《三洞群仙录》Vol. 7

Immortal Liuhua looked closely and realized his visitor was not human. He said, “Go back for now and wait a little.” He then lured it out of the city to the outskirts with his sword, ordered it to sit, and killed it. It turned out to be a ghost with red hair and a blue face, about the size of a five- or six-year-old child. Liuhua carried the ghost’s head for people to see and said, “This ghost kept deceiving me, so I killed it to protect the people.”

The immortal elder Ge Yuan (Ge Xuan, a Daoist transcendent) passed by a household in Wukang. The master was gravely ill and had a spirit medium summon a deity. The deity told Ge to drink wine; Ge refused, and the deity spoke rudely. Ge said, “How dare you!” and ordered the Five Lords (spirit attendants) to drag it out and whip its back. The crowd saw no one being dragged, yet it seemed something was pulling it along. In the middle courtyard it clung to a tree and stripped for the beating; only the sound of the lash was heard, and its whole body bled. The master’s illness was cured as well.

“Zulong (First Emperor) Driving Stones” tells that the First Emperor built a stone bridge at sea to watch the sunrise. A spirit drove the stones; finding them too slow, it whipped them until they bled—hence the bridge still looks reddish. The Record of True Realms also notes: on a roadside cliff near Dongxiao Palace in Lin’an, old records say the First Emperor pressed ghost soldiers to move a mountain; as the slope was about to shift, an immortal suddenly rebuked the ghosts and braced the mountain with his body so it could not advance. Imprints of shoulder, back, and hairpin and cap remain on the cliff.

“Jade Maiden Playing Pitch-Pot” follows the Biographies of Immortals: Dong Wanggong (the East Lord Father—the text reads “Shu Wangfu”) and a jade maiden played pitch-pot (the ancient game of throwing arrows into a pot). Each round used twelve hundred throws; whenever a throw missed, Heaven laughed aloud.

“King Mu’s Eight Steeds” follows this tradition: King Mu of Zhou loved the way of immortals. He drove eight fine horses to Mount Kunlun, ate the fruit of royal wood (immortal timber), visited the Queen Mother of the West, and received oral formulas for ascension. Later he achieved tuo shen shi jie (abandoning the corpse to become an immortal), showing the people that all must come to an end. “The Magistrate of Ye’s Double Vision” is listed here by title only, referring to that magistrate’s tale.

The Wangshi Shenxian Zhuan (Biographies of Immortals by the Wang Family) records that Wang Qiao served as magistrate of Ye during the reign of Emperor Ming of Han and was protected by numinous arts. On the first and fifteenth of each month he often went to the capital to attend the emperor. Emperor Ming wondered how he came so often yet was never seen with horses or attendants, and secretly ordered the Grand Clerk to watch. The clerk reported that whenever Wang Qiao was about to arrive, two rabbits usually flew in from the southeast. When nets were set for the rabbits, what was caught was a pair of “crows”—in the story, shoes that had taken that form—the very pair the emperor had granted to the Secretary in the fourth year of his reign.

The line “Taixu receives the seal, Daquan wears the registers” praises Cheng Taixu for receiving the jade seal and completing the Dao while bearing fulu (talismans and registers).

The Xianzhuan Shiyi (Supplement to Immortal Biographies) records that Cheng Taixu was from Xichong in Guozhou. His mind was pure, lofty, and remote; he lived on South Min Mountain, abstained from grain, and sat in forgetfulness of self. One night violent wind uprooted trees and thunder and heavy rain fell; water in a sunken spot before the courtyard still boiled and surged. He stirred it with his staff and drew out two jade seals, which proved very efficacious when used. Every year people from near and far came to seek his help. Some who came to receive fulu—Daoist ritual credentials for entering the path or performing rites—stood at his door; he stamped the registers with the jade seals, and what they received was all the more abundant. Whatever he gained he used to aid the poor, and none failed to praise him.

Yin Daoquan cultivated the “Dongzhen Huanshen Cheshi Zhi Dao” (a Dongzhen-school method of returning the spirit inward and penetrating to subtle truth) on Mount Heng, and also wore the “Wudi Liujia Zuoyou Lingfei Zhi Fu” (a Daoist talisman). Celestial immortals then descended and told him: those who ascend in broad daylight must first possess the corresponding endowment of talent and nature before they can complete the Way. Emperor Wu of Han (Liu Che) once received from descending immortals the Wuyue Zhenxing Tu and the “Twelve Matters of Lingfei,” yet he achieved only shijie (abandoning the corpse to become immortal), not ascent with body and bones together; you have received but one of these, and already show hope of flying ascent—this rests both on diligent cultivation and on karma inherited from past lives. Yin Daoquan asked about the origin of the “Twelve Matters of Lingfei.” The immortal said: the Lingfei method was long ago transmitted by Jinmu (the Queen Mother of the West); it was meant to let Emperor Wu stabilize the Five Sacred Mountains and bless the myriad people, but he never fully realized the highest teaching of wuwei (non-action) governance; instead he abused military force, shed blood, and ruined his own merit—so he could not depart like the Yellow Emperor or Yu of Xia, riding dragons and clouds or dissolving form and hiding his light. That was his failing.

“Zhou Fu, pavilion chief” means Zhou Fu replaced his predecessor as chief of the South Gate pavilion. Zhengao records: the South Gate pavilion chief is now replaced by Zhou Fu; the Youjian gate has two pavilion chiefs per gate, and each gate also has four xiumen attendants—about eight xiumen attendants per heavenly gate. These are titles of office in the immortal realm’s gates and towers.

Kuoyizhi records: in the Qingli era of the Northern Song, a court official went early to attend the imperial audience. On the main road he saw more than thirty beautiful women in splendid dress, riding two abreast as if leading the way. Soon after he saw Ding Guanwen (Ding Du, with the Guanwen Dian academician title) following at a rein’s pace with his retinue. The official was astonished: Ding Du was always frugal—how could he have so many concubines? One woman at the rear was asked: where is Guanwen’s household going on this outing? She replied: It is not that—the female immortals are escorting the master of Furong Lodge. At that time Ding Du was already on leave; before long word came that Ding Du had died.

“Nanji Laoren” is the folk name for the Star of Longevity; “Xihe Shaonü” is a female immortal’s title—both are entries in registers of immortals.

The Commentary on the Zhengao states: In the Seven Sages’ Primordial Annals, Chijun descended to teach and transform, changing his form to appear as a shramana (a Buddhist monastic practitioner), and he and his six disciples all left their names. It also says: In the realm of primordial qi he was the Primordial Lord; in the Primordial Palace he was the Grand Marshal; at the Southern Star he was the Old Man of the South Pole; in the Great Void he was the Perfected One of the Great Void; at Mount Heng he was Chisongzi. He was the teacher of the Four Perfected Ones of the Heavenly Emperor and a friend of the Supreme One, the Honored Spirit.

The Biographies of Female Immortals records: The Maiden of the Western River was the niece of the immortal Bo Shanfu. With utmost sincerity she studied the Dao and took medicinal elixirs for more than two hundred years, her appearance growing ever younger. Seeing that her nephew was young and often ill, she gave him medicine; the man was then seventy years old, and after taking the medicine he gradually returned to youth, his skin like an infant’s. An envoy of the Han passed through the Western River and east of the city saw a woman striking an old man with white hair with a staff while the old man knelt and received the blows. The envoy found this strange and asked; the woman replied, “This is my son. Long ago my uncle Bo Shanfu obtained the way of immortals, took pity on my many illnesses, and granted me divine medicine; I gradually regained youth and vigor. This son of mine—I had him take the medicine but he refused, and so he aged like this; I was angry and struck him.” The envoy asked how old the woman and her son were; the woman answered, “I am two hundred and thirty years old.”

The New Records of the Cinnabar Platform records the matters of Yao Tan’s silver flowers and knocking on sparse stone milk: Yao Tan, styled Yuantai, was once treated by Duke Xiang of Jin with a teacher’s rites, kneeling northward to honor him; he cultivated clarity and emptiness in the Dao through many years. One day a disciple went out and saw silver flowers fall from the sky, scattering to the ground in profusion before fading after a long while; that same day the Primordial Lord of Grand Simplicity sent an immortal down to welcome him, conferred talismanic writs upon him, and appointed him Perfected One of the Mysterious Isle, governing the office of the White Waters.

Qiong Shu (an immortal in Lie Xian Zhuan, a Zhou-era fengshi official) could practice breath circulation and refine the bodily form, cook and consume “stone marrow” (stalactite drip that congeals into “stone milk,” regarded in antiquity as an elixir), and live for several hundred years. He often traveled to and from Mount Taishi (the central peak of Songshan), where stone beds and stone pillows could be found in the mountains. The encomium says: Xia Tong sang and the wind came; Liu Qingyun rose in flight and became an immortal.

Xia Tong, styled Zhongyu, was from Kuaiji. On the Shangsi festival (the third-month upper si day), nobles and officials in Luoyang down to commoners went to the floating bridge; men and women crowded together and carriage dress lit up the road—yet Xia Tong sat alone in his boat and did not look. Grand Commandant Jia Chong found this strange and questioned him; Xia Tong answered slowly: “Xia Zhongyu of Kuaiji.” Jia Chong said: “In ancient times both Yao and Shun had songs—can you respond in song with others?” Xia Tong said: “Our former lord attended court; the myriad states received his grace. Sage transformation spread like clouds; the people still sing in gratitude.” He then composed the “Song of Longing,” beat the boat with his foot, and led the tune in song—clear, piercing, and impassioned—and a great wind answered and arrived. When he shouted, thunder and lightning gathered in dimness; when he gave a long whistle, sand, dust, and smoke rose. The gentlemen looked at one another and said: “Had we not visited Luoyang, how could we have seen a person like this?” Xia Tong returned to Kuaiji and afterward his whereabouts were unknown.

Celestial Master Wu (Tang Daoist Wu Yun) in Xuan Gang Lun says: Someone asked why there were immortals in antiquity but none are seen today. The answer: clear and turbid do not flow together; true immortals and the realm of ordinary people differ—how could they be seen? They asked again: Ding Lingwei returned briefly after a thousand years; Hunyuan (referring to Laozi) has descended repeatedly to the present—how can one say they are no longer seen? They asked again who the immortals of today are. The answer, speaking briefly from the Tang onward: Liu Qingyun ascended in flight in Shu; Wei Shi rose like a dragon at Songyang; Dao He shed the corpse (corpse liberation, shijie, to become an immortal) at Mount Taiyi; Dong Yuan’s bones flew away (ascension) in a distant region. Huang Hua reversed aging; Qi Yi returned to the true.

Baopozi records: Huanghua, styled Lingzi, cultivated the art of “returning to the origin and reversing aging” (the text reads yan, meaning the method). Its scripture says this art can ward off war, guard the household, and bless descendants; it makes people rejoice at sight and long for one in absence, accord with the mind of the spirits, and win the people’s favor. He remained in the human realm for more than five hundred years, his appearance growing ever younger.

Gaodao zhuan records: The Daoist priest Zhang Qizhen, courtesy name Qiyi, was a native of Qiantang. The Prince of Zhongyi revered the Way and its methods; on the third and eighth days of each month he held luzhai (register purifications), putting Qizhen in overall charge. In the Taiping Xingguo era, Emperor Taizong of Song built the Taiyi Palace and ordered selection of the purest priests under heaven to reside there; Qizhen was chosen, summoned to court for audience, and found highly agreeable to the emperor’s intent. Later, because the wording of Daoist books was corrupt and unsettled, an edict called the most learned on both sides of the capital to collate them, and Qizhen took part. One night as he lay down to sleep, it seemed a clerk in vermilion robes came bearing a tally, saying he was ordered to summon Zhang to take office swiftly at Leng-hui (as in the original). At dawn he called his disciples and admonished them: “I am about to go; you must remember.” Then he peacefully returned to truth (i.e., died).

The line “Meng’s vital soul, Wang’s spirit” points to the soul-cultivation method transmitted by Master Meng below. Zhengao says: Shan Shiyuan received Master Meng’s method—each evening he first read the Huangting Jing once, then slept, letting po and hun refine themselves; practicing only this Way for twenty-one years one could also become an immortal—this counts as ten thousand repetitions in total; reading it three or four times through is better still. Lady Jiang of the Northern Marchmount also read this scripture and kept people free of illness—it is the path of non-death.

Wang Lao’s birthplace is unknown. He was friends with Feng Jun-da, a Daoist immortal, and together they traveled far and wide to famous mountains in search of the Way. A divine being appeared and told him: “Your sincerity has moved Heaven; the Supreme Venerable Sovereign (Taishang Laojun) has sent me to transmit to you the essentials of transcending the world and achieving long life and immortality.” The path of immortality is not distant—it is to be sought within oneself: without restless thought and worry, without deliberately practicing exhalation and inhalation; when the Qi of True Unity (Zhenyi zhi qi)—the primordial Dao-qi—fills the body, one can attain long life and ascend. When the mind is disturbed, the body is worn down; the Way of the Supreme Venerable is continuous and subtle, as if present yet hard to grasp—used without exhaustion and without a sense of toil. That is the true Way. When he had finished speaking, the divine being ascended into the sky and departed.

Mu Jiangfu was devoted to Daoist arts and cared nothing for fame or gain. He was on good terms with Master Yao of Dongjin in Chang’an and often went to Yao’s home to drink wine and discuss the Way, sometimes for days and nights on end. Yao suddenly died without warning; the whole household was alarmed and sent someone in haste by night to Jiangfu’s house, weeping and begging for help. Jiangfu smiled and said, “He can be saved.” He loosened his clothes and lay down beside Yao, instructing those present not to cry out until he called for them to answer. They put out the lamp and slept; at midnight he raised the lamp and looked—Yao was already sitting up. Yao said, “I had just been taken away by a messenger in yellow robes; before long I heard a summons: ‘Taiyi (a supreme Daoist deity) has issued a decree—the messenger is sent to bring you back’—and then I returned to how I was before.” Later Jiangfu withdrew into seclusion and his whereabouts were unknown.

Huang Fengxian was from Mengyang. He once entered Mount Geqi, where a Daoist transmitted to him the art of transformation. A wealthy man of the same county, surnamed Song, gave him his daughter in marriage. Song had many relatives; they once set a banquet to receive guests for Fengxian, but Fengxian had vanished without anyone knowing where he had gone.

Huang Fengxian was from Mengyang. He once entered Geshi Mountain, where a Daoist transmitted to him arts of transformation. A wealthy man of the same county, surnamed Song, gave him his daughter in marriage. The Song clan had many relatives; Fengxian hosted feasts for them, and after more than a month he still had not invited them all. One day the kinsmen joked, “We wonder how Huang’s wedding feast is coming along?” Fengxian answered at once: “Tomorrow I shall lay out a modest spread of food and drink—please all come.” The next day more than eighty neighbors and curious guests arrived at his home. Fengxian had never prepared for this on ordinary days, yet that day the courtyard suddenly looked tidy and the banquet rich and fine; the paintings and furnishings on display were unlike anything found in western Shu—each piece was strange enough to leave people stunned. Music played slowly; the guests drank freely. Some who tried to slip away saw two serpents on the doorposts when they stepped out; the guests were terrified and none dared leave. When the story spread, he found it awkward to stay, so he moved his household to Taihua Mountain in Dongchuan.

“Weizi merges with qi; Daozhen rides the clouds” is a capsule of what follows: Weizi could unite with cloud-vapor; Wang Daozhen truly could ride upon clouds.

Zhenyu says: Weizi was the daughter of Zhang Qing. In Yiqian Palace she often consumed mist-vapor. Mist-vapor is the refined essence of mountains, marshes, water, and fire—the full breath of metal and stone; long consumption can scatter form and shadow into empty space and merge them with cloud-vapor as one.

Wang shi Shenxian zhuan says: Wang Daozhen was a man of Han times. After attaining the Way he lived at the ancient Xiang Terrace east of Ghost Valley Mountain. White clouds often welled up from within the terrace; seen from afar they resembled a tower a hundred feet high. Daozhen often rode this mass of white cloud to roam the mountaintop; in the evening he returned to the terrace and the cloud withdrew back inside it. This terrace stands on Ghost Valley Mountain at Qinghan north of Jingzhou. Some call it “Yang Terrace”—that is mistaken.

The closing line “Yin lost attendant and estimate; Haolue tower in the bright court” may be read as a hint tied to the Yin clan and immortal palaces and tower-gates in the heavens.

After Yin Tong lost both parents, he could no longer fully fulfill the duty of offering fine food in nurture under heaven. Biographies of Eminent Daoists records: The Daoist Yin Tong, styled Lingjian, was thoroughly versed in the classics and histories and often lamented that worldly change is illusory and unstable, sighing toward heaven. His parents did not believe in his resolve and forced him to marry and enter official service; he knelt and pleaded: “I have heard of Zhang Zhen’s ascension, Zhennan’s glorious succession, Master Mao’s attainment of the Dao, and the prefect’s sincere conversion”—all classic tales of Daoist transcendence—“and moreover the legacy virtue of the Supreme Ancestor Taiji True Person must not go un inherited and spread; I wish to follow my original aspiration.” His parents consented, and he departed like one drifting on the wind. After his parents died and his mourning period ended, his wish to seek the true Dao and his heart devoted to guarding the One (shouyi, a Daoist cultivation method) grew daily. Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei heard his name and held him in especial reverence and service.

Ancient and Modern Tales of Poetry records: Haoren Bi traveled to Mount Luofu (a famous Daoist mountain) to study the Dao and then departed like one drifting on the wind; after his parents died and his mourning period ended, his wish to seek truth and guard the One grew daily in his heart. Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei heard his name and held him in especial reverence and service.

Gujin Shihua (Modern and Ancient Poetry Tales) records that Hao Renbi (later also called Master Wu) traveled to Luofu Mountain, a famed Daoist peak, and studied the teachings of Laozi and Zhuangzi under Master Zhang, grasping their essential meaning. When he took leave of his teacher intending to go to the capital to sit for the civil examinations, Master Zhang said: “Judging from your qi and bearing, you could stay here; I would transmit to you the Way of long life.” Renbi declined on the grounds that his aged mother lacked fine food to enjoy, saying that after he had achieved success and withdrawn from office it would not be too late to learn. That year he passed the examinations. In Zhejiang he visited Qian Wusu (Qian Liu, king of Wuyue), who treated him with great courtesy and summoned him to join his staff; he did not accept and wrote a poem in reply. The poem said, in substance: a worn sable coat ill suits the hibiscus-colored commandery; an aging body is ashamed before the kingfisher hairpin; his heart could not forget the wish to retire. Qian Wusu ordered him to compose Record of the Outer City; he refused. Qian Wusu in anger had him drowned in the river, and people of Wu mourned him.

In the early Jianlong reign, Ning Yu and others performed a zhaijiao (purification and offering ritual) on Luofu Mountain. When the rite was finished they toured the mountain’s caves; at the summit they saw a stone gate, and an old man clad in lichen and creeping vine (the garb of recluses) sat leaning on the door. Ning Yu asked what this meant; the old man said it was the dwelling of the Master of Luofu. Asked who he himself was, he answered: “I am Master Wu, named Qibi”—that is, Hao Renbi. When he had finished speaking the gate closed and nothing could be seen.

The closing line “Wang Kuo’s wine is mellow, Yun Sheng’s oranges are fine” means that Wang Kuo was renowned for fine wine and Yun Sheng for excellent oranges; the two are paired as lore among immortals.

During the Xiantong reign of Emperor Yizong of Tang, Wang Kuo was about to cross Dongting Lake by boat from the Jingzhou region (around present-day Jingzhou in Hubei). A violent wind forced the vessel to anchor at the foot of Jun Mountain (an islet in Dongting Lake). He went ashore for a stroll with several companions and suddenly caught the scent of wine. When he asked the others, none of them smelled it. Beside the path was a cave; he went in a few steps and found wine in a hollow, with an extraordinarily rich aroma. He cupped it in his hands and drank until he felt pleasantly intoxicated. From then on his body felt full and at ease, free of illness, and he gradually gave up grain food and entered famous mountains to cultivate the Dao. Later he read in an immortal scripture that Jun Mountain holds “heavenly wine,” and whoever drinks it may ascend as an immortal. What Wang Kuo encountered was precisely that wine.

Chen Yunsheng entered Longhu Mountain (a major Daoist sacred peak in present-day Jiangxi). In the Tianyou era (late Tang), someone saw him on Magu Mountain (another Daoist holy mountain); by then he had been away from home for seventy years, yet his appearance was unchanged. The prefect welcomed him to the commandery. One evening, as they sat at leisure, he said, “The oranges of Fengcheng are delicious—I have been longing for them.” In an instant Chen Yunsheng brought a hundred oranges.

“Deng Yu Watching the Green Birds; Shangqiu Herding Pigs” refers to two stories: Deng Yu observing green birds and Zixu of Shangqiu tending pigs. Deng Yu lived in seclusion on Heng Mountain (one of the Five Sacred Peaks), abstaining from grain for more than thirty years. At night he recited the Scripture of the Great Cavern (Taodong Jing), and the Lady Wei of the Southern Peak (a Daoist female immortal) descended to tell him, “You have the affinity to become an immortal; I have come especially to visit you.” One day he suddenly saw three green birds, like cranes, wheeling and calling; after a while they flew away. Deng Yu watched them and said to his disciples, “The green birds have come—the time of the immortal assembly has arrived.” He then shed his mortal form and achieved transcendence. Zixu of Shangqiu loved to herd pigs and often played an iron flute. At seventy he still had no wife, yet his face did not age. People in his home district found him extraordinary and believed he possessed Daoist arts. When someone asked the essentials of his cultivation, he would only say, “Eat calamus and drink water—you will naturally not hunger.” Thus he lived to more than three hundred years.

“Eating Cucumber on Hearing of It; Lord Zhan and Master Bai on Plums” is a title pointing to two immortal anecdotes—one about ingesting cucumber on mere report, the other about Lord Zhan and Master Bai and plums.

The Shenxian Zhuan (Biographies of Immortals) records that Fu Xian—an immortal whose origin is unknown—often lived in the Juxian region (roughly present-day Juxian County, Shandong) and traveled among seaside temples. Once, three immortals were gambling with melons in a shrine; they hired him to carry several dozen yellow and white melons and told him to close his eyes. When he opened them again, he was south of Fangzhang Mountain and Penglai Mountain.

The Zhen Gao (Declarations of the Perfected) records that in the time of Gaoxin Shi (i.e., Di Ku, an ancient sage-king), the immortal Zhan Shanggong planted plum trees on the Fulong grounds of Maoshan until plums covered the whole area. Zhan Shanggong now holds the post of You Si Bao (Right Superintendent) in the Jiugong (Nine Palaces, a Daoist celestial bureau). He often says that when he lived in Huayang and ate white plums, the taste was wonderful; looking back it seems like yesterday, yet in a blink three thousand years have passed.

“Lu Sheng digs to support” and “the Qu family buries money” are the opening entry headings for scroll eighteen, referring respectively to the stories of Lu Sheng digging earth to support others and the Qu family burying money.

Master Lu was a man skilled in the Daoist arts. One day, as he passed through the territory of Fuzhou (in the region of present-day Hubei), he moored his boat before the estate of Scholar Lu. Someone told Scholar Lu that Master Lu was no ordinary man. Lu went to pay his respects and asked about fortune and misfortune. Master Lu said: “This year you should not act rashly; I fear misfortune may come sooner or later. Behind the hall of your house there is a cache of money covered with boards—that money is not yours; its rightful owner is only three years old now. You must not use a single coin of it; if you do, you will invite disaster. Can you heed my warning?” Lu’s face changed color and he thanked him. After Master Lu left, while the boat was still rocking on the water, Lu smiled and said to his wife: “If Master Lu speaks thus, what more do I need?” He had a servant dig several feet into the ground and indeed hit boards; when they were opened, there was a huge porcelain vessel filled with scattered coins. Lu was overjoyed, and his wife also used her skirt to carry coins and straw to string them—when they had nearly reached ten thousand, their children suddenly suffered violent headaches they could not bear. Lu said: “Is Master Lu’s word about to come true?” He mounted a horse, caught up with Master Lu, and apologized for breaking his vow. Master Lu angrily said: “If you use the money, harm will reach your flesh and blood—weigh for yourself what matters more, gain or loss.” He rowed away and paid no heed. Lu hurried home, performed a zhaijiao (purification ritual of repentance and prayer for blessings), and afterward fell into convulsive illness.

The Zhenyu (that is, the Zhengao, a Shangqing classic) says: Below Mount Liangchang (a famed immortal mountain near Maoshan), in Han times there was the Qu family, extremely wealthy, with property worth hundreds of millions; they buried bronze vessels there, which remain to this day; they also buried money, which lies on a small hill to the northwest, facing that direction.

“Xian’an with purple na, Bo’er with red lotus” are paired designations from the immortal realm. The biography records: the Lady of Southern Wei was named Hua Cun, styled Xian’an (that is, Wei Huacun, first patriarch of the Shangqing lineage). In the deep of winter, at midnight, the Perfected One of the Supreme Ultimate (Taiji) descended to the Lady’s chamber, set out wine and food, and arranged “Yuan Cloud and Purple Na” (objects laid out at an immortal feast; the precise referent is unclear).

According to Xianzhuan Shiyi (Record of Immortal Traditions Collected), Zhang Bo’er was a practitioner who cultivated the Way on Mount Shihu in Shu during the Western Jin. Through devoted concentration and contemplative visualization—a hallmark of Daoist practice—he moved the immortals. One suddenly appeared and told him: on this mountain grows the “Night-Shining Mushroom of Long Life”; eat one and you can ascend in broad daylight. It grows beside water; at night what looks like a red lotus is it. Zhang Bo’er searched for years, found it, ate it, and could then fly and see clearly through all obstacles and hidden things. Later he rode away on a red tiger; no one knows where he went.

The headings “Gui Shun and the Parrot” and “Wen Xiang and the Azalea” point to two tales: Liu Guishun’s story involves a parrot; Shang Wenxiang’s involves azalea blossoms.

Youguai Lu (Record of Mysterious Wonders) records that Liu Guishun was sailing from Baling when a gale drove him ashore at Jun Mountain. After walking several li, thousands of parrots called one another’s names and cried his surname, saying: “Liu Twelve, blown here by wind into this strange realm—truly a case where misfortune turns into something fine.” Suddenly two Daoist priests said: With the wind in your favor, why not hurry back? They gave him a foot of brocade and said: Cover your eyes with it and you may leave. Guishun at once flew back to where his boat was.

Xuxian Zhuan (Continued Biographies of Immortals) records that Shang Wenxiang styled himself “Qiqi” (Seven-Seven). When Zhou Bao governed western Zhejiang, he treated him well. Zhou Bao said to him: The azalea at Cranelin Temple is famed under heaven; I have heard you sing when drunk, “I can brew wine in no time, I can open flowers in an instant”—can you make this flower bloom on the Double Ninth Festival? Shang Wenxiang said he could. So the day before he lodged at Cranelin Temple. At midnight a woman came and told him: I am charged by heaven to oversee this flower; it will soon return to Langyuan (the immortal garden), but today I will open it once for a cultivator of the Way. On the festival day the flower indeed unfurled like lamp banners. Later, when war and fire came, that flower truly went back to Langyuan.

“Three Flutes of Yunqing, One String of Taizhen” is a section cue: literally Yunqing’s three flute notes and Taizhen’s single plucked string—anecdotes of immortal arts and music.

Guangyiji records: Lu Yunqing moored his boat at Junshan (an island in Dongting Lake) on a moonlit night, drinking wine and playing the flute. Suddenly a fishing boat drew near. An old man on board held a flute as thick as a full embrace of timber and showed it to Lu, saying: “This is celestial music—it cannot be played.” He then produced another flute like those commonly used in the world and said: “This is immortal music from the grotto-heavens.” Finally he took out one as small as a writing brush tube and said: “This is a human-world flute.” The old man played that small flute once or twice, and the waves surged wildly; he played three or five more notes, and even the oars rose and danced. Lu was greatly frightened. The old man stopped playing and recited: “An old man of the Xiang reads the writings of the Yellow Emperor and Laozi, hand resting on purple jade, seated among emerald grasses; when spring comes he knows not how deep the Xiang waters are, at day’s end he forgets the road to Baling.”

Baopuzi says: Taizhen (daughter of the Queen Mother of the West) and the Lady of Mount Dongyue traveled to Mount Dai (Mount Tai). In layered depths where no human foot treads, more than a thousand zhang above the ground, there stood a jade table set with gold and treasure. Each time she plucked one string of her zither, a hundred birds flew in to gather, dancing as they arrived. The phrase “Lord Cui breaks the lock, Lingzi opens the coffer” refers to opening without permission what immortals and perfected ones had sealed away.

Xuanshizhi says: In the deep Kun mountains more than ten li east of Jianwei Commandery stood a daoist temple where Master Yan resided. Inside the temple was a stone chest three chi long, sealed very tightly. Tradition held that when Perfected Yin ascended to heaven, he entrusted the chest to his disciples with a strict injunction never to open it, lest great disaster follow. A certain Defender Cui, upon arriving in the commandery and hearing of this, ordered men to break the lock and open the chest. Inside there were only talismans and registers (fulu). Cui suddenly died violently, but three days later revived and said: “I was taken by the officials of the netherworld, who rebuked me for opening the stone chest of a perfected one. Now the Emperor of Heaven has ordered my lifespan shortened and has stripped me of five official appointments; only two years of life remain to me.” Cui indeed died two years later.

Dantai Xinlu (New Records of the Cinnabar Platform) records that Fan Lingzi took to the path of immortality from youth and practiced for many years. He later met Sima Shihan (a personal name, or perhaps the name of an immortal). An order came from the Highest Lord to reduce his allotted lifespan (shousuan), and his blessings from five official appointments were stripped away, leaving him only two years to live. Cui Guo did indeed die two years later.

Dantai Xinlu also records that Fan Lingzi later met Sima Jizi (a Han-dynasty recluse later revered in Daoism as an immortal). Jizi took him into the stone chamber on Chang Mountain, where they stayed seven years. In the northeast corner of the chamber was a stone window. Each time Jizi went out, he warned him: “You must never open it,” and repeated this many times. Lingzi suddenly opened the stone window and looked out; below he saw his own home, parents and kin close at hand, and was overcome with grief and longing. When Jizi returned, he sent him home. Later he brought him back again and had him guard an iron chest; when Jizi went out he again and again forbade opening it, but Lingzi opened it once more and again saw his family as before. Jizi then sent him away for good, and in the end he never achieved the immortal way.

“Green E Luhua’s peerless grace, Cui Shaoyuan’s upright beauty” means that E Luhua’s appearance was supremely lovely and Cui Shaoyuan’s bearing was elegantly fair.

Zhengao (Declarations of the Perfected) says that E Luhua called herself a woman of the southern mountains and that no one knew which immortal she was. She appeared as a woman of about twenty, dressed in green, with a countenance of utmost dignity and beauty. On the night of the tenth day of the eleventh month of the third year of Shengping in the Eastern Jin, she descended to the home of Yang Quan (a Jin-period figure said to have consorted with immortal maidens). She presented a poem and gave him one strip of fire-washed cloth for a hand towel (a cloth said to resist fire) and one jade and one gold arm ring (tiaotuo, a bracelet) each. When people traced her origins, they said she was Luo Yu, a woman who had attained the Dao on Jiunong Mountain—already nine hundred years old.

Guangji (Extensive Records) says that Cui Shaoyuan was the youngest daughter of Cui Piangong, prefect of Fenzhou in the Tang. Her mother dreamed of a divine being in deep-red gauze riding a dragon in jade clouds, holding a purple casket and bestowing it on her; she was pregnant fourteen months and then bore Shaoyuan. At birth a strange fragrance filled the air; her hair covered her eyes and her ear ornaments hung to her cheeks—beauty beyond compare. In a previous life she had dwelt in Wuyu Heaven (the Desireless Heaven of the Daoist cosmos) as left attendant scribe to the Jade Emperor.

“Lord Qiu’s traces of the crane, Wang Fangping’s cicada-shedding liberation” means that Lord Qiu left the mark of an immortal crane and Wang Fangping ascended through shijie (corpse liberation, shedding the mortal shell like a cicada)—both images evoke the traces of immortals who have transcended the mundane world.

According to the Shenxian Zhuan (Biographies of Divine Immortals), the ancient immortal Fuqiu Gong once guided Wang Qiao (Prince Qiao, an immortal) on a tour of Wangwu Mountain. On the way he had a crane rest by the roadside. Wangwu Mountain has a Xiehe Platform (Resting Crane Platform), where traces of cranes still remain; it was also where Fuqiu Gong lived in seclusion. Today the southern peak is called Nanling (South Ridge).

According to the Lie Xian Zhuan (Biographies of Arrayed Immortals), the Daoist Wang Yuanzhi (courtesy name Fangping) was recommended as xianliang fangzheng (virtuous and upright) and rose repeatedly to the rank of Central Regular Grandee. He was versed in astronomy and lived in seclusion in the mountains and forests. The Han emperor summoned him many times, but he never took office; when the prefect tried to bring him to the capital, he also kept silent. Later he told his disciples: My allotted span is nearly done; I shall leave tomorrow. When the day came he achieved shijie (corpse liberation)—becoming an immortal without leaving a body behind, like a cicada shedding its shell.

The Daoist Ke Jing cultivated refined methods; at one hundred seventy-eight he was still vigorous. Each day he took “yùquán” (jade spring—the saliva in the mouth) and knocked his teeth. Before rising in the morning, he first rinsed and gathered saliva until his mouth was full and swallowed it; then he knocked his teeth fourteen times—this was called “refining essence” (liànjīng).

Qian Keng is Peng Zu; he had daoyin (guiding and pulling) techniques. Whenever he fell ill he would hold his breath and direct it to the afflicted place; the qi moved inside him like clouds, reaching to the fingertips, and before long his body was harmonized again. He once said: A superior person sleeps in separate beds, a middling person under separate covers, an inferior person relies on drugs—but taking a hundred medicines is not as good as sleeping alone. Later generations collected his breath-holding and daoyin methods into the Peng Zu Jing, which has circulated in the world.

At the end of the piece, “Maiwang he feng, the dwarf Yuan Chao” are two immortal-wonder titles, pointing to the wonder tales of He Feng and Maiwang (a legendary immortal creature said to be transformed from a bookworm) and Yuan Chao.

The Record of Primordial Transformation (Yuanhua ji) relates that during the late Tang, the scholar He Feng once bought an old scroll. While reading it, he found inside the roll a tuft of hair coiled into a ring about four inches across, like a circle with no beginning or end. Where it was cut apart, more than a sheng of water dripped from the two ends; when burned, it smelled like burning hair. He Feng often told Daoist practitioners about this. One said: Alas—you still have ordinary bones. You encountered this thing yet cannot ascend as an immortal (yuhua, feather-transformation); that is fate. According to immortality scriptures, when the white bookworm (baiyu, silverfish) eats the two characters for “immortal” three times, it turns into this object, called tunwang. At night, if you aim it (shaped like a compass ring) at a star at the zenith, the star envoy will come at once; you may ask for the huandan (returned elixir, a Daoist immortality pill). Mix and drink this water, and you can exchange your bones and rise to heaven. He Feng then searched the old book and saw several places worm-eaten and missing text; reading by context, every gap was the two characters “immortal,” and he came to believe it.

The Record of Broad Marvels (Guangyi ji) relates that in the second year of the Guangde reign (Tang), the bandit Yuan Chao of Linhai raided Yongjia. His boats were blown by wind thousands of li away. From afar they saw a mountain, green and dense, with city walls shining in five colors. They turned the boats in and moored. They saw a jingshe (practitioners’ lodge) with no one there; in the rooms were more than twenty foreign saddles, much Shu brocade, and many gold vessels. The bandits, seeing no people, scrambled for the goods. Suddenly a woman came out from the golden city and said: Are you not Yuan Chao’s faction—why have you come here? What business have you with these things, that you take them at will? She had them look at the saddles and said: Do you think these are dogs? They are not—they are dragons. Return them quickly. The bandits each gave back what they had taken and asked where this was. The woman answered: This is where the immortal of Cixin, at Lake Yi (Yihu, also written as Mirror Lake), cultivated the Way.

Tao Kan’s cranes at the mourning rites: When Tao Kan (a famous Jin-dynasty minister) was keeping mourning for his mother, two guests came to offer condolences. They did not weep but withdrew, transformed into spirit cranes, and soared into the sky. People of the time were greatly astonished.

According to the Biography of Eminent Daoists (Gaodaozhuan), the Daoist Liu Daohe met a divine being who said to him: “I have heard that you love cultivating the Dao and that your purpose and integrity never waver.” The divine being handed him a talisman for summoning spirits from the Mengwei Code of Talismans and Registers (Mengwei falu) system. Liu Daohe accepted it and swallowed it; from then on, every method he applied worked without fail. When Emperor Gaozong of Tang was to perform the fengshan rites at Mount Tai, rain fell unceasingly; the emperor ordered Liu Daohe to perform expiatory ritual prayer, and before long the sky cleared. He regularly used what he received in reward to relieve the poor. When Luoyang was overrun by locusts, Liu Daohe showed his talisman to officials and had them distribute and post it throughout the jurisdiction, and the locusts vanished at once.

“Qi Hui returns to the chamber; Huixu on the wave-bridge” may be read as Qi Hui going back to his room and Huixu at the wave-bridge.

The same work also records that the Daoist Qi Hui served Master Su and obtained a category of cavern-transmission methods (dongfa); he practiced them faithfully for many years until his mind was clear and he felt at ease. Once, because an immortal scripture says, “If you wish to become a guest among immortals, enter Mount Taibai,” he chose disciples whose resolve was firm and went with them to Mount Taibai; after they arrived they turned back again, and in his room there were often sounds of immortals laughing and talking.

Hui Xu was a monk at Guoqing Temple on Mount Tiantai, a well-known Buddhist monastery on that mountain. Once, as he and a companion came to a stone bridge, Hui Xu crossed it and climbed straight up the cliff face. There he met an old man and asked: people say that crossing this bridge lets you see arhats—where are the arhats? The old man said: this is the blessed domain of immortals, the earthly lower palace that the Heavenly Emperor set in the human world—the land of deathlessness at Jinting, administered by the perfected lord Wang of Tongxiang. Here are thirty thousand ranked immortals and three hundred supreme perfected ones; the Most High (Taishang) descends to this palace three times a year to examine and rank the merit and cultivation of all who study the Way under heaven. It is not a place where arhats dwell. The monk asked: can one become an immortal through learning? The old man answered: accumulate merit and practice diligently with real effort, and you can ascend in broad daylight. After a few steps the old man led him, the man vanished, and Hui Xu suddenly found himself before Guoqing Temple. From then on Hui Xu wore Daoist dress and devoted himself to elixir cultivation. On Mount Zhongnan he met the old man again, received and swallowed an elixir pill, and so flew up and became an immortal. People said that old man was Zhang Guolao, one of the Eight Immortals of Daoism.

The closing line, “Nie met Peng and Cai; Xie met Mei and Xiao,” is very terse: it records that someone named Nie encountered Peng and Cai, and someone named Xie met Mei and Xiao—encounters with immortal worthies—without unfolding the details.

According to the Records of Eminent Daoists, Nie Shidao lived at Zhaozhen Abbey on the South Sacred Mountain (Nanyue, Hengshan). One day he went into the mountains to seek the Perfected One Cai. Evening fell before he arrived, and he met a woodcutter. He asked, “Where are you headed? I have heard that the Perfected One Cai lives in seclusion here, and I hope to pay my respects and meet him.” The woodcutter said, “It is too late now—you cannot get there tonight. There is a household ahead where you can ask for lodging.” Nie Shidao went on and saw a thatched hut. A farmer asked where he was going; he said he was looking for the Perfected One Cai. The farmer told him, “The woodcutter you met just now was the Perfected One Cai himself.” Nie Shidao sighed, “I encountered an immortal sage and did not recognize him—was it fate?” The farmer kept him for the night. The next morning the sun was already high, but his host had not yet risen. Nie Shidao set out again and met an old man who invited him to sit on a rock and asked where he was going. He recounted everything. The old man said, “The farm family you stayed with last night were the son of the Perfected One Cai.” He added, “Your Dao-qi is very strong, but your immortal bones are not yet fully formed.” He broke off some grass and gave it for him to eat; in an instant the old man vanished. Nie Shidao returned and told the community. They said, “In one trip into the mountains you met three immortals. That old man was the Perfected One Yaopeng. You saw the Perfected One Cai and his son, and you also saw this perfected one—is this not proof of utmost sincerity in cultivation?”

According to the Sequel to Immortal Biographies, Xie Xiutong went to Jieshan, where a divine being appeared to him and said, “Lujiao Yusu Mountain is a separate realm of Siming (the god who keeps the registers of life); you should go there to cultivate.” Xie Xiutong obeyed and went. One day he went deep into Hanyuan and suddenly passed a great hall. A green youth came out and asked, “Are you not Xie Xiutong? The two perfected ones, Xiao and Mei, have been waiting for you a long time.” He then led him to meet the two perfected ones. Xie Xiutong bowed twice and said, “I am like an ant in the dusty world, yet I long for the way of long life; I wish my withered bones to live again and to meet the yuanhui (the great assembly of immortals).” The perfected ones gave him pine needles and five-eared fine grain to eat. Later Xie Xiutong attained the Dao and ascended by corpse liberation (shijie, one Daoist mode of transcendence, leaving the physical form behind).

This entry takes as its theme “Tianhuo safe and unharmed; Changcong falls ill.” Tao Tianhuo was a native of Nan’an and lived by the seashore. The sea suddenly surged; his family fled in panic. Tianhuo had just been born, and his mother meant to carry him away but could not; the whole household wept. When the water receded and they returned home, they found the child safe among the crossed branches of a mulberry tree, and so named him “Tianhuo” (Heaven-Living). When he grew up he was bright and attained the Dao; his inner Qi was full. Under the four reigns of Tang Emperors Xianzong, Muzong, Gongzong, and Wenzong he served as neigongfeng daoshi (a Daoist post in the inner court), and ministers and grandees all held him in esteem; later he withdrew to live in seclusion by the sea and did not come forth.

Changcong, Laozi’s teacher, fell ill. Laozi asked: “Master, your illness is grave—is there no teaching you wish to leave your disciples?” Changcong asked: “When you pass through your old home, you should alight from the carriage—do you understand?” Laozi said: “That means not forgetting old ties?” Changcong said: “Ah, yes.” He asked again: “When you pass a tall tree you should walk quickly (as a sign of respect)—do you understand?” Laozi said: “That means honoring the aged?” Changcong said: “Yes.” He opened his mouth and asked: “Is my tongue still there?” The answer: “It is.” “Are my teeth still there?” The answer: “They are gone.” Changcong said: “The tongue remains because it is soft; the teeth are lost because they are hard.” He added: “The principles of the world are exhausted in this.” The text also cites from the Guangji the story of Jiang Sheng of Wu commandery, again using lost teeth to illustrate that hardness breaks easily; at the end it mentions “Zhang Pu’s golden inkstone and Xie Xian’s iron brush,” naming immortal lore associated with Zhang Pu and Xie Xian.

Guangji (Broad Records) relates: A man of Wu Commandery named Jiang Sheng lived in seclusion on Siming Mountain and was fond of refining elixir pills, but for many years he had no success. One day he hired a servant from among the poor named Zhang Quansu. When Zhang Quansu spoke of divine elixirs, Jiang Sheng scolded him: “You are a hired hand—do not talk nonsense.” Zhang Quansu then took out a gourd ladle, produced a single pellet of medicine, and said to Jiang Sheng: “This elixir can turn earth into gold. May I borrow your inkstone to demonstrate?” Jiang Sheng did not believe him. That very night Zhang Quansu suddenly died; before he could be prepared for burial, his corpse had already vanished—only his belt and clothes remained—and the inkstone had turned into purple gold. This shows that Zhang Quansu was no ordinary servant but an extraordinary person who used wondrous arts to awaken and transform Jiang Sheng.

Zhiyi (Collected Remains) relates: He Xiangu lived in Lingling County, Yongzhou. When Teng Zijing was serving in Yueyang, one night there was a great thunderstorm; after the rain cleared, three characters appeared on the cliff face of the western peak at Huarong, written as “Xie Xianhuo,” in a strange script. Lord Teng had them traced and copied and asked everyone, but no one knew their meaning. Someone said the Immortal Maiden He of Lingling would know, so he sent a messenger to ask her. He Xiangu said: “This is merely a ghost of the Thunder Department. Two brothers like to write with iron brushes; that ghost is three feet tall.” Lord Teng sent men to verify at the western peak, and it was indeed so. This story shows that He Xiangu could recognize matters of divine strangeness in the Thunder Department.

“Zhang Kuan Facing the Stars, Shansheng Swallowing the Sun” is a heading that cites allusions; the story of Zhang Kuan facing the stars appears in the Liutie (Six Collections): In the time of Emperor Wu of Han, a woman was bathing in the Wei River, her breasts seven feet long. The emperor found it strange and sent someone to ask her; the woman said: “The person in the seventh carriage knows my origin.” At that time the Shu man Zhang Kuan was serving as Palace Attendant, and Zhang Kuan replied: “This is the star that presides over sacrificial rites in Heaven. When fasting and purification are not pure, the Woman Star appears.” The meaning is that Zhang Kuan was versed in stellar lore and identified this woman as the manifestation of the Woman Star, because the ritual fast had not been kept pure.

The Scripture of the True Warrior says: In antiquity Queen Shansheng dreamed that she swallowed the light of the sun and thereby gave birth to the True Warrior (Zhenwu, the great northern deity of Daoism). From birth he was prodigious; grown, he was fierce in spirit yet refused the royal succession and devoted himself solely to cultivation, assisting the Jade Emperor (Yudi, the supreme celestial lord). He vowed to cut down demons throughout the realm and rescue all sentient beings. Day and night within the palace he repeated this oath, and even his royal father could not turn him aside. He therefore left home, bade farewell to his parents, and entered Mount Wudang to cultivate the Dao for forty-two years until his merit and practice were complete and he ascended in broad daylight.

“Qu Yuan was cast out; Jia Yi was demoted” introduces two ancient men who suffered rejection and exile.

The Records of Gathered Remains says: Because of his loyalty Qu Yuan was dismissed and withdrew to the country of the Yuan and Xiang rivers. He draped himself in plants, ate wild greens, mingled with birds and beasts, and kept aloof from worldly affairs, gathering fruits and herbs and blending cassia meal to nourish his spirit. Later, pressed and driven out by King Huai of Chu, he cast himself into the clear cold waters and died. The people of Chu remembered and revered him and called him the “Water Immortal” (Shuixian). His spirit roamed the celestial grotto; numinous essence descended upon the banks of the Xiang, and the Chu people therefore established shrines to him—a practice that continued into the late Han. In those mountains there is a numinous cavern. When herb-gatherers entered it, they saw only a clear sky, clouds and light interwoven, fragrant plants and dark willows, cinnabar towers and jade halls, palaces unlike anything in the ordinary world. Many women wore rainbow robes; their faces were ice-pure and lovely, utterly unlike mortals. They offered him jade nectar to drink and imparted the secret of elixir wine, so that he no longer knew hunger or thirst. When he returned to his home district, it was no longer the same neighborhood he had known. Seeking out a ninth-generation descendant to ask, he was told: “A remote ancestor entered Mount Dongting to gather herbs and never came back; that was already three hundred years ago.”

The Declarations of the Perfected says: Ximingdu Jinlang (an officer of the underworld bureaucracy in Daoist lore), Jia Yi, had once mishandled matters concerning Ma Rong and was demoted to serve as guardian of Mount Tai. The Lord of Mount Tai (Taishan jun, the god of Mount Tai) has recently invited him to serve as marshal; approval has already been granted.

“Stone image of Shaojun; golden hairpin of Taizhen” are catalogue headings for two tales of immortal traces—referring to such marvels as the stone image of Li Shaojun and the golden hairpin of the Lady of Grand Perfection (Taizhen furen).

Emperor Wu of Han issued an edict summoning Li Shaojun, a fangshi (Daoist practitioner) of the Han period, and said to him: “I long for Lady Li—can I see her again?” Li Shaojun answered: “You can see her from a distance, but not as closely as when she was beside you within the bed-curtains. In Hehai, a legendary sea where wondrous stones appear, there is a stone called the Qianying Stone, bluish-green in color and as light as a feather. In cold weather the stone grows warm; in hot weather it turns cool. Carved into a likeness, it is indistinguishable from a living person. Set that image out to summon her, and the true person will come.” The emperor later obtained the stone and had artisans carve it in Lady Li’s likeness. When it was finished, the effigy was placed behind light silk curtains, looking just as she had in life, and the emperor was overjoyed.

The Xianchuan Shiyi (Collected Remnants of Immortal Transmissions) records: Yang Youtong’s childhood name was Shi Wu. As a boy he met a Daoist who taught him the arts of interrogation and summoning—the techniques for invoking and questioning spirits. After Emperor Ming of Tang went to Shu and the Mawei Incident, he still constantly missed Consort Yang and summoned Shi Wu to the traveling court, asking whether she could be found. Shi Wu replied: “Even in heaven and earth, in the dark silent depths, and among ghosts and spirits, one may search everywhere.” The emperor ordered Shi Wu to inquire far and wide, but no one knew where the consort was. Later, at the abandoned western site of the Southern Palace on Mount Penglai, where a company of immortals dwelt, the Shangyuan female immortal Zhang Taizhen was none other than the consort. Shi Wu went to see her, and she said: “I am an attendant of the Supreme One, assigned to the Shangyuan Palace. His Majesty was originally a true person of the Sun Vermillion Palace; because of karmic ties, worldly attachment was heavy, and he was sent down to the human realm. After one jie—twelve years—you will meet again of yourselves.” She then took out half of the golden hairpin and half of the inlaid ornament he had given her in the Kaiyuan era, along with a jade hair-filament token, and entrusted them to him as proof, saying: “When His Majesty sees these, he will remember on his own.” With that she wept and left. Shi Wu presented the tokens to Emperor Ming, who wept silently for a long time.

Zhengao records: From youth Yuanzi loved the Dao and its arts, kept precepts, and cultivated with sincere devotion—eating only one vegetarian meal at midday, tempering the body and guarding the spirit, shunning worldly things. When prefectures summoned or engaged him, he always refused. Sometimes he wandered in mountains and forests, far from the dust of the world, resolved to follow Wang Ziqin (an ancient immortal) at Weicen and to harmonize in song with Lingyang Ziming (an ancient immortal) at Buyuan (a mountain of immortals); for this reason he changed his name to Yuanzi and took the style name “Yanqi” (Prolonging the Term).

Dengzhen Yinjue says: Ji Wei formerly kept a long fast for three years, with utmost sincerity and single-minded pursuit of the Dao, before he could ingest the qi of sunlight and moonlight (a breath-cultivation method); then divine light shone upon his body.

“Zengzi putting on his sandals, Mother He weaving shoes” introduces two stories. Nanhuazhenjing (Zhuangzi) says: Zengzi (Zeng Shen, disciple of Confucius) lived in Wei, wearing an old wadded robe without a facing, his face swollen, hands and feet covered with calluses; for three days he did not kindle a fire to cook, for ten years he added no new garment; when he straightened his cap the hat-cord broke, when he grasped his lapel his elbow showed through, when he put on shoes the heels split. Dragging his shoes, he sang the Shang Song, and his voice filled heaven and earth like metal and stone. The Son of Heaven could not make him a minister, feudal lords could not befriend him. Therefore one who nourishes the mind forgets the body; one who tends the body forgets profit; one who pursues the great Dao forgets clever scheming.

Guangji records: He Erniang of Guangzhou made a living weaving shoes; at twenty she lived with her mother and did not ordinarily practice immortality techniques. She suddenly said to her mother, “Staying here is stifling; I wish to go and walk the Way.” The next day she flew away and ascended Mount Luofu (a famous Daoist mountain).

According to Guangji, He Erniang of Guangzhou made her living weaving cloth. At twenty she still lived with her mother and did not ordinarily practice any arts of immortality. Suddenly she said, “Life here is too stifling; I want to go out and walk the Way (seek the Dao and immortals).” The next day she flew away and ascended Mount Luofu (a famous Daoist mountain in present-day Guangdong), and she also often traveled back and forth on the north side of Xiao Temple Mountain. Xun Prefecture (an ancient place name in what is now the Huizhou region of Guangdong) lay four hundred li from Nanhai Commandery (a former commandery whose seat is in the Guangzhou area). There stood a large bayberry tree so wide that dozens of people could not encircle it with their arms. He Erniang often went there to pick its fruit and returned only after keeping a fast. During the Kaiyuan reign (713–741, under Emperor Xuanzong of Tang), the court issued an edict and sent an envoy to summon her. Halfway there, the envoy was struck by her beauty but said nothing. He Erniang suddenly said, “The envoy has harbored that thought; I cannot stay any longer.” With that she soared away, and no one knew where she had gone.

“The Old Gate-Guard Who Carried Away a Stone” and “The Old Man of the River Who Met the Sophora” are the titles of two immortal tales.

Jianwen Lu (Records of Things Seen and Heard) relates: Below Yellow Crane Tower in E Prefecture (the Wuhan region of Hubei) there was a stone so smooth and bright that it reflected like a mirror, called the “Stone Mirror” (Shizhao). People said the place was an immortal’s grotto. An old soldier who guarded the pass bowed in worship there every morning. One night the moonlight was like a painting; he saw three Daoist priests emerge from the cave, laughing and chatting for a long time. When they were about to go back inside, the old soldier followed them. A Daoist asked, “Who are you?” The old soldier explained why he had come and begged for wealth and rank. The Daoist said, “The stones in this cave—hurry and carry one away.” The old soldier carried a stone out; when daylight came, he saw that the stone had turned to gold.

Jiang Zhi was skilled at the flute and could draw from it tones like a dragon’s cry. Later he came to Wenxiang, an old district, and fell asleep drunk under a great pagoda tree beside the Pandou inn. At night he saw a figure several zhang tall say, “A young gentleman from the Jingshan inn has come to visit elder brother,” and then heard someone descend from the tree to converse with him. At dawn Jiang went to the Jingshan inn and saw a pagoda tree in the courtyard so thick it took ten arm-spans to girdle it. He suspected a spirit dwelt in the tree and said, “I love the Way but have not met a true teacher. If the tree god has power, please guide me.” The spirit said, “Go straight into Jingshan and seek Immortal Aunt Bao; you will receive instruction on transcending the world and becoming an immortal.” Jiang entered the mountains and indeed met the immortal master. She said, “You have the immortal bearing of Qin Gao”—the ancient transcendent famed for playing the zither and rising to heaven on a carp. “I now give you a fine jade flute; play it for three years and you can summon the dragon of the cavern, and it will bring the water elixir; swallow it and you become a water immortal.” Three years later, playing his flute on the tower of Yueyang Monastery, a dragon indeed took human form and brought the immortal pill. After he swallowed it his face returned to youth, and when he entered water he did not get wet.

“Gu forgot official ambition; Han kept the minister’s integrity” is a summary line: Gu Yuanzhi turned away from fame and office, while Han upheld the loyalty due a subject.

The Records of Immortals says: Gu Yuanzhi died from drinking wine, then revived after three days and said he had traveled in spirit to the Land of Harmonious Spirits. There rare flowers and precious fruit never withered; fields were full of great gourds, and inside the gourds grew the five grains, sweet and fine beyond any rice or millet of the central plains. The seasons were mild and pleasant all year, like spring in the second or third month. The people daily strolled the roads for pleasure, singing at ease until evening before dispersing. When Gu Yuanzhi awoke, he kept his distance from worldly affairs, wholly forgot the wish to hold office, gave his heart to mountains and waters, styled himself Master Knowing Harmony (Zhihezi), and afterward his whereabouts were unknown.

During the Tang, the chancellor Han Kuang was on an inspection tour in western Zhejiang. Fierce and proud, he often entertained thoughts of lax loyalty and refusal to stay within bounds. A traveler named Li Shun happened to be passing through; his boat was moored at Jingkou. After the lamps were put out at night, the boat suddenly drifted to the foot of a mountain. He went ashore to investigate and walked five or six li until he saw splendid palaces and gate towers. A man in a black headcloth, with his headdress pushed back, said to him: “I want to ask you to carry a letter to Lord Han in Jinling. Please do not refuse.” Li Shun asked what place this was. The answer was: “This is Guangsang Mountain on the Eastern Sea. Zhongni, Master Kong of Lu—Confucius—after attaining the Dao serves here as a zhenguan (true official) and handles affairs on this mountain. Lord Han is Zhong You—Zilu, a disciple of the Master. His temperament is hard and self-assured; the Master feared he might run afoul of the law, so he wrote this letter to warn him.” Li Shun took the letter and returned to the boat; the boat then went back to where it had been. He later delivered the letter to Han Kuang. Han Kuang opened it and found nine characters in an ancient script he could not read at all, so he had Li Shun detained as a fraud and madman. A visitor with refined features, dressed in old-fashioned clothes, said he could read ancient script. Han Kuang showed him the letter. The visitor said: “This is a letter from Confucius, in the kedou (tadpole) script of the age of Yu of Xia. The words are: ‘To Han Kuang: hold strictly to loyalty as a minister; do not act rashly.’” Han Kuang was deeply startled. From then on he kept silent with folded hands, became cautious and restrained, and was able to finish his career as he had begun it well.

The closing line “Xun Er raises the wind; Ge San shuns wind and snow” can be read literally as: Xun the Second (the wind spirit of Daoist lore) stirs the wind, and Ge the Third avoids wind and snow.

Youji Lu (Record of Hidden Marvels) records: Xiao Zhizhong, prefect of Jinzhou, planned to go hunting on La Day (the year-end sacrifice day). A woodcutter on Huo Mountain saw a towering divine being, after which tigers, rhinoceros-like beasts, deer, boars, foxes, hares, and others gathered in droves. The divine being said: “I am the envoy of Xuanyuan (messenger of Xuanyin, the northern water god), sent by the Northern Emperor to announce: on La Day Prefect Xiao will hunt; some of you are fated to die by hawk, some by arrow.” An old elk knelt and begged for help. The envoy said: “Yan Si of East Valley is skilled at scheming.” The beasts went off with him. The woodcutter followed secretly and saw a thatched hut with a Daoist priest (huangguan, yellow cap). The old elk pleaded desperately. The priest said: “If Teng Liu (the snow god) sends snow and Xun Er (the wind god; Xun is wind) raises wind, Prefect Xiao will not hunt.” After the woodcutter returned, before dawn snow and wind filled the day; Prefect Xiao indeed did not go hunting.

Guangji (Extensive Records) records: Cui Xizhen was skilled at painting and fond of Daoist cultivation and health preservation. One day in heavy snow he saw an old man in a straw rain cape sheltering under his door from the snow and invited him in. When they reached the curtain, the old man looked around and suddenly vanished; no trace could be found. Later there was a painting inside the curtain: a pine tree with immortal herbs painted beneath it. Cui Xizhen did not understand and asked Master Li Hanguang (a Tang Dynasty Daoist priest). Li Hanguang said: “This was painted by the third son of Immortal Lord Ge (Ge Xuan); it means that the lifespan of one who attains the Dao is as long as that of Song Qiao (Chisongzi and Wangziqiao, both immortals).”

“Bao Yi xiao’ao, Lu Hong qingzhe” may be read as: Bao Yi (the Daoist cultivator) lives freely and proudly, whistling and disdaining the world, while Lu Hong (a Tang recluse) bows respectfully with folded hands in reverence.

The Monument of the Martial Immortal Child (Wuxiantong Bei) records that Wu Baoyi (that is, the Martial Immortal Child) lived freely and proudly, disdaining wealth and rank even in an age of peace. Osmanthus branches in full leaf could not hide the moon’s light; steep green peaks could not hold back the clouds. Words could not say it all—the Dao was right there in the account. The inscription runs on at length, so not every line is given here. A poem also says: the sage ruler sought out men beyond the world, always wishing to meet the empty Real at the Golden Gate (the celestial emperor’s palace, and a figure for the court). He did not wish to make his name known; he found Tian Yuan’s way and felt he could rely on it. The Immortal Child once handed this book to Master Zhu Ziying of Mount Mao; after the master received it, the messenger who had brought it suddenly vanished, and people suspected the Immortal Child had come in person. The Immortal Child’s surname was Wu and his given name Baoyi; people called him the Martial Immortal Child.

Northern Dream Fragments (Beimeng Suoyan) records that Emperor Tang Minghuang summoned the hermit Lu Hong of Mount Song; only after three imperial edicts did he come. When he had audience he did not prostrate himself, but only “bent like a qing stone” (a bow at the waist in the shape of a ritual stone chime, as a mark of respect). When asked why, Lu Hong replied: the Laozi says that “ritual is the thinning of loyalty and trust”—ritual is an outward show after loyalty and trust have grown thin, and is not something to lean on; Lu Hong, a man of the mountains, dares to present himself through loyalty and trust alone. The emperor found him most unusual. The line “Old Pan sets out dishes and meats; the jade immortal has fine fare and spiced ferment” means broadly that Old Pan laid out cooked food and the immortal’s table held uncommon viands—showing that the immortals’ food and drink were not like ordinary people’s.

Record of Original Transformation (Yuanhua Ji) records that at Shaolin Temple on Mount Song in the Tang, during the Yuanhe reign period of Emperor Xianzong, after wind and rain an old man leaning on a staff knocked at the gate and asked for a night’s lodging. Because the gate was already shut, those in the temple pointed him to an empty building outside and gave him no bed or mat. After the first watch, a monk saw strange lights outside the temple and went to look; inside the building were rich curtains and laid-out food, and the old man ate and drank at ease. At dawn the old man rose, washed, and put bed, mat, curtains, and canopy into a gourd bottle; the empty room was as before. When asked his name, he said his surname was Pan and that he was traveling north from Mount Heng (Southern Marchmount) toward Taiyuan. Later people often saw him again.

According to Qing Suo, Zhang Shining, an assistant instructor at the prefectural school in Taiyuan, suddenly fell gravely ill and was near death. He recited a poem: “Emerald plumes and spirit banners mark the immortals’ dwelling; purple clouds and lofty halls are the Jade Emperor’s palace. Things of the human world part all too easily; looking back toward Wuling, one sees only fallen blossoms.” After he died, his spirit possessed his younger sister and said: “My name is registered among the Jade Immortals of the Eighteenth Cave Heaven. I was on my way to the assembly at the Jade Pool (Yaochi, the Queen Mother of the West’s realm) and was reviewing the merit ledgers of terrestrial immortals (disheng) in the human world. I caught the scent of pomelo leaves and lingered, and was punished for being late. The Queen Mother of the West reported this to heaven. Because I had a karmic tie to wine in the human realm, I was demoted to make amends and lived briefly in the world of mortals; now I have returned to my original immortal register.” He then sang: “Rest, rest, rest—when you can steal a moment’s ease, rest; joy at home knows no end.”

The immortal Xianzong and the red carp; Gongyuan and the white fish.

Gaodao Zhuan records that Fu Xianzong lived in seclusion on Ziyang Mountain and was summoned by Emperor Ming of Tang. At that time the river at Lizhou had swollen and many drowned; people at the ferry complained. Fu Xianzong cast a talisman (fulu) into the river. The next day two carp were found dead on the shoal, with cinnabar characters on their bellies: “Red carp, red carp, born in river water—you did not yield to the immortal officer and rightly must die.” The prefect reported this, and the emperor ordered a living shrine (shengci, a temple to a living person) erected for him on the riverbank.

During the Tang dynasty, the Daoist priest Luo Gongyuan was already several hundred years old; he sometimes appeared old and sometimes young, and no one could recognize him. Once a prefect was entertaining subordinate officials in a garden pavilion in the commandery, and scholars and common people crowded in to see. Suddenly a man in white arrived, and a small boy scolded him: “You left your post without permission!” After the man in white left, the attendants seized the boy and reported to the prefect, who asked his name. He answered: “Luo Gongyuan. I just saw the Dragon King and drove him away for you.” The prefect did not believe it and asked: “Can you show your true form?” He replied: “That is not difficult.” He then opened a hole and drew water through it; a white fish leaped out with the current, with blue smoke trailing like a thread; in an instant black vapor filled the sky, thunder and lightning brought rain, and the white fish transformed into a white dragon and flew away.

“Red beard, fallen hair; purple haze, beard grown” points to two immortal tales. Shenxian Zhuan (Biographies of Immortals) says that Chixuzi was a man of Feng; legend has it that in the time of Duke Mu of Qin he served as an official in charge of fish, ate pine nuts and tiandong (a medicinal herb), lost his teeth and grew new ones, lost his hair and it grew back; later he went up Mount Wu and remained there for more than seventy years, with no one knowing where he ended.

Youyang Zazu says that Kang Zixia, a female Daoist priest who was abbess of the Dongling Holy Mother Temple, said that in her youth in a dream someone took her to a place and said the celestial tally appointed her to act as general on an inspection tour of Mount Heng (the Southern Marchmount); they gave her golden armor and a mount, with more than a thousand followers, and she rode south. Before long she arrived, and the god of the marchmount bowed to welcome her before her horse. In the dream she seemed to handle matters; she traveled through the peaks of the Southern Marchmount and the valleys of the Man and Han peoples. She returned in a daze, awakened by the cry of quails, and from then on grew several dozen whiskers.

Zhengao records the Siming Lord (a Daoist divine title) as saying: the female immortal (nüzhen) Bao Guan—her seventh-generation ancestor Li Zhan and Zhang Lü originally ran an inn at Wei Bridge and accumulated several dozen bundles of firewood; this episode is the immortal tale hinted at by “Bao speaks of brothers, accumulated firewood, daughter-in-law and mother-in-law.”

In the Zhengao (Declarations of the Perfected), Simming Jun—the deity who governs fate in Daoism—said that the female immortal Bao Guan’s seventh-generation forebears Li Zhan and Zhang Lü had once kept an inn at Wei Bridge, quietly building up hidden merit (yinde), loving the Dao and longing for long life, so their accumulated blessing reached Bao Guan. They were granted transformation through refining and a new birth, and became sworn brothers; though their lines of descent differed, the virtue they practiced was the same, so they were fit to be born into the clan in this life—and they have now become immortals in a dongtian (cave heaven, a Daoist paradise).

The Guangyiji (Broad Record of Strange Events) records that the Hanlin chess master Wang Jishen followed Emperor Xuanzong of Tang on the flight into Shu and stayed with a family beside a deep stream; only a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law lived there, giving him fire and water, and at dusk they shut the door. At night Wang Jishen heard the two women playing go through the wall in the next room; the hall had no lamp—they called out placements such as “east five south nine,” “east five south twelve,” and “west nine south ten.” By the fourth watch they had played only thirty-six moves; the mother-in-law said the daughter-in-law had lost, and that she herself had won by only five qi (five games on the board). At daybreak Wang Jishen asked the mother-in-law to teach him; she turned to the daughter-in-law and said this young man could be shown the usual shapes of the game. The daughter-in-law then showed him attack and defense, capture and kill, rescue and reply, block and refuse—very briefly. The mother-in-law said that with that alone he could have no match in the human world. Wang Jishen walked off a few steps and looked back: the house was gone.

When Zhou Bao moved the graves for reburial, Qisheng (a personal name) built a thatched hut—either to watch the tomb or to live apart in seclusion.

According to the Ji Shen Lu (Record of Spirit Investigation), when Zhou Bao—military governor of Zhexi in the Tang—was managing the city’s defenses, work at Hemlin Gate (a gate name) uncovered an ancient tomb. The coffin was nearly decayed; when opened, a woman’s face looked as if she were still alive, and her garments had not rotted. After the overseers reported this, Zhou Bao went to see for himself and said: She must have taken spirit elixirs and was waiting for the right moment to emerge; once exposed to the open air, it would be time for her jiehua—the Daoist “release and transformation,” often associated with shijie (corpse liberation and ascent as an immortal). He ordered her reburied with proper rites, provided carriage and horses, and had music played for the funeral. Zhou Bao and his staff climbed high to watch; when the procession had gone several li, purple clouds gathered over the funeral cart. Everyone saw a woman step out of the cart, sit upon the purple cloud, and rise slowly into the sky until she vanished. When the coffin was opened again, it was empty.

According to the Lie Xian Zhuan (Biographies of Immortals), when Qi Longming (an immortal listed in that work) was young, he found a dragon hatchling in the fields—shaped like a shou gong (gecko)—and built a grass hut to raise it. When the dragon grew, it destroyed the hut and left; no one knew where it went. About fifty years later, Qi Longming suddenly appeared riding a dragon and said that within five hundred li that year there would be a great flood. People took this for wild talk; when the time came, a flood indeed struck and tens of thousands died.

Volume eighteen of the San Dong Qun Xian Lu (Collected Records of Immortals from the Three Caverns) ends here. Volume nineteen was compiled by the Zhengyi (Orthodox Unity) Daoist priest Chen Baoguang. De Xiu offered fish at a feast; Ziqian used dried meat in sacrifice.

Cao Dexiu, a Daoist immortal, often told people: when illness struck a household, they could come to him for talisman drawing and medicinal preparation without offering money or cloth—only a dish of yusheng (river fish finely sliced as raw fish) and a jar of good wine. The sickness would then lift on its own. Villagers revered him almost as a deity. One day he announced to the crowd: “I am leaving this place for Tianbao Cave. Next year a severe cattle plague will come; I leave my name with you to pass on: when the plague breaks out, offer yusheng in sacrifice to me and paste a slip bearing my name on the horn—the beast will be spared.” Cattle plague did follow; within the district, animals with the name posted were untouched, while those without all perished.

The Record of Mount Wuyi relates that the mysterious spirit old lord, the immortal master Hua Zhen, sent his disciple to tour the mountain riding clouds and escorted by cranes; people commonly called him the Crane-Controlling Immortal. In former times Prince Wei, named Ziqian, cultivated the Way on this mountain together with Zhang Zhan, Sun Chuo, and others. During a great drought, Prince Wei set out wine and meat to sacrifice to the immortal and pray for rain, moving the Crane-Controlling Immortal to descend from the sky on cloud and horse—and rain fell. Zhang Zhan and the others, witnessing this, silently intoned a quatrain: “On Mount Wuyi, Lord Wuyi, white horse with trailing whip entering purple clouds. In the empty air one hears only three libations of wine; above Longtan’s waves, rain drizzles down.” The immortal was delighted to hear the verse.

The text closes by noting that Su Lin, a cultivator, practiced tunna (the breathing method of expelling the stale and drawing in the fresh), and that the ancients nourished life through fu’er (ingesting medicinal elixirs).

Shenxian Zhuan (Biographies of Divine Immortals) records that Su Lin met the immortal Juanzi, who told him: to become an “earthly true person” who lives long among humans, one must first take medicinal elixirs and remove the “Three Corpses” (sānshī—the three corpse-spirits in Daoist lore that obstruct cultivation), and kill the “grain worms” (chóng that live on grain qi inside the body). If one takes elixirs without expelling the Three Corpses, even after cutting off grains the grain worms do not die—it is only vainly abstaining from food; if one toils at breathing and guiding (tuna) alone, the worms multiply instead, and seeking deathlessness is impossible. He then transmitted to him the Way of the Three Origins and True Unity (Sanyuan Zhenyi zhi Dao—a secret inner practice), and said: those not on the registers of immortals may not receive this transmission; the book is secret and must not be passed to unsuitable people.

Xianzhuan Shiyi (Collected Remains of Immortal Biographies) records that Yang Xianxian visited famous mountains and toured cave abodes everywhere, received the Dao from Ge Yong, and built a dwelling where Ge Yong had left traces of manifestation. After a year, one night he suddenly saw light as bright as day; a host of immortals descended and asked what path he cultivated. Yang Xianxian kowtowed and said: my endowment is like dung and soil; seeing years slip away, I always fear sudden decline and death, and only wish to leave the dusty world. The immortals took pity on him and bestowed “Elixir Splendor” (Danhua—refined essence of elixir); after he ingested it, he ascended in broad daylight.

“Penetrating the subtle with clarity—Zou Tongwei; extraordinary—Li Gen” is a summary encomium: Zou Tongwei’s spirit and qi were clear and refreshing; Li Gen’s deeds were marvelous. Xulie Zhuan (Continuation of Ranked [Immortals]) records that the Daoist Zou Tongwei’s origin was unknown; his spirit and qi were clear and refreshing; he often wandered famous mountains and many people knew him; sometimes he would suddenly vanish, and no one could fathom his comings and goings. When his cinnabar was refined and he had ingested it, he ascended from a wine shop in daylight.

Baopozi records: Li Gen was from Xuchang. He could transform his bodily form and become invisible, and could enter fire and water; people all regarded him as extraordinary. A female disciple secretly looked at his su shu (secret manual written on white silk) and saw that Li Gen had recorded the years of his Daoist training, counted day by day, totaling seven hundred years. Some say Li Gen’s eyes had square pupils (fangtong—a feature attributed to long-lived immortals in legend); according to immortality scriptures, one who lives eight hundred years will have square pupils like a child’s. Li Gen often told his disciples: Although I still cannot share the same lifespan as heaven and earth, I am no longer an ordinary person of the lower realm.

“Weak Xi, yellow calf, natural Dan Brother” seems to be a four-character pointer to the two wonder tales below: Zhong Ruoweng and the yellow calf, and Zhao Ziran and “Dan Brother” (the crane). Xiqing shihua says: When Zhong Ruoweng was military commissioner in Pingdong, a fangshi (a person skilled in Daoist arts) submitted a visiting card asking to see him, with a herd boy leading a small yellow ox standing in the courtyard. Zhong Ruoweng found it strange and, pointing at the herd boy, asked: Can the Daoist compose a poem about this? The fangshi smiled and said: You need not me—this child can. The herd boy then wrote out a long poem: Grass spreads across the wild for six or seven li, a flute plays in the evening breeze three or four times. Returning full after supper at dusk, without taking off his coir rain cape he sleeps under the bright moon. After the fangshi left, people of the prefecture saw him carrying two large jars, singing loudly as he left the city; they chased after him but he vanished. The two jars were “two mouths” (liang kou), and people guessed: Could it have been Lü Dongbin?

Mihge xiantan says: The Daoist Zhao Ziran of Fenghuang Mountain in Chizhou dreamed that the immortal Lord Yin Zhenjun gave him a bridge leaf to eat; from then on he no longer took food, and his spirit and bearing were unlike the ordinary. He wrote a poem: I once wished to dwell on a mountain isle, idly sleeping in the cold of a jade cave. Dan Brother sometimes leads the dance, coming and going astride cloud and luan. When someone asked what “Dan Brother” was, he said: It is the crane.

“Yun dang pity the tiger, Jun Ping herds geese” can be read literally as: Yun had an episode of pitying a tiger; Jun Ping had an episode of herding geese—it is a four-character line hinting at immortal marvels and their deeds.

The Records of the Study of the Dao relates that Xie Yun of Liyang once saw a starving tiger confined in a cage and pen. Pitying its trapped and desperate plight, he undid the locks and set the tiger free. The beast lay prostrate on the ground for a long time before it finally went away.

The Youxian Guchui records that Goose-Sheep Mountain lies twenty li north of Changsha County. Its original name was Mount Shuhua; it is also called Stone Treasure Mountain. On the mountain are an immortal’s altar and the remains of an elixir-refining furnace. The Separate Record of the Xiang Region says that long ago, when Cheng Junping of the prefecture was fifteen, his elder brother sent him to herd geese and sheep. He suddenly met an immortal elder and was taken into this mountain. His brother later traced him there, found Junping, and asked where the geese and sheep were. Junping pointed at the white stones and said, “These are they.” He then shouted at the stones, and they rose and followed his brother home. Ten days later he returned to the foot of the mountain, and those geese and sheep turned back into stone—they are still there today. A poem by Bi Tian runs:

A Daoist, in what year, refined the elixir here?

Only an empty stove still guards the lofty cliff.

The immortal hawk and hound in the clouds must have gone with the immortals;

Below the mountain, geese and sheep have turned to stubborn stone.

How many times has the islet in the Xiang changed with the turning of the sea?

In Liaocheng there is no longer Ding Lingwei’s return as a crane.

In what year will an immortal’s carriage come again to this place,

And ferry everyone aloft through the gates of the nine heavens?

“Jin visited Pengzi and left the needle with Tianpo” may be read as Jin going to call on Pengzi and entrusting a needle to Tianpo—a brief allusion to how figures in immortal biographies meet and pass tokens to one another.

During the Tang dynasty, Wang Chushi was the fourth son of Wang Ju, nephew of the Luoyang Commandant Wang Ju. When Wang Ju was transferred to the capital and crossed the Tianjin Bridge, a famous span in Luoyang, he saw a man in plain cloth and straw sandals with a rough, rustic look and at first did not recognize him. The man said, “Uncle is going to the capital for an appointment; your nephew has a small gift.” He produced five taels of gold the color of a rooster’s comb and told his uncle to take it to the gold market and have Zhang Pengzi appraise it—it should fetch two hundred thousand cash. He said he had lately been living at the Xiaoyou Cave grotto-heaven on Mount Wangwu and was now taking his family to Mount Emei. When Wang Ju later went to find him, the fourth son was already gone. At the gold market he did find Zhang Pengzi; when he showed him the gold, Zhang Pengzi exclaimed in delight, “This is gold transformed by the cultivator Wang Silang.” Such gold had no fixed price, so he paid the amount the fourth son had named.

Xu Bingyan entered Shu and was on a high, perilous plank road when he and his horse suddenly fell into a cliff cavern and there encountered Taiyi Yuanjun, a revered female immortal in the Daoist pantheon. The Yuanjun said, “The horse you ride is a dragon of my grotto. It was angry and harmed the crops, so it was banished to the human realm. You have the bones of an immortal, which is why you could meet it. When you return, release it at the bend of the Wei River and do not ride it again.” A jade maiden said, “When the dragon’s son goes back, please ask Old Woman Tian of Hao County for some needles to send on my behalf.” Xu Bingyan then mounted the horse and flew as if in flight; in the time it takes to eat a meal he reached Old Woman Tian’s hamlet in Hao County. He sought her out, bought a hundred needles, tied them in the horse’s mane, and turned the horse loose at the Wei River—the horse at once became a dragon and departed. Old Woman Tian was probably an immortal as well.

Xia Humei was fond of sleep; Li He was skilled at song.

Weizhuan Shiyi (Collected Remnants of Biographical Transmission) records that during the late Dazhong reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, the recluse Xia Hou traveled through the Maoshan and Tiantai regions, usually carrying only a cloth bag and a bamboo staff. At times he slept in the open at ritual altars or in the woods; onlookers saw only dense cloud and mist and could not discern his figure. Whenever he crossed mountains or forded streams he shut his eyes and slept deeply. Those traveling with him could hear him snore, yet he neither fell on the path nor caught his feet on obstacles, and he awoke when they reached wherever they were stopping. People of the day called him the “Sleeping Immortal.”

Zhen’gao (Declarations of the Perfected) records that Chuan Li and Chang attained the Dao through practicing the gathering and ingestion of the vital essences of the Five Stars (a Daoist method of refining the qi of the five planets). One of them was skilled at singing; when he sang, birds and beasts would gather to listen.

“Qin Zhen diligent in effort, united with spirit, asleep yet tender” is praise of Yang Qinzhen, meaning in essence that she cultivated with diligence, harmonized with spirit, and rested in sleep with gentle ease.

Nüxian Zhuan (Biographies of Female Immortals) records that Yang Qinzhen of the Tang was originally a farmer’s daughter and became the wife of Wang Wei. Her husband was poor and worked the fields himself; Yang managed the household faithfully, and the family called her the “diligent new bride.” One day she suddenly bathed, put on fresh new clothes, and passed away. That night neighbors all heard celestial music and a strange fragrance from the northwest; on the second night they heard music again, and the fragrance grew stronger. Magistrate Li Deng came with others to view her and found Yang lying whole upon her bed. Li Deng asked about her going and coming; she answered: Just now the immortal escort came to welcome me to Cloud Terrace Peak on Mount Hua. Four female immortals were already on the peak; we spoke in harmony and said: We were born alike in turbid times, alike in mortal bodies; once we transcended and were cut off from the dusty world—what night is this, that we can rejoice in meeting here? Each should compose a poem to express our intent. Then they exchanged verses in turn. Qin Zhen’s poem said: The human world is vain turmoil; life is like the hibiscus (Shunhua—blooming at dawn and falling at dusk, a metaphor for brevity); who could have guessed that between this evening and tonight we could raise our heads and gaze upon mist and rosy clouds. Qin Zhen later ascended as an immortal once more.

Jun'ge Yatan (Elegant Talk from the Commandery Pavilion) records: Wu Heling was a Daoist who lived on Mount Heng (Nanyue). Laypeople called him “Wu Rou.” He loved sleep and often went ten days or more without eating. He once said: if you want a quiet life, you must be a little lazy; once you stir into activity, you never get rest. He usually did not compose poetry, but suddenly wrote an Ascension Song (feisheng ge): “The Jade Emperor has an edict (shaozhi—a summons to office) calling me to an immortal post; dragons spit clouds and phoenixes lend their strength. Suddenly before my eyes appear towers and halls, with strange plants and flowers I cannot name. From Daluo Heaven (Daluo tian, the highest realm in Daoist cosmology) I look at the world, and the world is no larger than the palm of my hand. Had I not been busy ascending then, I would have lifted this world in one grasp and sold it on Yingzhou (the isle of immortals at sea).” The meaning is that the Jade Emperor issued a summons for him to ascend as an immortal, with dragons and phoenixes exhaling clouds to help; suddenly towers appear and unfamiliar exotic flowers; from Daluo Heaven he views the world as palm-sized; if he had not been hurrying to ascend at that moment, he would have picked up the whole world and sold it on Yingzhou. There is also the line “Liu Dun shared a boat, Gongchui joined in the same draft,” referring to Liu Dun and Li Shen (style Gongchui) traveling in the same boat and exchanging drafts of verse.

Mingxian Shihua (Talk on Poetry by Famous Worthies) records: In the old days Duke of Jin had a garden outside the Baokang Gate in the capital; within it, the Fairy Wander Cave (Xianyou Dong) was the most secluded and refined spot. The Daoist Liu Dun wrote Immortal Advance Pavilion (Xianjin Ting) as a poem for the Duke of Jin: “Again and again I got drunk on Immortal Advance Pavilion; in Fairy Wander Cave there was no one at all. When the time comes, immortal cranes will ride the sea to the wild blue, and together we shall view the spring on Penglai Island (the isle of immortals at sea).” The Duke of Jin did not grasp the poem’s meaning. When the Duke was later transferred south (demoted to the south), Liu Dun came to see him in his remote posting; only then did the Duke recall this poem and realize Liu Dun was no ordinary man, and they went together to drink wine while drifting on the sea. The Duke said: today’s demotion is exactly what your poem foretold.

Xu Xuanguai Lu (Continued Record of Mysterious Marvels) records: the late Huaihai military commissioner Li Shen once met an old man who asked, “Young man, do you recognize me?” and said, “I am Tang Ruoshan.” The passage “You are not Li… drifting on the sea to drink… today’s demotion matches the meaning of your poem” repeats the previous entry, still describing Li Shen and the old man drinking wine on the sea and reading the demotion as fulfillment of the poem’s meaning.

Xuyuan Guailu (Record of Continued Strange Tales) relates that Li Shen, who once served as military governor of Huaihai, met an old man who asked him: “Young man, do you recognize me?” The old man said: “I am Tang Ruoshan. Aren’t you Li Shen?” Li Shen replied: “My surname is Li, but I am not called Shen.” Tang Ruoshan said: “You ought to be named Shen, with the courtesy name Gongchui; your name is already entered in the xianji (the register of immortals kept in Daoist tradition). Tonight there is an immortal assembly on Mount Luofu (a famous Daoist mountain). Can you come with me?” He then took from his sleeve a tablet like a court hu, pulled it open crosswise, and it turned into something like a boat several feet long and wide. The old man and Li Shen boarded together; he told Li Shen to close his eyes. Li Shen felt only wind and surging water, as if sailing on the sea, and soon they reached a mountain. Palaces and halls rose in tiers; pipes and flutes rang clearly. More than ten dignified gentlemen came to welcome them, saying: “Gongchui has indeed come. The human world is foul; the sea of suffering is not shallow. Had your name not been tied to the immortal register, what path could have brought you here?” They asked again: “Can you stay here?” Li Shen said: “I have not yet established a family or a career; I cannot take leave now—I fear I would worry my brothers as Huang Chuping did.” (Huang Chuping is an ancient immortal said to have entered the mountains to cultivate the Dao, leaving his brother anxious.) The immortals said: “Since you wish to return, although the immortal record holds your name and rank, your ties to the mundane world are still heavy; yet a fine reputation and high office can still be yours—you should encourage yourself.” Then they sent him back. From that time he changed his name to Li Shen, courtesy name Gongchui; he later indeed passed the highest examination and rose through posts as minister and general.

Duyang Bian (Tales from Duyang) relates that during the Yongzhen era (reign title of Emperor Shunzong of Tang), the Southern Sea presented Lu Meiniang, fourteen years old, with eyebrows green and long—hence her name. From childhood she was clever beyond measure; she could write eight fascicles of the Lingbao Jing (a Daoist scripture) on a single foot of silk, the characters as small as millet grains yet every dot and stroke distinct. She was also skilled at making “Flying Cloud Canopies”: she divided a single thread into three parts, dyed them in five colors, and wove a golden canopy bearing images of the Ten Continents and Three Isles (realms of immortals in Daoist cosmology), palaces, halls, unicorns, and phoenixes, with more than a thousand boys holding banners and flower staffs. Emperor Shunzong marveled at her craftsmanship, called her a divine person, and ordained her as a Daoist priest. She later returned to Mount Heng (Nanyue), with the religious name Xiaoyao (Free Roaming). “Lu Niang’s green brows, Ruan Ji’s blue eyes” is a line of praise: Lu Meiniang’s long green eyebrows, and like Ruan Ji’s famed blue-eyed regard, she won admiration.

This section of the Collection of Immortals from the Three Caverns gathers several tales of immortals and marvels. Ruan Ji, a celebrated scholar-official of the Wei–Jin period, styled Sizong, served as Commandant of Foot Soldiers. He scorned ritual propriety and was known for his “green eyes and white eyes”—green eyes for those he respected, white eyes for those he despised. On Sumen Mountain (in the area of present-day Huixian, Henan), he met the recluse Sun Deng and discussed antiquity and methods of dwelling in spirit and guiding qi; Sun Deng did not reply. Ruan Ji then gave a long whistle and withdrew. Halfway down the slope he heard a sound like phoenix and luan birds calling, filling valley and hill—it was Sun Deng’s whistle.

“The Silver Cauldron of Zhaowu” and “Shiliang’s Jade Plaque” are the titles of the next two entries. According to the Record of Subtle Marvels, Feng Zhaowu was a wine-soaked idler of Yuhang. His boat was blown by a storm to an island where he caught a strange fragrance. In the distance he saw a Daoist sitting on the western shore and hurried forward to pay respects. The Daoist sat beneath a rock with a silver cauldron beside him; a large pearl floated on its surface. He asked whence Feng had come; Feng said poverty had driven him toward Silla (an ancient kingdom on the Korean peninsula). The Daoist said his face showed no fortune for foreign lands, that he could sail back, and that he would send a fair wind to return him to Mingzhou (present-day Ningbo). Feng complained that drink had ruined his life—he ate little and was thin. The Daoist smiled and had him drink broth from the cauldron, scooping half a ladle with a silver dipper; the taste was like sweet dew. He also taught him a livelihood: dealing in horses alone would suffice. When asked his name, he answered, “I am Immortal Yin.” Then the wind rose; the Daoist urged him into a small boat. After another night adrift, at sunrise he was at Mingzhou.

The Tang Unofficial History records that in the early Yuanhe reign, Ma Shiliang, a runner of Wannian County, committed an offense. Prefect Wang Shuang enforced the law harshly and sought to capture and kill him. Shiliang fled to Taibai Mountain, reached the bank at Tangu, hid in a small boat, drifted another night, and at sunrise likewise arrived at Mingzhou.

In the early years of the Yuanhe reign (the era name of Emperor Xianzong of Tang), a yamen runner named Ma Shiliang from Wannian County—the county that included the capital—committed an offense. Wang Shuang, Governor of Jingzhao, enforced the law with extreme severity and was about to have him executed. Ma fled for his life to Mount Taibai and hid beneath a large willow on the bank of Tanggu Stream. At daybreak, five-colored clouds suddenly descended from the sky, and within them appeared a female immortal. A golden mallet and jade clapper—the striking implements used in ritual—lay by the water; she struck them several times in succession, and blue lotuses welled up from the water, each leaf unfurling as it rose. After the blossoms opened, the immortal took some, broke off three or four petals, and ate them, then rode the clouds away. The mallet and clapper still remained. Ma Shiliang struck them as she had; before long the blue lotuses appeared again. He ate seven or eight of them and at once felt his body grow light and strong.

Guo Xian served as Chamberlain for Attendants in the seventh year of the Wude reign (the era of Emperor Gaozu of Tang) and accompanied the emperor to the Southern Suburb sacrifice. While in his assigned place he suddenly turned toward the northeast, held wine in his mouth, and sighed three times in succession. The emperor issued an edict asking why. He replied that Qi would suffer a fire, and he was using this method of apotropaic suppression to ward off the calamity. Events later proved him right.

Ban Meng—some say she was a woman—could fly all day long, sit in empty space and converse with people, and pass into the earth. At first her feet sank into the ground up to her chest; gradually only her cap and headcloth remained visible; after a long while she vanished entirely. She could also hold ink in her mouth, spread paper before her, chew the ink and rinse, then spit it out: what fell on the paper formed characters, and the writing on the whole sheet carried coherent meaning. She took elixir pills, lived to four hundred years while growing younger, and in the end entered Daye Mountain and was gone.

Youwu Daorong of Northern Qi became a Daoist priest in his youth. After meeting an immortal of Mount Heng (the Southern Marchmount), he mastered talisman water, spell prohibitions, yin-yang calendrics and numerology, astronomy, and pharmacology alike. Once when he reached Liaoyang, a tiger came within little more than ten paces of his horse; everyone else fled in panic, but Daorong manifested his imposing spiritual presence—a wonder of the sort hinted at in the title of the account.

The Record of Responses and Retributions (Ganying Lu) relates that You Daorong, a Northern Qi Daoist who took monastic vows in youth, studied under an immortal of Mount Nanyue and became skilled in fulu (talismans and registers), incantations over water, prohibition spells, yin-yang calendrical reckoning, astronomy, and medicinal properties. When he reached Liaoyang, a tiger came within little more than ten paces of his horse. While others fled in panic, Daorong calmly traced a large pit in the ground with his staff, and the tiger at once withdrew.

Collecting Lost Immortal Biographies (Xianzhuan Shiyi) tells of Longwei Zhangren—“Zhangren” being an immortal title—who lived in seclusion on Mount Bao; people no longer remembered his surname. In the twelfth year of King Helü of Wu, when the king led his army to display strength at an enemy state and passed Mount Bao, there was a cave in the mountain whose depth the king wished to know, so he asked this hermit to explore it. Carrying a torch, he traveled day and night for one hundred seventy-four days before returning. Inside he saw walls of gold and halls of jade, bright as daylight, with windows of purple jade and “flowing yellow” (fine stone or colored glass). Above the city gate a plaque read “Separate Palace of the Queen of Heaven,” and the ornamentation was sumptuous. In a jade chamber he found a scroll of plain silk covered entirely in bird-track seal and zhuan script (ancient characters resembling bird footprints). He brought the book back and presented it to King Helü; later the king sent envoys with the text to ask Confucius, saying: “Our lord once traveled on Mount Bao when a red crow (an auspicious red bird) carried this book before his chariot; he has sent your humble servant with this numinous text to pay respects and asks you to tell us whether this bodes good or ill.” Confucius opened the case and exclaimed in astonishment: “Long ago, when Yu of Xia had finished controlling the floods, he traveled to a bend of Mount Zhong and received the Tai Shang Ling Bao true scripture that Huangdi, Diku, and others had received; one copy was hidden in a stone casket in a famous mountain, and one was entrusted to the water spirit, to be handed in due time to a ruler who attains the Dao. As for the tale of a red crow bearing a book—I, Kong Qiu, have never heard it.”

The closing line “Zhong Buyue bowed to the pine; Yao Guang burned the reed grass at the mound” can be read as a brief note on other immortal marvels: Zhong Buyue worshipped a pine tree, and Yao Guang burned reed grass at a burial mound—fragments preserved from wonder tales about transcendent events.

Wu Chongyue was a Daoist adept who practiced bigu—abstaining from grain and cultivating through fuqi (ingesting vital breath). He once climbed to the top of a pine and bowed to Zhou Wei, the transport commissioner of Fujian, then asked to travel with him to Dehua County. East of the county stood an ancient pine, eighty or ninety feet tall, with a crane’s nest in its crown. Zhou Wei had Wu Chongyue climb it; he went up as lightly as an ape, passed above the nest, and on slender branches straightened his body and stepped through the air without holding on. He performed obeisance on frail twigs as if on solid ground. Though the branches were supple and swayed under his feet, none broke. Zhou Wei presented a poem: wearing a hat of daimao (paper mulberry bark) and plain robes, swallowing danxia (cultivating the sun’s essence and mist) to attain the longest life; mingling with the world yet always rejoicing in the Dao, his transcendent style had long since xiuliang (grain abstention). Who transmitted the wondrous scripture in the pillow? The new formula at the elbow he wrote himself. Several times he flew along a hundred-foot pine, on the branch where the crane roosted bowing to Xuhuang (the supreme deity of Daoism). This describes his art of lightening the body, flying, and worship on the branches.

Wu Yaoguang excelled in fire techniques. The King of Wu piled thousands of bundles of reed fuel for him to sit upon, then wrapped thousands more around him and, with a fierce wind, set them ablaze. When the fire died, all thought he had turned to ash; yet he sat upright in the embers, shook his robes, and stood. The closing line says he received a treasure fu (talisman) and his name was entered on the immortal register.

Xianzhuan Shiyi (Collected Remnants of Immortal Biographies) records that Shi Deyi claimed that during the Xiantong era of Emperor Yizong of Tang, unceasing rain for ten days caused rivers and mountains to flood. When the rain briefly eased one day, he saw something drifting on the river and used his staff to draw it ashore. When he opened it, he found the three registers of talismans transmitted by the Supreme Old Lord (Tai Shang Laojun)—three talisman methods handed down from Laojun—yet though they had been soaked in water, they were not wet. Deeply astonished, he took them home. That night a light appeared, as if two attendant boys were present. The boys told him: “We are attendants who serve the talisman registers. The Supreme Treasure Talismans have long circulated among humans; errors crept in through copying and the original meaning was gradually lost. Once the text was wrong, spirits had no authoritative text to obey and submit to, so when the talismans were used, results were rarely efficacious. Now we entrust this correct text to you, one who has attained the Dao, to relieve the people’s suffering—nothing you do will fail to respond.” Several years later the boys told him that the Supreme Old Lord would descend to Taibai Mountain (a famous Daoist peak), and that he should go to pay homage. Shi Deyi then entered Taibai Mountain and was never seen again.

Zhengao (Declarations of the Perfected) records that in youth Zhao Bowei studied the Dao under Master Zhang of Dengye, and later attained the Dao. In his old age on the Central Peak (Song Mountain) he transmitted the Jade Pendant and Golden Ring Scripture to Linzi of Yuanqiu. Linzi has also attained the Dao, entered the Huayang grotto-heaven (one of the Daoist grotto-heavens and blissful lands), and oversees the register of immortals (the roster of perfected beings), recording the names of those who study the Dao.

“Han children drawing lines on the ground, Qin women building walls” refers to Han-era children playing boundary-drawing games on the ground, and Qin-era women laboring at wall-building.

Dantai Xinlu (New Records of the Cinnabar Terrace) records that in early Han four or five children were playing a ground-drawing game on the road when one child sang: “Wearing an azure skirt, entering the Gate of Heaven, bowing to the Golden Mother, making obeisance to the Wood Lord.” No one understood except Zhang Zifang (Zhang Liang), who went forward and bowed repeatedly, saying this was a jade boy of the Lord of the East. The Golden Mother is the Queen Mother of the West; the Wood Lord is the Lord of the East. Immortals bow to the Lord of the East and make obeisance to the Queen Mother of the West.

These passages record three accounts of immortal marvels.

According to the Guangji (Extensive Records): During the Kaiyuan reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, the military governor of Daizhou, seeing that many monks from elsewhere were lodging at Mount Wutai (in present-day Shanxi), feared demonic imposture and fraud; he expelled every monk who was not the abbot of his own monastery. Guest monks, fearing expulsion, mostly fled into mountain valleys. One Master Faming went deep into a secluded ravine on Mount Mamen, found a stone cave wide enough to enter, waded across the water, and after two li reached a thatched hut. Inside was a woman dressed in garments of grass, with a dignified and beautiful face. Startled at the monk’s arrival, she asked, “What are you?” Faming replied, “I am a human.” The woman smiled and said, “How can a human body look like that?” Faming said, “I am a follower of the Buddha; our tradition requires shaving the hair and beard, so I look this way.” When he asked where this place was, she said, “I am from the Qin dynasty. I followed the general Meng Tian in building the Great Wall, could not endure the hardship, and fled here; I have lived on wild roots and have not died.” Faming took his leave. Later he prepared provisions to return, but lost his way and could not find the spot again.

“Bofong’s Crane Cry, Cangzhi’s Rooster Crow” is a heading that introduces the next two immortal marvels: Wang Bofong had a sign of spiritual cranes crying at the hour of death; Ye Cangzhi was linked to a marvel involving a rooster’s crow.

According to the Huangchao Leiyuan (Classified Anecdotes of the Imperial Court): Wang the Vice Grand Councilor Bofong fell ill and was already weak and failing. That night more than ten spiritual cranes cried loudly in the sky. On the night of the twentieth day of the eighth month the moon was bright; his younger brother Chunchen had just been appointed prefect of Bozhou, and when officials from the prefecture came to welcome him, all were struck as strange and astonished. Before long Wang died, and the flock of cranes dispersed. People at the time believed Bofong must have been appointed to an immortal office.

According to the Gaodao Zhuan (Biographies of Eminent Daoists): The Daoist Ye Cangzhi, courtesy name Hanxiang, was skilled in fulu (talismans and registers) and ritual magic. The prefect of Bozhou (possibly Wuzhou) was troubled by a malign entity and went to ask him to draw talismans. Halfway there he violated a taboo against impurity, and suddenly…

Volume 19 of the San Dong Qun Xian Lu (Record of Immortals of the Three Caverns) was compiled by the Zhengyi (Orthodox Unity) Daoist priest Chen Baoguang; the entries mention immortal names such as “Elder of Green Mound” (Qingqiu Yuanlao) and “Minor Star of Purple Micro” (Ziwei Xiaoxing).

The Gao Dao Zhuan (Biographies of Eminent Daoists) records: The Daoist Ye Cangzhi, courtesy name Hanxiang, was skilled in fulu (talismans and registers) and ritual arts. The prefect of Bozhou was troubled by a malevolent entity and sent for him to draw talismans. On the way Ye Cangzhi accidentally violated a taboo against impurity, and the talisman was suddenly lost. The prefect came in person and saw on the table a bamboo tube with a firm seal—the very talisman that had been requested. He burned incense, placed the talisman in a casket, and carried it back; the evil presence then vanished entirely. The prefect memorialized the throne praising his merit, and Emperor Yizong of Tang issued an edict renaming his Shimen Mountain retreat as Yuxiao Guan (Jade Firmament Abbey). One day he prepared wine and summoned friends, spoke of events from his life, and then announced the date of his departure. When the day came, he secretly wrote on the door: “Leave at cockcrow.” Disciples heard the sound of jade pendants and panpipes in the air; shortly after the cock crowed they looked again and found he had achieved corpse liberation (shijie) and become an immortal, at age seventy-four.

The Yi Ren Lu (Record of Extraordinary Persons) records: The Taizhou Daoist Wang Yuanzhi was versed in the Yijing (Book of Changes) and could foreknow people’s death, fortune, and misfortune; he authored fifteen fascicles titled Yi Zong (Summation of the Changes). One day amid thunder, rain, and cloud, an old man shouted: “Where is the book you leaked? The Lord on High has ordered me to lead the Liuding (Six Ding spirit generals) with thunder and lightning to recover it.” Wang Yuanzhi prostrated himself in fear; beside him six men in green already arrived bearing the book. The old man rebuked him: “Forbidden texts above have Flying Heaven guardians and are secreted in the Yuandu (Mysterious Capital, the Daoist immortal treasury)—what sort of person are you to dare hoard them privately?” Wang Yuanzhi answered: “They were transmitted by the Elder of Green Mound.” The old man said: “The Lord on High’s decree is already issued; your immortal rank is already attained, and the term for conferring full ordination is extended four years—this is fixed destiny.” Wang Yuanzhi later achieved corpse liberation in the Guangzai era.

Before ascending the throne, Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin was walking through the markets of Chang’an with Zhao Pu, who would later be enfeoffed as Prince of Han. They suddenly met Chen Xiyi (Chen Tuan, styled Master Xiyi). Chen Xiyi said, “Shall we have a drink together in the marketplace?” The future emperor replied, “We may.” He went along with Zhao the scholar (Zhao Pu). Chen Xiyi glanced sidelong at Prince of Han Zhao Pu and said, “You may come too; you may come too.” After they entered the wine shop, the prince’s foot had gone numb, and by chance he sat on the left-hand place at the table. Chen Xiyi said in anger, “How can a minor star of the Purple Forbidden Enclosure—the asterism that stands for the sovereign’s palace—occupy the seat of honor?” and ordered him to move to the right.

There are also two other entries, concerning Li Yu’s Analects and Gu Huan’s Classic of Filial Piety, which belong among wonder tales in which Confucian scriptures serve as the karmic link to the transcendent.

The Yishi records that Li Yu, an outer-office official of Xin Prefecture (in the region of present-day Shangrao, Jiangxi), was traveling on the road to Mount Hua with Yang Leng when they suddenly came upon a small grotto. Mountains, rivers, rock, and vegetation all looked unlike anything in the human world. A man dressed in purple invited them into his dwelling, which resembled a government compound: mostly bamboo buildings, with halls and rooms exceptionally clean. He gave his surname as Du and his personal name as Zihua, and said that by withdrawing from the world he had been able to live as companions to immortals and had dwelt there for several hundred years. He kept them as guests for a stay; food and drink were all refined and abundant. Among the meats was something called “chiyang,” in shape like an ox. In the house there was a copy of the Analects. They lingered many days. Du Zihua gave each of them several silver objects and sent an attendant to guide them back, asking, “Could you make your home here?” The two showed discomfort on their faces. Zihua smiled, took their hands, and bade them farewell. When they sought that grotto again afterward, they could not find it.

The Daoxue Zhuan (Transmission of Daoist Learning) records that Gu Huan of the Liu Song in the Southern Dynasties was skilled in daoyan (Daoist arts and techniques). Before the gate of his disciple Bao Yunsou stood a large tree more than ten wei in girth (wei is a unit for measuring thickness); a spirit afflicted the tree. Gu Huan applied a Daoist seal to the tree, and the tree withered and died. Someone tormented by a demonic illness came to consult Gu Huan. Gu Huan asked, “What books do you have at home?” The person answered, “Only the Classic of Filial Piety.” Gu Huan said, “Take the passage that begins ‘Zhong Ni ju’ from the opening of the Classic of Filial Piety, place it beside the sick person’s pillow, and bow to it with reverence; he will recover on his own.” Later the patient indeed recovered.

“Wang Yuan wrote on the gate; Yin Rong dug a well at home” is a headline-style hint for the two immortal tales below: Wang Yuan inscribed characters on a door, and Yin Rong’s household sank a well.

The Wangshi Shenxian Zhuan (Biographies of Immortals of the Wang Clan) says that Wang Yuan, styled Fangping, was versed in astronomical charts and chenwei (prophetic diagrams and cryptic sayings used to foretell fortune and disaster) and could know good and ill luck in advance. Emperor Wu of Han asked him about calamities and auspicious signs; he did not reply, but instead wrote more than four hundred characters on the palace gate, foretelling what was to come. The emperor took offense and ordered the writing scraped away; though the outer layer was removed, the characters within reappeared, the ink having soaked through the wood.

The Guangji (Extensive Records) says that when Yin Rong’s family in Zhushan County, Fang Prefecture, dug a well, they went more than a thousand feet down without reaching water. A digger felt the well wall and saw another sky and earth with sun and moon; a placard read “Mount Tianzhu.” Two boys with white teeth and handsome faces inside the gate asked, “How did you come here?” The worker explained what had happened. Suddenly a man in crimson robes transmitted an edict saying, “Send him away with courtesy.” They led him to bathe in a clear spring and to rinse his mouth and drink from a white spring; it was sweet as wine. After walking half a day he saw halls all of gold and jade, inscribed “Kingdom of Ladder Immortals.” The worker asked, “What is this kingdom like?” They answered, “Immortals who have just attained the Way are first registered and sent to this kingdom to cultivate.”

“Wang Jiao split the skull; Lord Yang struck the crown” is a title-like line pointing to the marvels of Wang Jiao and Lord Yang—the literal sense being that Wang Jiao had an incident involving breaking open the head, and Lord Yang one involving striking the crown of the head.

According to Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang (a Tang collection of anecdotal tales), Master Wang Xia was skilled in fangshu (technical arts and numerology). During the Tianbao reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, he happened to be sitting in the open air at night with guests and, pointing at the stars and moon, said, “The times are about to decline.” A neighbor reported this. The emperor was advanced in years and took such words ill; he ordered Wang’s head struck dozens of times before he died. When his skull was opened, the bone was one cun and eight fen thick. Master Wang Xia had once associated with Vice Minister Daxi; after the An Lushan rebellion was put down, he came again to Daxi’s house with staff and shoes, and people then realized he was no ordinary man.

Scattered Dreams of the North (a Five Dynasties notebook) records that in the region of Zizhou and Qizhou there was a Daoist, Yang Xiangong; no one knew his age or lifespan—people who were old had seen him when they were children. Whenever he passed through lanes and streets, children would gather to watch. Sometimes he borrowed an iron maul at a smithy and struck his own head; sometimes he had people hit him with all their strength—he was never harmed and only said it felt good. In the mountains and forests he played with tigers and leopards and knocked the beasts down with his hands. He often urged people to accumulate yin de (hidden merit). In the Changxing reign he entered Shu, lived on Mount Emei, and then departed.

“Qijia called to reclusion, Zhongfu absorbed the radiance”: Jin Unofficial History says Xi Jia, styled Kongbin, was in his twenties and fond of the classics and histories. On a quiet night he suddenly heard a voice at the window calling him: “Xi Kongbin, why do you not leave? Polishing worldly affairs on earth is bitter and hard to finish; what you gain is less than a hair’s breadth, what you lose is like a mountain cliff.” Xi Jia then withdrew from the world, traveled west to a sea island, and instructed more than three thousand disciples.

Wang’s Biographies of Immortals says Wang Zhongfu in youth loved Daoist techniques and obtained a method of “absorbing radiance and nourishing mist”; he practiced for more than forty years. One night he dreamed that a spirit told him he could not ascend because his brain palace was depleted and his spirit ford was not full. The spirit then gave him a method of ingestion, after which he ascended; he is now in Xuanzhou (a Daoist immortal realm).

“Chengshi took up his bag, Yi Yin shouldered the cauldron”: Chengshi carried his traveling bundle; Yi Yin bore the cauldron on his back (Yi Yin once shouldered a cauldron to present the Way through cookery to King Tang and later became minister of Shang).

Gaodao Zhuan (Biographies of Eminent Daoists) records: The daoist Cheng—no one knew whence he came. Tang Minghuang (Emperor Xuanzong of Tang), hearing his reputation, summoned him to the palace and questioned him in the Penglai courtyard about the Dao he cultivated; he answered nothing. Before long he asked to return to the mountains; the emperor granted it, and he left carrying a cloth sack, at which everyone laughed. Later, when the curtains were removed, a poem was inscribed on the wall: “Westward the road to Shu, northern armies reach Yan—he meant to ascend in broad daylight, yet watch the black dragon drink the Wei.” The more the writing was scraped and washed, the clearer it became. Within a few months An Lushan rose in rebellion, and Tang Minghuang fled into Shu.

Xianzhuan Shiyi (Supplement to Immortal Biographies) records: Yi Yin was a man of the Shang dynasty; his ancestors had served the Xia as feudal lords. While his mother was pregnant she traveled upstream in the western regions; a great flood suddenly came, and in panic she ran to escape the water, stood with hands folded—and turned into a withered mulberry. When the water receded, his father came looking, thinking she had drowned; suddenly he saw a withered mulberry that had not been there before, suspected it was his wife transformed, struck it with a stone, heard an infant’s cry from the hollow tree, took the child and raised him—hence the surname Yi. When Yi Yin grew up he mastered weihou (prognostication from apocrypha and portents), pitch and tone, yin-yang, could probe the hidden and discern the subtle, and resolved to save the world. He carried a ding on his back to seek audience with Tang of Shang (using cookery as a metaphor for governing the realm); Tang was pleased and made him minister. At eighty he relinquished office and practiced bigu (abstaining from grain); he showed death at home. The Supreme One (Taishang, the highest deity in Daoism) ordered the Perfected of Grand Harmony Mengu Xi to transmit to him the method of jieti (corpse liberation and shedding the bodily form); he entered a stone chamber on Mount Mengqin in Meng and, in broad daylight, ascended as an immortal.

Sandong Zhunang (Pearl Satchel of the Three Caverns) records: Deng Yuzhi, courtesy name Yuanda, was from Xinye in Nanyang. He once dreamed that a crow spat out a seal and gave it to him; thereafter when people in the community fell ill he often used the seal to treat and save them; if someone asked him to draw a fu (talisman), the patient would recover on its own. The closing line “Yuanda dreamed of the crow; Wenzi struck the slough” is praise—referring to Yuanda’s dream of the crow and the seal, and Wenzi casting off the husk to become an immortal.

The commentary on the “Treatise on Suburban Sacrifices” in the History of the Han cites the Biographies of Immortals: Cui Wenzi studied immortality under the immortal Wang Ziqiao. Wang Ziqiao transformed into a white slough; Cui Wenzi was greatly alarmed and struck it with a halberd. When he looked down, it was Wang Ziqiao’s corpse; in a moment it changed again into a great bird and flew away. This belongs with the same kind of immortal traces as Zhang Yulan’s self-disembowelment and the Immortal Dong’s sloughing of skin.

The Collected Records of Immortals records: Zhang Yulan was a descendant of the Celestial Master (Tianshi). From childhood she ate no meat or strong-smelling foods. At seventeen she dreamed that red light descended from heaven; golden characters in seal script entered her mouth along with the light, and she became pregnant. Her mother questioned her; she never told what she had dreamed—only a maid knew. One day she said to the maid: “I cannot bear to live in shame; after death my belly should be opened to show my heart.” That night she died without illness. People saw something like a lotus emerge from her abdomen; when they looked, it was white silk with golden writing—the ten scrolls of the Scripture of the Original Destiny—which circulated in the world. After Yulan was buried, suddenly fierce wind and rain came; the coffin flew up into a tree, and both the scripture and Yulan’s body vanished. Her tomb is now at the Nülang Guan (Nülang Abbey) in Wenjiang County, Yizhou.

It also records: the Immortal Dong was a woman of Fangyi in Suizhou, seventeen years old, with a divine bearing and elegant beauty, hence called “Upper Immortal.” One day purple clouds spread overhead and heavenly music descended in the courtyard; two youths in blue led her to ascend to heaven. Her parents, always dull-witted, wept and called after her without cease. When she was a dozen or so zhang above the ground she came down again and stayed at home several months; later it happened again. Finally she sloughed her skin on the ground without removing her form or clothes, and flew away.

Du Qiong excelled at fu-style rhapsody; Xu Jian excelled at poetry.

The True Diagnosis says: on Mount Dengdu the forests and waters are like the human world, but the rice grains are very large and taste like mugwort; the other four months are likewise. Later she sloughed her skin on the ground without removing her form or clothes, and flew away.

Zhen Zhen (True Diagnosis) states: On Mount Dengdu (a Daoist grotto-heaven), forests, timber, and waters resemble those of the human world, but the rice grains are very large and taste like mugwort; the other four grains are not like this. Among all grains, this rice is most prized and is called “Chongsi” (Heavy Remembrance). Du Qiong wrote Fu on Chongsi, saying: in spring it flourishes, the Chongsi rice is green, vital Qi (vital energy) interweaves, and the fine grain appears in season; it is enjoyed through the four seasons, and those who offer prayers use it in sacrifice. The divine grain grows lush in Haojing (a realm of immortals), with huge ears laid before the Yuantai (high platform); this is an omen of bright auspice, and emperors therefore find joy in harmony. That is what is meant by Chongsi rice.

Yayan Zazai (Miscellaneous Records of Elegant Sayings) records that Xu Jian, a man of the Jiangzuo region who long resided on Mount Mao and did not age in appearance, loved to speak of immortals and could compose poetry. The gist of his “Inscription on the Mao Mountain Abbey” runs: long grieved that the clear wind of a thousand years lay sunk in gloom, now one may roam freely in the grotto-heaven; ancient pines and cypresses, a quiet jade altar, the phoenix and crane do not come while the Blue Emperor (god of the east) towers afar; the Mao clan’s (Three Mao Lords) elixir well has grown cold and the elixir has departed, Emperor Ming’s stele is broken—old dreams are in vain; clearly there is a path to long life, and one need not sigh over white hair amid the red dust. He also sent a quatrain to Xu Xuan (Chief Drafting Secretary), to the effect: mist and moon in the high sky lock the tower and terrace; wishing to submit poems at the marquis’s gate to recommend talent; covered in wind and dust, unrecognized by anyone, one can only follow the flowing water out of the mountains.

“Qiu Bo appraises cranes, Tong Jun shatters chickens”: Qiu Bo was skilled at reading omens in cranes, and Tong Jun (an ancient immortal physician) had the wondrous art of “shattering chickens”—both are curious tales from the immortals’ world.

The Xiang He Jing (Scripture on Inspecting Cranes) states that the ancient immortal Fuqiu Bo transmitted this scripture to Wang Zijin (Wang Ziqiao, the immortal prince); later Cui Wenzi studied the Way under Wang Zijin, obtained the text, and hid it in a stone chamber on Mount Song. Someone like the Lord of Huainan (possibly in the line of the King of Huainan), while gathering herbs, discovered it, and only then did it circulate in the world. The scripture says: the crane is a yang bird, born bearing the qi of metal and fire (the original reads “abandoning the qi of metal and fire,” which should be understood as receiving that qi). In three years the crown of its head turns red; in seven it flies well; in another seven it can cry in tune with the hours. In sixty years fine down grows, and mud and filth cannot cling to it. In one hundred sixty years, male and female need only look at each other to conceive; in one thousand six hundred years it eats nothing and gives birth to live young. Methods for inspecting cranes: those with long necks and slender bodies cry well; those with turtle-like backs and unusually shaped bellies can dance—they are fine mounts and swift steeds for immortals.

The Zhuo Yi Ji (Records of Marvels) records: in the third year of the Jian’an reign, the kingdom of Rongtu (the place-name is unclear) had a stone chicken that cried on schedule. Its color was red as cinnabar and its size like a swallow; it usually stayed on the ground, sounded at fixed times, and its cry could be heard throughout the realm. When the people heard it, they slaughtered victims for sacrifice; if they dug where it had sounded, they would obtain this bird. When the realm was at peace it flew back and forth—taken as an auspicious sign, it was also called the “Golden Chicken” (Baoji). One could also bury it in the ground and listen to its sound to tell the time. Daoist adepts say: the immortal Tong Jun entered a cave for several li and obtained a cinnabar-stone hawk; pounded into medicine and ingested, it makes one’s voice and breath full, and one dies only after completing one’s allotted years. In the first year of the Baoding era, the four quarters presented rare tribute, including amber; a swallow-shaped object inside was placed in a quiet room and was said to cry and fly (the original “ma xiang” should read “ming xiang,” crying and flying). Such strange things. The closing phrase “yuanwai huifu, tuntian yizu”—out-of-roll clerks and garrison-farm conscripts in the literal sense, or a figure for the lowest sort of people.

The Yishi (Lost Histories) records: During the Dali reign of the Tang, a Vice Director of the Bureau of Personnel (Wang yuanyuanlang—a yuanyuanlang being an official title) was fond of Daoist arts. Though he held office at court, he often associated with commoners in hemp robes from the mountains and wilds. One day, while cleaning out filth, he conversed with Old Pei; Wang felt this man was extraordinary. His wife scolded him: “As a court official, how can you keep company with such filthy people!” She had him driven away. The next day Old Pei came again, wearing a cloth robe and leaning on a staff, with the air of a recluse. He said: “The Vice Director does not truly love the Dao—he only loves elixirs.” He took an iron box of Wang’s weighing about two jin, unwrapped a small packet of medicine, took out two pills like hemp seeds, crushed them and sprinkled them on the box, piled fire to roast it, and after about the time for a meal took it out—the box had turned golden, the color like a cockscomb; Wang was amazed. Old Pei then took his leave and later his whereabouts were unknown.

The Kuoyizhi (Expanded Records of the Strange) records: Zeng Fengxian, Director of the Salt Monopoly (an official title), served as Prefect of Huizhou during the Jiayou era. His residence had a vegetable garden, guarded by an old soldier who watered it with exceptional diligence; whatever Zeng wanted, the man could prepare in advance. Zeng asked: “You often seem to know my mind beforehand—why?” The old soldier said: “By chance, that’s all.” Zeng thereafter treated him well. One day the old soldier said to Zeng: “Thanks to the Prefect’s kindness—I am no ordinary man. Tonight at the third watch, please come to the garden; I have secret arts to report.” Zeng gladly agreed and was about to go in official dress; his family said: “What Prefect goes in official robes at midnight to visit an old soldier?” So he did not go. At dawn came word that the old soldier in the garden had died, with several liang of silver left at his waist. Zeng had a coffin bought and buried him in the wilds. Months later someone came from Guangzhou with a letter from the old soldier expressing thanks. They opened his grave: only the cloth robe, headcloth, and shoes remained—the man was gone. Such accounts often hint that the person did not truly die but departed as a corpse-transformation immortal (shijie).

“Mao Nü eating pine, He Niang gathering oranges” refers to immortal traces such as Mao Nü living on pine needles and pine nuts, and He Niang picking oranges. The Shenxian zhuan (Biographies of Immortals) says Mao Nü, styled Zhengmei, lived in seclusion on Mount Hua.

Maonü ("Hairy Woman"), styled Zhengmei, lived in seclusion on Mount Hua. Hair covered her body; she said she had been a palace woman of the Qin dynasty who later fled into the mountains. Daoists taught her to eat pine needles, after which she neither hungered nor felt cold, and her body became light and swift as flight. Chen Tuan (Chen Bo, the famous early Song recluse) often wandered Mount Hua with her, and woodcutters had seen her many times. Chen Tuan wrote poems for her; in essence one reads: the medicinal shoots are not yet fully gathered, yet again one climbs a steep peak; turning to look at the homeward path, together with a companion one melts into green mist and rosy clouds. The second reads: once pine twigs were broken to make a precious comb, and chestnut leaves were woven in place of silk short robes; when someone asked about old affairs of the Qin court, she smiled, plucked immortal flowers, and gazed toward the great void (sky and fairyland).

The Continuated Biographies of Immortals records: He A'liu was a woman of Xuzhou who for many years at Yuntai Abbey in Huayin chopped firewood and drew water for the nuns. In idle talk the nuns said that in Jiang-Wu (the Jiangnan Wu region) there were sweet oranges and fine fruit, hard to obtain in Qinchuan (the Guanzhong plain). A'liu laughed and said that was no difficulty—there were some nearby. She went out; in a moment she took five or six sweet oranges from her sleeve for the nuns, and said the oranges of Guangxun were delicious, then produced more than ten to share. Three years later Master Cui, a Daoist adept, traveled from Mount Luofu to Huayin and spoke of how the year before in the official orchard at Guangzhou a woman had stolen oranges and, when seized, suddenly vanished—so everyone understood A'liu was no ordinary person.

The closing line "Yuan Fang begged leave of his bones; Dou Zhi hid his remains" sums up immortal lore: Yuan Fang (Zuoci) asked to retire to the hills, and Dou Zhi concealed his physical form and departed—both are tales of immortals vanishing in concealment.

Records from the Cinnabar Platform (Dantai Xinlu) relates that Zuo Ci, styled Yuanfang, had mastered the arts of transformation associated with the Nine Elixirs (jiudan—elixirs in Daoist waidan practice, while “transformation arts” here means techniques such as invisibility and shape-shifting). Cao Cao wanted to obtain this method; Zuo Ci refused, so Cao Cao intended to kill him. Zuo Ci then asked leave to withdraw and live in seclusion. Cao Cao set out wine to send him off. Zuo Ci said, “Today we part for a long journey—allow me to split the cup of wine.” Cao Cao agreed. Zuo Ci drew out his hairpin and traced it through the wine cup so that the wine divided down the middle; he drank half and offered the other half to Cao Cao. Cao Cao was displeased and did not drink at once, so Zuo Ci asked to finish the remainder as well. When he had drunk it all, he threw the cup toward the roof beam; the cup rocked in the air like a flying bird. While the company looked up, Zuo Ci had already vanished.

In the Declarations of the Perfected (Zhengao), Lord Mao (Maojun) says: the female immortal Dou Qiongying’s seventh-generation ancestor Dou Zhi often buried dry bones and rescued people on the brink of death; that hidden merit (yinde) reached Qiongying herself and enabled her to enter the Huayang grotto-cavern (Huayang dongfu)—one of the dongtian grotto-heavens and fudi blessed lands of Daoism.

The phrase “Songjiang ghost mound, Hengshan immortal grotto” can be read as place-names in the Songjiang region associated with ghost mounds and the immortal grottoes of Mount Heng—both linked in tradition to traces of immortals and numinous events.

Record of the Celestial Master Talisman (Tianshi Fu Ji) states: East of Yichang (a place name) lies Jiachuan County. Twenty li northeast from there runs the Jiang River. In the river stands a heap of piled stones called “Celestial Master’s Burial-Heap for Ghosts” (Tianshi Bin Gui Dui); on a large rock by the riverbank are raised patterns called the “Celestial Master Talisman” (Tianshi Fu). The markings look as if cut with a sharp blade or traced with a hook, resembling zhoushuan (an ancient script style) yet solemn and forceful—as though an armored warrior stood holding a sword. When evil and malign things saw them, who would not tremble in the legs? Locals took rubbings with paper and ink and used them to ward off evil. In the second month of the seventh year of the Yuanhe reign (an era name of Emperor Xianzong of Tang), Li Anxing, after leaving office, traveled south and passed through Yichang. Zhang Dangshi was then magistrate of Miangu County and presented him with the Celestial Master talisman, saying: “This is not something from my home district; it is not easy to obtain.” Li Anxing then placed the talisman in his book chest and took it home. Half a year later he opened the chest: rats had gnawed through many books, yet this talisman alone was untouched. Alas—how strange! Later Li Anxing, who held the title of Xuande Division and served as prefect of Fengxiang Prefecture and magistrate of Fufeng County, recorded this affair.

Wang Family Immortal Biographies (Wangshi Shenxian Zhuan) states: Daoist Wang’s origin is unknown. He lived in Yangmo Township, Jinggu County, Lizhou. Twenty li west of the county seat, one crosses the Jialing River and follows the Anle Han River upstream to reach the mountain. The peaks there are steep; east of the Han River is the “Immortal Grotto,” where Daoist Wang cultivated the Way—and his whole household became immortals. Traces of the foundations of his former residence still remain.

“Master Yin Drinks Dong; the Du Shaman Spits the Elixir” is a section heading. The surviving text from Supplement to Immortal Biographies (Xianzhuan Shiyi) says: Master Yin’s place of origin is unknown. He once lived in seclusion on Jin Mountain and did not eat the five grains. At that time Minister Li Yue guarded the northern gate; Feng Lan and Yan Shou served as congshi (staff officers). Yan Shou was curious and fond of the unusual and had long held … in high regard.