Chapter 3 Section 2 Zhangjiao and Taiping Road

In the second year of Xiangkai's letter (AD 168), Emperor Ling of Han came to the throne.He reigned for more than 20 years. During this period, a stormy event was brewing and broke out in the Central Plains. It was a major event in the history of peasant uprisings.This is the famous Taipingdao Uprising, also known as the "Yellow Turban Uprising". The founder of Taiping Road was Zhang Jiao, a native of Julu, Hebei Province (now Julu, Hebei Province).He has two younger brothers, one named Zhang Bao and the other named Zhang Liang.Zhang Jiao also had eight disciples under his command.These people played an important role in the formation of Pacific Road.

According to historical records, Zhang Jiao, the leader of Taipingdao, called himself a "great virtuous teacher". He sent eight disciples to various places to publicize the masses and organize the Taipingdao uprising.After more than 10 years of activities, the total number of believers has reached hundreds of thousands. It is said in history that the forces of Taipingdao "connect the prefectures and countries, and people from the eight prefectures of Qing, Xu, You, Ji, Jing, Yang, Yan, and Henan will all respond." ("Book of the Later Han·Huangfu Song Biography"), the scope of dissemination is very wide, and the momentum is very large.

The organizational unit of Taipingdao is "fang".Dafang has more than 10,000 believers, and Xiaofang also has six to seven thousand believers, each of which is headed by a commander.There are 36 squares in total. There are not many historical documents about the religious activities of Taiping Road.The reason is very simple. Before the uprising, Taiping Road was in a state of underground secret transmission and could not be easily known.After the uprising, it turned to military activities again.However, according to the scraps of information in history books, we can still have a general understanding of why Taipingdao was able to rise and why it was able to develop rapidly.

"Book of the Later Han Dynasty Huangfu Song Biography" records that Zhang Jiao's "raise disciples, kneel down and worship first, and run water mantras to cure diseases" is credible. There is also a similar record in "Dian Lue", and it is a little more detailed: In Guanghe (AD 178-184, reign title during the reign of Emperor Han Ling), there is Zhangjiao in the east, and the...corner is Taipingdao.The Taiping Daoist, the teacher holds the nine-jointed staff as a charm, and teaches people to kowtow and think about their mistakes. Because they drink from the water of the talisman, if they get sick or the sun is getting better, it means that this person is a believer. channel. ("Three Kingdoms: Zhang Lu Biography" notes and quotes)

"Kowtow to think about mistakes" is the same thing as "kneeling and worshiping for the first time".These all belong to the ancient witchcraft of enslaving ghosts and gods, exorcising ghosts and curing diseases.To kowtow is to confess one's sins and faults to God and repent to God.According to Fu Shui Mantra, it is to use talisman [lulu] (also known as "Fu Zi", "Mo Lu" or "Dan Shu", which is a kind of figure with curved strokes, which looks like characters but not characters) and incantations to summon gods and ghosts, Stop evil spirits from harming people to eliminate disasters and diseases.The former is unconditional surrender to God, while the latter is trying to make God serve oneself.In the case of epidemic diseases in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the majority of farmers were in dire straits, and they had no more effective way to fight against diseases, they could only believe in these things.

"Book of the Later Han Dynasty Huangfu Song Biography" also records that the slogan of the Taipingdao Uprising was "Heaven is dead, and Huangtian should be established. At the age of Jiazi, the world is prosperous." "Zhang Jiao called himself 'Huangtian', and his commanders had thirty The six parties, all wearing yellow scarves, rebelled on the same day." ("Book of the Later Han Dynasty Lingdi Ji") "Cangtian" here represents the dynasty of the Liu surname.Zhang Jiao accepted many popular concepts in the Han Dynasty as stated in the "Taiping Jing", believing that the change of dynasties had certain rules, and that Huang Tian should replace the sky, so the rebels all used yellow turbans as symbols.The majority of farmers believed in Zhang Jiao, not because they knew much about this mysterious theory, but because the feudal rule in real life was too cruel.They can't survive!Now someone raised a religious banner to call for rebellion, and they quickly stood under it.

Although Taiping Dao has found some believers in the official class, it is mainly a low-level Taoist organization that rose up among the people, spread and developed among the people.After the uprising was launched, it was brutally suppressed by the ruling class. The Zhang Jiao brothers died heroically, and Taipingdao fell in a pool of blood.