《歷世真仙體道通鑑》Vol. 29

Wang Zuan was a native of Jintan who lived on Mount Maji. He quietly did good deeds and rescued living beings. At the end of the Western Jin dynasty, war broke out across the Central Plains, and famine and plague struck one after another, leaving the common people dead in great numbers with no one to help them. Wang Zuan was deeply moved by their suffering. He burned memorials in his quiet chamber and submitted them to the Celestial Court, weeping without end.

Three days later, the quiet chamber was as bright as daylight. Then auspicious winds and clouds gathered in the sky, rare fragrances drifted about, celestial music rose, and a host of immortals descended into the courtyard. The first to arrive were more than thirty warriors clad in armor and carrying weapons. Soon after, banners of pearl and jade, precious pennants, rainbow-colored standards, and feathered ceremonial insignia came forward in procession. Four Azure Youths held flowers and burned incense, and two attendant maidens bore an offering table. Brocades of cloud were spread upon the ground, and before them stood a large screen, flanked on either side by more than twenty Dragon and Tiger Generals and attendant officials, who seemed to stand guard. Beyond the Dragon and Tiger Lords, twenty-six Golden-Armored Great Generals and ten Divine Kings were arrayed in order, their ranks orderly and solemn.

Suddenly, the sound of sheng reed pipes came from the northwest, and radiant lights of five colors flashed and shifted. A man wearing a sword and holding a jade tablet stepped forward and told Wang Zuan, "The Supreme Lord Dao (a revered deity of Daoism) has arrived." Then a high seat adorned with many treasures descended from the sky. The Lord of the Dao sat upon it, while two Perfected and two Heavenly Emperors stood at his sides in attendance.

Wang Zuan bowed with clasped hands and knelt forward. The Lord of the Dao said, "You have pitied the common people and set down your concern in a memorial that reached the Celestial Court. Your sincerity is earnest, even as though you had cut open your heart and shed your blood, and for this reason you have moved the netherworld. The Di Si (the divine office governing affairs of the underworld) has already made its report, and so I have come to examine your intent." After Wang Zuan thanked him with a bow, the Lord continued:

"Yin and Yang interact and give birth to the myriad things, while the Five Phases govern the transformations of all things. The Five Phases restrain one another, each waxing and waning in turn, cycling and alternating, so that qi and the continuation of life never cease for an instant. Since countless kalpas past, this process has never been interrupted. Those who receive life and return to pure Yang ascend to heaven and become immortals; those who die sink into pure Yin and remain beneath the earth as ghosts. Ghosts, too, are divided into high and low, strong and weak, yielding and firm, good and evil, no differently from the human world."

"The Jade Emperor Heavenly Venerable, fearing that ghosts and spirits might run wild and harm the human world, has often commanded the Five Emperors and the Three Officials (deities in Daoism who govern heaven, earth, and water) to inspect and restrain them, and has established laws and penalties, regulated with great completeness. Yet as for the common people of the degenerate age..."

The original purity of the primordial source had already dispersed, and empty ornament and hypocrisy rose in its place. People were no longer loyal to their rulers or filial to their parents, they violated the Three Bonds and Five Constants (the traditional ethical norms), and some even went to their deaths. Thus the Six Heavens' old qi (the xie qi, or "deviant qi," of former days, as Daoism calls it) and the followers of demons mingled with defeated armies of past ages, fallen generals, and those who had harmed the common people. They rode the wind and rain, took advantage of people when they were weak, lurked for opportunities to cause mischief, produced all kinds of diseases, and inflicted injury on a great many. Some of them, as a result, did not live out their natural lifespans.

Generals such as Wang Jian and Bai Qi, from ancient times onward, commanded armies while alive, and after death became commanders among the ghosts. Those who had merit were promoted to yin officials (officials of the netherworld), while those who had harmed living beings were classed among the demonic kind. Riding the declining qi of the Five Phases (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water), they caused people to contract consumption, plague, and other such illnesses.

However, if I overawe them with yang might and subdue them with sacred incantations, they will naturally be pacified and restrained. Now I will pass on to you the two scriptures, the Zhen Tang Ping Shen Hua Shen Zhou (Incantations of the True Tang for Pacifying Spirits and Transforming Them), which I once transmitted at the Duyang Palace. If you practice according to these, you can save the myriad people." He then ordered his attendant boy to unfold the Nine Lights Yun (a case used for storing scriptures), and gave him the two scriptures together with the Sanwu Dazhai Jue (Formulas for Performing the Grand Retreat of the Three and Five, a set of methods for conducting that ritual), saying, "Diligently observe these practices and accumulate yinggong (hidden merit, the virtue of secretly aiding others and accumulating good deeds), and you will attain the ranks of the immortals." When he had finished speaking, he rose toward the northwest, riding in a great company of carriages and horses.

Editor's note: After the scriptures and the ritual liturgy (keyi, the prescribed ritual procedures of zhaijiao purification rites) circulated in the world, the region of Jiangnan no longer suffered epidemics.

Shan Daokai

Shan Daokai was a native of Dunhuang, and he habitually wore coarse cloth garments. When people offered him silk robes, he refused to wear them. He was unaffected by cold or heat, did not sleep day or night, and regularly swallowed tiny pebbles, once a day, sometimes in large quantities and sometimes in small. He loved to dwell in the mountains. The trees and the spirits of the mountain manifested strange forms to test him, but at first he was not frightened.

During the reign of Shi Hu (Shi Jilong), Shan Daokai set out from Xiping and in a single day traveled seven hundred li, arriving at Qinzhou. Shi Hu memorialized the court and had him escorted to Ye City. (The Shijiao Shu (Book of Buddhist Teachings) records that in the third year of the Yonghe era under Emperor Mu of the Jin dynasty, the court astrologer reported that the immortal-scholar star corresponding to the "Tiger" constellation had appeared, a sign that a man of lofty attainments had entered the realm. Shi Hu then ordered all prefectures and commanderies to report any extraordinary person they found. In the eleventh month, the Governor of Qinzhou memorialized that he was sending Shan Daokai to Ye City.)

Shi Hu ordered Fotudeng (Buddhist monk Fotudeng) to converse with Shan Daokai, but Fotudeng could not refute him. Fotudeng said, "This Daoist is able to observe the rise and fall of the state. If he leaves, the realm will fall into great turmoil." Later, toward the end of Shi Hu's reign, Shan Daokai crossed south to Xuchang, and not long afterward Ye City indeed fell into great chaos.

In the third year of the Shengping era, Shan Daokai arrived at the capital. He later went to Mount Luofu in the Southern Sea, where he lived alone in a simple thatched hut, detached from the mundane world. He lived more than a hundred years and died at his dwelling in the mountains.

Daokai's disciples placed his body in a stone cave. Later, Yuan Hong (Yuan Hong) of Chen Commandery, serving as Prefect of Nanhai, climbed Mount Luofu (Luofu Shan) and came to the entrance of a stone chamber. He saw that Daokai's body still looked as if it were alive, and that incense and clay vessels were still there. Yuan Hong said, "The Master's cultivation far surpassed that of ordinary people. He should be like a cicada shedding its shell, leaving the form behind." He then composed a eulogy for him, which has since been lost. (See the Jin Shu, Book of Jin)

Tang Zixi of Meishan in the Song dynasty wrote in his preface that Ge Zhichuan (Ge Hong) had died more than thirty years before Shan Daokai arrived at Mount Luofu. Today the people of the mountain know only of Ge Zhichuan and not of Daokai. This is because Ge Zhichuan was later kept on by Deng Yue, and lived in the mountains for many years refining elixirs and writing books, so his furnaces and other relics remain. Daokai, by contrast, ate only a few tiny pebbles each day, lived simply, and had no other notable deeds, so later generations find him hard to investigate. Yuan Hong of Chen Commandery did write the "Eulogy for Daokai," but he had also drafted the Nine Bestowals (jiuxi, the ceremonial documents granted to powerful ministers in antiquity) for Huan Wen. How could such a person be fit to speak again of matters beyond the mortal world? Moreover, the eulogy itself has been lost. Therefore someone wrote two new eulogies and hid them in a valley without saying where, leaving them for curious people of later ages to seek.

The "Eulogy for Daokai" says:

Ordinary people swallow soft foods yet spit out hard things. They eat soft-cooked rice with a spoon, and their mouths move like oxen chewing the cud. The Perfected (zhiren, one whose cultivation has succeeded) forget external things and regard hardness and softness as fundamentally one. To them, eating stones is like eating cakes. The archers of Beiping can shoot down flying birds because their minds are free of distraction. From this example one may inquire into the principle of eating stones. I cannot do it myself, yet I understand its principle, and perhaps I may rub my teeth with pebbles.

(See the Luofu Tuzhi, Illustrated Gazetteer of Luofu)

Wang Jia

Wang Jia, courtesy name Zinian, was a native of Anyang in Longxi. He was careless in his bearing, plain in appearance, witty in speech, and fond of jokes. He did not eat the five grains, did not wear fine clothes, and was pure and free of desire. He practiced fuqi (breath-regulation methods) and did not associate with worldly people. He retired to Dongyang Valley, where he carved into the cliffs and lived in a cave. Several hundred disciples also lived in caves.

Another account states that Wang Jia rode the six qi (six kinds of vital breath) and maintained the Three Ones (Sanyi, a Daoist practice of visualization and guarding the spirit). Although he did not change his clothes in winter or summer, his appearance grew younger by the day. In the late years of Jilong, he abandoned his disciples and quietly retired to Mount Zhongnan (Zhongnan Shan), where he built a thatched hut and settled. His followers went after him again, so he moved to Mount Daoshou (Daoshou Shan).

Those who revered the arts of the Dao made him their teacher and asked him about worldly affairs. He could always answer according to the question. He liked to use analogies and spoke of things yet to happen as if he were joking, in words resembling prophetic riddles (chenwei, coded prophecies that foretell fortune and misfortune). The people of the time could not understand him, but when the events came to pass, his words were mostly borne out. Those who visited him with utmost sincerity were able to see him. Those whose intentions were not sincere enough…

He could make his body vanish from sight the moment he willed it, yet his clothes remained hanging on the rack, and his shoes and staff stayed where they were. When someone tried to take his clothes, they could never reach them. The clothes-rack seemed to grow ever higher, though the ceiling did not rise. The shoes, staff, and other objects behaved the same way.

Fu Jian (Fu Jian of the Former Qin) summoned him repeatedly, and each time he refused to answer. Later, when Fu Jian was preparing a major southern campaign, he appointed Fu Rong as grand general and sent an envoy to ask him about it. He told the envoy, "Metal is firm, fire is strong." He then mounted the envoy's horse, adjusted his cap and robes, and walked slowly east for several hundred paces before galloping back. He removed his robes, cast off his cap and shoes, returned inside, dismounted, sat cross-legged on the bed, and said nothing. Fu Jian did not understand his meaning and sent someone to ask again. He replied, "Wei-yang (Not Yet Finished)." Fu Jian took this as an auspicious sign. The following year, the year of guimei, Fu Jian was defeated at Shouchun, and the Former Qin perished with him. The phrase "Not Yet Finished" had secretly pointed to the fall of the dynasty, which would occur in the year of wei.

The Former Qin was associated with the west, which in the Five Phases (wuxing) corresponds to Metal, while the Jin capital lay to the south, which corresponds to Fire. Since Fire can melt Metal, this passage uses the mutual conquest of the Five Phases to explain why the Former Qin was defeated by the Jin.

He later moved to Mount Song (Songgao). When Yao Chang was fighting Fu Deng, Yao Chang asked him, "If I kill Fu Deng, will I be able to pacify the realm?" He replied, "Probably you will obtain it." Yao Chang grew angry and said, "If one can obtain it, then one can obtain it. Why say 'probably'?" He then had him and his two disciples executed. Earlier, Yao Chang had sent men who encountered him in Longyou. At that time, he had already walked more than a thousand li with his two disciples, and it was on the very day of their execution. He had also written a letter to Yao Chang. When Yao Chang ordered the coffins of him and his two disciples opened, none contained a body, only a bamboo staff. Yao Chang himself died soon after. This man authored the Shiyi Ji (Records of Gleanings) in ten fascicles, which chiefly record marvelous events and have been transmitted to the present day.

Meng Qin

Meng Qin was a native of Luoyang, skilled in the arts of magic practiced by figures such as Zuo Ci and Liu Gen. The people admired him and flocked to follow him. Fu Jian summoned him to Chang'an, judging that he deluded the masses, and ordered Fu Rong to kill him.

Before long, Meng Qin arrived at Fu Rong's residence. Fu Rong kept him and held a banquet in his honor. When the wine was flowing freely, Fu Rong signaled his attendants to seize Meng Qin. But Meng Qin turned into a whirlwind and flew out of the compound. After a while, someone reported that he had appeared to the east of the city, and Fu Rong dispatched cavalry in pursuit. When the pursuers were about to catch up, Meng Qin had already gone far away. At times they met crowds of people blocking the road and had to fight through them; at other times streams and ravines lay ahead, and the cavalry could not cross. In the end, no one knew where he had gone.

Late in Fu Jian's reign, Meng Qin appeared again in Qingzhou. Fu Lang pursued him, but he eventually entered an island in the sea.

Guo Zhisheng

Guo Zhisheng, courtesy name Tongming, was a native of Songti Commandery. During the reign of Emperor Yuan of Jin, he claimed to be four hundred years old, yet he appeared to be about fifty. He carried two small scrolls, enough to fill two chests, which he often bore on his back. He lived constantly at the home of Zhang Ji, and he often sighed, saying, "War and famine are about to arrive..."

Calamity spread and the common people suffered; in the end, ditches served as coffins and flies served as filial sons. Such a miserable scene was bound to come, and it is truly heartbreaking.

Two years later, Sun En (a rebel leader at the end of the Eastern Jin) launched an uprising. Between the summer and winter of that year, among every ten people who were killed or starved to death, almost none escaped. Zhisheng suddenly said to Guo Ji, "I fear I am about to die. Please prepare some crude burial implements for me. There is no need to bury me; just carry me into the mountain rocks and weigh the coffin down with stones." A few days later, Zhisheng died, and Guo Ji carefully carried out his instructions. A few days after that, Guo Ji's relatives returned from Fuyang and saw Zhisheng riding a white deer through the mountains, and they wrote to tell Guo Ji.

Guo Pu

Guo Pu, courtesy name Jingchun, was a native of Hedong. He loved the classics, was broadly learned, and was outstandingly talented, though he was not skilled at speech. His poetry, prose-poetry, and rhapsodies were considered the finest of the Jin revival period. He was fond of ancient prose and strange writings, and he was proficient in Yin-Yang (yinyang), the calendar, and calculation.

A certain Mr. Guo, a sojourner in Hedong, was skilled in divination, and Guo Pu became his student. Mr. Guo gave Guo Pu nine scrolls from his green satchel. From then on, Guo Pu mastered the Five Phases (wuxing), astronomy, divination, and related arts. He also understood methods of averting calamity and turning peril into safety, and his applications were endlessly varied. Even Jing Fang and Guan Lu could not match him.

Zhao Zai, one of Guo Pu's disciples, secretly took the books from the green satchel. Before he had a chance to read them, the books were burned.

During the reigns of Emperor Hui and Emperor Huai, unrest first broke out in the Hedong area. After divining, Guo Pu knew that disaster was coming, so he fled to the southeast. When he arrived at the home of General Zhao Gu, Zhao Gu's fine horse had just died. Zhao Gu grieved over it deeply and would not even receive guests. Guo Pu reached the gate, but the gatekeeper refused to announce him. Guo Pu said, "I can bring your horse back to life." The gatekeeper was startled and went in to report it. Zhao Gu hurried out and asked, "Can you truly revive my horse?"

Guo Pu said, "Gather twenty or thirty strong men, each carrying a long pole, and go east thirty li. There is a hill, a grove, and a shrine to the earth god (she miao). Strike the pole against them, and you should hit something. Bring it back quickly, and the horse can be revived." Zhao Gu did as he said and indeed caught a creature resembling a monkey. When they brought it back, the creature saw the dead horse and breathed into its nostrils. After a while the horse stood up, neighed vigorously, and began eating as usual. The creature then vanished. Zhao Gu found this extraordinary and generously rewarded Guo Pu.

After Guo Pu crossed the Yangzi River, Wang Dao (a senior minister of the Eastern Jin) valued him highly and appointed him to take part in his military affairs. When Emperor Yuan was garrisoning Jianye, Wang Dao had Guo Pu divine, and everything Guo Pu predicted came true. Later Guo Pu was promoted to Assistant Secretary of Writings.

At that time Yin-Yang was out of balance, and criminal cases were numerous. Guo Pu memorialized the throne, saying, "Reverence and caution are the causes of receiving blessings; laxity and arrogance are the causes of bringing calamity. One should clear away abuses and faults and support the yang..."

In the third month of the fourth year of the Jianwu era (338 CE), on the day guihai, dark spots appeared on the sun. Guo Pu (a diviner and astrologer of the Eastern Jin) argued that this was because the ruler had applied punishments too harshly, throwing Yin-Yang out of balance, and that all these anomalies arose from the abuse of penal law.

The emperor was unwilling to issue amnesties frequently. Guo Pu said, "Zichan (a statesman of the state of Zheng during the Spring and Autumn period) cast the penal code. It was not a good method for governing a state, but at the time it could not be avoided, because it was needed to remedy a corrupt administration. Issuing amnesties now is, in principle, the same." Not long afterward, Guo Pu was promoted to Gentleman of the Secretariat (Shangshu lang).

In the first month of the first year of the Yongchang era (322 CE), Guo Pu submitted another memorial, requesting that an amnesty be proclaimed on the occasion of an imperial grandson's birth. The emperor accepted the proposal, pardoned the realm, and changed the reign title. Wang Dun appointed Guo Pu as Military Adviser for Records (a staff officer in charge of documents). Guo Pu was skilled in divination. Knowing that Wang Dun would certainly rebel and that disaster would come to Guo Pu because of it, Guo Pu was deeply troubled.

When the Grand General's aide Chen Shu died, Guo Pu wept bitterly for him. Someone said, "Sizu (the courtesy name of Chen Shu), how do you know this is not a blessing?" After Emperor Yuan died, Guo Pu resigned his post because his mother had passed away. He divined a burial site and chose Jiyang, a place about a hundred paces from the water. Someone disliked that the grave was so close to the river, and Guo Pu said, "This place will soon become dry land." Later, silt accumulated and buried the area, and dozens of li around it turned into mulberry fields.

Guo Pu once selected burial sites for others. The Ming Emperor went there in disguise to look and asked the occupant of the tomb, "Why was the grave placed on the dragon's horn? By this method of burial, the family should be wiped out." The tomb's occupant answered, "Guo Pu said it was placed on the dragon's ear, and that within three years it would bring a Son of Heaven." The Ming Emperor asked, "Will a Son of Heaven truly emerge?" The answer was, "He only said it could bring a Son of Heaven." Upon hearing this, the Ming Emperor was greatly astonished.

In the third month of the first year of the Taining era of the Ming Emperor's reign (323 CE), Wang Dun plotted to usurp the throne and secretly urged the court to summon him. The emperor personally drafted an edict summoning Wang Dun, and Wang Dun then moved his base to Guxu. In the fifth month of the second year of the Taining era, Wang Dun prepared to raise troops and attack the capital, and he had Guo Pu divine a dream. After divining, Guo Pu said, "It will not succeed." Wang Dun asked how long he himself had left to live. Guo Pu said, "If you raise troops, disaster will come swiftly. If you return to Wuchang, your lifespan will be hard to predict." Wang Dun flew into a rage and asked how long Guo Pu had left to live. Guo Pu replied, "I will die at noon today."

Enraged, Wang Dun ordered the lictors (wubo, the officers responsible for executions) to bind Guo Pu. Guo Pu said to the lictor, "When I was thirteen, I took off my robe at Zhatang and gave it to you. At that time I told you that my life would fall into your hands. You may use my knife." The lictor, moved by the kindness Guo Pu had shown long ago, carried out the order with tears welling up.

Before divining the dream, Guo Pu had already told his family of his impending death and had them prepare the items for his funeral. When he was taken to the place of execution, he instructed his family to bury him between two pine trees by the river. Three days after the execution, someone saw Guo Pu selling the clothes he had worn in life at the Southern Market, and he was even conversing with acquaintances. When Wang Dun heard of this, he did not believe it.

The absence of a corpse upon opening the coffin is a sign of bingjie (release by weapons or warfare), the Daoist notion of leaving the physical body and attaining immortality through a violent or battlefield death. Guo Pu later became the Water Palace Immortal Elder (shuifu xianbo), an immortal official in charge of the watery realm.

Guo Pu's Life

Guo Pu and Huan Yi were close friends. Huan Yi often visited him, and when he happened to find Guo Pu in his bedchamber, Guo Pu would say, "When you come to other places, you may walk straight in. Only do not come looking for me in the privy, or both host and guest may suffer calamity."

Later, Huan Yi, drunk, went to look for Guo Pu and happened to see him in the privy. He hid nearby and secretly watched. He saw Guo Pu naked, hair loose, a knife held in his mouth, arranging offerings. When Guo Pu caught sight of Huan Yi, he clutched his chest in alarm and cried, "I warned you not to come, yet you insisted on doing so. Not only will I suffer misfortune, but you will not escape it either."

Sure enough, Guo Pu later met with the disaster brought by Wang Dun, and Huan Yi also lost his life in the rebellion of Su Jun.

Guo Pu compiled more than sixty of the divinations he had made, whose predictions were later verified, into the Donglin (Forest of Divination). He also excerpted the divinatory doctrines of Jing Fang, Fei Zhi, and others, condensing them into essentials. In addition, he composed the Xinlin (New Forest) in ten chapters and the Buyun (Rhymes of Divination) in one. He annotated the Erya, and he commented on the Sancang, the Fangyan, the Mu Tianzi Zhuan (Biography of the Son of Heaven Mu), the Shanhaijing (Classic of Mountains and Seas), and the Chu Ci (Songs of Chu). All of these works circulated widely. His poems, rhapsodies, and elegies also amount to tens of thousands of characters. (The above content is largely the same as in the Jin Shu (Book of Jin).)

The Daoist commentator says: Guo Pu's dissuasion of Wang Dun was meant to check the ambitions of treacherous ministers and rebellious sons. Wang Dun held the lofty rank of Grand General, yet he eyed the weakness of the Jin house and schemed to rebel, a case of coveting power without knowing contentment. Guo Pu hoped to persuade him to desist with words. He said, "If you raise rebellion, disaster will come swiftly; if you withdraw to Wuchang, your lifespan may still be difficult to measure." Was Guo Pu not, in effect, taking upon himself a moral responsibility and hoping thereby to turn the hearts of treacherous ministers and rebellious sons?

The Daodejing says: "There is no greater fault than desire, no greater calamity than not knowing contentment, and no greater error than covetousness. Therefore, the one who knows enough and finds contentment in it is always content." This is precisely the intent behind Guo Pu's dissuasion of Wang Dun.

Guo Wenju

Guo Wenju was a native of Zhi County in Henei Commandery. In his youth he loved mountains and rivers and often traveled to famous peaks, and he once sought out the stone chamber at Huayin. After Luoyang fell, he moved to the Wu region and lived on Mount Dapi. He built a platform of timber in the trees and covered it with reed mats to dwell upon. Fierce beasts roamed the mountain at that time, yet he lived there for more than ten years without suffering any harm.

The Prime Minister, Wang Dao, sent men to escort him to the capital, and the court officials all came to look at him. Guo Wenju sat cross-legged with a careless air, indifferent to those around him. Zhou Yi asked him, "Fierce beasts can injure people. Sir, you lived alone in the mountains. Were you not afraid?" Guo Wenju replied, "I have no intention of harming beasts, and so the beasts do not..."

Zhou Yi, Yu Liang, Huan Wen, Liu Hui and others once remarked together: "Wenju lacked the talents of a worthy man, yet he had a worthy man's virtue."

In the first year of the Xianhe era of Emperor Cheng of the Jin (326 CE), Guo Wenju asked to return to the mountains as a recluse, and Ge Hong did not grant his request. A few days later Guo Wenju withdrew into Baitu Mountain in Lin'an. The following year Su Jun rebelled, and people said that Wenju had foreseen the disaster, which was why he had left.

Guo Wenju had two scrolls of the Laozi Jing, which he kept locked in a box and hung in his house, though he never read them. A man named Xu Kai from outside the mountains became his disciple and received fulu (talismans and registers), the tokens and ritual offices that Daoism conferred on its adherents. The generals and clerk-soldiers recorded in the fulu appeared to Xu Kai and placed themselves at his command. Guo Wenju then had him see the gods of the soil and the hearth, and warned him: "Do not take a wife." Later Xu Kai married a woman of the Ji family, and the gods all withdrew, leaving only two fulu clerks. The two no longer obeyed Xu Kai and told him: "You have broken your master's pact. The Celestial Bureau (tiancao, the heavenly administrative office in Daoist belief) has recalled the clerk-soldiers and left us only to guard the Taishang fulu, so we can no longer serve as your attendants."

When Guo Wenju died, he departed as a cicada sheds its shell. The people below the mountain erected a stele for him. Guo Wenju had once written a poem called "Jinxiong Shi" ("Poem of the Golden Hero") on ruo leaves, a kind of bamboo leaf. After his death it was found under the mat of his bed. When read in sequence, its contents resembled prophecy and the weishu (apocryphal texts), and so it was circulated in the world.

Your subject Dao Yi comments: Guo Wenju lived in the mountain wilds and was not afraid of fierce beasts. When he answered Zhou Yi's question, he said, "I have no heart to harm wild animals, so wild animals do not harm people." From this we can see his cultivation and learning. A person of profound virtue is like an infant: poisonous insects do not sting him, fierce beasts do not attack him, and birds of prey do not strike him. Is this not a description of Guo Wenju?

Wang Zhi

Wang Zhi was a native of Dongyang in the Jin dynasty. He went into the mountains to cut firewood and arrived at Stone Chamber Mountain in Xin'an Commandery, where he saw several boys seated around a game of go in the stone chamber, laughing and singing. (According to another account, he encountered Chisongzi and An Qisheng playing go.) Wang Zhi set down his axe and stood to watch. One of the boys gave him something resembling a jujube pit, and told him to hold it in his mouth and swallow its juice. From then on, he no longer felt hunger or thirst.

The boy said, "You have been here a long time. You may go home now." Wang Zhi picked up his axe and found that the handle had rotted away completely. When he returned home, he learned that several hundred years had passed, and that all his relatives and friends had died, with none still living. He later went back into the mountains and attained the Dao. He lived more than a hundred years, and people often saw him. Eventually he too ascended to heaven.

Xin'an in eastern Zhejiang……

Lanke Mountain (Lanke Shan) lies in this area. It is also called Fuke Mountain (Fuke Shan), and it now belongs to Xi'an County in Quzhou. Another Lanke Mountain lies in Xin'an, Guangdong, which now belongs to Zhaoqing Prefecture.

Dong You

Dong You was a native of Hailing. He had two older brothers and was the youngest of the three. His father died when he was still very young, and his mother favored him because his frail health left him unable to take on household work. At the age of eighteen, Dong You said to his mother, "My illness is severe and hard to cure. I would only burden my two elder brothers, and I will not live long in any case. I wish to go to a Daoist temple and serve as a menial worker, sweeping and tending the grounds, and spend the rest of my life there." His mother agreed. In his master's household, Dong You was respectful and careful, diligent in his cultivation, and kept a long-term vegetarian fast (chi zhai). He studied with single-minded focus and never slackened, and in time he mastered the Daoist arts (daoshu). On the night he turned forty-one, a zhenren (a perfected immortal who has achieved realization through practice) descended and transmitted to him the technique of "walking on water without drowning." He also gave him a whip, and with it Dong You could strike the water and walk upon it as if on level ground.

During the Yixi era of Emperor An of the Jin dynasty, Dong You returned home to take leave of his mother. He said that he had already attained the Dao and could no longer remain in the human world, so he had come back to bid farewell to his family. His mother asked where he was going and when he would return. Dong You replied that he must go to Mount Emei to continue his studies and that there was no date for his return. Relatives and neighbors accompanied him to the Xijiang River at Quyang, where they watched him strike the water with his whip and proceed onward, growing gradually more distant. Turning back, Dong You said to his two elder brothers, "May you pass on the Daoist practice for generations upon generations."

Fan Bao

Fan Bao was a native of Langzhong in Ba Commandery. He lived for a long time on the Hundred-Li Islet in the Zhi River and practiced the Way of Great Peace and Wuwei (non-action), known as Taiping Wuwei zhi Dao. He faced the sun to practice tuna (breath regulation, expelling stale breath and drawing in fresh), and five-colored light would rise from his neck. He wore only a single unlined cloth garment in both winter and summer. By the time Huan Wen, the powerful minister of the Eastern Jin, held power, his hair had turned white, yet in the Yuanjia era of Emperor Wen of Song his appearance still had not changed. He divined fortune and misfortune, and even affairs ten thousand li away he could describe as clearly as if he saw them before him.

When people asked whether he was an immortal banished from heaven, he said, "Dongfang Shuo (a Western Han figure known for his wit) once played a trick on me, and when I was a child I often played with him." He also said that he had personally witnessed King Wu of Zhou's campaign against the tyrant Zhou, fighting at the walls of Luoyi, with soldiers singing in front and dancing behind. When Emperor Wen of Song summoned Fan Bao, he referred to himself as "wo" or "wu" in answering the imperial questions and did not use the humble terms that subjects would normally employ.

The crown prince, Liu Shao (Yuanxiong, who would later kill his father), was then serving in the Eastern Palace. As Fan Bao passed by, he pointed at the palace gate and said, "Inside there is a bolang bird (a shrike, which the ancients regarded as an ill omen). Why do you keep a thief and not know it?" The emperor was displeased with these words and ordered Fan Bao to take his own life. Prince Jiangxia had him buried on the Chi'an Ridge at Xinting. Later the emperor sent men to dig up the coffin and examine it, and they found no corpse inside, so the emperor regretted his decision. The following year, the matter implicated Fan Bao's younger brother as well.

The boy Chen Zhong got up one night and suddenly saw the room bright as day. A leopard entered the house, walked to the couch, and sat down. Shortly afterward an old man arrived, and the leopard rose to greet him. When Chen Zhong asked who the old man was, the leopard smiled and did not answer. After a while they left together. The leopard said to Chen Zhong, "When I return, please look after my house well." The house referred to here is Baili Islet.

Feng Boda

Feng Boda was a native of Jianchang County in Yuzhang Commandery. His family had practiced filial piety for generations, and Feng Boda himself was diligent in cultivation and often gave aid to others. He associated with the Daoist lay adept Chen Ci and grasped the essentials of his teaching. His deeds resemble those of Dai Jin, and the two were contemporaries.

During the Yuanjia era of Emperor Wen of the Song dynasty, Feng Boda went to the capital on business and later returned south by boat with a fellow townsman. When the boat reached Meigen, a strong wind arose and kept it from moving for several days. Feng Boda told the boatman, "If you want to reach home quickly, simply sleep peacefully, and do not open your eyes under any circumstances." That night the passengers heard the hull strike treetops, yet no harm came to them. Some of them secretly looked out and saw two dragons clasping the ship's beams and escorting the vessel, which moved as swiftly as lightning. Before dawn the boat reached home. Feng Boda then entered Mount Lu and never returned.

Ma Rong

Ma Rong lived in Gucheng County in the state of Liang. His eyes were swollen and ulcerated so that he could not see, yet he could clearly perceive distant things. Many people in the north suffered from leprosy, and their villages would not accept them, so they came to seek refuge with Ma Rong. He treated them, and all of the patients were cured.

Ma Rong said that his feet were ailing, and he often traveled in a white deer-drawn carriage. Whether the distance was near or far, no one was seen pushing or pulling the carriage, yet it reached its destination on its own. Sometimes in a single day he was invited to dozens of places, and at each one people saw a Ma Rong. When speaking with others, he called himself "Eze," and he wrote three Qianche Poems whose contents resembled chenwei (apocryphal prophetic texts that interpret fortune and the mandate of Heaven).

In the third month of the second year of the Xiaojian era of Emperor Xiaowu of the Song dynasty, Ma Rong wrote letters bidding farewell to people in both states. On the sixteenth day, at noon, he indeed passed away.

Han Yue

Han Yue was a native of Guanjun Township in Nanling County. He admired the immortals, and his bearing seemed somewhat foolish. He followed his teachers in long periods of fasting and recitation of scriptures, and the chanting never ceased from his mouth. He often traveled in wooden clogs and dared to enter the mountains regardless of the distance, sometimes returning home only after fifty or a hundred days. When his family asked where he had been, he never answered truthfully.

Later, a villager cutting dead wood in a cliff-side stone chamber on Mount Dayang to make bows saw Han Yue reading scriptures together with six or seven immortals. Afterward, Han Yue returned from the mountain to Luan Village and suddenly died. When his family came to receive his coffin, they found it strangely light and suspected that the body inside was not real. Upon opening it, they found only a bamboo staff.

During the Daming era of Emperor Xiaowu of the Song dynasty, a fellow townsman of Han Yue held the post of taijiang (a junior official) and was ordered to travel north on a diplomatic mission. At the south gate of Qingzhou he met Han Yue and noticed that Han Yue looked younger than before. The two talked for a while and asked each other...

He asked about the living and dead circumstances of their relatives, and both sorrow and joy were expressed in a solemn, calm manner. Yue Yun said, "My wife's cough has never gotten better. Please give me a packet of medicine today for her to take with warm wine." After Tai Jiang returned to the capital, he relayed Yue Yun's words to his wife. Yue Yun's wife took the medicine, and her cough stopped at once.

Yan Dong

The Daoist Yan Dong was of unknown origin and in his forties. In the Jianyuan era of Emperor Gao of the Southern Qi, he went to Jinling to take refuge with the Daoist Li Jingyou. He often called himself dull-witted, wore torn clothes and worn-out shoes, carried only a water dipper, and had no scriptures.

Yet those who discussed the Dao with him found his insights profound and subtle. His voice was clear and resonant, and his listeners were astonished. In daily life he was playful and carefree, chanting poems and singing songs, and he mingled easily with worldly affairs. The local people knew he was no ordinary person and held him in great respect.

He lived in Jinling for five or six years. One day, as he was about to leave, he took up his brush and annotated the Lingbao Duren Jing (Scripture of Salvation of the Lingbao Tradition). His inspiration flowed without pause, and he finished writing in a single day. He then entered the Zeng Mountain in Liyang, and from that time on no one knew where he had gone.

Wang Lingyu

Wang Lingyu was a Daoist from Jiujiang. He was gentle by nature and diligent in cultivation. At first he lived on Five Elders Peak. One night a divine being appeared to him and said, "Every person who attains the Dao has a place of practice suited to them, just as grain sown in sand and gravel cannot grow. Since you have the bone structure for ascending to immortality, you must find a blessed land and numinous site in which to cultivate transformation. Accumulating De is like building a foundation to stand on, and accumulating good deeds is like growing wings for ascent. If the place where you dwell is unsuitable, demonic obstacles will destroy the fruits of your practice, and your quest for the Dao will be hopeless."

Wang Lingyu asked, "Where is a suitable place to dwell?" The divine being replied, "The ridges beside the upper peak of Songling and beside Zigai Peak will allow you to rise straight into the heavens." Wang Lingyu then moved to the Central Palace on Mount Heng and lived there for twelve years. On the thirteenth day of the seventh month of the eleventh year of the Tianjian era of Emperor Wu of Liang, a host of immortals came to the altar to welcome him, and he ascended to heaven. Emperor Huizong of the Song later bestowed upon him the title "Great Master Tongwei Jixu" (Master Who Penetrates the Subtle and Embraces the Void).

Shuang Xizu

The Daoist Shuang Xizu, courtesy name Zhongyuan, was a native of the Wu region during the Liang dynasty. He first lived on Mount Heng, then moved to Mount Jiuyi, where he devoted himself wholeheartedly to cultivation and sought to transcend the mundane world. He believed that if one's sincerity was pure and one's practice was complete, one would surely be able to commune with the Exalted Perfected, the high-ranking immortals of Daoist tradition. He therefore studied the Huangting Jing (Yellow Court Scripture) and the Yupian with great diligence, built the Huangting Monastery for his disciples to live in, and made his own home at White Horse Cliff.

One day he returned to the monastery, bathed, closed the door, and sat in quiet meditation for seven full days without coming out. His disciples found this strange and opened the door to look. They saw that he had suddenly ascended lightly into the air, and his immortal robes had been left behind on a treetop. At that time, it was the Zhenguan era of Emperor Taizong of the Tang……

In the summer of a certain year, in the fourth month, his sleeping mat in the mountain rocks remained undamaged for more than a hundred years.

Details are recorded in the Nanyue Zongsheng Ji (Collected Accounts of the Supreme Sites of Mount Nanyue).

Huan Kai was from an unknown place. He served Master Tao Yinju (Tao Hongjing) and lived for more than ten years at the Huayang Hall (Huayang Guan) on Mount Mao (Maoshan). He was upright and cautious, and apart from his service duties he was always quiet and taciturn, seeming to do nothing at all.

One day, two Qingtong (Azure Youths, child immortals of Daoist legend) and a white crane descended from the sky and alighted in the courtyard. Tao Yinju greeted them joyfully, believing they had come for him. The Azure Youths said, "The Taishang (Most High, a revered Daoist deity) has summoned Mr. Huan." Tao Yinju silently considered the matter, since none of his disciples bore the surname Huan. Upon inquiry, he discovered that only Huan Kai, the man in charge of service duties, had that surname.

Tao Yinju asked him why he had been summoned. Huan Kai replied, "In my daily practice of the Way of Silent Audience (Mochao, a method of cultivation through silent visualization and reverent worship of the deities), I have personally paid homage to the Great Emperor for nine years, and so this summons has come today. I am about to ascend to heaven." Tao Yinju wished to take him as his teacher, but Huan Kai humbly and firmly declined, and Tao Yinju did not press the matter.

The next morning, Tao Yinju said to him, "I have transmitted teachings and cultivated the Dao with diligence, and I have done my utmost, yet I remain bound to the mundane world. Could it be because of some fault of mine? I hope you will look into this on my behalf and tell me later." Huan Kai then put on his celestial robe, mounted the white crane, and rose into the sky.

Three days later, Huan Kai quietly returned and said to Tao Yinju, "Your hidden merit (yingong, good deeds unknown to others) has indeed become manifest. However, the materia medica you compiled also lists gadflies (meng) and leeches (shuizhi) as medicines. Although they have served to heal and save lives, you have thereby harmed these living beings. After another twelve years, you will be able to shed your physical form and leave the world, and you will be appointed Overseer of the Waters of Penglai (Penglai Dushuijian, an immortal office governing the waters of Penglai)."

Tao Yinju then wrote a three-fascicle supplement to his materia medica, recording minerals and plant-based medicines that could replace the drugs that harm living beings, in order to make amends for his fault. Later, he did indeed shed his physical form and passed away.