Does Zhang Jiao really understand witchcraft? Why did the yellow turban insurrectionary fail?

I don't believe in the witchcraft of Zhang Jiao. This is made up by people themselves. This should be because people were disappointed with the corruption in the Han Dynasty at that time and added a hat to Zhang Jiao. -184) Julu (now Ningjin County, Hebei Province) was the leader of the Yellow turban insurrectionary army and the founder of Taiping Road. Zhang Jiao believed in Huang Lao's theory in his early years, and he also had a deep study of divination, which was very popular in Han Dynasty. He is also familiar with folk medicine and witchcraft.

During the Jianning period (168- 172), he took two younger brothers and first began missionary activities in Jizhou, where the disaster was particularly serious. During Xi Pingnian (172— 178), Taiping Road was founded on the basis of recruiting a large number of students, cultivating disciples and absorbing them.

Taiping Taoism is one of the early schools of Taoism in China, with the mission of overthrowing the decadent Eastern Han Dynasty and establishing a peaceful society. Its main feature is that Taiping Jing is the main classic and Huang Zhong Taiyi is the highest god to worship. The program, purpose, doctrine, title, parish organization, slogan, religious ceremony, activities and missionary methods of Taiping Dao are all based on Taiping Jing.

He spread everywhere that "heaven dies, Huang Tianli, aged in Jiazi, the world will do anything."

Opening Angle-Xiao Qiang painted the opening angle according to the Taiping Jing, "There are hundreds of millions of stars, if one day is unclear; Zhu Tianqun's words are not as virtuous as those of the country. He calls himself Teacher Dade and is the chief leader of Taiping Road. His two younger brothers, Sean and Zhang Bao, call themselves big doctor and are also one of the leaders of Taiping Road. All Taiping Dao members and their followers who make mistakes can be forgiven as long as they bow down before the leader, admit their mistakes and promise not to repeat them.

Zhang Jiao often holds nine sticks and treats people with water and spells on the basis of traditional folk medicine. Using this as a cover, he widely publicized the theories and viewpoints in Taiping Jing about opposing exploitation and wealth accumulation and advocating equality and mutual love, and won the support of the poor people. Zhang Jiao also sent eight disciples to spread teachings in all directions. Develop disciples, "transform the world with good deeds." For more than a decade, Taiping Road has spread all over Qing, Xu, You, Ji, Jing, Yang, Yan and Yu, with hundreds of thousands of followers. Mainly poor farmers, but also urban craftsmen, individual officials and even eunuchs. Zhang Jiao divided the believers into 36 parties (parish organizations), with more than 10,000 senior officials and 67,000 small parties, each under the charge of Qu Shuai.

On this basis, according to the thinking method of "following the five elements" in Taiping Jing and the theory that the five elements coexist and resist each other, Zhang Jiao chose Jiazi Day in Jiazi year, that is, March 5th, the first year of Emperor Zhong Ping (184), to hold a great uprising. Zhang Jiao also put forward a resounding slogan of "Heaven dies, Huang Tianli stands, the age is in Jiazi, and the world is prosperous" to show that according to the law of the rise and fall of all things and the evolution of dynasties, the number of Han (Heaven) has been exhausted. As the representative of Tude (earthy yellow) and Huangtian, Taiping Road should replace the Han Dynasty. At the beginning of February, leaders and believers from all sides began to make preparations. They used lime to write slogans such as "Jiazi" on the gates of Luoyang and the walls of state and county governments.

Generous Qu Shuai first informed tens of thousands of believers in Jingzhou and Yangzhou to gather in Ye (Linzhang, Hebei) to prepare for the uprising. Therefore, the believers in charge of it began to concentrate on Yucheng. He also went to Luoyang many times to appoint Xu as an in-house waiter. On March 5, an uprising was held.

About ten days before the scheduled date of the uprising, that is, about February 15th, Tang Zhou, a native of Jinan and a believer in Taiping Road, wrote to the government to report on the uprising. Therefore, the court urgently captured Ma Yuanyi and divided the car into Luoyang; And urgently mobilized various forces to capture more than 1,000 followers of Zhang Jiao/KLOC-0. He also informed Jizhou to seize Zhang Jiao and his family.

Zhang Jiao and others discovered that things were exposed, that is, they informed all parties in various ways in the starry night and immediately rebelled. During the uprising, the insurgents first killed the captured corrupt officials and sacrificed them to heaven. During the uprising, Zhang Jiao's troops were all wrapped in the yellow turban insurrectionary (a symbol of the yellow sky), which was then called the "yellow turban insurrectionary army". After the uprising, Zhang Jiao claimed to be "the general of heaven", his younger brother Zhang Bao claimed to be "the general of earth" and his younger brother Sean claimed to be "the general of man". According to the theory in Taiping Jing that "if heaven governs, earth governs, man governs, and qi governs with three poles, everything will be treated differently".

After the uprising began, the masses responded one after another, either joining the army as believers or sending food and clothes, and the uprising army developed rapidly. After the rebels captured the towns, they often burned the government, killed corrupt officials and distributed their property to the people. Corrupt officials usually use their power as a gift. They were frightened when they heard the arrival of the rebels. Like a lost dog, many of them have escaped. In ten days, the world shook and the capital shook.

However, because the main body of the Yellow Scarf Army is farmers, the organization is not strict enough, and the policies and strategies are generally not well mastered. In addition to attacking the government, they also generally attacked strongmen, gentry and all kinds of rich children. As a result, the mighty scholars quickly stood up and cooperated with the government rebels. About ten months after the uprising, the main force of the Yellow Scarf Army was defeated by the government and powerful people. Soon, Zhang Jiao also died during this period.

The Yellow Scarf Uprising led by Zhang Jiao impacted the foundation of the Eastern Han Dynasty, which directly led to the warlord's separatist regime and melee in the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and then evolved into a three-legged situation. At the same time, it is also the first peasant uprising led by religion in the history of our country, which has far-reaching historical significance; It also laid a historical pattern for Taoism to spread and develop mainly in the lower classes of society in the future.