Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2003, Page 185
the beginning of religious sects, with their own gods, beliefs, scriptures, rituals, leaders, and
organizations, separate from the state and family‘.6 According to David Ownby it was at the
end of the Han dynasty that millennial elements from Buddhism and messianic elements
from Daoism mixed with popular religion to form the first Chinese sectarian movements.7
The millennial Buddhist elements included the belief in a cyclical pattern of kalpas, a period
of time which would end in calamities and destruction as one cycle ended and a new one
began, and the Daoist millennial elements included the belief in a messianic figure who
would appear to lead a select group to survive the calamities of a purged world. During this
period (following the fall of the Han dynasty), the ‗apocalyptic undertones‘ of one strain of
Daoism8 characterized their followers as ‗seed people‘, a group of elect who would
‗repopulate a new world purged by disasters‘. The texts speak of ‗mysterious beings‘ who
intervene to judge and save humankind, or more precisely, a select few.
According to Frederick Wakeman, this millenarian belief of a new kalpa, accompanied by
calamities from which one could find salvation by belief in a sect‘s teachings, would at times
‗call for a popular rebellion against the dark forces of secular government that held back the
victory of light‘.9 It was thought that although ‗[e]ach successive rebel group might be
destroyed, ...a new one would arise in its place‘.10 ‗This apocalyptic amalgam of Buddhist
chiliasm, Manicheanism, and messianic Taoism repeatedly inspired a pursuit of the
millennial in China‘.
Whether or not it was intentional on the part of Li Hongzhi when he created Falun Gong, his
teachings owe a great deal to this legacy. He too, teaches that the ‗Ending Period of
Catastrophe‘ is here, that the current age is degenerate and will be purged and only those
who are FLG practitioners will be saved.11 He too, speaks of ‗mysterious beings who
intervene‘ and calls Jiang Zemin, the president of China, ‗the highest representative of the
evil force in the human world‘ who is being used by higher beings to persecute the FLG.
Only when the evil is eliminated can FLG practitioners ‗return home‘ through Consummation
to the Falun Dafa paradise (Falun Dafa is another name for the movement. It means the
Great Law of the Law of the Wheel).
Regarding the response of the state to such groups: Judith Berling comments that ‗[a]s far
back as the Han dynasty, and increasingly from the Sung on [960-1279], millenarian cults
and secret societies had been linked with uprisings and rebellions. Nervous scholar-officials
came to see a potential rebellion in every religious gathering‘.12 Since the state assumed
‗the right to control religious institutions and to define acceptable religious practices... [a]
religion whose adherents offended the government might be legally proscribed and its books
burned‘.13 According to David Ownby, ‗The Chinese government has suppressed movements
like the Falun Gong hundred of times over the course of Chinese history‘, adding that the
Chinese Communist government did ‗the same thing the imperial state had always done,
which was to arrest and generally, not always, execute the leaders and pretend to
reeducate the others and send them back home and hope that they would be good people
from there on‘.14
While many sectarian groups in Chinese history did not foment revolt or cause the state
problems, the ones that did formed the basis for the state‘s fear and the ruler-sectarian
paradigm. At the end of the Han dynasty in 184 there was the messianic rebellion of the
Yellow Turbans, and according to Ownby, in the fifth and sixth centuries in northern China
there were ‗ten ―Buddhist-inspired uprisings‖ [which] led believers to rise up against both
church and state‘. Ownby mentions one instance in 445 when an emperor ‗ordered that all
Buddhist monks in the empire be killed and all Buddhist buildings, images, and books
destroyed‘. He comments that ‗[t]he decree was not carried out on this scale, but it
suggests nonetheless the fear such incidents evoked‘.15 The most successful of all sectarian
leaders was Zhu Yuanzhang who, in 1368, led a rebellion that overthrew the Yuan dynasty
the beginning of religious sects, with their own gods, beliefs, scriptures, rituals, leaders, and
organizations, separate from the state and family‘.6 According to David Ownby it was at the
end of the Han dynasty that millennial elements from Buddhism and messianic elements
from Daoism mixed with popular religion to form the first Chinese sectarian movements.7
The millennial Buddhist elements included the belief in a cyclical pattern of kalpas, a period
of time which would end in calamities and destruction as one cycle ended and a new one
began, and the Daoist millennial elements included the belief in a messianic figure who
would appear to lead a select group to survive the calamities of a purged world. During this
period (following the fall of the Han dynasty), the ‗apocalyptic undertones‘ of one strain of
Daoism8 characterized their followers as ‗seed people‘, a group of elect who would
‗repopulate a new world purged by disasters‘. The texts speak of ‗mysterious beings‘ who
intervene to judge and save humankind, or more precisely, a select few.
According to Frederick Wakeman, this millenarian belief of a new kalpa, accompanied by
calamities from which one could find salvation by belief in a sect‘s teachings, would at times
‗call for a popular rebellion against the dark forces of secular government that held back the
victory of light‘.9 It was thought that although ‗[e]ach successive rebel group might be
destroyed, ...a new one would arise in its place‘.10 ‗This apocalyptic amalgam of Buddhist
chiliasm, Manicheanism, and messianic Taoism repeatedly inspired a pursuit of the
millennial in China‘.
Whether or not it was intentional on the part of Li Hongzhi when he created Falun Gong, his
teachings owe a great deal to this legacy. He too, teaches that the ‗Ending Period of
Catastrophe‘ is here, that the current age is degenerate and will be purged and only those
who are FLG practitioners will be saved.11 He too, speaks of ‗mysterious beings who
intervene‘ and calls Jiang Zemin, the president of China, ‗the highest representative of the
evil force in the human world‘ who is being used by higher beings to persecute the FLG.
Only when the evil is eliminated can FLG practitioners ‗return home‘ through Consummation
to the Falun Dafa paradise (Falun Dafa is another name for the movement. It means the
Great Law of the Law of the Wheel).
Regarding the response of the state to such groups: Judith Berling comments that ‗[a]s far
back as the Han dynasty, and increasingly from the Sung on [960-1279], millenarian cults
and secret societies had been linked with uprisings and rebellions. Nervous scholar-officials
came to see a potential rebellion in every religious gathering‘.12 Since the state assumed
‗the right to control religious institutions and to define acceptable religious practices... [a]
religion whose adherents offended the government might be legally proscribed and its books
burned‘.13 According to David Ownby, ‗The Chinese government has suppressed movements
like the Falun Gong hundred of times over the course of Chinese history‘, adding that the
Chinese Communist government did ‗the same thing the imperial state had always done,
which was to arrest and generally, not always, execute the leaders and pretend to
reeducate the others and send them back home and hope that they would be good people
from there on‘.14
While many sectarian groups in Chinese history did not foment revolt or cause the state
problems, the ones that did formed the basis for the state‘s fear and the ruler-sectarian
paradigm. At the end of the Han dynasty in 184 there was the messianic rebellion of the
Yellow Turbans, and according to Ownby, in the fifth and sixth centuries in northern China
there were ‗ten ―Buddhist-inspired uprisings‖ [which] led believers to rise up against both
church and state‘. Ownby mentions one instance in 445 when an emperor ‗ordered that all
Buddhist monks in the empire be killed and all Buddhist buildings, images, and books
destroyed‘. He comments that ‗[t]he decree was not carried out on this scale, but it
suggests nonetheless the fear such incidents evoked‘.15 The most successful of all sectarian
leaders was Zhu Yuanzhang who, in 1368, led a rebellion that overthrew the Yuan dynasty
