Mahayana Rebellion - Daijōkyō toran

Japanese: 大乗教徒の乱 - だいじょうきょうとのらん

In June 515 (Yanchang 4), when Emperor Xiaoming ascended to the throne at the end of the Northern Wei Dynasty in China, a popular rebellion broke out in Bohai (Shandong Province) led by the monk Faqing. Faqing was from Jizhou (Hebei Province). He called himself a Mahayana and, together with the Ten-Dwelling Bodhisattva Li Guibo, led over 50,000 people in a rebellion, but it was finally put down four months later after a punitive force of 100,000 was dispatched from the central government. Mahayana sutras explain the ranks one must attain to the rank of Bodhisattva through training, but Faqing taught that the rank increases according to the number of murders one makes, and he bestowed the rank of One-Dwelling Bodhisattva for every person killed. He also chanted, "A new Buddha will appear in the world and remove the old demons," destroying temple sutras and statues, and massacring monks and laypeople alike.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

中国，北魏末の孝明帝が即位した515年(延昌4)の6月，渤海(山東省)の地に沙門法慶（ほうきよう）を指導者として起こった民衆反乱。法慶は冀州(河北省)の人。みずから大乗と号し，〈十住菩薩〉李帰伯とともに5万余の民衆を率いて反乱を起こしたが，中央から10万の討伐軍が派遣されて4ヵ月後にようやく鎮圧された。大乗経典には，修行して菩薩にいたる位階が説かれているが，法慶は，位階は殺人の数によって高くなると説いて，人ひとり殺せば一住菩薩の位を授けるとともに，〈新仏出世して旧魔を除去す〉と唱えては，寺院経像を破壊し，僧俗を問わず殺戮を重ねた。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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