The religion’s expansion to the East had already begun in the 7th century with the reopening of caravan routes there after China’s conquest of East Turkestan. A Manichaean missionary reached the Chinese court in 694, and in 732 an edict gave the religion freedom of worship in China. When East Turkestan was conquered in the 8th century by the Uighur Turks, one of their leaders adopted Manichaeism and it remained the state religion of the Uighur kingdom until its overthrow in 840. Manichaeism itself probably survived in East Turkistan until the Mongol invasion in the 13th century. In China it was forbidden in 843, but, although persecuted, it continued there at least until the 14th century. Teachings similar to Manichaeism resurfaced during the Middle Ages in Europe in the so-called neo-Manichaean sects. Groups such as the Paulicians (Armenia, 7th century), the Bogomilists (Bulgaria, 10th century), and the Cathari or Albigensians (southern France, 12th century) bore strong resemblances to Manichaeism and probably were influenced by it. However, their direct historical links to the religion of Mani are difficult to establish.
Mani sought to found a truly ecumenical and universal religion that would integrate into itself all the partial truths of previous revelations, especially those of Zoroaster, Buddha, and Jesus. However, beyond mere syncretism, it sought the proclamation of a truth that could be translated into diverse forms in accordance with the different cultures into which it spread. Thus, Manichaeism, depending on the context, resembles Iranian and Indian religions, Christianity, Buddhism, and Taoism. At its core, Manichaeism was a type of Gnosticism – a dualistic religion that offered salvation through special knowledge (gnosis) of spiritual truth. Like all forms of Gnosticism, Manichaeism taught that life in this world is unbearably painful and radically evil. Inner illumination or gnosis reveals that the soul which shares in the nature of God has fallen into the evil world of matter and must be saved by means of the spirit or intelligence (nous). To know one’s self is to recover one’s true self, which was previously clouded by ignorance and lack of self-consciousness because of its mingling with the body and with matter. In Manichaeism, to know one’s self is to see one’s soul as sharing in the very nature of God and as coming from a transcendent world. Knowledge enables a person to realize that, despite his abject present condition in the material world, he does not cease to remain united to the transcendent world by eternal and immanent bonds with it. Thus, knowledge is the only way to salvation. The saving knowledge of the true nature and destiny of humanity, God, and the universe is expressed in Manichaeism in a complex mythology. Whatever its details, the essential theme of this mythology remains constant: the soul is fallen, entangled with evil matter, and then liberated by the spirit or nous. The myth unfolds in three stages: a past period in which there was a separation of the two radically opposed substances – Spirit and Matter, Good and Evil, Light and Darkness; a middle period (corresponding to the present) during which the two substances are mixed; and a future period in which the original duality will be reestablished. At death the soul of the righteous person returns to Paradise. The soul of the person who persisted in things of the flesh – fornication, procreation, possessions, cultivation, harvesting, eating of meat, drinking of wine – is condemned to rebirth in a succession of bodies. Only a portion of the faithful followed the strict ascetic life advocated in Manichaeism. The community was divided into the elect, who felt able to embrace a rigorous rule, and the hearers who supported the elect with works and alms. The essentials of the Manichaean sacramental rites were prayers, almsgiving, and fasting. Confession and the singing of hymns were also important in their communal life. The Manichaean scriptural canon includes seven works attributed to Mani, written originally in Syriac. Lost after Manichaeism became extinct in the Middle Ages, portions of the Manichaean scriptures were rediscovered in the 20th century, mainly in Chinese Turkestan and Egypt.
Reasons for Choosing Manichaeism: The Wish to Maintain Friendly Relations with Tang China
For a century and a half, the Uighurs had been more or less allies of Tang China. They had demonstrated their military superiority to the Tang forces by suppressing the An Lushan rebellion, when the latter had failed to do so. Nevertheless, the Uighur khagans still wished, for the moment, to maintain friendly relations with Tang China. Despite the Uighurs’ sacking of Chang’an and Loyang, the Tang court wished the same.
In 713, the powerful Eastern Turk minister, Tonyuquq, had convinced Kapaghan Khagan (r. 692 – 716) to deport the Sogdian community from Mongolia as he steered the empire toward a revival of its shamanic and Tengrian traditions. The community included both Buddhists and Manichaeans, and the Tang court had allowed them all to join with the Sogdians already settled in Chang’an and Loyang. In 732, however, Xuanzong had banned any Han Chinese from following Manichaeism and had restricted it to the foreign community. Eight years later, he had deported all foreign Buddhist monks, yet still tolerated aliens in Tang China who professed Manichaeism. If the Uighurs were to adopt this latter religion, they could maintain friendly relations with Tang China without offending its religious policies. There were additional reasons, however, for making this choice. The Uighurs were intent on further expansion of their territory, particularly into the Tarim Basin where they could control the lucrative Silk Route trade. Tang China had only a weak presence in Turfan, Beshbaliq, and along the northern branch of the route in Kucha and Kashgar. The Tibetans also had only a weak presence along the Silk Route’s southern branch. Sogdian merchants, however, were found in all the oasis city-states, primarily Turfan.
Having triumphed over the An Lushan rebellion, while the Tang emperor had been forced to flee in humiliation, the Uighurs were now the heroes of the day. The Tang government had not only lost face, but was in an even weaker position than before to exercise effective control over Turfan or anywhere else in the Tarim Basin. Although Tang China had given the Sogdians political asylum in 713, yet by expelling the Buddhist monks among them, they had undoubtedly lost the confidence of the Sogdian community. If the Uighurs were to adopt a major Sogdian religion, they would readily be accepted as the protectors and overlords of the Turfan Sogdians. This would give them a foothold in the Tarim Basin for further expansion and possible control of the Silk Route.
The Conversion to Manichaeism
It was undoubtedly with such thoughts in mind that Bogu Khagan declared Manichaeism the Uighur state religion in 762, since Buddhism was not a viable alternative at this time. Furthermore, with its stress on the forces of light gaining the victory over the powers of darkness, Manichaeism would have given the impression of being more suited than Buddhism for a martial nation. Following the lessons learned from the First and Second Eastern Turk Dynasties, the Khagan borrowed the Sogdian alphabet, but not the Sogdian language, and modified it for writing Uighur. He used it for both administrative as well as religious purposes, employing Sogdians to translate Manichaean texts into Uighur.
Having gained experience translating Buddhist texts into Old Turk, the Sogdians had begun to render Buddhist scriptures into their own language during the interim (630 – 682) between the First and Second Eastern Turk Dynasties. This was the period when not only Mongolia and Turfan, but also the entire Tarim Basin had been conquered by Tang China. The Sogdian translators had used primarily Han Chinese sources, the tradition and language with which they were most familiar. With Tang China in such a dominant political position, the Sogdian Buddhists probably had finally felt their identity threatened enough to take this step to distance themselves from possible absorption by Han Chinese culture. Since this Buddhist translation activity was still continuing at the time the Uighurs commissioned the Sogdian translators to prepare Uighur Manichaean texts, and since the Sogdians had already worked with the Old Turk language which was related to Uighur, the Sogdians naturally borrowed a considerable amount of Buddhist terminology for their new task. Popular Resistance to the Conversion
As a result of the Uighur rule of Turfan from 605 to the 630s, many Uighurs had already adopted the Eastern Turk form of Buddhism, particularly the warriors and common people. Yet after the Uighur suppression of the An Lushan rebellion, Bogu Khagan led his men in destroying all Buddhist monasteries and temples when pillaging Chang’an and Loyang. He ordered the subsequent destruction of Buddhist monasteries in other parts of his realm as well, as far away as Semirechye in northern West Turkestan. In so doing, he was undoubtedly trying to reaffirm the pan-Turkic martial tradition and justify his choice of Manichaeism by demonstrating even further the weakness of Buddhism.
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