《真人高象先金丹歌》

Gao Xian, courtesy name Xiangxian, was a native of Quyang. I did not know him at first. In the sixth year of the Xiangfu era (1013 CE), through an introduction by the portrait-painting monk Yuchang of Siming, I finally met him in the capital. I admired his outstanding talent and learning, and the fact that he cared nothing for fame. He was bold and unrestrained in temperament and often drank freely for his own enjoyment. I also saw that his eyes were bright, as if his whole face glowed, and I sighed: "Here is a truly lucid and penetrating man." So I became his friend, though at the time I could not yet see that he possessed any extraordinary quality beyond this.

In the autumn of the seventh year of Xiangfu (1014 CE), I read a piece he had written, "Song of Replying While Drunk to Gao Fuwai of the Various Palaces," nearly two thousand characters long. Although the text speaks of an audience with the Supreme Emperor and of seeking the Dao (the Way) from the Western Florescence, most of it in fact uses events to convey deeper meaning. He rejects heterodox doctrines and false arguments, upholds what is correct and returns to the genuine; what he teaches is the Way of True Unity (the principle of cultivation that returns to the true original source).

I am untalented, and am now sixty-four years old. In the forty years I have studied the Dao, I have visited a hundred teachers and befriended a thousand fellow practitioners, listened to countless doctrines and learned all manner of techniques. Yet they transmitted their teachings in muddled fashion, and their guidance only left people confused. I had never before seen a work as clear and thorough as Xiangxian's song. I feared that readers would take it for absurd and bizarre talk and fail to grasp the supremely true Dao within it, so I have written a commentary to leave for later generations as a reference.

The song says:

Gao Xian, the Perfected One of the Eastern Sea, behaves in ways that seem strange. His breadth of mind has no equal in the world. His aspirations seem to fill heaven and earth and merge into the furnace of creation, rising beyond the changes of Yin-Yang and the cycle of life and death.

How bold he is, as though holding the pivot between heaven and earth; yet Heaven does not allow him to reveal his extraordinary gifts lightly. In idle conversation he speaks of the kingly way and the hegemon's path and finds them trivial matters. If he did not show his edge, who would know what he is capable of?

I recall that at fourteen or fifteen, I studied the classics early, with a single-minded wish to meet an enlightened ruler and put my ambitions to use. Young and spirited, I was unwilling to rank beneath the talented scholars of the day, and so I took up the brush and wrote rhapsodies.

When the rhapsodies were finished, I found them shallow and felt a little ashamed: what is there to prize in polishing phrases and showing off petty skills? Afterward I took up the brush to write grand essays, preparing to sit the special examination (an examination presided over or decreed by the emperor) of the Son of Heaven in the Dazhong era.

In my earlier years, I came to the capital like those who raise their arms and rush forward to seek office and renown. Dongfang Shuo (courtesy name Manqian) once submitted a memorial recommending himself; in the midst of my wine-warmed spirits, I looked at my reflection in a mirror and suddenly realized that, like Pan An (an ancient figure famed for his beauty), my temples had already turned gray.

I set down the mirror, pressed my hand to my chest, and sighed, saying to myself: What is there to envy in fleeting glory and wealth? So I abandoned the official path of entering the court and sitting the Fangzheng examination (an examination category for selecting talent), and turned instead to the Jade Capital (Yujing, the celestial realm of Daoist legend), seeking the Way of becoming an immortal.

How, then, should the work of immortality be practiced? Even if one read ten thousand volumes, without a master's guidance one could hardly grasp their deeper meaning. Would it not be like drifting by boat across a vast expanse of water, with no boundary to the south, north, east, or west?

On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the sky was clear. I shut my door in quiet cultivation, focusing my mind on the Dao (the Way), and my Shen (spirit) gradually grew still. Suddenly, body and mind seemed to dissolve into a realm of luminous emptiness, and without noticing, a single spirit rose up to Taiqing (the Great Purity, the Daoist celestial realm of pure emptiness).

Within Taiqing, the view in every direction was boundless. Crystal palaces joined one another like ice, and towering twin gate-towers lay across the clouds. On a jade tablet, the words "Guanghan" (Vast Cold) were inscribed in gold. Within the Guanghan Palace ran a level road; the reflected light of heaven had not yet risen, and the sky was not yet bright. Crimson phoenixes and purple luan birds perched in the emerald grove, while white deer and yellow gibbons slept among immortal herbs as fine as jade.

I rapped on the gate with my fingers, and before the knocking had ceased, an official opened it and asked my purpose. I hastily reported that I was Gao Xian, courtesy name Xiangxian, who had come out of longing for the true Dao, and that my spirit had arrived here without my noticing.

The celestial official received the command and permitted me to enter. Before long, two youths came out to greet me, saying that Yuchen (a venerable deity of the heavens) had ordered that the master be summoned, and they led me swiftly onward, clad in robes of rosy mist, their steps light.

The two youths guided me past golden steps. Ahead stood ceremonial guards bearing crimson tallies and rainbow banners, ranked in solemn order. The two pheasant-feather fans parted, and when I beheld the venerable countenance, I prostrated myself again and respectfully awaited instruction.

Yuchen said to me, "I have some questions for you. Do you truly wish to cultivate the truth with such urgency?" He then ordered an inquiry into the register of immortals and a verification of names, and the celestial official replied that the name was indeed in the roll.

Who in the world knows the River Cart (Heche, a metaphor in Neidan, or internal alchemy, for the circulation of qi within the body)? You should go west and seek out Lady Xihua (Xihua Furen, a Daoist female immortal). Lady Xihua holds charge of the crucial pivot and is the one fit to guide you toward true cinnabar (a term from alchemy, here referring to the genuine elixir sought through cultivation).

The two immortal youths once again led the way ahead. Clouds and mist drifted faintly around us as we flew across the rosy glow of the sky; a journey of a million li seemed to lie within arm's reach, and in the blink of an eye we arrived at the far edge of the Golden Heaven.

The sun was half risen from the Fusang tree in the east, wrapped in thin clouds, its light soft and hazy. Flowers of every kind stretched out like long rainbows to guide us, and as they climbed the pillars and railings, it seemed that rainbow dragons coiled everywhere before my eyes.

Jade-like trees of lang and qi stood green and lush, and the heavenly wind blowing from all sides made clear, pleasing sounds. Jeweled halls adorned with pearl and jade stood solemnly in rows among them. The two youths pointed ahead and said, "That is the Palace of Western Splendor (Xihua Palace)."

Within the palace the ceremonial array was brilliant in color and radiant with light. There stood a young woman of about seventeen or eighteen, her hair loose and flowing like evening clouds settling down, her face pale and serene, as though formed from spring snow.

The two youths stepped forward and proclaimed the decree of Yuchen (the Jade Aurora), saying that they had brought it to Xiangxian, a worthy man of lofty character. His name had already been entered in the registers of the immortals, and this Lady was to guide him in the Way (Dao) of long life.

Having received her charge, the Lady saw the two youths depart. She invited me to sit at my ease and spoke with me about the Way of the immortals. I had questioned the ten thousand scrolls of immortal scriptures (jing) passed down in the world, yet I thought: if one has not met a true person, how can one truly understand?

The Lady spread a sumptuous banquet for me, where coral, tortoiseshell, and other treasures gleamed brilliantly. Immortals rode in feather-adorned carriages through the clouds; she summoned the two youths and invited the colorful luan birds as well. As the host of immortals gathered and auspicious clouds converged, celestial music arose on every side, golden nectar laden with dew poured down, and red phoenixes danced gracefully in harmony with the drifting vapors.

Her pale face gradually flushed with color, like the faint redness that comes after wine. Guest and host toasted one another, and their joy knew no end. The Lady looked at me and sang a short song: "Among the sages, none surpass Confucius and Mencius."

I asked, "Where are Confucius and Mencius now?" Only their tall tombs remained, a sight to move one to sigh. The heroes of former ages and the eminent men of later times all followed the same road to the same end, sunk in the waves of fame and drowned in the tides of profit.

They were willing to fade away along with lives as brief as a flint spark and days as fragile as a lamp flame in the wind, without a single steadfast heart to seek the realm of Daluo, the highest heaven. Now you, in the dusty world, are in the bloom of youth, and you should cast off empty glory as easily as taking off a pair of shoes.

Until now you have devoutly followed the teachings of Yuchen, and today I will explain to you the Way of long life. Have you not heard how, in ancient times, the Yellow Emperor went to the stone chamber on Mount Kongtong to ask Guangchengzi about the Dao? Although he grasped the main principles of the Dao, he had not yet understood them fully. So he turned back and journeyed to Mount Emei in Shu to visit the Heavenly Perfected Sovereign (Tianzhen Huangren)...

In the past I devoutly followed the teachings of Yuchen (a revered Daoist deity), and today I will explain to you the Dao (the Way) of long life. Have you not heard? In ancient times the Yellow Emperor asked Guangchengzi about the Dao in the stone chamber on Mount Kongtong. Though he grasped the broad outline, he did not fully understand its deeper meaning.

Later the Yellow Emperor returned to the land of Shu and went to Mount Emei, where he visited the Celestial Sovereign Tianzhen and Zhenyi. What does the Way of Zhenyi teach? The key is first to knock on the "Wu-Ji Gate" (a Neidan, or internal alchemy, term in which Wu and Ji stand for central Earth).

Within the Wu-Ji Gate lies hidden gold, and this gold is the root of the "Yellow Sprout." The Yellow Sprout is the mother of all things. When the mother receives the child, she becomes the cauldron, the furnace in which the elixir is refined.

When the essences of sun and moon meet and interact, one rising and one descending, the bright pearl stirs and flies of its own accord. The pearl flies up to the summit of Kunlun, and to find it one must rely on "Wangxiang" (the state of perceiving through an empty, still mind rather than through the physical senses).

Once you have obtained the pearl, bring it back to the Crimson Palace (a Neidan term for the dwelling place of the heart-spirit) and let it be steamed and transformed there. The body will then glow with a ruddy radiance. The skin turns rosy, the hair at the temples turns black again, and for this reason the Northern Dipper strikes the person's name from the registers of the dead.

How magnificent: it can be accomplished in ninety days. On Mount Qiao the traces of Jifei still remain. And have you not heard how Shutong followed Wei Boyang, and the two of them entered the "Land of Nowhere" (the realm that transcends the distinction between being and non-being) laughing together?

Wei Boyang wrote the Cantongqi on the principles of the Lianshan Yi, making it an alchemical classic that has been handed down for ten thousand generations. Its opening says that Qian and Kun change their gates: the Way of Qian is male, and the Way of Kun is female.

Ordinary people do not understand the true Way of Yin-Yang, and so they search the vast world for the dragon and the tiger. The sun belongs to Li and the moon belongs to Kan. As sun and moon alternate in their courses, this is precisely the transformation of the Yi, each swallowing and releasing the other as they wax and wane.

When the Golden Crow (symbol of the sun) sinks from sight, the Jade Rabbit (symbol of the moon) appears. The birth of all things comes from the interaction of Heaven and Earth. When the Qi (vital energy) of Heaven and Earth unites, men and women are conceived, and the Four Images and the Five Phases (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water) gather and circulate accordingly.

The alternation of day and night and the changes of the Zhun and Meng hexagrams all follow natural law, so why cling anxiously to watching the fire phases? There is a proper time to gather the medicine and a proper day to take it, and the gathering and refining must be done with care and in secret. Do not disturb the Black Dragon (the divine dragon that guards the pearl), or the Jing (essence) and Qi of one's original nature will scatter and the pearl will be lost.

If you can devote your mind wholly to union with the Way of Shangqing (the pure and exalted realm spoken of in Daoism), then, if you do not accord with the Dao, how could you ascend to Shangqing? The road lies plainly before you, yet people do not know where it is. If they pursue emptiness in vain, they will throw away their lives in the dark.

Gather in your Jing and Qi, turn your gaze inward upon the Shen (spirit), and let the heart-mind return to stillness and emptiness... In the original text, the phrase "return the essence and look inward to form a unified void" is followed by a repetition of earlier lines such as "...the pearl is lost. If by chance you set your mind on union with Shangqing...", and the meaning appears to be defective, with missing words or misplaced bamboo slips.

In plain sight there is a road, yet people do not know where it lies; in vain they wander through dimness and confusion, leading themselves toward emptiness and death. They draw their Jing (essence) and Qi (vital energy) back into the body and turn their gaze inward, thinking they have entered stillness and void. They then force the region below the navel to be called the "Palace of the Supreme One" (Taiyi Palace, a name used in Neidan, or internal alchemy, for a place within the body).

First they visualize a divine furnace standing inside the body, then imagine true fire burning within it. Often they rise at midnight, in the hour of Zi, to gather the essence of sun and moon and cast it into the furnace and cauldron.

They falsely call saliva "golden essence," and swallowing it down to the Dantian (energy center) they call "divine water." They even claim that their cultivation has reached the profound and subtle realm, that they can shed the husk and, after ten months, give birth to an infant.

To exhaust the Shen (spirit) and agonize in thought is truly lamentable; many people age sooner than others because of it. Some smelt metals and minerals and call this the "Nine Reversions." They extract mercury from cinnabar sand and lead from the elixir, knead them together into one catty, place it in an earthen pot, and roast it over a fierce ordinary fire. The various colors in the pot seem to gradually merge into one, as if a "yellow sprout" (an alchemical term for the supposed first sign of an elixir forming) had emerged. Yet this appears real while being deeply deceptive, and many who swallow it go mad.

Take the lead, knead it together into one catty, place it in an earthen pot, and roast it over a fierce ordinary fire. The various colors in the pot seem to gradually merge into one, as if a yellow sprout had emerged. Yet this appears real while being deeply deceptive, and many who swallow it go mad.

Some suddenly give up salt, and some suddenly give up food. Some live alone without companions, and some dwell in solitary widowhood. Some sit in silence facing a wall, forgetting the outer world and gathering in the mind; some retreat to the mountains and forests and roam every deep valley. Some take urine and feces as the medicine of the "Nine Reversions," and some refine mulberry-wood ash into the "Great Elixir." Some secretly draw on Yin to supplement Yang, and some gather the so-called "Yi essence-qi" to drive it up to the Niwan (a Neidan term for a place inside the head). Why are there a thousand, a hundred ways that lead astray? The true key to cultivation is buried instead, and hard to find.

The Grass Immortal claps and laughs, and having laughed, goes home. Only then, in the human world, does one suddenly grasp the "four great elements" (earth, water, fire, and wind, the basic elements that make up all things). Having grasped them, one falls silent, and the heart understands of itself; body and mind relax and settle, and nothing is contrived or artful any longer.

It is truly so: seated upon a high, broad rock, one first feels its wonder, and then finds it beyond comprehension. I once heard words left by the immortals of old: seeking out deep mountains is not the place to cultivate the truth.

Xu Cuo long searched for the "crescent-moon furnace" (yanyue lu, a Neidan term for the furnace and cauldron of cultivation), traveling through bustling capitals and places where officials gather. Xu Cuo came and went around the capital for two years, hoping to find kindred spirits, yet never found any. Xu Cuo sought out men of exceptional talent everywhere, yet never misspoke, discussing the Dao (the Way) of true stillness. Some…

Xu Cuo long searched for the crescent-moon furnace, traveling through bustling capitals and places where officials gather. Xu Cuo came and went around the capital for two years, hoping to find kindred spirits, yet never found any.

I have sought out talented and outstanding people everywhere, and I have never lightly spoken of "True Stillness" (zhenji, the Daoist state of reality and tranquility). One day, on the main road, I met a traveler. His manner was distracted, yet his eyes were bright, darting like those of a startled bird.

I was about to speak to him, but he stood out like a crane among chickens. I followed quietly behind and observed him closely. His bones and bearing were extraordinary, but his face was worn and haggard. He must be a man of rare talent and humble station. So I invited him to sit and asked him at leisure for his name.

He replied: "I am a descendant of the Wang family of Jiangling, whose ancestors ruled generation after generation as lords of Jingnan. Then, in the Jianlong era (the reign title of Emperor Taizu of the Song, Zhao Kuangyin), the true Son of Heaven arose, and I had no choice but to surrender the seals and submit as a subject. In my youth I was bold and high-spirited, and I once took first place in the examination essays. I never expected that a single failed examination would end my prospects. In Wuling I once recommended the "Rhapsody on the Epang Palace." After that my official career sank, and I held only a lowly ninth-rank post.

"I had to bow low to call on the prefect. Climbing the steps and bowing to him, I felt I would rather be dead. I was already adrift and disappointed, so how could I have foreseen that I would be slandered for no reason? Fortunately, Han Shaoming and Huo Guang (an allusion to ancient regents who aided the throne, here meaning that someone stepped forward to rescue me) saved my life, and I returned to Nanyang.

"Later, by the grace of the Heavenly King, I was granted an office and sent to serve as district commandant in Xiluo. I lamented my thin fortune, for I was not born to wealth and rank, so I resigned and returned to the South Sea to enjoy my natural disposition. Near the walls of my hometown I had several hundred qing of fine fields, where the millet grew lush and the ears hung heavy. After paying the taxes there was grain to spare, enough to sustain a temperament as idle and carefree as that of Ji Kang.

"Last year I suddenly heard that Censor Wang had presented my writings to the emperor. But I had long since wearied of the world like a deer, and I ignored the court's decree summoning me again. What ambitions could a man of Zhuge Liang's caliber carry out in an age of peace? I shook out my sleeves and left. How could that compare with those who cultivate immortality, who ascend to the Nine Heavens with clouds for a stairway?"

He had been walking alone up the high steps, feeling at ease, and when he heard me ask about his worldly past, he was delighted. So we climbed hand in hand to a tavern, and in the height of our drinking we sang aloud to release what lay pent up in our hearts. In the tavern at Wuyang stood over a hundred jars of great-bell wine, and everyone drank cup after cup without stopping, wishing to pour the wine over Wosheng and wash away the old affairs of the dusty world.

Note: The passage in the original from "Soon, when the true lord of Jianlong arose" to "the steps" appears twice, and some characters seem to suffer from copying or reading errors. The translation above follows the context. The final line, "Wosheng asks about worldly traces," is rather unclear in meaning, and has been tentatively understood as pouring wine over Wosheng to wash away the traces of the worldly past.

We should climb the tavern together and, once the wine has warmed us, sing at the top of our voices and let the heroic feeling in our breasts pour out. At Wuyang, more than a hundred wine goblets are set out in a row, and we drink cup after cup without pause. The wine should be splashed all the way to Mount Wojiao, the place said in legend to dry up rivers and seas, until the great river runs dry and the ocean is drained.

At the banquet I took up my brush and wrote more than a thousand characters. My thoughts surged like the waters of Dragon Gate, pouring out without end. Their force seemed able to dam the Kunlun Mountains and choke the Bohai Sea, and their sound shook the gates of Heaven and made heaven and earth tremble. In just a few hundred words, how vigorous the writing is! It is as if a imprisoned dragon had snapped its golden chains.

It is also like a thunderclap on the banks of the Jing River, with hailstones the size of horses' heads falling from the clouds. In a few hundred words, how exquisite and strange the writing is! A clear, cold music of Heaven seems to drift down from the branches of jade trees.

It is like Song Yu standing against the sky, drawing his sword to cut in two the twin rainbows of the autumn heavens. In a few hundred words, how chilling and sorrowful the writing is! Gibbons seem to cry out beneath a frosty sky, facing the moon until midday. The withered willows of Baling fear the autumn wind, and the fading flowers of Jingu Garden grieve in the evening rain.

And in a few hundred words, how free and unbounded the writing is! The myriad things never had fixed names; once imposed labels and forms are cut away, all phenomena return to stillness. How great is the state of mind that comes after true awakening! Before it, the famous sayings of all the sages flash past like lightning.

How vigorous this song is, with its plain yet striking power of the brush! I treasure it and dare not yet show it lightly to others. Scholars are now eager to take up their brushes and copy it, and I fear the price of paper will climb from morning till night.

Your hand has the marvelous brushwork of Li Bai, and your bearing has the immortal's bones of Li Bai as well. Even if the present emperor were to bestow noble rank upon you, how could that confine you? A flood dragon was never meant to remain in a pond. I possess a heavenly secret of the Red Dragon, and when others have come asking, I have never spoken of it.

Your talent is vigorous, and you have the nature of a celestial immortal. For your sake I am willing to break with custom and reveal this heavenly mystery. Let ordinary people not laugh at me as arrogant and empty. I wish to help you leap upward and ascend to the Moon Palace of the Daluo Heaven.