Mythology & Religion Power Ranking TOP100
I wrote a book ranking the most powerful gods, monsters, and heroes from world mythologies, religions, and legends in order of strength! Of course, the rankings reflect a fair amount of my personal opinion, but the reasoning behind each placement is grounded in the actual lore and episodes from each mythology, so I think it makes for a fairly convincing read.
In this series, I’d like to introduce some of the characters featured in the book’s ranking. There are plenty of other characters beyond the ones covered here, so I think anyone interested in mythology, religion, or legends will find it an enjoyable read!
Rank 12: Taishang Laojun (Chinese Mythology / Taoism)
Overview
Taishang Laojun (also known as Daode Tianzun) is one of the supreme “Three Pure Ones (Sanqing)” in Taoism and is regarded as the divine sage (the supreme master) who has fully mastered the “Tao (Dao)” — the fundamental principle of the cosmos.
Taishang Laojun is the teacher who imparted the Tao to countless immortals, and among the Three Pure Ones — who are all nearly abstract conceptual beings — he is arguably the only one who regularly manifests in the mortal world.
In Taoism, the Tao is considered the unchanging fundamental principle of the universe. By fully mastering the Tao, one can achieve immortality, generate all manner of natural phenomena such as fire and water, and even influence conceptual-level laws such as time and space.
Since Taishang Laojun has fully mastered the Tao, he can use that mastery to perceive all events in the cosmos, see through the past, present, and future with omniscient clarity, and is thought to possess power even capable of collapsing the entire universe.
However, since the Tao is an unchanging fundamental principle, even the Three Pure Ones themselves cannot modify or destroy the Tao itself.
Among the Three Pure Ones, Lingbao Tianzun is the deity who personifies the Tao, and since the Tao (all the laws of the cosmos) has already been set and maintained by Lingbao Tianzun, even Taishang Laojun can interfere with it but cannot change the laws of the cosmos themselves.
This means that while Taishang Laojun can collapse the entire universe within the existing laws, interfere with the concepts of time and space, and so forth, he cannot destroy the concept of the “universe” itself or alter the concepts of time and space at their root.
Ranking Reason
Having fully mastered the Tao — the fundamental principle of the cosmos — Taishang Laojun is a being for whom there is virtually nothing impossible within the laws of the universe.
At first glance he appears to be an ultimate existence, but the fact that his omnipotence can only be exercised within the framework of the “Tao (the laws of the cosmos)” places him below the transcendent deities in the ranking.
However, since he is absolutely unbeatable by any being that can only operate within the laws of the cosmos, he undeniably possesses power on par with transcendent deities. Taking all of this into account, I placed him at this position in the ranking.
As a note, a similar figure, Lingbao Tianzun, appears to be superior to Taishang Laojun since he “is the Tao itself” (and indeed he is, in terms of existential status). However, since the Tao is an unchanging fundamental principle, Lingbao Tianzun himself cannot modify or alter it either.
For this reason, Lingbao Tianzun is effectively nothing more than a conceptual existence that maintains the Tao, making him unsuitable for this ranking (since he cannot take actions such as fighting), and he has been excluded accordingly.
