Zhang Daoling

Zhang Daoling (born 34 ce, Pei, Jiangxi, China—died 156, Hanzhong) was the founder and first patriarch of the Tianshidao (“Way of the Celestial Masters”) movement within Daoism.

Zhang settled in the Sichuan area and there studied Daoism sometime during the reign of Shundi (125–144) of the Dong (Eastern) Han dynasty. Zhang claimed to have received a revelation from the great sage Laozi and began to prophesy the coming of a time called Great Peace (Taiping). According to tradition, he composed the Xiang’er commentary to the Daodejing to propagate his movement. He attracted to the movement many followers among both the Chinese and the indigenous ethnic groups in Sichuan. Like other Daoists of his day, Zhang promised physical immortality and longevity to his followers, but unlike the others, he emphasized the importance of religious organization. Consequently, he founded the Way of the Celestial Masters, popularly known as Five Pecks of Rice (Wudoumi) because it required its members as well as its patients to contribute five pecks of rice a year, presumably for the upkeep of the organization.

What made Zhang’s movement particularly attractive to the common people was its faith-healing method. Illness, it taught, was a result of sinful-mindedness, which could be most effectively cured by making confession to a priest; purification formed the solid foundation of physical health. Probably in imitation of the Han imperial throne, the patriarchate of the movement was made hereditary. It passed from Zhang to his son Zhang Heng and then to his distinguished grandson Zhang Lu, collectively known as the Three Zhangs. Zhang Lu even succeeded in establishing a Daoist theocratic state in Hanzhong commandery (modern Sichuan and part of Shaanxi) toward the end of the Han dynasty (c. 188–215). The basic text the movement used for religious instruction was the Daodejing, accompanied by the Xiang’er.