Way of the Five Pecks of Rice
Years: 142 - 215
Way of the Five Pecks of Rice or the Way of the Celestial Master, commonly abbreviated to simply The Celestial Masters, is a Chinese Taoist movement that is founded by the first Celestial Master Zhang Daoling in 142 CE.
At its height, the movement controls a theocratic state in the Hanzhong valley, north of Sichuan.
In 215 CE, the state is incorporated into Cao Cao's Kingdom of Wei, and followers of the Celestial Master are dispersed all over China.The Celestial Masters believe that qi pervades everything, and in order to achieve immortality, the correct balance of qi has to be present within the body.
Having a poor quantity of qi in the body will result in illness, and eventually death.
Meditation can be used to restore qi to the body, but sex is to be avoided, as it can result in the loss of qi.
If there is the correct balance of qi within the body upon death, an adherent can 'feign death' and be reborn.
If not, an adherent will be transported to an earthly prison where he will face eternal torment.The Hanzhong state is divided into 24 regions which are led by an official.
Each district has a civil register which recorded people's names and ranks.
Three times a year, the registers are updated at the same time as an important feast.
While a child's rank rises automatically, adults have to raise their own rank through religious achievement or marriage.
Higher ranked people have more divine generals at their command, which can be used to fight demons that cause bad luck or disease.
The state has a system of law that encourages confession and benevolence rather than strict punishment.
Criminals are asked to confess their crimes and meditate, and are given public work to do as a sentence.
Few texts written by the Hanzhong Celestial Masters survive, with the most important being the Xiang'er commentary to the Tao Te Jing.
While the Hanzhong state lasts for only twenty-five years, their beliefs influence all subsequent Taoist movements.
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Zhang Ling, a faith healer, traces his ancestral home to Feng County, Jiangsu, and is said to be a descendant of Zhang Liang, a strategist and statesman of the early Han Dynasty.
Born during the reign of Emperor Guangwu of Han, he had begun reading the Tao Te Ching at a young age and studied in the Taixue (Imperial Academy), and had then served as a magistrate in Jiangzhou, Ba prefecture (present-day Chongqing) during the reign of Emperor Ming of Han.
He later retired to lead a reclusive life at Mount Beimang, where he practices ways of achieving longevity.
When invited to serve as a boshi (equivalent of a present-day professor) in the Imperial Academy, he claimed that he was ill. Emperor He of Han had thrice summoned him to serve as the Taifu (Imperial Tutor) but he refused each time.
According to tradition, in 142, Laozi appeared to Zhang on Mount Heming, and informed the hermit that the world was coming to an end, to be followed by an era of Great Peace.
Laozi explained that those following him would go on to another life, part of the "Orthodox One Covenant with the Powers".
Through this covenant, Zhang and his followers would have access to the assistance of celestial powers who control the fate of mankind.
Zhang goes on to found the first regular Taoist community.
A major change instituted by the new Covenant is the rejection of food and animal sacrifices.
Also, the teachings of Laozi as transmitted by Zhang include the first true Taoist religious pantheon as distinguished from the prior ancient religion of China.
Zhang also writes a 24-volume Taoist classic, said to be the Xiang'er, a commentary to the Tao Te Ching.
Zhang’s patients give him five pecks of rice annually in exchange for either cures or membership, causing the cult to become known as the Way of Five Pecks of Rice.
Zhang Daoling, the Taoist hermit who has founded the movement known as the Way of the Celestial Masters sect of Taoism, which is also known as the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice, dies on Mount Qingcheng in 156 during the reign of Emperor Huan of Han at the age of 123.
However, it is also said that Zhang did not die but learned the arcana of Taoism to ascend in broad daylight (Xiandao).
Instead, his body became like luminous ether, disappearing from eyesight and became an immortal.
His movement spreads rapidly, particularly under his son Zhang Heng and grandson Zhang Lu, who are able to convert many groups to their cause, strengthening their movement.
Many Taoists in eastern China have begun to turn to magic and faith healing during the first century CE.
Sometime before 183, a major Taoist movement had emerged from Ji Province (modern central Hebei) -- the Taiping Sect, led by Zhang Jue (also known as Zhang Jiao), who claims he has magical powers to heal the sick.
It is said that Zhang Jue is a grandson of Zhang Daoling, founder of the Taoist sect Way of the Celestial Masters, or Way of Five Pecks of Rice (he is not, so far as is known.)
By 183, his teachings and followers had spread to eight provinces—Qing (modern central and eastern Shandong), Xu (modern northern Jiangsu and Anhui), You (modern northern Hebei, Liaoning, Beijing, and Tianjin), Ji, Jing (modern Hubei and Hunan), Yang (modern southern Jiangsu and Anhui, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang), Yan (modern western Shandong), and Yu (modern central and eastern Henan).
Several key imperial officials became concerned about Zhang's hold over his followers, and suggested that the Taiping Sect be disbanded.
Emperor Ling did not listen to them.
Zhang in fact plans a rebellion.
He commissions thirty-six military commanders and set up a shadow government, and he writes a declaration:
The blue heaven is dead.
The yellow heaven will come into being.
The year will be Jiazi.
The world would be blessed.
(Under China's traditional sexagenary cycle calendar method, the year 184 is the first year of the cycle, known as Jiazi.)
Zhang has had his supporters write Jiazi in large characters with white talc everywhere they can—including on the doors of many imperial offices in the capital Luoyang and other cities.
One of Zhang's commanders, Ma Yuanyi, enters into a plan with two powerful eunuchs, and they plan to start a rebellion to overthrow the Han Dynasty from inside.
Early in 184, this plot is discovered, and Ma is immediately arrested and executed.
Emperor Ling orders that Taiping Sect members arrested and executed, and Zhang immediately declares a rebellion.
A major cause of the rebellion is an agrarian crisis, in which famine has forced many farmers and former military settlers in the north to seek employment in the south, where large landowners exploit the labor surplus to amass large fortunes.
The situation is further aggravated by smaller floods along the lower course of the Yellow River, driving thousands of peasants from their farms; epidemics follow amid great discontent.
The peasants are further oppressed by high taxes imposed in order to fund the construction of fortifications along the Silk Road and garrisons against foreign infiltration and invasion.
In this situation, landowners, landless peasants, and unemployed former-soldiers had formed armed bands (from around 170), and eventually private armies, setting the stage for armed conflict.
At the same time, the Han Dynasty central government is weakening internally.
The power of the landowners has become a longstanding problem, but in the run-up to the rebellion, the court eunuchs in particular have gained considerably in influence over the emperor, which they abuse to enrich themselves.
Ten of the most powerful eunuchs have formed a group known as the Ten Attendants, and the emperor refers to one of them (Zhang Rang) as his "foster father".
The government is widely regarded as corrupt and incapable and the famines and floods are seen as an indication that a decadent emperor has lost his mandate of heaven.
Every member of the rebellion wears a yellow headdress as an expression of their bond with the earth (yellow being the color representing earth in the Chinese “five-elements” system followed by the Taoists and others).
The rebellion becomes known by this symbol.
Within a month, Zhang controls large areas of territory.
Under suggestion by the eunuch Lü Qiang, who is sympathetic to the partisans, Emperor Ling pardons the partisans to ward off the possibility they would join the Yellow Turbans.
(Lü himself becomes a victim, however, when the other eunuchs, in retaliation, falsely accuse him of wanting to depose the emperor, and he commits suicide later this year.)
Emperor Ling sends out a number of military commanders against the Yellow Turbans, and in these campaigns several of them distinguish themselves—including Huangfu Song, Cao Cao, Fu Xie, Zhu Jun, Lu Zhi, and Dong Zhuo.
A key military development with significant implications for the future is that the Yellow Turbans are largely fought within battle-tested troops from Liang Province (modern Gansu), who have been accustomed to fighting the Qiang rebellions.
In late 184, Zhang Jiao is killed.
Liu Bei, the future warlord and founding emperor of the state of Shu Han, was born in Zhuo County, Zhuo prefecture (present day Zhuozhou, Baoding, Hebei), according to the Records of the Three Kingdoms.
He was a descendant of Liu Zhen, the son of Liu Sheng, a son of Emperor Jing.
However, Pei Songzhi's commentary, based on the Dianlue, said that Liu Bei was a descendant of the Marquess of Linyi.
The royal title of Marquess of Linyi wqas held by Liu Fu and later his son Liu Taotu, respectively Liu Yan's grandson and great-grandson, who were all ultimately descended from Emperor Jing.
Liu Bei's grandfather Liu Xiong and father Liu Hong were both employed as local clerks.
Liu Bei had grown up in a poor family, having lost his father when he was still a child.
To support themselves, Liu Bei and his mother sold shoes and straw-woven mats.
Even so, Liu Bei was full of ambition since childhood: he once said to his peers, while under a tree that resembled the royal chariot, that he desired to become an emperor.
Sponsored by a more affluent relative who recognized his potential in leadership, Liu Bei at the age of fourteen had gone to study under the tutelage of Lu Zhi (a prominent scholar and, at the time, former Administrator of Jiujiang).
There he had met and befriended Gongsun Zan, a prominent northern warlord to be.
The adolescent Liu Bei was said to be unenthusiastic in studying and displayed interest in hunting, music and dressing.
Concise in speech, calm in demeanor, and kind to his friends, Liu Bei was well liked by his contemporaries.
He was said to have long arms and large earlobes.
In 184, at the outbreak of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Liu Bei calls for the assembly of a volunteer army to help government forces suppress the rebellion.
Liu Bei receives financial contributions from two wealthy horse merchants and rallies a group of loyal followers, among whom include Guan Yu and Zhang Fei.
Liu Bei leads his army to join the provincial army.
Together, they score several victories against the rebels.
In recognition of his contributions, Liu Bei is appointed Prefect of Anxi in Zhongshan prefecture.
He resigns after refusing to submit to a corrupt inspector who attempted to ask him for bribes.
He then travels south with his followers to join another volunteer army to suppress the Yellow Turbans remnants in Xu Province (present day northern Jiangsu).
For this achievement, he is appointed Prefect and Commandant of Gaotang.
The conflict known as the Liang Province Rebellion begins in the winter of 183-184 with two groups of Qiang people causing disturbances in the outlying regions of northwestern China, with one group in the northwestern prefectures of Beidi and Anding, and another in at the counties of Fuhan and Heguan in the upper Yellow River valley.
Initially, the two groups were likely separate, each trying to seize the opportunity to resist the weakened Han rule after years of corruption and misrule.
The situation escalates in October or November 184 when the troops of the Auxiliary of Loyal Barbarians From Huangzhong, which consists of Qiang and Lesser Yuezhi recruits sent to suppress the disturbances, mutiny against their Han Chinese superiors in the military camp of Lianju (northwest of present-day Lanzhou) and join the insurgents, in the process killing the Colonel Protector of the Qiang Ling Zheng.
At this point, the two groups have joined together, with former Auxiliary soldiers Beigong Boyu and Li Wenhou as their leaders.
This union means that the rebels now have control of the band of territory along the Yellow River in present-day Lanzhou.
Within a few weeks, the rebels attack and capture Yuanya, the capital of Jincheng prefecture, making the prefecture their main stronghold for rebel operations.
The rebels are helped by the fact that the local governor Zuo Chang, Inspector of Liang Province), has embezzled the funds allocated for the defense force, making no relief possible.
The Grand Administrator Chen Yi goes to the rebels' camp to negotiate for the release of hostages, but the rebels kill him.
The hostages—which include Bian Zhang, the former Prefect of Xin'an; and Han Sui, Attendant Official of Liang Province—are then persuaded to join the rebels' cause.
The addition of such reputable and influential men gives the rebellion wider popular support, and the two men are to play more prominent roles in the rebellion as the course of events progresses.
The rebels now besiege Zuo Chang's headquarters in the county of Ji (south of present-day Gangu, Gansu).
Some outlying Han generals are initially reluctant to help Zuo Chang, but He Xun, a much-respected and successful general, applies his powers of persuasion to force these generals to come to Zuo Chang's aid.
The rebels, out of respect for He Xun, break off the siege.
After this episode, Zuo Chang is replaced by Song Nie, a devout Confucian who believes that the situation can be remedied only by teaching the people the Classic of Filial Piety.
He submits this proposal to the imperial court despite his junior officials' advice and is promptly dismissed in favor of Yang Yong.
Local situations do not improve with the appointment, however, and the local officials soon find themselves besieged by the rebels again.
The new Protector, Xia Yu, a man with some experience with Qiang rebellions, is attacked by a rebel contingent led by Qiang chieftain Dianyu at the Herding Office of Hanyang prefecture (present-day Tianshui) and He Xun once again leads troops for relief.
This time, however, He Xun is severely defeated at nearby Hupan.
While both Xia Yu and He Xun make their escape, it is clear at this point that provincial authorities cannot deal with the rebellion by themselves.
The rebels, now several tens of thousands in number, move towards the former Han capital of Chang'an in the spring of 185.
In response, the imperial court appoints Huangfu Song, the famed conqueror of the Yellow Turbans, as the General of Chariots and Cavalry on the Left in charge of defense of Chang'an.
However, Huangfu achieves no immediate success, and is dismissed in the seventh lunar month of 185 after a four-month tenure after being slandered by the eunuchs in the imperial court.
The continued rebellion in Liang Province takes its toll on the government treasury, and the imperial court has to call on the taxes and corvées to support the war.
A high official, the Minister Over the Masses Cui Li, proposes to abandon Liang Province altogether.
The Gentleman-Consultant Fu Xie makes an impassioned speech that condemns Cui Lie and emphasizes the importance of the frontier province.
Emperor Ling, impressed by this argument, rejects Cui Lie's proposal.
Fu Xie is later assigned to be the Grand Administrator of Hanyang and is sent to the frontier region.