《歷世真仙體道通鑑》Vol. 3

Juan Three of Lineage of the True Immortals Who Attained the Dao, Comprehensively Illustrated

(Compiled by Zhao Daoyi, Daoist of the Ten Thousand Years Palace of Holy Longevity on Floating Cloud Mountain)

Chi Songzi (Red Pine Master)

Chi Songzi was the rain master (yushi) of the age of Shennong. He took in water crystal (shuiyu) and taught this method to Shennong. It is said that he could enter fire and burn himself away. He traveled to Mount Kunlun and lived for long periods in the stone chamber of Xiwangmu (the Queen Mother of the West), rising and descending with the wind and rain. A daughter of Yandi (the Flame Emperor) followed him, attained the Dao, and became an immortal, and the two departed together. In the time of Gaoxin, he again served as rain master, which is why later traditions about rain masters trace back to him.

The Record of the Cinnabar Terrace (Dantai Lu) says that Chi Songzi was an immortal chief (xianbo) of Kunlun who oversaw Mount Heng of the South. The Embracing Simplicity Master (Baopuzi) says that Chi Songzi soaked the blood of the mysterious gu insect in jade, made it into a water, and drank it, and so he could ride the smoke and rise and descend. Eating jade filings, or taking jade powder mixed with water, can both enable a person to live long and not die.

Ning Fengzi (Master Ning Feng)

Ning Fengzi lived in the age of the Yellow Emperor. The world says that he once served the Yellow Emperor as director of pottery (taozheng), an official in charge of making ceramics. A man passing by him taught him the method of managing fire, and he could produce smoke in five colors. After a long time, he passed this method on to Ning Fengzi. Ning Fengzi gathered flames and burned himself away, rising and falling with the smoke. When people examined the ashes, they found that his bones remained among them. Later, people buried him in the mountains north of Ning, and for this reason he is called Ning Fengzi.

Another account says that Master Ning lived on the North Cliff of Mount Qingcheng in the Shu region. The Yellow Emperor served him as a teacher and asked him about the way of cultivation. Ning Fengzi said: "I have heard that the Perfected Lord of Heaven (Tianzhen Huangren), a celestial perfected of Daoist legend, received an order from Taishang (the Most High) and dwells near Mount Emei, where he understands the source of the Three Ones (Sanyi). You may become his disciple and seek his instruction." He then passed the Longjiao Jing (Scripture of Dragon-Riding) to the Yellow Emperor. Once the Yellow Emperor had mastered it, he could drive the clouds and dragons and roam the eight directions.

The Yellow Emperor built an altar on the mountain and honored Master Ning as Perfected of the Five Marchmounts (Wuyue Zhenren), placing him in charge of the Five Marchmounts and ordering the hundred spirits of the mountains and rivers to receive his commands at Qingdu (the Celestial Capital of Clarity). Afterward, the Yellow Emperor entered the North Cliff of Mount Emei and studied the Way of the Three Ones with the Perfected Lord of Heaven. Tradition holds that the two of them traveled back and forth among the seas and mountains, and traces of their chariot ruts remain to this day.

Another version holds that the Yellow Emperor enfeoffed Master Ning to govern the Five Marchmounts and to command their mountain spirits. There, he also used water to mark the hours, which was called the "Six-Period Water." During the yin periods, the water flowed down in a spray, while during the yang periods there was no water……

Ma Shihuang (Master Ma the Sovereign)

Ma Shihuang was a horse doctor in the age of the Yellow Emperor. He understood how to judge a horse's life, death, and illness by observing its appearance and breath. As long as he treated the horse according to its condition, the horse often recovered very quickly.

Later, a dragon descended and lowered its ears toward Ma Shihuang and opened its mouth. Ma Shihuang said: "This dragon is ill. It knows that I can heal, and so it has come to find me." He then pricked the area beneath its lips and inside its mouth with needles……

He drank a decoction of licorice, and his illness was cured. Afterward, a sick dragon often appeared in that pond and asked him for help. After he cured the dragon, one day the dragon carried him away on its back.

Chijiang Ziyu

Chijiang Ziyu lived in the time of the Yellow Emperor. He did not eat the five grains but subsisted only on herbs and flowers. In the time of Emperor Yao he served as Director of Wood (Muzheng), an official in charge of trees and forests, and he could rise and fall with the wind and rain. He also sometimes sold goods at markets, and for this reason he was called "Jiaofu."

Wo Quan

Wo Quan was an old herb gatherer on Mount Huai who was fond of eating pine seeds. His body was covered with fur several inches long, his eyes were square, and he could fly and could overtake running horses. He presented pine seeds to Emperor Yao, but Yao had no time to take them. The pine mentioned here is the "jian pine." Those who consumed this pine seed in that era all lived to two or three hundred years.

Fang Hui

Fang Hui was a recluse in the time of Emperor Yao. Yao once invited him to serve as a local official (lüshi). Fang Hui knew how to refine mica powder (shiyunmu) and once treated the illnesses of common people. Later he retired to Mount Wuzuo.

In the final years of Qi of the Xia dynasty, Fang Hui was serving at court when he was seized by someone and locked inside a room. His captor asked him to teach the Dao, and Fang Hui used his powers to leave, sealing the door with his own seal. People said that if one obtained a lump of Fang Hui's mud and smeared it on a door, that door could never be opened again.

Jian Geng

Jian Geng was a great-great-grandson of Emperor Zhuanxu. He presented a pheasant meat soup to Emperor Yao, and for this he was enfeoffed at Pengcheng. Later people called him Peng Zu (Ancestor Peng). He had two sons, the elder named Wu and the younger named Yi. The mountain where he had lived is called Mount Wuyi by later generations.

Another account holds that Yin Shouzi, of the time of Emperor Shun, transmitted Daoist arts to Peng Zu, and some hold that Jian Geng was Peng Zu himself. Peng Zu understood daoyin (guiding and stretching exercises that regulate the body through breath control and stretching). When he fell ill, he would hold his breath to treat the affected area, moving the breath through the body until it reached the tips of his fingers, after which his body returned to normal. He said, "The superior person sleeps alone on a bed, and the middling person covers himself alone with a quilt. Taking a hundred kinds of medicine is not as good as sleeping alone."

People gathered Peng Zu's methods of nourishing life into the Classic of Peng Zu. The Biographies of Immortals records that Peng Zu lived from the Xia dynasty through the end of the Yin dynasty, reaching more than eight hundred years. He often ate cinnamon bark and was skilled in daoyin and xingqi (circulating qi, or vital energy, through the body). At Lixiang there was a shrine to Peng Zu, where people went to pray for wind and rain, and their requests often came true. Two tigers were often found beside the shrine, and after sacrifices were completed, tiger footprints would appear on the ground.

One account holds that Peng Zu later ascended to immortality and departed. Another holds that Jian Geng lived in the mountains, wove bamboo for his door, ate pine seeds, and was able to ride the wind and command qi, rising into the air. By the end of the Yin dynasty he had lived more than seven hundred years. After another 777 years, he underwent jiehua (the immortal's transformation and departure from the human world). Zhao Ci...

Gong says: Pengcheng County in Xuzhou takes its name from Pengzu. According to the Huanyu ji (Records of the World), Pengzu was a worthy minister of the Yin dynasty and a great-great-grandson of Emperor Zhuanxu. By the end of the Yin dynasty he had lived to be seven hundred and sixty-seven years old. The tombs and the old city wall to the north are still named "Dapeng" after him.

The Mingxian zhuan (Biographies of Famous Worthies) says that Peng Keng once came to the shore of Lake Pengli, where he built a famous mountain, which is today's Mount Lu. He traveled through the grotto-heavens and sought out traces of the sages. Later, while fishing from a terrace, he hooked two carp that transformed into a pair of dragons and soared into the sky. Some also say that the Fishing Terrace beside the river today is a relic left by Pengzu.

Xiaofu

Xiaofu was a native of Jizhou. In his youth he mended shoes in the marketplace of the Western Zhou, and he did so for several decades without anyone knowing where he came from. Eventually people were astonished that his appearance never aged, and the curious came to his door to ask about his methods of longevity, but none of them could learn them. Only Liang Mu mastered his art of making fire.

When Xiaofu was about to leave, he climbed Mount Sanliang to bid Liang Mu farewell. He arranged several dozen piles of fire and then ascended to heaven. Most of the people in the Western region made offerings to him.

Shimen

Shimen was a disciple of Xiaofu. He too could command fire, and could make peach and plum trees blossom and bear fruit. He once served as Dragon Master under Kong Jia of the Xia, responsible for raising and taming dragons. Kong Jia did not follow his wishes, so he killed Shimen and buried him in the wilds. One day, wind and rain came to receive and escort Shimen's remains, and when the storm passed, all the trees on the mountain had been burned down. Kong Jia then made offerings to Shimen and prayed to him, but died on the journey home.

According to Liu Shu's Tongjian waiji (Outer Records of the Comprehensive Mirror), Kong Jia was fond of matters concerning ghosts and spirits and did not devote himself to cultivating virtue (De), so many of the feudal lords rebelled against him. At that time a male and a female dragon descended from heaven, but Kong Jia did not know how to feed them and could not find anyone skilled at raising dragons. After the house of Taotang lost the throne, a man named Liu Lei, who had studied dragon-taming under the Huanlong clan, came to serve Kong Jia and was able to feed the two dragons. The Xia sovereign praised him, bestowed upon him the clan name "Dragon Driver" (Yulong), and had him take the place of the descendants of the Shiwei clan. Later the female dragon died, and Liu Lei pickled her into a meat paste and served it to the Xia sovereign. After eating it, the sovereign sent men to look for the dragon again; Liu Lei, afraid, moved away to Lu County.

On the basis of these records, Daoyi concluded that Liu Lei may well have been Shimen, though this cannot yet be confirmed, so he appends the view here for learned scholars of later times to examine.

Your subject Daoyi remarks: After Shimen attained the Dao, he held office under the Xia, but had the misfortune to meet a ruler like Kong Jia. Kong Jia first killed him and buried him, then, moved by a divine response, made offerings to him, and in the end still died on the way back. This is like Sun Ce, whose wounds burst open after he killed Gan Ji, and like Yao Chang, who died soon after executing Wang Jia. Wang Jia, however, was later encountered again in the Long region.

Wu Guang

Wu Guang (in the Zhuangzi he is sometimes written as "Mou Guang") lived in the Xia dynasty. His ears were seven cun long, he liked to play the zither, and he often ate the roots of cattail and garlic chives. When Tang of Shang was about to attack Jie of Xia, he consulted Wu Guang, who said, "This is not something I should take part in." Tang asked, "Then who might I consult?" Wu Guang said, "I do not know." Tang asked again, "What about Yi Yin?" Wu Guang replied, "He has great strength and can endure humiliation, but beyond that I do not know him."

After Tang defeated Jie, he wanted to give the realm to Wu Guang. He said, "Those with wisdom plan, those with courage accomplish, and those with virtue occupy the proper place. This is the way of the ancients. Why will you not accept? Please come out and assist me." Wu Guang declined, saying, "To depose a ruler is not righteous, and to kill people is not benevolent. Others risk their lives to do this, and I would enjoy the fruits of it, which is not honest. I have heard that one should not accept stipends that lack righteousness, and that in a time without the Dao one should not hold office. How much more so now, when you wish to honor me? I truly cannot bear to accept it."

Thereupon Wu Guang shouldered a stone and drowned himself in the Liao River. (The Zhuangzi records it as the Lu River. Sima Biao held that it was the Lu River, on the western frontier beyond Liaodong, and some hold that it lay within Beiping Commandery.) He then went into seclusion. Four years later, in the reign of Wuding, Wu Guang appeared again. Wuding wished to appoint him as chancellor, but he would not accept. Wuding sent a carriage to fetch him, but Wu Guang considered this forced summons improper, so he threw himself into a river. He later drifted ashore at Mount Shangfu.

Chen Daoyi says: When the original simplicity of the Dao had dispersed, the oath of Tang and the battle at Mingtiao followed. Had no perfected person of the Dao appeared at that time, then a thousand years later the bonds of ruler and minister, and the moral order, would likely have been swept away entirely. Wu Guang used his refusal to correct Tang's error, showing that ruler and minister each have their proper station. He even carried a stone and sank into the water, not changing his principles even at the edge of life and death. The reason he became a model of loyalty and righteousness for later generations lies precisely here. Later, when King Wu gathered his forces at Mengjin, Bo Yi and Shu Qi stopped the king's horse to remonstrate with him, and in the end they starved to death on Shouyang Mountain. Is this not a continuation of Wu Guang's sense of righteousness? The Daodejing says, "When the state is in chaos, loyal ministers appear." I would add that when a state unfortunately falls into chaos, it is fortunate that loyal ministers still appear.

Qiu Sheng

Qiu Sheng (a man of the Shang dynasty period, whose native place is unknown) served as the "Wood Minister" (the official in charge of timber and wood-related affairs) under King Tang, and held the post for more than thirty years. Rather than aging, his appearance grew ever more robust, and people, knowing him to be long-lived, came together to honor him as their teacher. It is said that he habitually consumed pine resin and built a stone chamber for himself on the North Mountain of his home region. In the time of King Wu of Zhou, the king is said to have personally visited his stone chamber and offered sacrifices there.

Rong Chenggong claimed to have been the teacher of the Yellow Emperor, and was said to have been seen by King Mu of Zhou. He was skilled in the arts of nourishing the body through daoyin (guided breathing and stretching) and in cultivating essence and qi within the "Mysterious Female" (xuanpin), a figure that the Daodejing uses as a metaphor for the source from which the Dao generates and transforms all things. The key to his practice lay in "the Valley Spirit does not die" (gushen bu si), meaning the empty yet numinously vital life-force that never perishes; by holding fast to this vitality and nourishing the primordial qi, he was said to have regained his health. His white hair turned black again and his fallen teeth grew back. These feats are the same as those attributed to Laozi, and some say that Laozi took him as his teacher. (An annotation notes that some hold Rong Chenggong mastered the bedchamber arts of "holding the grip and not emitting" and "returning essence to replenish the brain," involving sexual techniques with women. This view is not adopted here, since it is likely a later distortion handed down through successive misreadings.)

Commentator Chen Daoyi, an annotator of this book, remarks: The Daodejing says, "The Valley Spirit does not die; this is called the Mysterious Female. The gate of the Mysterious Female is called the root of Heaven and Earth. Continuous, as if it endures, it is used without exhaustion." Whoever attains this Dao may ascend to become an immortal above; whoever loses it descends to become a ghost below. Rong Chenggong attained precisely the doorway that leads to all these mysteries. Later generations, failing to truly grasp the Dao, wandered onto side paths, which is already to abandon the root for the branches. Some have gone further, developing the so-called bedchamber arts of consorting with women, and even attributing these teachings to Rong Chenggong's name. This is a mistake.

Lü Shang (also known as Jiang Taigong) was a native of Jizhou. Endowed by nature with inner wisdom, he could foresee the rise and fall of things. To escape the tyranny of King Zhou of Shang, he withdrew into seclusion in Liaodong for forty years. Later he traveled west to the land of Zhou and hid on the Southern Mountain, where he fished at Panxi for three years without catching a single fish. His neighbors said he should give it up, but Lü Shang replied, "This is not something you can understand." Before long, he indeed found a military treatise and a jade seal inside a fish's belly. King Wen of Zhou dreamed of obtaining a sage, heard of Lü Shang, and had him carried back to the Zhou domain in a carriage. When King Wu of Zhou marched against King Zhou of Shang, Lü Shang composed more than a hundred strategic writings. He took zezhi ("marsh fungus") and dishui ("earth marrow"), both elixirs described in Daoist tradition, for nearly two hundred years, and then came to his end. When he died, turmoil prevented an immediate burial. Later his son Lü Ji interred him, but the coffin contained no body, only the six chapters of the jade-seal writings remained inside.

Ge You was a man of the Qiang people. In the reign of King Cheng of Zhou, he liked to carve wooden sheep and sell them. One day he rode a wooden sheep into the land of Shu, and the nobles and officials of Shu pursued him all the way to Mount Suishan. Suishan lies to the southwest of Mount Emei and rises to an endless height. Everyone who followed him up the mountain never returned, all having attained the Daoist way of immortality. Hence the local saying: if one can obtain a single peach from Suishan, even without becoming an immortal, one will already be different from ordinary people.

Immortals Too Are Enough to Reign Supreme

Fan Li

Fan Li, courtesy name Shaobo, was a native of Xu. He once studied under Grand Duke Wang of Zhou (Jiang Ziya), and he was fond of taking in cassia-tree preparations and drinking water. He later served as Grandee of the state of Yue, where he assisted Goujian in defeating the state of Wu. After the task was accomplished, he set out in a small boat to sea, changed his name, and took the name "Chiyi Zipi" (Leather-Bag Master) when he arrived in Qi. More than a century later, he appeared in the region of Tao, where he became known as Lord Taozhu. He amassed a fortune in the hundreds of millions and was called Duke Taozhu. He later gave up his wealth and went off to sell medicinals.

Later generations said that people had seen him throughout successive ages. Li Yuanying recorded that Fan Li studied the Way on Mount Liyuan. The Records of the Twenty-Four Transformations Belonging to Pengzhou states instead that Fan Li attained the Dao and became an immortal on Mount Beimang.

Qiong Shu

Qiong Shu was a Feng Shi (a court official responsible for enfeoffments, record-keeping, and related affairs) of the Zhou dynasty. He practiced xing qi (circulating qi) and lian xing (refining the form), boiling and refining stone marrow, a substance known as stalactite, and consuming it. He lived for several hundred years, moving back and forth among the mountains of Mount Tai, where a stone bed was available for him to lie down and rest on.

Jie Zhitui

Jie Zhitui, whose surname was Wang and given name Guang, was a native of the state of Jin. He lived in seclusion and sought no fame, and he was a friend of Zhao Xuanzi. One morning a yellow sparrow alighted on the door, and Duke Chong'er of Jin, sensing that this event was out of the ordinary, took him along when he left the city. They wandered in exile for more than ten years, and Jie Zhitui followed without complaint through every hardship.

When Chong'er returned to his state, Jie Zhitui withdrew to Mount Jie. Bozi Zhen came early one morning to call on him and said, "It is time to leave." Jie Zhitui declined to go and instead entered the mountains with his mother, and afterward he often traveled with Bozi. Later, Duke Wen of Jin sent several thousand men bearing jade and silk to invite him respectfully, but Jie Zhitui still refused to come out of the mountains. About thirty years later, someone saw him on the shore of the Eastern Sea, disguised as an ordinary commoner and making a living by selling fans. A few decades after that, no one knew where he had gone.

Juan Zi

Juan Zi was a native of Qi. He was fond of taking the herb shu (atractylodes, a medicinal of that kind) and absorbing its essence, and he is said to have lived to three hundred years of age. He appeared in Qi and wrote the Scripture of Heaven, Earth, and Man in forty-eight chapters. Later he fished in a river marsh, where he found a fulu (talismans and registers) inside the belly of a carp. He then retired to Mount Dang, where he could summon wind and rain. He received the Nine Immortals Method from Boyang. As a young man, Liu An, Prince of Huainan, obtained his writings but could not grasp their core purpose. His three-part Qin Xin (Heart of the Zither) is clearly organized and orderly.

Ma Dan

Ma Dan was a native of the Di region of Jin. During the reign of Marquis Wen he served as a grandee, and in the reign of Duke Xian he became a chief of staff. After Duke Xian of Jin destroyed the Di and killed Crown Prince Gong, Ma Dan departed. When Zhao Xuanzi was in power, Ma Dan rode in a comfortable carriage into the capital of Jin and paid visits to the various grandees. Duke Ling of Jin wished to employ him but did not treat him with proper courtesy. Suddenly a violent wind arose, and Ma Dan rode the wind as it spun him up into the returning whirlwind and departed. The people of the north revered him and erected a shrine in his honor for sacrifices.

Ping Changsheng

There was a man named Ping Changsheng of Gucheng, whose native place is unknown. He died and returned to life many times, and people of his day found it hard to believe. Later a great flood came and many people suffered, but Ping Changsheng stood on the summit of Quemen Mountain and shouted, "Ping Changsheng is here!" He said that if the rain fell for five more days, the waters would stop. When they did, people climbed the mountain to make sacrifices to him and saw that he wore robes, a shawl draped over his shoulders, and a leather belt at his waist. Several decades later, he again became the gatekeeper of Huayin Gate.

Lu Tong, also known as Jieyu, the Madman of Chu, was a hermit of the state of Chu. Some sources write his name as Jieyu, with the same pronunciation. He was devoted to nourishing life, ate the fruit of the tuolu and the seeds of the turnip, and traveled to famous mountains. People in several generations claimed to have seen him on Mount Emei in the land of Shu.

When Confucius came to Chu, Jieyu the Madman passed his gate and sang: "Phoenix, O phoenix, how has your De (Virtue) declined to such a state? The future cannot be awaited, and the past cannot be recovered. When the world has Dao (the Way), sages accomplish their work; when the world lacks Dao, sages can only preserve themselves. In this age, one can hardly escape punishment. Fortune is light as a feather, yet no one knows how to bear it; calamity is heavy as the earth, yet no one knows how to avoid it. Enough, enough! To guide people by your De is perilous, perilous! Drawing roads on the ground for others to follow leads people astray. Miyang, Miyang (a thorny bramble), do not wound my feet; Ququ, Ququ (a thorny obstacle), do not hinder my steps. Mountain trees are cut down because they are useful, and lamp oil is consumed because it burns. Cinnamon trees can be eaten, so they are cut; lacquer trees are put to use, so they are tapped. Everyone knows the use of what is useful, but no one understands the use of what is useless."

Jian Wu saw the mad Jieyu, and Jieyu asked him, "What did RiZhong Shi tell you?" Jian Wu replied, "He told me that rulers should govern the people by their own standards, laws, and principles. Then who would dare not obey and fail to be transformed?" Mad Jieyu said, "That is a deceitful De. Governing the world this way is like making people wade through the sea and dig through rivers, or like having a mosquito carry a mountain. How could a sage who governs the world concern himself only with external affairs? Rectifying oneself before acting is merely a way of doing what one ought to do. A bird flies high to escape arrows and nets; the shrew mouse digs its burrow beneath a sacred mound to avoid the danger of deep digging. Do you not even understand the principle behind these two small creatures?"

Jian Wu asked Lian Shu, "When I listen to Jieyu, his words are lofty but unrealistic, and they wander further and further from the point. I am frightened by his speech. It seems as boundless as the Milky Way and far from common sense, and it does not feel close to human feeling." Lian Shu asked, "What did he say?" Jian Wu replied, "On Mount Guye there is a divine person..."

He lived there, his skin as white as ice and snow, his figure light and graceful, like an unwed maiden. He did not eat the five grains but only drank the wind and sipped the dew. He rode the clouds and vapors, drove the flying dragons, and roamed beyond the Four Seas. His spirit (shen) was concentrated and settled, able to keep all things free from calamity and sickness, so that the crops ripened year after year. For this reason I thought these words too wild and would not believe them.

Lian Shu said: "The blind cannot appreciate the beauty of writings and paintings, and the deaf cannot hear the sound of bells and drums. Is this not because the human form is inherently limited in what it can hear and see? Are these words he speaks what a person like you could ever understand? This man's virtue (de) is able to merge completely with all things, regarding all of them as one body. The people of the world still want to measure him by the standards of worldly order and disorder. Is this not a mistake? Someone who takes the governance of the realm as his own responsibility cannot be harmed by external things. When floods cover the sky, he will not drown; in great drought, when metal and stone melt and the earthen hills scorch, he will not feel the heat. The dust and chaff left by such a person are still enough to mold sage-kings like Yao and Shun. Who would be willing to treat external things as their own undertaking?"

Huangfu Mi said: Jieyu himself farmed in the state of Chu. The king of Chu sent an envoy bearing a hundred yi of gold, two carriages, and four horses to invite him, but he did not answer the summons.

Qin Gao

Qin Gao was a man of Zhao, skilled at playing the zither, and once served as a retainer to King Kang of Song. He practiced the arts of the Juan and Peng lineage (fangshu), and for more than two hundred years he traveled back and forth through the regions of Jizhou and Zhuojun. Later he took leave of the people around him, saying he would enter the Zhuo River to fetch the dragon's son, and he arranged a date with his disciples. On the appointed day, the disciples all observed a purification fast, waited by the water's edge, and set out offerings. He indeed arrived at the place of sacrifice riding a red carp. More than ten thousand people came to watch. He stayed for a month, and then he went back into the water and departed. (Today in Xuanzhou there is the Qin Gao Fishing Terrace.)

Kou Xian

Kou Xian was a man of Song who made his living by fishing. He lived on the banks of the Sui River for more than a hundred years. When he caught fish, he sometimes released them, sometimes sold them, and sometimes ate them himself. He wore a cap and dressed in neatly tied robes, and he was fond of planting lychee trees, eating their blossoms and fruit.

Duke Jing of Song asked him about the method of cultivating the Dao, but he would not tell him, so Duke Jing had him killed. Several decades later, Kou Xian was seen sitting atop the city gate of Song playing the zither. He played for several dozen days and then left. From that time on, every household in Song offered sacrifices to him.

Wang Ziqiao

The prince's personal name was Jin, his courtesy name was Ziqiao, also called Qiao, and he was styled Zijin. He was the crown prince of King Ling of Zhou, who had thirty-eight sons. Wang Ziqiao showed uncanny signs from the time of his birth, and in his youth he already loved the arts of the Dao (daoshu). Although he lived within the palace, he often ate nothing for days; in quiet solitude, immortals (shenxian) descended to him many times, though the people around him did not know it.

He often played the sheng, and the sound he produced was like the cries of phoenixes, its notes passing through drifting clouds and echoing across the palace grounds. The white phoenixes and vermilion birds stretched out their necks...

Wang Zijin (Prince Jin) was said to have been attended by rare birds and strange fowl, which danced on the courtyard steps to the sound of the celestial music he heard on Mount Tiantai. On that mountain he met Fuqiu Gong (a legendary immortal), who taught him the essential methods of the Way, including the cultivation of Shijing (Stone Essence), the method of Jinguang Cangjing (Hidden Scenery of Golden Light), and Lu Shen (the recording of spirit), a practice of Daoist cultivation and the visualization of the spirit.

In the twenty-second year of King Ling of Zhou, the Gu and Luo rivers flooded, threatening to wash away the royal palace. The crown prince, Taizi Jin, repeatedly remonstrated with his father, but the king would not listen. Angered by his father's refusal, Taizi Jin withdrew to a separate palace, where he fasted, cultivated himself in quiet, and sought the Great Dao. Fuqiu Gong came to his residence in secret, gave him a numinous elixir, and led him up to a high mountain.

Several years later, Taizi Jin's friend Lin Liang met him on Mount Gou. Taizi Jin told Lin Liang, "On the seventh day of the seventh month I will ascend to heaven, and you may see me once more to bid farewell to my old friends." On that day, Lin Liang and a group of old friends and officials climbed Mount Gou, and they saw Taizi Jin leave his horse by a mountain stream, where it drank and grazed as it ordinarily did. Taizi Jin mounted a white crane, waved farewell to the crowd, and then ascended into the sky. People near and far saw it and exclaimed, "The prince has become an immortal." Taizi Jin then said, "Wang is my surname," and so the Wang clan took its name from this event. After the officials had taken their leave, they turned back and bowed to his horse, and the horse too rose into the air and flew away. To this day, the place is still called "Bai Ma Jian" (Valley of the Bowing Horse).

After ascending to heaven, Taizi Jin became Youbi (Right Assistant), a celestial office that assists the Heavenly Emperor, governing the Five Sacred Peaks and attending the Emperor of Dawn. He was known as Zhenren Tongbai (True Man of the Tongbai Cypress) and governed the Jinting Dongtian (Cavern-Heaven of the Golden Court), a realm of immortals in Daoist belief.

The Chuci, in the "Tianwen" section of "Li Sao," reads: "What do the white rainbows wind around? Why have they come here? How can one obtain that numinous elixir yet fail to preserve it properly? The celestial phenomena cross and interlace, yang energy scatters; why did he die? Why does the great bird cry out? And why did he lose his original form?" The commentary cites the Xian Zhuan (Biographies of Immortals), which says that Cui Wenzi studied the Way under Wang Ziqiao. Wang Ziqiao transformed himself into a white rainbow, wrapped in streamers, and brought him medicine. Startled and suspicious, Cui Wenzi struck at the white rainbow with his halberd, and the medicine fell. When he bent down to look, he discovered it was Wang Ziqiao's corpse. Before long, the corpse transformed into a great bird, which cried out and flew away. The Fangyu Ji (Records of Geography) records that the highest point of the central peak of the Western Mountains is the place where Wang Ziqiao left his altar. It lies beside the mountain ridge and now belongs to Longxing Prefecture.

Youbo Zi

Youbo Zi was a retainer in the household of the Su family during the Zhou dynasty. In winter he often wore a single layer of clothing, while in the height of summer he wore a lined jacket and trousers, and his appearance changed year by year. After several decades, he instead looked younger and more robust than before. People of the time did not know where he had come from. For generations he admonished the descendants of the Su family, and so the Su descendants received his blessings.

Gui Fu

Gui Fu was a native of Xianglin. His complexion would at times be dark, at times pale, at times yellow, and at times red.

Xiaqiu Zhong

Xiaqiu Zhong was a native of Ning and sold medicine there for more than a hundred years. People believed he was very long-lived. Later an earthquake struck, and houses collapsed. Xiaqiu Zhong's house and those of several dozen households in the village were all near the water, and all were destroyed. After Xiaqiu Zhong died, people threw his body into the water and then gathered up his medicines to sell.

Xiaqiu Zhong, wearing a leather garment, followed those people to retrieve the medicines. The people who had discarded his body were terrified when they saw him and kowtowed, begging for mercy. Xiaqiu Zhong said, "I do not hate you. I only wanted people to know that I am still alive." Afterward he came to Ning from the north. Northerners called him "exiled immortal" (zhé xiān rén), an immortal banished to the human world.

Jiu Ke

Jiu Ke was a brewer at a wine shop in the market town of Liang. The wine he made was always rich and fine, and each day his sales brought in ten thousand coins. Later he committed some offense and was driven away by his employer. After that, the wine his employer made often turned sour, and the household gradually fell into poverty.

Many merchants in the Liang market wanted to marry their daughters to Jiu Ke, and once they even brought him in as a son-in-law. But he sometimes left and sometimes returned. More than a hundred years later he came back and became the county assistant magistrate of Liang, where he told the people to plant more taro and vegetables. He predicted that a severe famine would come within three years, and the prediction proved true. Because of this, the people of Liang did not starve. Five years later he removed his official seal and robes and departed, and no one knew where he finally went.

Ren Guang

Ren Guang was a native of Shangcai. He was skilled in taking elixirs (dānyào), the pills used in Daoist cultivation, and he sold medicine in and around the city. He lived this way for eighty-nine years, and only then did people realize that he was the same Ren Guang of former times. He spoke just as he had before.

Several decades later, an elderly man recognized him. Zhao Jianzi invited him to return with him. Ren Guang lived permanently on Mount Baiti, and for three generations afterward no one knew where he had gone. People in the Jin region often took the elixirs he had refined.

Xiao Shi

The Xiao family surname came from the Yin dynasty. In the time of King Xuan of Zhou there was a man named Xiao Qin, who together with his wife, Lady Wang, was wealthy and also fond of cultivating the Dao. Lord Lao (the honorific name for Taishang Laojun) once descended to their home. On the fifth day of the fifth month of the seventeenth year of King Xuan's reign, Xiao Xian was born.

When Xiao Xian grew up, he did not attend to the family business. He traveled to the Zhongnan Mountains, where he met an extraordinary man. The man taught him the arts of longevity and also taught him to play the xiao, a vertical flute. Xiao Xian returned home and told his parents that he wished to enter the Dao. His parents pressed him to take a wife, but Xiao Xian said, "The extraordinary man told me not to marry, and said that in the future I would obtain a king's daughter." Only then did his parents accept his wishes.

Toward the end of King Xuan's reign, the historical records were in disorder and incomplete. Xiao Xian was skilled at writing, so he recorded the full course of events and filled in what the histories had failed to preserve. People therefore called him "Shi" (the historian), though this was not actually his name. He was the third son, wandered from place to place, and entered the state of Qin. The army of Mengming...

Lord Ling of Qin sent out his generals, and when they were defeated and returned to the state, Lord Qin went out to greet them. At the sight of Meng Ming he broke into tears. Shi Gong stood beside Meng Ming. When Lord Qin asked about the defeat, Meng Ming could not give an answer, so Shi Gong answered in his place, speaking in full detail. Meng Ming was spared punishment as a result, and this was entirely thanks to Shi Gong's help.

After Meng Ming returned home, Shi Gong again wandered freely among the mountains and rivers. At that time Lord Qin had a daughter named Nongyu, who was skilled at playing the sheng (a reed pipe), but she could not find anyone to play with her in ensemble. Lord Qin found a man who played the sheng and wanted him to marry Nongyu. Someone recommended Shi Gong, so Lord Qin summoned him and asked, "What are you skilled at?" Shi Gong replied, "I am good at playing the xiao (a vertical flute)." Lord Qin said, "My daughter likes the sheng. What use is your xiao to me?" Shi Gong did not respond in a way that pleased Lord Qin, and so he withdrew.

Nongyu overheard this from behind a screen and called out, "Please let him try to play a tune." Shi Gong blew a single note, and a gentle breeze arose; he blew a second, and colorful clouds appeared; at the third note, phoenixes came flying down. Nongyu said, "This is my husband, and I am willing to marry him." Shi Gong said, "Now you try playing the sheng too." Nongyu played three notes, and the same wondrous scene appeared as when Shi Gong had played the xiao.

Thereupon Meng Ming acted as matchmaker and Jian Shu served as the honored guest, and the wedding feast was held in the western hall. No other music was performed at the banquet; the two of them simply played xiao and sheng in alternation. Before the piece was finished, the phoenixes swooped down, and the two immortals rode off on them. Lord Qin was left bereft and rebuked Meng Ming. Meng Ming dispatched men to search far and wide for them. Someone reported seeing a man and a woman sitting on a peak of the West Mountain, at the southern edge of Chu and the northern edge of Wu, playing xiao and sheng while phoenixes perched beside them. When the messenger heard this, he hurried off to look for them, but they had already ascended and flown away. Afterward no one knew where they had gone. This is the general course of the events.

Chi Xuzi

Chi Xuzi was a native of Feng, and records passed down through the generations say that he had been seen. He was said to have been an official in charge of fisheries under Duke Mu of Qin, and he often spoke of the calamities of Feng, its floods and droughts, and was correct more than nine times in ten.

Zhang Junfang invited him to be his teacher and followed him to study. Chi Xuzi was fond of eating pine nuts, asparagus roots, and stone fat; when his teeth fell out, new ones grew in, and his white hair turned black again. He consumed clouds and mist and did not eat the five grains. Later he lived at the foot of Mount Wu for more than ten years, after which no one knew where he went.

Zhu Jiweng

Zhu Jiweng was a native of Luoyang, living in the mountains north of the town of Shi. He had been raising chickens for more than a hundred years; each chicken had a name, and when they gathered in flocks there were over a thousand. At night the chickens roosted in the trees, and by day they were released to roam freely; he needed only to call them by name, and the chickens would come gathering by their kinds.

He sold chickens and eggs, earning over ten million cash, yet he often set the money down and walked away. Later he went to Wu to build fish ponds, and then he ascended to Mount Wu. White cranes and peacocks often stood beside him.

Cui Wenzi

Cui Wenzi was a native of Mount Tai in the Qin dynasty. His family had long been devoted to the teachings of the Yellow Emperor and Laozi, and he lived at the foot of Mount Qian.

Later, he also made Huangsan (yellow powders) and Chidan (red pills), lived beside the Shifu Shrine, and sold medicine in the marketplace, claiming to be three hundred years old. Afterward a plague broke out, and tens of thousands of commoners died. The local magistrate sought his help and asked him to treat the sick. Wenzi raised a red banner, tied the yellow powders to the flag, and had word spread among the people. Those who took the yellow powders or red pills often recovered, and more than ten thousand people were cured. After this, Wenzi left Shu and went elsewhere to sell medicine, so later generations treasured the red pills and yellow powders transmitted by Cui Wen and regarded them as nearly miraculous.

Zhu Zhong

Zhu Zhong was a native of Kuaiji. In the reign of Empress Gao of the Han, the court issued an edict seeking a pearl three cun in diameter. On reading the edict, Zhu Zhong said, "It was truly meant for you." He then brought a three-cun pearl to the palace gates and presented it by memorial. The pearl was of superior quality and met the required size, so the court bestowed five hundred gold upon him. Princess Luyuan then privately offered seven hundred gold to Zhu Zhong to purchase pearls. Zhu Zhong presented a four-cun pearl, and after it was delivered to the palace gates, he departed.

The emperor issued an edict summoning and searching for him in Kuaiji, but no one knew where he was. In the reign of Emperor Jing, Zhu Zhong again presented several dozen three-cun pearls, then immediately left, and no one knew where he had gone.

Dongfang Shuo

Dongfang Shuo, courtesy name Man'qian, was a native of Yanci in Pingyuan. Legend holds that his parents both died three days after he was born. Later, while wandering in a marshland, he encountered an old man with yellow eyebrows. The old man pointed at Dongfang Shuo and said, "This is my son." The old man claimed that through abstaining from grains and circulating qi, he returned to youth once every three thousand years, and through repeatedly washing the marrow and shedding and renewing his skin and old hair, once every two thousand years. He said he had washed his marrow three times and molted three times.

When Emperor Wu of Han had just ascended the throne, he sought out worthy, learned, and capable men throughout the realm, intending to appoint them beyond the usual conventions. Scholars from across the land submitted memorials discussing current affairs and displaying their talents, numbering in the thousands. Those deemed unworthy of acceptance were sent home by the court.

When Dongfang Shuo first arrived, he too submitted a memorial, saying: "Your minister Dongfang Shuo lost his parents in youth and was raised by his elder brother and sister-in-law. At thirteen he learned to write, and after three winters he had enough knowledge of the classics and histories. At fifteen he studied swordsmanship; at sixteen he studied the Odes, memorizing 220,000 characters; at nineteen he studied the military methods of Sun Wu and Wu Qi and the knowledge of battle formations and drum-signaled command, also memorizing 220,000 characters. Your minister has now memorized 440,000 characters in all, and he often follows the words and deeds of Zilu. Your minister stands nine chi three cun tall, his eyes are like suspended pearls, and his teeth are even as shells. He is as brave as Meng Ben, as swift as Qing Ji, as incorruptible as Bao Shu, and as trustworthy as Wei Sheng. A man such as your minister may serve as a minister to the Son of Heaven. Your minister respectfully bows twice and submits this memorial at the risk of his life."

Dongfang Shuo's words were not modest, and he lavishly praised himself. Emperor Wu considered him remarkable and ordered him to await an edict at the Office of the Imperial Carriages. His stipend was meager, and for a long time he had no opportunity to see the emperor. After a long while, Dongfang Shuo deceived…

Zou the court dwarf said, "The Emperor thinks you are of no use to the court. When it comes to tilling the fields and working the land, you cannot match others. Among the people, you cannot serve as officials or govern the common folk. On campaign, fighting off enemies, you cannot bear the duties of soldiers. You are of no use to the state and only take food and clothing for nothing. Now the Emperor means to have you all put to death."

The dwarfs were terrified and wept loudly. Dongfang Shuo taught them, "When the Emperor passes by, kowtow and beg for mercy." After a while, they heard the Emperor approaching, and they all wept and knelt, bowing their heads to the ground. The Emperor asked why they were behaving this way. The dwarfs replied, "Dongfang Shuo said that Your Majesty intends to have us all killed."

The Emperor summoned Dongfang Shuo and asked why he had frightened the dwarfs. Dongfang Shuo answered, "I, Dongfang Shuo, say the same thing whether I live or die. A dwarf over three chi tall receives one sack of grain and two hundred and forty coins, and already eats until he is near bursting, while I, Dongfang Shuo, am starving. If my words are of any use, I hope Your Majesty will treat them with discernment. If they are useless, then dismiss me, so that I do not waste the grain of Chang'an for nothing." The Emperor laughed heartily. He then had Dongfang Shuo wait at the Golden Horse Gate to be summoned (daizhao), and gradually Dongfang Shuo came to enjoy the Emperor's favor.

The Emperor often had several men skilled in calculation and divination guess at objects hidden inside vessels, a pastime called shefu (the "covered object" game). On one occasion, the Emperor placed a gecko inside a box and asked the company to guess what it was, but no one guessed correctly. Dongfang Shuo volunteered, "I have studied the Book of Changes. Let me try to guess." He divided the milfoil stalks, arranged the hexagrams, and then answered, "I think it is a dragon, but it has no horns. I think it is a snake, but it has feet. If it is not a gecko, then it must be a lizard." The Emperor said, "Good." When he was then asked to guess other objects in succession, he guessed each one correctly, and the Emperor bestowed silk upon him.

At that time there was a favored entertainer named Guo the Attendant, who was quick-witted and humorous and would ask questions without end. Dongfang Shuo was always able to reply at once, with words that changed endlessly, so that no one could exhaust them, and the courtiers around him were greatly astonished. The Emperor then appointed Dongfang Shuo as Regular Attendant Gentleman, and his favor grew greater still.

Later, the Emperor formed a marriage alliance with the King of Yue and sent Dongfang Shuo across the sea to seek treasures, ordering him to circle the entire sea. Two years passed and Dongfang Shuo had still not returned. Before he had arrived, the Emperor asked his attendants, "Dongfang Shuo has been gone so long and has not yet arrived. Who in the world is now the most skilled at divination?" His attendants answered, "Only Sun Bin is most proficient in divination by the Book of Changes." The Emperor then changed into plain clothes and, quietly accompanied by a few attendants and carrying two bolts of silk, went to knock on Sun Bin's door.

Sun Bin came out and invited the Emperor in to sit, but did not recognize him. After casting his hexagram and learning that the visitor was the Emperor, he rose in alarm and bowed. The Emperor said, "I have come to ask one thing. Please do not reveal who I am." Sun Bin replied, "Your Majesty's question concerns nothing other than divining for Dongfang Shuo. Dongfang Shuo will surely arrive within seven days of setting out. Now he is out at sea, facing west, calling to the water, and sighing loudly. When he arrives, Your Majesty should ask him." On the appointed day, Dongfang Shuo indeed returned. The Emperor asked, "You promised to return within a year. Why did you…"

So, two years later, on the first day of the month, Dongfang Shuo said, "Your servant has not dared to neglect the search for treasures, but I have not yet found any." The Emperor said, "Seven days ago, you were in the sea, facing west, calling to the water spirits, and you let out a long sigh. Why was that?" Dongfang Shuo replied, "Your servant was not sighing over anything else. It was only that Sun Bin did not recognize the Son of Heaven and sat down opposite Your Majesty." The Emperor was greatly astonished by this.

Later, Dongfang Shuo wrote to a friend, "One should not let the nets of the mundane world or the reins of fame and profit bind oneself. One should laugh freely, leave the dusty world behind, and agree together to gather immortal herbs on the Ten Continents and Three Islands, absorb the light of the sun and moon, and rise lightly into the heavens together."

The Queen Mother once pointed at Dongfang Shuo and said to the Emperor, "This is the child from my neighborhood. He is fond of jokes and laughter, and he has come three times to steal peaches. This child once served as an immortal official of the Supreme Lord. The Supreme Lord ordered him to go to Mount Fangzhang, but he only indulged in play and frolic. He took it upon himself to command thunder and lightning, stir up waves, and rouse the winds, which caused dragons to walk on land and mountains to collapse and seas to dry up. For this, the Supreme Lord banished him to live temporarily among humans. Recently, the Two Immortals of Jinhua and the Lord of Mount Jiuyi have interceded on his behalf." Only then did the Emperor realize that Dongfang Shuo was not an ordinary person of the world, and so he came to believe that immortals truly existed.

However, the Emperor indulged in women, gave free rein to his desires, and waged war without end. Six years after receiving the immortal books, he considered his wishes fulfilled. He thought that since the immortals and true spirits had descended, he himself would surely attain long life and transcend the world. He built terraces and pavilions on a grand scale and exhausted the common people. In all matters, he paid no heed to the Queen Mother's hints or to the wonderful admonitions of Lady Shangyuan. The two perfected beings therefore never came again.

In the second year of the Taichu era, a fire broke out at the Bailiang Terrace, and books such as the Diagrams of True Forms, the Liu Jia Wu Di Ling Fei Shi'er Shi, and the Lingguang Sheng Jing were all burned, and none survived. However, the Emperor had earlier followed the Queen Mother's words and entrusted the Map of the Five Sacred Peaks to Dong Zhongjun. He had also followed Lady Shangyuan's advice and transmitted the Six Jia to Li Shaojun. These texts were later passed down to the world. Since the Emperor had burned the immortal books, he knew that he had no affinity with the Dao. After this, Dongfang Shuo one day rode a dragon and ascended, departing for good.

Liu Xiang's Biographies of Immortals says that in the time of Emperor Zhao, some people said Dongfang Shuo was a divine person, while others said he was an ordinary mortal. At times his conduct was profound, at times it seemed shallow, at times he was silent, and at times he offered admonitions or made jokes, so that people could never guess his intentions. In the early years of Emperor Xuan, he resigned his post as a palace attendant to escape the troubled age. He left his headscarf at the official lodging and let the wind carry it away. Later, someone saw him selling medicine at the Five Lakes in Kuaiji. Clever people suspected that he was the spirit of the planet Jupiter. The Miscellaneous Records of the Western Capital records that Dongfang Shuo said, "No one in the world understands me, except the Grand Astrologer, who manages the calendar." When the Emperor summoned him and asked about this, Dongfang Shuo replied, "All the other stars are present, only Jupiter is absent."

Xiu Yanggong.

Xiuyang Gong was a native of Wei. He lived in a stone chamber on Mount Huayin and lay on a stone bed suspended in midair. The bed gradually sank under his weight, yet he never moved. He often took huangjing (Solomon's seal rhizome) as food. Later he became famous for his cultivation of the Dao. Emperor Jing of the Han treated him with courtesy and invited him to stay in the royal palace, where he remained for several years, but the emperor never managed to learn any Daoist arts from him. The emperor issued an edict asking when Xiuyang Gong intended to depart. Before long, the stone bed turned into a white stone sheep, and on its flank were carved the words "Xiuyang Gong bids farewell to the Son of Heaven." Afterward, the white stone sheep was placed on the Tongling Terrace, and then it vanished without a trace.

Minister Dao Yi remarks: The Daodejing says that the space between heaven and earth is much like a bellows. When still, it is not closed off; once set in motion, the wind flows out without end. Speak too much and one often finds the way blocked; it is better to hold to the emptiness and stillness of the heart. Xiuyang Gong grasped this principle. By transforming himself into a white stone sheep and carving on its flank the words "Xiuyang Gong bids farewell to the Son of Heaven," he showed that he had not forgotten the Son of Heaven's recognition of his worth. This is the profound meaning of the Dao and the completeness of its moral reasoning.

Jiqiu Jun

Jiqiu Jun was a Daoist adept on Mount Tai. In the time of Emperor Wu of the Han, he was rewarded for his Daoist arts: his white hair turned black, and his fallen teeth grew back. Later he took leave and departed. When Emperor Wu made an eastern tour to Mount Tai, Jiqiu Jun came out to greet him, wearing a zhangfu cap and a yellow robe and carrying a qin. He said to the emperor, "Your Majesty, do not go any further, or you will injure your toes." After walking a few li, the emperor's left foot was indeed fractured. The emperor disliked speaking of this matter, and after making the sacrifice there he returned. He built a shrine to Jiqiu Jun and assigned one hundred households to maintain it.

Du Zi

Du Zi was a native of Ye. In his youth he gathered pine seeds and poria on Mount Heishan and took them as food, living for nearly several hundred years. At times he appeared young, at other times old; at times his face was handsome, at other times ugly, and it was for this reason that people came to know he was an immortal.

Du Zi often bought wine at the household of Yangdu. The daughter of that family, named Dunü, had her eyebrows joined together from birth; they were long and slender, and everyone found this remarkable and said she was a heavenly being. One day Du Zi passed by leading a yellow calf, and Dunü took a liking to him. She became his companion and served at his side. Later, Dunü went out with Du Zi to pick peaches and plums and did not return until the next day. The fruits she brought back were all held in a single connected bag, and they were sweet and delicious. The people of the city then secretly followed the two of them. After they passed through the city gate, the townsfolk together seized the calf by its ears, yet they could not catch up with the pair. After this, Du Zi appeared in the marketplace for several decades before he finally departed. People once saw him at the foot of Mount Pan, selling peaches and plums even in winter.

Qilong Ming

Qilong Ming was a native of Hunting. At the age of twenty, he found more than ten dragon offspring in a pond, which resembled shouyan (small lizard-like creatures, similar to geckos). He raised the young dragons, lived and ate in a thatched hut, and stayed by them to watch over them.

Zhu Zhu

Zhu Zhu's origins are unknown. He and a Daoist adept (daoshi) climbed Mount Dang together and said there was cinnabar (dansha) there that could be gathered by the tens of thousands of catties. When the magistrate of Mount Dang learned of this, he went up the mountain and sealed the cinnabar. As the grains poured out, they scattered like flames, and only then did the magistrate allow Zhu Zhu to gather it.

Magistrate Zhang Mingjun took cinnabar for three years and obtained a kind of cinnabar called "spirit cinnabar" (shensha). It scattered like snow. After taking it for five years, he could fly, and eventually he departed together with Zhu Zhu.

Deerskin Old Man

Deerskin Old Man was a native of Zichuan. In his youth he served as a minor clerk in the government office, and his skill as a carpenter was exceptional; with a few movements of his hands he could make implements. On Mount Cen there was a spirit spring (shenquan) that ordinary people could not reach. The clerk reported this to the prefect and requested thirty carpenters, who went up the mountain with axes and other tools to build rotating wheels and suspended pavilions. His designs were ingenious, and in several dozen days he completed four flights of stairs and plank walkways leading to the summit.

He built a shrine on the peak and stayed there, blocking two sections of the walkway to protect himself. He ate lingzhi fungus (lingzhi) and drank from the spirit spring, living this way for nearly seventy years. When the Zi River rose three times, he called his clansmen and family up the mountain to escape the water, and more than sixty people ascended. When the flood receded, the entire commandery had been submerged, and the dead numbered several tens of thousands. The clerk took leave of his clan and family, sent them back down the mountain, and then put on his deerskin cap and departed. Later he returned to the pavilion on the mountain. After more than a hundred years, he came down to a market to sell medicines.

Xi Fu

Xi Fu was a native of Yan County in Nanjun, and he lived in the mountains. An immortal (xianren) often stayed at his home, bought melons from him, and taught him to refine melon seeds: store the seeds together with cassia twigs, aconite, and unripe bitter orange, then take them in portions. More than twenty years later, Xi Fu could fly and run, climb mountains, and enter water. After another hundred-odd years, he lived in seclusion on a mountaintop and called to the elders downstream along the mountain stream, speaking of the events of his youth.

Shan Tu

Shan Tu was a native of Longxi. In his youth he loved riding horses, and once a horse trampled his leg and broke it. A Daoist adept in the mountains taught him to take orpiment, Angelica sinensis (danggui), Notopterygium (qianghuo), Aralia (duhuo), and Sophora root (kushen). After a year he no longer craved food, his illness had healed, and his body had become light and vigorous.

The adept asked him, "Tell me, what sort of person do you think I am?" Shan Tu replied, "You are an envoy of the Five Marchmounts (Wuyue), sent to gather medicinal herbs on famous mountains. If you are willing to let me follow you, I can make you deathless." Shan Tu then followed him for more than sixty years. One day he went home to mourn his mother, and after a year of mourning, he departed again.

Unknown Whereabouts

Gu Chun

Gu Chun was a native of Liyang. During the reign of Emperor Cheng of the Han, he served as a gentleman of the palace. He contracted a plague and died, but his body did not turn cold.

His family held a funeral and mourned him, but they did not dare to drive nails into the coffin. Three years later, Gu Chun appeared wearing a cap and sat atop the county gate. The townspeople were astonished. His family went out to greet him, but he would not return home. When they opened the coffin, they found only his clothes inside, with no corpse.

Gu Chun stayed on the county gate for three nights, then went to Chang'an and stopped at the Heng Gate. People recognized him and gave chase, but he left again and made his way to Mount Taibai. The people there built a shrine in his honor. In later times, he often came to stay at the shrine.

Yin Sheng

Yin Sheng often begged in the markets of Chang'an, and the townspeople despised him. Someone once poured excrement over his clothes, yet the garments remained as clean as before, without a trace of filth. When the magistrate heard of this, he tried to arrest Yin Sheng and put him in shackles, but Yin Sheng appeared again in the market. The magistrate then attempted to have him killed, whereupon the house of the man who had thrown the excrement collapsed on its own, killing more than a dozen people.

Your servant Dao Yi remarks: The Way (Dao) of Yin Sheng was established for the poor and destitute of every generation who have no one to rely on. The collapse of that household was likely the result of accumulated wickedness, so that calamity fell upon them. When we see that they persisted in their evil without repentance, and took pleasure in tormenting the lonely and the poor, we can tell how truly unkind they were. Yin Sheng merely used this incident to reveal his teaching; it was not Yin Sheng who harmed them. Similarly, the legends of Uncle Cao, who concealed his identity and showed compassion to beggars, and of Wang Dunjia, who fell into begging, all convey this same meaning. The Daodejing says: "Therefore the sage is always skilled at saving people, and so there are no discarded people." Is this not precisely the Way of Yin Sheng?

Zi Ying

Zi Ying was a native of Shu township and was skilled at diving to catch fish. He caught a red carp, and, delighting in its color, took it home and put it in a pond, feeding it grain regularly. After a year, the carp had grown to more than ten feet long and had sprouted horns and wings. Zi Ying found this marvelous and bowed to it in thanks.

The fish spoke to him: "I have come to welcome you. Ride on my back, and I will carry you up to Heaven together." Then a great rain fell from the sky, and Zi Ying mounted the fish's back and rose into the air.

After this, Zi Ying returned to his former home every year, where he ate, drank, and visited his wife and children, and the fish came again to fetch him. This continued for seventy years. For this reason, households throughout the Wu region painted images of the divine fish, and a shrine was built in Zi Ying's honor.

Fulüzi

Fulüzi was not known to be from any particular place. He often stayed in the land of Ju, traveling among the shrines along the coast. Three immortals were wagering with melons in one shrine, and upon seeing Fulüzi, they had him shoulder a carrying pole with yellow…

Bai Gua (the name of an immortal) once made dozens of people close their eyes, and when they opened them again, they found themselves on Mount Fangzhang (one of the legendary immortal mountains in the Eastern Sea). This sacred mountain lies south of Mount Penglai. Later, Bai Gua frequently traveled between Ju County and Mount Fangzhang, trading precious jewels and jades from the immortal mountain. After a long time, he suddenly shaved his head, donned reddish-brown robes, and his appearance aged dramatically. When questioned about this change, he confessed it was because he had taken items from a temple. Several years later, his youthful appearance miraculously returned, with his hair and temples restored to their former state.

Wen Bin, a native of Taiqiu Township, made his living selling straw sandals. For many years he cared for several dozen elderly women, all of whom eventually passed away. Later, one nonagenarian woman encountered Wen Bin again and was astonished to find him looking younger than before. The old woman knelt before him in tears, to which Wen Bin responded, "There's no need for this. When the New Year's court assembly comes in the first month, wait for me beneath the catalpa tree west of the township pavilion." That night, the elderly woman traveled over ten li with her children and grandchildren to sit beneath the designated tree. When Wen Bin suddenly appeared, he expressed surprise: "So you truly seek the Dao? Had I known your devotion, I wouldn't have made you wait." He then taught her to consume chrysanthemum, broom cypress fruit, mulberry mistletoe, and pine nuts to replenish her Qi. After following this regimen, the old woman regained her youth and reportedly lived over a hundred more years.

Shangqiu Zixu from Gaoyi County enjoyed raising pigs and playing the yu (ancient pipe instrument). At seventy years old, he remained unmarried yet showed no signs of aging, which amazed his fellow villagers. When people sought his secret of longevity, he claimed that simply consuming atractylodes, calamus root, and water kept him from hunger and aging. After living three hundred years by this method, nobles and wealthy men rushed to imitate him, but none persisted beyond a year before giving up, suspecting he concealed deeper secrets.

Zizhu spoke with a distinct Chu dialect in a remarkably soft voice, and none knew his origins. When visiting the Prince of Jiangdu during the Han dynasty, he declared: "Master Ning employed me as his retainer for three hundred years but never paid my wages." Everyone thought him mad. When asked about Master Ning's whereabouts, he pointed to Dragon Brow Mountain. The prince sent officials to accompany him there, where they indeed encountered a hairy, large-eared man with disheveled hair playing the qin - Master Ning himself. After Zizhu kowtowed in respect, the officials delivered the prince's message. Master Ning replied: "This Zizhu is the ninth-generation descendant of my neighbor. Tell your prince that three women in his household will die suddenly, and he should trouble me no more." A sudden gale arose as he finished speaking, scattering the terrified officials down the mountain. Upon their return, three women in the prince's household did perish, compelling him to offer triple sacrifices and establish a shrine.

Tao Angong, a master swordsmith from Liu'an, worked constantly at his furnace. One day, the furnace flames suddenly spiraled upward amid violet smoke clouds. As Tao prostrated himself begging forgiveness, a Vermilion Bird (the southern divine phoenix) descended, proclaiming: "Angong, Angong, your smelting has moved Heaven. On the seventh day of the seventh month, a crimson dragon will come for you." True to this prophecy, a scarlet dragon appeared that day and carried Tao Angong to immortality. People witnessed this marvel across a hundred-li radius.

Purple vapor (zi qi) rose straight into the sky. Immortal An (An Qisheng) knelt beside the furnace and begged for forgiveness. Before long, a vermilion bird (Zhuque, a legendary divine bird) alighted on the furnace.

A voice from the heavens said, "Immortal An, Immortal An, your work of refining elixirs has reached Heaven. On the seventh day of the seventh month, we will come to welcome you." On the appointed day, a red dragon descended and heavy rain fell. Immortal An mounted the red dragon and rose toward the southeast. Tens of thousands of townspeople came out to see him off, and he bid farewell to each of them in turn.

Chi Fu (Red Axe)

Chi Fu was a man of Ba Rong who once served as a registrar at the Bi Ji Shrine. He refined elixirs from quicksilver (mercury) and also refined saltpeter. After taking his elixirs for thirty years, he regained his youth, and his hair and body hair turned red. Several decades later, he climbed Mount Hua and gathered yu yu liang (a mineral medicine, literally "Yu's surplus grain"), which he took himself and also sold to people in the regions of Cangwu and the Dian River. His techniques were passed down through generations. The characters "Chi Fu" were written on the palm of his hand.

Hu Zixian

Hu Zixian was a divination master beneath the gate towers of Hanzhong, and he lived for more than a hundred years. Before he departed, he told the old woman who kept the wine shop, "Hurry and pack your things. I am going to answer the summons of the King of Zhongling, and you will come with me." That night, an immortal arrived carrying two dogs made of straw. Hu Zixian handed one to the old woman, and the two of them mounted them, only to discover that the dogs were in fact dragons.

Hu Zixian later ascended Mount Huayin, where he often called out loudly from the mountain, "Zixian and the mother of the wine shop are here!"

Master Fuju (Bearer of the Grinding Kit)

No one knew where Master Fuju came from, though his speech carried the accent of the Yan and Dai regions. He often carried mirror-grinding tools on his back and went from street to street in the Wu market, seeking customers for mirror grinding and charging only one coin each time. While grinding a person's mirror, he always asked whether they were suffering from any illness. If someone was sick, he took out a purple pill and gave it to them, and everyone who took it was cured. This went on for several decades. Later, a great plague broke out, and he went from door to door distributing medicine, saving tens of thousands of people without accepting a single coin. Only then did the people of Wu realize he was a true immortal.

Later, he climbed the sheer cliffs of Mount Wu and hung the medicine on the cliff's edge for people to take. As he departed, he told those below, "After I return to Penglai, I will send you divine water." One day, white water flowed down through the cracks in the rocks. After people drank it, many illnesses were quickly cured, and so more than ten shrines were erected in his honor in various places.

Ruan Qiu

Ruan Qiu was a Daoist priest on Mount Sui. He wore animal skins, let his hair hang loose, had ears seven cun long, and had no teeth in his mouth. He could walk four hundred li in a day. He grew scallions and xie (a vegetable similar to small onions) in the mountains for more than a hundred years without anyone noticing. Occasionally he came down the mountain to sell medicine in Guangyang.

Zhu Huang of Guangyang suffered from a poison jia (an illness in which masses accumulate in the abdomen and cause pain). Ruan Qiu gave him seven kinds of medicine. After Zhu Huang took them, his illness was cured, and the Three Corpses (sanshi), the spirits said in Daoist belief to dwell within the body, prompting wrongdoing and harming health, were also expelled. Later, Ruan Qiu and Zhu Huang together entered Mount Fuyang, and only then did Zhu Huang understand that Ruan Qiu was an immortal.

Zhu Huang

Zhu Huang was a man from Guangling who, in his youth, suffered from a serious abdominal illness, so he sought out the Daoist Ruan Qiu of Mount Sui. Ruan Qiu took pity on him and said, "If you can rid your body of the Three Corpses (sanshi, spirits that Daoists believe dwell in the human body and harm one's shen, or spirit, and lifespan), you have the potential to become an immortal and transcend the mundane world." Zhu Huang replied, "Once my illness is cured, I will gladly serve you as a guest for thirty years and will never leave without your permission."

Ruan Qiu gave him seven kinds of medicine and had him take nine pills a day. After a hundred days, Zhu Huang expelled several dou of matter resembling liver and spleen. After some dozens of days of recuperation, he grew robust, and his mind and spirit grew clearer day by day. Ruan Qiu then gave him the Laojun Huangting Jing (Scripture of the Yellow Court of Lord Lao, a Daoist classic of self-cultivation and visualization meditation), instructing him to read it three times each day until he had it by heart and to reflect on its meaning.

Later, Ruan Qiu and Zhu Huang entered the Jade Maiden Shrine on Mount Fuyang and lived there for nearly eighty years. When Zhu Huang returned to his former home, his white hair had all turned black, and his hair had grown more than three chi longer. He stayed at home for a few years and then departed again. He went back and forth in this manner many times, and he was still alive in the late years of Emperor Wu of the Han.

Lingyang Ziming

Lingyang Ziming was from Zhi Township and liked to fish in the Xuan Stream. Once he caught a white dragon, grew frightened, untied the hook, bowed to the creature, and released it. Later he caught a white fish, and inside its belly was a letter that instructed him in methods of ingesting and cultivating the Dao.

Ziming then climbed Mount Huang to gather the five mineral resins (wushi zhi, minerals used in Daoist methods of ingestion), which he took mixed with boiling water. After three years, a dragon came to welcome him, and he took up residence on Mount Lingyang (in present-day Xuanzhou). More than a hundred years later, the mountain rose to a height of over a thousand zhang above the ground. Ziming called out loudly to the people below, asking them to come up, and said that Zi'an, who lived in the stream, should come and ask whether "the fishing cart is still there."

Some twenty-odd years later, Ziming died and was buried in the mountain. A yellow crane flew down and perched in the tree above his grave, crying out, "Alas, Zi'an!" (On Mount Huang in Wuchang stands the Yellow Crane Tower. The Qi Zhi records that the immortal Zi'an once passed by there riding a yellow crane.)

Han Zi

Han Zi claimed to be a native of Shu and liked to keep dogs, and he was also skilled at judging them. Once a dog ran swiftly into a cave, and Han Zi followed it inside. He walked through the cave for more than ten days, covering several hundred li, and at last emerged on a mountaintop. There stood terraces, halls, and palaces, pine trees grew in dense groves, and immortal officials and guards stood in solemn order.

He saw his late wife presiding over the washing of fish, and she gave him a talismanic token to carry back and deliver to Magistrate Qiao of Chengdu. When Magistrate Qiao opened the envelope, he found fish roe inside and placed it in a pond to raise. After a year, all the roe had transformed into dragons.

After Han Zi returned the token to the mountain, the light and color there grew even redder, and a bird with fully grown wings often followed Han Zi as he came and went. More than a hundred years later, Han Zi remained on the mountain for good, though at times he still came down to protect and bless people……

The immortal's clan came from Shu, and they built a shrine for him at the mouth of the cave. Drums, music, and shouting were often heard there.

Dozens of li southwest of this place, people also worship the immortal together.

Mu Yu

Mu Yu was a native of Heping Township in southern Julu. His mother was poor and once worked as a midwife. On one occasion she went to attend a woman in labor. As soon as the child was born, it opened its eyes, looked at her, and began to laugh. The mother was terrified. That night she dreamed of a man in a tall cap with a red headscarf standing beside the infant, who said: "I am Siming Jun (the Lord of Life and Destiny, the deity who governs human lifespan and fate). I ought to repay your kindness by enabling your son Mu Yu to attain the Dao (the Way) and become an immortal." The mother secretly recorded these words.

Later the woman gave birth to a son and named him Mu Yu. On the night of Mu Yu's fifteenth year, carriages and horses came to fetch him. As they passed his mother's house, they called out to Mu Yu: "Come and drive the carriage for me." Mu Yu then left with them.

More than twenty years later, crows and sparrows began bringing two or three fish every morning and leaving them at Mu Yu's mother's door. She hid the fish and told no one, and she sold them. She did not speak of the matter until thirty years had passed. She lived to the age of one hundred before she died.

Xuan Su

Xuan Su is said to have been a native of Hejian, who took ba ying and sold medicine in the city. One qian of his medicine could buy seven pills, and they could cure all kinds of illness.

During the Han dynasty, the King of Hejian suffered from jia (an illness like an abdominal mass or accumulation). After taking medicine he had bought, he expelled more than ten snakes. The King asked about the secret of the medicine, and Xuan Su replied: "The illness in Your Majesty's abdomen is the lingering calamity of six generations past; it was not brought on by Your Majesty yourself. Your Majesty once released a female elk that was carrying a fawn. Your benevolence moved Heaven, and that is why you met me."

An elderly servant of the King's household said that his ancestors had seen Xuan Su for generations, and that Xuan Su had no shadow. The King had him brought into the sunlight to check, and indeed no shadow could be seen. The King wished to marry his daughter to Xuan Su, but Xuan Su left during the night. Later, people saw him in the region of Changshan.