Zhang Jiao张角

Style & Daoist names

Great Worthy and Good Teacher, General of Heaven

Period

Eastern Han

Dates

? — 184

Role

Founder of the Way of Great PeaceRebellion Leader

Birthplace

Julu (present-day Pingxiang, Hebei)

Life

Zhang Jiao was a native of Julu at the end of the Eastern Han, founder of the Way of Great Peace, and leader of the Yellow Turban Rebellion. According to the "Biography of Huangfu Song" in the Book of the Later Han, he served the Huang-Lao Way; he "kept disciples, who knelt and confessed their faults, and healed the sick with talisman water and incantations, so that many of the sick recovered, and the common people put their faith in him." He styled himself "the Great Worthy and Good Teacher," and sent eight disciples to the four quarters to convert the empire through the Good Way; within a decade or so his followers numbered several hundred thousand, spread across the eight provinces of Qing, Xu, You, Ji, Jing, Yang, Yan, and Yu. He established thirty-six regional divisions (fang), the largest with over ten thousand followers and the smallest with six or seven thousand. In the first year of the Zhongping era (184), he rose in rebellion under the slogan "The Azure Heaven is already dead; the Yellow Heaven shall now stand; in the year jiazi, the world will greatly prosper," with his followers wearing yellow headscarves — hence the name Yellow Turban Rebellion in the histories. Zhang Jiao styled himself General of Heaven, his younger brother Zhang Bao General of Earth, and Zhang Liang General of Man. A few months after the rebellion began, Zhang Jiao died of illness; Zhang Liang and Zhang Bao were subsequently defeated in battle and killed, and the main rebel forces were suppressed. The scripture venerated by the Way of Great Peace was the Scripture of Great Peace and Clear Guidance (Taiping Qingling Shu). The Way of Great Peace is one of the earliest Daoist religious communities clearly attested in historical sources, and its defeat also led Daoism to avoid direct confrontation with state power for a long time afterward.

Contributions & Influence

• Founded the Way of Great Peace, one of the earliest Daoist religious communities
• Healed and proselytized through talisman water and confession of faults, establishing the organizational system of "regional divisions" (fang)
• Led the Yellow Turban Rebellion, profoundly shaping the political situation at the end of the Eastern Han and the direction of Daoism's development

Legends

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms says that Zhang Jiao received three scrolls of the Essential Arts of Great Peace from the Old Immortal of Nanhua and could summon wind and rain; this is a novelist's invention.