《三洞群仙录》Vol. 3

Zhang Lao married Wei Shu’s daughter and later left with his wife, saying that he had a small estate at the foot of the mountain and would return there first thing the next morning; if Wei Shu later missed his daughter, he could send his elder son south of Mount Tiantan to seek them. Several years passed with still no news. Wei Shu missed his daughter and sent his son Yifang to visit. When Yifang arrived south of Mount Tiantan, a Kunlun slave (the Tang term for servants from the Western Regions or the South Seas; here referring to an attendant of an immortal mansion) came forward and bowed in welcome. He came to a great mansion whose towers, pavilions, flowers, and trees were unlike anything ordinary. He saw a man wearing a Yuan You crown (an ancient type of crown) and red shoes, with an imposing bearing; looking closely, it was Zhang Lao. Zhang Lao led him into the hall, where he saw his sister living amid green windows and pearl blinds, her clothing magnificent and rarely seen in the world; he was entertained exquisitely and kept for a day before taking his leave. Zhang Lao gave him twenty yi of gold (an ancient unit of weight) and a hat, saying: “If you lack money, go to the Wang family who sell medicine in the northern suburbs of Yangzhou and collect ten million coins, using this hat as proof.” After Yifang returned home, five or six years passed and the gold was exhausted. He went to Wang Lao to collect the money; as expected, he left the hat and was paid, and only then did he believe that Zhang Lao was truly an immortal.

Meng Qi was a hermit of Qinghe, over seven hundred years old; when he spoke of old matters of the Zhou dynasty, they seemed before his eyes. He said that he had once attended the Duke of Zhou (Dan, younger brother of King Wu of Zhou) when he ascended the altar, and had rubbed the Duke’s feet with his hand; the Duke gave him a jade branch, which Meng Qi always carried, and the story is still transmitted. He often cut cassia leaves to eat. Emperor Wu of Han favored immortals, so Meng Qi came wearing a straw garment, and the emperor found him extraordinary. The closing sentence, “Li Mother overcomes wood; the rubbing guest supports the loom,” ends with an allusion drawn from immortal lore.

The Taiping Guangji (Extensive Records of the Taiping Era) records: Li Quan (the legendary recipient of the Huangdi Yinfu Jing) went to a stone chamber on Mount Song and obtained the Huangdi Yinfu Jing (The Yellow Emperor’s Hidden Talisman Scripture). At first he did not understand its meaning, so he went to Mount Li. On the way he saw fire burning trees, and an old woman said, “Fire arises from wood, but when disaster breaks out it turns back to overcome the very thing that produced it.” Li Quan was greatly startled and said, “This is the secret text of the Huangdi Yinfu—how can you speak it?” The old woman said, “I have received and upheld this scripture for as long as three primes and six complete jiazi cycles (a Daoist chronology denoting an immensely long span of time).” Li Quan then bowed and asked for its profound meaning. The old woman said, “I have received and upheld this talisman, and my name has already been entered in the register of immortals; only then may one speak of the mysteries of the ultimate Dao. The Yinfu is a scripture secretly preserved in Shangqing (a Daoist paradise revered by the Shangqing school) and honored at the Xuantai (Mysterious Terrace). Used to govern a state, it brings peace to the realm; used to cultivate the self, it enables one to attain the Dao. It must not be casually transmitted to anyone who is not an extraordinary person. Those who leak heaven’s secrets will sink into the three kalpas (immensely long calamitous aeons in Daoist cosmology)—how can one fail to be warned?”

The Bowuzhi (Records of the Investigation of Things) records: a traveler who lived by the river found that every year on the fifteenth day of the eighth month a floating raft drifted in, never missing its time. Secretly finding this strange, he brought extra dry provisions, boarded the raft, and let it drift. Suddenly he arrived at a walled city, where he saw a weaving woman. He asked her, but she did not answer; she only took a small loom-supporting stone (a stone used to brace the loom) and gave it to him, saying, “You may take this to Shu and ask Yan Junping (a Han-dynasty recluse and diviner from Shu).” When the traveler returned and asked Yan Junping, Junping said, “Last year on the seventh day of the seventh month, a guest star (a suddenly appearing star, figuratively an outsider) intruded upon the Ox and the Girl (the constellations of the Herd Boy and the Weaving Girl); that was you.”

“Tilling lingzhi and sleeping among clouds, dining on pine and drinking from ravines” means making a living by cultivating lingzhi, sleeping amid the clouds, eating pine nuts, and drinking from mountain streams; it describes the austere, pure, and lofty eremitic life of a Daoist cultivator.

The Xianzhuan Shiyi (Supplementary Gleanings from Biographies of Immortals) records: Wu Yun called himself Dongyangzi. At fifteen he resolved to cultivate the Dao. He was good at writing and accomplished in regular and clerical script. He once sat for the jinshi examination and read exhaustively in the Three Teachings and Nine Schools (Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism, and the various masters and hundred schools). He lived in seclusion on Yidi Mountain in Nanyang, cultivating lingzhi beyond the clouds; fame, profit, and official rank did not enter his heart.

The Gaodao Zhuan (Biographies of Eminent Daoists) records: the Daoist Wang Yan, courtesy name Ziyuan, loved the Dao from the age of nine. He was capable in letters and accomplished in regular and clerical script. He once sat for the jinshi examination and read widely in the Three Teachings and Nine Schools. He lived in seclusion on Yidi Mountain in Nanyang, cultivating lingzhi beyond the clouds; fame, profit, and official rank did not enter his heart.

The Gaodao Zhuan (Records of Eminent Daoists) records: The Daoist Wang Yan, courtesy name Ziyuan, loved Daoist teachings from the age of nine and took Master Zhengyi Chen Baochi as his teacher. By eighteen he was studying at Louguan (the Daoist sacred site Louguantai) and became close friends with the Perfected Li Shunxing. Soon afterward he visited the Yuntai Observatory on Mount Hua and studied under the Perfected Jiao Kuang, receiving transmission of the secret formulas and true scriptures of the Three Caverns (Dongzhen/Dongxuan/Dongshen), the esoteric numinous texts of the Daoist Three Caverns scriptural teachings. In daily life he ate pine nuts and drank stream water, practicing austerely in search of the truth.

“Lord Siming’s Precious Cup and the Old Father’s Divine Pillow” tells two stories of treasures. The Xianzhuan Shiyi (Supplementary Gleanings from Biographies of Immortals) says: Lord Siming often dwelled among humans. He had been a childhood schoolmate of the censor Kang Yuanhuan and once gave Yuanhuan a drinking vessel. It looked like jade but was not jade, and he did not give its name. They parted then and never met again. One day a Hu merchant from the Western Regions came to Kang Yuanhuan’s residence in the Eastern Capital to pay a visit. He said that there was an aura of a wondrous treasure in the house and asked to see it. Yuanhuan showed him other objects, but none was it; then he brought out the drinking vessel given by Lord Siming. When the merchant saw it, he immediately kowtowed and said: “This is the Heavenly Emperor’s Flowing Radiance Precious Cup. Placed in sunlight, white vapor will reach the sky; supported on a jade plate, red light will fill the room. It is a treasure vessel of Tai Shang (the Supreme Lord Lao) that safeguards China. It will not remain long in the human world; soon it will fly away. Whoever obtains it will receive blessings for seven generations.” Yuanhuan placed it on a jade plate, and that night red light indeed filled the room.

The Shenxian Zhuan (Biographies of Immortals) says: The name of Tai Shang Lao Fu (the Supreme Old Father) has been lost. When Emperor Xiaowu of Han toured the east, he saw an old man hoeing by the roadside with white light appearing above his head. Finding this strange, he questioned him. The old man replied: “I am eighty-five years old and had already been on the verge of death. A man who possessed the Dao taught me to take Atractylodes (baizhu), drink water, and use a divine pillow. In the pillow are thirty-two medicinal ingredients; twenty-four of them correspond to the twenty-four qi (solar terms), and eight potent medicines correspond to the eight winds (winds from the eight directions). Now my age has instead turned younger—this is the reason.”

Yan Qing traveled at night; Guo Zhen slept during the day.

The Divine Pillow (a Daoist medicinal pillow) is compounded with thirty-two medicinal substances, of which twenty-four items correspond to the twenty-four seasonal qi and eight toxic substances correspond to the eight winds; the fact that my age has now instead grown younger is due precisely to this.

“Yan Qing traveling at night and Guo Zhen sleeping by day” respectively introduce the following two stories.

The Shenxian zhuan says: Yan Qing was from Kuaiji (around present-day Shaoxing, Zhejiang). His family was poor, and he often burned charcoal in the mountains. Suddenly a man came and spoke with him; at parting he gave him a book and said, “Your bone physiognomy indicates that you should attain the Dao.” He also taught him the method of ingesting shinao (a mineral substance used as an ingestible). After Yan Qing obtained the divine book, he often felt that dozens of people were attending him. At that time a commandant encountered Yan Qing traveling at night and shouted to his attendant soldiers to seize him; Yan Qing also ordered his attending spirit officials to detain the commandant. In the end neither the commandant nor his attendants could move. The next day people on the road said, “This must be Master Yan.” The commandant’s family went to kowtow and apologize, and only then did Yan Qing release them.

The Gaodao zhuan says: Great Master Ju, whose personal name was Guozhen, loved the study of immortals, forgot fame and profit, and abandoned both joy and anger. He ate coarse food and wore ragged clothes, and his commitment became even firmer. He suddenly fell ill, and when others urged him to take medicine, he said, “When the Dao prevails, illness is removed; what is there to worry about?” His self-confidence reached this degree. One day, while sleeping by day, his disciples suddenly heard the sounds of carriages and horses coming and going; after a short while the tiled roof shook, and the master transformed away (referring to a cultivator’s departure from the world, often connoting immortal transformation or shijie, liberation from the corpse).

“Tiancang of the Grotto-Heaven and Shilin of the Numinous Altar” are titles of immortal traces; what follows narrates the affair of Tiancang Cave.

The Shenxian ganyu zhuan says: Xue Feng of Hedong served as prefect of Mianzhou (around present-day Mianyang, Sichuan). He dreamed of entering a grotto-heaven in which there were many dishes, and someone said to him, “This is Tiancang.” After waking, he sent the Daoist Sun Lingfeng and a trusted official to search for it. At Changming County on the prefectural border, there was a cave called Tiancang. The Daoist entered the cave and saw stone objects arranged in rows, with an extremely large variety of foods and drinks; when eaten, they all tasted sweet and fragrant. He wanted to take some back to present to Xue Feng, but when he came out of the cave door, although the objects still looked the same in shape, they had all turned to stone.

The Xiangchuan Records recounts: The numinous altar of Zhuling and the precious cave of Taixu lie directly opposite the Yimiao lunar mansion, and their field-allocation degrees accord with the jihong (an armillary instrument, here denoting celestial patterns); hence it is called Hengshan. Mount Heng has five peaks, and Shiku Peak is one of them. The mountain produces many poets; even woodcutters and boatmen can often compose verse. Once a Guangzhou congshi (a subordinate prefectural official) was traveling by boat when he heard someone chant: “West of Yequetan a lone boat with a single oar; moonlight afar joins Dongting Lake. Most hateful is passing before Huili Peak: I gaze until my home mountains vanish, and not a single word comes.” The meaning is that a single leaf of a boat travels west of Yequetan, and moonlight far off joins Dongting Lake; what is most hateful is passing before Huili Peak, gazing to the breaking point at the shadow of the home mountains yet not having even one letter. Around the stone chamber and Lingfu Thatched Cottage where Chen Guayan lived, people also often could compose poetry.

The Biographies of Eminent Daoists says: The Daoist Chen Guayan lived in seclusion on Yuxiao Peak, giving free rein to his feelings through playing the qin, drinking wine, and chanting poetry, without restraint or embellishment. His poem on mountain dwelling says: “After drinking, the thatched hall need not bar its gate; waking, my eyes are filled with green mountains. Where pine flowers fall, a night-roosting ape remains; deer return at the forest’s edge.” He also said: “By the water, ice serves as a mirror; sweeping snow, jade becomes dust. Why ask about past and present? This is a person of Shanghuang.” The meaning is that after drinking the thatched hall need not close its gate, and on waking the eyes are filled with green mountains; where pine flowers fall there is a night-roosting ape, and deer return at the forest’s edge; reflected in water, ice is like a bright mirror, and swept snow is like jade dust; there is no need to ask about the changes of past and present—this is a person from the age of Shanghuang in remote antiquity. When Chen Guayan was about to undergo shijie (corpse-liberation, one Daoist mode of transcendence in which the physical remains are left behind and the spirit ascends), he told his disciples: “Wrap me in a blue cloth bag and place it in the stone chamber; on no account use an earthen or wooden coffin.” As death approached, he also made a poem to show his disciples: “I was originally without form, temporarily having form; by chance I came to the human world, pursuing its busy bustle. The debts of reincarnation are all repaid; scratching my head, detached, I return to Shangqing (Highest Clarity).” The meaning is: I was originally formless and only temporarily had form; by chance I came to the human world to busy myself in pursuit; the debts of reincarnation are all repaid, and in a scratch of the head I return, with nothing to hold me back, to the Shangqing paradise.

The Sandong Qunxian Lu (Record of the Host of Immortals of the Three Caverns), a Daoist hagiographical compilation, records that the Daoist priest Xu Lingfu, sobriquet Moxizi, lived at Yungai Peak on Mount Tiantai, where he built a thatched cottage and took cultivation as his daily delight. He wrote a poem saying: “In silent stillness I concentrate the Shen (spirit) at the very beginning of Taiji (the Supreme Ultimate); responding to things without a calculating mind, the immortal chariot descends of itself. To cultivate nature is to cultivate one’s own nature; it is not to be sought outside. One must recognize true Jing (essence)—it is precisely this nature.” He also said: “Studying the Dao (the Way) and realizing Complete Perfection (Quanzhen) lies in this very life. If one loses the path and waits for death to seek a future life, that is a mistake. If in this life one does not understand the principle of ‘no-birth’ (transcending birth and death), then even if one is reborn, how would one know where one will be born?” In the early Huichang era of Emperor Wuzong of Tang, an edict ordered the Zhedong surveillance commissioner (a regional governor) to appoint him to office; he declined and did not go forth. When he met the commissioner, he presented a poem stating his aspiration: “By nature I belong to the mountains and wilds; I delight in singing of the three joys. Imperial grace comes down from the Ninefold [palace], and the edict from Zichen Hall (the emperor’s residence) is delivered to Baiyun Peak. I am ashamed to be like a crane that carries letters or a dragon painted on paper—having a name without substance, what do I have with which to assist an enlightened ruler? I would rather grow old and die among the crags and pines.” The commissioner submitted a memorial stating that he was aged and withered and requested that he be exempted from the summons; thereafter he practiced bigu (abstaining from grains) for a long time and passed away in quiet stillness.

Liu Kuan, courtesy name Wenrao, was a man of the Later Han. The Zhengao (Declarations of the Perfected), a Shangqing (Highest Clarity) scripture, says that he served in the grotto-heavens as Shuaizheng Hou of Tongchu Prefecture, overseeing those who were just beginning to study the Dao. He Kang—contemporaries did not know his age, and his fellow villagers called him He Kang Yuanlang (Yuanlang being an official title); the Biography of Chen Wuyi records his story.

People of the world did not know He Kang’s age; he had once served as a lang official together with a fellow townsman under the Later Jin (the Shi family regime of the Five Dynasties). When Emperor Zhangsheng (Emperor Zhenzong of Song) performed the Eastern Feng sacrifice at Mount Tai, a man dressed in commoner’s clothes came to pay his respects by the roadside and claimed to be He Kang, Vice Director of the Waterways Bureau of the Later Jin. The emperor knew he was an immortal. That night he looked through the name registers and was startled to see the name “He Kang.” He sent men to seek him but did not find him, and he often mentioned the matter to Empress Zhuangxian (Empress of Zhenzong), regarding it as a regret. During the Tiansheng era (the reign title of Emperor Renzong of Song), He Kang had his disciple Yu Cheng present gold, silver, and copper Daoist images at court, worth several hundred thousand. The empress found this strange, summoned Yu Cheng, and questioned him; Yu Cheng said his master had told him to present them. Asked who his master was, he answered, “He Kang.” The empress was also greatly startled and asked, “Where is he now? Can he be seen?” Yu Cheng said, “He is in Huainan. He sent me to present the images, and he originally also wished to see the empress.” Overjoyed beyond expectation, the empress sent envoys with Yu Cheng to Huainan to seek him and bring him back together. The empress then went in person to Hongfu Temple to see him; what He Kang said concerned things ordinary people found hard to accomplish and sharply hit current abuses, so the empress was displeased and let the matter drop.

“He Chong among the immortal ranks, Ding Yi’s divine prescriptions” means that He Chong was listed among the immortal ranks and Ding Yi transmitted divine prescriptions. The Zhengao records: He Chong was from Qian in Lujiang (in present-day Anhui). He rose to the post of Shangshu, and his family for generations followed the Dao (the Way), often bestowing kindness and establishing merit. In the second year of Yonghe (the reign title of Emperor Mu of the Eastern Jin), he underwent shijie (liberation by discarding the body to become an immortal), received deliverance and transformation in Nangong (the immortal palace), and ascended to the immortal ranks; this was because he had bestowed much kindness.

The Xishan ji records: Lord Wu Zhenjun (Wu Meng, a Daoist honorific) was named Meng, with the courtesy name Shiyun. At seven he already showed filial conduct: in summer he did not drive away mosquitoes and gnats, fearing they would leave him and go bite his relatives. At forty, his fellow townsman Ding Yi transmitted divine prescriptions to him; he also took Bao Guan, governor of Nanhai, as his teacher and obtained secret methods. During the Huanglong era, white-cloud talismans descended from heaven, and his Daoist methods then flourished in the Wu and Jin regions.

“The cinnabar seal script of Xiang Ao, the Qingnang of Master Guo” respectively refer to the cinnabar writings and talismanic seal script of the female immortal Xiang Ao of the Xiang region and the Qingnang secret arts of Master Guo (qingnang was a bag for holding formula arts and medical books, and by extension refers to secret arts).

“The Xiang Matron’s cinnabar seal-script, Master Guo’s Green Satchel” refers to two figures associated with Daoist arts. According to the Records of Female Immortals (Nüxian Zhuan), during the Zhenyuan era of the Tang, there was an old woman in Xiangtan whose name was unknown; people called her the Xiang Matron. She often lodged among the common people and traveled about for more than ten years. She frequently used seal-script characters written in cinnabar as Fulu (talismans and registers) to heal people, and there was no case in the villages that did not prove efficacious. Her temple hair was black, thick, and cloudlike, her skin white as snow, and, leaning on a staff and dragging her shoes, she could walk several hundred li in a day. One day a Daoist priest met her, and they conversed very happily. Someone asked the priest who she was, and the priest said: “This is Lady Fan, wife of Perfected Lord Liu Gang (a Daoist immortal).” Only then did people know that the Xiang Matron was Lady Fan.

According to the Biographies of Immortals (Shenxian Zhuan), in the Jin dynasty Guo Pu loved classical learning, was broadly learned and highly talented, but was not good at speech; his rhapsodies were foremost in the Eastern Jin restoration period, and he loved antiquity and the marvelous, being especially proficient in the arts of Yin-Yang. There was a Master Guo who lived as a guest in Hedong and was expert in divination. Guo Pu studied with him, and Master Guo gave him nine scrolls of The Book in the Green Satchel (Qingnang Zhongshu; an esoteric manual of divinatory arts kept in a green satchel). From then on Guo Pu mastered the arts of the Five Phases, astronomy, and divination; he could avert disasters and turn fortune, and his responses were efficacious without any fixed method or place. Even Jing Fang and Guan Lu (ancient masters of the divinatory arts) could not surpass him. Guo Pu’s disciple Zhao Zai once stole the Green Satchel Book, but before he had time to read it, it was burned.

“Zichun’s gaohuang, You Kun’s illness” points to Du Zichun’s gaohuang predicament and You Kun’s disease; the story of Du Zichun is found in the Records of the Hidden and Strange (Youguai Lu). Du Zichun was down and out, and his family property was completely exhausted. An old man gave him three million coins and left without telling his name. After about a year the money was gradually used up; he sold his horse to buy a donkey, and after selling the donkey he walked. The old man then gave him ten million coins. Several years later he was poorer than before, and the old man gave him thirty million coins, saying: “If this time you still cannot recover, then poverty has already entered the gaohuang (a deep-rooted condition difficult to cure).”

The “Recluses” chapter of the Tang History records: Tian Youyan was a native of Sanyuan in Jingzhao (present-day Sanyuan, Shaanxi), and was initially enrolled as a student of the Imperial University. His mother, wife, and children all had world-transcending aspirations. Later he entered Mount Ji and built a dwelling east of the temple of Xu You, calling himself “Xu You’s Eastern Neighbor.” During the Tiaolu era (a reign title of Emperor Gaozong of Tang), Gaozong went to Mount Song and sent Xue Yuanchao, Vice Director of the Secretariat, to inquire after his mother. Tian Youyan came out to pay his respects in rustic mountain clothing and a field hat. Gaozong had attendants support him so that he need not perform obeisance, and asked, “Sir, as you cultivate the Dao in the mountains, is all well with you?” Tian Youyan replied, “I, your subject, am so infatuated with springs and rocks that it has entered the incurable region; my addiction to mist and clouds has become a chronic ailment. Since I have met with a sage and enlightened age, I am fortunate to be able to roam free and at ease.” Gaozong said, “How is my gaining you today different from the Han dynasty’s gaining the Four Hoaryheads?” Xue Yuanchao said, “When Emperor Gaozu of Han wished to depose the legitimate heir and establish a concubine’s son, only then were Master Huang, Qili Ji, and the rest of the Four Hoaryheads willing to come forth. How could that compare with Your Majesty’s honoring recluses and personally visiting cave-dwelling scholars?” Gaozong was greatly pleased.

Wang Zhi’s rotted axe handle; Xu Jia’s withered bones.

The Biographies of Immortals of the Wang Clan records: Wang Zhi was a native of Dongyang (around present-day Dongyang, Zhejiang) and often went into the mountains to cut wood. Once, in a stone chamber, he saw several boys playing chess, and Wang Zhi sat on his axe handle to watch. The boys gave him dates to eat, and he no longer felt hunger or thirst. Before the boys had finished a single game, one of them said, “You may go back now; you have been here a long time.” Wang Zhi rose and looked: the axe handle had already rotted away. When he returned home, not one of his relatives was still alive. Later he entered the mountains and ascended to heaven. Today there is Lanke Mountain in Quzhou (“ke” means axe handle; “lanke” means the axe handle has rotted, and later generations used it as a metaphor for the changes of worldly affairs and the passage of time).

When Laozi traveled west and left through Hangu Pass, Yin Xi, the Pass Prefect (the official in charge of Hangu Pass), recognized that he was no ordinary man and followed him to inquire about the Great Dao (the Way). At that time there was a hired laborer named Xu Jia, whose agreed wage was one hundred coins per day; over time, Laozi came to owe him seven million two hundred thousand coins. When Xu Jia saw that Laozi was about to leave the pass on a long journey and that there was no hope of collecting the debt, he wrote a complaint and brought suit against Laozi before Yin Xi. Yin Xi was shocked when he received the complaint and went to see Laozi. Laozi asked Xu Jia, “You should have died long ago. When I hired you as a servant, it was because my official rank was low and my family was poor, and I had no one to command; therefore I gave you the Taixuan Sheng Fu—a Daoist Fulu (talismans and registers) traditionally believed to preserve life and extend longevity—and only thus have you lived until today. Why then do you still sue me?” Thereupon he had Xu Jia open his mouth toward the ground, and the Taixuan talisman immediately came forth and appeared on the ground; its vermilion talismanic writing looked as if newly written, and Xu Jia at once turned into a heap of dry bones. This shows that once the talisman leaves the body, the power to prolong life is cut off.

The Zhengao (Declarations of the Perfected) records: The Dao-seeker Ping Zhongjie, a man from Hezhong, crossed the river and entered Kuocang Mountain (a famous mountain in Zhejiang), took Master Song as his teacher, and practiced the “Way of the Heart-Mirror” (a Daoist method of taking the heart as a mirror and practicing visualization and inner observation). He visualized the hundred spirits within the body and performed the Cave Chamber (Dongfang) visualization of divine perfected beings (the “Cave Chamber practice” is a technical term in Daoist internal cultivation, not secular sexual intercourse between men and women). After forty-five years of such refined contemplation, his physical form became younger instead, and within his body there was true Qi (vital energy). On the first day of the fifth month of this year, Huang-Lao (the Yellow Emperor and Laozi venerated in Huang-Lao Daoism) sent envoys to welcome him; on that day he rode clouds and dragons and ascended to heaven in broad daylight. He now resides in the Canglang Yuntai immortal palace.

It also says: Huang Guanzi loved learning the Dao from childhood. He served his master at home, and each day he bowed and paid respects, praying for longevity. He persisted thus for forty-nine years. The Supreme Perfected (Taishang Zhenren) tested him with one hundred forty trials, and he passed them all; thereupon he bestowed the Golden Elixir on him, and Huang Guanzi entered Mount Jiao and recited the Dadong Jing (Great Cavern Scripture), an important Shangqing (Highest Clarity) classic. Later he was appointed as an immortal official, as Right Minister of Taiji (Supreme Ultimate). He was a man of aspiration; it was not that his teacher could directly bring about his accomplishment, but rather that it came from the steadfastness of his own heart.

The closing phrase “Yuan Ke’s cocoons on the roof ridge, the jar-like oranges of Baqiong” alludes to two immortal anecdotes: Yuan Ke, because he raised silkworms and obtained cocoons, departed as an immortal with a divine woman; and in Baqiong there was a large orange as big as a jar, which when cut open revealed an immortal elder playing chess.

The Supplement to the Records of Immortals (Xianzhuan Shiyi) records: Yuanke was from Jiyin (in present-day southwestern Shandong). He was handsome and upright in appearance and kind by nature. People of his district wanted to marry their daughters to him, but he repeatedly refused to take a wife. He often planted five-colored fragrant herbs and for several decades ate them. One day, five-colored moths settled on the tips of his herbs. Yuanke covered one with his clothes and spread cloth beneath to receive it, and from it were born patterned silkworms. When the silkworm-raising season came, in the middle of the night a woman arrived, calling herself Yuanke’s wife, and told him about the silkworms. Yuanke went along with her and obtained one hundred and twenty cocoons, each as large as an urn; when the silk of one cocoon was reeled, it took sixty days to finish. When the work was done, the two left together, and no one knew where they went. For this reason the people of Jiyin sacrificed to Hua Can (the Silkworm Deity) and established a shrine hall for it.

The Record of the True and Strange (Zhenguai Lu) records: In Baqiong (the Qiongzhou area of Ba) there was a man whose name is unknown, who had an orange orchard. After the frost all were harvested, leaving two large oranges, like basins or jars holding three or four dou. The people of Ba thought them strange; when they split them open, in each orange were two old men, with white hair, beards, and eyebrows floating airily, facing each other playing xiangqi, and they were not alarmed. One old man said, “I only regret that the roots are not deep and firm, so that I might enjoy the pleasure of this game to the full.” Another said, “You lost to me ten liang of the hair of the seventh daughter of the Dragon King of the Sea, twelve pieces of Zhiqiong’s forehead yellow, one purple gauze quilt, two yu of rosy-cloud fruit powder from Jiangtai Mountain, nine hu of jade dust from Yingzhou, four sheng of the Queen Mother’s marrow-healing congealed wine, and eight mian of the ascending-void dragon-white silk socks of the Queen Mother’s daughter Xiong Feiniang; the day after tomorrow, come to Mr. Wang’s Qingcheng thatched cottage and pay me back.” One said, “The joy inside an orange is not inferior to that of Shangshan (where the Four White-Haired Hermits lived in retirement).” One said, “I am hungry and empty.” Then he took from his sleeve a dragon-root preserve and ate it; it was like a section of grass root, about an inch square, twisted and curved like a dragon, with every minute detail complete. He pared it and ate; as he pared, it replenished itself. When he had finished eating, he took water into his mouth and sprayed it, and it transformed into a dragon. The two old men rode it together; cloud vapor surged beneath their feet, and in a moment wind and rain darkened the sky, and no one knew where they were. The final line, “golden city and crimson towers, Qingdu and Ziwei,” describes the golden city and red towers and the Qingdu and Ziwei heavens where immortals dwell.

The Yishi records: A certain Cui Sheng saw, at the foot of Qingcheng Mountain, a golden city and red gate towers. An immortal elder dressed in feather robes and a rosy cloud cape detained him to drink wine and eat, and married his daughter to him; he also took two pills from a blue bag and had Cui Sheng swallow them. Thereafter, on every new and full moon (the first and fifteenth days of the lunar month), Cui Sheng would ride a crane up to heaven to pay homage to the Medicine Official (the immortal official in charge of medicines in the immortal prefecture). After more than a year, Cui Sheng asked to return home and obtained an invisibility talisman; he then slipped into the imperial palace and stole brocade. The emperor ordered Luo Gongyuan (a Tang dynasty Daoist) to perform a ritual and scrutinize the area behind the hall, and Cui Sheng was indeed discovered. The emperor ordered him flogged to death. Luo Gongyuan said: This man already resides in the upper realm; killing him would not be a blessing for the state. The emperor sent guards to escort Cui Sheng to the mouth of the Qingcheng Mountain cave, and there indeed they saw the golden city and red gate towers. Cui Sheng’s wife threw out a headscarf, which changed into a five-colored red bridge and let Cui Sheng cross; as soon as his feet had passed, the bridge vanished. In a moment clouds and mist closed in from all sides, and only the sounds of luan-birds, cranes, and reed pipes and songs could be heard.

The Liezi records: King Mu of Zhou toured the palace of the Huanren (a wonder-worker capable of transformations). The palace was constructed of gold and silver and adorned with nets of pearls and jade; it rose above the clouds and rain, and one could not tell what supported it below, so that it looked like gathered clouds. What the ears heard and the eyes saw, what the nose smelled and the mouth tasted, was none of it belonging to the human world; King Mu truly believed this was where Qingdu Ziwei (the palace of the Heavenly Emperor) and Juntian Guangyue (the music of the heavenly court) were, and where the Heavenly Emperor dwelt. Yet when he looked down at his own palaces and terraces, they seemed like piled clods of earth and bundles of firewood.

“Xiyi ate cypress, Shouwei ate lingzhi” means that Xiyi (Wang Xiyi) consumed cypress leaves and Shouwei consumed lingzhi.

The Tangshi Shuci records: Wang Xiyi lived in seclusion on Song Mountain and ate pine, cypress, and mixed leaves; when he was over seventy, his sinews and strength were still supple and vigorous. When Tang Minghuang made his eastern tour, he issued an edict summoning him to the xingzai (the emperor’s temporary lodging on tour), questioned him about government affairs, and found conversation with him very pleasant.

Li Shouwei was a Daoist priest recorded in the Biographies of Eminent Daoists (Gaodao zhuan); his native place is unknown, and he often traveled in the Shu region (present-day Sichuan). His conversation was witty and facetious, and he was unconstrained by trifles, so people often slighted him and treated him disrespectfully. One day he suddenly said to someone, “I am going to roam the Five Sacred Peaks—the five renowned mountains venerated in Daoism—and other mountains; I am leaving now.” When someone asked whether he was seeking wealth and profit or arts and techniques of that sort, he replied, “Human life in this floating world lasts only a moment. Why not go seek the true and inquire into the Dao, and transcend the net of the dusty world? As for refining Qi and compounding elixirs, eating lingzhi, and practicing bigu by abstaining from grains and cutting off food—these are all beneficial practices; why be so anxious about wealth, profit, and technical arts?” Thereupon he withdrew from the world and departed. He had been friendly with Han Yu, an official in the Ministry of Sacrifices (Cibu), the office in charge of sacrifices and related affairs. Han Yu presented him with a poem: “He keeps a childlike face and lets the years grow old; though poor and cold, he roams among the houses of the noble. His skill in refining true Qi may be great, but if he loses the original mind, the Way of the primordial Shen is the worse. With crane feathers for clothing and dragon scales for a staff—this describes his lean, austere antiquity. Why not return to the old place of seclusion? The peaches of immortality have bloomed and fallen how many times?”

“Bo Yu takes a wife; Ji Zi returns a child” is a cue to the two stories below: Chu Boyu fled into Daoist reclusion because of taking a wife, while Ji Zixun had a strange event involving a neighbor’s infant.

The Sandong zhunang (Pearl Satchel of the Three Caverns) records: Chu Boyu, courtesy name Yuanqu, was a native of Qiantang in Wu Commandery (in the present-day Hangzhou area). His father arranged a wife for him; when the party came to the front gate to inquire, he went out the back door and went to Mount Pubu to live in seclusion and cultivate the Dao. He once traveled to the Southern Peak (Mount Heng) and made his way into Minzhong (present-day Fujian), where torrents rushed and the terrain was steep and dangerous. Boyu’s boat did not moor near the bank until evening. Suddenly, in the night, fierce winds shook the area and a mountain flood burst forth, hurling the boat up onto a sheer cliff ten thousand ren high and then plunging it down. His companions, who were ahead, thought he had been smashed to pieces; searching along the dangerous places, they found Boyu calm and composed. Later he went to Mount Huo to refine Qi and nourish the rosy clouds—a practice of ingesting Qi and feeding on clouds—and for many years he abstained from grains and did not eat.

The Shenxian zhuan (Biographies of Immortals) records: Ji Zixun was a native of Qi (present-day Shandong). He was recommended as a xiaolian—a Han-dynasty category for recommending talent—appointed as a langzhong, and also served as a duwei. He was over two hundred years old, yet his face did not grow old. He once asked to hold a neighbor’s infant; the wording is brief, and the gist is that it records a strange event involving him and the infant.

The Shenxian Zhuan records: Ji Zixun was from Qi. He was recommended as Xiaolian (Filial and Incorrupt, a Han-dynasty category for recommending talent), served as a Langzhong, and also as a Duwei. At over two hundred years of age, his face still showed no signs of aging. He once asked to hold a neighbor’s infant, but accidentally let it fall to the ground, and it died. The infant’s family had always respected him, so they buried the child. More than twenty days later, Zixun returned from outside, carrying the child, and gave it back to the family. The family, fearing he was a ghost, dug up the burial place to inspect it and found only mud.

“The lay practitioner wears straw sandals; the Daoist wears hemp clothing” means: the lay practitioner wears straw sandals, and the Daoist wears hemp garments.

The Xianzhuan Shiyi records: Zhu Taochui was from Chengdu and lived in seclusion outside the city, building a hut of woven grass. Sometimes he feigned madness and behaved uninhibitedly; at other times he would not speak all day. Dou Gui, the governor of Yizhou (the chief official of the province), summoned him to serve as a subordinate official, but he did not take up the post. When clothes were sent to him, he threw them away and fled. He often wove straw sandals (mangju) and left them by the roadside; when passersby saw them, they would leave rice in the same place, and Taochui would take it away at night. People called him “the Lay Practitioner’s Sandals” (a lay practitioner who wears straw sandals; the original text’s “butcher” is suspected to be a mistake for “sandals”).

The Lingzhai Yegao records that Shi Zong (sobriquet Madao Daozhe, the Hemp-Robed Daoist) was sitting idly at Baitudi, a place in Guangling, when Tan Qi, a native of Jiangdu, conversed with him; their talk wandered without fixed topic. Shi Zong asked for paper and brush and wrote a poem: “To have desires is to suffer from insufficiency; to have no desires is to be without care. Yet this is not equal to the pure and empty person, who ties a rope for a belt and wears a dark fur robe. Drifting through a province, floating like an unmoored boat, one should extinguish dusty worries and dwell until old age among mountain hills.” The meaning is: having desires brings the suffering of not being satisfied, while having no desires brings freedom from worry; but such a one is not comparable to the person who keeps pure and empty, with a rope around the waist and a dark fur garment on the body, drifting through a province like a small boat without mooring, who should extinguish worldly thoughts and dwell among the hills until old age. When Tan Qi heard this, he found it strange. Tao Yuanming once recorded that at Baitudi he encountered three extraordinary monks, and Shi Zong was one of them.

Later an eccentric Daoist went to the magistrate of Haiyan County and took the magistrate’s young son up a small hill. On the hill were several huts, and three or four Daoists exchanged greetings; the child could not understand a single word they said and received only a bowl of food resembling malt sugar. Someone then asked the Daoist, “When will the banished immortal’s term of exile be completed?” He replied, “At Baitudi in Guangling, north of the Yangtze in Xuzhou; by my reckoning, the term of exile is almost up.” The Daoist also wrote a letter and gave it to the child, saying, “Deliver this on my behalf.” The letter was tied to the child’s clothing belt, and he was sent back to Haiyan. The magistrate asked with delight, “What is in your belt?” “Only a letter,” he answered. He then asked where the child had been, and the child said: the Daoist from before had lifted his staff and carried him off floating; he heard only the sound of waves beneath his feet and came to a mountain; the people in the mountain had entrusted a letter for Baitudi. The magistrate pulled the letter from the belt and showed it to him, but he could not understand a word of it. When the child returned and saw Shi Zong, Shi Zong said in surprise, “Can it be that you have actually come from Penglai Mountain, the Daoist immortal mountain?”

Beneath the title of fascicle seven is written, “Compiled by the Zhengyi (Orthodox Unity) Daoist Chen Baoguang”; “Bao says, the underworld clerk, Manqing the ghost immortal” means that Chen Baoguang (calling himself “Bao”) recounts matters concerning an official of the underworld and Manqing (Shi Yannian, said in legend to be a ghost immortal).

The Beimeng Suoyan records: The Daoist priest Qin Baoyan was diligent in incense-burning cultivation (burning incense and practicing). He once asked the Perfected Lord of Nanyue (the immortal of the Southern Marchmount), “Why do high perfected immortals still need paper money? I do not understand.” At night he dreamed that the Perfected Lord said, “Paper money is a voucher used by underworld officials; why would I need it?” For this reason, in the underworld prisons this matter was believed even more.

The Zhiyi records: Cui Cun of Western Shu went to the western peak of Wangwu Mountain (the western peak of Mount Wangwu) to seek the Dao. He saw Shi Yannian (courtesy name Manqing) and Su Shunqin (courtesy name Zimei) sitting face to face, separated by a small water channel (a small stream). Cui Cun bowed twice and said, “I have long abandoned profit and rank to seek the Great Dao; today I am fortunate to meet you two immortals here. You are like the Han River: it appears shallow but, when measured, is deep. Yet I cannot stand in attendance at your side—why? And I have heard that the Academicians have already become ghost immortals?” Su said, “That is false. Pure yang is immortal; pure yin is ghost. Since one is an immortal, how could one be a ghost?” The two immortals ordered the Green Youth (an immortal boy) to fetch a brush tube (brush holder) and compose poems to give to Cui Cun. After Cui Cun received the poems, he suddenly saw a kingfisher (a green bird) carrying a letter and placing it before the two immortals. Su said, “The Lord of Yingzhou (the immortal lord of Yingzhou) summons us two.” Then they flew away toward the summit of Yu Mountain. Magistrate Zhang ascended (flew up), and the petty attendant was promoted (received promotion and transfer).

The Liexian Zhuan records: Zhu Zhuzi, no one knew where he was from, one day went up Yan Mountain and said, “This mountain has cinnabar (vermilion, the raw material for alchemy); several hundred jin of it can be obtained.” When the county magistrate Lord Zhang heard this, he immediately sealed off the mountain, but the cinnabar flowed out by itself like fire. Zhu Zhuzi took the cinnabar and gave it to Magistrate Zhang to ingest. After Lord Zhang took the cinnabar, in less than five years his body became light and vigorous, and he could fly up (ascend); thereupon he flew away together with Zhu Zhuzi.

The Guangji records: Wei Xiaozhen’s mother, née Xu, was widowed and renowned for her filial piety in serving her parents-in-law. She had only this daughter, who was twelve, intelligent, and died without illness; before being placed in the coffin, she revived and said: “At first I heard a summons for Wei Xiaozhen to ascend to heaven, and saw that everyone in heaven wore brocade. They led Xiaozhen to see Lord Han Siming (the deity who governs lifespan and destiny). Lord Siming said: ‘Your ancestor of nine generations was meritorious to the state and has recently been promoted to an underworld administrator; he is now transferred to the rank of earthly immortal. Your mother possesses the way of filial piety and has already ascended to the immortal ranks; you have for three lifetimes been born in heaven.’” After this, Xiaozhen devoted herself to the Dao, and during the Changqing era (the reign title of Emperor Muzong of Tang) she ascended and became an immortal.

Guo Guan was orphaned and helpless in his youth. He carried loads for Mr. Zheng of the Sui dynasty, and over seven years was diligent and unremitting. The gentleman pitied his toil and taught him Daoyin methods, and he lived to three hundred years. Later he met Chisongzi (an ancient immortal), who transmitted Daoist methods to him; he is now a Zhenren (True Person) in the Dayou Cave. Huang Qi was a deputy general of Shu, always fond of the Dao, and for many years secretly accumulated virtue. At Chaotian Ridge he met an old man whose face was like an infant’s and whose skin was like jade, who said to him: “Since you are fond of the Dao, after five years you will meet a great calamity; I will certainly come to save you. Strive to accumulate hidden virtue and do not retreat from your former resolve.” Later, when Huang Qi was towing a boat down the gorge, the boat capsized; when he reached the shoals it seemed someone was rescuing him, and he was able to get to shore. Looking closely, it was exactly the old man he had met, who then disappeared.

The phrases “Changfang shrinks the earth” and “Nüwa mends the sky” use the immortal legends of Fei Changfang shrinking the earth into inches and Nüwa mending the sky, to set off the marvelous powers of immortal arts.

During the Later Han, Fei Changfang met an immortal elder (Hu Gong, a legendary immortal) and wished to seek the Dao, yet he still felt attached to his family. The immortal elder then cut a green bamboo as tall as Fei Changfang and told him to hang it behind the house; when his family saw that the bamboo looked like his own body, they thought he had hanged himself and buried him. Fei Changfang followed the immortal elder deep into mountains where tigers and wolves roamed, and the elder left him there alone; he was not afraid. He was then placed in an empty room, where a ten-thousand-jin boulder was suspended over his heart by a rotting rope; a swarm of snakes came to bite the rope, and the rope broke, yet Fei Changfang remained unmoved. The immortal elder said, “You are capable of being taught.” He then had him eat excrement, in which there was a very long worm, and Fei Changfang felt disgust. The immortal elder said, “You were almost about to attain the Dao; unfortunately, you failed at this pass.” Fei Changfang then took his leave and returned home. He could perform the earth-shrinking technique (a Daoist immortal art that shortens geographical distance): a distance of several thousand li would appear before him in an instant, and when he released it, it returned to its original state.

The Huainanzi records: Nüwa smelted five-colored stones to repair the sky, cut off the feet of the giant turtle (Ao) to set up the four poles (the four pillars at the edges of heaven and earth), killed the black dragon to relieve Jizhou (one of the ancient Nine Provinces, broadly referring to the Central Plains), and accumulated reed ashes to stop the surging flood. When the sky was repaired, the four poles were set straight, the flood dried up, Jizhou was at peace, fierce beasts and pests died, and the common people were able to live and thrive.

Lan Fang (the name of an immortal) gently preserved and nurtured himself, and for the first time formed a heart of compassion and pity.

The Qingsuo records: Lan Fang, courtesy name Yuandao, was described by the elders of Bozhou as follows: from the time they saw this master as children, down to the present, his appearance had remained just as it was before. He treated others with warmth and kindness, and both old and young liked him. During the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song, he was once settled in the Fanglin Garden (a palace garden); later the master took his leave and departed, and the court bestowed on him the title “Master of Nurturing Simplicity of the Southern Sacred Mountain.” At that time the academician Jia Changzhao presented him with a poem: The sovereign’s grace richly bathes the recluse’s person; for Daoist attire, a scarf of kudzu cloth is fitting. Beneath Zhurong Peak (the main peak of Mount Heng, the Southern Sacred Mountain), drunk before the bright moon; at the source of the Xiang River, angling for purple scales. I have seen the sea peach set fruit three times; I do not know how many springs the mao beans (immortal beans, a figure for years) have passed through. If in the future I achieve merit and retire, I wish to be the servant kneeling beneath the spirit bridge to present shoes (alluding to Zhang Liang presenting shoes on the Yi Bridge, expressing the wish to serve an immortal master). Lan Fang replied in a matching poem: Recently I have obtained from the enlightened ruler a body at ease; there is no harm in wearing a gauze scarf beneath the trees. Pour full the rustic wine, a fine brew floating with jade-ant foam; then, having caught Han fish, I present them with brocade scales. On the night after the black fledgling (the Golden Crow, an image in Neidan) flies up in the Yuanfu (Dantian/immortal palace), the dragon child in the cave nurtures eternal spring. If you now share my aspiration, then in the gourd heaven (the immortal grotto-heaven) there will be two of us in succession. One day, after bathing, the master passed away peacefully. To this day, among those coming and going in the Huxiang region, some can still see him.

The Guangji records: Mao Meng, courtesy name Chucheng, was the great-great-grandfather of Lord Shuqing (the name of a Daoist deity). He was compassionate by nature and fond of accumulating hidden virtue. When the Zhou dynasty declined, he went to Mount Hua and took Mr. Guigu (a hidden immortal) as his teacher; after attaining the Dao, he ascended to heaven on a dragon. Therefore a children’s rhyme sang: The immortal scholar Mao Chucheng rides a dragon up to heaven and enters Taiqing (a Daoist paradise). This is what it refers to.

Ma Ming was wealthy and prosperous, while Tongxiu (a person’s name) was poor and in distress. The Zhengao records: Ma Ming and Ma Han revered the scripture treasures (Daoist scriptures) more than ruler and father. They often had two attentive servants, one named Baishou and one named Pingtou, take turns tending the incense and sweeping and wiping; divine light frequently appeared.

The Zhengao (Declarations of the Perfected) records that Ma Ming and Ma Han revered Daoist scriptures and Dharma treasures more than they served a ruler or a father. They regularly had two diligent and attentive servants, Baishou and Pingtou, take turns tending the incense and sweeping and wiping the rooms; divine light and spiritual Qi often appeared in their chambers. Ma Ming’s wife was quite able to see supernatural phenomena and said that many times jade maidens in blue-green robes came and went in the air, shaped like flying birds. The Ma family thereby became wealthy, with assets amounting to tens of thousands. Later they died of old age. Ma Ming’s son Ma Hong, Ma Hong’s younger brother Ma Zhen, and Ma Han’s son Ma Zhi and others still jointly observed these practices; only in their later years did their service to the teacher and the Dao become lax and neglected.

The Youyang Zazu (Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang) records that during the Yuanhe era (the reign title of Emperor Xianzong of Tang), the xiucai Quan Tongxiu failed the examinations and traveled about the Suzhou and Huzhou region, falling ill and into poverty. He had an errand servant, originally a country man, who had been employed for a year. The xiucai said to him: “I am impoverished and hard-pressed to this extent, with no way out; take this dirty garment and exchange it for some wine and meat, and go see the village elders to ask for some travel money.” The servant smiled slightly and said: “This little matter is not hard to manage; I will arrange it.” Thereupon he cut a dead mulberry branch into several pieces, bundled them on a plate, performed a technique and blew on them, and they all turned into beef; he also sucked up several bottles of water and sprayed them out, and they unexpectedly became fine wine. The village elders all became drunk and full, and also received bundles of fine silk and wrapped valuables. Afterward the servant took his leave and departed.

The phrase at the end, “Xue Chang outside the urn, Shentu hidden in the bottle,” points to the immortal marvels of Xue Chang and Shentu: one is connected with an “urn,” the other with a “bottle,” and both belong to arts of transformation and concealment.

The Xianzhuan Shiyi (Supplementary Gleanings from Biographies of Immortals) records: Xue Chang was a native of Youji (present-day Beijing and northern Hebei), fond of Daoist arts and given to seeking out extraordinary people. In the seventh year of the Tianbao era, he stayed at Dongtian Abbey for several months. Suddenly a mountain elder brought a large piece of zhanglu (a medicinal root, possibly of the shanglu type), shaped like a great turtle, complete with shell patterns, head, and feet. The elder told the Daoist priests in the abbey, “Cut this medicine fine, dry it, and brew it into wine with rice and fermentation starter. When the brew is ready and has stood for half a year, whoever drinks it can ascend as an immortal.” The priests brewed the wine as instructed. One day all the priests went to attend a Zhaijiao (purification ritual); only Xue Chang did not go out. Three days later, when the priests returned, they saw Xue Chang lying beside the jar, blood flowing from his ears and nose. He revived only after several days; once awake, his body was light and his eyes bright, and his bearing was as though he might fly up and ascend—mountains, rivers, and cliffs could not obstruct him. Later he entered Damian Mountain, and his whereabouts became unknown.

The Shuxuan ji records: Shen Tu Youya was free and uninhibited, finding his delight in mountains, forests, springs, and rocks, and he always carried a bottle. One day he leapt into the bottle, and people of the time called him “Bottle Recluse” (Pingyin).

“Yuantai’s dragon carriage, Gongdu’s fengyin” is a eulogistic phrase leading into the account of Yao Tan below; it refers to immortal marvels such as Yao Yuantai riding a dragon carriage and ascending to heaven (the term fengyin is archaic and obscure, so the original wording is retained). The Dantai Xinlu (New Records of the Cinnabar Terrace) records: Yao Tan, courtesy name Yuantai, was a man of Pingyang. His conduct was refined and his aspirations lofty; his foundations were deeply planted within. Entrusting himself to the realm of the gods and aspiring to true reclusion, he withdrew into secluded cliffs and daily recited the Five Thousand Characters (i.e., the Daodejing). He encountered Perfected Xu (Xu Zhenren) and was transmitted the cultivation method of “Yuanbai Huihuang” (Returning the Primal White to Yellow). After practicing it according to the method, rain did not wet his clothes, mud did not soil his shoes, and the divine radiance in his eyes was like lightning. In the time of King Jian, he mounted a dragon carriage and ascended to heaven.

The Perfected Yin Gui, courtesy name Gongdu, was a native of Taiyuan. He abstained from grains (bigu) and practiced circulating Qi (xingqi), devoting himself exclusively to the highest methods of the Dao. He could transform without constancy: sometimes appearing as a Daoist priest, sometimes as a Confucian scholar, sometimes as a child, sometimes as an old man. Together with Wei Zhen and other immortals he verified divine anomalies such as dragons, earthworms, and phoenixes, soaring through the void as clouds race and lightning flashes, entering and leaving the realms of form and formlessness, dividing his body and scattering his shadow, roaming and gathering everywhere. It is said that he was already one thousand three hundred years old and had experienced exceedingly much—more than ordinary people could record in brief letters. One day he suddenly cultivated his bodily form and entered the clouds, rising into the air and slowly departing; only the sound of sheng and xiao flutes was heard, and he left behind merely vessels, clothes, and fine silk.

“The First Emperor raised a terrace, and the Yellow Emperor established a belvedere.” The Shiyiji (Records of Gleanings), an ancient collection of strange tales and miscellaneous records, says: Qin Shi Huang built the Yunming Terrace, exhausting the rare woods of the four quarters and searching the realm for skilled craftsmen. From the south he obtained jade-green wood from Yanqiu, burning sand from Lishui, vermilion clay from Guidu, and white bamboo from Yungang; from the east, brocade cypress from Congluan, dragon pine from Yansui, starry tuo from Hanhe, and zhi wood from Ruanyun; from the west, floating gold from Louhai, feathery ken from Langyuan, rosy mulberry from Dizhang, and round counters from Shentang; from the north, dry lacquer from Mingfu, patterned zhi from Yinban, black soul from Zhailiu, and fragrant jade from Hehai. Rare and wondrous things gathered there; the craftsmen soared in midair and wielded their axes in the air, beginning work at the zi hour and completing it by the wu hour, and the people of Qin called it the “Zi-Wu Terrace.”

The Huangdi Neizhuan (Inner Tradition of the Yellow Emperor) records that Xiwangmu (Queen Mother of the West), foremost of Daoist female immortals, invited the Yellow Emperor to drink Jasper Cloud Nectar and eat Red Essence Fruit, and bestowed on him five white jade statues, saying these were the true likeness of Yuanshi Tianzun (Celestial Worthy of Original Beginning), one of the highest Daoist deities. She also gave him the Er Yi Ben Xing Tu (Diagram of the Original Forms of the Two Principles, i.e., Heaven and Earth, Yin-Yang) and the Huandan Shijiu Shou (Nineteen Poems on the Reverted Elixir, alchemical songs and formulas). After bowing, the Yellow Emperor placed them in a lofty tower-belvedere and worshipped them in person; his consorts and palace attendants were not allowed to take part. Often unusual-colored cloud vapors appeared above the belvedere, and a strange fragrance could be smelled several hundred paces away. People of the time called it a “daoguan” (Daoist temple). The name “daoguan” began from this time.

“Huang An plowed with his tongue; Hepu calculated with his mind” are the summaries of the two accounts that follow. The Liexian Zhuan (Biographies of Immortals) says: Huang An called himself lowly and unfit to mix with crowds, so he carried a whip and recited the Odes and Documents, marking the ground to keep count; by morning the ground had been scored and split, and people of the time called him “tongue-plowing” (making a living by reciting and teaching). At eighty his face still resembled a child’s. The Xianzhuan Shiyi (Supplement to Biographies of Immortals) says: Xing Hepu lived in seclusion around Yinghai and obtained the way of divine immortals. He could make people concentrate their minds on a matter, lay out calculating rods and reckon, and know the outcome without error. He lived between Mount Song and the Ying River and wrote three books titled Yingyang Shu (Book of Yingyang), which contains the method of “calculating the mind and spinning the void” (using mental calculation to trace transformations in emptiness).

“Guangcheng’s deep obscurity; Lu Ao’s boundless roaming” are also summaries of chapter titles (Lu Ao’s “boundless roaming” alludes to Lu Ao wandering without limit). The Shenxian Zhuan (Biographies of Divine Immortals) says: Guangchengzi was an ancient immortal who lived in a stone chamber on Mount Kongtong. The Yellow Emperor crawled forward on his knees, bowed twice, and asked about the way of cultivating the body and nurturing nature. Guangchengzi replied: The quintessence of the ultimate Dao is profoundly obscure and vast; the extreme of the ultimate Dao is dim and silent. Do not look, do not listen; embrace and guard your Shen and Jing and be still, and the body will naturally become upright. Be sure to be still, be sure to be pure; do not wear out the body, do not agitate your Jing and Qi—only then can you attain long life.

Lu Ao (a legendary Qin-dynasty adept who sought immortality) encountered an extraordinary man: deep-set eye sockets, a prominent Adam’s apple, shoulders raised high like a kite’s, a long slender neck, a full upper body and a thin lower body; he carried a turtle shell on his back and ate clams and crabs. The man said to Lu Ao, “I have arranged to meet Hanman (an immortal) at Jiugai (beyond the nine heavens, an extremely distant place), so I cannot stay long.” Having said this, he departed.

“The Qi Woman’s Jade Hook” tells of Lady Gouyi (a woman from Qi surnamed Zhao, belonging to the legendary tradition of Emperor Wu of Han’s Lady Gouyi). She loved quiet purity and lay ill for six years; her right hand was curled and she ate very little. In the time of Emperor Wu of Han, a diviner who read Qi said that the Qi of a noble person was in the northeast. They traced it and found her, and she was summoned into the palace; she was very beautiful. When Emperor Wu opened her hand, as soon as it was opened a jade hook appeared. Later he favored her, and she gave birth to Emperor Zhao of Han. Emperor Wu soon had her killed; when her body lay in state, it did not grow cold and gave off fragrance. After Emperor Zhao ascended the throne and had her reburied, the coffin was already empty, with only a pair of silk shoes left. For this reason her palace was called Gouyi.

“The Wooden Drill of Transmitting Life” tells of Mr. Fu. In his youth he loved the Dao and entered a stone chamber on Mount Jiao to cultivate. After seven years, Taiji Zhenren (a Daoist deity) came to receive and guide him. He gave him a wooden drill and told him to drill through a stone slab about five chi thick, saying: “Drill through this stone and you will attain the Dao.” Mr. Fu was single-minded, drilling the stone day and night for forty-seven years without slackening. The wooden drill was worn away and the stone slab pierced; he thereupon obtained a divine elixir and later became the Perfected Man of the Western Peak (Xiyue Zhenren).

“The One Old Man of Huaiyang” refers to Ying Yao of the Western Han, who lived as a recluse in the Huaiyang mountains. The court summoned him to take office together with the “Four White-Haired Elders of Mount Shang” (four famous recluses at the end of the Qin and the beginning of the Han), but Ying Yao alone did not answer the summons. Contemporaries said, “The Four White-Haired Elders of the Southern Mountain are no match for the one old man of Huaiyang.” He was the eighth-generation ancestor of Ying Shao of the Later Han.

The Nine Immortals of Kaihuang (section title).

The Xianzhuan Shiyi records that Kong Qiuming, Yang Yuanzhong, Zhang Fashu, Wu Tianyin, Chen Zhikong, Luo Fatong, Zou Wujun, Xie Youyan, Zhou Xianyong, Deng Xiyuan, and others (collectively called the Nine Immortals of Kaihuang), during the wars between Han and Chu had no place to settle or to fill their bellies, but each cherished the aspiration to cultivate the Dao (the Way). They therefore withdrew from the world into the mountains, became sworn brothers, and traveled together through the Five Peaks. Later they lived at Xishan in Hongzhou (around present-day Nanchang, Jiangxi), and all cultivated to become immortals. In the Kaihuang era of the Sui dynasty, a retinue of immortal birds such as luan-phoenixes and cranes assembled at the Nine Immortals Terrace on Yushun Mountain; they lingered there for a whole day and then ascended to heaven at the same moment. The saying “Xi was called Wenshi, and Zhou was titled Weibian” means that Yin Xi was styled Master Wenshi, and Zhuang Zhou was titled Taiji (Supreme Ultimate) Weibian Lang.

The Dantai Xinlu also records that these immortals of Xishan in Hongzhou, during the Kaihuang era of the Sui, ascended to heaven at the Nine Immortals Terrace on Yushun Mountain with a retinue of luan and cranes.

The Dantai Xinlu says: Yin Xi first served as the commandant of Hangu Pass (the officer in charge of the pass defenses), and saw an old man coming on a green ox and in a simple carriage. Yin Xi bowed his head, stepped forward, and asked, “Where is the sage going?” The old man said, “I am east of the pass, my fields are west of the pass; I often come to gather firewood. I have no virtue to speak of, yet I have troubled you to greet me.” The old man declined again and again, but Yin Xi still would not let him go. Then the old man said, “Since you have already recognized me, I also know that you have a heart of faith in the Dao.” He then transmitted the Daode (that is, the Daodejing) to him. When Yin Xi’s Dao was perfected and his De (Virtue/Power) complete, he was titled Master Wenshi and appointed Wushang Zhenren (Supreme Perfected).

The Zhengao says: Zhuang Zhou took Changsang Gongzi as his teacher, and Changsang Gongzi transmitted to him subtle essentials; people called him Zhuangzi. He lived in seclusion on Baodu Mountain, cultivated and wrote books, ingested the Beiyu Fire Elixir, ascended to heaven in broad daylight, and was appointed in heaven as Taiji Weibian Lang.

“Xuanji Bestows a Leaf” and “Ma Xiang Touches Coins” are heading-style phrases that point to two immortal traces: Xuanji’s bestowal of a leaf and Ma Xiang’s touching of coins.

The Records of Eminent Daoists (Gaodao zhuan) records: Master Luofu, Xuanyuan Ji, lived on Mount Luofu. People said he was already several hundred years old, with an unchanging face and hair so long it dragged on the ground; sitting in a dark room, his gaze could illuminate several zhang. When he gathered herbs in cliffs and valleys, venomous dragons and fierce beasts often guarded him. More than a hundred households invited him to vegetarian feasts, and he could divide his body and attend them all. Emperor Xuanzong of Tang summoned him into the palace and asked, “Can long life be sought through governing the state?” Xuanyuan Ji replied, “Cut off the sensual pleasures of sound and color, be bland toward the flavors of food and drink, make sorrow and joy return to purity, and bestow De without partiality; then naturally one can share the same De as Heaven and Earth and the same brightness as the sun and moon. Even the well-governed ages of Yao, Shun, Yu, and Tang can be attained, to say nothing of long life.” This gentleman could also use magic to turn paulownia and bamboo leaves into money.

The Biographies of Immortals (Shenxian zhuan) records: Ma Xiang, courtesy name Ziran, possessed Daoist arts. He once was at the seat of Ma Zhi, the regional inspector of Jiangnan, where he filled a wine cup with earth and planted a melon; in a moment the vine spread, flowered, and bore fruit, which tasted delicious. He could also produce copper coins from his body and throw them into a well; with a single call, the coins came out of the well.

The phrase “Lingyu’s Blessed Land, Shantu’s Grotto-Heaven” refers to Wang Lingyu obtaining a blessed land and Shantu Zi dwelling in a grotto-heaven. What Daoism calls the “Grotto-Heavens and Blessed Lands” (dongtian fudi) are famous mountains and scenic places where immortals reside.

The Records of Eminent Daoists records: Wang Lingyu was a Daoist priest from Jiujiang, living at Wulao Peak. At night a divine man told him, “Those who attain the Dao each have a place suited to them; it is like planting the five grains among sand and stones—they cannot grow. Since you have the bone physiognomy of a flying immortal, you should obtain a blessed land and numinous mound; only then can you transform. If it is not such a place, demonic hindrances will damage one’s meritorious practice, and there will be no hope.” He asked, “What place can I dwell in?” The divine man said, “The upper peak of Zhuling and the neighboring peak of Zigai are grotto-heavens and blessed lands; there you can soar to heaven and ascend.” Wang Lingyu obeyed and moved to Mount Heng. Twelve years later his work was complete, and during the Tianjian era he ascended to heaven in broad daylight.

The Zhengao (Declarations of the Perfected) records: Shantu Zi was a grandee in the time of King Ai of Zhou and also an immortal. He transmitted to Zhang Jizi the ingestion of the “Nine Clouds Water Method” (a cultivation and ingestion method); after Zhang Jizi practiced this Dao, he was appointed to the post of Jiuguan Cheng (a title of immortal official). Now Shantu Zi is also in the grotto-heaven, playing chess with Zhang Jizi.

“Daling restores his beard, Zhang Guo strikes his teeth” refers to the stories that Daling could make a beard grow again and that Zhang Guo struck his teeth to manifest immortal traces.

The Wall Inscription of Chaohua Temple records: In the Tang dynasty, Jian Daling, a Huangmen inner attendant and usher (a palace eunuch attendant), inscribed on the wall: When I was fifty, the year of knowing fate, I followed the emperor’s carriage westward. In the twelfth month of the Dinghai year of the Tianbao era, I received from Cheng Zhangren (an immortal who transmitted the Dao) the True Origin Elixir Formula, but I could not understand it. At that time the emperor was sojourning at the temporary court, and the official duties under my charge were very complicated. In the Dingyou year of the Zhide era under Emperor Suzong, I was sent on a mission to Songqiu and again met Cheng Zhangren; only then did I fully obtain the way of “Divine Water and Yellow Sprout” (a Neidan cultivation term). After completing my study, I asked for leave to return to court to have an audience with the emperor and requested retirement to the fields. It happened that Nancao Lang (an official title) Zhang Qufei and Left Historian (an official title) Cheng Taixu both made use of their old residences to jointly build a divine chamber for refining elixirs. Heaven blessed it, and the elixir cauldron gave forth a radiant glow. After I had taken the elixir for twelve days, my skin and complexion became fresh and clear; my body was light enough to rise into the air without fear, and my mind and intent became more numinous. From the time I took the spiritual elixir in the Dingyou year of Zhide down to the present Jiawu year of Qianfu, one hundred and eighteen years have passed, through twelve reigns, and at last I returned to youth and my beard grew again.

The Minghuang Zalu records: Zhang Guo (that is, Zhang Guolao) was summoned for an audience by Tang Minghuang. One day, Minghuang once bestowed on him “Dongzhen” wine to drink. Zhang Guo raised three cups and already showed the look of drunkenness; turning to his attendants, he said, “This wine does not have a good flavor.” He immediately lay down and did not wake until the time of a meal had passed. Suddenly he looked in a mirror at his teeth and saw that they were all mottled and scorched black, so he took an iron ruyi (an iron implement) and knocked out all his teeth, applied medicine to his gums, and lay down again. After a long while he looked in the mirror again: his teeth had already grown back, firm and lustrous, even better than before.

The Rongmu Xiantan records: Fei Jishi of Shuchuan in the Tang dynasty had red eyes without black pupils (an unusual physiognomy) and was skilled at foreknowing future events; he could avert disasters and heal people. Whenever someone fell ill, he would go to cure the illness. The saying “Master Jishi cures illness; Bieling guides the waters” also praises his ability to heal illness and guide water. Bieling was a figure of ancient Shu who controlled the waters; here he is borrowed to describe Fei’s arts.

The Rongmu Xiantan records that in Shu during the Tang dynasty there was a Master Fei Jishi, whose eyes were red with no black pupils visible. He was skilled at foreknowing future events and could also perform apotropaic rites and healing for others. When someone came to him sick and asking for help, Fei Jishi would carry a chicken and go to the person’s courtyard to set up an offering; he would also take a stone the size of an egg and have the patient grasp it, then tread the Yubu (Yu step, a special gait used in Daoist ritual), circulate his Qi (vital energy), and shout rebukes. The chicken would spin around and die, and the stone would split into four pieces; the patient’s illness would then be cured. For this reason people called him “Master Chicken.”

The Xianzhuan Shiyi records that Bie Ling (also Ao Ling)—said to have been a minister of the ancient Shu king Duyu and later himself king of Shu—was a man of Chu. After death his corpse was thrown into a river, yet it floated upstream; at the foot of Mount Wen he suddenly revived and rose, then withdrew into hiding in the mountains of Shu. He became renowned in the world for the arts of transformation and for techniques of summoning and commanding ghosts and spirits. At that time mountains in the gorges collapsed and blocked the river so that its waters could not flow; Duyu was troubled by this. Hearing that Bie Ling had great ability, he sent him to the area of Mount Jintang and Qutang Gorge to channel the waters, causing the river to flow eastward back along its old course, so that people could dwell securely on dry land. After Duyu abdicated the throne in his favor, several hundred years passed. Bie Ling then traveled to Mount Tianzhu, encountered an assembly of Tianzhen (heavenly perfected immortals), and ascended to heaven.

“Xuanji bestows leaves” and “Ma Xiang gropes for coins” refer respectively to the two immortal anecdotes of Xuan Yuanji bestowing leaves and Ma Xiang groping for coins.

According to the Gaodao Zhuan (Biographies of Eminent Daoists), Master Luofu, Xuanyuan Ji, lived on Mount Luofu. People said he was several hundred years old, with an unfading face and hair so long it dragged on the ground; when he sat in a dark room, his gaze could project several zhang. When he gathered herbs in the valleys, venomous dragons and fierce beasts often guarded him; more than a hundred households invited him to vegetarian feasts, and he could divide his body and attend them all. Emperor Xuanzong of Tang summoned him into the palace and asked whether long life could be sought. Xuanyuan Ji replied: Cut off sensual pleasures, make flavors plain and mild, bring sorrow and joy back to purity, and bestow De impartially; then one will naturally share the same De as heaven and earth and the same brightness as the sun and moon. Even sage kings such as Yao, Shun, Yu, and Tang could do this—how much more should long life be attainable? The master could also press paulownia and bamboo leaves into coins.

According to the Shenxian Zhuan (Biographies of Immortals), Ma Xiang, courtesy name Ziran, possessed Daoist arts. Once, at the seat of Ma Zhi, prefect of Jiangnan, he used a wine cup to hold soil and plant a melon; in moments the vines grew, flowered, and bore fruit, which tasted delicious. He could also produce bronze coins from his body and throw them into a well, and with a single call they would come out.

The phrase “Lingyu’s blessed land, Shantu’s cave heaven” alludes to the stories of Wang Lingyu obtaining a blessed land and Shantu dwelling in a cave heaven.

According to the Gaodao Zhuan, Wang Lingyu was a Daoist from Jiujiang who lived at the Five Old Peaks. One night a divine person told him: Those who attain the Dao each have their own place, just as the five grains planted among sand and stones cannot grow; since you have the bones of a flying immortal, you should obtain a blessed land and numinous site, and only then can you undergo transformation. If you are not in such a place, demons will ruin your work, and success cannot be expected. He asked where he might dwell, and the divine person said that the Upper Peak of Zhuling and the side peak of Zigai are cave heavens and blessed lands—dwelling places of immortals in Daoism—and that there he could soar to heaven. Wang Lingyu obeyed and moved to Mount Heng. After one ji (twelve years) his work was complete, and during the Tianjian era he ascended to heaven in broad daylight.

The Zhengao records that Shantu Zi was a high official in the time of King Ai of Zhou and also an immortal. He transmitted the cultivation method of ingesting the “Nine-Cloud Water” to Zhang Jizi; after Zhang Jizi cultivated this Way, he was appointed to the post of Assistant of the Nine Offices (the title of an immortal official). Shantu Zi remains even now in a cave-heaven (dongtian, a Daoist paradise), sitting face to face with Zhang Jizi and playing chess.

“Daling regrew his beard, and Zhang Guo clicked his teeth” is a summary of immortal traces: Jian Daling grew a beard again, and Zhang Guo practiced by clicking his teeth.

The inscription of the Tang dynasty eunuch Jian Daling, recorded in the Wall Record of Chaohua Temple, says: When I was fifty, I followed the imperial carriage westward, and in the twelfth month of the Tianbao dinghai year I encountered the City Venerable (the name of an immortal), who transmitted to me the “True Origin Elixir Formula” (zhenyuan danjue), but I did not understand its meaning. At that time the emperor was residing at the temporary imperial residence, and I was very busy managing edicts and orders. In the zhide dingyou year of Emperor Suzong, I was ordered to go to Songqiu, where I again met the Venerable, and only then did I fully master the Way of “Divine Water and Yellow Sprout” (shenshui huangya, an alchemical term). After the matter was concluded, I asked for leave to return to court for an audience and requested retirement to return to the fields. It happened that the Southern Bureau Director Zhang Qufei and the Left Historiographer Cheng Taixu jointly built a cultivation elixir chamber from an old residence; Heaven favored and protected it, and the elixir cauldron shone brightly. After I had ingested the spirit elixir for a full twelve-day cycle, my skin and countenance became clear and fresh, I was not afraid to soar through the sky, and my mind and spirit became more connected to the divine. From the zhide dingyou year, when I ingested the spirit elixir, to the present Qianfu jiawu year, one hundred and eighteen years have passed, and I have passed through twelve reigns, finally returning to youth and growing a beard again.

Zhang Guo (later known as Zhang Guolao) was summoned for an audience by Emperor Ming of Tang. One day the emperor bestowed on him a drink called “Dongzhen” (a kind of imperial wine), and Zhang Guo drank three cups in succession and showed signs of drunkenness, telling those around him that the wine did not taste good. He then lay down and only woke after the time it takes to eat a meal. Suddenly he looked into a mirror and saw that his teeth were mottled and scorched black, so he took an iron ruyi (an iron object) and knocked out all his teeth, applied medicine, and slept again. After a while he looked into the mirror once more, and his teeth had already grown back, firm and lustrous, even better than before.

“Master Ji saves the sick, Bieling guides the waters” tells of two extraordinary men. In Tang-dynasty Shuchuan, Fei Jishi (Master Ji, “Chicken Master”) had red eyes with no visible black pupils and could foretell the future and avert disasters and heal people. When someone came seeking help because of illness, he would carry a chicken into the courtyard and set up a sacrifice, then take a stone the size of an egg and have the patient hold it; afterward he would tread a special step pattern, circulate Qi, and shout rebukes. The chicken would spin around and die, and the stone would split into four pieces, whereupon the patient would recover immediately. For this reason people called him “Master Ji.”

Bieling was a man of Chu. After he died, his corpse was thrown into the river, yet it traveled upstream against the current to the foot of Mount Min and suddenly came back to life. He lived in seclusion in the mountains of Shu and was known for the arts of transformation and of commanding ghosts and spirits. At that time mountains collapsed in the gorges and blocked the river, and King Duyu of Shu was greatly troubled. Hearing that Bieling had such abilities, he sent him to the area of Mount Jintang and Qutang Gorge to dredge the waters, making them flow east and restoring their old course, so that the people could dwell securely on land. After Duyu abdicated, it is said that several hundred years later Bieling traveled to Mount Tianzhu, encountered a gathering of true immortals from heaven, and thereupon ascended to heaven.

“Ge You carves wood, Zhang Ci cuts paper” points to two allusions to immortal arts: Ge You manifested immortal arts through carving wood, and Zhang Ci through cutting paper.

The Liexian Zhuan records: Ge You was a man of Shu. In the time of King Cheng of Zhou, he often carved wooden sheep and sold them. One day he rode a sheep into Shu, and princes, nobles, and men of high rank welcomed and escorted him to Sui Mountain. Each of those who followed him received a peach and did not return. The local people remarked: To obtain a single peach from Sui Mountain—even if one does not become an immortal—is enough to make one proud.

The Guangji records: Zhang Ci was talented and learned. He cultivated and nourished his qi, practiced bigu (abstaining from grain), and enjoyed drinking wine and playing chess. He once wrote a poem: “In vain the sun—the golden crow—races ceaselessly overhead; beside the red furnace one burns ingredients to refine the elixir, but how can a youthful face remain? This year flowers bloom on the branches; next year flowers will again fill the trees. Better to drink wine for now, from morning to evening.” Sometimes he would cut several thousand butterflies from paper and blow on them with his qi; they would then fly in formation, and when he clapped his hands they fell. One day he cut out a crane and sprayed it with water; the crane suddenly flew up. Zhang Ci said, “You go first; I will follow soon.”

“Ma Jian subdues evil; Liu Gen summons ghosts.” The Dantai Xinlu records: Ma Jian (whose name is written with a different character in the original) mastered the Classic of Poetry and the Classic of Rites. At seventeen he met a wondrous person and obtained secret methods and techniques such as Dunjia, Wujiao, Wuqing, and Weihou. He was skilled at summoning and controlling the myriad spirits and subduing evil demons. One day he moved a heavenly deity to descend, who said to him: “Master, in former lives you accumulated merit and virtue and were originally meant to transcend the world and become an immortal. Why must you summon and command ghosts and spirits? You may hide these techniques in secret, cut off all dealings with ghosts and spirits, settle your mind and spirit, and hold fast to the Great Dao; then true immortals will naturally descend.” Ma Jian obeyed, and later ascended to heaven in broad daylight.

The Shenxian zhuan (Records of the Divine Immortals) relates that Liu Gen could cure illnesses and command ghosts and spirits. When Du Xin, governor of Yingchuan, heard of this, he judged Liu Gen to be a charlatan deluding the masses and summoned him to the commandery office. “What powers do you have,” he asked, “that you constantly delude people?” Liu Gen replied, “I can make people see ghosts.” Du Xin said, “Test it now; if there are no ghosts, I will kill you.” Liu Gen said, “Ghosts are easy to see. Please lend me the brush lying before you, Governor (a respectful form of address for the prefect).” Du Xin agreed. Liu Gen drew a Fulu (a talisman in Daoist ritual) and let out a long xiao (a vocalization used in Daoist ritual and cultivation). In a moment the south wall of the hall suddenly split open several chi, and there appeared four or five hundred men in red clothes, holding swords and blades, who entered through the broken wall and stood below the steps, bringing the governor’s parents with their hands bound behind their backs. Weeping, they said, “Why have you offended this honored immortal official and caused us to be bound and humiliated?” The governor kowtowed and begged for pardon; Liu Gen admonished them and sent them away, and the governor’s parents were spared. A month later, the governor and his wife, Lady Guo, both died.

“Chen Chang builds a house; Yan Qing tows a boat” are the headings for the two following accounts.

The Baopuzi says that Chen Chang lived on Zhumo Mountain for more than six hundred years. The mountain people built a house for him and sacrificed to him in all four seasons. He neither ate nor drank, and his face looked like that of a man of fifty or sixty. Zhumo Mountain was a thousand li in circumference and had more than a thousand households; its customs were the same as those of the Wu region.

It also records Yan Qing, a native of Kuaiji. Poor, he sold charcoal. On the road he met an extraordinary person who gave him a scroll of plain writings (a book written on white silk or white paper). Yan Qing said he could not read, and the divine man said he did not need to read it—just leave it in a quiet place. Thereafter Yan Qing possessed supernatural powers; invisibly, it was as if someone were towing his boat for him, and others saw only the charcoal boat moving by itself. Later he healed people: he sent the plain book to the sick person’s home, and the patient recovered. He entered Mount Xiao Huo and became an immortal.

The closing phrase, “Xiyi, Yao and Shun; Hongya, Chao and You,” is a phrase of praise; by invoking Yao and Shun, Chaofu, Xu You, and other ancient sages and recluses, it praises immortals and Perfected beings of the Xiyi and Hongya type.

The Shenxian zhuan records that Chen Bo (that is, Chen Tuan, courtesy name Tunan, sobriquet Mr. Xiyi) once encountered a golden-armored divine being who gave him guidance, after which he lived in seclusion on Mount Hua. Emperor Taizong summoned him and asked, “I wish to govern the realm by the Way of Yao and Shun—is that possible?” Chen Bo replied, “I have heard that Yao and Shun’s palace had only three-foot earthen steps, and its thatched roof was left untrimmed. If Your Majesty can be so frugal, you will be the Yao and Shun of today.”

The Gaodao zhuan records that the Daoist Zhang Yun (sobriquet Hongya Zi) lived in seclusion on Mount Yuzhang. During the Kaiyuan era of the Tang, Emperor Xuanzong summoned him and asked, “How do I compare with Yao and Shun? How does the Master compare with Xu You, the ancient hermit?” Zhang Yun answered, “Your Majesty’s Dao is higher than that of Yao and Shun; my De does not match that of Xu You. Formerly Yao summoned Xu You, and Xu You did not come; now Your Majesty summons me, and I have come.” Xuanzong admired him, appointed him Taichang Qing, and repeatedly promoted him to Situ, but he accepted none of it, saying, “Why should Your Majesty begrudge a single mountain or stream, and not let me follow Chaofu and Xu You, both ancient hermits?” Xuanzong permitted it, and he dwelled at Giant Cliff in the Western Mountains, his former place of retreat. The Yuzhang ji says that during the Kaihuang era of the Sui, Yuzhang was renamed Hongzhou precisely after the mountain where the Master lived.

“Cheng disciplined two tigers; Tao painted two oxen” is a summary cue: Cheng Taixu trained tigers by precepts, while a Daoist of high attainment surnamed Tao was associated with the painting of oxen. The following gives details on Cheng Taixu: he was a native of Xichong in Guozhou and loved the Dao from childhood. At fifteen he climbed East Mountain, where he lived, and felt light and ethereal, as if about to soar; soon five-colored clouds and mist encircled his body. After growing up he practiced bigu (abstaining from the five grains) and zuowang (sitting in forgetfulness), and two tigers constantly attended him wherever he went. Cheng Taixu named them Shanyan (“Good Speech”) and Shanxing (“Good Conduct”), stroked their backs, and bestowed on them the Three Refuges precepts (taking refuge in the Three Treasures: the Dao, the scriptures, and the teacher). The two tigers knelt and received them; thereafter, they came whenever called by name.

Tao Hongjing (style name Mr. Yinju, the Recluse) cultivated at Jijin Peak and composed the Zhengao (Declarations of the Perfected). Emperor Wu of Liang repeatedly summoned him to office, but he did not respond to the summons. Tao Hongjing painted two oxen and presented them: one was left to roam freely among water and grass, while the other, fitted with a golden halter (a bridle made of gold), was led by someone. The emperor understood his meaning: he wished to be as free and unconstrained as the tail-dragging turtle described by Zhuangzi, and so could not be forcibly summoned.

Xu Cuo traveled throughout the famous mountains, and wherever he went he inscribed, “Seeking Yan Yuezi, arrived here.” Later he suddenly composed a poem: “Before the flowers of Langyuan (a fairy garden) lies the land of drunkenness; I mistakenly overturned the Queen Mother’s Nine-Rosy-Clouds Goblet (the Queen Mother’s immortal wine cup); Immortal Wei clapped his hands and deemed it frivolous, and I was banished to the human world to be a wine madman.” Then, at a wine tower, he rode off on clouds.

Du Guangting (courtesy name Binsheng, style name Mr. Guangcheng) encountered a mad Daoist in the late Tang. The Daoist concealed his name and asked to borrow lodging; the master agreed but did not meet him. Every day the Daoist sold medicine, and with the money he got he bought wine to drink, singing only “Gan Ting Qiu”; people therefore called him Gan Ting Qiu. For nearly half a year no one knew of his divine marvels. One night, while he was very drunk and singing loudly, someone peeped in and saw lamps and candles, colored embroidery, and abundant banquet vessels in the room, with an azure youth standing in attendance and pouring wine. The peeper told the master. The master knocked on the door and apologized: “My knowledge is shallow, and I did not know that an upper immortal had descended. I wish to prostrate myself once before your radiant spirit and eliminate my dusty obstructions.” The Daoist said, “Why such assiduity? I shall come out to meet you.” Thereupon he gathered the banquet utensils and the youth into his cap; when the door was opened, only an empty room was seen.

The concluding titles “Fangshuo Peeps Through the Window” and “Zhang Ping Digs a Well” are titles of two other chapters on immortal affairs, respectively hinting at the immortal traces of Dongfang Shuo peeping through a window and Zhang Ping digging a well.

The Story of Emperor Wu of Han records that on the seventh day of the seventh month, Emperor Wu of Han visited Chenghua Hall, where two blue-green birds flew in and perched before the hall. The emperor asked Dongfang Shuo, his attendant known for his wit, and Dongfang Shuo said: Xi Wangmu (the Queen Mother of the West) is coming. After a while, Xi Wangmu arrived. At that moment someone was peeking from beneath the southern window; the emperor asked in alarm who it was, and Xi Wangmu said: It is your attendant Dongfang Shuo. He is mischievous by nature, a child from my neighboring household.

The Guangji records that during the Tang dynasty, the provincial governor Zhang Shiping and his wife both went blind in middle age. They therefore shut themselves in, established a Zhaijiao (purification ritual) to confess their faults and pray for blessings, and sought protection; the longer it went on, the more diligent they became. During the Yuanhe era of Emperor Xianzong of Tang, they suddenly met a scholar who said: This illness does not require medicine; you need only dig a well on blessed ground and take water to wash the eyes. Zhang Shiping did as told, opened a well, and washed his eyes with the water; immediately his sight was restored. The couple bowed and thanked him generously, but the scholar would not accept it, saying: I am Taibai Xingguan (the Venus Star Official). Because you did not forget the Dao even while afflicted by illness, and remained refined and diligent without slackening, the Supreme Lord sent me to transmit Daoist arts to you in recompense for your diligence in cultivation and offering. Giving gold and silk is not what I delight in.

The Guangji records that during the Zhenyuan era of Emperor Dezong of Tang, Bai Youqiu failed the imperial examination and went to sea, where he encountered wind and drifted; he tied his boat at the foot of a mountain. At night he heard the wind blowing through leaves with a rubbing sound, like people reciting poetry, among which were lines such as “Jade banners stretch across the blue void; this is where immortals dwell.” Soon he saw more than a thousand people coming riding dragons, driving cranes, riding turtles, and treading on fish; they pointed at the water’s surface and seemed to walk in the moonlight. Someone called Bai Youqiu, envoy of the Water Bureau, and gave him a document for office in the Water Bureau. Bai Youqiu followed them and suddenly arrived at an island, where he saw signs of human habitation; he then returned home, but no one in his household was still alive, and others said several generations had passed. The closing encomium, “Bai reached the immortal dwelling; Li trod the true realm,” means in essence that Bai Youqiu arrived at the immortals’ dwelling and stepped into the true realm.

The Xianzhuan Shiyi (Supplementary Gleanings from Immortal Biographies) records: Li Lin was a man from Yan. During the Baoli reign of the Tang, while traveling on Mount Wutai with friends, he accidentally fell into a wind cave. There he saw a man with the form of a lion, who led him into the cave, gave him water to drink, and said: “Though you belong to the ordinary mortal world, you have been able to enter my cave abode and tread in my true realm; this may be counted as an affinity for cultivating the Dao. You have a heart that seeks long life. For now, return home; in the future you may come again to drink this divine nectar, and it can also extend your years and prolong your life.”

“King Zhao cherished the pearl, and Xuandi buried the cauldron” refers to King Zhao of Yan concealing a precious pearl and Xuandi (the Dark Emperor) burying a bronze cauldron.

The Xianzhuan Shiyi records: In former times, during the age of the Yellow Emperor, Wuchengzi traveled to Hanshan Ridge and saw black clams on a high cliff; from this he knew that black clams could fly. In the time of King Zhao of Yan, someone presented a black clam to the king. King Zhao used the water of gui and zhang jades (pure jade water) to wash away the sand and mud, and sighed: “Since the sun and moon first existed, I have seen black clams produce pearls eighty or ninety times; this clam produces one pearl every thousand years.” In summer King Zhao often carried this pearl at his bosom, and his body was naturally cool; it was named the “Heat-Dispelling, Cool-Inviting Pearl.”

The Zhengao (Declarations of the Perfected), a classic of the Daoist Shangqing school, records: On Mount Damao there is a bronze cauldron from the time of Xuandi, able to hold four or five hu (the hu being a unit of capacity). At the highest point of the mountain, it was buried about eight chi in the earth, and above it a flat rock concealed the Heat-Dispelling, Cool-Inviting Pearl. It also says: On Mount Damao there is a bronze cauldron from the time of Xuandi, able to hold four or five hu. In a solitary elevated place, it was buried about eight chi deep; above it a flat rock covered the cauldron. In Xuandi’s time, a divine envoy of the Eastern Sea was ordered to bury it here.

“Wu Ding was summoned, and Shaojun made a petition” refers to King Wu Ding of Shang being summoned and Shaojun making a request.

Supplementary Gleanings from Biographies of Immortals records: Cheng Wuding was a native of Guiyang. At thirteen he was sent by the county magistrate to the provincial capital to deliver something. The provincial governor Zhou Ting found the boy extraordinary and kept him as Literary Registrar, the subordinate official in charge of documents in the provincial administration. Later, on orders he returned from the capital and passed through Changsha Commandery. Too late to put up at a post station, he spent the night outdoors beneath a tree. Suddenly he heard someone say, “Let us go to the market in Changsha to hold a medicine market.” At dawn he saw two cranes; struck by the strangeness, Cheng Wuding waited at the market gate and indeed met two old men. He followed them for several li; the old men turned and asked, “What are you seeking by following us?” He replied, “I have heard there is an art of benefiting life, the arts of saving life and cultivating health, so I have come to serve and follow you.” The old man turned and smiled, took a jade box from his sleeve, and examined a plain-silk register, a list written on white silk; Wuding’s name was indeed on it. Each of the two old men then gave him one pill of medicine, and because of this he attained the Dao. One day he said to his younger brother, “On the seventh day of the seventh month, the Herd Boy Star will go to see the Weaving Girl Star; I have been summoned back to the office of immortal officials and cannot remain long.” Having said this, he died. After the burial, when the grand administrator sent men to open the coffin, the corpse was no longer there; only a green bamboo staff and a “wu” remained—the original text reads “wu,” but what it refers to is unclear, presumably a black object left behind.

The Biographies of Immortals records: Li Shaojun once compounded elixir drugs, but before the elixir was completed he said to Emperor Wu of Han, “Your Majesty cannot cut off extravagance, keep distant from sounds and colors, cease killing and attacking, or eliminate joy and anger. Beyond ten thousand li there are souls that cannot return, and in the markets and courts there are ghosts that shed blood. Thus the great Dao and the divine elixir cannot be compounded.” Shaojun then suddenly claimed illness. That night the emperor dreamed that he and Shaojun were climbing Mount Song; halfway up, an envoy riding a dragon and holding a tally descended from the clouds, saying that Taiyi, a high Daoist deity, was summoning Shaojun. The emperor woke and said to the attendants beside him, “Shaojun is about to abandon me and go.” The next day Shaojun’s illness became grave; the emperor went in person to visit him, but he had already “transformed away,” becoming an immortal and departing by shijie, liberation from the corpse. The emperor said, “He has indeed transformed into an immortal and gone.” When it came time to place him in the coffin, however, the corpse was not to be seen.

Sandong Qunxian Lu (Records of the Assembled Immortals of the Three Caverns), fascicle 8, was compiled by the Zhengyi (Orthodox Unity) Daoist Chen Baoguang. “Three Caverns” is the Daoist scriptural classification (Dongzhen, Dongxuan, and Dongshen); this work gathers accounts of immortals’ deeds.

“The Proud Official of Qiyuan” (Qiyuan Aoli) refers to Zhuangzi: he once served as a minor official at Qiyuan, and King Wei of Chu sent an envoy with generous gifts to invite him, promising to make him chancellor. Zhuang Zhou laughed and told the envoy, “Go quickly; do not defile me!” Guo Pu’s “Poems on Roaming with Immortals” says, “Qiyuan has a proud official, the Lai clan has a reclusive wife,” where “the Lai clan’s reclusive wife” refers to Lao Laizi’s wife who withdrew from the world; together with Zhuangzi, she is an example of not coveting glory and profit.

“The Angler amid Mist and Waves” (Yanbo Diaotu) refers to Zhang Zhihe of the Tang dynasty, whose sobriquet was Xuanzhenzi. Emperor Xianzong of Tang sought out his “Yuge” (Fisherman’s Song), and Li Deyu obtained it while serving as prefect of Runzhou. The general sense of his “Yuge” is: beside Xisai Mountain white birds—usually written as white egrets—fly, peach blossoms and flowing water make the mandarin fish fat; wearing a blue bamboo hat and green straw rain cape, one need not return even in slanting wind and fine rain. It also says: the fisherman uses coarse hempen cloth as a fur coat, accompanied by two or three small boats; he can let go the oars and is accustomed to following the current, unafraid of the Yangtze’s white waves. It also says: in the fishing cabin at Xiaohan Bay, he makes a small boat his home and moves east and west; amid river snow and bank winds, he smiles as he wears a lotus-leaf garment and does not lament poverty. It also says: at Songjiang the host of the crab hut is delighted, and they share wild-rice rice and water-shield soup; maple leaves fall and reed flowers dry, and, drunk, he beats the fishing boat and does not feel the cold. It also says: in Qingcao Lake the moon is just full, and the rowing songs of Balin fishermen link together; with a fishing reel and a small boat, the joy lies in wind and waves, and there is no need to seek immortality.

“Su Dan’s Crane Cabinet, Sun Zhen’s Ox Cart” are the titles of two other immortal topics: Su Dan (the legendary Su Xiangong, who became an immortal) has the “crane cabinet” account, and Sun Zhen (Master Sun) has the “ox cart” account; they are used to mark the related traces of immortals.

The Bangjiang Collection records: One day Immortal Lord Su, Su Dan, swept his courtyard and dressed neatly, as if waiting for something. Before long he saw clouds and cranes gathering in the northwest and descending from the sky. Su Dan then went inside, knelt, and told his mother: “Taishang (the Highest Deity) has summoned me to fill a post as an immortal official; the ceremonial guard and attendants have already arrived, and I cannot stay to care for you in your old age and see you through your final rites.” Having said this, he bowed farewell, and mother and son talked, laughed, and sang together for a long time. His mother said, “After you leave, how shall I live?” Su Dan then left behind a cabinet, locked very securely, and said, “Whenever you lack anything, knock on the cabinet and call, and what you need will arrive at once; but whatever you do, do not open it.” Thereafter, whenever his mother was short of anything, she knocked on the cabinet and the things arrived. One day his mother became suspicious, opened the cabinet to look, and two cranes flew out; from then on, knocking on the cabinet no longer worked.

The Baopuzi records: Sun Zhen served Master Bo He and received transmission of his Dao. One day Sun Zhen took his leave, and the master gave him a sealed talisman box, saying, “Ahead an ox cart will come to welcome you; get on it. Eat whatever food and drink are provided along the way, and do not doubt, but you must absolutely not open the talisman box.” Sun Zhen received it kneeling and set out. Ahead there was indeed an ox cart, and someone asked, “Are you Daoist Sun? Lord Bo sent me to welcome you.” After Sun Zhen got on, the cart traveled as if flying, crossing water without going over bridges, and wine and food were fully provided. One day a disciple secretly opened the talisman box and saw only a painted ox cart, which then vanished at once. Later Sun Zhen also several times went out and in by cart with Bo He.

Mi Ming (a legendary extraordinary man) composed the “Rhapsody on the Cauldron”; Tao Bai (a legendary figure) carried a wine flask.

The Gaodao Zhuan records: The Daoist priest Xuanyuan Ming (a Tang-dynasty Daoist) often traveled around Mount Heng and the Xiang River region and was on friendly terms with Liu Shifu. Once, coming from Mount Heng and passing through Taibai, he learned that Liu Shifu was in the capital and went at night to his lodging. The Collator (Xiaoshulang, an office responsible for collating classical texts) Hou Xi had a reputation for poetry and was sitting around the stove discussing poetry with Liu Shifu; Ming was also present. Ming’s appearance was ugly, and Hou Xi greatly looked down on him. Ming then pointed to the stone tripod by the stove and said, “Could you two compose a poem on this stone tripod?” Although Liu Shifu was an old acquaintance of Ming, he did not know that he had literary talent. Liu Shifu first intoned: “A skilled craftsman renews the mountain’s bone; / Once fashioned, it serves for boiling and cooking.” Hou Xi continued: “Its straight handle has not yet taken authority; / Blocked at the rim, it must swallow its voice.” Ming laughed and said, “Your poems are no more than this.” Thereupon he intoned in a loud voice and repeatedly composed more than ten rhymes; Ming answered as soon as the sound was made, like an echo responding. The two men’s inspiration was exhausted and they could not continue. They rose and said in apology, “The honored master is not someone people of this world can match; we willingly concede inferiority.”

A passage recorded in the Guangji says that Lord Tao Taibai often occupied himself with gathering medicinal herbs, and Ming laughed and said, “Your poetry is no more than this.”

Master Tao Taibai made his living by gathering medicinal herbs. One day he brought a wine flask and invited a friend to roam Mount Song. As he sat beneath the trees, he heard sounds of laughter and conversation coming from the tips of the pines. Looking up, he saw that there were indeed two people. Master Tao said, “If the two of you are immortals, could you come down and drink with us?” Before long, a man and a woman dressed in ancient clothing came down and said, “I was a corvée laborer of the Qin dynasty, and Mao Nü (a legendary Qin palace woman who fled the disorders into the mountains, ate pine and cypress, and became immortal) was a palace woman of Qin. Together we escaped the disaster at Mount Li and hid here.” Master Tao asked, “Today I have met true immortals. May I hear you speak of the great medicine of the Golden Elixir (Jindan)?” They replied, “We were originally ordinary people as well. It was only that we could cut off worldly food and drink and eat the fruits of trees that we were able to travel through the air; nor do we feel any distinction between life and death, or between the ordinary and the immortal.” Then they broke off pine branches, tapped the wine flask, and sang: “Eating cypress leaves makes the body light and quick; we come and go among layered mountains and folded peaks; we had no intention of entering the rights and wrongs of the human world; garments and caps are only temporarily prepared, for talk of the floating world; in a moment we wander like clouds in the azure heavens (the sky).”

The two phrases “Ziliang’s green tablets” and “Yongshu’s cinnabar writing” respectively point to the matters of Zhou Ziliang’s name being entered in the immortal register and Ouyang Xiu’s encounter with cinnabar writing.

The Zhengao (Declarations of the Perfected) says: Zhou Ziliang was a disciple of Tao Yinju (Tao Hongjing). From childhood he was gentle and refined, with a solemn and lofty demeanor. During the Tianjian era (the reign title of Emperor Wu of Liang), true immortals repeatedly descended into his dwelling, saying, “Zhou Sheng has cultivated merit and accumulated virtue; one may say he has not failed his aspiration.” Ziliang said, “Having received the descent of the higher Perfected, I am both joyful and fearful and do not know how to conduct myself.” Lord Siming (the deity who governs lifespan and fate) said, “I recently went to Donghua (the Donghua Immortal Palace) and saw that your name had already been entered on the green tablets (the immortal register) and listed in the Baochen Office.”

The Qingsuo says: Ouyang Yongshu (Ouyang Xiu) and Mei Shengyu (Mei Yaochen) were roaming Mount Song. In their drunkenness they saw on the cliff wall of the West Peak large characters in cinnabar writing (red text) reading “Shenqing” (Spirit Clarity).

The Qingsuo records: Ouyang Xiu (courtesy name Yongshu) and Mei Yaochen (courtesy name Shengyu) were traveling in Mount Song. In drunkenness Ouyang Xiu saw on the cliff of the western peak four large characters in cinnabar writing, “Shenqing zhi Dong” (Grotto of Divine Clarity). Ouyang Xiu pointed them out to Mei Shengyu and asked whether he saw them; Mei Shengyu said he did not, and Ouyang Xiu said no more. Later, when he requested to resign from office and prepared to take leave of the world, he wrote a poem: “Four characters in cinnabar on a cliff ten thousand ren high, / The Grotto of Divine Clarity locks in its towers and terraces. / As far as the eye can reach through mist and rosy clouds, no one arrives; / The luan-birds and cranes should now be waiting for me.” A few days later Ouyang Xiu died (hong, the ancient term for the death of a high official).

“Yuanhua washes the intestines, the Yellow-Browed One washes the marrow” refers to Hua Tuo (courtesy name Yuanhua) cutting open and washing the intestines and abdomen, and the Yellow-Browed Old Man washing the marrow and exchanging bones.

The Hou Han (that is, the Book of the Later Han) records: Hua Tuo, courtesy name Yuanhua, was regarded as an immortal. Chen Gui, Chancellor of Pei, recommended him as xiaolian (filial and incorrupt), and the Grand Commandant Huang Gui summoned him, but he would not take up either post. He was expert in prescriptions and medicines, and his prescriptions used no more than a few ingredients. If the root of an illness was knotted within the body and needles and medicines could not reach it, he first had the patient take mafeisan (an ancient anesthetic) with wine; after the patient became drunk and lost consciousness, he would open the intestines and abdomen and draw out and cut away the accumulated masses. If the illness was in the stomach and intestines, he would cut them open and wash them, remove the diseased filth, then sew them up and apply a divine ointment (medicinal paste); the patient would recover in four or five days and be fully restored within a month.

The Hanwu Gushi (Stories of Emperor Wu of Han) records: Dongfang Shuo lost both parents three days after birth, and though someone adopted him, no one knew his surname. Because when he was found the east was just brightening, he took “Dongfang” as his surname. After he grew up, he often spoke alone to the air. Later he wandered in the Hongmeng marsh, where an old woman was picking mulberry leaves and claimed to be Dongfang Shuo’s mother. A yellow-browed old man arrived, pointed at Dongfang Shuo, and said, “This is my elder brother.” He also said, “I abstain from grain and practice qi ingestion (bigu and fuqi); once every three thousand years I change my bones and wash my marrow, and once every two thousand years I peel my skin and shave my hair. In my lifetime I have already washed my marrow three times and shaved my hair five times.”

Hao Gu (an immortal) carried vegetables on a shoulder pole, and Xu Pu (an immortal) went to the market to buy rice.

The Biographies of Female Immortals records: Northwest of Mo County in Mo Prefecture (an ancient place name) stands the Shrine of Hao Gu. According to tradition, Hao Gu, whose courtesy name was Nüjun, was once picking greens with girls from neighboring households beside the Minyan River during the Qinglong era of Wei (the reign name of Emperor Ming of Wei in the Three Kingdoms). Suddenly two Azure Youths (immortal lads) appeared before them and said, “The Duke of the Eastern Sea wishes to take Nüjun as his wife.” With that, they spread joined mats over the surface of the water, and Hao Gu walked, sat, and lay on them, coming and going as usual, just as if she were on dry land. The Azure Youths attended at her side as she went downstream. The neighboring girl ran back and told her family; her family hurried to see, but could not get near her. From afar Nüjun said, “I have fortunately been granted a place among the water immortals; please do not worry or be afraid.” Later she stood by the water, and before the shrine blue-white stones suddenly appeared, one vertical and one horizontal, about three chi wide and more than two chi high. They bore an old inscription saying, “This is the mounting stone of Hao Gu’s husband.” They are still there today.

The Classified Garden of the Imperial Dynasty records: In the Xishan of Hongzhou (modern Xishan in Nanchang, Jiangxi) there were Xu Da and his wife, who went in and out among the mountains. Tradition says that Xu Da was a servant of Xu Jingyang (Xu Xun, patriarch of Jingming Dao, who is said to have ascended to immortality with his entire household). Xu Da was buying rice with his wife at Xiling; by the time they returned, Lord Xu had already pulled up his house and ascended—his whole family and dwelling rising to immortality. Xu Da had a poem: “Ever since the worthy magistrate returned to the immortals, I have come and gone in the dusty world right up to now. It is not that I hide as a guest and blend with the customs of the times; selling firewood and buying wine, I seek to set my heart at ease.” Lord Xu bestowed on him the arts of an earth immortal (an immortal who dwells in the world). He changed his surname to Gan and became known as Gan Da; even today there are still those who see him.

“The jesting courtier puffs out his lips, the wild scholar covers his ears” means: the jesting courtier beside the Lord on High puffs out his lips in laughter, while the wild scholar covers his ears and will not listen.

The Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang records: Xing Hepu (a Tang dynasty thaumaturge) once invited a guest. The man stroked his beard and laughed heartily, the corners of his mouth stretching all the way to his ears; after talking freely with Xing Hepu for some time, he left. When someone asked about him, Xing Hepu said, “He is a jesting courtier beside the Lord on High.”

The Shenxian Zhuan (Biographies of Immortals) records: someone outside the south gate of Hezhou saw a ragged wild scholar selling gourd seeds. He said that within a year or two they would be put to great use, but no one ever understood what he meant. Sometimes he would hurry along with both hands covering his ears, saying, “How loud the sound of wind and water is!” Children followed behind him, and people of the time called him “Mr. Covered Ears.” The next autumn the river waters surged and flooded hundreds of households. Everyone saw the wild scholar sitting on a large gourd ladle, both hands covering his ears, shouting that the sound of wind and water was so loud, as he drifted away with the river.

“Hanging up the cap at Beihai, leaving the shoe at Nanyang” introduces the topic through allusions to hermits who abandoned office and left the world, leaving behind traces; the “hanging up the cap” discussed below is precisely the affair of Pang Meng, a man of Beihai.

The Unofficial History of the Later Han says: Pang Meng (courtesy name Zikang, a hermit of the Eastern Han) was from Duchang in Beihai (in the area of modern Changyi, Shandong). His family was poor, and he served in the county as a tingzhang (a low-level local clerk). Once a county commandant (the official responsible for public security) passed through the ting. Pang Meng greeted and paid his respects to him, then threw down the implements of his office and sighed, “How can a great man be ordered about by others!” Thereupon he removed his cap and hung it on the eastern gate of the capital, took his family across the sea, and settled as a guest in Liaodong. Later he went to Lao Mountain in Langya (a mountain in modern Shandong) to nurture his aspirations and cultivate the Dao, and people were all transformed by his virtuous conduct.

Princess Nanyang of the Han dynasty was married down to Wang Xian. At that time Wang Mang controlled the court. The princess had always admired pure quietude and emptiness, revered the Supreme Dao (the Way), and often recalled the well-governed eras of Emperors Wen and Jing of Han. She also knew that in Emperor Wu’s time immortals had repeatedly descended into the world, so she said to Wang Xian: The fate of the state has reached such a point that it is not something a woman can uphold. One should only preserve one’s own tranquility and harmony, withdraw to cultivate the Dao, and keep a little distance from clamor and contention; only then can one prolong life and nourish the body. If one drudges along complying with the customs of the age, I fear one cannot avoid the sorrows of fragmentation, decline, and depletion of life. Thereupon she entered Mount Hua, built a hut, and meditated in stillness; true spirits descended many times. Later, when her Dao was perfected, she rode the clouds and flew up, leaving only a pair of red shoes on the ridge. When someone went up to take them, the shoes had already turned to stone; for this reason the place is called Princess Peak.

“Lord Wang’s white rabbit and Lord Lü’s green snake” are parallel titles of immortal traces. The account in the Yuanhua ji below is the matter of Lord Wang’s white rabbit: Wang Qing was keeping watch over the Celestial Master’s (Tianshi) cinnabar stove—the alchemical furnace—and secretly opened the seal to peek. A white rabbit jumped out, and everyone said the elixir had already escaped. A Daoist transformed into a white crane and flew away; in a moment he caught the white rabbit again and threw it back into the elixir cauldron.

The Qing Suo (a Song-dynasty collection of strange tales) records that Jia Shixiong, a langzhong official, treasured an ancient iron mirror (the character yi here should mean a mirror) and had long wanted to have it polished bright. The recluse Hui Chushi (a hermit surnamed Hui) claimed to be skilled at polishing mirrors; he took some medicine from a bamboo shoot and heaped it on the mirror, saying that he would return shortly to retrieve it. After he left, he did not return for a long time. Jia sent someone to look for his dwelling and only then learned that he was in a temple, where he had written a poem on the temple gate: “In my hand the green snake soars past the white sun; in the cave immortal fruits bloom in bright eternal spring. You should know that the mist-and-clouds wanderer beyond the world is not the mirror-polisher in the dust.” The green snake is a metaphor for a sword, and “mist-and-clouds wanderer” refers to an immortality cultivator who has transcended the dusty world, meaning that he was not an ordinary mirror-polisher. When Jia looked again at the mirror, the medicine had disappeared, and the mirror’s surface was bright and clear inside and out. Hui Chushi also presented a poem to Zhang Ji: “At dawn I roam Nanyue, at dusk Cangwu; in my sleeve a green snake, my courage bold. Three times I entered Yueyang and no one knew me; chanting aloud, I flew across Dongting Lake.” It describes him roaming Nanyue in the morning and reaching Cangwu at dusk, with a precious sword hidden in his sleeve and a heroic, bold spirit; three times arriving at Yueyang unrecognized, chanting loudly as he flew over Dongting Lake. This passage uses mirror-polishing to reveal immortal traces, showing that Hui Chushi was an extraordinary person who played in the human world.

“Qian Zhen’s flight as white silk, Nü Bao’s washing of gauze” are summaries of two immortal traces: Perfected Qian ascended like white silk leaping into the sky, and Nü Bao washed gauze and displayed an anomaly.

The two Qian sisters were nüzhen (female Daoist cultivators). They lived in dependence on Tao the Recluse (Tao Hongjing) at Maoshan and recited the Huangting Jing (Yellow Court Scripture, an important classic of the Shangqing Daoist tradition) for thirty years without interruption. One day they took leave of the Master. He asked, “Where are you going?” They answered, “To be honored guests at the Golden Portal (the palace gates of Heaven).” The Master presented them with a poem: “The Daoist escorts the immortal guest, escorts her to Great Mao Mountain; Taihua is a hundred thousand li away—gazing from afar, it is like a flying goose in the dim void.” The Perfected One replied in verse: “Master, dwell well; I am grateful for your trouble in seeing me off from afar; my name is already in the register of immortals, recorded in Penglai Cave.” Thereupon she flew into the cave like a white silk streamer. By the time her younger sister caught up, the cave door had already closed. This is present-day Swallow Cave. In the cave are purple calamus and jade peaches. Thus Tian Lin wrote in a poem: “Swallow Cave and Dragon Pool have a clear atmosphere; Qian the Perfected left her lingering spirit here. After the immortal sister departed, the Master was still there; when the younger sister returned, the cave was already shut. Cloud fragments still seem draped in white silk; the spring’s sound seems forever to recite the Huangting Jing. Jade peach blossoms open and calamus turns purple—left for the human world as a painted screen.” The meaning is: Swallow Cave and Dragon Pool are serene and clear; Qian the Perfected left traces of her immortal spirit here. After the immortal elder sister left, the Master was still there; when the younger sister returned, the cave door had closed. The cloud fragments still look like draped white silk, and the spring’s sound seems forever to be reciting the Huangting Jing. Jade peach blossoms bloom and calamus shows purple, left to the human world as a painted screen.

The Xianzhuan Shiyi records: Bao Nü was a native of Hanzhong (present-day Hanzhong area in Shaanxi). She lived between the Lu and Mian rivers and from childhood admired purity and stillness. After she grew up, she was washing silk gauze by the water. At that time clouds and rain darkened the sky, and she seemed to conceive from some mysterious influence. Her parents reproached her, and she grew ill from sorrow. As she was dying, she said to her mother: “After I die, put me in an ox cart and take me to the western mountains; then my wish will be fulfilled.” Having said this, she died. Her parents placed her in the cart, but before an ox was harnessed, the cart moved by itself, crossed the Han and Jin rivers and the spreading currents, and went straight up onto the plains and mountain ridges. Her family chased after her and saw only five-colored clouds like a canopy, heavenly music shaking the sky, and banners and standards (ceremonial flags) leading her ascent to heaven. When they looked again into the cart, only an empty coffin remained.

Zhang Bai drinking wine and Qiao Qing brewing tea depict the leisurely and carefree life of the immortals.

The Kuoyi Zhi records that Zhang Bai, courtesy name Xubai, styled himself Baiyunzi. He was quiet by nature and broadly learned. Later, heavenly music (immortal music) shook the sky, and banners and standards (ceremonial flags and tallies) guided his daughter as she ascended to heaven; when the carriage was examined again, there was only an empty coffin. Zhang Bai drank wine, and Qiaoqing brewed tea.

The Kuoyi Zhi also records in detail: Zhang Bai was learned and skilled in writing, but twice failed the examinations and often indulged in wine. When a family member died, he wept and said, “Salary was originally meant to support one’s kin; now that my kin are no longer here, what is the use of seeking official salary?” He therefore practiced bigu (abstaining from grains), nourished Qi, and perfected Shen, took off his Confucian robes, and became a Daoist priest. After entering Yanzhong (a place name), he often spoke in ridicule and abuse, yet could strike precisely at others’ secrets. In wind, snow, and severe cold, he broke the ice and went deep into the water, sitting calmly; the heat around his body was like steam rising from cooking, and in an instant the place where he sat became dry. He often drank at the Cui family’s wine shop and wrote a poem on the wall: “By Wuling Creek is the Cui family’s wine; / on earth it should be absent, in heaven it exists. / A Daoist from the south drinks a dou of it; / after getting drunk, (he reaches) the deep mouth of the White Cloud Cave.” Later he departed by shijie (what Daoism calls liberation into transcendence).

The Qiang Shuo records that Zhang Zhihe had a male servant named Yutong and a maidservant named Qiaoqing. When someone asked the reason for their names, he said: the servant was made to hold the fishing pole and sort the fishing line, rowing a boat among the reeds; the maidservant was made to gather orchids and cut cassia for firewood, brewing tea in the bamboo grove.

“Wang Lao Threshing Wheat” and “Zhang Bo Splitting Melons” respectively refer to the immortal marvels of Wang Lao threshing wheat and Zhang Bo splitting melons.

The Shenxian Zhuan (Biographies of Immortals) records that Wang Lao was a native of Yijun County in Fangzhou, in the area of present-day Yijun, Shaanxi. He lived in the countryside, delighted in Daoist arts, and loved to receive guests. One day a Daoist priest in tattered clothes came to his door, and Wang Lao and his wife treated him with courtesy and kept him for more than a month. The priest suddenly broke out in malignant sores all over his body, and Wang Lao sought physicians and medicines and nursed him with even greater diligence. The priest said there was no need to trouble with medicine; only several hu—an ancient unit of capacity—of fine wine to soak in would heal him. Wang Lao accordingly brewed wine for him. When it was ready, the priest had it poured into a large vat, added medicine and steeped himself in it, and then entered the vat, emerging only after two days. His beard and temple hair had all turned black, his face had recovered its youthful appearance, and his skin was like congealed fat. The priest then had Wang Lao drink the wine. Wang Lao was at the time threshing wheat, so he drank together with his wife and the wheat threshers, and all became very drunk. The priest also drank and said, “Can we go up to heaven?” Thereupon auspicious winds suddenly arose, and colored clouds rose like steam; the whole household, people and all, together with the chickens and dogs, flew away at once, and the sound of wheat threshing could still be heard in the air. To this day, west of Yijun County, Shengxian Village—“Village of Ascension”—still survives.

The Yang Wengong Tan Yuan records that Zhang Ji lived outside the city, and there was a recluse by the name of Immortal Elder Lü, that is, Lü Dongbin. Zhang Ji rushed out with his shoes on backwards to meet him, a sign of eager welcome. Immortal Elder Lü asked for paper and brush and, in bafen script—a variant of clerical script—wrote a seven-character poem to leave with Zhang Ji. The poem strongly suggested that he would rise to the rank of general or chancellor and enjoy great prominence and success; its last line said, “When the achievement is complete, it should be in the year of breaking the melon.” Popular custom interprets “breaking the melon” as two eights, sixteen; Zhang Ji later proved it fulfilled at the age of sixty-eight. This was the immortal elder’s foreknowing cryptic language.

Lady Yunhua was the twenty-third daughter of the Queen Mother of the West (Xiwangmu), named Yaoji; she once traveled to the Eastern Sea and returned. “Clouds and rain of Mount Wu” refers to the lore of the Goddess of Mount Wu who makes clouds and sends rain, while “ice and snow of Gushe” refers to the lore of the divine being of Gushe Mountain whose skin was like ice and snow; both are used to describe the pure and peerless bearing of a fairy maiden.

The Jixian lu (Records of Assembled Immortals) says that Lady Yunhua was the twenty-third daughter of the Queen Mother of the West, the leader of Daoist female immortals, and that her name was Yaoji. She once traveled to the Eastern Sea, and on her return passed through the Wu Mountains along the river. Seeing the peaks standing tall and steep, the forests and valleys secluded and beautiful, and great rocks resembling altars, she lingered there for a long time. At that time Yu the Great, the hero who tamed the floods, was stationed at the foot of the mountain. Suddenly a great wind arose, and cliffs and valleys shook and collapsed; human strength could not control it. When he met Yaoji, he bowed and begged for her help. Yaoji ordered her maidservants to bestow on Yu the methods of talismans and summons for invoking ghosts and spirits, and she also commanded spirits to help him chisel the rocks, guide the waves, clear away obstructions, and make the water flow freely. Yu once visited her at a high and steep place; between glances she turned into stone, or suddenly soared and scattered into light clouds, or leisurely gathered and settled into evening rain, or changed into flying dragons and soaring cranes—myriad forms and ten thousand appearances, impossible to approach. Later Song Yu, a grandee of Chu, told this matter to King Xiang of Chu. The king did not seek her Daoist methods in order to attain long life; instead, he built a terrace at the Gaotang Lodge and constructed the Palace of Yangtai to sacrifice to her. Song Yu wrote the Rhapsody on the Goddess to give expression to licentious feelings, and its language is vulgar and mixed. How could high Perfected and supreme immortals be falsely accused of descending to have secret trysts with humans?

Zhuangzi says that on Mount Miaoguye there lives a divine person, whose skin is like ice and snow, delicate and beautiful as a virgin, who does not eat the five grains, breathes the wind and drinks the dew, rides the clouds and Qi, drives flying dragons, and roams beyond the four seas.

“Yuanjia’s six simultaneous acts” refers to Yuanjia of the Tang, who was clever and outstanding from childhood. He could draw a circle with his left hand and a square with his right, recite scriptures and histories with his mouth, count a flock of sheep with his eyes, compose a forty-character poem, and write a quatrain with his foot, performing six tasks all at once; people of the time called him the “immortal boy.” “Suqing’s Three Perfections” refers to Zhang Suqing, a Daoist priest from Shu in the Five Dynasties, who painted and presented twelve scrolls of immortals. Ouyang Jiong composed encomia, and Huang Judong, a vice director of the Waterways Bureau, inscribed them in bafen script. The painting, the encomia, and the calligraphy were together called the Three Perfections.

“Luan Ba slays the li, Fei Changfang rebukes the ao” is a shorthand for two immortal tales. Luan Ba (Luán Bā, the immortal often called Luan Ba in lore) heard that a god in the Lu Shan temple spoke to people from behind a curtain; before he even arrived, the temple spirit fell silent for more than ten days and fled without a trace. Luan Ba pursued in person; the ghost turned into a scholar and fled to Qi. The prefect of Qi, struck by his handsome looks and eloquence, gave him his daughter in marriage, and they had a son. When Luan Ba reached Qi and called on the prefect, he said he had heard the son-in-law was versed in the Five Classics and asked to meet him. The prefect summoned the son-in-law, who refused to come out; Luan Ba kept asking, and the son-in-law told his wife, “If I go out today, I will surely die.” Knowing he would not appear, Luan Ba gave a fulu (talisman register) to the prefect. The son-in-law received the fulu, came out weeping; Luan Ba shouted him down, he revealed himself as a li (a fox-like spirit), and was beheaded; the son too turned into a li and was killed as well.

Fei Changfang (Fèi Chángfáng), a legendary immortal of the Eastern Han who studied under Master Hu (Húgōng), was a petty market official; he met Master Hu, attained the Dao, and could subdue ghosts. Each year a ghost came to Runan commandery with pomp like a prefect entering his yamen, drums beating as it patrolled; when it left, the mood was equally mournful. Later Changfang was at the commandery seat just as this ghost appeared; he shouted and had it seized. The ghost alighted from its carriage, kowtowed, and begged to reform. Changfang scolded: “You show no gentle virtue, yet you bring a retinue for no reason and insult the prefect—show your true form at once.” In a moment it became a great ao (giant turtle). Changfang ordered it to carry a fulu to the Lord of Gebi (Gěbī, the water god of Gebi); it went off in tears. Men sent to follow saw that by Gebi the turtle was already dead.

The closing pair, “Lei’s sword pierces the Dipper, Yao’s raft threads the moon,” also alludes to immortal traces: the vital spirit of the sword Lei Huan obtained shot straight toward the Ox and Dipper stars; in the age of Yao, a huge wooden raft (chá, the same word as “raft”) circled the four seas and was said to hang from moon and stars as immortals traveled between heaven and earth.

According to the Jin Shu, between the Dipper and Ox asterisms a purple vapor appeared. Lei Huan said this was the vital essence of swords rising to heaven, and that the swords lay at Fengcheng in Yuzhang (present-day Fengcheng, Jiangxi). They dug open the foundation of the prison building and went down four zhang, finding a stone casket containing two swords, Longquan and Tai’e. Lei Huan sent one to Zhang Hua and wore the other himself. After Zhang Hua was executed, his sword vanished. When Lei Huan died, his son Lei Zhong carried the sword past Yanping Ford; the sword suddenly leapt from his waist into the water. He dove to search and saw two dragons coiled together; light filled the water’s surface as they departed. Lei Huan had said that numinous things eventually transform and vanish—and so it proved.

Xianzhuan Shiyi (Collected Remains of Immortal Biographies) records that in the thirtieth year of Yao’s reign, a huge raft floated on the Western Sea; light shone upon the raft, bright at night and extinguished by day. People on the shore saw the light swell and shrink like stars and moon rising and setting. This raft drifted around the four seas, completing one circuit of heaven every twelve years, repeating without end; it was called the “Moon-traversing Raft.”

Zhang Ge (a legendary immortal said to summon butterflies) summoned butterflies; Huang Chuping (legendary for turning stones into sheep with a shout) shouted at stones and turned them into sheep.

The Sanxianzhuan (Biographies of Scattered Immortals) records that during the Qingli reign of the Northern Song, there was a man in the capital named Zhang Jiuge who knew Daoist arts. One day the Prince of Yan went up to a tower and had someone summon him and offer him wine. Jiuge said, “I have a small trick to amuse Your Highness—may I?” The prince asked what props he needed. Jiuge said, “I would borrow a bolt of silk and a pair of gold scissors from Your Highness.” The prince gave him both. Jiuge cut the gauze into the shapes of bees and butterflies; each piece he cut flew off as a living insect, until their number was beyond counting. Some alighted on the prince’s robes, others clustered on the ladies’ hairpins. The prince watched in astonishment and was greatly pleased. Jiuge said, “I fear losing Your Highness’s silk,” and called the creatures back; the bees and butterflies flew in one by one and turned again into gauze. In the middle of the whole bolt there was one gap like the trace of a butterfly, because one butterfly had been caught by an official. The prince asked, “Can that one come back?” Jiuge answered, “No. If it could return at a call, it would; after a long while it will not, so let this missing mark remain as a curious memento.” Then he took his leave and departed.

The Shenxianzhuan (Records of Immortals) records that Huang Chuping was sent out from home to tend sheep; a Daoist took him to Mount Jinhua and he did not return. His elder brother Huang Chuqi searched but could not find him. Later, at a market, he met a Daoist and asked where his brother was. The Daoist said, “Isn’t the boy tending sheep below Mount Jinhua he?” Chuqi followed the Daoist to see his brother and asked where the sheep were. Chuping said, “The sheep are on the east side of the mountain.” Chuqi went to look and saw only white stones. Chuping shouted at the white stones, and they all turned into sheep.

The closing passage mentions the marvels of Li Shunxing at the age of ten and cites the “white stones turning into sheep” story alongside it; the encomium “Shunxing repels arms, Jinxian reviles the Qiang” means roughly that Li Shunxing could drive away military threat, and Jinxian dared to rebuke the Qiang.

Records from the Cinnabar Terrace (Dantai Xinlu) records: Li Shunxing was enrolled in the Taoist register (daoji) at eleven. One day over a thousand flying immortals gathered in the air; divine light filled his room. They ordered the attendant scripture immortal to open a scripture casket like nine-colored flowing clouds, take out two scrolls, and hand them to him. Emperor Wen of Wei (Western Wei Emperor Wen) once summoned him to the capital; court and populace revered and trusted him, calling him “Master Li the Alchemist.” In his thirty-eighth year, the sixth year of the Datong era, he died after a feigned illness. On the day of burial his nephew met him on the road at Mount Li. Li Shunxing told his nephew: “If the Son of Heaven has not forgotten me, you may make an image of me here, enshrined facing north, to shield the state from the corrupt customs of the northern barbarians.” When the nephew returned home he learned Li had already achieved shijie (corpse liberation); he reported this truthfully. The court sent envoys to open the coffin and found only an empty casket. A shrine was then established at Shayuan, titled “Saint Li.”

Declarations of the Perfected (Zhen’gao) records: Wang Yan, a Western Jin minister, served as Director of the Imperial Secretariat under Emperor Wu of Jin. His daughter, styled Jinxian, was consort to Crown Prince Minhuai. When Luoyang fell, Liu Yao and Shi Le seized Jinxian as she crossed the Meng Ford on the Yellow River and tried to force her into marriage on the river. Jinxian cursed them: “I am the crown prince’s consort and the daughter of the Minister over the Masses—how dare you barbarian wretches violate me!” With that she threw herself into the river. Her maid Liuchu said: “Since my mistress has done this, your servant should do the same,” and she too threw herself in. At that time Han Xihua, a female perfected one (nüzhen) of Mount Song, was traveling abroad. Pitying the two, she received and rescued them in secret. Outwardly they appeared dead, but their bodies were secretly saved and they were taken into Mount Song, where they were installed in the grotto-palace of Huayang as officials in the Yi Qian post (a rank in the female immortal palace). Liuchu was then twenty-two or twenty-three, of upright bearing and resolute character. Her original surname was Tian; she was from Yuyang, granddaughter of Tian Feng, former Prefect of Junyi under Wei. Tian Feng had accumulated hidden merit, and his blessing extended to Liuchu.

The closing encomium reads: Meng Qin rides the wind in whirling flight; Qiu Lin soars through the clouds on high.

Jin Yishi (Records of Jin Recluses) records Meng Qin: he obtained the methods of Zuo Ci and Liu Gen (both Eastern Han fangshi and Daoist immortals), and the common people all rallied to him. At that time Fu Jian (ruler of Former Qin) resented him for misleading the populace and wanted to kill him. Before long Meng Qin arrived; Fu Jian detained him. While they were deep in drink, he ordered his attendants to seize him, and Meng Qin turned into a whirlwind and left. Later someone reported seeing him east of the city; there were also rumors that he suddenly appeared beside the Han River and could not cross.

Zhengao (Declarations of the Perfected) records Fan Qiulin: he served as Bao Ming Cheng (preserver-of-life assistant) at Huayang Palace (a Daoist immortal abode). He excelled at changxiao (the Daoist cultivation practice of prolonged vocalization); his voice was like a mingling of a hundred birds, like wind driving through a forest, and also like the sound of beating drums. In a moment, cloud and vapor gathered and hovered above him, and rushing qi shook the woodland.

“Xiufu insulted by a courtesan; Xianni stiffened the monks” refers to the following two episodes. Chen Xiufu, styled Chen Qizi, was once insulted by a wine courtesan at a banquet of the prefect of Banan. He smiled as he looked at her face; in a moment the courtesan grew a beard several feet long and wept to the prefect for redress. The prefect apologized on her behalf; Chen Xiufu used his art to fetch a cup of wine for her to drink, and after a while she returned to normal.

Immortal Maiden Xu was the daughter of Xu Zhicai, pushe (vice director) of the Northern Qi court. She was several hundred years old, yet her appearance was always that of someone twenty-four or twenty-five. She was skilled in jinzhou (prohibitive incantation). She traveled every famous mountain and scenic place and often lived in rocky foothills. When she lodged at a monastery, suddenly several overbearing monks insulted her with frivolous words. The immortal maiden cursed them; the monks grew all the more enraged and their manner became increasingly insolent. The immortal maiden said with a laugh: I am a woman who left home to wander the clouds, unafraid of dragons, tigers, or wolves—do you think I fear vermin like you? She removed her outer robe and extinguished the lamp. The monks secretly rejoiced, thinking they had gotten their way. At dawn the immortal maiden took her staff and left the mountain; the monks had stood rigid all night like corpses seated, unable to speak. After she had gone several li, the monks at last returned to normal.

The Eight Lords of Huainan and the Ten Elders of Tiangu are two groups of ancient immortals in Daoist rosters of transcendent names.

The Biographies of Divine Transcendents (Shenxian Zhuan) records that Liu An, Prince of Huainan (a feudal prince of the Western Han who loved Daoist arts), honored worthy scholars and treated men of talent with respect. Eight old men (the Eight Elders, Ba Gong) came to his gate; the gatekeeper said: “My lord seeks to extend his years and the path to long life without aging—yet you gentlemen are all aged.” The Eight replied: “If my lord will only acknowledge the Dao when he sees youths, then we must appear as boys.” With that they all turned into children, their faces like peach blossoms.

The Biographies of Eminent Daoists (Gaodao Zhuan) says that the ritual master Yan Da, styled Daotong, had from childhood the will to leave the world and cultivate the Dao. He and ten companions—Wang Yan, Su Daobiao, Cheng Faming, Zhou Huasheng, Wang Zhenwei, Shi Daole, Yu Changwen, Zhang Facheng, and Fu Daocong—bonded through Daoist practice, honored one another, and moved in unison; people called them the “Ten Elders.”

“Zhao Sheng fetches the peach; Master Tian sends down jujubes” summarizes two signs of immortals. Zhao Sheng’s peach appears in the Biographies of Divine Transcendents: the Celestial Master (Zhang Daoling, founding patriarch of Daoism in the Eastern Han) led his disciples onto a perilous cliff on Mount Yuntai. Below the cliff stood a peach tree, its branches thick as a man’s arm, rooted in the rock face above a bottomless chasm, bearing large fruit. The Celestial Master told his disciples: “Whoever can bring back these peaches, I will teach him the essentials of the Dao.” About two hundred people lay peering over the edge; their legs shook, cold sweat ran, they dared not look long, and all withdrew saying it could not be done. Zhao Sheng leaped from the cliff and landed on the tree without a misstep, filling his arms with peaches. The Celestial Master shared the peaches among the disciples, later transmitted to Zhao Sheng the Way of Utmost Unity (the highest Dao), and Zhao Sheng ascended in broad daylight.

The deeds of the ritual master Tian (Tian Shi) are famed for “sending down jujubes” as a wonder; the Biographies of Eminent Daoists is the source for this Master Tian.

The Gaodao Zhuan (Biographies of Eminent Daoists) records: Master Tian, named Shi Wen, was a native of Gulu (an old place name). He received and upheld the scripture methods of the Three Caverns (the Daoist canon in three divisions), took medicinal elixirs and cultivated breath practices, kept fasts and precepts and carried out cultivation without ever slackening. He often performed blessings for others and treated illness; there was never a case that failed to respond—patients recovered at once. Chen Gang once invited him to conduct a jiao (Daoist ritual offering); suddenly a spirit descended and dropped several jujubes on the altar; they tasted unlike anything found in the human world.

“Mengchang wore flowers; Zi Wei wore grass” is the gist of the piece: Yi Mengchang loved to wear flowers; Zi Wei wore grass (rough plant covering).

The Jun Ge Ya Tan and Qing Suo Hou Ji record: No one knew where Yi Mengchang came from; because he dreamed of two suns, he took that as his name. In the late Tang he held no office, roamed mountains and rivers in feathered hemp robes (the coarse cloth Daoists wore), free and at ease, and loved to wear flowers. At the immortal altar of Sikong Guan in You County he once inscribed a poem: “Only the green pines idly catch the sun; no cloud cranes secretly bewitch mortals.” He also wrote on hibiscus: “Dew gathers on golden cups, dripping leftover wine; sandalwood marks the fair one, spraying strange fragrance.” Later Mengchang achieved shijie (in Daoism, the adept leaves the corpse and ascends, leaving no body behind). When someone opened his coffin, there was no corpse inside.

The Taiping Guangji records: In the time of Duke Jing of Song there was a man skilled in reading the stars and omens. Duke Jing promised him the rank of senior grand officer and had him live in a lofty tower with extended galleries to watch heaven’s signs and clouds, providing him rare foods and precious garments. Suddenly a man from the countryside, wearing grass and carrying thatch on his back, knocked at the gate seeking audience with Duke Jing, who received him in the high hall. He spoke of future signs and past events without a single error. By night he watched stellar qi; by day he held counting rods and pored over books—he wore no fine clothes and ate no delicacies. Duke Jing thanked him: “The realm is in turmoil; without you, how could I be aided?” He replied: “Virtue is not balanced; calamity is about to come. Cultivate virtue to win people’s hearts, and heaven will send auspicious signs and people will praise your transforming influence.” Duke Jing approved and bestowed on him the surname Zi and the personal name Wei—this was Zi Wei.

The closing praise, “Wan chuan ba yin, Wei zeng san bao,” may be read as: the myriad transmissions of the eight tones (ba yin broadly denotes music), and Wei’s gift of the Three Treasures (in Daoism often the Dao, the scriptures, and the master).

Wan Baochang’s place of origin is unknown. From childhood he was deeply versed in music. Once in the countryside he met more than ten immortals whose carriages, horses, and dress were splendid and whose banners and guard formations were arrayed with strict order. The immortals summoned him forward and said that the Celestial Emperor, because his nature inclined him to understand music, wished him to carry the eight tones—the music of the eight classical instrument types—into an age of decline and disorder; therefore they would transmit to him elegant music on the verge of collapse and the pure music of antiquity, though he had not yet fully grasped it. They then had him sit and taught him the music of successive dynasties and the sounds of ordered and chaotic ages, omitting nothing in detail. Wan Baochang memorized it all, after which Immortal Wei rose into the air and departed. From that time on, Wan Baochang studied every form of human music with thorough mastery. A laudatory line reads, “Wan transmits the eight tones; Wei bestows the three treasures”—referring to Wan Baochang’s transmission of the eight tones and the Wei immortal’s gift of the three treasures.

The Record of Responses from Immortals (Shenxian Ganying Zhuan) relates: Wei Na, courtesy name Jingzhao, having failed the civil examinations, traveled to Shu and came to the garden pavilion of the Zheng family, where he saw several dozen fairy maidens attended on either side, their robes and skirts so gorgeous that nothing like them existed in the mundane world. A immortal said to him: “I have a new piece called ‘Purple Cloud.’ The present Son of Heaven honors the way of immortals; I wish to confer this music upon you so that you may present it to the ruler of Tang, entrusting you with this task—may I?” Wei Na replied: “I am only a Confucian scholar and have never understood music; I truly cannot undertake this.” The fairy said: “Since you cannot, I shall entrust it to the Son of Heaven through a dream. Still, your having come here is also due to karmic affinity with the Way; I am willing to give you three treasures—sell them and you may be wealthy all your life.” She ordered an attendant to bring a cup called the Bi-yao Cup; then a pillow, jade-like with a millet-grain pattern; then a casket of purple jade—all radiantly clear—and gave them all to Wei Na. Wei Na bowed in thanks, and the immortals at once took their leave. When he looked back, the pavilion and terrace that had been there were gone.

The laudatory text also says, “Uncle Yin as immortal lord; Zhou Zhuan as ghost official.” The New Record of the Cinnabar Terrace (Dantai Xinlu) records: Qin Shuyin now serves on Mount Hua as an immortal lord (xianbo); Zhou Zhuan holds office among the ghosts (gui guan, an underworld post).

Zhenyu (a Shangqing Daoist classic) states: Zhou Dian (the commentary writes “Zhou Dian”) served as guisi shuai (commander of the ghost office)—that is, the commander in charge of ghostly affairs in the netherworld administration. A note says Zhou Dian’s courtesy name was Boren; Dantai Xinlu (a collection of immortal biographies) also records that Qin Shuyin now holds the post of xianbo (immortal elder) on Mount Hua. Another note says Zhou Dian, courtesy name Boren, was from Ancheng in Runan. He held office under the Jin dynasty, followed the Jin court south across the Yangtze, and rose to Vice Director of the Imperial Secretariat (shangshu puye). In the first year of the Yongchang era of Emperor Yuan of Jin, when Wang Dun marched south, he sent men to seize Zhou; Zhou was killed at the south gate of Shiji (present-day Nanjing), aged fifty-four. Posthumously he was granted the honors of Director of the Imperial Household (guanglu) and Grand Prefect (kaifu), with the posthumous title Marquis Kang.

“Jia Dan Steals the Books; Fushen Tong Pilfers the Elixir” are two separate story titles. According to Yishi (a Tang dynasty tale collection), one day Jia Dan (a Tang official) ordered sturdy soldiers to descend a dry well to retrieve documents; they indeed recovered several scrolls, all Daoist texts. He had more than ten people copy them; as soon as the copying was finished, a Daoist suddenly entered, called Jia by name and reviled him, demanding to know how he dared steal the books. Jia Dan humbly apologized, and the Daoist took the books back. According to Gaodao Zhuan (biographies of eminent Daoists), Fu Shentong was orphaned and poor in childhood and made a living herding cattle for others; he often saw a Daoist coming and going at the place where he pastured.