Faqing's Murderous Buddhist Rebellion

In 515 A.D., during China's Northern Wei dynasty, a monk named Faqing declared himself a new Buddha and founded what he called the Mahayana, or Maitreya sect. He told followers to kill people and cause chaos and taught that killing one person made you a first-stage bodhisattva, while killing ten made you a tenth-stage bodhisattva. Backed by Li Guibo, he gathered an army of more than 50,000 and slaughtered officials in the name of Buddhist renewal. The Northern Wei government crushed the uprising, which became known as the Faqing Rebellion.

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