section_path: Teachings/Theology
section_name: Theology
paragraph_text: Theology
  
  Taoist theology can be defined as apophatic, given its philosophical emphasis on the formlessness and unknowable nature of the Tao, and the primacy of the "Way" rather than anthropomorphic concepts of God. Nearly all the sects share this core belief.
  
  Arguments do exist the monotheistic concepts in Taoism. However, Taoism does include many deities and spirits and thus can also be considered animistic and polytheistic in a secondary sense (since they are considered to be emanations from the impersonal and nameless ultimate principle). Some Taoist theology presents the Three Pure Ones at the top of the pantheon of deities, which was a hierarchy emanating from the Tao. Laozi (Lao Tzu) is considered the incarnation of one of the three and worshiped as the ancestral founder of Taoism.
  
  The gods and immortals (神仙) believed in by Taoism can be roughly divided into two categories, namely "gods" and "xian". "Gods" refers to deities and there are many kinds: heaven gods/celestials (天神); earth spirits (地祇); wuling (物靈, animism, the spirit of all things); netherworld gods (地府神靈); gods of the human body (人體之神); gods of the human ghost (人鬼之神) etc. "Xian" are those who have acquired perfect cultivation of the Tao, persons with vast supernatural powers, unpredictable changes and immortality.
  
  Different branches of Taoism often have differing pantheons of lesser deities, where these deities reflect different notions of cosmology. Lesser deities also may be promoted or demoted for their activity. Some varieties of popular Chinese religion incorporate the Jade Emperor (Yü-Huang or Yü-Di), one of the Three Pure Ones, as the highest God. Historical Taoist figures, and people who are considered to have become immortals (xian), are also venerated as well by both clergy and laypeople.
  
  Despite these hierarchies of deities, most conceptions of Tao should not be confused with the Western sense of theism. Being one with the Tao does not necessarily indicate a union with an eternal spirit in, for example, the Hindu theistic sense.