《雲笈七籤》Vol. 86

This passage comes from volume 86 of the Yunji Qiqian (Seven Slips from the Cloud Satchel) and discusses the “Instructions of the Great Emperor Lord of Cavernous Generation for Stabilizing Life in the Five Viscera.” It belongs to the category of shijie (corpse liberation), a Daoist method by which cultivators are believed to leave their bodily form behind after death and become immortals.

It is said that the Perfected Man of the Golden Flower of Taiji carved this scripture on the eastern wall window of the Mysterious Pearl Jade Hall in the Purple Micro Palace of the Great Micro Emperor Lord. The general meaning of the scripture is: the stones of the Five Phases—five kinds of mineral essences with different properties—are assigned to the five directions, and their fluids and radiance combine to form. Life has its end, and new life is also gestated within death; all things must return to the root, and the myriad branches and leaves ultimately return to true Qi. Once true Qi scatters like smoke and blood streams on without cease, Jing and Qi will decline. It is lamentable that if the human form lacks true Qi, it cannot be brought to completion; how then can Jing and Qi be kept from drying up? One must use “Cloud Herb Mysterious Wave” to blend and harmonize, “Floral Sweet Dew and Flower Essence” to bring together, then “Seven-White Numinous Vegetables” to blend, and pair them with “White-Silk Flying Dragon.” The user bathes at dawn, rectifies the mind, faces east, concentrates Shen and rouses the Hun and Po souls, bows twice in homage to the High God and the Lords of the Five Directions, and prays that the five directions be stabilized, that the Qi of long life communicate with Heaven and Earth, circulating in and out, each abiding in its proper place, and that radiance be generated within the five viscera.

The text further says that this passage is the Shangqing school’s “Great Script of the Eight Assemblies and Intertwining Dragons,” a kind of celestial script found in Shangqing scriptures, which ordinary scholars in the world find difficult to comprehend. Taizu Zhenren (the Perfected Man of Great Simplicity) separately copied out the words and phrases, and after taking the medicine, requested an explanation from the Emperor Lord of Taiji.

The commentary unravels the hidden expressions one by one: “Cloud Herb Mysterious Wave” refers to the oil of black jusheng, the essence of black sesame, also called “Mysterious Clarity”; “Floral Sweet Dew and Flower Essence” is honey; “Five-Light Seven-White Numinous Vegetables” is xie (Allium chinense, a scallion-like vegetable); and “White-Silk Flying Dragon” is quartz.

The method of preparation is: plant xie; by the fifth day of the fifth month do not pull or dig it up, only hoe the soil and bank up the roots in cultivation. After five years, take the best of it as medicine, called “Five-Light Seven-White Numinous Vegetables.” The required materials are: ten jin of white, fat, large xie bulbs; one hu and five dou of black jusheng oil; five dou of honey congealed white as snow; thirty-six hu of refined water taken from springs and rock cavities in high mountains, secluded cliffs, and sheer precipices; and five pieces of pure white, flawless white quartz. The quartz must be lustrous and fine; polish and tend it on a grinding stone until it is perfectly round like a sparrow’s egg—smaller is better—then polish it until it shines like a pearl and no trace of the grinding stone remains.

Before proceeding, one must first fast and cultivate purity for 160 days. When the fast is over, on the ninth day of the ninth month, first build an earthen foundation two chi high and construct a stove house; after the house is completed, build the stove, with its mouth facing west and the door of the house also opening to the west, and prepare a new large iron cauldron to place on the stove.

The ritual described above is to be performed at the shen or you hour (roughly between 3:00 and 7:00 p.m.) on the ninth day of the ninth month: face east and kneel before the stove mouth. Place five stones into the cauldron one after another; as each stone is dropped in, recite the corresponding invocation.

When the first stone is placed, the invocation names it the “Azure Emperor Lord Stone,” invoking the Three Prime Primordial Ladies (Sansu Yuanjun), Taiyi Director of Destinies, the Dark Mother, and other deities to settle the hun and po souls, strengthen the bones, guard and nourish the liver spirit, and cause the liver to generate radiance and be preserved for long.

When the second stone is placed, the invocation names it the “White Emperor Lord Stone,” invoking the relevant deities to regulate Jing (essence) and Qi (vital energy), guard and nourish the lung spirit, so that the lungs do not decline, radiance arises upon the lungs, and they endure for millions upon millions of years.

When the third stone is placed, the invocation names it the “Red Emperor Lord Stone,” invoking the Emperor Lord, the Dark Mother, and other deities to regulate Shen (spirit) and Qi, guard and nourish the heart spirit, so that the heart spirit is not depleted or sunk into decline, and radiance flourishes upon the heart like a forest of jade.

When the fourth stone is placed, the invocation names it the “Black Emperor Lord Stone,” invoking Taiyi, the Dark Mother, the Primordial Father, and other deities to regulate the body fluids, guard and nourish the kidney spirit, so that the kidneys are not damaged or thrown into disorder, radiance arises upon the kidneys, and one can constantly fulfill one’s wishes.

When the fifth stone is placed, the invocation names it the “Yellow Emperor Lord Stone,” invoking Lord Lao, Taiyi Emperor Lord, and other deities to settle the hun and po souls, guard and nourish the spleen spirit, so that the spleen does not decay, radiance arises upon the spleen, and ultimately one ascends to heaven in broad daylight. Each time a stone is dropped in, hold the breath for five breaths (retain the breath and silently count five breaths); after all five stones have been placed, rise and bow five times facing the stove mouth.

Next take five jin of superior xiebai (the bulbs of a perennial pungent aromatic plant) and cover the five stones with them. Then pour in one hu and five dou of rich fat, so that the fat covers the xiebai. Then, according to the depth and size of the cauldron, measure the level of the fat, and slowly add clear water, leaving a little space at the surface; do not fill the cauldron completely. Cover the cauldron mouth loosely with a wooden lid.

On the morning of the tenth day of the ninth month, begin the fire. Use firewood that is straight-grained and well dried; do not use wood that is worm-eaten or whose bark is unclean. The fire need only maintain a gentle simmer; do not let the contents of the cauldron roll or boil over. During the process, frequently inspect the fire and keep watch on the level of the fat; when the water boils dry, replenish it. After a total of thirty-six hu of water has been added, stop adding water. When the water is exhausted, continue simmering until the fat is about two inches below its original level, judging and adjusting according to the condition of the cauldron. When this is complete, let the contents of the cauldron cool, clear away the ash beneath it, cover it tightly, leave it for five days, and then slowly...

In the early morning, take the five stones (five mineral medicines) and, facing the five directions, bow once toward each. After bowing, kneel and mix this “yu” (a paste-like refined alchemical product) with water flowing from the east, then take it in sequence. The remaining water and medicinal paste should also be taken and used to wash down the stones. When the stones enter the mouth and are swallowed, a sound will be heard in the ears; at this point, just as when the stones were first put into the pot, take them one by one according to the invocation formulas. After finishing, bow five more times.

If, after the medicine is decocted, you inspect it and find that the stones have all disappeared, do not be puzzled: this is because the five kinds of Jing and Qi have dispersed and transformed into the medicinal nature, melting and flowing together with the cloud ointment. Take only five ge each day, swallowed with wine. According to this account, spirit and Qi will transform the physical form, settle separately within the five viscera, and again congeal to form the five stones.

Take care not to use fierce fire. If the fire is too fierce, the Jing and Qi within the stones will disperse and fly away, leaving turbid dregs, and it will also burn or scorch the cloud ointment; such medicine must not be taken.

Cloud ointment is sweet and fragrant, extremely fine; it is said to strengthen sinews and bones, supplement Jing and Qi, calm the five viscera, guard original Qi, coalesce fluids, nourish the Hun and Po, and is a superior medicine. It should be stored in a good vessel and tightly covered. On the first day take two ge, and thereafter take it persistently every day. If the cloud ointment is as thick as honey, you may first remove the stones and swallow them, then add the cloud ointment, blend, decoct, and refine until it congeals like rich fat that can be cut. Some also make it into pills and take thirty a day; but generally, taking the cloud ointment directly is better. Which method to use afterward is left to the individual’s own choice, with suitability to the body as the criterion; whatever suits the body is acceptable.

If one constantly takes this cloud ointment, the stones will be retained. If the cloud ointment is finished first, refine it again according to the previous method: use five liang of white quartz, anchored at the bottom of the pot; each time add two liang, recite the invocation formulas according to the rule, but no longer round the stones—use heavy stones instead. After the medicine is refined, take out these stones and sink them in east-flowing water or in a deep pool that does not readily dry up. If one does not wish to refine cloud ointment again, this will not harm the five stones taken previously.

This cloud ointment is named “Xuan Shui Yu Ye” (Dark Water Jade Liquid), also “Fei Long Yun Yu” (Flying Dragon Cloud Ointment), and also “Lian Wu Shi Zhi Hua Gao” (Paste of the Refined Flower of the Five Stones). According to the scripture, after taking it for fifteen years, one’s inner and outer being becomes thoroughly lucid, one attains long life between heaven and earth, and one can command ghosts and spirits; after three years, the eyes can even see things at night.

The Zhenren (Perfected Person) says that this formula surpasses the method of ingesting the eight stones, and far surpasses “Xuan Shui Yun Mu Yu Jiang” (Dark Water Mica Jade Syrup). After swallowing the five stones, the five stones enter the body and settle in the five viscera; each viscus has one stone guarding its visceral openings, and five-colored flowers will grow upon those openings.

Taiyin Lianxing (Refining the Form in the Great Yin).

The Zhengao (Declarations of the Perfected) says: If, after death, a person temporarily enters Taiyin (Great Yin, the nether realm) and only passes for a time through the Three Officials (the deities governing Heaven, Earth, and Water), then even if the flesh has already rotted to dust, the blood has settled, and the vessels and meridians have dispersed, the five viscera will still spontaneously produce white bones like jade. The seven po souls fill and nourish the body, the three hun souls guard the physical frame, the Three Primes protect the breath, and the Great Shen is sealed and hidden within. After twenty or thirty years, the body can restore its vitality at will: when the time for revival arrives, it gathers the blood, develops the muscles, causes the fluids to congeal into form, reconstitutes the original embryonic body, and then changes its appearance. The appearance restored in this way may even surpass what it was before death. This is what is meant by a Zhenren (Perfected) refining and forming the body in Taiyin and changing appearance at the place of the Three Officials.

The Taiwei Heavenly Emperor sang: “Refining the body-form in Taiyin surpasses taking the nine-times-refined elixir. With upright and solemn bearing, and a complexion like numinous clouds, one can ascend to the Golden Portal of Taiji and become a Zhenren.” It also says that five or six years after Zhao Chengzi died, a woodcutter entering Mount Hua saw him; presumably he had obtained the Daoist method of refining the form in Taiyin.

Water and Fire Wash and Refine the Corpse-Form

The Benxing Jing says: The Wuling Xuanlaojun (Mysterious Elder Lord of the Five Spirits) of the northern Dongyin and Shuodan Yujue region—originally surnamed Hao, styled Fuming, a descendant of Xuanhuang and a kinsman of the Taiqing lineage—was twelve years old in the Shiqing Heaven of the Yuanfu Qixian world when he already loved quiet seclusion. In his heart he delighted in mountains and waters, and he often left home, sometimes returning only after ten days.

At that time a great famine covered the world. The common people starved to death, and nearly the whole country died out. At the foot of Mount Dijing, Fuming came upon a patch of jusheng (a plant named in Daoist texts). He gathered it himself and distributed it to the poor and destitute. Several times a day he went to gather it, and he saved several thousand people who were on the verge of death; after he had gathered it, new jusheng would grow there again. This continued for three years. When others went to look for him, they did not know where he was.

At that time he labored day and night, his body grew haggard, and he had no leisure to care for himself. He only thought of saving the people, and in the end, exhausted beyond endurance, he died at the foot of the mountain. The Nine Heavens recorded his merit in the golden registers, inscribed his jade name, and sent his hun-soul and shen to the Zhuling Palace. The Heavenly Emperor sent a great golden-winged bird, which often spread its wings to cover his corpse. For seven hundred years his body did not decay.

Later, when the water kalpa came round and floodwaters filled the sky, the waters lifted his corpse and set it drifting toward boundless waters. After the flood receded, Fuming’s corpse came to rest on the northern Xuanqiu of Yudan Country in the Beizhou Yequ Chumo Heaven. Another forty years passed, and a great fire broke out in the mountains; fierce flames burned the corpse...

The Method of Refining Form and Substance through Yin-Yang and the Six Jia (Liujia)

In the midst of this, after refinement and transformation, he took human form, and five-colored clouds covered him above. The fire still blazed fiercely. Fuming displayed spiritual powers, spat saliva, and transformed it into a great flood and heavy rain, extinguishing the fire. Although Fuming had already attained the Dao, he went through hardships and endured the bitterness of water and fire; this too was the working of Heavenly Principle. It was not until the first year of Kaiming that he came to Beilong Xuanqiu, changed his surname to Heijie, and took the personal name Linghui Yuanshi. He was then bestowed the title Linghui Dongyin Shuodan Yujue Wuling Xuanlaojun.

Zhengyi Zhenren said: “What is meant by refining substance? Broadly speaking, there are three kinds. Those who cultivate the Way of long life must all understand how generative Qi continues and how decline and adversity arise. Every sixty days makes one jia. In the human realm there are sixty yin jia; in heaven there are sixty yang jia. At midnight at the end of each ten-day cycle, a yang jia descends from heaven and succeeds the yin jia. As Yin-Yang alternate without cease, generative Qi continues uninterrupted, and people do not become ill. If at the end of a ten-day cycle no yang jia descends at midnight, people will become ill, and pathogenic Qi will enter through the void.

The Liuren Jing says: At midnight on jia and ji days, the Qi of jiazi descends and is born. It turns once every sixty days, repeating cyclically. Sixty years form a great cycle. Those who practice the Way of Zhengyi petition for generative Qi in audience every ten years, so that pathogenic Qi does not come to disturb them. At sixty years, they continue petitioning for another sixty years; by 120 years the situation is slightly different from before, because true Qi has accumulated and become full, and Qi and Shen unite, so what they seek can be accomplished. From 120 years it extends further to three jiazi, that is, 180 years; then it continues to five or six jiazi, that is, 300 years. When the thirty-six thousand kinds of divine Qi of Yin-Yang gather and do not disperse, one can reach the state of shijie (liberation by corpse, shedding the form to become immortal): dying by day and reviving by night, traveling with the physical body throughout the Five Peaks and seventy-four places, and completing the duties assigned one by one. Thereafter one can ascend in broad daylight and no longer be constrained by form. These all belong to the Way of Zhengyi.

Some also cultivate the works of Zhengyi; when their merit and practice are perfected, they wash away the offenses recorded in the black ledger of the Mysterious Ancestor. Even when the work is accomplished and the Dao manifests, if before they understood the Great Dao they had accumulated offenses that injured skin, flesh, bones, and vessels, after successful cultivation they can still shed the old body like a cicada shell, leave behind skin and shell, replace their bones, dwell hidden in mountain caves, care for bone marrow, and nourish skin and flesh. After a thousand days, they can pay audience to the Five Peaks, receive duties, and the effect is the same as described above. Some, however, accumulated...

The final sentence, “Some accumulated...,” is incomplete in the scripture provided, so its meaning cannot be fully determined.

When the stagnant and obstructed Qi is bound and cannot circulate over the generations, wholesome Qi becomes difficult to move, and all kinds of evil Qi inevitably gather. Eating and drinking without moderation and indulging in sexual desire damage the five viscera. Only at night does one realize and become alert; then one should diligently cultivate the true Dao.

Even if a practitioner has already achieved something and is registered among the immortal people, if the lifespan of the flesh is about to end, the corpse-body will still remain heavy. When the time of the Dao draws near, if the condition of the physical body is poor, the Lord of Taiyin, the deity who governs the Taiyin realm, will descend into the body. The three hundred and sixty yin spirits within the five viscera and six bowels, the deities who guard the body, will surround and protect it. At this time the muscles secretly diminish, the bones become exposed, and only the five viscera remain, guarded by a hundred spirits. After one year, two years, or ten years—the time required depending on the depth of one’s innate blessings—Taiyi Boshi, the deity who governs the harmonizing of the body, will descend and cause the bones and flesh gradually to recover as before; the body will again be filled with vitality, like a person made of jade.

Some people withdraw from the world into mountain crags and caves, quietly nourishing the body. After a thousand days, they go to take up office under the Taiyin Water Emperor. When their term of office is complete, they become subordinate officials of the Water Bureau, dwell in the famous mountains of the four seas, and serve as Fengzhu Officers. After accumulating merit and achieving something in cultivation, they are promoted to be officials of the Five Peaks and afterward gradually come to see the way of the true immortals.

Wang Zhenren said: “These three methods of cultivating the body are all recorded in the lower volume; they will not be described in detail here.”

Cultivating the Central Way of the Nine Perfected

The Inner Oral Instructions on the Central Scripture of the Nine Perfected of Shangqing says: when people cultivate the Dao of the Nine Perfected within the body, even if they have not yet ascended, they will temporarily enter the Taiyin realm, thereby manifesting this to the world. When their bodies pass through the Three Officials, the deities who govern Heaven, Earth, and Water, the Three Officials cannot seize them; the Nine Perfected then recall the hun and po souls, Taiyi, the deity who guards the bodily form, holds fast to the corpse-body, the Sanyuan, the primal powers related to the body’s Jing, Qi, and Shen, protect the primal Qi, and Taishang gathers in the souls. In this way the bones and flesh do not decay, and the five viscera are not destroyed; they can both die and live; they can both remain in the yin realm and enter the yang world; they pass in and out of the void and share the same generation as Heaven and Earth. This is the result of the Daoist adept quietly and carefully refining the body with a concentrated mind, resonating with and summoning the response of the Qi of the Nine Perfected. The Sanyuan set Jing and Qi in motion, causing the void to become full; Taiyi embraces the corpse-body, causing the bodily form to return to its original state. The principle here is extremely subtle and profound. The names of the Nine Perfected are many, and they are not copied out one by one here; the essential content is seen in the ninth chapter of the Dao Li, the Ming Shu Pin, the Chapter on Names and Numbers.

In addition, one should constantly visualize the deities of the Nine Perfected. The place where they ordinarily dwell and nourish life is precisely this chamber: it lies north of Ziming, Purple Brightness. They illuminate life and continue Jing and Qi, guard Xuangu, the Mysterious Valley, the deep passes within the body related to life and vital essence, enter and leave the Chamber of Life, and roam the Cavern Gate; sometimes they enter the Central Palace and connect upward with Taiwu. Taiyi guards the hun and po souls and causes them to rest in the quiet court, and transforms the bodily form and washes the luminous scenery.

The seventh chapter of the Zhengao says: after receiving the method of transforming the form and washing away turbid scenery, the cultivation practice that changes the body and refines turbid and stagnant Qi, after twelve years Qi can govern and hold the spirit and hun-soul; after fifteen years Shen can restrain and store the po-soul; after thirty years the bones in the coffin will again attach to Shen and Qi; after forty years one can recover to be like a living person and again move about in the human world; after fifty years...

According to Daoist teachings, after death one must serve in the underworld for sixty years before one can be appointed to fill an immortal office; after a hundred years, one can enter the Guanghan Terrace; after another hundred years, one can enter the Kunying Palace.

The Tawei Jinsjian Yuzi Jing (Scripture of the Golden Slip and Jade Characters of Taiwei) says that those who become underworld administrators after shijie (corpse liberation), according to the Siji Zhenke (True Code of the Four Poles), must pass one hundred and forty years before they can be appointed as Zhenguan (Perfected Officials). Only then do they begin to be able to ascend, riding a canopy and driving a host of dragons, mounting Taiji and roaming the Nine Palaces.

Those supremely loyal and supremely filial all receive appointment documents after death and become underworld administrators. After one hundred and forty years, they can receive the guidance of lower immortals, begin to cultivate the Great Dao, and thence gradually advance until they are appointed immortal officials. After another one hundred and forty years, they have the opportunity to undergo one promotion review.

Those whose filial conduct is supreme can move ghosts and spirits and tame birds and beasts, gathering them around the grave; those whose loyalty is supreme are upright in mind, and their spirit can pierce the white sun above. Some even cut open their bellies and hearts and sacrifice their lives in order to rouse their rulers. Bi Gan is now at Rong Mountain, and Li Shan is now at Shaoshi Mountain. There are many who attained the Dao through such transformation and refining; here only two are given as examples.

Those who possess the virtue of the highest sages all receive documents issued by the Sanguan (Three Officials), the Daoist divine bureaucracy governing Heaven, Earth, and Water, after death and become underworld administrators. After one thousand years, they are transferred to the offices of the Five Emperors under the Three Officials, or become enlightened lords separately governing east, west, south, and north and ruling over ghosts and spirits. After another one thousand four hundred years, they can roam in the Taiqing realm and become middle-grade immortals among the Nine Palaces.

Those of outstanding talent whose reputation surpasses others, who can preserve a noble and upright Qi and do not seek glory, wealth, or honor, receive documents from the Three Officials after death and become ghosts called “shanshuang.” After four hundred years, they can become underworld administrators; thereafter they continue to advance, rising one rank every three hundred years.

Those of extremely pure and steadfast conduct receive documents after death and become “qingshuang” ghosts belonging to the Three Officials. After two hundred and eighty years, they can become underworld administrators; thereafter they gradually advance, rising one rank every two hundred and eighty years, and finally are appointed immortal officials.

If ancestors have accumulated merit with the Three Officials and their blessings have been transmitted far and long, then descendants may inherit this blessed virtue even after changing generations, undergoing transmutation and changing surnames, and being reborn. This is hidden virtue accumulated by seven generations, with roots and leaves linked and mutually influencing one another. When such a person dies, one foot bone should be left behind and returned to the Three Officials, while the remaining bones are relocated and buried together with them. Men leave the left bone; women leave the right bone. They all receive documents and become underworld administrators. After two hundred and eighty years, they can further receive instruction in the way of the earth immortals. On the day of death, one should observe his….

As with a living person, the corpse is not stiff, the toes do not turn blue, and the skin on the hands does not shrivel. This is called “first possessing De (Virtue/Power) and good conduct, and naturally attaining shijie” (corpse liberation, a Daoist way of leaving the mortal body and becoming an immortal).

The five cases above all attained the way of immortality through long accumulation of good deeds, not through study and cultivation. It is only that reaching these states differs in difficulty and in the time required. As long as one can liberate oneself and have one’s name entered in the register, one is no longer subject to the orders of the Three Officials (Heaven, Earth, and Water in Daoism).

Some people have outstanding talent and renown throughout the four seas; they suppress rebellions, pacify the realm, found imperial dynasties, and bring all under heaven into submission. Yet after death they receive appointments, becoming officials under the Three Officials, Four Assistants (deities who help govern the heavenly realm), or chief ministers of the Five Emperors and guest-friends of the Four Ming Lords, assisting in governing all ghosts and administering life and death. These people henceforth belong to the Three Officials and have no hope of advancing to immortality, because in life they did much killing, accumulated evil, and harmed sentient beings.

Qin Shi Huang is now Chief Minister of the Northern Emperor, and Liu Ji (Liu Bang, Emperor Gaozu of Han) is now a guest-friend of Nanming Gong (the Lord of Southern Brightness). There are many such people; here only a few examples are given. Duke Huan of Qi is now the Three Officials’ Chief Prohibition Officer, in charge of the registers of life and death; Duke Wen of Jin is now Director of Destinies in the Water Office. As for King Zhuang of Chu, Zhao Jianzi, and several hundred others, they are still awaiting appointment in the bureaus of the Three Officials. The titles and positions of all these people belong to the guests of the Three Officials and have nothing to do with true immortals.

Master Ning

The Record of the Ten Perfected (Shizhen ji) says: Master Ning was an ancient immortal who lived before the Yellow Emperor. He often roamed beyond the four seas. Below Kunqiu there was a place called Lansha, ten thousand li from Zhongdu. On the sands there, as soon as a person walked, their footsteps would sink to an unfathomable depth; none but those who had attained the Dao could set foot there. The sand was as fine as dust, and when the wind lifted it, it floated like mist.

There grew a flower named Shilan; its branches were light yet resilient, each branch bearing a thousand blossoms, and it bloomed only once every thousand years. The flowers swayed gently in the wind and were called “Qinglan flowers”; bright and vivid, they were truly a sight to behold. Fish, turtles, dragons, and snakes also flew about in the dust and mist. Master Ning often went there to admire the Qinglan flowers and also ate flying fish. Later he died and lay in the sand for more than a hundred years, then suddenly rose again, his appearance restored as before. Thereupon he wrote “Poem on Roaming the Sea”:

“The Qinglan flowers blaze bright, unfolding once in a thousand years; a hundred years of human life are but a temporary death—only because I ate the flying fish.”

Ling Shouguang

Volume 10 of the Biographies of Immortals (Shenxian zhuan) says: Ling Shouguang was from Fufeng. At the age of seventy…

I then obtained the prescription for the “Weiying Pill.” After preparing and taking it, my appearance looked about twenty years old. By the first year of Jian’an, I was already two hundred twenty years old. Later I died in the home of Hu Wang in Jiangling. After more than a hundred days of burial, someone saw me at Xiaohuang. I sent a letter through someone to Hu Wang. When Hu Wang received it, he opened the grave to check and found the coffin completely empty, and the coffin nails had not come loose; only my old shoes remained inside.

Zhao Chengzi

The Lady of the Southern Peak (a female immortal in Daoist legend) said: “I once had a close disciple named the immortal Zhao Chengzi. He first received from me the Supreme Scripture for Stabilizing Life and the Five Organs (Zhensheng Wuzang Shangjing), and afterward practiced according to the scriptural method. Later, Chengzi wished to return to Taiyin (the nether realm) in order to alter his appearance and transform his body, so he feigned death himself and died beneath a stone chamber at Xuanqiu in Shanggu, Youzhou.

“Five or six years after his death, a man who had entered the mountains saw white bones exposed in the stone chamber, but the five organs in the abdomen were still as before, not decayed; within the five organs there had also grown five-colored radiance, crystal bright. The mountain visitor sighed and said: ‘I have heard before that the five organs can be cultivated to immortality, and I have also heard that flowers can grow from white bones. Now I have seen such a person with my own eyes. Has this man attained the Dao and then ceased to practice? Or did he encounter a trial midway in his cultivation and fail to pass it?’

“Then he reached out and parted the corpse, and found in each of the five organs a white stone; the stones were safeguarding the five organs, and the five-colored radiance appeared like flowers. He said: ‘Your five organs are not decayed; it must be because these five stones have produced radiance. Since you have already lost the Dao, you might as well give these things to me.’ So he took the stones and swallowed them, then left.

“Another four or five years passed, and Zhao Chengzi’s corpse was due to revive. On the very day Chengzi was about to return to life, all five stones the man had swallowed flew out of his mouth, shaped like cicadas, giving off a faint thunderous sound and emitting bright five-colored light, and flew straight back to the place where Chengzi’s corpse was buried. Chengzi thereupon changed his form, rose, and came back to life, as if he had merely been drunk and slept for a night.

“The man was frightened, and suddenly fell ill, worsening day by day. He went into the mountains to seek the place where the corpse had originally been, and came before the stone chamber. There he saw Chengzi sitting leaning against it, his face having a jade-like luster, and he was giving a long whistle in the cave. Chengzi asked him: ‘What sort of person are you?’ Suddenly five old immortal lords appeared; they wore brocaded belts, carried talismans, held feathered staffs, and wore purple crowns. They said to Chengzi: ‘The one who stole and swallowed the precious stones from your five organs in the past is this man.’

“As soon as the words were spoken, malignant leprosy broke out on the man’s face, his jaw locked tightly, and he lost the ability to speak. By the time he returned home, the leprous sores had spread to his whole family, and all the members, old and young, fell ill at the same time.”

After these people passed away, the lineages to which they belonged became extinct with them.

Xu Yufu

The Zhengao (Declarations of the Perfected) records that Xu Changshi’s third son was named Sui, with the courtesy name Daoxiang and the childhood name Yufu. From his youth, Yufu possessed outstanding character and refined appearance; his heart was pure, and he did not take worldly affairs to heart. He lived at the foot of Leiping Mountain, diligently cultivated the Daoist path, and often hoped to enter the Grotto-heavens (dongtian) soon, unwilling to remain long in the human world.

Later he went to the Northern Grotto. In the fifth year of Taihe of the Liang, he died at his old residence in Maoshan at the age of thirty. At that time he lived in Fangyuan Hall in the Fangyu Mountain cave and ordinarily frequented Siping Fangtai. Later he was honored as the Shangqing Immortal Lord.

Zhang Lu

The Zhengao says that Zhang Zhennan burned incense and paid homage on the stone altar north of the Northern Grotto, then prostrated himself and did not rise. By night his body underwent a transformation; when examined the next morning, his form appeared as if he were still alive. This stone altar still exists today, and its traces are clearly visible.

Xu Daoyu (Female Perfected)

Xu Daoyu was the daughter of Xu Huangmin. In the first year, the jiawu year, of Xiaojian of the Song, she died at Daishan. People called her “Aunt Xu.” She lay upon a stone; although her body had already decayed, it was not encoffined, and a fragrance constantly came from her person. Her deeds are also seen in volume two of the Daoxue Zhuan (Biographies of Daoist Learning).

Fan Chai

Fan Chai, courtesy name Zigong, was from Langzhong in Baxi Commandery. During the Yuanjia era of the Song, he had several tens of hu of precious incense and carefully pounded it and boiled it into fragrant water. One morning he bathed in the fragrant water; by noon, when the fragrant water had been used up, no sound of him could be heard in the room. Attendants went in to look and saw Fan Chai sitting there in his ordinary cloth clothes and cap, already without breath.

The Prince of Jiangxia ordered that funeral arrangements be made for him, but the coffin lid was not closed. After four days, his corpse still did not stink. Later people sent him back to Xinting for burial. Fan Chai was forty-nine when he died, and his skin and countenance were still as they had been just after death. Liu Ningzhi once wrote a biography of him and included it in Daoist books, but it did not circulate in the world.

Qiao Shun

Qiao Shun, courtesy name Zhongchan, was from Maoling in Fufeng Commandery. In his youth he loved Huang-Lao learning and lived in seclusion in the mountains cultivating the Dao. By the age of seventy he still did not wish to marry and had cut off relations with others; his mind was unstained by desires.

One day he returned home and beforehand announced the day of his death; indeed, he died on that day. People of the world believed that he could foreknow his allotted lifespan. After his burial, someone saw Qiao Shun in Dunhuang. Later it was said that he had ascended to immortality. Therefore the Juelu says: “Zhongchan understood the Dao; he withdrew and transformed into an immortal; he did not marry at seventy, and in the end spent his life in a deep mountain.”