sect in present-day Shandong, praised as healers who offered free care to impoverished patients. Recognizing how the local government abused the peasant class through harsh labor and heavy taxes, they plotted rebellion. Taoist sect The rebels were the first followers of the Way of Supreme Peace () and venerated the deity Huang–Lao, who according to Zhang Jue, had given him a sacred book called the Crucial Keys to the Way of Peace () based on the Taipingjing. Zhang Jue, who was said to be a sorcerer, called himself the "Great Teacher" (). When the rebellion was proclaimed, Zhang Jue created a 16-word slogan spread through the brothers' medical work: Religious practices Zhang Jue claimed to cure patients by having them confess sins for Taoist faith healing. The Zhang brothers believed in an impending apocalyptic change in the jiazi year, the beginning of the new sexagenary cycle, involving yellow skies marking new governance, which inspired the color of their headwear. Through the sect's communal activities like trances, fasting, musical performances, chanting, incense burning, and sermons, followers united across ethnic and gender lines. Several Xiongnu leaders, such as Yufuluo, lent their support, potentially inspiring Zhang Jue to adopt their shamanistic beliefs. Despite few surviving records, the early Path of Supreme Peace was likely similar to the Way of the Celestial Masters, considering that Zhang Jue claimed to be a descendant of Zhang Daoling. Much of the Taipingjing's surviving 52 chapters, found in the Daozang, have a direct relationship to the Way of the Celestial Masters with discrepancies potentially suppressed by later Taoists. Zhang Jue's plans for rebellion Before the rebellion started, Zhang Jue had sent Ma Yuanyi () to recruit followers from Jing and Yang provinces and gather them in Ye. Since Ma Yuanyi frequently traveled to Luoyang, the Han imperial capital, he was able to persuade Feng Xu () and Xu Feng (), members of the imperial court's eunuch faction, to secretly collaborate with Zhang Jue. They set 3 April 184 as the date for the rebellion, but before the plans was set in motion, the Yellow Turbans were betrayed. One of the founders of "The Way of Peace" movement, Tang Zhou () had been excluded from later planning, so he reported Ma Yuanyi to the authorities. Ma Yuanyi was arrested and executed by dismemberment in Luoyang. After Emperor Ling learned that Zhang Jue was plotting a revolt, he ordered Zhou