Chapter 16 Chapter Three: The Rage Burning to the Sky

A well-behaved country has been tossed like this by an ignorant emperor, vicious eunuchs, and aggressive courtiers. The country is ruined, the people are poor, the society is withered, and the politics are dark. Will the people like it? The answer is: the common people don't want to, they are preparing to rebel! In fact, as early as the time of Emperor An, large-scale riots and peasant uprisings occurred in Yizhou, Yongchang, Yue and other counties in today's Sichuan area.The empire's rule in this area was seriously challenged, and the situation seemed to be even more serious when it came to Emperor Ling. Some people in front of the emperor even proposed a bad idea: to separate Yizhou from the empire's territory.

Although this proposal was not passed, the empire felt more and more powerless in response to the successive civil uprisings. In the nineteen years of Emperor An's reign, four peasant uprisings broke out; Times; during the 21st year of Emperor Huan's reign, peasant uprisings broke out 14 times. From Emperor An to Emperor Huan, in only sixty years, there were as many as thirty-five recorded peasant uprisings. These peasant uprisings were very violent. They were vigorous at the beginning, and once they were suppressed, they quickly fell silent.There are many reasons for this, two of which are crucial: the lack of a clear ideological program, and the lack of particularly good leadership.

This situation finally changed in the time of Emperor Ling.A fierce man came after the uprising, and he became the gravedigger of the Eastern Han Empire.This man is a refugee, a pure proletarian, and his name is Zhang Jiao.The reason why he was able to become a fierce man was not like dozens of other peasant uprising leaders who were killed and did not even have a name left in history, because he was educated. Literate people were an absolute minority in that era. Zhang Jiao was educated, so it was scary.Zhang Jiao likes to read books, and his favorite is a book called "Taiping Qingling Book".

It is said that the author of "Taiping Qing Lingshu" is the famous alchemist Yu Ji (also known as Gan Ji, Qian Shi).The so-called alchemist is a Taoist priest with alchemy.The so-called alchemy is a general term for ancient times to use natural variation phenomena and the theory of yin and yang and five elements to speculate and explain the good and bad fortune of people and countries, fortune and fate, medical divination, astrology, dunjia, geomancy and fairy art.After the Eastern Han Dynasty, the word "alchemist" was not commonly used, and it was replaced by "Taoist".

The "Taiping Qing Lingshu" written by Taoist priest Yu is said to be very large in length, divided into ten parts, each with seventeen volumes, and a total of one hundred and seventy volumes.The content is complex, based on the Tao of Laozhuang, belief in ghosts and gods, yin and yang, five elements, and alchemy of the immortals, creating a very mysterious and complex theological system.This book contains not only Lao Tzu's view of the universe, "Book of Changes"'s theory of vitality, but also the idea of ​​immortality and Taoism. But these are not the main points. There is only one thing this book really wants to talk about, and that is politics.In this book, Yu Ji stated a complete set of political assumptions, that is, the construction program for the peaceful and prosperous age.He not only described the appearance of a peaceful and prosperous age, but also explained that in order to achieve a peaceful and prosperous age, one must be wise, courteous, and obedient.

Therefore, this book is not about teaching people how to rebel, but more like a rationalization proposal to the king.Gong Chong, Yu Ji's student, dedicated this book directly to Emperor Shun Liu Bao. Liu Bao asked the ministers to discuss it. Everyone thought it was "the classic of demons and delusion", so they sealed it in the National Library (Dongguan). Emperor Huan Liu Zhi never had a son. He heard that there was an alchemist named Xiangkai who was very skilled, so he summoned him into the palace to help him have a son.Xiang Kai is not a specialist doctor, and treating infertility is not his forte. What he can do is to get some so-called panacea for the emperor, which is his specialty.

Emperor Huan took the medicine offered by Xiangkai, which may have some effect. He was very happy and arranged a job for Xiangkai.Emperor Huan trusted him very much, and often consulted him when he encountered difficult problems in handling state affairs.This Xiangkai is another student of Yu Ji. In order to fulfill Teacher Yu's wish, he brought up the old story again and submitted the "Taiping Qing Lingshu" to Emperor Huan again. However, Emperor Huan was only interested in whether he could give birth to a son, and how to explain those supernatural events, and he was not very interested in Xiangkai's philosophy of governing the country.

Later, Xiangkai got involved with the party members and was punished for pleading for the party members in the party prison incident.After Xiang Kai was released from prison, he still remained infatuated, but this time he lost confidence in the emperor, and began to shift the focus of his activities to the people, and finally became a famous anarchist and an expert in subversive activities. We will talk about him later . Zhang Jiao got this book by chance. It is also said that he is a friend of Xiangkai. The two share the same goals, one is a theorist and the other is a practitioner, and they immediately join hands.Zhang Jiao admired the "Taiping Qingling Book" so much that he was determined to try those political programs that the emperor had not implemented.

Zhang Jiao was born in Julu County (now Hebei, Ningjin) of Jizhou Governor's Department, and was born in the lower class of society.He has two younger brothers, one named Zhang Liang and one named Zhang Bao.Zhang Jiao believed in Huang Lao's theory in his early years, and he also had a deep research on divination and weft, one of the mystical prophecies, and knew folk medicine and witchcraft.He led his two younger brothers and held a nine-jointed staff. He was often active in the area of ​​Jizhou, using talisman water and mantras to treat diseases, and won the support of the poor.As he became more famous, some people came to express their willingness to be his student, and Zhang Jiao began to recruit disciples.

Unexpectedly, more and more people came, which surprised Zhang Jiao.However, he was not afraid, because he was a man of courage and wanted to do something big, so he figured out how to organize these people. Zhang Jiao was deeply influenced by the political views and strategies of governing the country in the "Taiping Qingling Shu", and created a folk religious group: Taipingdao.Its program, goals, teachings, titles, parish organizations, slogans, religious ceremonies, activities, missionary methods, etc. are all designed according to the "Taiping Qing Lingshu". At that time, there were a large number of refugees in the society. These homeless people who lost their land were all victims of land annexation. No one cared about them and had no future.The appearance of the Taiping Dao at least gave them warmth and hope, so there was no need to mobilize, these people rushed to enter the Dao.

There are also some people, although they do not belong to the scope of refugees, but they see that this organization is very powerful, so they also join in, just like some rich people are willing to be disciples of the boss of the Qinghong gang, for a reason, so that someone will cover them when they encounter problems.Among these people, there are low-level officials and eunuchs in the palace. Zhang Jiao calls himself a great virtuous teacher and is the general leader of Taiping Dao.His two younger brothers, Zhang Liang and Zhang Bao, claim to be great doctors and are members of the core leadership team of Taipingdao.He sent eight disciples to spread the teachings and develop disciples in all directions.After more than ten years of development, the forces of Taiping Dao have spread across the eight states of Qing, Xu, You, Ji, Jing, Yang, Yan, and Henan among the thirteen states in the country, with hundreds of thousands of disciples.Zhang Jiao divided these disciples into thirty-six dioceses (squares), with more than 10,000 people in the big ones and six or seven thousand people in the small ones. Each diocese had a Qu Shuai as its leader. Didn't the imperial court know about the commotion?In fact, the court knew it, and it knew it a long time ago.In the sixth year of Xiping (177), Yang Ci, the teacher of Emperor Ling, who was the Taiwei at the time, and Liu Tao, a famous party member under him, wrote to Emperor Ling respectively, reporting the movement of this non-governmental organization and asking for attention.Liu Tao even pointed out that according to the information he received, Zhang Jiao's party members had infiltrated the capital and were active among the people and officials. .For some unknown reason, such an important letter did not follow.Later, Yang Ci resigned for some reason, and Liu Tao found an opportunity to ask Emperor Ling about this matter, but Emperor Ling changed the subject inexplicably and asked him to compile an easy-to-read "Spring and Autumn" for himself.Liu Tao had no choice but to bury his head in the library to complete the new work assigned by the emperor. Judging from various signs, Emperor Ling himself did not take Taiping Dao seriously, and even thought it was a good thing that there was a non-governmental organization that organized the refugees and taught them to do good deeds.The answer to this kind of psychology can be found in the clues of Lingdi's ideological changes.At this time, Emperor Ling had begun to believe in the teachings of Huang and Laozi, and he was full of admiration for Laozi's thoughts. He might think that this sect, which also regarded Laozi as a teacher, was somewhat consistent with his thoughts. More and more people came to join the Taiping Road, and the number increased exponentially.Zhang Jiao thought, now that the matter has become too big, it is impossible to stop. There are only two outcomes in the future: either the Taipingdao will destroy the Liu Han regime, or the Taipingdao will be wiped out by the Liu Han regime. Taipingdao's public relations work is very good, even the senior eunuch Fengwei and Xu Feng in the palace have become its believers. In this way, the news of the central government organization can be sent to Zhang Jiao very quickly.After comprehensively analyzing all kinds of information, Zhang Jiao made a judgment on the situation. He saw that the moment when Taipingdao and Liu Han's court turned their faces was getting closer. Whoever makes the first move takes the initiative.Zhang Jiao immediately called several big disciples to discuss with his younger brothers Zhang Bao and Zhang Liang, and they all decided to launch an armed riot with the goal of overthrowing the current regime and establishing a peaceful and prosperous world.The center of the riot was Ye County, where the southern part of Jizhou was combined with the Sili Xiaowei Department.The time of the riot was set as March 5th in the seventh year of Guanghe (184). The date was chosen with care, and it ruined the uprising.