《消摇墟经》

When people fall into the snares of worldly life, they scurry about like flies and ants. There is little more to say about them. Even those whom the ancients praised for their lofty minds and transcendent resolve often seem as though their feathers had been clipped and their feet bound—like colts harnessed to a carriage or blackbirds shut in cages. Yet who can cast off the world and roam beyond it, as a cicada sheds its shell or a phoenix soars into the sky? I imagine that only the immortals can.

The immortals draw in the essences of the clouds and consume the finest substances hidden in stone. They fly astride purple phoenixes and wander on blue oxen. With a single splendid staff, they can travel across three thousand miles of cloud and water; with half a sleeve, they can visit the twelve grotto-heavens where, according to Daoist legend, immortals dwell. Perhaps this is the very realm Zhuangzi had in mind when he spoke of “Free and Easy Wandering.”

By nature I am poor at socializing and have turned away from worldly distractions; I have always cherished only purple mushrooms and white stones. Hong Sheng Zicheng, a disciple from Xindu, once brought me a book of accounts of the immortals and asked for my opinion. As I leafed through it, azure mists and purple Qi seemed to rise from its pages and swirl around me. It was like paying a visit at sea to the immortal Han Zhen, leaving me light and buoyant, as though I might ascend to heaven. This place truly seems an immortal realm within the world of desire, a Penglai isle amid the mortal world.

Yet the practice of the Immortal Way has its foundations, and one’s affinity with the Dao is determined in advance. To grasp only the surface and forget the essence is, in the end, no proper path to becoming an immortal and attaining the Dao. Still, after long toil in the mortal world, when one has caught one’s breath and wiped away one’s weariness, to burn a stick of incense, sip a mouthful of bitter tea, and occasionally read and enjoy this book—is that not like drinking ice water after swallowing fire, and at once feeling refreshed? If one day I can escape the cage and stroll through the open sky, I hope to take this book as an aid to cultivating the Dao. Perhaps that hope is not entirely without cause.

Table of Contents of the Carefree Mound

Names and Surnames of the Immortals

Laozi, Lord Dongwang, Queen Mother of the West, Chisongzi, Guangchengzi, Lord Qingwu, Pengzu, Master Iron Crutch, Wang Ziqiao, Yin Xi, Li Babi, Ding Lingwei, Guiguzi, Liu Yue, the Elder Lord Taishang, Baishisheng, An Qisheng, and Dongfang Shuo.

Zhongli Quan, Ma Chengzi, Liu Haichan, Huang An, Liu Chen, Fuqiubo, Wei Boyang, Zhang Daoling, Mei Fu, Xiao Shi, Fei Changfang, Huang Chuping, Lan Caihe, Mayizi, Magu, Lü Chunyang, Sun Deng, Zuo Ci, Han Xiangzi, Cao Guojiu, Xu Zhenjun, Ge Xianweng, He Xiangu, Zhang Guolao, Wang Zhi, Mei Fu, Xiao Shi, Fei Changfang, Huang Chuping, Lan Caihe, Mayizi, Magu, Lü Chunyang, Sun Deng, Zuo Ci, Han Xiangzi, Cao Guojiu, Xu Zhenjun, Ge Xianweng, He Xiangu, Zhang Guolao, Wang Zhi, Huang the Wild Man, Tao Hongjing, Sima Zhenren, Pei Hang, Sun Simiao, Tan Qiao, Xu Xuanping, Xuanzhenzi, Xuanyuan Ji, Chen Xiyi, Lei Yinweng, Ma Ziran, Zhang Ziyang, Li Bitì, Guiyuanzi, Bai Yuchan, Chen Niniwan, Mo Yueding, Ma Danyang, Zhang Sanfeng, and the Lord Lao (a Daoist honorific for the Most High Lord Lao).

This passage lists the names of many immortals from Daoist legend, practitioners of the Dao, and accomplished adepts. It recounts no specific events or methods of cultivation. Among those named are well-known members of the Eight Immortals, such as Zhongli Quan, Lü Chunyang, and Zhang Guolao, as well as figures revered in Daoism, such as Zhang Daoling, Ge Xianweng, and Xu Zhenjun. The passage concludes with the Lord Lao.

Laozi is Taishang Laojun, one of the highest gods honored in Daoism. He appeared in many forms across generations, yet had no birth in the ordinary sense. During the reign of Shang Yangjia, he divided off a portion of his divine consciousness, transformed it into primordial Qi, and lodged in the womb of the Mysterious and Wondrous Jade Maiden for eighty-one years. At the mao hour on the fifteenth day of the second month in the gengchen year of Wuding’s reign, he was born in Qurenli, Laixiang, Ku County, in the state of Chu. He emerged from his mother’s left armpit and fell beneath a plum tree. Pointing to the tree, he said, “This is my surname.” At birth, his hair was white and his face yellow; his ears were long and his eyes square. The bridge of his nose was prominent, and there were three openings above his ears. He had handsome whiskers, a broad jaw, sparse teeth, and a square-shaped mouth. His feet traced the steps of the Three and Five, and his palms bore ten lines. His surname was Li, his given name Er, his courtesy name Boyang, and his title Laozi; he was also called Lao Pin.

When King Wen of Zhou was serving as the Earl of the West, he appointed Laozi Keeper of the Archives, an official in charge of texts. Under King Wu of Zhou, Laozi was promoted to Archivist at the Pillar’s Base, a historian of the Zhou royal house. Afterward, he traveled to the Western Extremity, Great Qin, Zhugan, and other lands. Known as the Ancient Master, he taught and transformed the people in each country. During the reign of King Kang of Zhou, he returned to Zhou and once again served as Archivist at the Pillar’s Base.

In the twenty-third year of King Zhao of Zhou, Laozi rode in a cart drawn by a blue ox through the Hangu Pass, taught and transformed the pass official Yin Xi, and transmitted the Dao to him. In the twenty-fifth year, he appeared at the Qingyang market in Shu and met with Yin Xi. Together they traveled through the shifting sands and the lands of the Hu peoples; by the reign of King Mu of Zhou, he had returned to the Central Plains. In the seventeenth year of King Jing of Zhou, Confucius asked Lao Pin about the Dao. Afterward, he remarked that Laozi was like a dragon, unfathomable. In the ninth year of King Nan of Zhou, Laozi once more set out from the San Pass and ascended to Kunlun Mountain.

During the Qin dynasty, Laozi appeared on the banks of the Jia River, took the title Lord of the River, and transmitted the Dao to An Qisheng. In the reign of Emperor Wen of Han, he was known again as Master Guangcheng. The emperor sent a messenger to summon and question him. Master Guangcheng replied, “The Dao is worthy of reverence and De is precious; they cannot be inquired about from afar.” The emperor then went in person and said, “There are four great things in the world, and the ruler is one of them. Though you possess the Dao, you are still my subject. Since you cannot be made to yield, why are you so proud? I can make people poor or lowly, and I can also make them rich or noble.”

Master Guangcheng then brought his hands together in salute and leapt upward, gradually rising into the air until he was more than a hundred feet above the ground, where he remained suspended. After a long while, he replied, “Now I reach neither the heavens above, nor belong to humankind in the middle, nor dwell on the earth below. How, then, can I be considered your subject? And how could Your Majesty make me rich or noble, poor or lowly?” The emperor understood. Only then did he step down from his carriage, bow, and offer thanks, and he received the two Jing known as the Dao and De.

Laozi appeared in every age to teach and transform. He practiced the Dao before Heaven and Earth were brought into being, and will endure even after they have run their course. His concealment and manifestation are impossible to fathom, and his transformations are without end. He saves all beings, both heavenly and human, and his deeds cannot be recounted in full.

The Eastern King Gong, known as Ni and styled Junming, emerged through the transformation of Heaven and Earth before human beings and the myriad things existed. He was born above the blue sea, at the ruins of the Azure Spirit. His Dao nature was settled and tranquil, and his mind and body were deep and Wuwei (non-action). He assisted the wondrous work of creation, nurtured and brought forth the myriad things, governed the gentle Yang Qi, and ruled the East; for this reason, he was also called the Eastern King Gong. All men on Heaven and Earth who attained the Dao and became immortals fell under his authority.

It is said that on a Dingmao day, the Eastern King Gong ascended a high terrace to examine those who had passed through the cycles of tribulation and risen to Heaven as immortals. Immortals were ranked in nine grades. When they first began their ascent to immortality, they had to pay their respects to the Grand Duke, then visit the Golden Mother (the Queen Mother of the West). Only after completing the duties entrusted to them could they ascend to the Nine Heavens and enter the Three Pure Ones (Sanqing), the three realms described in Daoism. They also had to pay homage to the Great Highest and visit the Primordial Beginning (the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning).

In the early Han dynasty, a group of children sang a verse as they walked along the road: “Put on a green skirt, go up to Heaven’s gate, pay your respects to the Golden Mother, and visit the Wood Duke (the Eastern King Gong).” People at the time did not understand the verse. Only Zhang Liang, styled Zifang, went to visit the Eastern King Gong. He told others that the children were the Jade Youths of the Eastern King Gong, immortal boys who served him.

Queen Mother of the West

The Queen Mother of the West, also known as the Golden Mother of the Tortoise Terrace, is a female immortal deity who dwells on the Tortoise Terrace. Endowed with the wondrous and subtle Qi of the West, she came into being in Yichuan. Her surname is Wei, her personal name Hui, and her courtesy name Wanling. She dwells in the West and, together with the Duke of the East, governs the two Qi of Yin and Yang, harmonizes Heaven and Earth, and nurtures all things into life. All women throughout Heaven and Earth who attain the Dao and become immortals are under her jurisdiction.

She lives in the gardens of Kunlun, in the Garden of Listening to the Wind, where stand nine-storied jade towers and a mysterious terrace. The Jade Pool lies to the left, while emerald waters flow around it. In the garden are such immortal maidens as the Five Blossoms of the Forest, Mei Lan the Azure Maiden, and Yaoji and Yuzhi.

King Mu of Zhou traveled west in a chariot drawn by eight famed steeds. Carrying a white jade tablet and a dark jade disk, he went to pay his respects to the Queen Mother of the West, then hosted a banquet for her at the Jade Pool. The Queen Mother sang to King Mu: “White clouds drift across the sky; forests and mountains grow of their own accord. The road is long, with mountain ranges and rivers layered one upon another. May you live forever, and come seek me again.”

In the first year of Yuanfeng under the Later Han, the Queen Mother of the West descended into Emperor Wu’s palace and gave him seven flat peaches. When the emperor wished to keep the pits, she said, “These peaches do not exist in the human world. They bear fruit only once every three thousand years.” Just then, Dongfang Shuo was peeking through a window. Pointing to him, the Queen Mother said, “That boy has already stolen my peaches twice.” That day, she ordered her attendants to celebrate the emperor’s longevity: Dong Shuangcheng played the Yunhe flute, Prince Deng played the Eight-Lang Ao, Xu Feiqiong played the Lingxu reed pipe, and An Faxing sang the Song of Mysterious Numinous Power.

Red Pine Master

Red Pine Master was the rain master in the time of Shennong. Through cultivating the spirit and practicing Qi absorption, he could enter water without getting wet and enter fire without being burned. He once went to Mount Kunlun and often stayed in the Queen Mother of the West’s stone chamber, coming and going with the wind and rain. The daughter of the Flame Emperor followed him, attained the Dao, and became an immortal; she departed with him. In the time of Gaoxin, he again served as rain master and asked travelers where they had been.

Master Guangcheng

Guangchengzi lived in the time of the Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan and withdrew to a stone chamber on Mount Kongtong. The Yellow Emperor went to visit him and asked him to explain the most profound principles. Guangchengzi replied: “The utmost Dao (the highest Way) is subtle and profound, beyond words. At its ultimate point, it is dim and still, without sound or trace. Do not look, do not listen; preserve your spirit and quiet your mind, and your body will naturally become upright. Be sure to remain still and pure. Do not exhaust your body or scatter your spirit, and do not let your thoughts become confused. Only then can you preserve your life for a long time. Guard your inner self carefully and lessen disturbances from outside. Excessive cleverness can easily bring ruin. I preserve undivided unity and dwell in serenity; thus, after twelve hundred years, I have still not grown old.”

Qingwugong was a disciple of Peng Zu. After receiving guidance from an enlightened master, he grasped the subtle principles of the immortal Dao. He then entered Mount Huayin to cultivate the Dao, accumulating four hundred and seventy-one wei, a unit of cultivation-counting used in the original text. Later, he took golden liquid, an elixir refined through Daoist methods, and ascended to become an immortal.

Peng Zu’s personal name was Qian Keng, and he was a great-grandson of Emperor Zhuanxu. By the end of the Yin dynasty, he was already more than seven hundred years old, yet had still not grown old. He enjoyed quietude and was skilled in the arts of nourishing and guiding the body, methods of cultivation for health through regulation and guided movement. He also took substances such as crystal, mica, and elk antler, and so often appeared youthful. When King Mu of Zhou heard of him, he appointed him as a high official. Peng Zu pleaded illness and took no part in government affairs. Cai Nü traveled by carriage to seek the Dao from Peng Zu. She learned its essential methods and taught them to King Mu. He tried practicing them and, sure enough, saw results. When Peng Zu learned of this, he departed, and no one knew where he had gone. More than seventy years later, his disciples saw him west of the Flowing Sands.

Master Tieguai

Master Li Iron Crutch was originally a robust man. As a young man, he heard of the Great Dao and cultivated the Way in a mountain cave. Lord Li and Master Wanchu once came to his mountain retreat and taught him the Daoist arts.

One day, Master Li Iron Crutch prepared to travel as agreed to Mount Hua to visit the Lord. Before setting out, he told his disciple, “My soul will remain here. If the soul that travels abroad has not returned after seven days, cremate my body.” The disciple’s mother was seriously ill, so he hurried home and cremated the master’s body on the sixth day. On the seventh day, the master did indeed return, only to find that his body was gone and there was nowhere for him to reside. He therefore revived by taking possession of the corpse of a man who had starved to death. This is why his appearance today is lame and ugly; it was not his original form.

Wang Ziqiao

Wang Ziqiao was Ji Jin, Crown Prince of King Ling of Zhou. He loved playing the sheng, whose sound resembled the cry of a phoenix. He once traveled in the area around the Yi and Luo Rivers. The Daoist Fúqiū Gōng led Ji Jin up Mount Songgao. More than thirty years later, Ji Jin met Xiang Liang and said to him, “Please tell my family to wait for me at the head of Hou Mountain on the seventh day of the seventh month.”

When the appointed day arrived, he indeed rode a white crane down to the mountaintop. People could see him, but could not approach. He bowed his head in greeting to those below, then departed a few days later. Later, people built a shrine for him at the foot of Mount Wei.

Yin Xi

Yin Xi, whose courtesy name was Gongwen, was from Tianshui. At first, while his mother was sleeping during the day, she dreamed that crimson clouds descended from the sky and surrounded her. When Yin Xi was born, lotus flowers sprang up from the ground of their own accord.

Yin Xi, whose courtesy name was Gongwen, was from Tianshui. One day, while his mother was sleeping, she dreamed that a radiant energy like red clouds surrounded her. When Yin Xi was born, lotus flowers sprang up naturally from the ground. As he grew older, his eyes shone like the sun and moon. He was tall and graceful, with arms that reached his knees, a dignified bearing, and the air of a celestial being. In his youth, he loved studying ancient classics. He was kind and generous, and did not cling to worldly conventions of propriety. He was willing to disadvantage himself to benefit others and sought neither fame nor advancement.

During the reign of King Kang of Zhou, Yin Xi served as a grand officer. He watched the heavens and saw purple Qi moving westward from the east. Knowing that a sage would pass through Hangu Pass on his way west, he requested the post of commandant there. He instructed the gate officer, Sun Jing, in advance: if anyone of unusual appearance arrived, with a carriage, horses, or clothing unlike those of ordinary people, do not let him pass.

In the seventh month of the twenty-third year of King Zhao’s reign, Lao Jun indeed arrived at Hangu Pass in a white carriage drawn by a blue ox, intending to cross. The gate officer went inside to report his arrival. Yin Xi said, “Now I can meet the sage!” He at once put on his court robes, went out to greet Lao Jun, knelt, and asked him to stay awhile. Lao Jun said, “I am only an old man of humble means. I live east of the pass, and my fields are west of it. I am simply going to fetch some firewood. Why stop me?” Yin Xi bowed again and said, “I have long known that the Great Sage would come west. You have traveled through wind and dew; I beg you to rest for a little while.”

Lao Jun said he had heard there was an ancient master in Zhugan, the old name for the region around India, and that he was traveling there to visit him. Why should Yin Xi detain him? Yin Xi replied, “I see that your divine bearing is beyond the ordinary and know that you are the supreme one of Heaven. What is there in a remote land that would make you go there in person?” Lao Jun asked how he had recognized him. Yin Xi said, “Last year, in the tenth month, the Heavenly Principle Star passed westward through the Pleiades. Since the beginning of this month, the Rong wind, the spring wind, has blown several times. The true Qi of the east has moved west like dragons and serpents. These are signs that a Great Sage is about to appear.”

Lao Jun said with delight, “Good! You have recognized me, and I have known of you for a long time.” Yin Xi bowed again and asked Lao Jun’s name. Lao Jun said, “My name has been too extensive to recount since the distant kalpas. In this age, my surname is Li, my courtesy name is Boyang, and I am known as Lao Dan.”

Yin Xi prepared a seat for Lao Jun in the official residence and served him as a disciple. Lao Jun therefore stayed beneath the pass for more than a hundred days, teaching him methods of internal cultivation and external refinement.

At that time, Lao Jun’s driver, Xu Jia, had been hired by him when he was young, with an agreement that he would receive one hundred coins each day. By the time they reached Hangu Pass, he was owed seven hundred and thirty million coins under the agreement. Seeing that Lao Jun was traveling far away, Xu Jia hurried to demand his wages. Lao Jun told him that when he returned from the western seas and their kingdoms, he would repay him tenfold in gold.

While waiting, Xu Jia saw a beautiful woman, transformed from auspicious grass, teasing him at the place where the oxen were kept. He was captivated and forgot their earlier agreement. He went to the commandant and accused Lao Jun of withholding his wages. Lao Jun said to him, “You have followed me for more than two hundred years. You should have died long ago, but I protected you with the Great Mystery Life-Giving Talisman and kept you alive until today. You are ungrateful for this and have come to accuse me instead.” As soon as he spoke, the life-giving talisman flew out of Xu Jia’s mouth, and Xu Jia immediately became a white skeleton. Yin Xi bowed on Xu Jia’s behalf and pleaded with Lao Jun to forgive him and restore him to life. Lao Jun cast the Great Mystery Life-Giving Talisman onto the bones, and Xu Jia came back to life. Yin Xi paid Xu Jia the money and courteously sent him on his way.

One day, Lao Jun said to Yin Xi, “The ancient master was my transformed manifestation. I once appeared in Zhugan, and now I am returning to the realm of the spirits, back to namelessness. I am leaving.” Yin Xi bowed and asked to accompany him. Lao Jun said, “I roam beyond Heaven and Earth, entering and leaving the depths of mystery. The four quarters and eight extremities, above and below, have no bounds. How could you keep up with me?” Yin Xi said, “Even if I had to cross boiling water and fire, descend into the depths, climb to Heaven or enter the Earth, even if I were ground to dust, I would follow the Great Immortal.”

Lao Jun said, “Your bone structure is indeed suited to the Dao, but you have only recently attained it. How could you go among the various kingdoms to spread its transformation?” So he gave Yin Xi the five thousand words of the Dao De Jing and made an appointment with him: “After a thousand days, you may come to the Qingyang market in Shu to find me.” Then Lao Jun sat amid the clouds and slowly rose into the sky. His radiance illuminated the residence, shining in the five colors of mysterious yellow, and only after a long while did it fade away.

Yin Xi gazed up at the clouds, reluctant to part, and saw Lao Jun off in tears. He named this account the Jing of the Western Ascension. Afterward, he severed his ties with worldly affairs and wrote nine works of his own, known as the Guan Yinzi.

In the year Ding-si, Yin Xi went to Shu in search of the Qingyang market. Lao Jun had ascended to Heaven in the year Jia-yin. In the following year, Yi-mao, he manifested himself from the Taiwei Palace and was born into the Li family, serving as officials of the grand household in the kingdom of Shu. Earlier, he had saved a blue dragon and transformed it into a blue sheep. Its coat was the color of blue gold, and it often stayed beside the infant, who played with it. One day the sheep went missing, and a child found it in the marketplace.

When Yin Xi arrived in Shu, he asked people throughout the region but could not find the Qingyang market. Suddenly, he saw a child leading a sheep and asked whose it was and where the child was taking it. The child replied, “A baby was born to the lady of my household, and the baby likes this sheep. It was lost for two days, and the baby kept crying. Now that I have found it, I am taking it home.” Yin Xi asked the child to tell the baby, “Yin Xi has come.”

The child went inside to report this. The baby immediately rose, adjusting his clothes, and said, “Ask Yin Xi to come in.” Yin Xi entered the room and saw the courtyard suddenly grow high, with lotus seats appearing within it. The baby transformed into a white-golden figure several fathoms tall, radiant as the sun, with a halo above his head, seated upright on a lotus seat. Everyone in the household was astonished. The baby said, “I am Lao Jun. The Taiwei Palace is my dwelling, and the True One is my essential nature. Master and guest depend on and respond to one another. What is there to wonder at?”

Yin Xi was overjoyed and bowed, saying, “I never imagined I would have the chance to behold your honored countenance again.” Lao Jun said, “I kept you at Hangu Pass because you had only just received the scriptures and instructions, and had not yet completed your cultivation. So I waited for you here. Now you have preserved your body and cultivated body and spirit, reaching the realm of true subtlety. Purple filaments have formed within your heart, and divine light has appeared on your face. Your golden name has been entered in the Register of the Mysterious Garden, and your jade record has been inscribed in the Purple Chamber.”

Lao Jun then commanded the Five Elders, the August Ones, and the Four Extremities’ Mirror of Truth to confer on Yin Xi the jade record and golden text. He bestowed on him the title Master Wenshi and ranked him among the Supreme Perfected, above the twenty-four Heavenly Kings, with authority over eighty thousand immortals. Only then was Yin Xi able to rise through the air and take part in journeys riding in a dragon carriage.

Li Baibai

Li Baibai was from Shu, and his personal name was Zhen. He lived at Five Dragon Ridge in Junyang and witnessed the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, living for eight hundred years. When he traveled, he could cover eight hundred li in a single step, so people of his time called him “Li Baibai.” At times he lived in seclusion in the mountains and forests; at others, he stayed among the bustle of the towns. He also practiced cultivation in a stone chamber on Mount Hualin. After refining elixirs, he returned to Shu. During the reign of King Mu of Zhou, he lived on Mount Jintang. Generations of people in Shu saw him and called him the Perfected Lord of Purple Yang.

Ding Lingwei

Ding Lingwei was originally from Liaodong. He studied the Dao on Mount Lingxu, then later returned in the form of a crane. Perching on a huabiao pillar, he recited a poem: “A crow, a crow—Ding Lingwei! A thousand years away from home, and now I have returned. The city walls and houses remain, but the people have changed. Why not study the Way of the Immortals, and let purple plants cover every grave?” With its reflections on returning after a long absence and the changes of the world, the poem urges people to study the Way of the Immortals and seek long life.

Guiguzi

Guiguzi lived during the Spring and Autumn period. His surname was Wang and his personal name was Ling. He once gathered herbs on Mount Yunmeng, attained the Dao, and came to look like a young man. He lived in the Ghost Valley by Qingxi. Su Qin and Zhang Yi had not yet returned.

Guiguzi

Guiguzi lived during the Spring and Autumn period. His surname was Wang and his personal name was Ling. He once gathered herbs on Mount Yunmeng, attained the Dao, and looked like a young man. He lived in the Ghost Valley by Qingxi. Su Qin and Zhang Yi came to seek the Dao from him, then took their leave three years later. Guiguzi gave them a letter, saying: “Your achievements and reputations are both impressive, but human life is like a spring flower: by autumn it withers, and its flourishing cannot last. You now crave glory as fleeting as morning dew, while neglecting the work of cultivation that can endure. You think lightly of the long life and far-reaching vision of figures such as Qiaosong, the legendary ancient Immortal, yet prize the honors of office that last only a moment. How lamentable! A woman’s affection does not remain forever in the bedchamber, and a man’s pleasures cannot last forever amid the turning wheels of his carriage.” Guiguzi lived among people for several hundred years, then vanished without a trace. Two books attributed to him, Yufu and Guiguzi, have been handed down.

Liu Yue was a gentleman of the Zhou dynasty. His name was Kuang Xu, and he practiced cultivation on Nanzhang Mountain. A young man often came to visit him. His conversation was unusual and remarkable, and Kuang thought him quite extraordinary. He asked, “I have observed you for some time. May I venture to ask where you are from and what your name is?”

The young man replied, “My surname is Liu, and my given name is Yue. I live on the left side of the mountain. At the foot of the mountain is a stone about two zhang tall. Knock on it, and I will come out to greet you.”

Kuang followed his directions and went to visit him. When he knocked on the stone, it suddenly split open by itself, and two doors swung wide. A young attendant welcomed him and led him several dozen paces. Then two attendants dressed in blue, carrying red ceremonial insignia, came to guide the way. Ahead, terraces, towers, pavilions, and halls appeared in a scattered array, their gold and green splendor reflecting one another. In the garden were rare birds and unusual beasts, and the flowers, grasses, and trees were all extraordinary.

A Perfected One, a person who had attained the Dao, came forward to welcome him, wearing a jade crown and a red sash, with a precious sword at his side. Kuang wished to stay and live there. The Perfected One said to him, “Your hidden merit—the good deeds you have quietly accumulated—is not yet complete. We will have another chance to meet. There will still be time for you to follow me in cultivation.” He invited Kuang to drink three cups of jade wine, then had him take a sip of a decoction that prolongs life and preserves one’s years, before seeing him off.

Kuang turned to look at the stone he had just knocked on. It had returned to its original form. Later, he went back and knocked on it again, but there was no response from within.

The Old Man of Mount Tai—an elder from Mount Tai—was known to no one by name. When Emperor Wu of Han traveled east, he saw the old man hoeing by the roadside. He looked about fifty, yet his face was as youthful as a child’s. Several feet above his head shone a white light. The emperor found this strange and asked him why.

The old man replied, “When I was eighty-five, my body had grown frail, and I was close to death. My hair had turned white, and all my teeth had fallen out. A Daoist taught me to give up grain and live only on plants and water. He also made a divine pillow for me. It contained thirty-two objects: twenty-four symbolized the twenty-four solar terms, and the other eight corresponded to the winds of the eight directions. I used it as instructed, and so grew young again: my white hair turned black, and my lost teeth grew back. I can walk three hundred li in a day. I am eighty years old this year.”

Emperor Wu admired this method and rewarded him with gold and silk. Later, the old man went into Mount Tai, returning to his village only once every five or ten years. After more than three hundred years, he never returned again.

Baishi Sheng

Baishi Sheng was a disciple of Zhonghuang Zhangren. When Pengzu was still alive, Baishi Sheng had already lived for more than two thousand years. He had no desire to ascend to heaven and become an immortal; he considered long life the greatest treasure. He believed that liquid gold was a superior elixir of immortality, but he was too poor to buy it.

He raised pigs and herded sheep for more than ten years, saving a fortune of ten thousand gold coins before he could buy the medicine and take it. He had also boiled white stone and eaten it as grain. Since he lived on White Stone Mountain, he took the name Baishi Sheng. At times he ate dried meat; at other times, he practiced grain abstention, eating no grain. It is said that he could walk three or four hundred li in one breath and looked about thirty years old. When someone asked why he did not want to ascend to heaven, he replied, “Heaven may not be more joyful than the human world.”

An Qisheng

An Qisheng was from Fuxiang in Langya and sold medicine by the sea. People in those days all practiced grain abstention. He could walk three or four hundred li in one breath and looked about thirty years old. When someone asked why he did not want to ascend to heaven, he replied, “Heaven may not be more joyful than the human world.”

An Qisheng was from Fuxiang in Langya. He sold medicines by the sea, and people of the time called him “Lord of a Thousand Years.” The First Emperor of Qin once summoned him and spoke with him for three nights, rewarding him with tens of thousands in gold and silk. When An Qisheng left Fuxiang Pavilion, he left all these gifts behind, keeping only a letter and a crow-shaped object made of red jade to send in return. The letter said, “In a thousand years, come and find me beneath Mount Penglai.”

The First Emperor of Qin sent several groups of envoys across the sea to search for An Qisheng. But before they reached Mount Penglai, they encountered storms and had to turn back. The First Emperor then established shrines to worship An Qisheng at Fuxiang Pavilion and at nine places along the seashore.

Dongfang Shuo, whose courtesy name was Manqian, once left home and did not return for a year. His older brother asked him, “You come home only once a year. What can you do to comfort me?” Dongfang Shuo replied, “I merely went for a short while to the Purple Mud Sea. The purple water stained my clothes, so I went to Yuyuan—the legendary place where the sun sets—to wash them. I set out in the morning and returned before long. How can you say a year has passed?”

During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, Dongfang Shuo submitted a memorial saying, “Your servant Dongfang Shuo lost his parents in childhood and was raised by his older brother and sister-in-law. I am now twenty-two years old and nine feet three inches tall. I speak fluently, and my teeth are even and white. I am as brave as Meng Ben and as quick as Qing Ji; as honest as Bao Shu and as true to my word as Wei Sheng. A man like me is fit to serve as the Son of Heaven’s minister. Your servant Dongfang Shuo, at the risk of death, bows and submits this memorial.”

Dongfang Shuo’s writing was immodest and full of self-praise. Emperor Wu, however, considered him exceptional and had him wait for an appointment at the Bureau of Carriages. Later, he was transferred to the Golden Horse Gate to await an imperial summons. On one occasion, the emperor personally bestowed food upon him. After eating, Dongfang Shuo tucked the leftovers into his robe and stained his clothes. The emperor repeatedly gave him bolts of silk, but Dongfang Shuo would leave carrying coarse garments.

Dongfang Shuo once used the money he had been given to marry a young woman in Chang’an, but abandoned her after a year. He then spent all the rewards he received on other women, and everyone laughed at him. Dongfang Shuo said, “A man like me lives in seclusion from the world while serving at court.” Sometimes, when drunk, he would sit on the ground and sing: “I mingle with ordinary people; even in the palace, one can withdraw from the world. To preserve oneself, why must one go to the deep mountains and live beneath a thatched roof?”

As Dongfang Shuo was dying, he said to a fellow court gentleman, “No one in the world understands me. Only Lord Dawu understands me.” After Dongfang Shuo died, Emperor Wu summoned Lord Dawu and asked him about this. Lord Dawu replied that he did not understand Dongfang Shuo. The emperor asked what abilities he had, and he said he knew a little about astronomy and the calendar. The emperor asked whether all the stars in the sky were in their proper places. Lord Dawu replied, “The stars are all there. Only the Year Star, Jupiter, has been unseen for forty years; now it has appeared again.” Emperor Wu looked up at the sky and sighed, “Dongfang Shuo was at my side for eighteen years, yet I never knew that he was the Year Star.” His expression grew sorrowful, and his heart was heavy.

Zhongli Quan was from Yantai. He later changed his name to Jue, took the courtesy name Ji, and used the Daoist title Master Wangyang; he was also known as the Master of Yunfang. His father had been granted the rank of marquis and served in Yunzhong. When Zhongli Quan was born, a strange light several zhang high appeared inside the house, astonishing the guards.

He was born with a rounded crown, broad forehead, thick ears, long eyebrows, deep-set eyes, a high nose bridge, a square mouth, and large cheeks. His lips and face were rosy, his nipples far apart, and his arms long. He looked like a three-year-old child. He did not cry, day or night, after his birth. On the seventh day, he suddenly spoke: “My form once wandered through the Purple Palace, where immortals dwell, and my name has already been entered in the Jade Capital, the celestial city of Daoist lore.”

As an adult, he served as a great general in the Han dynasty. After suffering defeat while campaigning against the Tibetans, he fled alone on horseback and lost his way in a valley. At night, he entered a dense forest and met a foreign monk whose tangled hair covered his forehead and who wore clothing made of grass. The monk led him several li to a village and said, “This is where Master Donghua attained the Dao. General, you may rest here.” Then he bowed and took his leave.

Zhongli Quan did not dare disturb the people in the village. After a long while, he heard someone say, “That loose-tongued, blue-eyed foreigner must be the one.” Then an old man, dressed in white deerskin and holding a green staff, called out, “Isn’t the visitor the Han general Zhongli Quan? Why don’t you go to the mountain monk’s place and ask for lodging?” Zhongli Quan was greatly astonished. He knew he had encountered an extraordinary person.

Having just escaped a perilous place surrounded by tigers and wolves, he began to yearn for the immortal Dao. He turned to seek the Dao, searching for ways to transcend the world and prolong life. The old man taught him the true formula for longevity, the timing and methods of the Golden Elixir’s firing process, and the sword techniques of the Azure Dragon. Zhongli Quan bade farewell to the old man. When he looked back, the village had vanished.

Later, he met Perfected Person Huayang and received the Great Unity Knife and Cinnabar, a Daoist cultivation term for the refined substances and methods used in alchemy, as well as the Fire Talisman Neidan method. He traveled through Lu, settled in Zoucheng, and later entered Mount Kongtong, where he lived on Purple Gold Four Sages Peak. After obtaining the secret instructions in the jade case, he became an immortal and departed.

Ma Chengzi

Ma Chengzi was from Fufeng during the Qin dynasty. He was fond of quiet and modesty, and had no interest in noisy gatherings or worldly glory. He once sighed, “Human life is as brief as a flash of lightning. Why remain attached to the world for so long?” He then left home to seek the Way of the immortals and spent more than twenty years cultivating in a stone chamber on Heming Mountain in Shu. Later, he met an extraordinary man, who gave him a divine elixir and said, “Qi is the inner elixir; the medicine is the external elixir. If you take this elixir, you can become an immortal.” After saying this, the man departed. Ma Chengzi followed the method he had taught and eventually ascended to heaven in broad daylight.

Huang An

Huang An was from Dai Commandery. He lived for more than ten thousand years, yet his appearance remained like that of a child. He took cinnabar for many years, and his whole body was bright red. He wore no clothes and sat on the back of a divine turtle two chi wide. When someone asked how long he had been sitting on the turtle, he replied, “This turtle only raises its head once every three thousand years. Since I found it, it has raised its head five times.” When he traveled, he carried the turtle on his back and walked briskly.

After hearing of Huang An’s extraordinary story, Emperor Wu of Han summoned him to discuss emptiness and the Way of the immortals, and often treated him with courtesy. When Emperor Wu performed the Feng and Shan sacrifices on Mount Tai, he issued an edict ordering Dong Xie, Li Ke, Meng Qi, Guo Qiong, and Huang An to ride together in one carriage, calling them “immortal ministers.” After Emperor Wu died, Huang An disappeared without a trace.

Liu Haichan (name of a Daoist immortal)

Liu Xuanying, whose title was Master Haichan, was well versed in the classics. He once served as chancellor under Liu Shouguang, ruler of Yan. He had long been devoted to exploring the Way of life and revered the teachings of the Yellow Emperor and Laozi.

One day, a Daoist who called himself Master Zhengyang came to visit. Haichan invited him to sit in the main hall and treated him as an honored guest. The Daoist explained the principles of clarity, stillness, and Wuwei (non-action), along with the essentials of the Golden Elixir of returning the elixir. Afterward, he asked for ten parrot eggs and ten coins. He set one coin on the table, then stacked the ten eggs one by one on top of it, building a tower. Seeing this, Haichan exclaimed, “How dangerous!” The Daoist replied, “To live amid wealth and honors is also to walk amid peril—and that is far more dangerous.” He then snapped the coins one by one and tossed them to the ground before taking his leave.

Haichan was deeply awakened by this. He returned his official seal, resigned from court, put on Daoist robes, and followed the Daoist in his practice. He withdrew to the Zhongnan Mountains. According to legend, after successfully refining the elixir, he became an immortal through the method of corpse liberation: a stream of white vapor rose from the crown of his head, transformed into a crane, and flew into the sky.

Fu Qiubo

Fu Qiubo, whose surname was Li, lived in seclusion on Mount Song. He consumed yellow essence for twenty years; his white hair turned black, and after his teeth fell out, new ones grew in their place. Much later, having perfected his cultivation, he ascended to heaven in broad daylight. It is said that he composed the Song on the Origin of the Dao, whose lyrics say:

“The tiger crouches below; the dragon, too, lies hidden. Once the dragon is hidden, first the tiger must be subdued. When the work of turning the River Cart is complete, there is no need to guard against obstruction deliberately. People learn in hopes of becoming flying immortals, yet their confusion keeps them from stillness. If the lord and minister within you are properly paired, the four things will protect one another. Once the forms of Heaven and Earth have taken shape, a perfected person will naturally come to watch over them.”

“River Cart” is a metaphor in Neidan practice for the movement of Qi within the body. “Dragon,” “tiger,” “lord and minister,” and “four things” are also Neidan terms; their precise meanings vary among cultivation systems.

Liu Chen

Liu Chen was from Kexian County. During the Yongping era of the Eastern Han, he and Ruan Zhao entered Mount Tiantai to gather medicinal herbs. They lost their way and could not find the route back. After thirteen days, hungry and thirsty, they spotted peaches on the mountain and picked them to eat. When they came down, they went to a stream to drink and saw a cup floating toward them, with a portion of sesame rice inside. Delighted, they said, “There must be a household nearby.”

They crossed a ridge and came to the bank of a broad stream. Two women stood beside it, both strikingly beautiful. Turning back with a smile, they said, “Young lords Liu and Ruan, you’ve brought the cup with you.” Liu Chen and Ruan Zhao were puzzled, but the women seemed entirely at ease. They asked, “What kept you so long?” and then invited them home.

Silk curtains and red drapes hung along the walls on both the north and south sides of the house. The women told their attendants to lay out food and wine: there was sesame rice and dried goat meat, all delicious. After the meal, as they drank, another woman soon arrived carrying peaches. Smiling, she said, “Congratulations on the arrival of the bridegrooms.” As the wine flowed freely, everyone played music and celebrated. At midnight, the two men retired separately to the women’s curtained rooms. The women were gentle and tender, and their affection was especially deep.

After ten days, the men asked to return home. The women pleaded with them to stay and kept them there for six months. The climate and plants in that place were always like spring, and the birdsong was sweet, yet the men’s longing for home grew stronger and stronger. The women said, “The roots of your worldly karma have not yet been exhausted; that is why you were brought here.” Then they showed the men the way back.

When the two men returned to their home village, it had fallen into ruin, and seven generations had passed in the world. They went back to search for the women’s dwelling, but could never find it again. By the eighth year of the Taikang era of the Jin, Liu Chen and Ruan Zhao had vanished without a trace.

Wei Boyang was from Haodi. By nature, he loved Daoist arts and had no desire to become an official, so he went alone into the mountains to refine a divine elixir. At that time, he had three disciples, two of whom were not fully sincere in their intentions.

Once the divine elixir was ready, Wei Boyang wanted to test it. “Though the Golden Elixir is finished,” he said, “we should try it on a dog first. If the dog eats it and comes to no harm, people can take it. If the dog dies, it must not be taken.” He fed the elixir to the dog, and it died at once.

“Perhaps the elixir has not been properly refined,” Wei Boyang said. “Perhaps we have failed to understand the will of the spirits. If I take it, I may die just as the dog did. What should I do?” A disciple asked, “Will you take the elixir, Master?” Wei Boyang replied, “I turned away from the worldly path and left my family to come here. If I cannot become an immortal, I would be ashamed to return. Life and death no longer make any difference to me. I will take it.” He swallowed the elixir and died immediately.

One disciple said, “Our teacher is no ordinary person. He took the elixir and died—could there be some deeper meaning in this?” He too took the elixir and, as soon as he swallowed it, died. The two remaining disciples said to each other, “We refined the elixir in search of long life, yet taking it brings death. We would be better off not taking it.” Together they left the mountain to find burial goods for Wei Boyang and the disciple who had died.

Just then, Wei Boyang suddenly rose to his feet. He took some of the marvelous elixir he had refined and placed it in the mouths of the dead disciple and the dog. Before long, they all came back to life. Then Wei Boyang, the disciple surnamed Yu who had taken the elixir, and the dog all became immortals and departed together. On the way, Wei Boyang met a woodcutter who had come into the mountains. He asked him to write a letter thanking the two disciples who had stayed behind.

Wei Boyang once wrote the two-volume Cantong qi (The Token for Joining the Three). Though the book appears to explain the Zhouyi (Book of Changes), it actually uses the imagery of the hexagrams and their lines to convey the principles of elixir refining.

Zhang Daoling

Zhang Daoling, whose courtesy name was Fuhan, was the eighth-generation descendant of Zhang Liang, whose courtesy name was Zifang. He stood nine chi and two cun tall. He had thick eyebrows, a broad forehead, a reddish crown of the head, green eyes, a high nose bridge, and a square chin. His eyes were triangular, and he had a prominent ridge of bone on his forehead, which people in ancient times regarded as an extraordinary sign. When his arms hung at his sides, his hands reached below his knees. He walked with the crouching poise of a dragon and the stride of a tiger, and carried himself with dignity.

Zhang Daoling was born on Mount Tianmu in the tenth year of Jianwu, during the reign of Emperor Guangwu of Han. At first, his mother dreamed that a man of extraordinary bearing descended from the northern constellation Kui and handed her a fragrant herb. When she awoke, a wonderful fragrance filled the house and lingered for a month. She then became pregnant. On the day Zhang Daoling was born, yellow clouds covered the house, purple Qi filled the courtyard, and the rooms shone as brightly as the sun and moon.

By the age of seven, Zhang Daoling had mastered the Dao De Jing and works such as the Yellow River Chart and the Luo River Writing. He was well versed in their profound teachings. He was recommended for office as a man of integrity and ability, but even while serving as an official, he devoted himself inwardly to the Dao and its cultivation. Later, he entered Shu and was captivated by its secluded, beautiful mountain streams and ridges, so he withdrew to live on Mount Heming. His disciple Wang Chang was learned in astronomy and well versed in the teachings of Huangdi and Laozi, known collectively as Huang-Lao thought. The two of them together refined the Great Elixir of the Dragon and Tiger, an elixir used in Daoist alchemy. After three years, it was complete. Zhang Daoling took it and, though past the age of sixty, looked like a man of thirty.

Zhang Daoling and Wang Chang entered Mount Song in the north, where they met a messenger dressed in embroidered robes. The messenger told them that the central peak’s stone chamber concealed the Upper Three August Ones’ Inner Writings and the Yellow Emperor’s Scripture of the Nine Tripods and Great Clarity Elixir. Whoever obtained and practiced these scriptures, he said, could ascend to heaven. After fasting and purifying himself for seven days, Zhang Daoling entered the stone chamber. Hearing a sound beneath the ground, he dug and uncovered the alchemical texts. He studied them intently and cultivated according to their instructions. In time, he gained the ability to manifest himself in several places at once: while boating on a pond, he could also recite scriptures in the hall; while leaning on a table and speaking with guests, he could at the same time walk about with a staff, chanting poems. No one could fathom how he did it.

In the region of Fangling, west of the city, there was a White Tiger spirit that craved human blood. Each year, the people there had to kill someone as a sacrifice. Zhang Daoling summoned and admonished it, and from then on it ceased its wicked deeds. In Zizhou there was also a great serpent that often spewed poisonous mist. Travelers who breathed it in would die. Zhang Daoling used his powers to subdue it, and thereafter it harmed no one.

On the night of the fifteenth day of the first month in the Renwu year of Emperor Shundi’s reign, Zhang Daoling awoke on Mount Heming to the clear sound of carriage bells and faint celestial music. He opened his eyes and looked east. In a cloud of purple, he saw a white carriage with a divine being seated inside, radiant and beautiful as ice and jade, its brilliance too dazzling to look at directly. Someone before the carriage said to Zhang Daoling, “Do not be alarmed. This is the Most High Lord Lao.” Zhang Daoling immediately bowed. Lord Lao told him that six great demons and spirits in Shu were tormenting the people, a matter that grieved him. He commanded Zhang Daoling to govern them on his behalf and bring blessings to the people. In this way, Zhang Daoling would earn immeasurable merit, and his name would be entered in the Register of the Cinnabar Terrace, the roster of immortals. Lord Lao then bestowed on him the Secret Register of the Covenant of Orthodox Unity, an important Zhengyi register; nine hundred and thirty scrolls of scriptures of the Three Pure Ones; talismans and alchemical texts; seventy-two scrolls of secret teachings; two swords, male and female; and a seal of the highest merit. They agreed to meet again in the garden after a thousand days.

Zhang Daoling studied the secret writings every day and practiced according to their rules. At that time, eight divisions of ghost commanders each controlled hundreds of millions of ghost soldiers. They roamed about harming people and caused many unjust deaths. Acting on Lord Lao’s command, Zhang Daoling wore the Register of the Covenant of Orthodox Unity and went to Mount Qingcheng. There he set up a high seat of colored glass, enshrining the Great Dao’s Primordial Heavenly Worthy on the left and placing the thirty-six divisions of true scriptures on the right. He also raised ten numinous banners and arranged them around the ritual platform. He rang bells and struck chimes, calling forth the divine troops of the Dragon and Tiger.

The ghosts attacked with swords, arrows, and stones. Zhang Daoling raised a hand and pointed; a great lotus flower appeared and blocked them. The ghost host then brought more than a thousand torches to burn him, but when he pointed again, the flames turned and burned the ghosts instead. From a distance, the ghost king shouted, “Our master lives on Mount Emei. Why have you come to seize our territory?” Zhang Daoling replied, “You have harmed the people, so I have come by Lord Lao’s command to subdue you. Move at once to the barren lands of the west, and never again make people sick. If you disobey, I will destroy you utterly.”

The ghost king refused to yield. The next day, he gathered the six great demon kings and led a million ghost soldiers in an assault. Zhang Daoling drew a stroke with his cinnabar brush, and all the ghosts fell. Only the six demon kings remained alive; they collapsed to the ground and begged for mercy. Zhang Daoling paid them no heed and drew another stroke with the brush. The mountain split in two. Unable to cross the valley, the six demon kings finally begged to be allowed to move west to the kingdom of Saluo. Zhang Daoling agreed, turned the brush around, and drew again. The six demon kings and the ghost host all stood up. He ordered Wang Chang to carry over a large stone and make a bridge for them to cross.

To make the ghosts submit wholeheartedly, Zhang Daoling proposed that each side demonstrate its powers. Zhang Daoling threw himself into a fire and emerged standing on a blue lotus; when a ghost commander entered the fire, he was burned. Zhang Daoling went into the water and emerged riding a yellow dragon; the ghost commander entered the water and drowned. Zhang Daoling passed through a stone, while the ghost commander could only get one cun inside before becoming trapped. Zhang Daoling chanted a divine talisman and pointed with his left hand, killing the ghost commander; he pointed with his right hand and brought him back to life. The ghost commander then conjured eight ferocious tigers to pounce on him. Zhang Daoling transformed into a lion and drove them away. The ghost commander conjured eight great dragons to seize him, so Zhang Daoling became a golden-winged bird and pecked at the dragons’ eyes. The ghost commander conjured clouds and mists in five colors to obscure heaven and earth. Zhang Daoling produced a blazing sun in five colors, and the clouds and mists immediately dispersed.

Once the ghost commander had exhausted his transformations, Zhang Daoling became a huge stone weighing more than ten thousand jin. He suspended it above the ghost camp by a thread of lotus fiber and made two mice gnaw at the thread, as if the stone might fall at any moment. The ghost commanders begged together for mercy and promised never again to harm the people. Zhang Daoling then ordered the six great ghost kings to return to Beideng and the eight divisions of ghost commanders to flee westward beyond the borders. When the ghosts still hesitated to leave, he chanted a divine talisman and sent it soaring into the sky. In an instant, wind, rain, thunder, lightning, and weapons descended, and the ghosts vanished in flight.

Zhang Daoling came to Mount Yuntai in Cangxi County and said to Wang Chang, “This is the mountain where I will complete my work and ascend.” He chose a place to live and cultivated the practice of the Nine Returns and Seven Reversals, a method in Daoist internal alchemy or alchemical cultivation involving cycles of returning and refining Jing and Qi. One day, he again heard the sound of carriage bells and celestial music. He straightened his clothes and bowed low. He saw Lord Lao leading a vast procession of carriages and horses gathered in the clouds, but they did not descend. Lord Lao sent a messenger to tell him that his achievements should have made him one of the highest immortals of the Nine Realms. But when Lord Lao had first sent him to Shu, it was so he could distinguish between humans and ghosts and teach the people. Zhang Daoling had killed too many ghosts and had also caused winds and rains and commanded spirits without authorization, darkening the daylight and filling the sky with murderous Qi. This did not accord with the Dao’s principle of cherishing life. The Supreme Emperor had therefore reproached him, and even Lord Lao could not approach him. Lord Lao told him to withdraw for the time being, cultivate diligently, and repent. In the future, he should wait for him in the Land of Nonbeing, the Daoist realm of emptiness, at the Palace of the Eight Radiances of Highest Clarity. With that, Lord Lao ascended to heaven and departed.

Zhang Daoling followed this admonition and returned to Mount Heming with Wang Chang. He said to his disciple Zhao Sheng, “There is a demon over there. We must go and remove it.” When they arrived, twelve divine maidens stood before the mountain, laughing as they welcomed him. He asked them where the Salt Spring was. They told him that a poisonous dragon had taken up residence in the great pool ahead. Zhang Daoling wrote a talisman, which transformed into a golden-winged bird and circled above the pool. The poisonous dragon fled in terror, and Zhang Daoling found the Salt Spring. The local people later used its water to boil salt.

Each of the twelve divine maidens brought out a jade ring and offered it to Zhang Daoling, saying they wished to serve him. He accepted the rings, joined all twelve into one with his hands, and said, “I will throw this ring into the well. Whoever can retrieve it will be destined to be with me.” The maidens quickly undressed and entered the well, competing to seize the ring. Zhang Daoling immediately sealed the well’s mouth and vowed that they would become spirits of the well and never emerge again. From then on, the local people were no longer troubled by the maidens and were able to use the salt well to make salt.

Zhang Daoling cultivated for another twenty years before setting out once more for Mount Heming with Zhao Sheng and Wang Chang. One day at noon, a man dressed in black silk and carrying a sword came bearing a royal letter. He said that, by command of a true talisman of Highest Clarity, Zhang Daoling was invited to visit the garden. Before long, a black dragon drew up a purple carriage, while two jade maidens led Zhang Daoling aboard. In an instant, they arrived at a palace, where the assembled immortals bowed to him. After a while, two youths in vermilion robes, carrying crimson staffs, came forward to guide the way and announced that Lord Lao had arrived. Together they rose into the sky and came to a hall with golden steps and jade walls. Someone told Zhang Daoling that he was about to pay audience to the Most High Primordial Heavenly Worthy. Zhang Daoling straightened his robes and entered the hall. After a while, a youth inside conveyed Lord Lao’s instructions: Zhang Daoling was to transmit the teachings of the Covenant of Orthodox Unity from generation to generation, serve as the Celestial Master (Tianshi) among humankind, and guide those who had not yet awakened. Lord Lao also secretly told him the date of his ascension. Zhang Daoling accepted the command and returned to Mount Heming.

At the fifth watch on the seventh day of the first month in the first year of Yongshou under Emperor Huan, Wang Chang and Zhao Sheng saw Lord Lao arriving from the sky in a dragon carriage. He commanded Zhang Daoling to ride a white crane with him to Chengdu, where Zhang Daoling again expounded the principles of the Covenant of Orthodox Unity and completed his teaching of the Scripture of the Northern and Southern Dippers. After Lord Lao departed, Zhang Daoling wanted to leave behind a sign of his spiritual powers. He leapt into the stone wall halfway up the cliffs northwest of Mount Yuntai and emerged from the summit, leaving two caves in the mountain.

On the ninth day of the ninth month, Zhang Daoling received a jade document from a messenger of the Supreme Emperor at Mount Chitingqu in Ba Xi Commandery. He was granted the title “True Person of Orthodox Unity” and told that he would soon ascend. He handed the various secret registers, including the Covenant of Orthodox Unity and the Register of Highest Merit, along with the two swords for slaying evil, the jade document, and the jade seal, to his eldest son Zhang Heng. Then he said to Wang Chang and Zhao Sheng, “There is some elixir left. The two of you may divide it between you. Today I will ascend to heaven with them.” At noon, the immortals assembled with their full retinue, and celestial music sounded above Yuntai Peak. Zhang Daoling ascended into heaven in broad daylight. He was then 123 years old.

After attaining the Dao, Xiao Shi became skilled at playing the flute. Duke Mu of Qin married his daughter Nongyu to him. Xiao Shi taught Nongyu to play, until the flute sounded like the call of a phoenix. Later, a phoenix alighted on the roof of their home, and Duke Mu had the Phoenix Terrace built for them. In time, Nongyu rode a phoenix and Xiao Shi a dragon, and together they ascended to Heaven.

Mei Fu, whose courtesy name was Zizhen, was from Shouchun. He once served under the Han dynasty as Commandant of Nanchang County. Seeing Wang Mang seize power, he lamented, “To live is a hardship for me; this body is a source of shame.” He knew the times were harmful to him, and that his body felt as though it were bound. So he left his family to seek immortality, traveling through the mountains of Yandang and southern Min. At Mount Xianxia, he met the Immortal Lord Kongtong, who taught him methods of Neidan (internal alchemy) and Waidan (external alchemy). The lord told him, “Your destiny as an immortal lies at Mount Feihong.” Mei Fu went there and built a thatched retreat to practice. After completing his elixirs, he traveled far and returned to Shouchun. One day, purple mist rose into the sky, and a golden boy and jade maiden descended on luan birds, holding a shao—a musical instrument or ritual implement. Mei Fu bade farewell to his family, mounted a luan bird, and departed. According to legend, people saw him again during the Yuanfeng era of the Song dynasty, and he was granted the title Perfected Person of Shouchun.

Huang Chuping was from Danxi during the Jin dynasty. At the age of fifteen, while herding sheep, he met a Daoist who took him to a stone chamber on Mount Jinhua, where he stayed for more than forty years. His elder brother, Huang Chuqi, could not find him. Later, he met a Daoist skilled in divination and asked where his younger brother was. The Daoist said, “There is a boy herding sheep on Mount Jinhua.” Huang Chuqi went to look for him. When he found Chuping, he asked where the sheep were. Chuping replied, “On the eastern side of the mountain.” Huang Chuqi went to see, but found only white stones scattered across the ground. Chuping scolded the stones, and they all turned into sheep. Huang Chuqi, too, left his wife and children to practice the Dao, and later became an immortal as well.

Fei Changfang was from Runan. Once, in the marketplace, he saw an old man selling medicine. The old man hung a gourd in front of his stall, and after the market had dispersed, he leapt inside it. No one in the marketplace noticed, but Changfang, watching from an upstairs window, found it strange and went specially to pay the old man a visit. The old man told him to come back the next day.

The next day, Changfang returned as promised, and the old man took him inside the gourd. Within it was a spacious, splendid hall of jade, filled with fine wine and delicacies. After eating and drinking together, they came out, and the old man cautioned Changfang not to tell anyone what had happened.

Later, the old man came to Changfang’s upstairs room and said, “I am an immortal. Because I committed a fault, I was punished by people in this world. Now I must leave. Would you like to come with me? There is some wine downstairs; let it serve as our farewell.” Changfang summoned twenty men to carry the wine, but they could not lift it. The old man laughed and raised it with a single finger. The vessel looked as though it held no more than a quart, yet the two of them drank all day and still could not finish it.

Changfang wanted in his heart to seek immortality and study the Dao, but he worried about his family. The old man understood his thoughts, so he cut off a length of green bamboo and hung it behind the house. When his family saw it, they mistook the bamboo for Changfang’s body after he had hanged himself. They wept in grief and held a funeral for him. Changfang himself was standing nearby, but no one could see him.

Afterward, Changfang followed the old man into the mountains. The old man told him to pass alone through a thorn thicket amid a pack of tigers. Changfang was not afraid. The old man then left him in an empty house, where a heavy stone hung overhead from a rotting rope. Many snakes struggled to bite through the rope and make it snap, but Changfang remained still. When the old man returned, he patted him and said, “You are ready to be taught.” Next, he told him to eat excrement. Three worms were in it, and it smelled foul beyond measure. Changfang recoiled in disgust. The old man said, “You were very nearly about to attain the Dao, but sadly, you could not manage this.”

When Changfang took leave to return home, the old man gave him a bamboo staff and said, “Ride it, and you can go wherever you wish, arriving in the blink of an eye. When you get there, throw the staff into Ge Pond, a place-name said to refer to a marsh.” Changfang rode the staff and was home in moments. He thought he had been away for only ten days or so, but in fact more than ten years had passed. He followed the old man’s instructions and threw the staff into Ge Pond. When he looked back, it had turned into a dragon.

His family had already held his funeral. When they saw him return, they were so astonished they could hardly believe it. Changfang said, “What was buried back then was only a bamboo staff.” So they opened the grave and coffin, and there, sure enough, was the bamboo staff.

After this, Changfang could cure all kinds of illnesses and drive away hundreds of ghosts. Once, while hosting guests, he sent someone to the land of Song to buy fresh provisions, and they were brought back moments later. Huan Jing had once studied the Dao under Changfang. One day, Changfang told him, “On the ninth day of the ninth month, a great calamity will befall your household. You can make a red cloth pouch, fill it with zhuyu, a plant commonly used to ward off evil, and tie it to your arm. Then climb to high ground and drink chrysanthemum wine. This will dispel the calamity.”

Huan Jing did as he was told, and the whole family climbed a mountain. When they returned home at dusk, they found that their oxen, sheep, chickens, and dogs had all suddenly died.

Lan Caihe, one of the Eight Immortals, was of unknown origin. He often wore a threadbare padded jacket and a black wooden belt more than three inches wide. He wore a boot on one foot and went barefoot on the other. In summer, he stuffed cotton wadding inside his clothes; in winter, he often slept out in the snow, his breath rising like smoke.

He often begged in the city, carrying a clapper more than three feet long. When drunk, he sang to its beat. Young and old alike followed to watch him. He seemed mad, yet not truly mad. The songs he improvised often hinted at the immortals, though people could not grasp their deeper meaning.

He strung the money he collected on a cord and dragged it along, unconcerned when coins scattered. At times he gave the money to the poor; at others he spent it on wine. In this way he wandered throughout the world. Someone who had seen him as a child encountered him again in old age, and Lan’s appearance was still just as it had been.

Later, while drinking at a tavern in Hao Liang, he suddenly heard the sound of the sheng and xiao flutes. He mounted a crane and ascended into the sky, leaving behind only his boots, clothes, belt, and clapper, which drifted slowly down from above.

Ma Yizi

Ma Yi Zi’s surname was Li, and his given name was He. He was born with curly hair and handsome features. As he grew older, he grew weary of the world’s filth and decay, so he entered Mount Zhongnan. There he suddenly encountered a Daoist practitioner, who taught him the secret essentials of Daoist methods. The practitioner advised him: “On the north bank of the turbulent Tuan River in Nanyang, there is a cave at the mountain’s Ling Tang. Nearby, divine beings have opened a suitable place for you to live. You may go there and gather your mind, devoting yourself to cultivation in a vast and secluded realm.”

Ma Yi Zi went to seek out the place. A woodcutter showed him the way, and he settled in the cave, where he lived for nineteen years. During the Jin dynasty’s Yixi era, a severe drought struck. A local man named Zhang Shi led a group of people to ask him to pray for rain. Ma Yi Zi said he had no art for summoning rain, but those seeking rain still refused to leave. That night, twelve young men came to him and said, “If they come again to ask for rain, simply agree.” Ma Yi Zi found this strange, but agreed. The next day, heavy rain fell.

The twelve young men came again to pay their respects and said, “We are all dragons. The Heavenly Emperor considers your Dao cultivation complete and has ordered us to assist you in spreading the Dao and guiding others.” In the early years of the Liu Song dynasty’s Daming era, at the age of 101, Ma Yi Zi sat upright and departed this life through corpse liberation, a Daoist means by which the body of an adept who has attained the Dao sheds its earthly form and leaves the world.

Magu

Magu was the younger sister of the immortal Wang Fangping. During the reign of Emperor Huan of the Han dynasty, Wang Fangping came to Cai Jing’s home and said to him, “You will one day be able to transcend the world, so I have come to instruct you. But your strength is insufficient and your body is too heavy; you cannot ascend to Heaven at once. You should instead use the method of ‘corpse liberation’—the Daoist practice of becoming an immortal by leaving behind a bodily form.” Wang Fangping then shared some important words with Cai Jing and departed.

Later, Cai Jing suddenly felt feverish throughout his body, as if he were burning. After three days, his flesh and blood had vanished, and his bones stood upright. He returned to his room and covered himself with a quilt. In an instant, he disappeared. When people examined the quilt, they found beneath it a form like a snake’s shed skin. More than ten years later, Cai Jing suddenly returned home and told his family, “On the tenth day of the seventh month, Lord Wang will come again. You should prepare several hundred hu of wine to welcome him.” A hu was an ancient unit of capacity.

On that day, Wang Fangping indeed arrived wearing a youyuan crown and riding in a chariot drawn by five dragons. A procession and banners guarded him before and behind, and his bearing was like that of a great general. Once his attendants had arrived, they all vanished from sight. After Cai Jing’s father and brothers had paid their respects to Wang Fangping, he sent someone to summon Magu.

Before long, Magu arrived. Cai Jing’s family thought she looked about eighteen. Her hair was arranged in a topknot, while the rest fell loose to her waist. She wore a brocade robe and an embroidered skirt, both dazzling to behold. Once seated, she personally took dried qilin meat from the cooking utensils she had brought with her. The vessels she used were all made of gold and jade.

Cai Jing’s wife had just given birth. Seeing her, Magu said, “Ah, wait a moment. Do not come any closer.” She took a little rice and scattered it on the ground; every grain turned into cinnabar, the red mineral of Daoist legend often associated with alchemy.

Wang Fangping laughed and said, “Magu still likes to joke around like a young person.” Magu replied, “Since I began serving you, the Eastern Sea has turned into mulberry fields three times, and the waters around Penglai have grown shallower than they were before.” Wang Fangping added, “The sages say that dust will once again rise over the sea.”

Magu’s hands were like a crow’s claws. Cai Jing thought to himself that it would be nice to use those claws to scratch the itch on his back. Wang Fangping immediately knew what he was thinking. He struck Cai Jing across the back with a whip and said, “Magu is a divine being. Did you really think her claws were for scratching an itch on your back?” After Wang Fangping departed, Magu also took her leave.

End of Volume One of the Jing of the Void of Xiao and Jie.

The second scroll of the Jing of the Carefree Ruins recounts Lü Dongbin’s life and his attainment of the Dao.

Lü Yan, styled Dongbin and known as Master Pure Yang, was from Yongle County in Puzhou during the Tang dynasty. According to legend, while his mother was pregnant, a wondrous fragrance filled the house, celestial music sounded in the air, and a white crane descended from the sky. It flew into her bed curtains and disappeared. Lü Yan was born with an extraordinary appearance. He was exceptionally clever, had a remarkable memory, and could compose a piece of writing as soon as he began to speak. He was still unmarried at the age of twenty. It is said that when Master Mazu saw him, he remarked that Lü’s bones and features were unusual and that he would one day transcend the world. He also urged him to remember the saying, “Where you meet a Lu, make your home; where you see a Zhong, knock.”

Later, Lü Dongbin traveled to Mount Lu, where he met the Perfected Fire Dragon and learned the sword art of Heavenly Evasion. During the Huichang era of the Tang dynasty, he sat the jinshi examinations twice but did not pass. At the age of sixty-four, he met a Daoist in a tavern in Chang’an. The man wore a blue headcloth and a white robe, called himself Master Yunfang, and said he lived on Crane Ridge in the Zhongnan Mountains. Yunfang invited Lü Dongbin to follow him in cultivation. Lü did not accept at once, so the two rested together in the tavern.

Lü Dongbin fell asleep with his head on a pillow and dreamed a long dream. He saw himself traveling to the capital to take the examinations and passing as the top candidate. He rose from a minor post to many prominent offices, married two women from wealthy families, and saw his children grow up and marry. He later served as prime minister for ten years, wielding great power and prestige. In the end, however, he committed a serious crime. His property was confiscated, his wife and children were scattered, and he was exiled to Lingnan. As he rode alone through snow and wind, overcome by sorrow, he suddenly awoke to find that the millet in the pot had not yet finished cooking.

Yunfang laughed and said, “The millet is not yet cooked, but in one dream you have already lived a whole life.” Surprised, Lü Dongbin asked whether Yunfang knew what he had dreamed. Yunfang told him that the rises and falls, honors and humiliations, gains and losses, joys and sorrows of the dream had all passed in an instant. Only through a great awakening, he said, could one understand that the whole human world was like one vast dream. Lü Dongbin came to his senses, bowed to Yunfang as his teacher, and asked to learn how to transcend the world. Yunfang said that his foundations were not yet mature and that he might need to undergo several more lifetimes of cultivation. Then he drifted away. Lü Dongbin promptly abandoned his Confucian studies and withdrew to the mountains.

After this, Yunfang tested Lü Dongbin in ten ways:

First, Lü Dongbin returned from a distant journey to find that all his family members had died of illness. He felt no resentment and simply prepared their funeral goods. A little while later, his family members came back to life, unharmed.

Second, Lü Dongbin was selling goods at a market. After a buyer had agreed on a price, he suddenly offered only half. Lü did not argue. He left the goods behind and walked away.

Third, on New Year’s Day, Lü went out and met a beggar asking for help. He gave him money and goods, but the beggar was still dissatisfied and cursed him. Lü continued to respond with a smile.

Fourth, while tending sheep in the mountains, he saw a hungry tiger charge toward the flock. He stood alone in front of the sheep, and the tiger retreated.

Fifth, as he read in a thatched hut in the mountains, a woman of extraordinary beauty said she had lost her way while visiting her parents’ home and asked to rest inside. She then tried every means to seduce him, but he remained unmoved.

Sixth, when he returned home from an outing, he found that his household had been completely robbed. He did not become angry and lived by farming on his own. Later, while hoeing the land, he found dozens of pieces of gold. He immediately buried them again and took none.

Seventh, he bought some vessels from a man selling bronze goods. Only after returning home did he discover that they were all made of gold. He searched for the seller and returned them.

Eighth, a deranged Daoist on the street was selling medicine. He claimed that anyone who took it would die immediately and attain the Dao only after being reborn. Lü Dongbin bought some. The Daoist told him to hurry and arrange his affairs, but after Lü took the medicine, he remained perfectly well.

Ninth, in spring, the river swelled. Lü Dongbin crossed it with a group of people. When they reached the middle, a storm suddenly rose and the waves grew fierce. Everyone was terrified, but Lü sat calmly without moving.

Tenth, when Lü Dongbin was alone in his room, he suddenly saw countless demons and ghosts of strange appearance. Some tried to beat him, others to kill him, but he was not afraid. A shout rang out from the sky, and all the spirits vanished. Yunfang appeared and laughed, saying that Lü had stood firm through all ten trials and was now ready to attain the Dao.

Yunfang planned to teach Lü Dongbin the art of refining gold and silver to aid the people. He told him that he would need to accumulate “three thousand merits and eight hundred acts” before Yunfang could help him become an immortal. Lü Dongbin asked whether the gold and silver made by this method would change their nature. Yunfang replied that after three thousand years they would return to their original form. Hearing this, Lü Dongbin grew concerned. He said he did not want to mislead anyone who might use the gold and silver three thousand years later. Yunfang laughed and said that Lü’s compassionate heart showed he had already fulfilled the three thousand merits and eight hundred acts.

Yunfang then took him to Crane Ridge and taught him the secrets of the Highest Truth, the Perfect Method of Numinous Treasure, and several pellets of elixir. During the instruction, two immortals arrived bearing golden tablets and precious talismans. They told Yunfang that the Supreme Emperor had summoned him to select immortals at the Golden Palace of the Nine Heavens. Before leaving, Yunfang urged Lü Dongbin to remain among the people, cultivate merit, and accumulate virtue; in time, he too would become an immortal. After bowing, Lü said that his aspiration differed from his teacher’s: he would first deliver all the people of the world, and only then would he be willing to ascend to immortality. Yunfang departed on a cloud.

Lü Dongbin received Yunfang’s Dao teachings and also inherited the sword art of Heavenly Evasion taught by the Perfected Fire Dragon. He later traveled through the Huai and Yangtze regions, using his numinous sword to eliminate the harm caused by flood dragons. He appeared and vanished in the human world, changing his form at will, and legend says he lived for more than four hundred years. He often traveled through Xiang, Tan, Yue, and Ezhou, as well as the regions of the Two Zhes, Bian, and Qiao. People did not recognize him, so he called himself “the Returning Daoist.”

During the Zhenghe era of Emperor Huizong of the Song dynasty, evil spirits appeared in the palace. They showed themselves even in daylight and stole gold, silver, and precious treasures. The consorts fasted and prayed for sixty days. One day, while dozing in the afternoon, Huizong dreamed that a Daoist stood outside the Eastern Flower Gate. The man wore a green lotus crown and a purple crane cloak, and held a crystal ruyi scepter. He bowed and said that he had come by order of the Supreme Emperor to subdue the evil spirits. He then summoned a golden-armored warrior, who seized an evil spirit, tore it apart, and devoured it. Huizong asked who the warrior was. The Daoist answered that it was Guan Yu, whom Huizong had enfeoffed as the “True Lord of Chongning.”

Huizong then asked where Zhang Fei was. Guan Yu replied that Zhang Fei had passed through many lifetimes, always reborn as a man, and had now been born into the Yue family in Xiangzhou. Huizong asked the Daoist’s name. The Daoist said his surname was Yang and that he had been born on the fourteenth day of the fourth month. After waking, Huizong recorded his dream and recognized the Daoist as Lü Dongbin. From then on, peace returned to the palace. Huizong issued an edict granting every place in the empire that enshrined Lü Dongbin the title “Perfected One of Correct Mystery and Penetrating Power.”

According to legend, Yue Fei’s father later dreamed that Zhang Fei had been reborn, and therefore named Yue Fei according to Zhang Fei’s birth date.

Sun Deng

Sun Deng, whose courtesy name was Gonghe, lived in a cave in the northern mountains of Ji Commandery. In summer, he wore clothes woven from grass; in winter, he let his hair hang loose to cover his body. He was skilled at giving long whistles, enjoyed reading the Book of Changes, and played a one-string zither. He was detached from worldly concerns and showed little anger or joy.

Ji Kang once spent time with Sun Deng. For three years, he asked him about the principles he pursued, but Sun Deng never answered. When they parted, Ji Kang said, “Surely you have nothing to say to me, Master?”

Sun Deng replied, “Do you understand fire? When fire burns, it gives off light, but the important thing is not to make use of its light. Whether its flame can last depends on whether there is firewood. People are born with abilities, but the important thing is not to put those abilities on display. For your abilities to serve their true purpose, you must first understand the truth. Only then can you preserve yourself and lengthen your life.”

Ji Kang then asked Sun Deng to teach him to play the zither, but Sun Deng refused. “You have many talents, but too little insight. In the present state of the world, I fear you will find it hard to escape harm.”

Later, Ji Kang was indeed imprisoned over the matter of Lü An. In a poem, he reproached himself: “Once I was ashamed that I fell short of Liu Xiahui; now I am ashamed before Sun Deng.” Tradition says that Sun Deng later ascended to heaven in broad daylight.

Zuo Ci

Zuo Ci, whose courtesy name was Yuanfang, was from Lujiang. He cultivated the Dao in quiet seclusion on Mount Tianzhu. It is said that he obtained the methods of the Elixir in a stone chamber.

Zuo Ci, whose courtesy name was Yuanfang, was from Lujiang. He devoted himself to cultivating the Dao on Mount Tianzhu and obtained a Dan scripture from a stone chamber, a book explaining methods of alchemy and cultivation. He was especially skilled in the Six Jia, a form of Daoist divination involving dates and directions and the summoning of spirits, and could command spirits and gods. He could conjure wine and food from thin air and transform into all kinds of things.

Cao Cao summoned Zuo Ci, locked him in a room, and cut off his food and drink, intending to keep him there for a year before letting him out. But when Zuo Ci emerged, his complexion was just as it had been before. Once, while hosting a banquet, Cao Cao said, “Today’s feast is splendid; it is only a pity we have no perch from Songjiang.” Zuo Ci asked for a bronze basin filled with water, lowered a fishing line into it, and immediately caught a perch. Cao Cao said, “It is a pity we have no ginger from Shu.” Zuo Ci replied, “That will be easy to get.” Worried that he might fetch it from nearby, Cao Cao said, “I previously sent someone to buy brocade. You can go ask them to bring back twenty extra bolts.” Zuo Ci agreed, tossed his cup into the air, and it turned into an immortal crane and flew away. Before long, he took ginger from his sleeve. Later, the person who had gone to buy the brocade returned and confirmed that he had indeed received the extra bolts that day.

Cao Cao went hunting outside the city with more than a hundred attendants. Zuo Ci prepared a sheng of wine and a jin of dried meat, then personally poured the wine and served the food to everyone. The officials all drank until they were dead drunk. Puzzled, Cao Cao went to inspect the cooking stoves and found that all the wine and dried meat had vanished.

Cao Cao detested Zuo Ci’s uncanny abilities, so he had him seized and meant to kill him. Zuo Ci retreated into a wall and suddenly disappeared. Someone saw him in the marketplace and gave chase, but everyone in the market transformed to look like Zuo Ci, making it impossible to tell which one was him. Later, someone encountered Zuo Ci on Yangcheng Mountain and pursued him again. Zuo Ci ran into a flock of sheep. Knowing he could not catch him, Cao Cao sent word: “I will not kill you anymore. Before, I only wanted to test your magic.” Suddenly, an old ram bent its forelegs and stood upright like a person, saying, “You’re in such a hurry to catch me.” Then several hundred sheep all turned into people, stood up, and said, “You’re in such a hurry, yet you still can’t tell which one is me.”

Han Xiangzi.

Han Xiangzi, a legendary Daoist immortal, had the courtesy name Qingfu. He was the nephew of Han Wengong, that is, Han Yu of the Tang dynasty. Easygoing and unconstrained by convention, he later met Master Chunyang, Lü Dongbin, and followed him on his travels. According to legend, Han Xiangzi climbed a peach tree, fell to his death, and then became an immortal through corpse liberation, a Daoist method of transcending the body.

Han Xiangzi visited Han Wengong, who urged him to study and pursue learning. Han Xiangzi replied, “My path of cultivation is different from yours,” and composed a poem to express his aspirations:

Deep among green mountains, encircled by clouds and streams, is where I make my home. At midnight I take immortal elixirs like fine jade; at dawn I chew rosy clouds. I play the melody “Jade Green Tune” on my zither and refine white cinnabar in the furnace. A golden tiger lies hidden in the precious cauldron, while a white crow is raised in the field of lingzhi. A single gourd contains the transformations of Heaven and Earth; a three-foot sword can slay demons and drive out evil. I can brew Bianxun wine and make flowers bloom in an instant. Who can learn from me? Whoever can do so may enjoy the immortal flowers with me.

After reading the poem, Han Wengong said, “Can you really alter the transformations of Heaven and Earth?” He then hosted a wine banquet for Han Xiangzi, who indeed brewed the wine. Next, Han Xiangzi gathered some earth, and before long a turquoise flower blossomed from it. Between its petals appeared a couplet in golden characters: “Clouds stretch across the Qinling Mountains—where is home? Snow blankets Blue Pass—the horse cannot go on.” Han Wengong read it but did not understand its meaning. Han Xiangzi said, “One day, you will see its meaning come true for yourself.”

Before long, Han Wengong was banished to Chaozhou for strongly remonstrating with the emperor over his plan to welcome and venerate a Buddha bone relic. On the way, in the midst of a heavy snowfall, someone suddenly came hurrying toward him through the snow. It was Han Xiangzi. He asked, “Do you remember the lines of the poem between the flowers?” Han Wengong asked where they were, and learned that this was Blue Pass. He sighed for a long while, then said, “I’ll complete the poem for you.” This is the origin of the lines in Han Yu’s poem, “I know you came from afar with a purpose; I shall gather my bones by the pestilent river.” Later, Han Wengong and Han Xiangzi stayed together at the Blue Pass post station, and Han Wengong then believed that what Han Xiangzi had said was true.

As Han Xiangzi took his leave, he brought out a gourd of medicine for Han Wengong and said, “Take one pill, and it will protect you from miasma.” Han Wengong was deeply saddened. Han Xiangzi added, “Before long, you will travel westward to Chaozhou. You will not only arrive safely, but in time you will be reinstated.” Han Wengong asked, “Will we meet again after this?” Han Xiangzi replied, “What lies ahead cannot yet be known.”

Cao Guojiu

Cao Guojiu was the younger brother of the Empress Dowager of Song. His own younger brother often broke the law and killed people, and Cao Guojiu felt deeply ashamed. He withdrew to the mountains, devoting himself to pondering the subtle principles of the Dao. Wearing coarse cloth and a hemp headscarf, he went without food for more than ten days.

One day, he met the immortals Zhongli and Chunyang. They asked, “We hear you are cultivating body and mind. What, exactly, are you cultivating?” Cao Guojiu replied, “I am cultivating the Dao.” They asked, “Where is the Dao?” He pointed to the sky. “And where is the sky?” they asked. He pointed to his own heart. The two immortals smiled and said, “The heart is the sky, and the sky is the Dao. You have personally seen your original nature—the clear and true nature people possess from the beginning.” They then taught him the secret art of Returning to the True, a method for practitioners to return to their original nature, and welcomed him into the ranks of the immortals.

Xu Zhenjun

Xu Xun, courtesy name Jingzhi and title Zhenjun, was from Nanchang. In the second year of the Wu emperor Huangwu’s reign, his mother dreamed that a golden phoenix held a pearl in its beak…

Xu Zhenjun

Xu Xun, whose courtesy name was Jingzhi and whose title was True Lord, came from Nanchang. In the second year of the Chiwun era of the Wu kingdom, his mother dreamed that a golden phoenix descended, holding a precious pearl in its beak, and placed it in her hand. She swallowed the pearl and later became pregnant with Xu Xun. As a child, Xu Xun was openhearted and perceptive, and never quarreled with others. Once, while hunting, he shot a deer. When it fell, its mother turned back in panic and licked it. Deeply moved, Xu Xun broke his bow and arrows and never hunted again. He devoted himself to study, read the Classics and histories widely, and was especially drawn to the arts of immortal cultivation.

Hearing that Wu Meng, a man from Xian, had learned Ding Yi’s secret Daoist arts, Xu Xun went to study with him and mastered the entire method. He devoted himself to practice in daily life. Once, he bought an iron lamp stand. When he lit a lamp that night, he noticed a gleam where the lacquer had peeled away. On closer inspection, he found gold beneath it. The next day, he found the person who had sold him the stand and returned the gold.

In the first year of the Taikang era under Emperor Wu of Jin, Xu Xun was recommended for his filial conduct and incorruptibility and appointed magistrate of Jingyang County. He was greatly loved by officials and common people alike. That year, the harvest failed, and the people could not pay their taxes. Xu Xun used an elixir to transform tiles and rubble into gold, which he secretly buried in the county garden. One day, he sent the people who owed taxes to work there. They dug up the gold while hoeing and used it to pay their taxes, so they were all able to get by. Later, a great plague struck, and seven or eight people out of every ten died. Xu Xun used the secret method he had learned to treat the sick, and patients from other commanderies came in one after another. He set up a bamboo pole outside the city and placed talisman water beside it. The sick drank it beneath the pole, and all who came for treatment recovered.

After some time, Xu Xun realized that turmoil was approaching the Jin dynasty, so he resigned from office and went home. Once, while resting at Qiaolin, he met five young girls, each carrying a precious sword to offer him. Sensing that they were no ordinary girls, he accepted the swords. Later, the five girls came together to his home and often practiced swordplay for their own amusement. Xu Xun recognized them as sword immortals and eventually received the aid of their divine swords.

Later, Wu Meng traveled to Huangtang in Danyang. Having heard that Chanmu, a female Daoist, was skilled in Daoist arts, he went with Xu Xun to seek her instruction. Chanmu said, “Long ago, the Filial and Fraternal King descended to the home of Lord Lan in Qufu and told him: ‘After the Jin dynasty, an immortal named Xu Xun will come to transmit my Dao. I left behind the precious Golden Elixir scripture, along with bronze tallies and iron certificates, to entrust to him. I have waited many years; now the time has come to give them to him.’” Chanmu then chose an auspicious day, set up an altar, and passed on to Xu Xun all the secret methods the king had left behind.

Xu Xun kept Chanmu in his thoughts and visited her every year. When she noticed this, she said to him, “You need not come again. I am about to return to the celestial realm.” She took a stalk of fragrant grass and tossed it southward, saying, “When you return, find the place where the grass lands and build a shrine for me there. It will be enough to come once each autumn.” Xu Xun and Wu Meng went back and searched for the place where the grass had fallen, then built a shrine. From then on, they visited it each year on the third day of the eighth lunar month.

Earlier, while searching for the fragrant grass, Xu Xun had rested at Zhenjing. There he saw villagers slaughtering chickens and livestock to sacrifice to the local earth god. They warned one another that if the offerings were not lavish, the god would grow angry and bring calamity. Xu Xun said, “What kind of evil spirit dares to cause such trouble?” He summoned wind and thunder and felled the entire grove. The next day, he told the local people, “The troublemaking spirit has been driven away. There is no need to make sacrifices anymore.”

Xu Xun also saw people struggling to fetch water from far away. He used his staff to pierce the marsh in front of an earth god’s temple, bringing forth a spring for them to drink from. It never dried up, even during droughts. When he passed by the Xiaoshu River, he received a warm welcome from Zhu, a local resident. As if in jest, Xu Xun painted a pine tree on the wall of Zhu’s home. From then on, Zhu’s family prospered greatly. Later, when the river embankment burst, the streets and houses were swept away, but the wall bearing the painted pine tree remained unharmed.

Once, Xu Xun was traveling to Xian County and passed a small temple. The temple’s god came out and told him that a river dragon had been harming the people. Hearing that the Immortal Lord was coming, it had already fled to Ezhu. When Xu Xun arrived there, he met three old men on the road. Pointing to a bridge ahead, they said the dragon was hiding beneath it. Xu Xun went to the bridge, raised his sword, and rebuked it. Terrified, the dragon fled into the depths of the great river. Xu Xun then sent his officials and troops after it and had it driven out and killed.

At that time, a giant snake had made its lair in the mountains of Shangliao, in Haihun. The breath it exhaled turned into clouds and mist that covered an area forty li across. People and livestock caught in its breath were sucked in and devoured, bringing great suffering to the local people. When Xu Xun heard of this, he set out with his disciples. At the snake’s lair, he wielded his sword and performed a ritual. The giant snake was frightened and burrowed into its cave. Xu Xun then used a talisman to summon the local earth official of Haihun and ordered him to drive the snake out. The snake thrust its head out, towering more than ten zhang high, with eyes like torches and poisonous breath filling the sky. Xu Xun called upon wind, thunder, and divine troops to subdue it, then stepped onto its head and split its skull with his sword. His disciples Shi Cen, Gan Ji, and the others also attacked it with their weapons. When the snake’s belly split open, a smaller snake several zhang long emerged. Gan Ji wanted to kill it, but Xu Xun said, “It has not harmed anyone yet, so we must not kill it without cause. After one thousand two hundred and fifty years or more, it will again threaten the people. At that time I will return and eliminate it. The parasol tree I planted before my altar will be the sign: when its branches reach toward the altar and sweep the ground, the time will have come.”

Xu Xun also prophesied that roughly one thousand two hundred and forty years after his ascent to immortality, eight hundred earth-dwelling immortals would appear in the Wuling area of Yuzhang. If the smaller snake caused trouble then, those eight hundred would naturally go and destroy it. The smaller snake then escaped into the river.

Xu Xun said that although the giant snake had been destroyed, the river dragon’s demonic essence had not been eliminated. He feared it might lie in wait and slip into the commandery city to cause trouble, so he returned to the city with Lord Gan and Lord Shi to investigate. They met a young man who introduced himself as Shen and came to pay his respects. He behaved deferentially and answered questions with quick wit. Xu Xun immediately told his disciples, “That person was not human. He was the old river dragon, deliberately testing us.” They followed him and saw him reach the riverbank by the commandery city, where he transformed into a yellow ox standing on the sand. Xu Xun cut paper and transformed it into a black ox, sending it to challenge the dragon. He also told Shi Cen to wait in secret with a sword and strike when the two oxen were locked in fierce combat. Shi Cen cut the yellow ox’s left leg with one blow. It fled south into the city, then took human form and went to the home of Jia Yusi.

The dragon spirit had once bewitched Jia Yusi’s daughter at night, appearing at the house as a handsome young man. Jia Yusi admired its talent and married his daughter to it. After living there for several years, it fathered two sons. At the turn of spring and summer, the dragon spirit would often go away alone, returning in autumn aboard a large boat laden with goods. In truth, it took advantage of the high water in spring and summer to overturn boats and seize their cargo. That autumn, it returned empty-handed, claiming the goods had been stolen, and with its left leg injured. Jia Yusi wanted to find someone to treat the wound, so Xu Xun disguised himself as a healer and went to the house. Jia Yusi happily called for his son-in-law to come out, but the dragon spirit sensed something was wrong and was too afraid to appear. Xu Xun went to the main hall and shouted sternly, “River dragon spirit, you have harmed many people. I followed you all the way here. Do you still think you can hide? Come out at once!” With no way out, the dragon spirit revealed its true form and writhed across the floor of the hall, where the officials and troops killed it. Xu Xun then sprinkled ritual water on its two sons and discovered that they too were young dragons, so he killed them as well.

Xu Xun told Jia Yusi, “Less than a foot beneath the ground where the dragon spirit lived is a great body of water. You should move away as soon as possible.” Jia Yusi moved to higher ground, and the place where he had lived collapsed into a deep abyss.

After Xu Xun returned to Yuzhang, he discovered that many of the dragon spirit’s followers remained. Afraid that Xu Xun would destroy them, they took human form and claimed that they lived in Chang’an, that their families had done good for generations, and that they had come from far away simply to see Xu Xun’s divine sword. The disciples told them, “When my master points his divine sword at the sky, the sky splits; when he points it at the earth, the earth breaks apart. No evil spirit can withstand it. It is a sacred treasure.” The dragon spirits asked, “Is there anything it cannot harm?” The disciples joked, “Only winter melons and gourds are beyond its reach.” Taking them at their word, the dragon spirits transformed themselves into winter melons and gourds, filling the entire river. Xu Xun saw through their disguise and handed the sword to Shi Cen. Shi Cen strode across the water, swung the sword, and destroyed them all. From then on, the water demons withdrew, and the towns and villages remained at peace.

In the second year of the Taining era under Emperor Ming of Jin, the great general Wang Dun raised an army and advanced on the capital, stationing his troops at Cihu. Xu Xun and Wu Meng went together to pay him a visit. Wang Dun thought their conversation extraordinary and invited them to sit. Guo Pu was also serving in Wang Dun’s retinue at the time, and Wang Dun insisted that he join them. After hosting a banquet, Wang Dun asked, “I dreamed of a piece of wood breaking through the sky. What do you think it means?” Xu Xun said, “It is an ill omen.” Wu Meng explained, “With wood breaking through the sky, the character is ‘wei.’ You would do well not to act rashly.” Wang Dun’s expression changed, and he asked Guo Pu to divine the outcome. Guo Pu said the undertaking would fail. Enraged, Wang Dun ordered his guards to seize Guo Pu and behead him. Xu Xun hurled his cup to the ground. It turned into a white crane and circled the roof beams. When Wang Dun looked up, the two immortals had vanished. Wang Dun was later defeated, just as they had foretold.

Xu Xun and Wu Meng arrived in Jinling and wanted to take a boat back to Yuzhang, but the boatman said there was no one to row. Xu Xun said, “Just sit still with your eyes closed, and do not look around. I will steer the boat for you.” In secret, he summoned two dragons to flank the boat and carry it onward. The boat gradually rose into the sky, quickly passed over Mount Lu, and arrived at the Golden Tower Cave on Zixiao Peak. The boatman knelt and begged the immortals to save him. Xu Xun taught him to eat spirit herbs. The boatman was then able to abstain from food and live forever, and he withdrew to dwell in the mountains. Xu Xun and Wu Meng each rode a dragon back to the place where they had once lived in seclusion. For several decades, they paid no attention to worldly affairs and devoted themselves entirely to cultivating the Dao.

In the second year of the Ningkang era under Emperor Xiaowu, Xu Xun was two hundred and thirty-six years old. On the first day of the eighth lunar month, two immortals descended from the sky. They said that by order of the Jade Emperor, Xu Xun was being appointed “Chief Immortal of the Nine Provinces and Grand Envoy of the High and Bright Court of History.” They told him the date of his ascent to immortality, then departed in a cloud carriage.

On the fifteenth day of that month, celestial music suddenly rang out, and auspicious clouds drifted slowly into view. A feather-canopied dragon carriage arrived with the full retinue of a celestial court, preceded and followed by immortal youths and jade maidens. The immortals invited Xu Xun to board the dragon carriage. Xu Xun ascended to heaven with attendants from his father’s family, while Xu Lie and attendants from his mother’s family accompanied him as well. All forty-two members of the family ascended in broad daylight, their entire residence rising with them, and even the chickens and dogs followed. A strange fragrance filled the area for a hundred li and lingered for a full month.

Ge Xuan, styled Xiaoxian, was from Jurong in Danyang and was known as Lord Ge the Immortal. It is said that when he ascended to heaven from Zuo’s residence, the chickens and dogs rose with him. A strange fragrance drifted across the surrounding hundred li and did not fade for a whole month.

Ge Xuan had studied with Zuo Ci the elixirs used in alchemy and the scriptures of the immortals. Once, while dining with guests, he spoke of the art of transformation. A guest asked him to demonstrate. Ge Xuan asked, “Are you so eager to see something strange right away?” Then he spat out the grains of rice in his mouth, and they turned into a swarm of bees that flew onto the guest. When someone asked him about it, he opened his mouth and the bees flew back in. After he chewed them, they became the original grains of rice again. He could also point at a stone and make a person emerge from it and walk about. He could make frogs, insects, swallows, and sparrows sing and dance like people, following a tune and rhythm.

When entertaining guests, Ge Xuan sometimes served fresh melons and dates in winter, and brought out ice and snow in summer. Guests did not need to pass the wine cups around; the cups came to them by themselves, and would not leave until the wine was finished.

Emperor Wu of Jin once summoned Ge Xuan and asked whether he could bring rain, since the people were hoping for it. “Easily,” said Ge Xuan. He wrote a talisman and placed it in the earth god’s shrine. Before long, heavy rain began to fall.

Once, Ge Xuan passed a shrine. Local custom required passersby to get out of their carriages and bow from a distance of a hundred paces, or they would be disturbed by spirits. Ge Xuan ordered his carriage to drive straight past. At once, a fierce wind rose and dust darkened the sky. He rebuked the wicked spirits in the shrine, wrote a talisman, and had an attendant throw it inside. The shrine building immediately caught fire by itself.

When Ge Xuan passed through Wukang, he met a household in which someone was ill. The family had summoned a medium to perform a sacrifice and drive out an evil spirit that was possessing and tormenting the sick person. The spirit possessed the medium and spoke rudely to Ge Xuan. Ge Xuan shouted, “Wicked demon, how dare you behave so outrageously!” He ordered Wubo, divine officials charged with capturing demons, to drag the spirit to a pillar and whip its back until blood covered the ground. Only after the spirit confessed did Ge Xuan tell them to stop.

Passing through Huayin, Ge Xuan saw a man being bewitched by a snake spirit. He took the form of a farmer and drove an ox as he plowed. He told the man, “Your wife is a snake spirit. She has eaten countless people over the years.” The man did not believe him, so Ge Xuan took him to an old well, where human bones lay piled up. Frightened, the man secretly watched his wife as Ge Xuan had instructed and discovered that she was indeed a snake. Ge Xuan used his powers to subdue and kill the snake spirit, then gave the man a talisman to swallow. The man immediately vomited countless creatures like earthworms and frogs, and at last his life was saved.

Ge Xuan once practiced cultivation at Ziyi Mountain in Jingmen Commandery. In bitter cold, with the ground frozen, he went barefoot and wore a worn, single-layer robe. The two daughters of the Qu family happened to see him and took pity on him. They worked through the night to make him a pair of shoes and brought them to him the next day. By then, Ge Xuan had left, and only the ashes in his furnace were still warm. The sisters pushed the ashes aside and found a pellet of elixir, which they split and swallowed. From then on they were vigorous in body and spirit, and felt neither hunger nor thirst. People at the time said they had attained the Dao and become immortals.

Once, Ge Xuan was traveling by boat with the King of Wu. When they reached the mouth of the Three Rivers, a great storm arose and many boats capsized. The king could not find Ge Xuan’s boat and sighed, “If Lord Ge the Immortal has attained the Dao, how could he too fail to escape this disaster?” Suddenly he saw Ge Xuan walking across the surface of the water. When Ge Xuan reached him, he still seemed slightly drunk. He explained, “Last night Wu Zixu insisted that I stay and drink with him, so I was delayed and could not come to pay my respects to Your Majesty in time.”

Ge Xuan once pounded medicine on a stone cliff and in a stone mortar at West Peak. A bit of the medicine, no larger than a grain of rice, accidentally fell. A bird ate it and gained eternal life. It is said that on bright moonlit nights, when the air is cool and the wind is gentle, one can still hear the bird’s mortar and pestle clinking together as it pounds medicine. For this reason, people call it the “Medicine-Pounding Crow.”

The immortal Qin Gao heard that Ge Xuan had attained the Dao and came from the Eastern Sea riding two carp to pay him a visit. Ge Xuan drank freely with him, then lay back and fell asleep among the white clouds. When he awoke, the two carp had turned to stone and remained there to this day. Ge Xuan gave Qin Gao two immortal cranes, and Qin Gao rode them back.

On another occasion, a guest was boating with Ge Xuan and noticed more than ten talismans in his pouch. The guest asked whether they really had power. Ge Xuan first tossed one into the water, and it drifted downstream. The guest remarked that an ordinary person’s thrown object would do the same. Ge Xuan then tossed in another talisman, which traveled upstream. He tossed in a third, and it stopped in the water, neither rising nor sinking. A short while later, the first talisman came down from upstream, while the other traveled up from downstream. The two met in the middle of the river and remained there for a long time before Ge Xuan finally retrieved them.

Ge Xuan once borrowed a large fish from people watching fish by the river, saying he wanted to take it to meet the River Earl, the water god. They told him the fish was already dead. Ge Xuan wrote a talisman on paper with cinnabar, tucked it into the fish’s mouth, and put the fish back in the water. It immediately began to thrash and swam away. Ge Xuan performed many other wondrous deeds, too numerous to recount. In time, he left the human world and ascended to immortality.

He Xiangu

In Zengcheng County, Guangzhou, He Xiangu once rolled up a paper bearing a written alchemical formula and placed it in a fish’s mouth, then released the fish into the water. The fish leapt up and swam away. Her miraculous deeds were too numerous to recount one by one. Later, she left the human world and departed as an immortal.

He Xiangu

He Xiangu was the daughter of He Tai of Zengcheng County, Guangzhou. At birth, she had six strands of hair on the crown of her head. When she was fourteen or fifteen, she dreamed that a divine being taught her to consume powdered mica, saying it would make her body light and enable her to live forever. She began taking the powder and vowed never to marry. She often traveled through mountain valleys, moving as swiftly as if she were flying. Each morning she went out, and each evening she returned with mountain fruit for her mother. In time, she gradually stopped eating the five grains and devoted herself to cultivation. Empress Wu Zetian sent an envoy to summon her to the palace, but she disappeared again along the way. During the Jinglong era of Emperor Zhongzong of Tang, she ascended to immortality in broad daylight. In the ninth year of the Tianbao era under Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, someone saw her standing amid five-colored clouds at the Magu Altar. During the Dali era of Emperor Daizong of Tang, she appeared again at Xiaoshi Tower in Guangzhou.

Zhang Guo

Zhang Guo lived in seclusion on Zhongtiao Mountain in Hengzhou and traveled throughout the areas of Fenzhou and Jinzhou, where he obtained secret methods for attaining longevity. He often rode a white donkey that could cover tens of thousands of li in a single day. When he rested, he would fold the donkey up until it was as thin as paper, then put it in a cloth case. When he wanted to ride again, he sprinkled it with water, and it returned to its original form.

Emperors Taizong and Gaozong of the Tang dynasty summoned Zhang Guo, but he did not answer their calls. When Empress Wu Zetian summoned him to leave the mountains, he pretended to die in front of Tuonü Temple. The weather was hot, and before long his corpse had decayed and become infested with worms. Wu Zetian therefore believed he was dead. Later, however, someone saw him in the mountains of Hengzhou.

In the twenty-third year of the Kaiyuan era, Emperor Xuanzong sent Pei Wu, a court official responsible for conveying imperial decrees, by relay horse to Hengzhou to escort Zhang Guo to the capital. After Zhang Guo arrived in the eastern capital, he was lodged at the Jixian Academy and treated with great generosity. The emperor asked him about immortals, but Zhang Guo did not answer.

Zhang Guo was skilled at holding his breath. He could go for days without eating, and he often drank wine. When the emperor offered him wine, Zhang Guo declined, saying, “Your humble servant can drink no more than two sheng. I have a disciple who can drink a dou.” Xuanzong was delighted and ordered that the disciple be summoned. In a moment, a handsome young Daoist, about fifteen or sixteen years old, sprang down from the eaves of the hall. His movements were composed and graceful. Xuanzong invited him to sit, but Zhang Guo said that a disciple should stand by and attend him. The emperor was even more pleased and gave the young Daoist a small dou of wine.

Zhang Guo cautioned, “You should give him no more wine. I fear he will exceed his limit.” Xuanzong nevertheless insisted that he drink. Once the young Daoist was drunk, wine gushed from the top of his head and knocked his hat to the ground. Suddenly, he transformed into a golden wine vessel. The emperor and his consorts were both startled and amused. When they looked again, the Daoist had vanished, and only a gold comb lay on the ground. On examination, it proved to be a wine vessel from the Jixian Academy, with a capacity of exactly one dou.

The emperor said to Gao Lishi, “I have heard of people who can drink strong liquor without feeling its effects. What a remarkable man.” The weather was cold, so the emperor offered Zhang Guo some wine. Zhang Guo drank three cups, then collapsed in a drunken stupor and said, “This wine is no good.” He soon fell asleep. After a while, the emperor noticed that his teeth had turned black and shriveled. He used a jade scepter to knock them out and hid them in his sash. Zhang Guo took medicine from his sash and applied it. After a long time, his teeth grew back, white as jade.

While hunting in Xianyang, the emperor caught a large deer and planned to have the Directorate of Palace Provisions prepare it. Zhang Guo said, “This is an immortal deer. It has lived for more than a thousand years. In the fifth year of the Yuanshou era under Emperor Wu of Han, I accompanied him on a hunt in Shanglin Park. We caught this deer and then released it.” The emperor replied, “There are many deer, and eras change. How could one live all this time?” Zhang Guo answered that when Emperor Wu of Han released it, he had tied a copper tag beneath its left horn. The emperor ordered someone to check, and sure enough, they found a copper tag about two inches long, though its inscription had worn away.

The emperor asked Ye Fashan, a Daoist priest of the Tang dynasty, who Zhang Guo really was. Ye Fashan said, “I know, but if I reveal it, I will die, so I dare not speak. If Your Majesty will remove your hat and plead for me barefoot, then I will dare to tell you.” The emperor agreed. Ye Fashan then said, “When Heaven and Earth first emerged from chaos, he was the essence of a white bat.” Before he could finish, blood flowed from all seven openings of his head, and he fell to the ground, rigid and face down.

The emperor hurried to Zhang Guo, removed his hat, went barefoot, admitted that he had been at fault, and begged him to save Ye Fashan. Zhang Guo replied slowly, “This man talks too much. If he were not punished, he might reveal the secrets of Heaven and Earth.” The emperor pleaded for a long time, and only then did Zhang Guo sprinkle water on Ye Fashan’s face. He immediately came back to life.

The emperor’s respect for Zhang Guo deepened. He issued an edict ordering a portrait of him to be made at the Jixian Academy and bestowed on him the title “Master Who Penetrates the Mystery.” Zhang Guo repeatedly asked to return to Hengzhou, citing his age and poor health. Early in the Tianbao era, Xuanzong sent an envoy to summon him once more. When Zhang Guo heard of the summons, he died. His disciples buried him, but later, when they opened the coffin, it was empty. The emperor then established Qixia Abbey to honor him.

Huang the Wild Man was a disciple of Ge Hong. When Ge Hong lived in seclusion in the mountains to make elixirs, Huang the Wild Man was often at his side. After Ge Hong attained immortality and departed, he left an elixir between two stone pillars somewhere on Mount Luofu. Huang the Wild Man found one pill and swallowed it, becoming an immortal who could walk upon the earth.

Later, someone visiting Mount Luofu spent the night in a stone cave. There they saw a man without clothes, his body covered in thick hair. They surmised that he must be an immortal, so they bowed to him and asked to learn the Way. The man paid them no heed. He simply burst into loud laughter, his laughter shaking the trees, and then sang: “When clouds rise, ten thousand mountain peaks seem to stir; when they disperse, heaven and earth are clear and bright. A few peals of laughter, and the autumn moon shines over the empty mountains.” As the man left, the visitor recognized him as Huang the Wild Man.

Sima Chengzhen, whose courtesy name was Ziwei, once became a student of Master Pan Shizheng. He learned fasting practices, which reduce or suspend eating through cultivation, and daoyin exercises, which nurture body and mind through breathing and movement. He later traveled among famous mountains throughout the land. Emperor Ruizong of Tang summoned him to the capital and asked him how to cultivate the Dao. Sima Chengzhen replied, “Cultivating the Dao means diminishing desires and distracting thoughts day by day, and then diminishing them further, until one reaches Wuwei (non-action).” The emperor asked, “If cultivating oneself is like this, what should one do to govern the state?” Sima Chengzhen replied, “The human body is like a state. Keep the mind clear and calm, let the breath settle into stillness and emptiness, follow the natural changes of all things, and do not mix in private motives; then the world can be governed well.” The emperor exclaimed, “Even what Guangchengzi said was no more than this!”

Sima Chengzhen took his leave of the emperor and prepared to return to Tiantai Mountain. Lu Cangyong pointed toward Zhongnan Mountain and said, “There are many fine places here. Why insist on returning to Tiantai Mountain?” Sima Chengzhen replied, “To my eyes, Zhongnan Mountain is a shortcut to an official career.” Lu Cangyong had first lived in seclusion on Zhongnan Mountain, but later did indeed enter official service. Hearing these words, he looked ashamed.

During the Kaiyuan era, Celestial Master Wenjing and Sima Chengzhen took part in a Zhaijiao (purification ritual) for the Qianqiu Festival, the emperor’s birthday. At night, after completing the liturgy in the Hall of Eternal Life, they retired separately to sleep on either side of a cloud screen. Celestial Master Wenjing faintly heard a childlike voice reciting a scripture, clear and pleasing, like gold and jade striking one another. Lifting his robe, he went quietly to investigate and saw a small moon, about the size of a copper coin, on Sima Chengzhen’s forehead. Its light illuminated the entire mat. He leaned closer to look and realized that the recitation seemed to come from within Sima Chengzhen’s head. When the Celestial Master returned, he told his disciples: “The Huangting Jing says, ‘Within the Mud Ball, the Nine Perfected Ones each have a chamber, in a place one inch square and round.’ Perhaps this refers to the Perfected One within Sima Chengzhen’s head.” Here, “Mud Ball” is a term from Daoist Neidan (internal alchemy), referring to the upper Dantian (energy center) in the head; “Nine Perfected Ones” refers to the divine perfected beings described there.

One day, Sima Chengzhen said to his disciples, “The Lord of Eastern Florescence has summoned me. I must go.” Before long, he passed away, as if shedding a cicada’s shell. His disciples buried only his clothes and headgear. It is said that he was eighty-nine when he died. His works, including Essentials of Cultivating Perfection and Treatise on the Will, have been handed down.

Wang Zhi

Wang Zhi was from Quzhou during the Jin dynasty. He went into the mountains to cut firewood. When he reached Stone Chamber Mountain, he saw several old men playing go at a stone chamber and set down his axe to watch. One of the old men gave him something like a jujube pit and told him to hold it in his mouth and swallow its juice. Wang Zhi no longer felt hungry or thirsty. The old men then told him, “You have been here a long time. You can go back now.”

Wang Zhi picked up his axe and found that its handle had rotted away completely. He hurried home, only to discover that several hundred years had passed in the world, and his friends and family were all gone. Later, he went into the mountains again to cultivate the Dao and attain the Dao. People would often see him.

Wang Zhi was from Quzhou during the Jin dynasty. He went into the mountains to cut firewood. When he reached a stone chamber, he heard someone calling him and had no choice but to go toward them. Before long, he transformed and vanished, like a cicada shedding its shell. His disciples buried his clothes and headgear. He lived to the age of eighty-nine. Books said to have been written by him, including Secret Essentials for Cultivating Perfection and Treatise on Aspiration, circulated among the people.

Tao Hongjing, whose courtesy name was Daoming, was from Moling. At first, his mother dreamed that a blue dragon flew out from her breast; before long, she became pregnant. From childhood, Tao Hongjing had unusual interests and ambitions. At the age of ten, he read Ge Hong’s Traditions of Divine Transcendents and studied it day and night. He once said to someone, “When I look up at the blue clouds and gaze at the sun, I find myself feeling, without realizing it, that they are not far away.” As an adult, he stood seven feet seven inches tall. He was handsome and refined, with bright eyes and well-spaced eyebrows. Each ear had more than seventy long hairs, about two inches of which showed outside the ear. Dozens of black moles on his right knee were arranged in the shape of the Big Dipper.

He had read ten thousand volumes, was skilled at playing the qin and at chess, and was accomplished in both cursive and clerical script. When he was twenty, Emperor Gao of Qi, then serving as chancellor, summoned him to tutor the princes. Though he lived in the residence of an official family, he kept his doors closed to visitors and had no dealings with the outside world, devoting himself entirely to his studies.

In the tenth year of the Yongming era, he took off his court robes and hung them at Shenwu Gate. In a memorial, he asked to resign from office, and the emperor granted his request by decree. Afterward, he settled on Maoshan in Jurong, built a retreat, and called himself “the Recluse of Huayang.” He traveled through many famous mountains in search of medicines for immortality. Whenever he came to a stream or mountain valley, he would often sit or lie there, reciting poetry and wandering about, reluctant to leave for a long time. When Shen Yue became governor of Dongyang, he admired Tao Hongjing’s aspirations and integrity and invited him in letters many times, but Tao never went.

Tao Hongjing was open-minded and modest, cautious and steady. His conduct and bearing were always appropriate to the occasion; his mind was clear, and he understood matters as they arose. At the beginning of the Yongyuan era, he built a three-story tower and lived on the top floor. From then on, he was almost entirely cut off from the outside world, and only one servant boy was allowed to visit him. In his youth, he had been skilled at riding and archery, but he gave these up in later life and took pleasure only in listening to the sheng. He especially loved the sound of wind in the pines, and planted pine trees throughout his courtyard. Whenever he heard the pines roar, he was delighted. At times he would wander alone among springs and rocky slopes. People who saw him from a distance thought he was an immortal.

After Emperor Wu of Liang replaced the Qi dynasty, Tao Hongjing found passages in several prophetic texts that corresponded to the character “Liang” and had his disciples present them to the emperor. As a result, he received even greater favor. He obtained divine talismans and secret methods of cultivation, and believed that he could refine a divine elixir, but lacked the necessary ingredients. Emperor Wu therefore gave him gold, cinnabar, and other materials. Tao Hongjing refined a flying elixir, pale as frost and snow. It was said that those who took it felt light in body. Emperor Wu also took it and experienced its effects, and so respected Tao Hongjing even more. The emperor repeatedly invited him to serve at court with great ceremony, but Tao never took up office.

Tao Hongjing painted only two oxen: one grazing freely among water and grass, the other wearing a golden bridle while someone drove it with a whip. Emperor Wu laughed and said, “This man wants to be like the tortoise that would rather drag its tail through the mud and water. How could we ever persuade him to come here again?” Whenever important matters arose in the state, the court often sought Tao Hongjing’s advice. People of the time therefore called him “the chancellor in the mountains.”

Even in his eighties, Tao Hongjing’s appearance remained like that of a man in his prime. Later, when Emperor Jianwen toured Xuzhou in the south, he admired Tao’s bearing and character and summoned him to a private chamber after retiring from the main hall. Tao Hongjing appeared wearing a hemp headcloth. After speaking with the emperor for several days, he took his leave. Emperor Jianwen held him in great respect.

One of his disciples, Huan Weixiu, practiced the Dao diligently and eventually attained the Dao and ascended to Heaven. Tao Hongjing asked him, “I have also taught people to practice the Dao with great diligence. Could it be that I have made some mistake, and that is why I still remain in the human world?” He asked Huan to inquire about the matter. After ascending to Heaven, Huan returned and told him, “Master, you have accumulated deep hidden merit. But when compiling the Bencao, you often used creatures such as insects and leeches. Though these medicines can save people, they also harm other living beings. You must therefore undergo twelve years of trial before you can shed your physical form, leave the mortal world, and become the Director of Waterworks in Penglai.” Hidden merit refers to the virtue accumulated through good deeds done in secret. The Director of Waterworks was an official responsible for water management; here, it refers to an office in the realm of the immortals.

Tao Hongjing then wrote another three-volume Bencao, replacing medicines that harmed living creatures with plant-based remedies, in the hope of making amends for his past mistake. One day, though he was not ill, he foresaw that he was about to die. After calculating the date, he wrote a farewell poem. He died in the second year of the Datong era, aged eighty-five. His appearance did not change after death, and his body could still be bent and moved as usual. A fragrance lingered over the mountains for many days.

Pei Hang was a scholar during the Changqing era of the Tang dynasty. After failing the civil service examinations, he traveled to Ezhou and visited his old friend, Chancellor Cui. Chancellor Cui gave him two hundred thousand cash, and Pei Hang set off for the capital with the money. On the way, he hired a large boat to travel to Xianghan. He heard that a woman named Lady Fan was on board, famed for her extraordinary beauty, but he never found a chance to meet her. So Pei Hang asked her maid, Niaoyin, to deliver the two hundred thousand cash along with a poem:

“Though once separated by the ends of the earth, I often thought of you. Now I have encountered a celestial immortal, yet a brocade screen keeps us apart. If I should have the chance to attend the immortals at Jade Capital, I would gladly ride with phoenixes and cranes into the blue sky.”

A few days later, Lady Fan had Niaoyin return a poem:

“After a cup of immortal brew, a hundred feelings arise. Only after pounding the Dark Frost to dust can one meet Yunying. The Blue Bridge is where immortals dwell. Why make the arduous journey to Jade Capital?”

After reading it, Pei Hang felt only shame and admiration, and failed to grasp the poem’s deeper meaning. When the boat reached Xianghan, Lady Fan sent her maid away with her luggage and departed without a word. Pei Hang searched everywhere but could not find her.

Later, as Pei Hang passed the Blue Bridge post station, he became desperately thirsty and left the road to look for water. He saw several thatched huts, with an old woman spinning hemp beside one of them. Pei Hang bowed and asked for water. The old woman told Yunying to bring him a bowl. Remembering that Lady Fan’s poem had mentioned “Yunying,” Pei Hang was just beginning to wonder at this when he saw a pair of jade-white hands reach from beneath a bamboo curtain, holding out a porcelain bowl. The water tasted as sweet as jade nectar. After drinking, Pei Hang handed back the bowl and lifted the curtain. He saw a radiant young woman, fell in love with her, and asked to rest there.

A little later, Pei Hang told the old woman that the young woman he had just seen was exceptionally beautiful, and that he wished to offer a generous bride-price and marry her. The old woman said she was old and often ill, and had only this granddaughter. Some time earlier, an immortal had given her a miraculous medicine, but it had to be ground with a jade pestle and mortar for a hundred days before it could be prepared and taken. If Pei Hang wanted to marry her granddaughter, he would have to find a jade pestle and mortar. She had no need of gold, silver, or other wealth.

Pei Hang promised to obtain them within a hundred days and asked the old woman not to promise Yunying to anyone else. She agreed. Pei Hang returned to the capital and searched everywhere for a jade pestle and mortar. At last he met a jade merchant who said he had a set, but would sell it only for two hundred strings of cash. Pei Hang sold all his possessions, including his servants and horses, and only then raised the price. He carried the jade pestle and mortar back to the Blue Bridge alone. Seeing that he had kept his promise, the old woman laughed and said that few people in the world were so true to their word. She agreed to the marriage. Yunying smiled too, but said that the medicine must first be ground for a full hundred days; they could speak of marriage afterward.

The old woman handed the medicine to Pei Hang, and he began grinding it. Each night, he heard only the sound of the pestle. But when he secretly peered in, he saw a jade rabbit holding the pestle and grinding the medicine. When the hundred days were over, the old woman took the medicine and said she was going into a cave to inform her friends and relatives and prepare a wedding for Pei Hang. She took Yunying into the mountain and told Pei Hang to wait for the time being.

Before long, a carriage, horses, and attendants arrived to escort Pei Hang. He came to a grand mansion with tall vermilion gates rising into the clouds. Immortal youths and maidens led him inside, and the wedding was held. After thanking the old woman, Pei Hang was taken to meet the guests. Everyone at the banquet was an immortal. Among them was a celestial lady with cloudlike hair and robes of many colors: Yunying’s elder sister. She told Pei Hang that she was Lady Fan, who had shared his boat at Ezhou and parted from him later at Xianghan. Her name was Lady Yunqiao. She was the wife of the immortal lord Liu Gang, had already been admitted among the High Perfected, and served as a celestial scribe to the Jade Emperor.

The old woman then led Pei Hang and his wife into Jade Peak Cave, where they lived in halls of jade and chambers of pearls. After taking the Cinnabar Snow and Jade Blossom elixir, Pei Hang’s body gradually became pure and ethereal. His hair turned blue-green, and he acquired the power to transform himself at will, becoming a High Immortal.

During the Taihe era of the Tang dynasty, Pei Hang’s friend Lu Hao encountered him west of the Blue Bridge post station. Pei Hang told him how he had attained the Dao and gave him ten jin of Lantian jade and a single Purple Palace Cloud Elixir. Lu Hao bowed to the ground and asked him for the essentials of the Way. Pei Hang replied, “Laozi said, ‘Empty your heart and fill your belly.’” Lu Hao still did not understand, so Pei Hang explained further: “When the heart is crowded with idle thoughts, the vital energy in the belly drains away. From this, you can understand what it means to be empty and what it means to be full.” As soon as he had finished speaking, Pei Hang suddenly vanished.

Sun Simiao was from Huayuan. By the age of seven, he could recite more than a thousand characters each day. After meeting him, Dugu Xin remarked, “This is a child of extraordinary intelligence, but his ambitions and capacity are so great that he may find it difficult to put them to use in the future.” As he grew older, Sun Simiao took pleasure in discussing the teachings of Laozi and Zhuangzi. He lived in seclusion on Mount Taibai to cultivate the Dao, refining his breath and nourishing his spirit as he sought the arts of transcendence. He was well versed in astronomy, studied medicine in depth, and worked to do good and accumulate De (Virtue).

Once, he saw a shepherd boy injure a small snake. Its body was bleeding, so Sun Simiao took off his clothes to buy it back and treated its wounds. More than ten days later, while traveling, he met a young man in white who dismounted and bowed in gratitude. “My younger brother is indebted to the Daoist master for saving him,” he said. The young man then invited Sun Simiao to his home, offered him his own horse, and they rode off together at a gallop. They arrived at a walled city lush with flowers and trees, its buildings gleaming with gold and splendor, like the residence of a king.

A man dressed in crimson and wearing a hat hurried forward with a large retinue, delighted to offer his thanks. “I am indebted to you for your great kindness, so I sent my son to welcome you,” he said. Pointing to a child in blue, he continued, “Earlier, this child went out alone and was injured by a shepherd boy. Fortunately, the Daoist master took off his clothes to buy him back and save him, making all this possible.” He then had the child in blue bow to Sun Simiao. Only then did Sun Simiao remember that he had once saved a snake.

He quietly asked someone beside him what place this was. The person replied, “This is the Water Palace of Jingyang, where the water deity of Jingyang resides.” The crimson-clad king hosted a banquet for Sun Simiao, with music and dance. Sun Simiao said that he practiced grain avoidance and breath cultivation—refraining from the five grains and nourishing Qi through regulated breathing—and drank only wine. After three days of hospitality, the host offered him gifts of fine silk, gold, and pearls, but Sun Simiao firmly declined them. The host then ordered his son to bring thirty secret prescriptions from the Dragon Palace. “These formulas can help the Daoist master relieve suffering and save lives,” he said. When Sun Simiao returned, he tried each one and found them all effective, so he included them in his Essential Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Gold.

Emperor Wen of Sui summoned Sun Simiao to serve as a Doctor of the Imperial Academy, an official responsible for education in the state school, but he declined. Only when Emperor Taizong of Tang invited him did he travel to the capital. In the third year of Yonghui, …