Taishang Dao Jun (English)

Japanese: 太上道君 - たいじょうどうくん（英語表記）Tài shàng dào jūn

A Taoist god in China. He is the deification of Dao in Laozi. It is said that Wang Ningzhi of the Eastern Jin Dynasty prayed to Dao to send reinforcements during the Sun En Rebellion, which shows that Dao had already been personified and deified at that time, but the name of this god appears frequently in the Taoist scriptures quoted in Zhen Luan's Xiaodaolun of the Northern Zhou Dynasty in the latter half of the 6th century. He is considered to be a disciple of Yuanshi Tianzun and the teacher of Laozi. During the Tang Dynasty, he became one of the three pure gods together with Yuanshi Tianzun and Taishang Laojun. [Yoshikawa Tadao]

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

中国における道教の神。《老子》の道が神格化されたもの。東晋の王凝之（おうぎようし）は，孫恩の乱のさい，援軍の派遣を〈大道〉に祈ったとつたえられ，そのころすでに〈道〉が擬人化･神格化されていたことがわかるが，この神の名が多くあらわれるのは，6世紀後半，北周の甄鸞（けんらん）の《笑道論》が引く道教経典。元始天尊の弟子で老子の師とされている。唐代に元始天尊，太上老君とあわせて三清の神となる。【吉川忠夫】

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

<<: Mahāyana Buddhism

>>: Emperor Taisho