Faqing

Faqing also known as Shi Faqing (释法庆) was a monk living during the Northern Wei Dynasty, who was the founder of the Mahayana Maitreya Sect (彌勒大乘教) that formed an army to fight against the Northern Wei Dynasty, slaughtering many peoples, known as the Faqing Rebellion (法慶之亂).

Life

The massacre Fa Qing lived in the Northern Wei dynasty. He was a monk who did not follow the monastic rules of Buddhism and had a wife named Huihui (惠暉). Fa Qing proclaimed himself as the “new Buddha”, and founded the “Mahayana sect” (大乘教), that also known as Mahayana Maitreya Sect (彌勒大乘教). The so-called “new Buddha” was to quote Buddhist scriptures that “Maitreya descended to become a Buddha”, and “Maitreya Buddha replaced Shakyamuni Buddha to save the world”. Fa Qing revised the doctrines of the Wisdom Perfection School in Mahayana Buddhism.

Rebellion and death In June of 515, Fa Qing, with the support of Li Guibo, gathered an army in Jizhou (present-day Hebei) to rebel against the rule of the Northern Wei Dynasty in the name of Buddhism. The number of his followers at that time reached more than 50,000.