Way of the Five Pecks of Rice (Wudoumi Dao)五斗米道

Also known as

Way of the Rice (Midao), Way of Ghosts (Guidao), Way of the Covenant of Orthodox Unity (Zhengyi Mengwei), Way of the Celestial Masters (early period)

Type

Sects

Period

Eastern Han

Founded

The first year of the Han'an era of Emperor Shun of the Eastern Han (142 CE, according to traditional accounts)

Founder

Zhang Daoling

Region

Ba-Shu and Hanzhong (present-day Sichuan and southern Shaanxi)

Ancestral seat

Mount Heming (Crane-Call Mountain), Mount Qingcheng

Status

Absorbed into Other Lineages — The religious community of the 'Three Zhangs' period came to an end with Zhang Lu's surrender to Wei, but its institutions and scriptural registers were carried forward into the Way of the Celestial Masters and Zhengyi Daoism, making it the direct ancestral source of today's Zhengyi tradition.

Overview

The Way of the Five Pecks of Rice (Wudoumi Dao) was a Daoist religious community founded by Zhang Daoling (Zhang Ling) in the Ba-Shu region at the end of the Eastern Han, taking its name from the requirement that new members contribute five pecks of rice; within the community it called itself 'the Way of the Covenant of Orthodox Unity and Awesome Power' (Zhengyi Mengwei zhi Dao), and later generations called it the Way of the Celestial Masters. Tradition holds that in the first year of the Han'an reign (142), Zhang Daoling, moved by the Supreme Venerable Sovereign (Laojun) at Mount Heming, received the revelation of 'the Way of the Covenant of Orthodox Unity and Awesome Power,' and thereupon established the Twenty-four Parishes as his missionary territory, taking the Laozi as his principal scripture and writing the Xiang'er Commentary on the Laozi, and appointing Libationers to govern the Daoist citizenry. After Zhang Daoling's death, the transmission passed to his son Zhang Heng, and from Zhang Heng to his son Zhang Lu. Zhang Lu held Hanzhong for nearly thirty years (roughly 191–215), establishing a theocratic regime that combined religious and political authority: he set up charitable lodges stocked with rice and meat free for travelers to take, allowed offenders three pardons before punishment was carried out, and replaced government officials with Libationers. In the twentieth year of the Jian'an reign (215), Zhang Lu surrendered to Cao Cao and was enfeoffed as Marquis of Langzhong; large numbers of Daoist citizens migrated north with him to the areas around Ye, Chang'an, and Luoyang, and the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice thereby spread from a local religious community in Ba-Shu into a nationwide religion. It subsequently developed into the Way of the Celestial Masters, and through the reforms of Kou Qianzhi and Lu Xiujing it split into the Northern and Southern Celestial Masters before finally merging into Zhengyi Daoism. The Way of the Five Pecks of Rice established many of the basic institutions of organized Daoism — the conferral of registers, parishes and oratories, Libationers, handwritten confessions to the Three Officials, and fasting and reflection on one's transgressions — and is thus the wellspring of Daoist institutional organization.

Core Doctrine

It venerates Laozi as the Supreme Venerable Sovereign (Laojun) and takes the Dao as its highest object of faith; the Xiang'er Commentary on the Laozi emphasizes keeping the precepts, doing good, and preserving one's essence for longevity, and sets out the ethical rule that 'the Dao establishes life to reward the good and establishes death to deter the wicked.' It holds that the Three Officials of Heaven, Earth, and Water examine and assess merit and demerit. Under Zhang Lu, this was combined with the Huang–Lao political ideal, governing the people by means of the Dao. These ideas form the starting point of the ethics and theology of the later Zhengyi tradition.

Practice & Ritual

Entrants contributed five pecks of rice on joining; the sick would write their names and an acknowledgment of guilt on three copies of a Handwritten Confession to the Three Officials, one to be sent up to Heaven, one buried in the Earth, and one sunk in Water; Libationers presided over reflection on transgressions in the 'quiet chamber' (jingshi); adherents recited the Five Thousand Words of Laozi; the system of Twenty-four Parishes and the office of Libationer were established; and early ritual practices included the 'Rite of Passage' (guodu yi) and 'the Way of Yellow and Red' (the sexual rite of the merging of pneumas, heqi). Under Zhang Lu, charitable lodges were established and lenient punishments practiced.

Transmission

Zhang Daoling → Zhang Heng → Zhang Lu (the 'Three Zhangs'); after Zhang Lu's surrender to Wei, the religious community migrated north; during the Wei and Jin, the Way of the Celestial Masters developed separately in the north and in the Jiangnan region; Kou Qianzhi of the Northern Wei reformed it into the 'New Way of the Celestial Masters,' while Lu Xiujing of the Liu Song organized the Southern Way of the Celestial Masters; from the Tang and Song onward, the Zhang family of Longhushan claimed descent from Zhang Daoling, forming Zhengyi Daoism. The Way of the Five Pecks of Rice and the Way of the Celestial Masters are often used interchangeably in the historical sources; this site classifies the Ba-Shu and Hanzhong period of 142–215 under the present entry, and the period thereafter under 'Way of the Celestial Masters.'

Key Scriptures

Key Figures

Principal Temples