Zhang Xiu张修

Style & Daoist names

Master of the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice, 'Rice Bandits' (derogatory term)

Period

Eastern Han

Dates

? — 191

School

Way of the Five Pecks of Rice (Wudoumi Dao), Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi Dao)

Role

Leader of a Daoist Religious CommunityLeader of an Uprising

Birthplace

Ba Commandery (present-day Chongqing area)

Life

Zhang Xiu, a native of Ba Commandery in the late Eastern Han, was an important leader of the early Way of the Five Pecks of Rice. The Book of Later Han, "Annals of Emperor Ling," records that in the first year of Zhongping (184), "the sorcerer-bandit Zhang Xiu of Ba Commandery rebelled and plundered the commandery and its counties" — rising in the same year as Zhang Jiao of the Way of Great Peace. The Dianlue, quoted in the commentary to the Zhang Lu biography in the Records of the Three Kingdoms, records his religious methods: the sick were made to confess their transgressions, writing their names together with a statement of repentance in triplicate — one copy submitted to Heaven, one buried in the Earth, and one sunk in Water, called the "Handwritten Confessions to the Three Officials." The sick contributed five pecks of rice, hence the name "Master of the Five Pecks of Rice." Zhang Xiu also instituted the office of "Libationer of the Instructing Ordinance" (jianling jijiu), who taught followers the Laozi wuqian wen (the Laozi in five thousand characters). After the second year of Zhongping, Zhang Xiu came under the command of Liu Yan, Governor of Yi Province. In the second year of Chuping (191), Liu Yan sent Zhang Lu and Zhang Xiu together to attack Su Gu, Grand Administrator of Hanzhong; afterward Zhang Lu killed Zhang Xiu and seized his followers, thereby taking control of Hanzhong. The account of Zhang Xiu is crucial for understanding the early Celestial Masters: the practices of the Handwritten Confessions to the Three Officials, the contribution of rice, and Libationers lecturing on the Laozi are first attributed to him in the Dianlue. Scholars have therefore long debated his relationship to the Zhang Daoling–Zhang Lu lineage, with theories ranging from "a shared origin with a separate branch" to "Zhang Lu's absorption of Zhang Xiu's teaching" — the question remains unresolved.

Contributions & Influence

• The earliest religious leader in the sources recorded as instituting the Handwritten Confessions to the Three Officials, the contribution of five pecks of rice, and Libationers lecturing on the Laozi
• Rose in rebellion in Ba Commandery in 184, forming with the Way of Great Peace one of the two great popular Daoist movements of the late Eastern Han
• His congregation was absorbed by Zhang Lu, becoming the organizational basis of the Hanzhong theocratic regime