Taoism's own divine hierarchy is headed by the Three Pure Ones, San Qing: Yuanshi Tianzun, the Celestial Venerable of the Primordial Beginning; Lingbao Tianzun, the Celestial Venerable of the Numinous Treasure; and Daode Tianzun, the Celestial Venerable of the Way and its Virtue, who is the deified Laozi. Taoist cosmology understands the three not as a family or a council of separate gods but as successive emanations of the primordial Dao, each representing an earlier stage in the same unfolding rather than a distinct personality with rival interests; Fabrizio Pregadio's Encyclopedia of Taoism documents how different Taoist lineages have historically ranked the three differently, with the Way of the Celestial Masters, the tradition's oldest organised religious movement, exalting Daode Tianzun as senior, while the later Lingbao and Shangqing revelation traditions gave first rank to Yuanshi Tianzun instead.
Below the Three Pure Ones stand the Eight Immortals, Baxian, a fixed and much-loved company of transcendent beings, among them Lu Dongbin, Zhang Guolao and He Xiangu, each said to have reached immortality through Taoist practice, alchemy, discipline or an unusual act of virtue, rather than by birth into a divine family or elevation by imperial decree. Their individual stories, collected and retold across centuries of Chinese literature and art, are attested separately in this atlas; this entry records them as the group Taoism itself venerates together, distinct from the wider bureaucratic pantheon of Chinese folk religion, which draws on many of the same figures for a different religious purpose.