Way of Great Peace (Taiping Dao)太平道

Also known as

Yellow Turbans, Way of the Yellow Turbans (Huangjin Dao), Way of Great Peace and Pure Governance (Taiping Qingling Dao)

Type

Sects

Period

Eastern Han

Founded

The Jianning and Xiping eras of Emperor Ling of the Eastern Han (around 170 CE)

Founder

Zhang Jiao

Region

Originated in Julu, Jizhou, and spread across the eight provinces of Qing, Xu, You, Ji, Jing, Yang, Yan and Yu

Status

Vanished — After the failure of the Yellow Turban Rebellion in 184, the religious community disintegrated and left no formal successor lineage; surviving fragments of the Scripture of Great Peace are included in the Taiping section of the Zhengtong Daozang, and remain a core source for the study of early Daoism.

Overview

The Way of Great Peace (Taiping Dao) was an early Daoist religious community founded by Zhang Jiao in Jizhou at the end of the Eastern Han, and together with the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice it stands as one of the two earliest organized sects of Daoism. Zhang Jiao venerated the Taiping qingling shu (a text belonging to the Scripture of Great Peace system) and styled himself the 'Great Worthy and Good Teacher,' healing people with talismanic water and incantations and having the sick kowtow and reflect on their transgressions; within little more than a decade he gathered several hundred thousand followers. He divided his followers into thirty-six 'directions' (fang), the larger ones numbering over ten thousand and the smaller ones six or seven thousand, each headed by a commander (qushuai), forming a tightly organized religious community. In the first year of the Zhongping reign (184), Zhang Jiao rose in rebellion under the slogan 'The Azure Heaven is already dead; the Yellow Heaven shall now be established. In the year jiazi, all under Heaven will greatly prosper.' Because his followers all wore yellow headscarves, the uprising is known to history as the Yellow Turban Rebellion. The uprising was swiftly suppressed: Zhang Jiao died of illness, and his younger brothers Zhang Bao and Zhang Liang died in battle; the Way of Great Peace collapsed as an organized community, and its remaining forces (such as the Yellow Turbans of Qingzhou) were later absorbed into Cao Cao's forces. The doctrine of the Way of Great Peace was grounded in the Scripture of Great Peace, blending Huang–Lao thought, yin-yang and Five Phases theory, prognostication texts, and popular sorcery, and it advocated the ideal society of 'Great Peace,' the mutual resonance of Heaven and Man, and requital through inherited burden (chengfu), venerating the 'Central Yellow Great One' as its supreme deity. Although its existence was brief, it demonstrated Daoism's capacity to mobilize as a mass popular religion, and it is the historical root of the wariness with which successive rulers regarded popular Daoism; the ideas of the Scripture of Great Peace, meanwhile, exerted a lasting influence on later Daoism through other channels.

Core Doctrine

It venerates Huang–Lao thought and the 'Central Yellow Great One,' takes the Scripture of Great Peace as its canonical text, and holds that Heaven, Earth, and Man form a single interconnected whole, so that an age of Great Peace can be realized by 'honoring Heaven and modeling oneself on the Dao'; it puts forward the theory of chengfu (inherited burden) to explain how the requital of good and evil passes across generations, and believes that illness arises from transgression and can only be cured through repentance and moral renewal. It also advocates aiding the poor and relieving distress and holding property in common, opposing the hoarding of wealth — a doctrine with a marked coloring of social reform.

Practice & Ritual

The sect healed people with talismanic water and incantations, having the sick kneel and confess their transgressions; the leader carried a nine-jointed staff as a ritual implement for talismans and invocations; followers recited passages from the Scripture of Great Peace; a hierarchical organization of thirty-six 'directions' was established, each headed by a commander. Before the uprising, prognostication verses were used for propaganda, and followers wore yellow headscarves as their mark. There were also rites of confessing transgressions to the 'Three Officials' of Heaven, Earth, and Water (similar to those of the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice), as well as collective prayer and the drinking of talismanic water — practices reflecting the common early-Daoist pattern of healing the sick to gather followers.

Transmission

The Scripture of Great Peace system is said to originate with Yu Ji (also given as Gan Ji); in the reign of Emperor Shun of the Eastern Han, Gong Chong presented the Taiping qingling shu to the court. Zhang Jiao obtained this text and founded his sect, transmitting it to his younger brothers Zhang Bao ('General Who Pacifies the Earth') and Zhang Liang ('General Who Pacifies Mankind'); after the failure of the Yellow Turban Rebellion there was no formal continuation of the lineage, and the remnants of the Yellow Turbans of Qingzhou surrendered to Cao Cao. The religious legacy of the Way of Great Peace passed into later Daoism chiefly through the Scripture of Great Peace.

Key Scriptures

Key Figures