《玄天上帝启圣录》Vol. 4

You make vows and repent morning and evening because you once killed living creatures and ate meat. I have reported this matter to the Three Officials (Sanguan) of Heaven, Earth, and Water, and especially interceded to dispel your offenses. The lives you took have all been sent to be reborn in the Water Palace, the Daoist realm of the water deities, so that from now on they will no longer bear a grudge against you. I have also submitted a memorial to restore your original lifespan, blessings, and emoluments.

This memorial brought you a confirming revelation from Zhenwu, the Great Emperor of Perfected Warrior, and your suffering from illness ceased at once. The matter of karmic ties has been reported to the court, and the grievances of those in the Water Palace have also been resolved. I have again submitted a memorial to restore your original lifespan, blessings, and emoluments. Another memorial brought you a confirming revelation from Zhenwu, and your suffering from illness ceased at once. Later, I reported the matter of karmic ties to the court and requested leave to retire from office. You vowed to abstain from meat and from killing living creatures, to cultivate the practice of offering incense, to recite the Wondrous Scripture of Zhenwu one hundred thousand times, and to copy scriptures from the Daoist Canon and donate them to the Taiqing Yanfu Palace in Dongjing.

The Hua family kills fish.

In Xinghua Army, there was a man named Cheng Sichang who engaged in business when he was young. He was upright but proud in temperament. He made no friends and kept no close ties with his neighbors or companions, so people generally disliked him. In his business dealings, Cheng never tampered with weights and measures or withheld payment for goods. He did not crave meat, and rarely ate living creatures.

Once, he was visiting the western outskirts of Banqiao in Mizhou. People there often ate birds such as swans, pigeons, partridges, doves, and magpies, and many birds were slaughtered in the market every day. When he went out of the town to look around, he saw people flying hawks, shooting birds with bows and slings, and setting nets to catch them. He could not bear to watch. After returning to town, late at night beneath the stars, he vowed to abstain from meat. He asked a craftsman to carve a printing block of the “Illustration on Refraining from Killing,” made a thousand copies, and gave them away to urge people to stop killing. As it happened, the seventh day of the tenth month was said to be the day Zhenwu descended. Cheng hoped that, through the power of Zhenwu—a deity revered in Daoism, also known as the Great Emperor Zhenwu—people would change their ways and turn toward goodness.

A local tax official named Peng Jing was especially fond of wine and meat. He, too, received a copy of the illustration and read it aloud to his wife, Hua Sanniang, at home. Hua Sanniang flew into a rage, tore the illustration to pieces, and threw it into a filthy place. The next day, she bought a black fish and was about to chop it with a knife when both her hands became immobile, as though someone were holding them down. The fish suddenly leaped up and drove its tail into her eye, as if she had been struck by a blade. The drops of blood that fell to the ground turned into insects and ants, which crawled onto the mat and stung her face. Word spread through the town that Hua Sanniang had shown disrespect for the words and illustration urging people to refrain from killing, and had immediately suffered retribution.

One day, Peng Jing got drunk and ran into Cheng Sichang in the market. He cursed him, saying, “The people of Banqiao have never refrained from killing, and they live perfectly well. You’re a visitor from Xinghua, spreading these writings everywhere and causing my wife to lose sight in one eye.” He grabbed at Cheng, trying to start a fight. Cheng broke free and returned to his lodgings, where he felt frightened and blamed himself.

At the time, the town supervisor Xiang Shu and the patrol officer Xuan Dan were gathered in the hall. They saw Cheng Sichang approach the front of the hall, suspended about three inches above the ground, and speak through the voice of a deity: “I am the Supreme Emperor of the Dark Heavens, the True Lord Zhenwu. I see that the people here have delighted in eating birds for generations, and their sins are grave. Cheng Sichang of Xinghua printed and distributed the illustration urging people to refrain from killing; this was a great good deed. Hua Sanniang refused to believe in it or follow its teaching, and then killed a black fish, so she injured her eye. She is not the only one to suffer retribution. All who delight in eating living creatures and do not know to repent are bound to meet with calamity.”

When he had finished speaking, Cheng Sichang vanished in a daze. Xiang Shu and the others were about to investigate when they suddenly received a report from the town that their visitor, Cheng Sichang, had died without having been ill. The supervisor and the others were deeply astonished. Hua Sanniang’s eye ailment persisted for six months, and she eventually died as well.

Later, when Xiang Shu and Xuan Dan’s terms of office ended and they returned to the capital, they had the story printed and circulated to urge people to refrain from killing. They honored Zhenwu throughout their lives, burning incense and praying. When the matter reached the imperial court, the emperor ordered an account of what had happened to be copied and sent to the relevant offices for examination. It was also recorded among the accounts of Zhenwu’s manifestations. The text concludes that Zhenwu’s divine power answers prayers far and wide and shines with majestic brilliance, bringing evil to an end.

In Yuanzhou, an official named Zhu Lianggong died after serving for a year as tax commissioner in Junzhou, responsible for collecting taxes. His family was poor, and he had no sons, only a daughter, Zhu. Zhu returned to her family’s hometown with her mother, carrying her father’s coffin. Less than a year later, her mother also died.

For generations, the Zhu family had worshipped Zhenwu, the Daoist guardian deity of the north. When neighbors tried to arrange a marriage for Zhu, she paid them no heed. Some people later slandered her, claiming that she was of questionable character. Zhu swore before Zhenwu that she would rather remain unmarried for life than endure further pressure from outsiders. She prayed to become disabled so that people would stop trying to find her a husband. At the age of forty, she suddenly went blind in both eyes and did not seek medical treatment. After that, no one came to arrange a marriage for her. On the ninth day of the ninth month in the sixth year of the Tiansheng era, she died.

Zhu had no relatives, so the authorities were required by custom to examine her body. When Zhao Ping, the judicial officer of Yuanzhou, went to inspect it, he found a tortoise before her and a red serpent behind her, coiled around her body as if to protect it. He Jue, the prefect, and Wang Yaochen, the deputy prefect, witnessed this marvel with their own eyes. They summoned Buddhist monks and Daoist priests to pray and ask the tortoise and serpent to withdraw so that Zhu could be buried. The creatures vanished at once. The authorities sent someone to buy a coffin and prepare her for burial.

Her maid, Chen Juxiang, said that because Zhu had rejected marriage and been pressured and slandered, Zhenwu had answered her prayer by making her blind. She had soon died without illness, and her body remained the same color as when she was alive. Zhu’s only instruction before her death was that her body be taken to the ren-gui direction—that is, the north according to the sexagenary compass—and cremated. He Jue learned that the ninth day of the ninth month was the day Zhenwu was said to descend. Having also seen the tortoise and serpent protecting her, he ordered that she be cremated in the north, as she had requested.

As soon as the fire was lit, Zhu appeared among the clouds and told those present that she would no longer enter the Six Realms of reincarnation, the destinations through which beings pass in the cycle of birth and death. She would be reborn into the family of Liu Ji in Yizhou. In less than twenty years, she said, if they kept watch for a man named Liu Sheng, he would become famous throughout the land. She added that those who had slandered her character could burn her body to ashes, but the truth would reveal itself. Then she departed.

After the cremation, five-colored, solid relics appeared among her bones, gleaming brightly. People eagerly asked to enshrine them. Those who had taken part in the slander later suffered illnesses including twisted mouths and paralysis; pus and blood flowed from their mouths, and they gave off a foul odor. They went to the Zhenwu hall to confess their wrongs, and only then did their conditions gradually improve. The people of Yuanzhou began warning one another not to spread reckless accusations or ruin others’ reputations, and they began worshipping Zhenwu.

The prefect reported the matter to the court. The court sent officials to Yizhou to investigate and confirmed that the wife of Liu Ji, a vice director of agricultural colonies, had indeed given birth to a boy at the hour of the ox on the ninth day of the ninth month. It ordered Yizhou to allocate public funds for a Daoist offering ritual at the Zhenwu hall in the Tianqing Abbey. A marker was also placed temporarily at the reputed site of the cremation in the north, so that it could be identified in the future.

In Cizhou, a Daoist nun named Liang Jizhen practiced at Qingquan Palace. She observed the precepts and cultivated herself in purity. The local people held her in high regard, and Qingquan Palace maintained close ties with Tianqing Abbey. Whenever people in Cizhou held a jiao ritual, performed religious services, or invited someone to recite scriptures, they would invite the nuns of Qingquan Palace.

The Daoists of Tianqing Abbey grew jealous. They bribed several people to wait outside Qingquan Palace each day and turn away anyone who came to invite the nuns. Whenever someone entered the palace to ask them to preside over a religious service, the Daoists would come and disrupt it, while spreading rumors. Gradually, no one came to invite the nuns anymore.

Liang Jizhen was seventeen at the time. She had received a Northern Pole Fulu, a Daoist religious credential associated with the Northern Pole deities, and regularly recited invocations and practiced its methods, which proved quite efficacious. She therefore burned incense day and night before an image of Zhenwu, lamenting her plight and praying that the gods would soon make retribution manifest.

Before long, Huang Mian, an assistant director in the Ministry of Justice, was appointed prefect of Cizhou. On his way to take up the post, he spent the night at the relay station in Pingyuan Town. In a dream, he saw a man dressed in a purple robe and a gold belt, who identified himself as the registrar and judge of the Northern Pole Hall at Qingquan Palace. The man said that Cizhou’s prefect, assistant prefect, and other officials were neglecting their duties and concerned only with putting on a show. The Daoists of Tianqing Abbey were jealous of Qingquan Palace and slandered it, while its worshippers were being turned away. He asked Huang Mian to see that justice was done once he took office. When Huang Mian awoke, he wrote down what the man had said.

A little over two months after taking office, Huang Mian happened to pass Qingquan Palace and went in to pay his respects at the Northern Pole Hall. He saw that the purple-robed judge in the hall looked very much like the man from his dream. Back at his government office, he immediately ordered the military patrol and other officials to investigate the matter at Qingquan Palace, giving them fifteen days to complete their inquiry.

As the deadline approached, more than sixty villagers arrived at Qingquan Palace, as they did each year, to hold a ritual seeking protection for their fields and a good harvest of silkworms. That night, a group of vagrants drove the villagers away. The military patrol arrested fourteen people, including Zhuang Hua, and questioned them. They also summoned Chen Youzhang and twenty-five other Daoists from Tianqing Abbey for investigation. Based on the case, the prefectural government proposed that Chen Youzhang, as the ringleader, and three others, including Zhuang Hua, be exiled, and submitted the case to the court for a decision.

Huang Mian then dreamed again of the judge he had seen before. The judge said that Tianqing Abbey also offered incense to the Four Northern Pole Sages; exiling Chen Youzhang would harm Daoism, so there was no need to submit the case to the court. Huang Mian thereupon closed the case and released Chen Youzhang, while sending only Zhuang Hua and the other two men into exile in another prefecture, where they were placed under supervision.

Later, Liang Jizhen developed sores and became gravely ill, her body foul with disease. After she died, she was buried in government land outside the eastern gate. Six months later, Assistant Prefect Su Yingzhi went out of the city to inspect the granaries and storehouses and smelled a foul stench. Local people told him that Liang Jizhen of Qingquan Palace was buried there. Su Yingzhi immediately summoned Yao Jichong, the abbot of Qingquan Palace, and others, and ordered them to move her remains and bury them in a secluded place.

When they dug away the earth, they found the coffin lid suspended above the coffin. Inside there was no body, only a hairpin, along with a red snake and a green turtle. The foul stench had also changed into a fragrant scent. Su Yingzhi burned incense and bowed in thanks, then took out the turtle and snake and brought them to Huang Mian. People concluded that, because Liang Jizhen had revered Zhenwu and cultivated its incense rites during her life, she had undergone corpse liberation—a Daoist legendary means by which a practitioner’s body disappears and transforms into an immortal—and manifested the wondrous forms of the turtle and snake.

Huang Mian decided that the turtle and snake should be enshrined in the Zhenwu Hall at Qingquan Palace. But when they were carried into the hall, they slithered back out through the door, coiling around each other; this happened three times. Outside the hall, they opened their mouths as if to attack someone. Huang Mian burned incense and prayed, asking whether they wanted more incense offerings and whether a separate hall should be built once he had reported the matter to the court. The turtle and snake immediately turned around and went back into the hall. A gust of wind rose, and they vanished.

Cizhou then reported the matter to the court. The court ordered the local officials to set aside funds from the tribute revenues and build a Zhenwu Hall according to ritual regulations, and to establish a shrine for Liang Jizhen, posthumously conferring on her the title “Immortal Master of Responsive Miracles and Wondrous Transformation.” From then on, Qingquan Palace grew steadily more prosperous, and Daoist teachings flourished greatly.

Heaven and Earth See Clearly

A vengeful ghost was said to haunt the government offices in Binzhou, Guangnan. For several successive appointments, officials refused to serve there: some fell ill, while others lost their children.

During the Yongxi era, Yang Congxin, Assistant Envoy for Guest Reception, had long admired Daoist teachings. He knew how to write talismans and registers (Fulu) and had treated people during epidemics. He also worshipped the Four Sages of the Northern Pole, revered deities in Daoism. Three days after taking up his post, his subordinates urged him to stay temporarily at Yanfu Buddhist Monastery. The prefectural offices were considered inauspicious, they said, and they feared strange events at night might alarm his attendants.

Yang Congxin trusted that true spirits would protect him and moved into the government offices anyway. In his bedroom he laid out fresh fruit, tea, wine, and pure water as offerings before an image of the Perfected Warrior (Zhenwu) that he carried with him. At the end of the hour of Xu and the beginning of the hour of Hai that day—about nine to eleven at night—he took a length of yellow silk, twelve chi long, and wrote in cinnabar a talisman summoning the Six Ding spirit-generals to investigate the dead. He prayed to Zhenwu. When he had finished, he burned the talisman together with paper money as an offering.

Seven days passed in peace at the government offices, and no one was frightened. By the tenth day, Yang had still heard no sign that his prayer had been answered, so he again begged Zhenwu to manifest a response soon. That night, during the second watch—about nine to eleven—the windows and walls shook as if a storm had broken out. The lamps and candles all went out, and flashes of lightning appeared now and then. After a long while, everything grew quiet.

At the second interval of the fifth watch, around four in the morning, Yang heard someone knocking at his door. He got up and went to look quietly. The lamps before the image of Zhenwu had returned to their normal brightness. Before the altar stood a woman with striking features and a stout build. Knocking on the window, she wept and said, “I was the daughter of Zhang Chen, an attendant minister of the Zhou dynasty, and was betrothed to Yao Wenji, the governor of Binzhou. Yao Wenji favored his maidservant Fan Xiangchun. The two of them plotted together to strangle my child with a silk sash and bury the child in a pit they had dug in my room. Not long afterward, Yao Wenji and the others were assigned to oversee the construction of Tong Pass. Because they acted wickedly, a herd of horses trampled them on a hillside. Their bones were scattered, and no one gathered them for burial.

“My child is buried here, and the child’s soul has kept watch over the body ever since, unable to find release. After the Assistant Envoy for Guest Reception prayed to Zhenwu, Zhenwu sent the Six Ding spirit-generals, together with the City God and the local earth god, to hunt me down and escort me to Fenghuailuo Mountain. There I would wander in misery and sink into the ranks of lowly ghosts. After I pleaded my case, Zhenwu took pity on me and specially granted me a prediction of salvation, enabling me to leave the human realm and ascend to Heaven. But my child’s body still lies beneath the wall on the south side of the eastern room. If you dig down about six chi, you should find it. Once the body is brought up, my child will be able to be reborn. I have come especially to ask you to seek justice for my child.”

After daybreak, Yang Congxin ordered people to dig. They found a complete skeleton, just as the woman had said. They lifted it out, placed it in a wooden container, and temporarily housed it at Yanfu Monastery. From then on, the government offices were quiet. Yang used the event to urge people to worship the Highest Perfected Ones, revered Daoist deities, with sincere devotion and seek their protection. He said, “There is no fixed path by which good or evil comes; people bring it upon themselves. If you treat others fairly and do not deceive them, Heaven and Earth will see clearly. How could demons and monsters dare to cause trouble at will? If you keep your heart aligned with the Great Dao, honor Heaven and Earth, and conduct yourself uprightly, the spirits will naturally protect you. Why fear evil beings? Worship Zhenwu, and you will receive the protection of the righteous Dao, subdue the gathered demons, welcome good fortune, and keep your home at peace.”

The people of Binzhou followed his advice and worshipped with devotion. Later, Yang Congxin returned to the capital and was appointed Inspector of the Inner City, while also serving as an official in charge of exchange. Once, while accompanying the emperor in worshipping the household gods, he took the opportunity to report what had happened. The emperor ordered the relevant offices to investigate. Learning that Binzhou had no Daoist temples, he instructed the Transport Commission to survey the site and arrange their construction. Two temples were to be completed within five years, with Daoist priests assigned to live and practice there and the government providing their provisions and funds. The temples were granted the names “Fusheng” and “Qianxi Abbey.”

Pei Zongmin, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue in Xian’gan County, Dongjing, had three sons named Yanxian, Yanxiu, and Yanhe. All three entered official service through the privilege of their father’s position. Yanxian was cautious and sincere, and honored the Daoist teachings. Yanxiu and Yanhe, however, were deceitful and unscrupulous, showing no apparent regard for Heaven, Earth, or the spirits.

The three brothers were about to travel to the capital to receive their official appointments and sit the civil service examinations. Yanxian went to the Hall of Zhenwu, the Great Emperor of Perfected Warrior, at Chongfu Temple. There he burned incense and prayed for divine protection for his younger brothers, hoping they would all pass. He drew the fourth lot of the Perfected Lord Huang. After studying it carefully, he saw that it foretold trouble for his brothers, and warned them to act with caution. Yanxiu and Yanhe instead reproached him, saying, “Why should we trust painted clay statues with our fate?”

When the three took their examinations, Yanxiu and Yanhe both failed, while Yanxian alone was recommended and passed at the highest level. He was appointed Evaluator in the Court of Judicial Review and sent to Mingzhou as a judicial assistant. Yanxiu was assigned to Binzhou as deputy magistrate of Qianjiang County, while Yanhe was appointed to supervise the wine tax in Jinzhou.

From then on, Yanxiu and Yanhe grew jealous of their elder brother. Seeing that Yanxian had passed a high-level examination, they resented what they saw as the absence of anyone in Heaven and Earth to uphold justice. They believed the court appointed officials without regard to ability, and grew bitter and indignant. After Yanxian left for his post in Mingzhou, the two brothers not only stopped honoring the spirits, but also burned and discarded the household paintings of the Three Pure Ones (Sanqing), the three supreme Daoist deities, and the celestial stars.

Two months after Yanxiu took up his post in Qianjiang County, he was captured by the pirates while pursuing Meng Jun-san and others. The pirates did not kill him. They merely cut off the tip of his tongue and sent him back. Yanhe had served for two years as supervisor of the wine tax in Jinzhou when he fell four-tenths behind on his tax payments. Inspecting officials reported him in a memorial, and the court sent officials to investigate. Yanhe falsely claimed that he had died of illness.

In Mingzhou, the elder brother Yanxian wrote a memorial and submitted it through the proper channels to the court, offering to resign and use his own official position to atone for his brothers’ offenses. The court replied that it would decide what to do after his term of office had ended. Yanxian was just in his dealings, and both officials and common people praised him. The prefect, assistant prefect, regional transport commissioner, and other officials jointly recommended that he was blameless. Later, the Secretariat ordered that Yanxian be summoned to an audience with the emperor after completing his term and returning to the capital. No one could fathom the emperor’s intentions.

When Yanxian appeared at court, the emperor asked about his life and whether he had any special secret methods of cultivation. Yanxian replied, “Since my ancestors’ time, my family has continually honored the spirits and kept the incense burning. Beyond that, I have no secret methods.” The emperor said, “On the night of the ninth day of the ninth month last year, I dreamed that the Household Deity, the Perfected Lord of Fortune, manifested and came to my aid. He recommended you by name, saying that you had helped the state and were devoted to loyalty and filial piety. He also said that you have two younger brothers who, though they had entered official service, were bringing ruin upon the state and destroying their family’s fortunes. They were unfit to remain on the official register. The spirits had already decreed that their names would be struck from it, denying them long life and official emoluments. This was meant to show that Yanxian’s conduct accords with the Dao: the spirits recommended him from above, and the court officials recommended him from below.”

The emperor also said that Yanxiu and Yanhe had behaved badly and so had suffered calamities sent by the spirits. Good and evil deeds alike bring fitting consequences; this story is enough to inspire reverence and serve as a warning. Thereupon, in the imperial court, Yanxian was promoted to Palace Attendant to the Heir Apparent, granted official robes, and appointed magistrate of Yuzhang County in Hongzhou.

In Huaizhou, a man named Xie Jingyuan ran an incense and balm shop with his younger brother, Xie Jingxiu. Jingyuan enjoyed traveling, drinking, and gambling, while Jingxiu was devoted to the gods. Their family had kept a shrine to the Perfected Warrior (Zhenwu) at home for generations, and prayers there often received a response.

As Jingyuan’s fortunes declined, he remembered Jingxiu saying that the family shrine’s Zhenwu was efficacious. He prayed for divine help to win at gambling. He did this several times and at first won one or two hundred strings of cash. Later, after praying and receiving an auspicious sign, he went out to gamble and lost more than a hundred thousand cash. Furious, he returned home and tore down the shrine. When Jingxiu came back, he rebuilt it.

After that, Jingyuan repeatedly lost at gambling and found that nothing went his way. He grew even more resentful of Zhenwu. One day, while Jingxiu was in the capital selling goods, Jingyuan took advantage of his absence to smash the shrine. He hacked the Zhenwu statue to pieces with a knife and threw them into a well. Three days later, Jingyuan suddenly broke out in vicious sores all over his body. Pus and blood streamed from them, and he suffered terribly.

While in the capital, Jingxiu dreamed of a yellow-skinned child with disheveled hair and bare feet, carrying a stone disk stand on his head. The child wept and said, “My hands and feet are all injured. The pain is unbearable.” Looking closely, Jingxiu saw that the child was in fact several pieces of shattered black wood. He awoke with the thought that the Zhenwu statue at home had probably been damaged, and hurried back to Huaizhou. Sure enough, the shrine had been torn down, and his elder brother was gravely ill with vicious sores. Jingxiu hired craftsmen to rebuild the shrine, then went down into the well and retrieved the wooden fragments of the statue, fitting them back together.

To everyone’s surprise, the water drawn from the well was amber-colored and carried an unusual fragrance. Word of this reached the prefectural authorities. Prefect Ma Xun heard what had happened and came to Jingxiu’s home with the local officials. He examined the well water himself and confirmed that its color and fragrance were extraordinary. Jingxiu also told them how his brother had developed vicious sores after destroying the statue.

Ma Xun had someone bring a bowl of well water for Jingxiu to drink. As soon as Jingxiu had finished, clouds and mist filled the surroundings. They saw him standing in the air, surrounded by colored clouds, with cranes leading the way. He bowed to Ma Xun and the others in farewell and said, “Today I shall depart for the Golden Palace and ascend to heaven in broad daylight.” The Golden Palace is a celestial palace in Daoist legend; “ascending to heaven in broad daylight” refers to a person attaining the Dao and rising to heaven during the day.

Ma Xun reported the event to the court. By imperial order, official buildings were constructed elsewhere in Huaizhou, and land and the house site beside the well were exchanged with the Xie family. There, the “Abbey of the Perfected Xie Jingxiu’s Ascension” was built, with the sacred well as its focus of worship. The well water was not to be drawn freely. If local people fell ill, they could take some to treat them. The court bestowed the name “Abbey of Sacred Water,” granted annual allowances of money and provisions to support two Daoist novices who practiced there, burned incense, and followed the Dao, and also granted land, buildings, and funds for the abbey’s ongoing needs. Jingxiu’s elder brother and his family were placed in Jingyuan’s care.

From then on, the Xie family prospered. One of Jingyuan’s sons passed the jinshi examination, and later generations were associated with many unusual events.

In Chaozhou, in the Huai-Xi region, people rich and poor alike were fond of eating ao, a large aquatic creature. They did so without regard for its fishy smell or their own distaste, and thereby offended the Celestial Court. The sun and moon grew dim over the region, and the stars lost their light. After investigating, the Nine Heavens Inspector, a divine official appointed by Heaven to examine good and evil among humankind, reported the matter to the Jade Emperor. The Jade Emperor ordered the Great Emperor of the North Pole and Purple Tenuity, the chief deity of the northern heavens, together with the Three Officials of Heaven, Earth, and Water and the gods of the mountains, to examine the people of Chaozhou’s accumulated offenses and determine what retribution they deserved.

The Great Emperor of the North Pole reported that the people there had long been repeatedly warned against killing out of greed. The wronged spirits of four-legged animals and aquatic creatures were entangled with one another, and since cause and effect corresponded, their cases should be examined together. The Jade Emperor judged that the people’s offenses were too grave to pardon. To purify the land, the whole city should sink beneath the waters and become a great island. The Northern Emperor then ordered Zhenwu, the deity who guards the north and also inspects good and evil throughout the Three Realms, to carry out the sentence at once. The people of Chaozhou, he said, had killed dragon ao for generations; their crime was unforgivable, and the entire region should sink beneath the water.

Zhenwu reported that although the people of Chaozhou had committed grave offenses, not everyone among them had necessarily killed aquatic creatures. If the whole region were submerged without distinction, innocent people would inevitably suffer injustice. He asked permission to investigate carefully and then impose punishment according to the seriousness of each person’s offense.

Zhenwu ordered one of the accompanying celestial generals to take the form of a giant ao and float in the Chao stream, blocking the market bridge. The prefectural authorities sent people to deal with it. They butchered the creature and distributed its meat among the officials of the commandery; the people of Chaozhou also shared and ate it. The Celestial Dipper Star Spirit returned and reported to Zhenwu: “The people of Chaozhou are indeed deeply guilty. Even when they were transformed into great fish and made to float conspicuously on the water’s surface, they were not put off by the stench. They still divided up and ate the fish.” Zhenwu sighed, “The people here are so deeply mired in wrongdoing that they can scarcely be saved.”

Zhenwu transformed himself into a wandering Daoist and came to Chaozhou, asking at each household for a bowl of clean water. For seven days he went throughout the community, finding that every bowl had a fishy odor and not one was clean. In a small lane, however, he came upon a single household without that smell. He asked an old woman there for water. Her surname was Jiao. She was originally from Hao and had lived in Chaozhou for more than twenty years, earning her living by selling flour cakes. She lived with her son and daughter-in-law, making a household of three.

The Daoist asked why the water in her household’s bowl had no fishy smell. Old Mrs. Jiao replied, “Since I came to Chaozhou, I have seen how cruel and bloodthirsty the people here are. Every household delights in killing aquatic creatures, without knowing the consequences for good and ill. So I gave up killing and eating meat. That is why the water and bowls in my home are clean.”

The Daoist told her that he was no ordinary person but a celestial deity, and that he had come to warn her because of her good conduct. A flood would soon strike Chaozhou, so she should quickly take her son and daughter-in-law to safety. He asked her to choose one of three blessings: that her descendants hold office and enjoy its rewards; that she attain wealth and glory; or that she receive offerings of incense for generations to come. Mrs. Jiao said, “I would not dare ask for wealth or glory. I only hope that the incense offerings in my household may continue without end.”

Zhenwu then instructed her to visit the stone tortoise beneath a stele beside the prefectural office every morning and evening. When both of the tortoise’s eyes turned red, she should take her family out through the south gate at once and settle wherever they came upon Holy Maiden Mountain. With that, the Daoist turned into a beam of white light and vanished.

From then on, Mrs. Jiao visited the stone tortoise every day. More than a month passed. Some people mocked her as mad and painted the tortoise’s eyes red with cinnabar. When Mrs. Jiao saw that its eyes were red, she immediately led her son and daughter-in-law out through the south gate. They traveled ten li and reached Holy Maiden Mountain. Looking back, she saw that Chaozhou had been submerged by a flood in the blink of an eye. Water surged in every direction as far as the eye could see.

Suddenly, a deity appeared in the clouds, with disheveled hair, bare feet, and a black robe. He looked just like the Daoist who had asked her for water. He said to Mrs. Jiao, “I entrust this body of water to your care, so that your family’s incense offerings may continue without end.” Then he disappeared into the clouds. Mrs. Jiao told her son to build a shelter from grass and did not even stop to rest or eat.

When the Jin court heard that Chaozhou had suffered a flood, it sent officials to investigate the cause, but no one knew the details. In the distance, they saw a single household on Holy Maiden Mountain, so they went up the mountain and questioned Mrs. Jiao. After hearing what had happened, the authorities provided her with food and arranged for a neighboring commandery to supply her regularly. Later, Mrs. Jiao, her son, and her daughter-in-law died one after another. The court built a temple for Mrs. Jiao and conferred on her the title “Holy Mother of Manifested Efficacy.” The body of water was named Jiao Lake after her surname. Ships traveled in every direction across Jiao Lake, and people continued to offer sacrifices and pray there, saying that their prayers were answered. The area belonged to Chao County in Wuwei Military Prefecture, Huai-Xi Circuit. It connected the prefectures of Lu, Shou, Shu, and He, and was an important waterway.

The scripture says that the consequences of good and evil are perfectly clear. A region of more than two hundred li around Chaozhou was submerged by the flood and renamed Jiao Lake. Holy Maiden Mountain still stood within the lake, and Mrs. Jiao was honored as the Holy Mother of Manifested Efficacy. Later, fierce winds and waves frequently arose on the lake, and boats were often swept away and lost. The people and officials prayed only to the Holy Mother, but the storms did not subside.

An elderly woman who practiced medicine went to the Western Jin capital and submitted a memorial: “I am the local deity of Jiao Lake, and also the incarnation of the Holy Mother of Manifested Efficacy. In the past, I was merely an ordinary person in the mortal world. Because I gave up killing and eating meat, and because I met Zhenwu and offered him clean water, I was honored as the local deity of the Chao waters. After receiving an official title from the state and the grace of Heaven and Earth, I could not repay those favors. How could I deliberately raise storms and waves to harm boats? This is retribution left over from the time when the people of Chaozhou killed aquatic creatures. The wronged spirits of the aquatic creatures remain entangled with one another and cannot be released. They have brought forth poisonous winds and violent waves to harm passing boats, making one another continue to repay their debts. Only Zhenwu can help bring this to an end.”

As soon as she had finished speaking, the old woman suddenly vanished. After reviewing the memorial, the Jin court concluded that the woman had been the local deity of Jiao Lake and the incarnation of the Holy Mother of Manifested Efficacy. It sent an envoy and Daoist priests to establish a ritual site at the Temple of Manifested Efficacy, present imperial incense, and pray to Zhenwu for the storms to subside and the waterways to become safe. The ritual lasted a month, after which the winds and waves on Jiao Lake ceased entirely.

As the envoy prepared to return, a talisman officer, a divine official who conveys orders issued by the gods, appeared in the clouds and mist. He said that he was the Central Realm’s Direct Talisman Officer, sent by General Zhenwu to report: “The turbulent waves of Jiao Lake are retribution for the people of Chaozhou killing ao. They arose because the wronged spirits remain entangled and cannot find release. Now that the court has prayed for peace, Zhenwu has personally presented the matter to the North Pole. After paying audience to the Three Pure Ones (Sanqing), the three highest deities revered in Daoism, he received the Jade Emperor’s decree. Auspicious sweet dew has been sent down to release the grievances between the wronged ghosts of Jiao Lake and the aquatic creatures, and to wash away their offenses. They will then be registered in the offices of Mount Tai in the Eastern Peak and in the underworld, where they will await rebirth until they have repaid their karmic debts according to the severity of their offenses. Jiao Lake is now calm.”

After the Direct Talisman Officer departed, the Jin court again sent an envoy to offer incense and conduct a Zhaijiao rite on Holy Maiden Mountain, giving thanks to Heaven and Earth. It built a Hall of Zhenwu on the mountain, bestowed a plaque upon it, and further honored Mrs. Jiao with the title “Holy Mother of Manifested Efficacy and Auspicious Grace.”

Vain Wealth Turned to Rubble

At the Mingyang Palace (Mingyang Gong) in Shaozhou there is a grotto-heaven called the Blessed Land of Green Gauze (Qingluo Fudi), said to be where the immortal Zhang Yue cultivated the Dao. Each year at noon on the fifth day of the fifth month, birds of many colors would gather before the cave, wheeling and calling. The local people claimed that these birds were following the luan and phoenix to pay homage. On that basis they held a "Feast for Scattering the Birds" (Sanqin Zhai Hui), soliciting money and goods from the public and preparing paper horses. Under this pretext they confessed and made offerings to the stars and spirits of heaven.

The burned paper horses were sent up to the Heavenly Bureaus (Tiancao), the offices that administered affairs in the celestial realm. Since these offerings had no clear purpose and no designated recipient, they accumulated unused. Emperor Ziwei of the Northern Pole (Beiji Ziwei Dadi) therefore asked the Four Holy Generals who stood before the hall. Zhenwu (Zhēnwǔ) stepped forward and reported that the Heavenly Bureau should not accept these offerings. The Mingyang Palace, he said, had fabricated the claim that the luan and phoenix came to pay homage, using it to deceive the Bureau and extract money.

The Emperor asked further: if the fifth-month offering of the Mingyang Palace was false, why had so many birds in fact gathered on that day? Zhenwu replied that at noon that day, he had descended to that place. The birds vied to fly in, receiving the influence of his Daoist power (fa-qi). Their bonds of past karma were loosened, and they were freed from their bird bodies. Therefore they danced, sang, and departed.

The Emperor asked what the Heavenly Bureau could do with paper horses that had no clear purpose. Zhenwu replied that they could be transferred to Dongyue (the office of the Eastern Peak Emperor, which governed the affairs of the netherworld) and kept in reserve. By the following year, no one would again burn paper horses as offerings there.

In the second year, the Mingyang Palace held its feast as usual, and people from near and far gathered before the grotto. Yet from the Hour of the Monkey to the Hour of the Rooster, roughly three to seven in the afternoon, not a single bird came. Suddenly a Daoist wearing a fa-tou headdress (Mao Tou) stood silently, pointing at the palace gate. When the people invited the Daoist to explain, the Daoist said: "This year the birds did not come to attend the feast, so this feast should be discontinued forever." The Daoist restated the earlier reasons and admonished the palace. From then on, each year at noon on the fifth day of the fifth month, incense should be burned before the cave to pray to the Perfected Lord Zhenwu, repenting of the many years of false claims, the solicitation of money, and the presumptuous reports to the Heavenly Bureau. If the palace did not believe this, retribution would be seen within three years.

Having spoken, the Daoist rose, walked into the Qingluo Cave, and never came out through the palace gate again. The people of the Mingyang Palace did not believe the warning. The next year they convened the feast again, and still no birds came. On the same day of the third year, as paper money was burned in the palace, a violent wind lifted the burning paper, and fire spread from the storehouse. It raged for about two hours until the palace halls were reduced to rubble.

The Shaozhou authorities arrested and interrogated the resident abbot, Zhang Anxiang. They concluded that by violating the admonitions of the gods, the abbot had brought down celestial fire, and they reported the matter to the court for disposition. The court received instructions from the Secretariat-Chancellery. At the morning audit on the fifth day of the fifth month, the Directorate of Astronomy reported observing fire in the sky. It was proposed that the Daoist establishment in Shaozhou, which had strayed from the proper Way, should be burned down. An inner court official, Ling Zhaoqing, also spoke under spirit possession, claiming that Zhenwu had foretold the fire at the Mingyang Palace. The palace, he said, had spread heterodox teachings, deluded the public, and improperly solicited money, repeatedly offending the Heavenly Bureau and failing to reform even after admonition. The events now reported, he concluded, matched the outcome.

The court therefore decided that the Mingyang Palace would no longer receive an official temple designation. Only a Zhenwu hall and a small Daoist courtyard would be permitted, with ten other Daoists selected to reside there, practice cultivation, and burn incense in prayer. Zhang Anxiang was pardoned of one offense, ordered to return to lay life, and then released. The court also issued a notice to Daoists and laypeople throughout the realm: they should revere Heaven and Earth, keep to the proper Way, and never again act against it.

Candles Burn Down, and Filth Turns to Ash

Kailong Abbey in Nan'an Army District had originally been the residence of Zu, the Heavenly Lord of Supreme Limitless Pure Void (Taishang Wuji Jingxu Tianzhu). The people of Nan'an venerated Zhenwu (the Perfected Warrior, a revered Daoist deity), and whenever Zhenwu descended and manifested his spirit, they came to the abbey to burn incense, paper offerings, lamps, and candles.

In front of the abbey stood a general store, and most of the goods needed for the abbey's ritual assemblies were bought there. Candles were used in especially large quantities, yet the shopkeeper made counterfeit candles from filthy ox tallow and dyed scraps of cloth red, then sold them as pure beeswax candles. This not only let foul smoke defile the Holy Ones above, but also caused people who came to worship and pray for blessings to offend the gods. The Celestial True Ones of the stars and the spirits who governed the mountains and rivers (the deities in charge of stars, peaks, and waterways) reported the matter to the Three Pure Ones (Sanqing), the Jade Emperor, the Heavenly Sovereign, and the Northern Pole. The Northern Pole then ordered the Heavenly Bureaus (the celestial offices) to investigate.

One night, an attendant in charge of incense at the Zhenwu Hall dreamed that a divine person told him, "Huang Yu, who sells candles in front of the abbey, has been a human in three lives, and in each life he has committed evil deeds. In this life he still sells counterfeit candles made from filthy oil and grease, offending the Heavenly Bureaus. His sins are now full. After death he will be permanently deprived of any chance of rebirth in the six paths and will turn to dust. I am a spirit who oversees the good and evil of the Protecting Sage Court under Zhenwu, and I have already been dispatched by heavenly warrant to examine Huang Yu's crimes. Tomorrow, he will learn the outcome."

When the attendant awoke, he told the other Daoists what he had seen in his dream. Before he had finished speaking, an old man arrived at Huang Yu's shop and asked to buy ten candles, saying he wished to offer them to the Heavenly Bureaus, and he insisted that they must be genuine. Huang Yu flew into a rage and said, "I have sold these candles for over twenty years, and people have all offered them to the Heavenly Bureaus. How could anyone call them fake?" He told the old man to buy one first and light it to test it.

Suddenly a violent gust of wind arose, lifting the flames, which spread along the eaves and rooftops and set the buildings alight. The old man vanished. Because he had been greedy for his goods, Huang Yu was overtaken by the fire and reduced to ashes. The fire burned for one double-hour, and only his shop was turned to ash, with not a single one of his possessions left. After the fire went out, one great pillar in the shop had not been burned. Its front face had been split open as if by an axe, and on it appeared secret characters resembling heavenly script. Scholars and Daoist priests came to examine it and recognized it as a sacred trace of the Perfected Warrior. Officials sent men to copy the characters with paper and brush. As soon as the copying was finished, the pillar caught fire from within and burned to ashes.

This matched the dream the abbey's attendant had had the night before. It exposed Huang Yu's crimes and showed that his retribution had come swiftly. The prefect of Nan'an Army District did not dare to conceal the matter, and promptly recorded every detail and memorialized the court. The court issued a reply saying, "People living in the world bring forth good and evil from their own thoughts. Good deeds are like the tides of rivers and seas, coming and going without form or trace, whereas evil deeds may bring retribution very quickly, just as heaven and earth nurture the myriad things and respond everywhere. How could people not act with caution?" The court ordered Nan'an Army District to erect a stele in front of the abbey in accordance with this decision, to make clear that the retribution Zhenwu revealed never errs, and to announce the matter throughout the land as a warning to later generations.

Honorary Titles Bestowed for Merit

The Baoying Pavilion survived this calamity because the gods protected it in secret, and the efficacy they displayed confirms this. The matter should therefore be carved on a stele and set up before the gate of the Daoist temple, to make clear that Great Emperor Zhenwu (Zhenwu Dadi) rewards and punishes with perfect distinction. The affair should also be made known at court and throughout the realm, as a warning to later generations.

Honorary Titles Bestowed for Merit

The Baoying Pavilion was preserved through the secret assistance of the gods, and their divine power has been manifest, so their merit deserves recognition. A series of honorific titles is bestowed upon Great Emperor Zhenwu. He is to be permanently enshrined in the "Dingguo Wuai Cibei Jiazheng Dian" (Hall of Unobstructed Compassion for Stabilizing the State and Governing the Household). He is granted the superior rank of "General of the Nine Heavens Patrol, Commander of the Three Primes of Upper Clarity, Pivot of the Mysterious Primal Dynamism," and is exalted as "Perfected Lord of Zhenwu's Spiritual Response" (Zhenwu Lingying Zhenjun).

He was also ordered to be posthumously honored with the long title "Ancestor of Imperial Orthodoxy, Illuminating and Perfectly Bright in Stillness, Majestically Adorned, Treasure of Disputation, Sovereign Over Heaven, Protector of the State and Pacifier of the People, Longevity-Granting and Responsive Blessing Spirit, Wise, Virtuous, Filial, Perspicacious, Civil and Martial, Stabilizer of Disorder, Sage of Meritorious Works, Compassionate and Wise Celestial Marquis." These lengthy titles celebrate Zhenwu's merits in protecting the state, pacifying the people, bestowing blessings on the world, and uniting civil and martial virtues.

The "Essence of Water" (Shui zhi Jing) also received a title, called "Assistant to the Virtue of Governance, Supreme Responder to the Great Dao, Manifest and Clear, Martial and Relieving, Yin-Abundant and Aiding the Sage," and was granted the office of "Left Attendant Commander of the Cloud Riders, Protector of the State, Guardian of Peace, Assistant in Solemn Order, Great General of the Heaven of Mysterious Primal Unity." The "Essence of Fire" (Huo zhi Jing) was given the title "Assistant to the Virtue of Governance, Ultimate Benefactor of Sincere Reverence, Universally Relieving, Yang-Eloquent and Martial Sage," and was appointed "Right Attendant Commander of the Cloud Riders, Protector of the State, Guardian of Tranquility, Assistant in Solemn Order, Great General of the Heaven of Mysterious Primal Preservation." The text then repeats the enfeoffment of the "Essence of Fire" and states that it is to be conferred in the manner described above. Finally, the imperially composed eulogy is placed in the pavilion, and the name "Treasure Scroll" (Ce Bao) is bestowed upon it.

The root of all things lies in great and dependable virtue; the essence and vital breath pervade the mysterious heavens, and its numinous light shines vast and resplendent.

The source of flourishing benefit lies in maintaining harmony and uniting all things into oneness. People make offerings of incense with reverence, and the five blessings will follow.

The Scroll Eight of the Xuanxuan Shangdi Qisheng Lu (Record of the Sage Origins of the Mysterious Heavenly Emperor) is complete.