Figures

who it looks to — gods, spirits, ancestors; some rooms are empty on principle Part of Belief →

The ultimate — what this line takes as final

T Taishang Laojun. Laozi, deified — and the deification is roughly five hundred years after the book, complete with a doctrine that he appears in every age to hand down the teaching again. He is said to have descended on Heming Mountain in 142 to commission Zhang Daoling, which is where the religion dates itself from. held by most Domain Revelation. He is held to appear in each age to give the teaching againStanding The author of the Daodejing became a god about five centuries after the book, which the tradition does not find odd Meet them — context →

T The Tao. Not a god: the unnameable current everything moves in. It does not hear prayers — one aligns with it, as water does. Domain The way of everythingStanding Aligned with, not petitioned Meet them — context →

T The Three Pure Ones. Three figures on the high altar of every large temple, representing three primordial breaths rather than three persons. Nobody petitions them. Worshippers walk past to the side halls where the gods with actual jurisdiction sit, which is exactly what you would do in any bureaucracy. held by most Domain The three primordial breaths from which everything cameStanding They receive no petitions. People walk past them to the god who handles their problem Meet them — context →

Gods & powers — the presences it names and addresses

T The Jade Emperor. Head of religious Taoism's celestial bureaucracy — a heaven organized like an empire, with ministries, ranks, and paperwork. Meet them — context →

T The Eight Immortals. Humans who attained immortality and kept their personalities — crossing the sea each with their own trick; folk heroes of the tradition. Meet them — context →

M Mazu. A fisherman's daughter from Meizhou island who died young around 987 and is now the most-worshipped goddess of the Chinese maritime world. Every port from Fujian to Singapore to San Francisco has her temple. The nine-day Dajia pilgrimage in Taiwan moves the palanquin some three hundred kilometres and draws hundreds of thousands. Domain The sea, and anyone on itStanding Thousands of temples across Fujian, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and every Chinese port. The nine-day Dajia pilgrimage in Taiwan moves hundreds of thousands of people Meet them — context →

G Guandi. A third-century general, executed after a failed campaign, promoted by imperial decree over centuries until he outranked most of the pantheon. He is on the altar in shops, restaurants, police stations and triad lodges — in Hong Kong both the police and the people they arrest have kept him, which everyone finds funny and nobody finds strange. Domain Loyalty, oaths, protection, and, unexpectedly, businessStanding On the altar in shops, police stations and triad lodges alike — both sides of Hong Kong law have kept him Meet them — context →

Founders & teachers — the ones who opened the way

Z Zhuangzi. He argues by telling you a story about a cook, or a butterfly, or a talking skull, and then declining to explain it. Offered a ministry, he asked whether a sacred tortoise would rather be honoured in a temple or alive dragging its tail in the mud, and sent the messengers away. Domain Argument by story, and the demolition of certaintyStanding The book is funnier and stranger than the Daodejing and has done as much work; Chinese poetry and painting run on it Meet them — context →

Z Zhang Daoling, the first Celestial Master. In 142 he received a covenant from Lord Lao appointing him to administer the spirits, and organised his followers into twenty-four parishes with registers, confession and a levy of five pecks of rice. His descendants have held the office for sixty-four claimed generations and the line moved to Taiwan in 1949. held by most Domain The covenant between the gods and the community, and the office that administers itStanding In 142 CE he received a commission from Lord Lao on Heming Mountain. Institutional Taoism dates itself from that year, not from Laozi Meet them — context →

W Wang Chongyang. A failed military examinee who dug himself a grave, called it the tomb of the living dead, and lived in it for two years. He then founded Quanzhen — celibate, vegetarian, monastic, and deliberately uninterested in the ritual services that were the other clergy's living. His order now holds most of the great temples of China. ⚖ contested within Domain Monastic Taoism, and the refusal of the ritual tradeStanding He dug himself a grave and lived in it for two years. His order is celibate, vegetarian and monastic, and it now holds most of the great temples of mainland China Meet them — context →

Saints & exemplars — lives held up as the pattern

S Sun Buer. She left a husband and three children to follow Wang Chongyang and became one of the Seven Perfected. The tradition says she poured hot oil on her own face and scarred it so that she could travel and beg without being molested, and that she is the origin of the separate literature on womens internal alchemy. ⚖ contested within Domain Womens internal alchemy — nüdan, which she is credited with foundingStanding She is said to have scarred her own face with hot oil so she could travel and study without being molested Meet them — context →

Ancestors & spirits — the dead, the local, the household

T The Stove God. A cheap printed image above the stove, who watches the household all year and files an annual report with the Jade Emperor. On the twenty-third of the twelfth month the family offers him sticky sweets and burns him so he can travel. The sweets are to gum his mouth shut, and this has been going on for over a thousand years. Domain The household. He watches everything that happens in it all yearStanding The most consequential god in Chinese domestic religion, and the only one who is routinely bribed with sticky sweets Meet them — context →