《玄天上帝启圣录》Vol. 2

Among the force of two thousand was a man named Zhang Qi. He regularly made offerings to Zhenwu, the Daoist deity revered as the protector of the north. Through this devotion, he mastered Dunjia, the art of concealing movements and arranging troops by working with changes in Yin-Yang, time, and direction, as well as the methods of marching and warfare.

During the Kangding era, Hu Zhichong and other leaders of the northern frontier troops invaded Cuichang in Xiongzhou. Wang Nai, then serving as the Commissioner for Military Affairs and Pacification, sent out seasoned fighters to meet them, and they won a decisive victory. After consulting the divination, Zhang Qi predicted that the frontier troops would attack again that night. A southeast wind would rise, blowing from the Ren and Gui directions, and the prediction would soon come true. He also warned that they must guard against fire. The authorities therefore sent troops to keep watch. At the second watch, tens of thousands of frontier troops did indeed attack, crossing the border trench.

Zhang Qi took out a secret Dunjia text and prayed to Zhenwu, performing a rite that made him invisible. He moved about the Cuichang area but was eventually captured. Hu Zhiyuan, by contrast, was pardoned and allowed to return home. When Zhang Qi entered the enemy camp, he felt heat in his head and cold throughout his body. He later learned that Zhenwu Zhenjun, revered by the Song as a divine protector of the state, had descended to shield him. Some among the frontier people also made offerings to Zhenwu, but they had offended the deity, and their worship brought no response.

Now Xiliang City has submitted and made peace with the Song. It no longer intends to rebel and does not wish to offend the deity again. The frontier authorities offered land and asked Zhenwu to bestow an image of the deity, so that copies could be sent out and worshipped throughout their territory. The emperor ordered the Four Sages Abbey to compile the rules for rites commemorating Zhenwu’s descent and for related forms of worship. He also ordered officials to go to Xiongzhou to carry out the transfer, register the land that had been offered, and arrest Hu Zhichong and Hu Zhiyuan. From then on, the two sides remained at peace and the fighting ceased. Xiongzhou was consequently able to reduce its troops and military provisions by one third.

The emperor ordered a Golden Register Zhaijiao, a Daoist purification and ritual service for blessings and the averting of calamity, to be held at a famous mountain grotto-heaven in the northwest. Through this rite, he expressed his sincerity and prayed that the deities would look favorably upon him.

Three myriad measures of water poured from the gourd.

When Chen Zhaoyi of Xuzhou was serving as assistant prefect of Mingzhou, he once visited Tiantong Mountain. There he saw a carved image of Zhenwu, painted red and green, standing in a dusty, filthy spot beside the mountain path. The four legs of the tortoise beside it were broken, and passersby paid it no attention. Chen Zhaoyi paid a craftsman to repair the image and the tortoise’s legs, then built a hall in which to enshrine Zhenwu.

When Chen Zhaoyi’s term of office ended, he saw a Daoist walking across the surface of the water at West Gate Lake. The man tapped on his boat and asked to see him. Chen had come out too late and was unable to meet him. As the Daoist turned to leave, he said, “I came especially to repay you for repairing my image.” Recalling this, Chen Zhaoyi believed that Zhenwu had manifested to thank him for the good deed of restoring the stone image on Tiantong Mountain. He therefore had a portrait of Zhenwu painted and enshrined it. Later, he rose to the rank of junior vice minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and served as an official in Xuzhou.

Once, when Chen Zhaoyi was suffering from a foot ailment, he went to seek treatment and stayed temporarily in Teng County. His illness suddenly healed, and the court appointed him deputy transport commissioner of the Qin-Feng Circuit. Knowing that military affairs on the western frontier were tense and that transporting provisions was a particular concern, Chen Zhaoyi took the image of Zhenwu with him and kept it enshrined.

At the time, Cen Yuanyou, the regional military commissioner, wanted to hold the transport administration responsible because military provisions were in short supply. Suddenly, a Daoist arrived at the camp selling food and medicine. The soldiers suspected he was a spy sent by the Western Fan and brought him in for questioning. After a long while, someone reported a fire in the eastern storehouse; it was soon put out. The two sides remained locked in a standoff until dawn, when the Northern Fan army suffered more than ten thousand casualties.

Zhang Qi personally captured the Northern Fan commander Hu Zhiyuan. Hu Zhiyuan confessed that he was the younger brother of Hu Zhizong, the local ruler and military commissioner of Xiliang in the Northern Fan. The brothers governed separate territories stretching over 1,200 li, whose borders adjoined Xiongzhou. Hu Zhizong was subject to the Northern Fan. The local people did business and paid taxes at Cuichang in Xiongzhou, and all wished to submit to the Great Dynasty. Hu Zhiyuan therefore harbored resentment. For two years they had assembled troops, hoping to seize Cuichang, but had found no opportunity. Hu Zhiyuan devised a plan to mobilize 100,000 soldiers and launch a night raid.

When Hu Zhiyuan entered Cuichang and set fires, he suddenly felt as though his head had been struck by an axe and his whole body drenched with water. He saw ghostly spirits in the clouds seize the flames: half rose into the air, while the other half went out and scattered. Then he saw a divine general with loose hair and a precious sword, ordering him not to flee. As he escaped through the front, a great serpent blocked his way; then a tortoise seized him in its jaws, and Zhang Qi captured him. Hu Zhiyuan said that if he returned alive to the Northern Fan, he and his elder brother Hu Zhizong would bring a pledge of allegiance and submit within a month.

After gathering the officials to deliberate, Wang Mian let Hu Zhiyuan return to the Northern Fan and submitted a report to the court. The court ordered a Jiao rite—a Daoist ritual of altar offerings and prayer—to be held at the Four Sages Temple in the capital. It also ordered a Zhenwu Hall of Gratitude to be built at Cuichang in Xiongzhou, with Daoist priests assigned to burn incense and practice there on a continuing basis. Permission was granted to erect a stele recording Zhang Qi’s bravery. Zhang Qi was consequently appointed a palace guard of the Right Class.

Later, Xiongzhou received word that Hu Zhizong, military commissioner of Xiliang City in the Northern Fan, had sent Zhao Jiming to present a memorial at court. Xiongzhou sent officials to meet him at the border and then reported the matter to the authorities. Wang Mian, the regional military commissioner, escorted Zhao Jiming into the city. Zhao said that Hu Zhizong wished to offer 140 li of millet-producing land, including 600 households, and presented a memorial.

Another account of the earlier raid stated that an attendant of Chen Zhaoyi, whose surname was Pei, had obtained this remedy and used it to save countless people from hunger. At the time, the commander responsible for suppressing the enemy was reprimanding him, and he was also worried that provisions might not arrive on time. He therefore came to sell a miraculous medicine, guaranteeing that it would not delay the supply of military necessities. Cen Yuanyou tried giving the medicine to several people. The wounded and those close to death all said their chests and abdomens felt full. The Daoist took out a gourd-shaped ladle and gave the medicine to Cen, saying that he too carried a bag of it and was about to go west to the battlefield to sell it to King Li.

Cen Yuanyou was astonished. He poured out the medicine from the ladle and found enough for more than 30,000 doses, sufficient for the soldiers, civilians, and horses. Lining the bottom of the ladle was a sheet of paper bearing the words: “This is a method for saving people belonging to the deity of the household of Chen Zhaoyi, junior vice minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. Soldiers and horses who take it can manage for three days without food, saving provisions.”

Later, King Li of the Western Fan also came to ask about the matter. He said that he had once sent a spy to sell a medicine called Jiegufeng. Tens of thousands of people took it and fell to the ground as if paralyzed, unable to fight, so they had no choice but to retreat to their own country. Cen Yuanyou had won while sitting calmly at his command post. He copied the writing from the paper and submitted it to the court, saying that the event revealed Zhenwu’s efficacy. He added that Perfected Pei had been born into the household of Attendant Pei during the reign of Empress Wu of the Tang, leaving behind this record of his surname and method.

After Cen Yuanyou submitted repeated memorials, the Three Departments investigated the matter and decided to reward officers according to rank and promote Chen Zhaoyi to minister of rites. The medicine ladle and the writing on the paper received by Cen Yuanyou were kept in the Tianzhang Pavilion, and an imperial decree ordered the account to be circulated throughout the realm. The court also held seven days and nights of Jiao rites and Jiao talisman rites at the Tianqing Temple—rituals offering prayers for blessings and transmitting Daoist talismans—and allocated public funds to repair the Zhenwu temples connected with the events.

A single gourd of medicine saved the entire capital.

At the Ziji Temple of the Four Saints in Tokyo—the Northern Song capital, Kaifeng—there was a novice Daoist named Hong Zhibian, who had not yet formally received ordination. He left behind secular life to become a Daoist. Each day he swept the three gates, the halls, and the corridors; at night he slept on a mat beneath the covered walkway. Images of the Four Saints were painted on the walls on either side of the Ziji Hall. In addition to burning incense according to the temple’s usual observances, he raised money on his own each day to buy sandalwood for incense. He burned it while reciting scriptures and making offerings, keeping this practice up without interruption for twenty years.

In the second year of the Zhihe era, rain and snow fell on the capital. Late one night, Hong Zhibian suddenly saw a medicine seller, a Daoist, sleeping on the wet ground by the gate with a straw bag for a pillow. Worried that the man would suffer in the storm, Hong woke him and invited him to share his sleeping place. At dawn, as the Daoist prepared to leave, Hong told him that he had just eaten but felt drowsy and weak. He had heard this was a spleen ailment, he said, and hoped he might obtain a dose or two of medicine. The Daoist shook his gourd, took out several pills, and gave Hong the gourd as well. He instructed him to wait until the hour of the Rat, face north with clean water, recite “Perfected One of the Golden Palace” seven times—a Daoist honorific for the Supreme Lord Lao, the original teacher of Zhenwu—and then swallow one pill. He told Hong to save the rest for emergencies and to use them to help others. After the Daoist went out through the gate, he vanished.

That night, Hong took one pill and from then on felt no desire to eat. People in the capital said he had encountered an immortal and could therefore abstain from food. Princes, chief ministers, and other officials sent people to investigate, and the report reached the emperor. He ordered the Kaifeng Prefecture and the Censorate to investigate how Hong had met the Daoist. In the course of their inquiry, they heard the title “Perfected One of the Golden Palace” and established that it was the name of the Supreme Lord Lao, the original teacher of Zhenwu.

At the time, the soldiers and civilians of the capital were suffering through the rain and snow, and many had contracted an epidemic. Hong distributed the pills from the gourd to the sick. He had intended to save only a few people, but the medicine in the gourd proved sufficient to treat the entire city: some forty thousand people recovered, and pills still remained. After the Censorate reported the matter, the emperor specially granted Hong an ordination certificate authorizing him to become a Daoist, allowing him to formally don the robes and receive ordination. Thereafter, the temple held a grand Zhenwu Zhaijiao purification ritual and liturgy, with prayers and fasting, to repay the immortal for his visit and gift of medicine.

Clearing Snowbound Roads and Providing Relief

Dai Kui, Defense Commissioner of Xiongzhou and Deputy Inspector of the Palace Front Army, was ordered to lead one hundred thousand troops to Annam. The army had only just reached Yongzhou when heavy snow began to fall. They were stranded there for half a month. Supplies of grain and fodder ran short, and many people and animals froze to death.

Fang Zong, an officer accompanying the army, reported, “It is the depths of winter, and the snow on the roads is six feet deep. All transport has been cut off. The only way to save these people and animals is to pray to the blessed deity Zhenwu and hope the skies clear and the snow melts. I have an image of Zhenwu with me.” Dai Kui immediately prepared offerings, prayed sincerely before the image, and burned a written petition addressed to the deity. Before long, the skies cleared, the clouds parted, and the sun came out. The roads became passable again. The army reached Annam safely and later won a complete victory. The court issued an order to establish an altar in the newly built Zhenwu Hall of Auspicious Response, a pavilion dedicated to Zhenwu, and hold a Daoist Zhaijiao ritual in thanks for the deity’s grace. The ritual lasted seven days and nights.

Rescuing People Beside the Cliffs in a Storm

In the twelfth month of the second year of the Tiansheng era, Long Mengxi, the patrol inspector of Meijiang in Laizhou, illegally took bows, arrows, and armor with him on patrol to seize people engaged in a certain prohibited activity. He and his soldiers conspired to plunder the possessions of coastal residents…

In the second year of the Tiansheng era, in the twelfth month, Long Mengxi, a patrol officer at Meijiang in Laizhou, took bows, arrows, and armor with him without authorization. He patrolled the area and arrested people who had bathed there without permission. In collusion with the soldiers under his command, he planned to seize the property of coastal residents. When the scheme came to light, the authorities sent officials to investigate and question him. Long Mengxi, however, conspired with the soldiers to rebel. Taking his family, he fled out to sea, where they plundered merchant ships, killed civilians, and raided towns and marketplaces. He also gathered several hundred pirates, making him difficult to suppress.

The relevant offices repeatedly reported the matter and requested aid. The court sent Lu Feng, chief patrol officer of Dengzhou, with a thousand elite naval troops to put down the rebellion. Later, Long Mengxi lured Lu Feng to the foot of Jianshan, deep in the sea. After being trapped for five days, the army ran out of provisions, and Lu Feng could find no way out. He thought of how his family had long worshipped Zhenwu, a Daoist deity revered as a protector of the state, and how prayers to him never went unanswered. That night, with the situation desperate, Lu Feng could not help shouting aloud and begging Zhenwu for aid.

During the night, the soldiers sat aboard their ships when the tide suddenly surged and the wind and waves rose. They heard Long Mengxi’s men shouting and fighting at sea, but thick fog hid Lu Feng’s fleet. At daybreak, corpses were floating face-up in front of Lu Feng’s ships. The damaged warships had also filled with seawater and run aground on the shallows. On inspection, Long Mengxi and his family were found dead aboard one of the ships. More than twenty others had survived; bound with ropes, they were brought before Lu Feng’s ship.

Lu Feng ordered the sailors to cut off the rebels’ heads, then sent the captured soldiers back to the Qingzhou Military Commission for Pacification to be interrogated. That night, amid black clouds, divine generals, ghost soldiers, venomous snakes, and fierce beasts appeared across the sky—a sight beyond description. The prefectural authorities discreetly determined that Zhenwu’s sacred power had manifested, then notified the relevant offices. Liang Jia, the Military Commissioner for Pacification, recorded the incident and submitted it to the throne. The court issued an edict promoting Lu Feng to the rank of Chongyi Envoy and ordering Laizhou to build a shrine at the Meijiang estuary patrol office. It was to enshrine an image of Zhenwu, along with the divine generals at his sides and the heavenly soldiers. The court bestowed on the shrine the name “Shrine of Aid in Battle and Repayment of Gratitude.”

Sacred Arrow, Powder Hanging Down (text seen at the end of this passage): Powder hangs down from the sacred arrow.

During the Tianxi era, Fang Zhicao, Vice Minister of War and concurrently Grand Commander of the troops at Gaoyang Pass in Yingzhou, where he also oversaw local affairs, submitted a report. He said that three months after he took office, Lu Jicheng, chief of Pingwu Stockade among the frontier tribes, and more than two thousand others crossed the border without authorization on the night of the sixteenth day of the eighth month that year. They seized more than four thousand shi of provisions from Qingmu Fort. Gaoyang Pass then sent Zou Shu, the Fourth General, to direct Liu Yi to lead two thousand soldiers to the tribal border and demand an explanation.

The next day, more than ten thousand tribal troops arrived. One of their commanders called himself Yan Lianxin and said he served Nie Huqi, King of Northern Yan. He explained that Qingmu Fort collected large quantities of military provisions every year, and that the King of Northern Yan had sent twenty thousand troops to seize them. Lu Jicheng had gone to Pingwu Stockade under cover of night and proposed taking advantage of Qingmu Fort’s lack of defenses to cross the border and raid its provisions on the night of the sixteenth.

Zou Shu said, “The Great Yan emperor has maintained peaceful relations with us, yet Nie Huqi’s men have sent troops without authorization to invade and plunder. We do not wish to report this to the court. We ask only that you send an envoy to Yan and return the provisions you took to Qingmu Fort.” Yan Lianxin refused. The two sides immediately fought, and the tribal troops were routed.

Nie Huqi then arrived with more than two hundred thousand troops and besieged the two gates on the northwest side of Yingzhou. Their camp was less than half a li from the moat, and they maintained the siege for six days without withdrawing. On the seventh day, the ninth day of the ninth month, a violent gale suddenly arose. Smoke, dust, and rain filled the air, making it impossible to see. The only sound was the tribal troops shouting in alarm as they fled in disorder. Zou Shu and the others sent soldiers in pursuit and captured several wounded men along grassy paths.

Fang Zhicao summoned the prisoners for questioning. One of them said, “We don’t know what deity is enshrined inside the city. We saw only that a fierce wind rose by the two northwest gates, as if the earth itself were shaking. Sand and dust struck our faces, and we could barely open our eyes. Then arrows came flying like a downpour, and countless boa constrictors chased and bit people and horses. Nie Huqi cried out from his horse and ordered the troops to withdraw and flee. We were all wounded by snakebites and arrows, and couldn’t run, so we were captured.”

When the prisoners’ wounds were examined, they did indeed bear the marks of snake fangs and arrow injuries, yet there were no visible entry or exit wounds from the arrows. The matter seemed profoundly mysterious. About ten days later, the patrol officer guarding the border moat brought in two tribal officers and a sealed document in a leather tube. The tube bore the inscription: “For Vice Minister Fang, Grand Commander at Gaoyang Pass in Yingzhou, to open in person.” The document said that they would not again dare to mobilize troops without authorization. It also reported that an arrow had struck Nie Huqi in the right eye; after its tip was removed, the arrow turned to dust in his hand. During the siege, poisonous snakes and divine spirits had appeared amid the wind and sand and routed their force of more than two hundred thousand. They did not know which deity was enshrined at Gaoyang Pass, but its power was astonishing. Enclosed with the letter was a divine arrow, with a request that the generals identify the shrine it belonged to and pray for the deity’s protection of their eyes.

Fang Zhicao examined the arrow carefully and confirmed that it appeared to have been taken from a mural. He visited Daoist temples, Buddhist monasteries, and other shrines, but found no matching mural. Later, at the newly built Shouxian Temple south of Yingzhou, he saw a mural on the main wall depicting the Great Emperor of the North Pole and Purple Tenuity, a revered Daoist deity. On either side were the Four Sages, divine generals who guarded the Great Emperor of the North Pole. They wore golden armor, carried weapons, and each had a quiver of arrows. Only the quiver of Zhenwu, a Daoist guardian deity also known as the Supreme Emperor of the Dark Heaven, was missing an arrow. Fang Zhicao compared the tribal army’s arrow with the mural, and their colors matched exactly. After burning incense, he personally placed the arrow back into the empty space in Zhenwu’s quiver. It fitted perfectly, restoring the mural to its original state and leaving only a faint trace as evidence.

Fang Zhicao submitted a detailed report on the affair and sent an envoy back to the tribal lands to inform the court. The court dispatched officials with imperial incense to hold a Daoist ritual at Shouxian Temple in Yingzhou, and ordered that every Daoist temple in the empire without a Zhenwu Hall should build one. It also ordered Gaoyang Pass to distribute rewards according to merit.

In a memorial written before his death, Su Xian, prefect of Binzhou, pointed out that the Anfu Commandery of Zhuzhou had sent no troops to rescue the city or resist the tribal raiders, resulting in the defenders’ deaths.

After Su Xian died, Wang Bao, the tax inspector of Binzhou, was ordered to patrol the city. At midnight, he climbed over the city wall and crossed the moat, secretly fleeing. A thunderstorm came up, and Wang Bao ran into a grove, where several divine beings seized him and asked who he was and why he was fleeing in secret. Wang Bao replied, “I am Wang Bao, tax inspector of Binzhou. I was afraid of the tribal raiders and abandoned my superior.” The divine beings rebuked him: “In times of peace, you coveted your salary and enjoyed the state’s provisions; now, in a crisis, you are afraid and run away. You deserve death. But the people of the city are innocent, and we cannot bear to see them massacred. There are no reinforcements yet. For now, we will lend you a spear and fifty infantrymen. Use tonight’s thunderstorm to hurry out and attack the raiders.”

Wang Bao said, “I have never learned martial arts. The raiders number several thousand, all fierce barefoot men. How can fifty soldiers hold them back? I also do not know which sacred beings you are. Please tell me plainly.” The commander among the divine beings said, “Take the spear and lead the fifty men into action at once. If you distinguish yourself, you will receive a high position in the future. If the court asks about this, say it was the work of the Great General of the Northern Three Origins, the divine commander who patrols and campaigns.”

Wang Bao took the spear in the darkness and led the troops out of the grove, with lightning following behind them. They reached the raiders’ camp. A clap of thunder rang out, startling the enemy soldiers and plunging the entire camp into chaos as they attacked one another. By dawn, the raiders had fled to the sea inlet, more than 250 li from Binzhou City. That night, when the divine troops arrived, most of the raiders had already escaped across the sea on rafts. The Yin troops—soldiers led by spirits and invisible to ordinary people—then scattered the rest, leaving none behind. The people of Binzhou were thus spared a massacre.

Later, military officers established what had happened and reported it to the court. The court reviewed Su Xian’s memorial and granted appropriate honors and rewards. Wang Bao was appointed Director of the Chongyi Office for the miraculous appearance and instruction of Zhenwu, the northern deity venerated in Daoism, and for protecting the state and saving its people. The court also ordered an examination of the divine spear Wang Bao had received. It proved to be a fire-forged bamboo blade of the kind used by the raiders. The scripture presents this as evidence that a deity of good fortune can act expediently in a crisis and turn defeat into victory. The court therefore ordered the construction in Binzhou of a Temple of Gratitude and Protection of the State, where incense would be offered to Zhenwu. Each year, a Daoist priest was to be appointed to live at the temple, burn incense, and practice cultivation, in gratitude for the deity’s unseen protection.

On the first day of the second month of the first year of Tianyou, Qian Gongyan, acting prefectural commissioner of Xingyuan Prefecture, submitted a memorial: “The court’s Bureau of Military Affairs has appointed me pacification and punitive expedition commissioner for the Yongyan Route, responsible for suppressing the campaign against Zhao Tianyou of the Western Fan. In accordance with the order, I took command of more than forty thousand troops and reached the Western Regions, where I now face an enemy force of three hundred thousand. The disparity in our numbers is immense, and I am deeply anxious. I have no choice but to report this emergency to the court, fearing as well that the course of the campaign may turn against us.”

Yuan Zheng, a military officer responsible for camp affairs, had long practiced the Northern Dipper Mystery and Firmament rite, serving the Northern Pole Wandering Patrol True Warrior General, a title for the True Warrior deity. He had practiced with sincere devotion for more than twenty years. He asked to set up an altar in front of the marshal’s tent. Qian Gongyan, too, devoutly composed a prayer memorial explaining the circumstances of the campaign in the Western Regions and seeking the deities’ hidden aid.

That night, Yuan Zheng carried an image of the True Warrior on his back to set up the altar before the marshal’s tent. At the third watch, he performed the rite, burned the written memorial, and offered sacrifices and prayers to the Four Sages of the Northern Pole, the gods of the cyclical years, and the spirits who governed the various offices.

The next day, Zhao Tianyou led a force of one hundred thousand to challenge them. Qian Gongyan sent Sun Yi, an officer, into battle against the Western Fan commander, then committed more troops to a major engagement. Around the second watch that night, ten thousand streaks of fire burst across the battlefield as the two armies surged forward amid the clash of weapons. The Western Fan army’s spears and banners snapped; its bows and crossbows lost their tension, and its gongs and drums fell into confusion. The soldiers fled like startled deer, and the imperial forces pursued them.

At daybreak, everyone saw that Qian Congji, the sixth general accompanying the army, had returned with the head of the Western Fan commander, Zhao Tianyou. The soldiers and officers said that many strange-looking deities had appeared before the lines during the night. Their faces resembled fish gills and black snouts; they had disheveled hair and bare feet. Some commanded wind and lightning, while others hunted down snakes and beasts. The Western Fan troops were pursued and slaughtered, leaving bodies strewn across the land; the dead numbered in the tens of thousands. Only one streak of fire chased a man fleeing on horseback. Qian Congji recognized him as Zhao Tianyou and ultimately took his head.

At the time, he led only forty thousand troops to face an enemy army of two hundred thousand. Had the military ritual methods of Chen Dao not been offered by the military officer Yuan Zheng, and had he not performed them with utter sincerity, Zhenwu, the deity revered in Daoism, might not have descended onto the battlefield, manifesting countless rays of fire and the forms of various divine beasts. Without this, the government forces would have struggled to rout the foreign army and capture its commander. In recognition of Zhenwu’s manifestation, the Three Departments of the Ministry of Rites ordered an official certificate issued to Yuan Zheng, exempting him from the related labor service. The court then bestowed five hundred strings of cash by imperial decree as a reward.

The court also established a ritual site at the Shangqing Lingying Palace in the capital. The rites continued for a month and included a Universal Heaven Zhaijiao, a Daoist purification ritual seeking divine protection for all under Heaven. Qian Gongyan was consequently promoted one rank and appointed Director of the Palace Administration.

Poisonous bees gathered like clouds and mist.

In the Chongfu Palace in Xijing stands the Northern Dipper and Purple Tenuity Pavilion. During the reign of Wu Zetian, it was built in imitation of the celestial palace. Within it was a courtyard devoted to the “Two Victors and Four Generals,” and it preserved imperial calligraphy from successive dynasties. Senior officials and envoys dispatched by the court oversaw its administration each year, setting it apart from ordinary palaces and temples.

Recently, part of the eaves on the pavilion’s right side collapsed, gradually damaging the statue. When Prefect Fu Bi heard of it, he went to inspect the site with several officials. They found that a rafter had fallen at an angle and struck the right shoulder of the statue of the True Warrior. They did not dare repair it on their own, so they prepared to submit a memorial requesting the emperor’s instructions.

At that time, the palace attendant Cen Jing was carrying incense, by imperial command, to make offerings in the halls of Chongfu Palace. He was also ordered to inspect, together with the palace superintendent, the prefect, and other officials, whether the statue of the True Warrior, the Blessed Deity in the Northern Dipper and Purple Tenuity Pavilion, had been damaged. It turned out that the emperor had recently dreamed in his bedchamber of a divine figure wearing a purple sash and a gold belt, holding a court tablet upright and dressed in full ceremonial attire. The figure identified himself as the local deity of the Northern Dipper and Purple Tenuity Pavilion in Chongfu Palace, Xijing, and said he had come to report that the Numinous and Responsive True Lord of the Dark Warrior had helped the emperor resist Zhao Yuanhao of the Western Xia. He had filled the sky with black bees, helping Marshal Pang Ji secure victory. In wielding his divine power to protect the state, the True Warrior had injured his right arm; the details could not all be disclosed. Had he not come to report this, the emperor would have had no way of knowing. Having finished, the divine figure took his leave.

At the time, the army on its western campaign had not yet returned to court. Prefect Fu Bi entrusted the matter to Cen Jing to report to the emperor. The emperor issued an order dispatching a palace envoy and craftsmen from the Eight Workshops to make repairs. He also bestowed a gold-lettered plaque and set a deadline of one year to rebuild the pavilion.

Pang Ji, Minister of War and Chief Councillor in the Chancellery, submitted a memorial stating that he had been ordered to lead the army against Zhao Yuanhao. When the army reached Sanfeng Valley, it fought Zhao Yuanhao in person for about three hours. Suddenly, swarms of black-and-yellow earth bees spread across the countryside like clouds and flew toward the Western Xia army. Many enemy soldiers were wounded and fell, numbering in the tens of thousands. An examination of several of them showed that their wounds had not been caused by weapons. Some had only three or five black marks on their faces, yet suffered pain that pierced to the marrow. Pang Ji believed that the deities of the Song had manifested through inconceivable divine power, taking the form of venomous bees whose force surpassed arrows and stone projectiles.

Zhao Yuanhao had also been stung by bees. His head throbbed as if struck by a great axe, and he had no choice but to retreat in defeat despite the pain. Later, he wrote a document admitting his fault and submitting to the court, then crossed the border to surrender. Marshal Pang Ji accepted Zhao Yuanhao’s surrender memorial and map, and personally brought them back to court. The emperor ordered that they be sent to the Secretariat for review. Inquiry revealed that the local deity of Chongfu Palace had manifested and foretold the victory. The court therefore established an altar at the Temple of the Four Sages and performed a three-day and three-night Zhaijiao ritual, a Daoist rite for protecting the state and its people, to repay the True Warrior for aiding the state in its western campaign. Pang Ji received his military merit rewards separately from the court.

End of Volume Three of the Record of the Sacred Manifestations of the Supreme Lord of the Dark Heaven.

Volume Four is titled “Divine Generals Teach the Way.” In the first month of the second year of the Qianxing era, Zhang Xiaoning, Military Training Commissioner of Zhongzhou and concurrently Military Inspector of Qianzhou, reported that Long, a chieftain among the tribal peoples of the southern river valleys and caves, had gathered more than ten thousand men. All of them practiced throwing javelins, making them difficult to resist. The court appointed Zhang to this post, transferred five thousand troops from the Pacification Commission, and assigned three assistant officers to support him.

Zhang Xiaoning’s father had once established a shrine to Zhenwu—the Daoist deity revered as the god of the north, also known as the Supreme Lord of the Dark Heaven—in their home. Following his father’s example, Zhang worshipped the deity sincerely. He would draw a divination lot before taking any action, and its predictions repeatedly proved accurate. Earlier, when the court was selecting candidates for military studies, he had dreamed that the River Chief divine general serving beneath Zhenwu personally taught him the arts of war, including the spear, bow and arrows, and horsemanship. On waking, he felt that he had suddenly grasped these skills. Later, he took the palace examination and ranked first among two hundred candidates, receiving appointment as a Palace Attendant of the Third Class. He believed this was due to Zhenwu’s protection.

Zhang Xiaoning led his troops for more than a hundred li and spent the night at Huguo Abbey. In a small hall dimly lit by incense, he recognized the shrine to Zhenwu. He burned incense and drew a lot, which foretold great good fortune. Inwardly, he vowed to Zhenwu that if he could defeat the tribal raiders in a single battle, he would exchange his official salary for an imperial grant and use it to repay the deity’s favor.

The next day, Zhang Xiaoning led five thousand infantrymen to the tribal border, where they encountered more than ten thousand of Long’s followers. They lost three successive engagements. That night, they made camp at the temple of Ma Yuan, the Han dynasty’s General Who Subdued the Waves, on Qin Feng Mountain. When Zhang heard that the tribal troops were still pursuing them, the two armies were about a hundred paces apart, at around the second watch. Suddenly, wind and rain swept in, and the sound of fighting rose from within the ranks. Zhang held his troops in place and listened as the fighting gradually receded into the distance.

At daybreak, he led his troops into battle again. On the road ahead, he saw the bodies of tribal soldiers piled one upon another. Scouts reported that Long’s barefoot raiders had originally numbered twelve thousand, but only two thousand remained, having retreated into the caves. Many were wounded, and Long’s right arm had been broken. Everyone said that the divine ghost soldiers of the Great Dynasty had come to protect and assist them. The tribal people declared aloud that they would submit from then on and would never rebel again.

After confirming the circumstances of Long’s surrender, Zhang Xiaoning reported them to the court. The court authorized the construction of several halls dedicated to Zhenwu at Huguo Abbey and granted three years’ worth of ordination certificates, which permitted Daoists to enter monastic life and receive the precepts. These were to support the Daoists in their practice and worship of the Dao through burning incense. The court also allocated two hundred strings of cash each year for the abbey’s regular expenses. Zhang Xiaoning, for his part, was promoted to Defense Commissioner of Yingzhou.

The Talisman Officials Borrow Troops

Lu Shoucong, an imperial commissioner serving in the Inner Palace, was ordered to travel to the border at Hebei’s Three Passes and investigate the Khitan movements. On the way, he met two talisman officials on the western bank of the Yellow River. These were divine functionaries charged with carrying out the commands of the gods, and each held a document sealed at one corner.

Lu Shoucong asked what had brought them there. They replied, “Today we were inspecting the human world. When we reached Dingzhou, we happened upon the ceremonial procession of the Northern Pole True Warrior, the Responsive and Numinous True Lord, a Daoist deity revered as the protector of the north. The True Lord said that the northern foreign troops were continually growing in number, while the Song dynasty lacked the strength to resist them. On this descent to the mortal world, the True Lord had brought no celestial troops or divine warriors, so he sent us to deliver these documents at once. We must go immediately to the Eastern Peak—Mount Tai, the domain governed by the Great Emperor of the Eastern Peak—and consult with Lord Bingling, the Great Emperor’s son and the deity in charge of Mount Tai, to borrow ten thousand ghost troops and divine generals. They will take up formation at the hour of Bingzi on the day of Wuzi in the month of Renzi, driving back the foreign troops and helping the Southern Court secure its borders.”

After speaking, the two talisman officials crossed the river and departed. When Lu Shoucong returned to court, he reported the matter to the emperor, who ordered the relevant officials to record it for the time being.

Later, Fu Bi, Vice Minister of Punishments and commander-in-chief of the Three Passes, returned to court to offer congratulations. He reported that the Khitan in the north had been defeated and had no intention of fighting again. Song forces had captured Zhao Yin, King of Li of the Yan state. Zhao Yin confessed to having submitted a document acknowledging defeat and surrender, and was later sent back to the foreign lands. When the court asked when the victory had occurred, the date proved to be the hour of Bingzi on the day of Wuzi in the month of Renzi, in the Gengwu year—exactly matching Lu Shoucong’s earlier report.

The court rewarded the officers and soldiers involved and issued an amnesty pardoning criminals throughout the empire. It also had the Temple of Sacred Protection built at Dingzhou. When construction was complete, the emperor issued an inscription composed by the imperial hand in gratitude.

A Book Reveals the Wei Family

The Secretariat-Chancellery, the Privy Council, the Three Offices, the Ministry of Rites, and other government agencies jointly submitted a report. After investigating, Wang Zhuo, Vice Minister of War, Assistant Councillor of State, and concurrently Grand Commander for Suppression and Pacification and Commissioner for Military Affairs in Dingzhou, reported as follows:

In the seventh month of the third year of the Yongxi era, a million foreign troops—forces of northern ethnic groups—had already advanced to the border river. Pan Renmei, a military commander serving as an Observing Commissioner, was at odds with the veteran general Yang Jiye, a Grand Commandant, but the two set out together to lead their forces. During one pursuit, the Song army chased more than six hundred thousand foreign troops deep into Beiyou Langshan. Pan Renmei secretly withdrew his troops to camp, leaving Yang Jiye’s army to advance alone. The Khitans later sent reinforcements and drove Yang Jiye’s forces into Huko Fortress. Yang Jiye was defeated and killed.

Yang Yanlang, Yang Jiye’s second son, went to the capital to appeal and clear his father’s name. The court had already dispatched officials to keep Pan Renmei under surveillance. Yang Yanlang submitted his petition through the Court of Drum Appeals, the office that received grievances from commoners who beat drums to seek redress. He alleged that Pan Renmei had colluded with treacherous ministers at court, exchanged private letters with them, and incited the northern enemy to defy the late emperor’s instructions and murder Yang Jiye.

The emperor ordered the Left and Right Censorial Offices to investigate the matter within three days, uncover the truth, and have the Censorate pursue the case with all its strength. As the deadline approached, civil and military officials alike knew that Wang Yuncong, Assistant Director of the Palace Library, was involved. Wang was originally a foreigner and behaved suspiciously, yet enjoyed the emperor’s favor, making him difficult to expose and arrest.

Censor Wei Huaixin feared he would be punished over the matter, so he informed the chief councillor Wang Zongdan and others. He venerated the True Warrior of the North Pole, a northern deity honored in Daoism, and believed the deity’s power to be supremely efficacious. He therefore proposed inviting the officials to his home to pray before the holy image of the True Warrior, asking it to expose the traitors and bring them to light as soon as possible.

The officials came to Wei Huaixin’s home and respectfully waited for the divine manifestation. Suddenly, an old man with white hair appeared before the hall. He bowed and said, “I am the child of a household belonging to the northern Yan. Wang Yuncong once went to foreign lands as a merchant and lodged in Buzhou, but falsely claimed to be a degree candidate. Later, he took ten foreigners into his household as servants and brought them to the capital to sell books. During the Golden Dragon Festival, a Song dynasty festival, he sat for the Examination for Men of Excellence and passed. He now serves as Assistant Director of the Palace Library and Doctor of the Inner Teaching. In truth, he is a spy sent from foreign lands. For many years he has built a faction within the Song, secretly hoarding confidential information and engaging in espionage. I have brought ten letters exchanged with the northern Yan. I am willing to present them to the emperor and seek a reward.”

Having finished speaking, the old man started away and suddenly vanished. Chief Councillor Wang Zongdan and the others immediately exposed Wang Yuncong’s treachery and submitted the ten letters. The court sent men to arrest Wang Yuncong and interrogate him in the palace hall. He confessed to all his crimes but denied that the old man had stolen the letters from foreign lands.

The court compared the writing in the northern foreign script with Wang Yuncong’s letter by letter. One letter said, “The emperor must not leave the capital, and the army must not leave the frontier.” Its precise meaning was not established at the time. Wang Yuncong was then sent to the Censorate for questioning, convicted, and executed. His head was sealed and sent back to the northern foreign lands.

Yang Yanlang was appointed Gentleman of the Inner Hall and made Chief Patrol Officer of Liangmen Stockade. After Pan Renmei’s crimes were confirmed, the court considered that he had been a maternal kinsman and old servant of the previous dynasty. It therefore ordered that his official credentials be stripped from him and demoted him to supervise the wine trade in Taiyuan.

The court also established that Yang Jiye had indeed been a loyal minister trusted by the late emperor, and that he had died unjustly after being framed by treacherous ministers. The court and the public alike mourned his death. He was posthumously granted the title “Meritorious Minister Who Supported Loyalty, Assisted Governance, Pacified Disorder, and Secured the State.” The court built the Monastery of Loyal Assistance at Liangmen Stockade, established a shrine in his honor, and offered incense and sacrifices there. A general amnesty was also proclaimed. After deliberation, the Three Offices and the Ministry of Rites submitted a proposal: to repay the True Warrior for his divine manifestation, they would, by imperial order, conduct a seven-day and seven-night Daoist Zhaijiao purification ritual for blessings before the holy image of the True Warrior at Wei Huaixin’s home. Wei Huaixin was appointed Court Gentleman for Court Audiences and reassigned as prefect of Yangzhou.

When Wang Chou served in Guizhou as an official in the Office of Military Affairs and Pacification, responsible for paperwork and military and administrative matters, the officer Liang Mu forcibly required soldiers to buy fruit and vegetables produced in his garden. He also colluded with Yuan Sheng, commander of the Huyi Army, and others to embezzle military rewards under the pretext of settling accounts, keeping the money for himself. The soldiers therefore resented him.

One night, soldiers seized weapons and fled to Donge’er Mountain. When the court learned of this, it ordered Wang Chou to investigate Liang Mu, report his findings to the Military Affairs and Pacification Commission, pursue the fugitives, and submit a full account of what had happened. Liang Mu made excuses and hid, refusing to appear. The court then sent officials with appointment documents, brocade jackets, and an edict granting amnesty. Wang Chou feared that Liang Mu might still refuse to come forward, causing further trouble and implicating everyone involved.

That night, Wang Chou heard the sound of metal clinking in the main hall of his home. He went to investigate with a lamp and found a pair of divination blocks at the inner gate. They were inscribed with the name of Hanyang Abbey in Guizhou. The next day, Wang Chou went to the abbey himself and asked about them. The Daoist clergy recognized them as the blocks used in the hall of the Perfected Warrior, where the Perfected Warrior Emperor was worshipped. They were astonished that the blocks had ended up at Wang’s home. Wang Chou took this as a sign from the Perfected Warrior Emperor. He went to the hall, prayed reverently, recounted what had happened using the divination blocks, and asked for divine help in settling the matter. He cast the blocks three times, and none of the resulting signs indicated an obstacle.

Soon after Wang Chou thanked the deity and left the hall, he suddenly heard that Liang Mu’s entire household was weeping at his residence. On inquiry, Wang Chou learned that Liang Mu seemed to have been struck by an evil spirit: he had vomited black blood and fallen dead. Wang Chou did not let the news spread. Instead, he selected reliable soldiers to hurry to Liang Mu’s residence and carry out the bloodstained corpse. He then claimed that he was acting on the court’s orders to go outside the city and welcome its envoys. Taking more than twenty soldiers with him as bearers, he summoned the scattered troops to identify the body. In front of them all, he declared that he had been given medicinal wine by the court to reward them, and urged them not to forget the emperor’s kindness.

With Liang Mu dead, Wang Chou summoned the soldiers back and pacified them. Their leader, Yuan Zhen, submitted to Wang Chou’s orders; the others all knelt and accepted the amnesty. They then received the edict, appointment documents, and corresponding rewards, donned their brocade jackets, and returned to Guizhou, where they were restored to their former military organization. Shao Mi, the Military Affairs and Pacification Commissioner, submitted a recommendation for Wang Chou. The court ordered that money be granted to rebuild Hanyang Abbey in Guizhou and bestowed a plaque on it. For the Perfected Warrior Emperor’s miraculous protection of the state, Wang Chou was appointed a Court Gentleman of Service and assigned as prefect of the military prefecture.

The imperial pacification commissioner Shao Mi submitted a report: Hanyang Abbey in Guizhou had once received imperial funds for repairs by decree, and, after its restoration, was also granted an official name plaque. In gratitude for the efficacy of the spirit king Chou of the Hall for Protecting the State, the court appointed him Gentleman for Court Service and sent him to serve as prefect of a military prefecture.

Ke Cheng Exposes Treachery

In the capital, there was a valiant commander named Ke Cheng. Because an illness had damaged both his eyes, he could not take part in military drills and was assigned an idle post with a stipend. Once, he went to the banks of the Wei River, intending to drown himself that night. At this critical moment, a divine being came to the water’s edge and called out to him. The figure mixed medicine with river water and washed Ke Cheng’s eyes. At once, his sight was completely restored. Afterward, Ke Cheng could recognize treacherous people. Later, he learned in a dream that the one who had saved him was an incarnation of Zhenwu.

Li Keyuan of the Western Fan once sent a spy, Zhao Kedà, to Qingzhou. Pretending to sell dates, Zhao also peddled an item called a “horn cart.” Each day, he secretly inspected the city walls and defenses, then returned to his lodging and drew a map using alum water. Ke Cheng saw through him and arrested him. At first, Zhao denied everything, but the map seized from him appeared to be blank paper. Ke Cheng dampened it with water, and the markings emerged. Under interrogation, Zhao confessed and was executed. Ke Cheng was promoted to the rank of Ten-Man Commander, and after completing his term, he returned to the capital.

Later, Qian Quying took charge of the Southern Bureau’s affairs and assigned Ke Cheng to oversee arrests in the capital. Thieves disguised themselves as fire patrolmen and slipped into a Daoist ritual at Prince Wei’s residence. They threw sulfur and torches, frightening the imperial princes and palace staff, then took advantage of the confusion to steal six hundred taels’ worth of silver wine vessels and about one hundred taels’ worth of gold incense balls bestowed by the emperor. The court posted a reward and offered a certificate of appointment as Right-Class Palace Attendant to anyone who could investigate and capture the thieves.

Acting on the imperial order, Ke Cheng set out to apprehend them. At home, he burned incense and prayed to the blessed deity Zhenwu, asking for help in catching the gang. After finishing his prayer and leaving the house, he seemed to be guided by someone and went straight to Zhenji Monastery, west of the Caijiang bend. Several people were gambling in front of the monastery, and a patterned silver vessel was visible inside one man’s robe. Ke Cheng stepped forward to investigate and searched out several silver objects. He took the suspect and the stolen goods to the Southern Bureau for questioning. The investigation established that the man was Zhou Quan, a military convict exiled to Fengzhou. After the court punished Zhou Quan according to law, Ke Cheng was authorized to submit a report and received an imperial commendation: he was appointed Right-Class Palace Attendant, awarded money, and ordered to hold a Grand Repayment-to-Benevolence Daoist purification ritual in the Yuji Gardens to thank the deity. Officials were also sent to the Four Sages Abbey to present incense and offer thanks with the proper rites.

During the Tianxi era of the Song dynasty, a wandering Daoist priest named Luo Dongzhen lived at the Shangqing Yanfu Palace in the capital. He stayed there for three years without speaking. Later, he accompanied a Daoist official into the palace to pray for Empress Dowager Liu, the emperor’s mother, who was suffering from alternating chills and fever. Suddenly, he told the emperor that he had seen a mass of red Qi in the palace, on its western side and facing east. It indicated signs of curses and harmful spells.

Luo Dongzhen said that if they found a place in that direction that looked scorched red, cracked, or damaged, then digging seven feet down should reveal objects used in sorcery to suppress and avert disaster. The empress dowager might have fallen victim to such a spell, which could explain why her chills and fever returned each day. The emperor ordered his ministers to discuss the matter and authorized Luo Dongzhen to inspect the palace.

On the palace’s western side stood the Xisheng Pavilion, once the residence of the First Emperor’s favored consort, Lady Huarui, but empty for many years. Luo Dongzhen pointed to the spot beneath the fourth layer of curtains. Digging seven feet down, they found a square floral stone tile. On its back were curse inscriptions written in glue and cinnabar, along with the First Emperor’s year, month, day, and hour of birth. They also found human-shaped objects wrapped in silk, along with various ill-omened things.

Luo Dongzhen made a sword from peach wood taken from the southeast. He bound the objects with straw rope, drove them into the ground in an open place outside the northern Gate of Ghosts, and burned them. After this, the empress dowager’s illness eased.

Later, while sleeping during the day, the empress dowager saw seven people in a dream. Their hair hung loose, they were naked, and gold paper was attached to their bodies. They told her that they were spirits held captive by a spell. In the past, Lady Huarui had practiced sorcery in an attempt to harm the First Emperor’s imperial line. She had performed what was called the “Heavenly Demon’s Sevenfold Return of the Corpse” rite, burying seven cursed objects seven feet beneath the imperial bed. After the First Emperor ascended the throne, he moved Heaven and Earth and gained the protection of the Five Sacred Peaks and all spirits. Lady Huarui was later put to death, but the buried objects could not free themselves from the earth. Over time, they became shadow spirits and tormented the First Emperor, causing him to suffer a long illness.

The seven said that Luo Dongzhen had now freed them and unearthed the buried objects. Though they had left the empress dowager’s body, they had nowhere to go. They asked Luo Dongzhen to perform the Northern Pole Zhenwu Spirit Response Rite of Registers, a liturgy that invoked the Great Emperor Zhenwu and delivered the dead, so they could disperse, each returning to its original dwelling place and gaining rebirth.

At their request, the empress dowager summoned Luo Dongzhen to the palace again to perform the rite. He reported the matter to the Great Emperor Zhenwu and sought deliverance for the seven spirits. Three days later, the seven appeared in a dream once more to say farewell. They said that the Great Emperor Zhenwu had granted them a prophecy, and that each had returned to its proper place and been reborn.

The empress dowager then reported the matter to the emperor in person. He ordered a three-day, three-night Daoist offering rite with three altars to be held at Yanfu Palace. He bestowed on Luo Dongzhen a purple robe and a religious title, appointed him abbot of Yanfu Palace, and ordered him to burn incense and practice Daoist cultivation while awaiting summons.

In Xian County, Yingzhou, there was a thief named Huang Gousan. While being questioned about his involvement in a robbery, he learned that Zhu Shoucheng had a great deal of gold, silver, and other valuables in his home. Huang and his accomplices first went to hide at the nearby home of Lu Ergong. On the nights of the eleventh through the thirteenth day of the fourth month in the seventh year of Qingli, Huang Gousan and the others each carried fire pots and weapons and went to Zhu Shoucheng’s house. Those nights brought violent winds and rain, and dogs barked everywhere. Frightened, they turned back.

On the night of the fourteenth, they returned, climbed over the wall, and entered Zhu Shoucheng’s courtyard. As they were about to pass through the second gate, it opened by itself. Suddenly, more than twenty people in armor, carrying swords and clubs, rushed out in pursuit. Huang Gousan and the others escaped over the wall, with one man being chased from behind. In a panic, Huang Gousan thrust his spear backward without looking and killed him. When they returned to Lu Ergong’s home, they found that their accomplice Chen Ban’er was missing. Only later did they learn that he had died on the way.

The village elders reported the matter to the authorities, who offered a reward for the capture of the thieves. Chen Ban’er’s wife went to the authorities and informed on them, saying that her husband had joined Huang Gousan and the others in their thefts, and that he alone had been killed when they fled. She also said that Huang Gousan and eight others were hiding in a concealed space inside the walls of Lu Ergong’s home. The authorities immediately sent patrol officers and the county magistrate’s deputy to search for them, but Chen Ban’er’s wife had disappeared as well.

Huang Gousan confessed that the man they had killed by mistake was Chen Ban’er. Chen was originally from Qi Prefecture in Shandong and had no wife. Zhu Shoucheng, for his part, said that there had been no wind or rain at his home on the nights of the eleventh through the thirteenth, and that he had heard no dogs barking. On the night of the fourteenth, he had heard that someone had been killed on the main road. He now knew it was Chen Ban’er, but had not known that Huang Gousan and the others had climbed over the wall into his courtyard. Nor had any of his brothers, sons, grandsons, servants, or visitors gone out through the second gate in armor and carrying weapons to pursue them. There were only seven people in his household, indoors and out.

After carefully questioning them, Prefect Han Ji found the matter puzzling. He asked what deity Zhu Shoucheng worshipped at home, who had secretly come to his aid and prompted a woman to expose the thieves, leading to their capture. Zhu replied that his family worshipped only a shrine to the Perfected Lord Zhenwu, a revered Daoist deity, and that his family had maintained its incense offerings for three generations. Han Ji ordered the deity’s image to be brought in and viewed it with the other officials. The image showed sixteen Direct-Command Divine Generals, armored guardian spirits who carry out the deity’s commands, armed and bearing weapons, as well as a woman. It was said that the woman had originally been a devotee of this very image.

Han Ji understood the cause of the events. He sentenced Huang Gousan and the others, recorded the affair in detail, and submitted it to the court. After reviewing the report, the Central Secretariat concluded that Zhu Shoucheng was merely a villager, yet his sincere worship of the divine had brought him protection: he remained safe and suffered no robbery. The state’s religious devotion and ritual teachings extended throughout the realm. Having thieves exposed and captured in this way, sparing the authorities the effort of searching for them, was a service that protected the state. The court should therefore send an envoy to have the Zhenwu temples and shrines in Yingzhou perform a Zhaijiao purification ritual, with the recitation of scriptures and prayers, in gratitude.

In Zizhou, there was a medium named Lu Qian. For three generations, his family had served the gods, and at home they maintained an altar to the Perfected Lord Zhenwu, a revered Daoist deity also known as the Supreme Emperor of the Dark Heaven. Lu Qian regularly divined for people and interpreted their lots. He could describe in detail why each visitor had come, and his predictions often came true.

Three men in the prefecture were wealthy pawnbrokers: Feng Chongda, Gao Shaolang, and You Xing’er. They made a show of traveling on business, but secretly joined together to commit robberies. They had never been exposed, and no one knew what they were doing.

One day, Feng Chongda brought incense, candles, and paper offerings to Lu Qian’s home. He prayed to the Perfected Lord Zhenwu and drew a lot, but refused to say what he was seeking. After two days had passed, he came again on the third. When Lu Qian pressed him about his purpose, Feng Chongda grew angry, kicked over the incense table, smashed the offerings, and left.

Later, the three men went away again and did not return for half a year. By then, several officers had arrived from Kuizhou. Though they had never met Lu Qian, they said they had seen him in Kuizhou. They claimed that he had reported Feng Chongda, Gao Shaolang, and You Xing’er of Zizhou for robbing people. Since they had been unable to find Lu Qian in Kuizhou, the authorities had sent them to learn where the three men lived so they could arrest them.

Lu Qian replied, “I serve only Zhenwu and divine for people at home. When have I ever been to Kuizhou to accuse anyone? Besides, Feng Chongda and the others are all wealthy men. How could they be thieves?” The officers then returned to their lodgings for the time being.

The next morning, when the officers came to see Lu Qian again, the man before them was still Lu Qian. He led them to the front of Longxing Temple. On the way, they happened to see Feng Chongda and the other two examining a horse’s hooves there. Lu Qian grabbed hold of them and signaled to the officers to arrest them. The officers immediately sent two men to check Lu Qian’s home. They found him still asleep there, not yet risen.

The officers took the three men to Kuizhou for questioning. Within ten days, they also uncovered another case reported by Lu Qian of Zizhou: a notice offered a reward for capturing the tribal leader Guo Jiaoshou, who had killed someone in Fuzhou, and the informant had identified Feng Chongda and the others. But when the authorities summoned Lu Qian, he suddenly disappeared again. Under questioning, Feng Chongda and the others confessed to each of the crimes they had committed. By law, they were to be executed by dismemberment.

After the cases were closed, the authorities tallied the rewards offered across the various jurisdictions. The total came to two thousand strings of cash. As the informant, Lu Qian was entitled by regulation to seven tenths of the reward. The authorities therefore sent an order to Zizhou and dispatched someone to bring him to collect it. Yet Lu Qian had never left his home, and knew nothing about why Feng Chongda and the others had carried out the robberies. Nor had he taken part when the officers first came to question him.

Zhang Shiming, the prefect of Kuizhou, considered the matter and concluded that perhaps Lu Qian had become a person through whom the gods responded, because he himself or his family had accumulated good deeds and Virtue. The numinous Zhenwu had manifested in multiple forms to help the authorities capture criminals and protect the people. Zhang therefore intended to hand the reward to Lu Qian and report the matter truthfully to the court.

Later, the court confirmed that the entire reward should be given to Lu Qian, and ordered that he also receive rice, wine, silk, and other goods. After collecting the money and goods, Lu Qian donated them all to the Yuansheng Abbey in his prefecture, to build a Hall of the Four Northern Sages in gratitude for the gods’ favor. Lu Qian lived to the age of ninety-nine and died peacefully, without illness.

The court sent Xie Rouli, East Upper Pavilion Gate Commissioner, Defense Commissioner of Meizhou, and newly appointed Military Inspector of Jingzhao Prefecture, on a mission to the Western Regions. During the Tianxi era, he encountered the Perfected Lord Zhenwu, the Daoist deity revered as the guardian of the north, crossing the Yellow River through the air. The Perfected Lord told him that when the Western Tibetan envoy Li Ximeng entered the country, he must take special care to capture anyone skilled in painting, for that person was a spy. Acting on these instructions, Xie investigated and indeed apprehended a group in the Eastern Capital. They were carrying a portrait they had painted of the empress at Cixiao Temple. The Western Tibetan envoy’s crime was exposed; he was soon handed over to the Court of Judicial Review, which handled legal cases, and punished according to his offense. The court rewarded Xie Rouli and promoted him. In gratitude, he set up an incense altar at home for Zhenwu and worshipped him facing north in the open air every night at the second watch. He prepared incense each evening and continued the practice for nearly a year.

Later, the court issued another decree appointing Xie Rouli deputy envoy for the return mission to Jiaozhi, accompanying Yan Subo, Vice Minister of Personnel. Before setting out, he continued to maintain the incense altar at home and worship facing north every night. On the journey, at a place called Bailin Mountain, they encountered more than forty pirate ships at noon. The pirates shouted and brandished spears and crossbows, intent on seizing their goods. Since the escort had not prepared its weapons, Xie Rouli stood by the water, made a libation, burned paper offerings, and cast paper money into the air, weeping as he prayed for Zhenwu’s divine aid.

The pirate leader, who called himself Scholar Chen Guang, was raising his spear to kill Xie Rouli when an arrow suddenly struck him in the chest. He fell into the sea. The others dragged him aboard with a hook, cut off his head, and hung it from the mast as a warning. More than five hundred pirates gathered around in their ships, furious and intent on taking revenge. Their vessels strained forward, but a headwind met them and blew them back. The standoff lasted three days and three nights, until Jiaozhi came into view in the distance. When the fleet reached the territory of Nuxian City, people came out to greet them, and the pirates dispersed. Yan Su, Xie Rouli, and the others all believed that Zhenwu’s protection had enabled them to return safely.

They reported this miraculous episode to the court. The emperor issued a special decree for a grand Yellow Register Offering, a large Daoist Zhaijiao ritual for blessings and thanksgiving, to be held at Wangjin Garden for seven days and nights. After the ritual concluded, attendants were sent to various famous mountains and grotto-heavens to establish altars once more and cast dragon documents, written petitions used to make offerings to the gods, into the waters, respectfully giving thanks for Zhenwu’s grace.

After the matter was settled, these accounts of divine efficacy were submitted to the emperor. The emperor issued a special edict establishing a Huanglu Great Offering rite at Wangjin Garden, a Daoist Zhaijiao ritual for praying for blessings and giving thanks. It was held for seven days and nights. When the rite was over, he sent attendants to the famous mountains and grotto-heavens to establish more ritual sites and cast dragon slips—inscribed tablets bearing prayers—offering sincere thanks for the gods’ kindness.

Captured After Raiding the Monastery

At Mount Xin in Dengzhou stood the Baiyun Ziqing Chan Monastery. Xiaochu, the monastery’s vinaya monk, who was responsible for its affairs, not only followed Buddhism but also took an interest in Daoism. He often worshipped Zhenwu, the Daoist deity known as the Supreme Emperor of the Dark Heavens, in a quiet place, with devotion and diligence.

The monastery lay near the islands. At the time, Zhou Ying and more than a hundred other men from Shaowu Commandery were raiding at sea, killing people and setting fires. The prefectural and county authorities offered a reward for their capture, but as time passed their band grew larger and harder to suppress.

One day, Zhou Ying and his men planned to break into the monastery and plunder it. That night, Xiaochu dreamed that the local earth god who guarded the monastery gate came to warn him of impending danger. Zhenwu had already ordered a black wind to blow against the ships sailing against him, so the bandits would not be able to reach the monastery for some time. The earth god urged Xiaochu to report the matter to the authorities at once and not delay. Xiaochu sent someone to notify the patrol officer that very night. Soldiers arrived at the monastery soon afterward and hid in separate positions.

The next day, Zhou Ying and several hundred men did indeed charge into the monastery with spears and clubs, saying they only wanted to stay for one night. The monastery’s steward came out to welcome them, and they all went together to the Dharma Hall for tea. Just as the monastery gate was about to close, Xiaochu begged them to postpone their robbery and promised to give them money and goods when they left at dawn. Zhou Ying replied, “Why wait until dawn? Bring everything out now!” At that moment, he suddenly cried out in terror that golden flowers were flashing before his eyes, his head felt as if it were on fire, and he could no longer move his limbs.

Then Qiu Gao, the patrol officer of Mount Xin in the western district, led his troops in a charge. They captured Zhou Ying and all his men; not one escaped. The captives were taken to Dengzhou and imprisoned.

After the prefecture reported the matter, the court dealt with it. By regulation, seven tenths of the reward money was to go to Xiaochu, and three tenths to the patrol officer and soldiers. But Xiaochu submitted a petition, saying that the capture of the sea raiders was not the monastery’s achievement. Zhenwu had manifested his power and made the bandits’ hands and feet stop obeying them, allowing the soldiers to seize them. He asked the court to repay Zhenwu.

After the prefecture submitted the matter to the court, the emperor issued an edict: although Baiyun Ziqing Chan Monastery on Mount Xin was a Buddhist monastery, it was to receive a special shrine to Zhenwu and one imperial copy of the Scripture of the Most High on Perfected Warrior, to be venerated there in perpetuity. Xiaochu was also granted a purple robe and the title “Master of True Response.” He was ordered to burn incense and cultivate the Dao in the shrine and to safeguard the imperial scripture. The monastery was given seven tenths of the reward money to build an additional hall.

In Anfeng County, Shouzhou, there lived a man named Wang Wenqing. His daughter’s childhood name was Zhaodi. From the age of thirteen, Zhaodi stopped eating fish, meat, and other foods from living creatures, and she would not kill any living thing. She was devoted to Daoist teachings. One day, a Daoist nun who traveled from place to place seeking alms visited her and urged her to honor the True Lord Zhenwu, the Responsive and Efficacious Sovereign of the Northern Pole (also known as the Great Emperor Zhenwu). Zhaodi said that her family was poor and could not afford an image of the deity. She asked only for a copy of the Zhenwu Jing. She read it day and night, kept it tucked against her breast wherever she went or rested, and each day gazed toward the deity in her mind, burning incense and reciting the scripture.

By the time Zhaodi was twenty, she was beautiful, intelligent, and graceful. A wealthy family sought her as a bride, and she agreed to the match, yet she continued to recite prayers to her original teacher, Zhenwu. One day, she heard her father, uncles, and brothers gathered together, sighing. The previous year’s drought had left villages short of grain. Now the crops urgently needed rain, but no nourishing showers had fallen, and the people were about to lose hope again. Though there was a Dragon Pool at Zhenfu Cliff in the village, officials had already drawn water from it and prayed for rain, without result.

After hearing this, Zhaodi went out into the open and cut off her hair. She vowed that on the fifteenth day of the seventh month she would burn herself, praying for rain and a good harvest in all the drought-stricken lands. Her relatives tried to dissuade her, but she would not change her mind. She built a wood shelter in front of her home. When people from far and wide heard of this, they flocked to watch, filled with admiration. Zhaodi’s expression and appearance remained as calm as ever. She bade farewell to her parents and the crowd, then left them this verse, expressing insight from her practice:

“On coming, I sought deliverance; in departing, I follow the old road.

The flowers of spring are bright, yet bloom and fade without permanence.”

When she had spoken, she smiled and walked into the flames. As the fire reached the center of the wood shelter, a beam of blue light shot straight up to Heaven’s Gate. After a long while, torrential rain fell. Yet the flames burned more fiercely, as though oil and wax had been poured on them. When the rain stopped, the wood had burned away, and another heavy rain fell. In the space of two days and one night, the rivers, canals, and fields all received abundant rain.

When the sky cleared, the Wang family and the villagers came to gather Zhaodi’s ashes, but they could not find even a speck. In the wood ash, they found only a sash with two bands tied to it in a neat knot. The copy of the Zhenwu Jing that Zhaodi had honored during her life was also untouched. People then understood that her body had been consumed by the fire, leaving only the scripture and her clothing as proof of her sincerity.

Because the rain had brought relief to the area and revealed the deity’s efficacy, officials from the prefecture and county summoned Wang Wenqing. They examined the Zhenwu Jing, which had survived the fire unharmed, and reported the facts as they were. Later, the central government’s Secretariat issued an order to verify that nourishing rain had fallen across all drought-stricken regions of the realm between the fifteenth and sixteenth days of the seventh month. It also asked where in Shouzhou the blue light had shot into the sky and what auspicious event had caused it. After the prefectural government submitted its report, the Secretariat decided to allocate public funds to build a small pavilion at the Tianqing Temple to house Wang Zhaodi’s belongings and the Zhenwu Jing. They were to be placed in a decorated case and honored there in perpetuity. A stele was also erected to record the events, and Wang Zhaodi was granted the title “Holy Lady Who Brings Abundant Blessings.” A shrine was established for her, where incense would be offered.

In Guozhou there was a blind man named Chen Xi. On Shaoguang Mountain, he encountered Zhenwu (the Daoist deity also known as the Great Emperor Zhenwu), who transmitted a method to him. From then on, Chen Xi devoted himself each day to honoring Zhenwu. Later, when he spoke, it was as if a spirit had possessed him and was speaking through him. When he prayed for blessings on behalf of others or helped them resolve their affairs, his words always matched what they had in mind. News of this spread far and wide. He kept little of the gifts people sent him, using most of them instead to accumulate merit.

During the Xianping era, as summer drew to a close and autumn approached, prolonged rain damaged the crops. Prayers and rites to avert disaster performed by the prefectural and county officials brought no response. People recommended Chen Xi, saying that since he worshipped Zhenwu, his prayers might be effective. Huang Fang, the prefect, summoned him to the prefectural office. Chen Xi told Huang Fang that Huang himself would need to write the prayer text and bring the image of Zhenwu enshrined at Chen Xi’s home to the office. They should then select seven Daoist priests to establish a purified ritual site for prayers and rites, forbid the slaughter of animals, reduce punishments, and have the people come each day to burn incense and pray for clear skies.

After the ritual site had been active for three days, Chen Xi appeared to be possessed and conveyed the deity’s message before the prefect and other officials. He said, “Zhenwu has revealed: according to the registers of the Celestial Bureaucracy, Guozhou was scheduled to receive sixty days of rain. As a result, the crops have been reduced, and the harvest will be less than one-tenth of the usual amount. More than twenty days of rain are still due. Now that clear skies have been requested, by order of the Celestial Emperor, the remaining scheduled days of rain are canceled. Beginning tomorrow at the hour of the Snake, the rain will gradually cease, starting in the due north. By noon, the sky will clear, and the crops will grow luxuriantly and surely ripen for harvest.”

Chen Xi then returned to his senses, but could not remember what he had said while the spirit was present. The next morning, torrential rain fell as predicted. By the hour of the Snake, the sky had cleared, and the clouds and mist to the north quickly dispersed. The prefecture kept the image of Zhenwu at its office and continued the ritual for three more days. They prepared incense, flowers, and ceremonial banners, then escorted the image back to Chen Xi’s home. Afterward, they held a ritual in the main hall of the prefectural office to give thanks.

That winter, none of Guozhou’s five counties submitted a report of farmland taxes on crops that needed to be remitted. The Circuit Fiscal Commissioner’s Office, responsible for the circuit’s finances and oversight, later asked why and reported the matter to the court. The court then ordered Guozhou to create a record and preserve it permanently in the main hall of the prefectural office as proof. In addition to wine, silver, and silk bestowed by the prefecture, Chen Xi was specially granted the title “Recluse of Quiet Response.”

During Sun Yin’s tenure as magistrate of E County, he handled official business diligently and did much to aid the people and relieve them of hardship and disaster.

In a memorial, Yang Hu, prefect of Jiazhou, reported: “An inquiry found that locusts in the countryside had damaged the early rice. Although migratory locusts also appeared in Emei County, they did not harm the rice ears. It is said that Sun Yin distributed charm water to the villagers and told them to carry willow branches to every village and sprinkle the water to drive the locusts away. The locusts then all turned into flying ants, fell into the water, and disappeared. As a result, the autumn harvest suffered no loss at all.”

Tigers and wolves in the Emei Mountain area injured people year after year. Sun Yin wrote a yellow-paper talisman document—a charm or written instrument inscribed on yellow paper—and delivered it to the various divine offices in charge of the mountain’s spirits. Afterward, the tigers and wolves no longer appeared.

An inquiry also found that Tao Fen, the regional transport commissioner responsible for the area’s finances and transport, once fell ill by chance. Sun Yin mixed medicine into date soup and gave it to him, and he recovered. When Dou, the daughter-in-law of Prefect Yang Hu, faced a dangerous labor, Sun Yin gave her a talisman written in cinnabar. She burned it to ash, mixed the ash with water, and drank it; she then gave birth safely.

When Sun Yin’s term ended, the people of the prefecture wept and asked that he remain in office. The court summoned him and asked what arts he had used to accomplish these extraordinary feats. Sun Yin replied: “My late father, the eunuch Sun Zongdao, once accompanied Emperor Taizong on a campaign in Hedong. While staying overnight at Jinbing River, he encountered the Perfected Lord Zhenwu, a northern deity revered in Daoism, and received instruction in nine rites involving talismans and charm water. My father never used these arts, but I was fortunate to receive them from him. I have always venerated Zhenwu and vowed to save people with talismans and charm water. These deeds were all made possible by Zhenwu’s aid; they were not my own abilities.”

Yang Hu submitted a detailed report, and regional transport commissioner Tao Fen later sent a memorial to the court as well. After reviewing the case, the court concluded that driving away locusts and subduing tigers and leopards were manifestations of the protection afforded by efficacious spiritual arts and deserved recognition. Sun Yin had originally received his post through family privilege rather than by passing the formal examinations, so the court specially appointed him Assistant Director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and allowed him to serve another term in Emei County.

Jiazhou also had a Zhenwu Temple of Compassionate Aid, said to have been established by Prefect Yang Hu, regional transport commissioner Tao Fen, and local merchants in gratitude for Zhenwu’s beneficence.

During the Baoyuan era, Lin Shouqing, a resident of Fuzhou, went to sea to trade. Once, his ship was caught in a storm at the entrance to Zhangzhou Harbor and seemed about to sink. Suddenly, a divine being appeared above the bow and said to him, “Shouqing, from now on, do not go to sea to trade again. This time I have saved everyone aboard your ship. In the future, go to Tianqing Temple on Min Mountain and look for Daoist Ren in the south corridor.” After speaking, the divine being turned into a streak of white light and vanished. The storm immediately subsided, and the ship steadied. Lin Shouqing then returned to Fuzhou.

He went to the south corridor of Tianqing Temple on Min Mountain to ask around, but there was no Daoist Ren there. An elderly Daoist told him, “‘Ren’ is made up of the character for ‘person’ and the character for ‘king.’ The south corridor enshrines the Perfected Lord Zhenwu, a revered Daoist deity. In the past, this was the Hall of the Human King Who Protects the State.” Only then did Lin Shouqing understand whom the divine being had meant. He went into the hall and bowed in thanks.

He then found fine agarwood and carved and adorned a statue of Zhenwu, which he enshrined for the rest of his life. When the craftsmen took out a piece of agarwood about one chi and three cun square and were about to strike it with an axe and chisel, several auspicious rays suddenly shone from the wood. Their light gradually grew brighter and did not fade. After Lin Shouqing completed the statue, he arranged to donate more than ten thousand strings of cash to hold purification rites throughout the prefecture and at the temples and monasteries on Min Mountain. He also funded the restoration of Tianqing Temple and the Hall of Zhenwu, the Human King Who Protects the State. The statue was enshrined in the hall, and rites of celebration and repentance were held. He also forbade his descendants from going to sea to trade.

That year, Fuzhou suffered a severe drought in spring and summer, and swarms of locusts arrived, damaging the crops. People prayed everywhere, but to no avail; by the seventh or eighth month, the locust plague had still not stopped. The prefectural authorities heard that prayers to the statue of Zhenwu enshrined in Lin Shouqing’s home were answered. They led their officials in bringing the statue to the prefectural government hall and, for three days, performed Daoist rites three times each day, praying with deep sincerity. After three days, the locusts died of their own accord, clinging to branches. People from the surrounding countryside broke off branches with locusts still attached and brought them in as proof. Soon, steady rain began to fall. By the winter harvest, half the crops damaged by the disaster had been saved.

The prefectural authorities gave thanks to Zhenwu with a grand jiao rite, a Daoist sacrificial ceremony. Then, following the same ceremonial protocol used to bring it in, they returned the statue to Lin Shouqing’s home for worship. The prefect Chen Ciqin reported to the court how Lin Shouqing had been rescued from danger at sea, how red light had appeared while the statue was being carved, and how prayers for rain and the destruction of the locusts had brought relief to the people. The court then ordered the prefecture to purchase Lin Shouqing’s statue of Zhenwu at its assessed value and send it to the capital.

Lin Shouqing accordingly presented the statue to the court. Upon examining it, the court found that it had been carved from agarwood with exquisite craftsmanship, and that it had shone with auspicious light and brought blessings. Considering it a remarkable object, the court, by imperial decree, placed it in the inner palace for worship as a precious treasure that safeguarded the state. Lin Shouqing was granted the title “Acting Service in the Three Bureaus,” a low-ranking military appointment. He later rose to the post of Right Palace Attendant and died peacefully, without illness, at the age of ninety-six.

In the second year of the Xianping era, the Directorate of Astronomy reported that on the third day of the ninth month, Mars would align with the Lou lunar lodge and shine directly over the Zhengzhou area of the state of Qi, foretelling a devastating fire. The court ordered Zhengzhou to perform a disaster-averting rite and offer thanks to the gods in advance. Zhengzhou was a key site for troop garrisons and transport on the eastern circuit of the capital region, so from the fourth month the authorities had instructed temples and monasteries throughout the area to establish altars, perform Jiao rites, and pray for the disaster to be averted.

At the time, a man named Li Weixin lived in the southern part of the city and earned his living as a broker. Every night at the third watch, he went to burn incense and bow at the junction of a bridge and a road. One night, Inspector Ren Congyuan was out on patrol and arrested him for being abroad after curfew, then escorted him to Lizhou for questioning. Li Weixin said he was not outside committing any unlawful act; he had been burning incense every night since the seventh day of the first month because of something that had happened.

Asked to explain, Li Weixin said that he had once vowed to set aside the money he earned as a broker over the course of a year to hold a Jiao rite before the celestial authorities, giving thanks for the source of his food and clothing, and to provide a vegetarian meal for the assembly. At that time, a wandering Daoist came to ask for a meal. His clothes and hat were disheveled, but his bearing was unworldly. He carried a scroll showing an image of Zhenwu painted on silk. Li Weixin wished to offer the image for worship, and the Daoist agreed, asking only for two strings of cash. He then stayed for the vegetarian meal. Halfway through, a gust of wind suddenly sounded, and the Daoist vanished, leaving on the table a living turtle no bigger than a peach pit. Li Weixin knew that a holy perfected being had manifested, and that Zhenwu had bestowed an object for incense offerings. He carefully kept and cared for the little turtle.

On the night of the seventh day of the first month that year, Li Weixin prepared sacrificial paper and burned it as an offering to Zhenwu. The Daoist who had left the little turtle with him years earlier, when selling the image, appeared again. Li Weixin bowed and tried to ask his name, but the Daoist would not answer. He said only that he was well versed in calendrical calculations and the stars. When Mars in the Upper Realm shone upon Zhengzhou on the third day of the ninth month, he said, a fire would break out there and burn down ten thousand households. He told Li Weixin to find a household surnamed Wan. Regardless of the size of its house, none of its belongings should be moved; instead, every item should first be recorded in a register. At dawn on the third day of the ninth month, a man was to wear his hair in a child’s double-bun style, put on a certain ritual robe, and carry a torch around the house three times from the south. He was then to set the house alight with the torch. After this, there would be no further fires. Once the disaster had passed, everyone should rebuild the house and return the belongings, compensating the Wan household in this way so that the calamity could be dispelled. With that, the Daoist transformed into a streak of white light and departed.

Although Li Weixin had received a warning through the manifestation of a holy perfected being, he did not dare report it to the authorities. Instead, at night he went to the city’s main thoroughfares to bow to Mars and pray for the disaster to be averted, carrying his portable incense burner as proof. The prefectural authorities examined his testimony and found that it matched the court’s recently issued order. They sent people to locate households surnamed Wan, record their property and belongings, and order the residents to submit written statements for the record after the fire had passed. They then released Li Weixin to return home and burn incense in prayer.

When the foretold day arrived, the people had a boy put on a ritual robe and set fire to the house of Wan Ming, near Fuchiao in the western part of the city. A south wind drove the flames fiercely, and the fire spread in both directions. As the people watched in terror, a sudden downpour fell from the clear sky and extinguished the flames. Before long, the fire had passed without burning down the Wan household. The little turtle beneath the image of Zhenwu enshrined in Li Weixin’s home had also disappeared. People believed it had departed with the wind and rain. The Zhengzhou authorities reported the matter, describing the manifestation as effective and miraculous.

Later, the Secretariat received another report from the Directorate of Astronomy confirming that the Star Lord of Fire Virtue had arrived over Zhengzhou on the third day of the ninth month and was due to cause a fire at the hour of Yin, burning down ten thousand households. An inquiry by the authorities found that the fire had caused no damage to government stores or weapons. Wu Mingu, Vice Minister of War and Assistant Councillor of State, was then in charge of Zhengzhou’s administration. After examining the documents, he submitted a report to the court. The court ordered that Li Weixin be awarded one hundred bottles of ritual wine, one hundred bolts of silk, ten shi of rice, ten shi of wheat, and one hundred strings of cash, to be provided by Zhengzhou’s public treasury. Wan Ming, who had willingly offered his family’s house to bear the fire and avert the disaster at the appointed time, was also to be rewarded with wine, grain, and other customary gifts. The house was to be rebuilt and the belongings restored as soon as possible.

The court regarded this as a manifest sign that Zhenwu and the exalted Star Lord of Fire Virtue in the south had mercifully rescued the state and its prefectures. It therefore established an altar in Yuquan Garden in the capital, performed a Jiao rite for seven days and nights, and set out 1,200 offering positions to give thanks.

The Correspondence with Jidu

On the night of the first day of the eighth month in the third year of the Songhe era, a yellow glow appeared in the southern sky. It did not disappear until three days later. Xia Xun, an Attendant Gentleman at the Directorate of Astronomy, and his colleagues submitted a report stating that they had observed the yellow glow in the due south, within the celestial region assigned to the state of Hao. It had several names: “the Yellow Way at the Gate of Heaven,” “Tu’yang,” and “Jidu.” It had appeared near the Gate of Heaven in the Palace of Mójié.

The report held that the appearance of the Yellow Way foretold internal unrest in the state in the coming year, with disaster falling upon a woman. “Tu’yang” symbolized a tomb, while Jidu was one of the stars in the Bridge of the Nine Heavens. Its appearance at an inauspicious time of year foretold that, after winter, soldiers and civilians in one region would fall ill, with deaths possibly reaching forty percent. Yet Jidu’s passage through the Palace of Mójié and its violation of Kang, one of the seven lodges of the Azure Dragon in the east, were also taken to mean that this celestial star could avert disaster and bestow blessings. The report therefore asked the court to hold a ritual to ward off calamity as soon as possible.

After deliberation, the court concluded that the disaster had not yet occurred and should be guarded against in advance. It selected Yujin Garden as the site for a month-long inner Daoist altar, a prayer ritual conducted within the palace. It also dispatched envoys to offer imperial incense and cast inscribed dragon slips bearing prayers into famous mountains and great rivers, where Daoist ritual offerings would be performed for seven days and nights. The court further issued an amnesty, reducing sentences and releasing prisoners.

In addition, a Yellow Register Daoist altar, a type of Daoist purification ritual, was established at Xisheng Hall in the palace for forty-nine days and nights. The emperor went there personally each day to pray and make offerings to the Star Lord Jidu, the eastern lodge Kang, and the household’s True Warrior spirit of blessing, asking for peace and the warding off of disaster. As the ritual drew to a close, the court issued another amnesty, reducing sentences and releasing prisoners.

At noon one day, a sudden gale swept up, filling the sky with yellow sand and obscuring all visibility. A deity in golden armor appeared in the air and stood in the courtyard. He introduced himself as General Ge, guardian of the Western Gate of Heaven, who, together with the True Warrior Emperor of the North, governed the human world and reported its good and evil deeds. He said that he had recently seen the Yellow Way appear at the southern Gate of Heaven, caused by the Star Lord Jidu’s circuit through the Nine Heavens. Jidu completes one great circuit every seven hundred and twenty years. It had now reached the time of that circuit and clashed with Tu’yang in the central region, producing the yellow glow that lasted three days. It then entangled and violated the lodge Kang before withdrawing in the direction of Mójié. This foretold internal unrest among humankind: disaster would arise near a female ruler born in the Year of the Pig. Within six months, forty percent of the soldiers and civilians in Jinghu, Jiangzhe, Fujian, Guangnan, Huaihan, and other regions would die of illness, and graves would line the roads.

General Ge continued: although the disaster had not yet arrived, the emperor’s Virtue had already moved Heaven to respond. The rituals of establishing an altar and casting dragon slips were still not enough to dispel the calamity completely. Only an amnesty and the release of prisoners, together with the accumulation of good deeds to move the heavens, could bring deliverance. The True Warrior Emperor therefore petitioned the North Pole on the emperor’s behalf, and the North Pole in turn reported to the Jade Emperor. By imperial command, the Celestial Emperor made a personal inquiry. The Star Lord Jidu had already warded off the disaster for the emperor and determined the lifespan of one person: a twenty-nine-year-old woman born in the Year of the Pig, who would die in the first ten days of the first month of the new year. She should be buried twenty-seven li due south, directly beneath the Yellow Way, so that her tomb could bear the force of this internal calamity and thereby save forty percent of the soldiers and civilians in the southern provinces. When the time came, no funeral mourning should be held for her, since her lifespan had already been destined to end in this way. Having finished speaking, General Ge returned to the Gate of Heaven.

On the third day of the first month of the following year, Consort Zhang died. She was twenty-nine years old, born at the hour of the Pig on the nineteenth day of the first month, and her natal destiny belonged to the Pig. The court chose an auspicious day for her burial and built her tomb twenty-seven li to the south, beneath the Yellow Way. No disaster occurred thereafter. The chronicler wrote that this fulfillment also depended on the True Warrior Emperor’s descent in spirit to protect the realm. To give thanks for the gods’ favor and for the visit of General Ge of the Western Gate of Heaven and the other deities who had brought the warning, the court ordered officials to notify the capital’s palaces and temples. Each was to hold a three-day and three-night Great Ritual of the Heavenly Net, an immense Daoist offering ceremony, in gratitude for divine grace.

During the Jianlong era, for two consecutive years after military garrisons were established in the two circuits of Hebei, drought struck. The rice, millet, wheat, and beans all failed completely. Soldiers and civilians went hungry and were also afflicted by epidemics. Many people were displaced, and some died.

In early July that year, the garrison troops at the four gates of Cizhou reported in succession that caravans had arrived, carrying millet and wheat in mat-wrapped bundles on carts and camels and horses. The goods were said to be intended for safekeeping in the government granaries. The prefect sent officials to meet them at each gate. Later, the supervising commissioner Zhang Jing and others submitted an official report stating that two thousand mat-wrapped bundles of millet and wheat had been found at the four gates, but no owners could be identified.

Residents near the gates said they had seen people enter through the west gate, unload the bundles, and stack them neatly before leading their carts and horses through the right-hand gate of Chongming Abbey, a Daoist temple. No one knew where the goods at the other three gates had come from or where they had gone. People had only noticed yellow paper horses tied around the corners of the bundles. They concluded that the goods must be wheat, but could never find their owners.

The Cizhou prefect Chen Yong, the assistant prefect Mo Qianzhi, and others went to Chongming Abbey, outside the west gate, and questioned the Daoist priests about the merchants’ names. The priests replied that the abbey’s main gate was in disrepair and that carts and horses had never entered the grounds. Chen Yong and the others then asked when the abbey had been built and how many halls it had. The priests said it had been founded before the Tang dynasty. According to legend, the celestial immortal Lord Gan Zhenjun had once been banished from the heavenly court to the human world. He instructed the Daoist priest Qingti and cultivated the Dao here. Later, Lord Gan ascended to heaven by day, and Qingti also vanished; only then was the abbey granted its name.

The abbey had originally contained four halls: the Hall of the Three Pure Ones (Sanqing), the Hall of the Seven Stars of the North Pole, the Hall of Lord Gan Zhenjun, and the Hall of the Miraculous Response of Zhenwu. Apart from the Zhenwu Hall, which soldiers and civilians regularly supported with donations and repairs on the day of Zhenwu’s descent, the other halls had all fallen into ruin.

Chen Yong and the others ordered soldiers to move the bundles and store them in the prefectural granaries. The millet and wheat found at the four gates amounted to ten thousand hu. The people of Cizhou were in urgent need of relief grain. They had not expected to receive so much, and it seemed to have fallen from the sky. Yet the officials did not dare dispose of it on their own, so they reported the matter to the court’s Secretariat-Chancellery.

Afterward, more than twenty prefectures in Hebei, including Zhen and Ding, also reported that millet and wheat had appeared within their borders, in circumstances like those in Cizhou. They said, however, that the grain had originally been transported from Cizhou for sale. The grain reported across the prefectures totaled more than one hundred and fifty thousand shi. The court ordered each prefecture to sell it promptly at a low price to provide relief to the people.

The court also examined the cash and paper horses reported alongside the grain and determined that they were plainly objects burned by the people as offerings. The paper horses made it clear that these were gifts manifested and bestowed when Zhenwu descended. The court therefore sent imperial medicines, incense, and a prayer tablet bearing the text to be read at the rite to Cizhou. The responsible officials were ordered to perform a Zhaijiao purification and blessing ritual at Chongming Abbey.

The court also built a hall in the inner palace to house an imperial portrait of Zhenwu in gratitude for the deity’s favor. It ordered the Hebei Transport Commission to use the proceeds from selling the grain that had descended to rebuild Zhenwu temples and abbeys in the prefectures and military districts of Hebei. Chongming Abbey was renamed the Abbey of the Sacred Aid that Protects the State, and the Zhenwu Hall was specially named “Miraculous Response.” The court bestowed a gold-lettered plaque written in the imperial hand. The newly built palace hall housing the imperial portrait of Zhenwu also received the plaque “Hall of the Mysterious Capital that Guards the North,” as a sign of the emperor’s favor.

The Upper Clarity Purple Pole Abbey on Zitong Mountain in Zizhou was where the Perfected Ye Hua of the Western Jin cultivated the Dao. Legend says that the Perfected Ye Hua once met the Most High Lord Lao there and received his teachings. The crown prince of the King of Jingyue, Master Golden Portal, also completed his cultivation of the Great Dao there. Master Golden Portal was the figure later known as Zhenwu. The abbey contains a Hall of the Purple Tenuity of the North Pole. It is said that before ascending to heaven, the Perfected Ye Hua personally built it for Zhenwu. The imperial court also bestowed a hall name and an inscribed plaque in the emperor’s own hand, along with the plaque “Hall of the Mysterious Capital, Guardian of the Northern Realm,” to mark the emperor’s favor.

In the first year of the Huangyou era, famine and plague struck Zizhou, and seven or eight out of every ten people died or were injured. Suddenly, an old villager appeared, selling steamed buns from a handcart. The residents rushed to buy them. Anyone who ate one would feel no hunger for the rest of the day. The old man sold them for more than a month. People saw him enter through Liangyuan Gate and leave by the same route.

At the time, Zhang Sheng, Vice Minister of Personnel and governor of Zizhou, secretly sent people to investigate where the old man came and went. They reported that a natural passage of black mist had appeared near the Purple Pole Abbey on Zitong Mountain. The next day, the old man did not appear again. But a rumor spread that in the fields between Liangyuan Gate and the Purple Pole Abbey, a distance of about fifteen li, steamed buns had sprung up everywhere. The starving people throughout the prefecture dug them up and ate them, surviving on them for more than sixty days, until the new harvest of grain, millet, and beans became available. After that, the buns in the fields suddenly disappeared, leaving not even a single stalk behind.

Zhang Sheng then prepared incense and gifts and made a special visit to the Purple Pole Abbey to pay his respects. Entering the side chamber to the right of the Hall of Purple Tenuity, he saw many blades of grass scattered beside Zhenwu’s hall. He ordered an attendant to take some from beside the divine seat for inspection and found that they were all seedlings of the bun plant. When he had someone fetch more, the grass turned into paper ash and scattered in the wind; only the first two seedlings, roots and all, remained. Zhang Sheng sealed them in an incense box, wrote a detailed account of what had happened, and sent it to the capital as a memorial.

The Secretariat replied that the offering of “the miraculous buns by which Zhenwu saved the people” had, by imperial decree, been bestowed upon the Abbey of the Four Sages. The court ordered the Daoist clergy to gather at important sites in Zizhou’s market streets and hold a seven-day-and-night Great Jiao Offering to the Celestial Bureaucracy, a grand Zhaijiao ritual for the gods of the Celestial Bureaucracy, with communal vegetarian meals provided throughout. It also ordered a separate Jiao offering at Zhenwu’s hall in the Purple Pole Abbey and bestowed a hall plaque naming it “Deliverance and Salvation of the People.”

On the fourteenth day of the eighth month in the second year of the Tiansheng era (1024), under Emperor Renzong of the Song, the water barriers at the Huanghe Zhaokou Dam in Daming Prefecture, Beijing, suddenly gave way. Floodwaters tore through the dam before the soldiers and civilians could react. The supervising officer, Hua Dunchen, and others went to inspect the site. In a cave beneath the dam’s foundation, they found a large black-shelled turtle with blood-red eyes. As soon as it surfaced, the river surged and churned, and the ropes securing the dam were swept away. The group reported what had happened to the command office.

Later, Chancellor Han Qi was ordered to guard Beijing, and Zheng Gui, an inspection officer accompanying him, also went to Zhaokou. The giant turtle appeared again and caused trouble. After examining the site, Zheng Gui concluded that it was a water demon. He put on his formal court robes, took his bow and arrows, burned incense, and prayed to the celestial gods. Then he shot the turtle with an arrow. It rolled onto its back and fell beneath the rocks, and the river soon grew calm. The soldiers and laborers repaired the damaged dam.

On the third day of the first month in the third year of the Tiansheng era (1025), Zheng Gui suddenly fell ill and died shortly afterward. Two days later, he returned to life and went to see Han Qi, the military governor. He said that two ghost officers had taken him away, explaining that the King of Yanluo had urgently summoned him because he should not have killed the turtle spirit at the Yellow River’s Zhaokou, which had cultivated its powers for five hundred years. The wronged turtle spirit had lodged a complaint and demanded that Zheng Gui face it in the underworld. After checking the registers of the dead, the ghost officers discovered that Zheng Gui’s allotted lifespan had not yet run out, and continued escorting him on their journey.

As they passed a mountain, Zheng Gui saw a great banner and a large ceremonial procession below. He asked where they were. The ghost officers told him that this was Fenghuailuo Mountain in the lower realm, where perfected beings from the celestial realm often came to investigate and decide matters concerning the Three Realms. Looking into the distance, Zheng Gui saw a deity seated on a rock: Zhenwu, the northern deity venerated in Daoism. Zheng Gui approached and paid his respects. Zhenwu asked how a living person could have come there, and the ghost officers explained what had happened.

Zhenwu said that the King of Yanluo had acted too hastily and had not established the facts. The turtle had originally been the local earth deity of Yuanzhou, in Mengyun City in the Western Fan region. After the army of an earlier dynasty captured Yuanzhou, the City God issued a document sending the turtle to Zhengdu to serve as the earth deity of the Yellow River’s Fourth Zhaosha Waters, under Zhuozhou in the Northern Fan region. No one there offered it sacrifices, so it transformed into a demon turtle and traveled upstream to the Song’s Beijing, reaching the Yellow River’s Seventh Zhaokou. There it overturned the dam, destroyed the embankment, and caused the deaths of about ten thousand soldiers and civilians. The Dao of Heaven would not allow it to continue its evil deeds, so Zheng Gui was right to shoot it.

Zhenwu added that the underworld had taken the case into its own hands and detained Zheng Gui without first verifying the facts against the celestial documents. He ordered a talisman officer to take the small turtle at his feet and return to the underworld with Zheng Gui and the two ghost officers to see the King of Yanluo. If the demon turtle continued to argue, they were to release the small turtle and report the truth to the underworld. Zheng Gui’s allotted lifespan was not yet over. Moreover, his superior, Han Qi, was a perfected immortal of the Purple Palace, appointed to govern Beijing and destined to receive a title in the future. Wrongfully detaining Zheng Gui at this time would obstruct that appointment as well.

After speaking, Zheng Gui took his leave of Zhenwu and went to the underworld with the talisman officer and the ghost officers. They found the giant turtle locked in an iron cage, an arrow embedded in its left side as it groaned and cried out that it had been wronged. The two ghost officers relayed Zhenwu’s command. The King of Yanluo descended from his hall, raised his face to the sky, and bowed. He then ordered the celestial documents to be examined and the turtle spirit’s crimes, as well as whether Zheng Gui had been wronged, to be verified. The judgment was that the turtle spirit deserved punishment: it would fall into rivers and seas and become an obscure water beast that pushed the tides and transported sand, or an invisible hungry ghost.

The demon turtle still demanded a face-to-face hearing with Zheng Gui. The talisman officer took the small turtle from his robe and released a beam of golden light, placing it before the demon turtle. Struck by the light, the demon turtle curled into a ball and could not move. The sacred turtle then struck it apart, and it turned to dust. Zheng Gui thereupon returned to life.

To avoid being honored with the title “Perfected Immortal of the Purple Palace,” Han Qi joined the military commissioner Wang Cong, the assistant prefect Hua Dunchen, and others in submitting a joint memorial to the court as witnesses. The court then ordered a Hall of Zhenwu, Protector of the State, to be built at Duokou on the Yellow River in Beijing. A Daoist purification ritual was held there, and a commemorative stele was erected. Zheng Gui was promoted by one rank, while Han Qi received a plaque bearing the words “Baodeng Hall” and permission to use that title wherever he went.

In the area around Hengshan in Fenzhou, a tiger suddenly appeared during the Jiayou era. It attacked people on the roads morning and evening. Whenever officials and hunters went out to capture or kill it, it became five or six tigers, calling to one another and resisting them. Hengshan also lay on a major route to the capital, so the tiger menace was severe.

Yang Zongdao, magistrate of Sanshui County, was traveling with his family to take up his post. As they passed Hengshan, a tiger carried off one of his daughters. He reported the incident to the prefectural government and the Inspection and Transport Office, an agency responsible for duties such as inspections and transport. The authorities sent local patrol officers and others to guard the area, increased the reward, and recruited hunters to catch the tigers.

At this time, a wandering Daoist who gave his surname as Pei claimed that he could put an end to the tiger menace. The prefectural government followed his instructions. Pei left, and did not return until seven days later. He explained that the tigers were not ordinary beasts. During the Han dynasty, Zhang Yi, a vassal lord of Zhao, and six members of his family had been killed in this mountain by Chu troops. Woodcutters found the bodies but did not recognize them, so they gathered the seven corpses together and buried them in a secluded place behind the Hengshan Temple. No one had ever walked there, and the corpses consequently transformed into spirits. Later, on a Day of Heavenly Pardon—a day on which the Jade Emperor was said to forgive sins—jade dew from the Jasper Pool fell into their bellies. The spirits then transformed into fierce tigers and began feeding on human flesh and blood.

Prefect Li Xiangyun, Deputy Surveillance Commissioner Shao Tang, and Sun Kangying led troops to the slopes and ridges of Hengshan. The Daoist Pei entered the mountain alone. Suddenly the sky darkened, and wind and mist rose all around. The people present seemed to see him appear in the clouds, his hair loose and a precious sword in his hand. He called out for them not to be alarmed: he had already driven out the seven demon tigers.

Li Xiangyun and the others immediately bowed, recognizing him as Zhenwu, the Daoist deity revered as the god of the north. According to tradition, Zhenwu had been born into the family of Attendant Pei during the reign of Empress Wu Zetian in the Tang dynasty, which was why he retained the surname Pei. The seven demon tigers lay on the ground as if bound with ropes. After roaring a few times, they died.

Seven people then appeared in the air and bowed to the officials in thanks. They said that they were members of Zhang Yi’s family from the Han dynasty. After being killed by Chu troops, they had long existed as spirit beasts, harming many people and livestock, and deserved to be destroyed. Now, thanks to Zhenwu’s appeal to Heaven for pardon for the lives they had taken, they had been allowed to leave behind seven tiger skins as gifts of gratitude to the officials. Having received Heaven’s grace, they would present their documents to the Eastern Peak, where their case would be decided and they would be entered into the Dao of Birth, which governs rebirth.

Afterward, the Daoist Pei also vanished into the clouds. The authorities directed the hunters to skin the tigers and deliver the hides to the government, and submitted a report of the incident to the court. After the Secretariat approved it, the court ordered a shrine to Zhenwu built at Hengshan. Three Daoist priests were selected to burn incense and cultivate there, with the prefectural government providing money and grain each month, so that they could protect the area and keep the incense burning without interruption. A stele was erected to record the event.

During Empress Wu Zetian’s reign in the Tang dynasty, He Quanlong, an official responsible for palace affairs and an inspector-general of the Nanan army, trained five hundred young boys to learn the wicked arts of fox maidens. He claimed that the host of the Seven Primordial Spirits had descended from the north into the human world and obeyed his commands. He repeatedly performed magic before the palace, shouting orders for the demon boys to ride the clouds into the sky, bring down rain and hail, and unleash fierce winds. Zetian trusted and favored him. After He Quanlong falsely accused many court officials, they lost their positions and stipends.

At that time, the Western Tibetans rebelled, led by Zhao Hong. As soon as the two armies engaged, clouds rose over Zhao Hong’s forces. Thunder, lightning, and fiery flashes suddenly appeared, along with strange shapes such as dragons and tigers, driving back the Tang army. Officials inside and outside the court petitioned for He Quanlong to lead boys trained in the orthodox methods of the Heavenly Origin household into battle. He was given a military tally and ordered to take two thousand soldiers to the frontier to fight Zhao Hong. The Tang army lost two thousand men, and all five hundred boys who had performed the magic were injured, with their hands and feet maimed. He Quanlong returned to court and pleaded guilty before Zetian, who pardoned him. Later, the frontier again reported an emergency: Zhao Hong’s army was drawing ever closer, leaving Zetian deeply worried.

At this time, Vice Director of the Chancellery Pei Tao submitted a memorial: “Your servant has a son, Zhongfang, who is sixteen years old. Since the age of three, he has been able to compose eloquently on the spot. When he was nine, he met a heavenly spirit at night and learned the arts of archery and horsemanship. Your servant is willing to stake his entire family’s lives on his ability to lead five hundred infantrymen and wipe out Zhao Hong’s demon army.” Zetian summoned Zhongfang and questioned him. She then appointed him a ritual officer in the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and, by also granting him the post of assistant director of the Court of State Finance, authorized him to lead troops into battle.

Zhongfang went straight to Zhao Hong’s camp. With nothing but the light of his sword, he subdued several thousand demon soldiers and captured Zhao Hong from his horse. He killed no one, but brought Zhao Hong back to the capital and reported: “Your servant used a small spell against Zhao Hong’s demon army and captured its leader.”

After dismissing her attendants, Zetian said to Zhongfang, “I take you to be the True Warrior of the North Pole, the protector of the north, manifesting in the mortal world. He Quanlong says he received the orthodox methods of the Seven Primordials. What magic does he actually use?” Zhongfang replied, “He Quanlong trains boys in the wicked arts of fox maidens from the Mysterious Net. He has the boys write forbidden spells in cinnabar on the soles of their feet. This enables them to fly among the clouds and bring down rain and hail. His magic is weaker even than Zhao Hong’s, yet the court’s favor toward him has caused upright officials to be unjustly demoted. If he is not stopped, this will gradually become a grave danger. Your servant is willing to perform magic against He Quanlong before the palace, so Your Majesty can put aside her doubts.”

The court therefore ordered He Quanlong and Pei Zhongfang to compete before the throne. He Quanlong drove the five hundred demon boys to run about fiercely, while officials of both the civil and military ranks watched from the sides. Then Zhongfang spat out a mouthful of pure water, and the five hundred boys vanished from the air, one after another drawn into the scabbard of the sword he carried. He Quanlong was helpless and pleaded before the palace: “I beg Your Majesty to spare my wretched life.”

Zetian hurriedly rose and burned incense. “Since He Quanlong is close to the Empress Dowager,” she said to Zhongfang, “spare his life.” Zhongfang let He Quanlong go. The five hundred demon boys inside the scabbard, however, were burned to ashes by True Fire. Zhongfang also petitioned for the reinstatement of the court officials who had earlier been demoted. Zetian specially bestowed on him the title “General of Divine Response.” As for Zhao Hong and the others who had been captured, Zhongfang also petitioned for their release and return to the Western Regions, a general term for the western frontier lands.

In 979, Shi Guangsi, military governor of Wuan Army and Left Vice Director of the Department of State Affairs, was transferred to Hongzhou. He had heard that local people were fond of practicing heterodox rites and sorcery. Although he had once ordered these practices banned, he had never managed to stamp them out.

He learned that a disciplined Daoist practitioner lived at the Patriarchal Shrine of Xiadao Mountain, so he invited Ling Jumiao, a Daoist master from the Luofu Grotto, to advise him. Ling told him that the people of Hongzhou, Hengzhou, Tanzhou, Dingzhou, and Ezhou all worshipped the Southern Spirit. Shi Guangsi then sent officials to arrest those practicing heterodox arts. They seized 116 people, including Ma Yongcheng, and questioned them in court.

According to Ma Yongcheng’s testimony, they had not deliberately set out to practice sorcery. The lands and waters of Jiangnan and Jinghu were connected, he explained, and local people were often afflicted by what was called the “seventy-two seasonal soul-injuring spirit-killer.” They suffered from fevers, and their undertakings were often obstructed or unsuccessful. They had therefore turned to heterodox arts, performing rites with blades, oil, and fire to drive away and suppress evil influences. At times, the patients’ conditions improved somewhat.

Shi Guangsi ordered them to hand over the blades, staves, oil pans, fire implements, and other objects they had used, and had everything destroyed. He also made them write pledges of repentance, then released them.

In the seventh month of that year, Hongzhou was indeed struck by what was said to be harm caused by “soul injury.” Residents were widely afflicted with frenzied fevers. Some ate fragments of roof tiles and lodestone; some climbed onto roof beams or trees; others leaped into ditches and shouted obscenities. Shi Guangsi asked Ling Jumiao to treat them with talisman water, and the patients’ conditions all improved.

Worried that the frenzied illness might return, Shi Guangsi had more than ten thousand spirit plaques inscribed with the sacred name of Zhenwu, the Perfected Warrior, and distributed them for the people to worship. He also had them recite the Wondrous Scripture of Zhenwu on the day each month when Zhenwu descended. After several years, the plague and illness finally disappeared, and the people abandoned heterodox practices and returned to the orthodox path.

Shi Guangsi reported that, although Hongzhou had had Daoist temples before the Southern Tang, it had never had a Hall of Zhenwu or incense offerings. After deliberation, the Ministry of Rites decided that the local authorities should rebuild the hall according to regulations on the former site of the Hall of Zhenwu at Hongzhou’s Tianqing Temple, and grant it an imperial plaque bearing the name “Protecting the State and Answering Prayers.”

Later, Shi Guangsi went to Xiadao Mountain to pay a visit to Ling Jumiao and receive the ritual methods of Zhenwu—the rites for worshipping and practicing the Zhenwu tradition. He asked to resign from office and return to Zhaozhou, where he could withdraw from worldly affairs and worship the Perfected Saint with devotion. He ultimately lived to the age of ninety-nine and died without illness.

Chai Xun, Military Commissioner of Meizhou, had a younger brother named Chai Miao. At thirty-one, he served as a Gentleman of the Right, an official post whose regulations forbade him to marry. The daughter of the Surveillance Commissioner of the Prince of Di’s residence had fallen out with her husband and was sleeping in a separate chamber.

Chai Miao suddenly developed a strange illness. Physicians and diviners alike said that an evil influence had entered his heart. Whenever his wife came into his room with medicine, he felt repelled by her. One night, Chai Xun went quietly to visit his younger brother and heard what sounded like a woman laughing and talking in Chai Miao’s room. He told the household to keep watch, then entered at daybreak to investigate. They lifted the bed curtains, but saw nothing. Chai Xun concluded that his brother had been bewitched by a demon.

Only after repeated questioning did Chai Miao explain what had happened. Two years earlier, he had visited the Shengshui Monastery, where he saw a painting in the Hall of King Zhao of Liang, along the west corridor. It showed a goddess holding a flute, with exquisite features and a graceful, alluring bearing. He had reached out to touch the painted woman’s face and hands, then joked to his companions that once he found a suitable place, he would marry her as a secondary wife. He had meant it as a jest, but that very night the woman in the painting came to him and said, “Our hands and eyes have met, so our bond is sealed.” From then on, they were as if joined in marriage. She came each night at the start of the second watch and left at the start of the fifth. Chai Miao produced a sachet that had been tied to the woman’s sash as proof, and his relatives took possession of it.

Later, everyone went to the Hall of King Zhao of Liang at Shengshui Monastery. There they found the painting of the woman holding a flute. She was strikingly beautiful, and one corner of the painting had been rubbed away, with its colors flaking off. When they compared the sachet with the painting, its stitching matched the damaged area exactly.

Chai Xun gave a detailed account of what had happened. The report was sent through the Court of the Drum of Access to the Secretariat, and was eventually presented to the emperor. The emperor ordered the Kaifeng Prefecture to deal with the matter. Officials there sent a document to Shengshui Monastery, instructing its staff to burn it and have the local earth god drive out the evil spirit. But Chai Miao’s condition did not improve.

The group then asked Qian Junping, the Chief Daoist Registrar, to prepare Fulu (talismans and registers) and ritual documents in accordance with the proper rites. They also assembled offerings for the ceremony, including money and cloud horses. Qian Junping and Bao Zheng, Academician of the Longtu Pavilion and Prefect of Kaifeng, went in person to Shengshui Monastery. After praying to Zhenwu, a revered Daoist deity, they faced north and burned the talismans and documents. That night, the sound of a woman laughing and talking in Chai Miao’s room stopped.

Half a month later, around the start of the second watch, people often heard sounds from the monastery’s northwest corner like prisoners being beaten and interrogated, mixed with a woman’s cries of agony. The noise carried beyond the monastery walls. One night, the woman suddenly appeared outside Chai Xun’s house, weeping and calling for Chai Miao. She said, “You have ruined me! Zhenwu took up your complaint, seized me for questioning, and sent me to the local earth god of the capital. For half a month I endured beatings and suffered terribly. Now, through Zhenwu’s compassion, I have been spared the iron rod. But I am being sent to Yin Mountain, the Daoist realm of the dead. As an innocent female ghost, I must wait through three hundred kalpas before I can return to the world of the living and be reborn as a deity. I have come especially to tell you what happened.”

From then on, Chai Miao gradually recovered. Bao Zheng, Prefect of Kaifeng, reported the events to the emperor. When Chai Miao appeared before him, he offered to accept an appointment, save his salary, and hold a Great Luo Heaven Offering, a grand Daoist Zhaijiao (purification ritual), to repay Zhenwu. The emperor approved and granted him the Yujin Garden, where he could establish the ritual altar and hold a grand fast to thank Zhenwu for protecting the state and saving its people.

Sun Jian, the Regional Inspector of Fuzhou, had a seventeen-year-old son named Anren. Anren was appointed to a junior military post and assigned as tax supervisor and patrol officer at Longmen Town in Fengzhou. After six months in office, his spirits had grown weak and his mind clouded. He spoke incoherently and often made mistakes in his duties, so the prefectural authorities sent someone to replace him.

Anren returned home for treatment, but his condition did not improve. One night, Sun Jian heard a woman laughing and talking incessantly in his son’s room and realized that Anren had been bewitched by a spirit. Early the next morning, Sun Jian questioned him sternly, and Anren had no choice but to tell him what had happened: Xianghua, the mountain deity of Hou Family Mountain at Longmen Town in Fengzhou, had become attached to him. She came to his side every night at the third watch and stayed until sunrise, then turned into a shadow of dust and hid herself.

Sun Jian reported the matter to the emperor. The court sent a ritual master from the Hanlin Academy, a practitioner skilled in writing talismans and performing rites, to preside over the exorcism. But after half a month, the evil spirit still had not been driven away. Sun Jian submitted another report, and the court withdrew its arrangements for the ritual. After deliberating, the chief ministers and high officials concluded that because the Sun family had not enshrined a guardian deity of the home, malevolent spirits from distant mountains had been drawn to cause trouble. They advised him to go at once to a Daoist temple and pray to Zhenwu, a revered Daoist deity often honored as a protector of the home and dispeller of evil.

Following the court’s instructions, Sun Jian personally wrote a prayer and went to the Four Sages Temple to offer it with devotion. He also borrowed an image of Zhenwu and brought it home to enshrine. Nearly seven days later, just after the first watch began one night, the household heard two voices coming from Anren’s room, sounding as if they were weeping. By dawn, Anren seemed to have awakened from a deep drunken stupor. His mind had cleared, and he no longer spoke in confused, disordered phrases.

Anren recalled that while serving at Longmen and inspecting the relay stations, he had once spent the night at the Hou Family Mountain relay station. At the third watch, lights suddenly shone beyond the trees, and a beautiful woman appeared before his tent, dressed and adorned unlike ordinary people. She spoke softly to him: “I am no ghost or monster; you need not be afraid. We are bound by a past-life connection, and fate ordained that I wait for you here. I am the daughter of the Dragon Lord of Xiangpu. Because I longed for the human world, the Lord of the Eastern Peak punished me by making me the local deity in charge of this mountain. People call me the spirit maiden Xianghua. I have already attained part of the status of an immortal. Now that I am in love with you, how could I bear to part from you?”

She continued: “Your parents have now summoned Zhenwu. He will come to the house with many heavenly soldiers and mighty warriors, along with the Day Patrol Deity, to search it. If I am discovered, I will be driven away with iron staves and condemned forever to serve as a lowly ghost. I will no longer be able to remain among the living. Then I must bid you farewell and return to Hou Family Mountain.” As they parted, she wept, removed a small comb of green jade from her hair, and gave it to Anren to hide in his own hair. She told him that if they met again, he could use it as proof of their connection.

Sun Jian had the jade comb brought out for inspection and confirmed that it was no ordinary object. He took it to court and reported what had happened. The emperor ordered that it be placed in the Imperial Repository’s Department of Sacred Objects for safekeeping. Sun Jian then submitted another request, asking to hold a Great Ritual for the Net of Heaven at the Four Sages Temple—a large Daoist purification rite honoring the deities of the heavens—and to offer a grand purification banquet in fulfillment of his vow and in gratitude for the deity’s help. The chief ministers and other officials said to Sun Jian, “At the time, we had not…”