We have discussed in detail how much of Buddhist eschatology in China was simply a gloss on indigenous themes and ideas. With all that being said, however, the Buddhist arrival in China did introduce something new into the indigenous apocalyptic scheme. This was a concept of three ages. It was not, however, anything like Joachim’s Three Ages and bore no resemblance to the Three Ages system that would later develop in Chinese eschatology under the Ming. Those systems are both... Read more
By the time that Zhu Yuanzhang rode to the imperial throne on the back of Maitreyan prophecy in the fourteenth century, the Chinese apocalyptic narrative had been relatively stable and established for over a thousand years. As we have seen, various figures—Li Hong, Prince Moonlight, Maitreya—fulfilled the role of messiah in that narrative. But the role that the messiah was expected to play in the grand scheme of things remained mostly constant. It was an important and long-lasting component of... Read more
Before we can adequately discuss the nature of this popular sectarianism and its own tripartite scheme of history, we have to acknowledge how far Chinese apocalyptic thought had come since we last examined it in the immediate centuries after the fall of the Han Dynasty. The biggest new development was the introduction of a new religion into the Chinese cultural sphere. With it came a new messiah. When we last looked at China, the apocalyptic atmosphere was largely Taoist... Read more
It has often been noted that great ideas have the odd tendency of occurring independently to two separate individuals at exactly the same time. Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace both worked out the theory of evolution simultaneously despite there being little contact between them. Had Elisha Grey been but a few hours quicker in filing his patent, he and not Alexander Graham Bell would be recognized as the inventor of the telephone. It is almost as though a truly... Read more
“A prophet foretells the future,” as Marjorie Reeves says. “He can also create it” (135). Her statement on Joachim’s influence remains apt. He did, of course, create the future, in more ways than one. His realization that history is a process, ever evolving, developing, and changing, introduced a revolution in human thought that transformed the medieval world into the modern one. His dream of a different and better future gave birth to countless other dreams of future improvement and progress.... Read more
Among Joachim of Fiore’s many remarkable ideas, his unique understanding of the Antichrist has, from his own times until now, never failed to excite interest. This can be succinctly demonstrated by the fact that, on the day my previous article on Joachim went live, I happened across a slideshow article from the website Stars Insider entitled “What do we know about the Antichrist?” Joachim is featured prominently but his world-transforming idea of the Three Ages goes completely unmentioned. Rather,... Read more
Everything you believe about the world can be traced back to an apocalyptic prophet who lived in the twelfth century. Everything. I’m well-aware that this is a bold statement to make. I do not, after all, know who you are or what you believe. But I do know that your beliefs about the world, as well as my own, and those of everyone living today have been shaped by our shared experience of the thing we call modernity.... Read more
There are a number of things in the historical record that suggest that Shu-Han possessed millennialist proclivities. One of the less certain ones deals with a topic from a previous entry, Liu Bei’s relations with Zhang Lu. While Liu Bei in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms is generally indifferent to Zhang Lu’s fate, in history he was deeply interested in bringing Zhang Lu over to his side. This was especially true after Cao Cao captured Hanzhong, despite Liu Bei... Read more
As noted previously. Liu Bei’s realm was centered in the region of Sichuan and has become so identified with it that the two are often treated as contiguous, despite the fact that Shu-Han contained areas such as Hanzhong that are beyond the bounds of the modern province. But by the time Liu Bei settled in Sichuan and made the provincial seat of Chengdu his capital, both the city and the wider region had long been a hotbed of millennialist activity.... Read more
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms establishes a clear dividing line between its heroic protagonists and their opponents. Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang, and the other heroes of Shu-Han are seeking to restore the Han Dynasty, teetering on the brink of collapse, to its former glory. Their quest is to restore the “good old days” that supposedly existed during the Han’s height of power. Cao Cao, Sun Quan, and most of the other warlords seek to replace the Han with their... Read more
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