Alchemists Mediums and Magicians: Stories of Taoist Mystics Read online

  BO JU

  Bo Ju was a chief minister of Zhou who learned from Lao-tzu. He traveled to Qi, where he saw a man who’d been executed. Doffing his court robe to cover the man, he cried to heaven, mourning him, saying, “Oh, man! The world is experiencing a great disaster; you alone are the first to leave it! It is said, ‘Don’t steal, don’t kill.’ Once glory and disgrace are defined, then you see objects of concern; once money and goods accumulate, then you see objects of contention. When people are exhausted physically, not allowed a moment’s rest, how could they not come to this?

  “Rulers of ancient times attributed successes to the people while blaming failures on themselves; they attributed correctness to the people while attributing error to themselves. So if even one person lost his life, they’d withdraw and blame themselves. Now it is otherwise. They hide things so the ignorant don’t know; they create tremendous difficulties, then punish those who lack the daring; they impose tremendous responsibilities, then penalize those who can’t cope; they make the road long, then execute those who do not arrive.

  “When the people run out of savvy and strength, they use falsehood to go on. With each day producing so many falsehoods, how can the people choose not to contrive falsehood? For when their strength is insufficient, they contrive falsehood; when their knowledge is insufficient, they deceive; when they don’t have enough to live on, they steal. When robbery and theft are rampant, who can be blamed?”

  Many of Bo Ju’s sayings were gotten from Lao-tzu.

  LIE YUKOU

  Lie Yukou was a man of Zheng, a contemporary of Duke Xu of Zheng.31 His learning was derived from the Yellow Emperor and Lao-tzu. He lived in the game preserve of Zheng for forty years without anyone’s recognizing him.

  He first attended the Master of Pot Hill; later he took Old Mr. Shang as his teacher and associated with Elder Ignorant Nobody. After nine years of progress on the Way of the two masters, he was able to ride the wind.

  His disciple Yan Hui asked, “Does anyone who asks about the Way strive for wealth?”

  Liezi said, “Jie and Zhou just slighted the Way and valued profit; that is why they perished.”

  When Master Lie was destitute, his face had the look of hunger. A visitor told [Prime minister] Ziyang of Zheng about this and said, “Lie Yukou is a man with the Way; if he lives in your domain yet is destitute, will you not be considered unappreciative of gentlemen?” So Ziyang of Zheng had an officer send Lie Yukou some grain. Master Lie came out and met the courier, bowed twice, and refused the gift. The courier left, and Master Lie went back inside. His wife, watching this, beat her breast and said, “I’ve heard that the wives and children of those who have the Way all enjoy ease and comfort. Now you’re showing signs of starvation and the lord sends you food to eat, but you don’t take it. It isn’t fate, is it?”

  Master Lie laughed and said to her, “The lord doesn’t know me himself; he sent me grain on the word of another. Were he to punish me, that too would be on the word of another. That’s why I don’t accept.” As it turned out, in fact the people attacked and killed Ziyang.32

  The book Master Lie wrote used to have twenty chapters, but Liu Xiang excised the redundancies, keeping eight chapters, which he labeled Taoist.33

  Taoists take hold of the essential and grasp the fundamental, pure and empty and uncontrived. The way they manage themselves emphasizes not being competitive, in accord with the Six Classics.34

  In the Kaiyuan era (713–741) of the Tang dynasty the book was entitled The Ultimate Virtue of Emptiness: A Scripture on Reality. In the Xuanhe era (1119–1125) of the Song dynasty, Liezi was entitled Lord of Reality Gazing on Wonders in Emptiness.

  ZHUANG ZHOU

  Zhuang Zhou was styled Zixin. In the time of King Hui of Liang,35 he was keeper of the lacquer-tree garden of Meng.36 In his studies there was nothing he did not look into, but his essential roots are in the sayings of Lao-tzu. Therefore his writings, comprising more than a hundred thousand words, are mostly allegories.

  King Wei of Chu37 heard he was wise and sent a courier with rich gifts to invite him, offering to make him a grand councillor. Zhou laughed and said to the courier, “A thousand pieces of gold is a lot of money, and grand councillor is an important position. Are you the only one who hasn’t seen the sacrificial bulls at the rites dedicated to heaven and earth? They’re fed for four years, then draped with patterned embroidery and led into the great temple. At this moment they would prefer to be solitary pigs, but is that possible? Get out of here—don’t besmirch me! I’ll never take office in my life, so I can be happy.”

  Zhuang Zhou’s book is named Zhuangzi (Chuang-tzu).38 His own introduction says, “The silent boundless has no form; changing evolution has no permanence. Death? Life? Are heaven and earth parallel? Does the spirit go? Where would it go in the vastness? How would it arrive at the insubstantial? All things are hollow, none can be relied upon. There are ancient Taoist arts in this; Zhuang Zhou heard of their ways and liked them.

  “Using misleading and long, drawn-out speeches, absurd and irresponsible words, and unreasonable expressions, at times he goes off unbridled, without peer; he cannot be seen from one angle alone. Because everyone in our world is sunk in pollution, they cannot converse with Zhuang. He uses flavorful words for extension, he rephrases to affirm, he employs allegories for breadth. His spirit comes and goes alone with heaven and earth yet does not look down on myriad beings; he does not dismiss right and wrong in order to live with the ordinary world.

  “Although his book is a gem, repeated blows do not damage it. Although the rhetoric is inconsistent, yet it is strangely beautiful. It is endlessly fulfilling. Consorting with the Creator above, it is companion to the endless and beginningless outside birth and death. In terms of its basis, it is broad, immense, and open; deep, wide, and vast. In terms of its source, it can be called adjusting suitably and progressing upward. Even so, its responses to change and analysis of people are inexhaustible in their logic and inescapable in their derivation. Vague and mysterious are not all there is to it.”

  According to Declarations of the Realized,39 “Zhuang Zhou’s teacher was the gentleman Changsang; Zhuang Zhou transmitted Changsang’s subtle sayings, calling it Chuang-tzu, the book of Master Zhuang. Concealed on the peak of Mount Baodu, he assists the gentleman in charge of listing examination candidates for the Absolute. Zhuang Zhou’s book is conventionally called Flowers of the South—a Scripture on Reality.” In the Xuanhe era (1119–1125) of the Song dynasty, Zhuang Zhou was entitled Lord of Reality with Subtle Understanding of the Elemental.

  FAN LI

  Fan Li was styled Shao Bai. He was a man of Xu.40 He attended Taigongwang,41 the counselor of Zhou, and used to take cinnamon and water.42 Later he took Jiran as his teacher and became a grandee of Yue.

  He used to tell people that undertakings can succeed only when they are coordinated with heaven and earth. After he had helped Gou Jian defeat Wu, he sighed and said, “Jiran’s plans are successful even when only five out of ten are used. Now that I’ve applied this to the state, I want to apply it at home.” So he rode a little boat on the Five Lakes43 and changed his name.

  Going to Qi, he became Chiyi Zipi. More than a century later, he appeared in Tao as Lord Zhu. Extremely wealthy, he was called Mr. Zhu of Tao; he helped out friends and brothers who were displaced and impoverished. He also went to Lanling and sold medicines; later people saw him generation after generation.

  THE MASTER OF DEMON VALLEY

  The Master of Demon Valley was a recluse of Zhou times.44 He lived in Demon Valley, so he called himself by that name. He had no hometown, surname, or name.45 The book he wrote is beyond the works of all the men of the Warring States era; it cannot be comprehended by the Changes, the Lao-tzu, or the Hidden Storehouse. The fact that the Master of Demon Valley was able to attain all of this and divulge it suggests that he was the greatest man of the era.

  Among his sayings are these:

  “The world has no constant values, e
vents have no constant guide.”

  “When others act, I am still; when others talk, I listen. If you know your nature, you’ll have few troubles; if you know your destiny, you won’t worry.”

  Material like this is outstanding even in literary terms. As for the chapters “Invigorating the Spirit” and “Developing the Will,” what is referred to as examining the source of guidance and virtue in the process and entering detached into the profundities of spirit is subtle indeed, is it not?

  Guo Pu’s poem on wandering immortals says, “In a green canyon, over a thousand fathoms, there is a Taoist. Asking who he is, I’m told he’s Master of Demon Valley.” Obviously he was impressed by the man.

  Xu Guang said, “At Yangcheng in Yingquan there is a Demon Valley. Those who commented on the book of the Master of Demon Valley were Huangfu Mi, Tao the Recluse, and Yin Zhizhang.” Zhizhang was a man of the Tang dynasty.

  THE MASTER WITH THE PHEASANT HAT

  The Master with the Pheasant Hat was a man of Chu. He lived in seclusion during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States times. His clothes were ragged, his shoes worn out, but he had a hat of copper pheasant feathers.46 Nobody knew his name.

  He wrote a book speaking of Taoist matters. His learning derived from Huang and Lao, but he never forgot his will to run the world, as may be seen from a small sample of his work. One passage of his book says, “Small people serving a ruler strive to inhibit his intelligence, block his perspicuity, and take advantage of his power to burn the world. Heaven is too high to pursue, wealth cannot be prayed for, calamity cannot be avoided.”

  He spoke like this because he couldn’t forget his feelings about this world. Coming to where he says, “The phoenix is the vitality of yang, the unicorn is the vitality of yin, the populace is the vitality of virtue,” now this is genius indeed! Jia Yi’s47 Ode to the Copper Pheasant is said to take a lot of his words.

  1. This rubric could conceivably be read “Tao-Te Types,” invoking association with the school of Lao-tzu as represented by the classic Tao Te Ching.

  2. Lao-tzu is said to have gone west to escape the disturbed conditions in China as the Zhou dynasty progressively lost its cohesion in the middle of the first millennium B.C.E. It is customarily said that Lao-tzu’s destination west was India, but the origin of this theme more likely refers to central Asia, which was linked to China by the Jade Route centuries before the Silk Road. The Kunlun Mountains, an important source of jade, are designated one of the ten regions of immortals in Taoist lore.

  3. Cf. Daozang Jiyao, vol. 10, pp. 4189–4239.

  4. Liu Xiang (79–8 B.C.E.) was a distinguished scholar of the Han dynasty, particularly famous in Taoism for his compilation of legends of immortals.

  5. In Shanxi province.

  6. The Five Classics, sometimes referred to as the Chinese classics or Confucian classics, normally refers to the Book of Change (I Ching); the Classic of Poetry; the Ancient Documents, often referred to as the Classic of History; the Classic of Manners, also rendered as Classic of Rites; and the Spring and Autumn Annals. This last work would ostensibly present an anachronism if Officer Gui lived in the early Zhou dynasty, as this account claims, but anachronism is seldom a problem in Taoist legends of immortals. According to Confucian tradition, there was also an ancient Classic of Music, which was lost and never recovered.

  7. Polygonatum is called jade bamboo in Chinese. The rhizome is used in Chinese medicine as a cardiotonic and to relieve certain secondary symptoms of diabetes and pulmonary disease.

  8. Conventional history has Lao-tzu an older contemporary of Confucius; the claim that Wenshi was alive hundreds of years earlier in the time of King Zhao (r. 1052–1002 B.C.E.) may be a trace of rivalry with Buddhism. According to the Annals of White Horse Temple, omens appeared in China during King Zhao’s reign that were interpreted to indicate the birth of a sage in the West whose teaching would spread in China a thousand years later. While modern scholars consider Buddha to have lived in the middle of the first millennium B.C.E., a contemporary of Confucius, Chinese and Tibetan Buddhist traditions place the birth of Buddha five hundred years earlier. The reference to Wenshi as building a lodge dedicated to Taoist practice, suggesting a sort of pseudomonasticism, also seems to suggest an assertion that such an institution was native to China, neither predated nor introduced by Buddhism. Buddhist and Taoist literature both contain all sorts of anachronisms, but for the purposes of mystics these are obscured by the assertion, in the case of Buddhism, that Gautama Buddha was not the first buddha in history, and in the case of Taoism, by the association of Taoist tradition with sages of high antiquity.

  9. Distinguished in early Chinese literature, Zhongnan was to become a famous resort for Taoists.

  10. Du Zhong is also featured in this collection.

  11. Gaojing, in Shaanxi province, was the ancient capital of the Zhou dynasty.

  12. In this genre of Taoist literature, ascent to truth normally means death, though it might be called death without prejudice, as it does not bar the reappearance of ascended immortals even centuries later.

  13. This story may also have been influenced by the legend of Buddha, according to which his first disciples were five ascetics with whom he had formerly practiced austerities.

  14. Carrying the legend of the establishment of the lodge of Wenshi a step further, this image of early institutionalization of Taoism under royal auspices also seems to suggest an assertion of indigenous origin of monasticism, in this sense placing organized Taoism on a par with Buddhism.

  15. Here again, to attain the Way and ascend conventionally means to pass away. This usage has some parallel with the practice of referring to the death of a buddha as parinirvana, or “absolute nirvana,” to distinguish it from the living liberation of nirvana.

  16. In Shandong province.

  17. R. 528–516 B.C.E.

  18. Yao and Shun were nonhereditary predynastic kings of the third millennium B.C.E. conventionally cited as models of virtue. Jie (r. 1818–1766 B.C.E.), last king of the Xia dynasty, and Zhou (r. 1154–1122 B.C.E.), last king of the Shang dynasty, are conventionally cited as paragons of self-indulgence and vice.

  19. See the story of Fan Li.

  20. Gou Jian was king of Yue from 496 to 465 B.C.E. Though Yue eventually annexed Wu, at one point Gou was defeated in battle and taken prisoner.

  21. For an English translation of the received version, see Wen-tzu by Thomas Cleary (1992).

  22. A famous scholar and poet of the Tang dynasty, who lived from 773 to 819.

  23. Cf. Lunyu 18.5.

  24. Said to be in Lu, in Shandong; also said to be in Liang province, which in Zhou times would refer to one of the nine provinces of antiquity, including southern Shaanxi and part of Sichuan.

  25. In Jiangsu.

  26. For an English translation, see Thunder in the Sky by Thomas Cleary (1993).

  27. A Flower Mountain (Huashan) hat is described as even above and below, symbolizing equality. Huashan is a central reference point in the domain of Taoist topography.

  28. In the Qing dynasty collection Siku tiyao, this book is categorized in the zi (philosopher/master) section as zajialei (syncretists). The Huainanzi, a Han dynasty Taoist classic, has also been put in the syncretist category by scholastics.

  29. The Yellow Emperor is supposed to have reigned for a hundred years, from 2698 to 2598 B.C.E. He is one of the most important culture heroes of Chinese and Taoist legend. According to the Taoist classic Lieh-tzu, for fifteen years after assuming the throne, the Yellow Emperor was delighted that everyone supported him; he nourished his natural life and enjoyed the pleasures of the senses. In the process he became gaunt and dark, confused and emotionally disturbed.

  Then for another fifteen years he worried about disorder in the land; using all of his intelligence and mental energy, he managed the hundred clans. In the process, he became gaunt and dark, confused and emotionally disturbed.

  Finally the Yellow Emperor lamented, “My fault has be
en excess. Such is the trouble involved in taking care of oneself; such is the trouble of governing everything.”

  At this point he set aside his administrative activities, stopped sleeping in his seraglio, sent away his servants, suspended musical performances, cut down on cuisine, and retired into solitude to purify his mind and get control over his body, taking no personal role in government for three months.

  Taking a nap one day, he dreamed he traveled to Shangri-la, west of the province of Yan, north of the province of Tai, untold thousands of miles from the country of Qi; it could not be reached by boat, carriage, or foot but only by spiritual travel. In that country there were no political leaders, just a state of nature. The people had no habits or cravings, they were just natural. They didn’t know to like life or to detest death, so there was no premature death. They didn’t know to prefer themselves to others, so there was no love or hatred. They didn’t know how to rebel or obey, so there was no profit or harm. They had no attachments, so they had no fears. They didn’t drown in water, didn’t burn in fire. They were not hurt by hitting, were not pained by scratching. They rode the air like walking on the ground, slept in space as if in bed. Clouds and fog did not obstruct their vision, thunder did not distort their hearing, beauty and ugliness did not distort their minds. Mountains and valleys did not trip them up, for they traveled only in spirit.

  When the Yellow Emperor woke up, he was happy and content. Summoning his three deputies, he said to them, “I lived alone for three months, purifying my mind and mastering my body, contemplating a way to live and to govern, but I failed to grasp the art. Tired, I took a nap, and this is what I dreamed. Now I know that the supreme Tao cannot be sought subjectively. Now I realize this; now I have grasped this, yet I cannot tell it to you.”