Chapter 24 1. The era shrouded in prophecy

The leaders of "Taiping Dao" are the three brothers Zhang Jiao. Zhang Jiao is from Julu, Jizhou (now in Pingxiang County, Hebei Province). As early as more than ten years ago, he used the means of helping people to cure diseases and spread the way of peace in private.He and his disciples were widely active in Qingzhou, Xuzhou, Youzhou, Jizhou, Jingzhou, Yangzhou, Yanzhou, Yuzhou and other eight states. After more than ten years of activities, they developed hundreds of thousands of followers. What is the "Taiping Dao" they spread? The core theory of "Taiping Dao" is the "Taiping Jing" derived from "Taiping Qinglingshu".As early as the Chengdi period of the Western Han Dynasty, there was a alchemist named Gan Zhongke who wrote a book called "Tianguan Li Baoyuan Taiping Jing", a total of twelve volumes, claiming that it was taught to him by the real Chijingzi sent by the Emperor of Heaven , advocating that the Han Dynasty should change its name and accept the mandate of heaven again to save the crisis.This idea is really absurd.So this whimsical Immortal Gan was imprisoned and executed.When it came to Emperor Ai of the Han Dynasty, Xia Heliang, a disciple of Immortal Gan, presented the book again. This time, Emperor Ai of the Han Dynasty believed it. There are more than 700 shrines that have been abandoned, and 37,000 sacrifices to the gods are made within a year... Naturally, such reforms cannot have any immediate results.So this Mr. Xia Heliang also suffered the same fate as his teacher.

Yet these ideas, and the books on which they were based, spread throughout society.In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the legendary "immortal" Yu Ji obtained 170 volumes of "divine books", known as "Taiping Qing Lingshu".During the time of Emperor Shun, it was dedicated to the court by his disciples. It is said that Zhang Jiao was also inspired by this book.Later generations even believed that the so-called "Taiping Qinglingshu" was the "Taiping Jing". It was an era of exploration. People were constantly looking for solutions to social conflicts, but repeated mistakes made the wise men of that era embark on the path of seeking help from Shinto. This is undoubtedly a misplaced methodology.However, even in these so-called god-given books, there are still many things that are based on reality and reflect reality-because the people who spread these ideas are also clear: no matter how much you put your spirit on Shinto, everything will eventually return to reality Come.

In addition to the foreshadowing of the nihilistic thoughts of people in previous lives, Zhang Jiao also has a more favorable realistic factor. The end of the Eastern Han Dynasty was also the era of the famous Great Plague in Chinese history.Regarding the origin of the plague, it is said that it originated from the war between the Han Dynasty and the Han Dynasty. "Hanshu" records the words of a Xiongnu captive: "When the Han army came, the Xiongnu sent witches to bury the sheep and cattle on the roads and waters to curse the army. Shanyu left the emperor Ma Qiu, and often made the witch to pray. Horses, curse the military." Today, people believe that this record reflects the situation that the Xiongnu used animals that died of illness to spread infectious diseases to the Han army.

In the historical records of the Western world at that time, there were also considerable descriptions of diseases originating from the Huns.Frederick Cartwright said in his masterpiece "Disease & History" (the Chinese translation is "Disease Changes History"): "At the end of the first century AD, a cruel and warlike nation appeared. They came from the Mongolian area and swept the world. Steppes to southeast Europe. They set out from areas north of China, probably driven by disease or famine, or both, and these invaders on horseback were the Huns... The Huns brought new infectious diseases that caused caused a series of epidemics that historians have dubbed the 'plagues'."

In the east, it was the returning warriors who brought infectious diseases from foreign lands back to the homeland.In the West, it was invaders from the steppes of Northeast Asia that brought infectious diseases.Residents who have never been exposed to these exotic viruses lack antibody genes and have no ability to resist them, so they get sick and die in large numbers. In the era of Emperor Ling, there were five outbreaks of plague in China in 171, 173, 179, 182, and 185.In the West at the same time, the Roman Empire was also threatened by multiple plagues that were prevalent between 164 and 189 AD.This series of epidemics is called "Dr. Galen's epidemic".

The reason why Dr. Galen's name is associated with the great plague is not only because he escaped the deadly infectious disease, but also because he left a description of the plague.Cartwright writes: "The first symptoms of the disease were high fever, inflammation of the mouth and throat, abnormal thirst, and diarrhea. Galen also described that by the ninth day rashes appeared, some dry and some suppurative. .He speculated that many patients died before the rash appeared. There are some similarities between these places and the plague in Athens, but there is no doubt that the disease originated in the East and festered the skin of people.” In 180, even the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius also died in this plague.In 189, the disease hit Rome again, killing more than 2,000 people a day at its peak.

This series of deadly plagues that occurred almost simultaneously at both ends of the Eurasian continent had a major impact on the history of the East and the West.Cartwright's evaluation of these plagues is: "In addition to destroying the Roman Empire, the plagues of the first three centuries AD had two widespread and far-reaching effects... First, if the Roman Empire had not been in the years after the birth of Christianity Struck by incurable diseases, Christianity could not have succeeded in becoming a world power, and it certainly would not have become what it is. Moreover, if medicine had not fallen under the control of the Christian Church, from the fourth century The history of medicine in the millennium by the fourteenth century would have been completely different." Cartwright linked the plague's impact on the history of religion with medicine itself.

In the East, the great plague had similar consequences. On the one hand, the plague weakened the Eastern Han Dynasty and caused foreign races to enter the empire's territory to fill in the gaps, thus causing chaos in the "five random China".This plague continued to torment the various dynasties that occupied the Central Plains, and combined with other turbulent factors, made this vast empire silent for hundreds of years. It was not until the Tang Dynasty that it once again glowed with vitality. On the other hand, this deadly plague made people unable to get hope and help from reality, and turned to religious beliefs for relief, which led to the great development of a series of religious thoughts in this land.All kinds of religious schools spread, and among their religious leaders there were some guys with ambitions for the world.

As a result, the world became more and more fun. Zhang Jiao lived in such an era. He escaped the claws of the disease by chance, and took the opportunity to spread the idea of ​​"Taiping Dao" as a doctor.In such an era, doctors who can cure diseases are naturally highly respected, so it is by no means an accident of history that Zhang Jiao was able to accept hundreds of thousands of disciples in just over ten years. As early as the beginning of preaching, Zhang Jiao called himself a "great virtuous teacher", "served Huang Laodao, raised disciples, knelt down and worshiped first, and cast water mantras to cure diseases. The method of illness is also quite reasonable.He sent his eight proud disciples to travel around to spread the "Taiping Tao", and there are many believers, even the eunuchs in the palace, some people believe in great virtuous teachers.

Zhang Jiao divided his disciples into thirty-six parties, with more than 10,000 people in the large party and six to seven thousand people in the small party. Each party was led by a commander-in-chief, forming an underground militarized organization.After more than ten years of operation, Taipingdao has become a powerful force.However, in order to change the dynasty, strength alone is not enough, and the favor of "destiny" is also necessary. "Shangshu" said it well, "Heaven listens to the people, and the people listen to it." The so-called "destiny" favor is nothing more than the guidance of public opinion.According to the theory of "five virtues are always" popular at that time, the Han Dynasty was the fire virtue, and the red color was favored, and the fire virtue would be replaced by the yellow earth virtue.Therefore, the "Taiping Jing" preaches that "the red morality is exhausted, and the yellow virtue should be prosperous", "the fire morality is exhausted, and the soil virtue is contemporary".Therefore, Zhang Jiao thought of himself as "Yellow Heaven", and the "Taiping Jing" took "Jiazi as the beginning", which meant to remove the old and bring forth the new, so he used "the heaven is dead, the yellow sky should be established, the year is Jiazi, the world is auspicious" as the propaganda slogan .

This prophecy is shrouded in the vast sky of the Central Plains. Ge Hong, a well-known Taoist priest in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, characterized Zhang Jiao as heresy-"pretend to rely on small tricks, sit and stand up, change appearance, deceive people and common people, entangle the idiots, advance not to prolong life, retreat not to eliminate disasters Treating diseases is his business, so he recruits traitors and calls it "rebellion." In his view, Zhang Jiao neither treats diseases well nor studies the art of longevity, which is simply not doing his job properly. However, Ge Hong only saw the appearance of history, but did not see the deep factors that manipulated the historical process in the dark.He didn't even see that history was repeating itself around him, but "Taiping Dao" became "Tianshi Dao". That too was an invisible hand.