China Taoist Association
On December 5, the Yisi year (2025) conferral of registers (shoulu) for Zhengyi (Orthodox Unity) school Taoist priests from overseas and from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan opened at the Mansion of the Celestial Masters on Mount Longhu (Dragon and Tiger Mountain) in Jiangxi. Approved by the National Religious Affairs Administration, the event was sponsored by the China Taoist Association and the World Taoist Federation, co-organized by the Jiangxi Taoist Association, and hosted by the Longhushan Taoist Association and the Mansion of the Celestial Masters on Mount Longhu, and lasted five days (December 5 to 9). That day, more than 400 register-holders from 23 countries and regions around the world arrived one after another to register at the register altar and underwent examination by the altar's religious affairs team.
On the morning of December 6, the opening ceremony of the conferral was held in the Hall of the Celestial Master. The register altar respectfully invited Master Zhang Jintao, Master Ding Changyun, and Master Zeng Guangliang to serve respectively as Master of Transmission, Master of Supervision, and Master of Recommendation. Master Zeng Guangliang announced the results of the altar examination, and Master Ding Changyun read out the Regulations on Disciplinary Measures for Violations at the Register Altar and presented disciplinary rulers to the supervising envoys.
The register-holders pledged not to forget their original aspiration in entering the Tao and to fulfill the mission of Taoism: first, to take the Tao as the core and pursue the truth of the cosmos; second, to save the world and deliver people and to protect the cultural lineage of Taoism; and third, to advance diligently in cultivation and achieve a twofold elevation of personal cultivation and social value. Master Zhang Jintao gave a teaching to the register altar. He said that, carrying forward Taoist ideals such as “equality and compassionate love, saving the world and benefiting people,” all the register-holders should take the Great Tao as their mirror, the precepts as their plumb line, and the scriptures as their guide, bring body and mind to clarity and stillness, rectify Taoist conduct, advance in Taoist learning, and integrate their personal practice into the larger picture of the times.
The conferral also included a series of register-conferral rituals, such as the altar rehearsal, opening the altar and inviting the water, installing the fast supervisors, submitting petitions and dispatching memorials, and the passing and chanting of scriptures.
That evening, the register altar arranged two scripture lectures by the masters. Master of Transmission Zhang Jintao expounded the Jade Scripture of Cultivating Perfection of the Orthodox Unity Covenant with the Powers of the Most High for register-holders receiving promoted and additional registers, and Master of Recommendation Zeng Guangliang explained the Register Scripture of the Three-Five Merit Supervisor of the Most High for those receiving their first registers.