《歷世真仙體道通鑑》Vol. 43

Shu Xuji, courtesy name De-zhen, was a native of Kaizhou. His family had farmed for generations, but he alone loved mountains, forests, and springs, and he was devoted to the teachings of the Yellow Emperor and Laozi (Huang-Lao). He became a disciple of Celestial Master Zhai Qianyou of Jianyang.

On one occasion, Zhai Qianyou traveled upriver and visited the Xiandu Temple, where he found the Zhenguang Celing Shu (Book of Suppressing the Light and Controlling the Spirits) in a cave. The text was said to have been transmitted to Ge Hong (Ge Zhichuan) on Mount Luofu by immortals. Zhai told Shu Xuji, "This was secretly passed down to my own master, Song Chongyuan. Although your name is already entered in the register of immortals, you do not yet understand its essentials." He then taught Shu the methods in the text, explaining, "Before Yin and Yang came into being, the Dao was the source of all things. From the one Qi, the Dao transformed Heaven, Earth, and Humanity, the Three Powers. Therefore Heaven has nine Yang, humanity has nine primal sources, and Earth has nine Yin. If a person can return to the origin and preserve the root, they can respond to transformations and adapt to all things."

"This book was first passed from the Queen Mother of the West to Emperor Wu of Han, who handed it to Li Shaojun. Later, Taiji Zuo Xiangong obtained it, and Ge Zhichuan again received it on Mount Luofu. My master, in turn, obtained it again from Ge Xiangong on Junshan Island in Dongting Lake."

Zhai Qianyou then gave this warning: "The method for guarding the primordial Qi is to ride the Great Dipper, tread the North Star, observe Yaoguang, step onto Danyuan, lean upon Lingtian, cross Kaiyang, turn the Yuan Gang, grasp Tianshu, hold the Six Qi, and command the myriad spirits. Practice in this way, and you can summon spirits externally and prolong life internally." Shu Xuji practiced according to his master's instructions, and every undertaking he attempted showed marvelous and verifiable effects.

Later, Shu Xuji told others, "Sichuan has many famous mountains, where immortals gather. I intend to travel there." After arriving in Sichuan, he often kept several spoonfuls of ash in paper packets. When someone asked what the ash was for, he replied, "It can cure all kinds of illness." Whenever someone came seeking medicine, he mixed the ash with his saliva and had them take it, and every patient was healed.

He once suffered from mouth sores and said to people, "Look into my mouth." He then opened his mouth so wide that it looked like a winnowing basket, and his five viscera seemed to be exposed. Everyone who saw this was astonished.

Afterward, Shu Xuji stayed for a long time at the Tongma Temple in Xinfan. He often said, "In the past, the Yellow Emperor, Master Ning, and the Perfected Tianzhen Huangren met with many perfected beings here, and they called this place the 'Terrace of Three Assemblies.' A bronze horse was hidden among the trees; the present Longqiao (Dragon Bridge) is the remnant of that time. Later people built a terrace where the bronze horse vanished to commemorate it." On an autumn night, when the sky was clear and bright, the bronze horse suddenly leaped up and neighed...

Those who had seen him all said he had already attained the Dao (the Way). I have passed through here for thirty years, and I was fortunate enough to see him once.

He had lived here for more than a year when he suddenly said to his elderly widowed neighbor, "I will soon be leaving for another place, and I wish to entrust my affairs after death to you." He pointed to a spot and instructed her, "Bury me here, digging down more than three feet. I will surely repay you handsomely." That same night he passed away. The neighbor buried him as he had instructed, and sure enough she found an ingot of gold. She reported the matter to the authorities. When officials examined the burial site, they found only a walking staff and a pair of shoes. Only then did they realize that he had transcended the mortal body and departed as a shenxian (immortal), and that he had repaid the old woman with gold. They therefore returned the gold to her.

When the old woman's son returned from Linqiong, he met Xuji. Xuji gave him two sweet melons. At Xinjin he had him sit down, shared one of the melons with him, and asked him to take the other to his mother, thanking them and saying, "You have looked after me all these years. Now that we are parting far apart, I fear we will never meet again. How could I not feel melancholy?" When the son returned home, he learned that Xuji had already transformed and departed. The Jinshi (Presented Scholar) Feng Xiao wrote a biography of this event.

Xiang Daorong

Xiang Daorong was a Daoist priest of unknown origin, simple and frugal in character. He served Xuji and received the Zhenyuan Ce (Strategies for Guarding the Primal) and the Lingshu (Spirit Writings), and because of this his reputation spread widely throughout Shu.

He once intended to cast an image of Laozi as the White Horse using thirty taels of gold, and he had already prepared two-thirds of the gold. Though he was never able to fulfill this wish, he did not give it up. One day, as he was burning incense and reciting scriptures, something suddenly fell to the ground. When he opened it, it turned out to be ten taels of gold, and at last he was able to fulfill his wish.

He was on friendly terms with Lü Yi, an assistant magistrate of Huayang County. Once he set out several dou of wine and had Lü Yi drink until dawn, yet Lü Yi never became drunk. Xiang Daorong also named the year, month, and day of his own death, and instructed, "Throughout my life I have been your friend. When the time comes, please carry me to the large pine tree in the eastern suburbs and burn my coffin with firewood. That will be doing me a service." Lü Yi found these instructions strange, so he told the matter to his friends Zhang Sheng, Chang Can, and several dozen others, asking them all to record it and wait to see whether it would be confirmed.

On the night before the appointed day, Xiang Daorong visited his acquaintances one by one, drinking and chatting until evening, and then took lodging at an inn. Lü Yi secretly sent someone to look in, and saw him lying down to rest as usual. At dawn, Xiang Daorong had already passed away, his face unchanged. Lü Yi, Zhang Sheng, Chang Can, and the others prepared a coffin and firewood beneath the large pine tree west of Shaqian, and lit the fire. The flames inside the coffin were so fierce that no one could approach. They saw Xiang Daorong slowly rise above the smoke and fire, and depart into the air.

Ren Keju

Ren Keju was a Daoist priest of unknown origin. At the age of forty, he was reticent, simple, and sincere. He carried a book satchel and his belongings and followed Xiang Daorong in cultivating the Dao. Xiang Daorong, pitying his aspiration, passed on to him the oral instructions of the Zhenyuan Ce and the Lingshu, and warned him, "Only after eighteen years may you transmit this to others, for use in discerning calamity and good fortune."

Therefore, one must not pry into the reasons why this method works, nor seek glory or profit, and it must not be transmitted carelessly. Those who obtain this Dao (the Way) may become immortals, while those who divulge it will suffer an untimely death or a violent end.

In the past, Song Chongyuan passed this method to Zhai Qianyou, who passed it to Shu Xuji, who passed it to me, and now I pass it to you, making you the fifth generation. If you wish to transmit it to others, you must first examine their aspirations and conduct before teaching them, and you must not bring disaster upon yourself through improper transmission. You may retire from the world, keep this method hidden for a long time, and support yourself through other skills, so that no one will come to know of it.

Over the following twenty years, he gradually began to foretell good and bad fortune for others, and at times he also presided over rites of averting calamity (rangjiao), Daoist ritual purifications. Before each divination, he had the petitioner observe a period of abstinence. He then arranged lamps and candles facing a wall in the shape of the Big Dipper and its Kui star, and sat before them, so that fortune and misfortune appeared to him as if plainly visible.

In the Dashun era of the Tang emperor Zhaozong, he suddenly said to Gao Lusi, the magistrate of Huayang County: "I will die in about ten days. Please instruct my disciples not to give me a funeral according to secular customs, for this is what Daoists avoid." On the day he had predicted, he died without illness. Gao Lusi followed his words and instructed the disciples accordingly. His Zhenyuan Celing Shu was not circulated after this.

Cheng Taixu

Cheng Taixu was a native of Xichong in Guozhou. Since childhood he delighted in Daoist arts, and his personal discipline differed from that of ordinary people. At the age of fifteen, he climbed the mountain east of his dwelling and felt a sudden sense of soaring into the air. Before long, clouds and mist of five colors surrounded him, and celestial music and feathered canopies descended one after another. Cheng Taixu silently thought that he had not yet taken leave of his relatives and friends. Suddenly there was a clap of thunder, and all the visions vanished at once.

From then on, he devoted himself even more single-mindedly to the practice of chanting scriptures. At the age of eighteen, his parents died in succession. He gave up his family property and lived on Mount Nanmin, cutting off eating and drinking and sitting in quiet stillness, forgetting himself, for more than a year. Two tigers kept watch beside him, as if waiting for him to call. He gave them the names "Good Words" and "Good Deeds," stroked them, and conferred upon them the Three Refuges precepts (the precepts of taking refuge in the Dao, the scriptures, and the teachers). The two tigers then knelt down and received them. From that time on, whenever he called their names, they would come to him.

One night, a violent wind uprooted trees, thunder and lightning raged, and rain poured down in torrents. The ground beneath the stone steps of his dwelling collapsed, and water surged from the pit as if boiling. He stirred the pit with his staff and unexpectedly obtained a jade seal with two knobs. Each year, farmers came to him to request talismans (fulu) for a good harvest, and he would stamp the talismans with this seal. Those who received such talismans found their crops even more abundant. He gave away everything he received in offerings, and what remained he used to build shrines and install images of the deities. He kept nothing for his own use.

The Daoist nun Xie Ziran asked him to confer upon her the ordination registers (falu). After Cheng Taixu had conferred them and stamped them with the seal, he secretly put the seal away. Later, one day, Xie Ziran suddenly disappeared. In the tenth year of the Zhenyuan era of the Tang emperor Dezong, Xie Ziran ascended to heaven in broad daylight. In the fourth year of the Yuanhe era of the Tang emperor Xianzong, Cheng Taixu underwent jiehua, the Daoist term for the death of an adept, and in the second month of the fifth year of Yuanhe, his spirit moved on to another place.

Zixuan Palace kept its appearance unchanged, yet his body had become as light as an empty robe. In the place where he had transformed, a honey locust tree suddenly sprouted.

There was only one such tree. Its branches and leaves hung downward, and the local people called it the "Disheveled Honey Locust" (Pitou Zaojia).

In the tenth year of the Dazhong era of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang (856), the emperor sent an envoy who entered Shu from Xiazhou. The envoy passed through Nan Min and went to visit the Taixu Guan (Abbey of the Great Void). He told the disciples of the abbey: "Last winter, as I passed through Shang Mountain, I stayed at an inn. When I went out, I saw the flowers and trees on the mountain ridges growing lush, so I hurried up the rocks and climbed the steep places. After fifty or sixty paces, I reached the flowers and trees. Strange blossoms lined the path and stretched for more than a li. Beside the road stood a residence that resembled an official lodging. A green-robed boy led me inside, where I met a Daoist priest. He said his surname was Cheng and his personal name was Taixu, that his ancestral home was in Xidui, and that he was temporarily residing there. He treated me with great courtesy, and when we parted, he repeatedly urged me: 'When you enter the Min Mountains from Shu next year, do not forget to come and see me.' I examined his features closely, and they were exactly the same as those of the priest I had seen."

Yu Lingzi

Yu Lingzi was a native of Hejian and lived at the Jiuzhen Guan (Abbey of the Nine Perfected) on Mount Heng, where he studied the Way for more than ten years. The Red Lord of the Southern Peak (Nanyue Chijun), a deity of Daoist legend, judged him to be extraordinary and transmitted to him the "Way of Returning Wind" (Huifeng zhi Dao) and the "Method of Guarding the Bright Beam" (Shouming liang zhi fa). After practicing these two methods for twenty years, he could sit in stillness and observe events in the heavens as though looking at objects in his own palm. However, he always remained hidden and did not disturb the mundane world with his extraordinary abilities, so people did not know that he possessed such powers.

When he spoke with others, he often described his travels across the Four Seas and Nine Provinces. He always looked to be about thirty years old. During the Yuanhe era of Emperor Xianzong of the Tang, an official of Chenzhou heard Yu Lingzi recite the name, appearance, tastes, temperament, official post, and lifespan of his own grandfather, and every detail was accurate. The people present were greatly astonished and treated him with reverence. He only said, "I am simply like this by chance, and I do not understand the reason for it." He then closed his door and would not come out. Even when people earnestly pleaded with him, he would say nothing more. Only then did people realize that he was an extraordinary person.

Yu Lingzi often recited the Dadong Jing (Scripture of the Great Cavern), an important Daoist text. Sometimes he abstained from grain and food, and at other times he drank wine. The Old Immortal Pan once traveled to Mount Heng and formed a deep friendship with Yu Lingzi. Pan kept a primordial tortoise whose shell was four or five chi across and whose strength equaled that of ten men, and everyone who saw it was frightened. Later, Yu Lingzi rode this tortoise into the Jiuyi Mountains. From then on, woodcutters occasionally still caught sight of him.

Zhao Zhiwei

The Daoist priest Zhao Zhiwei came from an unknown place. He built a hut on Fenghuang Ridge of Mount Jiuhua and lived there. Each day he recited Daoist scriptures, wore grass robes, and ate wild vegetables. After decades of such practice, he attained the Way, and many people followed him to study. Huangfu Yuanzhen became his disciple and remained with him for fifteen years.

In the Xiantong era of Emperor Yizong of the Tang, Zhao Zhiwei was refining elixirs and sent Huangfu Yuanzhen to the capital to purchase medicinal materials, and he temporarily stayed at……

Huangfu Mei visited the Shangqing Courtyard of the Yuqing Abbey and asked Yuan Zhen about some marvelous events. Yuan Zhen said:

"Since I became your disciple, I have never seen him slack off. My master once told us that he knew techniques such as dividing cups, knotting mist, and turning bamboo into a rod to catch mullet, but these were only minor tricks.

"Last year, during the Mid-Autumn Festival, rain and overcast skies persisted for days, and we disciples lamented that such a fine night could not be enjoyed under the moon. My master suddenly ordered the attendant boys to prepare wine and summoned all his disciples. He asked, 'Could you climb Tianzhu Peak to admire the moon?' Though everyone agreed, they were secretly astonished.

"After a while, my master went out leaning on his staff, and we followed him. When the door opened, the sky had already cleared, and the moon shone as bright as day. We climbed the peak by clinging to wisteria vines and steadying ourselves on slender bamboo. My master sat upright on the highest point, and the disciples stood attending him in turn. We raised our cups and drank, chanting several of Guo Jingchun's (Guo Pu, courtesy name Jingchun) 'Poems on Roaming Among Immortals.' Some sang out in clear, long whistles, some walked in step with the rhythm of the 'Pacing the Void' (bùxū) chant, and some played the qin. We did not return until the moon had set. When we got back to bed, the wind and rain had resumed just as before.

"Yuan Zhen was unmatched at the game of go, and he also understood the art of enlightening others. Some time later, he returned to Mount Jiuhua and never left the mountain again."

Liu Daoping

The Immortal Master Liu was named Daoping and lived at the Chongxian Abbey on Mount Yusi, which is today the Qianyuan Abbey. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han, Dongfang Shuo memorialized the throne, saying, "If the Celestial Bureau later selects immortal officials, only Liu Daoping of Pengcheng will qualify." From this we can see that Liu Daoping's attainment of immortality was no accident.

While Immortal Master Liu was still young, his aspirations and conduct already differed from those of ordinary people. When he came upon a household afflicted by plague, he would fashion a horn from bamboo, write talismans on leaves, and wave his arms while shouting, and the sick would soon recover. When droughts or locust swarms struck and people asked for his help, his interventions always proved effective.

At that time, Huang Chao raised an army and swept rapidly southward, overrunning every place he passed. The local people feared he would slaughter them, so they set up camps along the ridges. Still feeling that their terrain and forces were inadequate, they hurried to the Chongxian Abbey to seek Immortal Master Liu's aid. Out of compassion for them, Immortal Master Liu set out from the north side of the ridge and dispatched divine soldiers to resist the enemy. Not a single spear was brandished and not a single arrow was shot, yet Huang Chao's army was utterly defeated. This was clear proof of the immortal's supernatural power manifesting itself.

After this, the marvels associated with Immortal Master Liu multiplied. Before long, he ascended to heaven. On the ridge today, the rock where he ascended still remains, a yellow stone that people call the "Flying Immortal Stone." Only two white footprints are left on it, which display its wondrous nature.

Nie Shaoyuan

The Daoist nun Nie Shaoyuan, courtesy name Bozu, was born to a mother, Lady Cheng, who, while pregnant, feared eating meat and once...

In a dream, a heavenly being pointed to his abdomen and said, "This child will in time attain the fruit of the Dao (the Way)." After he was born, he was clever and quick to understand, and he never mixed with children his own age. As he grew up, he loved to read, and he was especially well versed in the teachings of Laozi and Zhuangzi.

One day Wenlie traveled to Jinling and became a disciple of the Daoist priest Gao Langzhao. There he received the precepts and the Daoist talismans and registers (Fulu). That night he dreamed that he entered the government offices of a city, where the atmosphere was solemn and austere. A man in red robes leaned on a desk and said to Shaoyuan, "This is the office that manages stipends. You may examine the registers yourself." The register read: "Nie Shaoyuan entered the Dao at eighteen and received the Shangqing bifa (Shangqing Essential Methods) at twenty." At the age of twenty-six, he went to the Southern Peak (Nanyue). Upon reading this, he closed the scroll and awoke.

Some time later, Shaoyuan returned from Jinling to Wenzheng Mountain, where he built a dwelling and lived apart from worldly affairs. He called himself "Wuming Zi" (Master No-Name) and wrote the Record of the Thatched Hall of Wuming Zi. Most people called him Lianshi (Master Lian), a respectful title for a Daoist priest.

At that time, the last ruler of the Southern Tang was especially fond of Buddhist affairs and showed great courtesy to Buddhist monks, but he disliked Daoist priests who wore hats and coarse brown robes. Many Daoists, seeking glory and profit, shaved their beards and heads and became monks. Master Lian submitted a memorial urging the ruler earnestly to reconsider. Later, because his mother was elderly, he devoted himself to caring for her, attending to her morning and evening, and this labor wore him out.

One morning he rose, bathed, and said, "My great-uncle once said that our family should cultivate the Dao for generations. Encourage one another, and do not forget the teachings of the Taishang (the Most High)." Before long, four cranes alighted on the roof, and a bright divine light descended from the sky and shone in all four directions. People in the city saw it from afar and thought the house was on fire, but when they drew near, all was quiet and still, and they saw that Shaoyuan had already passed away. The four cranes and the divine light slowly rose into the sky and departed.

The night before, he had told his mother, "General Hu is coming. Please prepare wine and fruit for fourteen people." Then sounds seemed to come from inside the house, as if people were taking their seats at a banquet. The next morning, a servant from the estate reported that Master Lian and three Daoist priests in red and green robes were riding horses, followed by several dozen neatly dressed attendants, heading south. Master Lian turned back and said, "I am going to the Southern Peak."

Master Lian composed the Treatise on the Scripture of Nature and the Secret Instructions on Cultivating the Real. The scholars Xu Xuan and Xu Kai both praised him, holding that his attainments were no less than those of Wu Jun and Shi Jianwu.

Xu Zuoqing

Xu Zuoqing was a man whose native place is unknown. On the Double Ninth Festival of the thirteenth year of the Tianbao era of the Tang, Emperor Xuanzong was hunting at Shayuan. A solitary crane was circling and soaring among the clouds, and the emperor shot it himself. The crane fell, struck by the arrow, and when it was about ten feet from the ground, it suddenly beat its wings and rose, flying off toward the southwest. The onlookers gazed far into the distance for a long time, but they could no longer see it. Fifteen li west of the city of Yizhou…

A Daoist monastery (Daoguan) in Youdao had a quiet courtyard in the eastern colonnade, the first of its compounds, where only practicing Daoists were permitted to stay. Zuo Qing, who often called himself a Daoist of Mount Qingcheng (Qingcheng Shan), had a refined and unpretentious bearing. He came to the monastery three or four times a year and lodged in the Dexu Hall, waiting for visitors. When guests arrived, he sometimes stayed with them for three or five days, and sometimes for ten days or half a month, before announcing that he would return to Qingcheng. People held him in high regard.

One day Zuo Qing returned suddenly from outside, looking displeased and carrying an arrow. He told those around him, "I was struck by this by chance while in the mountains, and I am now unharmed. But this arrow does not belong to an ordinary person. Next year its owner will come here, and at that time it should be returned to him." He then left the arrow by the back wall and inscribed the date beside it: "The ninth day of the ninth month of the thirteenth year."

When the Ming Emperor (Tang Xuanzong) toured Shu, he came to the monastery, entered the Daoist courtyard, and saw the arrow. He ordered it fetched and examined, and it was found to be an imperial arrow. The emperor was astonished and asked how this had come about. The Daoist answered truthfully that Zuo Qing was the crane that had been shot at Shamian the previous year. The emperor then read the inscription and understood that the crane, on that very day, had spread its wings at Shamian and flown all the way here. From then on, no one in Shu ever saw Zuo Qing again.

Thirty li east of Wuxing, there is a place of beautiful mountain scenery with streams winding around it, where two peaks, north and south, rise tall and straight. The local people call it Feixian Ridge (Feixian Ling). The old folk say that this is where Zuo Qing once arrived, carried by the flying arrow, and came to rest. Today, remnants of the Feixian Monastery can still be found below the ridge.

In the Huangyou era of Emperor Renzong of the Song, Guo Zi, the Beizuo Visiting Envoy, wrote a poem that reads:

Green peaks mark the traces of immortals, and emerald trees open among the clouds.
Each time a rock crane passes overhead, I suspect a feathered-robed immortal has come.
From the steep ridges, stones sometimes fly; over the cold pool, thunder suddenly rises.
The arrow shot from the imperial park must still be resting here at the Cinnabar Terrace.

The meaning of the poem is this: the green ridge bears the traces of immortals, and the trees among the clouds are lush. Whenever one hears a rock crane flying past, one suspects that a figure in feathered robes has arrived. On the steep peaks, stones sometimes fly, and over the cold pool, thunder suddenly sounds. It is likely that the arrow shot at Shamian still remains here on the Cinnabar Terrace.

Li Xiazhou

Li Xiazhou's place of origin is unknown. He possessed Daoist arts, and his whereabouts were sometimes hidden and sometimes visible, so that no one could guess where he would be. During the Kaiyuan era of Tang Xuanzong, he was summoned to the palace and stayed there for a long time. Later he requested to leave the palace and took up residence at the Xuandu Monastery.

The chancellor Li Linfu went to visit him. Li Xiazhou said, "While you are alive, your family will flourish; after you die, your family will decline." Li Linfu bowed and wept, asking him to find some way to help. Li Xiazhou smiled and did not answer, then continued, "I was only joking with you."

In the late Tianbao era, An Lushan was arrogant and domineering, and both the court and the realm were troubled by him, yet the emperor had not yet become aware of the danger. One day Li Xiazhou suddenly left and went no one knew where. He left behind only several poems inscribed on the wall of his lodging, which foretold that An Lushan would usurp the throne, and that the emperor would later flee . . .

The events in Shu were not understood at the time, but they were later all fulfilled one by one. The end of the prophecy reads: "The people of Yan all depart, and the horses of Hanguguan never return; should you meet a ghost below the mountain, a silk gown is tied to the ring."

"The people of Yan all depart" refers to An Lushan raising rebellion with troops from the Youzhou and Jizhou regions. "The horses of Hanguguan never return" refers to Ge Shuhan's defeat at Tongguan, where not even a lone rider made it back. "A ghost below the mountain," taken together, forms the character wei, which points to Mawei Post Station. "A silk gown tied to the ring" refers to Consort Yang. Her childhood name was Yuhuan (Jade Ring), and at Mawei Post Station Gao Lishi strangled her with a silk cloth. The omens that appeared earlier in the prophecy mostly belong to this kind of riddle.

Xie Tongxiu

Xie Tongxiu was originally from Yichun Commandery. He was gentle and refined by temperament and did not care for adornment. He rejoiced on hearing good words and avoided wicked deeds as though they were boiling water. He served his mother with great devotion and often wore a look of contentment.

In the early Dali era of Emperor Daizong of Tang, one night he suddenly dreamed of a man wearing a cap and a brown robe who came before him and said, "Your bone structure is extraordinary. Why do you not study the Dao?" On waking, Xie Tongxiu told his mother what the man had said. She thought it reasonable and agreed to let him seek the immortal Way. He then traveled to Mount Heng to seek ordination as a daoshi (Daoist priest).

After a long time, Xie returned home to visit his mother, just as a famine struck. For five years his relatives were scattered and his acquaintances all fled. One night he again dreamed of the man in the cap and brown robe, who said to him, "In the domain of Luling there is Mount Yusi, a dongtian fudi (cavern-heaven and blessed land), a place where immortals dwell in the stories of the Daoists. On the mountain is Qingxu Guan (Hall of Clear Emptiness), the separate residence of Siming (the Director of Destinies, the spirit who governs human life spans and fates) and a place where immortals hold their feasts. You should cultivate yourself there."

The next day, his mother agreed once more. Xie Tongxiu then rode in a sedan chair into Mount Yusi. He built no hermitage and lived only in caves and beneath the trees. His daily food was no more than the hazelnuts, chestnuts, peaches, and apricots of the mountain, along with herbs such as lingzhi (reishi mushroom) and baizhu (white atractylodes). About thirty years passed this way. When his mother died of old age, he buried her and heaped the earth over her grave. Then he put on straw sandals, took up a bamboo staff, and toured every peak of the mountain, seeking traces of the numinous. He did not leave the caves. He wore only grass garments and ate only wild plants and herbs. Whenever someone happened to see him, he always took off his own clothes and gave them to that person. In this way he spent nights in the forest and made the wilderness his home, renouncing human society, for more than thirty years in all.

One day he went deep to the source of a stream and saw a stone stele about three chi long, covered with green moss and worn away by rain. He brushed aside the moss to examine it and found that the inscription, still legible, was a text by Vice Minister Xiao concerning Qingxu Guan. He walked on for more than a hundred paces and came upon an old site where broken tiles and fragments of brick lay scattered on the ground. There the mountain streams ran clear and the flowers and grasses were fragrant. Here he built a hermitage and chose the place to dwell……

Xie Tongxiu had been a Daoist adept for only a short time when word of his ascension spread through the district. The villagers soon began building halls and monasteries for him, one of which was named the "Qingju Guan" (Abode of Purity), though some say it was called the "Qingxu Guan" (Monastery of Pure Void). From then on, he investigated the profound principles of the Dao, expounded its esoteric meanings, and transmitted its methods. Disciples arrived one after another from various regions, too many to count. They often went into the mountains to cultivate themselves in caves, and some returned after five days, others after ten. Yet the experiences they reported upon their return were all different.

In the early Changqing reign (821–824) of Emperor Muzong of the Tang, Xie Tongxiu entered the Yumu Pit and suddenly saw a residence with layered eaves, spacious halls, whitewashed walls, and long, slender corridors. Within its courtyard grew strange trees and spirit birds, unlike anything found in the human world. He felt his spirit refreshed at once, and he gazed about and wandered back and forth. Before long, a boy in a green robe came out and asked, "Are you Xie Tongxiu?" He replied, "I am." The boy said, "The Perfected Xiao and Mei (immortals who have attained the Dao) have been waiting for you for a long time." With that, he led him inside.

He saw a man wearing a purple sash, with a crown and a sword, seated on the left side of the main hall, and another man in a blue-green sash, wearing a crown and holding a ceremonial tablet (hu), seated on the right. Xie Tongxiu immediately bowed twice and said, "I am merely a person of the mortal world, as small as an ant. I admire the Way of long life and have labored in the mountain forests for thirty years in cultivation. I had hoped to pay my respects to an immortal's dwelling, but I never expected to arrive suddenly today in this wondrous realm and be granted an audience with the immortal perfected. My withered bones seem to have come back to life, and I am fortunate to meet with this mysterious gathering."

Perfected Xiao said, "Although you admire the immortal Way in your heart and cultivate yourself in the mountains, the taint of meat and pungent vegetables has not yet been purged from your body. How can you remain here?" (As a child, Xie Tongxiu had once eaten wild garlic.) Xie Tongxiu wept and prostrated himself on the ground, sincerely pleading without cease. The two perfected, moved by his sincerity, bestowed upon him five ears of auspicious millet and half a catty of pine needles, and told him to swallow them in one breath. Xie Tongxiu knelt to receive them and ate half, but the remainder was truly impossible to finish. The two perfected said, "You should return to your dwelling and await a summons in the days to come."

After Xie Tongxiu returned, he contracted bloody dysentery in the eighth year of the Dazhong reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang, and he did not recover until the following spring. People believed this was the fulfillment of his cleansing away the defilement of meat. On the seventh day of the fourth month that year, he suddenly told his disciples, "Last night I dreamed that an order from the immortals had come from the cave-dwelling, and I am to depart." On the following day, he underwent jiehua (dissolution and transformation), a Daoist term for the death of a practitioner, and passed away. His disciples placed him in a coffin. That same night, a disciple dreamed that his master said, "I have a sword. Why was it not brought along with me?" At dawn, the disciples placed the sword in the coffin, but they found that the master's body had vanished. They then buried the empty coffin at the northeast corner of the Qingju Guan. Xie Tongxiu was ninety-eight years old at the time.

In the early Xiantong reign (860–874) of Emperor Yizong of the Tang, the Daoist Nie Shidao of Wenshan Dao, while traveling through the Yumu Pit, encountered Xie Tongxiu, and only then did people learn that he had truly become a perfected being.

Han Xiang

Han Xiang, courtesy name Qingfu, was the nephew of Han Yu. He was by nature unrestrained and disdainful of ritual propriety.

Duke Wen urged Xiangzi to study hard. Xiangzi replied, "What I have learned is beyond your understanding." Duke Wen then asked him to compose a poem, so that he could gauge Xiangzi's aspirations.

Xiangzi composed the following poem:

Between the green mountains and the clouds and waters, is my home.

At deep night I drink the jade nectar; at dawn I chew the crimson mist.

The zither plays the tune of green jade; the furnace refines white cinnabar.

In the precious tripod hides the golden tiger; in the Yuantian (the "primal field," an alchemical term) dwells the white crow.

Within a single gourd lies a world; with a three-foot sword I cut down demons and evil.

He can brew a fine wine that is ready in an instant, and can make flowers bloom in the blink of an eye.

Whoever can learn from me, come together and see the immortal flowers.

After reading it, Duke Wen smiled and said, "Can you alter the transformations of Heaven and Earth?" Xiangzi replied, "That is only a small matter." Duke Wen then had a banquet set out. Xiangzi took some soil and covered it with a basin. After a long while, two jade-green flowers opened from the basin, resembling peonies, their colors exceptionally vivid. Among the blossoms appeared a golden couplet: "Where is my home, where clouds cross the Qinling Mountains? Snow blankets Blue Pass, and my horse will not advance."

At the time, Duke Wen did not understand its meaning. Xiangzi said, "When the matter comes to pass in the future, it will verify itself naturally." Having said this, he took his leave.

Not long afterward, Duke Wen, for memorializing against the welcoming of the Buddha's bone relic, was demoted to Chaozhou. One day, while traveling, he met a great snowstorm, and suddenly a man came hurrying through the snow. It was Xiangzi. Xiangzi said, "Do you still remember the lines on the flowers? They speak of what is happening today." Duke Wen asked where they were, and learned that this place was Blue Pass. He sighed for a long time and said, "Let me complete this poem for you." The poem reads:

A single memorial was sent up to the Nine Heavens; at dusk I was banished down an eight-thousand-li road to Chaoyang.

I did this originally to remove abuses under a wise and sagely ruler; how would I cherish my remaining years in decline?

Where is my home, where clouds cross the Qinling Mountains? Snow blankets Blue Pass, and my horse will not advance.

I know you have come far and must have a purpose; gather my bones for me by the miasmic river's edge.

Thereupon, Duke Wen and Xiangzi stayed one night at the Blue Pass post station, and only then did Duke Wen believe that the Daoist arts Xiangzi spoke of were not empty claims.

When Xiangzi was about to leave, Duke Wen tried to keep him but could not, so he composed a poem to send him off:

Since ancient times, many talented people have been of use to the world;

but who in the world can compare with one whose writing is as vigorous as yours?

On the day your fame and achievements are complete,

I hope you will set aside your mortal body and lie down to rest among the mists and rosy clouds of the mountain forests.

Xiangzi also composed a poem to bid farewell:

The people of the world are all intoxicated by fame and profit;

only I alone stay awake within the Great Dao.

In time I will surely ascend and fly away,

breaking through the empty autumn sky and turning into a single point of green light.

Xiangzi said to Duke Wen, "You are about to go to a place thick with miasma, and it is hard to guarantee you will not be harmed." He then took out a gourd of medicine and said, "Take one pill, and you will be able to resist the poison of the miasma."

Duke Wen said to Xiangzi, "I truly fear that I may not escape death, and that my hun and po will drift away overseas. Thinking of this, I cannot help but shed tears. I..."

"I no longer dare to hope for wealth and rank. If I can only survive and walk out through the Gate of Ghosts (meaning, get through a life-or-death crisis), I will be content." Xiang replied, "Before long you will set out to the west (here meaning you will leave the capital). Not only will your whole family come through safely, but you will also be called back into the court's service."

The man asked, "After this, will we have any chance to meet again?" Xiang said, "The agreement we made earlier is hard to foresee." Later, everything turned out just as he had said.

Xuanyuan Ji

Xuanyuan Ji, the Master of Mount Luofu, was from an unknown place and lived on Mount Luofu. People said he had lived for several hundred years yet his appearance never aged, and his hair grew so long that it reached the ground. When he sat in a dark room, his eyes could send out light several zhang long. Whenever he went into the mountain cliffs and gorges to gather medicinal herbs, poisonous dragons and fierce beasts would follow close beside him, as if to protect him.

In his daily life, when common families invited him to a vegetarian feast, he could go to them all in person even when more than a hundred households sent invitations at once. When he drank with others, he would take out a wine jar from some marvelous place. The jar held only one or two sheng of wine, yet all the guests at the table could drink from it together, and though it was poured from all day long, it never ran out. Even if someone drank a hundred sheng, they would not become drunk. At night he would let his hair hang down into a basin, and wine would drip out drop by drop, carrying the fragrance of the yeast, and the amount of wine barely decreased.

When he performed vermilion-script talismans (fulu), he could send the talismanic power a thousand li away. When he met a sick person, a single gentle wipe with a cloth would cure the illness immediately.

Emperor Xuanzong of Tang summoned Xuanyuan Ji and asked, "Can one attain long life through cultivation?" Xuanyuan Ji replied, "Cut off the desires for sound and beauty, lessen the craving of the mouth and belly, keep sorrow and joy both in balance, and bestow kindness without partiality. Then one will naturally share the virtue of Heaven and Earth and shine as brightly as the sun and moon. The Way practiced by Yao, Shun, Yu, and Tang can all be reached, so how much more so long life and enduring vision?"

The emperor then asked, "Between you and Zhang Guo, who is more accomplished?" Xuanyuan Ji answered, "I do not know him well. I am only a little younger than Zhang Guo." After the court had withdrawn, the emperor covered a white magpie with a golden basin and wanted to test whether Xuanyuan Ji could guess what lay under the basin. At that time Xuanyuan Ji was resting outside, and he said to a eunuch, "Why is the emperor having this old man guess what is under the upturned basin again?" The eunuch did not understand what he meant. The emperor then summoned him to the palace at once. Just as Xuanyuan Ji reached the palace steps, he said to the emperor, "The white magpie under the basin ought to be released." The emperor smiled and said, "Master, you knew this all along." He then had Xuanyuan Ji seated before the imperial couch and had the palace attendants serve him tea.

Xuanyuan Ji's face looked old and his clothing was plain. When someone mocked him, he made his hair turn black and his lips turn red, becoming a youth of about sixteen. In the blink of an eye he changed again into an old woman, her skin like chicken skin, her back like the back of a mackerel, and her temples completely white. Everyone present wept. When the emperor ordered him to apologize, he returned to his original appearance.

The capital had never had cardamom or lychee blossoms. As soon as the emperor mentioned these two flowers, before long Xuanyuan Ji made them appear, several hundred blossoms of each, with their branches and leaves luxuriant, as if...

Xinjian once said to Xiangzi, "On the mountain below, I came across something with an even finer flavor than this." The emperor replied, "I have not been fortunate enough to taste it." Xiangzi then picked up the jade cup before the imperial throne and covered it with a precious tray. After a short while he lifted the tray, and the jade cup was found beneath it. The emperor tasted what was in the cup and praised its sweetness as unmatched.

The emperor then asked, "How many more years will I remain as Son of Heaven?" Xiangzi took up a brush and wrote forty characters, pausing after every ten. The emperor laughed and said, "How would I dare hope to reign for forty years?" The emperor later died, having in fact reigned for fourteen years.

Some time afterward, Xiangzi took his leave and returned to the mountains. The emperor ordered an envoy from the palace to escort him. Along the way, the envoy often saw Xiangzi take coins from a cloth bag and give them to the poor. When they reached Jiangling, he had already given away several hundred thousand coins, yet the coins in the bag could never be exhausted however many were taken out. Before they reached the mountain, Xiangzi suddenly vanished, and the envoy was greatly alarmed. Not long afterward, a report arrived from the South Sea stating that the Master had already returned to Mount Luofu.

Xiong Derong

Master Xiong, whose personal name was Derong and courtesy name Daguang, was a native of Jingzhou. From childhood he was calm and tranquil, did not eat fish or meat, and resolved to transcend the mundane world. At the age of thirteen he left home to seek the Dao, traveling a thousand li and practicing with great diligence, so that those around him considered him remarkable.

Later he came to Mount Jiuyi, where he suddenly encountered a man by the roadside. The man had green hair, a youthful face, and clear, bright eyes. Derong sensed that he was no ordinary person and stepped forward to ask him something, but the man only responded with a sound and did not speak. The two then went up the mountain together, gradually reaching a secluded spot where there stood a stone chamber. The man asked Derong to sit and said, "In seeking the Dao, one must not let the mind scatter. Many thoughts disturb the spirit, and a disturbed spirit becomes anxious, and anxiety is hard to remedy. Therefore the sage first cultivates himself and only then helps others."

The man continued, "The Dao stretches on without end, seeming to exist yet elusive; when one makes use of it, one must not force it. With your bone structure and natural endowment, you will ultimately be able to accomplish the Way of the Immortals, but not yet." Having said this, he took a gourd from his waist, poured out wine, and drank it. "We shall meet again. Strive on, strive on." He then walked into the mountains.

Derong waited for several days, but the man never came out again. He returned in a melancholy state and for several months seemed as though he had lost his soul. In the early Dazhong reign period of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang, he began to travel to Mount Lu and resided at the Jianji Abbey, often sitting in quiet stillness in a single room all day, so motionless that others could not guess what he was doing.

In the second year of the Xiantong era under Emperor Yizong of the Tang, Derong died and was buried. A few days later, a Daoist traveling south encountered Derong on the road, wearing a cloth headscarf and leaning on a wild-grass staff, walking alone. The Daoist asked where he was going, and Derong replied, "I am going to Mount Jiuyi to seek my teacher." When the Daoist returned and recounted this, people opened Derong's coffin to look, and found inside only a hairpin.

Earlier, among those who had associated with Derong, there was Prime Minister Li Jue…

Liu Deben

When Cui Zhi served as a secretary to the prefect Dehui, Dehui and the others all revered his Daoist arts (daoshu) and called themselves his disciples.

Liu Deben, courtesy name Xiaoshu, was a native of Ezhou. He loved ancient books and had broad learning. He was skilled in seal script and thoroughly read the Six Classics, the works of the various masters, and the histories. His family was wealthy, but he did not seek office, and he often traveled up and down the Yangtze River as a merchant.

In the second year of the Qianfu era (875) of Emperor Xizong of the Tang, Huang Chao captured Ezhou, and alarms spread constantly along the river as the region fell into turmoil. Liu Deben judged that he could not return home, so he led his family off their boat and continued by land. A great famine was then underway, and many people were starving to death. Liu gave away tens of thousands of shi of rice from his trading profits to the famine victims, enabling more than ten thousand households to survive. He also paid for the burial of the dead, and for this he was esteemed throughout the region.

Later, he withdrew to live beneath the Five Elders Peak on the south side of Mount Lu. One day a Daoist with disheveled hair, dressed in deerskin, came to visit, but he would not reveal his name. Liu Deben got along well with him, and the two often drank wine together and composed poems.

At one point Liu Deben quarreled with Dong Yi, a records officer in charge of documents, and stormed off. Later, Emperor Taizu of the Later Zhou summoned him to serve as a Doctor of the Book of Changes. In the early Song dynasty, he again argued at court with the censor Fu Zhaowen and was demoted to Assistant Registrar of Qianzhou, a local official in charge of household registration, taxation, and related affairs. When his term ended, he resigned and never again took office. He traveled freely through the regions of Qi, Yong, Shan, and Luo. He addressed people without regard to their rank, and he often began his remarks by saying "miaozhi." When he came upon beautiful mountains and rivers, he would linger for ten or fifteen days, sometimes nearly running out of food and going dozens of days without eating. In the peak of summer he sat bare-chested in the blazing sun without his clothes becoming damp with sweat, and in the depths of winter he broke the ice to bathe, staying in until the ice melted.

Emperor Taizong of the Song had long heard of his reputation and summoned him back to the capital, lodging him at the residence of Dou Shenxing, an official of the palace eunuch bureau. Liu Deben used the sobriquet Shuxian and had a long, fine beard, which he suddenly shaved off completely. Dou Shenxing asked him in astonishment why he had done so. Shuxian replied, "It is nothing more than imitating others." Dou Shenxing was furious. The emperor judged that Liu's conduct lacked propriety, so he appointed him Registrar of the Directorate of Education, a clerical post, and had him move out of the guesthouse to live at the Directorate. There he drank even more heavily and spoke freely about current affairs, and as a result he was demoted to Dengzhou and later transferred to Linyi in Qizhou.

He told the officials escorting him, "I am about to go." He then drew a pit in the ground with his foot, judging its size to be just right to hold his face. He bent over to look into it, then lay down on a mat and died. The local government hastily buried him beside the road. Several months later, old friends dug up his body intending to rebury it, but they found only his clothing and bedding remaining. This was probably what is called "corpse liberation" (shijie), a Daoist legend in which an adept sheds the physical body and departs the world by other means.

Chen Tao

Chen Tao was a native of Shupu. As a young man he loved learning, mastered astronomy, and excelled at poetry. Believing that the fortunes of the Southern Tang under the Li family could not last, he gave up any thought of entering office or associating with the gentry. He built a house on West Mountain and lived there, amusing himself with poetry and rhyme-prose, and later he took up cultivation practices. He wrote an essay titled "Miscellaneous Feelings While Living in Seclusion."

It is said that during the Kaibao era of Emperor Taizu of the Song, someone saw an old man with his hair tied in a horn-shaped topknot, wearing coarse cloth robes. He went into the city with a Daoist alchemist—a practitioner of Daoist arts—to sell medicine. After earning some money, he bought salted fish and sat by the stove to eat.

The Daoist was named Li Guizhen; no one knew where he came from. In the late Tang dynasty, he had traveled to the Xingguo Abbey in Hongzhou. There he saw statues honoring the Three Officials in their hall, as well as a silk painting commissioned by imperial decree under Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang. Its workmanship was exceptionally fine. But the hall’s overseer did not guard it carefully, and sparrows and pigeons often left droppings on the painting. Li Guizhen painted a hawk—a bird of prey—on the wall. From then on, sparrows and pigeons no longer roosted in the hall.

Later, someone saw Li Guizhen ascend to immortality on Mount Luofu.