Way of the Five Pecks of Rice

Accounts place the movement's beginnings in the Eastern Han, when Zhang Daoling taught in the Sichuan region. The popular name refers to a five-peck grain contribution in one explanation, while other accounts connect it with stellar or liturgical symbolism. Early sources also use names such as Zhengyi Mengwei Dao and Celestial Masters tradition; these labels should be compared rather than treated as an unquestioned single title.

The early communities were organized through local administrative and religious units commonly described as twenty-four zhi. Religious officers called jijiu supervised communities, taught moral discipline and maintained relationships between households and the movement. Under Zhang Lu in Hanzhong, religious administration and local government were closely connected for several decades. Records of communal hostels and shared provisions show a social institution as well as a system of belief.

After Zhang Lu submitted to Cao Cao in 215, followers moved into other regions and the earlier organization changed. The Zhang lineage later became associated with Mount Longhu, while the name Zhengyi gradually came to describe a broader institutional tradition. This later continuity should not erase the differences between an Eastern Han movement, medieval lineages and the formal arrangements of later Zhengyi Dao.

The tradition respected Laozi as a religious teacher and emphasized moral conduct, repentance and communal obligations. Historical accounts also describe healing claims, ritual texts and forms of prayer. Those reports document religious practice and social memory; they are not evidence that a ritual provides medical treatment or guaranteed results. The entry therefore separates early community history from later theological interpretation and modern labels.