Daoist-inspired popular movement that occurred near the end of China's Han dynasty (206 BCAD 220) and greatly weakened the government.
It became a prototype of the religiously inspired popular rebellions that were to erupt periodically in China throughout its history. Its founder, Zhang Daoling , is considered the first patriarch of the Daoist church in China. He was originally a faith healer, and the movement's name came from the five pecks of rice a year that clients paid him for their cure or as dues to the cult. During a time of poverty and misery, Zhang's grandson Zhang Lu set up an independent theocratic state that grew to encompass all of present-day Sichuan province. In AD 215 Zhang Lu surrendered to Cao Cao . See also Daoism ; White Lotus ; Yellow Turbans .