《神仙传》

The Traditions of the Immortals is a book written by Ge Hong during the Jin dynasty. Ge Hong says that he discussed the affairs of immortals in the twenty volumes of his Inner Chapters. His disciple Teng Sheng asked him, “You say that immortals can live forever and never die, and that we can learn the cultivation methods of the immortals of antiquity. Did such people really exist in ancient times?”

Ge Hong replied, “Long ago, Ruan Cang, an official of the Qin state, recorded several hundred immortals, while Liu Xiang collected and compiled accounts of seventy-one. Most immortals lived in seclusion, hidden from view, and followed a path unlike that of ordinary people. Those the world has heard of are only a tiny fraction of their actual number. For this reason, ancient books record many wondrous deeds: Ning Zi entered fire and rose into the smoke; after Ma Huang saw people coming to welcome him, he obtained a dragon. Fang Hui chewed mica, while Chi Jiangzi ate flowers and traveled on the wind. Juanzi took water essence and wrote books; Xiaofu passed through raging fire and lived on without end. Wuguang wandered and dwelt in deep waters, eating wild chives; Qiu Sheng delayed aging by living on pine. Qiong Shu took minerals to refine and nourish his body; Qin Gao rode a carp in the region of Dang. Gui Fu took turtle brain and changed his appearance; though more than seventy years old, Nü Wan regained her youthful looks; Lingyang swallowed fatless substance and climbed to great heights. Shangqiu chewed sweet flag and lived forever, while the Rain Master refined five-colored substances to temper himself.

“Then there was Zi Guang, who harnessed a horned dragon, and Xuan Tu, who rode thunder through the air. Zhou Jin rode a white bird past Mount Goushi; the Yellow Emperor ascended to heaven on a flying dragon at Ding Lake. Ge You rode a wooden sheep up Mount Suishan; Lu Tong spent long ages at Huanglu. Xiao Shi ascended on a phoenix, while Dongfang Shuo drifted over the capital. Dizi underwent a wondrous transformation and vanished; Zhuzhu flew by means of cinnabar. Ruan Qiu endured through the ages on Mount Sui; Ying Shi rode a fish on a distant journey. Xiu Yang sank into stone on the Western Peak; Ma Dan traveled with the wind at lightning speed. When the Old Man of the Deer climbed a rugged height, a spring flowed after him; on Mount Wuhua, Yuan Ke shed his old body like a cicada casting off its skin.

“Now I have also collected accounts of the immortals of antiquity. My sources include immortal scriptures, books of methods for taking substances and cultivation, writings by various authors, and stories told by my former teachers and elder scholars. I have compiled them in ten volumes to pass on to people of broad understanding who know the true Dao. I do not force those who cling to worldly views and refuse to investigate hidden truths to read them. From this, we can see that Liu Xiang’s account was very brief and left out many remarkable stories. Though the material in my biography is profound and strange, it cannot record everything; I can only preserve as much of the main substance as possible. In my private judgment, it is more complete than Liu Xiang’s account and omits far less.”

Guangchengzi was an immortal of ancient times who lived in a stone chamber on Mount Kongtong. When the Yellow Emperor heard of him, he went to pay him a visit and asked, “May I ask what is essential to the Supreme Dao, the highest principle?”

Guangchengzi said, “When you govern the world, even the clouds seem to drift without first gathering, and plants wither before their leaves have even turned yellow. With such understanding, how can you speak of the Supreme Dao?”

The Yellow Emperor withdrew and spent three months in quiet seclusion. Then he went again to see Guangchengzi. Guangchengzi was lying facing north. The Yellow Emperor approached on his knees, bowed again, and asked about the way to cultivate the body. Guangchengzi sprang up and said, “A good question! The subtlety of the Supreme Dao is dark and difficult to perceive; its utmost reaches a state of dim stillness. Do not look outward or listen outward. Guard your spirit and quiet your heart, and your body will naturally become upright. Be sure to remain tranquil and pure. Do not wear out your body or disturb your spirit; then you can live a long life. Carefully guard what is within and rein in your pursuit of things outside. Knowing too much can bring harm. I held fast to oneness and kept myself in a state of peace. Thus, after twelve hundred years, my body has still not grown old. One who grasps my Dao may become an emperor above; one who follows my Dao may become a king below. I am leaving you now, bound for the Land of Nothing at All, a realm without constraint. I will enter the Gate of the Infinite, roam the boundless wilderness, shine with the sun and moon, and endure as long as Heaven and Earth. All others will die; I alone will remain.”

Ruoshi

Ruoshi was an ancient immortal whose name was unknown. Lu Ao, a man of the State of Yan, traveled to the Northern Sea during the Qin dynasty. He passed through Taiyin, entered the Mysterious Pass, and reached Mount Menggu, where he met Ruoshi. Ruoshi had deeply set eyes and a high, prominent nose. His shoulders rose like a kite’s, his neck was long and slender, and his upper body was full while his lower body was thin. His expression was joyful as he danced lightly into the wind. When he saw Lu Ao, he hid beneath a stone stele. Lu Ao bent down to look and saw him curled up, crouching like a tortoise as he ate crabs and shellfish.

Lu Ao said to him, “I left the crowds behind and have traveled alone in search of places beyond Heaven and Earth. I loved traveling as a child, and that never changed as I grew older; I have journeyed in every direction. Now at last I have met you here. Perhaps we might become friends?”

Ruoshi smiled solemnly and said, “Alas, you are a man of the Central Plains; you should not have traveled so far to come here. What the people of the Central Plains see and hear amounts only to the places illuminated by the sun, moon, and stars. Compared with realms that have no name, even that is merely one corner of the hidden depths. I once traveled south to the wilds of Dongmi, rested in the silent land in the north, went west to the farthest reaches of the dark and distant chamber, and crossed east through the vast, boundless realm of light. There, below, one sees no earth, and above, no sky; one can neither see nor hear. Beyond that lie realms more vast still, where a single step can carry you tens of thousands of miles, yet I have not been able to reach them. You have only just arrived here, yet you say you have traveled the whole world. Is that not shallow understanding? Still, since you have come, I am going to roam above the Nine Heavens with Hanman, the boundless being. I cannot stay here long.”

With that, Ruoshi raised his arms and straightened up, then entered the clouds. Lu Ao looked up, but could no longer see him. He could only stop where he was, his heart heavy with grief and bewilderment, as though he had lost something. He sighed, “Compared with Ruoshi, I am like a swan beside a tiny creature on the ground. I traveled all day without leaving a few feet behind, yet thought I had gone far. How absurd. How lamentable!”

Shen Ao looked up, but could no longer see him. He had no choice but to stop, his heart filled with sorrow and regret, as though he had lost something. He said, “Compared with the Master, I am like a great bird—perhaps a wild goose or swan—set against a tiny creature in the soil. I walked all day, yet never left the space of a few feet. I thought I had traveled far; how badly mistaken I was! How tragic.”

Shen Wentai

Shen Wentai was from Jiuyi. He received elixirs, earthen talismans, and methods for prolonging life from the spirits of Jiang. After taking them, he saw real results. He wished to settle on Mount Kunlun for more than two thousand years and pass these methods on to Li Wenyuan. He said, “If you do not take the medicine according to the methods prescribed by the earthen talismans, your cultivation will bring no benefit.” Li Wenyuan then passed on the secret essentials to him. Later, Li Wenyuan also ascended to heaven. It is said that decocting elixirs and yellow earth with the juice of bamboo roots can eliminate the Three Corpses—spirits that Daoism holds dwell in the human body, damage a person’s vital essence, and report their transgressions to Heaven. This teaching originated with Shen Wentai and Li Wenyuan.

Pengzu’s surname was Qian and his given name was Keng. He was a great-grandson of Emperor Zhuanxu. By the end of the Yin dynasty, he was already 760 years old, yet showed no signs of aging. From childhood he had loved quiet and seclusion. He took no interest in worldly affairs, sought no fame, and cared little for carriages, horses, or fine clothes. He regarded only the cultivation of health and the refinement of the self as important. When the king of Yin heard of him, he appointed him a high official, but Pengzu often pleaded illness and lived in seclusion, taking no part in government.

Pengzu excelled at nourishing the body and practicing daoyin—health exercises involving regulated breathing and bodily movement. He also took such substances as water cinnamon, mica powder, and deer antler, and so often appeared youthful. He was calm and reserved, never claimed to have attained the Dao, and performed no strange transformations to mislead people. He lived at ease in Wuwei (non-action). At times he would travel, and no one knew where he had gone; those who secretly followed him could never find him. He owned carriages and horses but rarely rode in them. Sometimes he went for hundreds or dozens of days without provisions, yet when he returned home, he ate, dressed, and lived just like anyone else.

He often held his breath and practiced inward breathing from morning until noon. Then he would sit upright, rub his eyes, massage his body, moisten his lips and swallow saliva, and regulate his breathing dozens of times before rising and speaking as usual. Whenever his body felt tired or unwell, he used daoyin and breath retention to restore it. In his mind, he visualized his own body, attending in turn to the nine orifices of the head and face, the internal organs, the limbs, and even the hair. He felt Qi moving through his body, starting at his nose and mouth and reaching the tips of his fingers. Before long, his body would return to a state of balance.

The king of Yin came in person to ask him about these practices, but Pengzu did not reveal the methods of health cultivation. The king sent him many precious objects, worth tens of thousands in all, and Pengzu accepted them and used them to help the poor, keeping almost nothing for himself.

There was also a woman named Caini who had gained some understanding of the way. She knew how to nourish the body and lived to the age of 270, still looking like a girl of fifteen or sixteen. The king of Yin respected her. He built her splendid residences and towers in the palace, decorated them with gold and jade, and sent her in a light carriage to ask Pengzu about the Dao. After paying her respects, Caini asked how to prolong life.

Pengzu said, “To ascend to the heavens and enter the halls of the immortals to assist them, one should take the Golden Elixir. This is the elixir taken by the Primordial Lady and the Great One, and after taking it, one can ascend to heaven in broad daylight. But this Great Dao is exceedingly profound and is not suited to a ruler’s practice. A lesser path is to cherish one’s vital essence, nourish the spirit, and take good medicines to extend life. Yet this will not enable one to command ghosts and spirits or fly through the air. If one does not understand the way of sexual union between men and women, taking medicines will bring no benefit. Caini understands how to nourish Yin-Yang; the principles involved can be worked out. You have simply not thought carefully about them. Why come all this way to ask me?

“When I was born, my father was already dead, and I lost my mother at the age of three. Then, during the turmoil caused by the Quanrong, I wandered in the Western Regions for more than a hundred years. Later I lost forty-nine wives and fifty-four sons. I endured repeated grief and hardship, which damaged the body’s harmony. My skin lost its luster, and my Qi and blood declined. I fear I can no longer pass through the world. What I know is shallow and not worth passing on. In the mountains of Dayuan there is now a Master Qingjing. They say he has lived for a thousand years, looks like a child, and can walk three hundred li in a day. He can go an entire year without food, or eat nine meals in a single day. He is the one you should truly seek out.”

Caini asked, “May I ask what kind of immortal Master Qingjing is?”

Pengzu replied, “He is one who has attained the Dao, but he is not yet an immortal. As for immortals, some leap into the clouds and fly without wings; some ride dragons and clouds up the steps of heaven; some transform into birds or beasts and roam among the blue clouds; some travel beneath rivers and seas or visit famous mountains; some feed only on primal Qi or lingzhi mushrooms; some come and go among people without being recognized; and some live in wild places, with unusual bones and hair, preferring solitude and shunning worldly company. Even if their lives are endless, they are all far removed from human attachments and the joys of the world. They are like sparrows that turn into clams or pheasants that turn into clams: they lose their original nature and become something else. I do not wish to pursue such a state.

“The way to cultivate health among human beings should allow one to eat delicious food, wear light, warm, and beautiful clothes, understand how to harmonize Yin-Yang, hold a suitable position in office, and enjoy keen hearing and sight, strong joints, and a radiant complexion. One should grow old without decline, extend one’s years, and live long in this world, untouched by cold, heat, wind, and damp, undisturbed by ghosts and spirits, and unharmed by weapons or insects. One should also remain untroubled by sorrow, joy, slander, or praise. This is what is worth cherishing.

“People receive the Qi of Heaven and Earth. Even without knowing any special arts, if they care for themselves properly, they should live to 120. Those who fail to reach that age have suffered damage to their bodies. With a little knowledge of health cultivation, one can live to 240; with further practice, one can reach 480. If one fully grasps the principles of health cultivation, one can become deathless, though still not an immortal. The key to long life lies simply in not damaging the body.

“Keep warm in winter and cool in summer, and follow the changes of the seasons; then the body will be comfortable. When faced with beauty and graceful forms, remain relaxed and content, without becoming lost in desire; then the spirit will be balanced. Be satisfied with carriages, horses, clothing, and ceremonial forms, and the will will not become scattered. Music and colors can delight the ears and eyes and soothe the emotions. All these things can nourish longevity, but without restraint and regulation they can instead bring illness.

“The sages of antiquity worried that the young and inexperienced might become immersed in these things and unable to free themselves. That is why they cut off their sources. Thus, practitioners of the highest degree slept in separate beds, while those of middling ability wore different clothes. A thousand doses of medicine are not as good as sleeping alone. The five colors dazzle the eyes, and the five flavors dull the palate. If one knows how to restrain and regulate the body’s flow and closure, one will not shorten one’s allotted years and may even benefit from them.

“These matters are like water and fire: used in excess, they harm people. People do not realize that their channels have been damaged, their Qi and blood depleted, their insides weakened, and their marrow left deficient. Their bodies are already sick, and so they are easily harmed by external things; then wind and cold, alcohol and sex bring on the symptoms. If the body were sound to begin with, how could illness come so easily? Thinking too far ahead and forcing the memory strain the body. Sorrow, resentment, and grief strain it. Excessive joy and unrestrained anger strain it. Desperate pursuit of one’s wishes and worry over what troubles one also strain it. Imbalance between cold and warmth, and disharmony between Yin and Yang, do the same. There are many ways to damage the body, yet people blame sexual relations alone. Is that not foolish?

“The union of man and woman is like the mutual generative action of Heaven and Earth. Nourishing the spirit and breath keeps a person balanced. Heaven and Earth follow the pattern of union, and so their generation of life has no end. When people lose the way of union, their lives are diminished. Avoid all the things that damage the body and understand how to harmonize Yin-Yang: this is the way to long life. Heaven and Earth separate during the day and unite at night. In a year they meet 360 times, and on four of these occasions their vital essences unite and give birth to the myriad things. Thus generation never ceases. If people can follow the example of Heaven and Earth, they too can live for a long time.

“Next comes breath-taking. If one masters its method, harmful Qi cannot enter; this is an important foundation for cultivating the self. Other methods, such as breathing practices, daoyin, visualizing the inner deities, and holding the image while preserving the body, number more than 1,700. Practices such as following the seasons, arranging one’s daily routine, and reflecting on one’s faults are not the fundamental Great Dao; they can only help beginners set their thoughts straight. Cherish vital essence, nourish the body, take in Qi, and refine the form, and the inner deities will naturally remain at rest. If you cannot do these things, your Qi and blood will wither and the deities will depart. They cannot be kept in place by intention alone.

“Foolish people study the Dao without working at its foundations, chasing after peripheral details instead. Tell them the most important principles and they will not believe you. They see a concise book and think it shallow, yet recite books such as the Taiping Beishen Zhongjing day and night, exhausting themselves to death without benefit. Is that not tragic? People are always entangled in affairs, and few can leave the world behind, live alone in a mountain cave, and practice according to the Dao. Even when told what to do, they often cannot manage it; this is not what a benevolent person wishes. If one understands the way of harmonizing sexual relations, the art of breath retention, how to restrain one’s thoughts, and how to regulate one’s food, one can attain the Dao. My former master first composed the scriptures Jiudu Jiejie, Taoxing Yindun Wuwei, Kaiming Siji, Jiushi, and others—13,000 chapters in all—to guide beginners into the practice.”

Caini wrote down all the key points and recited them to the king of Yin. The king put them into practice and saw real results, so he wanted to keep the methods secret. He ordered that anyone in the country who passed on Pengzu’s teachings should be put to death. He also planned to kill Pengzu and thereby end their transmission. When Pengzu realized this, he left, and no one knew where he went. More than seventy years later, someone reportedly saw him west of the Flowing Sands.

Had the king of Yin continued to follow Pengzu’s teachings, it is said he could have lived for three hundred years, regained the strength of his prime, and been as vigorous as he was at fifty. Later, he became infatuated with a woman from Zheng, indulged his desires, and abandoned the way of health cultivation; in the end, he died. Some among the people said that Pengzu’s teachings could bring about death. This came about because the king of Yin had forbidden their transmission. When Pengzu left the Yin dynasty, he was already 780 years old, but he did not die of old age.

Baishi Sheng

Baishi Sheng was a disciple of Elder Zhonghuang, a legendary immortal. By the time Peng Zu was alive, he had already lived for more than two thousand years. He did not wish to practice the arts of flying up to Heaven and becoming an immortal. He sought only to live forever and continue enjoying life in this world. His practice centered mainly on the arts of the bedchamber, which the text calls “the way of sexual union,” and he considered the medicine of golden liquid, a Daoist elixir for longevity, to be most important.

At first, Baishi Sheng was poor and of low status, and could not afford medicine. He raised pigs and herded sheep for more than ten years, living frugally and saving ten thousand gold pieces before he could buy and take the medicine. He often boiled white stones and ate them as food, so he lived on White Stone Mountain and people called him Baishi Sheng, “White Stone Man.” Sometimes he ate dried meat and drank wine; at other times, he ate grain. He could walk three or four hundred li in a day and looked about thirty years old. He liked to perform morning rites and visualize the spirits, and he also enjoyed reading immortal scriptures and the Taishou Tradition, a Daoist text.

Peng Zu asked him, “Why don’t you take the medicine and fly up to Heaven?” He replied, “Could there be as much pleasure in Heaven as there is here? I only don’t want to grow old and die. There are many high-ranking beings in Heaven whom one must serve, making life there harder than life among people.” For this reason, people of that time called Baishi Sheng a “reclusive immortal”: he was in no hurry to ascend, did not seek an official post among the immortals of Heaven, and did not pursue fame or distinction.

Lord Huangshan

Lord Huangshan practiced Peng Zu’s arts and lived for several hundred years, while still looking young. He followed the Way of the Earthbound Immortals, cultivating longevity while remaining in the human world, and could not ascend to Heaven. After Peng Zu departed, he recounted and compiled Peng Zu’s teachings, writing the Peng Zu Jing. It is said that anyone who obtains the Peng Zu Jing can remain evergreen for a long time, like the pine and cypress among trees.

Feng Gang

Feng Gang was a native of Yuyang. He often gathered various flowers and herbs, soaked them in water, and sealed them in clay. He began preparing them in the first month of the year and continued until the end of the ninth month. After burying them for a hundred days, he dug them up, boiled them down, and made them into pills. When someone suddenly died, placing one of these pills in their mouth could bring them back to life at once. Feng Gang took this medicine for a long time and lived for several hundred years without showing signs of age. Later, he entered Difei Mountain and departed as an immortal.

Volume Two

Huang Chuping

Huang Chuping was a native of Danxi. When he was fifteen, he was sent to herd sheep. A Daoist saw that he was kind and cautious, and took him to a stone chamber on Jinhua Mountain. From then on, forty years passed, and Huang Chuping gradually stopped thinking about his family.

His elder brother, Huang Chuqi, went into the mountains to look for him, but searched for years without finding him. Later, Huang Chuqi met a Daoist skilled in divination at a market and asked, “I have a younger brother named Chuping. I sent him to herd sheep, and then I lost all word of him. It has been more than forty years. I do not know whether he is alive or dead. Please, Daoist Lord, divine his fate for me.”

The Daoist said, “There is a boy herding sheep on Jinhua Mountain, surnamed Huang and named Chuping. Is he your younger brother?” Huang Chuqi was astonished and delighted. He followed the Daoist to find him, and sure enough, he met his younger brother. The two brothers were overcome with both sorrow and joy.

Huang Chuqi asked his brother, “Where are all the sheep?” Huang Chuping replied, “They are on the east side of the mountain.” Huang Chuqi went to look, but saw only countless white stones and no sheep at all. He returned and told his brother, “There are no sheep on the east side of the mountain.” Huang Chuping said, “The sheep are plainly right there; it is only that you cannot see them.” He then led his brother there and called out, “Sheep, rise!” At once, all the white stones turned into sheep, numbering tens of thousands.

Huang Chuqi said, “My younger brother alone has such supernatural powers. Can I learn to do the same?” Huang Chuping replied, “If you devote yourself wholeheartedly to the Dao, you can.” Huang Chuqi then left his wife and children and stayed with his younger brother to cultivate the Dao. Together they took pine resin and poria mushroom. After five thousand days, they could make themselves disappear while sitting; when walking in the sunlight, they cast no shadows, and their faces remained like those of children.

Later, the brothers returned to their home village together and found that almost all their relatives had died. They then left the human world again. Before departing, Huang Chuping passed his cultivation methods on to Nanbo Feng and changed his surname to Chi, his given name to Chuping, and his courtesy name to Chisongzi. Huang Chuqi changed his courtesy name to Luban. After that, several dozen people attained the Dao and became immortals by receiving and taking this medicine.

Lü Gong, whose courtesy name was Wenjing, had been fond of taking medicines to seek longevity from a young age. He took a male servant and a maidservant with him to gather herbs in the Taihang Mountains. Suddenly, three men appeared in the valley and asked him, “Do you wish to live long? Why are you still going to such trouble, risking your life to gather herbs?”

Lü Gong replied, “I truly do seek longevity, but I have not come across a good prescription. So I gather these herbs and take them, hoping they may do me some good.”

One of the men said, “My surname is Lü, and my courtesy name is Wenqi.” Another said, “My surname is Sun, and my courtesy name is Wenyang.” The third said, “My surname is Li, and my courtesy name is Wenshang. We are all immortals from the Taiping Palace of the Great Clarity. We often come here to gather herbs, which we refine into elixirs and pass on to those beginning their cultivation of the Dao. You share a surname with me, and one character in your name matches one in mine. It seems you are destined to attain longevity. If you are willing to gather herbs with us, I will tell you the method for living forever.”

Lü Gong immediately bowed and said, “I am fortunate to have met immortals. I fear only that my ignorance and many faults make me unworthy to receive your teachings. If you would save me, that would fulfill my wish to be reborn.” He then followed the immortals away.

Two days later, the immortals taught Lü Gong a secret prescription, then told him to return and visit his home village. As he took his leave, one of them said, “Although you have been here only two days, two hundred years have passed in the human world.”

When Lü Gong returned to his native village, he found that the place where he had lived was now an empty plot, and his descendants were gone. He met a man named Zhao Guangfu, who came from the village several generations after Lü Gong. Lü Gong asked where the Lü family lived. Zhao Guangfu stared at him in surprise. “Where have you come from? Why are you asking about someone who lived so long ago? I heard from my ancestors that Lü Gong went into the mountains to gather herbs with a male and a female servant and never returned. Everyone thought he had been killed by tigers or wolves. That was more than two hundred years ago. Among Lü Gong’s descendants today is a man named Lü Xi, who serves as a Daoist priest ten li northeast of the city. Many people pay their respects to him, so he will not be hard to find.”

After hearing Zhao Guangfu, Lü Gong went to Lü Xi’s home and knocked at the door. A servant came out to ask what he wanted. Lü Gong said, “This is my home. When I went to gather herbs, I followed the immortals away. More than two hundred years have passed, and now I have returned.”

The whole Lü family rushed out barefoot in delight to pay their respects. Weeping, they cried, “The immortal has returned!” Some time later, Lü Gong gave Lü Xi the medicinal prescription the immortals had taught him, then departed. Lü Xi was already eighty years old at the time. After taking the medicine, he gradually regained his youth and lived to the age of two hundred before going into the mountains and departing. Lü Gong’s descendants took this medicine generation after generation. They no longer grew old or died, and all became immortals.

Shen Jian was from Danyang. His family had served for generations as chief clerks, a local government post, but he alone delighted in cultivating the Dao and had no wish to serve as an official. He studied daoyin, methods of nourishing life through guiding the body and circulating Qi, along with techniques for taking medicinal substances, prolonging life, returning to youth, and treating illness. Patients who came to him recovered, whatever the severity of their condition. He helped more than a thousand households.

One day, Shen Jian was about to travel far away. He left a male servant, a female servant, a donkey, and ten sheep in another household’s care. He gave each servant and animal one pill and told the host, “Just let them stay here. There is no need to trouble yourself by providing them with food or drink.” Then he departed. The host was puzzled and thought, “There are thirteen people and animals in his care, yet he has not even left any money. What am I to do?” After Shen Jian had gone, the host offered the servants food. As soon as they smelled it, they vomited. The host put fodder before the donkey and sheep, but they shied away and refused to eat, even trying to butt people with their horns. The host was greatly astonished.

After more than a hundred days, the servants’ faces and bodies had become radiant and well nourished, healthier even than when they first arrived. The donkey and sheep had grown fat and strong too, as if they had been fed all along. Shen Jian returned only after three years away. He gave each servant and animal another pill, and only then did they resume eating and drinking as before. After that, Shen Jian gave up grain entirely and stopped eating. He could make his body light, rise into the air, and fly from place to place. He lived this way for more than three hundred years, then vanished without a trace; no one knew where he had gone.

Hua Ziqi was from Huainan. He became a disciple of Master Luli and studied the Hidden Immortal Lingbao Formulas, a set of cultivation methods attributed to immortals in Daoist lore. These included The Flying Tortoise Registers of the Yi and Luo, Bo Yu’s Corrected Mechanism, and The Balanced Formula. He prepared and took medicines according to these methods, and his body grew younger day by day. He could walk five hundred li in a day and lift a thousand-jin weight; with each passing month, his body and abilities changed markedly. Later, he departed as an immortal.

Le Zichang

Le Zichang was from the state of Qi and had loved cultivating the Dao since childhood. When he came to Mount Huolin, he met an immortal who passed on a formula for taking “Giant Sesame and Red Pine Powder” and told him, “A snake that takes this medicine can transform into a dragon; a person who takes it can regain a youthful face even in old age. It can also enable one to ride the clouds up and down, change one’s appearance, strengthen the primordial Qi, replenish Jing, rescue the dying, and preserve life. If you can cultivate in this way, you will be able to transcend the world.”

After taking Red Pine Powder, Le Zichang lived to the age of one hundred and eighty, yet still looked like a young girl. His nine wives also took the medicine: the older ones grew young again, while the younger ones kept their youthful appearance. Later, Le Zichang entered the sea, climbed Mount Laosheng, and departed as an immortal.

Wei Shuqing was a native of Zhongshan. After taking mica, he attained the Dao and became an immortal. On the renchen day of the eighth month in the second year of the Yuanfeng era of Emperor Wu of Han, the emperor was resting alone in his hall when he suddenly saw a man arrive before it, riding a drifting cloud and driving a white deer. Astonished, the emperor asked who he was. The man replied, “I am Wei Shuqing of Zhongshan.” The emperor said, “Isn’t Zhongshan one of my domains?” Wei Shuqing did not answer. He immediately departed on his cloud and vanished from sight.

The emperor deeply regretted what had happened. He sent an envoy, Liang Bozhi, to Zhongshan to search for Wei Shuqing. Liang found Wei’s son, Wei Dushi, and brought him to the emperor. Asked where his father was, Dushi replied, “My father took an interest in the Way of the immortals when he was young. He took medicines and cultivated himself for more than eighty years, and his body grew younger and stronger. Then one day he put me in charge of the household affairs and said he was going to Mount Hua. He left and never returned. It has now been more than forty years.”

The emperor sent Liang Bozhi and Dushi together to search for Wei Shuqing on Mount Hua. After they climbed the mountain, rain fell repeatedly, and they were stranded for several days. Dushi said, “Could it be that my father does not want me to come with someone else?” He therefore undertook purification anew and climbed the mountain alone. Purification involved restricting food and cleansing body and mind in preparation for cultivating the Dao or performing a ritual.

Dushi saw his father playing on a rock with several people. A dense purple cloud sheltered Wei Shuqing’s head. He sat on a white jade couch, with several immortal attendants standing behind him, holding ceremonial banners and tallies. Dushi saw him from a distance and bowed twice. Wei Shuqing asked, “Why have you come?” Dushi explained in detail that Emperor Wu regretted not having spoken with his father and had sent him with the envoy to search for him.

Wei Shuqing said, “In the past, I came at the command of the Most High, hoping to warn the emperor that disaster was approaching and to tell him how to avert it and escape calamity, so that the Han dynasty’s fortunes might continue. But the emperor is stubborn and arrogant, and does not understand the true Dao. Instead, he wanted me to become his subject. I therefore had nothing to tell him, and left. Now I am to join Central Yellow Great One (Zhonghuang Taiyi), a Daoist deity, in determining the numerical cycle of the Heavenly Origin, the nine and five. I cannot return.”

Dushi then asked, “Who were the people playing chess with you just now?” Wei Shuqing replied, “They were Master Hongya, Xu You, Chao Fu, Wang Ziqiao, and Xue Rong. The world is about to fall into great disorder, and the people under Heaven will have no peace. Several hundred years from now, Earth will extinguish Metal, Metal will perish, and the Heavenly Lord will descend into the world. This will take place in a renchen year. I have a formula for immortality stored beneath a pillar in the northwest corner of the house. Return and retrieve it. Prepare and take the medicines according to the formula, and you will live forever, never die, and ride the clouds. Once your cultivation of the Dao is complete, come find me here. You need not serve the Han dynasty any longer.”

After bidding farewell to his father, Dushi returned home and dug up a jade case. Inside, the formula for immortality was sealed away. Dushi followed its instructions, obtained and consumed five-colored mica, and taught the formula to Liang Bozhi. The two then became immortals together without telling Emperor Wu of Han.

Wei Boyang was a native of the Wu region. He came from a distinguished family, yet by nature he loved the Daoist arts and had no wish to serve as an official. He lived quietly at home, cultivating his body and mind, but people of his time did not understand him.

Later, he took three disciples into the mountains to refine a divine elixir. When it was ready, the disciples still had doubts, so they proposed testing it on a white dog: if the dog ascended after taking the elixir, they could take it; if it died, they should not. Wei Boyang took a white dog into the mountains. The elixir had not yet reached the proper stage of firing, and its properties had not been brought into harmony. Anyone who took it would die temporarily. Wei Boyang fed the elixir to the dog, and it died at once.

Wei Boyang asked his disciples, “The great danger in refining an elixir is that the process may fail. Now the elixir is ready, but the dog died after taking it. Perhaps this does not accord with the will of the spirits. If we take it, we may end up like the dog. What should we do?” A disciple asked, “Do you intend to take it, Master?” Wei Boyang replied, “I turned my back on the ways of the world and left my family’s estate to enter the mountains and cultivate the Dao. If I cannot attain the Dao and become an immortal, I do not intend to return. Whether I live or die, I should take it.” He swallowed the elixir and died as soon as it entered his mouth.

The disciples looked at one another and said, “We refined the elixir to attain long life, but now it has killed whoever takes it. What should we do?” One of them said, “My master is no ordinary person. Perhaps his death after taking the elixir has some other purpose.” He too swallowed the elixir and died immediately. The two remaining disciples said, “We refined the elixir in the hope of gaining long life. If taking it means dying, what use is it? If we leave it alone, we can at least live for several more decades in this world.” So they did not take it. They left the mountains together, intending to buy coffins for Wei Boyang and the disciple who had died.

After they left, Wei Boyang got up and placed the elixir in the mouths of the dead disciple and the white dog. They both came back to life. The disciple’s surname was Yu. Then they ascended together to become immortals and departed. On the way, Wei Boyang met someone who had entered the mountains to cut wood. He asked the man to write a letter and send it back to his home, bidding farewell to the two disciples. Only then did the two disciples deeply regret what they had done.

Wei Boyang wrote the three-volume works Cantong qi (Token for Joining the Three) and Wuxing xianglei (Five Phases in Their Resemblances). On the surface, their explanations seem to interpret the Zhouyi (Classic of Changes), but in fact they draw on the images and numbers of the hexagrams and lines to explain the art of elixir refinement. The author argues that Confucian scholars did not understand the cultivation of immortals and instead interpreted these teachings as theories of Yin-Yang, thereby straying from the works’ central meaning.

Shen Xi was from Wu Commandery and had once studied the Dao in Shu. He could avert calamities, cure illnesses, and help the people, but he did not know how to cultivate through taking medicines. Because he did good deeds, accumulated De, and never forgot his cultivation of the Dao, the celestial spirits took note of him.

One day, Shen Xi and his wife, Lady Jia, were riding together in a cart on their way to the home of their daughter-in-law, Zhuo Kongning. On the road, they suddenly encountered three carts: one drawn by a white deer, one by a blue-green dragon, and one by a white tiger. Behind the carts rode several dozen riders, all dressed in red and carrying Fulu, ceremonial staffs, and regalia. Their ornaments shone brilliantly, lighting up the road. The riders asked Shen Xi, “Have you seen the Daoist Shen?” Startled, Shen Xi replied, “I don’t know who you mean.” They asked again, “What about Shen Xi?” He answered, “I am Shen Xi. Why do you ask?” The riders said, “You have served the people well, and you have never forgotten the Great Dao. Since your youth, you have lived without fault. Now your allotted years and blessings are coming to an end. Huang and Lao—the Yellow Emperor and Laozi, revered in Daoism—take pity on you and have sent celestial officials to receive you. Attendant Officer Bo Yan rides in the white-deer cart, Lord Sima Sheng Dushi rides in the blue-green-dragon cart, and the welcoming envoy Xu Fu rides in the white-tiger cart.”

Soon, three immortals appeared before Shen Xi. Dressed in feathered robes and carrying ceremonial staffs, they gave him tablets of white jade, blue-green jade, and red jade inscribed with cinnabar-colored writing. Shen Xi knelt to receive them, but had no time to read them. The immortals appointed him “Attendant Officer of the Azure Firmament,” in charge of the registers of life and death in the Wu and Yue regions, then carried him up to heaven.

At the time, farmers working by the roadside saw what happened, but did not know what it meant. A thick fog suddenly rose. When it cleared, Shen Xi had vanished; only his cart and ox remained in the fields, grazing on the crops. Someone recognized the ox as Shen Xi’s and told his family and disciples. Several hundred disciples feared that an evil spirit had hidden Shen Xi in a mountain ravine. They searched all around within a hundred li, but found no trace of him.

More than four hundred years later, Shen Xi suddenly returned to his home region and sought out Shen Huaixi, a descendant several generations removed. Huaixi said, “The elders in our family passed down the story that one of our ancestors became an immortal. Now the immortal has indeed returned.” Shen Xi stayed in his hometown for several dozen days.

He recounted what he had seen when he first ascended to heaven. He had not seen the Celestial Worthy; he had only seen the Lord Lao seated facing east, with attendants beside him carrying out and relaying his orders. Shen Xi did not step forward to pay his respects, but sat quietly. He saw magnificent palaces surrounded by swirling clouds in colors of the Five Phases, a sight beyond description. There were several hundred attendants, most of them women and young boys. Trees of pearls and jade grew thickly in the courtyards, where dragons, tigers, and pixiu—mythical auspicious beasts—played among them. A clear, ringing sound could be heard, like copper and iron striking together, though its source was unknown. The four walls gleamed, covered with talismanic writing.

The Lord Lao stood about ten feet tall, with loose hair and robes that fell to the ground. Light shone from the crown of his head and the back of his neck. After a while, several Jade Maidens came bearing golden plates and jade cups. They gave Shen Xi medicine, saying, “This is a divine elixir. Whoever takes it will not die.” Shen Xi and his wife each received a small portion. After they had taken it, the Jade Maidens gave them two dates the size of chicken eggs and dried meat five inches long. They told Shen Xi to return to the human world and continue curing the people’s illnesses. “When you wish to ascend to heaven again,” they said, “write this talisman and hang it at the top of a pole. We will come to receive you.” They then gave Shen Xi a talisman and a text of immortal prescriptions. Shen Xi suddenly seemed to fall asleep, and in an instant he was back on earth. Later, many people acquired and passed on his methods.

Chen Shian was from the capital region of Jingzhao and once stayed as a guest in Guan Shuping’s home. He was kind-hearted and humane by nature. When he encountered birds or animals on the road, he would step aside so as not to startle them. He never trampled living insects or took the life of any creature.

When Chen Shian was thirty, Guan Shuping was devoted to seeking the Dao and the immortals. Two immortals disguised themselves as scholars and accompanied Shuping on his travels, observing him in secret. At first, Shuping did not know they were immortals. As time passed, his dedication to cultivating the Dao gradually slackened.

One day, Shuping was preparing a fine meal indoors when the two immortals came to the door again and asked Shian, “Is Shuping at home?” Shian answered, “He is.” He went inside to tell Shuping. Just as Shuping was about to leave, his wife stopped him and said, “Those hungry scholars have come begging for food again. Don’t give them anything.” Shuping then told Shian to go outside and falsely say that he was not at home. The two immortals said, “You just said he was here, and now you say he isn’t. Why? It seems your master told you to say this.” Shian continued to speak truthfully.

The two immortals sighed. “Shuping has devoted many years to hardship in cultivating the Dao, yet today, after meeting us, he has grown lax. Had he not encountered us, he would have come close to success only to fail at the last moment.” They asked Shian, “Do you enjoy traveling about?” He said, “No.” They asked, “Do you enjoy cultivating the Dao and hope to become an immortal?” Shian answered, “I do enjoy cultivating the Dao, but I have had no chance to learn its methods.”

The two immortals said, “If you truly love the Dao, come tomorrow morning and wait for us beneath the large tree north of the road.” Shian arrived at the appointed place early in the morning, but by the time the sun was slanting westward, they still had not appeared. He got up to leave, thinking, “Those two scholars must have been deceiving me.” Just then, the immortals appeared beside him and called into his ear, “Shian, why have you come so late?” Shian replied, “I came early this morning, but I didn’t see you.” The immortal said, “We have been sitting right beside you all along.” They arranged three more meetings with Shian, and each time he arrived early. The immortals knew he was ready to be taught, so they gave him two pills and instructed him, “When you return home, do not eat anything else. Find another place and live there by yourself.”

Shian followed their instructions, and the two immortals often came to visit him. Shuping found this strange and said, “Shian lives in an empty house. How can anyone be speaking with him? Whenever I go there, I never see anyone else. Why is that?” Shian replied, “I speak to myself.” Shuping saw that Shian ate no food, drank only water, and lived alone elsewhere. He began to suspect that Shian was no ordinary person and realized he had failed to recognize a worthy man. He sighed, “The Dao is exalted, and De is worthy of reverence; neither depends on a person’s age. My parents gave birth to me, but without a teacher to guide me, I cannot attain long life. Whoever hears the Dao first may serve as a teacher.”

Shuping then personally performed the rites of a disciple. He visited and served Shian morning and evening, and swept the place for him as well. Later, Shian succeeded in cultivating the Dao and ascended to heaven in broad daylight. Before departing, he passed the essential instructions for cultivating the Dao to Shuping. Shuping later attained the Dao and became an immortal too.

Li Babo was from Shu, and no one knew his personal name. People in generation after generation had seen him. By the reckoning of those who lived at the time, he had reached the age of eight hundred, so they called him “Babo,” meaning “Eight Hundred.” Sometimes he lived in seclusion in the mountains and forests; at other times, he appeared in the marketplace.

In Hanzhong, a man named Tang Gongfang had sought the Dao for many years but had never met a true master. Li Babo wished to transmit the Great Dao to him, so he first took the form of a hired laborer and went to test him. Tang Gongfang did not know that the laborer was Li Babo. He treated him well, took particular care to see that he did his work attentively, and showed him great kindness.

Later, Li Babo pretended to be gravely ill and near death. Tang Gongfang summoned doctors and prepared medicines for him, spending hundreds of thousands of coins without hesitation. His worry was plain on his face. Li Babo then pretended that his entire body was covered in foul-smelling sores oozing pus and blood, so that no one else would go near him. In tears, Tang Gongfang said, “You have labored in my household for many years. Now you are seriously ill, and all I want is for you to recover. I am willing to spend anything, but your illness still will not improve. What can I do?”

Li Babo said that the sores could be cured only if someone licked them. Tang Gongfang had three maidservants lick them for him. Li Babo said that the maidservants’ efforts would not help; only Tang Gongfang himself could make the sores heal. Tang Gongfang did as he was told. Li Babo then said that Tang Gongfang’s wife would also have to lick them, and Tang Gongfang had his wife do so.

Afterward, Li Babo said the sores had improved, but he still needed thirty hu of fine wine to bathe in before he could recover completely. Tang Gongfang immediately prepared the thirty hu of wine and poured it into a large vessel. Li Babo rose and bathed in the wine. The sores on his body disappeared, and his skin became smooth and lustrous as congealed cream, without a trace remaining.

Only then did Li Babo tell Tang Gongfang, “I am an immortal. Because your resolve in seeking the Dao is sincere, I came to test you. You have shown that you are ready to receive instruction. Now I will give you the secret for transcending the world and becoming immortal.” He told Tang Gongfang and his wife, along with the three maidservants who had licked the sores, to bathe in the remaining wine. They all grew younger, and their features became more beautiful.

Li Babo gave Tang Gongfang a scroll of alchemical scripture, a Daoist text about refining elixirs. Tang Gongfang went to Mount Yuntai to refine an elixir. When it was complete, he ascended to immortality and departed. According to legend, the place where he and his entire household ascended to immortality was in Hanzhong.

Li A was from Shu. People in Shu had passed down stories for generations of having seen him, and his appearance never aged; he looked just as he had before. He often begged in Chengdu, giving whatever money and goods he received to the poor. He would leave at night and return at dawn, yet the people in the marketplace did not know where he lived.

When people asked him about his past, he never answered. They watched only his expression. If he looked cheerful, events would turn out well; if his face showed sorrow, misfortune would follow. A smile foretold great joy, while a quiet sigh foretold deep trouble. These signs never proved wrong.

A man named Gu Qiang suspected that Li A was no ordinary person. He often drew near to serve him and once tried following him home, discovering that he lived in the mountains of Qingcheng. Later, Gu Qiang wanted to accompany Li A into the mountains, but since he had not yet cultivated the Dao, he feared encountering tigers or wolves. He brought his father’s long saber for protection. When Li A saw it, he said angrily, “If you’re coming with me, why are you afraid of tigers?” He picked up Gu Qiang’s saber and struck it against a rock, breaking it in two. Gu Qiang secretly worried that his father would scold him when he returned with the ruined weapon.

At dawn, Gu Qiang followed Li A out again. Li A asked, “Are you upset because the saber is broken?” Gu Qiang admitted that he was indeed worried his father would be angry. Li A retrieved the saber and struck the ground with it in both hands. At once, it was restored to its original state, and he handed it back to Gu Qiang.

Gu Qiang followed Li A all the way back to Chengdu. Before they reached the city, they met a carriage speeding along the road. Li A extended his feet beneath it, and the wheels ran over his shins, crushing both feet. Terrified, Gu Qiang examined him. A moment later, Li A stood up, pressed his hands against the injured places, and his feet returned to normal.

When Gu Qiang was eighteen, Li A looked about fifty. By the time Gu Qiang had lived past eighty, Li A still looked just as he had before. Later, Li A told others, “I have been summoned to the Kunlun Mountains; I must leave.” After that, he never returned.

Wang Yuan, whose courtesy name was Fangping, was from Donghai. He was recommended as a Filial and Incorrupt official, appointed a Gentleman of the Palace, and later rose through the ranks to become a Grand Master of the Palace at Large. He had an extensive command of the Five Classics, and was especially well versed in astronomy, prophetic diagrams and texts, and the learning of the Yellow River and Luo River. He could foresee the periods when the realm would rise or decline and discern good and ill fortune across the Nine Provinces, as though everything lay within his grasp.

Later, Wang Yuan abandoned his official career and entered the mountains to cultivate the Dao. After he attained the Dao, Emperor Huan of Han heard of him and summoned him repeatedly, but he refused to leave the mountains. The emperor then ordered the commandery governor to force him to the capital. Wang Yuan bowed his head and kept silent, refusing to answer the imperial summons. Instead, he wrote more than four hundred characters on the panels of the palace gate, all describing events yet to come. The emperor detested these words and ordered them scraped away. As soon as the writing on the outer face of the panels was removed, the characters appeared again on the inner face, as though the ink had seeped through the wood.

Wang Yuan had no descendants, but people in his home village passed down his story through the generations and revered him. Chen Dan, a former Grand Commandant from the same commandery, built a Daoist sanctuary for him and went there morning and evening to pay his respects. He sought only blessings and protection from misfortune; he did not follow Wang Yuan to study the Dao. Wang Yuan lived in Chen Dan’s household for more than forty years. No one in the family fell ill or died, and even the servants remained safe and well. Their livestock flourished, their fields and silkworm harvests yielded far more, and Chen Dan continued to rise in office.

Later, Wang Yuan said to Chen Dan, “My allotted years are nearly over. I must leave and cannot stay any longer. I will set out tomorrow at noon.” At the appointed time, Wang Yuan died. Chen Dan understood that he had “departed through transformation,” the way a cultivator of the Dao leaves the world. He did not dare place the body on the ground, but only wept and lamented: “The Master has left me. What am I to do?” He prepared a coffin and other funeral goods, burned incense, and dressed Wang Yuan neatly on the bed. Three days and nights later, Wang Yuan’s body suddenly vanished. His clothes remained fastened, and all that was left was a trace like the shed skin of a snake. More than a hundred days after Wang Yuan departed, Chen Dan also died. Some said that Chen Dan had received Wang Yuan’s Daoist methods and departed through transformation as well; others said Wang Yuan had foreseen Chen Dan’s approaching death and left ahead of him.

Later, Wang Yuan set out east for Mount Kuocang. As he passed through the Wu region, he went to the home of Cai Jing, at the Xumen gate. Cai Jing was an ordinary man, but Wang Yuan saw that his bones showed the signs of one destined to become an immortal, so he went to visit him in person. He said to Cai Jing, “Your allotted fate allows you to transcend the world, so I intend to take you with me and appoint you to a vacant post among the immortals. But you are still young and do not understand cultivation. Your Qi is slight and your flesh abundant, so you cannot ascend directly. You can leave only by means of ‘corpse liberation.’ Though corpse liberation is a brief transformation, it is like passing through a dog hole.” He shared essential teachings on cultivation with Cai Jing, then departed.

After Wang Yuan left, Cai Jing suddenly felt as hot as if his whole body were burning, and wanted water poured over him. His family kept pouring water on him, but it had no effect, as though they were pouring it over scorched stone. Within three days, Cai Jing had wasted away until only skin and bones remained. He then went into a room and covered himself with a quilt, and suddenly disappeared. Beneath the quilt was only a layer of skin, complete with head, hands, and feet, like the cast-off skin of a cicada. More than ten years later, Cai Jing suddenly returned home. He had been old when he left, but came back young and vigorous, with his hair black again. He told his family, “On the seventh day of the seventh month, Lord Wang will come here. That day, prepare several hundred hu of food and drink for the officials traveling with him.” Then he left.

When the appointed day arrived, the Cai family borrowed basins and jars, prepared several hundred hu of food and drink, and set it out in the courtyard. Wang Yuan did indeed come. Before he reached the Cai home, everyone heard the sound of gongs and drums, flutes and pipes, horses and people, but as it drew near they could not tell where the sounds came from. When Wang Yuan arrived, the whole family saw him. He wore a far-traveling crown, a vermilion robe, and a lower garment patterned with tiger heads. He wore a multicolored sash and a jeweled sword. He was of medium height, with a slightly yellow complexion. He rode in a feathered carriage drawn by five dragons of different colors. Banners and guards crowded around him, before and behind, and his bearing was as imposing as that of a great general. Twelve jade flasks accompanied him, each sealed at the mouth with wax. A band of musicians rode on qilin and descended from the sky, stopping in midair without ever touching the ground. Once Wang Yuan had arrived, his attendants vanished from sight, leaving him sitting there alone.

After a while, Wang Yuan summoned Cai Jing’s parents and brothers to meet him, then sent someone to invite Magu, a female immortal, to join them. He sent word through a messenger: “I have not been active in the human world for a long time. Since we are gathered here today, I would like to ask Magu to come and talk for a while.” Before long, the messenger returned. They heard Magu’s reply, but could not see the messenger. Magu said, “Magu bows twice. Five hundred years have passed in the blink of an eye since we last met. Our ranks have always been clear, and I have long looked up to you with reverence. Your letter has reached me, and I would gladly come at once. But I had already promised to make a circuit of Penglai, so for now I can only pause briefly. I will come as soon as I have finished. Please wait a little.”

When Magu arrived, the sounds of people and horses were heard first. Her retinue was about half the size of Wang Yuan’s, and the whole Cai family saw her. Magu was a young woman of about eighteen or nineteen. Her hair was gathered in a topknot, while the rest fell loose to her waist. Her clothes were patterned, but did not look like brocade or embroidery; they gleamed with a radiance unlike any fabric in the world. She entered, bowed to Wang Yuan, and he rose to welcome her.

Once they were seated, Wang Yuan ordered a feast of immortal delicacies. The cups and plates were made of gold and jade, and most of the dishes consisted of various flowers and fruits. Their fragrance filled the house and courtyard. They broke dried meat into pieces and shared it; the roasted meat was called “qilin jerky,” and they said it was the flesh of a qilin. Magu said, “Since attaining the Dao, I have seen the Eastern Sea turn into mulberry fields three times with my own eyes. Just now, when I went to Penglai, I found that the sea was about half as deep as it used to be. Could that place soon turn into dry land as well?” Wang Yuan smiled and said, “The sages have said that even the sea will once again raise dust.” He was speaking of the sea changing into mulberry fields, and of the transformations of the world.

Magu wanted to see Cai Jing’s mother, wife, and nephew. Cai Jing’s younger brother’s wife had given birth only a few dozen days earlier. When Magu saw her from a distance, she said, “Wait there. Do not come closer.” She asked for a little rice, then scattered it on the ground, saying the rice would drive away the impurity left by childbirth. When everyone looked, every grain had turned into a pearl. Wang Yuan smiled and said, “Magu is still young and enjoys these little tricks. I am old, and no longer care to perform such transformations.”

Wang Yuan said to the Cai family, “I would like to give you some wine. It comes from the Celestial Kitchen and is very strong. Ordinary people should not drink it undiluted; it might harm their stomachs. I will mix it with water, so do not be surprised.” He poured one sheng of wine into one dou of water, stirred it, and distributed it among them. Each person drank about one sheng and became drunk. After a while, the wine was gone. Wang Yuan said to his attendants, “There is not enough. Go and fetch some more.” He gave a thousand coins to an old woman in Yuhang and sent someone to buy wine from her. Before long, the messenger returned with an oilskin flask containing about fifty dou of wine, and relayed the old woman’s words: “I fear the wine of the earthly world is not worthy of a noble one’s taste.”

Magu’s fingernails were unlike those of ordinary people. Cai Jing thought to himself, “If my back itched, how pleasant it would be to scratch it with nails like those.” Wang Yuan immediately knew what he was thinking. He ordered Cai Jing dragged outside and beaten with a whip, saying, “Magu is a divine being. How can you think of her fingernails as something to scratch your back with?” Marks of the whipping appeared on Cai Jing’s body, though no one could see who held the whip. Wang Yuan warned him, “Do not provoke my whip.”

Next door to Cai Jing lived a man surnamed Chen, whose given name was not recorded. He had once served as a county commandant. Hearing that immortals had come to the Cai home, he went there, bowed, and begged to be granted an audience. Wang Yuan called him over and spoke with him. Chen asked to stay by Wang Yuan’s side and serve him, as Cai Jing did. Wang Yuan told him to stand facing the sun, then looked at his shadow from behind and said, “Your intentions are crooked, and your shadow is crooked too. I cannot teach you the way of becoming an immortal. I will give you only a post in the human world.”

As he was leaving, Wang Yuan placed a talisman and a talismanic warrant in a small box and gave it to Chen. He said, “These will not let you transcend the world. They will only allow you to live out the years allotted to you, and your lifespan will reach one hundred. You may use them to avert misfortune and cure illness. If a sick person has not reached the end of their allotted years and has committed no offense, send the talisman to their home and they will recover. If an evil ghost is causing trouble, take the warrant to the local community shrine and order the shrine officer to detain and send the ghost away. You must also judge the weight of each matter for yourself and act as circumstances require.” Chen used the talisman to treat illnesses, often with success, and several hundred households came to follow him. He lived to the age of one hundred and eleven. After his death, his descendants continued to use the talismans, but they no longer worked.

After Wang Yuan left, all the several hundred hu of food and drink in the Cai family’s courtyard disappeared, though no one had seen anyone eat it. Cai Jing’s parents asked him privately, “What kind of immortal is Lord Wang? Where does he live?” Cai Jing replied, “He often holds office on Mount Kunlun, and also travels between Mount Luofu and Mount Kuocang. Each of these three mountains has palaces, all built like royal residences. Lord Wang often serves in the Celestial Bureau, and all the affairs of Heaven concern him. When he travels, he sometimes leaves his entire retinue behind and rides only a yellow qilin, accompanied by a few dozen attendants. Each time he goes out, we see the forests and mountains far below us, hundreds of zhang beneath our feet. Wherever he arrives, the gods of the mountains and seas come out to greet and pay their respects. Sometimes more than a thousand come to welcome him.”

Several years later, Cai Jing returned home for another brief visit. Wang Yuan had once written a letter to Chen, the county commandant. His handwriting was loose and large, and not especially neat. Until then, no one had known that Wang Yuan’s name was “Yuan”; it was from this letter that they learned it. To this day, his family has kept Lord Wang’s handwritten letter and the talismanic warrant in its small box, preserving them in secret from generation to generation.

Bo Shanfǔ was from Yongzhou. He devoted himself to cultivation in the Huashan Mountains and took medicines that preserved health. He often returned to his hometown to visit his parents and relatives. After more than two hundred years, he still showed no signs of aging.

Whenever he visited someone’s home, he could see the good and evil deeds, merits and faults of that family’s ancestors, as though he had witnessed them with his own eyes. He could also foretell future fortune and misfortune, and everything he said came true.

When he saw that his niece was old and often ill, he gave her medicine. She was seventy when she took it. Afterward, she gradually regained her youth, and her complexion became like peach blossoms.

During the Han dynasty, an envoy was passing east of Xihe City when he saw a woman beating a white-haired old man. The old man knelt on the ground and respectfully endured the blows. The envoy was puzzled and went over to ask what was happening. The woman replied, “This is my son. Long ago, my maternal uncle Bo Shanfǔ passed down a miraculous prescription to me. I taught my son to take it too, but he refused. Now he has grown old, and is far less youthful than I am. I’m angry, so I’m beating him.”

The envoy asked the woman and her son how old they were. She replied, “I am two hundred and thirty, and my son is seventy this year.” Later, the woman entered the Huashan Mountains, attained the Dao, and became an immortal.

Mozi, whose personal name was Di, was from the state of Song. He once served as a high minister in Song, studying the classics and canonical texts outwardly and cultivating the Dao inwardly. He wrote ten books, which people called the Mozi. From then on, his followers formed a school distinct from the Confucians. Mozi valued frugality and often criticized Confucius. He was especially skilled in defending cities and devising defensive tactics.

Gongshu Ban, also known as Lu Ban and then serving as a general of Chu, built a siege ladder in preparation for an attack on Song. When Mozi heard of this, he set out for Chu on foot. His feet were rubbed raw, so he tore off a piece of his clothing to bandage them. After traveling for seven days and seven nights, he arrived. He met Gongshu Ban and urged him: “You built a siege ladder to attack Song. What crime has Song committed? Chu has more land than it needs and too few people, yet you would sacrifice people who are already scarce to seize land you already have in abundance. That cannot be called wise. To attack an innocent state cannot be called benevolent. To know this is wrong and not urge the king to stop cannot be called loyal. And to urge him to stop but be unable to do so cannot be called powerful.”

Gongshu Ban said, “I have no way to speak to the king of Chu.” Mozi replied, “Please introduce me to him.” Gongshu Ban agreed.

When Mozi met the king of Chu, he asked, “Suppose a man gives up his own fine carriage but wants to steal his neighbor’s battered one; gives up his own brocade clothes but wants to steal his neighbor’s coarse garments; gives up his own good food but wants to steal his neighbor’s chaff and husks. What sort of person would he be?” The king replied, “Such a person must be mad.” Mozi said, “Chu has the Yunmeng marshes, teeming with deer, and the Yangtze and Han rivers are full of fish and turtles. Its natural resources are abundant. Song, by contrast, does not even have pheasants, rabbits, or carp in its wells. This is like the difference between fine food and chaff and husks. Chu has nanmu, catalpa, pine, and oak, while Song can scarcely find a tree even a few feet tall. This is like the difference between brocade and coarse cloth. I have heard that your officials are discussing an attack on Song. Their plan is like the theft I just described.”

The king said, “Well said. But Gongshu Ban has already built the siege ladder and believes he can certainly take Song.” The king then had Mozi and Gongshu Ban test their skills in attack and defense before him. Mozi untied his belt and used it to represent a city wall, while a cloth bundle stood for the equipment. Gongshu Ban brought out various siege devices and tried nine different methods of attack in succession. Mozi stopped every one of them. Gongshu Ban exhausted his siege devices, while Mozi still had defensive methods to spare.

After conceding defeat, Gongshu Ban said, “I know how to deal with you, but I will not say.” Mozi replied, “I also know what you intend to do to me, but I will not say.” The king of Chu asked what they meant. Mozi answered, “Gongshu Ban’s plan can only be to kill me. He thinks no one in Song can defend the city. But my disciples, including Qin Guli, three hundred in all, have already taken the defensive equipment I taught them to make and are guarding Song’s city walls, waiting for the Chu army. Even if you kill me, you cannot stop them.” Chu then called off its attack on Song.

Mozi lived to the age of eighty-two. He sighed, “The affairs of the world can now be set aside. Glory and high office cannot be held for long. I shall leave the common world and follow the immortal Red Pine Master in cultivation.” He took leave of his followers, went into the mountains to seek the Supreme Dao with single-minded devotion, and turned his thoughts to the realm of the immortals.

After that, people often heard scriptures being recited in the mountains at night. When Mozi lay down to sleep, someone would come and cover him with a garment. Mozi awoke and asked, “Are you perhaps the numinous energy of the mountains, or an immortal who has passed beyond the world and attained the Dao? I hope you will stay for a while and teach me the Dao.” The divine being replied, “Your De is deep, and you delight in the Dao, so I have come to visit you. What do you seek?” Mozi said, “I hope to live forever and endure alongside Heaven and Earth.”

The divine being then transmitted to him a book of plain text, the formula for the Vermilion Blossom Pills, methods of the Dao, precepts, and ways of transforming the Five Phases, in all twenty-five scrolls. He told him, “You already have the roots for becoming an immortal, and you are intelligent. With these teachings, you can complete your cultivation; you need not necessarily take another teacher.” Mozi bowed in thanks, accepted the teachings, and practiced according to their instructions. They proved effective. He gathered their essential points and compiled them into five scrolls called Notes on the Five Phases. In the end, he became an earthly immortal—one who had attained the Dao yet remained in the human world—and lived in seclusion to avoid the turmoil of the Warring States.

During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, the emperor sent an envoy named Yang Liao with silk and jade discs to summon Mozi to court, but Mozi did not leave the mountains. According to legend, he always looked about fifty or sixty years old, traveled throughout the Five Sacred Mountains, and had no fixed abode.

Liu Zheng was from the State of Pei. Exceptionally talented and widely knowledgeable, he had read many books. After deep reflection, he concluded that worldly splendor and riches vanished in an instant and were far inferior to cultivating the Dao in pursuit of long life. He therefore abandoned a career in government and sought methods for cultivating his nature. He diligently searched for strange accounts and unusual arts, traveling thousands of li if necessary. Whenever he met someone more skilled than himself, he would certainly take that person as his teacher, even if they were a servant.

Later, Liu Zheng studied The Mozi Record of the Five Phases while also taking Zhu Ying Pills, a legendary elixir. He lived for more than 180 years, yet still looked like a boy. He enjoyed displaying arts of transformation and invisibility: he could make one person appear to be a hundred, a hundred appear to be a thousand, or a thousand appear to be ten thousand; he could also make an entire army disappear. He could turn people into a grove of trees or into birds and beasts.

He could take someone’s belongings and place them among a crowd without anyone noticing. He could also plant five kinds of fruit trees and make them blossom and bear fruit at once, ready to eat. He could conjure food enough for several hundred people. With a breath, he could raise a fierce wind that sent sand flying and stones tumbling. Pointing at a house, a mountain forest, or a vessel, he could make it seem on the verge of collapse; with another point, he could restore it to its original state. He could transform into a beautiful woman or become a wooden figure, and travel thousands of li in a single day.

He could also blow across water to raise clouds and mist, summon fog with a sweep of his hand, gather earth into a mountain, or pierce the ground to open a deep abyss. His body could suddenly grow old or young, large or small. He could enter water without wetting his clothes and walk across its surface. At his call, fish, turtles, flood dragons, tortoises, and tuó—an aquatic animal like the Chinese alligator—from the rivers and seas would all come ashore together. He could spit five-colored Qi from his mouth, spreading it ten li wide and sending it straight into the sky. He could also leap into the air, rising hundreds of zhang above the ground. Later, no one knew where he had gone.

Sun Bo

Sun Bo was from Hedong. Exceptionally talented, he excelled at writing and produced more than a hundred works. He could also recite several hundred thousand characters of the scriptures. In his later years, he began studying the Dao and practicing the occult arts of Mozi. It was said that he could set plants and metal or stone ablaze, with flames that lit up the land for dozens of miles. He could also set his own body on fire and breathe flames from his mouth. When he pointed at a great tree or at plants growing on the ground, they would wither and scorch; with another touch of his finger, they would return to their former state.

He could also turn each soldier in an army into a ball of fire. On one occasion, someone in the camp was hiding a runaway slave who could not be caught, so they asked Sun Bo for help. Sun Bo told the slave’s owner, “I’ll set your barracks on fire. The slave is sure to run out. Keep a close watch and seize him.” Sun Bo then tossed a red pill into the camp. In an instant, flames shot into the sky, and the runaway slave ran out and was captured. Sun Bo tossed a blue pill into the fire, and the flames immediately went out. The barracks and belongings that had been scorched were all restored to their former state, undamaged. It was said that when Sun Bo conjured fire, no one could put it out, even by dousing it with water; the flames would die only when he chose to stop.

He could walk through water without getting wet, and the hundreds of people who accompanied him stayed dry as well. He could also bring people onto the surface of the water, spread out mats for them to sit on, and have them eat, drink, and play music. He would even have them dance on the water. They never sank or got wet, and could enjoy themselves there for the entire day.

People who fell ill would come to Sun Bo for treatment. He only had to point at a patient and say that the illness was cured, and the patient would recover. He could also enter mountain cliffs and great stones lying on the ground. At first, his back and both ears could still be seen protruding from the stone; after a long while, his whole body would disappear inside it. He could swallow dozens of swords and knives at a gulp, then pass in and out of the stone as though it had openings. He could also turn a mirror into a knife and bend a knife into a mirror, keeping it in that altered form for a long time. A touch of Sun Bo’s finger would restore the knife to its original shape. Later, he went into Mount Linlü to refine a divine elixir, and eventually became an immortal.

Ban Meng’s origins are unknown. Some say she was a woman. She could fly all day and sit in the air, talking with people. She could also enter the ground: at first only her feet sank into the earth, then she gradually disappeared up to her waist, then her chest and abdomen, until only the crown on her head remained. After a long while, she sank completely out of sight.

By tracing lines on the ground with her finger, she could make springs and wells appear, from which people could draw water and drink. She could also draw up the roof tiles from someone’s house and send them flying into another household. There, dozens of mulberry and fruit trees would be gathered together and piled into a heap as high as a mountain. After this continued for more than ten days, she would breathe out, and everything would return to its original place and form.

She could hold ink in her mouth, spread out paper, chew the ink, and spray it onto the paper. Words would appear across the sheet, each with its own meaning. Later, she took wine and elixirs, lived for more than four hundred years, and grew younger in appearance. At last, she entered Mount Dazhi and departed as an immortal.

Yu Zi’s surname was Zhang and his given name was Zhen. He was from Nanjun. The original account says that he too would chew ink and spray it onto paper, where words with distinct meanings would appear across the sheet. Later, he took wine and elixirs, lived for more than four hundred years, and grew younger in appearance. In the end, he entered Mount Dazhi and departed as an immortal.

Yuzi, whose surname was Zhang and whose given name was Zhen, was from Nanjun. In his youth, he studied all kinds of classics. When King You of Zhou summoned him, he declined to answer the call. He sighed and said, “Each day a person lives in this world is one day less of life: we move farther from birth and nearer to death. Yet people cling to wealth and status and do not know how to preserve their life. When the breath ceases and the lifespan comes to an end, a person dies. Even if one becomes a lord and possesses heaps of gold and jade, what use is it? In the end, does one not turn to dust? Only by cultivating into an immortal and transcending the world can one hope to endure without end.”

He then took Chang Sangzi as his teacher and learned various arts. Later, he developed a method of his own and wrote more than a hundred Daoist books. His practice centered on “Wukui.” He was especially well versed in the principles of the Five Phases (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water), explaining their subtle workings and applying them to cultivate one’s nature, treat illness, and avert disasters and misfortune.

According to legend, he could summon whirlwinds strong enough to topple trees and overturn houses. He could create clouds, thunder, rain, and mist. He could also transform blades of grass, leaves, tiles, and stones into cattle, sheep, and other livestock, or into dragons and tigers, which could walk at once. He could divide himself into hundreds or even thousands of forms. He could walk across the waters of the Jiang and Han Rivers, then hold water in his mouth and spray it out; it would instantly become pearls and jade and never turn back into water.

At times, he would hold his breath, and no one could lift or push him. Even if they tried to bend him, they could not make him yield. After remaining this way for dozens of days, he would rise again as if nothing were amiss. He often went on journeys with his disciples. Each person would shape a ball of mud into a horse, then close their eyes. A moment later, they would all be riding great horses and could travel a thousand li in a day.

He could also exhale five-colored Qi (vital energy), which rose several zhang into the air. When he saw a bird fly by, he would point at it, and it would fall. He once stood at the edge of a deep pool, used a talisman to summon fish and turtles, and brought them all swimming up onto the bank. He could also let his disciples see things a thousand li away simply by raising their eyes, though this ability did not last long.

When he practiced Wukui, he would fill a vessel with water and place it between two Kui. He would blow and breathe onto the water, and a red light would immediately appear on its surface, shining brightly as it swirled upward. He also used this water to treat various illnesses: for ailments within the body, patients drank it; for those affecting the body’s surface, they bathed in it. It was said that both kinds of illness were cured at once.

Later, Yuzi entered Mount Kongtong to refine elixirs. When the elixirs were complete, he ascended to heaven in broad daylight.

Tianmenzi

Tianmenzi’s surname was Wang, and his given name was Gang. He was especially skilled in the arts of nourishing and replenishing. His scripture says: “Yang Qi begins to arise during the hour of Yin (three to five in the morning), and belongs to the pure essence of Wood. Yin Qi begins to arise during the hour of Shen (three to five in the afternoon), and belongs to the pure essence of Metal. When Wood is cast into Metal, it will be harmed wherever it goes. Thus Yin can overcome Yang.

“Women apply rouge and powder in imitation of Metal’s whiteness. For this reason, perfected beings and Daoist adepts all pay close attention to such principles. They investigate their subtleties and observe the waxing and waning of Yin and Yang. In sexual union, I take the role of the Azure Dragon (the deity of the East), while my partner is the White Tiger (the deity of the West); my partner is in front, like the Vermilion Bird (the deity of the South), and I am behind, like the Black Tortoise (the deity of the North). This is the Way to immortality.

“Women’s temperaments sometimes make them eager to draw near to Yang Qi. Yet they can also restrain themselves and refuse to seek Yang Qi of their own accord. This is because Metal does not yield to Wood. Yang’s nature is fierce and impatient, and its resolve and integrity readily slacken. But at banquets and excursions, Yang speaks gently and humbly. This shows that Wood fears Metal.”

By practicing this method, Tianmenzi lived to the age of two hundred and eighty, while his appearance remained that of a child. Later, he drank pearl elixir, an immortal wine refined from pearls and other precious materials, attained the Dao, and entered Xuanzhou, a legendary land of immortals.

Jiulingzi

Jiulingzi’s surname was Huang, and his given name was Hua. He mastered methods for restoring youth, nourishing the body through embryonic breathing, turning inward in contemplation, and applying the Way of the Five Phases. His scripture says: “This art can ward off injury from weapons, keep tigers and wolves at bay, protect your safety, guard your household, and keep your descendants safe, bringing harmony within and beyond the family. People who see you will feel joy, and those who do not see you will miss you. It is suited to military service and helps with long journeys. If others plot against you, their schemes will dissolve. Every kind of calamity will lie dormant, while the paths of treachery and the gates of demons and monsters will be blocked. Those who curse you cannot bring disaster upon you, and those who practice harmful magic or gu-sorcery cannot make misfortune befall you. Worthy people throughout the realm will come to honor you; spirits will wholeheartedly assist you, and the people will turn to you. Fields and silkworm cultivation will flourish, the six kinds of livestock will multiply, household servants will be safe and settled, illnesses will be cured, disputes with the authorities will be resolved, and you will prevail in conflicts. All manner of undertakings will go smoothly, and affairs in the world will prosper for a long time. Those who devote themselves to cultivating this Way will grasp its mysteries deeply.” Jiulingzi lived in the human world for more than five hundred years, yet his appearance grew ever younger. Later, he took an alchemically refined elixir and ultimately ascended to immortality.

Beijizi’s surname was Yin, and his given name was Heng. His scripture says: “The way to cultivate oneself is to cherish the spirit; the way to nurture life is to seek renewed life through death and let vitality continue without interruption. By practicing this constantly, one can live as long as Heaven. To use life to seek true life: this is true life. To smelt iron with iron is called the true; to cultivate a person by working on a person is called the spirit.” Later, he took a divine elixir and ascended to immortality.

Juedongzi

Juedongzi’s surname was Li and his given name was Xiu. His scripture says: “The weak can overcome the strong, and Yin can prevail over Yang. Always be as cautious as if approaching a deep abyss or treading on dangerous ground, and as alert as if controlling a galloping horse or riding swiftly in a carriage. This is the way to long life.” He lived for more than four hundred years without showing any signs of age. He wrote forty works, collectively titled The Source of the Dao. Later, he took elixirs, ascended to Heaven, and became an immortal.

Taiyangzi’s surname was Li and his given name was Ming. He was the same age as Yuzi and was his friend. After Yuzi attained the Dao, Taiyangzi became his disciple and observed the duties of a student without ever growing lax. Yuzi therefore felt especially close to him and cherished him. Of the more than thirty disciples in their circle, none could compare with Taiyangzi. Yet he loved wine and was often drunk, so he was frequently reprimanded. He was highly skilled in the Way of the Five Phases—the Daoist art of explaining and working with the transformations of things through Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth. Although his temples had turned gray, his skin remained smooth and full, and his face radiant. Even after he was more than three hundred years old, he still looked the same.

Yuzi said to him: “You should care for your body and cultivate your nature, setting an example for the worthy and guiding them. Yet you are always muddled with drink, neglect your cultivation, and have not refined the Great Elixir. Even if you lived a thousand years, you still could not escape death—how much less so if you lived only a few hundred! Ordinary people would not even do such a thing, let alone someone who understands the Dao.” Taiyangzi replied: “I began learning the Dao late, and my nature is stubborn. I have not yet shed my worldly habits, so I use wine to distract myself.” Such was his proud and unruly temperament. He wrote The Art of the Seven-Treasure Tree, which captured the essentials of the Daoist arts. After taking elixirs, he attained the Dao and became an immortal, though he still often appeared among people. Over the course of five hundred years, whenever people saw him, he still looked like a youth, though he drank heavily and his beard and temples had turned completely white.

Taiyangnü’s surname was Zhu and her given name was Yi. She expounded the Way of the Five Phases, reflecting on it and developing it further until its applications became more subtle. This method was effective and produced results quickly. She lived to the age of two hundred and eighty, with a complexion like peach blossoms, rosy lips, smooth, full skin, and beautifully shaped brows and temples. She looked like a girl of seventeen or eighteen. She served Juedongzi, and after she had refined an elixir, Juedongzi bestowed it upon her. Through it, she too attained the Dao, became an immortal, and ascended to Heaven.

Taiyinnü.

Taiyin Nü had a youthful appearance. Her lips were red as if tinted with cinnabar, her skin was full and lustrous, and her eyebrows and sideburns looked as though they had been painted. She seemed no older than seventeen or eighteen. She served Juedongzi. When the elixir was complete, Juedongzi bestowed it on her. After taking it, she too attained the Dao, became an immortal, and ascended to the heavenly realm.

Taiyin Nü’s surname was Lu, and her given name was Quan. She was intelligent and perceptive, with wisdom beyond that of ordinary people. She was drawn to the Way of the Jade Maiden, a Daoist method of cultivation, and had learned some of its techniques, though she had not yet grasped its essence. There was no accomplished master at the time, so she sold wine by the roadside while secretly seeking out worthy and able people. Years passed, but she still had not met anyone whose understanding surpassed her own.

One day, Taiyangzi passed by the wine shop and went in for a drink. Seeing Lu Nü’s courteous and composed manner and her refined speech, he remarked, “Others cultivate the methods of the White Tiger and the Soaring Serpent; I cultivate those of the Azure Dragon and the Black Tortoise. The world is so vast—who truly understands these things?” The White Tiger, Soaring Serpent, Azure Dragon, and Black Tortoise are symbols in Daoist divination and cultivation.

Lu Nü was delighted to hear this and sent her younger sister to ask the guest, “What is the number of Earth?” Taiyangzi replied, “I don’t know. I only know that the South is three, the North five, the East seven, the West seven, and the Center one.” Her sister returned and told her, “This guest is a worthy person of profound virtue who has attained the Dao. I asked just one question, and he has already revealed the principles of the Five Phases!” The Five Phases are Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. This exchange uses directions and numbers to test the other person’s cultivation.

Lu Nü then invited Taiyangzi into the Daoist chamber, served fine dishes, and set out precious foods to entertain him, while explaining her aspirations. During the meal, Taiyangzi said, “We both serve the Celestial Emperor, have both drunk the water of divine radiance, and will both become people who ascend to the rank of Jade Maiden. I asked one question at the outset and already knew that you understand the principles of the Five Phases. Worthy people naturally seek the company of other worthy people—what is there to find strange in that?” He then taught Lu Nü the essentials for nourishing her cultivation and the methods for steaming and refining elixirs. Lu Nü refined and took the elixir according to his instructions, attained the Dao, and became an immortal. By the time she became immortal, she was two hundred years old, yet still retained the appearance of a child.

Taixuan Nü

Tai Xuan Nü’s surname was Zhuan, and her given name was He. She was widowed when she was young. A practitioner of occult arts once examined her and her mother’s faces and said that neither would live long. She therefore began cultivating the Dao and learned the “Arts of the Jade Child,” a form of Daoist practice. Later, she could enter water without wetting her clothes. Even in bitter cold, she could walk across the water wearing only a single layer of clothing; her complexion remained unchanged, and her body stayed warm for days at a time.

She could move government offices, palaces, cities, and people’s homes elsewhere, making them look just as they had before when seen from a distance. A touch of her finger made them disappear. She could open locked doors and chests with a single point of her finger. When she pointed at a mountain, it collapsed; when she pointed at a tree, it withered and died. One more gesture restored everything to its original state.

When traveling with her disciples, she would arrive in the mountains at dusk and strike the rocks with her staff. A doorway would immediately appear in the stone, opening onto rooms furnished with beds, couches, tables, curtains, storehouses, food, wine, and other everyday necessities. She could make camp this way wherever she went, even after traveling ten thousand miles. She could also make a small object suddenly grow as large as a house, or shrink a large one until it was finer than a hair. When wildfires blazed across the sky, a breath from her could put them out. Even in the midst of flames, her clothes would not catch fire. In an instant, she could also transform into an old man, a child, a carriage, a horse, or other forms. She knew thirty-six miraculous arts and had saved countless lives. No one knew what she took to cultivate them. In later years, her appearance grew younger; her hair turned black as a crow’s feathers, and at last she suddenly ascended to heaven in broad daylight.

Nanji Zi’s surname was Liu, and his given name was Rong. He could turn powder into eggs, spitting out dozens at a time. When these “eggs” were boiled and eaten, removing the yolk from each left behind a small amount of powder about the size of a fingertip. He would smear the powder on a cup and recite an incantation, whereupon the cup became a turtle. Once cooked, it could be eaten.

Nanjizi, surnamed Liu and named Rong, could turn powder into eggs. He spat out dozens of them, and when they were boiled and eaten, their yolks were inside; all that remained was a little powder, about the size of a fingertip. When the powder was spread over a cup and an incantation recited, the cup turned into a turtle. Boiled and eaten, the turtle had all its internal organs in place. Once its flesh was removed, its shell turned back into a cup made of powder. He could also recite an incantation over water to turn it into fine wine; anyone who drank it became drunk. With a wave of his hand, he could make a great tree appear. Someone once broke off a slender branch and stuck it between two houses. It remained there for several days, then gradually withered and yellowed, just like a real tree. After taking Cloud Frost Elixir, a legendary elixir of immortality, he attained the Dao, became an immortal, and departed.

Huangluzi, surnamed Ge and named Qi, was highly skilled at treating illness. Even when patients were a thousand li away, he could heal them if they sent him their names. They did not need to come in person, and all recovered. He mastered the art of Qi restraint, a technique that used intention and breath to exert control. He could immobilize tigers, wolves, and all kinds of insects, stop a galloping horse in its tracks, and make water flow backward for one li. He lived to the age of two hundred and eighty, could lift objects weighing a thousand jun, and walked as swiftly as a galloping horse. A cloud of five colors always hovered above his head, rising more than a zhang. During severe droughts, he could enter a deep pool and summon a dragon, urging it to rise into the sky and bring rain. This happened many times. One day, he rode away on a dragon. After bidding farewell to his friends and family, he never returned.

Volume Five

Maming Sheng

Ma Mingsheng was from Linzi in the state of Qi. Mild by nature, he went by the courtesy name Junxian. As a young man, he served as a county official. While pursuing criminals, he was later beaten and gravely injured by bandits, and for a time appeared to have died. Fortunately, a Daoist used a divine medicine to revive him. Ma then resigned from office and followed the Daoist.

At first, Ma Mingsheng wanted only to learn methods for healing wounds and illnesses. But after discovering that his master knew the Way of long life, he followed him for many years, carrying a case of books as they traveled in search of teachings. He journeyed west to Mount Nüji, north to Mount Xuanqiu, and south to the Lu River, enduring hardship as he traveled from place to place. Later, he obtained three scrolls of the Taiqing Scripture of the Divine Elixir, a Daoist classic on refining divine elixirs. Returning to the mountains, he followed the instructions to prepare the medicine. After taking it, he did not wish to ascend to the heavens. He took only half a dose and became an earthly immortal, one who remained in the human world.

He rarely stayed in one place for as long as three years before moving on, so people might not realize that he was an immortal. He built houses, kept servants, and traveled by carriage or horseback; his life was no different from that of ordinary people. In this way, he wandered from place to place across the Nine Provinces for more than five hundred years. Most people came to know him, and marveled that his appearance never aged. Later, he continued cultivating the Great Elixir and eventually ascended to heaven in broad daylight.

Yin Changsheng.

Yin Changsheng was from Xinye and belonged to the same clan as Empress Yin of the Han dynasty. He was born into a wealthy family, but from childhood he cared little for status or official distinction, devoting himself instead to the study of Daoist arts. Hearing that Ma Mingsheng had mastered the methods of longevity and transcendence, he went in search of him. When they met, Yin Changsheng willingly became his servant and personally took care of his master’s daily chores. Ma Mingsheng, however, did not teach him the arts of longevity. Day and night, he spoke with him only about worldly affairs and everyday matters such as earning a living and farming. More than twenty years passed this way, and Yin Changsheng never slackened.

At the time, twelve other people served Ma Mingsheng alongside Yin Changsheng. They eventually all left, while Yin alone remained, showing his master even greater respect and deference. Ma Mingsheng then told him, “You are truly someone capable of attaining the Dao.” He took Yin into Mount Qingcheng, where he boiled and refined yellow earth until it became gold, demonstrating the process to him. He then established an altar and transmitted the Scripture of the Great Clarity Divine Elixir, a Daoist scripture about refining the divine elixir, before parting from him.

After returning home, Yin Changsheng refined the divine elixir and took only half of it, so he did not ascend to heaven. He produced hundreds of thousands of jin of gold and gave it to the poor throughout the land, whether he knew them or not. He traveled across the realm with his wife and children, and the whole family remained free from old age. Later, he ascended to heaven in broad daylight from Mount Pingdu. Before departing, he wrote nine pieces of writing and said, “In ancient times, many people attained the Dao and became immortals; there are too many to name one by one. Let us speak only of those who became immortals since the founding of the Han dynasty: there were forty-five, or forty-six counting me. Twenty became immortals through corpse liberation; the rest ascended to heaven in broad daylight.”

The Baopuzi says: “I, Ge Hong, have heard a common saying: ‘If you never walk at night, you will never know that others are walking along the road at night.’ In the same way, how can someone who has never become an immortal know whether there are people studying the Dao and becoming immortals in the mountains and forests throughout the land? Lord Yin had already taken the divine elixir. Although he had not yet ascended to heaven, the kinship of kindred spirits and the resonance of their vital energies allowed him to associate with immortals, hear their accounts, and gain their insights. That is how he knew roughly how many people had become immortals in recent times. Yet ordinary people refuse to believe it: because they have not heard of it themselves, they conclude that it does not exist. Is that not tragic?

“Those who live in seclusion in the countryside find contentment in their hidden lives and keep company with the scriptures. They do not display their talents or broadcast their reputations; they seek neither office nor fame. If people in the world do not even know them, how much less would they know the immortals? Why would immortals rush to reveal their whereabouts to people who chase profit and fame and seek renown at court?

“Lord Yin himself recorded: ‘In the first year of the Yan’guang era of Emperor An of Han, I received from Master He, in the mountains north of Xinye, the essential instructions for the divine elixir. Once my practice of the Dao is complete, I will leave the world and leave the scriptures on a famous mountain. Whoever finds them may take their place among the Perfected and come and go freely. Why remain bound to the ordinary world? The key to the way of deathlessness lies in the divine elixir. Breath circulation and guiding exercises, bending and stretching, and consuming plants and herbs can only extend a person’s life a little. Unless one seeks to transcend the ordinary, one cannot become a Celestial Immortal. This is the essential point of the Dao I wish to transmit. Learning succeeds through long and steady accumulation. To act through Wuwei is the wondrous Dao. Those of the highest capacity will hear this and strive forward; those of the lowest capacity will laugh, believing these words cannot be trusted. Understand the art of the divine elixir, and you can live for a long time.’

“Lord Yin therefore wrote out the scripture on yellow silk in four copies. He sealed one in a stone casket and placed it on Mount Song; wrote another on yellow paper, sealed it in a green jade casket, and placed it on Mount Dahua; engraved a third on golden slips, sealed it in a silver casket, and placed it on Mount Jing in Shu; and copied the last onto white silk, bound it into a single scroll, and entrusted it to a disciple to pass down through the generations.

“He also wrote three pieces for posterity. The first says: ‘My ancestors once served Yao and Shun, and in the Han dynasty my family remained distinguished. Yet I alone took a liking to the arts of the Dao and became a commoner. I value a tranquil and quiet purpose and do not serve lords and kings. Having sought longevity and attained it, what more could I want? I soar above, riding the empty air and wind. The immortal maiden Qingyao lends me her wings, and we travel together. I enter fire without being burned and cross water without getting wet. I roam freely in the realm of the Supreme Ultimate, without worry or care, and delight in the capital of the immortals, while also feeling compassion for the world’s deluded people. Human life passes like flowing water; in the blink of an eye, one becomes dust. Yet people rush about in pursuit, pressing on toward death without stopping.’

“The second says: ‘My sacred master upholds the Great Dao. He rises and descends, transforming himself, and keeps company with immortals such as Red Pine and Wang Ziqiao. Twelve people studied alongside me, enduring twenty years of hardship in Daoist cultivation. Sadly, many grew lax, and their resolve and conduct were not firm enough. Alas, each person’s fate has its own arrangement. Heaven does not transmit the Great Dao casually; in the end, the Great Dao belongs to the worthy and virtuous. Once a person has been buried in the dark earth, when will they ever return? You who seek the Dao in later generations, study diligently; do not let worldly customs and wealth weigh you down. Once the divine Way is perfected, you can ascend to the nine heavens and live as long as the sun, moon, and stars—far beyond millions upon millions of years.’

“The third says: ‘From my youth I loved the Dao and De. I gave up my family estate and followed my master, traveling in all directions and withdrawing from the world. For more than twenty years I lived near famous mountains. When it was cold, I neglected to put on clothes; when I was hungry, I neglected to eat. I did not dare think of home, nor did I dare stop because of old age. I served my sacred master and carried out his wishes. My face was covered in dust, and thick calluses grew on my feet. Only then did I earn his compassion and approval, and at last receive the essential instructions for cultivation. His kindness was beyond measure. My wife and children gained long lives, enduring without end. I refined gold and amassed great wealth. Spirits and ghosts obeyed my commands, and jade maidens stood at my side. I was able to transcend the world entirely through the power of the divine elixir.’

“Lord Yin remained in the human world for one hundred and seventy years, still looking like a child. Later, he ascended to heaven in broad daylight.”

Mao Jun, named Ying and styled Shushen, was from Xianyang. His great-grandfather, Mao Meng, styled Chucheng, had studied the Dao on Mount Hua. After successfully refining elixirs, he rode a red dragon up to heaven. This was during the reign of Qin Shi Huang. A children’s rhyme was passed down among the people: “The one who attained the Dao and became an immortal was Mao Chucheng. Riding a dragon, he ascended to heaven and entered the Great Clarity (the celestial realm); at times he descends to wander in Xuanzhou and Chicheng. In later generations someone will inherit his place: that person is I, Mao Ying. If the emperor wishes to study the Dao, he should hold a sacrifice at the Jiaping festival.” This matter is recorded in detail in the histories.

Qin Shi Huang was seeking the way to long life. When he heard the rhyme, he believed that his surname matched the prophecy and assumed that he, too, could ascend to heaven. He therefore ordered that the Laji sacrifice be renamed the “Jiaping” festival, established a corresponding holiday, and offered a distant sacrifice to Penglai. He sent Xu Fu to lead boys and girls across the sea in search of immortals and an elixir of immortality.

At the age of eighteen, Mao Ying went to Mount Heng to study the Dao. After twenty years of cultivation, he had made progress and returned home. His parents were still alive, but they were angry to see him back and reproached him: “You are unfilial. Instead of staying home to care for your parents yourself, you have gone chasing after absurdities and wandering from place to place.” As they spoke, they raised their staffs to strike him.

Mao Ying knelt and explained: “I cultivate the Dao in accordance with Heaven’s mandate, and I am destined to attain it. Cultivating the Dao and staying at home to serve my parents are two things that cannot be done at the same time. Though I cannot care for you constantly, I can help you live long and keep our household safe. My cultivation is complete; you must not humiliate me with a whip or staff, or something grave may happen.” His father remained angry and swung the staff at him. It immediately broke into dozens of pieces, which flew apart like arrows, piercing the walls and passing through the pillars. The walls and pillars split and cracked. Only then was his father stunned into stopping. Mao Ying said, “I was just afraid something like this would happen. If the pieces hit someone, someone could be injured.”

His father asked, “Since you say you have attained the Dao, can you bring the dead back to life?” Mao Ying replied, “Those who die burdened by grave offenses and accumulated evil cannot be revived. But those who die prematurely by accident can be saved.” His father asked which people in the village could be saved. Mao Ying summoned the local earth deity, the She Gong, and asked which of the villagers who had died could return to life. Everyone heard the She Gong answer, “So-and-so can be revived.” Mao Ying then said, “Please quickly complete the necessary documents and obtain approval for him to return to life. Once that is done, his grave may be opened.”

After sunset that day, the She Gong came to report that the matter had been settled and the dead man could be revived. Mao Ying told the man’s family to dig up the grave and open the coffin. The dead man opened his eyes and could move his body, though he still could not speak. After he was carried out, he could sit up three days later, and his speech had returned to normal. In this way, Mao Ying saved dozens of people. They lived for another ten years before dying again.

At that time, Mao Ying’s younger brother Mao Gu, styled Jiwei, and another younger brother, Mao Zhong, styled Sihe, both held office in the Han dynasty. They attained ranks carrying a stipend of two thousand shi, a high salary grade under the Han. When the two were about to take up their posts, hundreds of villagers, relatives, and friends gathered to see them off. Mao Ying was among the guests and said, “Although I will not serve as an official with a stipend of two thousand shi, I will hold a position among the spirits. The eighteenth day of the third month is the day I take up my post. Would you be willing to come and see me off?” The guests replied, “Once you have attained the Dao, you will be leaving us. Of course we will come again to bid you farewell.” Mao Ying said, “I am grateful that you are willing to come. Please come empty-handed and do not spend anything; I will make all the arrangements.”

On that day, several qing of land in front of Mao Ying’s home were suddenly leveled smooth, with not a blade of grass remaining. Green curtains appeared there, with several layers of white felt spread beneath them, enough to accommodate thousands of people. People near and far found this astonishing and spread the story. Crowds came to see him off, filling the roads; there were several times as many as had come to bid farewell to Mao Gu. When all the guests had gathered, Mao Ying welcomed them with conversation and laughter, observing the same courtesies as usual. Though no one was seen directing them, gold plates and jade cups came by themselves to the guests. The dishes, fruits, fine wines, and delicacies were all extraordinary, unlike anything anyone had seen before. Music resounded through heaven and earth, and the food was continually replenished, until every guest had eaten and drunk their fill.

The next day, the procession to escort Mao Ying to his post arrived. Hundreds of civil officials wore vermilion robes and purple sashes. More than a thousand military officials wore armor, carried weapons, and raised banners; their ceremonial regalia gleamed like the sun. Mao Ying took leave of his parents and relatives, then departed in a carriage with a feathered canopy. Banners, insignia, ceremonial staffs, axes, and halberds were all in place, and the procession had the grandeur of an emperor on the road. His carriage was accompanied by extraordinary beasts and birds, including dragons, tigers, qilin, white cranes, and lions. Tens of thousands of birds wheeled overhead, while colored clouds and rosy light surrounded him on every side. After the procession had traveled more than ten li from his home, it suddenly vanished. Everyone who witnessed it was filled with wonder.

Mao Ying then went straight to Jiangnan and cultivated the Dao on Mount Gouqu. The mountain had grotto dwellings where immortals lived. The people at its foot built a temple to honor him. Sometimes he spoke with people inside his tent. When he went out, he was at times preceded by an escort of officials and attendants, and at other times transformed into a white crane. When someone fell ill and prayed to him, ten chicken eggs were boiled and placed inside the tent. After a while, the eggs would be tossed out one by one, their shells appearing as they had before. The sick person would take them home and crack them open to examine them: if an egg had no yolk, the patient would recover; if it contained soil, the patient would not. The local people used this method to judge the illness, though the eggs had never had any cracks in them.

Heavenly music, unusual fragrances, strange clouds, and auspicious vapors often appeared in the temple. At times Mao Ying would arrive amid music and a ceremonial escort, descending from heaven; on some occasions he would not leave until the end of the day. The people living nearby enjoyed his protection: they suffered no floods or droughts, epidemics, locust or caterpillar infestations, poisonous weeds or harmful trees, or attacks by tigers and wolves. People of that time therefore called the mountain Maoshan.

Later, Mao Ying’s two younger brothers grew old, each reaching the age of seventy or eighty. They resigned from office, gave up their households, and crossed the river to find their elder brother. Mao Ying had them take the “Four-Fan Powder,” a Daoist elixir said to restore youth. Their bodies became young again, and after cultivating for more than forty years in a grotto at the foot of the mountain, both attained the Dao and became immortals.

The Most High Lord Lao commanded envoys of the Five Emperors to carry tallies and a white jade tablet inscribed with gold characters, and to bestow the “Nine Gifts”—honors granted by ancient emperors to eminent figures—upon Mao Ying. He was invested as Perfected Man of Great Origin, Senior Minister of the East Peak, and True Lord in Charge of Destiny, overseeing the registers of life and death in the Wu and Yue regions. Afterward he ascended to heaven, though at times he also resided at his administrative seat on Mount Qianshan. The envoys used a purple silk document to confer the title Lord of the Fixed Register upon Mao Gu and the title Lord Who Preserves Life upon Mao Zhong. Both brothers, too, were ranked among the high perfected immortals. The three were therefore collectively known as the Three Mao Lords. Most of the texts recording their Nine Gifts and the purple silk investiture documents have not been preserved; separate biographies of them exist. Thereafter, on the second day of the twelfth month and the eighteenth day of the third month each year, the three Mao Lords would each ride a white crane and meet at the summit of the mountain.

Zhang Daoling, the Celestial Master (Tianshi), whose courtesy name was Fuhan, was from Feng County in the State of Pei. He was originally a student at the Imperial Academy and studied the Five Classics extensively. Later, he lamented, “This learning does nothing to prolong life.” He therefore turned to the Way of long life, obtained the Scripture of the Yellow Emperor’s Nine Cauldrons of Elixirs, and cultivated the elixir on Mount Fanyang. After the elixir was complete and he had taken it, he could pass away either seated or standing, and his appearance gradually grew younger.

Later, in a stone chamber on Mount Wan, he found secret Daoist books and writings, along with arts for commanding and directing the gods of the mountains. Whenever he put these arts into practice, they proved effective.

At first, Zhang Daoling encountered turmoil in the Central Plains, where those in power were mostly in precarious circumstances, so he withdrew to Yuhang to farm. The Han dynasty’s political order was then steadily declining; taxes and levies were imposed without restraint, and the people could find no peace. Although he gathered disciples and lectured, learning and education had already fallen into decline, and he could neither avert the crisis nor help restore order to the world. Only at the age of fifty did Zhang Daoling withdraw from public life to cultivate the Dao. Within ten years, he had mastered its arts.

He had heard that the people of Shu were simple and readily taught, and that the region had many mountains and stone caves. He therefore entered Shu with his disciples and lived in seclusion on Mount Heming. Later, he met the Old Lord, a deity revered in Daoism. At his retreat, he gathered the necessary ingredients and cultivated according to the prescribed method. Three years later, the elixir was complete, but he did not take it at once. He told his disciples, “The divine elixir is ready. Once I take it, I can ascend to Heaven and become a perfected person. But I have not yet done great service for the world. I should first remove harm and bring benefit to the state, and relieve the people’s suffering. Only then should I take the elixir, ascend in flight, and serve the Three Realms of Immortals. That way, I will have nothing to regret.”

Not long afterward, the Old Lord sent the Pure and Harmonious Jade Maiden to teach him the method of Pure and Harmonious breathing: a practice for regulating the breath and guiding Qi. After a thousand days of cultivation, Zhang Daoling could see his five internal organs from within and summon spirits from beyond. He then performed the “Three Steps and Nine Traces,” as well as methods of pacing the Dipper such as “crossing Qian and treading the Dipper”—ritual steps that follow the positions of the stars. Following the direction of the Northern Dipper’s celestial pattern, he subdued demonic spirits and fought the demons of the Six Heavens. He seized the Twenty-Four Administrations, Daoist centers or governing districts, and transformed them into blessed lands called “Realms of Transformation.” He also subdued their leaders and made them underworld officials.

At that time, tens of thousands of demons roamed Shu, even appearing in the marketplaces by day and spreading pestilence at will. The people had suffered from them for a long time. After the great demon of the Six Heavens was subdued, Zhang Daoling drove the demon host away, sending them to the barren wastelands of the northwest. He made them swear an oath: “Humans rule by day; ghosts may act only at night. Yin and Yang each have their bounds, and each has its own sphere of responsibility. If you break this oath, the methods of Zhengyi, Orthodox Unity, will punish and destroy you.”

From then on, the underworld and the human realm became separate domains, and humans and ghosts followed different paths. Even today, Mount Qingcheng in western Shu is said to have a ghost market, as well as stone tablets known as the Oath to the Ghosts, established by the Celestial Master, and the Heaven-and-Earth Stone. The Sun and Moon, too, are said to remain there.

Luan Ba was a native of Shu. The local governor asked him to serve as an administrative aide, helping with government affairs, and took him as his teacher, asking him to display his magic arts. Luan Ba walked into a wall and vanished. Someone outside shouted that tigers and wolves were coming, and he reappeared.

Later, Luan Ba was appointed governor of Yuzhang. There was a local temple whose deity could speak with people. After taking office, Luan Ba investigated the origins of the deity of the soil and grain, learning that it had once gone to Qi as a scholar. The governor had married his daughter to the scholar, and the two had a son. Luan Ba went to Qi and recited a talismanic incantation; the deity turned into a civet.

Luan Ba later served as a court secretary. On New Year’s Day, as he drank with the assembled officials, he held a mouthful of wine, rose, and sprayed it toward the southwest. He reported, “There is a fire in my hometown of Chengdu, so I am using magic to put it out.” The emperor sent someone on a relay horse to investigate. He learned that a fire had indeed broken out in Chengdu on New Year’s Day, and that a rainstorm coming from the northeast had extinguished it. The rain had carried the smell of wine.

In his daily conduct, Luan Ba was quiet and composed, seeming dull and unaware, as though he understood nothing. But he was not truly foolish: he could remain at ease, unmoved by external things. Many among the scholar-officials studied the Dao, but methods such as the “Eight Brocades” and the “Six Sounds” were only ways of guiding the body and regulating the breath. They did not understand that Qi and blood dwell within the body and must not be stirred recklessly. What matters is to let them follow their nature and circulate freely. Who in the world truly understands this?

Even if people sit quietly every day, their thoughts may still rush outward, restless and incessant, like moths flying into a flame or flies striking a window at dawn. They know only how to pursue what lies ahead, not how to turn back; they know only how to seek benefit, not how to avoid harm. There is a kind of sea fish whose eyes are shrimp; people all laugh at it, without understanding the reason. By day, without the sun one cannot walk; by night, without firelight one cannot see clearly. Those who study the Dao should keep their nature from being changed by external things. Faced with a richly adorned, beautiful woman, I see no difference between her and Momu, the legendary ugly woman. Faced with a grand house and lofty halls, I see no difference between them and a thatched hut.

When the mind and spirit are clear, pure, settled, and free of thought, guiding the breath allows it to flow freely throughout the body. Hold fast to simplicity and purity, and cultivate the deep, mysterious Dao; then external things will no longer constrain you. In this way, one can understand how Shen operates, how Qi is generated, and how Jing returns. Whatever one undertakes in cultivation, one can bring to completion.

Luan Ba wrote the Hundred Chapters, expounding the mysteries of the Dao. Its contents are subtle and profound, and it serves as a guide for those who have lost their way.

Volume Six

The Prince of Huainan

Liu An, the Prince of Huainan, loved the Dao of the immortals, and many practitioners of esoteric arts came to seek his patronage from all parts of the realm. One day, eight immortals came to pay him a visit. At first they looked old and haggard, their backs bent and their bodies stooped. The gatekeeper said to them, “The prince is fond of the arts of the immortals: transcending the world and living forever. Visitors must be unlike ordinary people before the prince will receive them with courtesy. You are so old that you are not the kind of people he wishes to see.” The gatekeeper refused them several times, but they persisted in asking to be admitted, and he repeated the same words again and again.

The Eight Lords—the eight immortals—said, “The prince refuses to see us because we are old. But how difficult can it be to become young again?” With that, they shook out their clothes and composed their appearance, and at once they changed into children. Astonished, the gatekeeper welcomed them inside.

Liu An hurried out to greet them with his shoes on the wrong feet. He bowed, calling himself their disciple, and asked, “Immortals of the highest order, you have come from afar. What would you teach me?” When he asked their names, they replied, “We are called Wen Wuchang, Wu Qide, Zhi Baiying, Shou Qianling, Ye Wanchun, Ming Jiugao, Xiu Santian, and Cen Yifeng. Each of us can summon wind and rain, shake thunder and lightning, overturn Heaven and Earth, turn back the sun, and bring flowing water to a halt. We can also command ghosts and spirits, whip demons, pass through water and fire, and move mountains and rivers. There is no transformation we cannot accomplish.”

At that time, one of Liu An’s officials, Wu Bei, had committed an offense. Afraid that Liu An would kill him and deeply unsettled, he went to the capital and accused Liu An of rebellion. Emperor Wu of Han was suspicious of the accusation and sent the Grand Director of the Imperial Clan, an official responsible for imperial family affairs, to Huainan with an imperial tally to investigate. When the Grand Director arrived, the Eight Lords said to Liu An, “This matter cannot be undone. Wu Bei is a subject who has falsely accused his ruler, and Heaven will surely punish him. My lord, you may leave now. Heaven has sent someone to urge you on. If this had not happened and you kept putting it off day after day, would you ever have been willing to leave the human world?”

The Eight Lords then brought out a cauldron, boiled an elixir, and gave it to Liu An to take. Liu An ascended to Heaven along with more than three hundred of his close attendants. Even the chickens and dogs that licked the medicine from the vessels flew up and departed with them. The Eight Lords and Liu An mounted their horses and paused on the rocky mountainside, leaving behind only traces of people and horses. After that, no one knew where they had gone. The Grand Director reported the matter to Emperor Wu, who deeply regretted what had happened and ordered Wu Bei put to death.

From then on, Emperor Wu of Han widely recruited practitioners of esoteric arts and sought medicines for transcending the world and living forever, but he never found them. Later, the Queen Mother of the West descended and imparted immortal scriptures. In secret, she bestowed effective arts upon him, enabling him to attain the Daoist method of corpse liberation, by which one leaves behind the mortal body and becomes an immortal. Thus, a jade casket, a golden staff, and elixirs were said to have appeared among the people at Maoling; Daoist scriptures at Baodu Mountain were also discovered in a cave. These were all described as traces left by Emperor Wu after he had escaped death and become an immortal.

Li Shaojun, whose courtesy name was Yunyi, was from Linzi in the state of Qi. In his youth, he was fond of Daoist arts. He once went to Mount Tai to gather herbs and practiced techniques for abstaining from grain, withdrawing from the world, and preserving his life. Before he had mastered these arts, however, he fell ill and became stranded in the mountain forest.

He encountered Master Anqi as the latter passed by and kowtowed, pleading for help. Seeing that Li Shaojun was devoted to the Dao yet near death from illness, Master Anqi took pity on him and gave him a dose of Divine Tower Powder. Li Shaojun immediately got up. From then on, he asked to follow Master Anqi, willingly serving him and taking him as his teacher.

Master Anqi took Li Shaojun on travels in every direction: east to Chicheng, south to Luofu, north to Dayuan, and west to the Jade Gate. They also toured the Five Sacred Mountains and surveyed the mountains and rivers of many regions. This continued for several decades. One day, Master Anqi told Li Shaojun, “The Immortal Realm of Xuanzhou has summoned me. I must leave today. You cannot yet come with me there, so now we must part. In six hundred years, I will return here to welcome you.” He then taught Li Shaojun the furnace method for refining divine elixirs, the “Flying Snow” formula, as well as the oaths and oral instructions.

Before long, several hundred people arrived to welcome Master Anqi, riding on dragons and tigers. Master Anqi boarded a feathered carriage and ascended to heaven.

Li Shaojun then returned to the human world. After observing purification fasts, he sold goods at the market and traded to support himself. At times he served as an official; at others, he worked as a teacher or treated people as a physician, or took on paid work. He changed his name and traveled from place to place, and no one knew that he possessed Daoist arts.

During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, Li Shaojun heard that the emperor was recruiting practitioners of the arts—people who sought immortality, refined elixirs, and practiced esoteric techniques—and held Daoist arts in especially high regard. Li Shaojun had long been poor and could not raise the funds needed to refine the Great Elixir. He sighed and said to his disciples, “I am old, and my death is near, yet I do not have enough money. If I farmed or traded to earn it myself, I would never raise enough for the medicines needed to refine the elixir. Besides, I am not skilled at such things. I hear that the Son of Heaven is fond of Daoist arts. I want to meet him and offer to refine elixirs for him; then I could obtain whatever materials I need. If the emperor accepts my instruction, I will stay. If he does not, I will leave. I have lived in the world for more than five hundred years without using power or influence to secure even a minor official post. I fear that in the end I may still be left to be devoured by insects and ants.”

So Li Shaojun presented his elixir-refining method to Emperor Wu of Han and offered to refine elixirs for him, hoping to obtain everything he needed.