Zhengyi (Orthodox Unity) Taoists affirm their descent from the Celestial Masters, the priestly lineage founded, according to tradition, when Laozi appeared to Zhang Daoling in the second century CE and established a covenant and a religious community. The line of Celestial Masters, passing hereditarily and long associated with Mount Longhu, is regarded as the authoritative transmission of Taoist ritual and ordination. Zhengyi Taoism traces its priesthood, liturgy, and legitimacy to this lineage, which gives the tradition its structure of ordained ritual masters.
Zhang Daoling's founding revelation is traditionally dated to 142 CE on Mount Heming in Sichuan, and the community he organised was originally known as the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice (Wudoumi Dao) for the grain tithe members paid. The hereditary line relocated its seat to Mount Longhu in Jiangxi by around the Song dynasty and continued there for centuries; after the Chinese Communist revolution of 1949, the 63rd Celestial Master, Zhang Enpu, fled to Taiwan, and the lineage has continued there since, while the Chinese state has more recently recognised a separate mainland successor at Mount Longhu itself, so that rival claims to authentic succession exist across the Taiwan Strait.