Editing Three Pure Ones (section)

==Daode Tianzun==
{{main|Daode Tianzun}}
[[Daode Tianzun]] ({{lang|zh|道德天尊}}, "Lord of the Way and its Virtue", "Honoured Lord of the Tao and the Virtue", or "[T]he Way-and-Its-Power Celestial One"<ref name=":10027" />), also known as the "[[Grand Pure One]]" ({{zh|c=太清|p=Tàiqīng}}) or the "Highest Elder Lord" ({{lang|zh|太上老君}}, Taishang Laojun).

It is believed that Daode Tianzun manifested himself in the form of [[Laozi]]. Daode Tianzun is also the treasurer of spirits, known as the Lord of Man who is the founder of Taoism.  He is the most eminent, aged ruler, which is why he is the only Pure One depicted with pure white hair and beard.

<blockquote>There seem to have been a number of stages in the process of Laozi's eventual deification. First, the legendary figure began as a teacher and writer whose image eventually blended with that of the Yellow Emperor when Laozi came to be identified as a confidant of royalty. Traditional accounts, such as the life-story summarized earlier, transformed him into a cultural hero whose mother conceived him virginally. By the mid-second century C.E., Laozi had become the deity who delivered to Zhang Daoling the revelation of a new religious faith, giving rise to the Celestial Master's school. His image was still not complete. Next, perhaps also around the second or third century CE, Laozi seems to have been identified as a creator god who also enters the world to rescue humanity from tribulation. Laozi was now capable of incarnating himself, almost like Buddhist bodhisattvas. Not long thereafter he joined the triad of the Three Pure Ones, and finally Laozi emerged as the chief divine person. We have here one of the more interesting examples of apotheosis, or deification, in the history of religion.{{Citation needed|date=August 2011}}</blockquote>

According to [[Daozang]], Daode Tianzun had manifested many various incarnations to teach living beings, and Laozi is one of his incarnations.