White Lotus Rebellion - White Lotus Rebellion

Japanese: 白蓮教の乱 - びゃくれんきょうのらん

The White Lotus Rebellion, a secret religious society in China. Since the Southern Song Dynasty, the White Lotus Sect has been considered a representative heretical cult, but it was originally a religious society of Amitabha Pure Land faith. Meanwhile, there are Maitreya believers who preached "Maitreya Buddha descends to earth" and raised the flag of rebellion from the Sui and Tang Dynasties. However, this Maitreya Sect was mixed into the White Lotus Sect, whose followers were mostly from the lower classes, and at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, it caused the Red Turban Rebellion. Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming Emperor who emerged from this rebellion, rejected and suppressed the White Lotus Sect as a heretical cult in the process of unifying the country, but the organization remained strong, and in the Yongle period (1403-24), more than 10,000 people followed Tang Sai'er, who called herself the Mother of Buddha and was said to be an enchantress, in the rebellion in Shandong.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

中国の宗教的秘密結社，白蓮教徒の反乱。南宋以来，異端邪教の代表とされる白蓮教は，本来，阿弥陀浄土信仰の宗教結社であった。一方，隋･唐より〈弥勒仏下生〉を唱え，反旗をひるがえす弥勒教徒の存在がみられるが，下層階級に教民の多い白蓮教の中にいつしかこの弥勒教が混入し，元末には紅巾の乱を起こした。この大乱の中から興起した明太祖朱元璋は，天下統一の過程で白蓮教を邪教として切りすて禁圧したが，その組織は根強く残存し，永楽年間(1403‐24)，山東で仏母を称し妖女といわれた唐賽児の乱には万余の人が従っている。

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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