Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi Dao)天师道

Also known as

Way of the Covenant of Orthodox Unity (Zhengyi Mengwei), Zhengyi Daoism (early period), Way of the Rice (Midao)

Type

Sects

Period

Eastern Han–Northern and Southern Dynasties

Founded

Formed at the end of the Eastern Han on the basis of the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice, expanding nationwide during the Wei and Jin

Founder

Zhang Daoling

Derived from

Way of the Five Pecks of Rice (Wudoumi Dao)

Region

Spread from Ba-Shu and Hanzhong to the Central Plains and Jiangnan

Ancestral seat

Mount Heming (Crane-Call Mountain), Mount Longhu (Dragon and Tiger Mountain)

Status

Absorbed into Other Lineages — As an independent religious community, it gradually merged after the Sui and Tang into Zhengyi Daoism centered on Longhushan; its scriptural registers, ritual protocols, and the title 'Celestial Master' have been carried forward by the Zhengyi tradition to the present day, and today 'Way of the Celestial Masters' is often used simply as an alternative name for Zhengyi Daoism.

Overview

The Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi Dao) is the continuation and further development of the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice after Zhang Lu's surrender to Wei in 215, taking its name from the veneration of Zhang Daoling as 'Celestial Master.' During the Wei and Jin dynasties, as Daoist citizens migrated north and members of the gentry entered the faith, the Way of the Celestial Masters grew from a local religious community in Ba-Shu into a nationwide religion; its organizational structure gradually grew looser, with problems such as the hereditary transmission of parish offices and titles and the indiscriminate appointment of Libationers, while at the same time it spread among the great families of the southeast — clans such as the Wang of Langya, the Xie of Chenjun, and the Sun of Wujun all followed the Way of the Celestial Masters, the family of Wang Xizhi being one that 'had for generations served the Zhang family's Way of the Five Pecks of Rice.' At the end of the Eastern Jin, Sun En and Lu Xun rallied followers under the banner of the Way of the Celestial Masters to rise in rebellion, reflecting its deep roots among the common people of the Jiangnan region. During this period the Way of the Celestial Masters formed a scriptural system including the Zhengyi Fawen (Text of Zhengyi Law) and the Zhengyi jing (Scripture of Zhengyi), and interacted with the newly emerging Shangqing and Lingbao scriptural traditions. In the Northern Wei, Kou Qianzhi claimed to have received revelation from the Supreme Venerable Sovereign to 'purify and rectify Daoism, removing the false methods of the Three Zhangs,' and established a Northern Way of the Celestial Masters aligned with the imperial court; Lu Xiujing of the Liu Song organized the scriptures of the Three Caverns and formulated retreat liturgies, standardizing the southern Way of the Celestial Masters — later generations came to call these two branches the Northern Celestial Masters and the Southern Celestial Masters, respectively. From the Sui and Tang onward, the Way of the Celestial Masters occupied an entry-level position within the scriptural and register system of the Three Caverns, but the Zhang family of Longhushan gradually rose as a hereditary house of 'Celestial Masters,' gaining recognition from the court in the Song and Yuan and coming to head the Three Mountains of Registers in the Yuan dynasty, formally giving rise to Zhengyi Daoism. The Way of the Celestial Masters is thus the parent tradition of Zhengyi Daoism and indeed of the whole of talismanic-register Daoism.

Core Doctrine

It venerates the Supreme Venerable Sovereign (Laojun) as the founder of the faith, and honors Zhang Daoling as Celestial Master and Perfected of Orthodox Unity; it takes the Laozi and the Xiang'er Commentary as its essential texts, advocating the keeping of precepts and the governing of the people through pure and simple rule; it places great importance on the 'covenanted and awesome' qi of Orthodox Unity, using ritual registers to communicate with the spirit world and command spirit-officials and soldiers to expel evil and cure illness; ethically it emphasizes the accumulation of good deeds, inherited burden (chengfu), and the examination of merit by the Three Officials. This system was inherited in its entirety by the later Zhengyi tradition.

Practice & Ritual

The conferral of registers (the Register of Youth, the Register of Seventy-five Generals, the Register of One Hundred and Fifty Generals, and others); the system of parishes and oratories under the authority of Libationers; handwritten confessions to the Three Officials and the submission of memorial petitions; early retreat liturgies such as the Zhijiao Retreat and the Mud-and-Ashes Retreat; audiences with the Perfected and scripture recitation on the new and full moon; and, in the early period, the Rite of Passage (the merging of pneumas), which was gradually eliminated or brought under regulation following the reforms of Kou Qianzhi and Lu Xiujing. The conferral of registers and the submission of petitions remain to this day the basic ritual observances of Zhengyi Daoism.

Transmission

Zhang Daoling — Zhang Heng — Zhang Lu → hereditary families of Libationers and gentry Daoist citizens across various regions during the Wei and Jin → Kou Qianzhi of the Northern Wei (Northern Celestial Masters) and Lu Xiujing of the Liu Song (Southern Celestial Masters) → the Zhengyi register within the scriptural and register system of the Three Caverns in the Sui and Tang → the hereditary Celestial Masters of the Zhang family of Longhushan → Zhengyi Daoism in the Yuan dynasty. Documentation of the Celestial Master lineage after the end of the Han is largely the product of later retrospective accounts, and the relationship between the Zhang family of Longhushan and the descendants of Zhang Lu before the Tang remains a matter of scholarly dispute.

Key Scriptures

Key Figures

Principal Temples