Taishang Laojun

deity sky Taoist single tradition · 3

Taishang Laojun is believed to be the true incarnation of the spiritual philosopher Laozi, and was identified as a personification of the Tao as early as the beginning of the Later Han dynasty. According to the Daozang, Taishang Laojun manifested many various incarnations to teach living beings, and Laozi is one of his incarnations.

↻ synthesized from 3 sources

When

First attested
25 CE
Attested period
0 – 2020
Historical notes
Identified as personification of Tao in Later Han dynasty.

Relationships

manifests as
Laozi, Xuanwu
served by
Jade Emperor
has aspect
Xuanwu

Expand to full subgraph →

Sources

Source passages

“Taishang Laojun believed to be the true incarnation of the spiritual philosopher Laozi, he was already identified as a personification of the Tao as early as the beginning of the Later Han dynasty. According to the Daozang, Taishang Laojun had manifested many various incarnations to teach living beings, and Laozi is one of his incarnations”

#21167 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001

“According to Taoist beliefs, he is the 82nd avatar of Taishang Laojun.”

#21850 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5

“The Grand Supreme Elder Lord (Taishang Laojun) commanded Master Zhang to address this.”

#21901 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001