White Lotus (late Yuan)

Timeline

1. 1200–1325Jiangnan and the Huai River basin · JiangnanIn the Southern Song, Mao Ziyuan promoted the White Lotus sect, gathering lay believers to recite the Buddha's name. Under the Yuan, White Lotus halls and societies spread widely; the court banned them repeatedly and also at times lifted the bans. In the second Taiding year, Zhao Chousi and Guo Pusa gathered crowds with the White Lotus teaching in Xizhou, showing the societies already had rebellious potential.
2. 1330–1340Henan, Jiangxi, and Huaixi · Henan and JiangbeiFrom the Tianli and Zhishun eras into the early Zhiyuan years, famines and popular uprisings were frequent. Peng Yingyu and others organized uprisings with the White Lotus teaching in Yuanzhou, Jiangxi; after failure they moved to hide in Huaixi. Northern sects also secretly spread the doctrine of Maitreya's descent around Ying and Bo, shifting from open lotus societies to underground networks.
3. 1341–1350Yingzhou · YingzhouHan Shantong's family had practiced White Lotus for generations; with Liu Futong and others he gathered crowds around Yingzhou and Luyi on the theme of 'Maitreya Buddha's descent and the Bright King's appearance,' claiming descent from the Song imperial house. Early Zhizheng river disasters, famine, and corvée for the river works provided a social base, and the sect's militarization rose markedly.
4. 1351Yingzhou · YingzhouIn the eleventh Zhizheng year, during the Yellow River works, Han Shantong and Liu Futong launched an uprising using a stone-man prophecy, wearing red turbans. Han Shantong's plot leaked and he was killed; Liu Futong took Yingzhou, and the White Lotus organization became the core of the late-Yuan Red Turbans, spreading rapidly across the Central Plains.