Abstract: Sanguan, or the Three Officials of Heaven, Earth and Water, is one of the most important Taoist ideas of deities. Since the 1st century, these three officials have been believed to have developed into five forms. The Heaven-Earth-Water form, the most representative of the five, had believers all over China. As more Chinese immigrated to Southeastern Asia, a wider space genealogy began to take shape. Meanwhile the other four forms emerged between the 14th and the 19th centuries in different areas, forming the time-space genealogy. More than helping explain diversity and unity and the consequent cohesive force of the traditional Chinese culture, study of this time-space genealogy constitutes one of the bases on which sense of the Chinese national community can be constructed.

Key words: Taoism, Three Officials, multiple form, Time-space genealogy