There are many volumes of the White Lotus Sect, mainly including The Great Picture of Golden Lock and Hongyang, The Sutra of Our Lady of Xuanniang, Three Calendars of Zhenguo, Ode to Maitreya, and The Sutra of the Robbery.
The name "Bai Lianhua" originated in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, when Hui Yuan, the ancestor of Pure Land Sect, called eighteen eminent monks in Lushan Mountain, Jiangxi Province, joined a Buddhist group in Tolin Temple and vowed to go to the western paradise after his death. They also dug ponds to plant Bai Lianhua. The place where Buddha was recited was named Bailianshe. Celebrities such as Tao Yuanming and Xie Lingyun also came here to play and sing, so Tuolin Temple became a gathering place for monks and nuns, customs and elegance. In the 18th year of Qing Daoguang (1838), Miao Sheng, the abbot of Baoguang Temple, imitated the story of Hui Yuan, planted Bai Lianhua on the west side of Xiazi behind the temple, and founded Bai Lianhua Society. Poets and monks have a poetic commandment: "Between white clouds and dock houses, I worship Buddha and escape from Zen and Zishan;" Outside the Lotus Festival again, he was recruited to like Yan. "In the second year of Tongzhi in Qing Dynasty (1863), the disciples of Master Miao Sheng were confident that the place of Bailiantang was too small, so they rebuilt the Bailiantang behind the Blissful Hall. This is a quiet courtyard with a Buddhist temple in the middle. There is a lotus pond in front of the main hall, which is covered with white meridian lotus. This flower is elegant and fragrant, which makes people fondle it. Outside the railing of the lotus pond, tourists are often surrounded. They threw metal coins into the pond one by one, sighed and floated happily. That's because of the homophonic relationship between "gone with the wind" and "blessing".
The establishment and development of Anbaili religion in Shaoxing In the Southern Song Dynasty (1 133), Shaman Mao Ziyuan in Wu Jun County, Jiangsu Province founded An Baili, which was originally a branch of Buddhism. Its teachings originated from Pure Land Sect, which worships Amitabha (the Buddha with infinite life). Believers in this religion are called "white lotus dishes" because they "use onion milk carefully, don't kill anything, and don't drink alcohol". In the Yuan Dynasty, this religion infiltrated other religious concepts, mainly the theory of Maitreya's afterlife, and gradually turned to worship Maitreya and changed its name to An Baili. The early Ambry religion believed in Amitabha, and advocated chanting Buddha and keeping precepts (no killing, no stealing, no fornication, no lying and no drinking, collectively called the five precepts) in order to die in the pure land of the West. The doctrine is basically the same as that of Pure Land Sect. Mao Ziyuan used the teachings of Tiantai Sect to draw a Buddha's map of harmony between four lands and three views, and explained the level of Buddha's land with Buddha statues, figures and metaphors. Simplify and unify the rituals of chanting Buddha and practicing confession formulated by predecessors, and formulate the White Lotus Morning Confession Instrument. Before the Pure Land Association, there was only a relaxed social friend relationship among the participants, and the associations were not affiliated with each other. Mao Ziyuan changed it to the relationship between mentoring and clan affiliation. He built the Bai Lianhua Memorial Hall in Dianshan Lake, Kunshan, called himself a mentor, sat under the stage and worshipped, and stipulated that his disciples should be named after the word "Pujue Miaodao", thus establishing a relatively stereotyped Sect.
Shan Tong and Liu Futong in Han Dynasty at the end of Yuan Dynasty, Zhao Quan and Xu Hongru in Ming Dynasty were all followers of this religion. Therefore, in the eyes of the imperial court, the word "Bai Lianjiao" is almost a rebellious consent word. After the Yuan Dynasty unified China, Anbaili Sect was recognized and rewarded by the imperial court and entered a short heyday. Later, after Zhu Yuanzhang seized power with the help of Anbaili Zoroastrianism, he explicitly banned "Left Witchcraft" in the Ming Law, and Anbaili Sect fell from power. In the thirty-ninth year of Qianlong, Wang Lun, a Christian in Shandong Province, rebelled against the Qing Dynasty, and Bailian once again shocked the ruling and opposition parties.
At the beginning of Anbailism, it was officially banned, and Mao Ziyuan was exiled to Jiangzhou (now Jiujiang, Jiangxi). But it is spread because of its simple teachings and simple practices. By the late Southern Song Dynasty, although it was still regarded as an evil party by some local officials and Buddhist monks who claimed to be orthodox, it had spread everywhere and even to the north under the rule of Mongols. After the Yuan Dynasty unified China, Anbaili was recognized and rewarded by the imperial court and entered its heyday. Tolin Temple in Lushan Mountain and Bailiantang in Dianshan Lake were two centers of Anbaili religion at that time.
Under the call of "enlightened people at home", Anbaili Sect has formed a large number of professional believers, known as An Baili Taoists. Because "becoming a monk at home", he doesn't shave his head or wear a monk's clothes, so he is also called a Taoist or a monk with hair who doesn't shave his hair or dye his hair. In the Yuan Dynasty, temples composed of white lotus Taoist priests spread all over the north and south, gathering thousands of disciples, as many as dozens, comparable to Buddhist temples. Buddha statues such as Amitabha, Guanyin and Dazhi are enshrined in the temple (collectively known as the three saints of Amitabha). At the top, they bless the royal family and pray for a long life, while at the bottom, they hold Buddhist ceremonies for local governments. There are also some good deeds such as building roads and bridges. Most temples have land assets, and the host is often passed down from generation to generation. The property of the temple is actually the property handed down from generation to generation by the owner. Some leaders communicate with the government, make friends with powerful people and become local tyrants.
After a long-term spread, the organization and doctrine of Anbaili religion changed in the Yuan Dynasty, with loose discipline and numerous sects. Some sects convert to Maitreya and preach the religious prophecy of "Maitreya will live next", which belongs to Maitreya's pure land practice. Some Christians gathered at night to make trouble, or occasionally armed against the rule of the Yuan Dynasty. In the first year of the New Year (1308), the court banned the White Lotus Sect because it was too powerful. It was not until Injong ascended the throne (13 1 1 year) that the general monk Pu of Bailiantang in Tuolin Temple of Lushan Mountain came to rescue, and Bailiantang resumed its legal status. In his second year in office (1322), his activities were restricted again. Since then, Anbaili organizations in many places have been hostile to the government, and their followers are mostly lower-class people. Therefore, when social contradictions intensified at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, some Anbaili organizations took the lead in arming against the Yuan Dynasty. The leaders of the Red Scarf Uprising, such as Han, Xu Shouhui and Zou Pusheng, are all white lotus believers. They inspired the masses with the predictions that the Ming King (Amitabha) was born and Maitreya was born, which had a great influence.
White lotus was forbidden in the early Ming Dynasty. During the years of Hongwu and Yongle, there were many armed riots by An Baili Christians in Sichuan, Hubei, Jiangxi and Shandong, and some even built emperors, all of which were suppressed. After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, there were dozens of religions among the people, such as Jinchan, Wuwei, Longhua, Wukong, Yuan Huan, Yuandun, Hongyang, Maitreya, Jing Qing, Dacheng, Sanyang, Hunyuan, Wen Xiang and Luodao, and some even taught several names. The two are not subordinate to each other, and there are many differences in doctrine and ceremony. The gods they believe in are extremely complicated, including the Jade Emperor in heaven, the Yan in hell and the sages on earth. Maitreya Buddha is the most respected. Since the period of Zheng De, there has been the worship of childless women, and there is also the eight-character mantra of "vacuum hometown, childless women". It is said that the inanimate mother is an inanimate and immortal ancient Buddha. She wants to save the world's children and avoid disaster. This paradise is a vacuum hometown. Each Sect has its own scripture, called Baojuan. The rulers think that these different sects are actually white lotus, and the people also call them white lotus in general.
During the Southern Song Dynasty, Anbailism was still accepted by the rulers because it did not break away from orthodox Buddhism as a whole. In the Yuan Dynasty, due to the different status of people from all walks of life in the church, there were obvious differences in the pursuit of goals. One faction regards itself as an authentic descendant of Mao Ziyuan, inherits Mao Ziyuan's mantle in religious theory and practice, and cooperates with the Yuan rulers politically; The other school completely betrayed Mao Ziyuan's purpose of advocating education, and came down in one continuous line with the lower mass movement and embarked on the road of resisting the Yuan regime. In the 11th year of Yuan Shundi (135 1), the Yuan government forced civilian workers to block the Yellow River, which triggered a nationwide Anbalism uprising. The rebel army called for "Maitreya Buddha's life, Ming Wang's life", which received a positive response from the broad masses who could not bear the rule of the Yuan Dynasty and quickly swept the country. In August of the 28th year, the Ming army invaded Dadu (now Beijing) and overthrew the Yuan Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang was well aware of the great significance of the rebellion of Bailian Sect, and immediately issued a ban on Bailian Sect after he proclaimed himself "King Daming". However, the White Lotus Sect did not completely converge. After the integration of the north and the south in the early Ming Dynasty, there was a grand occasion of secret circulation. After the founding of the Ming dynasty, the white lotus believers almost revolted continuously. After the Qing Dynasty entered the Central Plains, the white lotus believers often put national interests first, advocated "the return of the sun and the moon", held high the banner of anti-Qing and regaining sight, and were banned by the Qing court. However, during the Shunzhi, Kangxi and Yongzheng periods and the first century of Qianlong, the anti-Qing and restoration activities of Anbalism never stopped.
There are many volumes of Bailian Sect, mainly including The Great Picture of Golden Lock and Hongyang, The Sutra of Our Lady of Xuanniang, The Three Calendars of Zhenguo, Ode to Maitreya, The Sutra of Ying Robbed, etc.
An Baili religion and Wang Lun's death.
More than 200 years ago, 1774 was the thirty-ninth year of Qianlong.
This year, small Shenyang is still nowhere to be found in history. The Sikuquanshu Museum has been open for more than a year, and everything in the countryside seems to be calm. Until this autumn, there was a crack in the perfect fantasy of Kanggan's prosperous time. This tiny but fatal crack is believed to have opened the prelude to the decline of the empire.
On August 23rd of that year, Wang Lun, a farmer from Shouzhang, Shandong Province, led 4000 people to revolt. The men and women of Anbalism marched in great strides, killing local officials in three neighboring counties, gathering tens of thousands of people and even occupying Linqing, an important city. Subsequently, like most uprisings, the Qing court won the opportunity to suppress the internal leaders' disagreement, and Wang Lun and others set themselves on fire and died.
At first glance, Wang Lun's story is not particularly surprising. After all, during the Kangxi period, there were many rebellions in An Baili in Shandong and other places. However, after careful study, it may be difficult to explain this story from our conventional thinking of analyzing the oppression and exploitation of peasant uprisings in the past: 1774, there was no serious natural disaster or famine, and the uprising undoubtedly lacked the mass base; At the same time, Wang Lun's parents were judged as "good officials" in the future. After the incident, the Wang Lun Rebels also had loose contact with other white lotus religions. What made Wang Lun, who was over 40 years old, short stature and well-off, give up his daily stable life, and still chose today's seemingly moth-to-fire outbreak?
Perhaps with the same question, Professor Han Shurui from the History Department of Princeton University in the United States tried to outline some new scenes for us in Shandong Uprising: 1774 Wang Lun Uprising. Different from China historians, Han Shurui emphasized the explanation of local unrest from historical scenes. Before going deep into Wang Lun herself and her religious organizations, she emphasized the focus of attention on the environment of western Shandong, especially Shouzhang, and tried to examine the social structure and regional ecology that promoted the Wang Lun Uprising from the perspective of local history, which was consistent with the views of western scholars such as Pei Yili.
Shouzhang belongs to the west of Shandong Province, between the Grand Canal and the Weihe River. History has been unknown before, and there are far fewer people who have achieved fame in history than other counties, which makes Shou Zhang alienated from orthodox ideology and elite rights. Invisibly, the views and organizations of Anbalism have become substitutes, full of temptations, providing opportunities for individuals to share their values, and also giving local people an unprecedented sense of community and accomplishment. Han Shurui believes that the uprising may come from faith, not social crisis.
"Hometown in vacuum, motherless, blessed by immortals, invulnerable", the story of Anbaili religion has been looming in China's history books for nearly a thousand years, but it has always been a flash. As a well-known female scholar who studies the history of China, the encounter between Han Shurui and China originated from the writer Pearl Buck and had little to do with history. Her study trip in Taiwan Province Province made her one of the first American scholars to use the archives of the Qing Dynasty. She found two phenomena in her research: "First, no one studies religion; Second, religion is not important in China society. "
Somehow, everything pushed her to the mysterious door of studying China religions such as Ambry. Her doctoral thesis is "China Millennium Uprising: 18 13 Bagua Uprising", and she finally chose universal religion to study China society. This perspective, combined with her excavation of historical materials, made her occupy a place in the study of China and become a great figure after wakeman and Kong Feili.
Han Shurui has always been considered to be good at telling stories with materials. In this book, she also fully mobilized a lot of materials to restore history from eyewitness accounts, rebel confessions and official newspapers. Master Chen Yinque once said: "The scholarship of an era must have its new materials and new problems. Using this material to study problems is a new academic trend in this era. " For Han Shurui, she is undoubtedly able to use new materials and try to tell new problems, which at least provides us with some thinking paradigms different from the established thinking. Although this book is considered to be somewhat general and incoherent, it may come from the diversity and complexity of the problem itself.
Is the charisma of the leader calling followers? Or did the White Lotus Sect tempt Shouzhang farmers into orthodoxy? Or did the "last robbery" thought of secret sects cause great indignation? ..... When we return to the source and essence of history, we will inevitably be more confused. Hidden in meditation, this explosive group movement is still full of gloom, which may be due to the complex emotions behind the phenomenon of An Baili in China and the fate of Wang Lun, who was "full of sadness in his prosperity and sudden death".
Shandong Uprising: Wang Lun Uprising 1774 Jiangsu People's Publishing House 2008-09-0 1