I heard about "the Taoist Messiah" a couple of years ago, when reading up on Taoism (here spelled Daoism). Or rather really existing Taoism, which turns out to be very far removed from California hippies, organic farming or Winnie the Pooh.
Think divine saviors appearing on mountains and revealing scriptures, Messianic movements organizing millenarian rebellions against reprobate emperors, a chosen remnant creating utopia...and then off to the next cycle, rinse and repeat, all throughout Chinese history.
The emperors responded by killing everyone suspected of involvement in such movements. Even having a name suspiciously similar to that of the Taoist Messiah could be enough to seal your fate...and that of your entire family.
I think it´s obvious that we´re dealing with Zoroastrian influence eclectically combined with "real" Taoism. Thus, the savior figure is said to be an apotheosis of Lao-tse, his mission is to "balance the Tao", and he appears as part of a cyclical cosmology (rather than the once-and-for-all version of Zoroastrian and Abrahamic soteriology). Still, it does seem to "work" (kind of).
It could be argued (and I do argue) that the Taiping rebellion was a "Christian" version of the same phenomenon, while the Communist Party of China is a secularized ditto. And today, the CPC is challenged by a more typical millenarian cult. Yes, that would be Falun gong!
It seems that Li Hong never really left the building. Or that mountain...
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