Tales of the Taoist Immortals (7 page)

F
AN
L
I
and H
SI
S
HIH
lived in the latter part of the Chou dynasty (1122–221
BCE
). Fan Li was a minister in the state of Yüeh during a time when the feudal states of the Chou empire had become semiautonomous kingdoms. He is also revered as the patron of entrepreneurs in southern China.

12

The Yellow Emperor

Huang Ti

Huang Ti was the chieftain of a small tribe. Because bears roamed the region where his tribe had settled, he took the name Hsiung, which means “bear.”

Hsiung was respected not only by his own tribe but by all those that settled along the Yellow River. Thus, when the tribes’ camping grounds were attacked by bandits, he was asked to lead a group of warriors against the raiders.

The bandit leader, Chi Yu, was aggressive in battle and
uncanny in strategy. Moreover, he had the help of evil shamans who could command fog and mist and summon rain and snow.

After one especially ferocious battle, Chi Yu was cornered and was about to be captured by Hsiung, when a fog suddenly descended on the valley. Chi Yu escaped, and Hsiung and his warriors were trapped in a maze of canyons with steep walls. For days, they wandered through the deep valleys, lost and disoriented.

Soon the warriors began to whisper among themselves, “We have only one day of food and water left. If we don’t get out of these valleys soon, we will die.”

Hsiung overheard them and said, “Stay calm. I will ask the spirit guardians of this place to help us.” He knelt down, touched the ground with his head, and chanted a prayer. Moments later, a shaft of light appeared through the fog, and a female voice said, “Hsiung the Bear, you are destined to unite the tribes and be their king. The Empress of Heaven has sent me with these gifts for you.”

When Hsiung looked up, he found that the fog had disappeared, and a woman wearing a robe of nine colors was standing before him.

“I am the Lady of the Nine Heavens,” the woman said, “and here are the gifts from the Empress of Heaven.”

The Lady first handed Hsiung a bowl containing a lodestone. She said, “This stone always points to the south. With it, you will always be able to find your way in the fog.”

Then she handed him two books and said, “The first book will show you how to predict the movements of your enemy. The other one will teach you how to defeat Chi Yu.”

Finally, the Lady gave Hsiung several objects of power
that included talismanic flags, eagle feathers, and two magical swords.

Hsiung studied the books of divination and military strategy and engaged Chi Yu again. This time, when Chi Yu’s shamans conjured up a fog, Hsiung was not disoriented. Using the lodestone, he found his way to the enemy camp, attacked it, and captured the bandit leader.

After Chi Yu’s defeat, the chieftains unanimously asked Hsiung to be their ruler. Hsiung was crowned king and given the name Huang Ti (Yellow Emperor).

Huang Ti labored for many years to bring peace and prosperity to his people. One summer, when he toured his kingdom and found that the land was fertile and the people contented, he said to himself, “I will now have time to learn about the Tao.” Hearing that a sage named Kuang-ch’eng Tzu was living in a cave in the Hsiung-tung Mountains, Huang Ti decided to travel there to seek advice.

Upon finding the sage, Huang Ti bowed low and requested, “Teach me about the Tao.”

Kuang-ch’eng Tzu replied, “After you became king, rain fell before the clouds became ominous; trees shed their leaves with the first wind from the north; and the light of the sun and moon shone on both grassland and desert. This is all I have to say about the Tao.”

Huang Ti returned to his palace and pondered on the sage’s words. “When things follow the natural way of the Tao, they are renewed,” he said to himself. “However, after nineteen years of working for the welfare of my people I feel old and weak instead. I must be doing something wrong.”

Three months later, Huang Ti returned to the mountains to see Kuang-ch’eng Tzu. When the sage saw the king, he asked, “Why did you return?”

Huang Ti replied, “Please teach me how to cultivate myself
so that I can be renewed by the seasons and live as long as the sky and the earth.”

Kuang-ch’eng Tzu said, “The Tao is intangible and formless. You cannot hear it or see it. However, if you focus your spirit, it will emerge within you. Empty your heart and still your mind. Preserve your generative energy and do not strain your body. Follow these teachings and you will live a long life.”

When he returned to his palace, Huang Ti built a retreat. He distanced himself from the affairs of his kingdom and tried to live according to the teachings of Kuang-ch’eng Tzu. However, after three months of seclusion, not only was he unable to renew himself, but he got weaker by the day.

The king summoned his minister Li Wu and said irritably, “I have followed the teachings of the sage diligently. My health should be improving, not deteriorating!”

The minister said, “Sire, you are forcing things and not doing what is natural for you. You are a king, and it would be unnatural if you stopped ruling the country.”

Huang Ti suddenly realized his mistake. He said to Li Wu, “You are right. Before, I was too involved with governing the country and forgot to cultivate myself. Now, I am too intent on cultivating myself and have neglected my duties as king.”

From that time on, Huang Ti found a balance between practicing the arts of longevity and fulfilling his duties as a ruler.

After nine years, he finally succeeded in making the pill of immortality. The king made a tour of his country and, finding it peaceful and prosperous, knew that his work was done. He appointed a successor and, on a clear day, ingested
the pill and rode off to the celestial realm on the back of a dragon.

H
UANG
T
I
, or the Yellow Emperor, lived in the legendary times of ancient China before written history. He is regarded as the wisest of all Chinese rulers and is credited with uniting the tribes into a nation, building the first cities, and giving China a written language and a numerical system.

13

The Old One

Lao Tzu

Lao Tzu’s name was originally Li Erh. The legends say that on the night he was conceived, his mother saw an infant wrapped by the sun, moon, and clouds. On the morning of his birth, three suns rose from the east, and after he suckled, magic water came out of the mouths of nine dragons.

Li Erh was an extraordinary child. At three, his body radiated a golden glow. At five, he gazed at the sun and smiled and looked at the moon and sighed. At seven, he learned to swallow the rays of the sun, moon, and stars.

Not interested in becoming a statesman, Li Erh did not seek employment in the courts of the feudal states. Instead,
he was content to work in the imperial library, where he could read and study the ancient rites and rituals.

One time, a young scholar named Kung Chung-ni came to the library to ask Li Erh about an obscure ritual. (Kung Chung-ni would later be known as Kung Tzu, or Confucius.) After answering the young man’s questions, Li Erh told him, “You need to file down your sharpness and put away your sword of ambition. The great sage often appears dull and dim-witted, and those with true learning do not display their knowledge.”

Years later, Chung-ni would recall this meeting and say, “Birds soar above the earth; fishes swim to the depths of the oceans; and tigers run the great expanse of the plains. But who can predict the behavior of dragons? Sometimes they fly among the clouds and sometimes they tunnel beneath the earth. Lao Tzu [the Old One] must have been a dragon. You could catch a glimpse of his wisdom, but if you tried to grasp it, it was gone.”

Lao Tzu retired from the civil service not long after Chung-ni’s visit. He traveled west and, at a border town near Han Ku Pass, dictated a treatise on the Tao and virtue to a man named Wen Shih. This book became known as the
Tao-te-ching
.

It was said that Lao Tzu continued to travel west after leaving Han Ku Pass. Eventually, he climbed up Mount K’un Lun and entered the immortal lands.

L
AO
T
ZU
lived during the latter part of the Chou dynasty (1122–221
BCE
) in the feudal state of Ch’u. He is regarded as the founder of the philosophy of Taoism and the author of the Taoist classic, the
Tao-te-ching
.

14

A Prince among Taoists

Liu An

Liu An was the grandson of the founder of the Han dynasty and held the title Prince of Huai-nan. As a youth, when his brothers and friends were attracted to hunting, archery, and chariot racing, Liu An preferred to play the zither, write poetry, and study the Taoist arts of longevity. When he succeeded his father as the lord of Huai-nan, he frequently invited scholars, sages, diviners, and alchemists to his court so that he could learn from them.