The Zu Shu 祖舒

Zu Shu was a native of Lingling Jun (Lingling Prefecture) in present-day Guangxi during the reign of Emperor Zhaozong of the Tang Dynasty.

His given name was Sui Dao, his courtesy name was Fangzhong, and he was honored with the title "Zhaoning Miaodao Baoxian Yuanjun" (Yuanjun of Illustrious Concentration, Wondrous Dao, and Protecting Immortality).

As recorded in Qingwei Xianpu (Genealogy of Qingwei Immortals): From childhood, he aspired to the Dao. When he grew up, he renounced secular life and became a Taoist priest.

When he traveled to Guiyang, he encountered the Holy Mother of Divine Light, who imparted to him the "Qingwei Natural Primordial Great Dao"—the fundamental teaching of the Qingwei (Pure Subtlety) Taoist tradition. From that time onward, Zu Shu would sometimes wear a bamboo hairpin, bare his arms, and sit on a rock holding a sword; at other times, he would call forth wind and thunder with a whistle and move about freely among the mortal world (a sign of his spiritual attainments). Later, he met the "Taiqing Taixuan Wen Yuanjun" (Yuanjun of Great Purity, Grand Mystery, and Literature), who taught him the essential doctrines of the Shangqing (Supreme Pure), Lingbao (Numinous Treasure), Daode (Tao Te Ching), and Zhengyi (Orthodox Unity) traditions.

Zu Shu then synthesized the profound esoteric teachings of these various schools, mastered the diverse transformations of thunder and lightning (a core ritual power in Qingwei Taoism), governed the "Qingwei Dongzhao Fu" (Office of Pure Subtlety and Penetrating Illumination), and presided over the transmission of Qingwei doctrines.

He is revered by later generations as the founding patriarch of the Qingwei Taoist sect.