Yiguandao is generally traced to the figure of Wang Jueyi (王覺一), who is regarded as the key founder in its own lineage narratives. He is described as the fifteenth patriarch, receiving the Dao from his predecessor and then reshaping the tradition into what came to be known as Yiguandao, the “Consistently Unified Way.” By claiming the identity of Maitreya Buddha in human form, Wang Jueyi provided a powerful spiritual center around which teachings, ritual life, and organizational structures could crystallize. This move did not arise in a vacuum, but within an older stream of Chinese redemptive and millenarian movements, where charismatic leaders often claimed sacred status to legitimate new forms of practice and belief.

The circumstances of this founding can be seen as both institutional and visionary. Institutionally, Wang Jueyi consolidated an existing lineage, changed its name, and articulated its doctrines and practices with greater clarity and coherence, thereby giving the movement a distinct profile within the crowded religious landscape of late imperial China. Visionarily, his self-understanding as Maitreya Buddha incarnate framed Yiguandao as a path of universal salvation in a troubled age, promising access to the Dao through a living embodiment of future Buddhahood. In this way, the founding of Yiguandao stands at the intersection of inherited tradition and fresh revelation, presenting itself as a renewed “one consistent Way” that gathers Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist elements into a single salvific vision.