 In addition to the components outlined above, the process that, in the second half of the 2nd century CE, led to the formation of the first major Daoist religious movement (see  §3.1)  could not be understood without paying attention to the political ideologies of ancient China. These ideologies are synthesized in the concept of the Great Peace (taiping), which was shared by different traditions including Confucianism (Seidel 1983b; Espesset 2009). With regard to Daoism, the main source that documents these views is the Taiping jing (Book of the Great Peace), originally dating from the 1st or the 2nd centuries CE (Hendrischke 2006). The central idea in the Taiping jing is the advent of an era of “peace” (ping, also meaning “equity”) in which a perfect ruler would establish a perfect society. This era would follow calamities designed to eliminate the corrupted ones, but would come only if the ruler governs according to the principle of “returning to the Dao”.