The Southern Celestial Master Dao 南天师

A branch of the Celestial Master Dao (Tianshi Dao).

After Kou Qianzhi, a Taoist on Mount Song in the Northern Wei Dynasty, reformed the Northern Celestial Master Dao, Lu Xiujing, a Taoist in the Liu Song Dynasty, also reformed and rectified the Southern Celestial Master Dao. In response to the lax organization and neglected regulations of the Southern Celestial Master Dao, he proposed a series of measures to reorganize it: rectifying the previous "Twenty-Four Zhi" (administrative districts), improving the systems of "Three Assembly Days" and "Residence Talismans," and strictly implementing the system of promoting Taoist officials based on merit. These measures strengthened and improved the Taoist organization.

At the same time, he enriched and improved Taoist rituals and precepts. Drawing on the fasting methods of the Lingbao and Shangqing schools, he formulated Taoist fasting rituals, establishing a relatively complete system of religious ceremonies, such as the nine grades of fasting and twelve methods of ritual offerings. He regarded the Shangqing fasting methods as the highest grade, followed by those of the Lingbao and Sanhuang (Three Sovereigns) schools, while ranking the traditional fasting methods of the Celestial Master Dao as the lowest. He also provided detailed explanations of specific rituals for fasting methods such as Jinlu (Golden Register), Huanglu (Yellow Register), Mingzhen (Bright Truth), Sanyuan (Three Primes), Bajie (Eight Festivals), and Ziran (Natural), laying the foundation for a preliminary complete system of Taoist ritual offerings and establishing himself as a founder of Taoist ritual norms.

His work Catalogue of Scriptures of the Three Grottoes was the first bibliographic work in the history of Chinese Taoism, with pioneering significance. Subsequent cataloging of Taoist scriptures and classification of the Daozang (Taoist Canon) all adopted his "Three Grottoes" classification as the basic principle.

Lu Xiujing’s reorganization and reform of Taoism expanded its influence, enabling further development in the south, and winning increasing favor from rulers. The Southern Taoism reformed by Lu Xiujing is academically referred to as Southern Celestial Master Dao. After the Tang and Song dynasties, the Northern and Southern Celestial Master Dao gradually merged, and both were called Zhengyi Dao (Orthodox Unity Dao) in the Yuan Dynasty.