Treasure hunt begins in England

Chapter 315
Traditional history believes that Manichaeism was introduced to China in the first year of Wu Zetian's Yanzai, which is 694 AD. However, according to the latest archaeological records, this religion has been spread among the people during the Sixteen Kingdoms era.

As for the reason why it entered the official field of vision in the Wu Zetian era, it is also very simple, because a generation of empress Wu Zetian believed that she was the incarnation of Maitreya Buddha, so Manichaeism successfully entered the Central Plains pretending to be a branch of Buddhism.

In order to achieve this goal, they chose the Persian Fu Duodan to pretend to be an eminent monk and present the "Er Zong Jing" to Wu Zetian.

The so-called two sects are actually the gods of light and darkness in Manichaeism, but in order to accept Buddhism, especially Wu Zetian who believes in Maitreya, this scripture uses Buddhist language, and even Mani has become the incarnation of Maitreya Mani Light Buddha.

Obviously, this incident itself is by no means as simple as it appears on the surface. There is only one possibility that "Er Zong Jing" can be Sinicized and disguised as Buddhist scriptures, that is, this religion has actually been circulated among the people for many years, so there is such a thing. a move.

More importantly, Fu Duodan was able to meet the emperor and he must have been recommended by high-ranking people in the court and Buddhist circles. This is very likely to mobilize the power of the entire Manichean church to achieve this.

However, this method of deceiving the world and crossing the sea could not last long. After Wu Zetian's death, the Tang Dynasty was restored and Taoism was the main belief. Since Manichaeism began to be suppressed.

In July of the 20th year of Kaiyuan, Tang Xuanzong issued a decree after reading the teachings of Manichaeism. He believed that this religion falsely called Buddhism to confuse the people, and prohibited its spread in the Central Plains, but allowed it to continue to spread among people in the Western Regions.

But the Uyghur Khanate accepted Manichaeism at this time, because the trade on the Silk Road was the foundation of the country's wealth, and the Sogdian merchants who traveled on this road mainly believed in Manichaeism.

After the Anshi Rebellion, the Uighurs, as the biggest ally of the Tang Dynasty, received preferential treatment from the Tang Dynasty, and even lifted the ban on Manichaeism during the Kaiyuan period.

So just half a century later, this religion quickly developed from Chang'an to the entire Central Plains, becoming the third largest religion after Buddhism and Taoism.

However, the rulers of the Tang Dynasty hated this religion from the bottom of their hearts. The reason why they allowed it to exist and expand was only for the purpose of forming an alliance. Therefore, after the demise of the Uighurs, this religion was severely attacked immediately.

In the Uyghur mainland, Manichaeism was still prevalent in the Gaochang Kingdom, and spread to other countries in the Western Regions based on it. It was not until the invasion of another religion in the west in the 14th century that the local Manichaeism was completely ended.

However, this end is only the end on the bright side. As a secret sect, this religion has been passed down among a few people until the 19th century, and the Manichean edited paintings discovered in China before, and the remains of religious places are basically unearthed here. area.

In the Central Plains, in 842 A.D., the Tang Dynasty closed the Manichaeism temples in Jingzhou, Yangzhou, Hongzhou, Yuezhou and other places. scriptures and portraits, and executed 843 monks in the capital.

Of course, this action was not only aimed at Manichaeism, but mainly because Tang Wuzong, who was in power at the time, started the campaign to destroy Buddhism, and incidentally attacked all other foreign religions, such as Nestorianism and Zoroastrianism.

However, since this attack, Manichaeism has never been publicly spread in China. At the same time, because those foreign Manichaeists went to the Western Regions with the Uyghur Manichaeism, the Manichaeism that remained in the Central Plains lost its identity. their connection.

When Wu Zong's Buddhist extermination campaign hit Manichaeism, some believers fled to the southeast coastal area where the vassals ruled at that time, and went underground, took the opportunity to completely localize, and reappeared as Mingjiao.

The Ming religion was also divided into two parts. A small number of upper-level monks relied on Buddhism and Taoism to survive. Because the Song Dynasty believed in Taoism, they called Mani a student of Lao Tzu, and thus obtained the permission and tolerance of the Song Dynasty as a vassal of Taoism.

But most of the Ming Cultists have integrated into the folk, and gradually combined with the resistance activities of the lower class people to display their pursuit of light, their moral concepts of pursuit of light, kindness, simplicity, and friendship, and declared that light will surely defeat darkness.

At the same time, this religion is also rooted in the people, caring about the sufferings of the people, and helping those in need.Those who believe in Mingjiao eat vegetables and not meat, and believers will help each other if someone has something to do, and even build bridges and pave roads, and provide help when believers encounter legal disputes.

Mingjiao in this era is not as pessimistic, radical, and basically localized as Manichaeism.At the same time, in terms of idol worship, sacrifices, funerals, etc., they try their best to get closer to Buddhism and Taoism.

It is a pity that the rulers, scholar-bureaucrats, monks, and Taoists at that time would not tolerate this religion because of its advocacy of bright education and its great prestige among the people.They slandered Mingjiao as a demon religion and severely suppressed it.

As a result, some believers began to radicalize, such as the Fangla uprising.Another example is the various uprisings in the Southern Song Dynasty, and when the time came to the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the Red Scarf Army uprising was full of Mingjiao believers.

For example, the slogan of the Red Turban Army is that the white lotus blossoms, King Ming is born, and Maitreya is born.At the same time, Han Liner, the leader of the uprising, called himself King Xiaoming.As for the red scarves used by the Red Scarf Army as a sign, they were actually used during the La Rebellion more than 200 years ago.

Even Zhu Yuanzhang, who finally established the Ming Dynasty, was once a Ming Cultist, but in order to win the support of the scholar-bureaucrats in the Jiangnan area, he betrayed his previous beliefs and loyalty. .

In addition, when he sent Liao Yongzhong to meet Xiao Ming Wang Han Liner, he deliberately scuttled the boat at Guazhoudu and Han Liner sank into the river and died.

But even so, because most of his subordinates were members of the Red Turban Army and Ming Cult, Zhu Yuanzhang chose to designate Daming as the country name in order to cater to the people's eager expectation for the birth of King Ming.

On the one hand, this name means that he has inherited the legal status of King Ming, and on the other hand, it means that King Ming has been born to prevent the latecomers from using Mingjiao to oppose the Ming Dynasty.

Moreover, after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, except for the country title of Ming Dynasty, everything of Mingjiao was banned. According to the records of "Daming Law", anyone who spread Mingjiao would be sentenced to hang, with 100 sticks for accomplices and 3000 miles of travel.

So since then, this religion has been completely banned, and even later official documents can hardly find any records related to Mingjiao.

But this does not mean that this very vital folk religion has disappeared, because among the fragments found by Liang En, in addition to the previous teachings related to Mingjiao, there is also a piece of stone fragments engraved with the year: Dragon and Phoenix 140 two years.

Longfeng was the year name of Xiaoming Wang Han Lin'er, but it ended in the 12th year of Longfeng.If calculated according to pure time, the so-called 140 years of Longfeng should be the tenth year of Ming Xiaozong Hongzhi, 1497 AD.

"Judging from the clues we have found so far, this place should be a hidden Mingjiao temple." After combining the words on these crucial stone tablet fragments, Liang Enxiang looked curiously at the side Said his colleagues at work.

"It's just that they were finally discovered and completely destroyed after a battle, leaving only the wreckage we saw on the mountain."

(End of this chapter)