Tales of the Taoist Immortals (19 page)

His wife replied, “To succeed in the arts of alchemy, it must be in your destiny.” She turned and walked away, leaving him angry and frustrated.

Cheng Wei tried to entice his wife with money and jewels, hoping that she would give him the formula. When she refused, he went to a friend and said, “My wife knows the formula for transforming mercury into gold and will not tell me. If you can figure out how to get the formula from her, I’ll make sure you’re rich for the rest of your life.”

The friend came up with a plan: they would poison the woman and then threaten to withhold the antidote if she did not reveal the formula. However, Cheng Wei’s wife discovered the plot. She confronted her husband and said to him, “The secrets of the Tao are transmitted only to the right person, even if you only meet him casually on the
street. If the person is unsuitable, the Tao is not transmitted, even if refusal means death.”

That evening, Cheng Wei’s wife smeared mud over her face, feigned madness, and ran away from home naked. Her husband chased her to the edge of town, but she vanished into the night.

Later, the townspeople reported seeing a madwoman in shabby clothes flying up to the sky. Cheng Wei spent the rest of his life experimenting with making a pill of immortality and turning mercury into gold. He succeeded in neither.

C
HENG
W
EI’S
wife lived during the latter part of the Han dynasty (206
BCE
–219
CE
). Not much is known about her except that her maiden name was Fang and she was an adept alchemist.

37

The Sage Who Embraced Simplicity

Ko Hung

Ko Hung was attracted to the arts of immortality even when he was a child. His family was poor, so he had to collect branches and sell them as firewood in order to buy books and paper. Every evening, after his family had retired to bed, Ko Hung would stay up long into the night studying the classics of medicine, divination, and immortality.

At eighteen, Ko Hung had earned himself the reputation of the most learned scholar in his town. When his family and friends tried to persuade him to enter the civil service,
he replied that he was not interested. Hung moved out of his village, built a hut in the mountains, and lived the life of a hermit.

He rarely spoke, did not receive guests, and was not interested in the bustle and excitement of town life. Daily, he studied the Taoist classics and the arts of longevity and immortality. When he had problems understanding a text, Hung would travel hundreds of miles to find a teacher to explain the teachings to him.

On one of his journeys, Ko Hung heard about an alchemist named Cheng Yin and traveled a thousand miles to Yin’s retreat to ask for instruction.

“I do not accept students,” said Cheng Yin. “However, because you are sincere and willing to learn, I’ll make an exception this time.”

At the end of Hung’s apprenticeship, Yin said to his student, “I have taught you everything I know. If you want to continue your studies, you should find a man named Pao Hsüan. He is the magistrate of the county of Nan Hai.”

Ko Hung set out for Nan Hai, found Pao Hsüan, and asked to be accepted as a student. Although Hsüan was a government official, he had a deep interest in medicine, alchemy, divination, astronomy, geography, and magic, and was an expert in all these areas of learning.

On their first meeting, Pao Hsüan was so impressed with Ko Hung that he not only accepted Hung as his student, but decided to make him his son-on-law.

When Ko Hung heard that Mount Lao Fao was rich in cinnabar and other alchemical ingredients, he went to the magistrate of that area and said, “I would be grateful if you could give me a minor post in a village near Mount Lao Fao.”
The magistrate could not understand why the young man would want an assignment in a remote and mountainous area. “People with your abilities and background should apply for a post in a large city. No one will notice you in a small village,” he protested.

Ko Hung replied, “I’m not interested in a career in the civil service. All I want is to live in an area where I can gather herbs and minerals to make the pill of immortality.”

The magistrate now understood Hung’s wishes. He appointed him supervisor of public works in a village at the foot of Mount Lao Fao and gave him a stipend of grain and cloth. Ko Hung lived there for seven years. He built a laboratory, set up a furnace and a cauldron, and went into the mountains daily to collect the ingredients needed for making the pill of immortality.

When Ko Hung was eighty-one years old, he wrote a letter to his friend Teng Yüeh saying, “I will be leaving soon to find teachers who can show me the path to immortality.” Realizing that Hung was alluding to his departure from the mortal realm, Yüeh set out immediately for Mount Lao Fao, hoping to see his friend one more time.

Yüeh arrived at Ko Hung’s retreat and found him sitting on the bed. Hung’s eyes were closed, a golden glow radiated from his body, and a sweet fragrance filled the room. When Teng Yüeh saw green and red vapors floating around the cauldron, he realized that Hung had succeeded in making the Dragon-Tiger Elixir.

Teng Yüeh kept a vigil at his friend’s home for three days. When the light and the fragrance had disappeared, he went to make arrangements to have Ko Hung buried. However, when Yüeh returned with the undertaker and a coffin, Hung’s body was nowhere to be found.

K
O
H
UNG
lived during the latter part of the Chin dynasty (265–420
CE
) and is regarded as one of the greatest alchemists of his time. His book, the
Pao-p’u Tzu (The Sage Who Embraces Simplicity),
is still considered an authoritative text on the arts of longevity and immortality.

38

The Poet Immortal

Pai Yü-ch’an

Pai Yü-ch’an’s original name was Ko Chang-keng. His father died when he was young, and after his mother remarried, Chang-keng changed his name to Pai Yü-ch’an.

Yü-ch’an not only was adept at art, calligraphy, and poetry, but was also a scholar. By seven, he had memorized the major Confucian and Taoist classics, and he was proclaimed a child prodigy by the local examiners at twelve. However, despite his talent, Yü-ch’an was not interested in pursuing a career in the government. At sixteen, he left home and wandered around southern China, looking for teachers to instruct him in the arts of longevity and immortality.

After several years of traveling, Pai Yü-ch’an decided to settle on Mount Lao Fao. There, he met a Taoist named Chen Ni-wan who accepted him as a student. Yü-ch’an studied with Ni-wan for nine years. At the end of his apprenticeship, Ni-wan told him, “You are learning so fast that I thought something was unusual. Last night, I went to the celestial realm and discovered that you were once an immortal. Because you offended the lords of heaven with your drunken behavior, you were condemned to spend time in the mortal realm, where you are to redeem yourself by leading people to the Tao. I was sent to help you to return to the celestial realm. Now my work is done. Make good use of your time in the mortal lands.”

Ni-wan gave Pai Yü-ch’an a seal with the power to command thunder and lightning and then taught him how to return to the immortal realm. Yü-ch’an thanked his teacher, and the two men bowed to each other in farewell. Suddenly, Ni-wan turned around, walked to the edge of the cliff, and jumped into the river.

After leaving Mount Lao Fao, Pai Yü-ch’an traveled throughout the country, teaching the arts of immortality to anyone who was willing to learn.

One day, Yü-ch’an and three students were crossing a lake in a small boat when a fog rolled in. The boatman appealed to Pai Yü-ch’an, “Taoist teacher, can you help me find the pier? If we don’t dock soon, the passengers will panic and the boat will capsize.”

Calmly, Pai Yü-ch’an took a writing brush out of his sleeve, drew a picture of a moon on a piece of paper, and tossed it up to the sky. Immediately, the fog dispersed and a bright moon appeared. Guided by the moonlight, the boatman found the pier and steered the boat safely to shore.

When news of Pai Yü-ch’an’s abilities reached the capital, the Sung emperor invited the Taoist to his court.

“Stay in my palace and be my adviser,” said the emperor. Yü-ch’an was not interested in being a “court Taoist,” so he said, “My home is among the cranes and the white clouds.”

One year, Pai Yü-ch’an decided to celebrate the Autumn Moon Festival by the river with his friends. The group was laughing, drinking, and making poetry when suddenly Pai Yü-ch’an stood up and jumped into the water. Just as his friends were about to dive in to save him, Yü-ch’an’s head surfaced. He looked at his friends, shook his head, indicating that they were not to rescue him, and then disappeared into the depths of the river. Pai Yü-ch’an, like his teacher Chen Ni-wan, had chosen to shed his shell in the water when he sent his spirit to the immortal realm.