After the death of Emperor Ling of Han in 189 CE, Mou fled the chaotic Yellow Turban Rebellion and moved to the extreme south of the empire, Cangwu in Jiaozhou (present day Tonkin), where he studied Huang-Lao Daoism and Buddhism.
After the death of Emperor Ling of Han in 189 CE, scholars, especially specialists of immortality fled the chaotic Yellow Turban Rebellion and moved to the extreme south of the empire, where Mouzi argued with them. He himself was born in Cangwu in Jiaozhou (present day Tonkin), where he studied the Confucian Classics, the Laozi and Buddhism.