This page brings together the sacred images of Taoism: which deities are worshipped, the signs that identify them, and how they are arranged in a Taoist temple. The library uses photos of real statues and paintings now kept in temples or museums, and does not redraw portraits of holy figures. The only drawing on the page is a diagram. Under each photo are the photographer's name and the licence. The doctrinal material follows the Taoist Culture Centre of Fung Ying Seen Koon (Hong Kong) and the Taoist Federation (Singapore). The Vietnamese material follows the journal Religious Studies Review (Nghiên cứu Tôn giáo) and the Vietnamese press. This page is still being expanded.
IThe early period without images
Taoism has not always had statues. The scholar Christine Mollier writes that, according to the common understanding, orthodox Taoism did not use images for about two centuries, up to the 5th century. The earliest surviving Taoist deities in human form are on Northern Wei steles from Mount Yaowang, Yao county, Shaanxi province, dated from 424 to 533. The earliest is the stele of Wei Wenlang, dated the first year of the Shiguang era, that is, 424. Mollier herself notes that the dating of this stele is still debated.
Source: Christine Mollier, Iconizing the Daoist-Buddhist Relationship, Daoism: Religion, History and Society, no. 2, 2010 (Chinese University of Hong Kong).According to Mollier, the craftsmen of that time borrowed the models of Buddhist statues but still created a visual language of their own. Laojun, that is, Laozi elevated to a deity, usually has a topknot, a beard, and a long-sleeved robe with a V-shaped collar and ties, and holds a fan or a fly whisk in his right hand. The stele in the Musée Guimet shown below dates from the same period as this group: limestone, Yong'an era of the Northern Wei (528 to 532), brought back by the Paul Pelliot expedition.
Source: Christine Mollier, Iconizing the Daoist-Buddhist Relationship, Daoism: Religion, History and Society, no. 2, 2010 (Chinese University of Hong Kong). Wikimedia Commons, file page of stele EO 1324 in the Musée Guimet (transcribing the museum label).
Mollier uses the words "is said to" when speaking of the two centuries without images. The library has not yet read any Taoist source that states clearly whether the early period forbade images or simply had no custom of making them. This page therefore records only what is certain: the earliest surviving objects are the 5th century steles.
Source: Christine Mollier, Iconizing the Daoist-Buddhist Relationship, Daoism: Religion, History and Society, no. 2, 2010 (Chinese University of Hong Kong).IIThe Three Pure Ones, the highest deities
The Three Pure Ones (三清, Tam Thanh) are the three Celestial Worthies at the head of the Taoist pantheon: Yuanshi Tianzun in the realm of Jade Purity, Lingbao Tianzun in the realm of Highest Purity, and Daode Tianzun in the realm of Great Purity. In a Taoist temple the three sit in a row in the Hall of the Three Pure Ones, with Yuanshi Tianzun in the middle. To tell them apart, look at what each one holds.
Source: Taoist Culture Centre (Fung Ying Seen Koon, Hong Kong), The Primeval Lord of Heaven. Taoist Culture Centre, The Heavenly Lord of the Numinous Treasure. Taoist Culture Centre, The Heavenly Lord of Dao and its Virtue. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Daoism and Daoist Art.Yuanshi Tianzun
元始天尊 · Yuanshi Tianzun · Jade PurityHow to recognize: Seated in the very middle, holding a round pearlThe head of the Three Pure Ones. Taoist texts say he was born from natural qi before heaven and earth existed and dwells in the realm of Jade Purity, above the other thirty-five heavens. His statues hold the Hunyuan pearl, which stands for the time when heaven and earth were not yet divided. In the set of paintings at the White Cloud Temple he wears a Taoist priest's robe, his hand forms a gesture similar to the mudra of a Buddha statue, and a halo of many colours surrounds his body. The Ming stoneware statue in the British Museum holds a black pearl on the right side, raises the left hand, and has a long beard. The museum suggests it may be Yuanshi Tianzun.
Lingbao Tianzun
靈寶天尊 · Lingbao Tianzun · Highest PurityHow to recognize: Holds a ruyi scepter whose curved head is shaped like a lingzhi mushroomHis name is tied to the Lingbao scriptures composed in the 5th century. He is regarded as the one who spreads the teaching widely. The object that identifies him is the ruyi scepter. His feast day is the summer solstice.
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Daode Tianzun, Taishang Laojun
道德天尊 · Daode Tianzun · Great PurityHow to recognize: An old man with white hair and a white beard, holding a feather fanDaode Tianzun is Laozi elevated to a deity, also called Taishang Laojun since the Northern Wei. His name comes from the Tao Te Ching. Statues and paintings show him as an old man with white hair and beard, holding a fan. In the set of paintings at the White Cloud Temple, Zhang Daoling, the first Celestial Master, stands in attendance on him.
The Taoist Culture Centre source places Lingbao Tianzun on the "left" and Daode Tianzun on the "right" of Yuanshi Tianzun, but does not say whether this is counted from the worshipper or from the statue. This page therefore records only the deity in the middle. Wikipedia adds that the three are often painted in robes of three different colours. The library has not seen a Taoist source that confirms this.
Source: Taoist Culture Centre, The Heavenly Lord of the Numinous Treasure. Taoist Culture Centre, The Heavenly Lord of Dao and its Virtue. Wikipedia, Three Pure Ones.
IIILaojun, the Jade Emperor and the heavenly sovereigns
Laozi, Taishang Laojun
老子 · Laozi · LaojunHow to recognize: An old man with a long, thick beardLaozi is the author to whom tradition attributes the Tao Te Ching. The Metropolitan Museum notes that he can be recognized by his long, thick beard. The museum's small gilded statue was cast in 1438, and an inscription under the hem of the robe says that an official on the northwestern frontier commissioned it as a gift for his mother in Nanjing. On Mount Qingyuan in Quanzhou there is a statue of Laojun carved from stone in the Song dynasty, regarded as the largest stone statue of Laozi from that period.
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The Jade Emperor
玉皇大帝 · Yudi, Yuhuang ShangdiHow to recognize: Seated on a throne in a dragon robe, wearing a crown with a fringe of jade beads, holding a jade tablet in both handsBritannica calls the Jade Emperor the most venerated and most familiar of the Taoist deities, the head of a heavenly court organized like the court on earth. His worship was officially recognized by the emperors of the Song dynasty (960 to 1279). According to Taoist sources, the Jade Emperor ranks below the Three Pure Ones and governs the realms of heaven and earth and all the deities. His feast day is the 9th day of the first lunar month. At Sơn Nam Quán, a Taoist temple in Vietnam, the Jade Emperor's altar has Nam Tào and Bắc Đẩu (the deities of the Southern and Northern Dipper) on either side.
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The Four Sovereigns
四御How to recognize: Worshipped in a hall of their own called the Hall of the Four SovereignsFour deities who help the Three Pure Ones watch over heaven and earth: the Jade Emperor, the Great Emperor Ziwei of the North Pole, the Great Emperor Gouchen of the Heavenly Sovereign, and Houtu, the deity of the Earth. Taoist sources record two readings of the Jade Emperor's rank: as the first of the Four Sovereigns, or as standing above all four. Sino-Vietnamese (Hán Nôm) texts recording the Lý and Trần periods in Vietnam also mention the Three Pure Ones and the Four Sovereigns.
Source: Taoist Culture Centre, The Four Heavenly Ministers. Taoist Culture Centre, The Great Jade Emperor. Hoàng Thị Thu Hường, Phạm Minh Phương, Đạo giáo ở Việt Nam thời Lý, Trần qua một số tác phẩm Hán Nôm tiêu biểu, Religious Studies Review, no. 12, 2021.The Three Officials
三官大帝 · Heaven Official, Earth Official, Water OfficialHow to recognize: Three officials of heaven, earth and water, worshipped as a setThe Heaven Official bestows blessings, the Earth Official pardons sins, and the Water Official frees people from misfortune. Their worship goes back to the Way of the Celestial Masters in the Eastern Han: a sick person wrote three confessions, placing one on a mountain as an offering to Heaven, burying one in the ground, and putting one into water. Their three feast days are the 15th day of the first, seventh and tenth lunar months.
IVHuyền Thiên Trấn Vũ (Zhenwu)
The guardian deity of the North has three common names. Xuanwu (玄武) is the original name, which is also the name of the northern constellation of the tortoise and snake. Zhenwu (真武) is the name adopted in the Northern Song to avoid the taboo character Xuan. Xuantian Shangdi (玄天上帝), the Supreme Emperor of the Dark Heaven, is his honorific title. Vietnamese people call him Huyền Thiên Trấn Vũ or Đức Thánh Trấn Vũ.
Source: Wikipedia, Xuanwu (god). Taoist Culture Centre, The Great Perfect Warrior Emperor. Wikipedia, Quán Thánh Temple.How to recognize a statue of Zhenwu
真武大帝 · Zhenwu · Xuantian ShangdiHow to recognize: Loose hair, bare feet, armour under the robe, a sword in hand, a tortoise and snake under his feetThe Art Institute of Chicago explains that the loose hair and bare feet recall the story of his years of cultivation on Mount Wudang in Hubei, no longer bound by everyday ritual, while the armour showing under the robe marks him as a warrior deity. The Metropolitan Museum notes that the sign to look for is a snake coiled around a tortoise. Wikipedia describes him holding a sword in his right hand and forming a mudra with his left. His feast day is the 3rd day of the 3rd lunar month.
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Mount Wudang and the Ming dynasty
How to recognize: The sacred mountain of Zhenwu in Hubei provinceTradition says that Zhenwu cultivated himself on Mount Wudang for forty-two years before attaining the Tao. The Yongle Emperor of the Ming had an entire complex of palaces and temples built on the mountain. UNESCO lists this complex as World Heritage. The 1994 ICOMOS evaluation submitted to UNESCO records that the Ming works comprised 9 palaces, 9 temples, 36 monasteries and 72 cliff temples.
Source: Taoist Culture Centre, The Great Perfect Warrior Emperor. UNESCO, Ancient Building Complex in the Wudang Mountains. ICOMOS, advisory body evaluation of the Ancient Building Complex in the Wudang Mountains for UNESCO, 1994.The Trấn Vũ statue at Quán Thánh Temple, Hanoi
How to recognize: A very large black bronze statue seated on a stone base, hair loose, the right hand resting a sword on the back of a tortoise, a snake coiled around the swordQuán Thánh Temple (Đền Quán Thánh), also called Trấn Vũ Quán, is the northern guardian among the four guardian temples of Thăng Long. The statue was cast in 1677, under King Lê Hy Tông, and was recognized as a National Treasure in 2016. The magazine Luật sư Việt Nam (Vietnam Lawyers) describes the statue with a square face, a long beard, loose hair and no hat, wearing a Taoist priest's robe, the left hand forming a ritual hand sign, and the right hand resting on a sword with a snake coiled around it, the point of the sword resting on the back of a tortoise. As for who made it, this source says many believe the master craftsman was Trùm Trọng, while Tuổi Trẻ newspaper names the person who oversaw the casting as Vũ Công Chấn, Duke of Luân. The sources do not agree on the measurements, see the section What the library is not sure of.
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Hanoi has another large statue of Huyền Thiên Trấn Vũ at Trấn Vũ Temple in Thạch Bàn ward, Long Biên district. Casting began in 1788 and was finished in 1802, and it was recognized as a National Treasure at the end of 2015. The library does not yet have an openly licensed photo of this statue.
Source: Nhân Dân newspaper, Đón bằng Bảo vật quốc gia cho tượng Huyền Thiên Trấn Vũ. Pháp luật Việt Nam newspaper, Pho tượng long bào đen hơn 200 tuổi trở thành Bảo vật quốc gia, 10/04/2016.VThe Eight Immortals, goddesses and temple guardians
The Eight Immortals
八仙 · BaxianHow to recognize: Eight immortals travelling together, each with a different look and a different objectThe eight are Zhongli Quan, Lü Dongbin, Li Tieguai, Zhang Guolao, He Xiangu, Lan Caihe, Han Xiangzi and Cao Guojiu. The group took shape in the Song and Yuan dynasties and was familiar from the 12th century. The list became fixed only after the Ming novel Journey to the East (Dongyou ji). The sources consulted record the marks of six of them: Zhongli Quan holds a fan, Li Tieguai leans on an iron crutch and carries a gourd, He Xiangu holds a lotus flower, Han Xiangzi plays a flute, Lan Caihe goes begging with a pair of castanets, and Zhang Guolao rides a donkey sitting backward. The eight include men and women, old and young, high and low, so people easily see themselves among them. The Eight Immortals are often painted travelling together to offer birthday wishes.
Lü Dongbin and Zhongli Quan
呂洞賓 · Lü DongbinHow to recognize: Lü Dongbin has the look of a scholar, Zhongli Quan holds a fanLü Dongbin is regarded as the leader of the Eight Immortals. The Yongle Palace in Shanxi was built to worship him. On the walls of its Chunyang Hall there is still a Yuan painting of Zhongli Quan transmitting the Tao to Lü Dongbin. At Fung Ying Seen Koon in Hong Kong, Patriarch Lü is worshipped together with Taishang Laojun and Patriarch Qiu.
Xiwangmu, the Queen Mother of the West
西王母 · XiwangmuHow to recognize: A beautiful queen, associated with the peaches of immortalityThe oldest texts describe a half human, half beast figure with a leopard's tail and a tiger's teeth linked to Xiwangmu. Many read it as Xiwangmu herself, while the Taoist source takes it to be her envoy. She later became a beautiful goddess on Mount Kunlun who keeps an orchard of peaches that bear fruit only once every three thousand years. Images of her with Dongwanggong, the King Father of the East, already appear on Han bronze mirrors. Her feast day is the 3rd day of the 3rd lunar month or the 18th day of the 7th lunar month. Chu Văn Tuấn notes that at one present-day Taoist temple in Vietnam, Xiwangmu is understood as the wife of the Jade Emperor.
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Doumu Yuanjun
斗姆 · DoumuHow to recognize: A many-armed goddess who looks like a BodhisattvaDoumu is the mother of the stars of the Northern Dipper. The seven visible stars and two invisible ones are called the Nine Sovereigns, her nine children. Since the Tang dynasty, Doumu has been identified with the Buddhist Bodhisattva Marici, which is why her statues take the form of a many-armed Bodhisattva. Chu Văn Tuấn describes the statue of Doumu at Sơn Nam Quán (Hưng Yên) as having eight arms, the two front hands in a gesture similar to that of Cundi.
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Wang Lingguan
王靈官How to recognize: Red face, upturned beard, armour, an iron whip raised in his handThe guardian of the altar who keeps the gate of the Taoist temple. His statue faces the entrance, and people entering the temple pay respects to him first. Taoist sources describe him as having fiery eyes that see through truth and falsehood.
Celestial Master Zhang
張道陵 · Zhang DaolingHow to recognize: In the set of paintings of the Three Pure Ones at the White Cloud Temple, he stands in attendance beside Daode TianzunZhang Daoling founded the Way of the Celestial Masters in the Eastern Han. The office of Celestial Master passed down the family line, from him to his son Zhang Heng and then to his grandson Zhang Lu. The Zhengyi school honours him as its founder.
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VIHow a Taoist temple is laid out
A large Taoist temple consists of many halls set one after another along an axis. The White Cloud Temple in Beijing, the ancestral seat of the Quanzhen Longmen school, is an example described by a Taoist source itself. The diagram below lists the halls on the central axis that this source names.
Source: Taoist Culture Centre, White Cloud Temple (Baiyunguan), Beijing.The library drew this diagram to summarize one particular temple. It is not a floor plan and not a general rule for every Taoist temple.
The murals of the Yongle Palace
The Yongle Palace in Ruicheng, Shanxi, was built in the Yuan dynasty to worship Lü Dongbin. On the walls of its Hall of the Three Pure Ones is the Chaoyuan tu (Audience with the Origin), which shows a multitude of deities going to pay homage to Yuanshi Tianzun: 286 figures gathered around eight great emperors and empresses, completed in 1325 by the workshop of Ma Junxiang. The whole palace was taken apart and moved brick by brick and panel by panel to a new site to make way for the reservoir of the Sanmenxia Dam. China Daily dates the move from 1959 to 1964, Wikipedia from 1958 to 1966.
Source: China Daily (Shanxi), Yongle Palace. Wikipedia, Yongle Gong. Wikimedia Commons, file page of the Chaoyuan tu, section 2.
Quanzhen and Zhengyi
Taoism today has two major schools. The Quanzhen school was founded by Wang Chongyang in 1167. Its priests are monastics who live in temples and keep strict precepts. The Zhengyi school continues the line of the Celestial Masters. Its priests live at home with their families and perform rituals for their communities. The sources consulted do not point to any difference in pantheon between the two schools. Quanzhen temples also worship their own patriarchs, such as Lü Dongbin, Qiu Chuji and the Seven Perfected of Quanzhen.
Source: Britannica, Quanzhen. Fabrizio Pregadio (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Taoism, entry Quanzhen, on Golden Elixir. Hong Kong Memory, Intangible Cultural Heritage of Hong Kong: history of the Zhengyi school. Taoist Culture Centre, White Cloud Temple (Baiyunguan), Beijing. Fung Ying Seen Koon, history.In the jiao ritual held at a village temple, the main altar is reserved for the Three Pure Ones. The three are present through hanging scrolls that depict them, put up for the ceremony. The deities normally worshipped in the temple withdraw to the altar of the Three Realms (heaven, earth, water) as guests. So Taoist sacred images are not only fixed statues but also sets of paintings hung up for the rite.
Source: Laurence G. Thompson, entry Jiao, Encyclopedia of Religion, 1987 (version on Encyclopedia.com).,_China,_Qing_dynasty,_late_18th_to_early_19th_century_AD,_silk,_metal-wrapped_silk,_view_1_-_Textile_Museum,_George_Washington_University_-_DSC09658.JPG)
VIITaoist sacred images country by country
Each place below has a few lines and one to four photos. The Vietnamese section draws on the journal Religious Studies Review (Nghiên cứu Tôn giáo) and the Vietnamese press. Many places are still missing from the list, and the library will add them over time.
Vietnam
Under the Đinh and Early Lê dynasties, the best known place of worship was the Thiên Tôn grotto at Hoa Lư. Today the grotto still worships Huyền Thiên Thượng Đế (Xuantian Shangdi) and a set of statues of the Three Pure Ones. Under the Lý, the Thái Thanh Palace was built in 1011 along with many other Taoist temples. In the Đoài region, west of Hanoi, the temples of Hội Linh, Hưng Thánh, Linh Tiên and Lâm Dương still stand, their floor plans changing from the shape of the Chinese character for "three" in the 16th century to the shape of the character for "work" in the 17th century. Chu Văn Tuấn observes that most of the old Taoist temples long ago turned into shrines, Buddhist pagodas and village communal houses. Recently a few new establishments have begun worshipping the Three Pure Ones, the Jade Emperor, Huyền Thiên Trấn Vũ, Doumu and the Three Officials. Bích Câu Đạo Quán in Hanoi now worships Buddhist, Taoist and Mother Goddess figures together, and is linked to the legend of Tú Uyên meeting the fairy Giáng Kiều. In Ho Chi Minh City, the Jade Emperor Pagoda (Chùa Ngọc Hoàng) was built in 1909 by Chinese of Cantonese origin and has been called Phước Hải Tự since 1984.
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Ritual paintings of the Dao people
The Dao people (also known as Yao) of the northern mountains keep their Taoist sacred images in the form of paintings. According to Hoàng Thị Thu Hường, a set of paintings of the Dao Quần Chẹt group has 19 to 21 scrolls. The Three Pure Ones set has 12 scrolls: Yuanshi Tianzun, Lingbao Tianzun, Daode Tianzun, the Holy Lord (Thánh Chủ), the Jade Emperor, the courts of heaven, earth and water, the Ten Kings of the Underworld, the marshals and the celestial masters. The Hành Say set has 3 scrolls, including Hải Phan. The paintings are hung in a fixed order with Yuanshi Tianzun at the centre, and are used in the ordination rite (lễ cấp sắc), the dancing festival (Tết nhảy) and funerals. Most of the figures in the paintings have Taoist origins. Pháp luật Việt Nam newspaper reports that the painter must stay in a separate room, receive no visitors, and take three to four months to finish one set.
China
The earliest Taoist sacred images are 5th and 6th century stone steles in Shaanxi. The Song dynasty left the stone statue of Laojun in Quanzhou. The Yuan dynasty produced the murals of the Yongle Palace. In the Ming, the Yongle Emperor built the Wudang complex, and museums still hold many Ming statues of Zhenwu in bronze, stoneware and porcelain. The White Cloud Temple in Beijing is a Quanzhen temple still in active worship.
Taiwan
The worship of Xuantian Shangdi came to Taiwan with people from Fujian and Guangdong at the end of the Ming. Under the Zheng regime (1662 to 1683), 26 temples were built, 7 of them dedicated to Xuantian Shangdi. The two photos below show the Jade Emperor in the Lingxiao Hall at Miaoli and the shrine of the Three Pure Ones Daoist Patriarchs at Ruifang.
Hong Kong
Fung Ying Seen Koon in Fanling was founded in 1929 and belongs to the Quanzhen Longmen school, which came from Guangzhou. Its main hall, called the Palace of Tushita (Doushuai Gong), worships Taishang Laojun, Patriarch Lü and Patriarch Qiu. The Zhengyi school in Hong Kong has two distinct ritual traditions, one in the New Territories and one in the urban area.
Korea
Maya Stiller writes that no record shows Korea ever had a nationwide system of Taoist temples and priests. Taoist deities were worshipped in Buddhist temples, in folk shrines and in a government office. The Sogyeokseo (昭格署) was that office: in the 16th century its officials made offerings to the Jade Emperor, Laozi and King Yama. The Sogyeokseo was destroyed in the Imjin War (1592 to 1598) and never rebuilt. One explanation of the name Samcheong-dong in Seoul is that a hall of the Three Pure Ones once stood there. Taoist immortals remain present in Joseon painting.
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Japan
Seitenkyū in Sakado, Saitama prefecture, is one of the largest Taoist buildings in Japan. It was built over fifteen years by a Taiwanese businessman, opened in 1995, and worships the Three Pure Ones. The Eight Immortals painted by Tani Bunchō in 1803 shows that Taoist immortals also appear in Japanese painting.
VIIIWhat the library is not sure of
Are you a Taoist priest, a follower of Taoism or a researcher, and have you found something inaccurate, or do you have a photo of your own to contribute? Please send it with its source to thayungkhiem@gmail.com. The library will correct the page and credit the contributor.
IXPhotos and licences
Every photo on this page comes from Wikimedia Commons, under Public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA licences. Authors and licences are given exactly as on the original file pages, read on 07/10/2026. The photos have only been reduced in size, with no change to their content. Click the name of a photo to go to its original file page. If you are an author and see an incorrect credit, please let the library know so it can be corrected.
XSources
The pages above were read in October 2026. If a page has changed its address, please let the library know so it can be updated.
?Quick Questions
Who are the Three Pure Ones and how can they be recognized
Yuanshi Tianzun, Lingbao Tianzun and Daode Tianzun. The one seated in the middle holding a pearl is Yuanshi Tianzun. The one holding a ruyi scepter is Lingbao Tianzun. The one with white hair and beard holding a fan is Daode Tianzun, that is, Taishang Laojun.
Is Taishang Laojun the same as Laozi
According to Taoist sources, Daode Tianzun is Laozi, and the title Taishang Laojun dates from the Northern Wei. Among the Three Pure Ones, he is the third.
Who ranks higher, the Jade Emperor or the Three Pure Ones
Taoist sources place the Jade Emperor below the Three Pure Ones, as the one who governs the realms of heaven and earth and all the deities. In popular religion, however, the Jade Emperor is the best known of them.
Why does the statue of Zhenwu have loose hair and bare feet
The Art Institute of Chicago explains that these two features recall the story of his years of cultivation on Mount Wudang, no longer bound by everyday ritual. The tortoise and snake under his feet are the emblem of the North.
Did early Taoism have statues
The earliest surviving objects are 5th century stone steles in Shaanxi. The scholar Christine Mollier writes that for about two centuries before that, Taoism is said not to have used images.
Why does this page use photos instead of drawings
Whether a sacred image is right or wrong lies in the details: the object held, the clothing, the hand gesture. Photos of real objects, with their location and date recorded, preserve those details. The library does not draw portraits of holy figures. The only drawing on the page is a diagram.