Religious Rebellion and a New Era
But belief in the imminent arrival of Maitreya surfaced once again in the fourteenth century, with a rebellion in 1338, and a further two in 1351. One of these, often designated the Red Turban uprising, proved to be the environment out of which the future Ming dynasty arose.
The consequences of this are that though the movement unleashed widespread warfare across central China, the record of its religious message and of the relationship of the Ming founder to that message has been very carefully obscured in our sources. Official history does show what was apparently undeniable: that Zhu Yuanzhang (1328-98), the future emperor, had passed some time as a Buddhist monk in early adulthood. It is also clear that the Red Turbans had proclaimed the coming of a King of Light, and that the son of the original but rapidly eliminated leader was known as the Lesser King of Light. After the ostensibly accidental drowning of this young man while under the protection of Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming - literally the dynasty of ‘light’ - was announced in 1368. Though this move may have been designed to bring in the remains of the Red Turban forces, the Ming founder spent the rest of his reign cracking down hard on any forms of religious organisation that did not accord with the carefully regulated clerical forms of Buddhism and Daoism recognised by his government.Such precautions did not prevent his immediate successors from having to face further rebellions, as false Maitreyas continued to appear in quick succession.[690] One religious uprising in 1420 was led by a woman who managed after its suppression to evade arrest. She is said to have declared herself a ‘Buddha mother', that is, in all likelihood a manifestation of the Tantric goddess Cundi, who appears as a powerful figure in popular novels from later in the dynasty, suggesting that her cult had found some resonance beyond clerical circles; the term had already appeared in 1338 applied to the wife of a rebel leader.[691] The characterisation may, however, be due to her pursuers: no one can be faulted for not catching an eighteen-armed goddess. Her legend certainly outlived her by centuries.
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