The first signs of the White Lotus …
Years: 1352 - 1352
The first signs of the White Lotus Society had come during the late thirteenth century.
Mongol rule over China, known also by its dynastic name, the Yuan dynasty,had prompted small, yet popular demonstrations against foreign rule.
The White Lotus Society had taken part in some of these protests as they grew into widespread dissent.
The Mongols considered the White Lotus society a heterodox religious sect and banned it, forcing its members to go underground.
Now a secret society, the White Lotus became an instrument of quasi-national resistance and religious organization.
A revolution, inspired by the White Lotus society, takes shape in 1352 around Guangzhou.
A Buddhist monk and former boy-beggar, Zhu Yuanzhang, throws off his vestments and joins the rebellion.
His exceptional intelligence takes him to the head of a rebel army; he wins people to his side by forbidding his soldiers to pillage, in observance of White Lotus religious beliefs.
