Taiping Yaoshu 太平要術

In Chapter 1 of the Romance, Zhang Jue of Julu Commandery meets in the mountains an old man holding a goosefoot staff and is called into a cave, and the old man hands him three volumes of a heavenly book, telling him that this book is the Taiping Yaoshu, that he should spread its teachings on Heaven's behalf and save the people of the world far and wide, and that if he harbors other intentions he will surely be punished. When Zhang Jue bows and asks his name, the old man says he is the Old Immortal of Nanhua and vanishes as a breath of clear wind. Romance, Ch. 1 §7–8

Zhang Jue studies the book day and night, becomes able to summon wind and rain and is called the "Taoist of Great Peace." When an epidemic spreads in the 1st month of the 1st year of Zhongping (184), he cures the sick by distributing water with burnt talismans and calls himself the "Great Worthy and Good Teacher," and his more than five hundred disciples travel in all directions writing talismans and chanting spells. As his followers grow, Zhang Jue sets up thirty-six divisions and spreads the saying, "The Blue Heaven is already dead; the Yellow Heaven shall rise," and when the plot is exposed he raises troops and calls himself the "General of Heaven." Romance, Ch. 1 §8–11