Celestial Master Daoism was founded in the second century CE in what is now Sichuan province. It began as a revolutionary faith, rejecting the traditional religious practices of the people around them, preaching that disasters were imminent that would usher in a utopian age of Great Peace for the worthy, but death and destruction for their profane neighbors. They formed a self-conscious religious entity, marked off by distinctive clothing, a family tithe of grain, and especially, ritual practice. The followers collected together briefly in a millennial kingdom centered in the Hanzhong region of southeast Shanxi province (ca. 191–215), then spread across the North China plain in an evangelical wave during the third century, and extended their faith to South China in the fourth.

The first few generations of believers were caught up in the eschatological dream on the world of Great Peace to come, but eventually it became clear that the return of the Supreme Lord Lao and the inauguration of Great Peace was not imminent. After that, a certain routinization set in, and the faith shifted to one centering on the welfare of their believers in this world rather than the next. What did it mean then to be a member of the Celestial Master church? How could Daoist citizens (daomin 道民) hope to fulfill their vows and earn a blessed life? Could they count on the help of their fellow Daoists in their spiritual cultivation and worldly endeavors? How did members of the Daoist community see the profane worshipers of popular cults all around them?