《南岳九真人传》

The Biography of the Nine Perfected Ones of Mount Nan records that Mount Nan was home to nine renowned Perfected Ones (zhenren), who attained the Dao (the Way) and ascended as immortals sometime between the Jin, Song, Qi, and Liang dynasties. Their images are still enshrined today. Who can say for certain that these Perfected Ones once gathered in the Zhuling Grotto-Heaven (a "grotto-heaven and blessed land," as Daoism calls its sacred sites), paid homage to the Perfected Lord Who Presides over Birth, and assisted the divine powers in turning the people's misfortune into blessing?

When Sun Mian, Commissioner of the Privy Council in our dynasty, was serving in Changsha, he dreamed that a man in a Daoist robe came before him and said: "My surname is Wang. I am an old man, and I have eight companions, nine of us in all. Our farmland has been taken over and cultivated by a nearby temple for more than a hundred years. If you would attend to this matter among your subordinates, we hope you will see justice done for us." Sun Mian silently committed these words to memory, though he did not understand the details. Later, ordered to Mount Nan to perform sacrifices, he happened to visit the Nine Immortals Stone Altar, where he saw statues enshrined in an old building. The central statue was inscribed "Perfected One Wang Lingyu," and its features closely resembled the man in his dream. Recalling the dream, Sun Mian entrusted the county magistrate with an investigation.

A year later, it was indeed discovered that a number of fields belonged to the neighboring temple, which had been collecting their yearly income. After the authorities verified the facts, they ordered the land returned to its rightful owners. Had the Perfected Ones not responded with numinous power, how could they have entrusted this matter to Sun Mian in a dream and had it set right? At that time, many people in the Xiang and Chu regions were alarmed to see how concealment and encroachment had been exposed, and many repented and reproached themselves, praying for the chance to reform. From then on, those who traveled to the Zhuling Grotto-Heaven from every quarter feared that, if they did not promptly pay their respects to the Perfected Ones and seek their protection, they would miss their opportunity.

Last winter, the Daoist Ouyang Daolong came to my door and said to me: "For several generations my family has loved collecting immortals' books. By the time I came of age, more than half of the collection had been scattered. Most of the remaining volumes lack their beginnings or endings, and only the Biography of the Nine Immortals of Mount Nan has kept its sequence of chapters intact. I plan to have it carved into printing blocks and published, to be circulated together with the Taishang Duren Jing (Scripture of Salvation), the Laozi Daodejing, and the Jiuyou Jing (Scripture of the Nine Darknesses), which I printed and distributed earlier, so that readers may turn toward goodness, keep far from wrongdoing, and gain something from them. I hope you will write a hundred or so characters as a preface for the opening."

Having heard his account, I found nothing false in it. I promptly took up the Biography of the Nine Perfected Ones of Mount Nan, deleted eleven passages that were repetitive or cumbersome, corrected thirty-one erroneous characters, and compared four conflicting records of the dates of the Perfected Ones' ascensions, finally taking the old stele inscriptions as the standard. I also said to Daolong: "I have heard that only by believing in the Dao can one study the Dao. In study, the greatest fear is a lack of diligence; in diligence, the greatest fear is a lack of perseverance. If you study diligently and persist for a long time, your practice will reach fulfillment and your merit will be accomplished, and you will walk the long road of the Dao. Now you wish to free yourself from worldly entanglements and are willing to help deliver others, so you are truly a person of aspiration. You should strive to follow the cultivation of the Nine Perfected Ones, steadfast from beginning to end. If you can do so, you may be added to the ranks of the immortals and perfected. This is my true purpose in writing this preface."

Perfected One Chen, named Xingming, was a native of Yingchuan. In his youth he traveled among famous mountains, and while searching for traces of immortals on Tianzhu Peak of Mount Nanyue, he met two Perfected Ones. They appeared to be about eighteen or nineteen years old, and said that they had traveled throughout the four seas, devoting themselves to guiding those with a sincere aspiration to cultivate the Dao (the Way).

The Perfected Ones told him that when people in the world cultivate the Dao, they are often able to concentrate only for a time, and later give up halfway, unable to persevere. If one cannot practice diligently and without slackening, how can one shed the mortal form, ascend into the clouds, and fly through the high heavens? They said: "The effort you have accumulated is worthy of praise. So long as you do not regress or grow lax, why worry that your name will not be listed in the Golden Terrace and Jade Register (the roster of the immortal realm)? In cultivating the Dao, hardship comes first and joy afterward: hardship ends once it has run its course, but joy knows no end."

The Perfected Ones went on to explain that living in secluded mountains and deep valleys, keeping company with birds and beasts, and enduring hunger, thirst, cold, and heat; and further, abandoning worldly life, taking leave of glory and splendor, parting from one's kin, and letting go of all attachments, are all very hard. But once cultivation is complete, one can live as long as heaven and earth, possess boundless transformations, ride the void high above, and grow wings upon one's body; this is lasting joy. "Should you not strive to cultivate?"

Xingming bowed his head to the ground and replied: "I will remember the sages' teaching forever, and will devote myself to cultivating the Dao to the very end, not daring to slacken." The two Perfected Ones then transmitted to him the "Way of the Bright Mirror and Mysterious Perfection." After eighteen years of cultivation, the two Perfected Ones descended again and told him: "Formerly we transmitted to you the supreme Dao, and you have indeed practiced diligently without cease. Now you are able to ascend the Nine Heavens and feast among the Eight Seas; this is the reward for your accumulated merit. Hardship first and joy afterward: you have now received this in your own person." On the first day of the third month in the first year of the Taishi era of Emperor Wu of the Jin, Xingming ascended to heaven and became an immortal at the Yuanyang Palace.

Perfected One Shi, named Cun and styled Master Hufu, took Huangluzi as his teacher and learned the Inner Texts of the Three Sovereigns, and he also gained the ability to command tigers and leopards as his guards. He dwelt in a stone chamber at the Dongmen Temple on the western peak of Mount Heng, and sometimes rode out on a white leopard, so that those who admired him found it difficult to approach him. On the seventh day of the fourth month in the first year of the Yongkang era of Emperor Hui of the Jin, Perfected One Shi ascended to heaven and became an immortal.

Master Yin, named Daoquan, was a native of Tianshui. On the rear peak of the Hengyue temple (Mount Heng, the Southern Marchmount), he practiced the Dao of "returning the Shen (spirit) and penetrating vision" of the Dongzhen (洞真, Cavern of Perfection) lineage. He also wore the Left and Right Spirit-Vehicle Talismans of the Five Emperors and Six Jia, a form of Fulu (talismans and registers) said to summon spirits for protection.

A Heavenly Perfected One (a spirit who had attained the Dao) descended and said to him: "To ascend to heaven in broad daylight, one must have the proper qualities before this Dao can be perfected. In the past, Emperor Wu of Han was moved to respond to the Golden Mother of Great Perfection and received the Twelve Matters of the Numinous Flight and the True Forms of the Five Marchmounts. Through them he achieved release from the corpse, yet he could not make his body and bones ascend together. You have obtained one of these matters, and so already have hope of ascension. This is the fruit of your diligent practice, and also the arrival of a bond from a former life."

Daoquan said: "My learning is shallow and my knowledge narrow. I beg you to instruct me in the essentials."

The Heavenly Perfected One said: "From the Left and Right Numinous Flight Talismans of the Five Emperors and Six Jia to the writings of Hundong Shumeng, the contents are arranged in order as twelve matters. The True Forms of the Five Marchmounts are drawn as diagrams according to the lay of the mountains, whether they face toward or away, the places where springs flow out, the sites of hidden gold and jade, and the courses along which the mountain veins run. Moreover, the divine officials, soldiers, generals, and immortal officers who oversee these talismans and diagrams are many, and each has their own duties. Now that you have received the numinous talismans and the True Forms of the Five Marchmounts, if you hold to them with sincerity and faith, you will be able to call forth a response. From this one may know that among the descendants of the Wenshi lineage and the clan of Taihe, immortals have appeared in every generation. I will meet you above the Nine Pure Realms, in the midst of the Primordial Vastness." Having spoken, the Perfected One departed.

Daoquan lived in the mountains and practiced there during the Jin dynasty. On the ninth day of the first month of the ninth year of Yongjia, he ascended to heaven in broad daylight.

Master Xu, named Lingqi, lived during the Song dynasty... (At this point the original text continues with the preceding lines, "From this one may know that among the descendants of the Wenshi lineage and the clan of Taihe, immortals have appeared in every generation. I will meet you above the Nine Pure Realms, in the midst of the Primordial Vastness. Having spoken, the Perfected One departed," and then repeats the record of Yin Daoquan living in the mountains during the Jin dynasty and ascending in the ninth year of Yongjia. The sense of the passage may be incomplete because of errors in copying or the mistaken joining of texts.)

Master Xu, personally named Lingqi, lived during the Liu Song dynasty of the Southern Dynasties. He cultivated the Dao (the Way) on Mount Heng, the Southern Marchmount, for fifteen years in all, and traveled through its caves, peaks, and valleys. He wrote the Record of Mount Heng (Hengshan Ji), which states that Tianzhu Peak rises four thousand one hundred zhang, and that on its summit stands an inscription commemorating Yu the Great's control of the floods, written in archaic "tadpole script" (an ancient form of writing whose strokes resemble tadpoles). On the summit of Zigai Peak, white cranes often come and perch, and miraculous lingzhi fungus and immortal herbs grow there. Beneath the peak is a stone chamber in which the incense burner, the mortar and pestle for medicines, and the implements for refining elixirs are all still preserved. On Zhurong Peak there is a jade-green altar, beside which grows a purple pear tree; although its fruit ripens, no one has ever been able to eat it.

The Record of Mount Heng describes the wondrous sights of the cave-dwellings of the Southern Marchmount in great detail, but it does not make clear which methods of the Dao Lingqi actually practiced. It is said that he could subdue tigers and leopards and command ghosts and spirits. On the ninth day of the ninth month of the jiayin year, the second year of the Yuanhui era, he ascended to heaven in broad daylight from the Shangqing Palace.

Master Chen, personally named Huidu, practiced the Dao and refined elixirs at the Yuqing Temple. Morning and night he was tested by the spirits and strange beings of the mountain. He set up his furnace and refined the elixir three times, and the more he was tested, the firmer his resolve became. When the elixir was complete, he swallowed it. According to the records, he "rose up" (in Daoism, ascended to the realm of the immortals) on the thirteenth day of the fifth month in the second year of the Yongming era of the Jin dynasty.

Master Zhang, personally named Tanyao, lived at the Zhaoxian Temple (Temple of Summoning Immortals), where he devoted himself to quiet cultivation and thereby moved the perfected beings of the heavenly realm. These perfected beings secretly transmitted to him the Dao of "inwardly nourishing primal harmony and silently paying court to the Great Emperor," that is, a method of cultivation in which one inwardly nurtures primal Qi (vital energy) and silently venerates the Great Emperor. After thirteen years of practice, his Shen (spirit) roamed through the heavens, and he personally had an audience with the Great Emperor of the Supreme Ultimate Pole. The Great Emperor bestowed upon him jade fruit, jade-gem ointment, and the "elixir of merging spirit and uniting radiance" (a legendary immortal medicine in Daoism). He received these and swallowed them, and from then on his transformations were unfathomable and his spiritual powers without limit. On the thirteenth day of the seventh month in the first year of the Yanxing era of the Qi dynasty, he rose up to heaven.

Zhenren (Perfected Master) Zhang, whose personal name was Shizhen, was a native of Nanyang. He lived on Mount Nanyue, where an immortal descended and taught him the "Way of the Bright Mirror," instructing him to cultivate himself by it.

The immortal said: "What can illuminate the principles of things is Heaven; what can illuminate the forms of things is the mirror. The Heavenly Dao (the Way) prizes clarity and stillness, and the body of the mirror prizes brightness. If a person can keep the clarity and stillness of Heaven and the brightness of the mirror, so that the heart is limpid and the Shen (spirit) and Qi (vital energy) are settled, then inside and out will be luminous and transparent, and the supreme Dao can be realized. But if one exhausts the mind and wastes one's wits within, and wearies the body without, the heart cannot be limpid and the Shen cannot be clear, and one is far from the Dao.

"I once heard Master Changsang say that the essential secret of this method is hidden in the court of the Heavenly Emperor in Taiwei, at the center of the heavens (the dwelling of the Heavenly Emperor in Daoist belief). Whoever obtains it can penetrate the profound and understand the subtle, and see far into the most distant reaches of the eight directions.

"In the Dongzhen (Three Caverns) Method, a class of Daoist scriptures and cultivation practices, there is the 'Way of the Four Regulations,' which follows the four seasons, and its root is the same as that of this Way. The ancients said: when a chamber is empty, light arises of itself; when the heart and Shen are settled, the Dao arrives of itself. These words are truly trustworthy."

After nine years of cultivation, Shizhen attained the Dao. He could gaze a thousand li into the distance, and nothing could remain hidden from him. On the thirteenth day of the eleventh month in the third year of the Tianjian era of Emperor Wu of the Liang, he ascended to Heaven in broad daylight at the Palace of the Nine Immortals.

Wang Lingyu, the Perfected One (Zhenren), was a Daoist from the Jiujiang region who devoted himself wholeheartedly to cultivating the Dao (the Way). At first he lived on Wulao Peak. One night a divine being said to him: "A person who cultivates the Dao without choosing the right place is like someone sowing the five grains in sand and gravel: nothing can grow. Even one born with the natural endowment for immortality must find a blessed land and a numinous realm before any transformation can take place. Even if one steadily accumulates De (Virtue) and merit, if the place of practice is unsuitable, demonic obstacles may still ruin one's efforts, and the Dao can never be accomplished."

Lingyu asked, "What place is suitable for settling down and practicing?" The divine being replied, "The upper peak of Zhuling and the ridges near Ziga Peak can help you ascend straight to the azure heavens." So Lingyu moved from Mount Lu to the Central Palace of Mount Heng, the Southern Marchmount, and practiced there. Twelve years later, the assembled Perfected Ones descended from the heavens to welcome him. On the thirteenth day of the seventh month in the eleventh year of the Tianjian era of Emperor Wu of the Liang, he ascended the altar and was raised up to become an immortal.

Master Deng, whose given name was Yuzhi, was a close friend of Xu Lingqi, and the two traveled together among the famous mountains. During the Yuanhui era of the Song dynasty, Xu Lingqi attained the Dao (the Way) and ascended to the heavens at the Shangqing Palace, while Deng Yuzhi remained in the immortal mountains to continue his cultivation.

Many years later, Emperor Wu of the Liang heard that he was cultivating the Dao but lacked the cinnabar and other materials needed for refining elixirs. The emperor issued an edict granting him these supplies and permitting him to build three Daoist temples on Mount Yuelu, an upper, a middle, and a lower one, to serve as his places of practice. A divine being told him: "Within the gate of the cavern lies a place that draws in blessings and prolongs life. Remember this well, and do not forget it."

After the elixir was completed, Deng Yuzhi returned to live on the eastern side of Zigai Peak. On the thirtieth day of the twelfth month in the eleventh year of the Tianjian era of the Liang (512 CE), eight perfected ones arrived in his chamber, riding cloud chariots beneath splendid canopies. These eight were the very figures who had earlier attained the Dao and ascended to the heavens. That day, they invited Deng Yuzhi to a natural stone altar, and together they rose into the heights of the sky.

Later, the imperial court issued a decree establishing a shrine at this site and selected Daoist priests to oversee the sacrifices and offerings. During the Xiantong era of the Tang dynasty, Zhang Guan, the Prefect of Hengzhou, petitioned the court to confer upon the place the name "Nine Immortals' Stone Altar of Zigai Peak," and the court granted his request.