Since Anshun and Shun, numerous religious uprisings have failed in a short period of time. Their failures, from a subjective point of view, exposed the serious shortcomings of their inadequate organizational and theoretical preparations, which were easily broken by the government. The exposure of this serious flaw has become a "lesson from the past" for the successors of the Lingdi period.
On the occasion of Jianning (168-171) and Xiping (172-177), the god of plague soared over the Eastern Han Empire. In the fourth year of Jianning (171) and the second year of Xiping (173), the great plague was prevalent in the land of China. The people, who are already in dire straits, can still withstand the attack of the menacing plague!
As a result, the people who lacked food, clothing, and medicine died one after another in the plague, and the tragic scene of extinction of families and households occurred from time to time.
The people who were struggling with poverty and plague sent out a wail of helplessness and despair towards the sky and the vast earth.
In Jizhou, where the sound of wailing was shrouded, a person who called himself a "great sage and good teacher" appeared.
His appearance has made countless people in a desperate situation see a ray of light through the darkness.
The "great sage and good teacher" is called Zhang Jiao, who is a native of Julu, Jizhou. He once obtained the "Taiping Sutra", and on the basis of careful study of the "Taiping Sutra", he transformed and used it, and began the theoretical construction of the Taiping Dao (also known as the Huanglao Dao). After the theory of Taiping Dao was ready, Zhang Jiao took advantage of the plague to spread the Taiping Tao in the way of curing diseases and saving people.
In the process of preaching, Zhang Jiao and other Taiping Taoist masters used charms as the main Taoist technique, and used runes to heal people. The Taoist masters taught the patient to kowtow and think, and held the nine-section staff to draw talismans, chant mantras, and spew out "talisman water" from the mouth to swallow the patient. People who are not very seriously ill have indeed recovered after being treated by the Taoist, but the Taoist is powerless to return to heaven for those who are terminally ill.
However, when it comes to the death and life of the patient, the Taoist masters have a saying that does not damage their reputation. They claim that those who believe in the faithful are healed, but those who are not sincere cannot be saved.
This kind of saying has been spread ten or ten hundreds, and naturally the poor people who are eager to save have firmly believed in the "miracle" of the great savior of the Taiping Dao.
The desperate and helpless people of the dead were already very eager to be saved by the gods, and fantasized that the gods could bring them peace and light.
The Taiping Tao missionaries headed by Zhang Jiao regarded themselves as representatives of the gods and spread the Taiping Tao that could bring "peace" and "light" to the vast number of poor people, which of course could tug at the heartstrings of millions of poor people and arouse universal social resonance. Not only that, the actual function of Taiping Dao to cure diseases and help the poor has also solved the urgent needs of the poor, so that they can be comforted and protected in diseases and dangers.
Therefore, for a time, the news of Taiping Road and its treatment and saving people caused a strong social sensation. Deeply aware of this sensational opening angle, he actively sought opportunities to expand his sermons.
During the Guanghe period (178-183), the dynastic rule became darker, the discontent of the people who could not make a living was generally high, and the great plague continued to spread in the Eastern Han Empire, which provided another good opportunity for Zhang Jiao to expand his medical evangelism.
5, "Huang Daichi" behind "The sky is dead, the yellow sky should stand"
Zhang Jiao lost no time in sending eight "messengers" to various places to send medical doctors and preach the sermons. In the course of the preaching of the "Eight Envoys", formally they still preached and cured the sick, but secretly they stepped up the work of mobilizing the people to revolt. Under the mobilization and organization of the "Eight Envoys", the people of the eight prefectures of Qing, You, Hebei, Jing, Yang, Yan, and Henan responded one after another, and many people even abandoned their wealth and defected to Zhangjiao. For a time, even the road was blocked by defectors.
In the process of organizing and mobilizing the people, the leader of Taiping Dao launched the 16-character slogan of "The sky is dead, the yellow sky should stand, the year is in Jiazi, and the world is auspicious".
This slogan is a great encouragement and temptation to the poor who are strongly dissatisfied with the dark reality. During the period of Emperor Ling, various social contradictions were unprecedentedly acute, and the signs of the demise of the Eastern Han Dynasty had appeared, and representatives of all strata of society had the idea of "replacing them". To this end, they each created prophecies to prepare public opinion for the "replacement" of the Han Dynasty.
The saying that "when the Han line is exhausted, the Huang family should stand" was the most popular proverb at that time. The so-called "Han Xing" refers to the virtue and luck of the Han Dynasty in the Five Elements, which is based on the "Five Virtues at the End". The Qin Dynasty is still water, the early Han Dynasty has not changed, to Emperor Wu when the five elements are respected, Tuke water, and then the Han Dynasty is the Tude.
Because Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty accepted the "Red Fu Fu" and ascended to the throne of the emperor, he regarded himself as a fire virtue, Shang Chi, and the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty in the future, which has not changed. Therefore, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, "Han Xing" means "fire virtue".
The proverb of "Huang Daichi" is based on the five elements of earth and fire. The slogan of Taiping Dao not only absorbs the spirit of the prophecy of "Huang Daichi", which is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, but also transforms and makes use of the relevant ideas of the "Taiping Sutra".
In the original meaning of the Taiping Sutra:
"Cang" refers to the Oriental Mude, which belongs to the yang as the sky and is the position born of the king; "Red" guides Fang Huode, symbolizing the king; "Yellow" refers to the central soil, which belongs to the yin as the land, and is the position of the subject. The book preaches that the king of wood (vigorous) will be bright and the earth will die, that is, the wood and the earth are incompatible. The book also advocates that by cutting off the gold gas, do not make it restrain the wood, so as to make the wood gas prosperous; On the one hand, wood makes fire, which can make the fire bright, and on the other hand, wood overcomes the earth, so that the earth gas does not rise and replaces the fire, so that the subjects can be prevented from rebelling and the fire virtue of the Eastern Han Dynasty will always be maintained.
The Taiping Jing was written at the time of Anshun and Shun, when the rule of the Eastern Han Dynasty had begun to appear in crisis, but it had not yet shown signs of extinction, so the author of the book also vigorously admired Han De and proposed various reform plans to save the Eastern Han Dynasty; During the period of Emperor Ling, when the signs of the demise of the Eastern Han Dynasty became increasingly obvious, Zhang Jiao dared to break through the above-mentioned original meaning of the Taiping Sutra, and resolutely declared that "the sky is dead, and the yellow sky should stand", denying the solidification of the status of the yin and yang monarchs of heaven and earth, and pointing out that the Eastern Han Dynasty regime was exhausted, and the small people could rise to become the masters of society, and they could achieve peace and good fortune by themselves.
The ideas of "Mude", "Huode" and "Tude" in the "Taiping Sutra" have been transformed and used by Zhang Jiao, which is consistent with the concept of "Huang Daichi" that is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
As a result, the slogan of Taiping Dao pointed out to the poor people in a mysterious way the way to usher in a "Taiping" and "Daji" life through the change of dynasty. For the people who yearn for "peace" and "good luck", this slogan undoubtedly has great temptation and appeal.
So, under the call of the 16-character slogan, within a few years, hundreds of thousands of people gathered in the Taiping Road founded by Zhang Jiao.
6. Why did the imperial court connive?
In addition to the reasons mentioned above, another important reason for the rapid development of Taiping Tao is the tolerant attitude of those in power towards heretical theology. For a long time, the Taiping Dao spread by Zhang Jiao was regarded by the rulers as a good way to assist the imperial court in educating the people.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the phenomenon of regarding heretical theology as a "good way" had never existed before Emperor Ling. Taiping Dao can have such a fate, first of all, it is related to the relaxation of official control over the ideological field during the period of Emperor Ling. During this period, not only did Emperor Ling himself uncharacteristically show great interest in the Taiping Sutra, but there was also a relaxed atmosphere in society as a whole that was conducive to the spread of heretical theology.
In the life of Emperor Ling, it is no accident that three large folk religious forces were formed, such as Sanfu's "Burmese Concealment Law", the "Taiping Dao" in the East, and the "Wudou Rice Dao" in Hanzhong. The emergence of this phenomenon should be closely related to the relaxation of official control over ideology. During the Shun and Huan periods, those who gathered the people as religious organizations were found to be punished by those in power in the name of "signing false words".
The reason why the religious uprisings of the An, Shun, and Huan periods were so hasty and did not form a unified scale is, objectively, precisely because the rebels lacked the social climate to organize the uprisings using openly popular heretical theology.
If there was still a lack of a social climate in which heretical theology was openly popular during the period of Emperor Ling, it would have been impossible for heretical theology such as Taiping Dao and Wudou Midao to form a large-scale public religious organization in the process of public dissemination.
Secondly, the actual function of Taiping Dao in curing diseases and helping the poor has a good cover effect on Zhang Jiao's organization and call for uprisings. On the one hand, the Taiping Dao's form of "teaching the people to kowtow and think about it" is easy to make rulers at all levels have the illusion that it is "educating the small people."
At the same time, when the rulers at all levels were unable to free the poor people who had been devoured by the plague from the threat of death, the Taiping Dao cured the sick and helped the poor, so that millions of poor people were comforted and protected from temporary "restlessness" and "desperate adventures".
The practical function of the Taiping Dao to stabilize the social order is exactly what the powerless rulers want. Under the premise that the rulers tolerated heretical theology, the Taiping Tao was openly spread, and the role of the Taiping Tao in stabilizing the social order in the process of spreading would prompt the rulers to further adhere to that tolerance.
By the time of Guanghe (178-183) and Zhongping (184-189), Taiping Dao had more than 300,000 believers, and was divided into 36 sides according to the military establishment.
Although the mobilization and organization of the people to rebel was carried out in secret, the preparation time had been more than ten years after all, and the momentum of development was so great that this aroused the vigilance of some people of insight in the ruling group, who had already realized the potential danger from the rapid development of Taiping Dao.
After the second year of Guanghe (179), Weiwei Liu Kuan and Sikong Zhang Ji successively wrote to the imperial court, pointing out that Zhang Jiao had signs of rebellion, but they failed to attract the attention of Emperor Ling.
7. The sluggish reaction of the Spirit Emperor
In Guanghe (178-183), Situ Yang Ci worriedly summoned his subordinate Liu Tao to discuss Zhang Jiao's preaching.
They argue that:
In recent years, the imperial court has granted amnesty to the world every year, but Zhang Jiao and others have not repented, and their power has grown and spread day by day. If the edict orders the prefectures and counties to capture and crusade now, I am afraid that it will invite the contradictions and promote the rebellion of Zhang Jiao and other rebels, so we should first order the prefectures and counties to forcibly escort the displaced people to their own counties, so as to weaken the power of the rebels, and then kill the rebels and rebels.
Yang Ci sent the results of the discussion to Emperor Ling.
Soon after the book, Yang Ci was dismissed due to illness, and the things discussed remained in the palace ban and were not implemented. In the sixth year of Guanghe (183), Liu Tao, the imperial servant, Lesong, the commander of Fengche, and Yuan Gong, the governor of Fengche, jointly wrote a letter, saying that Zhang Jiao's party was invincible, saying that Zhang Jiao and others had stolen into the Beijing division and secretly inspected the government, and then spread around saying how the Chaogang was secretly chaotic, and suggested to the imperial court:
"It is advisable to issue a clear edict, re-recruit horns and others, and reward the land; There are those who dare to avoid it, and they are guilty of the same crime. ”
When Liu Tao and others wrote the book, it was on the eve of the Yellow Turban Uprising, and the threat of the Taiping Dao gathering crowd to the imperial court should have become more serious and obvious, but Emperor Ling still did not wake up.
Why did Emperor Ling's reaction to the gathering of people in Taiping Dao seem so slow?
From an objective point of view, the attitude of the state and county has an important impact on the Spirit Emperor. Faced with the people of the eight states defecting to Zhangjiao, many local officials thought that Zhang Jiao was "educated with good Taoism and returned to the people"; Even though some magistrates realized that Zhang Jiao and others had the intention of "rebelling", they simply concealed the truth from the court for fear that the court would hold them responsible.
In this way, the news about Taiping Dao that Emperor Ling obtained from the local state and county was almost a voice of approval.
Subjectively, Emperor Ling himself not only admired heretical theology such as the "Taiping Sutra", hoping that there would be a "good way" that could assist the court to educate the people, but also longed for peace and quiet in the world.
Under the domination of this psychology, Emperor Ling would think that those courtiers' letters and statements about Zhang Jiao's rebellion were purely chasing after the wind, so he ignored them all the time. At the same time, Emperor Ling also had serious differences with some courtiers who had been influenced by Confucianism about the attitude towards heretical theology such as the Taiping Sutra, and because of this disagreement, Emperor Ling might also think that the courtiers who wrote the "Zhang Jiao rebellion" were out of prejudice against heretical theology.
The Taiping Road founded by Zhang Jiao, without any restrictions, after more than ten years of development, has been completely full, and the clouds that have been simmering for many years have finally caused a storm!
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