《三洞群仙录》Vol. 1

The Sandong Qunxian Lu (Record of the Assembled Immortals of the Three Caverns), included in the Zhonghua Daozang, is a collection of biographies of immortals and eminent Daoists; the “Three Caverns” (Dongzhen/Dongxuan/Dongshen) are a classification of Daoist scriptures. The preface to the book was compiled by Chen Baoguang, a Zhengyi (Orthodox Unity) Daoist priest.

Digging the earth in search of spring water—even the most foolish person knows it may be found; but cultivating the body in pursuit of immortality—even the worthy cannot deeply believe it. Thus immortals display their traces to the world so that people may refine Qi (vital energy, specifically prenatal life Qi), preserve the real, protect life, and nourish Shen (spirit). In this way they seek to transcend the world, leave the clamorous dust behind, surpass vulgar defilement, and roam beyond the eight farthest extremities. Their intention to benefit the myriad things and rescue the world is exceedingly grand. Immortals and ordinary people differ in essence, and purity and defilement differ in aspiration. After birth, people rely on the body as a lodging for Shen and on external things to sustain life. The harm lies in placing Shen behind and valuing only the nourishing of form, chasing external things and losing one’s true nature—from prime to old age, from old age to decay, from decay to death, until flesh and bone return to earth and form and Shen separate. Immortals, by nourishing form, preserve life; their Qi is unified and their will is unified. They are not burdened in mind by likes and dislikes, nor is their harmony disturbed by gain and loss. Their mind roams in plainness, and their Qi merges with empty vastness. At the highest level, the mind is quiet and Shen is complete; De (Virtue/Power) is whole and undiminished. Therefore they can enter and exit the void, be alone together with the Dao, share longevity with heaven and earth, ascend to the Great Void, and become true immortals.

Ji Kang held that immortals receive their nature from the natural order and cannot be brought about by accumulated learning; Wu Jun held that immortality can be attained through learning. Their views are thus contradictory. Chen Baoguang argues: if immortality were not the result of accumulated learning, how then should we explain what the High God said when issuing an edict to Jingyang? The edict says: “Xu Xun, youth studying immortality, many kalpas ago accumulated cultivation of the ultimate Dao; he endured every hardship and learned and practiced all methods and all gates. He relieved disasters and difficulties, removed harms and swept away demons; his merits saved living beings, his name is inscribed in the immortal register, and all the perfected ones recommend him. He should be selected and promoted, and may be appointed Grand Historian of the Nine Provinces on High.” Another edict says: “Xu Xun, youth studying immortality, your sins from former lives—of greedy killing and of concealing and failing to sacrifice to ancestors—are pardoned; your merits in this life—of incanting over water, administering medicine, healing illness, attacking evil, and eliminating poison—are recorded. I command the Lord of Destiny of Qianshan to transmit the Golden Elixir to the lower world, to close off karmic debts and seal away the physical body, so that you yourself, your family, your household, and all good things may return to the Three Heavens (the heavens of the Three Pure Ones, Sanqing).” These edicts precisely show that Xu Xun is an example of one who obtained an immortal office through accumulated learning and cultivated merit.

The scripture opens with a youth who studies immortality, who day by day accumulates cultivation of the supreme Dao and has tasted every hardship, in order to show that immortal transcendence can truly be attained through learning. It then takes Mao Ying as an example: when his grandfather cultivated the Dao, he concealed the debts of the dusty world and sealed away his form and traces, offering his own person, his household, his kitchen and dwelling, and all kinds of fine possessions to the Three Heavens—the realms of the Three Pure Ones (Sanqing). In the thirty-first year of Qin Shi Huang, his grandfather Mao Chucheng ascended to heaven in broad daylight on clouds at Mount Hua. The villagers were astonished and spread a saying: “The one who has attained immortality is Mao Chucheng; he rides a dragon upward into Taiqing (Great Clarity) and from time to time descends to Xuanzhou and Chicheng to roam and sport.” The immortal lineage passed down through generations and reached Mao Ying; if emperors and kings wish to study immortality, they may do so during the Jiapin festival in the twelfth month (the name of the Qin winter sacrifice). According to the Inner Biography of Mao Ying and the Stele of the Nine Bestowals, Mao Ying was born in the fifth year of the Zhongyuan era of Emperor Jing of Han, seventy-two years after the time of Qin Shi Huang; before he was born, there was already a prophecy that he would become an immortal. In the second year of Yuanshou of Emperor Ai of Han, the Lord on High conferred on him the title “Perfected One of the Great Origin, Superior Minister of the Eastern Peak, Divine Lord Who Governs Destinies” (a Daoist immortal office), when he was one hundred and forty-five years old. Seen this way, is it not that immortality is endowed by nature and has long had predestined causes? From the ballad-prophecy at the time of Qin Shi Huang to the bestowal of his rank spans about two hundred and seventeen years; Mao Ying was prophesied to become an immortal even before his fetal form was manifest—this is truly a prophecy of what had not yet come to be. If this is so, could it be merely the result of accumulated learning? Those of shallow learning, if because immortality is not the result of accumulated learning they stop diligent practice, harm themselves; if they think that one need only study and will certainly attain it, then it is like polishing a brick to make a mirror or sitting in meditation to become a Buddha—toiling in vain without result. The Way of loyalty and trust is nothing other than purity of sincerity and singleness of purpose (cheng yi). Sincerity and oneness can enable one to enter water without drowning and fire without being scorched, to cause metal and stone to split open, and to be unharmed by tigers and leopards; such were Shangqiu Kai (in the Liezi, one who was unharmed by water and fire because of his sincerity and single-mindedness) and the man of Lüliang (in the Zhuangzi, one skilled at swimming in swift currents); if their single-mindedness could do even this, how much more so. Those truly called immortals have both form and spirit wondrous, unite with the Dao in truth, and can be at ease sitting or standing, in life and death, divide their forms and disperse their bodies, undergo myriad transformations in an instant, and fly throughout the eight directions—this is only natural. Those who cultivate the Real must guard against clinging to one extreme, for that becomes a thief that harms the cultivation of the Real.

Figures such as Shangqiu Kai and the man of Lüliang (in the Liezi and Zhuangzi, people who through perfect sincerity and single-mindedness could enter water or tread fire without being harmed) were merely ordinary people, and even they could do this; how much more, then, is it a matter of course that those who attain immortality through shijie (liberation from the corpse, a Daoist manner of leaving the physical form behind and ascending) should have both body and spirit wondrous, be united in truth with the Dao, and be able to die while seated or standing, divide their forms and scatter their bodies, undergo myriad transformations in an instant, and fly through the eight directions. Those who cultivate the truth nourish their true nature through emptiness and stillness; they embrace and guard undifferentiated unity, harmonious simplicity, and plainness; they treasure compassion and take stillness as their foundation. One day, when they penetrate thoroughly and alone behold the Great Dao, their minds become luminous, open, and expansive, merging with the profound and hidden. Their essentials are no more than the books of Laozi and Zhuangzi; to depart from these is to produce distorted and deceptive doctrines and books not of the sages. The Yellow Emperor lost the mysterious pearl; the Seven Sages sought the Dao but went astray; only Xiangwang, who was without mind, obtained it. The two gods Shu and Hu met Hundun (Chaos), and each day bored one aperture, which instead caused Hundun to die. This shows that one who understands the Dao should forget form and discard cleverness, be empty, still, quiet, and plain, unchanging in stillness and unity, pure and unmixed. This is the principle for nourishing body and spirit and returning to the root of creation.

The rulers of Qin and Han indulged their cravings and desires, wallowed in showy splendor, admired the arts of immortality, wished for long life while preserving honor and glory, believed in the doctrine of the Golden Elixir, and used the power of drugs to further their debauchery. Thereupon fangshi (technicians and alchemists) appeared in droves, and the arts of illusion, trickery, and transformation began to become prominent. Thus there were those who compounded lead and mercury, congealed cinnabar, and called it the Great Medicine; those who swallowed saliva and Qi and visualized the dragon and tiger as Neidan (internal alchemy). There were the names Lord Wood and Mother Metal (the King Father of the East and Queen Mother of the West), the titles the Maiden and the Infant, the designations Yellow Sprout and White Snow, and the formulas of Seven Returns and Nine Reversions (these are mostly alchemical terms, symbolizing Yin-Yang, medicinal substances, firing times, and reversion). Above, there were wondrous realms such as Xuandu and Jiangque (heavenly palaces), the era names Chiming and Longhan (Daoist kalpa-era names), the Fulu (talismans and registers) and regulations of the Three Caverns (Dongzhen/Dongxuan/Dongshen), and the nine-altar Zhaijiao (purification ritual) ceremonies; below, there extended to arts such as shijie, mirroring forms, transferring the womb, seizing the body, flying talismans and spreading Qi, and exorcising ghosts and curing evil. All these establish images from the indistinct and seek the concretely real from the void; with a thousand gates and ten thousand households, they diverge into side paths. But when success is attained, different paths return to the same destination, and a hundred considerations converge into one.

The general meaning of this passage is: after one succeeds in cultivating the Dao, although each person follows a different path, the final destination is the same; although thoughts may be of a hundred kinds, the ultimate principle is one. People throughout the world cannot establish themselves without a root, nor accomplish anything without literary embellishment and outward form. Empty stillness and following circumstances, preserving the true nature, holding fast to oneness, and being plain and unadorned—these are the root. Transformation and ascent to heaven, shijie (corpse liberation, a Daoist manner of leaving behind the bodily form to become an immortal), and the distribution of Qi—these are the branch tips. Thus it is said: when the root is established, the branch tips naturally correspond; when one begins from raw simplicity, adornment naturally comes to completion. This is the natural principle.

Chen Baoguang, a Daoist priest of the Jingying Hermitage in Jiangyin, was distressed that some shallow Dao-learners stop their diligent cultivation and let themselves drift, living like walking corpses and becoming lowly ghosts after death. He therefore gathered books of the Nine Schools and Hundred Masters (the various schools of thought), extending down to petty-official reports and popular colloquial tales (local legends and street talk), and compiled into this book all records of immortals’ deeds, in order to enlighten later students. He wanted people to know the arduousness with which immortals of successive ages cultivated the Truth, the merit of benefiting beings, the strict reverence of serving Heaven, and the difficulty of obtaining the methods. Through such diligence and accumulated merit, they were ultimately able to succeed, greatly manifest their radiance, and become companions of Heaven. Formerly Sima Ziwei (the Tang Daoist Sima Chengzhen) wrote the Zuowang Shu (Pivot of Sitting in Forgetfulness), and Chen Bixu (the Song Daoist Chen Jingyuan) composed the Hunyuan Keng to inspire later generations; their purport was profound and far-reaching, but beginners in their ignorance had no way to enter. Now Mr. Chen has collected the deeds of immortals, promoting the exalted Perfected Ones and their mighty deeds, and clearly instructing Dao aspirants, so that when they open the scroll they may clearly know that immortals can be learned and that the deeds of sages and worthies through the ages gather before their eyes as if in the palm of the hand. He encourages and urges them to rouse themselves, leap forward, and advance diligently in cultivation, seeking to transcend the world. It is like placing a wine vessel on the Great Dao, from which everyone may take and drink. Thus, in guiding the deluded, expounding the teachings, and benefiting beings, how could this be a shallow trifle?

Master Chen’s mind and spirit were empty and still, his virtue pure and harmonious. He reverently upheld the numinous texts of the Three Caverns (Dongzhen, Dongxuan, and Dongshen), and his spiritual consciousness flew up to Biluo (the azure heavens), where he glimpsed the secret scriptures of the Nine Qing. His name was registered in the Dantai (the immortal roster), and in time he would join the ranks of the immortals and be conferred an immortal position; riding the cloud Qi, he would ascend, while the Five Emperors verified the immortal register and the Three Officials recorded his merits. This was Heaven’s recompense for his diligence in composing texts, and also a warning to the indolent and degenerate, so that people might know that those who benefit the world will surely receive Heaven’s recompense. Written on the Zhongyuan day of the jiaxu year of the Shaoxing era, at the Bamboo Pavilion in Chunli.

Record of the Assembled Immortals of the Three Caverns, volume one, compiled by the Zhengyi (Orthodox Unity) Daoist Chen Baoguang. Pangu was the primal ancestor of the myriad things, and the Yellow Emperor was the patriarch of the Daoist gate.

The Miyi Ji (Record of Mysteries and Anomalies) says that Pangu (the ancient great deity who separated Heaven and Earth) was the first ancestor of the myriad things of Heaven and Earth. After his death, his head transformed into the Five Peaks, his eyes into the sun and moon, his fat and grease into rivers and seas, and his hair into grass and trees. Another account says: his head became the Eastern Peak, his belly the Central Peak, his left arm the Southern Peak, his right arm the Northern Peak, and his two feet the Western Peak; his tears became rivers, his breath became wind and thunder, and when he was joyful there was clear weather, while when he was angry there was overcast weather. Xu Zheng’s Sanwu Liji says that Heaven and Earth were at first chaotic like an egg, and Pangu was within it for eighteen thousand years. After Heaven and Earth opened, the clear and light yang Qi rose to become Heaven, while the heavy and turbid yin Qi sank to become Earth, and Pangu, between them, changed nine times a day; his numinous wonder matched Heaven, and his sagely De matched Earth. Heaven rose by one zhang each day, Earth thickened by one zhang each day, and Pangu grew by one zhang each day. In this way, for eighteen thousand years, Heaven became extremely high and deep, Earth extremely thick and heavy, and Pangu also extremely tall and large. Only afterward were there the Three Sovereigns (the three ancient emperors). Number begins with one, is established at three, completed at five, flourishes at seven, and abides at nine; therefore Heaven is ninety thousand li from Earth. The Zhenshu (Daoist scriptures) says: when Heaven and Earth were not yet divided, all was chaos and vast obscurity, without formed shape, and the sun and moon were not yet complete; it was like an egg, and within the chaos there was the color of dark and yellow. At that time there was already Pangu Zhenren, the Jing of Heaven and Earth, who called himself Yuanshi Tianwang (Heavenly King of Primordial Beginning, a revered Daoist deity). The Daoxue Zhuan says: Huangdi (the Yellow Emperor) was the son of Shaodian, surnamed Gongsun, styled Changhong and also styled Guicang; because there was an auspicious response of Jinyun, he was also called the Jinyun clan (“jin” refers to a color with more red than white), and because there was also an auspicious response of the virtue of Earth, he was called Huangdi. In his childhood he could speak, was sage-like and able to foreknow, loved the Great Dao and admired the mysterious and wondrous, and therefore became the patriarch of the Daoist school. The final sentence, “Shaohao sang to the se, and Emperor Zhuan was bestowed a bell,” may be explained as: Shaohao (an ancient emperor) has the legend of playing the se and singing, and Zhuanxu (Emperor Zhuan) has the allusion of receiving a bestowed bell.

The Shiyi Ji records: when Shao Hao (one of the Five Emperors of antiquity) ruled the world by the De of Metal (the Metal De among the Five Phases), Huang E (a goddess in myth and mother of Shao Hao) lived in Xuanguan (like “Xuangong,” a dwelling of the immortals), weaving at night. Sometimes by day she went out on a wooden raft, passing along the vast, misty shores of Qiongsang (a mythical place). At that time there was a divine youth of transcendent appearance who called himself the son of the White Emperor; he was the Jing of Taibai (the essence of Venus) descended by the water, and he laughed and played with Huang E. It is also said that on the shore of the Western Sea stood a solitary mulberry tree a thousand xun tall, with red leaves and purple fruit; it bore fruit once every ten thousand years, and whoever ate it could enjoy a lifespan as long as Heaven itself before finally growing old. The son of the White Emperor and Huang E boated on the sea and sat side by side playing the purple se-zither of Tong Peak. Leaning against the zither, Huang E sang in a clear voice: “Heaven and earth are clear and boundless; the myriad phenomena revolve and change without end. I look up at the vast heavens and gaze far over the dark, boundless sea; riding a raft, I drift lightly beside the sun. We pledge to meet at Qiongsang; joy in my heart is without end.” The White Emperor’s son answered in song: “The four quarters and eight extremities are deep and distant, beyond exhaustion; light and shadow pursue one another across all the waters. In Xuanguan the night is still; by the window she weaves. On Tong Peak the catalpa trees stand a thousand xun straight; cutting catalpa to make qin and se, clear songs flow smoothly and joy is endless. Come to rest by the shore of the vast sea.” Later Huang E gave birth to Shao Hao, who was titled Qiongsang Shi and also called Sangqiu Shi.

Another passage records Zhuan Di, Gao Yang Shi (that is, Zhuan Xu), and also mentions the qin and se of the Yellow Emperor; clear songs flowed smoothly and joy was inexhaustible as they came to rest by the shore of the vast sea. Huang E gave birth to Shao Hao, who was titled Qiongsang Shi and also called Sangqiu Shi. It is further recorded that Zhuan Di, Gao Yang Shi, was the grandson of the Yellow Emperor and the son of Chang Yi. Chang Yi went to the riverbank and encountered a black dragon carrying on its back a dark jade diagram (a chart made of black jade). At that time an old historian said to Chang Yi: “The son you bear will rule all under Heaven by the De of Water.” Ten years later Zhuan Xu was born; on his hands were dragon-shaped patterns, and he also bore the image of the jade diagram. That night Chang Yi looked up at the sky, and the North Star descended and transformed into that old historian. After Zhuan Xu ascended the throne, wondrous auspices and all blessings gathered, and distant tribes that did not observe the legitimate calendar (that is, did not submit to the central calendrical and political order) also came crossing mountains and seas. The emperor paid homage to the deities of the four directions; Wei Hou held a gui (a jade ritual tablet) and honored the hundred officials and feudal lords, each according to rank and position. To those who esteemed civil De he bestowed bells and chime stones; to those who esteemed martial De he bestowed shields and halberds. There were the Floating Gold Bell and the Kuangyu Chime; when lightly brushed with a feather, their sound shook a hundred li.

During the time of Tang Yao, the call of the blue stork was regarded as an auspicious omen of peace throughout the realm; Xia Yu, for his part, rode a dragon to bring the floods under control.

The Shiyiji says: When Tang Yao was on the throne, his sagely virtue spread far and wide. By the banks of the Yellow River and the Luo River he obtained a jade tablet and the Square Red Diagram, on which the forms of heaven and earth were displayed; he also received an auspicious golden bi disk, whose inscription was clear and bright, recording the beginning of the creation and transformation of heaven and earth. After he punished and eliminated the Four Fiends (the four evildoers or evil clans of legend), good people came to submit. He then established official posts and divided their duties, so that the order of human relations was kept orderly. He further ordered Yu the Great to dredge the rivers and bring the marshes under control, so that the Wu regions and the northern lands were free of monstrous calamities, and flying birds and swimming fish were naturally docile. In the old territory of Youzhou, north of Mount Yu, there was a bird skilled at singing, whose voice resembled bells, chimes, sheng, and yu; people said that when the blue stork called, it was precisely an age of great peace.

The text also says that in the state of Nanxun there was a cave called Yinyuan, which below connected with the earth vein (the original text reads “earth pig”), and in the cave were hairy dragons. They often shed their bones in the open wilds and marshes, and fish and dragons lived together in the same cave. That state presented one female and one male hairy dragon, which were placed under the Dragon-Rearing Officer (the office responsible for raising dragons). In the Xia dynasty, dragon rearing continued without interruption, and thus “Huanlong” (Dragon-Rearing) became a clan name. When Yu dredged the hundred rivers, he rode this dragon; when the four seas were unified, he released it back into the He Na (as the original text has it).

The phrase “Boyang, Teacher of Emperors; Zhongni, True Duke” means that Laozi, whose courtesy name was Boyang, served as a teacher of emperors, while Confucius (Zhongni) was called the True Duke. The Guangji records: Laozi’s personal name was Er and his courtesy name Boyang; he was a native of Quren Village, Ku County, in Chu. His mother conceived him after being stirred by a shooting star. Some say Laozi was born before heaven and earth; others say he was the essence-soul of Heaven.

The Guangji records that Laozi’s personal name was Er and his courtesy name Boyang; he was a native of Quren Village in Ku County, Chu. His mother conceived him in response to a shooting star. Some traditions say that Laozi existed before heaven and earth; others say that he was the spirit-soul of Heaven and belonged to the class of deities. He was born through an incision under his mother’s left armpit, and his hair was already white at birth, which is why he was called “Laozi” (Old Master). In the age of Fuxi, he appeared in the world as a teacher, with the title Yuanhuazi, and taught Fuxi to elaborate the old methods, expound Yin-Yang, rectify the eight directions, and establish the Bagua (Eight Trigrams). In the age of Shennong, he appeared as a teacher, with the title Dachengzi, and taught Shennong to taste the hundred herbs, cultivate the five grains, and join the common people in sowing and rearing. In the age of Zhurong, he appeared as a teacher, with the title Guangchengzi, and taught people to cultivate and clarify the Three Bonds (the normative relations of ruler and minister, father and son, husband and wife) and to regulate the Seven Governors (the movements of the sun, moon, and five planets). In the age of the Yellow Emperor, he appeared as a teacher, with the title Limuzi, harmonized the waxing and waning of Yin-Yang, and composed the Daojie Jing (Scripture of Dao Admonitions). From Shaohao and Gaoxin to Yao, Shun, Yu, and Tang, Laojun (Lord Lao) appeared in the world as teacher of emperors and kings, each time with his own title, transmitting classics, and conferring Dao teachings; his transformations were innumerable and cannot be exhaustively investigated. In the time of King Zhao of Zhou, he came forth to civilize and guide the Western Hu (the western barbarians); by the time of King You of Zhou, he returned again to the Central Xia (the Central Plains). Thus, when Confucius went to the Zhou court to ask about ritual, he said: “Today I have seen Laozi; he is like a dragon!” Laozi understood the source of ritual and music and was the home of Dao and De—truly my teacher.

The account in the Shiji agrees with this: Confucius (personal name Qiu) went to Zhou to ask about ritual and exclaimed upon seeing Laozi, “How like a dragon he is!” He also considered Laozi to know the root of ritual and music and the destination of Dao and De, and to be a true teacher.

Confucius’s personal name was Qiu, his courtesy name Zhongni, and his clan name Kong. The Shiyiji (Records of Collected Remnants) says that on the night Confucius was born, two azure dragons descended from heaven, and two goddesses in the sky together held fragrant dew and bathed Yan Zhengzai (Confucius’s mother); the Heavenly Emperor also ordered the music of Juntian (heavenly immortal music) to be performed, and five immortal elders stood arrayed in the courtyard—they were the spirits of the five stars, Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth. Earlier, a qilin in a household in Quli (Confucius’s native place) spat out a jade book, on which it was written: “The son of the Water Essence will continue the lineage of the Zhou house and become an Uncrowned King (a sage of supreme virtue without royal position).” Thus twin dragons descended upon his chamber and the five stars descended into the courtyard; Yan Zhengzai tied an embroidered robe to the qilin’s horn. When Confucius was about to die, he embraced the qilin, untied that embroidered robe, and wept. The Dantai Xinlu (New Records of the Cinnabar Terrace) says that Confucius later became the Taiji Supreme Perfected Lord (Taiji Shangzhen Gong), a Daoist immortal post, and governed Mount Jiuyi (in present-day Ningyuan, Hunan).

“Fu Yue ranked among the stars” means that Fu Yue (the worthy minister of Wu Ding, king of Shang) assisted Wu Ding and enabled the Shang dynasty to extend its rule over the world; later he rode the Eastern Cord and mounted the Ji and Wei mansions (the Ji and Wei lunar mansions), and took his place among the multitude of stars.

“Zoutu dreamed of the sun” means that Emperor Ku’s consort (one of the Five Emperors of antiquity) was the daughter of the Zoutu clan. After the Yellow Emperor eliminated the fierce disorder of Chiyou, he relocated the good among Chiyou’s people to the land of Zoutu and the wicked to the land of Youbei. Her clan originally took the place name as its surname and split into the Zou and Tu clans. This woman walked without touching the ground; she often rode the wind and clouds, roaming between the Yi and Luo rivers. Emperor Ku then made a pact with her and took her as a consort. She frequently dreamed of swallowing the sun; each time she dreamed of swallowing the sun, she gave birth to a son, and after eight such dreams she bore eight sons. People called them the Eight Spirits, also the Eight Yi (yi meaning brightness), and also the Eight Heroes and Eight Powers. Her divine power was brilliant and could bring all phenomena to completion; countless people praised her divine wisdom.

“Gongsun played the qin and Shiyan blew the pitch pipes” refers to Gongsun (traditionally identified as the Yellow Emperor Gongsun Xuanyuan) playing the qin and Shiyan (an ancient music master) blowing pitch pipes, using music to communicate with and move the spirits.

Gongsun Feng lived in seclusion on Jiuyu Mountain. In winter he wore only unlined clothing and slept on an earthen bed; in summer he gathered his food together in vessels and waited until it spoiled before eating it. He often played the qin and chanted, content and at ease, and people found him very strange.

Shi Yan was a musician of the Shang dynasty. He deeply studied the hidden subtleties of Yin-Yang and understood celestial phenomena and calendrical calculations (xiangwei); his character was unfathomable. He constantly cultivated the music of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. By plucking a one-string qin he could make the earth deities (diqi) rise and appear, and by blowing jade pitch pipes (yulu) he could make the heavenly deities descend. By the time of the Yellow Emperor he was already several hundred years old, and he could also perform melodies such as Qingshang, Liudi, and Jue, as well as music that bewitched the soul and intoxicated the spirit.

“Zifang with ten thousand households, She Zheng in a single room” refers to Zhang Liang (courtesy name Zifang), who, after helping Emperor Gaozu of Han achieve success, said: “With my three-inch tongue I became the teacher of emperors, was enfeoffed with ten thousand households, and ranked among the marquises. This is the utmost for a commoner, and it is enough for me. I wish to abandon the affairs of the human world and roam with Chisongzi (Master Red Pine, an ancient immortal).” She Zheng was from Badong. When he spoke of events from the time of Qin Shi Huang, he was as clear as if he had seen them with his own eyes. He often walked with his eyes closed; his disciples followed him for several decades, and no one saw him open his eyes. When someone earnestly begged him, he finally opened them, and the light was like lightning, illuminating the whole room. Li Babai (the name of an immortal) called him “the thousand-year-old child.”

“Madi withdrew in lofty seclusion, making manifest the subtle resolve for reclusion” means that Madi Zi withdrew from the world and lived in hiding, displaying his resolve for reclusion. Madi Zi was of unknown origin. He and He Danyang lived in seclusion on Heming Mountain in the Shu region, practicing the Eight Paths of Cloud-Gazing (a method of cultivation based on observing clouds), and remained in seclusion for many years. Later, in a cave dwelling, he discovered a stone casket and obtained the secret formula of the Yellow Emperor’s Golden Cauldron (an alchemical secret for refining elixirs). He refined the elixir on the mountain; when the elixir was completed, he took it and ascended to heaven.

During the Sui dynasty, Li Zhaowei’s temperament inclined toward reclusion, and he admired the character of Ge Hong (the Eastern Jin Daoist theorist and alchemist); he would travel a thousand li without hesitation to seek teachers and inquire into the Dao (the Way). He had once served as commandant of Gaotang County. During the Daye era (the era name of Emperor Yang of Sui), he withdrew with his wife and children to Mount Song, and people of the time called him “Huang Guanzi” (Yellow-Crowned Master, a Daoist sobriquet).

Jiandi Gives Birth to a Sage Son: According to Wang Zinian’s Shiyi Ji (Record of Gleanings, a collection of marvels by Wang Jia of the Eastern Jin), when the Shang dynasty was first rising, the divine woman Jiandi wandered in the mulberry fields and saw that a black bird had left an egg on the ground; on the egg were five-colored markings that formed eight hundred characters. Jiandi picked it up, hid it in a jade box, and covered it with a red cloth. At night she dreamed that a divine woman told her: “If you keep this egg in your bosom, you will give birth to a sage son who will inherit the Metal virtue.” Jiandi carried the egg for a year and became pregnant; after fourteen months she gave birth to Qi, the ancestor of the Shang. The Shang dynasty’s eight-hundred-year span exactly corresponded to the writing on the egg; although it encountered drought and hardship, its descendants still prospered.

Lord Lan Becomes an Immortal King: According to the Guangji (Extensive Records), Lord Lan was from Yanzhou; his household had more than a hundred members, and he devoted himself single-mindedly to filial conduct, moving the spirits. One day a Perfected One from the moon descended into his chamber, calling himself the Bright King of Filial Piety and Fraternal Respect, and said: “This rank is Immortal King in the sun, Bright King in the moon, and King of Filial Piety and Fraternal Respect among humans. When filial piety moves Heaven, the sun and moon shine because of it; when it moves Earth, the myriad things are born because of it; when it moves the people, the kingly way is brought to completion because of it. When Heaven, Earth, and Humanity—the Three Talents—first separated, they began with the Three Qi (vital energies); the Three Qi are the Three Heavens of Jade Purity (the pure Qi of the Jade Purity realm, the highest Daoist heaven). I descended from Shangqing (Supreme Purity) to manifest in the human world and proclaim the teaching of filial piety and fraternal respect; in the Jin dynasty, Perfected Xu (Xu Xun, patriarch of the filial piety school) transmitted my lineage of the Dao of filial piety and became the leader of all immortals. Now I confer on you secret instructions.” Having spoken, he vanished. Lord Lan instantly awakened to the true mechanism; after his Dao was perfected, he ascended to Heaven in broad daylight.

When Emperor Shun (Yu Shun) ascended the throne, the Queen Mother of the West (Xiwangmu) sent an envoy to bestow on him a white jade ring and also conferred a map that increased his territory, thereby expanding the Nine Provinces established by the Yellow Emperor into Twelve Provinces; the Queen Mother of the West then sent an envoy to present a white jade tube, and blowing it could harmonize the winds of the eight directions. Emperor Wu of Han saw that in the Queen Mother of the West’s small box (a portable personal case) there was a small scroll wrapped in a purple brocade bag, and he wanted to take a look. The Queen Mother said: “This is The Chart of the True Forms of the Five Sacred Peaks. The other day the immortals of Mount Qingcheng requested it from me. It comes from the Taishang of the Three Heavens (the highest deity of Daoism); its text is secret and forbidden. How could it be suitable for you, with your ordinary and polluted mortal body, to wear or carry?”

Du Zigong possessed secret arts. He once borrowed a melon knife from someone; when the owner came to ask for it, he said he would return it at once. Later, when the knife’s owner reached Jiaxing, a fish jumped into his boat; when he cut it open, he unexpectedly found that melon knife. His miraculous efficacy was often like this. Bian Que was a man of Zheng in the Bohai Commandery, surnamed Qin and named Yueren. When young, he served as an innkeeper. Changsang Jun often passed by, and Bian Que alone perceived that he was extraordinary, and always treated him with respect. Changsang Jun also knew that Bian Que was no ordinary person. After more than ten years of coming and going, he privately had Bian Que sit down and said: “I have forbidden formulas (secretly transmitted medical formulas and techniques). I am old and wish to transmit them to you; you must not disclose them.” Bian Que agreed. Changsang Jun took medicine from his bosom and gave it to Bian Que, saying: “Take it with water from the upper pond (traditionally explained as pure water that has not touched the ground) for thirty days, and then you will be able to know things.” He also gave Bian Que all the books of forbidden formulas, and then suddenly disappeared—probably he was no mortal. Bian Que took the medicine as told for thirty days and could see people on the other side of a wall; using this ability to diagnose illness, he could see completely the knotted obstructions in the five viscera, merely borrowing the examination of skin and flesh (pulse diagnosis) as a name. The references to Dou Qian and the Golden Liquid, and to the old man of Mount Song and Jade Nectar, are allusions in immortal biographies to attaining the Dao by ingesting immortal medicines of the Golden Liquid and Jade Nectar kind.

Dou Qian was from Fufeng (around present-day Fufeng, Shaanxi). During the reigns of Emperors Huai and Min of the Western Jin, when the royal house had declined and the Central Plains were in turmoil, he was nearing the age for official service (shishi, preparing to take office), but he was pained by the suffering of disorder and separation. He therefore admired the traces of immortals such as Xianmen (an ancient immortal), Chisongzi, and Wang Ziqiao, and yearned for immortal medicines such as golden liquid and jade nectar. He lodged himself among wondrous peaks and deep caves, devoted his mind to the Dao, and underwent many tests. One night, divine light illuminated his dwelling, a rare fragrance filled the valley, and heavenly music gradually drew near. Several hundred attendant officials formed a retinue; a true immortal, with a round luminous halo at his neck, descended in a carriage, supported by two women, with Official Wei following behind. The true immortal appeared about thirty-some years old, with a clear, antique-looking beard and whiskers, a crane-like form, and an immortal’s constitution. He declared himself to be Yin Changsheng of Pingdu Mountain (present-day Fengdu, Chongqing). Taking pity on Dou Qian’s diligence and hardship, he transmitted the formula of the Golden Liquid Nine Elixirs (the great method of the Daoist Golden Elixir). After the oath and formal transmission had been completed, the rites concluded and he departed.

Lao Shi of Mount Song was a man of Jin. He lost his footing and fell into a cave on Mount Song. Walking along the cave, he saw something that looked like green mud; after he ate it, he no longer felt hungry. Later he left the cave and returned home, and asked Zhang Hua (a Western Jin minister and polymath). Zhang Hua said: “This is a cave abode; what you ate was jade nectar. You are probably going to become an immortal.”

Huichao rose above the secular world, and Yuansu concealed his traces. In the Tang dynasty, Hu Huichao was a man of the Dao who transcended the secular world. When he stood among a crowd, his head rose above everyone else; even very tall men reached only his shoulders. People of the time called him “Hu Changxian” (Immortal Hu the Tall). He was skilled at commanding ghosts and spirits.

When Luo Yuansu, a commoner of Zhaoqing, was serving as a petty clerk, he suddenly ran away one day. The county magistrate was furious and sent constables to pursue him urgently. Luo Yuansu hid in the mountains, where he suddenly encountered an old man leaning on a staff beneath a tall pine. The old man summoned him and questioned him; this elder was skilled in commanding ghosts and spirits, and he asked, “How did you come to be here?” Luo Yuansu answered truthfully and begged the old man to take him in. The old man then led him deep into the mountains, and after walking only some ten li, they saw two thatched huts facing a stretch of standing water, with precious trees and rare flowers arrayed on either side. Two very young attendant boys lived in the western hut, while in the eastern hut there was a medicine stove. The old man ordered Luo Yuansu to watch over the furnace fire. The old man called himself Dongzhen and gave Luo Yuansu several pills of medicine to swallow, saying, “This can relieve hunger.” From then on Luo Yuansu abstained from grain and did not eat the five grains. After only more than a year, the old man further transmitted to him Fulu (talismans and registers) and methods for absorbing Qi (breathing and qi cultivation), and Luo mastered all their subtleties. One day the old man said to him, “You may go back now.” He then escorted him to a place several tens of li south of the county seat, and they clasped hands and parted. From then on Luo Yuansu was renowned in his village for talismanic arts, and his efficacious and wondrous results could not all be recorded. The closing phrase “Zhi Gu’s golden fish, Anqi’s jade crow” cites together allusions to numinous objects of the immortals; Anqi here is Anqi Sheng, an immortal of the Qin dynasty.

The Gaodao Zhuan (Biographies of Eminent Daoists) records: The Daoist Liu Zhigu, courtesy name Guangyuan, was summoned by Emperor Ruizong of Tang. His replies on Daoist doctrine pleased the emperor, and he therefore received special bestowals. During the Kaiyuan era (the reign title of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang), natural calamities were rife, and eight or nine out of ten people contracted epidemic disease. The emperor summoned Liu Zhigu to treat them. He sighed and said: Those of great De (Virtue/Power) fundamentally take the nurturing of life as their task, yet even the Perfected may fall ill. The inferior method is to refine medicines; a skilled physician can diagnose illness by listening to sounds; as for acupuncture and moxibustion, these are lower still. He therefore treated illness by using Qi (vital energy) to drive out the epidemic. He could penetrate the vital region between the heart and diaphragm and cure grave illnesses; his medical principles were refined to such a degree. He accepted none of the emperor’s favors and rewards. At the foot of Mount Hua in Dongyang there was an ancient Daoist abbey, which he repaired and then took up residence in. Suddenly light appeared in his room, and a single stalk of danzhi (a kind of lingzhi) grew; when struck, it gave forth a sound like metal and jade. He dreamed that a spirit said: In the stone cliff of the rear mountain there is a golden fish; riding it, one can soar into the heavens, but unless this danzhi is used to strike the rock, it cannot be obtained. At daybreak he went to look for the golden fish but found no trace of where it was. That night he dreamed again that the spirit said: It is beneath the dripping spring. When he arrived there and struck the rock with the danzhi, the sound was like wind and thunder shaking the earth, and the great boulder split open. He obtained a golden fish about three chi long; he mounted the golden fish and flew into the sky, clouds and mist swirling and gathering around him as he departed.

The Liexian Zhuan (Biographies of Immortals) records: Master Anqi was a man of Fuxiang in Langya. He sold medicine by the seashore, and people of the time all said he was already a thousand years old. Qin Shi Huang asked to meet and converse with him, and bestowed upon him thousands upon thousands of gold and jade. When he left the Fuxiang Pavilion, he set down the gifts and departed, leaving a letter and red-jade shoes as a return gift, saying: After a thousand years, seek me at the foot of Mount Penglai (the legendary immortal mountain).

The immortal Shouguang’s countenance never aged; the immortal Yuzhen’s beauty was exquisite.

The Shenxian zhuan (Biographies of Immortals) records that Ling Shouguang, when already over seventy, met a wondrous person and obtained the secret of fushi (taking medicinal substances to nourish life); his appearance instead became younger, like that of a man around twenty. By the first year of Jian’an (a reign title of Emperor Xian of Han), he was already over two hundred years old and died by “jiewa” (a Daoist term for shijie, liberation from the corpse). After burial, when the coffin was opened, no corpse was seen; only one shoe remained. There was also Yu Zhen, who only at seventy-nine knew to study the Dao and cultivated the method of embryonic breathing (taixi, holding the breath and breathing inwardly). He practiced grain abstention (bigu, not eating the five grains) for more than thirty years; his body was lean but his complexion was fine, and he walked so fast that he could catch a galloping horse. Emperor Wu summoned him, and he looked about twenty; when his fellow villagers were asked, they all said he was already over four hundred. Emperor Wu honored him as a divine being. After he took leave and returned home, he could travel three hundred li in a day.

The phrase “Jingchun wucheng” (“Jingchun, no success”) means that Guo Pu (courtesy name Jingchun), when divining for Wang Dun, obtained the omen “no success”; “zi nian lüe de” is brief in wording, and its general meaning is that the matter of the zi year was somewhat fulfilled.

The Liexian zhuan (Biographies of Arrayed Immortals) says that Guo Pu’s courtesy name was Jingchun. The Xishan ji (Record of the Western Mountains) also says: Zhenjun Xu Xun (Xu Zhenjun, patriarch of the Jingming, or Pure Brightness, school of Daoism) saw that the Jin royal house was declining and disordered and that wars repeatedly arose. Wishing to take preemptive measures to remedy the situation, he went with Lord Wu (Wu Meng) to see Wang Dun (a powerful minister of the Eastern Jin who later raised troops in rebellion). At that time Guo Pu was already in Wang Dun’s residence and had an old friendship with Xu Xun, so they met Wang Dun together. Wang Dun said to Xu Zhenjun: “I dreamed of using wood to break heaven; please divine it, sir.” Xu Xun said: “Wood breaking heaven above forms the character wei; you must not act rashly.” Wang Dun then ordered Guo Pu to divine by milfoil (bushi, casting hexagrams), and Guo Pu said: “No success.” Wang Dun was displeased and asked: “How long is your lifespan?” Guo Pu said: “If you rise in rebellion, disaster will soon follow; if you return to Wuchang, your lifespan cannot be fathomed.” Wang Dun asked in great anger: “And your lifespan?” Guo Pu said: “My life ends at noon today.” Wang Dun ordered his warriors to seize Guo Pu and put him to death. Xu Zhenjun threw up his wine cup, which transformed into a white dove and flew around the beams. When Wang Dun looked up, the two Zhenjun had disappeared. In the end, Wang Dun could not escape disaster.

Wang Jia, courtesy name Zinian, was a fangshi (esoteric adept) of the Sixteen Kingdoms period. He did not eat the five grains, did not wear fine clothes, and did not associate with people of the world; he wandered and lived in seclusion in Dongyang Valley. Those who came to visit him could see him if their hearts were sincere; if they were not sincere, he concealed himself and disappeared. Yao Chang (ruler of Later Qin) wanted to kill Fu Jian (emperor of Former Qin) and asked Wang Jia about it. Wang Jia said, “He can roughly be obtained.” Yao Chang angrily replied, “If he can be obtained, say he can be obtained—what do you mean by ‘roughly’?” So he beheaded Wang Jia. Earlier, Shi Dao’an (an eminent monk of the Eastern Jin) had said to Wang Jia, “The world is full of upheavals; you may go now.” Wang Jia said, “You go first. I owe a debt and cannot leave yet.” Soon Dao’an died, and by this time Wang Jia was killed. Only later, when Yao Chang’s son Yao Xing (courtesy name Zilüe) killed Fu Jian, did the phrase “Lüe obtained him” become clear. On the day Wang Jia died, someone saw him in Longshang.

“Fan drinks cassia water; Zhang is granted rich paste” means that Fan Li drank cassia water and Zhang Yunling received the gift of jade paste. Fan Li, courtesy name Shaobo, was a native of Xu. He once studied under the Zhou teacher Tai Gong, liked to consume cassia and drink clear water, and served as a dafu of Yue. After Goujian destroyed Wu, he took a light boat out to sea and changed his name. He went to Qi and took the alias Chiyi Zipi. More than a hundred years later, he appeared in Tao, where through business he accumulated immense wealth and was known as Lord Tao Zhu. Later he gave all this up and sold medicine in Lanling. People of later generations saw him in every generation. Zhang Yunling cultivated the Dao at Zhaoxian Abbey on the Southern Marchmount (a Daoist temple on Mount Heng). Through sincere devotion, contemplation, and spiritual awakening he achieved resonance; Heaven sent down true secrets and transmitted to him the Daoist methods of inwardly nurturing primal harmony (preserving the original Qi within the body) and silently paying court to the Great Emperor. After thirteen years of cultivation, his Shen roamed the Great Origin and he had audience with the Heavenly Emperor of the August Ultimate. The Great Emperor bestowed on him the Liquid of Jade Richness and Langgan Paste That Blends Shen and Unites Radiance (a kind of immortal elixir). He received and drank it; his transformations became elusive and indistinct, and his wondrous powers were beyond measure. On the third day of the ninth month in the first year of the Jianxing era, he ascended to Heaven.

“Lingxiao holding dates” and “Wang Ji obtaining a peach” are summary headings for two immortal anecdotes. According to the Zhengao (Declarations of the Perfected), a Shangqing Daoist classic, the Perfected Consort of Nine Florescence (Jiuhua Zhenfei), a female immortal whose courtesy name was Lingxiao, once descended together with Madame Ziyang, another female immortal, into the chamber of Perfected Yang. Madame Ziyang asked Perfected Yang, “Have you ever seen this one in the world?” Yang replied, “The Venerable Ling is lofty and refined; she cannot be described in words.” The Madame laughed heartily. The Perfected Consort took out three dates and had each person share and eat them. She then said to Yang, “Your teacher, the Madame of the Southern Marchmount, an important female immortal of the Shangqing school, holds the authority of the Director of Destinies, the divine office that governs lifespan; her Daoist methods are lofty, wondrous, and complete, and she is truly a master of excellent virtue.” Perfected Yang said, “These dates have no pits, and their flavor is somewhat like a pear.”

The Wang Family Biographies of Immortals records that Wang Chai formerly served as magistrate of Wangwu County and constantly recited the Huangting Jing (Yellow Court Scripture), a Daoist classic of internal cultivation. He wished to write a commentary on it but had not penetrated its profound principles. After reciting it more than six thousand times, he abandoned office and entered a mountain cave, seeking the Perfected and inquiring into the Dao, vowing not to return. One day, going deep into the cave, he saw scriptures on a stone bed and desk, and beside them a divine man told him, “Do you truly have this aspiration? I am the immortal Wang Taixu. I have been annotating this scripture for seven hundred years, and now I transmit it to you.” He also gave him a peach, saying, “This peach is not found in the Central Plains. Now that you have obtained it, if you eat it you may ascend to heaven in broad daylight.”

“Miaoxiang visiting Shun and Liangqing recommending Yao” refers to the immortal matters of Miaoxiang paying a visit to Shun and Liangqing recommending Yao; the original text is brief, preserving only the essentials of these events.

The Jixian lu (Records of Collected Immortals) records: Wang Miaoxiang, a female Daoist of Cangwu, practiced grain avoidance and Qi (vital energy) ingestion, constantly visualizing the Dantian (energy center); because of this she became spiritually attuned, and there were often extraordinary sights of light, shadow, and cloud vapor, intense wondrous fragrances, and the sound of immortal music shaking the mountains, forests, streams, and valleys. In a moment, a thousand carriages and ten thousand riders descended from the sky, with an honor guard of a thousand attendants, each more than a zhang tall, holding halberds and other weapons, banners, and ceremonial regalia. After a long while, a swan-canopied phoenix carriage appeared, led by a nine-dragon equipage, and descended before the altar. A single figure, wearing a crown, girded with a sword, and with shoes trailing, ascended the hall and sat, radiating five-colored light, while several hundred attendant immortals stood by. Wang Miaoxiang went forward to pay her respects. The great immortal said to her, “I am Emperor Shun. Formerly, wearied by toil on behalf of the myriad states, I cultivated the Dao (the Way) on this mountain. I have often wished to guide and teach later students, so that people may know that the Dao cannot be obtained through another’s teaching. The Dao is within, not outside; in oneself, not in another. The Xuanjing (Mysterious Scripture) says, ‘Cultivate it in the body, and one’s De (Virtue/Power) becomes true’—this is not something another can accomplish for you. I have seen the memorial submitted by the Earth Bureau, the divine office in charge of merits and faults in the earthly realm: you have been on this mountain for over thirty years, always the same, guarding the Dao without deviation, and you have already reached a very high level.” He then ordered his attendant ministers to bestow on her the two Jing (scriptures) of Dao and De and the Zhujing Lingdan (Numinous Elixir for Arresting the Light), which halts the passage of time and preserves youth and longevity; then he departed. In the following year, the immortal sometimes descended upon the Huangting (Yellow Court) Abbey three or five times; several years later, Wang Miaoxiang ascended to heaven and became an immortal.

The Kuoyi zhi records: In the fourth year of Jingyou, a reign period of Song Renzong, Chen Liangqing went from Yongzhou with local recommendation documents to the examination at the Ministry of Rites. In the tenth month he arrived in Changsha, where he dreamed that a man led him into a huge ship; there he saw a Daoist who called himself Qingjing Xiansheng (Master Blue Essence, a Daoist immortal title), who brought him along as he ascended.

The Kuoyi Zhi records: In the fourth year of Jingyou, Chen Liangqing went from Yongzhou with the local recommendation documents to take the examination at the Ministry of Rites. In the tenth month he arrived at Changsha and dreamed that someone led him into a great ship. In the ship he saw a Daoist who called himself “Qingjing Xiansheng” (a Daoist immortal title). Qingjing Xiansheng conversed with Chen Liangqing in lofty, archaic language and said to him: “I have already recommended you to Yao (the ancient sage ruler), so that you may become a minister who speaks frankly and remonstrates to the utmost.” Chen asked: “Where is Yao now?” The master answered: “He currently presides over the Southern Marchmount.” Chen said: “Yao is a sage ruler from antiquity; how can he be ranked among the divine offices of dukes and marquises?” The master said: “Yao was a human emperor; riding the virtue of Fire, he ruled the world, and after relinquishing the world he became a spirit, with his position in the south. What is there to doubt?” Chen Liangqing declined, saying that his fame and merit had not yet been established and that he would respond to the appointment later; the master then agreed to a term of ten years. After waking, Chen disliked the dream, found it strange, and recorded it to console himself. The next year he passed the top category of the examination and was appointed Assistant Prefect of Quanzhou. On the way to his post, when he passed the Southern Post Station of Yuezhou, he happened to nap in the daytime and dreamed again. He dreamed that an envoy came holding an official summons to call him; he woke with a start and sighed: “Could this be Yao’s appointment?” His companions encouraged him, saying dreams were not worth believing. Later, while he was attending to documents, tracing records, and reciting them, his family called him at the evening meal; he had already passed away.

The phrases “He knew Shalu” and “Pei remembered the Blue Bridge” are hinting statements in the piece, alluding respectively to He Danyang’s foreknowledge of the Shalu prophecy and to the Pei clan’s recollection of the Blue Bridge.

The Xianzhuan Shiyi records: He Danyang was a man of Longyou. In the late Han he held office as a Gentleman of the Secretariat. During the reigns of Emperors Ai and Ping, the royal house declined, and he said to people: “The affairs of today are not something human power can control; they are probably brought about by the cycles of the age and the decree of fate. Formerly, when Shalu (a place name, connected with a prophecy about the rise and fall of the Han) fell, someone who understood the cycles said: ‘After five hundred years, a holy woman will arise in the region of Qi.’ Now the chancellor is a descendant of the Tian clan of Qi, and the holy queen is precisely responding to this cycle; the time to overturn the Han mandate and restore the foundation of Qi is now.” Thereupon He Danyang gave his mind free rein in the mountains and forests and sought the Daoist arts of transcending the world. He often consumed pine pollen, and his body became light and vigorous and his eyesight clear. Later he abandoned office and lived in hiding in famous mountains of Shu. Taiping Shangzhen (a Supreme Perfected Being of the upper realm) descended and transmitted to him the Daoist method of “Climbing the Dipper and Riding the Dragon”; afterward he ascended to heaven and became an immortal.

Pei Hang hired a boat in the Xiang-Han region. On the same boat was a Lady Fan, extraordinarily beautiful. Through her maid Niaoyan, Pei Hang sent her a poem: “Even fellow travelers as distant from one another as the Hu and the Yue may still feel longing; how much more so when one meets a heavenly immortal behind a brocade screen? If you are going to the Jade Capital for the celestial assembly, I would follow the phoenixes and cranes into the azure sky.” The lady replied, “I already have a husband in Hannan; I hope you will not take a joking remark to heart. There is a slight predestined affinity between us; in the future we may perhaps become relatives by marriage.” She also answered with a poem: “A single sip of jade nectar stirs a hundred feelings; only after all the dark frost is pounded can one see Yunying. Blue Bridge is itself a cave-dwelling of immortals—why take a rugged road all the way to the Jade Capital?” Later Pei Hang passed Blue Bridge Post Station. He was terribly thirsty. Seeing an old woman in a thatched cottage twisting hemp, he bowed to her and asked for water. The old woman called, “Yunying, bring a bowl of water.” Pei Hang took it and drank; it was simply like jade liquid. Pei Hang said to the old woman, “The young girl is stunningly beautiful. I would like to marry her—what do you think?” The old woman said, “I am old and often ill, and she is my only granddaughter. The immortals left behind a knife-tip measure of medicine; it must be pounded in a jade mortar with a jade pestle for a full hundred days before it is complete. If you want to marry this girl, just bring a jade mortar and jade pestle; I do not need gold, silver, cloth, or silk.” Pei Hang left disappointed. More than a month later, he indeed found a mortar and pestle and brought them to Blue Bridge. The old woman took the medicine from her bosom, and Pei Hang pounded it for her. At night, when the old woman gathered up the medicine, Pei Hang glimpsed a jade rabbit holding the pestle, its snowy light illuminating the whole room. When the hundred days were complete, the old woman swallowed the medicine and said, “I will go into the cave to arrange the curtains and bed for Master Pei.” In a moment a great mansion appeared; immortal youths and maids led Pei Hang into the tent, and all the relatives were immortals. There was a woman who said she was his wife’s elder sister, and asked, “Do you not remember the matter of being on the same boat from Ezhou islet to Xiang-Han?” Those around said: This is Lady Yunqiao, wife of Celestial Master (Tianshi) Liu Gang, and a female attendant of the Jade Emperor. Pei Hang took his wife into the Jade Bee Cave, where he consumed the elixir of crimson snow and jade blossoms, and was elevated to become a superior immortal.

“Wu lodged in crow’s nests and peered intently at snail shells”—this is to say that this Daoist, Hundun Wu, had extraordinary traces: sometimes he slept in crow’s nests at the treetops, and he had also quietly peered at small things such as snail shells. According to the Xiangshan Yelu, before Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin ascended the throne and while his fame was not yet prominent, he once associated with a Daoist in the Guanhe region. This Daoist had no fixed name and called himself “Hundun Wu.” When Taizu was short of money, he would reach out his hand and produce gold; the more he reached, the more there was. They often drank deeply until thoroughly drunk. The Daoist was skilled at singing and made a game of singing “Buxu”—an immortal chant sung in Daoist Zhaijiao (purification ritual)—and could draw his voice into deep, distant, and high places, producing a clear and subtle sound. Sometimes he sang two lines that drifted down with the heavenly wind, and only Taizu heard them. The lyrics were: “Golden Monkey, Tiger Head Four; the True Dragon obtains the true position.” When he sobered up and was questioned, he only said, “Words from a drunken dream—how could they be taken seriously?” On the very day Taizu received the Mandate of Heaven and accepted the abdication, it was the fourth day of the first month of the Gengshen year, matching the hidden meaning in the lyrics. After Taizu ascended the throne, he no longer saw him, so he issued an edict to search throughout the populace. Some said they had seen him on the road at Zhanyuan, a mountain pass; others said he was in the Songshan and Luoyang area. Sixteen years later, in the Yihai year of the Kaibao era, during the Shangsi Festival purification—a water-side festival for washing away inauspiciousness—Taizu visited the Western Pool. The Daoist was sitting drunk in the shade of a tree by the bank; he smiled, bowed with clasped hands to Taizu, and said, “How have you been since we parted?” Taizu was overjoyed and hastily sent eunuchs to secretly lead him to a side gate of the rear palace; fearing he might flee, he quickly hurried back to meet him, and as before they clapped hands and drank freely. Taizu said, “I have long wanted to see you, and I ask only one thing: how much lifespan do I have left?” The Daoist said, “If the sky is clear on the night of the twentieth day of the tenth month this year, your life may be extended by one ji—twelve years; if not, you should quickly arrange your final affairs.” Taizu tried his utmost to make him stay and had him lodge in the rear garden. The officials in the garden sometimes saw him sleeping in crow’s nests at the treetops.

Xie Duan found a large snail near the city and brought it home, where he kept it in a water vat. One day he secretly looked into his house and saw a young woman come out of the snail shell and go to the stove to light the fire and cook. Xie Duan asked her about it, and she replied: “I am the White Water Pure Maiden (Baishui Sunü) of the Heavenly River, a goddess of the White Water in the heavens. The Heavenly Emperor took pity on you for being young and orphaned, and because you have been cautious and self-restrained, he sent me to keep house and cook for you for a time. Within a few years I would have made you prosperous enough to take a wife, and then I would have left on my own. But you secretly spied on me without cause; my true form has now been exposed, and it is no longer fitting for me to stay. I have no choice but to leave you.” She left the snail shell behind and mentioned allusions such as “Shalu” and “Pei Hang at Blue Bridge” (Shalu is an ancient place name, and Blue Bridge is the site associated with the legend of Pei Hang’s encounter with an immortal).

He Danyang was from Longyou and served as a Gentleman of the Imperial Secretariat in the late Han. During the reigns of Emperors Ai and Ping, when the Han house was declining, he said to people: “The affairs of today are not something human power can control; they are probably so by the fixed destiny of qi fortune. In the past, when Shalu collapsed, someone skilled in numerology said, ‘After five hundred years, a sage woman will arise in the region of Qi.’ The present chancellor is a descendant of the Tian clan of Qi; the sage queen exactly matches this prognostication. The time to alter the Han mandate and restore the Tian clan’s foundation in Qi is now.” He therefore gave himself over to the mountains and forests, seeking transcendence from the dusty world. He regularly consumed pine pollen; his body became light and agile, and his eyes clear and bright. Later he abandoned office and lived in seclusion among the famous mountains of Shu. Taiping Shangzhen (the Supreme Perfected of Great Peace, a high immortal from heaven) descended and transmitted to him the Daoist method of climbing the Dipper and riding dragons (for ascending to immortality and flying), and afterward he ascended and became an immortal.

Pei Hang (a Tang-dynasty legendary figure who later became an immortal) hired a boat at Xiang-Han to travel. On the same boat was Lady Fan, whose beauty was exquisite. Pei Hang had his maidservant Niaoyan convey a poem to her, meaning: even fellow travelers as strangers as Hu and Yue (the north and the south, a metaphor for mutual estrangement) may still feel longing for one another, how much more so when one meets a heavenly immortal behind a brocade screen; if you are going to the Jade Capital (Yujing, the Daoist heaven) for the celestial assembly, I would follow the luan-cranes into the blue sky. The lady said: My husband is in Hannan; I hope you will not take playful words to heart. You and I have a slight karmic connection, and in days to come a fine marriage will surely come about. She also answered with a poem: Drinking one cup of jade nectar rouses a hundred emotions; pound the Mysterious Frost completely, and you will see Yunying. Lanqiao is itself the place where immortals dwell—why labor to climb to the Jade Capital? Later, when Pei Hang passed Lanqiao Post, he was extremely thirsty. He saw an old woman twisting hemp in a thatched cottage and bowed to her, asking for something to drink. The old woman called Yunying to bring a bowl of liquid. Pei Hang took it and drank; it was simply like jade liquid. Pei Hang said to the old woman: The young lady is stunningly beautiful; I wish to marry her. The old woman said: I am old and often ill, and have only this granddaughter. Immortals left behind a measure of medicine that must be pounded with a jade mortar and pestle for a hundred days before it is complete. If you want to marry her, you need only find the jade mortar and pestle; gold and silk are of no use to me. Pei Hang left in disappointment. More than a month later, he indeed obtained the mortar and pestle and carried them to Lanqiao. The old woman took the medicine from between the folds of her garment and sash, and Pei Hang pounded it for her. At night, when the old woman gathered up the medicine, Pei Hang glimpsed a jade rabbit holding the pestle and pounding the medicine, its snowy light illuminating the room. When the hundred days were complete, the old woman swallowed the medicine and said: I will go into the cave to prepare the curtained chamber for Young Master Pei. Suddenly a great mansion appeared, and immortal boys and maidservants led Pei Hang into the curtained chamber; the relatives were all immortals. One woman declared herself to be his wife’s elder sister and said: Do you not remember sharing a boat from E Zhu to Xiang-Han? The attendants said: She is Lady Yunqiao, wife of Celestial Master (Tianshi) Liu Gang, a Daoist immortal, and she serves as female scribe to the Jade Emperor. Pei Hang took his wife into Yufeng Cave, consumed the elixir known as Crimson Snow and Jade Blossom (the name of an immortal elixir), and transcended to become an upper immortal.

The two lines “Wu lodges in a crow’s nest, Duan peers at a snail shell” each conceal an allusion: one is the Daoist priest Hundun Wu lying drunk in a crow’s nest, and the other is Xie Duan peering at the young woman inside a snail shell.

The Xiangshan Yelu says: Before Emperor Taizu of Song had ascended the throne and become prominent, he once traveled with a Daoist priest through the Guan and He regions. The priest had no fixed name and called himself “Hundun Wu.” Whenever he lacked money, he would reach out for coins, and the more he took, the more there were. They often drank until thoroughly drunk. The priest was good at singing, and he made a game of the Daoist “Pacing the Void” (Buxu; the melodic intonation used in scripture chanting), able to draw his voice into deep and ethereal reaches and produce a clear, subtle song. Sometimes he sang only two lines, which drifted down with the heavenly wind, and only Taizu heard them: “Metal Monkey, Tiger Head Four; the true dragon obtains the true throne.” When he sobered up and Taizu questioned him, the priest only said, “Words from a drunken dream—how could they be relied on?” On the very day Taizu received the charts and registers and accepted the abdication to ascend the throne, it was the fourth day of the first month of a gengshen year (Geng belongs to Metal and shen to the Monkey, thus matching “Metal Monkey”; “Tiger Head Four” also covertly matched the fourth day), fulfilling the words “the true dragon obtains the true throne.” After Taizu ascended the throne, he no longer saw the priest and issued an edict to search the populace far and wide. Some said they had seen him on the Huanyuan road; others said they had seen him in the Songshan and Luoyang region. Sixteen years later, in the yihai year of Kaibao (the eighth year of Taizu’s Kaibao reign), during the purification ablution of the Shangsi Festival (a waterside rite to avert calamity and pray for blessings), Taizu visited the West Pond. The priest was sitting drunk in the shade of a tree by the bank; he smiled, bowed with hands clasped to Taizu, and said, “How have you been since we parted?” Taizu was overjoyed and quickly sent a eunuch to secretly lead him to a side gate of the rear palace. Fearing he might escape, he hurried back to meet him, just as in the old days clapping hands and drinking freely. Taizu said, “I have long wanted to see you, and I have only one question: how much lifespan do I have left?” The priest said, “If the night of the twentieth day of the tenth month this year is clear, you may extend it by one ji (twelve years); otherwise, you should make preparations early.” Taizu urged him to stay and had him lodge in the rear garden. The garden officials sometimes saw him sleeping in a crow’s nest at the treetop.

The Soushen Ji says: Xie Duan found a large snail at the foot of the city wall, took it home, and kept it in a jar. One day he peered into his house and saw a young woman come out of the jar and go to the stove to light a fire. Xie Duan then asked her where she came from.

The Xu Xianzhuan (Supplement to the Biographies of Immortals) records: Lan Caihe, one of the later Eight Immortals, was of unknown origin. He often wore a tattered blue gown, tied a wooden belt of some sort, and wore only one boot. He walked through the market singing as he went, holding clappers and begging from people. Old and young followed him, and those who joked and bantered with him often laughed until they bent over. He looked mad, but in fact was not truly crazed. He sang: “Tramping Song—Lan Caihe, how long can human life last? Youthful rosy faces are like a tree of blossoms in spring; fleeting years fly by like a thrown shuttle. The ancients passed away one after another and do not return; the people of today come one after another and are even more numerous. In the morning I ride a luan-phoenix to the azure heaven; by evening I have seen mulberry fields turn into blue seas and white waves surge up. The bright radiance of the vast sky hangs in the empty expanse; gold and silver palaces rise high and majestic.” One day, while singing and treading in rhythm at Hao Bridge, he ascended to heaven on clouds from a wine tower, leaving behind his clothes, boots, and clappers.

The Kuoyi zhi (Record of Investigating Anomalies) records: Duan Gu was a man of Xuzhou. He sat for the jinshi examination several times, and his family was wealthy. Later he suddenly behaved as if mad: morning and evening he would don a headcloth, wear a cloth robe, tie a silver-white belt, and roam the streets and markets chanting: “A thatched hut, and still I repair it myself; let the wind blow—the eaves are broken through, the bracket sets lean, and at a glance it is about to collapse. The walls have turned into a heap of scattered earth; the master will never return.” Whenever he came to the two words “collapse,” he would call them out three to five times before stopping. When he went out or came in, dozens of children from the lanes would follow and respond in chorus; people regarded him as a madman and did not find it strange. At the end of the Qingli era (a reign title of Emperor Renzong of Song), he died of illness and was temporarily buried in the countryside. Several years later, when a formal burial was arranged and the coffin was opened for inspection, there was only an empty coffin.

King Zhao cut off lust and desire; Zixiu regarded “mother” as shameful.

The Zinian Shiyi records: while King Zhao of Yan (ruler of the state of Yan during the Warring States period) was dozing, he suddenly dreamed of an immortal in feathered garments speaking with him and asking about the way of the supreme immortals. The man in feathered garments said: “Great King (the original text reads ‘Dazheng’), your vital essence and wisdom are not yet opened; if you seek long life and enduring vision, you cannot obtain it.” King Zhao of Yan knelt and asked to receive teachings on cutting off desires. The immortal used his finger to slice open the king’s heart, and it split at once; the king woke with a start, and blood had already soaked his mat and bedding. He then calmed his heart ailment and withdrew fine food and music. After ten days, he again saw the immortal he had met in the dream come forward and say that earlier he had intended to replace the king’s heart; he then took out a green pouch one cun square, containing Xutun Mingdan and Buxue Jingsan (Blood-Replenishing Essence Powder), and massaged the king’s chest with his hand, and before long he was completely healed. The king asked to obtain this medicine, stored it in a royal jar (a vessel), and sealed it with a golden cord. When the king smeared the medicine on his feet, he could fly ten thousand li beyond heaven and earth, roaming as if within a foot; those who obtained and took it could grow old later than Heaven itself—that is, attain longevity.

The Inner Biography of Dongfang Shuo records: when Qin swallowed up the six states, the essence-spirit of the Great White Star (the spirit of Venus) and Liang Yuqing and Wei Chengzhuang, attendants of the Weaving Girl, fled into the Xiaoxian Cave (a cave dwelling) in Yacheng and did not come out for forty-six days. The Emperor of Heaven was enraged and ordered the gods of the Five Peaks to search for and seize them. The Venus essence returned to its post, and Wei Chengzhuang also fled. Liang Yuqing had a son named Zixiu. Yuqing was banished to the Ever-Spring Place beneath the Northern Dipper, and her son was assigned to the River Earl (the god of the Yellow River), charged with riding the clouds and making rain. Whenever Zixiu went to Xiaoxian Cave, he felt ashamed of his mother’s elopement and turned his carriage back, so this place often suffers from scarce rain.

Here ends fascicle one of the Sandong Qunxian Lu (Record of the Immortals of the Three Caverns). Fascicle two was compiled by the Zhengyi (Orthodox Unity) Daoist Chen Baoguang; its opening line, “Lord Yang serves as Director of Destinies; Zijin attends the imperial dwelling,” means roughly: Lord Yang (an immortal surnamed Yang) holds the office of Director of Destinies, while Zijin (Wang Zijin, crown prince of King Ling of Zhou and later an immortal) attends the celestial residence.

The Zhengao records: Yang Xihe was a native of Jurong. From childhood he was connected to the spirit world, and with Xu Mi and Xu Hui—the “two Xu,” Shangqing (Highest Clarity) cultivators of the Perfected—he formed a fellowship of immortals. After their Dao was perfected, they repeatedly descended to transmit Daoist teachings. The Jiuhua Perfected Consort, a female immortal of the Shangqing tradition, warned him: those who live in the dusty world and exhaust all its great blessings are mostly low ghosts burdened by sin, bodies hastening toward decay; wealth, rank, and beauty are like axes and saws that cut bone, and like boats and carts loaded with karmic guilt. Thereafter the Perfected descended every month without a single vacant day. Twenty years later, Master Yang ascended to heaven in broad daylight on clouds and a crane, and was appointed Huayang Director of Destinies Perfected, a divine post in charge of the registers of destiny.

The Wang Family Biographies of Immortals says: Wang Qiao, courtesy name Zijin, was the crown prince of King Ling of Zhou. He was wondrous from birth, loved the Dao in childhood, and was skilled at playing the sheng so that it made the sound of phoenix calls; white cranes and vermilion phoenixes flew in and gathered around him. Later he met Master Fuqiu, an immortal, who bestowed on him the essentials of the Dao and took him up Mount Song, from which he did not return. One day he suddenly rode a crane and paused atop the mountain, and a children’s rhyme sang: Prince Qiao loves the immortals; on the seventh day of the seventh month he will be a guest in heaven. He was first appointed Attendant at the Southern Peak’s Directorate of Destinies, and then Perfected of Tongxiang.

The Biographies of Eminent Daoists records: the Daoist priest Kou Qianzhi lived in seclusion at Songyang practicing cultivation, and moved the Supreme Lord of the Dao to descend. The Lord commanded the immortal elder Wang Chuping to lead him forward and said: I have received a memorial from the lord of the Central Peak: since Celestial Master (Tianshi) Zhang, Zhang Daoling, ascended to Perfection, those who do good have had no teacher to transmit to them; now the Daoist Kou Qianzhi’s conduct accords with nature, and he should occupy the teacher’s seat. The colophon praise says, “Qianzhi occupies the teacher’s seat; his Dao soars among the immortals and Perfected,” meaning that he attained the teacher’s seat and that his Dao methods gathered him into the ranks of immortals and Perfected.

The Zhen'gao records: The third son of Xu Changshi (Xu Mi, who once served as Changshi) had the courtesy name Daoxiang. He regarded worldly affairs as chaff and husks, devoted himself single-mindedly to cultivating the higher Dao, and his father Xu Changshi valued him highly. He was exceedingly capable of communicating with the true spirits and was in harmony with his master and the Perfected. Now in Shuhua (a Daoist immortal prefecture) he has become an immortal Perfected, received documents and registers, and been appointed an immortal official serving the Imperial Canopy (the dwelling of the Heavenly Emperor).

“Yu Sou’s sincere po and Xia Fu’s refined hun” is a summary phrase: Yu Sou used sincerity of mind to gather and control the po (corporeal soul), while Xia Fu (an Eastern Han Daoist cultivator) cultivated and refined the hun (ethereal soul) and spirit.

The Xuanshi Zhi records: During the Tang dynasty, when Wang Qian served as Jiedushi of Jingnan, a young man surnamed Lü, poor and in distress, came to pay his respects to Wang Qian, but Wang Qian did not receive him with courtesy. Lü Sheng lodged at an inn for more than a month and became increasingly destitute, until he had no choice but to sell in the market the donkey he had ridden. Yu Shi, a petty official who supervised the market gate (later called Yu Sou), stopped Lü Sheng and asked about his background. Lü Sheng said: “My home is north of the Wei River. My family is poor and my parents are old. Lord Wang is a distant uncle of mine, and for this reason I came a thousand li without considering the distance, yet he would not even glance at me. Is this not fate?” Yu Shi said: “I see hunger in your face. Tonight I will prepare a meal for you; please stay at my house.” He then invited him into a simple room, where they sat together on a worn mat, and he served coarse rice in earthenware vessels. At night Yu Shi slowly said to Lü Sheng: “I will perform a small technique for you to arrange travel expenses for your return to Luoyang.” He then brought out a small jar and set it mouth-down on the ground. After the time it takes to eat a meal, he lifted it and looked: inside was a tiny figure about five cun tall, wearing a purple ribbon and carrying a gold seal. Yu Shi said: “This is Lord Wang’s po.” Yu Shi warned it, saying: “Lü Sheng is your distant nephew. He came from afar because his family is poor, yet you failed to receive him with courtesy. How is this the way to treat one’s kin? You should give him generous support: a horse, a servant, and two hundred bolts of fine silk.” The purple-clad tiny figure bowed its head and accepted the instruction. Yu Shi covered it again with the jar, and after a while looked again: the tiny figure had disappeared. The next day, Wang Qian indeed invited Lü Sheng to feasts and excursions; after several months, when Lü Sheng took his leave, Wang Qian gave him a servant, a horse, and two hundred bolts of fine silk. After Lü Sheng returned north of the Wei River, he did not dare speak of it openly and only told others several years later.

The account given by the Siming Lord (a Daoist divine office) in the Zhen'gao also mentions: Lord Wang indeed invited Lü Sheng to feasts and excursions for several months, and when Lü Sheng took his leave and returned home, he was given a servant, a horse, and two hundred bolts of fine silk; after Lü Sheng returned north of the Wei River, he did not dare speak openly about it and only told others several years later.

The Zhen'gao records: Lord Siming (the Daoist deity who governs the registers of destiny) said: When Xia Fu was young he loved cultivating the Dao. He went to the Wu region to visit Master Red Beard (Chixu Xiansheng) and received the “method of refining the soul” (a cultivation practice for tempering and purifying the hun and po souls). Later he met Zhenren (Perfected) Tongxiang again and achieved the Dao; he is now an immortal in a grotto-heaven.

“Daorong burns his coffin; Huizong piles firewood” refers to two events: Gou Daorong burning his coffin and transforming away, and Zhao Huizong piling firewood and self-immolating.

The Gaodao Zhuan (Biographies of Eminent Daoists) records: The Daoist priest Gou Daorong was of unknown origin and was famous in the Shu region. He was on good terms with Lü Yi, assistant magistrate of Huayang. He himself foretold the month and day of his death and said that when the time came they should send him beneath the great pine east of the eastern suburb and burn the coffin with firewood; that would count as their kindness. Lü Yi, together with friends Zhang Sheng, Chang Yao, and several dozen others, noted the date and waited. On the previous evening, Daorong visited all his close friends’ homes, drinking and talking and laughing; toward dusk he stayed at an inn. Lü Yi sent someone secretly to check and saw him sleeping as usual. By dawn he had already transformed and departed, while his countenance remained unchanged. The group then prepared a coffin, carried him beneath the great pine, piled firewood, and lit it. After the fire started, fierce flames blazed in the coffin, and people could not approach. They only saw Daorong slowly rise above the smoke and flames, lightly ascending into the void and departing.

Zhao Huizong, in the late Tianbao era (the Tianbao period of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang), suddenly piled firewood east of the commandery city and self-immolated. Officials and commoners came to watch; Huizong sat peacefully in the fire reciting the Duren Jing (Scripture of Universal Salvation; full title, Taishang Dongxuan Lingbao Wuliang Duren Shangpin Miaojing), and in a short while transformed into auspicious clouds and immortal cranes. After the fire went out, the grass beneath was still green. He left a bamboo-slip manuscript containing two poems. The first says in substance: I was born in the void and placed in nonbeing; the utmost Jing becomes Shen, and Primordial Nonbeing becomes the body; I disperse yang Qi as light and gather yin Qi as a tally and credential; the physical form turns to ash and earth, while Shen dwells with the immortal; all defilements are about to end, and all affairs are forever removed. The second says in substance: I drive the horse of time, with sun and moon as my guards; I leap up to the nine heavens and pay audience to the Heavenly Emperor; light illumines my assembly and my disciples; false Dao only nourishes the physical form, while the true Dao emphasizes nourishing Shen; strive on, strive on—I have nothing else to declare.

“Xu Diao cleanses the heart; Qian Lang replenishes the brain” cites the names of the cultivation practices of the two immortals Xu Diao and Qian Lang: Xu Diao took “cleansing the heart” (washing away mental thoughts and removing impurities of the mind) as the crucial point of practice; Qian Lang took “replenishing the brain” (a health-preserving cultivation method for supplementing the brain and marrow) as his essential method.

Xu Diaozhe was of unknown origin. He called himself the Fisherman of Penglai (a legendary immortal mountain at sea), always wore a gourd at his waist, and rowed a small boat roaming the Five Lakes. He exchanged the fish he caught for wine and returned chanting as he went. When he met sick people, he would take a pill the size of a hemp seed and have them rub it onto the patient’s chest with wine; all illnesses were cured. Someone asked whether the medicine could be eaten, and he replied: “It can be eaten, but I fear it is like a monk’s meal”—by which he meant that after taking it one would no longer eat ordinary human food. A curious person swallowed the pill, and indeed was naturally no longer hungry; only then did people believe it. Later, one day, he quietly departed.

Qian Lang passed the first class of the imperial examination and held a series of pure, prestigious, and important official posts; wherever he governed, he left behind a reputation for benevolence. Later he abandoned office and entered Mount Lu, where he met an extraordinary person and obtained the art of returning to the origin and replenishing the brain (a Daoist cultivation method for restoring primal Qi and nourishing the brain and marrow). At one hundred fifty years old his face was still like a child’s. Several of his great-great-grandsons had entered official service and were already white-haired. One day Qian Lang took leave of them, saying: “I have been in the world for many years; my cultivation in the Dao has already received Shangqing’s (Highest Clarity’s) summons, and now I must go.” Thereupon he released himself from his bodily form and departed in immortal transformation.

Bo Gao lived in seclusion at Fangtai and achieved xuanjie (mysterious liberation, i.e., immortal transformation) on Zhen Island. In the Zhen’gao (Declarations of the Perfected), Lord Dongqing says: Long Bogao was a man of the Han dynasty. When General Fubo (Ma Yuan of the Han) admonished his nephews, he praised Bogao’s excellent character as worthy of emulation. Later Bogao received the Taixi (embryonic breathing) method—an inner cultivation practice of holding the breath to nourish life—from the immortal Diao Daolin, feigned death by drunkenness, and lived in seclusion at Fangtai.

According to the Guangji, Xixuan (also called Xuanjie in the text) expounded the Laozi, yet his face looked like a child’s. Emperor Xianzong of Tang found this strange and summoned him to ask: “Sir, you are advanced in years, yet your complexion does not age—why is this?” He replied: “I, your subject, often ate lingzhi on the sea (a fungus regarded as an elixir of immortality), and so I am able to be like this.” Xianzong then carved wood to make the three islands on the sea and decorated them with pearls, jade, and colored painting. After viewing them, the emperor said: “Unless one is a high immortal (an advanced immortal), one cannot reach such a realm.” Xuanjie said: “The three islands are within easy reach; please allow me to make a journey there for Your Majesty.” Thereupon he made himself invisible and entered, his form gradually growing smaller until he could no longer be seen. Xianzong marveled at it as extraordinary and therefore called that mountain “Zhen Island” (Island of Truth).

The inscribed line “Yin Sheng the beggar, Han Kun the poor Daoist” brings out that immortals are not restricted by status. The Liexian Zhuan (Biographies of Immortals) records that Yin Sheng was a beggar in Chang’an and often begged in the marketplace. The people of the market loathed and despised him and poured excrement on him, yet his clothes were not soiled; the crowd suspected him of being a demon and imprisoned him, but he remained as before. A ballad in the Chang’an market said: “When you see the beggar, give him fine wine; perhaps you may avoid the calamity of your house being damaged.” Liu Xiang (traditionally regarded as the compiler of the Liexian Zhuan) said: “Yin Sheng the beggar—people were annoyed by his sacrilege, and few recognized the true immortal, so he repeatedly suffered imprisonment and humiliation; this caused him no injury, while those who harmed him would bring calamity upon their own houses.”

According to the Guangji (Taiping Guangji), Han Kunzi lived in seclusion on Tiantai Mountain (in present-day Tiantai area, Zhejiang). He loved composing poetry, and his verses mostly described the secluded pleasures of mountains and forests. Tongzhi Zhenren (a Daoist immortal) wrote a preface to his poems and compiled them into a book, which circulated in the world. During the Xiantong era of the Tang dynasty, he came out of the mountains to visit Li He. Seeing that his clothes were worn and old, Li He did not receive him with courtesy; the next day, Han Kunzi changed his clothes and came riding a white horse, and Li He then treated him generously. Han Kunzi revealed that he was Han Kunzi and said: I originally thought you could be taught and transformed, but now it seems that may not necessarily be so; you still do not understand the way into it. Cultivating the Dao requires inwardly cultivating the heart and outwardly examining oneself, and thus one avoids fault; knowing softness and keeping humility, one settles oneself; attributing what is not good to oneself, one accumulates De (Virtue/Power); only in this way may one hope to approach the Dao. With that, he whipped his horse and left.

Xi Fu Refines Melons: According to the Liexian Zhuan, Xi Fu lived among the mountains. A divine man came and went selling melons and often stopped to rest at his home, and so taught him the method of refining melon seeds, telling him to take them at the spring equinox. More than twenty years later, he could climb mountains and enter water, lived to be over a hundred years old, and later lived alone on the mountain top and departed.

Meng Jie Holds a Jujube in His Mouth: According to the Xihan Yishi, Meng Jie was a man of the Western Han. He possessed Daoist arts: by holding one jujube pit in his mouth, he could go ten years without hunger; he could also hold his breath without breathing and remain motionless for about a year. Scholars and common people admired him and regarded him as an immortal. Later he entered the mountains and did not come out.

Shi He (name of an immortal) ate once a day; Qingjing (Qingjing rice, a Daoist substance for ingestion) could provide nine meals.

The Biography of Xishan Zhenjun says: Xishan Zhenjun was named He and was from Julu. In his youth he entered Mount Siming, where he encountered a divine person who transmitted elixir instructions to him; he could transmute substances into gold and jade and used this to relieve the poor and distressed, so that the common people received his beneficence. Later he could drive out malevolent spirits and command ghosts and gods, and he was known for serving his mother with filial piety. He was skilled in embryonic breathing (the practice of holding the breath and inner respiration) and obtained the method of sitting in forgetfulness (sitting quietly and forgetting oneself); sometimes he ate only once every hundred days and slept only once every half year. During the reign of Emperor Ming of Jin he was treated with great honor. When Xu Zhenjun (Xu Xun) ascended, his teacher also ascended with him.

The Biographies of Immortals records: Master Qingjing lived to a thousand years yet his complexion was like a child’s; he could walk more than five hundred li a day, could go without food for a whole year, and could also practice “Yi Si, Nine Nourishments” (a method of prolonged nurturing).

“The Celestial Master and the Three Realms; Yisheng and the Nine Altars”: this refers to Celestial Master Zhang Daoling and the Three Realms (the sacred realms of the Three Pure Ones [Sanqing]), and to Perfected Lord Yisheng and the Nine Altars.

The main biography says: Zhang Daoling was a sixth-generation descendant of Zhang Liang, Marquis of Liu, and was recommended as “excellent and upright.” Although he entered official service, his aspiration lay in refining the body, and so he retired to Mount Beideng. Emperor Zhang summoned him with seals and ribbons of the third rank, but he declined the office. He went to Mount Song, where a divine person told him: In a stone chamber are stored the Yellow Emperor’s elixir scriptures and writings in jade caskets and jade tablets; if you go there, you will surely obtain them. He followed the instruction and indeed obtained the books. Thereupon he built an altar to worship the Perfected and cultivated the Nine Elixirs. After the elixir was completed, he said to his disciple Wang Chang: Taking the elixir should make one soar into the heavens and ascend, but I have not established great merit; how would I dare take it hastily? I should first eliminate harms and promote benefits for the state, and then take the elixir; only thus, in serving the Three Realms, will I be without shame.

The Biography of Yisheng says: In the early Jianlong era of the present dynasty, Perfected Lord Yisheng descended and instructed Zhang Shouzhen: there are nine kinds of altar methods. The upper three altars are established for the state, the middle three for officials, and the lower three for the common people; each of the nine altars has its own ritual.

“Xuanfu and the Five Viscera, Shuqi and the Three Passes”: Xuanfu emphasized the cultivation of the five viscera, while Shuqi emphasized the cultivation of the Three Passes (the cultivation gateways).

The Zhengao (Declarations of the Perfected) records: Wang Xuanfu (a Daoist immortal) received from an immortal the method of “swallowing the sun’s radiance” (swallowing solar essence and visualizing sunlight). After cultivating it for thirty-four years, he was able to practice inward vision of the five viscera and to write at night in pitch darkness. After his Dao was perfected, Taishang sent a feathered carriage to welcome him; riding the clouds and driving a dragon, he ascended to heaven in broad daylight. He now resides at Xuanpu Terrace (a terrace in the realm of the immortals), having received the command to serve as the Perfected of the Central Peak (an immortal office at Mount Song).

Zhao Shuqi was studying the Dao at Wangwu Mountain (a famous Daoist mountain) when he met a diviner who said: “To enter the Heaven Gate and reach the Three Passes, visualize the Vermilion Bird and align Kunlun (terms from Daoist visualization practice).” Zhao Shuqi found this strange and bowed, requesting the essential instructions. The diviner gave him a scroll and said: The Three Passes are: the mouth is the Heaven Pass, the feet are the Earth Pass, and the hands are the Human Pass. When the Three Passes are harmonized, the five viscera are at peace; when the five viscera are at peace, the whole body is free of illness, and the immortal Dao can be attained.

The account “the Dao Lord bestows swords and the Jade Maidens present rings” appears in the original biography of the Celestial Master (Tianshi): When the Celestial Master (Zhang Daoling) had accomplished his merit, the Supreme Dao Lord (a high Daoist deity) descended and bestowed on him a pair of male and female swords, each bearing patterns of the sun, moon, stars, and Dipper. The Dao Lord said: I pity the beings of the lower world, entangled by ghostly souls and with humans and ghosts living mixed together; now, on my behalf, separate humans and ghosts and let each return to its proper place—your merit will be boundless. Furthermore, when the Celestial Master arrived at Renshou County, he encountered twelve heaven-roaming Jade Maidens; each offered a jade ring and wished to serve the Celestial Master. The Celestial Master combined the jade rings into one ring and said: “I will throw it into the ground; whoever obtains it first shall have it.” The Jade Maidens scrambled for it and dug deeper and deeper; the Celestial Master then imposed a prohibition so that the ring would not come out, and the jade ring transformed into a salt well, from which public and private users drew profit. That place therefore became Ling Commandery, and this began with Zhang Daoling.

The phrase “the Holy Mother pierces the clouds, Zhou Sheng takes the moon” means that the Holy Mother can travel through clouds and that Zhou Sheng possessed the art of taking the moon.

The records in Guangji say: the Holy Mother was from Hailing (in the present-day area of Taizhou, Jiangsu) and was married to a man of the Du family. She encountered an extraordinary person and learned to alter her appearance and transform her bodily form, but her husband did not believe it and instead took her for a monstrous anomaly, reporting her to the authorities and having her thrown into prison. The Holy Mother, however, flew out through the window, and people saw her pass through the clouds and depart. At the time she left a pair of shoes beneath the window, and because of this the people of Hailing established a shrine for her, calling it the Shrine of the Holy Mother.

The records in Xuanshi Zhi say: Zhou Sheng possessed Daoist arts and traveled through the regions of Wu and Chu, where people generally respected him. When he arrived at Guangling (present-day Yangzhou), it happened to be a mid-autumn night gathering; the moonlight was bright, and the company spoke of the legend of Tang Minghuang’s journey to the moon palace. Zhou Sheng laughed and said, “I once learned from my teacher, and I too can fetch the moon.” Thereupon he took several hundred chi of rope and arranged it like a ladder, saying, “I will use this ladder to fetch the moon.” He shut himself away for a long time while the guests waited in the courtyard. Suddenly heaven and earth grew dark, and when they looked up there was not a trace of cloud; soon afterward they heard Zhou Sheng shout, “I have arrived!” He raised his garments and revealed about half a cun of the moon, and the whole room became bright, while a cold air penetrated to the bone. After about the time it takes to eat a meal, everything returned to as it had been before.

“Shang sings ‘Yangchun,’ Zhang intones ‘Baixue’” refers to a singer surnamed Shang singing “Yangchun” and a singer surnamed Zhang intoning “Baixue” (“Yangchun” and “Baixue” are both titles of ancient refined songs).

The records in Shishi say: Shang Qiqi had extraordinary arts. Passing through Runzhou (present-day Zhenjiang), he drank with guests and said, “I have a skill with which to add to the amusement.” Then he turned and looked at the woman painted on the screen and said, “You may sing the ‘Yangchun Qu.’” The woman in the painting responded and began to sing, her voice clear and bright, as if coming from within the screen. The lyrics went: “Sorrowful to see others sing of Yangchun, it knots one’s parting heart; my lord has gone and not returned home, the willow of itself drifts fragrant snow.” She sang more than ten songs in this way.

The preface to the Wuzhen pian (Awakening to Reality) says: Zhang Boduan, courtesy name Pingshu, of Tiantai (present-day Tiantai area in Zhejiang), once wrote all his realization into nine-by-nine, eighty-one regulated verse poems titled Wuzhen pian; because the text was lengthy, not all of it was included. Among them, the poem “Nine Cycles of the Golden Liquid Return Elixir” says: Yellow Sprout and White Snow (Neidan terms, images of the elixir’s formation) are extremely hard to find, and those who understand this path must have deep De (Virtue/Power). The Four Images and Five Phases all rely on “Earth” (in Neidan, Earth symbolizes the true intention of the central palace), and the Three Primes and Bagua cannot depart from “Ren” (Ren belongs to Water, symbolizing the water palace of Jing and Qi). When the spiritual substance (the elixir body, the essence of spiritual nature) is refined, ordinary people find it hard to recognize; when Yin demons (yin obstructions in cultivation) are entirely dissolved, ghosts and spirits cannot intrude. He wished to leave the secret formula to others, but met no true kindred spirit.

“Zhang sees the terraces; Feng ascends to the palace gates” is the gist of the immortal stories below: Zhang Jianzhang saw the terraces of an immortal island, and Feng Nü ascended into the immortal palace.

The Beimeng Suoyan records: Zhang Jianzhang loved the classics and histories and often harbored an aspiration for purity and detachment. On his way to Bohai he encountered a windstorm and saw a blue-clad person lead him up a mountain. Reaching an island, he saw lofty terraces; within were immortal maidens and many attendants. They kept him for a drink for a while and said: “Even alone in a dark room you do nothing to shame your conscience; you may be called a gentleman of antiquity.” Then he ordered an azure youth to send him back.

The Guangji records: Feng Nü did not eat from childhood and admired purity and emptiness; her parents thought she was speaking empty words. Suddenly one day she saw immortals in the sky going from south to north, about to cross a thousand li; on the mountain summit a golden city and jade towers surged forth, and a person beckoned her to ascend into the palace gates, where immortals were ranged and the regalia were solemn. He said to her: “You have immortal bones and an immortal register; you are to become a high Perfected One. The Most High (Taishang) has commanded me to bestow upon you the Lingbao True Texts (scriptures of the Daoist Lingbao tradition); practice according to them, and your ascension has its appointed time.” Later she indeed ascended to heaven when the time came.

Xu Qikun passed the jinshi examination, but his aspiration lay in cultivation. When he entered Shu and climbed a steep plank road, he suddenly fell with his horse below the planks, unable to advance or retreat; later it is recorded that his ascension had an appointed time, and he indeed ascended to heaven on schedule. “Qikun in the cave chamber, Xu Gu digs a cave” refers to Xu Qikun dwelling in a cave chamber to cultivate and Xu Gu carving out a cave for practice.

The Biography records: Xu Qikun passed the jinshi examination, but his aspiration lay in cultivation. When he entered Shu and climbed a steep plank road, he suddenly fell, horse and all, beneath the road, unable to advance or retreat. He then followed the horse to a cave chamber, where he saw a host of immortals arranged within. The immortals all said joyfully, “This is the grandson of Lord Changshi (an ancestral title); he has the appearance of an immortal.” The assembled Perfected (Zhen) had him sit, gave him a drink, and said, “This is stone marrow (a Daoist elixir); you have already obtained it. Do not leak the immortal secrets, do not indulge in debauchery; later you may come again to see us.” Then they sent him back on the horse he had ridden, saying, “This horse was originally a dragon in my cave; because it was punished, it came out to carry loads. You have immortal bones, and so you were able to encounter it. When you reach the human world, set it free and let it go wherever it will.” Later, when Xu Qikun made a circuit to his former residence, the horse transformed into a dragon and ascended.

The Guangji records: Immortal Aunt Xu (Xu Xiangu) was several hundred years old, yet her face looked like that of a person around twenty. She often traveled among famous mountains and sometimes lodged in forests, peaks, and stone caves. She went back and forth in the Jiangbiao region; the people of Wu saw her for thirty or forty years, her countenance unchanged and her walking like flying. During the Xiantong era, she came to Ke County and said to people, “My late father served as an official in the Northern Qi and accumulated hidden merit (yinqong, secret virtue); the karmic reward later extended to me, and I have obtained longevity.” Later people, inferring from this, realized that the Immortal Aunt was the daughter of Chancellor Xu Zhicai.

“Dexuan [roams] the Five Peaks, Weidao [enters] the Nine Doubts” means that Song Dexuan traveled through the Five Sacred Peaks and Han Weidao went in and out of the Jiuyi Mountains. In the Zhenyu (Sayings of the Perfected), Lord Dongqing says: Song Dexuan was a man of the time of King Xuan of Zhou; he cultivated the Lingfei Liujia Fulu (a Daoist talismanic cultivation method) and attained the Dao. He could travel three thousand li a day, transform his shape and change his substance; now he is on Mount Song and roams the Five Peaks. It also says that Han Weidao is not known to be from where; he followed Song Dexuan in his comings and goings and served him with the ritual courtesy due a teacher, and Song Dexuan transmitted Daoist methods to him. Now his Dao is complete, and he frequently goes in and out of the Jiuyi Mountains.

“Xu Fu and the white deer, the recluse and the yellow peng” are titles of immortal traces, pointing to two sets of allusions to immortal and Daoist figures: Xu Fu (a fangshi of the Qin dynasty) and the white deer, and the recluse (one who lives in seclusion and cultivates the Dao) and the yellow peng.

Qin Shi Huang dispatched Xu Fu with three thousand boys and girls to the Eastern Sea to seek the herb of immortality; Xu Fu went and never returned. Later, when Shen Xi attained the Dao, Lord Huang-Lao (a Daoist deity) sent Xu Fu, riding a white deer carriage, to welcome the Perfected Shen. Only then did people realize that Xu Fu too had attained the Dao.

Yuan Zangji called himself Master Yuan the Recluse. During the Daye era of the Sui, he was ordered to cross the sea and encountered a divine being, who kept him overseas and had him tour the immortal realms. One day he wished to return home, and the divine being immediately arranged to send him back; in less than ten days he arrived at Donglai (around present-day Yantai, Shandong). He asked what dynasty it was locally, and the answer was that it was already the Tang; when he sought his own descendants, none remained. Only two black birds resembling yellow orioles followed him in and out; they often flew in the air, would come down when called, and could convey the words spoken by people.

Pei Chen’s fine immortal gathering, and the mysterious, wondrous appointed meeting with Lanxiang (the name of a Daoist female immortal).

The Guangji records: Pei Chen formerly was a friend beyond the worldly realm with Wang Jingbo and Liang Fang, and together they entered the mountains to study the Dao. Liang Fang died, and Jingbo went down the mountain to seek office. In the Zhengyuan era he was ordered on a mission to Huainan. By chance he met Pei Chen, so he stopped his boat and asked after him: “What do you need?” Pei Chen said: “We are mountain and wild people; our hearts are close to clouds and cranes. West of Guangling (present-day Yangzhou) is my dwelling.” Suddenly he rowed away. Jingbo reached his residence and saw Pei Chen, stately in cap and robes, and a banquet was set and they took their seats. When Pei Chen was flushed with wine, he said to his attendants: “This man was my fellow Daoist in the mountains long ago. His Dao-mind was not firm; because of his cleverness he harmed himself, and he will drift and sink in the sea of birth and death, unable to find the shore. Today’s fine gathering is truly rare; you may go now.”

Another surviving fragment says that by the Xiang River a fisherman heard of the “Xiao Dui” matter and repeated phrases such as “because of cleverness harming oneself, drifting and sinking in the sea of birth and death, seeking the shore and not finding it, today’s excellent gathering is hard to obtain.” The meaning continues that of Pei Chen’s story, still emphasizing that if a cultivator’s Dao-mind is not firm, he will drift and sink in the cycle of birth and death and find it hard to attain liberation.

A fisherman on the bank of the Xiang River heard a child crying. Looking around, he saw no one except a little girl about three years old. He carried her home and raised her for more than ten years, and she grew into a girl of extraordinary beauty and bearing. One day, an immortal boy in blue-green robes suddenly descended from the sky, took the girl away, and said to the fisherman: I am the immortal maiden Du Lanxiang. Because of a fault I was banished to the human world; the term set by the immortals has its limit, and now I must return.

“The Banished Immortal Summons Rats, Zhu Gong Raises Chickens” are summaries of two immortal incidents. The Guangji says: During the Yongming era, there was a hermit named Cai Sheng on Mount Zhong (present-day Zijin Mountain in Nanjing), who often kept dozens of rats. When he called them, they came; when he told them to go, they went. His speech was strange, and people of the time called him a “Banished Immortal” (an immortal banished to the mortal realm). The Liexian Zhuan says: Zhu Gong was a man of Luoyang who lived on the North Mountain and loved raising chickens for more than a hundred years, until he had raised over a thousand, each with its own name. At dusk the chickens roosted in the trees; by day he released them, and when he called their names they returned. He accumulated tens of millions of cash and took the money to the Wu region, where he opened ponds and raised fish. When he climbed Mount Wu, hundreds of white cranes and peacocks would often stop beside him.

“Li Jue the Merchant, An Gong Enduring Cold” is likewise a title-like prompt: Li Jue made his living by trade, while An Gong had the ability to withstand cold and endure it. The Xu Xianzhuan says that Li Jue lived in Guangling for generations; the later passage, “By day he released them and they scattered, but when he called they immediately came… hundreds of white cranes and peacocks often stopped beside him,” still describes the marvel of his taming and summoning, and its wording overlaps with the matter of Zhu Gong above.

Li Jue’s family had lived for generations in Guangling (present-day Yangzhou area, Jiangsu), making a living by selling grain. When he was fifteen, his father passed the family business on to him. When selling grain, he handed the sheng and dou measures to the buyers to measure for themselves, and he did not shortchange or haggle according to whether market prices were high or low; because of this, he had ample food and clothing. By the age of eighty he had still not changed this trade. It happened that Lord Li Jue (the official Li Jue, then serving as Huainan military governor) was dispatched to take command of Huainan, and this grain-selling Li Jue had already changed his name to Li Kuan. One night, Lord Li dreamed that he entered a grotto dwelling and saw the name “Li Jue” written in a golden register, and he was delighted. Suddenly two immortal youths emerged from the stone wall. Lord Li asked, “What place is this?” The immortal youths said, “This is Huayang Dongtian (Huayang Grotto-Heaven, one of the Daoist grotto-heavens and blessed lands); this name is not your Excellency’s.” Lord Li asked, “If it is not mine, whose is it?” The immortal youths said, “It belongs to a commoner under your governance.” After Lord Li awoke, he understood. He searched every street and alley and found the name Li Kuan; he invited him into his residence and treated him with the courtesy due to an elder brother. When he asked him about the methods of cultivating the Dao, Li Kuan said he did not know what cultivation was and only answered truthfully about the matter of selling grain. Lord Li said, “This is something ordinary people find hard to do; your hidden merit (yingong, secretly accumulating virtue) is beyond what ordinary people can match.” Later Li Kuan departed by shijie (liberation from the corpse)—the Daoist attainment of immortality in which one leaves the bodily frame behind like a cicada shedding its shell.

Tao Angong was a founder and smelter, and he repeatedly blew the fire for smelting. On one occasion the fire scattered and surged upward, with purple light shooting into the sky. Angong bowed beneath the furnace and prayed for mercy. After a moment the Vermilion Bird (Zhuque, a divine bird and also the fire deity of the south) alighted on the furnace and said, “Angong, Angong, your smelting is in communication with Heaven. On the seventh day of the seventh month, a red dragon shall come to welcome you.” On that day the red dragon indeed arrived, and Angong mounted the dragon and ascended to Heaven.

In the tales of Ma Xiang cutting paper cranes and Zhang Zhen making clay horses, Ma Xiang, courtesy name Ziran, was a native of Qiantang. From childhood he loved literature and possessed Daoist arts. One day he passed a vegetable garden and saw turnips growing luxuriantly, so he asked for some, but the garden keeper would not give them to him. Ma Xiang took paper from his basket and cut out a paper crane, then cut out an egret; they flew into the garden, and the paper crane chased the egret, trampling the vegetables to pieces. The garden keeper realized that he was an extraordinary person and apologized in shame. Ma Xiang then put the paper crane and egret back into his basket, and when they looked again, the vegetables were just as before, not damaged in the least.

Someone took paper from his bosom and tore it into a paper crane (the original text writes “huozi,” which should mean a crane-shaped paper object), then tore another into an egret, and let them fly away in the garden. The paper crane chased the egret and trampled the vegetables in the garden into a mess. The garden official knew this was no ordinary person and apologized to him. Afterward the man put the paper crane and egret back into a basket, and when the vegetable plot was looked at again, it was just as before, not damaged at all. This was a display of illusion; the vegetables had in fact not been harmed.

The Baopuzi records: Zhang Zhen, during the time of King You of Zhou, was repeatedly summoned but refused to take office. He followed Chang Sangzi and learned Daoist arts; he could divide his body and transform his shadow, fold grass into dragons and tigers, and spit water that became pearls and jade. One day, traveling with his disciples, he transformed mud balls into horses to ride, covering a thousand li in a day. Later he entered Kongtong Mountain and ascended to heaven in broad daylight.

In the passage beginning “Cheng’s wife procured silk; Su’s mother longed for freshness,” the Shenxian Zhuan records: the wife of Cheng Wei, a Qimen lang (a Han-dynasty imperial guard officer), could perform spiritual transformations. Cheng Wei was to accompany the emperor on a journey, but his clothes and equipage were incomplete, and he was deeply worried. His wife said, “When going out, if clothes are lacking, what is there to worry about?” She then fetched two bolts of fine silk, which suddenly appeared before him. Cheng Wei also practiced the Huangbai art (the art of transmuting metals into gold and silver), but several times in succession he failed to produce results; his wife took a little medicine from a bag, threw it into mercury and silver, and heated it, and in a moment it became silver. Cheng Wei wanted to ask her for the method, but never obtained it; she said that Cheng Wei’s bone physiognomy was not yet fit to receive this art. Cheng Wei pressed and questioned her relentlessly, so she departed by shijie (liberation by corpse, the Daoist transformation of leaving the bodily form behind).

The Biography of Su the Immortal records that Lord Su the Immortal was surnamed Su and named Dan, a native of Chenyi in Guiyang Commandery (around present-day Chenzhou, Hunan), born during the Western Han. He lost his father in childhood and served his mother, Lady Pan, being renowned for filial piety: in winter he warmed her bed, in summer he fanned her cool, he inquired after her morning and evening, never transgressed ritual propriety, and morning and evening presented her with food and drink in a way no one else could match. He often received transmission of Daoist arts from immortals and could become invisible and transform.

One day his mother wanted fresh fish and sent him to fetch some. Su Dan put down the meal he was eating, took money, and went out; after a short while he returned with fresh fish. Before his mother had finished eating, she was delighted to receive the fish and asked, “The market is far from here—how did you buy it so quickly?” He replied, “I bought it in the market of Bian County” (a place name). His mother said, “The mountain roads to Bian County are dangerous and difficult, and it is one hundred twenty li from here. So quickly—you must be deceiving me.” He replied, “When I was buying the fish I saw my uncle in the Bian market, and I asked him to come here tomorrow; wait for my uncle to come and verify whether it is true or false.” The next day his uncle indeed arrived and confirmed the meeting in the market. Only then did his mother realize that he was no ordinary person, and she secretly observed him. She saw that he often carried a single green bamboo staff, and everyone suspected that it was a divine staff.

The two lines at the end—“The Daoist has two mouths; the master draws his ankle”—seem to be a brief commendatory phrase or mnemonic formula. Literally they may be understood as “the Daoist has the semblance of two mouths; the master drew his ankle.” Their specific reference is rather obscure, and it is best to keep the interpretation brief and leave the matter in doubt.

The Wang shi jian wen lu records: Liang Kuangzhi was living in Ezhou when suddenly a Daoist priest came to drink with him. The priest asked him for a pair of padded trousers, and Kuangzhi gave them to him. The priest rolled up the trousers and threw them toward his sleeve, saying, “Into the sleeve,” but after more than a dozen tries they would not go in. He then sighed and said, “I fear I cannot avoid ending up like Duke Lai of Kou.” The priest left, agreeing that he would come again. More than a month later the priest returned. A disciple wanted to go in and announce him, but the priest said, “There is no need to see the Vice Minister; just say that I have gone ahead, and we shall meet there.” Later Liang Kuangzhi was banished to Huazhou. After a long time, a Daoist with two mouths and another mouth on his abdomen came to the official hall, asked for a dou of wine, and drank it all in one go. Seeing Liang Kuangzhi, he said, “Do you remember our meeting in Ezhou?” Though the voice was the same, the appearance was different. He asked for twenty-seven cash coins and then left. Outside the gate he performed an extraordinary art—piercing his abdomen with an eave and blowing an iron flute with his mouth—then took a fishing boat, stood alone on it, and crossed the river with the wind. Twenty-seven days later, Liang Kuangzhi died.

The Daoxue zhuan records: Master Jianji, Lu Xiujing, courtesy name Yuande, was a native of Dongqian in Wuxing and a descendant of Lu Kai, chancellor of Wu. When his mother, née Yao, was pregnant with him, an old woman told her, “This child will become a teacher of humans and heaven.” At his birth his ankles bore an unusual mark, and there were large characters in his palms. He came from a prominent family and in his early years experienced marriage and official service. He once lamented to colleagues that the times were difficult and that opportunity would not come again; later he abandoned wife and children, freed himself from worldly affairs, and devoted himself single-mindedly to Daoist practices, day and night without slackening. He chose to reside at Mount Lu and was later summoned to Jinling. One day he told his disciples, “I am going back to my former retreat.” Soon afterward he peacefully underwent jiehua (the Daoist term for an immortal’s passing); his complexion was lustrous and smooth, and a rich, extraordinary fragrance filled the air. All the disciples at Mount Lu saw the master return to the mountain in bright, beautiful garments. Everyone was astonished, and in an instant he was no longer there.

“Fan Ying sprays water; Zhu Lun rides smoke” means that Fan Ying (an Eastern Han fangshi) could hold water in his mouth and spray it to perform his arts, while Zhu Lun could ride smoke and mount mist as he traveled.

This passage from the Sandong Qunxian Lu (Records of the Host of Immortals of the Three Caverns) records the immortal traces of two Daoist cultivators, Fan Ying and Zhu Lun. Fan Ying was a native of Jinan, thoroughly versed in apocryphal charts and weft texts (ancient arts of divination and verification), and able to penetrate profound and subtle principles. He lived in seclusion at the southern foot of Mount Hu and did not answer summons from the court. Once a violent wind blew from the west, and Fan Ying said to his disciples, “The city of Chengdu (in the Shu region) is ablaze.” He took water into his mouth and sprayed it westward with a prayer, and noted the date and time. Later a visitor from Shu Commandery reported that on that day a great fire had broken out in Chengdu, and soon black clouds rose in the east and a heavy rain fell that put it out. Fan Ying also once said, “Lord Fuqiu (an ancient immortal) and I roamed together above the Heavenly Altar.” Then one day he left the world and departed as an immortal.

The Dantai Xinlu (New Records of the Cinnabar Terrace) records that Zhu Lun, courtesy name Deyuan, concentrated on guarding the One (shouyi, a Daoist inner-cultivation method of focusing the spirit and guarding the Dao) without slackening. This moved Taishang (the Supreme Lord) to descend, open the jade repository (the hidden treasury of the immortals), bestow on him a cinnabar talisman, and say to him: “You have been able to cultivate the higher Dao with diligence and vigor and to hold firmly to the Dao-mind; this can preserve you in ascent and deliverance. Plain, empty, and still, you shall ride the mist and rosy clouds. Follow the Dao and blessings descend; slight the Dao and misfortune entangles you. Since you can practice it, by all means do not transmit it lightly.” After Zhu Lun completed the Dao, in the time of King Jing, Taishang bestowed a document appointing him immortal official of the Central Peak.

“Embracing the One, the dragon staff; pure emptiness, the snake whip”: this describes the pure, empty bearing of immortals and perfected ones as they uphold the great Dao and hold immortal ritual instruments such as the dragon staff and snake whip.

The Gaodao Zhuan (Biographies of Eminent Daoists) records: When Zhao Baoyi was twelve, he was herding cattle and met an old man who asked, “Are you hungry?” He only nodded. The old man took food from his bag and gave it to him; it looked like a radish but tasted sweet. He also gave him a staff and a gourd ladle, in which there was medicine resembling peas. The old man told him to have people take this medicine, and so those suffering from chronic or recent illness all recovered after taking it. After Zhao Baoyi himself ate the radish-like food, he no longer wanted to eat the cooked food of the mortal world. One day he casually walked to Balou Monastery west of the capital. Passing the Nirvana Hall, he heard groans and asked who was making such sounds. A monk said: Several postulants (unordained novices in the monastery) were suffering severely from an epidemic. Zhao Baoyi took some peas from his ladle and had them swallow them with freshly drawn water; immediately they broke into sweat as if they had just bathed, and by the next morning all were well. After this, people seeking medicine gathered like a marketplace, and his fame spread within and beyond. At that time Emperor Zhenzong of Song had not yet returned to the capital from the eastern Feng sacrifice (Fengshan at Mount Tai). Chancellor Lord Xiang, left to guard the capital, secretly sent someone to verify the matter and urgently reported it to the emperor at his temporary residence (xingzai). When the imperial carriage returned to the capital, Zhao Baoyi was summoned. Zhenzong, delighted, patted him on the back and said, “You actually share Our surname.” Thereupon he issued an edict ordaining him as a Daoist priest. Soon afterward Zhao Baoyi asked to return to the mountains. The emperor bestowed on him a gold-plated dragon-head staff, a bronze seal with vermilion inscription, aromatic medicines, and other items; sent palace envoy Zhang Maoxian and Daoist priest Hu Taiyi to escort him to Shimen Mountain; and specially built the Zhenji Abbey for him as a dwelling for cultivating the Real and ascending to Perfection (cultivating the Dao (the Way) and becoming an immortal).

The Xianzhuan Shiyi records: Liao Chong, courtesy name Qingxu, was a native of Lianshan Commandery. Praised for his talent and virtue, he served as principal clerk of his commandery (a subordinate official in charge of documents in the commandery office). Later he resigned his office (“seal and cord” referring to official position) and traveled in search of Dao methods. At Hengyue (Mount Heng, the Southern Sacred Mountain) he encountered the Perfected Person Taiping, who transmitted Dao teachings to him. After returning home, he often rode a tiger and used a snake as a whip. In the second year of Xiantian (an era name of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang), when wind and clouds darkened, he soared into the sky and vanished without trace.

The Zhengao says: Liu Bang was a native of Pei. Rising from commoner origins, he overthrew the Qin dynasty, subdued Xiang Yu, and founded the Han dynasty. Because he had merit toward the Han, the Heavenly Emperor appointed him as a guest-friend of Lord Nanming (a title in the immortal bureaucracy). Lord Mao said: Those whose forebears had accumulated hidden virtue may be directly appointed as immortal officials; or they may enter the Southern Palace (an immortal palace) to receive transformation. Regardless of rank, as a rule they quickly go to the Southern Palace to receive transformation.

In the Huayin Mountains there was Yin Qianzi, who studied the Dao and was a man of the time of Emperor Wu of Han. He encountered an extraordinary person who transmitted to him the way of consuming cinnabar clouds (a method of cultivation through ingestion). He practiced it for fifty years, and his complexion remained like that of a child. Later Lord Taiyi (a high Daoist deity) sent people to welcome him; he rode the clouds and ascended to heaven, becoming a high immortal in Yuanzhou.

The Zhengao says: Peng Keng is Peng Zu. He lived to eight hundred years and did not end by shijie (corpse liberation, a Daoist mode of deliverance into immortality). The Lady of the Southern Sacred Mountain said: These immortals each chose whether to take office or live in reclusion, to speak or remain silent. They hid in mountains and forests, took roaming as immortals as their joy, and took ascent into the void as their destination. It was not that they could not ascend to heaven; they simply did not wish to.

The Wangshi Shenxian Zhuan says: When Wang Zhonglun lived in Heming Mountain, the stones made sounds of themselves. Tian Xuan saw this and asked, “Who is that?” He answered, “I am the immortal Wang Zhonglun. I love the wondrous sounds of these stones, and so I linger to listen.”

The third juan of the Record of the Assembled Immortals of the Three Caverns (Sandong Qunxian Lu) was compiled by the Zhengyi Daoist priest Chen Baoguang. The phrase “Mingqi in the maple chamber, Sutai truly bound” points ahead to the accounts of two immortals, Ye Mingqi and Zhao Sutai, recorded below.

The Zhengao (Declarations of the Perfected) records that a Dao cultivator on Mount Heng named Ye Mingqi entered the mountains in the late Cao Wei period to practice ingestion and cultivation. He lived in a rock cave together with Zhang Lizheng and received the Dan methods transmitted by Lord Wang of Xicheng. After forty-three years his body was thoroughly pure inside and out, and he could walk five hundred li in a day. Later he resided in the Fangzhu Chamber (the name of an immortal mansion) and became a high immortal.

Lord Dinglu (the name of a Daoist deity) also said that the two palaces of Yiqian and Tongchu are halls where men and women who attained the Dao dwell; any of the higher-ranking underground directors (immortal officials of the underworld) may enter the dwellings of true immortals. At that time a female Perfected, Zhao Sutai, had been in Yiqian Palace for four hundred years but refused to move elsewhere, saying that there was no place in the world happier than this.

The Shenxian Lu (Record of Immortals) records that Lord Mao studied the Dao in the Qi region and, after completing the Dao, established his seat at Mount Mao. When sick people came to pray and petition him, he would often boil ten sparrowhawk eggs—bird eggs used here for diagnosing illness—and place them in a tent; after a while Lord Mao would toss the eggs back. When the visitors returned and broke them open to look, if there was no central yellow (yolk) inside, the patient would recover; if there was earth inside, the illness would not be cured. People regarded this as a regular method. The tossed-back eggs remained just as before, with no cracks.

The Nan Shi (History of the Southern Dynasties) records that when Xiao Ang was governor of Pengcheng, there was a woman about twenty years old, with loose hair and wearing yellow clothes, in a stone chamber on Mount Wuku. She was not seen to do much cultivation, nor did she eat much; sometimes she came out to ask people for a little wine and a goose egg, and people called her the “Saintly Lady.” When people sought children from her, it was often effective, and visitors filled the valleys. Xiao Ang summoned her and questioned her, but she answered nothing. He considered her to be deceiving the masses with bizarre claims and had her whipped thirty strokes, yet her wounds healed quickly. Later no one knew where she had gone.

“Dao and righteousness tame deer; lords and friends lead dogs” means that those who have Dao and righteousness can tame deer, and those accompanied by lords and friends can lead dogs.

The Gaodao zhuan records: The Daoist priest Wang Daoyi knew that Mount Zhongnan was the place where the Zhenren (Perfected Person) Yin Xi—Yin Xi, the Zhou-dynasty official in charge of Hangu Pass, who according to legend received Laozi’s transmission and ascended to perfection—had attained the Dao and risen to Heaven. During the Taihe era, he led six or seven disciples from Mount Gushe to Louguan (present-day Louguantai in Zhouzhi, Shaanxi, a Daoist holy site) to reside there. In the third year of Yongping, Wang Daoyi underwent feathered transformation (yuhua, the Daoist term for a priest’s death); white clouds filled his room, an extraordinary fragrance pervaded the courtyard, and a white deer came and went in the courtyard, now appearing and now vanishing for about ten days. Only after he was buried did the white deer cease to appear. The villagers saw Wang Daoyi riding the white deer and soaring up into the sky.

The Maoting kehua records: He Junyou, a villager from Shicheng town in Xiaohan county, Suizhou, encountered a Daoist priest at Yunding Mountain Temple. The priest wore cloth garments and a deer-hide headscarf and was leading a black dog. He asked He Junyou to bring a flask and a staff and go to Mount Qingcheng (a famous Daoist mountain). At first they walked a desolate path, seeing strange rocks lining the way, slender bamboo and peach blossoms, and leaping springs resounding, until they arrived at a Daoist temple. The priest told He Junyou to place his pack and staff on the steps, saying, “You have the appearance of an immortal.” He then took out a pill of medicine and made him swallow it, saying, “Come back here on the eighth day of the ninth month.” He then sent He Junyou home, and He felt no hunger or thirst at all. When the evening of that day arrived, the valley was bright with moonlight and clear with wind, and He Junyou seemed to be waiting for something. At dawn, clouds and rosy mists reflected one another as if in five colors. He Junyou looked up and rose into the air; auspicious winds and colored mist surged up, and he passed over deep valleys and layered mountains, disappearing only at the farthest limit of sight.

The closing words “Ganpu recognizes Tao, Hepu laughs at Guan” are an encomiastic allusion, bringing the whole piece to a close through anecdotes of ancient figures.

The Dantai Xinlu records: Someone once returned from beyond the Yangtze and suddenly encountered a man in a tiny deer-head boat, so small it could hold only one person, coming straight toward him over the waves. The man called out his name and said, “Gu Daodu, are you going to the capital? I would like to ask you to carry a letter to Tao Yinju (Tao Hongjing, a famous Daoist of the Southern Dynasties) at Maoshan, a famous Daoist mountain in present-day Jurong, Jiangsu.” He was just about to write the letter and was on the point of handing it over when he suddenly said, “Never mind—you will not go into the mountains anyway; I will go down there myself afterward.” When this man reached the capital, sure enough he hurried off again to Guangling, in present-day Yangzhou, Jiangsu. Later Ziliang asked Master Hong about it, and Master Hong said, “That man was Gan Pu, an immortal of the Central Marchmount (Songshan). In a former life he knew a certain Tao; it was not only in this life that they met. How could he come here again?”

The Gaodao Zhuan records: Xing Hepu, whose native place is unknown, lived in seclusion in the region of the Ying Sea. At that time Fang Guan (i.e., Fang Guan, a Tang chancellor) was magistrate of Lushi, present-day Lushi in Henan, and he treated Hepu very well. The two set out together, and before they knew it they had walked several tens of li and arrived at Xiagu Village. There was an abandoned Buddhist hall there, shaded by dense pines and bamboo, and the two sat together beneath a tree. Hepu struck the ground with his staff and had his attendants dig several chi down, unearthing an earthenware jar that contained a letter from Lou Shide, a famous Tang official, to Master Yong. Hepu smiled and said to Fang Guan, “Do you remember this?” Fang Guan seemed to recall that in a former life he had been a monk with the dharma name Yong. Hepu then said, “In the future you will become a chancellor who assists the ruler; take good care of yourself.”

Mei Gu could walk on water, and Daohua could climb a pine and cultivate contemplation.

The Yiyuan records: In the Qin dynasty, by the lakeside in Danyang County, there was a shrine to Mei Gu. When Mei Gu was alive she possessed Daoist arts and could walk on water wearing shoes. Even now, at the end and beginning of each month (the dark and the full moon), one can faintly see the shape of her shoes in the mist before the shrine.

The Gaodao Zhuan records: Whenever parts of the Daoist temple where Hou Daohua lived were damaged, he would take up axes and other tools and go repair them, enduring great hardship. At that time there was a cultivator who could walk on water wearing shoes; to this day, at the temple at the end and beginning of the month, the shape of shoes can be faintly seen in the mist.

The Gaodao Zhuan records: Whenever a Daoist temple where Hou Daohua lived fell into disrepair, he would take up an axe and repair it, enduring great toil. One day, while repairing a hall, he suddenly found a pellet of elixir among the beams and immediately swallowed it. There was a pine tree in front of the temple gate. Daohua climbed it and broke off its branch tips; when others reproached him, he replied, “I fear it will hinder my ascent.” Everyone thought he had gone mad. Seven days later, at dawn, he rose to the top of the pine, waved farewell, and said, “I have received a decree from the Jade Emperor (Yuhuang Dadi) appointing me Immortal Terrace Gentleman (Xiantai Lang), in charge of the Shanxin Court of the Shangqing Palace (an office in the Shangqing immortal administration); now I am going.” He also left a poem: “The Great Return Elixir (Da Huan Dan, a Daoist elixir) in its wrapper has kept its color unchanged for many years; last night I stole and ate it, and today I soar into the azure sky.” In a moment, music came from the clouds, banners and canopies faintly appeared, and he rose into the air and departed.

“Ding Lingwei’s immortal crane, Song Xian the dragon among men” means that Ding Lingwei (a famous immortal) transformed into a crane, and Song Xian (a Jin dynasty recluse) was a dragon among men. The Soushen Ji records: An immortal crane stood on the huabiao pillar at the gate of Liaodong (the great pillar before the city gate). People did not recognize it and wanted to shoot it; the crane flew into the sky and sang: “There is a bird, there is a bird, Ding Lingwei, who left home a thousand years ago and now returns; the city walls are as they were, but the people are no longer the same. Why not learn to be an immortal? Graves lie in mounds.” Later people set up two cranes on huabiao pillars; it is said that this began from that time.

The Jin Yishi records: Song Xian was talented in literature. After resigning office he did not socialize with others, and lived in seclusion at Jiuquan; he had three thousand disciples who studied under him. The governor of Jiuquan had his portrait painted in a pavilion and would offer praises when coming and going. The praise read: “With what stone does he pillow himself, with what stream does he rinse his mouth? His form may be seen, but his fame cannot be sought.” He also came to his gate and sighed: “His fame can be heard but his person cannot be seen; his virtue can be looked up to but his form cannot be glimpsed. From now on I know that the gentleman is a dragon among men.”

“Wang Ding beyond the world, Guaiya in a dream”: The Yayan Zazai records: Wang Ding wrote poetry and loved immortals; his mind roamed beyond the material world. Some at the time thought he had attained something and asked him, but he never disclosed it. He wrote more than a hundred poems. Wang Ding was transcendent beyond the world, while Guaiya (Zhang Yong, whose sobriquet was Guaiya) was in a dream.

Wang Ding wrote songs and poems and loved the way of the immortals; his mind was often detached from the things of the world. At the time, some believed he had gained something through cultivation, but when asked, he never disclosed it. More than a hundred of his poems circulated among people, such as: “The wind falls through worm-eaten branches and startles the crane away; the water carries mountain fruit toward people.” In a poem presented to Cheng Mingfu he wrote: “The old county rests against the front shoal; the office is idle, and the Daoist mind is at ease. As the cup is raised, mountain birds sing; as herbs are dried, wild monkeys watch. Between the cracks in the rocks lie a qin and a brush; at the raft’s head a fishing pole is planted. I do not know when Tao Jingjie (Tao Yuanming, posthumously titled Jingjie) will fly into the clouds.” This shows his pleasure in leisurely dwelling, his longing for the Dao, and his transcendence of worldly dust.

Zhang Guaiya (Zhang Yong of the Northern Song, sobriquet Guaiya) was in Chengdu when he dreamed of visiting the True Lord of the Purple Mansion (Zifu Zhenjun). After they had conversed for a short while, word suddenly came that Huang Jianji, a Chengshi (an official title or form of address) from the West Gate, had arrived. Huang Jianji came quickly, wearing a cloth headwrap and Daoist robes. The True Lord descended the steps to welcome him with very solemn and thorough courtesy, and had Lord Zhang sit in a seat below Huang Jianji, showing Huang attentive regard as if he admired and praised him. On the morning of the first day of the month, Lord Zhang sent a clerk to the West Gate to summon Huang Chengshi, ordering him to come in his ordinary clothes. When Huang arrived, he was indeed as in the dream. Lord Zhang then told him the dream and asked, “What hidden virtue have you accumulated in daily life, that you receive such generous treatment from the True Lord?” Huang said, “I have no other particular strength. Only that each year when rice and wheat ripen I buy them with money, and the next year, before the rice and wheat ripen and when the common people lack food, I sell it without raising the price and without shorting the measure. I suffer no loss, while the common folk can be relieved in urgent hardship.” Lord Zhang said, “This is why Chengshi sits above me.” Thereupon he had his subordinate officials support Huang Chengshi and bowed to him.

In Shunxing there was an elder of advanced years and great virtue who seldom spoke of his own hidden good deeds.

The New Records of the Elixir Terrace records: Mr. Li Shunxing was from Jingzhao (the area of present-day Xi’an). On the night of the autumn equinox, more than a thousand mounted flying immortals suddenly gathered in the sky, and two other men came into his courtyard and said to Mr. Li: “God on High has issued a command, sending immortal officials to wait for you in the stone chamber on Purple Pavilion Peak. We two are deities on duty, commanded to summon you; you should set out at once.” Mr. Li followed them over mountain peaks and ravines as if riding flying paper, and arrived in an instant. He saw three Perfected Ones (Zhenren), each seated in his own place, naturally covered above by five-colored clouds and rosy light; their attendants and subordinates were brilliantly radiant, and the banners, pennants, and feathered canopies were too numerous to name one by one. Mr. Li bowed his head and asked about the way of ascending to heaven in broad daylight. The Perfected Ones said: “You have merit and virtue from former lives and are already ranked among the immortal officials. If you wish your form and spirit to ascend together, it is not difficult.”

The Biographies of Immortals of the Wang Clan records: Wang Shaodao became an immortal by secretly accumulating merit and saving people. The Perfected Ones said: “You have merit and virtue from former lives and are already ranked among the immortal officials; it is not difficult to wish for form and spirit to ascend together.” Wang Shaodao often told people: “When meritorious deeds reach three thousand, one can ascend to heaven in broad daylight; when cultivating goodness and accumulating virtue is more than sufficient, the cloud chariot will arrive of itself; by ceaselessly promoting the Great Dao, one naturally attains deathlessness”—these words are indeed trustworthy. The Zhengao says: In Tongchu Prefecture (the name of a Daoist immortal bureau) there was a Wang Shaodao, a man of the Han dynasty.

The title “Du’s sand-written dragon flies; his talismans make horses and rats submit” summarizes the miraculous: Du Sheng could write a dragon in sand and the dragon would fly; by drawing talismans he could make horses and rats submit. The New Records of the Elixir Terrace records: The Perfected One Du Sheng had an immeasurable lifespan; he did not eat the five grains and drank only water, and his appearance was like that of a man in his twenties. He could write the character “dragon” in sand on water; when he shouted at it, it turned into a small dragon and flew up more than a zhang high, faintly visible amid the clouds; when he called out, it came down.

According to the Shenxian Zhuan (Biographies of Immortals), Ma Xiang, a Daoist immortal, traveled throughout the famous mountains, and no one knew that he possessed Daoist arts. When Governor Ma of Changzhou heard of him, he summoned him with the courtesy due to an equal. The governor said that the city was plagued by many rats, so Ma Xiang drew a talisman and had someone paste it beneath the wall. He let out a long whistle, and the rats gathered in swarms. Calling the large rat before him, he said: “You are originally a small creature born of nature; Heaven grants you grain to eat. Why do you harass the governor? Today I will not kill you—leave at once.” The large rat turned around, the small rats prostrated themselves before the steps, and they departed in groups. The final line, “Han Xiang at Lan Pass, Yin Xi at Hangu,” refers to the allusions of Han Xiang manifesting at Lan Pass and Yin Xi waiting at Hangu Pass for Laozi to transmit the Dao.

The Qingsuo (a cited work belonging to the biji xiaoshuo category) records: Han Xiang, courtesy name Qingfu, was a nephew-generation relative of Han Wengong (Han Yu) and was by nature unrestrained and unconventional. He once chanted a poem while drunk, to the effect that: Between blue mountains and cloudy waters lies my home; at night I drink jade-like nectar, at dawn I swallow red clouds. I play the qin in tunes of green jade, and in the furnace refine white cinnabar; in the precious cauldron I nurture the “Golden Tiger,” and in the Mysterious Field (Xuantian, the Dantian) I nurture the “White Crow.” In a single gourd I can conceal a world; with a three-foot sword I can cut down demons and evil spirits. I can brew wine in an instant and make flowers bloom in an instant. If anyone can learn from me, let him join me in viewing the immortal flowers.

Han Yu asked him, “Can you really wrest the workings of creation and make flowers bloom?” Han Xiang said it was easy. He gathered soil in a basin, and in a short while two green lotuses grew, resembling peonies; on their leaves were small gold characters: “Clouds stretch across the Qinling Mountains—where is my home? Snow hems Languan (Blue Pass)—my horse will not go forward.” Han Yu did not understand the meaning of the lines. Later, because he remonstrated about the Buddha’s bone relic, Han Yu was banished to Chaozhou. On the road, in heavy snow, he met Han Xiang. Han Xiang asked whether he still remembered the lines on the flowers. When he asked the name of the place, it was precisely Languan. Startled into realization, Han Yu completed the poem: “One memorial at dawn presented to the ninefold heaven, / By evening I am banished to Chaoyang, eight thousand li away. / It was to remove abuses for the sage and enlightened ruler; / How dare I, decayed and old, spare my remaining years? / Clouds stretch across the Qinling Mountains—where is my home? / Snow hems Languan—my horse will not go forward. / I know you have come from afar with deep intent: / It is well that you gather my bones by the miasma-stricken river.” Later Han Xiang and Han Yu went together to the Yuan-Xiang region, and after that Han Xiang’s whereabouts became unknown.

The Guangji (Taiping Guangji) records: Yin Xi, the Pass Officer of Hangu Pass (guanling, the official in charge of the pass), was skilled at observing the winds and Qi and foretelling by them. He knew in advance that a divine man would pass through, so he swept and cleared the road for forty li. When he saw Laozi, he knew that this was the man. Laozi had not yet transmitted the Dao to anyone in the Central Plains; knowing that it was Yin Xi’s destiny to attain the Dao, he stopped below the pass and transmitted the essentials of the Dao to him.

The closing phrase “Yu zhen mu bu, Huang jun fu shu” seems to be a note of category attribution placed at the end of the piece, roughly meaning that it belongs to the category of Zhenmu and Huangjun fu.

The Record of Xishan states: Yu Zhenjun, named Lie, courtesy name Daowei, was known for his filial devotion to his mother. His mother also aspired to study the Dao, and mother and son together went to Xishan to seek audience with Xu Zhenjun (that is, Xu Xun, a Daoist patriarch of the Jin dynasty and later revered as patriarch of Jingming Dao), kneeling and pleading earnestly. Xu Zhenjun took pity on them, had a chamber built west of his own dwelling for them to live in with the mother, and transmitted Daoist teachings to them. After Xu Zhenjun ascended and became an immortal, Daowei and his mother both received a decree from the Jade Emperor, charging them with marshaling and leading Xu Zhenjun’s family members in their ascent to heaven.

The same work also records: Huang Zhenjun, named Renlan, courtesy name Ziting, was the son of Huang Fu, courtesy name Wanshi. Huang Fu was of lofty and pure conduct and was known for serving his parents with filial piety; the prefecture and commandery recommended him as Xiaokang (a category of recommendation at the time). In the reign of Emperor Mu, Huang Fu rose to the office of Censor. Ziting was young but possessed talent and skills, and his temperament was refined and elegant; Xu Zhenjun gave him his daughter in marriage. Wanshi served Master Xu and observed the rites of a disciple. Later Ziting received the Jade Emperor’s decree and ascended to heaven together with his parents and family. Today Xiangfu Abbey in Gao’an County has an elixir well, which is a remnant of his former residence.

“Xiu Gong Transforms into a Sheep; Yin Cheng Pities a Deer” is the heading of the following immortal-biography story. The Liexian Zhuan (Biographies of Immortals) says: Xiu Yanggong lived in seclusion in a stone chamber on Mount Hua and consumed Huangjing (Polygonatum, a plant used as both food and medicine). In the chamber there was a stone bed; he often lay upon it, and the stone surface was worn through. When Emperor Jing of Han heard of him, he issued a decree summoning him to an audience; thereupon Xiu Yanggong transformed on the stone bed into a white sheep and inscribed words to make his meaning known.