Well, this is the stage and historical background of the story in volumes seven and eight (don't ask me where volume eight is)......

I wish you all a happy Chinese New Year.

A Brief History of the Taiping Religion

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This article introduces the Taiping Dao religion in a broad sense. For one of the Taoist sects commonly known as "Taipingism" by some Koman people, see "Taiping Sect (Yellow Turban)" for details.

Taiping Christianity is a monotheistic religion that believes in the Tao of creation of the world (also known as the Great Dao, the Heavenly Dao, the Right Path, the True Dao, and the Dao Zun on different occasions), and is taught by the Tao Te Ching and related ecclesiacs. A giant deer that originated in the Eastern Han Empire during the reign of Emperor Ling of the Eastern Han Dynasty (1st century of the standard calendar).

In theology, monotheism holds that there is only one encompassing God. The monotheism that currently exists is mainly Daoism, including Taoism, Tianshijiao, Taipingism, and the only Helios God Church (mainstream school) influenced by them. In contrast to monotheism, polytheism and pantheism believe that there is more than one god in the world or that everything in the world is a god, respectively.

It is generally believed that the germ of monotheism was founded by Lear before his journey to the west, and that it was perfected into a universal religion with mature church organization and doctrine during the period from Zhang Ling to Zhang Jiao.

The Tao Te Ching is regarded by the Taiping Sect as a classic inspired by the creator god "Dao" word by word to its spokesperson Lao Tzu (Li Er). The name Tao comes from the first chapter of the Tao Te Ching, "Tao can be the way, the very way, the name can be named, the very name." It probably means, "You can use the Tao as the name of the Word, but it is not his real name, and if we give the Word a name, the name does not describe the power of the Word." ”

Some Taoists believe that this phrase also contains the meaning of "not to use the name of 'Dao' to call the Tao (true god)", and they often use "heaven" instead of the name of "Dao", for example, in the creed of the Yellow Turban Sect (the sky is dead, the yellow heaven should stand, the year is in Jiazi, the world is auspicious). Some fundamentalist doctrines hold that Lao Tzu himself is one of the incarnations of the Tao, and call him the Moral Celestial Deity, and constitute the true God called the Tao in the form of a trinity. [Controversy]

The names of the Taoists and cultivators also come from this root, which means "the one who learns the will of the Tao." The Taoist people believe in the unique and unparalleled "righteous way", the only purpose of life is to carry out the will of the "righteous way", and the Tao has sent many spokespersons to mankind, the greatest of which is Lao Tzu (Li Er), who preached the Tao Te Ching, but there are also many lesser spokespersons, such as Zhang Ling, Zhang Jiao, Zhang Zai, etc.

Some religious scholars believe that such teachings greatly expanded the inclusiveness of Taiping Christianity, and made modern Taiping Christianity and the emerging Pan-Taoist Religion the number one religion above the Covenant Orthodox Church, the Entente Protestantism, and the One Sun God Church. [DISPUTE, SOURCE NEEDED]

In the early days, there was only one church in the Taiping Sect, but in the course of its history, it was divided into many sects, mainly Taoism, Yellow Turban Sect, Hengqu Sect, Tianshi Sect, and some other less influential sects. Among them, the term "Taipingjiao" or "Taoism" is often used as a general term for the entire Taoist system, and "Taoist" and "cultivator" are often used as synonyms for all Taoists. The "Taipingism" or "Yellow Turbanism" of the Coman language group sometimes refers to the general term of Taiping Sect and Hengqu Sect, which is a unique phenomenon of the Koman language family.

Taiping can refer to the content of Taoist beliefs, or it can refer to the sum of all Taoist churches, or the sum of all Taoist people. These three cannot be completely separated, but there are certain differences, and if they can be carefully identified when used, some unnecessary arguments can be avoided.

Table of Contents[hide]

1 Scriptures and Doctrines

2 History of the Taiping religion

3 denominations

4 Holy City

5 important people

6 References

classic

The basic classic of the Taiping religion is the Daozang, which consists of the Tao Te Ching and the vast Daozang, which was written and collated over a period of about 2,000 years.

The Tao Te Ching was compiled in the Spring and Autumn Period when the Eastern Empire was formed, and according to legend, the author was Lao Tzu (Li Er, Lao Dan, and Daode Tianzun). According to the records of Oriental historians, Lao Tzu sent a letter to the west, and was ordered by Yin Xi to stay, leaving 5,000 words of "Tao Te Ching" and riding a green ox. His ideas had a great influence on Confucianism, another important school of thought in the East. The primitive Confucian, Taoist, and Yin-Yang ideas together form the theoretical core of "Dongyi magic". [Controversy]

The classic of the Taiping religion, "Lao Tzu Hua Hu Jing", believes that after Lao Tzu and Yin Xi passed through the later Western Tang Dynasty, and finally arrived at the Muleiman Islands, and left the most primitive Taoist ideas in the local area, so Zhang Jiao arrived in this area with the "Taiping Jing" to quickly convert the local barbarians to the right path. The new sect of the New World, the Quanzhen Sect, believed that Lao Tzu had later crossed the Endless Ocean to reach the New World and taught the true meaning of the Tao to the local barbarians, but most orthodox sects believed that it was impossible for Lao Tzu to cross the Endless Ocean with the navigation and magic techniques of the time. [citation needed]

doctrine

One God and Creation: The Taiping Sect believes that the Tao changed three times, creating everything in the world. In the Taiping religion, the number three is sacred.

Trinity: Most Taiping believers believe that there are three persons of the single Tao, namely Yuqing, Shangqing, and Taiqing, that is, the Three Qings. The lord of Yuqing is the Yuan Shi Tianzun, the lord of the Shangqing is Lingbao Tianzun, and the lord of Taiqing is the moral Tianzun (Taishang Laojun, that is, Laozi).

Redemption and the Last Judgment: The Taiping Sect believes that this life (the heavens) will eventually end and be replaced by the next life (the yellow heavens). In a certain Jiazi year (whether the specific time or the symbolic time is disputed), all the people under heaven will be judged according to their faith in the Tao and their execution of virtue.

Taiping theology holds that since Lao Tzu (Li Er) preached the message of righteousness, all the sages, sages, and heavenly masters have been preaching the same message since then. The Taiping Sutra refers to traditional Taoists and Celestial Masters as "Taoists" to distinguish these religions from Confucianism, Buddhism, and Western polytheism. They believed that Li Er was the embodiment of the Tao God, and that Zhang Ling, who founded the church, was the first celestial master. The mainstream and Hengqu factions believe that only those with the surname Zhang can be the heavenly master and heir, while the Eastern Heavenly Master faction and the New World faction do not agree with this view.

By the 11th century, Zhang Zai (i.e., Zhang Hengqu) introduced the science of science to carry out reforms, which was also the first religious reform in history, more than 400 years before the 15th century religious reform of the orthodox church.

The symbol of the Taiping religion is the Tai Chi Tu, and the mainstream school worships the yellow turban that represents the Last Judgment, so it is often referred to as the Yellow Turban Sect.

Book from the sky

Also known as the Book of Heaven. Alphabetical scripts widely used in the territory of the Yellow Turban.

It was designed by Zhang Xu, the twenty-second heir. Originally intended to meet the writing needs of most of the non-Han Taoists under his rule, it was later popularized among all Taoists outside the cultural class.

Since most sects forbade figure painting, a large number of artists throughout the ages poured their enthusiasm into the art of calligraphy, making Tianshu a rich artistic variant.

As a phonetic script, Tianshu can be used by various Taoists to spell their own language (adding or subtracting letters as the phonetics change), but the classical Tianshu, which is based on the standard Tao Te Ching, has become a bridge for Taoists who do not understand each other.

history

The predecessor of the Taiping Church, the Wudoumi Church, was founded by Zhang Daoling in Heming Mountain in the western part of the empire during the reign of Emperor Shun of the Eastern Han Dynasty (about the first century of the standard calendar), and the Taiping Taoist Church was founded slightly later by Zhang Jiao in the second century of the standard calendar in Julu in the eastern part of the empire. The two churches merged after the First Han-Zhong Conference.

In the beginning, Taiping Christianity was a suppressed and persecuted religion in the Eastern Empire, so a massive Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out. In the third generation of Zhang Lu, with the Yellow Turban Rebellion that swept the Eastern Han Empire, a unified Taiping Church was established in the name of "Peace in the World", with Zhang Jiao as the ruler and Zhang Lu as the heir. This revolt essentially destroyed the Han Empire and continued to plague the Wei and Jin dynasties that succeeded to its power, until the split between the Eastern and Western Churches during the reign of Kou Qian initially resolved the problem.

Before the end of the second century of the standard calendar, the Taiping Sect spread out of the Eastern Empire, reaching today's Western Tang, Mureman, Jiaonan, Yingzhou and other places, and as far as the Elven Empire. At that time, it was the heyday of the Elven Empire, and the introduction of monotheistic theories had a great impact on the Church of the Sun God, and the theories of "righteousness" and "church" also greatly influenced the development and evolution of the Covenant churches that were underground at that time. It is generally believed that the "covenant" ideology and perfect bishopric/bishopric system of the Orthodox and Ecumenical Church come from the "righteous way" and the organizational structure of "channel" and "square" of the Taiping Taoist Church.

The establishment of the Taiping Church is a religious polity that integrates church and state. Within 10 years of Zhang Jiao's army, this "Taiping Dao Kingdom" had already owned nearly half of the Eastern Empire, the entire Western Regions, and part of Jiaonan. But the fact that there were two sects inherent in this polity led to the failure of the uprising. Zhang Lu was defeated by Liu Bei, a famous general of the Eastern Empire, and led the Hanzhong army to surrender to Cao Cao, and Zhang Jiao, who led the main army back, was killed in battle west of Hanguan, and the Taiping Dao forces withdrew from the Eastern Empire itself, and its power was transferred to the future Murrayman states.

After Zhang Liang's death, many civil wars broke out in the Taiping Daoguo, and it was not until the period of Sun En and Lu Xun that a stable Taiping Daoguo system was established. During this period, although the Taiping Sect continued to fight civil wars, its beliefs and power continued to spread to the surrounding areas, and brought general order to the chaotic and long-standing Mulleyman Islands and peninsula regions, and established the glorious Taiping Dao civilization.

The church disputes with the Eastern Zhang Lu-Ge Xuan-Xu Xun faction were intermittent, and finally reached a peak when Kou Qianzhi mastered the Eastern Heavenly Master Sect. Kou Qianzhi reached a consensus with the imperial court at the time, ending the Taiping Dao Rebellion, which lasted for more than 200 years, and transforming the Eastern Church into a religious organization under imperial power, but also led to a complete split between the Eastern and Western Taiping Religions. Since then, the Eastern Taiping Church has generally been called the "Heavenly Master Sect" to distinguish it from the mainstream sect.

In the 7th century of the standard calendar, the Tang Empire was established, and its royal family was surnamed Li, the same sect as the ancestor of the Taiping Sect, Lao Tzu (Li Er), and the Taiping Sect became the state religion of the Tang Empire, which was legalized with the "Chang'an Edict". The Daoists regarded this achievement as a victory for the Dao, and the Taiping Sect entered a golden age, and all of them from the Roof Mountain Range and the east of Qianlong Sea were under the radiation of the Taiping Sect.

During this period, the Daoist people continued to expand through military force and peaceful missions, and the Taiping trade routes also expanded to Interre, Yingzhou, and the Spice Islands, and a second mission center was established in what was later the Western Tang Dynasty. The Golden Age ushered in new developments in law, philosophy, and religion. The main Taoist classics were compiled during the reign of Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty (i.e., the Kaiyuan Daozang), and most of the major monastic sects that continued to modern times, such as Maoshan, Shenxiao, Kunlun, Shushan, etc., were also established during this golden period. At this time, the Elven Empire and the First Dynasty of the Holy Korman Empire had collapsed, and the Western world fell into the Dark Ages, a large number of priests, scholars, and magicians took refuge in the Taiping world, and cultural exchanges brought unprecedented prosperity, and Qingniu Mansion, Xiping Mansion, and Chang'an all became world-class metropolises.

But the good times did not last long, since the ninth century of the standard calendar, with the civil war and de facto division of the Tang Empire, the warlords in various places have been divided, the Eastern Empire has fallen into war and decline, the barbarians on the border and the barbarian army that have been incorporated will run rampant in the interior of the empire, the barbarian regimes on the border have been established one by one, and the internal careerists have also risen one after another. The legitimacy of the Taiping Sect was severely challenged by the decline of the Eastern Empire, and during this period, the Taiping Sect repeatedly organized cathars to protect the Holy Land, at great cost. This led to a halt to the westward expansion of the Taiping Sect.

Since the re-establishment of the Holy Empire in the 11th century, the emperors of the empire launched a series of southern expeditions to counter the occupation of the southern territories of the empire by the Taipings. The initial southern expedition was very successful, and the empire established a series of duchies and princely states in East Interre, the Sinkti Peninsula, Qianlong Island, and even the Huahu Island and the Mureman Peninsula. Originally, the empire could have completely absorbed the southern islands into territory, but their gains were reconquered by Zhang Zai, the later leader of the Taiping religious reform, and his successors. Zhang Zai's disciple Han Gang moved the capital of the Taiping Daoist Kingdom to the Taiping Mansion on Qianlong Island, and used it as the center to confront the Holy Empire.

In the twelfth century, during the reign of Fang La, the Taiping states turned their attention to the East. However, in this historical period known as the "Black Tide", the entire Tang Empire and all the vassal states within it, as well as the nearby civilized barbarian states, were almost completely swept away by the unprecedentedly powerful invader "Black Undead", and the undead trampled through Qingniu Mansion with iron hooves, and only Taiping Mansion and Xiping Mansion survived. Lu Yun's ruling government formed a grand alliance against the plague of the undead, and eventually defeated them.

Both the Taiping Dao kingdoms at this time and the rebuilt Later Tang Empire were loose and fragile regimes, filled with barbarians who had settled during the plague of the dead. However, this formed a new era of immigrant Taipingdao civilization complex, which further stabilized its position in East Interre, the Spice Islands, and even Yingzhou until the fall of the Tang Empire and the outbreak of the civil war of the Holy Koman Empire in the 16th century.

The civil war of the Holy Koman Empire brought with it a new type of religion called "Protestantism" and a new regime under the name "United Provincial Republic". This regime erupted with a powerful fighting power that the decaying Holy Empire could not match, not only seizing the Eastern Interre, but also in fact opening up the entire sea route between the East and the West within fifty years, and its tentacles reached as far as the Eastern Empire itself. As a result of the series of defeats, the Taiping Province also lost control of the Murrayman and Western Tang states, and a series of medium-sized regimes appeared in the Qianlong Islands and the Murrayman Peninsula, and in addition to the heirs, there were four or five powerful rulers who controlled the land, each of a different sect.

The closest thing to the later secularist Taiping religion was the Western Tang regime, centered on Xipingfu, which was the predecessor of the later Far Eastern Republic. Around the same time, in the territory of the East China Sea Protectorate of the Hua Dynasty in the New World, the Taoist priests of the Quanzhen sect established their own Taiping religion in Yanzhou. This part of the Taoist priesthood will be called the "New Heresy" in the future.

sect

Like the major religions, Taiping is rich in a large number of sects that share the same religious essence but differ significantly in theology and law. The Heavenly Master School and the Yellow Turban School are the most basic divisions, and the Hengqu School is considered a type of mysticism of Taiping Christianity, representing a combination of Confucianism and Taiping Christianity.

Primitive Taoism: Primitive Taoism is the primitive Taoism before the reforms of Zhang Ling and Zhang Lu.

Yellow Turban Sect: The Yellow Turban Sect is a mainstream faction led by the Great Heavenly Master Zhang Jiao and established after reaching Murrayman after the Western Expedition.

Celestial Master Sect: The Celestial Master Sect is a faction founded by Zhang Lu and his successors who remained in the Eastern Empire, and its influence is mainly in the Eastern Empire.

Hengqu faction: The Hengqu faction is a post-reform faction established by Zhang Zai and perfected by Zhang Sanfeng, advocating qi learning and the integration of three religions.

Fundamentalists: The fundamentalists believed that only the Tao Te Ching was the only foundation of the Taiping Dao, and did not recognize the works of later heavenly masters.

Quanzhen (heresy): The Quanzhen sect's forces are mainly in the New World, and they believe that Lao Tzu traveled west to reach the New World, and the cultivators of the New World can also become Heavenly Masters.

Holy City

Luoyang - there is a ceremonial monument, which is said to have been made by Lao Tzu when he served as a historian. Every Taoist should go to Luoyang, Hanguan, and Julu in his life.

Hanguan - According to legend, Lao Tzu wrote the "Tao Te Ching" here, and it is also the place where Zhang Jiao died.

Crane Ming - Legend has it that Zhang Ling founded the church here.

Julu - Zhang Jiao set off the Yellow Turban Rebellion here and established the first Taiping Sect.

Guangzong - Zhang Jiao defeated the attack of Lu Zhi, Dong Zhuo and other famous generals of the Eastern Empire here.

Hengqu - Zhang Zai's hometown, where he preached before he was persecuted to the west. There is a Hengqu Academy.

Qingniu Mansion - the religious center of the global Taiping Church, the office of the former heir. According to legend, it is the place where Lao Tzu preached and ascended.

Huahu Province - the administrative center of the Muleiman regime, where Zhang Jiao established the theocratic Muleiman regime.

Taiping Mansion - Founded by Zhang Zai's disciple Han Gang, the largest city in the Taiping Sect in the world. Later, it became the center of the Hengqu regime.

Yanzhou - an important town located in the western part of Xinzhou, the center of Late Taoism.

Xinjing – the capital of the Far Eastern Republic and the center of secularist theology.

Important people

Early Taoism

Lao Tzu - also known as Li Er, Lao Dan. All Taiping and Pan-Taoist religions recognize Lao Tzu as the spokesman of the Tao.

Yin Xi - an official of Hanguan. persuaded Lao Tzu to leave the Tao Te Ching and travel west with him.

Wenzi - a disciple of Lao Tzu, stayed in the Eastern Empire. It is generally believed that the Taoist school before it became a religion in the early days was founded by him.

Lie Yukou - Zheng Ren in the Spring and Autumn Period, the author of "Liezi".

Zhuang Zhou - Song people of the Warring States Period, the author of "Zhuangzi".

Liu An - King of Huainan of the Western Han Empire. Author of "Huainanzi". It is generally believed that he founded the first primitive church. It is said that the Tao ascends, and "if a person attains the Tao, the chicken and dog ascend to heaven" is the idiom that describes him.

The period of the Church of the Celestial Masters

Zhang Ling - the legendary first Heavenly Master, the founder of the Church. There is a lot of controversy about whether this person exists or not.

Zhang Heng - Legend has it that he is the son of Zhang Ling. He used five buckets of rice as the symbol of the church.

Zhang Lu - self-proclaimed son of Zhang Heng, the third generation of heavenly masters. At the First Hanzhong Righteous Path Conference, he passed the position of heir of the Heavenly Master Church to Zhang Jiao, and jointly established the Taiping Sect with Hanzhong, Lianglan, and the Western Regions as the center. Later, it was broken by Liu Bei's regime, and led the remnants of the Heavenly Master Church to surrender to Cao Cao.

Ge Xuan, who founded the Lingbao Sect after Zhang Lu's death, was regarded as one of the four great heavenly masters alongside Zhang Ling by the Celestial Master Church left within the Eastern Empire.

Xu Xun - the patriarch of the Pure Ming Dao Church. After Ge Xuan, he split the Eastern Church again, one of the four Heavenly Masters considered by the Eastern Sect.

Kou Qianzhi – the one who eventually divided the Eastern and Western churches. He claims to be the Heavenly Master of Taishang Laojun and is the leader of the Eastern Heavenly Master Church. However, the Eastern Heavenly Master Church he founded eventually split into many smaller factions under the pressure of the imperial court, and the ancestral altar of the Eastern Heavenly Master Church also disappeared without a trace. He is called "Kou Qianzhi the Apostate" by the mainstream faction.

Taiping Church period

Zhang Jiao, the founder of the Yellow Turban School, is revered as the Great Sage and Good Teacher, the Great Heavenly Master, and the founder of the first Taiping Sect. He reformed the Heavenly Master Sect and together with Zhang Lu established the universal Unified Taiping Church, and since then all the open and secret sects in the East have been the inheritance of the Taiping Sect.

Zhang Bao - Zhang Jiao's younger brother. Successfully retreated from Gwangjong and opened up the territory of the Western Regions.

Zhang Liang - Zhang Jiao's younger brother. An expeditionary force was organized to reach what is now Mureman, and a regime was established.

During his reign, Sun En organized the First Crusade in the 4th century of the Standard Calendar.

Lu Xun - Sun En's brother-in-law. Sun En took over the throne after his death, but ultimately failed to gain a foothold in the Eastern Empire.

Lu Xiujing - at the same time as Kou Qian. The Eastern Church organization, which was unwilling to submit to the Tao of the Heavenly Master, merged with the mainstream of the Taiping Church in the west.

Wang Xuanlan - During his tenure in power, he reached a reconciliation with the Tang Empire, and the Eastern and Western churches once again reached an understanding and jointly became the state religion of the Tang Empire.

Fang La, the leader of the Taiping Sect in the 12th century of the Standard Calendar, slightly later than Zhang Zai and Han Gang, but belonged to the orthodox school. During his tenure, he launched another crusade to the east, conquering large areas of coastal land in the Eastern Empire for a time, and recovering Julu and Guangzong. But its results were eventually swallowed up by the Kuroshio.

Hengqu Church period

Zhang Zai - a philosopher and religious reformer in the 11th century of the standard calendar, and one of the founders of science. put forward four sentences of horizontal canal, which was affected by the party dispute and resigned and went overseas.

Han Gang, a disciple of Zhang Zai, was the prime minister of the Eastern Empire. After losing the political struggle, he went to Muleiman, expelled the Koman army, built the Taiping Mansion, and unified the Taiping Sect. During his tenure, the administrative center of the Taiping Sect was transferred from the declining Huahu Province to the Taiping Province.

Lu Yun – The leader of the Hengqu faction who cleaned up the situation after Fang La's fiasco. At the cost of the fall of Qingniufu, he stopped the Kuroshio Current, refocused on the Western Front, and during his tenure recovered Xiazhou, fighting the Intre Islands with the Holy Empire's expeditionary forces.

Zhang Sanfeng, the most important leader of the Hengqu Church in the middle period, was active in the 14th century. On the basis of the unity of Confucianism and Taoism, the three religions of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism were integrated into the Taiping system, and "Tao" was considered to be the common source of the three religions.

References

1. A New History of the Ancient History of Akra / A New History of the Middle Ages of Akra

2. Tao Te Ching

3. "Lao Tzu Hua Hu Jing" [This entry is disputed, see discussion page]

4. "The Legend of the Immortals"

5. "The Family of the Han Heavenly Master" [This entry is disputed, see discussion page]

6. "The Yellow Turban's Conquest of History"

7. "History of the Taiping Army's Expedition"

8. "Hengqu Jing", that is, "Chongwen Collection"

9. "Taiping Sutra", that is, "Taiping Qing Lingshu"

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