《三洞群仙录》Vol. 8

Yin Jun was an immortal. Yan Gong (Yan Shou) loved the strange and honored immortals; he welcomed Yin Jun into his official residence and shared meals with him every day. A wondrous fragrance often rose from Yin Jun’s skin, which made Yan Gong respect him all the more. Yan Gong’s sister had left home to become a nun and often grew angry at her brother’s closeness to Yin Jun. One day she secretly gave Yin Jun poisoned wine to drink. After drinking, Yin Jun started up in alarm and said, “This wine is bad.” In a moment he vomited something hard and fragrant. When Yan Gong cut it open and looked, it proved to be a genuine musk sac. Yin Jun died that same night, and Yan Gong was deeply grieved. The next autumn, Zhu Taixu met Yin Jun on Mount Jin. Yin Jun said, “Not long ago at the north gate I ran into poisoned wine; I used it to show death in form, but how could such poison corrupt my true nature?” Zhu Taixu found this extraordinary; when he returned and told Yan Gong, Yan Gong said, “Only now do I truly know that he achieved corpse liberation (shijie).”

The Yuan Guai Lu records that when Du Wu was still young and had not yet risen to prominence, he once met a Daoist on Changbai Mountain who gave him a single elixir pill and had him swallow it on the spot. After taking it he lost desire for food; his complexion was moist and bright, and his body felt light and free of illness. Later, when he served as prefect of Shangzhou, he knew he had reached the rank of prefect—his office was already high—yet he still did not eat, and fearing he would startle people, he wished to remove the elixir. More than a year later a Daoist came and taught him to eat pig and mutton flesh; Du Wu followed the instruction, and shortly after eating he vomited the pill out.

In the account of Pei’s son in the Guang Ji, there is again the passage “he was taught to eat pig and mutton flesh; Wu followed, and as soon as he had eaten, in no time he vomited the elixir out”—still referring to Du Wu’s vomiting of the elixir. “Pei’s Bedrock” and “Old Altar of Elder Wei” are titles of two immortal traces, pointing respectively to legends linking the Pei clan with bedrock and Elder Wei with an ancient altar.

Guangji records: A young man of the Pei clan served his parents with filial devotion; though poor, he took joy in helping others. One day while traveling he met an old man who led him into Mount Taibai (a famous mountain in present-day Shaanxi). There he saw a large flat stone; the old man struck it with his staff, the stone split open, and he took the young Pei inside a cave. Within, the scene was solemn and orderly, with everything one could imagine, including immortal boys and girls. The old man then brought him out and told him: twenty years from now you may come here to withdraw from the world. When that time came, the An-Shi rebellion (the revolt of An Lushan and Shi Siming) indeed broke out; the entire Pei clan withdrew in seclusion to Xikun and thus escaped disaster.

Yiwen Ji records: In the reign of Emperor Daizong of Tang, Attendant Censor Wei was sent on a mission to Mount Hua to pay homage at the Yellow Emperor Altar (the ritual platform where the Yellow Emperor was worshipped). At an inn below the mountain he saw an old man and asked where the altar lay. The old man said: southwest of Lotus Flower Peak’s central summit there is an ancient altar, with remnant foundations like wisps of hair—that should be it. Asked his surname, the old man said Wei. He traced his lineage and turned out to be Attendant Censor Wei’s remote ancestor (his great-great-grandfather). They entered the mountain together; the old man walked ahead leaning on his staff, and though Wei whipped his horse to catch up he could not. In a stone chamber he saw two old women who said: your grandmother and your grandfather’s sister are here. Both were aged and altered in form, wearing leaves as garments; they said with delight: the ages have turned, and today we finally meet our great-great-grandson. Afterward he went up the mountain with the old father to worship at the altar, then took leave and returned. When he searched again later, he had forgotten the old path. People below the mountain said: these two elders come only once every two or three years; no one knows where they dwell.

The closing line “Ziyu white-haired, Changrong rosy-cheeked” means that the immortal Ziyu, though white-haired, and Changrong, who still has a youthful complexion, illustrate how the way of immortals can transcend the limits of age.

Su Ziyu was bright from childhood and read widely. When he came upon the story of the Yellow Emperor gathering copper from Mount Shou to cast the cauldron and refine the elixir, then ascending to heaven, he closed the book and sighed: Confucian classics treat the “five constants” of benevolence, righteousness, ritual propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness as central, yet they still tie one to ritual, music, and the constraints of name and teaching; life is short, and gray hair comes in a flash. After death, what good is hollow reputation? He therefore set his heart on the immortal path among clouds and mist, cultivating inner stillness and truth within, practicing breath regulation and guiding exercises, and harmonizing his Qi. Later he met the Zhengyi Perfected One (a revered immortal in Daoism), received the “Upper Secret of the Jade Text in Purple Characters of Celestial Truth” (a Daoist cultivation formula), and through diligent practice and constant devotion penetrated the realm of spirits and suddenly ascended in flight.

Chang Rong went to Mount Dan to cultivate, styled herself Master Chang Rong. At over two hundred years of age her complexion grew ever more ruddy, like that of someone about twenty. One tradition holds that she was a daughter of the Shang king, ate the root of pengying (a legendary immortal herb), and moved through the mountains, where people of generation after generation claimed to see her.

Zi Tongyuan was a Daoist priest in the time of Emperor Zhenzong of the Song. He lived at Chengtian Abbey in Shanzhou, lived more than a hundred years, was unaffected by cold and heat, often drank wine, and frequently went without food. When Zhenzong performed the Fenyin sacrifice (to the God of the Earth), Zi accompanied the procession from Luoshan to the Grand One Cave. As death approached he gathered officials, commoners, scholars, and laypeople to explain the essentials of life and death; at midnight he washed himself, gazed toward the palace halls, and passed away, his body light as a cicada’s slough. “Tongyuan Gazing at the Palace” refers to this episode.

Xu Ze was from the Eastern Sea region. He withdrew to Mount Tiantai and nourished his nature through grain abstention. The Taiji Perfected Lord Xu (a Daoist immortal) descended and said: At eighty you will become teacher to a king, and then attain the Dao. When Prince Yang of Jin—later Emperor Yang of the Sui—heard of him and summoned him, Xu Ze at once departed; his remains were as light as a cicada’s slough. “Xu Ze Returns to the Mountains” matches his withdrawal to Tiantai and his final immortal departure.

Xu Ze lived in seclusion on Mount Tiantai, abstaining from grain and cultivating his heart-mind. The Taiji True Person Lord Xu appeared to him and said: “At eighty you will become a ruler’s teacher, and then you will attain the Dao.” When Prince of Jin Yang Guang heard of this, he summoned Xu Ze. Xu Ze said: “I am eighty-three this year; he has summoned me—the words of Lord Xu have come true.” He then went to Yangzhou. The Prince of Jin asked him to transmit the Dao, but Xu Ze declined, saying the time was not favorable. A few days later Xu Ze died; yet someone on the road saw him walking back to the mountain and said he had been sent back. Later he obtained scriptures, divided them among his disciples, and departed.

Zuo Che was a minister of the Yellow Emperor. After the Yellow Emperor ascended to heaven, Zuo Che carved wood into an image of the Yellow Emperor and led the feudal lords in worshiping it. Seven years passed and the Yellow Emperor did not return. In the time of Zhuanxu (Emperor Zhuan), Zuo Che also ascended as an immortal and left. People say the practice of carving wooden images for veneration began with this.

Pu Gaoyuan was from Baxi and a disciple of Master Wang Pujin of the Huanglu lineage. His words were odd and uncanny, and his conduct had no fixed pattern; everyone called him a madman. On the sixteenth day of the seventh month in the twelfth year of Datong, at the summit of the southern peak he rode the clouds straight to Jinling to take leave. Emperor Wu of Liang was seated at a banquet when Pu Gaoyuan suddenly appeared in the hall. The emperor asked why he had come; he answered: “I dwell in Baxi. I attained the Dao in the Shangqing realm and am about to return to heaven; I came especially to bid the emperor farewell.” With that he flew away. At the time the regional inspector of Yizhou, Wang Xiaoji, memorialized the court about the matter; Emperor Wu also issued an edict of inquiry and ordered the court gentleman Liu Xiaoxian to compose a stele inscription honoring his deeds; that stele still exists today.

The lines “Han Yong races in the contest; Zi Zhen rides the swift steed” refer respectively to Han Yong driving his horse in a race and Zi Zhen traveling on a fine swift horse.

Records of Gathering the Unusual states: Gu Cheng’s traveled from Guangdi to Xiangtan. Hearing that Han Yong was a person of lofty attainment, he went to visit him. Han Yong took to him at once and said, “You have the breath of the Dao; could you give up this journey?” Gu Cheng’s declined, citing his wish to seek official rank and emolument. Han Yong said, “On this trip you will surely make a name for yourself; we can meet again someday outside the Banhe Gate in the capital.” They then parted. The following spring, Gu Cheng’s indeed passed the jinshi examination. In his leisure, on business he stepped out through the Banhe Gate and saw someone approaching on a donkey (“cejian”); looking closely, it was Han Yong. Gu Cheng’s recalled their earlier agreement and was greatly astonished; they drank together in the market, and Han Yong presented a poem saying: “In virtue and literary accomplishment you have already surpassed the crowd; I truly entrust the path of immortality to you. If you can truly set aside empty fame, you may claim for yourself a patch of idle cloud.” Soon after he took leave again and from then on was heard of no more. Gu Cheng’s later practiced grain abstention (bigu) and also had many extraordinary occurrences.

Biographies of Eminent Daoists states: Pan Shizheng served his mother with utmost filial devotion. After she died, he built a hut beside her tomb to mourn in residence. The Daoist Liu A’dao saw him and marveled, saying, “The thousand-li steed of the Three Pure Ones (Sanqing)—if not you, who could mount it?” meaning that Pan Shizheng was one fit to bear the Daoist teaching of the Three Pure Ones.

“Jingdu wore a jade crown; Lady Ziyuan wore a brocade coverlet” describes Wang Jingdu wearing a jade crown and Lady Ziyuan of the Purple Origin wearing a brocade coverlet.

Wang Clan Biographies of Immortals states: Wang Si, Lord Wang, named Jingdu, wore a crimson patterned single robe and nine-colored phoenix-patterned garments, crowned with the Tai Tian Fei Shen jade crown, and held a nine-colored tally in his hand. He governed the Terrace of Southern Vermillion Yang and kept the registers of human life and death. Those who know his name and contemplate (cunsi) his divine form, after nine years of practice, may obtain divine herbs and the elixir of immortality; cinnabar clouds and flying mist descend to welcome them, and the practitioner ascends in person to the Jade Clarity Heaven (Yu Qing). It also says that the Lady of Southern Pole, wife of the King, was the fourth daughter of the Queen Mother of the West, titled Lady Ziyuan of the Purple Origin; she wore a brocade coverlet and an azure-feather skirt, and in the time of Emperor Ping of Han she often descended to the stone chamber at Mount Yangluo.

Only after the Dao is realized does its worth appear; these matters are indeed worth setting down in writing.

From Records of Eminent Daoists: Zhang Shizhen lived on Mount Heng (the Southern Marchmount). A divine being transmitted to him the “Way of the Bright Mirror” (a method of mind-cultivation that uses a clear mirror reflecting things as its image), telling him to practice accordingly, and saying: Heaven is what can illuminate the principles of all things; a mirror is what can illuminate the forms of all things. The Way of Heaven values clarity; the way of the mirror values limpidity. If a person can keep a mind as clear as Heaven and as bright as a mirror, purifying thought and settling spirit so that inner and outer are in harmonious flow, the supreme Dao can be attained. If inwardly desire drives the mind and will, and outwardly the body is worn by labor, with mind not pure and spirit not clear, one is far from the supreme Dao. The ancients’ saying, “Empty the chamber and whiteness arises of itself; still the heart and the Dao comes of itself,” means exactly this. Zhang Shizhen practiced in this way; after nine years he achieved the Dao, was appointed True Person (Zhenren), and in the Tianjian reign of the Liang dynasty ascended in broad daylight.

From Continuation of Biographies of Immortals: Jin Keji was from Silla (an ancient kingdom on the Korean peninsula). He was learned and skilled in writing. He entered Mount Zhongnan to cultivate, devoting himself to secretly accumulating merit through good deeds. In the twelfth month of the eleventh year of the Dazhong era of Tang, he suddenly submitted a memorial stating: Your servant has received an edict from the Jade Emperor appointing me Vice Director of the English Kui office (a celestial post); on the twenty-fifth day of the second month I am to ascend to heaven. Emperor Xuanzong sent envoys to summon him to court; he firmly refused to go. The emperor also asked to see the Jade Emperor’s edict; he declined on the grounds that the edict was kept by other immortal officials and was not retained in the human realm. The emperor then bestowed on him four palace women, incense, medicines, gold, and brocades, and dispatched two palace envoys to attend and care for him. When the twenty-fifth day of the second month came, spring was bright and flowers in full bloom; five-colored clouds filled the sky, cranes called and phoenixes soared; white cranes, sheng and xiao flutes, metal and stone instruments, feathered canopies, jade wheels, banners and streamers—the full array of immortal regalia appeared in the heavens. Jin Keji then ascended to heaven, entering sagehood and transcending the mundane. This was the fruit of accumulated merit and virtue; hence this immortal trace was recorded to proclaim forever an age of flourishing virtue.