《洞玄灵宝三师记》

The Dao (the Way) in its essence is utterly still and without contrivance; in its function, it pervades all things, allows life to come into being, and manifests in response to the sentience of beings. The Dao begins in the beginningless, prior to everything that could be called "prior"; from the mysterious "non-being" it brings forth the mysterious "being." The loftiest and truest teaching was established from this source.

The Celestial Venerable of Primordial Beginning (Yuanshi Tianzun) unfolded layer upon layer of profound principle. Passing through the Five Tai (the five stages of cosmic formation), he grasped the root of the transformation and generation of all things, set the true Jing (essence) in motion, and gathered together the subtle gateways of the teaching, shaping them into seals, which he transmitted to the Great Dao Lord (Dadao Jun). The Great Dao Lord arranged and unified these seals, so that they were developed and widely spread. There are twelve seals in all, encompassing deep and hidden matters and reaching into the realm of mystery. The Great Dao Lord transmitted them to Lord Lao (Laojun).

Lord Lao put these seals into practice. Ascending to the Three Pure Ones (Sanqing, the highest heavens revered in Daoism) and reaching outward across the boundless universe, over hundreds of millions of years, he opened up and taught methods of the Dao that no one before had heard. Rulers of every age took Lord Lao as their teacher, and teachings were established everywhere on this basis. In the realm of shadows and in the human world, among things great and small, all revered this Dao. Thereafter the Dao was handed down from generation to generation, with masters and disciples continually transmitting and delivering one another, from the Celestial Venerable of Primordial Beginning down to the present day. For this reason, the revered master who transmits the teaching and leads a person into the Dao is called the "Master of Deliverance" (Dushi).

The teacher of the Master of Deliverance is called the "Master of Registry" (Jishi). "Registry" (ji) carries the sense of succession: only by receiving the true transmission of the Dao can one leave the ordinary world behind and accord with the Great Dao. The teacher of the Master of Registry is called the "Master of the Path" (Jingshi). Here "Jing" means "path": the Master of the Path guides disciples to awakening, so that they abandon the mundane and set out on the road to immortality.

The kindness of these three masters is as weighty as that of one's ancestors. Ancestors can pass on the family estate but cannot guarantee that their descendants will attain the Dao; parents can give birth to children but cannot cause them to ascend as immortals. Serving one's teachers and following the teachers' way is precisely an essential path of cultivation. Even the meaning of the "three honored ones" spoken of by the Confucians cannot compare with the reverence owed to these three masters.

The virtue of the three revered masters shines brightly and deserves remembrance and admiration. Yet later students, though they hold them in reverence, can hardly draw near to seek instruction. After their deaths, their deeds were not yet recorded in the registers. Although their noble conduct and fine teachings are carved upon famous mountains, later disciples still find it difficult to explore their true depths from these inscriptions. For this reason, I have carefully compiled their authentic deeds to make them known to later generations, and have written this brief preface and verses of praise. The disciples of the Daoist community, Haoxing, Lu Shenyi, and Jishu, together with Master Daoyuan Xiulie, have each composed short eulogies recording the virtue and bearing of the three masters. It is hoped that, even through countless kalpas, these pure and upright norms will not be lost.

Written on the Jiachen day of the Zhongyuan Festival, in the Gengchen year of the Tang dynasty (800 CE).

The Three Masters

The Scripture Master was Lord Tian of the Great Cavern (Dadong) of Shangqing on Mount Nanyue. His name was Xuying, his courtesy name Liangyi, and he was a native of the state of Qi. During the Kaihuang era of the Sui dynasty, he lived west of You County, where he served his parents. The place was close to other households, and weddings and visits were frequent, so it was not suited to quiet cultivation of the Dao (the Way). Although the woods and mountain foothills were serene, he left and moved to the mountains of Nanyue.

Lord Tian was pure and upright by nature, and from early on he was gentle, warm, and even-tempered. He carried on the filial virtue of Shun and served his parents with great reverence. Later, he built a dwelling beneath the tiered cliffs southeast of Zigai Peak, tilled the land himself, and supported his parents for more than fifty years, never slacking morning or evening. Though he longed to clear away the wild grass in search of the great Dao and to live in seclusion in pursuit of the true, he always attended his parents with respect and did not dare to indulge his own aspirations alone. Only after they had died did he travel among the Five Peaks and journey far to seek the Dao.

During the Longshuo era of the Tang dynasty, Lord Tian met the hidden immortal Lord He, who secretly transmitted the methods of the Dao to him. Thereafter, Lord Tian often dwelt among vines, springs, and rocks, with no fixed whereabouts. The Prefect, Marquis Tian, admired his Dao and De (Virtue), welcomed him from afar, and built the Hall of Descending Perfected on the east side of the halls of the Nanyue Daoist temple. He also asked Tian Qiancheng and Zhuge Huang to compose an inscription and eulogy for him, which were carved into the wall to make his profound virtue manifest. Lord Tian sometimes stayed here, spreading the Dao and teaching methods of cultivation.

What he transmitted was the Shangqing Dadong method. It was handed down by Master Zhenyi to Celestial Master (Tianshi) Lord Xue, and from Lord Xue to Lord Tian. Lord Tian studied it deeply and received its profound essentials, entering far into the realm of the Dao, and spent more than two hundred years wandering and practicing. Though cold and heat succeeded one another, his lifespan seemed to have no end, and even now some say they have seen him. From this it appears that the Jade Palaces and immortal grottoes must hold a dwelling for him, and that the ranks and stations of the immortals must include his passage; but the mortal world and the realm of the immortals are separate, and people cannot know the details.

Lord Tian had four outstanding disciples: Lord Feng Weiliang of Bingyao, Lord Chen Guayan of Xianglin, Lord Xu Linghu of Fangying, and Master Guangcheng, Lord Liu. During the Yuanhe era, the first three went east into Mount Tiantai and expounded the Dao wherever they went; Emperor Xianzong issued an edict summoning them, but they did not respond. Master Guangcheng, Lord Liu, remained at the foot of Mount Nanyue. Emperor Wuzong summoned him to serve as Celestial Master and to transmit the Dao at court. Today, the Three Caverns (Sandong) teachings throughout the Jiangsu and Zhejiang region all revere Lord Tian as their founding patriarch.

The supreme Dao (the Way) is vast and boundless, an unnamed and unadorned source. It is so profound that it can hardly be perceived, and so subtle that it can hardly be grasped. One cannot simply call it clear or turbid. Our Ancestral Master was radiant and outstanding, beyond ordinary people, and awakened to the Dao early. In silence he received the true transmission. What he learned was no common knowledge, nor any fixed doctrine that could be pursued by deliberate effort.

The Machuan (妈川) lineage opened the way to good fortune, and the lineage of Qi carried on its glory. The Master was content with poverty and found joy in a simple meal of rice served in a bamboo vessel. While delighting in the Dao and practicing cultivation, he taught the scriptures behind a crimson gauze curtain. He regarded the hairpins and cap ties of high office (symbols of official rank) as no more than straw and chaff, and he took immortals and perfected beings as his guests, friends, and kin. He farmed with his own hands to support his family and practiced filial devotion at home. Later he withdrew deep into the mountain crags and, among the forests and ridges, sought the way of the Perfected.

The immortals Chisongzi and Prince Qiao became his guides, and he kept company with the immortals for a long time. The years of the world flowed on without pause, yet his body and mind grew ever more tranquil. Reverently he rode an immortal chariot and, accompanied by its procession, ascended in flight to roam the Eight Radiances (the visions of the immortal realms in Daoist tradition).

The Master (an honorific in Daoism) Ji dwelt at the Tongwu Temple (a Daoist temple) on Mount Tiantai, where he practiced the Shangqing (Highest Clarity) Great Cavern Way. The text then restates the images of following the immortals, rising beyond the dust of the world, calming body and mind, and soaring in a chariot through the Eight Radiances.

Some characters in the original, such as "妈川," "箪食," and "枇糠," may have been miscopied or misread in transmission. The above follows a reading that suits the context.

The Registrar Master (jishi, the senior master responsible for registering and conferring lineage in Daoism) was Lord Feng, personal name Weiliang, a native of Changle. Known as the Thrice-Summoned Gentleman of the Shangqing Dadong (Highest Clarity Great Cavern) tradition, Feng served at Tongwu Abbey on Mount Tiantai. Feng once cultivated the Dao (the Way) at the Central Palace of Mount Heng, where Feng became close companions in the Way with Lord Xu of Fangying and Lord Chen of Xianglin. Each built a meditation retreat near the Central Palace, two or three li apart.

Later, Feng went to the Hall of Descending Perfection to call on Master Tian and received the true secret instructions. Feng took part in studying and transmitting the profound methods of the Three Caverns (Dongzhen, Dongxuan, and Dongshen, the three divisions of the Daoist canon). During the Yuanhe era, Feng went east to Mount Tiantai to spread the Great Dao. Yuan Ji, the Surveillance Commissioner of Kuaiji and a native of Henan, heard of Feng's reputation and held Feng in deep esteem. Several times he sent earnest letters, gazing toward the clouds and mountains to express his respect, and he treated Feng with the courtesy due a master.

After Master Zhenyi restored Tongwu Abbey, many years passed, and its splendid halls and multi-storied towers became overgrown with weeds and shaded in deep green. The three gentlemen, mindful of the support given by the military governor (yuanrong, a commanding general), rebuilt and repaired the abbey once more. They constructed the Shangqing Pavilion, the Hall of Descending Perfection, the White Cloud Pavilion, and the Tiaoxian Court, so as to restore the abbey to the appearance Master Zhenyi had left behind.

Lord Tian, Master Zhenyi, had once transmitted the Dao of the Three Caverns throughout the lands south of the Yangtze. Emperor Xianzong and Emperor Jingzong of the Tang each sent envoys to summon Tian, furnishing a cart with cattail-wrapped wheels and a crane-script edict (the courtesies and imperial letters used to summon recluses), yet in the end they could not draw Tian out of seclusion. Tian instead founded Bingyao in Hualin Valley and lived in retreat there.

Afterward, Tian wandered with a staff in search of secluded beauty and viewed marvelous realms: Lingxu, Huading, Qiongshi, and the Stone Bridge, as well as the Peach Blossom Spring of Mount Tianmu and the Yellow Cloud Plains of Jinting. Tian went alone and at leisure, often not returning for months. From then on Tian lived in deep seclusion, and no one knew where Tian dwelt.

Tian's disciples included Ying Yijie of the Three Caverns, Ye Cangzhi of Yuxiao (courtesy name Hanxiang), Liu Chujing of Xiandu, and Shen Guanwu of Jinting, among others. They received the lineage and inherited the transmission of the immortal gate, and each carried it forward, so that this line of the Dao flourished in succession throughout the world.

The eulogy says:

The original Taiji (太极, Supreme Ultimate, the undivided source of the cosmos) gave rise to the two forms of Yin-Yang. After chaos divided, people chased after one another in endless turmoil. So he returned to the source, reverted to simplicity, and took the Dao (the Way) as his foundation. The Tiantong Baolu (the treasured registers of Daoist transmission) was handed down from his master. He cultivated the Jade Liquid and the Golden Elixir, nurturing primordial Qi (vital energy) and refining the hun and po souls. He ascended the altar to report to the Celestial Emperor, donned the ritual vestments, and set foot on the path of mysterious cultivation. Purple clouds drifted by, and the Golden Court became his dwelling. He cleared away the weeds and brambles, so that the lineage of Tongqiao flourished once more. The mountains were still and secluded, and three fellow Daoists kept company in harmony. On the left bank of the Zhi River, they spread the teachings of our Dao. The sage ruler admired his De (Virtue), and the generals who commanded armies believed in him with sincerity. His heart of the Dao was like a cloud, free of attachment; even the envoys sent by the court to summon him could hardly move him. Treading the stars and riding the wind and clouds, he ascended to heaven in an instant.

The ordaining master (the master who transmitted the methods of ordination and salvation) was Xianpeng Daoyuan of the Shangqing Great Cavern, from the Daoyuan Abbey on Mount Tiantai. The following lines praise him once more: on the left bank of the Zhi River he spread the Dao; the sage ruler admired his De, and the generals who commanded armies believed in him sincerely; the ordaining master's heart was free of attachment, and he declined every summons; in the end he trod the stars, rode the wind, and ascended lightly to heaven.

The ordaining master (the master who transmitted the lineage) was the Master of the Daoyuan Hermitage on Mount Tiantai, a Master of the Great Cavern of Shangqing (Upper Purity), who had been granted the purple robe. His honorific was Yingjun, his personal name Yijie, and his courtesy name Shizhong. His ancestral home was Runan, but his forebears moved to the foothills of Mount Jinhua during the Eastern Jin, and so by his time the family belonged to Dongyang Commandery. He was a fifth-generation descendant of Shuning, a lofty scholar of the Kaiyuan era who had been summoned by the court as an Eminent Recluse. His family had understood the classics for generations. He was upright in conduct yet never sought high office.

The Master was filled with the Dao's (the Way's) Qi (vital energy), and his bearing was profound. He was born with a pure and numinous temperament and cultivated it with single-minded devotion. He kept to what was genuine, untouched by worldly dust, and his mind accorded with emptiness and stillness without flaw. His mother, Lady He, once dreamed that a shooting star flew in through her window. She woke startled and still saw a divine glow, and so discovered she was with child. The Master was born in the fifth year of Yuanhe, the gengyin year. From childhood he was unlike ordinary people, and even as an infant he disliked meat and pungent foods.

At seven he took leave of his parents, resolved to study the Dao, and went to the Lingrui Temple in Lanxi County of his home commandery. There he became a disciple of Master Hao Xuansu and studied the True Scripture of Southern Florescence, Humble Emptiness and Numinous Penetration, as well as the Book of Changes, the Classic of Filial Piety, and the Analects. He recited with total concentration and studied with diligence, able to take in several lines at a single glance. At thirteen he was equipped with the Daoist cap, rough robe, and three garments, and he received the Five Precepts. He practiced with reverence, and both teachers and companions held him in respect.

At fifteen he went to Mount Tiantai to study Zhengyi (Orthodox Unity) Daoism. At seventeen he was invested with the Method of High Mystery and Purple Void. At eighteen he went to Mount Longhu, where he followed Shaoren, the eighteenth-generation descendant of the Celestial Master (Tianshi), and received the Three-Grade Great Capital Rites. At twenty-four he studied the Lingbao True Texts and the methods of the Dongshen and Dongxuan, two of the Three Caverns. At twenty-nine he trained in the Ascent to Mystery rites, and at thirty-two he received the Fulu (talismans and registers) of the Great Cavern of Shangqing, along with the Returning Chariot and Completing the Dao, the Purple Script and Plain Girdle, and Treading Earth and Soaring to Heaven. Throughout this time he also read widely in the philosophers and histories while concentrating on understanding the scriptures' profound meanings, keeping his fame subdued and devoting himself to cultivation.

The transmission of the great Shangqing method runs as follows: from the Perfected Tao of Gouqu to the Perfected Wang of Shengxuan, then to the Perfected Pan Tixuan, the Perfected Sima Zhenyi, the Celestial Master Xue Jichang of Nanyue, Master Tian Liangyi of Mount Heng, and the Eminent Recluse Feng Weiliang of Tiantai, known as Qiyao, and finally to the Master. It was passed down through the generations, each holder of outstanding virtue, and the Master inherited this tradition of cultivation. Ye Hanxiang of Yuxiao and Liu Chujing of Xiandu were both his fellow students.

In the third year of Huichang, the Master built a separate altar for practice at Cuiping Rock, southwest of the Qitongwu Temple, and devoted himself to studying the secret methods. He cleared paths through the grass and waded through streams in search of a place suitable for residence and practice. The Surveillance Commissioner of Yuezhou, Lord Li, admired his integrity and sincerely invited him. Li also memorialized the throne to request a name plaque for the hermitage, and the court granted the name "Daoyuan."

Afterward the Master lived in seclusion in the mountains and forests for more than fifty years, upholding the teachings of the great Dao without ever slackening. People from the Wu and Yue regions came to pay their respects, burn incense, and bow, and many wished to serve him. Some among them left the world to devote themselves to the Dao, while others became prominent locally through this connection. Their deeds are too many to record one by one.

From childhood to old age the Master was untouched by worldly custom, free of murkiness and turbidity, and strict in his discipline. His heart was gentle and humble, and his true Qi was abundant. His character was grave and deep, and his speech clear. Whenever he entered meditation, observed a fast, or ascended the altar to examine the scriptural registers, he prayed for blessings on behalf of the world, relieved living beings, and guided others into the Dao. He also recited the secret instructions of the Yellow Court and chanted the Jade Chapters of the Great Cavern (a Shangqing Daoist scripture). He practiced according to such Daoist ritual methods as the Eight Ways and the Three Origins, diligent without pause, cultivating and nourishing himself from morning to night. His biography says that because of this he drew down the spirits and received mysterious transmissions. Sometimes in his meditation chamber he reverently welcomed the arrival of divine carriages, and sometimes, as he gazed upward, he heard the faint passing of a procession. The Master experienced all of this in person.

Nobles and officials who heard of his reputation admired him, and local authorities respectfully invited him and reported his name to the court. The court recognized his virtue, bestowing an honorific title and an edict, and also granted him the purple robe. Although he was praised by the world, the Master was not satisfied by it and held to his original aspiration. He once said to his disciples: "In order to spread and protect this teaching, I cannot flee far from the world and hide my name. The Dao does not oppose people, and one who seeks it diligently will accomplish something. How far apart are the Jade Capital, the Golden Gate, Quanqu, and Dengdu? All are reached through the movements of the mind. Those who study after me should strive to promote this Dao."

In the jiayin year of the Qianning era, on the mid-month day in the seventh month, the Master finished his devotions, bathed, and entered stillness, sitting upright with his spirit gathered, as though waiting for something. At the hour of chou on the eighth day, he passed away peacefully at the age of eighty-five. His limbs remained supple and his features unchanged. What the True Scripture calls "Upper Release" (the highest form of liberation in Daoism) is exactly this. That night the hermitage was filled with fragrance, purple vapor rose into the sky, birds cried out, and the mountains and rivers seemed to lose their color. Seven days later, his disciples moved his remains to the stone chamber at the northeast corner of the hermitage, a place for the refining and transformation of the shed body, which they did in accordance with Daoist ritual practice.

On the fourth day of the same month, two spirit beings in feathered robes, holding bamboo tablets, walked in from outside the hermitage with extraordinary bearing. The disciples in the hermitage came forward one after another to question them, but heard only the sound of chanting and ritual praise, and in an instant the beings were gone. The biography takes this as a message conveyed in mysterious fashion by celestial officials.

Five years earlier, in the first month of winter, Zhang Jingxuan, a Daoist of the Tiantai Temple, happened to see the clouds over the rocky peak glowing red and purple in a strange spectacle. In the clouds were three colored boats. Master Ye of Yuxiao rode one, Master Liu of Fangying rode another, and the Master rode the third. The boats of Masters Ye and Liu drifted away first, while the Master's boat lagged behind. Later Liu and Ye did indeed pass away first, and the Master followed. The biography takes this as an omen of attaining the Dao, and as a sign that cultivation will in the end meet with response.

The record of the hermitage was written by Zhang Ying, and the eulogy by Luo Yin of Hengyang. Both were men of outstanding literary talent in their day, and their writing is fine enough to be handed down to later ages. Yet there remain many aspects of the Master's ascent as an immortal that have not been made known. The author, considering their own learning shallow, can only set down the Master's principal deeds first, hoping that worthy people will later supplement and polish the account. Lu Shenyi of Wujun, a later disciple, bows his head toward the immortal mists and records this matter truthfully. Composed by the disciple Master Guangcheng.

The mystery of the Dao is profound and subtle, manifesting itself in the Three Caverns (Dongzhen, Dongxuan, and Dongshen, the three great divisions of the Daoist canon). Its jade-inscribed words and golden instructions are as marvelous as the purple phoenix. The Three Radiances (the celestial lights of sun, moon, and stars in Daoist cosmology) are all precious treasures, recited and studied by Shuhua. The meaning of the scriptures is like a bright lamp lighting a darkened road, awakening people from a great dream.

Only the Master, whose virtue was so admirable, was able to rise above the turmoil of the mortal world. His hymns surpassed the Shang odes of the Han era, and his winding, intricate phrasing was enough to make even the age of Yao change countenance. He practiced the Eight Paths (eight methods of cultivation), nurturing himself in purity and stillness, and silently paying homage to the Three Origins (the revered celestial deities of Daoism). Following this practice, one may reach the highest realm, and one's achievements will be carried on and spread abroad.

Danhuo Dongtai is the pavilion of immortals at Chicheng. There the Master expounded the teachings and transmitted the doctrine, leaving behind marvelous rules and standards.