《雲笈七籤》Vol. 109

Biographies of the Immortals

Guangchengzi

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

Guangchengzi said, “You govern the world: before the clouds have gathered, rain falls; before the trees have turned yellow, their leaves fall. How could someone like you be worth discussing the ultimate Dao with?”

The Yellow Emperor withdrew and dwelt quietly for three months. Then he went to see him again. Kneeling, he advanced and bowed twice, asking about the way of nurturing life.

Guangchengzi replied, “The subtle essence of the ultimate Dao is profound and obscure: it cannot be seen, nor can it be heard. Guard your Shen (spirit) and make your mind tranquil; then your body will naturally become upright. Be sure to maintain quietness and clarity; do not weary your body, do not disturb your spirit—only then can you attain long life. Carefully guard what is within and cut off the disturbances of the outside world; too much seeing and hearing, too much knowledge, will bring harm instead. I guard the One (the state of single-minded guarding of the spirit) and abide in peace and harmony, and so for one thousand two hundred years I have never grown old. Those who obtain my Dao may rise to become emperors or kings; those who lose my Dao will in the end turn to dust. I will leave you now and enter the realm of the boundless, roam over plains without limits, shine together with the sun and moon, and endure together with Heaven and Earth. All the people of the world will die; I alone will long endure.”

Ruoshi

Ruoshi was an immortal of ancient times; no one knew his name. During the Qin dynasty, Lu Ao of Yan traveled to the Northern Sea, passed through Taiyin (a deep and hidden place), entered the Xuque (a legendary mysterious pass), and came to Mount Menggu, where he saw Ruoshi.

Ruoshi had sunken eyes, a high nose, shoulders raised like a hawk’s, a long thin neck, a full upper body and a slender lower body. He looked joyful, and was dancing in the wind. Turning and seeing Lu Ao, he fled and hid beneath a stone tablet. Lu Ao followed and looked: he saw him curled up like a turtle shell, eating crabs and clams.

Lu Ao then said to him, “I, Lu Ao, have turned my back on the crowd and left my companions behind, only to exhaust the sights beyond the four quarters of Heaven and Earth. Since childhood I have loved travel, and in adulthood I have never changed; I have traveled throughout the four quarters, and only this farthest place had not yet been visited. Now that I meet you here, sir, I think you might be willing to be my friend?”

Ruoshi smiled faintly and said, “Alas, you are a man of the Central Plains; you should not have traveled so far as this. Although here there are the sun and moon shining and the stars encircling, compared with that place which cannot be named, this is still only a deep and remote corner…”

“In the past I traveled south to the region of Yingmi. Turning north, I rested in the Land of Deep Silence (a quiet, profound place); to the west I explored the Chamber of the Hidden and Dark (a dim, deep realm); to the east I passed through the Light of the Vast Expanse (a broad, boundless radiance). There, below I saw no earth and above I saw no heaven; looking, I saw nothing; listening, I heard no sound. Beyond it there was still the vast, boundless fertile marsh. With a single step I could travel thousands and tens of thousands of li, and yet I still could not probe its limits.

Now you have only just journeyed here, yet you say you have already seen all the sights under heaven—is that not shallow understanding? Stay here. I have an appointment to meet Hanman (the name of an immortal) at the Ninefold Heights (the nine-layered high and distant place), so I cannot linger.” With that, he raised his arms, straightened his body, and at once entered the clouds. Lu Ao looked up but could no longer see him. He stopped in his tracks, dazed as if he had lost something. Lu Ao sighed and said, “Compared with this gentleman, I am like a swan beside a tiny insect on the ground. I hurry along all day, yet never leave a space of a foot, and still I fancy I have gone far—is that not truly pitiful?”

Shen Wentai

Shen Wentai was a man of Jiuyi. He obtained the Divine Elixir of the Red Spring and cultivated the methods of earth talismans, restoring youth, and prolonging life. After taking it, it proved truly effective. He wished to go to Mount Kunlun and stayed in the kingdom of Anxi for more than two thousand years before transmitting these methods to Li Wenyuan. He said, “Unless one cultivates the earth talismans, taking medicine alone without practicing the Dao is of no benefit.” Li Wenyuan accordingly received his secret method and later also ascended to immortality. The methods of decocting and refining elixirs with bamboo-root juice, and of expelling the Three Corpses (Sanshi; in Daoist belief, deities that lodge in the human body and obstruct cultivation), both came from these two men.

Huang Chuping

Huang Chuping was a man of Danxi. When he was fifteen, his family sent him to tend sheep. A Daoist priest saw that his nature was kind and cautious, and took him to a stone chamber on Mount Jinhua. More than forty years passed, and Huang Chuping lived in carefree contentment; afterward he came down from the mountain and only then remembered his family.

His elder brother Chuqi went out to seek him, but for many years did not find him. Later, at the marketplace, Chuqi met a Daoist priest skilled in divination and asked, “My younger brother was lost while tending sheep more than forty years ago; I do not know whether he is alive or dead. Please cast a hexagram for me.” The Daoist priest said, “I once saw a man named Huang Chuping in Mount Jinhua—could he not be your brother?” Chuqi was both startled and delighted, and followed the Daoist priest to seek his brother; they indeed met. The brothers were overcome with grief and joy. After they had talked, the elder brother asked Chuping, “Where are the sheep you tended?” Chuping replied, “They are just east of the mountain.” Chuqi went to look, but saw nothing—only piles of white stones. He said to his brother, “There are no sheep east of the mountain.” Chuping said, “The sheep are there; it is only that you cannot see them.” The elder brother and Chuping went together to look. Chuping said...

“Chichi, rise, sheep!” (“Chichi” is a shout.) Thereupon all the white stones turned into sheep, tens of thousands of them. The elder brother said, “My younger brother has actually obtained immortal Daoist arts like this all by himself—can they be learned?” The younger brother replied, “Yes. As long as one delights in the Daoist arts, one can learn them.”

At first, Chuping left behind his wife and children and stayed to cultivate the Dao together with Chuping’s elder brother, Chuqi. Together they consumed pine and cypress and fuling (poria), and after ten thousand days they could vanish while sitting or standing, and cast no shadow even at noon; their faces were like those of children. Later the two brothers returned to their hometown, where most of their relatives had already died. When the brothers were about to leave again, they transmitted the methods to Nan Bofeng and had him change his surname to Chisongzi; Chuqi changed his name to Lu Ban, and Chuping changed his name to Songzi. Thereafter, dozens of people became immortals by taking this medicine.

Shen Jian

Shen Jian was from Danyang. His family had for generations served as local officials, but Shen Jian alone loved the Daoist arts and was unwilling to take office. He studied Daoyin (regulating the body through bodily movements and breath), ingestion practices, and other arts, as well as methods for restoring youth and delaying aging. He was also skilled at healing; whether their illnesses were severe or mild, most patients recovered upon seeing him. Several thousand households revered and served him.

Whenever he traveled far, he would entrust three to five servants, one donkey, and several dozen sheep to someone’s care, giving each caretaker a single pill and saying to the host, “Just build a few more shelters; there is no need to prepare food or drink.” With that, he took his leave. The host was quite puzzled and said, “This gentleman has left servants and livestock with me for more than fifteen days and has left no money or goods at all. What am I to do next?”

After Shen Jian left, the host brought meals to the servants, but when they smelled the food they felt nauseated and vomited, refusing even to look at it. When grass was brought to feed the donkey and sheep, they too shied away and would not eat, even trying to butt people with their horns. The host was therefore extremely astonished. After more than a hundred days, the servants’ bodies became glossy and moist, different from before, and the donkey and sheep also grew fat and strong. Three years later, Shen Jian returned and gave each of the servants, the donkey, and the sheep a pill, whereupon they resumed eating and drinking. Shen Jian then cut off grain and stopped eating; he could rise into the air and fly, sometimes leaving and sometimes returning. More than three hundred years passed in this way, and in the end no one knew where he had gone.

Hua Ziqi

Hua Ziqi was from Huainan. He took Master Jiaoli as his teacher and received the Shanyin Lingbao Fang (Mountain-Hidden Numinous Treasure Formulas). Among these, the first was called “Yiluo Feigui Zhi,” the second “Baiyu Zhengji,” and the third “Pingheng Anhe.” After taking them according to the formulas, he could walk five hundred li in a day, lift a thousand jin, and shed his skin ten times a year. In the end, he attained the Dao, became an immortal, and departed.

Wei Boyang

Wei Boyang was from the region of Wu. He came from a prominent and noble clan and by nature loved the Daoist arts...

Wei Boyang did not want to hold office. He lived in idleness at home, cultivating his true nature. People of his time did not know where he came from and simply called him a man who governed the people and preserved his body. Later he entered the mountains to refine a divine elixir—that is, the Golden Elixir, a Daoist pill believed to grant longevity and immortality when consumed. He took three disciples with him, two of whom were not sincere in their intentions.

After the elixir was finished, Boyang warned his disciples: “Although the Golden Elixir has been refined, we should first test it by feeding it to a white dog. If the dog flies up, then people may take it; if the dog dies, people must not take it.” Boyang had originally brought a white dog with him into the mountains. Moreover, because the elixir had not been cyclically refined enough times and its ingredients had not been harmonized to the proper heat, the elixir itself was poisonous; anyone who took it would temporarily appear to die. Therefore Boyang deliberately fed the poisonous elixir to the dog, and the dog died at once.

Boyang then asked his disciples: “I feared the elixir might not succeed, but now that it is finished and I feed it to the dog, the dog dies. Perhaps it has not received the approval of the spirits, and if people take it they may also die like the dog. What should we do?” A disciple asked: “Master, will you take it?” Boyang said: “I have turned away from the worldly path and abandoned my family estate to enter the mountains. If I do not attain the immortal Dao, I would be ashamed to return. In any case, I must die; better to take it.” With that, he swallowed it in one gulp and immediately fell to the ground dead.

The disciples looked at one another and said: “Refining the elixir was for the sake of long life, yet taking it brings death. What is to be done?” Only one disciple said: “Our teacher was no ordinary man. His dying after taking the elixir must have some deeper meaning.” So he too took the elixir and died as soon as it entered his mouth. The remaining two disciples then consulted together: “Refining the elixir was for the sake of long life, but now taking it means death. What use is it? If we do not take it, we can at least live several more decades in the world.” So they refused to take it and went down the mountain together, intending to arrange coffins and funeral supplies for Boyang and the disciple who had died.

After the two had left, Boyang immediately rose, revived the disciple surnamed Yu, and departed together with the white dog. On the road they met a woodcutter and Boyang wrote a personal letter, entrusting it to him to deliver to the people of his village, thanking the two disciples. Only when the two disciples saw the letter were they filled with great regret.

Boyang also composed the Cantong qi (Zhouyi cantong qi), regarded as a classic of elixir practice. It consists of five similar sections combined into two scrolls. Its language appears to explain the Zhouyi (Book of Changes), but in fact it borrows hexagram lines and images to elucidate the principles of refining the elixir. Confucian scholars, however, did not understand the affairs of immortals and mostly used Yin-Yang theories to annotate it, completely losing its profound meaning.

Shen Xi

Shen Xi was a man of Wu Commandery. He studied the Dao in Shu, but could only perform matters such as eliminating disasters and dispelling illnesses.

Shen Xi (a figure of the Eastern Han period) once relieved and aided the common people, yet he did not know that the merit of taking elixirs and similar medicines could move Heaven.

One day, Shen Xi and his wife Lady Jia rode together in a carriage to the home of Zhuo Kong to visit their daughter-in-law. On the way back they encountered three carriages: a white deer carriage, an azure dragon carriage, and a white tiger carriage. Beside the carriages followed several dozen riders, all dressed in red, carrying spears and wearing swords. Their regalia was magnificent, and the procession filled the road.

The riders asked Shen Xi, “Are you the Daoist priest Shen Xi?” Shen Xi was startled and did not know why they asked. He replied, “I am. Why do you ask me?” The riders said, “You have benefited the people, and in your heart you have never forgotten the Great Dao; since birth, you have acted without fault. It is only that your allotted span is not long, and your yang lifespan is about to end. Huang-Lao (the Daoist honorific for the Yellow Emperor and Laozi) has commanded immortal officials to come down and welcome you. The Attendant Gentleman Boyan rides the white deer carriage, Lord Dushi Sima Sheng rides the azure dragon carriage, and the welcome-and-escort envoy Xu Fu rides the white tiger carriage.”

After a while, three immortals wearing feathered robes and holding tallies and credentials handed Shen Xi white jade tablets written with cinnabar characters, azure jade boundary tablets, and writing in red jade. He could not understand the writing, and soon afterward he was carried up to Heaven. At the time, people farming by the roadside all witnessed the event with their own eyes, but they did not know what had happened. A moment later, a thick fog spread; when the fog cleared, Shen Xi was gone, leaving only the carriage and ox he had been riding in. The ox was in the field eating crops. Someone recognized the carriage and ox as belonging to Shen Xi’s household and told his family. Hundreds of disciples, fearing that Shen Xi had been carried off by malevolent spirits, brought him into the valleys and searched everywhere within a radius of a hundred li, but they never found him.

More than four hundred years later, Shen Xi returned to his hometown and found a descendant many generations later named Huai. Huai said joyfully, “From what the elders have passed down, there was an immortal among my ancestors. The immortal has now returned and has stayed here for several dozen days.” Shen Xi described what happened when he first ascended to Heaven: he did not see the Heavenly Emperor, only Laojun (Lord Lao) seated facing east. The attendants to his left and right warned him not to bow in salute or offer thanks, but only to sit silently.

The palace was wreathed in cloud vapor and displayed a five-colored radiance of dark and yellow hues, beyond verbal description. There were several hundred attendants, more women than men. In the courtyard grew trees like pearls and jade, with many lingzhi mushrooms clustered among them; auspicious beasts such as dragons, tigers, and bixie sported there. Only a clanging sound was heard, like bronze and iron striking, but no one could tell where it came from. All four walls were covered with talismanic writing.

Laojun was one zhang tall, with hair hanging loose, wearing patterned robes; his body radiated light, and his appearance changed several times in a moment. Then Jade Maidens, holding a golden platter and a jade cup filled with medicine, bestowed it on Shen Xi, saying, “This is a divine elixir; whoever takes it will not die.” Husband and wife each received one…

Daogui (a person’s name) instructed him, “After you drink it, perform a salute; there is no need to thank me.” After he took the medicine, Daogui gave him two jujubes, each as large as an egg and about five inches long. Then he sent Xi away, saying, “Return to the mortal world and heal the common people. If you wish to come to the upper realm, copy this talisman and hang it at the top of a pole; I will come to welcome you.” Thereupon he gave Xi a talisman and a text of immortal prescriptions. Xi suddenly felt as if he had fallen asleep; when he awoke, he was already on the ground. Today many people have obtained this talisman.

Li Babai

Li Babai was from the Shu region, and no one knew his original name. In every generation there were people who had seen him, and his contemporaries calculated that he had already lived eight hundred years, so they called him Li Babai. Sometimes he lived in the mountains and forests, and sometimes in towns and markets.

Li Babai knew that Tang Gongfang aspired to cultivate immortality but had not met an enlightened teacher, so he wanted to transmit teachings to him. First he went to test Tang Gongfang’s intentions, and therefore disguised himself as a servant and worked for him. Tang Gongfang did not know he was an immortal and ordered him about at will, assigning him even more work than others. Tang Gongfang was very fond of him.

Later, Li Babai pretended to be gravely ill and near death. Tang Gongfang summoned doctors and had medicine prepared, spending several hundred thousand coins without the least reluctance, and he was so worried that it showed on his face. Li Babai then transformed himself so that his whole body was covered with foul sores, ulcerated and discharging pus, so stinking that people could not come near. Tang Gongfang wept and said, “You have toiled for my family for many years, and now you have contracted a grave illness. I very much want you to recover and would spare nothing. But now that you are like this, what can I do?”

Li Babai said, “My sores can be cured, but someone must lick them.” Tang Gongfang then had three maidservants lick them. Li Babai said, “If maidservants lick them, they still will not heal; if you lick them yourself, perhaps they will.” Tang Gongfang immediately licked them himself. Li Babai said, “Even after you lick them it still will not do; if your wife comes and licks them, my illness will improve.” Tang Gongfang then had his wife lick them.

Li Babai said, “My sores have already improved, but I still need thirty hu (an ancient unit of capacity) of fine wine to bathe in before they are completely cured.” Tang Gongfang immediately prepared thirty hu of wine. After Li Babai bathed in the wine, his body was healed, and his skin was smooth like congealed fat, without even a scar.

Only then did Li Babai tell Tang Gongfang, “I am an immortal. Because you have the aspiration to cultivate the Dao, I deliberately came to test you. You are indeed fit to receive teachings; now I will transmit to you the secret of long life and salvation of the world.” He had Tang Gongfang and his wife, as well as the three maidservants who had licked the sores, bathe in the remaining bath wine. After bathing, their appearances all became youthful and beautiful. Then Li Babai gave Tang Gongfang a scroll of the Danjing (a classic on refining elixirs and cultivating immortality).

He entered the Yuntai Mountains and prepared an elixir. After the elixir was completed, he took it and departed as an immortal.

Li A

Li A was from the Shu region. People of the world had seen him, and he always remained as young as before. He often begged in the marketplace of Chengdu, and whatever food he received he distributed to the poor. He left at night and returned in the morning; the people of the city did not know where he lived.

A man named Gu Qiang suspected that Li A was an extraordinary person, so he often drew close to him, hoping to try following him back to his dwelling. Li A then went to Qingcheng Mountain. Gu Qiang still wanted to follow Li A, but did not realize that on the path of cultivating the Dao there might be tigers and wolves, so he secretly took his father’s large knife.

When Li A saw this, he was very angry and asked Gu Qiang, “If you are going to follow me, why are you still afraid of tigers and wolves?” He took Gu Qiang’s knife and struck it against a stone; the knife broke at once. Gu Qiang secretly worried that his father would scold him for the broken knife. At dawn, Li A asked, “Are you worrying that the knife is ruined?” Gu Qiang said, “I am indeed worried that my father will be angry.” Li A then took the knife and struck it against the ground to the left and right, and the knife was restored as before; he returned it to Gu Qiang.

Gu Qiang followed Li A back to Chengdu. Before they reached the city, they met a speeding cart on the road. Li A placed his foot beneath the wheel; the wheel rolled over his foot, crushing all the bones, and Li A died on the spot. Gu Qiang stayed beside him watching, and after a short while Li A stood up, pressed his foot with his hand, and the foot became as it had been before.

Gu Qiang was eighteen at the time, yet Li A looked like a man of about fifty. Later, when Gu Qiang was over eighty, Li A still looked the same as before. Li A told people, “Kunlun (the legendary immortal mountain) summons me; I must go.” After that he never returned.

Wang Yuan

Wang Yuan, courtesy name Fangping, was from Donghai. He was recommended as Filial and Incorrupt and appointed to the post of Langzhong, later rising step by step to Zhongshan Dafu. He had a broad mastery of the Five Classics and was also proficient in astronomy and apocryphal prognostication (the study of using celestial phenomena and symbols to predict fortune and misfortune). He was thoroughly familiar with the essential teachings of the Hetu (Yellow River Chart) and Luoshu (Luo River Diagram), and could foreknow the times of the world’s rise and decline and the fortune and misfortune of the various provinces.

When Emperor Huan of Han heard of him, he summoned him many times, but Wang Yuan refused to take office. The emperor then sent officials of the commanderies and kingdoms to forcibly escort him to the capital. Wang Yuan lowered his head and kept his mouth closed, refusing to respond to the imperial edict; he only wrote more than four hundred characters on the palace gate, recording things that would happen in the future. The emperor detested these words and sent men to scrape them away. As soon as the outer characters were scraped off, the inner characters appeared again, and the ink had even penetrated deep into the wood.

Wang Yuan had no descendants, and the people of his region passed down accounts of his deeds for generations. Chen Dan, a former Grand Commandant of the same commandery, built a Daoist chamber for Wang Yuan and visited him morning and evening, seeking only blessings and hoping to learn Daoist arts from him.

Wang Yuan lived in Chen Dan’s house for more than thirty years. The Chen household had no illness or funerals; the servants were all safe and well, the livestock flourished, the yields of fields and sericulture increased ten-thousandfold, and Chen Dan’s official rank continued to rise. After that…

Wang Fangping said to Yu Dan, “My time has come; I cannot stay any longer. I must leave at noon tomorrow.” At the appointed hour, Wang Fangping indeed departed. Yu Dan knew that he had left by divine transformation and did not dare place him on the ground; he could only weep and sigh in grief: “Sir, you have abandoned me and gone—on whom shall I rely from now on?” He prepared a coffin and funeral implements, burned incense, dressed the clothes neatly, and laid Wang Fangping on the bed. After three days and three nights, Wang Fangping suddenly disappeared. His belts and clothes were still not untied, and only a husk like a snake’s molted skin remained. More than a hundred days after Wang Fangping left, Yu Dan also died. Some say that Yu Dan received the Dao methods transmitted by Wang Fangping and departed by transformation; others say that Wang Fangping knew Yu Dan was about to die, and so left first.

Wang Fangping went east into Mount Kuocang, passed through the Wu region, and stayed at the home of Cai Jing in the area of Xumen.

Cai Jing

Cai Jing was merely an ordinary commoner, but from his bone physiognomy he had the qualification to become an immortal. Wang Fangping knew this, so he went to his house and said to him: “Your allotted destiny originally could transcend the mortal world, so I have come to select you to fill a post as an immortal official. However, you are no longer young and do not understand cultivating the Dao (the Way); within your body, Jing (essence) and Qi (vital energy) are scant while your mortal flesh is abundant, so you cannot ascend directly to heaven. You can only leave by ‘shijie’—corpse-liberation, the Daoist term for shedding the physical frame and becoming an immortal; it is no more than passing through a dog hole.” Wang Fangping told Cai Jing the essential instructions, then left.

Later, Cai Jing suddenly felt his whole body burning hot, as if on fire, and wanted water poured over him. The whole family brought water and poured it on him, as if pouring water onto scorched matter heated red-hot. This lasted three days, and his bones and flesh were almost entirely consumed. He then entered the house, covered himself with a quilt, and suddenly vanished. When the family looked under the quilt, only a layer of skin remained; his head and feet were still intact, like a cicada’s molt.

More than ten years after Cai Jing left, he suddenly returned home. When he had left, he was already old, but after returning he had recovered youthful vigor and strength, and his hair had turned entirely black. He told his family: “On the seventh day of the seventh month, Lord Wang will come. On that day, prepare several hundred hu of wine and food for his attendants to enjoy.” Having said this, he left. When the day arrived, the Cai family borrowed many jars, prepared several hundred hu of wine and food, and set them out in the courtyard.

Wang Fangping indeed arrived. Before he reached the Cai house, people nearby first heard the sounds of gongs and drums, flutes and pipes, and carriages and horses. Everyone was astonished, not knowing what procession it was. When he arrived, the whole Cai family saw him: Wang Fangping wore a distant-journey crown, red garments, a tiger-head-shaped pouch and five-colored ribbons, and a sword at his waist; he was of medium build, with somewhat sparse temple hair. He rode in a feather-canopied carriage drawn by five dragons of different colors, with guards, banners, and attendants before and behind, majestic as a great general on procession. His retinue was divided into twelve companies, with five hundred soldiers in all, all wearing finely patterned wax-dyed clothing…

After Cai Jing had been silenced, the drum music and ceremonial guard all rode qilin, descended from the sky, and hovered gathered in the air, without traveling along any mortal road. When the procession arrived, the attending officials could not see where it was; they saw only Wang Fangping sitting alone. After a while, Wang Fangping called Cai Jing’s father and brothers out to meet him, and again sent someone to greet Magu. Cai Jing and the others did not know what kind of deity Magu was.

Wang Fangping sent someone to convey this message: “I have not moved about in the human world for a long time. Now that I am here, surely Magu can come over for a brief talk?” Soon the messenger returned; only Magu’s voice was heard, but the one sent to carry the message was not seen. Magu replied, “Magu bows twice and sends her greetings. It is not that I do not wish to meet you; it is only that suddenly more than five hundred years have passed. Our stations differ, and there is much etiquette to observe. I have always thought of paying a visit, but feared disturbing your affairs over there. Thus I ought to have come in person, but earlier I received orders to inspect Penglai, and at present I am just about to make a brief trip there. When it is done I will return to pay my respects; I hope you will not leave at once.” After about four hours, Magu indeed arrived.

When Magu came, again the sound of people and horses was heard first. Her retinue was about half the size of Wang Fangping’s. As soon as Magu arrived, everyone in Cai Jing’s household, high and low, saw her. She was a beautiful woman who looked about eighteen; her hair was gathered in a topknot, and the rest hung loose down to her waist. Her clothes had patterns but were not like brocade; their silken luster made the sunlight seem dim, and the names of the fabrics were unknown in the world. She came in and paid her respects to Wang Fangping, and Wang Fangping rose to welcome her. After the two were seated, each set out the kitchen utensils and food they had brought: the plates were gold, the cups jade, and the dishes were mostly rare delicacies from various regions, their fragrance filling the room and beyond. Everyone shared the dried meat; when eaten, it had the fragrance of roasted cypress. It was said to be qilin meat.

Magu said, “Since I last received you, I have seen with my own eyes the Eastern Sea turn into mulberry fields three times. This time, when I came to Penglai, I found that the seawater was nearly half shallower than before. Could it be that it is about to become hills and dry land again?” Wang Fangping laughed and said, “The sages all say that dust will again rise from the sea.”

Magu wished to see Cai Jing’s mother, as well as Cai Jing’s wife and his younger brother’s wife; the younger brother’s wife had given birth only a few dozen days earlier. Magu saw them from afar and immediately understood the situation. She said, “Ah, do not come over just yet; bring a little rice.” She scattered the rice, and everyone saw that as it fell to the ground it all turned into pearls. Wang Fangping laughed and said, “Magu is deliberately playing these young people’s tricks again. I am old and no longer care to perform such cunning and ingenious transformations.”

Wang Fangping said to Cai Jing’s family, “I would like to bestow some wine on you. This wine comes from the Heavenly Kitchen; it is rich and potent, and is not suitable for mortals to drink.”

Fang Ping said, “This wine is too strong; drinking it may harm the stomach and intestines. We should mix in some water now; do not take offense.” So he blended one dou of water with one sheng of wine, stirred it evenly, and distributed it to the members of Cai Jing’s household. Each person drank about one sheng and all became drunk and collapsed. After a long while, when the wine was finished, everyone gradually sobered up.

Fang Ping said to those around him, “There is not enough wine; go and fetch some more.” He gave one string of cash to Yuhang Lao (an old woman of Yuhang) and asked her to buy wine. Soon the messenger returned, carrying an oiled sack containing about five dou of wine. The messenger relayed Yuhang Lao’s words: “She worried that the wine on earth was not good enough to serve to honored guests.”

Magu (a female immortal in Daoist legend) had fingernails that were not like a human’s but rather like bird claws. Cai Jing thought to himself, “My back is itching; if I could scratch it with those claws, it would certainly feel good.” Fang Ping already knew what he was thinking and immediately had Cai Jing pulled over and whipped, saying, “Magu is a divine being; how could you even think of using her claws to scratch your back?” Cai Jing only saw the whip land on his back but did not see who was holding it. Fang Ping told him, “This whip of mine is not something to be endured casually.”

Among Cai Jing’s neighbors was a man surnamed Chen whose given name has been lost. He had once served as a county sheriff. Hearing that divine beings had come to Cai Jing’s house, he went to the door, bowed his head, and asked to pay his respects. Fang Ping called him forward and spoke with him. Chen the county sheriff then asked to stay and follow them, serving Fang Ping as Cai Jing did. Fang Ping said, “First get up and stand facing the sun.” Fang Ping looked at him from behind and said, “Alas, your intentions are not upright; you are not suited to learn the immortal way from Cai Jing. I ought to bestow on you a post to hold in the human realm.”

When about to leave, Fang Ping put a Fulu (talisman) and a document into a small box and gave it to Chen the county sheriff, saying, “These cannot make you immortal, but they can prolong your life. Your original lifespan could reach one hundred years. You may use them to avert disasters and cure illnesses: if a sick person’s allotted span is not yet exhausted and he has no guilt, bring the talisman to his house and the illness will be cured. If evil ghosts, relying on sacrifices and offerings, cause trouble and harm people, have the sick person wear this talisman and then order the community officials (underlings of the local earth god) to seize and carry off the evil ghosts. You should also know in your heart the weight of matters and decide and handle them yourself when the time comes.”

Chen the county sheriff used this talisman to cure illnesses with considerable success; several hundred households sought him out. He lived to be one hundred and ten before dying. After his death, his descendants continued to use the talisman, but it was no longer efficacious.

After Fang Ping left, the several hundred hu of wine placed in Cai Jing’s courtyard all disappeared, yet no one saw who drank it. Cai Jing’s parents privately asked…

The Yunji Qiqian records: someone asked where Lord Wang (here referring to Wang Fangping) usually resided. The scripture answers that he regularly oversaw affairs on Kunlun (a sacred mountain in Daoist legend) and also traveled between Luofu Mountain and Kuocang Mountain. On all three mountains he had palaces. Lord Wang constantly handled the affairs of the celestial bureaus (heavenly administrative offices), going back and forth to the heavens dozens of times in a single day. All matters of life and death connected with the Five Sacred Mountains on earth were first sent to him for inspection.

When Lord Wang went out, he sometimes did not bring his full complement of officials, but rode a single yellow qilin and was accompanied by about ten people. They often saw mountain forests below their feet, several hundred zhang above the ground. Wherever Lord Wang went, the spirits of the mountains and seas would come to welcome him and pay their respects. Some people also sought audience with him on business and presented their matters to him.

Several decades later, Lord Wang once briefly returned home to visit. He wrote a letter to Chen Weizhen. The handwriting in the letter was sparse and open; the characters were very large but not regular. Before this, people had not known the name Fangping; only at this point did they come to know it. The Chen Wei family has to this day preserved, generation after generation, Lord Wang’s handwritten letter and talismanic tally (fu zhuan, a credential used as proof), kept in a small box.

She Zheng

She Zheng, courtesy name Xuanzhen, was from Badong. When he described events from the time of Qin Shi Huang, he was extremely clear, as if he had seen them with his own eyes. At the end of the Han, he led several dozen disciples into the Wu region. She Zheng kept his eyes closed year after year; even when walking he did not open them. His disciples followed him for decades, and no one had seen him open his eyes. One disciple insistently begged him to open his eyes and look, and only then did he open them. When he opened them, there was a sound like thunder and a light like lightning, illuminating the room. The disciples were so shaken that they immediately fell prostrate; after a long while they rose, and by then She Zheng had already closed his eyes again.

After She Zheng attained the Dao, no one saw how he took elixirs or practiced cultivation. What he transmitted to his disciples is said to have included circulating Qi (regulating the breath and moving Qi), the bedchamber arts (sexual cultivation), and methods such as taking stone brain and small elixir. Li Babai called She Zheng a “four-hundred-year-old child.”

Sun Bo

Sun Bo was from Hedong. His talents and thoughts were clear and bright; he was skilled at writing, composed a hundred poems, and recited scriptures totaling several hundred thousand characters. Only in his later years did he study the Dao, practicing the arts of the Mohist school. It is said that he could make plants and trees, metal and stone all emit firelight, illuminating tens of li in every direction; he could also transform his own body into flame and spit fire from his mouth. When he pointed at trees with his finger, the trees and plants would scorch and wither; when he pointed again, they would return to their original state. He could also cause the officers and soldiers of the three armies each to turn into a ball of fire.

A servant who had been hiding among the crowd ran away, and although they searched for several days in succession, he could not be found. Sun Bo told the servant’s master, “I will burn down the barracks for you; the servant will certainly run out. You just watch closely…”

He waited for an opportunity and then caught the creature. Thereupon Bo took out a red pill and threw it into the military camp; in moments a great fire broke out. Zhang Tiannu indeed ran out, and Bo seized him. Then Bo threw out a blue-green pill, and the fire immediately went out. All the scorched houses and objects returned to their original condition.

Whenever Bo used his arts to start a fire, the burned places could not be put out even by pouring water on them; only when Bo himself performed his arts would the fire go out. When he walked through a great flood, he himself did not get wet, and he could also keep the several hundred people following him from getting wet. He could even have people spread mats on the surface of the water and sit there, drinking wine, eating, playing music, and making merry; the assembled people danced on the water without sinking or getting wet, enjoying themselves all day.

When sick people came to Bo for healing, he did nothing else—he merely pointed at the patient and spoke a single sentence, and the illness was cured. He could also enter the stone cliffs in the mountains and the great boulders on the ground: at first people could still see his back and two ears exposed outside the stone; after a long while, he would be completely immersed in the stone. He could also swallow dozens of swords and pass freely in and out of walls as if passing through holes. He could turn mirrors into knives and bend knives into mirrors; for a long time they could not return to their original state, and only when Bo pointed at them with his finger did they change back. Later, he entered the mountains and forests to cultivate the divine elixir, and in the end became an immortal and departed.

Yuzi

Yuzi’s surname was Zhang and his given name was Zhen; he was from Nanjun. In his youth he studied various classics. King You of Zhou summoned him, but he did not take office. He sighed and said: “In life, one moves ever farther from birth and ever closer to death; yet people merely cling to wealth and rank and do not understand how to nurture life. When breath is cut off, a person dies. Even if one is as noble as a prince or marquis and possesses gold and jade piled up like mountains, what use is it? The body will ultimately turn to dust. Only by cultivating immortality and transcending the world can one endure without perishing.”

He therefore took Sangzi as his teacher and learned various methods and arts; afterward he founded another school and wrote more than a hundred Daoist texts. His arts were chiefly based on “Wukui” (a technique referred to in the original text), and he was especially proficient in the principles of the Five Phases (Wuxing), elaborating their subtleties in order to nourish life, treat illness, and avert disasters and misfortune. He could summon violent winds that overturned houses and broke trees, and could call down thunder, rain, clouds, and mist; he could turn grass clippings, tiles, and stones into livestock such as cattle and horses, or into dragons and tigers, and immediately arrange them in rows. He could divide himself into hundreds or thousands of people, and could cross rivers and seas on foot; when he held water in his mouth and sprayed it out, the water all turned into pearls and jade, and would not change back again.

Sometimes he held his breath, and others could not lift or push him; if they tried to bend him, he could not be bent, and if they tried to straighten him, he could not be straightened… (The original text ends here, unfinished.)

After more than ten days, he rose again and set out traveling with his disciples. He rolled mud into pellets and told his disciples to close their eyes; after a moment, the mud pellets all turned into large horses. When the disciples mounted and rode them, they could travel a thousand li in a day. He could also exhale five-colored qi that rose several hundred zhang; when a bird flew past, he would point at it with his finger, and the bird would fall to the ground. When he came to the edge of a deep abyss, he cast down talismans to summon fish and turtles, and the fish and turtles all came ashore. He could also enable his disciples to see things a thousand li away with a single glance, though this ability could not be maintained for very long.

When the Kui Star was on duty, he once filled a vessel with water and placed it between two star lodges, then blew and breathed upon the water. A straight red light rose from the surface, gleaming and shining, one or two zhang high. He used this water to treat all kinds of illnesses: for illnesses within the body, he had the person drink it; for illnesses on the body’s exterior, he had the person bathe with it, and all were immediately cured. Later, he entered Kongtong Mountain to refine elixirs and ascended to heaven in broad daylight.

Tianmenzi

Tianmenzi’s surname was Wang and his given name was Gang. He was especially proficient in the arts of replenishing and nourishing. His scripture therefore says: “Yang qi arises at the Yin hour and is the pure essence of Wood; Yin qi arises at the Shen hour and is the pure essence of Metal. When Wood meets Metal, it cannot avoid being damaged in any case; therefore Yin can weaken Yang.”

The text says that when women apply rouge and powder, they are taking the symbol of Metal’s white color. For this reason, Perfected beings and Daoists all pay attention to this kind of cultivation, carefully investigate its subtleties, and examine the rise and fall of Yin and Yang. The text also uses the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise—the four directional divine beasts commonly used in Daoism—to describe the matching of Yin and Yang, and holds that following this method is the way to longevity.

Women sometimes urgently seek Yang, yet outwardly restrain themselves and refuse to take the initiative in seeking Yang; the text interprets this as “Metal does not yield to Wood.” Men’s nature is described as having vigorous qi, being hard and impetuous, and coarse and undisciplined in intention; when they go to banquets and amusements, their qi becomes gentle and calm and their words humble; the text interprets this as “Wood fears Metal.”

Tianmenzi practiced this method and lived to the age of two hundred eighty, still with the appearance of a young girl. Later he ingested Zhu Yun—a substance for ingestion mentioned in the text—attained the Dao and became an immortal, and went to Xuanzhou.

Nanjizi

Nanjizi’s surname was Liu and his given name was Rong. He could hold powder in his mouth and turn it into eggs, then spit out several dozen of them; when cooked and eaten, they were no different from eggs. Inside the yolk there remained a little powder about the size of a fingertip; he would take it out, put it in a cup, and recite an incantation, and it would turn into a turtle; when cooked, it could be eaten, complete with stomach, intestines, and all internal organs. After the turtle meat was removed, the shell would turn back into a cup.

He recited incantations over water, and the water became fine wine; drinking it made one drunk. With a raise of his hand, he could produce great trees. Someone broke off a slender branch and inserted it in the room; after several days it was still there...

They gradually wither and decay, no different from real trees. By taking Yunshuang Dan (Cloud-Frost Elixir, the name of an elixir pill), one could attain the Dao and become an immortal.

Huang Luzi

Huang Luzi’s surname was Ge and his given name was Yue. He was highly skilled at healing. When people sent him a name from a thousand li away and asked him to treat an illness, he could cure them all without seeing the patient in person. He was thoroughly adept in the arts of prohibition and restraint by means of Qi (vital energy, the primordial energy spoken of in Daoism). He could immobilize tigers, wolves, and all kinds of insects, and prevent birds from flying away; he could also make water flow backward for a li.

He lived to be two hundred and eighty years old. He was strong enough to lift a thousand jun, and he could walk fast enough to overtake a galloping horse. Above his head there was often five-colored Qi rising more than a zhang high. In times of great drought throughout the realm, he could go into deep pools and summon dragons, urging them to ascend into the sky and bring rain. He did this many times. One day he took leave of his relatives and friends, departed on a dragon, and never returned.

Zhang Daoling

Zhang Daoling, courtesy name Fuhan, was a native of Feng County in the state of Pei. Originally a learned Confucian scholar thoroughly versed in the Five Classics, in his later years he concluded that such learning was of no help in prolonging life, and so he turned to studying the Way of Long Life. He had more than a thousand disciples. The essential secrets of the Way of the Nine Cauldrons he transmitted only to Wang Chang. Later he accepted Zhao Sheng as a disciple and tested him with seven trials, all of which Zhao Sheng passed.

In the first test, when Zhao Sheng first arrived at Zhang Daoling’s gate, Zhang Daoling refused to let him enter and reviled him. Zhao Sheng stayed outside the gate for more than forty days, enduring wind and frost without leaving.

In the second test, Zhang Daoling sent Zhao Sheng into the fields to guard the rice grain and drive off wild animals. In the evening, he also sent a woman who pretended to be traveling far; passing by, she asked to stay overnight. She slept in the same bed with Zhao Sheng. The next day she said her feet hurt and that she could not leave for the time being, so she stayed several days, repeatedly using her beauty to entice Zhao Sheng; Zhao Sheng never lost his integrity.

In the third test, Zhao Sheng was walking along the road when he suddenly saw more than forty gold cakes left on the ground. He walked quickly past; he neither picked them up nor looked at them closely.

In the fourth test, Zhao Sheng went into the mountains to cut firewood. Three tigers rushed at him and tore his clothes, but did not harm him. Unafraid, Zhao Sheng said calmly to the tigers: “I am a Daoist priest. From childhood I have done nothing contrary to the right Dao. I have traveled a thousand li to seek a master and seek the Way of Long Life. Why do you act like this? Could it be that mountain ghosts sent you to test me? There is no need for you to do this.” Only then did the tigers leave.

In the fifth test, Zhang Daoling sent Zhao Sheng to the market to buy more than ten bolts of cloth. The price had already been agreed, but the cloth seller falsely claimed that Zhao Sheng had not yet paid. Zhao Sheng did not argue or lodge a complaint; he took off his own clothes and sold them, then went elsewhere to exchange the money and buy the cloth, and he did not tell Zhang Daoling about the matter.

In the sixth test, Zhang Daoling sent Zhao Sheng to guard grain in another field. A man came to beg, his clothes insufficient to cover his body, his face and body covered with filth and running sores, giving off a foul and loathsome stench. Seeing this, Zhao Sheng was moved with compassion and took off…

He gave them clothes to wear, took his own grain to feed them, and also gave them his own rice. This was the seventh test.

Ling led the assembled disciples up Mount Yuntai. At the top of a sheer cliff, a peach tree grew below the rock face, with an unfathomably deep valley beneath it. The tree stood about one or two zhang from where the group was standing, and it was laden with peaches. Ling said to the disciples, “Whoever can pick these peaches, to that person I will transmit the essential instructions of the Dao.”

At that time more than three hundred disciples leaned forward to look, and all trembled with fear, retreating one after another, sweating without cease, not daring to linger at the cliff’s edge. After they went back, they all admitted that they could not pick the peaches. Only Zhao Sheng said, “With divine spirits protecting us, what danger is there to fear? The Holy Master is here; in the end he will not let me die in the valley.”

Ling said, “Since the Master has given this instruction, there must be a way for these peaches to be picked.” Zhao Sheng then leapt down from above and landed exactly on the peach tree, both feet firmly planted, without falling. He picked an armful of peaches, but the rock face was steep and he could find no place to climb, so he could not return. He therefore tossed the peaches up one by one, throwing up two hundred in all.

Ling distributed the peaches among the disciples, one to each, leaving two: Ling ate one himself and kept one for Zhao Sheng’s return. Then Ling went to the edge of the valley and reached out to pull Zhao Sheng up. Everyone saw that Ling’s arm did not grow longer, yet as if reaching for something one or two chi away, he suddenly pulled Zhao Sheng up. After Zhao Sheng returned, Ling gave him the peach he had kept.

After Zhao Sheng finished eating it, Ling said, “Zhao Sheng jumped onto the peach tree with an upright mind, and both feet stood firm. Now I too want to try—whether, if I jump down, I can pick the peaches.” Everyone tried to dissuade him; only Zhao Sheng and Wang Chang said nothing.

Ling then jumped down into the valley, but did not land on the peach tree. The others did not know where Ling had gone; they saw only the four sides meeting the sky, with a bottomless depth below and no road to take, and all were astonished and sighed. Only Zhao Sheng and Wang Chang remained silent. After a long while, the two said to each other, “The Master is like a father. If the Master has jumped into this deep valley, how can we stay here alone at ease?” So the two together jumped down into the valley and landed exactly before Ling. They saw Ling sitting on a jade bed with curved legs, within a dipper-shaped canopy. Ling smiled and said to them, “I knew that you two would come.” After that, he kept the two in the valley and transmitted to them the essential instructions of the Dao.

Luan Ba

Luan Ba was a man of Shu Commandery. He loved Daoist arts and did not attend to worldly affairs. The governor visited him; after meeting him, he invited him to serve as Gongcao and treated him with the courtesy due a teacher and friend. The governor once said to Luan Ba, “I have heard that the Gongcao possesses wondrous arts. Could you let me see them?” Luan Ba replied, “Yes.” Thereupon he sat upright and began to withdraw backward…

The Prince of Huainan and the Eight Lords

He entered into the wall, and his figure gradually became like cloud vapor; after a moment he could no longer be seen, and only a voice was heard coming from inside the wall. He gave a tiger’s roar outside, and the tiger came running back. Afterward, he returned to the residence of the Gongcao (Officer of Merit, an official in charge of documents, assessments, and similar affairs in the commandery and county), and only then... [here the original wording “nai ba er hou” is unclear in meaning].

Later, he entered court and served as Shangshu. On the Zhengdan (the first day of the first lunar month) court assembly, he arrived late and appeared somewhat drunk. At the assembly, he did not drink wine but instead spat wine toward the southwest. The official in charge submitted a memorial saying that he had been gravely disrespectful. The emperor summoned him for questioning.

He knocked his head on the ground and replied: “Because I can drive out and control ghosts and spirits and protect the common people, the people of my hometown built a living shrine for me (a shrine built for a person while still alive). This morning, all the elders of my hometown entered my shrine; I could not leave them at once, and so I carry some smell of wine. Just now I also inspected my hometown, where a great fire had broken out, so I spat out wine to turn it into rain and extinguish the fire.”

The emperor pardoned him, let him return to his seat, and immediately sent a post-horse messenger to inquire at Chengdu. The reply indeed said that on Zhengdan day a great fire had broken out, and a rain had come from the northeast and extinguished it; the rainwater still carried the smell of wine.

The Prince of Huainan, Liu An, was a grandson of Han Gaozu and loved Confucianism and esoteric arts. He compiled the Inner Book in twenty-one chapters, and also wrote the Hongbao and Wanbi in three volumes, discussing the way of transformations.

There were eight lords who came to visit him. The gate clerk, acting on his own authority, made difficulties for them, saying: “What the Prince of Huainan seeks in the highest category is the art of prolonging life and attaining immortality; in the middle category, great Confucians of broad knowledge, rich experience, and mastery of principle; in the lowest category, brave and powerful stalwarts able to carry a cauldron, fight a tiger, and charge about fearlessly. Now all you gentlemen are already old; you have neither the ability to keep your faces from aging nor the martial spirit of Meng Ben and Xia Yu. How could you exhaust the ancient classics such as the Sanfen, Wudian, Basuo, and Jiuqiu, probe profound principles, and exhaust the nature of things? You possess none of these three qualifications; I dare not announce you on your behalf.”

The Eight Lords laughed and said: “We have heard that the Prince of Huainan respects worthy men and loves talent, and never slackens in welcoming and seeing off guests; as long as a person has one skill, no one who comes is not received. The ancients valued all kinds of learning and also recruited men who could crow like a chicken or bark like a dog. One who sincerely buys a horse will seek out a thousand-li horse; asking Guo Sheng to step forward was meant to attract a host of worthy talents. Although we are shallow and do not meet the conditions you describe, we have nevertheless come from afar, wishing to see the Prince of Huainan once. Even if we cannot help, there will be no loss; why set limits, reject, and pick and choose before even meeting us?

“If the Prince of Huainan insists that upon seeing young people he concludes they possess the Dao, and upon seeing white-haired old men he concludes they are mediocre, I fear this is not the principle of ‘splitting open rocks to take jade and diving into deep pools to seek pearls.’ You dislike us for being old; are you not taking us too lightly?”

As soon as the words were finished, the Eight Lords transformed into fifteen youths, their hair hanging loose and exposed...

The man had blue-black hair at his temples and a complexion like peach blossoms. When the gate officer saw him, he was alarmed and hurried off to report to the King of Huainan. On hearing of it, the king had no time to put on his shoes; barefoot, he came out to receive him. He invited him up to the Terrace of Yearning for Immortality, hung splendid brocade curtains, set out an ivory bed, burned “Hundredfold Harmony Incense” made from various aromatic substances, presented a table of gold and jade, and personally put shoes on the disciple.

Facing north, the king clasped his hands and said: “My natural endowments are ordinary, yet from childhood I have loved the Dao and De (Virtue/Power). Entangled by the hereditary estate of generations and sunk in the mundane world, I cannot cast aside the dusty world and dwell in seclusion in the mountains and forests. Yet day and night I long for the Dao of the divine and numinous, wishing to wash away the dirt on my person and make my inner heart pure and sincere. But my feelings and aspirations are shallow; the wishes in my breast cannot be unfurled, and I am as far from the immortal Dao as cloud from mud. I never expected to receive such profound grace, that Daojun (Lord of the Dao) should condescend to come. This is my blessing and destiny; it is fitting that I be raised up. I am both overjoyed and terrified, at a loss for what to do with my hands and feet. I only beg Daojun to take pity and instruct me; then I will be like a larva waiting for wings, able to leave the ground and fly, and like the Eight Lords, I may become an immortal.”

The Eight Lords (Bagong) then told the King of Huainan: “Although our knowledge is shallow, what we have learned is already complete. We know the great king delights in Daoist arts, so we have come to follow you, not knowing what the great king wishes to seek. We can make wind and rain descend at once and clouds and mist rise in a blink; draw rivers and streams on the earth and gather up soil to turn it into mountains. We can make high mountains crumble and deep abysses be filled in, command tigers and leopards and summon dragons and snakes; we can also divide our bodies and change our appearance, vanish instantly while seated, conceal the six armies, and turn day into night.

“We can walk through the air and tread upon emptiness, make smoke and mist rise over the sea, and come and go without the slightest obstruction, reaching a thousand li away in the space of a breath; enter fire without being burned, enter water without getting wet, be unharmed by blades and not hit by arrows, feel no cold in winter and no sweat in summer. We can also transform in a thousand ways at will, cause birds and beasts, grasses and trees to appear instantly, make the myriad things shift, and move mountains and transfer palaces and chambers.

“We can dispel disasters and dissolve adversities, avoid all kinds of harm, extend years and increase lifespan, and attain long life and enduring vision; we can refine mud into gold, refine lead into silver, use water to refine the Eight Minerals (the mineral materials used in alchemy), and make the liuzhu pearls rise into the air; we can also ride dragons and drive clouds, roaming through Taiqing (Great Clarity). What does the great king desire?”

Thereupon the King of Huainan came to pay his respects from morning to night, personally offering wine, food, and fruit. He first asked the Eight Lords to display their transformations and summon wind, rain, clouds, and mist. Every transformation the Eight Lords performed proved effective. The King of Huainan then received the alchemical scriptures and thirty-six alchemical methods concerning mercury and other substances.