佛祖統紀 35.140

35.140

The author remarks: Events indeed have truth and falsehood intermingled, thereby losing the facts. As for the Way of Five Pecks of Rice, this is one facet of the methods of the Zhengyi Mengwei bestowed upon the Celestial Master by Laozi. The Celestial Master practiced it in Shu during the reign of Emperor Shun. The Celestial Master, father and son, attained the Dao and ascended as immortals; to this day the celebrated traces on Mount Longhu remain majestic, and the descendants succeeding as Master continue unbroken. This is indeed revered by successive dynasties as authentic. Zhang Xiu and Zhang Jue came after the Celestial Master during the reign of Emperor Ling. Borrowing the Way of Five Pecks of Rice, they taught followers across eight provinces in thirty-six divisions (a division is like a general). Once they rebelled, they ended up executed; this was counterfeit. Yet historians at times make excessive assessments, so later generations cannot discern between the true and the false. Now, examining the 'Biography of Liu Yan' in the Book of the Later Han, it states that those who received the Dao from Ling contributed five pecks of rice; three generations passed from Ling to Lu, who was first enfeoffed as the Marquis of Langzhong, and his son Fu succeeded him. This is what Fan Ye recorded without any other disparaging remarks. But reading the Records of Wei, it states that Ling made Daoist books to mislead the people and collect five pecks of rice, and the world called them 'Rice Bandits'. This was recorded by Chen Shou and is quite satirical and slanderous. As for the account in the Dianlüe, it claims that Zhang Jue practiced the Way of Five Pecks of Rice and was executed, and Lu, relying on the people's trust, elaborated upon it. This account departs greatly from the truth. Lu's practicing the rice way was naturally his ancestral method; why would he have to base it on Jue? Hence we know that both the Records of Wei and the Dianlüe lack comprehensive discernment and rashly criticize and praise; they are not equal to the Book of the Later Han as a treasured record. As for the Shuji by Li Ying, one does not know from which dynasty that text comes, which says that Ling insulted humans and ghosts and was swallowed by a great python. How could one bear to lightly utter such slanderous and blasphemous words? When the world sometimes refers to the 'Three Zhangs', it equates the dignity of the Celestial Master with the likes of the Yellow Turbans. This is something the discerning ought to avoid.