三教源流搜神大全 — The Grand Compendium of the Gods, Sought Out from the Source-Streams of the Three Teachings — in seven fascicles

The Grand Compendium of the Gods (Sanjiao yuanliu soushen daquan) is the great illustrated who's-who of the Chinese pantheon: some hundred and thirty biographies of gods, goddesses, immortals, marshals, and holy monks, each entry in the printed editions faced with a woodblock portrait. The book grew in layers — a Yuan-era Extensive Record of the Search for the Gods, reworked and enlarged under the Ming (its own pages cite Ming reign-names, the Yongle emperor's Lives of Divine Monks, and even a verse from the Journey to the West) — and it opens with the boldest gesture in Chinese religious publishing: the first three "gods" are Confucius, the Buddha, and Laozi, the three source-streams themselves. After them come the Jade Emperor and the Queen Mother of the West; Zhenwu the Dark Warrior and Wenchang the god of literature with his spirit-writing pavilion; Guan Yu summoned from the dead to battle Chiyou for the salt-ponds; Guanyin in the complete legend of the princess Miaoshan who harrowed hell; Mazu the sea-girl who sailed her soul out of her body; the door-gods, the stove god and his almanac, the plague envoys, the silkworm maiden; Zhong Kui devouring the little demon; the thunder-marshals of the Ming ritual masters; sixteen wonder-working monks from Kumārajīva of the unburnt tongue to Xuanzang of the crown-stroked pine; and Nezha — three heads, nine eyes, eight arms — slaying the nine dragons at seven days old and rebuilt by the Buddha out of lotus. For centuries this book has been the quiet source behind Chinese god-lore; no complete translation of it into any Western language is known to us. The Chinese text is unpunctuated; all sentence-division is the translator's. The complete source text follows the English, together with the 1909 editor Ye Dehui's remarkable text-critical postface.

Contents

Fascicle One — The Source-Stream of the Confucians (Confucius) · The Source-Stream of the Buddhists (Śākyamuni) · The Source-Stream of the Daoists (Laozi) · The Jade Sovereign Highest Thearch · The Sage Ancestor · The Sage Mother · The Thearch-Lord of Eastern Flower · The Queen Mother of Western Numina · Sovereign Earth · The Highest Thearch of the Dark Heaven (Zhenwu) · The Thearch-Lord of Zitong (Wenchang) · The Great Thearchs of the Three Origins · The Eastern Marchmount · The Most Sage King of Blazing Numen · The True Lord Who Aids the Holy · The Southern Marchmount

Fascicle Two — The Western, Northern, and Central Marchmounts · The Four Great Rivers · The Great Sage of Sizhou (Sengqie) · The Five Saints · Wanhui · The True Lord Xu (Xu Xun) · Baozhi · The Sixth Patriarch Lu (Huineng) · The Three True Lords Mao · The Perfected Man Sa · Yuan Qianli · The Great Being Fu · Lord Cui of the Prefecture · Puan · The Three True Lords, Guests of Wu

Fascicle Three — Marquis Radiant-Numen · The King of Righteous Valor, Martial Peace (Guan Yu) · The True Lord of Pure Source and Wondrous Way (Erlang) · The Shrine-Mountain Great Thearch Zhang · The Plundering Commissioner · The Roving Inspector Along the Jiang · The Martial-Ardent Thearch of Changzhou · The Five Ministers of Yangzhou · The Martial-Solemn Thearch Jiang (Jiang Ziwen) · The Silkworm Maiden · Marquis Li of Awesome Crossing · Marshal Zhao (Zhao Gongming) · Lord Jiang of Hangzhou · Lord Add-Blessing · Lord Haoli · Marquis Numinous-Current · Zhong Kui

Fascicle Four — Shen Tu and Yu Lei (the door-gods) · The Five Plague Envoys · The Stove God · The God of Blessing · The Five Bandit Generals · The Goddess Zigu · The Gods of the Five Quarters · Master Zhuang of Nanhua (Zhuangzi) · The Bodhisattva Guanyin (Miaoshan) · Marshal Wang · The Heaven-Lord Xie · The Lady Da Nai (Chen Jinggu) · The Lady Tianfei (Mazu) · Marshals Pang, Li, Liu, Wang-and-Gao, Tian Hua and Bi, Tian and Lü

Fascicle Five — Marshals Dang, Shi, and Fuying · Panhu · Marshals Yang and Gao · Marshal Ma the Numinous Officer (Huaguang) · Marshal Wen the Trusted-Protector (Wen Qiong) · Marshals Zhu, Zhang, Xin Xinggou, and Tie · Marshal Yin the Grand Year (Yin Jiao) · The Ghost-Slaying True Lord Zhang (Zhang Xun) · Marshals Kang, Tian of the Wind-Fire Court (the theater god), and Meng · Huiyuan · Kumārajīva

Fascicle Six — Buddhayaśas · Dharmodgata · Buddhabhadra · Beidu the Cup-Crosser · Lord Bao of Songshan · Zhizao · Dazhi · Xuanzang · Yuangui · Tongxuan · Yixing · Śubhakarasiṃha · Vajrabodhi · Jianyuan · Lancan · The Monk of the Western Regions

Fascicle Seven — Benjing · Kṣitigarbha · The Stove-Breaker of the Song Marchmount · Zhixuan (the Water Repentance) · The Blue-Robed God (Cancong) · The Immortals of Nine-Carp Lake · The Celestial Master Zhang (Zhang Daoling) · The Palace-Attendant Wang · The Master of Kuang-Fu · The Immortal Master Huang · The North-Pole Bureau for Expelling the Crooked (Yan Zhenqing) · The Crown Prince Nezha · The Five Thunder Gods · The Lightning-Mother · The Wind Earl · The Rain Master · The Sea, Tide, Water, and Wave Gods · The Three Water-Prefectures of the Yangzi · Grandfather Xiao · Grandfather Yan · The Road-Opening Divine Lord · The Rite-Craft "Calling Lüling" · The Two Generals of the Door (Qin Shubao and Yuchi Jingde) · The Heaven-Kings

The Editor's Postface of 1909 (Ye Dehui) · Source Text

The Source-Stream of the Confucians — 儒氏源流

The Most Sage King of Culture Diffused was of Queli in Changping township, Qufu in Lu; his forebears were men of Song. The Great Sage's great-great-grandfather, Kong Fangshu, fleeing the troubles of Hua Du of Song, moved his dwelling to Lu. He begot Boxia; Boxia begot Shuliang He. The eldest son, Mengpi, styled Boni, was infirm and unfit to continue the line; the second son is the First Sage himself.

In the twenty-first year of Duke Xiang of Lu, in winter, the eleventh month, on the day gengzi — that was the day of the First Sage's birth. Two dragons wound about the house; five elders descended into the courtyard — the five elders being the essences of the Five Stars. In the chamber of his mother, the lady Yan, was heard the playing of the music of the Ninefold Heaven, and a voice in the air said: "Heaven, moved, bears a sage son" — therefore it descended with the harmonious music of pipe and bell. Thus the First Sage's birth was greatly unlike the common run: his substance was exceeding strange, and the crown of his head rose in a rim — wherefore he was named Qiu, "Hill," and styled Zhongni. The Records of the Historian say that when Confucius was born, Shuliang He died, and was buried at Mount Fang. As a child at play, Confucius would ever set out the stands and vessels of offering and arrange the rites, with himself for master.

The First Sage stood nine feet tall, his waist ten spans about. He bore forty-nine marks in all: on his breast a writing, which said, THE SIGN OF ONE WHO FASHIONS INSTITUTIONS AND SETTLES THE AGE. A turned brow, a hollowed face; moon-horn temples and sun-straight nose. Seated, he was a dragon crouching; standing, a phoenix poised; gazed at from afar, one bowing; approached, one ascending. Ears hung to a pearl court; tortoise spine and dragon form; tiger palms and joined ribs and triple breast; river eyes and sea mouth; mountain navel and forest back; winged arms and Dipper lips; a poured-out head and dragon nose; hill cheeks and dike brows; earth-broad feet and valley apertures; thunder voice and marsh belly; a radiant countenance, an even jaw, a propped throat, twinned teeth. In his brows were twelve colors; in his eyes, sixty-four veinings. His head was like Yao's; his forehead like Shun's; his neck of Gao Yao's kind; his shoulders of Zichan's kind; and from the waist down he fell three inches short of Yu. He had the virtue of a great sage: his learning exhausted Heaven and man; his Way plumbed the secret and the recondite — the writings borne on the backs of tortoise and dragon, the matters of the Seven Regulators and the Five Wefts; he embraced the capacities of Fuxi and the Yellow Thearch and the excellences of Yao, Shun, and the Duke of Zhou.

Duke Ding of Lu made the First Sage steward of Zhongdu, and within one year the lords of the four quarters all took him for their pattern. In the ninth year he was first made a district steward; in the tenth, Minister of Works; in the eleventh, Minister of the Masses, acting in the office of chancellor. In the fourteenth year he executed the Lu grandee who disordered the government, Shaozheng Mao, and took part in the state's councils. Within three months, the sellers of suckling pigs and lambs no longer dressed their wares for cheating; men and women walked apart upon the roads; what fell on the highway was not picked up; and strangers of the four quarters arriving in the towns had no need to beg of the officers — all were given what they needed, and sent home.

And the Great Sage, though his Way was lofty and his virtue broad, and he was one who knew from birth, nonetheless studied the zither under Master Xiang and studied the rites under Old Dan. He was forty years away from Lu; in the eleventh year of Duke Ai he returned to Lu from Wei, pruned the Songs and the Documents, fixed the Rites and the Music, and completed the Six Arts. Late in life he delighted in the Changes, reading it until the leather thongs snapped three times, and made for it the Judgments, the Images, the Patterned Words, and the Appended Phrases, to bring forth its secrets, declaring them to his disciples at the north gate of the Zhu and Si. His followers were three thousand; those he taught, sixty thousand; the worthy among them, seventy-two.

Of old, before the First Sage was born, a unicorn spat forth a jade writing at Queli, and its text read: A CHILD OF WATER-ESSENCE SHALL SUCCEED THE DECLINING ZHOU AND BE AN UNCROWNED KING. The lady Yan marveled at it, and tied embroidered silk to the unicorn's horn; after two nights the unicorn departed. Then in the fourteenth year of Duke Ai, at the western hunt in the great wilds, Chushang, chariot-man of the Shusun clan, took a beast and thought it inauspicious. The First Sage looked on it and said: "It is the unicorn. Why has it come? Why has it come!" — and turning back his sleeve he wiped his face, and his weeping wet the lapel of his robe. When Shusun heard of it, they took the beast up — and the silk once tied to its horn was still there. The First Sage said: "My Way is at its end." Then, upon the annals of Lu, he made the Springs-and-Autumns, adding praise and blame to the text, that it might serve for the correction of a restoration. The unicorn's appearing was Heaven's announcement of the First Sage's death — its omen.

The First Sage, ill, dreamed he sat between the two pillars. Zigong begged to see him. He was walking before the gate, staff dragging, at his ease, and said: "Ci — why have you come so late?" And the First Sage sighed and sang: "Mount Tai is crumbling! The roof-beam is breaking! The wise man withers!" — and his tears came down. Zigong said: "The world has long been without the Way; none can take you for their master." After seven days he did not rise again; his years were seventy-three. In the sixteenth year of Duke Ai of Lu, in summer, the fourth month, on the day jichou, he was buried north of the wall of Lu. In the seventeenth year a temple was raised at his old dwelling, with a hundred households to keep the tomb. The disciples all wore heart-mourning three years; when it was done, they took leave of one another and departed, weeping, each grieving to the last measure; and some stayed on. Only Zigong built a hut by the tomb-mound six years, and then departed. The disciples kept in the temple the First Sage's robes and cap, zither and books and carriage; and disciples and men of Lu who came and made their homes by the tomb were a hundred households and more, and it was therefore named Kong Village. Lu has handed it down age to age, offering sacrifice at the tomb at the season of the year; and the line of his descendants has never broken since.

The High Sovereign, passing Lu, sacrificed to Confucius with the great beast-offering, and there is a poem of praise:

Solemn, solemn the fore-court: the Sage's virtue here is honored.
Grave, grave the robes and cap: the Sage's grace is here preserved.
The Han founder honored the Confucians, bowing in person at Queli:
the great-beast sacrifice — a hundred ages here begin.

The Sage Dynasty, in reverent devotion, has conferred these honorific titles: THE GREAT-COMPLETION MOST SAGE KING OF CULTURE DIFFUSED; his sage consort, LADY OF THE STATE OF YUN. His sage father is enfeoffed DUKE OF THE STATE OF QI; his sage mother, GRAND LADY OF THE STATE OF LU.

The Source-Stream of the Buddhists — 釋氏源流

The Buddha Śākyamuni was of the kṣatriya caste; his father was Śuddhodana — Pure Rice — and his mother Pure-and-Wondrous. Having mounted to the station of the One-More-Birth, he dwelt in the Tuṣita heaven above, named the Victorious-Good God-Man, named also the Great Being Guarding-Brightness, ferrying the host of gods and preaching the practice of the last birth, and manifesting himself through the worlds of the ten directions to expound the Law. The Universal Radiance Sutra says: when the Buddha was first born into the kṣatriya royal house, he shed a great light of wisdom that illumined the worlds of the ten directions, and the earth welled up golden lotus-flowers that of themselves received his two feet; east, west, south, and north he walked seven steps each way; pointing one hand to heaven and one to earth, he made the lion's roar: ABOVE AND BELOW AND TO THE FOUR QUARTERS, NONE CAN BE HONORED ABOVE ME. This was in the twenty-fourth year of King Zhao of Zhou, the year jiayin, the eighth day of the fourth month.

In the forty-second year, on the eighth day of the second month, at nineteen years of age, he wished to seek the leaving of the family, and thought within himself: what shall I meet next? Then at the four gates he went out to view, and saw the four several things; his heart knew grief and joy, and he pondered: this aging, sickness, death — it is fit to weary of them and leave them. That night at the hour of zi a god named Pure-Dwelling, in at the window, folded his hands and said to the crown prince: "The hour of leaving the family has come — you may go." The prince heard it, and joy was born in his heart; and he went over the city wall and departed. On Mount Daṇḍaka he cultivated the Way: beginning at the place of Ārāḍa Kālāma, three years he studied the concentration of Nothing-Employed, knew it was not it, and cast it off; going on to the place of the Buddha Udraka, three years he studied the concentration of Neither-Thought-Nor-No-Thought, knew that too was not it, and cast that off likewise; going on again to Elephant-Head Mountain, together with the outer-path masters, he ate daily of hemp and wheat, passing sixteen years. Therefore the sutra says: with no mind-intent and no receiving-practice, he yet broke and subdued all the outer paths. First he passed through the trial of their crooked methods, showing every expedient, drawing out their divergent views, to bring them at last to bodhi. So the Universal Assembly Sutra says: on the eighth day of the second month, at the hour the bright star came forth, the Bodhisattva became Buddha, titled Teacher of Gods and Men. He was then thirty years of age: it was the third year of King Mu, the year guiwei.

Thereupon in the Deer Park he turned the Wheel of the Law of the Four Truths for Kauṇḍinya and the five, and discoursed the fruit of the Way; and he preached the Law, dwelling in the world, forty-nine years. Afterward he told his disciple Mahākāśyapa: "With my pure Dharma-eye, the wondrous heart of nirvāṇa, the true sign that is signless, the subtle and wondrous right Law — this I now hand over to you. You must guard and hold it." And he charged Ānanda to second him, transmitting and transforming without letting it be cut off. And he spoke the gatha:

The Law's root-Law is no-Law;
the no-Law Law is Law as well.
Now, when I hand over the no-Law —
the Law called Law — when was it ever Law?

Then the World-Honored, having spoken this gatha, told Mahākāśyapa further: "I take the gold-threaded saṃghāṭī robe and hand it to you in trust: transmit it onward to the next-in-station, until the Buddha of the Loving Age — Maitreya — comes into the world. Let it not decay." Mahākāśyapa heard the gatha, laid his head at the Buddha's feet, and said: "Good! Good! I shall do according to the charge, in reverent obedience to the Buddha."

Then the World-Honored went to the city of Kuśinagara and told the great assembly: "I now have pains through all my body: I am entering nirvāṇa." And he went to the bank of the Hiraṇyavatī river, between the twin śāla trees, lay on his right side with his feet together, and was tranquilly, perfectly stilled. Then he rose again from the coffin and preached the Law for his mother; and he held forth and showed his two feet to transform Vakkali, and spoke the gatha of impermanence:

All conditioned things are impermanent:
this is the law of arising and perishing.
When arising and perishing have perished away,
that stillness-of-extinction is joy.

Then the disciples with fragrant firewood together performed the cremation; and when the fuel was burnt out, the golden coffin stood as before. Then the great assembly before the Buddha spoke a gatha of praise:

The common fires, however fierce —
how should they attain to burn here?
We beg the Honored One's own samādhi-fire
to consume the body of golden color.

And then the golden coffin rose from its place to the height of seven śāla trees, and going and returning through the air, transformed forth the fire of samādhi; and in a moment the ash was made, and there were obtained relics — eight hu and four dou. This was the fifty-second year of King Mu, the year renchen, the fifteenth day of the second month.

From the World-Honored's extinction, one thousand and seventeen years, and the teaching came to the Central Xia: in the reign of Emperor Ming of the Later Han, who dreamed by night of a golden man, tall and great, with the light of sun and moon at his neck, and asked his assembled ministers of it. One said: "In the West there is a god whose name is Buddha. What Your Majesty dreamed — could it not be he?" So envoys were sent to Tianzhu — India — to inquire after that Way; and they obtained its books, and śramaṇas came back with them. The śramaṇas say: the Buddha is one zhang six feet tall, of yellow-gold color, wearing at his neck the light of sun and moon; his transformations are endless; there is nothing he does not [pervade]; therefore he can pass through the ten thousand things and greatly ferry the multitude of the living.

The Source-Stream of the Daoists — 道教源流

The Sage Record of the Most High Old Lord of the Golden Gate-Towers, the Dark Origin. According to the True-Teaching Prime-Tally Scripture of the Primal-Beginning Highest Thearch of Cavern-Dark Numinous Treasure, the Lord of the Way declared to the Sovereign: of old, before heaven and earth were divided, before yin and yang were parted, in the flood-vast dark-deep, the boundless expanse of the Great Brahmā-void where no light was, there formed in the self-so emptiness a hundred thousand myriad layers of right breath, and there was born by transformation the Holy Lord of Wondrous Nothing, whose honored title through the ages is the Highest Thearch of Wondrous Nothing, the Self-So Celestial Worthy of the Primal Beginning, called also the Elder of the Treasure of Heaven. He passed through nine hundred million, nine myriad, nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety hundred-millions of myriads of kalpas. Next there knotted a hundred thousand myriad layers of right breath, and there was born by transformation the Holy Lord of Wondrous Being, who styled himself the Great Thearch of Wondrous Being, the Void-Sovereign King-Dawn Lord of the Great Way, called also the Elder of the Treasure of Numina; he passed through eight hundred million, eight thousand, eight hundred and eighty hundred-millions of kalpas. Next there knotted a hundred thousand myriad layers of the breath of the Way, and was born by transformation the Holy Lord of Chaos-Undivided, whose recorded title is the Thearch of Utmost Truth, the Dark-Origin Old Lord of the Ten Thousand Changes of Chaos, called also the Elder of the Treasure of Spirit.

Now the Old Lord, though he took transformed bodies age upon age, had not yet been BORN. Then in the time of Yangjia, eighteenth king of Shang, he divided his spirit and transformed his breath, and lodged as an embryo in the Jade Maiden of Dark Wonder for eighty-one years; and under Wuding, the twenty-second king, in the year gengchen, on the fifteenth day of the second month at the hour of mao, he was born at Quren hamlet in Lai country, in the county of Ku in Chu. His surname was Li, his name Er, his style Boyang, his posthumous title Dan. He set down the two scriptures of the Way and its Virtue.

Again, according to the Sage Record of the Old Lord: the Most High Old Lord dwells in the realm of Grand Clarity; he is the ancestor of the primal breath, the root of heaven and earth. Within the utmost stillness and utmost void, before Grand Beginning and Grand Commencement, alone he drove the revolutions, spread the breath and fused the essence, and opened the transformation of heaven and earth. The completions and ruinations he has passed through — not one span of them can be measured or counted; his transformed bodies pervade world-systems many as dust and sand, past all reckoning to the end of numbers. After the opening-out, observing each age's thinness or purity, he established teaching according to the time, serving age after age as teacher of thearchs — now flowing through the nine heavens, now transmitting through the four seas. From the Three Kings downward, the thearchs and kings of every age have honored and served him. Know then: above heaven and below heaven, within the breath of the Way, all is the Old Lord's transformation. He lets down his hundred-million-fold of methods, and there is nothing they do not ferry and save — only the hundred clans use them daily and do not know it.

Laozi said: "I was born before the formless, arisen before the Grand Beginning; I walk in the origin of the Grand Plainness and stand at the tip of the Grand Remoteness; I float and roam in the dark void, going out and in at the gate of the deep-dark." Therefore Ge Xuan, prefacing the Scripture of the Way and its Virtue, says: Laozi was so-of-himself by his very embodiment — born before the Grand Nothing, arisen at the beginning that has no cause, passing through the whole term of heaven and earth, which cannot be told or recorded. And again: the world says Laozi descended in the age of Yin; but Laozi's title began kalpas without number ago — dark, dark and deep, remote and long-lasting indeed! Before the opening-out, and again after it, he came down to be teacher of thearchs, generation after generation without break, and none could know him. According to the Records of Laozi, from before the opening-out down to Tang of Yin, generation by generation he was teacher to the kings, always a transformed body descending into the world. In the seventeenth year of Tang of Yin, jiawu, he first showed the trace of birth: from the realm of Grand Clarity, riding the sun-essence of the Grand Yang, he transformed into a five-colored pellet of dark-and-yellow, great as a crossbow ball, at the hour the Jade Maiden slept by day; it flowed into her mouth and she swallowed it, and was with child. She carried him eighty-one YEARS, until the ninth year of Wuding, gengchen, when he was born by parting the Jade Maiden's left armpit — born white-headed, wherefore he was called Laozi, the Old Child. He was born beneath a plum tree, and pointing at the tree he said: "This shall be my surname." From the ninth year of Wuding of Yin, gengchen, down to the ninth year of King Zhao of Qin, when he ascended westward over Kunlun, is reckoned nine hundred and ninety-six years.

According to Li Shi's Continued Record of the Broad-Learned: in the third year of Wude of Gaozu of Tang, Ji Shanxing, a man of Jinzhou, saw at Sheep-Horn Mountain a white-robed father-elder, who called to him: "Speak for me to the Tang Son of Heaven: I am the Old Lord — and I am your ancestor." Gaozu therefore raised a temple; Gaozong honored him further as the Dark-Origin August Thearch; the Bright Emperor annotated the True Scripture of the Way and its Virtue, which students study to this day; and in the two capitals and all the provinces were placed temples of the Dark-Origin August Thearch — in the capital called the Dark-Origin Palace, in the provinces called Palaces of the Purple Ultimate; and the Western Capital's was renamed the Palace of Grand Clarity, the Eastern Capital's the Palace of Grand Subtlety, all with students installed. His honored title: GREAT SAGE ANCESTOR, HIGH EXALTED OF THE GREAT WAY, DARK-ORIGIN AUGUST THEARCH OF THE GOLDEN GATE-TOWERS OF HEAVEN.

The Assembled Essentials of the Song Court says: Zhenzong of Song, in the sixth year of Dazhong-Xiangfu, the eleventh day of the eighth month, decreed the reverent offering of the honored title: MOST HIGH OLD LORD, AUGUST THEARCH OF CHAOS-ORIGIN AND SUPREME VIRTUE.

The imperial praise of Renzong of Song:

Great indeed, the utmost Way! Doing-nothing, so-of-itself;
ending kalpas, beginning kalpas, before earth, before heaven.
Bright light, spark upon spark; the everlasting kalpas thread on unbroken.
Eastward he schooled Father Ni — Confucius; westward he transformed the golden immortal — the Buddha.
The hundred kings have taken his rule; the linked sages hand him on.
Ancestor of all the teachings: dark — and dark again!

The Jade Sovereign Highest Thearch — 玉皇上帝

According to what the Sage Record sets down: in an age long past there was a kingdom named Radiant-Majesty Wondrous-Joy, and its king was named Pure Virtue. The king had a consort named Precious-Moonlight. They were without heir; and one day the king fell to thinking: "I now grow old, and have no crown prince. If this body should crumble away — the altars of state, the nine ancestral temples — to whom shall they be entrusted?" This thought made, he straightway sent down commands to the assembled Daoist clergy to hang up banners and canopies in all the palaces and halls according to the several rubrics of the teaching, and — cleansed, austere, and pure — to spread wide the offerings, walking the Way at the six hours, praying everywhere to the perfected saints. A full half year this ran, and their first resolve did not slacken.

Then suddenly one night the consort Precious-Moonlight dreamed: the Most High Lord of the Way, with the assembled utmost-perfected, golden of countenance and jade of substance, in the purity of their order, driving a five-colored dragon car, holding up great sun-banners, shaded by canopies of shining rose-cloud. And the Most High Lord of the Way sat at ease in the dragon carriage, cradling an infant child, from every pore of whose body streamed a hundred hundred-million rays, illumining all the palaces and halls with the color of a hundred treasures; and banner-staves went before the way as they came floating through the sky. Then the consort's heart was born into joy; reverent and worshipful she received them, and kneeling long at the fore of the Way she said: "Lord of the Way — the king now has no heir. I beg this child of you, to be lord of our altars of state. Prostrate I pray your mercy and pity — hear and allow it!" Then the Lord of the Way answered the consort: "I grant him — a special gift — to you." The consort bowed her thanks to the Lord of the Way, and received the child; and from the dream she returned to waking — and was with child.

She carried him one year, and in the year bingwu, on the ninth day of the first month, at the hour of wu, he was born in the king's palace. At his birth the treasure-light of his body filled the whole kingdom like autumn radiance; his color and marks wondrous-fine, so that gazers could not tire. From childhood he was quick and wise, and merciful and good. Of all the storehouses of that kingdom, all wealth and treasure, he gave everything away in alms: to the utterly poor and bitter, to widower and widow, orphan and childless, all with none to turn to, to the starving and the crippled — to every living being he was humane and loving, mild and yielding, till songs went round that he had the Way, and his transforming reached the far quarters, and all under heaven looked up and turned home to his humaneness. Because of the crown prince, the king his father heaped up rejoicing and reward. Afterward the king suddenly announced his end; the crown prince took the government; but bending his thought upon this floating life, he announced his charge to the great ministers, set an heir of the Way upon the throne — and quit his kingdom, and cultivated the Way in the Mountain of Universal Brightness and Wondrous Crag, till the merit was complete, and he crossed over in salvation.

That kalpa passed, he traversed eight hundred kalpas, constantly giving up his kingdom for the sake of the flocks of the living, cutting away love and lifting up the Way. After this he passed through eight hundred kalpas practicing medicine and healing sickness, urgently rescuing the multitudes and setting them at ease and joy. Those kalpas spent, he traversed eight hundred kalpas more, walking every expedient wide, opening the treasuries of the Way, expounding the numinous stanzas, enlarging and proclaiming the right transformation, spreading and raising the divine merit, aiding kingdoms and saving men, from the hidden realms even to the plain. And after this, once more he traversed eight hundred kalpas, losing body and dropping life in the practice of forbearance-under-insult, giving up his own blood and flesh. Cultivating so through three thousand two hundred kalpas, he first bore witness as a golden immortal, titled the Thus-Come King of Pure and Self-So Awakening. [And thereafter, kalpa upon kalpa further cultivated, he took the seat of the Jade Sovereign.]

The Veritable Records of Zhenzong of Song say: in the seventh year of Dazhong-Xiangfu, the ninth month, the sovereign said to his attending ministers: "Since the descent of the primal tally, We have wished, together with the officials and commons of all under heaven, to offer up the Jade Sovereign's sage title." And in the first year of Tianxi, on the new moon of the first month, xinchou, the Thearch proceeded to the Hall of the Grand Beginning and reverently offered up the sage title of the Jade Sovereign Great Heaven-Thearch: MOST HIGH OPENER OF HEAVEN, HOLDER OF THE TALLY, DRIVER OF THE CALENDAR, EMBRACER OF TRUTH AND EMBODIER OF THE WAY — HAOTIAN MOST HONORED — JADE SOVEREIGN GREAT THEARCH OF HEAVEN.

The paired inscription:

His tally grasps vast Heaven: to the last of what is covered and borne, all are steeped in his transforming nurture.
The Thearch looks down from the jade gate-towers: gods and men entire stand within his potter's wheel.

The Honored Title of the Sage Ancestor — 聖祖尊號

The imperially composed Record of the Numinous Encounter says: at the beginning of Jingde, Wang Zhongzheng met the True Lord Controller of Destinies, who transmitted the method of medicinal gold; in the fourth year, the eleventh month, he descended upon the perfected lodging of Liu Chenggui; in the fifth year they first offered up the auspicious title: CELESTIAL WORTHY, CONTROLLER OF DESTINIES OF THE NINE HEAVENS. The Veritable Records of Zhenzong of Song say: in the fifth year of Dazhong-Xiangfu, the seventeenth day of the tenth month, the sovereign dreamed of the divine man who had descended in the fourth year of Jingde, transmitting the Jade Sovereign's command: "Now your ancestor Zhao, of famous name, on the twenty-fourth day of this month shall descend, as in the perfected-origin affair of Tang." On that day the Celestial Worthy descended upon the Hall of Extended Grace, and in the intercalary tenth month, jisi, the title was augmented: SAGE ANCESTOR, HIGH EXALTED OF THE UPPER NUMINA'S WAY, CONTROLLER OF DESTINIES OF THE NINE HEAVENS, CELESTIAL WORTHY PROTECTOR OF LIFE.

The Honored Title of the Sage Mother — 聖母尊號

Empress Wu of Tang, in the second year of Guangzhai, the ninth month, jiayin, posthumously honored the Sage Mother as GRAND EMPRESS OF THE FORMER HEAVEN; her ancestral hall is in the Palace of Grand Clarity at Bozhou. The Assembled Essentials of the Court say: in the first year of Tianxi, the sixth day of the third month, was enthroned and offered up the honored title of the Sage Ancestress: GREAT SAGE EMPRESS OF ORIGIN HEAVEN. Before this, in the fifth year of Dazhong-Xiangfu, it was decreed to augment the Sage Ancestress' title when the Grand Ultimate Abbey at Yanzhou should be finished, choosing the day for the offering; at this time Wang Dan and the others were commanded to perform the rite of investiture.

The Thearch-Lord of Eastern Flower — 東華帝君

The Thearch-Lord of Eastern Flower — when the breath of the Way was pure-fused and congealed-still, limpid in body and doing nothing, and was about to open the dark merit and give birth-by-transformation to the ten thousand things — first, from the utmost-true breath of Eastern Flower, transformed and begot the Lord of Wood upon the jade-green sea, in the mound of azure numina, to preside over the breath of yang harmony and govern in the East; he is also titled Duke-King. He and the Metal Mother both drew their substance from the Grand Origin and nursed their spirit in the dark-recondite. In the vast dim of the East he portioned the pure-essence breath of the Great Way and it knotted into form; with the Queen Mother he governs the two breaths, nursing and rearing heaven and earth, potter's-wheeling the ten thousand things. All in heaven above and beneath heaven, in the three realms and ten directions, the MEN who ascend to immortality and attain the Way — all are in his charge; he dwells above all quarters.

According to the Records Beyond the Dust: Mount Fangzhu lies within the Eastern Sea. Its several Controllers of Destinies number thirty-five, who record the crimes and blessings of heaven above and the world of men; the Thearch-Lord is the Great Controller of Destinies and commands them all. On the mountain is the Terrace of Eastern Flower, and the Thearch-Lord ever on the dingmao day mounts the terrace and gazes to the four quarters. Now for students of the Way, the immortals have nine ranks: the first is called True Sovereign of the Nine Heavens; the second, True Sovereign of the Three Heavens; the third, Perfected of the Most High; the fourth, Flying-Heaven Perfected; the fifth, Numinous Immortal; the sixth, Perfected; the seventh, Numinous Man; the eighth, Flying Immortal; the ninth, Immortal. All of these ranks, at the hour of their ascent to heaven, first bow to the Lord of Wood and after have audience with the Metal Mother; the business done, only then may they ascend the nine heavens, enter the Three Clarities, bow to the Most High, and behold the Primal Beginning. Therefore in the beginning of Han there were four or five little boys playing in the road, and one boy sang: "Wearing my blue skirt, I enter the gate of heaven; I salute the Metal Mother and bow to the Lord of Wood" — and of the people none understood it; only Zifang — Zhang Liang — went and bowed to him, saying: "This is the jade lad of the Duke-King of the East."

Of old the Primal Beginning declared to the god-men of the ten directions — thus he spoke: Chaos-Undivided transformed and bore the Two Modes, and set yin and yang to their driving; he first enfeoffed the Sovereign Upper-Prime Lord. From the time the Great Thearch of Eastern-Flower Fusang and his peers measured out water and fire and weighed level the kalpa-numbers, in the first year of the Middle Sovereign, the Most High, in the jade-clear Rose-Gem Chamber, the upper palace of the Golden Gate-Towers, conferred on the Thearch-Lord the treasure-scriptures, the flower-charts, and the jade formulas, to transmit to later students whose jade names accord with truth. Therefore the Dark Guideline says: "Eastern Flower keeps no secret of the true formulas" — this is it. The Purple Prefecture is where the Thearch-Lord examines merit and practice. Within the seas are three islands, and the ten continents are ranged among them: the upper island's three continents are called Penglai, Fangzhang, and Yingzhou; the middle island's three are called Furong, Langyuan, and Yaochi; the lower island's three are called Chicheng, Xuanguan, and Taoyuan. Three islands, nine continents, tripod-poised amid the flood-vast — and there is one continent more, called the Purple Prefecture, set between the three islands: the Thearch-Lord's separate seat of governance, where he marshals the numinous officials in their offices and weighs the merit and practice of the assembled immortals — from earth-immortal to divine immortal, from divine immortal to heaven-immortal, from heaven-immortal onward to perfected sage, entering the void-nothing cavern-heavens: three removes in all, and all under the Thearch-Lord's charge.

To unfold the name: "Eastern Flower," because the Thearch-Lord was born by transformation of the utmost-true breath of Eastern Flower, and governs the Eastern Ultimate as his portion, dwelling above Eastern Flower. "Purple Prefecture," because his office sits in the Purple Prefecture, commanding the thirty-five Controllers of Destinies, promoting through the Cavern-Void offices, examining the ranks of the perfected immortals. "Young-Yang," because he presides over the East's young-yang ninefold breath, giving birth by transformation to the ten thousand things. "Thearch-Lord," because he sits honored lord of all the heavens of the East, shepherd of the assembled saints, master of the birth of things — the Changes says, "the Thearch comes forth in Zhen," and this is it. Therefore he is called the Thearch-Lord of Eastern Flower, of the Purple Prefecture, of the Young Yang.

Again, the True-Teaching Prime-Tally Scripture says: of old, before the Two Modes were divided, the dark-deep flood-vast was like a hen's egg, and within the dark-and-yellow there was born, self-so, the Perfected Man Pangu — moving the old to reach the now, hence called Pangu — who was the essence of heaven and earth, self-titled Primal-Beginning Heaven-King, roaming in the empty void. And there was besides the Grand-Origin Sage Mother, born by transformation; and in the ridge of heaven's spine, through a hundred kalpas, the Heaven-King bestowed and the Sage Mother bore the Heaven-Sovereign, titled in the first year of the Upper Sovereign; he began the world at thirty-six thousand years, and received the Primal-Beginning Highest Thearch's tally-mandate to be Great Thearch of the Eastern Palace, Great Lord of Fusang, Duke-King of the East, titled Origin-Yang. Consult the immortal scriptures besides: he is titled now Duke-King of the East, now the Blue-Lad Lord, now Lord of the Eastern Quarter, now the Blue-Reins Thearch-Lord — the titles differ, but all are the one Eastern Flower.

The Sage Dynasty, in the sixth year of Zhiyuan, on a day of the first month, offered up the honored title: THEARCH-LORD OF EASTERN FLOWER, OF THE PURPLE PREFECTURE, OF THE YOUNG YANG.

The Queen Mother of Western Numina — 西靈王母

The Queen Mother of the West is the Ninefold-Numinous Greatly-Wondrous Metal Mother of Tortoise Mountain, titled Grand-Void Nine-Radiance Metal Mother of the Tortoise Terrace. She says: "I am the utmost fullness of Western Flower, the extreme honored one of the wondrous cavern-void yin." Of old, when the breath of the Way was pure-fused and congealed-still, limpid in body, doing nothing, and about to open the dark merit and transform-into-being the ten thousand things, it first from the utmost-true breath of Eastern Flower transformed and begot the Lord of Wood, born on the jade-green sea in the mound of azure numina to preside over the breath of yang harmony and govern the East, titled also Duke-King of the East; and then from the utmost-wondrous breath of WESTERN Flower it transformed and begot the Metal Mother. The Metal Mother was born in spirit at Yichuan; her clan-name Zong; born already able to soar. She presides over the primal nursing in the dark-recondite, in the dim-boundless; she portioned the pure-essence breath of the Great Way, and it knotted and formed her; and with the Duke-King of the East she governs the two breaths, nursing and rearing heaven and earth, potter's-wheeling the ten thousand things. She is the root of the yielding-compliant, the origin of utmost yin; her seat is matched to the western quarter; mother and nurse of the flocks of the living. Of all in heaven above, the three realms and ten directions, the WOMEN who ascend to immortality and attain the Way — all are enrolled under her. She dwells in the orchard of Kunlun, the park of Langfeng: beneath that mountain the Weak Water runs ninefold, its flood-waves ten thousand fathoms, so that neither flying gale-car nor feathered wheel can arrive.

In the thirty-fifth year of King Mu of Zhou, the king commanded his eight steeds westward on progress-hunt, came to Kunlun as guest, and sought audience at her shrine, offering white jade discs and doubled brocade for the business of the Mother's longevity-feast. Then the Queen Mother, with the rare viands of the Jasper Pool, the rose-gem brew of the Purple Prefecture, and the immortal music of the nine heavens, feasted King Mu at the Jasper Pool. But King Mu's kingdom went ungoverned, the ancestral temples fell to waste; and when he returned among men, the kingdom already stood in peril. The Queen Mother says:

While sound and beauty stop not, the spirit is not clear;
while brooding thought stops not, the heart is not at peace;
the heart not at peace — the spirit is not numinous;
the spirit not numinous — the Way is not achieved.

Sovereign Earth, the August Goddess of the Ground — 后土皇地祇

Before heaven and earth divided, all was mingled as one; when the Two Modes first parted, yin and yang fixed their seats: the clear breath steamed up and became yang — Heaven; the turbid breath sank down and became yin — Earth. The yang heaven: the Five Greats handing on in succession, the five heavens fixing their seats, spreading above sun, moon, and the staggered dark asterisms. The yin earth: the Five Yellows riding one upon another, the five breaths congealing and knotting, bearing on its back rivers and seas, mountains, forests, roofs and houses. Therefore it is said: Heaven yang, Earth yin; Heaven the father, Earth the MOTHER. By the World Outline, what we call earth is the yellow soil of heaven-and-earth's first parting — therefore she is called the Earth Mother. Her temple is at Fenyin. In the reign of Zhenzong of Song, in the fifth year of Dazhong-Xiangfu, the twenty-third day of the seventh month, she was enfeoffed by patent SOVEREIGN EARTH, AUGUST GODDESS OF THE GROUND, and that year the imperial progress went to Huayin and sacrificed to her in person. Today the Sovereign-Earth shrine at the Abbey of Dark Wonder in Yangzhou is hers: before its hall stands a single jasper-flower tree — qionghua — whose scent, color, boughs and leaves are utterly beyond kind, no common thing of this world.

The Thearch Zhenzong enfeoffed her: BEARER OF HEAVEN, PATTERN TO ITS LAW, OF DEEP VIRTUE AND RADIANT GREATNESS — SOVEREIGN EARTH, AUGUST GODDESS OF THE GROUND.

The Highest Thearch of the Dark Heaven — 玄天上帝

According to what the Chaos-Cavern Red Writ records, this Thearch is a transformation-body of the Primal Beginning, a separate embodiment of the Grand Ultimate. In the time of the Upper Three Sovereigns he descended as the Perfected of Grand Commencement; in the Middle Three Sovereigns' time, as the Perfected of Grand Origin; in the Lower Three Sovereigns' time, as the Perfected of Grand Unity; and in the Yellow Thearch's time he descended as the Highest Thearch of the Dark Heaven. In the first kalpa of Opening-Sovereignty he came down into the world: in the first year of Purple Cloud, the year jiawu, on the third day of the third month, jiayin, at the hour gengwu, bearing the tally of the Grand Yang's essence, he was lodged as embryo and born by transformation into the belly of Lady Goodness-Victorious, consort of the king of the Kingdom of Pure Joy — a pregnancy of fourteen months: the eighty-second transformation of the Most High. The Kingdom of Pure Joy lies beneath the mansions Kui and Lou, a kingdom beyond the seas, answering above to the Brahmā-Measure Heaven of Dragon Change. The Dark Thearch issued from his mother's left side. At the hour of his birth, auspicious cloud canopied the kingdom, strange fragrance breathed everywhere, and the very soil turned gold and jade — the full tale of auspicious answerings is not here set down. Born divine and numinous, his risings and dwellings now hidden, now shown, by his tenth year he had read the scriptures once through and silently mastered all; looking up to observe, bending to examine, there was nothing he did not pierce. His heart sunk in the contemplation of the Way, his will and breath in the Grand Void, he vowed to aid the Highest Thearch and spread blessing on the trillion people. His royal father could not curb his will: at fifteen he took leave of father and mother to seek a hidden valley where he might inwardly refine the primal truth.

Then he moved the Jade-Clear Sage Ancestress, the Primal Lord of Purple Void, to transmit to him the Limitless Upper Way. The Primal Lord declared to the Dark Thearch: "You may cross the sea and travel east. Beneath the mansions Yi and Zhen there is a mountain, its traces risen from the Qian-Origin, coiling round five myriad li; the waters issue from the palace of Zhen. Where the Grand Ultimate itself has brought forth such a mountain, it answers on high to the Fixed-Ultimate, Wind-Heaven, Grand-Peace, and Sovereign-Cliff — heavens four. You may enter that mountain, choose among its assembled peaks the one that rushes highest into the purple empyrean, and dwell there. You shall accord with Grand Harmony; and after your rising-aloft, five hundred years on, in the second kalpa of Longhan, with loosened hair and bare feet you shall gather in the true essences of Li and Kan and return them to the root, restore them to their seats; above, you shall stand Aiding Minister of the Three Realms; below, Great Sage of the Ten Directions — and only then be famed through the hundred-millions of kalpas, endure equal with heaven and earth, sun and moon: such is the fullness of your fruit." The declaration ended, the Primal Lord ascended the clouds and was gone.

The Dark Thearch did as his teacher had said: crossed the sea eastward, walked to beneath Yi and Zhen, and found indeed the mountain his teacher told — mountains and waters hidden and stored, all answering the teacher's words. He entered and viewed: seventy-two peaks indeed, and among them one peak thrusting kingfisher-green, rising clear into the purple empyrean, and below it one crag facing the sun in void stillness. So the Dark Thearch, taking up his teacher's admonition, named the mountain Mount Grand Harmony — Taihe; the peak, Purple-Cloud Peak; the crag, Purple-Empyrean Crag; and there he dwelt. Sunk in the void, dark-in-one, silently communing with the ten thousand truths, forty-two years, he greatly attained the Upper Way. In the fifty-seventh year of the Yellow Thearch's Purple Cloud, the year jiazi, on the ninth day of the ninth month, bingyin, in the clear dawn, suddenly there were auspicious clouds and heaven-flowers falling from the empty sky, misting and filling the mountain valleys, and for three hundred li round the mountain on every side the forest ridges rang and echoed, sounding of themselves the pacing-the-void immortal music. At that hour the Dark Thearch stood nine feet tall, his face like the full moon, dragon brows and phoenix eyes, blue-black hair and beautiful beard, cheeks fine as ice-clear jade, on his head a king's crown, on his body a robe of pine-gauze, barefoot, hands folded, standing on Purple-Cloud Peak. In a moment the clouds parted: five Perfected with a host of immortals descended before the Dark Thearch, their outriders exceeding splendid, beyond common sight or hearing. The Dark Thearch bowed his head and made reverent obeisance, welcoming and saluting the five Perfected, who said: "We bear the Jade-Clear Jade Thearch's edict: your merit being full and your Way complete, you rise aloft. Know now that your sage father and sage mother are already in the Purple Empyrean." The Dark Thearch prostrated himself in reverent assent. The five Perfected then proclaimed the edict through: he was specially appointed GRAND-DARK MARSHAL, directing the affairs of the Bureau of Prime-Harmony Removals-and-Collations; and there were bestowed on him the Nine-Virtue crescent-moon gold-dawn jade crown, a rose-gem-flower jade hairpin, the jade-green-patterned precious tablet, a cape of plain-silk flying-cloud golden rose-mist, the purple-silk dragon-robe, cinnabar lower-garment, feather-pendants and deep-crimson skirts, the seven-treasure gossamer robe, nine-radiance vermilion slippers and flying-red cloud-shoes; the jade register of the Grand-Dark Marshal, the precious seal of Qian-Origin, the swords of the Southern and Northern Dippers and the Three Terraces, the flying-cloud jade carriage, cinnabar palanquin and green chariot, feathered canopy and rose-gem wheels, the nine-colored staff-of-credence, ten peerless numinous banners; before him the ninefold phoenix cry, behind him the blowing of the eight simurghs; the jade maidens of all heaven, a hundred-million mounts and ten thousand riders, ascending to the Nine Clarities. The edict arrived, it was performed: the Dark Thearch bowed twice, received the edict, changed his vestments, and flew aloft to the Golden Gate-Towers.

According to the Record of the Prime-Cavern Jade Calendar: down to the age of the Five Thearchs, in the second kalpa of Longhan come down into the world, the floodwaters had just stilled and the people first plowed — then Zhou of Yin, lord of lusting heart, lost the Way, defied and insulted High Heaven; and the living multitude, though barely clothed and fed, turned their hearts from the right Way and wrought sin-karma daily, till evil-poison ran wild on its own. This drew the Six-Heaven Demon Kings to lead the massed spirits and ghosts in wounding and harming the living; the poison-breath coiled and knotted, surging up against the Grand Void. At that hour the Celestial Worthy of the Primal Beginning was expounding the Law in the jade-clear sacred realm when the gate of heaven shook open, and he saw below the evil breath choking and filling. Then the Perfected of Wondrous Practice knocked his sincerity and begged: he wished the black-haired multitude saved. The Primal Beginning thereupon commanded the Jade Sovereign Highest Thearch to send down the edict to Purple Tenuity: in the yang, let Wu of Zhou smite Zhou and set the altars of state in order; in the yin, let the DARK THEARCH gather in the demons and part men from ghosts. At that hour there was bestowed on the Dark Thearch: loosened hair, bare feet, golden armor and dark robe, the black banner and dark flag, command of the Ding and Jia spirits, to descend into the common world and battle the Six-Heaven Demon Kings in the wilds of Cavern-Yin. At that hour the Demon Kings, with the two breaths of Kan and Li, transformed into a gray tortoise and a giant serpent, changing and appearing; but the Dark Thearch's divine strength pressed them beneath his feet, and he locked the demon host in the Great Cavern of Fengdu; the people were governed and at peace, the universe clear and grave. The Dark Thearch returned in triumph to the Clear Capital and had audience at the Golden Gate-Towers. The Primal Beginning decreed: the Dark Thearch's merit stands level with fifty myriad kalpas, his virtue beside the thirty-three heavens; the nine empyreans lean on his true awe; the ten poles look up to his divine transforming; great benefit is bestowed on the people below; his accumulated sage-virtue is spread upon the Jade Calendar. By the reckoning of the registers he should stand second only to the Thearch-Perfected — and without exalted ennoblement, how show forth virtue? There was specially bestowed the honored title: JADE-VOID MASTER-MINISTER, HIGHEST THEARCH OF THE DARK HEAVEN, COMMISSIONER-INSPECTOR OF THE NINE HEAVENS. His sage father was titled Lord of Pure-Joy Heaven, Great Thearch of Bright Truth; his sage mother, Grand Consort Goodness-Victorious, Rose-Gem-True Upper Immortal. Below, shading the pivot of heaven: the Grand-Dark Fire-Essence Yin-Containing General, the Red Numinous Honored God; and at the axle of earth: the Grand-Dark Water-Essence Yang-Nurturing General, the Black Numinous Honored God — both dwelling in the true care of Heaven-One.

The paired inscription:

The Purple Ultimate lifts its radiance: auspice mirrored on the worlds of the eight quarters.
The Dark Heaven manifests virtue: grace overspreading the ten courts of Yama.

And again:

The hall faces the bridge's east: the gleaming-spreading water sounds — ascend, precious Thearch;
the land floats at the ward's left: the towering blue-green mountain colors — mirrored on the rush-mat seat.

The Thearch-Lord of Zitong — 梓潼帝君

According to the Inner Traditions of Clear-River: "I was originally a man of the Wu-Kuaiji country, born at the beginning of Zhou; and afterward, through seventy-three incarnations" — the text now reads "transformations" — "the Thearch-Lord said: I have been a scholar-official seventeen generations running. Never once did I oppress the people or act the cruel clerk; I met men's urgencies, relieved men's want, forgave men's faults, pitied men's orphans; my nature was ardent, my conduct scrupulous — even as autumn frost and the white sun of the blue sky are not to be trespassed on."

Later, at the end of Western Jin, he was born down between the two commanderies south of Xi-Sui in Yue. It was the year dingwei, the third day of the second month, when he was born: auspicious light canopied the door, yellow cloud misted the wilds; the dwelling-place bordered on the sea. The village folk hailed the old man of Clear-River: "You, sir, at sixty have gained a noble heir!" In childhood he had no love of play; ever he yearned for hill and marsh, and often in his speech there seemed hidden meanings. By day he chanted the assembled books; by night he withdrew from the other boys, laughing to himself, delighting himself, the light of his body shining out. When the dwellers there prayed for blessings, I would scoff and whistle long: "Wood and clay — can they clothe men in their clothes and feed men with their food, that offered-to they should answer, and slandered they should send calamity? I am a MAN — shall I lack numen?" After that, night-dreams came: now I was a dragon; now a king's heaven-tally; now the water-office transport. I marveled and did not much believe them for lucky omens. The three farmings met with drought; the fine grain would not revive; the rain-dance altar prayed to the gods, and calm nothing answered. I thought: in today's noon sleep I dreamed I governed the water-office — tonight the proof is due. By night I went to the water's edge and, with the official seal-case of my dream, served warrant on the River Earl — and started awake, shame-faced and unsettled. In no time at all, dark clouds closed from the four quarters, wind flew and thunder shook, and a clerk bowed head before me: "The Transport-Judge is to shift his residence." I said: "Not I. I am the son of old Householder Zhang, named Ya" — through the water-office attainment he was later styled Peifu — and the clerk said: "I bear the command that summons you, sir." I said: "And my household?" The clerk said: "They have gone ahead to the seat of governance." I hung between fear and doubt; the clerk bowed me up onto a white donkey, and away — head bowed within the village gates, amid wind-and-rain voices, in one beat I had lost my native ground — and came to a mountain linked to Sword Ridge, propping the Can-palace star, like a phoenix couched; below it an ancient pool. They led me into one vast grotto-door where stood a single stone shoot; the clerk said: "When the people pray for rain, they invoke this stone and are answered: its name is the Thunder Pillar." I was just gathering my robe to enter when the clerk said further: "Do you remember, sir — in the house of Zhou you were a man through seventy-three transformations, hidden virtue keeping the family down to now? In the heaven-register you hold the rank of a god. Among the world of men there are those who shall know it: Jin, before many days, bears the omen of a restoration — you may seek the quarter and manifest the transformation." I said: "I thank the heaven-envoy for the echoing word." I entered the grotto — as if dropping down a gorge of a thousand fathoms; nearing ground, my feet never touched — as if borne bodily through empty space; and there was a king's palace with guards of the forbidden precinct. I entered — and saw my own household, all there within. Another day, I put on the scholar's part and went to Xianyang to expound the affair of Yao Chang. — Let those who burn incense to the Inner Traditions of Clear-River mark it well.

His temple is at Zitong county in Jianzhou. When Xuanzong of Tang made his progress into Shu, the god welcomed him at Ten-Thousand-Li Bridge, and was posthumously invested MINISTER OF THE LEFT; and when Xizong fled the capital in his turn, the god again lent hidden aid, and the title was augmented KING OF COMPLIANT AID. When Taizu of Song first took Shu, he took it with humaneness and kept it with humaneness — and this god's hidden ordering and secret aid had their share in seconding that humaneness. The god of the Numinous-Response Temple was augmented with sage titles: KING LOYAL-IN-LETTERS, HUMANE-IN-ARMS, FILIAL-IN-VIRTUE, SAGE-AND-ARDENT; his sage consort, CONSORT OF CONCORDANT-RESPONSE AND VIRTUOUS GRACE; his sage father, KING OF ILLUSTRIOUS FELICITY, KIND PROTECTION, AND HUMANE BOUNTY; his sage mother, CONSORT OF RADIANT VIRTUE, HEAPED FELICITY, KINDNESS AND PURITY; his sage son, KING OF CONTINUED VIRTUE, with his lady, LADY OF GOOD AID AND ILLUSTRIOUS EXCELLENCE; his sage son, KING OF FLOURISHING VIRTUE, with his lady, LADY OF COMPLIANT AID AND GRACIOUS EXCELLENCE; his sage grandson, MARQUIS OF CONTINUED RESPONSE AND RADIANT NUMEN, with his lady, LADY OF PURE RESPONSE; his sage grandson, MARQUIS OF RECEIVED RESPONSE AND PROCLAIMED NUMEN, with his lady, LADY OF GRACIOUS RESPONSE; and his aiding god, KING OF HEROIC GRACE, LOYAL ARDOR, WINGED AID AND BLESSED PEACE — that is, the Grand Commandant Who Reports Joy — with the two Immortal Officers of the Cassia and Salary Registers at left and right.

The Sage Dynasty, in the third year of Yanyou, the seventh day of the seventh month, augmented the sage title: THEARCH-LORD SUPPORTER OF THE PRIME, OPENER OF TRANSFORMATION, WENCHANG CONTROLLER OF SALARIES, OF VAST HUMANENESS.

The Thearch-Lord's hall stands where the water makes nine bends — for the ninefold-winding water comes to court and departs through nine turnings, its path curving through the mountain's belly. In the hall is the Pavilion of the Descending Brush: in the pavilion, hung on a golden cord, is a five-colored flying simurgh, and in the simurgh's beak a brush; beneath the brush, gold-flowered note-paper by the hundred sheets, with brush and ink always laid ready. The pavilion door the prefecture's own officer locks and seals most strictly, against the abuses of fraud. When the descending of the brush is done, a bronze bell within the pavilion rings of itself; the temple clerks report it to the prefecture; the prefecture sends an officer to unlock and take up the writing, and thereby observe the proofs of response. What the brush sends down mostly exhorts men to loyalty and filial piety as the root. When the usurping traitor Xi — Wang Xi, the false prince of Shu — furnished victims and set out the offering-stands and came in person to the Thearch-Lord's temple to sacrifice, scarcely had he moved to perform the rite when a black wind rose sudden, snuffed the candles and scattered the incense. The usurper shook with dread, prostrate below the hall; in a little while it cleared and brightened — and behold, the prayer-board was already split in two.

The Thearch-Lord, by the Jade Thearch's decree, assists the Southern Dipper in registering births; therefore seekers of heirs pray much to him.

His heavenly sage title: GOLDEN-PAVILION VAST-HEAVEN COLLATOR, CAVERN-ILLUMINING PENETRATING-TRUTH ELDER; GRAND MASTER OF THE NINE HEAVENS' OPENING TRANSFORMATION, NUMINOUSLY-ANSWERING GREAT THEARCH OF HEAVEN; UPPER IMMORTAL OF THE SOVEREIGN-NONE LORD. And his title heading the ranks of immortals and bearing witness to the Buddha-fruit: INNER AIDE OF CHAOS-HEAVEN, INNER STEWARD OF THE THREE CLARITIES, GRAND CAPITAL-GOVERNOR COMMANDING THE YIN SOLDIERY OF THE THREE REALMS WITH DISCRETIONARY POWERS, ADMINISTRATOR OF THE PRISON-AFFAIRS OF THE THREE REALMS OF HEAVEN, EARTH, AND WATER, KEEPER OF THE TRUE-FORM TIGER-TALLIES AND DRAGON-PATENTS OF THE FIVE MARCHMOUNTS AND FOUR RIVERS, COMMANDER-GENERAL OF ALL THE STARS AND LUMINARIES OF THE HEAVENS, JUDGE OF THE CASSIA AND SALARY TWO REGISTERS, UPPER-IMMORTAL PRIME-SOVEREIGN PERFECTED MAN, TRUE LORD SUPERVISOR OF SALARIES AND OF THE TRIBUTE-EXAMINATIONS, EDITOR-COMPILER OF THE FLYING-IMMORTAL RANKED REGISTERS, MASTER OF CHAOS-HEAVEN'S CREATIVE TRANSFORMING, CELESTIAL WORTHY WHO SAVES FROM SUFFERING ON THE WHEEL, NINE-HEAVEN SETTLER-OF-THE-PRIME PROTECTOR OF LIFE, UPHOLDER OF THE TEACHING, OPENER OF TRANSFORMATION, MASTER OF LIFE, GREAT THEARCH OF LONG JOY AND ETERNAL PROTECTION AND NUMINOUS RESPONSE, THUS-COME BUDDHA OF SETTLED WISDOM AND WITNESSED FRUIT, QIETAN-ŚĀKYA-BRAHMĀ GUARDIAN.

Yield one move: add blessing and years to sons and grandsons.
Step back one step: be spared the colt-past-the-crack's too-easy passing.
Forbear one word: be spared what four horses cannot overtake.
Still one anger: nourish the essence-spirit of body and heart.

The Divine-Empyrean small clerk Gu Lei's praise:

Wondrous, this compilation! Sincere, these words!
Keep them and practice them: blessing and protection come from Heaven.

The Great Thearchs of the Three Origins — 三元大帝

The Great Thearchs of the Three Origins were of origin the bones of a received true immortal, transformed anew and born again as men. Their father was surnamed Chen, named Zitao — called also Master Chen. Three daughters of the Dragon King took him for husband of their own accord; the three women bore three sons, all of vast divine power and limitless dharma-strength. The Celestial Worthy, seeing their divine powers and the endless manifestation of their vast law, enfeoffed them:

UPPER ORIGIN, FIRST RANK, HEAVEN-OFFICIAL OF THE NINE BREATHS, GREAT THEARCH OF PURPLE TENUITY — the tally of his birth, the congealed knot of the first yang breath — dwelling in the Dark Capital's Prime-Yang Seven-Treasure Purple-Tenuity upper palace, presiding over the thearchs and kings of all the heavens, the exalted perfected of the upper sages, the star-lords of the Three Luo and the ten thousand phenomena.

MIDDLE ORIGIN, SECOND RANK, EARTH-OFFICIAL OF THE SEVEN BREATHS, GREAT THEARCH OF CLEAR VOID — of the cavern-space clear-void palace of the nine-soil limitless world — presiding over the thearch-lords of the Five Marchmounts, the twenty-four governances' mountains, the nine-earth soil-sovereigns, and the spirit-lords of the four bounds and eight poles.

LOWER ORIGIN, THIRD RANK, WATER-OFFICIAL OF THE FIVE BREATHS, GREAT THEARCH OF CAVERN-YIN — the breath of the cavern-prime wind-marsh, the essence of dawn-vastness, of the palace of Golden-Numen Long-Joy — presiding over the water-thearchs of the Nine Rivers, the spirit-lords of the Four Great Rivers, the twelve stream-perfected, and the spirit-lords of the three rivers and four seas.

At each of the Three Origin days, the Three Officials examine the registers: within the great-thousand world-systems, in the kingdoms and lands of the ten directions — above, the registers of the ascending of the heavens' divine immortals; the rolls of the stars and mansions shining down on the portioned fields of the kingdoms; in the middle, the terms of examination and limit for the ranks of humankind; below, even to the transformations of fish and dragon, the seasons of birth and change of all that flies, runs, breeds, and stirs — all await the day the Three Officials gather in holy session: recorded, memorialized, distinguished — following karma the form is changed; following blessing the reward received; following the kalpa the wheel is turned; following karma, birth and death; good and evil following their bonds, without one hair's difference. Let all mark it well.

UPPER ORIGIN, FIRST RANK: the Heaven-Official who CONFERS BLESSING, Thearch-Lord of Purple Tenuity — born on the fifteenth of the first month.
MIDDLE ORIGIN, SECOND RANK: the Earth-Official who REMITS SIN, Thearch-Lord of Green Numen — born on the fifteenth of the seventh month.
LOWER ORIGIN, THIRD RANK: the Water-Official who LOOSES ADVERSITY, Thearch-Lord of the Sunrise Vale — born on the fifteenth of the tenth month.

The Eastern Marchmount — 東嶽

Mount Tai is the ancestor of the massed mountains, the head of the Five Marchmounts, grandson of the Heaven-Thearch, the prefecture of the divine numina. It stands in Fengfu county of Yanzhou — the present Tai'an — with Mount Liangfu for its reserve-heir. Dongfang Shuo's Classic of the Divine and Strange says: of old, the fifth-generation descendants of Master Pangu were called the Hetian clan; Hetian begot Xubo; Xubo begot Xuanying; the son of Xuanying was called the Golden-Wheel King; the Golden-Wheel King's younger brother was the Lesser-Sea lord; and the Lesser-Sea lord's wife was the immortal maiden Milun. The immortal maiden Milun dreamed by night that she swallowed two suns, woke, and was with child, and bore two sons: the elder called Metal-Cicada, the younger Metal-Rainbow. Metal-Rainbow is the Thearch-Lord of the Eastern Marchmount; Metal-Cicada is the Thearch-Lord of Eastern Flower. Metal-Rainbow had merit in the Long-White mountains; under Fuxi he was enfeoffed Grand Year, as the Perfected Man of Great Hua, keeping the six registers of the heaven-immortals; and thereafter took Year — Sui — for his surname, with the tabooed name Chong. Now that Grand Year is the very ground where, before the Five Ages, the Most-High-Without Celestial Worthy set his capital — the present Fenggao. His later consort was the daughter of the Water-One Celestial Worthy. At the court of Shennong he was granted the heaven-tally, an official of the capital, with the title Lord of the Prefecture; under Emperor Ming of Han he was enfeoffed Marshal of Mount Tai, holding, among the dwellers of the human world, the divisions of noble and mean, high and low; the terms of salary, long and short; the eighteen hells and six bureaus of registers; the seventy-five offices of the terms of life and death. From Yao and Shun, Yu and Tang, through Zhou, Qin, Han, and Wei, the Sage Thearch held only the rank of Lord of the Heaven-Capital Prefecture. By the Tang Assembled Essentials: Empress Wu, in the second year of Chuigong, the first day of the seventh month, enfeoffed the Eastern Marchmount KING OF THE DIVINE MARCHMOUNT AT HEAVEN'S CENTER; in the first year of Wansui-Tongtian, the first day of the fourth month, honored him LORD EQUAL-TO-HEAVEN. Xuanzong, in the thirteenth year of Kaiyuan, augmented it KING EQUAL-TO-HEAVEN; Zhenzong of Song, in the first year of Dazhong-Xiangfu, the fifteenth day of the tenth month, decreed the enfeoffment: KING OF THE EASTERN MARCHMOUNT, EQUAL-TO-HEAVEN, HUMANE AND SAGE; and in the fourth year of Xiangfu, a day of the fifth month, honored him with the thearch-title: GREAT THEARCH OF THE EASTERN MARCHMOUNT, EQUAL-TO-HEAVEN, HUMANE AND SAGE — with the EMPRESS SHUMING, the Pure-and-Bright. The Sage Dynasty augmented the two characters GREAT LIFE, the rest of the enfeoffment as before.

The Thearch has five sons: the MARQUIS OF PROCLAIMED NUMEN; the MARQUIS OF GRACIOUS NUMEN, with the LADY OF CONCORD AND GRACE; the MOST SAGE KING OF BLAZING NUMEN, with the LADY OF ETERNAL PEACE; the HONORED MASTER WHO DWELLS IN HUMANENESS AND EXHAUSTS THE MIRROR; and the MARQUIS OF PROTECTING NUMEN, with the LADY OF PURE GRACE. The Thearch has one daughter: the JADE MAIDEN GREAT IMMORTAL — she is the Jade Immortal Niangniang of the Peak of Great Peace on Daiyue, Mount Tai.

The Most Sage King of Blazing Numen — 至聖炳靈王

Blazing Numen is the Sage Thearch's third son. Tang Taizong augmented him GENERAL OF AWESOME VALOR; Song Taizong enfeoffed him DUKE OF BLAZING NUMEN ABOVE-WU; and in the first year of Dazhong-Xiangfu, the twenty-fifth day of the second month, he was enfeoffed THE MOST SAGE KING OF BLAZING NUMEN.

The True Lord Who Aids the Holy — 佑聖真君

The True Lord Who Aids the Holy: the True Lord was surnamed Mao, tabooed name Ying, a man of Xianyang by Chang'an. From youth he left the family to call at the famous mountains and cavern-prefectures; he met the Lord Wang, who bestowed the art of long life; and having attained the Way he was styled a heaven-immortal. At the court of Emperor Ming of Han, in the third year of Yishuo, a heaven-writing suddenly descended, all in jade seal-script and dragon graphs, saying: the Great Thearch's TRUE LORD PROTECTOR OF LIFE signs the registers of life and death together with the Sage Thearch and jointly administers the affairs of the dark prefecture. Song Taizong enfeoffed him TRUE LORD WHO AIDS THE HOLY, and Zhenzong augmented it: NINE-HEAVEN CONTROLLER OF DESTINIES, UPPER BUREAU, CONFERRER OF BLESSINGS, TRUE LORD WHO AIDS THE HOLY.

The Southern Marchmount — 南嶽

The Southern Marchmount is Mount Heng — at Hengshan county in Hengzhou — with Mount Huo for its reserve-heir. Dongfang Shuo's Classic of the Divine and Strange says: the god's surname is Chong, his tabooed name Tan. The Southern Marchmount presides over the portioned fields of the stars and asterisms in the world, together with the affairs of the scaled and shelled, the water-tribes, dragons and fish. In the fourth year of Dazhong-Xiangfu, the twenty-fifth day of the fifth month, he was honored with the thearch-title: THEARCH WHO CONTROLS HEAVEN AND MAKES THE HOLY RADIANT, with the EMPRESS JINGMING, the Bright-Prospect. The Sage Dynasty augmented the two characters GREAT TRANSFORMATION, the rest of the enfeoffment as before.

The Western Marchmount — 西嶽

The Western Marchmount is Mount Hua — at Huayin county in Huazhou — with Mount Taibai for its reserve-heir. Dongfang Shuo's Classic of the Divine and Strange says: the god's surname is Shan, his tabooed name Lei. The Western Marchmount has charge over the world's gold, silver, copper, iron — the kinds of the five metals — smelting, casting, pit and furnace; together with the affairs of the feathered and winged birds. In the fourth year of Dazhong-Xiangfu, the fifth day of the fifth month, he was honored with the thearch-title: THEARCH OF THE METAL HEAVEN, COMPLIANT AND HOLY, with the EMPRESS SUMING, the Grave-and-Bright. The Sage Dynasty augmented the two characters GREAT BENEFIT, the rest of the enfeoffment as before.

The Northern Marchmount — 北嶽

The Northern Marchmount is Mount Heng — at Quyang county in Dingzhou — with Mount Kongtong for its reserve-heir. Dongfang Shuo's Classic of the Divine and Strange says: the god's surname is Chen, his tabooed name E. The Northern Marchmount presides, in the world, over the Jiang, the He, the Huai, and the Ji; over tiger and leopard and the running beasts; over serpents, vipers, and the kinds of crawling things. In the fourth year of Dazhong-Xiangfu, the fifth day of the fifth month, he was honored with the thearch-title: THEARCH WHO SETTLES HEAVEN, DARK AND HOLY, with the EMPRESS JINGMING, the Still-and-Bright. The Sage Dynasty augmented the two characters GREAT TRUTH, the rest of the enfeoffment as before.

The Central Marchmount — 中嶽

The Central Marchmount is Mount Song — at Dengfeng county in the Henan prefecture of the Western Capital — with Mount Shaoshi for its reserve-heir. Dongfang Shuo's Classic of the Divine and Strange says: the god's surname is Yun, his tabooed name Shan. The Central Marchmount presides, in the world, over the kinds of ground and marsh, stream and valley, ditch and channel, mountain forest and tree. In the fourth year of Dazhong-Xiangfu, the fifth day of the fifth month, he was honored with the thearch-title: THEARCH OF THE CENTRAL HEAVEN, EXALTED AND HOLY, with the EMPRESS ZHENGMING, the Correct-and-Bright. The Sage Dynasty augmented the two characters GREAT PEACE, the rest of the enfeoffment as before.

The Four Great Rivers — 四瀆

THE JIANG. The River-Lord of the Jiang is the grandee Qu Yuan of Chu. Under the Tang he was first enfeoffed a two-character Duke; the Song augmented it to a four-character Duke; the Sage Dynasty augmented the four-character kingly title: KING OF THE BROAD SOURCE AND COMPLIANT CROSSING.

THE HE. The River-Lord of the Yellow River is Chen Ping of Han. Under the Tang, first a two-character Duke; the Song augmented a four-character Duke; the Sage Dynasty augmented the four-character kingly title: KING OF THE NUMINOUS SOURCE AND VAST CROSSING.

THE HUAI. The River-Lord of the Huai is Pei Shuo of Tang. Under the Tang, first a two-character Duke; the Song augmented a four-character Duke; the Sage Dynasty augmented the four-character kingly title: KING OF THE LONG SOURCE AND BROAD CROSSING.

THE JI. The River-Lord of the Ji is the grandee Wu — Zixu — of Chu. Under the Tang, first a two-character Duke; the Song augmented a four-character Duke; the Sage Dynasty augmented the four-character kingly title: KING OF THE CLEAR SOURCE AND HAN CROSSING.

The Great Sage of Sizhou — 泗州大聖

The Great Master Sengqie of Sizhou the world calls a response-transformation of the Great Being Guanyin. Trace him to the root: in the past, kalpas of asaṃkhyeya-sands ago, he attended on the Thus-Come Observer-of-the-World's-Sounds, entering the Way by the three gates of wisdom, making the Buddha's work by means of sound — and for the sake of the bonded multitude, so it is said, the Great Master came from the Western Kingdoms. In the time of Gaozong of Tang he arrived at Chang'an and Luoyang, walking his transforming mission through Wu and Chu, a willow-branch in his hand, mingled among the black-robed. Someone asked the Master: "What is your surname?" — and he answered: "My surname is What." Asked again: "What country's man is the Master?" — the Master said: "I am a What-country man."

Presently, upon the Si, he wished to raise a saṃghārāma; and the commoner He Ba of Suzhou gave his dwelling for the site. The Master said: "This was of old a Buddha-precinct." They dug the ground and found indeed an ancient stele — of the Fragrant-Accumulation Temple founded under the Northern Qi — and they recovered a golden image besides. The crowd called it the Thus-Come Lamplighter; the Master said: "It is the Buddha King of Universal Radiance." And that became the temple's name-board. In the second year of Jinglong, Zhongzong sent an envoy to welcome the Great Master to the capital, honoring him deeply, and lodged him by particular command at the Jianfu Temple; the emperor and the hundred officials all styled themselves his disciples, and with him were ordained Huiyan, Hui'an, and Mucha, the three. The emperor wrote the temple's name-board with his own hand: TEMPLE OF THE KING OF UNIVERSAL RADIANCE. On the third day of the third month the Great Master showed his extinction; by decree his body was lacquered at the Jianfu Temple and a stupa raised. Suddenly a true fragrance filled the city. The emperor prayed, escorting the Master home to Linhuai; the words spoken, a strange fragrance leapt up rich and thick. The emperor asked Wanhui: "The Great Master Sengqie — what man is he?" He said: "A transformation-body of Guanyin, no more." In the Qianfu era he was given the posthumous title GREAT MASTER WITNESS-OF-HOLINESS.

The Rise and Course of the Five Saints — 五聖始末

According to the Collected Numinous Responses of the Ancestral Hall: the gods who are the five Dukes of Manifestation have had their root and beginning in heaven-and-earth together from the first. In the Guangqi era of Tang they descended upon this town — the records set nothing down, so that after-comers have nothing to examine; only the grieving elders pass it mouth to mouth. A townsman, Wang Yu, had a garden north of the wall; and one evening red light from the garden lit the sky. The townsfolk flocked to see: five divine men descending from heaven, their outriders and dignities as of kings and marquises — yellow robes, black silk cords, seated on folding chairs. Then they spoke to Yu: "We bear Heaven's mandate: we are to feed in this quarter, blessing and protecting these people. Searching the fair and seeking the secluded we came, and here we stop. Give us temple-food here, and you too shall be kept past worry." Yu bowed his head: "As you command." The words done, dhyāna-cloud went to the four quarters and the gods ascended.

Next day the townsfolk came to survey the site: Mount Fang on its east, Mount Pei its west; left, it wreathes the Apricot School; right, it winds the Snake Wall; two pools south and north, and before it the seated rock where the great creek comes out, coiling and winding westward down; two peaks singular and fine, lofty-poised at the water-mouth — a fair place in good earnest. So together they set hand to it: cut bamboo, mowed the grass, made a splendid house, set up the images to their likenesses, and installed the numina in that place. Far and near heard of it, gathering like fish-schools, converging like spokes; and from then on, when the gods came down, there was merit toward the state and blessing on this people, made manifest at every season.

At first the temple bore the title Wutong — the Five Powers. In the Daguan era it was first granted the temple name-board NUMINOUS-COMPLIANT; in the Xuanhe years, enfeoffed two-character Marquises; in Shaoxing, augmented four-character Marquises; in the Qiandao years, eight-character Marquises; at the start of Chunxi, two-character Dukes; in the jiachen year, four-character Dukes; in the eleventh year, six-character Dukes; in the first year of Qingyuan, eight-character Kings... — in Jiatai's second year, two-character Kings; in the first year of Jingding, four-character Kings; and for their repeated hidden aid on the Left-of-the-Jiang, six-character Kings; and in the sixth year, the eleventh month, the notice came down enfeoffing them eight-character Kings. Lizong changed and enfeoffed the eight-character kingly titles:

FIRST SEAT: KING MANIFEST-ASTUTE, RADIANT-RESPONSE, NUMINOUS-ARRIVAL, BROAD CROSSING — with the LADY MANIFEST-FELICITY, CONCORDANT-KINDNESS, RADIANT AID.
SECOND SEAT: KING MANIFEST-BRIGHT, RADIANT-RANKED, NUMINOUS-GUARD, BROAD PROTECTION — with the LADY MANIFEST-KINDNESS, CONCORDANT-FELICITY, GOOD AID.
THIRD SEAT: KING MANIFEST-CORRECT, RADIANT-COMPLIANT, NUMINOUS-WARD, BROAD GRACE — with the LADY MANIFEST-CROSSING, CONCORDANT-PROTECTION, CORRECT AID.
FOURTH SEAT: KING MANIFEST-STRAIGHT, RADIANT-PROTECTION, NUMINOUS-GIFT, BROAD BOUNTY — with the LADY MANIFEST-PROTECTION, CONCORDANT-CROSSING, GLAD AID.
FIFTH SEAT: KING MANIFEST-VIRTUE, RADIANT-BENEFIT, NUMINOUS-HELP, BROAD COMPLETION — with the LADY MANIFEST-BLESSING, CONCORDANT-LOVE, STILL AID.

The Kings' grandfather: MARQUIS OPENER-OF-PROTECTION, GLAD-RESPONSE, SPREADER-OF-BOUNTY; their grandmother: LADY OVERFLOWING-FELICITY, AID-COMPLIANT, KINDLY GIFT. The Kings' father: MARQUIS BROAD-KINDNESS, MERCIFUL-CROSSING, SQUARE DUTY; their mother: LADY EXALTED-BLESSING, MERCIFUL-CROSSING, FELICITOUS GOODNESS. Elder sister: LADY GLAD-RESPONSE, AIDING-KINDNESS, PURE MANIFESTATION; younger sister: LADY EXCELLENT-COMPLIANCE, BLESSED PURITY, QUIET MANIFESTATION.

As for the two gods who serve as their under-clerks — it will be that the five Dukes, being now exalted, did not wish to startle men's ears and eyes with weal and woe in person, and so committed it to these two to administer: the Yellow-Robed Daoist, and the Purple-Robed Grand Master Yuanjue. Then: Marquis Shi, Numinous-Support and Good-Aid; Marquis Bian, Compliant-Support and Kind-Aid; Marquis Zhou, Responsive-Support and Aid-Compliant; Temple-Aide Linghu; the Marshal Wang Nian'er; Grand Guardian Gao of the Salute; Inspector Hu Hundred-Two of the Salute; Commander-General Hu Jingyi, Chief of the Salute; Grand Guardian Huang of the Salute; Grand Guardian Wang of the Salute; the two Golden-Guard Grand Envoys; and the Judge Who Rewards Good and Punishes Evil.

Dayou once read the god-tradition composed at Zhongshan, and learned that the name of the Duke of Peace-and-Joy stems from Yunju, but grieved it was not detailed. Lately, borrowing an errand to Jianchang, I went on purpose to inquire at the mountain seat, met an elder, and he told the whole matter: Once a Sima-dhūta came to the mountain's south, called Jade-Field, and saw the dhyāna-master Daorong, and said to Rong: "I have sought this mountain fifteen years, following its ridge up from the Southern Marchmount. If we can win this excellent ground, I would spread the Buddha's proclamation here with a dhyāna-seat." That night he dreamed five divine men came and said: "He who seeks the pearl must enter the ninefold deep; he who wants the treasure must climb the ten-thousand-fathom crest — above there is easy roaming and level ground, grand indeed." At dawn the Sima had woodsmen open a path up the mountain: a white deer, a flower in its mouth, led the way; up from the transverse ridge some hundreds of paces the ground lay level as a palm — and suddenly the five divine men appeared: "This place is where we disciples and our kin dwell. We disciples receive the Buddha and have no more use for it: we now gladly give this place up, to continue the Buddha's wisdom-life. Should anything lack, we disciples will supply it." Rong straightway founded on that ground and built the temple; and three days after, the five appeared again before him. Rong asked: "Giving this up, where will you go?" The gods answered: "The withered tree on the rear mountain — there we can lodge." One day Rong went to thank them, and the divine men came forth indeed out of the withered torreya tree. Rong asked: "Are you at peace and joy?" The divine men said: "We disciples, our whole clan, are at peace and joy." From this the mountain god and the tree both got the name PEACE-AND-JOY. Rong was a man of Mazu's time. At the start of Yuanhe under Xianzong of Tang the temple was finished and named Dragon-Flourishing; in the third year of Zhonghe under Xizong, the dhyāna-master Hongjue, Daoying, entered the mountain, opened the hall, and unfolded the Law — and five elders would ever come to listen. One day Hongjue asked: "What men are you, sirs?" They answered: "Alms-patrons from before the mountain" — and with the words, departed. Hongjue had a man watch where they went: at a little pool on the mountain's flank they went suddenly in, and were seen no more. To this day people call it the Pool of the Five Dragons.

Guisi year, the sixth of Shaoding, third month, third day: reverently written by Zhang Dayou of Song, Gentleman of Continued Grade.

According to what Hu Sheng set down in his Gazetteer of Xingyuan: when Sheng was a boy he still saw a small stele that carried this matter; then Wuyuan and Dexing fell to quarreling over the ancestral temple and it was carted away, and where it survives is now unknown. Someone said: "The god-shrines of our dynasty appear in the Assembled Essentials, and every surname may be examined — only this god has no surname. Why?" Sheng said: "That which is done with none doing it — this is what we mean by gods and spirits. In the Rites of Zhou, the Lesser Master of the Ancestral Temple laid the altars of the Five Thearchs at the four suburbs; the Han ordinances sacrificed to the Five Sacrifices; our Song court set the seats of the Five-Quarter Thearchs in the Bright Hall at vast Heaven's side, with the five Men-Thearchs and five Office-Gods attending — all of these are the true breaths of the Five Phases. For the Five Phases are the utmost pole of what enters into all between heaven and earth, and there must be those who preside as masters over them: hence Xuanming, hence Zhurong, hence Goumang, hence Rushou, hence Houtu — all named toward water, fire, metal, wood, and earth. Now these five gods' descent here — is it not their silent aiding of the Five Phases' creative transformation, to bless the living people? Yet some will have it the Five Saints are the WUTONG — and no right gods. Alas! — names and realities undistinguished, precedents unknown, and mere loose opining let run: folly indeed. For in the first year of Zhenghe of our dynasty, the first month, it was decreed to demolish the Wutong and the 'Right General' and suchlike wanton shrines; and by the fifth year of Xuanhe our Five Saints received precisely the enfeoffments of Tongkuang and the like as Marquises. Across those ten-odd years, THAT crookedness was cast down and THIS rightness exalted — as plain as plain. Can the two still be discussed as one? It comes only of village elders' chance embroidery upon the tale that the Buddha has six powers and his disciples five — whence later men's doubt. Every year on the eighth of the fourth month our county founds the great Zhishan-Wu'ai fast; from the four quarters and beyond the seas they come converging, keeping the fast-vigil with utmost strictness — and no shape of force drives them to it. Our dynasty's patents of praise and enfeoffment are all stored in the county treasury; in the second year of Jiatai were repeatedly granted five fans of imperial calligraphy, and a special bureau was set in the temple to keep them."

Reverently written by Hu Sheng, Gentleman of the Honored-Salary, collator of the whole text of the State History and Veritable Records of Song.

Wanhui, Duke of the State of Guo — 萬廻虢國公

Wanhui, Duke of the State of Guo, was a man of Wenxiang in Guozhou, surnamed Zhang, born in the sixth year of Zhenguan of Tang, the fifth day of the fifth month. He was born witless-simple; only at eight or nine could he speak — whistling, haughty, as one mad, and the neighborhood could not fathom him. One day he bade the household go home ahead: "A superior guest is coming." That day Tripiṭaka Xuanzang, returned from the Western Kingdoms, called on him. The Duke asked after the winds and bounds of India as one who had seen them with his own eyes; Zang made reverence and circumambulated him, declaring: "This is a bodhisattva."

He had an elder brother, Wannian, on campaign with their father east of the Liao; his mother, née Cheng, pined for word of him. The Duke said: "Nothing easier!" — told his mother, and went; by dusk he was back, bearing a letter — and the neighbors marveled. He was familiar from boyhood with the śramaṇa Daming of the Tongxing temple, coming and going in Master Ming's cell. Now the Grand Remonstrancer Ming Chongyan, passing the temple by night, saw divine soldiery attending the Duke to left and right; startled, Chongyan said nothing — only gave Master Ming rich alms of gold and silk, made reverence, and departed. In the fourth year of Xianheng, Gaozong summoned him within; Empress Wu bestowed the brocade robe and jade belt. At that time there was a monk of Fufeng, Mengyuan, of many numinous traces, already within the palace, who kept saying: "Hui is coming, Hui is coming" — and when the Duke arrived, said: "My replacement is here; I should go" — and within ten days he died. In the second year of Jingyun, the eighth day of the twelfth month, the Master died at Chang'an, his years eighty; a strange fragrance misted from the whole body. In Song times he was specially granted MINISTER OF WORKS, DUKE OF THE STATE OF GUO, the funeral furnished by the office; on the fifteenth day of the first month of the fifth year he was interred at the Fragrant-Accumulation Temple of the capital.

The True Lord Xu — 許真君

Xu Xun, styled Jingzhi, was a man of Nanchang, born in the second year of Chiwu of Wu, the twenty-eighth day of the first month. His mother first dreamed a golden phoenix, a pearl in its beak, dropped it into her bosom — and she was with child. His father was Xu Su; grandfather and forebears had longed after the utmost Way. At the capping-age the True Lord took for master the Great-Cavern True Lord Wu Meng, who transmitted the Law of the Three Clarities; he ranged broadly through the classics and histories, was raised Filial-and-Incorrupt, and was appointed magistrate of Jingyang in Shu. With the disorder of Jin he cast off office, and roamed with Lord Wu east of the Jiang. It fell that Wang Dun raised his rebellion; the two lords, under cover of talismans and spells, sought audience with Dun, meaning to stop Dun and preserve Jin. One day, together with Guo Pu, they waited on Dun. Dun, hoarding his anger, received them: "I dreamed last night I bore a single tree up, and it broke open the sky. Shall the usurping of the throne prosper whole and entire? I beg you gentlemen to round the dream." Xu said: "The dream is not auspicious." He said: "A tree above, breaking the sky, is the character WEI — 'not yet': your excellency may not yet stir at random." He had Pu divine the milfoil besides; Pu said it was formed the same. Dun asked his own span; Pu said: "Raise this affair, and calamity comes not long hence. Stay at Wuchang, and your span cannot be measured." Dun, furious: "And what is YOUR span?" He said: "My span ends this very day." Dun ordered the guards to seize Pu and take him to execution. The two lords, at wine with Dun, thereupon hid their forms and left.

At the mouth of the Lu river they hailed a boat for Jinling; the boatman excused himself — no crew to work the vessel. The two lords said: "Only carry us; I shall sail her myself" — and charged the boatman: "Shut your hatch fast and stay hid; if you hear the boat go, take care not to peep." So he went below; and in a quarter-hour the boatman heard the boat shudder and shake with a sound of leaves — and secretly peeped: two DRAGONS were bearing the boat — to the very crest of Purple-Empyrean Peak! Knowing themselves spied on, they set the boat down and left it. The two lords said: "You did not keep faith with our charge — and now we are come to THIS. What's to be done?" So they had the boatman hide the boat on that peak-top, taught him to eat the numinous herb, and conferred the arts of the divine immortals. The boat's remains survive there to this day.

Afterward the True Lord, in Yuzhang, met a youth of trim and ordered bearing who called himself Shen. The True Lord talked with him and knew him for no human kind. When he had gone, he told his disciples: "That youth is the flood-dragon shen-sprite. I am mindful that Jiangxi has suffered flood on flood for his harm; if he is not cut away, I fear he will slip the net." So he lifted the eye of the Way and glanced once — and saw the sprite transformed into a yellow ox on the sandbar north. The True Lord told his disciple Shi Taiyu: "That is he. I shall now transform into a BLACK ox, and wear a white kerchief to fight him — mark it so; and you, when we close, cut him with the sword." In a moment the two oxen ran goring; Taiyu's sword took the yellow ox in the left thigh, and it dove into the well west of the wall; the black ox went in after; the shen-sprite ran straight on. Now the sprite had earlier, at Tanzhou, transformed into a keen-witted youth, rich in pearls and treasures, and married the daughter of Prefect Jia Yu; whenever he traveled the rivers and lakes, he came home laden with treasure-goods; this time he came home empty — "wounded by robbers," said he. In a little the porter announced: a Daoist, Xu Jingzhi, to see the Prefect. Jia came out and seated him. The True Lord said: "I hear your excellency has gained a fine son-in-law — I should like a look at him." Shen pled illness and would not come out. The True Lord cried in a stern voice: "FLOOD-DRAGON SPRITE, OLD FIEND — dare you hide your form!" And the dragon, its true shape resumed, came below the hall; he commanded the spirits of the air, and it was slain. Then he had the two children brought; the True Lord spurted water on them, and they became little shen-dragons. The wife, Lady Jia, for her father and mother's earnest pleading, was spared. He bade them dig below the house: a fathom down, all was water-line; and he bade them move in haste — and in a moment the official residence sank and became a pool, every trace as he had said.

After the dragon was cut away, in the second year of Taikang of Eastern Jin, on the first day of the eighth month, at West Mountain in Hongzhou, with his whole household — he ascended in broad daylight. After the True Lord's flight-ascension, the people of the place, with the True Lord's clansmen, raised a shrine on that ground; and the hundred and twenty poems he left they wrote upon bamboo slips, stored in a great tube, and let men draw them out to settle fair and foul fortune: these are called the HOLY LOTS. Huizong of Song, in the second year of Zhenghe, the seventeenth day of the fifth month, offered up the honored title TRUE LORD OF DIVINE MERIT AND WONDROUS CROSSING, changed his abbey to a palace, and granted the name-board JADE-FLOURISHING TEN-THOUSAND-LONGEVITIES. For the emperor, reading in the Chongzheng hall, dazed as in a dream, saw north of the Donghua gate a Daoist wearing the Nine-Flower crown and deep-crimson robe of a lad, his train exceeding many, who came to the cinnabar courtyard, raised his tablet, and saluted the emperor. The emperor asked: "Who are you, sir, that come unsummoned?" He answered: "I am Xu of Jingyang, holding by commission the office of the Nine Heavens' Controller; the Highest Thearch's edict sends me to inspect the kingdom of Western Quye, and my road lies through my old country." The emperor asked further: "We suffer an anxi sore, and no medicine avails. Have you, True Lord, a remedy?" He took out a little gourd and tipped from it one grain of medicine, big as a green pea, breathed a spell on it, and smeared it on the sore — and it felt as flowing curd poured through the body, cool to the very bone. He saluted and went; a few steps, then turned his head: "My shabby dwelling has long lain fallen and bare. Might the Sage Sovereign lift his eyes to it once — such fortune!" The emperor woke with a start; decreed a portrait painted after the dream-image, bestowed at the Shangqing Chuxiang palace with honors; and decreed that wherever the True Lord's traces lay without palace or abbey, the local office's funds should build them; where palaces stood decayed, repair them per the pattern; where no endowment stood, allot the convenient public fields for their provision. The Sage Dynasty's devotion augmented the four characters REACHING-THE-WAY, DARK-RESPONSE; the rest of the enfeoffment as before.

The poem says:

Age after age the world brings forth immortals —
but where's the like of Jingyang, whole house plucked up to heaven?
Count on your fingers down a thousand years:
there should be one yet who swallows the phoenix-pearl.

The paired inscription:

Three feet of Dragon-Spring chase the remnant soul through the ghost-dark thousand-year gorge;
one rod of iron pillar locks fast the West Jiang through ten thousand autumns. — Presented for the taking of the fiend-dragon.

The Dhyāna-Master Baozhi — 寶誌禪師

The dhyāna-master Baozhi appeared in form in the Yuanjia era of Song, in an old tree's hawk-nest at Dongyang town. Goodwife Zhu heard a child crying in the nest, took him and reared him — whence his surname Zhu — and gave her house for a temple. From boyhood he left the family, attached to the Daolin temple on Zhongshan. He ever bore one tin staff, hung with knife and footrule and mirror and whisk and the like, or with an ell or two of cloth; days on end he took no food, yet bore no starving look. At times he sang and chanted, and his words were mostly prophecy-records; gentry and commons all served him together. In the Jianyuan era of Qi, Emperor Wu, holding that the master deluded the multitude, took and committed him to the Jiankang prison — and long after, men SAW him walking the market; yet when they checked the prison, there he was as before. The prefect of Jiankang reported it; the emperor invited him to the rear hall within the palace, keeping him in the Hualin garden. Suddenly one day the master put on three cloth caps, one atop another — whence he had got them none knew — and shortly the Prince of Yuzhang and the Crown Prince Wenhui died one after the other, and Qi likewise learned by this to prize him; wherefore the master's goings-out and comings-in were barred.

When Gaozu of Liang took the throne, he sent down an edict: "The traces of Master Zhi are bound in the dust and grime; his spirit wanders the dark stillness. Water and fire cannot scorch or wet him; snake and tiger cannot trespass or affright. Speak of his Buddha-pattern, and he is a sound-hearer above the highest; speak of his hidden sinking, and he is a lofty escaped-immortal. How should vulgar men, with their common feelings, hold him in empty constraint? How mean and shallow was that folly! From this day let there be no more barring." Once the master sealed a dish before the emperor — the emperor was eating minced fish — and said: "You have not known the taste these twenty years and more. Why do you do this, master?" — and the master spat out little fish, scale and tail unharmed: what Jiankang keeps to this day as the "leavings-of-the-mince fish" is this.

When the Empress Chi died, some months after, the emperor mourned her without cease — by day dulled and joyless, by night wakeful, unsleeping. As he kept the sleeping-hall he heard a rustle without, looked — and saw a python coiling its way up into the hall, glaring eyes, gaping mouth, making toward the emperor. The emperor, in great alarm and nowhere to flee, could only start up and address the snake: "Our palace is under strict watch and ward — no place for the birth of your serpent-kind. Surely you are a fiend-sprite come to work Us harm?" And the python spoke with human words, declaring to the emperor: "The python is the Chi of former days. Your handmaid, when alive, was jealous of the six palaces, her nature cruel and venomous: at one burst of anger, as if fire blazed and arrows flew, harming things and hurting men. For that sin she was degraded into a python. No food or drink to fill her mouth, no den or crack to shelter her body; hunger and want press her past strength; and under every scale the gnawing of small worms at her flesh is as awl-blades. Nor is she a common snake — she has changed and come, counting the majesty of the imperial dwelling no barrier — moved by the sovereign's old kindness to his handmaid in the days gone; therefore in this ugly frame she lays herself bare before the Thearch, praying for one work of merit, that she may be lifted out." The emperor heard it and cried aloud, shaken to the core; in a moment he sought the python — gone.

Next day he gathered the śramaṇas of the court in the palace hall, laid out the cause, and asked what deed were highest to redeem her. The master answered: "Nothing will serve but to worship the Buddha in penitence and wash the sorrow clean." The emperor took his word: they searched the Buddha-scriptures, copied out the name-titles, and the emperor himself, drawing on his sage thought and wielding the holy brush, composed the text of repentance — ten scrolls in all, every phrase culled from the Buddha's words, every idle word cut away — and made for her the rite of penitence. And one day a strange fragrance rose rich within the palace, long and ever finer, none knowing whence it came; the emperor looked up — and saw a heaven-being of fair and gracious form, who said to him: "I am the python's after-body. By the Thearch's merit I have already been raised to birth in the Trayastriṃśa heaven; and I show my present body to give you the plain proof." Earnestly she rendered thanks; the words ended, she was gone. This appears in the preface to the Liang Emperor Wu's Repentance.

In the winter of the thirteenth year of Tianjian of Liang, nearing his end, the master suddenly told the assembled monks to move the temple's Vajra-guardian image and set it outside — and said privately to men: "The Bodhisattva is about to go." Before ten days were out, without sickness, he ended. His whole body was fragrant and soft; his years in the world ninety-seven. The emperor paid three thousand thousand-strings for the Lone-Dragon knoll before the Dinglin temple, and buried the master there; and with the bath-and-toilette revenues of Princess Yong­ding raised a seven-storey stupa above him. The emperor commanded Lu Chui to make the inscription; crystal pearls were given to adorn the stupa-front. In the seventh year of Baoda of Southern Tang the title was augmented WONDROUS AWAKENING, the stupa named ANSWERING-THE-AGE. In the seventh year of Taiping-Xingguo, Song Taizong's reign, Ke E, a man of Shu county, met an old monk who went with him to Ten-Thousand-Years Mountain and pointed beneath an ancient pine; they dug, and found a stone seal-inscription — Lord Bao's record, a text of the Sage Fortune's long endurance. Thereupon an envoy was sent to render thanks, and he was given the posthumous title LORD BAO OF WONDROUS AWAKENING; at the start of Zhiping the title was changed again: GREAT MASTER TRUE-AWAKENING OF THE DAOLIN. By the Veritable Records of Jiankang, the Wenshan temple kept Zhigong's sandals; at the start of Shenlong of Tang, Zheng Kejun took them home to Chang'an. The Bowl-Washing Pool survives: the square pool at the old Fayun temple, two li west of the stupa, is it.

The Sixth Patriarch Lu — 盧六祖

The Sixth Patriarch Lu, named Huineng, was a man of Shaozhou prefecture in Guangdong. Studying the Buddha, he found the water of Caoxi fragrant, and upon that ground would choose a seat of the Way. He begged of the landowner: "Only so much ground as one kasaya will cover suffices." The landowner consented — and he spread the kasaya to a compass of eighty li: the Sixth Patriarch's seat of the Way on Mount Nanhua today is that very ground. From his seated transformation in the reign of Xuanzong of Tang down to now is six hundred years and more, and the flesh-body survives entire, incense-smoke fuming rich about it, the face like black lacquer-light. In the year bingzi of Zhiyuan, soldiers of the Han army bored into his belly with a keen blade — and seeing heart and liver as of a living man, dared trespass no further. The robe and bowl were all carted north, and have since been returned: there is the kasaya of Xuanzong's own bestowal, woven with a pale landscape; there is the Western-Heaven bowl, neither bronze nor iron, neither wood nor stone; there are the Western-Heaven sandals, neither hide nor wood — what stuff they are none can tell; there are sixteen or seventeen leaves of the Lotus Sutra; there is a Buddha-tooth, kept in a little silver casket. Of old a fiend-dragon held the deep pool there and plagued the people. The Sixth Patriarch said: "I only fear you cannot turn SMALL." The dragon turned small indeed — and he scooped it up in his alms-bowl. It dried to a husk in the temple, and long after was still preserved.

The Three True Lords Mao — 三茅真君

The Inner Tradition of the Perfected of Grand Mystery says in sum: the Perfected was surnamed Mao, of the southern outskirts of Xianyang. The sage ancestor, tabooed name Xi, styled Gonglun, served King Zhuangxiang of Qin and was Marquis of Guangxin; his father, sixth son of the Marquis's brother, tabooed name Zuo, styled Yanying, had three sons: the eldest, tabooed name Ying, styled Shushen; the second, Gu, styled Jiwei; the youngest, Zhong, styled Sihe.

Ying, at eighteen, quit the family for Mount Heng, reading the book of Laozi and the Zhouyi traditions, gathering mountain atractylis for his food. Six years in, he dreamed by night the Jade Maiden of Grand Mystery took his hand with a jade tablet and said: "The Lord Wang of the Western Wall has attained the true Way — he may be your master." At dawn he reverently went to the Western Wall, kept fast and precept three months, and at last saw the Lord Wang driving his team of divine dragons, wheeling in flight on the shaded side of the broidered crag; whereat, over hardship and sheer barrier, before he knew it he was there. The Lord had the guard-officers conduct him in, and far within the Lord Wang's cavern-terrace he served morning and evening in the office of towel and shoe. So passed seventeen days; the Lord Wang, finding him scrupulous and close, set him keeper of the robes, the books, and the chapters of the divine registers. Three years more, and he ordered the carriage to White-Jade Tortoise Mountain, to wait upon the Queen Mother at the Clear-Lin palace, the lord attending. The Queen Mother of the West said: "Master-of-All-Perfected — hauling a flesh-and-blood man up the numinous terrace: is that not labor?" The Lord Wang smiled and did not answer; whereupon our lord rose, bowed twice, and himself set forth his prayer for the art of long life. The Queen Mother said: "Of old my first teachers, the Primal-Beginning Heaven-King and the Great Thearch-Lord of Fusang, in idle session at the Terrace of Xilin, in the chamber of Heaped-Empyrean, expounded the Way of the dark-of-the-dark, and left me their words of the essentials: the Way called Jade-Pendant-and-Gold-Ring, the Scripture of the Grand Ultimate's Dark Truth." Our lord bowed and received what she spoke; the Queen Mother charged the Jade Lord to unfold and expound the dark-dark scripture clause by clause, and herself decreed the text of the Gold Ring brought forth, declaring it to our lord by mouth. The charge received and the words done, the Jade Lord took him back to the Western Wall; he pressed the pattern and practiced it, and within three years his color was as a girl's, his eyes held flowing light, his face put forth jade sheen. The Lord Wang then bestowed two doses of the ninefold-cycled returned elixir and one chief divine formula, telling him: "The Way is achieved; you may go back. In a hundred years seek me at the Southern Marchmount; there you shall be given your immortal office, in Wu and Yue."

So he took leave of his master and returned, being then forty-nine. His father and mother yet lived; seeing him, the father blazed: "An unfilial son! — never at hand to serve and feed us, chasing goblin-nonsense, drifting the four quarters!" — and would flog him. Our lord knelt long and excused himself: "Ying received the mandate and was bound to attain the Way; the Way is now achieved, and he may not be beaten — I fear the Three Officials' examiners would count it no small matter." The father disbelieved, seized the staff and came on — and as the staff went up it shattered of itself into numbered lengths, and the lengths flew like arrows off the bow, piercing the wall through, sinking into the pillar; and the father woke to it and dared not strike, and his anger ceased. Then the father said: "You say you have the Way — can you raise the dead?" Our lord said: "If the dead man's sins are heavy and his evil heaped, he cannot live again; but for those cut off untimely, their span broken short, I can make them rise." So he summoned the Altar-Lord — the village god — and asked who in this village of the lately dead might be recalled, and pressed for the documents of the case to send them forth. After sundown the Altar-Lord came to report: "Such-a-one's case is settled; he may be sent out." So they dug the ground and drew the coffin, lifted him out, and in three days he could sit; his speech was clear and whole. In this fashion he raised the dead of several houses, and every one returned to life; and the countryside far and near all styled our lord the LORD OF DIVINE BRIGHTNESS. Ten years on, his father and mother both died; he performed the mourning rites according to the Rites.

The middle brother Gu, in the time of Emperor Jing of Han, was raised Filial-and-Incorrupt, and climbed office on office to Grand Warden of Wuwei; the youngest, Zhong, famed young for scrupulous conduct, was honored guest of the Filial Prince at Liang; in the second year of Dijie under Emperor Xuan he was shifted to magistrate of Luoyang, then appointed Grandee of the Five Chancellors, transferred Grand Warden of Xihe. [Gu was then Bearer of the Gilded Mace; and as the two set out, the ministers, elders, and children seeing them off were several hundred. Our lord too sat among them, and said: "Though I never sat as Two-Thousand-Bushels or minister, I too hold a numinous office: on the third day of the fourth month of next year I take up my post. Will you gentlemen be able to come then and look on me, gathered as today?" The assembled guests all promised. When the day came, the several qing of ground before the gate leveled themselves — not an inch of stubble left, all roofed as with green gauze, room under it for hundreds to sit; near and far in a blaze of wonder told one another, and the comers choked the road. All were feasted from the master's own board — rare viands, strange service, metal and stone and string and pipe shaking heaven and earth, and none but went home filled and glad. The villagers said this was his way of drawing his two brothers on, to yearn after him. The words done, he mounted the feathered car and floated into the sky. The two brothers then quit office and family; in the fifth year of Yongguang of Emperor Yuan of Han, the sixth day of the third month, they crossed the Jiang and saw their brother at the Eastern Mountain; and meeting so, he taught his two brothers to swallow the green sprout new-born and gulp the liquors of breath; he bestowed on each one dose of the ninefold-cycled returned elixir, and they bowed and swallowed them, and the immortal way was achieved. Our lord then petitioned the Lord Wang, who further granted the dark-water jade-liquor and elixir-mushroom, letting the two brothers, cleansed and crossed, take the drug and eat the mushroom; and that done, with his two brothers he kept the heart-fast three months, then begged of the Blue Lad the writing of names at the Fangzhu palace: their names now on the tablets, they called at the Western Wall cavern-palace for audience with the Master-of-All-Perfected Upper Steward; next at the vermilion terrace of Mount Heng; called on the Grand-Void Red Perfected; returned to Fangzhu to beg the endowment of the earth-immortals' three-perfected office; went to Chicheng to receive the true transforming divine talismans; then to Luohuo to seek the flowered standard and broidered banner; and lastly climbed to the Nine Palaces, arriving beneath the Golden Gate-Towers to receive the Sage Lord's writ. Thus Jiwei holds the title EARTH-TRUE UPPER IMMORTAL, DIVINE LORD SETTLER OF REGISTERS; and Sihe holds the seat of IMMORTAL LORD CONTROLLER OF THE THREE PALACES AND PROTECTOR OF LIFE. In the time of Emperor Ping of Han, the second year of Yuanshou, the eighth month, jiyou: the Heaven-Sovereign Great Thearch conferred on our lord the divine seal and jade lad; the Grand-Tenuity Heaven-Thearch bestowed the eight-dragon brocade canopy and purple-feather flowered robe; the Most High Great Way True Lord bestowed the metal-tiger true talisman and the bell of flowing gold; the Golden-Gate-Tower Sage Lord bestowed the four-node swallow-womb flowing-bright divine mushroom, the long-shining numinous-flight night-light cavern-chapters, and bade him bow and eat them; and the Five Thearch-Lords, following the Great Thearch's command, invested our lord in the rank of PERFECTED OF GRAND MYSTERY, UPPER MINISTER OF THE EASTERN YAMEN, DIVINE LORD CONTROLLER OF DESTINIES, governing the palace as right god of the Chicheng dispensation.] — The bracketed passage is wanting in the Xiyuan collated reprint, and is supplied from the Qing edition of the Western-Marchmount Tianzhu-Kingdom blocks.

The Perfected Man Sa — 薩真人

The Perfected Man Sa, named Shoujian, was a man of Xihe in Shu. Young, he had a heart to aid men and profit creatures; he studied medicine — and by a mistaken drug killed a man; whereat he cast medicine away. Hearing of the thirtieth-generation Celestial Master of Jiangnan, the Elder Void-Stillness, and of the two Palace-Attendants Lin and Wang and their ways of the Law, he set out on foot to take them for masters. By Shaanxi his travel-bag was spent. He met three Daoists coming, who asked where he was bound; he told them why. One said: "The Celestial Master has feathered-and-transformed." He asked after Palace-Attendant Wang: "Transformed likewise." He asked again of Lin Lingsu: "Transformed too." Sa stood desolate. Then one Daoist said: "The PRESENT Celestial Master's law is lofty also; he and I are old acquaintance — I shall write you a character to him; go call on him. And I have one Law to hand you, by which you may keep yourself day to day" — and he conferred the art of the SPELL-CHARMED DATES: "One charmed date fetches seven cash. Charm but ten dates a day, and your seventy cash is one day's keep." The second Daoist said: "I too have a Law to hand you" — and it was the THUNDER LAW. The Perfected received them, took his leave, and used them — and every use was proof. In a day he would charm a hundred dates and more, yet take only his seventy cash for the day's need; the rest he turned to relieving the poor.

Coming to Xinzhou he presented the letter to the Celestial Master — and the whole household wept: it was the Void-Stillness Celestial Master's own hand. The letter said: "I, with Palace-Attendant Wang and Celestial Master Lin, met Lord Sa and have each bestowed one Law upon him. He may be entered on the registers and his name memorialized." Thereafter the Perfected Man's law grew ever greater and more manifest. Once, passing Tanzhou, men heard a god's voice say: "The Perfected Man Provost-of-Justice arrives tomorrow." Next day the people watched for him — and saw only the Perfected come walking with jar and rain-hat; but there was the placard of a PROVOST OF PUNISHMENTS-AND-PRISONS — and they marveled. Going on to Fuliang bridge in Xiangyin county, he saw the people sacrificing living boys and girls to the god of the local temple. The Perfected said: "Gods of THIS kind—!" — and fired the temple with a word; thunder-flame flew through the air and the temple stood burnt, past any man's saving; only a voice was heard in the sky: "May my law-power be always as it is this day!" — and after that the temple rose no more.

The Perfected came to the riverside at Longxing prefecture and was washing his feet, when in the water appeared a god's reflection: square-faced, kerchiefed, gold-armored, left hand hauling a spirit, right hand a whip. The Perfected said: "What god are you?" He answered: "I am the god of the Xiangyin temple, Tianshan the good god. Since the Perfected burned my temple I have followed you these twelve years, waiting only on a fault of yours to take my old revenge. But the Perfected Man's merit and practice now stand high; your office is enrolled at the Heaven-Pivot. I beg you memorialize my name, that I be made your officer." The Perfected said: "A god of your cruelty, seated in my Law, must maim my Law." Whereat the god swore his oath on the spot, never to turn against the covenant. So the Perfected memorialized the Thearch and enrolled him for a commander — and his answering was as echo to voice. Later, at Fuzhou, suddenly one day the assembled commanders showed their forms and stood round him in attendance: "The Heaven-edict is at hand: the Perfected is summoned home to his seat at the Heaven-Pivot." The Perfected was rising to his feet — and transformed. Afterward, they lifted the coffin: light as an ordinary log. The assembly marveled, opened, and looked: an empty coffin — and knew the Perfected had attained the way of release-by-the-corpse.

Yuan Qianli — 袁千里

Yuan Sheng, styled Qianli, of Nanfeng, was a sister's son of the Palace-Attendant Wang. He nursed the Thunder Law of Beheading-and-Adjudication till it neared his uncle's own. In the Duanping era he lodged with Dai Dian. One day he said to Dai Dian: "I am going. You may burn me." — and with the word, ended. Dai burned him; and as the fire took the body, in the smoke and flame a banner appeared, with characters of gold: YUAN QIANLI, THIRD JUDGE OF THE THUNDERCLAP.

The Great Being Fu — 傅大士

The Great Being Fu, named Xi, was a man of Yiwu in Wuzhou. From boyhood keen and wise, versed in the books of both teachings, he styled himself the Great Being of Good Wisdom. In the first year of Putong of Liang he met three monks of India; the dhūta Song said to him: "You are a transformation-body of MAITREYA" — and had him look at his own reflection in the water, where he saw the round nimbus and jeweled canopy, and woke to his former cause. He asked then for a place to cultivate the Way; the dhūta pointed below Pine Mountain to the twin catalpa trees: "This will serve." The Great Being founded his hermitage there, and in the third year of Datong established the temple between the twin catalpas — the present TWIN-GROVE TEMPLE, Shuanglin. There are a Lotus Sutra, an iron plow and tilling-bowl of Emperor Wu of Liang's bestowal, a string of crystal beads, and the bronze crown of the Seven Buddhas, preserved to this day. The Great Being, though of the family-leaving stream, went unshaven; some hold it was his foreknowledge that he could wear the Virtuous-Scholar's cap and robe. There is besides Leftover-Rice Tiger Crag, twenty-five li south of the Yiwu wall, on the crest of Cloud-Yellow Mountain, where savage beasts ran loose; the Great Being, his fast ended, would ever carry his leftover rice to feed them, and thenceforth they crouched hidden — whence the name. The transformed-rice stone, green-white shading purple, can be cut for prayer-beads: of old one householder Tao often furnished the Great Being, and the Great Being blessed him: "In a later day the transformed stone shall be green-purple, and may be carved for beads" — an unlooked-for conferral: to this one house alone the craft belongs, and by tradition when others copy it the stone splits and crumbles. The Loyal-and-Illustrious Prince of the Two Zhe went to Wuzhou to open the Great Being's stupa and take the bone-relics; at Pilong Mountain they could not be lifted; so on that ground he built the DRAGON-FLOWER TEMPLE, and with the relics shaped the Great Being's image within the stupa.

Lord Cui of the Prefecture — 崔府君

Lord Cui of the Prefecture was a man of Gucheng in Qizhou. His father Rang, a great farmer for generations, pure, good, virtuous, and righteous, was esteemed of the countryside. Nearing the age of knowing-the-mandate — fifty — he had established no heir; and Rang counseled with his wife: "In all my days' doings I have kept a heart for succoring creatures. Why then no heir? Better that you and I together put forth utter sincerity, and pray at the Northern Marchmount." The wife did as he said: together they went below the Northern Marchmount shrine, prayed for an heir, and returned to their lodging. That night husband and wife dreamed an immortal lad, a casket lifted in his hands. Cui Rang questioned him; the lad said: "The Thearch bestows what is in the casket, and bids you husband and wife swallow it." With the word he raised the lid: two fair jades within; and husband and wife swallowed one apiece — and woke of a sudden. From that she was with child. The ten months of the womb fulfilled, in the third year of Daye of Sui, the sixth day of the sixth month, a son was born, of divine grace and rare beauty, unlike the common run. Young, at his studies, he recited a thousand words a day and never peeped at the boys' games; wherefore they named him ZIYU — Jade-Son. Excelling in all things, the village all said: to a house that heaps goodness, Heaven's own gift.

In the seventh year of Zhenguan of Tang Taizong, when the edict raised the worthy and good of all-under-heaven to the capital for the court's employ, the Lord too was among them, each granted the standing of county magistrate; the Lord was appointed magistrate of Zhangzi county in Luzhou — upright, without private leaning, discerning to the autumn-hair. The people of the commandery all said their magistrate JUDGED THE SUNLIT WORLD BY DAY, AND BY NIGHT ADJUDGED THE COURTS OF THE DEAD. Once at the start of the fifth month the magistrate admonished the townsfolk: on the full-moon day of this month, and the day after, let none kill living things, none hunt or shoot; offenders will be sentenced in the office by day and called to account in the dark courts. There were two men, Shansi and Zhu Jiange, who slipped out beyond the wall and shot a hare; at the gate the guards searched them out and held them at the court below. The judge asked: "You have offended of set purpose: will you take your punishment at the county court, or your penalty in the dark prefecture?" They said: "We beg to take our penalty in the dark prefecture" — thinking the dark reckoning far off. The words given, each was sent home. But scarcely were they on their pillows when a yellow-robed clerk summoned the two to a courtyard — and on the dais they saw Magistrate Cui in the crown and robes of a king, checking the registers of men's sins: docking a span here, thinning a man's sons and grandsons there, paring another's food-salary. "Your kind's good and evil are weighed exactly thus. Go back." — and they started awake; and the men held it a wonder ever after.

Suddenly one day the gate-clerk reported: on Diaohuang Ridge a fierce tiger bars the road and mauls men. The Lord sent his head-clerk Meng Wan bearing a talisman-warrant to the mountain temple to arraign the tiger; and the tiger came out, TOOK THE WARRANT IN ITS JAWS, and followed the clerk to the court below. Lord Cui arraigned it: "You are of the alien kind; what you may eat has its allotted bound. How dared you cross Heaven's meaning and devour human life? What does such a crime deserve?" The tiger, hearing it, dashed itself against the stair and died. From this the townsfolk raised him a shrine-in-life; and the Grand Warden of Luzhou memorialized it to the court.

In the seventeenth year of Zhenguan the Lord was shifted magistrate of Fuyang in Cizhou, where he set in order the wrong done in the dark prefecture — Taizong being concerned in it — to the two sons of old Yang over a debt withheld; and later he was moved magistrate of Wei county in Weizhou, going to his post with old Yang the chess-player. Five li southwest there was a river; in the summer month its waters swelled and drowned the people's fields. The Lord raised an altar on the bank and memorialized the Highest Thearch with a declaration; in a little while a serpent-head floated to the surface, dead, and the waters ebbed away; and the commandery folk raised him a living shrine likewise. Then one day, at chess with old Yang, the Lord suddenly rose; old Yang rose too. The Lord said: "Do you see?" — suddenly there were yellow-robed messengers, several, warrant in hand, saying: "We bear the Highest Thearch's mandate—" and then jade tablet, jade belt, purple robes, cap and hairpin, broidered vestments, the guards of the Five Marchmounts all furnished; and a hundred more, who bowed and stood, striking up the pipes of Shao, the silk-and-bamboo music; and a god besides leading a white horse to him. The Lord said: "Wait but a little." Then he called his two sons: "I am about to quit the world. Do not mourn greatly." He took paper and brush and wrote a Hundred-Character Inscription to school his sons; the two wept, bowed, received his charge; the words ended — and he ended, having been in the world sixty-four years.

Afterward, when Xuanzong met An Lushan's rising, the emperor dreamed by night a divine man told him: "Let Your Majesty's carriage not turn aside — this quarter's rebels are not long from destruction; why flee them?" The emperor asked his name: "Your minister is Cui Ziyu, magistrate of Fuyang in Cizhou." The emperor woke marveling; and after, it fell out as the word. The carriage returned to the palace-gates; a temple was raised and he was enfeoffed MARQUIS NUMINOUS-SAGE PROTECTOR OF THE STATE. Under Wuzong of Tang, when flood-waters swelled over all-under-heaven, prayer to him stilled them, and the title was augmented DUKE AWESOME-RESPONSE, PROTECTOR OF THE STATE. Zhenzong of Song, at the eastern enfeoffment on Daiyue, augmented the exalted title KING OF THE WESTERN QI, PROTECTOR OF THE STATE. And when Gaozong of Song fled the Di trouble, running from Zhen toward Julu, his horse foundered, and he walked on alone in the rain; at dusk he lodged at an old dame's house, and the dame gave the emperor dry clothes and washed his feet and set out coarse rice, and told him: "You should borrow a courier-mount and go early; by the fifth drum, with a bundle, be off from this place." The emperor went as she said; a little way on, the road forked three ways and he stood lost — when suddenly a WHITE HORSE appeared. The emperor marveled and followed it close, and came clear away to beneath a numinous shrine. There was earth on it; he brushed it — his sweat ran like rain; and sleeping there he dreamed a green-robed, square-gowned man striking the ground with his staff: "Go quickly — up!" He started awake, and at first light went on... the prayer-board in the paper-pavilion was inscribed: CUI, LORD OF THE PREFECTURE, CAPITAL EARTH-GOD OF CIZHOU. Presently he heard the clack of the divining-blocks, mounted the hall — and beheld the image AS IN HIS DREAM, and not a soul there; only on the table a casket, and in it wine and food, and the emperor ate. As he was going out, the white horse again led the way, to Slant-Bridge valley — and suddenly the horse was gone; he marveled the more. Then his attending minister Geng Nanzhong with several thousand militia came to meet him; and when the court crossed south and the carriage rested at Hangzhou, the emperor first raised him a temple there, and granted the name-board MANIFEST-GUARD.

The Dhyāna-Master Puan — 普庵禪師

The dhyāna-master Puan, named Yinsu, was of Puhua village, Yichun county, Yuanzhou; his father Yu Ci, his mother née Hu. He was born in the fifth year of Zhenghe of Huizong of Song, the twenty-seventh day of the eleventh month, at the hour of chen. At six he dreamed a monk dotted his heart, saying: "One day you shall wake of yourself." Waking, he told his mother in his own sense; and they looked — and over his heart was one dot of red luster, big as a cherry-pearl. His father and mother therefore had him leave the family under the reverend Xian of the Shoulong cloister; at twenty-seven he was tonsured, and the next year received the precepts. The master's countenance was massive and rare, his wit born-nimble; Master Xian prized him as a vessel and pressed him to recite the scriptures. The master said: "I have heard the dark purport of all the Buddhas must be prized as understood in the HEART; pacing the inked lines profits nothing." So he took leave of Xian and roamed Hu-Xiang, calling on Muan Zhong of the Great Gui. He asked: "The ten thousand dharmas return to One — where does the One return?" Zhong raised his whisk upright; and the master had his waking. Later he returned to his cloister of profession; in the guiyou year the neighboring temple Cihua invited him as abbot of the assembly. The temple had no endowment; the master, cloth quilt and paper robe, gruel at dawn and one meal at dusk, outside his dhyāna-stillness read only the Huayan scripture and treatises. One day, great awakening: sweat streamed his whole body, and he rejoiced: "I have now touched, myself, the Huayan realm!" — and he made the hymn:

Paint it — no shape forms; pry it — it will not open.
What use for a Southern Marchmount, what need of a Tiantai?
At the gate of the six roots, no man understands —
and it fetches the Hu monk here on purpose, all this way.

From this time forth his uttered phrases moved and wakened the hidden and the plain past all expectation. One day of a sudden came a monk named Daocun, braving the snow; the master saw him and was glad: "Here is my un-invited friend!" — and they sat together in stillness, questioning and answering by turns, now laughing, now chanting. The monk said: "Master, you are a twice-come man. Not long hence you shall greatly raise our teaching." And pointing at the snow he chanted a stanza, and went. The master then withdrew hidden to the southern ridge, and his sign was PUAN — Universal Hermitage — forgetting the world in his breast. Then, the four counties' Inspector Ding Ji with the elder Liu Ruming together begging him down the mountain, wishing to help the outlay, he undertook the rebuilding of the Buddha-hall of Cihua. The master declined and could not win free, and at last obeyed. Once come, the admirers of the Way flocked to his wind; and the master, as occasion served, preached for them, or wrote them stanzas; the sick plucked grass for medicine at his word, and were straightway healed; and where plague-poison ran and no man's footprint crossed another's threshold, the master gave his stanza and all gained wholeness. As for praying skies clear, felling uncanny trees, tearing down wanton shrines — the numinous answers were not one. So the works rose great: the rich gave wealth, the poor gave strength, the skilled gave craft; the temple-halls stood new for it; and for some thousands of li round, roads were opened and bridges built, and good works made men's joy — all the master's transforming. One asked: "Master, what practice do you cultivate, to attain this?" The master drew a circle in the empty air and said: "Do you understand NOW?" The man said: "I do not." The master said: "Stop — stop. It does not bear telling." His direct-pointing brooked no analysis — mostly of this kind; and his songs, hymns, praises, and sayings passed everywhere among the people; the Song of Witnessing the Way and the Record of Adjudged Sources were current in his own time. Suddenly one day he called for the brush and wrote a stanza on the west wall of the abbot's room:

Now rain, now shine — the jewel-elephant shows;
east, west, south, north the tumbled clouds run deep.
The pearl lost, men beyond number meet the kalpa;
phantom-answering expedient works — for you all — burn clear.

The withered-tree rescue-stanza finished, he showed the assembly: "The Buddhas do not come into the world; neither is there any nirvāṇa. Whoever enters my room shall seal the wordless bond. Guard it well yourselves; let there be no falling back." He called for his bath, changed his robe, sat cross-legged, and was stilled. It was the fifth year of Qiandao, the twenty-first day of the seventh month; his years fifty-five, his summers as a monk twenty-eight. On the first day of the eleventh month his whole body was entered in the stupa; the four assemblies gathered like clouds, and the voice of their lament shook the mountain to its bounds. Such, in the great outline, was the master's beginning and end. — PUAN: STILL-RESPONSE, WONDROUS-CROSSING, TRUE-AWAKENING, RADIANT-GIFT DHYĀNA-MASTER. The Sage Dynasty, in the fourth year of Dade, the year gengzi, autumn, the seventh month, augmented the two characters GREAT VIRTUE, the rest of the enfeoffment as before.

The Three True Lords, Guests of Wu — 呉客三真君

Of old King Li of Zhou had three remonstrancer-officials — Tang, Ge, and Zhou. The king loved the chase and let the government fail. The three officials remonstrated: "The former kings kept the state by humaneness and duty and transformed the people by the Way and its virtue, and all-under-heaven submitted. We have not heard of wildness after game." They remonstrated again and again; he would not hear. The three quit their posts and roamed south to Wu, and the king of Wu received them with great joy. It fell that Chu troops invaded Wu, and the king was sore troubled. The three came forward: "We, your servants, will give our very bodies to serve your majesty to the death; we have our own plans for settling the state — only let the great king take no care." The three met the enemy, each wielding his divine stratagem, and the whole power of Chu surrendered. The king of Wu would advance rewards on them; the three bowed and declined, memorializing: "Your servants are GUEST-ministers; we dare not receive the gift." Later, learning that King Li had died and King Xuan was set up, they returned to Zhou; King Xuan's grants were most generous, and their ranks stood as before. Afterward they saved the crown prince — King Jing — sending down the Five-Quarter Envoys against unnatural calamity and crosswise woe; King Xuan removed the three officials to eastern Yan, to soothe, order, and comfort, and the people received their bounty; merchants begged their provision, and wheresoever they came nothing lacked, and the state was greatly ordered. When the three had ascended, the marquisates were augmented: TANG HONG, styled Wenming, MARQUIS OF TRUSTED NUMEN (born the twenty-first of the seventh month); GE YONG, styled Wendu, MARQUIS OF AWESOME NUMEN (born the thirteenth of the third month); ZHOU BIN, styled Wenjia, MARQUIS OF PERFECTED NUMEN (born the second of the tenth month).

In the first year of Xiangfu of Song, when Zhenzong made the eastern enfeoffment on Daiyue and came to the Heaven Gate, suddenly he saw three immortals descend out of the sky. The emperor reverently questioned them; the three immortals said: "Your servants bear Heaven's mandate to guard and escort the jade carriage." The emperor enfeoffed the three immortals: [UPPER ORIGIN, TRUE LORD TANG OF THE WAY'S FLOWER; MIDDLE ORIGIN, TRUE LORD GE, GUARDIAN OF THE RIGHT; LOWER ORIGIN, TRUE LORD ZHOU OF SETTLED PURPOSE — adjudging together the dark courts of Dai. — The praise says: Saints of answering transformation, lords of the Way and its virtue: they quit Zhou, lodged in Wu, crossed the age, saved the people; for Zhou, ardent to the pole; enfeoffed of Wu as guest-ministers; met by Song's Zhenzong, showing their bodies at the Heaven Gate; the emperor himself asked them, and so their cause was known. Tang, Ge, Zhou by clan — gods of Heaven, Earth, and Water, upraised at the Jade Summons to guard the carriage of the Sage-Bright; the imperial brush made them wondrous praise, the rescript bore their names; their shrine enfeoffed on Tai's crown, their title raised: THE THREE NUMINA.] — The bracketed passage is wanting in the Xiyuan collated reprint, and is supplied from the Qing edition of the Western-Marchmount Tianzhu-Kingdom blocks.

Marquis Radiant-Numen — 昭靈侯

Marquis Radiant-Numen, Lord Zhang of Nanyang, tabooed name Lusi, at the beginning of Sui made his home at Baishe village in Yingshang county. At sixteen he passed the illumined-and-arrived examination; in the Jinglong era of Tang he was magistrate of Xuancheng, and was praised for his talents. His lady, née Shi, bore nine sons. Retired from Xuancheng, he would ever angle in the shade of the Jiao Terrace; and one day, looking toward his fishing-place, he saw palace-halls and towers there, and entered and dwelt in them. From that time he went out by night and returned by dawn, and each return he was cold and wet. His lady bade one ask him of it, and the Lord said: "I am a DRAGON. Zheng Xiang, a man of Liao, and no near one, is a dragon too, and contends with me for this dwelling. Tomorrow we shall settle it — let my nine sons help me. The one with the crimson silk is I; the blue silk is Zheng." Next day the nine sons with bow and arrow shot the blue-silk one and struck him, and he fled in anger; the Lord pursued him; where they passed became gorge and valley, reaching the Huai; and the blue-silk one flung himself down at the western hills of Hefei and died, becoming the Dragon-Cave Mountain. The nine sons all transformed into dragons; and the lady Shi was buried at Guanzhou; and the Lord's elder brother became a horse-and-foot commissioner; and his sons and grandsons scattered and dwelt about Yingshang — their tombs all survive there.

The matter is seen in the writing of the commoner Zhao Geng of Tang, and was handed down by the mouths of the elders about the Huai and the Ying, and is set in Ouyang Wenzhong's Record of Collected Antiquities. From Jinglong on, the men of Ying sacrificed to him age to age at the Jiao Terrace; in the Qianning era the prefect Wang Jingyao first enlarged the temple. In the Qiande era of Song, when Caizhou suffered great drought, its prefect Si Chao, hearing of the Lord's numen, built a shrine and prayed — and when the rain came, the Hanlin academician-recipient Tao Gu recorded the matter; and from Huainan even to Chen, Cai, Xu, and Ru, all ran to serve his shrine. In Jingde, the Grand Master of Remonstrance Zhang Bing, by decree, renewed and enlarged the Yingshang shrine-buildings; and in the Xining era, the Director in the Bureau of Honors Zhang Hui memorialized asking a title, and by decree the Lord was enfeoffed MARQUIS RADIANT-NUMEN, and the lady Shi, LADY OF YIELDING RESPONSE. The temple has a hole, and from time to time strange transformations are seen to issue: cloud and rain, or a vessel thrown with a spell into the hole, will be seen again in the pool. And in recent years one found sloughed bones in the ground, of a metal ring and jade substance, their weight never constant, now kept in the temple. In the sixth year of Yuanyou, autumn, drought being severe, the prefect — the Longtu-Pavilion academician and Left Court-Reception Gentleman Su Shi — welcomed those bones to the traveling-shrine at West Lake and with the clerks and people prayed there, and the answer was as echo; whereupon he further put the temple-buildings in order.

The King of Righteous Valor, Martial Peace — 義勇武安王

The King of Righteous Valor, Martial Peace, was surnamed Guan, named Yu, styled Yunchang, a man of Xieliang in Puzhou. At the end of Han, with Zhang Fei of Zhuo commandery, he aided the First Ruler Liu in raising the righteous troops; then at the Reclining-Dragon Ridge in Nanyang, at the third visit to the thatched hut, they engaged Zhuge Kongming, carved up the mountains and rivers, and split all-under-heaven into three, the state named Shu. The First Ruler made Lord Guan governor of Jingzhou; but by ill fortune Lü Meng laid a snare, and the Lord, rather than bend his honor, died, and was buried at Jade-Spring Mountain. The gentry of the land, moved by his virtue and righteousness, offered him sacrifice at the season of the year.

Zhenzong of Song, in the fifth year of Xiangfu, the tenth month, on the night of the seventeenth, had a divine man descend from the sky and memorialize: "Your servant is the Straight-Tally Envoy of High Heaven. The Jade Thearch has a rescript: eight days hence the Sage Ancestor Xuanyuan shall descend upon the palace." The words done, he was gone. Next day the emperor and his ministers reverenced it, swept the palace-chambers, and set out the sacrificial rite; and on the day the Sage descended upon the Hall of Extended Grace. The emperor bowed before him. The Sage said: "I was of old the Man-Sovereign; and afterward Xuanyuan — the first ancestor of your house of Zhao-Song. Because you have well ordered the state's government and cherished the people below, I am come." The words done, the Sage ascended. The emperor marveled greatly; and where the Sage had descended, on the hill, the heaven-fragrance yet lingered undispersed; and the ministers gave joy: "By Your Majesty's sage virtue the Sage Ancestor is moved to descend upon the palace." The emperor decreed that through all-under-heaven the Buddhist precincts should each build a Sage-Ancestor treasure-hall.

In the seventh year of Xiangfu, the prefect of Xiezhou memorialized: "The salt-pond has yielded salt from of old, and the collected duties met the levies; but since last year the pond's waters have fallen and the duties fall short. This is a calamity-portent; I dare not fail to report it." The emperor sent an envoy with a rescript to pray at the City-God's temple of the Xiezhou wall; and by night the envoy dreamed a god who told him: "I am the City-God. The bane of the salt is CHIYOU. Of old Chiyou warred with the Thearch Xuanyuan, and the Thearch slew him at this place, beside the salt-pond, and traces remain there yet. Now Chiyou has heard that the court has newly raised the Sage-Ancestor hall, and in great wrath has attacked and drained the salt-pond's water. That is the answer of it." He reported back to the emperor, who took counsel with his ministers; and Wang Qinruo memorialized: "The earth-god has given warning; a sacrifice should be set to pray to him." The emperor sent Lü Yijian with a rescript to pray at the salt-pond; and the sacrifice done, that night he dreamed a divine man, in wool-cloth and gold armor, gripping a sword, who said in anger: "I am the god CHIYOU. By the Highest Thearch's mandate I came to this salt-pond, of merit to the people and profit to the state. Now the court exalts Xuanyuan and raises him temples through all-under-heaven — and he is the foe of my whole life. This is an injustice above; therefore I have drained the pond's water. If the court can pull down and destroy Xuanyuan's hall, I will make the salt-pond as before; if not, I will dry up the salt utterly, blast the five grains from harvest, and set the Western Rong to trouble the border." The words done, he was gone; and Yijian woke to it, and reported the dream to the emperor, who had dreamed it too. Wang Qinruo memorialized: "Chiyou is a crooked god. Your Majesty may send an envoy to Dragon-Tiger Mountain in Xinzhou and summon Celestial Master Zhang, who can subdue this monster." The emperor followed it, and summoned the Celestial Master to the palace: "Because of the raising of the Sage-Ancestor Xuanyuan hall, Chiyou in wrath has dried the salt-pond's water and works this bane. We call on you to cut it off."

The Celestial Master memorialized: "Your servant will put forward one general, most heroic and brave — the general Guan of Shu. Let me summon him; he can chastise Chiyou and surely accomplish the work." The words done, the Master summoned General Guan — and he appeared in form before the emperor. The emperor said: "Chiyou has drained the salt-pond's water." The general memorialized: "At Your Majesty's sage command, dare I not obey? Your servant begs to convene all the yin-soldiery of the Five Marchmounts, Four Rivers, the famed mountains and great streams, and go entire to Xiezhou to chastise this fiend-ghost. When your servant and Chiyou join battle, it must be seven days before the destroying and subduing is done. I pray Your Majesty first bid the households within the Xiezhou district, for three hundred li round, shut their doors and not go out; and beyond three hundred li, warn all travelers off the roads — no coming and going — until the seven days are up, when the work will surely be done. Then open the gates as before; for I fear the trespass on gods and ghosts will bring many to their deaths." The emperor followed it, and the general took the command and withdrew; and the decree went down, and the dwellers of Xiezhou all knew it. Suddenly one day a great wind, dark and blind, made noonday like night; dark clouds rose on four sides; thunder ran and lightning flew, with a sound as of iron horses and metal spears, and shouting and clamor in the sky. Five days it lasted; then the clouds gathered and the fog scattered, the sky cleared and the sun shone bright, and the salt-pond's water was as before — all by General Guan's power. Such was his guarding of the state's fortune and blessing of the people. The emperor added to his honor, and sent Wang Qinruo with a rescript to the shrine at Jade-Spring Mountain to offer sacrifice and thank the divine merit; and he renewed the temple and granted the name-board RIGHTEOUS VALOR, and posthumously enfeoffed the four-character kingly title KING OF MARTIAL PEACE. Huizong of Song augmented the honored title: TRUE LORD OF CHONGNING, REACHING THE WAY.

The paired inscriptions:

The upright breath runs with thunder through the sky: from the Three Kingdoms to now, the longer the brighter — never count Sun Quan or Cao Cao.
The heroic wind wells from the earth, threading the whole of the Eight Min: everywhere he answers the knock, everywhere he is present — what need of Shu commandery or Jingzhou?

A hundred battles for Jingzhou: the loyal-and-righteous heart, ten thousand years, is red still.
The three-portioned settling of the Han tripod: the hero's gall, a thousand years, chills men yet.

The upright breath unworn: think how, going, it gave back heaven and earth.
The loyal soul abiding: to this day it braces mountain and river.

In life, his stout breath would swallow Wu and Wei — he would not brook the three-part split.
In death, his name stands high, out-topping Grand Hua — his virtue hangs down through the ages.

Brothers in love and kinship: how could he forget that one hour's oath of the sworn covenant?
Ruler and subject in weighty right: he did not for nothing read the Springs-and-Autumns through.

One breast of cinnabar-red heart hangs on the bamboo-and-silk.
A thousand years' high fellowship — men chant the Peach Garden yet.

The temple's painted image is ancient;
the awe of his name grows deep with the years.

The True Lord of Pure Source and Wondrous Way — 清源妙道真君

The True Lord of Pure Source and Wondrous Way was surnamed Zhao, named Yu. He followed the Daoist Li Jue in seclusion on Mount Qingcheng. Emperor Yang of Sui, knowing his worth, raised him to be Grand Warden of Jiazhou. To the left of the commandery were two rivers, Leng and Yuan, wherein a great old flood-dragon of Qianwei worked harm in spring and summer, its waters swelling to drown and drown, hurting the people. Yu blazed in wrath; it being the fifth month, he set out seven hundred boats and led a thousand and more armored soldiers and above ten thousand common folk, and lined the river drumming and shouting till the sound shook heaven and earth. Yu, blade in hand, went into the water; and after a while the water reddened, and the stone cliffs roared and rushed like thunder; and Yu came forth breasting the waves, in his right hand the blade, in his left the flood-dragon's head. There were seven who went into the water aiding Yu — the SEVEN SAINTS, these. The Lord slew the dragon at twenty-six years of age.

At the end of Sui, all-under-heaven fell to great disorder, and he cast off office and went into hiding, and none knew his end. Afterward, when the river-water at Jiazhou swelled and overflowed, the men of Shu saw, amid a blue mist, one riding a white horse, leading a few men with falcons, dogs, and pellet-bows, hunting, pass over the face of the waves — and it was Yu. The people, moved by his virtue, raised him a temple at the mouth of the Guan river and offered sacrifice; the vulgar name is ERLANG OF GUANKOU. Taizong enfeoffed him GENERAL OF DIVINE VALOR; the Bright Emperor, in his progress to Shu, augmented [KING OF CHICHENG]. Under Zhenzong of Song, when Yizhou fell to great disorder and the emperor sent Zhang Guaiya into Shu to govern it, the Lord went to the shrine and sought the god's help, and [overcame it] indeed; and Zhang memorialized the court, and the honored title was posthumously offered up:

TRUE LORD OF PURE SOURCE AND WONDROUS WAY.

The King of Awesome Grace, Manifest Holiness — 威惠顯聖王 · 祠山張大帝

[The witness prints this legend twice, the first copy broken and untitled; the two are one entry, given here whole.]

The Sage-and-Ardent True Lord of the Shrine Mountain was surnamed Zhang, tabooed name Bo, styled Boqi, a man of Longyang in Wuling. His father was the Lord of Longyang; his mother, Dame Zhang. His father the Lord of Longyang roamed with the Dame at the dike of the Great Lake; and in plain daylight nothing was seen, but wind and rain darkened the sky and cloud-canopy lay over them; five-hued blue cloud, thunder and lightning rose together; and suddenly the Dame was lost from sight. In a moment it cleared, and the Dame said she had seen a great woman who told her: "I am your ancestress" — and bestowed a golden elixir. Thereupon she was with child, and carried the babe fourteen months, and at midnight on the eleventh of the second month, in the third year of Shenque of Western Han, bore him. Grown, he was singular and imposing, generous and humane, of great capacity, his joy and anger not showing in his face; seven feet tall; a falcon's descent, a fine beard, and hair that hung to the ground. He knew deeply the ways of water and fire.

A god told him the land here was too wild and remote to found a house, and bade him travel; and a divine beast went before, shaped like a white horse, its voice as an ox's. So with his lady, née Li, he roamed east to Wu, to Kuaiji, crossed the Zhe river, and came to the Three White-Crane Mountains at Tiaoyun, where four waters meet and flow beneath; and the Lord stopped and dwelt there. At White-Crane he took a lady née Liu; at Sangqiu in Wucheng he took a lady née Zhao for his attendant. He had nine younger brothers, five sons, one daughter, eight grandsons. Beginning at Shunling township in Changxing county of Wuxing commandery he made his start: he set the yin-soldiery to labor, and from Changxing, at Jingxi, dredged and cut the Holy Channel, fifteen li long, its banks seven zhang high to fifteen zhang, thirty li in all, purposing to open a ford through to Guangde. And again, beside the maple tree at the small hill of Bi's-dwelling-ward in the rear village, he made the Drum-Hanging Altar. Beforehand he had secretly agreed with his lady Li on the sign: whenever the meal came, she was to beat the drum three times, and the Lord would come himself, not letting the lady come to the river-opening place. But afterward, because the lady set the meal by the drum, and a crow pecked at the drum, the Lord — the drum sounding, "the meal is come" — went to the Drum-Hanging Altar, and knew then he had been fooled by the crow. And when the lady in her turn beat the drum, the Lord took it for the former fooling and did not come; so the lady went herself to the place of the work — and saw the Lord as a great boar setting the yin-soldiery to dredge the channel. The Lord, seen by the lady in his changed form before he could resume it, would not meet her again; and the labor of the Holy Channel ceased. He withdrew to the crest of Cross Mountain, five li west of Guangde county; and the dwellers there, thinking on him, raised him a temple at the mountain's southwest corner. The lady Li too came to a place two li east of the county and there transformed; and the men of the time raised her temple also. The Holy Channel's water dried to farmland for the people; the Bathing-Soldiers Pool became a lake, watering nigh ten thousand qing of lakeside field; and at the Drum-Hanging Altar, they say, no bird dares roost and no ant dares gather.

In the Tianbao era of Tang, prayer for rain was answered; at first he was granted Vice-Director of the Water Bureau, and Cross Mountain was renamed SHRINE MOUNTAIN; Zhaozong granted him Vice-Chamberlain for the National Treasury and the gold-and-purple; Jingzong enfeoffed him MARQUIS OF GUANGDE; Southern Tang enfeoffed him Minister of Works and DUKE OF GUANGDE; the Later Jin, KING OF GUANGDE; Renzong of Song, KING OF NUMINOUS CROSSING; down to Ningzong's reign the augmentings reached the eight-character kingly title; under Lizong, in the fifth year of Chunyou, he was changed and enfeoffed CORRECT-AID SAGE-AND-ARDENT TRUE LORD; and in the second year of Xianchun, the twelfth day of the twelfth month, by warrant augmented:

CORRECT-AID, SAGE-AND-ARDENT, RADIANT-VIRTUE, FLOURISHING-BLESSING TRUE LORD (born the eleventh of the second month).
Enfeoffed CORRECT-PEACE, RADIANT-AID, NUMINOUS-GRACE, COMPLIANT SAGE-CONSORT (the lady Li, born the second of the second month).
Enfeoffed CONCORDANT-RESPONSE, CROSSING-GRACE, MERCIFUL-RADIANT, BROAD AND EXCELLENT LADY (the lady Zhao); enfeoffed CONCORDANT-COMPLIANT, RECEIVING-CROSSING, MERCIFUL-AID, BROAD-HELP LADY.
The King's grandfather: MARQUIS OF MANIFEST FELICITY, RADIANT FAR NUMINOUS GRACE; the King's grandmother: LADY OF MANIFEST RESPONSE, HOUSE-FOUNDING RADIANT NUMEN.
The King's father: MARQUIS OF MERCIFUL RESPONSE, HIDDEN LIGHT, STORED FELICITY, OVERFLOWING NUMEN; the King's mother: LADY OF MERCIFUL KINDNESS, CONTINUING RADIANCE, SAGE GOODNESS.

The NINE YOUNGER BROTHERS: Marquis Numinous-Gift Universal-Crossing Radiant-Aid, with the Lady Numinous-Virtue Radiant-Kindness Excellent-and-Fine; Marquis Good-Profit Threading-Gift Numinous-Aid, with the Lady Good-Virtue Aid-Kindness Correct-and-Fine; Marquis Compliant-Warning Trusted-Response Manifest-Aid, with the Lady Compliant-Virtue Overflowing-Kindness Radiant-and-Fine; Marquis Kang-Guard Radiant-Response Broad-Aid, with the Lady Kang-Virtue Compliant-Kindness Manifest-and-Fine; Marquis Quiet-Garrison Abundant-Profit Vast-Aid, with the Lady Quiet-Virtue Pure-Kindness Numinous-and-Fine; Marquis Fair-Response Abundant-Bounty Trusted-Aid, with the Lady Fair-Virtue Spreading-Kindness Quiet-and-Fine; Marquis Bright-Crossing Blessing-Modest Good-Aid, with the Lady Crossing-Virtue Soothing-Kindness Flourishing-and-Fine; Marquis Radiant-Protection Threading-Crossing Trusted-Aid, with the Lady Radiant-Virtue Still-Kindness Bright-and-Fine; Marquis Excellent-Kindness Upright-Straight Compliant-Aid, with the Lady Excellent-Virtue Yielding-Kindness Bright-and-Fine.

The FIVE SONS: King Bearer-of-Ardor, Manifest-Crossing, Opener-of-Protection (born the fifteenth of the fifth month), with the Lady Bearer-of-Sacrifice, Aiding-Blessing, Prime-Grave Concordant-Response; Duke Continued-Response Radiant-Protection (born the fourth of the first month), with the Lady Continued-Consort Winged-Blessing Radiant-Grave; Duke Crossing-Beauty Exalted-Protection (born the fifteenth of the third month), with the Lady Crossing-Compliant Protecting-Blessing Reverent-Grave; Duke Carrying-on-Radiance Broad-Protection (born the twelfth of the twelfth month), with the Lady Continuing-Sister Exalted-Blessing Joining-Grave; Duke Good-Succession Trusted-Protection (born the eleventh of the first month), with the Lady Good-Conduct Spreading-Blessing Auspicious-Grave.

The ONE DAUGHTER: Lady of Pure-Manifestation, Yielding-Excellence, Fair Bearing. The EIGHT GRANDSONS: first, Marquis of Everlasting Blessing; second, Marquis of Overflowing Fortune; third, Marquis of Overflowing Protection; fourth, Marquis of Overflowing Bounty; fifth, Marquis of Overflowing Auspice; sixth, Marquis of Overflowing Favor; seventh, Marquis of Overflowing Felicity; eighth, Marquis of Overflowing Kindness. The aiding gods, the two Saints Ding and Ren; and the Envoy Fang of the Salute, enfeoffed Marquis Concordant-Numen.

The Plundering Commissioner — 掠刷使

According to the Records of the Hidden and Strange: Wei Yuanfang of Duling had an elder cousin, Pei Pu, who served as constable of Xinping county in Binzhou; in the fifth year of Yuanhe Pu died in office. At the beginning of Changqing, Yuanfang, having failed the examination, was about to lodge with a patron in Longyou; going out the Kaiyuan gate some tens of li he reached a wayside inn, and there, seeking rest, he met a martial officer galloping toward him, with a mounted train of several tens — and the man's face was like Pu's. He saw Yuanfang as if he knew him, and hurriedly got down to avoid him, going into a tea-lodge and letting a curtain over a small room, his followers scattering to sit outside the curtain. Yuanfang, suspecting, went in too, and lifting the curtain and entering, saw it was the true Pei Pu. Startled and glad, he bowed: "Elder brother, gone from the world of men — why do you again ply the martial office, with this bristling escort?" Pei Pu said: "I hold a dark office, of the kind of the warrior — hence the martial dress." Yuanfang said: "What office?" — "The PLUNDERING COMMISSIONER of the Three Rivers of Longyou." — "And what have you charge of?" — "My office is to plunder men's SURPLUS wealth." Yuanfang said: "What is 'surplus wealth'?" Pu said: "When a man trades a good or begs an alms and his fate is due to match it, he suddenly meets a thing somewhat rare, or a buyer who desires it deeply, and gets thereby a wealth beyond his number — this is called surplus, and I plunder it." — "How do you know the surplus, to plunder it?" Pu said: "For a living man, one drink and one sip is nothing but foreordained — how much more his treasure? What the dark office has entered on his register, his gaining has its bound; and gaining past the register, the dark clerk sweeps it and plunders it." Yuanfang said: "And this 'plundering' — is it snatched from the purse, or stolen from the breast?" Pu said: "Neither. What is got by number, one has, and each has its fixed number; the wealth beyond number I set moving — I make it come to naught, or draw a crosswise trouble on it, or make his buying-and-selling fail of the common price — nothing that touches his person at all. When I lived, I ever said the merchant diligent gets wealth, the farmer diligent gets grain, the scholar diligent gets salary, and only sighed that men fail for want of diligence. But the merchant whose boat is capsized, the farmer in a drought-year, the scholar oft-empty — are THEY not diligent? Now I know: the diligent is the foundation of virtue, the learner the root of goodness; virtue and goodness are but the way of standing up a man — they will not serve to summon wealth or seek salary. Your meeting me is foreordained too: you are to get two catties of white metal; past that, what you might gain I must plunder again — hence it is not much. This journey of yours: your reception will be very warm, but your portion very thin — at Jing you shall get nothing; through the garrisons all is flat and even. A man's life has its mandate; the times admit no jostling. View it still by the Way, and do not fret and thrash. Take heart!"

Then Pu, having office-business that required him within the city — the dark realm's set terms not to be overpassed — bestowed the two catties of white metal on him, saluted, and mounted. Yuanfang earnestly begged: "Parted these many years, we meet of a sudden, our warm talk scarce begun, and again the dark and the bright divide us — why so quick?" Pu said: "My bureau, escaping the summer heat, is stationed between the Qian and the Long; the Tibetans are about to come, and fearing their inroad we of the dark road, with the Metropolitan Governor, are to take counsel and swear a covenant — no far design, but a small easing of the trouble, and a plan for the border's peace. My horse is harnessed; the time is near; a matter not schemed early cannot be prepared for. Go now, go now." He mounted, went a few paces, and was seen no more. Yuanfang looked at the gift — true white metal it was; and heavy at heart he went west, and all he got on the road was without error of the word. That teaching of "delighting in Heaven and knowing the mandate" — it is knowing that all matters are foreordained. Shortly the Tibetan army stirred; the court, learning of it and dreading a revolt, thought to send a minister to plan; the chancellor was to preside at the covenant, but the Minister of State, Lord Cui, would not go to the border, and so it was a covenant beneath the walls — all exactly as the word had said.

The Roving Inspector Along the Jiang — 沿江遊奕神

The Talks of the Hanlin Garden say: Chen Yaozi moored his boat at Sanshan Rock, and an old man said: "Tomorrow at noon a great wind will come; the boat that sails will surely capsize — you should avoid it." Next day the sky was clear, ten thousand li without a wisp of cloud, and the boatmen begged to cast off. The Lord said: "Wait yet." The boats traveling with him left the bank all at once, the Lord pleading business. At noon the sky was calm — and then black cloud rose on four sides, and a great wind came sudden and violent, snapping trees and flinging sand, the angry waves like mountains; and of the boats traveling with him, many sank and drowned. The Lord, startled and sighing, saw again the old man before him: "I am in truth no man, but a roving inspector-general of the Jiang. Because you shall one day sit chancellor, I was bound to give you warning." The Lord said: "How shall I requite the kindness?" The old man said: "I seek no requital. Where a noble man comes, the dragon-gods are in duty bound by rite to guard and escort him; I wish only one copy of the Golden-Light-Splendor Sutra, that riding its power I may somewhat advance my office." The Lord promised; reaching the capital, he sent men with three copies of the Golden-Light-Splendor Sutra to Sanshan Rock to cast them in. He dreamed the old man: "I begged but one, and my Lord gave three; now I am raised several grades at once" — and bowing twice, departed.

The Martial-Ardent Thearch of Changzhou — 常州武烈帝

The Loyal-Aiding Martial-Ardent Great Thearch was surnamed Chen, tabooed name Guoren, styled Shiwei, a man of Jinling in Changzhou. His sage ancestor Gao, styled Yuanjiao, served Chen as Feathered-Forest Gentleman and magistrate of Jianchang county in Hongzhou; his father Jiming, styled Xuanhuan, served Chen as Adjutant of Jiangzhou and Investigation-Commissioner of the Southern Circuit, and was presently appointed Serving-Within Gentleman. The Thearch was born in the third year of Taiqing of Liang, the year jisi, on the full-moon day of the third month at the hour of wu, of a heroic grace that lit up men, with the singular marks of a tripod-cornered brow and hidden rhinoceros-bone — all marveled at him. At eight he could compose; at thirteen he had read the histories through; and men called him a reborn Kongqiu of the Eastern House. In the first year of Tiankang under the Chen Great Thearch he passed the presented-scholar examination, answering the policy-question at the jade stair, being just eighteen; and the sovereign said: "We and you are of the line of Taiqiu, and from this our house shall not fall" — and specially appointed him Investigating Censor, then advanced him Grand Inspection-Commissioner of the Jiangxi Circuit. The Thearch's wit and valor outran other men, deep-versed in strategy, with a will to order all-under-heaven. He served Chen twenty-five years, serving his parents with filial love and his lord with loyalty, his virtue-grace on the ten thousand people, his awesome name filling the world. When the Last Ruler lost the government and yielded to Sui, he straightway gave up his seal-cords and retired unserving, making the fields and gardens his plan for old age; the High Founder of Sui summoned him again and again, and he would not rise.

When Emperor Yang of Sui roamed south to Jiangdu, the swarming bandits rose together; the emperor, hearing his name, decreed him to chastise the bandits and clear the people's harm. Righteousness would not let him refuse; he rose at the command, and in the fifth year of Daye was appointed Duty-Righteous Commandant. Pacifying Changshan, he examined the rebel-bandits true and false and got each man's truth, and the crowd submitted glad. He rose to Court-Reception Grandee; in the ninth year, the first month, he was decreed to pacify Le Botong's rebel host of a hundred thousand at Jiangning, and was granted Silver-Blue Glory-and-Salary Grandee. In the thirteenth year, when the reign-title was changed to Yining and Gongdi took the full style, he was decreed to pacify Dongyang, cutting down twenty myriads of the age-long bandit host, and the Sui king by rescript summoned him within and appointed him Grand Minister of the Masses. At the end of Daye, Shen Faxing raised troops at Wuxing — being of the Thearch's mother's house, he meant to lean on the Thearch for weight; but the Thearch, his loyalty threading the sun, held his honor against the frost, firm and unmoved. Faxing plotted to seize Chang commandery, wrapping a baleful heart, feigning attachment but meaning harm. At that time the bandit-chief Li Zitong had gathered a host of some tens of thousands north of the Jiang, in secret answer to Faxing; but awed by the Thearch's valor, he dared not cross. In the second year of Wude of Tang Gaozu, the year gengchen, the eighteenth of the fifth month, Faxing feigned a sudden grave illness and sent word running to the Thearch; the Thearch, unable to refuse, went to ask after the sickness — and drank poison in the wine, and galloped home. At that time there was a lofty monk, the dhyāna-master Lin, famed in the age for medicine, and he was hastily summoned to treat him; his method was, in a still and empty place with no man by, to wash the bowels with water and draw out the poison. The Thearch's consort, née Shen, deep in the duty of the wedded pair, her heart cut with grief, went to the pool-side and secretly peeped — and BROKE it. The Thearch, knowing then it could not be done, charged the dhyāna-master Lin and his two consorts Zhen and Zhang to give over his dwelling and the southern treasury for a pure cloister, and his eastern dwelling for the Chongqian Abbey; the words done, he died, aged seventy-two.

Faxing, hearing it, thought his dark plot had won its will — little knowing the Thearch's heroic spirit was as though present, his loyal honor the keener. One day black cloud veiled the sky, wind and rain darkened all; and suddenly a form appeared, awe streaming from it, and a divine arrow shot Faxing dead; and Faxing's bandit host was cleared to the four quarters. Such was his guarding of the state and his numinous awe. The Tang Son of Heaven, wishing to signalize his merit, sent down an edict to inquire of the commandery's elders — "The former Minister of Works of Chen bore the EIGHT PERFECTIONS in his person; what are they?" — and the elders memorialized: "Loyalty, filiality, letters, arms, faith, right, counsel, discernment — these are the Eight Perfections." Serving Tang, he was enfeoffed DUKE LOYAL-AND-ARDENT; then KING BLESSING-COMPLIANT, MARTIAL-ARDENT; the Later Zhou added the thearch-title; in the fourth year of Xuanhe of Song he was granted the temple name-board BLESSING-COMPLIANT — GREAT THEARCH MARTIAL-ARDENT, MANIFEST-NUMEN, RADIANT-VIRTUE. — His consort the Martial-Ardent Empress Shen, the Empress Zhen, and the consort Aiding-the-Hidden, the lady Zhang; his kin; his divine father, Marquis Opener-of-Numen; his divine mother, the Virtuous lady Duan; his divine step-mother, the Excellent lady Yi; his eldest son, Marquis Aiding-Kindness, Crossing-Beauty; his second son, Marquis Concordant-Response, Crossing-Compliant; his divine grandson, the Retired Scholar; and the aiding god, Grand Commandant Chai, named Kehong, enfeoffed General Winged-Numen.

The Five Ministers of Yangzhou — 揚州五司徒

The Heroic-Manifest Ministers, of the five surnames Mao, Xu, Zhu, Jiang, and Wu, have had blood-offering in that land long. It is set in the Southern History and in the Book of Liang, in the Arrayed Tradition of Wang Lin: Wang Lin, a man of Shanyin in Kuaiji, was of a soldier's house; breaking Hou Jing he had merit; he could hold his person light and stoop to the lowly, and the reward-goods he got he took not into his house; his ten thousand under-hands were mostly men of the Jiang-Huai. Piling up great merits, he rose to Specially-Advanced General. It fell that the Chen general Wu Mingche came raiding the border, and the emperor sent the Chief-of-Army to strike and break Hu and the rest, went out to govern Qinzhou, and had Lin join in the strategy. Lin said to Pohu: "The soldiery is strict and trim — on no account give battle." Pohu would not heed, and gave battle, and the army was greatly broken; Lin, a lone rider, got off, and returned to Pengcheng; the emperor bade him instead hasten to Shouyang, advancing him Prince of Baling. The Chen general Wu Mingche pushed his troops and ringed it, dammed the Fei water and flooded the city, attacking day and night; and within the city the water-vapor soaked into men, all sickening with swellings, the dead very many. The city fell; Lin was taken; the common folk wept and followed him. Wu Mingche, fearing he would work a change, slew him; and the weepers' voices were as thunder. His head was carried to Jiankang and hung in the market; but Lin's former general-clerks, Zhu Yang and the rest, begged for the head; and Wu Mingche too dreamed Lin begging his head; so they reported to the Chen sovereign, who allowed it; and with the Aide-of-the-Bureau Liu Shaohui and the rest they bore the head back to south of the Huai, and provisionally buried it at the side of Bagong Mountain; and his righteous friends who came to the burial were several thousand. Then Yang and the rest went home north by hidden roads to treat of receiving him — when presently five men of Yangzhou, Mao Zhisheng and the rest, secretly bore the burial to Jianye: these are the FIVE GODS.

The five gods, in their days at Yangzhou, sworn brothers, loved the chase. That land of old had many wolves and tigers, and the people suffered their harm. By a mountain stream they met an old woman; the five gods questioned her, and she was utterly alone, without kin, eating from the stream-springs for hunger. The five gods begged her to the hut where they dwelt, and bowed and called her mother, and served and fed her. Not long after, they went out to hunt and came back — and did not find their mother. The five gods said: "She is much devoured by tigers!" — and all flung themselves into the pursuit; and among the hills a tiger came before them and lay down on the ground, and yielded itself; and from this the tiger-harm first ceased. Later men, mindful of their virtue and right, raised them a temple and offered sacrifice; and whatever was prayed, it was answered as sought. Their temple is now east of Xingxiang township in Jiangdu county, east of Jingui Mountain. In the time of Emperor Yang of Sui they had merit in guarding the imperial carriage, and were enfeoffed with the title MINISTER OF WORKS; Tang added the marquis-title. Down to the xinmao year of Shaoding of Song, the rebel-traitor Li Quan came several times to raid the border; men prayed to the gods, and it was inauspicious, and slashed and broke the god-images; and within three days Quan was cut down at Xintang, his limbs falling scattered — was it not the very thing the gods had let fall on him? The rebellion put down, the marshal-warden Lord Zhao Fan led his staff in person to offer at the shrine, in answer to the gods' gift, and pulled down the temple and enlarged it; and recording their hidden aid, memorialized the court, and the name-board HEROIC-MANIFEST was granted, and the enfeoffment augmented to eight-character Marquises. Later the Grand Councillor Lord Jia Sidao came to warden that land; those who prayed to the gods — met drought, and flying rain came; feared flooding rains, and the sun turned back; against fire, the blaze died; wished snow, and the auspice answered. Such was their guarding of the state and blessing of the people, manifest at every season; and again he memorialized the augmenting of the kingly title:

FIRST SEAT: KING NUMINOUS-AWE, LOYAL-KINDNESS, WING-COMPLIANT. SECOND SEAT: KING NUMINOUS-RESPONSE, LOYAL-PROFIT, AID-COMPLIANT. THIRD SEAT: KING NUMINOUS-AID, LOYAL-GUARD, ASSIST-COMPLIANT. FOURTH SEAT: KING NUMINOUS-PROTECTION, LOYAL-CROSSING, HELP-COMPLIANT. FIFTH SEAT: KING NUMINOUS-VALOR, LOYAL-ARDENT, TRUSTED-COMPLIANT.

The Martial-Solemn Thearch Jiang — 蒋莊武帝

The Martial-Solemn Thearch Jiang of Jiankang prefecture, tabooed name Ziwen, was a man of Yangzhou. At the end of Han he was constable of Moling; pursuing bandits to the foot of Zhong Mountain, he was struck on the brow and died. At the beginning of the First Ruler of Wu, his former clerks saw Ziwen on the road, riding a white horse, a white feather-fan in his hand, his train as in life; the clerks saw and fled in fright; Ziwen pursued them and said: "I am to be the earth-god here, to bless you people below. Raise me a temple; if not, I will send worms into men's ears for a plague." The king of Wu called it fiend-talk; and afterward worms did enter men's ears, and the dead were very many, and physician and shaman could not cure it. He said again: "If you sacrifice not to me, there shall be a great fire" — and that year there were fires again and again. He said: "If you sacrifice not to me, there shall be a great pestilence." The Wu sovereign, troubled, enfeoffed him Marquis of Zhongdu, added the seal-cords, and raised him a temple on Zhong Mountain, renaming it MOUNT JIANG, to signalize his numinous strangeness. In the trouble of Su Jun under Jin, the Thearch appeared in a dream: "Su Jun does treason; I am bound to help you all cut him off" — and afterward Jun was beheaded, and the title augmented Chancellor. In the Taiyuan era, when Fu Jian came raiding and looked upon the royal army's ranks all trim, and saw the trees and plants of Bagong Mountain all like human forms, he was dismayed and afraid; for at first the Kuaiji Prince Dao, hearing of Jian's inroad, had with pomp and drum-and-fife sought the help of the Jiang-Mountain god — and when Jian looked, it was as if there were aid. Du You's Comprehensive Statutes says: in the second year of Yongchu under the High Founder of Song, wanton shrines were broadly forbidden; and from Jiang Ziwen down all were cut off. His title was augmented to Chancellor, Grand Commandant-in-Chief of All Military Affairs Within and Without, and he was enfeoffed KING JIANG. In the Yongming era of Qi, in the trouble of Cui Huijing, the god was welcomed back to the terrace to seek blessing and aid; the affair settled, they advanced him the thearch-title and renewed his temple-buildings — the temple-front gate named the Gate of Numinous Light, the middle gate the Gate of Risen Good, the outer hall called Thearch Mountain, the inner hall called God's Dwelling. Emperor Wu of Liang once sacrificed and was not answered, and sent an envoy to burn the temple; but before he was halfway there, of a sudden wind and rain shook mightily, moving the palace-halls, and the emperor provisionally sacrificed and stopped. Southern Tang gave him the posthumous title MARTIAL-SOLEMN THEARCH and renewed the temple; Xu Xuan, by rescript, composed the stele that records the whole matter. By the Assembled Essentials of the Song court: in the eighth year of Kaibao the temple burned; in the fourth year of Yongxi it was rebuilt; in the second year of Jingyou Lord Chen Zhizhong enlarged it and memorialized the court, and the name-board KIND-ARDENT was granted.

The Silkworm Maiden — 蠶女

In the time of Gaoxin, in Shu there was a Silkworm Maiden, her surname unknown. Her father was carried off by men; only the horse he rode remained. The maiden, grieving for her father, would not eat; and she said to her mother, and vowed before the household: "Whoever brings my father back, to him I give this body in marriage." The horse, hearing her words, started and leapt and shook itself free, and went straight to the enemy camp; and within a few days the father came home riding the horse. From this the horse neighed and would not cease. The mother told the father the maiden's vow before the household; the father said: "A vow to a MAN, not to a horse! How shall a human mate with a thing of another kind? Yet it loosed me from my peril — the merit is great; but the vowed word cannot be kept." The horse pawed the ground; the father in anger would have killed it; the horse pawed the more; the father shot it dead and spread its hide to dry in the courtyard. The hide reared up of itself, wrapped the maiden, and flew away; and in ten days the hide came to rest again upon a mulberry, and the maiden had transformed into a SILKWORM, eating the mulberry leaf, spitting silk, making the cocoon, to clothe and cover mankind. One day the Silkworm Maiden, riding a cloud and driving that same horse, said to her father and mother: "The Highest Thearch, for that my heart did not forget the right, has appointed me a HANDMAID-IMMORTAL OF THE NINE HEAVENS." [And so she was seen no more.]

Marquis Li of Awesome Crossing — 威濟李侯

The Marquis was surnamed Li, tabooed name Lu'an, a man of Tongzhuang in Changxing county, Jizhou. He was born in the third year of Chongning of Huizong of Song, the eighteenth of the first month, jiashen. Grown, he was of singular endowment, of a fixed and steady nature, never speaking at random. When any fair or foul fortune, weal or woe, was about to come upon the folk of the countryside, he could ever foreknow and warn them of it. At eighteen, in the third year of Xuanhe, the third month, he foretold to the neighborhood and countryside: "I am going to Jiaoxi in Shandong to do the state's business; I fear it will be some years before I return" — and sitting upright, he passed. Far and near it was told, and none but marveled. Thereafter numinous traces appeared often in his native place — the fatness or leanness of the year's grain, the gain or loss of silkworm and wheat, all were handed down through the shamans, sure as seal to tally, as key to lock, without a hair's error. Whereat the elders together raised him a place of incense-fire and offered sacrifice. In the third year of Kaixi of Ningzong, the third of the eleventh month, the Court-Reception Gentleman and magistrate of Changxing, Zhao Zhun, sent up a statement of his crossing-grace and manifest-response, his true traces set forth; the central province laid it before the court, and the temple was granted the name MANIFEST-RESPONSE. Under Lizong, in the first year of Baoqing, the county's resident, the Court-Dispersed Gentleman and holder of the crimson fish-pouch, Chen Ang and the rest, arrayed a statement: "In the districts of the several circuits and prefectures, where drought or flood is met, prayer is answered with real profit and grace to the people; by precedent his true traces should be memorialized, and we beg besides a special grant of title, to make plain the god's merit and ardor and console one region's hope." By rescript he was enfeoffed MARQUIS OF AWESOME CROSSING.

Marshal Zhao — 趙元帥

Surnamed Zhao, tabooed name Gongming, a man of Zhongnan Mountain. From the time of Qin he fled the world into the mountains and cultivated the utmost Way to perfection; the merit complete, he reverently received the Jade Thearch's summons and was called to be Vice-Marshal of the Divine Empyrean. Now the Marshal is a birth-by-transformation of the vast-court, empyrean-crossing, heaven-comet, awakening-the-dark Brahmā-breath; his position is the image of Qian-metal and water conjoined in breath. His garb: the iron crown on his head, the iron whip in his hand — this is the metal meeting the water-breath; his face black and bearded — the northern breath; astride a tiger — the metal image. Hence the sense of METAL-WITHIN-WATER: as substance it is the Way, as function it is the Law; and Law, save by thunderclap, cannot make manifest its awe. At the Western Terrace of Taihua is his bureau, the Marshal's own charge; and the Marshal holds the golden wheel, which is likewise the western metal-image. The Marshal above receives the command of the Heaven-Gate, marshalling the labors of the Three Realms, patrolling the Five Quarters, overseeing the Nine Provinces, as Great General of the Straight Hall and Attending Censor of the Northern Pole.

Of old, when the Han founder's Celestial Master refined the immortal elixir, the dragon-gods memorialized the Thearch to ask an awe-inspiring divine clerk to guard it; whereupon the Marshal, above, received the Jade Command and was invested MARSHAL OF THE ORTHODOX-UNITY DARK ALTAR — for "orthodox" is that the ten thousand crooked cannot trespass, and "unity" is the office of net-one-not-two, a charge most weighty. After the Celestial Master's flight-ascension, the Marshal forever guards the famed mountains Longhu; and now, when at the Three Origins the altar is opened and transmission given, those who press to goodness, build merit, and beg pardon of their faults, and those stubborn and unregenerate too, are all in the Marshal's charge; hence the Dragon-Tiger Dark Altar is in truth the one bureau of reward and punishment. Under him are the Eight Kingly Fierce Generals, answering the Eight Trigrams; the Six Poison Great Gods, answering the calamity-spirits of heaven, earth, year, month, day, and hour; the Thunder-Gods of the Five Quarters and the Wild Soldiers of the Five Quarters, answering the Five Phases; the Twenty-Eight Generals, answering the Twenty-Eight Mansions; the two generals Heaven-Concord and Earth-Union, imaging the opening and shutting of the Heaven-Gate and the Earth-Door; the two camp-generals Water and Fire, imaging the coming-and-going of spring's birth and autumn's killing. To drive the thunder and speed the lightning, to call rain and summon wind, to sweep off plague and shear away fever, to avert calamity — no merit is greater than the Marshal's. And as for a wrong appealed and an oppression to be redressed, the Lord can make it dissolve; a fair buying-and-seeking of wealth, the Lord can make it fitly profit and accord — only let a man's matter be fair, and he may face the god and pray, and nothing is not as he wishes. Therefore his heavenly sage title is: HIGH-EXALTED DIVINE-EMPYREAN JADE-BUREAU GRAND CHIEF-COMMANDANT, INSPECTION-COMMISSIONER OF THE FIVE QUARTERS, ALTAR-LORD OF THE NINE PROVINCES, GRAND OVERSEER, GREAT GENERAL OF THE STRAIGHT HALL, COMMANDER OF THE THUNDERCLAP, VICE-MARSHAL, ATTENDING CENSOR OF THE NORTHERN POLE, GRAND CHIEF-COMMANDANT OF THE THREE REALMS, MARQUIS RESPONSE-PRIME-RADIANT-ARDENT, HOLDER OF SCHOLARS AND SETTLER OF DESTINY, CANOPY-ENVOY, CHIEF INTENDANT-GENERAL OF THE TWENTY-EIGHT MANSIONS, FLYING-TIGER GOLDEN-WHEEL LAW-WIELDING MARSHAL ZHAO OF THE UPPER-CLARITY ORTHODOX-UNITY DARK ALTAR.

The paired inscription:

Entering transformation, issuing spirit: stern, stern, his awesome light dazzles the sun.
Driving the wind, whipping the lightning: keen, keen, his killing breath rides the empyrean.

Lord Jiang of Hangzhou — 杭州蒋相公

The god was surnamed Jiang, for generations a man of Hangzhou, born in the Jianyan era of Song. He delighted in relief and alms: at each autumn's ripening he bought grain and stored it beforehand, and when prices rose sold it cheap as if at no price; in lean years he even lost by feeding the starving. On the day of his death he charged his two younger brothers: "You must keep a humane heart and press on to do good deeds." The townsmen together molded his likeness in requital; and where the heart of men inclines, the numinous answer is as echo, and those who came to pray and divine rubbed shoulders. At the beginning of Xianchun the temple was granted the name-board BROAD-BLESSING; and in the sixth year the Pacification-Commissioner Qian Shuoyou memorialized the court, and the god and his two brothers were all ranked Marquises: TRUSTED-COMPLIANT, TRUSTED-RESPONSE, and TRUSTED-PROTECTION.

Lord Add-Blessing — 增福相公

Lord Li, tabooed name Guizu, at the court of Emperor Wen of Wei governed the affairs of the chancellery. By day he had charge, in the sunlit world, of adjudging the state's wronged, blocked, and unjust matters; by night he judged, in the dark courts, the writs of right and wrong, of crookedness and error; and he had besides charge of the clothing-and-food salary-rations of the officials of the third rank and up who serve at court, and of the portion of clothing and food due by the year to the dwellers of the world. Under Emperor Ming of the Later Tang, in the first year of Tiancheng, he was granted the style of Divine Lord: LORD ADD-BLESSING.

Lord Haoli — 蒿里相公

Lord Zhao of Haoli was a man of Haoli village near Chang'an. For generations his house lived by farming and mulberry, plow and hoe. The Lord studied the examination-learning and passed; upright by nature and without private leaning, he set forth remonstrances again and again, and was not heard; whereat he dashed himself against the stair and died. The commandery men raised him a shrine — it is now twenty li west of Chang'an, and his tomb is there too. In the Yanhe era of Ruizong of Tang the Lord was enfeoffed Straight-Ranked Marquis; the vulgar call him Xianggong, "my lord."

Marquis Numinous-Current — 靈泒侯

Li Ju was of origin a man of Sanyong in Weizhou. At the court of Shizong of Zhou he was a general, skilled in horse and bow, of merit to the state. Later, falling grievously ill, and many coming to ask after his sickness, the Lord had no other word, but told the crowd: "I am appointed General of the Lacquer River in Shandong" — and with the word, died. Later men raised him a shrine there; in the Kaiyuan era of Xuanzong of Tang he was enfeoffed GENERAL NUMINOUS-CURRENT; and under Zhenzong of Song, in the eighth year of Dazhong-Xiangfu, enfeoffed MARQUIS NUMINOUS-CURRENT.

Zhong Kui — 鍾馗

In the Kaiyuan era the Bright Emperor drilled his troops at Mount Li, and the kingfisher-plumed carriage returned to the palace. The emperor was unwell, a marsh-ague having come on him; and by day he dreamed a little ghost, in crimson calf-nose breeches, one foot bare and one shod, with a bamboo fan hung at his waist and a [tablet] thrust in his belt, stealing Lady Taizhen's embroidered scent-bag and the emperor's jade flute, and running in play round the hall. The emperor, before him, rebuked and questioned him; and the little ghost memorialized: "I am Void: what is empty, I take from the empty air; I steal men's things in play. Xu — Void — is EMPTY: I dissipate a household's joyful matters, or in high place I..." The emperor, angered, would have called the guards; and of a sudden there appeared a great ghost, on his head a broken cap, on his body a blue robe, girt with a horn belt and shod in court-boots, who caught the little ghost straightway, first gouged out its eye, then tore it apart and ate it.

The emperor asked the great one: "What man are you?" He memorialized: "Your servant is Zhong Kui, presented-scholar of Zhongnan Mountain. Because in the Wude era I sat for the examination and did not succeed, ashamed to go home to my village I dashed against the palace stair and died. Then by grace of the imperial command I was given the green robe for my burial; grateful for the kindness, I have sworn to sweep away, for my sovereign, the affairs of the empire's Void, its wasting and its fiend-mischief." The words done, the emperor woke from the dream, and the marsh-ague was straightway healed; whereupon he decreed the painter Wu Daozi: "Try, for Us, to figure it as in the dream." Daozi, receiving the command, as though he had seen it with his own eyes, set his brush upright and made the picture complete.

Shen Tu and Yu Lei — 神茶欝壘

On Dushuo Mountain in the Eastern Sea there is a great peach tree, coiling and twisting three thousand li, whose low bough facing the northeast is called the GHOST-GATE, by which the ten thousand ghosts go out and in. There are two gods: one called Shen Tu, one called Yu Lei, who have charge to review and marshal the ghosts that pass out and in, and to seize and feed to the tigers those that do harm. Thereupon the Yellow Thearch made his law after the pattern of it, and set up peach-boards over the doors, painting Shen Tu and Yu Lei to ward off the baleful ghosts — this is the making of the door's peach-boards. Because it arose from the Yellow Thearch, the world to this day paints the god-images on boards, and still beneath them writes "Shen Tu" on the left and "Yu Lei" on the right, setting them at the doors on the last day of the year.

The Five Plague Envoys — 五瘟使者

Of old, under Emperor Wen of Sui, in the eleventh year of Kaihuang, the sixth month, five strong men appeared in the void air, three to five zhang above the ground, each robed in a robe of the five colors, each holding a thing: one held a dipper and a jar; one held a leather bag and a sword; one held a fan; one held a mallet; one held a fire-jar. The emperor asked the Grand Astrologer Zhang Juren: "What gods are these? Of what calamity or blessing do they have charge?" Zhang Juren memorialized: "These are the strong men of the Five Quarters; in the heavens they are the Five Ghosts, on earth the Five Plagues. They are called the Five Plagues: the Spring Plague, Zhang Yuanbo; the Summer Plague, Liu Yuanda; the Autumn Plague, Zhao Gongming; the Winter Plague, Zhong Shigui; and, controller-general of the central plague, Shi Wenye. Should they appear, the state and people will have the sickness of plague-pestilence — this is the seasonal sickness that walks with heaven." The emperor said: "How is it treated, that we may be spared?" Zhang Juren said: "This walking sickness is a disease sent down of Heaven; there is no way to treat it." And in that year the people who sickened and died were very many; whereupon the emperor raised a shrine, and on the twenty-seventh of the sixth month decreed the enfeoffment of the five strong men as generals: the blue-robed strong man, GENERAL MANIFEST-HOLY; the red-robed, GENERAL MANIFEST-RESPONSE; the white-robed, GENERAL MOVED-RESPONSE; the black-robed, GENERAL MOVED-COMPLETION; the yellow-robed, GENERAL MOVED-AWE. Sui and Tang both used the days after the fifth of the fifth month. — When the Perfected Man Kuangfu roamed and came to this shrine, he subdued the Five Plague-Gods and took them for his under-officers.

The Stove God, Controller of Destinies — 司命竈神

According to the Youyang Miscellany: the Stove God is surnamed Zhang, named Dan, styled Ziguo, of a form like a fair woman. His wife is styled Qingji; he has six daughters, all named Cha — that is, the Six Gui Maidens. He reports men's crimes: for a great one he docks a Reckoning — three hundred days; for a small one, a Count — one hundred days. Therefore he is the overseer of heaven and earth, and below he is the earth-essence. On the day jichou he twice comes forth: at the hour of mao he ascends to heaven, and at yuzhong he goes down to his post; sacrifice on that day gains blessing. His attendant spirits are: the Heaven-and-Earth Delicate Grandson, the Heaven-and-Earth Grandee, the Heaven-and-Earth Commandant, the Heaven-and-Earth Elder Brother, the Lad-of-the-Whetstone, the Purple-Palace Lord of the Chimney, the Grand-Harmony Lord, and the Lady of the Wang Pool.

Now for the setting of the stove: place it in the middle of the house, its mouth toward the west; on the stove's four sides let the pot stand nine inches clear; build it of brick and fine earth; set it firm, and let it not be pierced or split — this is the rule of the divine stove. The Stove God died on the day renzi: that day may not be used. The stove should be set on a chen day of the fifth month. Sacrifice a pig's head to the stove, and it makes a man's living increase ten-thousandfold; use a dog to sacrifice to the stove, and there is ruin and defeat; let a chicken feather enter the stove, and calamity comes; let a dog bone enter the stove, and mad sons come forth. Sacrifice a white cock to the stove on the jisi day of the first month — good for silkworms. Sacrifice to the stove on the jichou day of the fifth month — auspicious. Sacrifice to the stove on the dingsi day of the fourth month — the sign of great good fortune in a hundred affairs.

The God of Blessing — 福神

The God of Blessing was of origin the prefect of Daozhou, Lord Yang, tabooed name Cheng. Of old, Emperor Wu of Han loved the dwarf-folk of Daozhou, and made them palace-slaves for his sport; and the folk of Daozhou, when they bore a son, would pick the well-formed dwarves — no fewer than several hundred sent up in tribute each year — making grandfather, father, and son part in life. The prefect Lord Yang, warding that commandery, sent up a memorial to make it known to the Son of Heaven: "Your servant has consulted the Five Canons: this native land has only dwarf-FOLK, no dwarf-SLAVES." Emperor Wu was moved to understanding and reflected on it; and thereafter took them no more. The men of that commandery raised him a shrine and painted his image and served it, as the God of Blessing of that province; and afterward the gentry and commons of all-under-heaven painted his image and revered him as the God of Blessing and Salary.

The Five Bandit Generals — 五盗将軍

The Outline of the Ages says: the Five Bandit Generals were the five bandit-brigands of the Yongguang era of the Deposed Emperor of Song, who made rebellion and banditry in one region; and afterward, in the Jinghe year, the emperor sent the great general Zhang Hong to break and slay them north of Xinfeng county. But the five made uncanny banditry there still; and those who sacrifice to them all call them the Five Bandit Generals: Du Ping, Li Si, Ren An, Sun Li, Geng Yanzheng.

The Goddess Zigu — 紫姑神

The goddess Zigu was a woman of Laiyang county, surnamed He, named Mei, styled Liqing. From childhood she studied books and was clever. In the third year of Chuigong of Tang the prefect of Shouyang, Li Jing, took her as concubine; his wife was jealous, and secretly killed her in the privy. This was the beginning of it. The goddess Zigu died on the fifteenth of the first month; therefore she shows her numen in the first month.

The Gods of the Five Quarters — 五方之神

King Wu smote Zhou and made his capital at Luoyi; and heaven made a great rain of snow. On the first day, jiazi, five gods with chariots and horsemen halted outside the king's gate, wishing to attend on King Wu. The king said: "Have the gods each a name?" His army-master Jiang Shang, styled Father Shang, answered them; and the god of the Southern Sea was named Zhurong; the god of the Northern Sea, Xuanming; the god of the Eastern Sea, Goumang; the god of the Western Sea, Rushou; and the River Earl, Feng Xiu, had a herald summon them by name. The gods were all startled and appeared to King Wu. The king said: "What have you to teach?" The gods said: "Heaven smites Yin and sets up Zhou; reverently we come to receive the mandate, each offering his service." King Wu said: "At the seasons of the year, let there be no failing of the rite." — By the tradition: the son of Gonggong, called You, presided over the Altar, and is the god Sovereign-Earth; the son of Shaohao, called Chong, presided over wood, and is the god Goumang; the son of Zhuanxu, Li, presided over fire, and is the god Zhurong; the second son of Shaohao, Gai, presided over metal, and is the god Rushou; the third son of Shaohao, Xi, presided over water, and is the god Xuanming.

Master Zhuang of Nanhua — 南華荘生

Zhuangzi was of origin of the Ji surname, named Zhou; because his forebear-ancestor was named Yang, third son of King Zhuang of Chu, and was enfeoffed at Meng county in Suizhou as a lesser lord of Chu, his father Yang lived modest-retired and nourished the lofty, and though of noble station bore himself humbly. His lady, of the Ruo'ao clan, bore a son, Zhiyang; who, at the capping-age, gave his strength to the grove of the Confucians without seeking cap or office. Zhiyang's wife, née Lü, at the time of King Ping's trouble through Wu Zixu, changed the surname, taking the Zhuang of King Zhuang of Chu for a surname, wishing his sons and grandsons never to forget their ancestor's meaning; and so they hid name and surname and lived mingled among the folk on the sunny side of Meng county. When father and mother both died, he mourned with the rites; and when King Zhao heard of his worth and summoned him, Zhiyang shouldered the plow himself, his wife carried the basket, and they moved again east of Mengcheng — and there Zhuang Zhou was born.

Zhou, with his wife née Wang, plowed and delved with his own hands, his wife spinning; by day he watched the fish and questioned his friends for pleasure; by night he pondered the Yellow-Court scrolls and the scroll of Nanhua. Leaving the world, Zhou made free-and-unbound his great rule and keeping-the-true his inward business: Robber Zhi heard of him and would not trespass his gate; he refused Sun Wu's gold and would not take it, fled King Nan's summons and would not rise; when his first wife died in the wild, he wept but did not grieve, and when his second wife died of care, he sang and did not weep. He roamed the Qin pass and took Old Dan for master; received the immortal elixir, and dotted the skull awake; roamed south to the Miluo and met the Lord of the Changhe gate in the Dragon King's hall; roamed east to the Ying sea and sought the Zhou Grand Astrologer on the sunny side of Fen Mountain. Jian Shu of Qin cast off his premiership to follow him in the feathered transformation. As the elder Zhuang, he knocked at the Qin pass to seek his father on the immortals' terrace; he made his bond with Guangchengzi, roamed as Jisheng, gathered herbs in the Valley of Ten Thousand Flowers, and on the cliff pointed the cinnabar of injustice — pointing to transform three sons into the rolls of office, and transforming his wife's bones to return them to the yang. He climbed the tiered crag and felt the butterfly-dream, musing that a man's life is as a dream; he crouched among tiger and leopard and sighed at the joy of watching fish, old matters new again. Then, facing the cloud-sea, he thought of his home village's wandering sons — Ziyou, Zinan, and Qi and the rest — parting sleeves in final farewell, and turned back to the old soil to gather the joy of flesh-and-blood: Zhuang Ye, Zhuang Guan, Zhuang Liu, and their fellows, hand in hand, went home to the immortals.

The whole house with cloud-and-water for its home, on Yingzhou the bright moon for its friend; and the Old Lord, because his disciple was one who had the Way, set forth his beginning and end, to make it known to the Heaven-Thearch, who enfeoffed him: CONCORDANT-WITH-HEAVEN, WINGED-DESTINY, KEEPING-THE-TRUE, GUARDING-THE-BREATH, PROTECTING-THE-STATE, SHELTERING-THE-PEOPLE, MERCIFUL-AND-KIND, MEASURELESS, GREAT-VIRTUE DARK MARSHAL.

The Bodhisattva Guanyin — 觀音菩薩

Guanyin was of Vulture Peak, the third son of the Elder Shiqin of the Jeṭavana garden in the kingdom of Guzhu — a transformation-body of Shishan (Doing-Good) — come to birth in the kingdom of Beique. Her father was King Miaozhuang, surnamed Po, named Jia; her mother of the Boya clan. Of old the father and mother, being without heir, prayed at the Fragrant-Mountain Temple of the Western Marchmount; and the Heaven-Thearch, because father and son loved killing, took away their heir and gave them daughters instead: the eldest called Miaoqing, the second Miaoyin, the third Miaoshan. Only at Miaoshan's birth did strange fragrance fill the seat and rose-cloud brim the room. Quick and penetrating from childhood, and minded to finish the affairs of the human world, at nine she resolutely withstood her father's command, vowing never to marry. Afterward, when the eldest and second daughters had taken two husbands to wife, both unfit, the father would force Miaoshan; and there being no help against Shan, he first shut her in the rear garden. Shan kept the pure the more devoutly; and he sent her further into the White-Sparrow Temple at Longshu county in Ruzhou to be a nun, secretly bidding the head-monk of the temple work upon her to obey — and she would not; whereupon he pressed her with bitter labor. Miaoshan drew water at dawn and heard the Buddha at dusk, burned the morning sweepings and split the firewood and cooked, and never a look of trouble crossed her; her sincerity moved the heaven-envoys, and the three-thousand-and-eight-ranks devas and dragons upheld and guarded her: the saṃghārāma swept the ground, the Eastern-Sea Heaven-King swept the kitchen, the Six Ding offered incense, the roving-inspector lit the candles, the kalaviṅka birds brought tea, the flying gibbon brought greens, the white tiger held the firewood in its jaws, the flying-jade Mao Qiang nourished the flowers, the immortals of the eight caverns offered fruit; and night after night wind and thunder crashed and roared, ghosts and spirits ran to and fro. The nuns, terrified, reported to the father, who sent the Five Cities' horse-and-foot, Bili, to drive troops to ring the temple garden and fire it. And Miaoshan knocked her mouth on the Numinous Mountain, called on the World-Honored, bit her jade finger and spat blood into red rain, and twice quenched the fire and saved the temple; and the five hundred monks were all unharmed. Bili fired it again and it was quenched again, thrice fired and thrice quenched; and having no help he reported it. The father in wrath ordered Bili to bind and haul Miaoshan to the execution-ground; and secretly the mother's assent saved her — for deep was the love of the three daughters' gentle obedience, and he wished them wedded and gathered whole to hold the state's government. But Miaoshan's color changed not, and her will grew firmer; so he shut her in the Cold Palace, day and night the palace-maids and the parents pressing her bitterly, and Miaoshan would not hear, but rather let slip a word that angered the father; and the father in great wrath at once bade Bili behead her. The earth-god hastily reported to the Jade Thearch, who bestowed a red radiance to mantle her body: the sword struck and the sword broke, the spear thrust and the spear snapped; so they bestowed a red gauze and strangled her — and at that moment a tiger leapt in, took the corpse on its back, and was gone.

The father said: "The unfilial child has met her evil recompense" — not knowing the heaven-envoy's fierce tiger had borne Shan into the Black-Pine Forest, precisely to complete the fruit of her goodness. And Shan for a while dreamed-away in a swoon, her true numen dim and far, not knowing whither she went; when a lad, a banner in his hand, invited her: "The King of the Dark Courts has commanded us to receive the princess." Shan said: "Why?" — "Hearing the princess is of great mercy and grace, the Ten Kings wait in person at the Sky-Crossing Bridge." Shan went as bidden; and at the Ghost-Gate Pass the Ox-Head knelt at the gate, the Night-Fork held the candle, the Iron-Head swept the road. She went in and saw a flaying-and-cutting hell and asked of it: "To punish the disloyal and unfilial kinds." She saw a pounding-and-grinding hell: "To punish those who cheapen the five grains and reckon living things as grass." She saw a copper-cauldron-on-a-pillar hell: "This waits upon the strong-and-overbearing." Shan said: "How close-meshed the Law's net!" — "Not by a little." And there were then: a hell of the knife-forest, to punish and requite the sins of the mouth; the ice-bed, to requite those who indulged ear and eye; the eye-gouging and tongue-pulling hell, to requite the inciter and the curser; the gut-drawing hell, to requite those of daggers-in-the-belly and swords-on-the-tongue; those who pushed men into pits requited at the Naihe; those who flogged men and women requited by the whip and mallet; those who crushed small by great crushed under stone; those who netted birds and beasts requited by tiger and serpent; those who in life passed their wealth and rank in idleness requited by the hungry-ghost; those who ensnared men requited by the spear — and the hells' fruit-recompense not to be numbered. Might one say Heaven's eye does not shine and shine, that in the dark and dark a man might slip the net?

Then the Kings of the Earth received her upon the golden bridge, silk canopies spreading, purple cloud laid over the ground, a jade palanquin to meet her, singing-maids at her side. Shan thanked them: "I am of scant virtue; I dare not be honored with your bidding." The Kings said: "We hear the Greatly-Merciful-and-Kind would attend the scripture-mat; open us a little of the ten-thousandth part." Shan said: "Amitābha! Good, good!" — and clasping her hands she chanted once through, and heaven's flowers fell in confusion, and the ground upheld golden lotus, and the iron hells and bronze cangues all became powder, and the more than eight thousand parts of the hells stood empty; and all the karma-makers were loosed from hell and walked to the Halls of Heaven. Then the several Judges memorialized: "Where there is yang there is yin; where there is good there is retribution — else it is no hell. How shall we deal then with the cruel? The evildoers of the sunlit world — by what shall they be warned? This is a place to mend what the yang-world's transforming cannot reach; it may not be lessened. But since the Greatly-Merciful preached the Law, the hells have crumbled; should she stay long, the iron will have no firm hell." The Heaven-Thearch heard of it, and a rebuke was near at hand; so they hastily begged her back to the yang; and the Kings sent her in a chariot as far as the Pavilion of Dame Meng and there took leave, ordering the jailers to lead her to the Black-Pine Forest to return her soul.

Shan woke: "I have ascended to the heaven-realm — how am I come here again?" Musing among the fragrant grasses, she knew not which way to go; when Śākyamuni the Thus-Come came driving his cloud, and made her a Nan-greeting bow, and jested with her: "In the thatch-hut is room to share with you — I and you might make a life together." Shan said: "Why do you defile me with the words of the feathered-and-furred?" Śākya said: "I but tried you — your heart is firm indeed. Would you go with me to Fragrant Mountain? — is it well?" Shan did not answer. He said: "It is no other — I am Śākyamuni; I have come only to show you where you should go." Shan bowed her head and gave thanks: "Where?" — "Between the Southern Sea of the kingdom of Yue is the Potalaka crag: that is your place. I will call the earth-dragon for you to transform a lotus-terrace, to cross the ocean and pass over." Thereupon the white tiger gnawed the wood for it, the saṃghārāma pushed open the ground of blessing, the eight-rank Dragon Kings raised the tide day and night, and the Four Heavenly Kings were its pillar-stones. Shan sat the Potalaka crag nine years, and the merit was complete: she cut her hand and eye to save her father's sickness, and held the vase of sweet dew to give life to the ten thousand people; on her left Shancai (Sudhana) made her Universal-Shining, on her right the Dragon-Maiden made her Broad-Virtue; she moved her whole household's flesh-and-blood to take up cultivation, and universally ascended to the heaven-realm.

The Jade Thearch, seeing that her blessing-power reached the Great-Thousand and her divine response threaded the Three Realms, then, following the Old Lord's memorial of Wondrous-Joy, enfeoffed her: GREATLY-MERCIFUL, GREATLY-KIND, SAVIOR-FROM-SUFFERING, SAVIOR-FROM-PERIL, HOMAGE-TO THE NUMINOUS-RESPONSE BODHISATTVA WHO OBSERVES THE WORLD'S SOUNDS, and bestowed the treasure-lotus-flower seat as LORD OF THE POTALAKA CRAG OF THE SOUTHERN SEA; and bestowed on her father King Miaozhuang the rank of IMMORTAL OFFICER VICTORIOUS-IN-GOOD; on her mother the Boya clan-lady, the rank of BODHISATTVA WHO EXHORTS TO GOOD; on the eldest sister Miaoqing, the rank of the GREAT-GOOD BODHISATTVA MAÑJUŚRĪ, seated astride the blue lion; on the second sister Miaoyin, the rank of the GREAT-GOOD BODHISATTVA SAMANTABHADRA, seated astride the white elephant.

Marshal Wang — 王元帥

Of Luoli in Xiangyang, surnamed Wang, named E, styled Dongcheng. His father, tabooed name Chen, died early; his mother, née Shao, bore him after the father's death. The Marshal was born in the Zhenguan era, the year bingshen, the seventh month, the day gengshen, at the hour of shen. Orphaned young, he did not study, but had strength of sinew, a nature hard and fierce, a substance straight and blunt; where there was any injustice in the market, he would straightway share the burden of it, hoeing the hard and thrashing the overbearing, and the country-folk yielded to his fairness. Yet his willfulness would brook no man; so, telling right from wrong, he had many who bore him grudge among the many he had helped, and the enmity was never all effaced.

At that time in Fufeng there was one called Black-Tiger, of the Marshal's own surname, who borrowed the awe of that name and forced the daughters of men to his bed; every one of singular beauty he first embraced and after gave to marriage, calling it "trying the red first," and none dared say him nay. Afterward the Marshal, hearing that the fellow presumed on his ugliness, in wrath slew him; and the countrymen brought suit against the Marshal at the court. The Marshal would not kneel; the officer wronged him and jailed him; the Marshal's hair stood on end: "Should I have left such a stain? I have cut them off one by one, to clear the people's harm!" — and with great strides, gathering his robe, he went up; and the officer, afraid, only said "yes, yes." The runners and clerks, meeting, hauled and by main strength rescued and released him, and he came off unhurt.

Then, coming among Jing and Xiang, there was an old temple held by a river-monster that showed its numen in that region: year by year on the sixth of the sixth month the assembly-heads must furnish ten pens each of ox, sheep, and pig, and ten brewings of wine, to be spared the plague — else men and creatures ran blood and the pestilence came. The assembly so beggared the poor that they came near to selling sons and daughters to meet it, and the sound of weeping filled the ear. The Marshal, hating it, burned it: the temple-image went up in two ashings, and a monstrous wind arose; and just then came the Perfected Man Sa, on his plague-saving errand of borrowed medicine, who wrought a Law to turn the wind and quench the fiend; and the region was made quiet, and the several earth-lords set down the matter and memorialized it.

The Jade Thearch by rescript enfeoffed him MARSHAL WANG OF THE VALLEY-STREAM, granting him a gold seal like a dipper, in whose seal-script were the four characters RED HEART, LOYAL AND GOOD, to have charge of all-under-heaven's altar-commands: whenever a Daoist memorialized aught, it went with the thunder's speed and the wind's force; and finding a man of great fault, he struck him down on the instant, and officer and commoner dared not lightly trespass on private ends. The Marshal is mostly in the Heaven-Gate at his affairs, unversed in the people's hidden ways, and his nature being fierce, once he receives the heaven-command he arrests the wrong straightway, till men's bones creep. Let the men of the world not trespass — that is well.

The Heaven-Lord Xie — 謝天君

The Heaven-Lord was surnamed Xie, tabooed name Shirong, styled Leixing (Thunder-Walk), of the beginning of Zhenguan. A wheel of fire-light like a dipper shot straight into the Fire-Flame Mountains at the border of Shandong — this was Xie'en; Han was his father, [Mother] his mother. The Marshal's nature was fierce, his face ugly; he bent neither to the mighty nor broke by the law. As magistrate of Shanyin, when the eastern-labor supervising officer, to press the tax-levies, would frighten the Marshal with a thousand in gold, the Marshal secretly gathered up the bribe and reported it; the supervisor, angered and with no handle, then charged him with a bitter test in argument: quicksilver helmet-and-mail — and the Marshal answered it with tin-trimmed work; forced with drum-hide and ox-glue — and the Marshal used spoiled hide for glue and spoiled mail for the leather that was the mail, and the drum sounded and was submitted and advanced. The supervisor, unable to harm him, brought a further charge of "general's talent," secretly setting him to hold a pass to trap him; and the Marshal that very night led a few soldiers to raid and hew and stop the caitiff-heart; and when the bandit in his turn seized on a defeat to raid our emptiness, the Marshal had first shifted the pass and lain with crossbows in wait, and kept it whole without mishap. For the bitterer the labor the sharper his argument, the more perilous the affair the stranger his merit — his red heart and fierce honor were bright as the sun in heaven; sincere, and no empty thing. The Jade Thearch, favoring him as an eye-and-ear minister, thought fit he should receive office as HEAVEN-LORD OF THE FIRE-VIRTUE, gripping the gold whip, riding the fire-wheel, on his head the Daoist crown, to have charge of the command of the parching-yang.

The Lady Da Nai — 大奶夫人

Of old the Fourth Lady Chen dwelt of her forebears at Xiadu in Luoyuan county, Fuzhou prefecture. Her father, the Grand Remonstrancer, was appointed Director of the Bureau of Revenue; her mother née Ge; her elder brother Chen Erxiang, and her sworn-brother Chen Haiqing. In the first year of Jiaxing, a Serpent-Mother worked calamity, devouring men, seizing the numinous cave of Gutian county in a hollow in Linshui village; the country-folk had raised a temple and sacrificed to appease her numen, and year by year bought two children, a boy and a girl, to offer to her private wish — and so she did no harm. At that time the Bodhisattva Guanyin, returning to the Southern Sea from an assembly, suddenly saw an evil breath charging heaven over Fuzhou, and clipped one fingernail, transforming it into a shaft of golden light that pierced straight into Elder Chen; and it entered the womb of the lady Ge, and was born in the first year of Dali, the year jiayin, the fifteenth of the first month at the hour of yin — the sage-auspice and blessed light singular about the body, a strange fragrance winding the door, gongs and drums sounding as if a host of immortals escorted her in; and therefore she was named Jingu, the "advancing maid." Her brother Erxiang had received of a strange man the mouth-arts of the Yoga Great-Teaching orthodox Law and divine power, which above moved the heaven-generals and below drove the yin-soldiery, its awesome force without bound.

Coming to Linshui village in Gutian, it fell just at the turn-sacrifice; the assembly-head, the layman Huang the Third, in furnishing the offering, hated the fiend at heart and thought to still her harm, unable to bear that innocent children's lives should be fed to a venomous mouth; and he reverently asked Erxiang to work the Law and break her. But Haiqing, drunk with wine, filled the warrant-writ awry as to the hour, so that the heaven-soldiery and yin-soldiery did not answer, and by mischance Erxiang was breathed in by the venom-breath; happily the Yoga-immortal showed his numen, and out of the empty air flung down a golden bell to cover and mantle him, and where the immortal-wind shone the crooked could not come near — but the brother could not get free. Jingu, just seventeen, wept for her one flesh-and-blood, and single-threaded crawled off to Lüshan to learn the Law; and the Cave-King's daughter, the Law-teacher, transmitted and crossed her, drove the thunder and broke the temple with the Gang-Law, broke open the Serpent-Cave, took her brother, and cut the fiend. But it fell that the serpent had drawn the essence of the heaven-mansion's Red-Wing star and the numen of the golden-bell's life-breath, and would end only with heaven itself — how could she be slain outright? She only killed off its venom, so it dared not run riot. To this day, when the thirteenth of the eighth month comes, it is the serpent-mansion's govern-time, and much wind-and-rain, downpour and hail come sudden and hurt the people's crops, the flood-fiend going out and in — this is the proof of it.

Afterward the empress of the Tang king was in hard labor, near to peril; the Nai came by her Law into the palace and by the Law drew the crown-prince down; the palace-maids reported it, and the Tang king rejoiced greatly and by rescript enfeoffed her CAPITAL-HEAVEN, STATE-GARRISONING, MANIFEST-RESPONSE, EXALTED-BLESSING, WILL-COMPLYING LADY DA NAI, and built a temple at Gutian to garrison the Serpent-Mother that she work no harm. The Sage Mother's great making for the people was such as this; her Law walks wide in the age, guarding boys and girls especially, hastening birth and protecting the young, so the fiend makes no calamity — for indeed, the serpent not being slain to the last, she swore of herself: "As the girl can spread evil, so can I walk the incense" — and universally by rescript men now follow that old matter and revere the practice of it, and the Law is much proven. Her sage father, Lord Awe; her sage mother, the lady Ge; her sage brother, Lord Chen Erxiang; her sage elder sister, the Awesome-Numinous Ninth Lady Lin (born the ninth of the ninth month); her sage younger sister, the Third Lady Li Who Broke the Temple at the Sea-Mouth (born the fifteenth of the eighth month); the aiding-maiden temple-breakers, the Four Great Saints Zhang, Xiao, Liu, Lian; the Bronze-Horse Sand-King; the Five-Rove Great Generals; the Birth-Hastening Sage Mother; the Delivering Numinous-Lad; the two Thearch-Generals.

The Lady Tianfei — 天妃娘娘

The Consort, surnamed Lin, was of old of Ninghai town on the Xinghua circuit — that is, the Meizhou land on the sea, eighty li from the seat of Putian county. Her mother, née Chen, once dreamed the Southern-Sea Guanyin gave her an utpala flower to swallow, and thereupon was with child; and after fourteen months she was delivered, and got the Consort. She was born in the first year of Tianbao of Tang, the twenty-third of the third month; on the day of her birth a strange fragrance was smelled a li round and did not disperse for a ten-day. Quick and singular from childhood, at just a year old, in swaddling-clothes, seeing the god-images she folded her hands as if to bow; at five she could recite the Guanyin Sutra; at eleven she could dance and keep the measure and delight the gods, like the affair of Wu Wangzi and Jiang Ziwen at Kuaiji — but being of a cap-and-gown house that wished not for such a name in the village-lanes, the Consort too veiled her traces and dimmed her light, keeping to herself, and only sighed within.

Her four brothers traded, coming and going among the sea-islands. One day the Consort's hands and feet were as if she had lost something, her eyes closed a long while; her father and mother, taking it for a sudden fit, called on her in haste, and the Consort woke and grieved: "Why did you not let me keep my brothers whole and unharmed?" Her father and mother understood not her meaning, nor asked. When the brothers came home with their winnings, they wept and told: three days before, a hurricane had risen, the huge waves touching the sky; the brothers were each in a different ship, and the eldest brother's ship had drifted and sunk in the water; and each told how, at the height of the storm, he had seen a girl haul the fore-stay [the boat's mast-and-shroud line] and go, crossing the billows as on level ground. The father and mother knew then the Consort's closed eyes had sent forth her origin-spirit to save the brothers; and that the eldest brother alone was not saved was because they had called her too sharply, and the spirit could not reach to guard him.

Come to the hairpin-age, she vowed never to wed; and even father and mother dared not force the marriage. Not long after, calm and upright she sat, and passed away; a fragrance was smelled several li, as on the day of her birth. From this time she was often seen as a god, before and behind; and men mostly saw her palanquin and train and attendant maids, likened to the Queen Mother of the West. She was especially good at the charge of conceiving heirs, and a whole town served her: a certain wife of that town, wed ten years and barren, prayed everywhere at the high altar without effect, and at last prayed to the Consort — and straightway bore a son; and thereafter, whoever was without child, prayed and was answered.

Down to the Song: Lu Yundi and Li Fu, with a palace eunuch, went as envoys to Goryeo, and off Meizhou a hurricane rose and the ship near capsized and drowned — when suddenly bright rose-cloud scattered like broidered silk, and one was seen to climb the mast-pole and dance and wheel and hold the tiller with great force; and after a long while they came safe. The eunuch questioned the crew, and Yundi and Li Fu set it all out, and facing south gave thanks and bowed: "This is the golden-tablet, jade-writ that keeps us from the whale's belly and can spread the rain-and-dew in a far and doubly-interpreted land, keeping the sovereign's cords unshamed of their charge — the sage-brightness' power, and no shallow shelter of the Consort's numen. You gentlemen, mark it." Returned to court, they memorialized it in full, and by decree she was enfeoffed LADY NUMINOUS-GRACE, and a temple raised at Meizhou with a hundred households set to keep the incense-fire; and the goodly stuff was hewn and the catalpa carved and the vermilion laid on.

At our dynasty's founding — in the seventh year of Chengzu the Emperor Wen, the eunuch Zheng He, opening the Southwest barbarians, prayed at the Consort's temple, and the answer was as in Song; returning, he yielded up the charge, and by rescript she was enfeoffed PROTECTOR-OF-THE-STATE, SHELTERER-OF-THE-PEOPLE, WONDROUS-NUMINOUS, RADIANT-RESPONSE, VAST-HUMANE, UNIVERSAL-CROSSING HEAVENLY-CONSORT, with a shrine granted at the capital; and to this day her worshippers are over all-under-heaven. For the Consort, born endowed with the essence of pure numen and holding a divine and wondrous wisdom; in death having charge of heirs without fail, and charge of the sea, so that the sea's water raised no wave — her making of blessing for men, is it a shallow thing? I have consulted the poems of Xinghua commandery, and gathered besides from Fei Chao's stele-record; and so in outline made this account.

Marshal Pang of the Chaos-Breath — 混炁龐元帥

The Marshal was surnamed Pang, named Qiao, styled Changqing, of the ferry-crossing on the Han river. His father Pang Ding, his mother née Yao; born at the beginning of Emperor Xian of Han, the year guichou, the eleventh month, the day guihai, at the hour of chou. Though he plied the world's oar, his heart walked the bodhi-path, and to the common travelers coming and going he was equal to all. One evening a traveler crossing home late and urgent on the Double-Ninth night left a hundred in gold on the ferry; next day he came weeping and told his plight, and the Marshal brought out its wrapper untouched, and the traveler would give him a part, and he took nothing. Again, two days before New Year's Eve, a young woman went alone and late, and asked at dusk to cross; but that day the snow forbade it and there were no travelers, and she had no lodging; the Marshal kept her, and lit the fire and sold his own food, cold and clean to the last inch. Next day the snow was worse; the person's traces were gone. And the next day the Marshal was busy at his ferrying; his father, in straw-cape and lifting the pole, crossed, a woman following; reaching the far bank he turned back — and the river-wind rose great, the sail heaved, and the ferry capsized. The Marshal, seeing it, leapt in haste into the waves, sinking and rising as it drifted, till he reached his father and dove deep and bore him up to the cliff — and his strength failed at the raging flood; the Marshal sank, and the father too fell; the Marshal, missing the woman, sank again with them, and bore them out; and thrice thus. For on New Year's Eve the ghosts come out by night to cry their wrong and take a substitute; but the Marshal, firm the essence of one-and-six, with kan for his prefecture, no seething billow could bring him to grief. And she whom he had ferried before was no other than the Self-Existent Guanyin in transformed body, a Buddha; and so the father too was unharmed. But the Marshal, just come out of the peril, holding his father and weeping, heard some tens of ghosts weeping: "This year we were to take a substitute, and could not for the filial son's snatching-away; we have no day of the wheel's turning now." The Marshal, hearing, whipped them and got nothing; next day it was the same weeping, the shade-wind soughing, the ghost-cry piteous, cursing his father as of frail and weak stuff cast after the thin torrent, near death again and again. The Marshal, having no help, laid incense-dust in his palm, smoked it with fire above, and prayed to Heaven; and the Jade Thearch, hearing, pitied him, and by rescript made him MARSHAL OF THE CHAOS-BREATH, gripping the golden blade, commanded over the going-out and coming-in of the Heaven-Gate, to send down the yin-demons and clear the yang-evils, not erring by an autumn-hair.

Marshal Li — 李元帥

The Marshal, tabooed name Feng, was a flying-ship rower of the Southern Sea. Straight and blunt by nature, of matchless strength of sinew, because a neighbor had a not-under-one-heaven wrong, the Marshal in his indignation slew the man and fled into a sea-god's temple, where he met five ghosts gnawing, and went in, and the god said: "The Heaven-God is come!" The Marshal said: "How do you know?" — "We by the Divine Dragon's command would rid the water of monsters; take this golden blade in ransom" — and following into an earth-cellar he took the blade and it vanished. The Marshal said: "Strange! a rare meeting indeed." Suddenly a horde of brigands, leading a sheep to brew a sacrifice to the god, the Marshal seized and subdued; and leaping into their ship-tower and opening it, all within were fair men and women and pearls and treasures; the Marshal bade them all released, and gave gold and jade to send them off, and swore the brigands: "Rob no traveling merchant-officials, rob no folk's daughters, but strike only the Japanese-pirate and the bandit that harm the people" — and the crowd said "yes, yes."

One day he plied his skiff on the ocean; and a huge monster turned the wind and rolled the waves and rose; the Marshal, not knowing it for a river-boar, said: "This will be the divine command?" — leapt the waves and gutted it, crossing the ocean as walking a sand-bar. Then a black gale spun about, the startled billows leapt to the sky, flying spray splashing heaven, and hidden in it a scaled thing thrust — its mane like an elephant's snout and an ox's nose, its body huge as a mountain, one tail with nine fires and more, like the tail of hill-and-stream: a CROCODILE it was, with a dozen young ones at its side, strange-scaled and odd-kinned, their wings crossing like black cloud. The Marshal said: "The one before was not it!" — and flew in and stood on its back and thrust it through and out, and slew its young and all the rest; and the wind and waves in a moment stilled, calm as a level river. By night the god thanked him: "Your merit, ferrying travelers, is without shore; I will report it to the Jade Thearch in some small requital." And the Jade Thearch by rescript made him MARSHAL LI, in the office of Vanguard, appointing two generals for his wings. The Marshal was born at the Brocade-River mouth, in the year renwu of the Sui thearch, the fifth of the fifth month at the hour of wu, lodged as embryo in the womb of Li Fang's wife, née Sun.

The Heaven-Lord Liu — 劉天君

The Miscellaneous-Records Tradition says: the Marshal, tabooed name Hou, was a man of Eastern Jin, born at a fishing-ferry on the Min river, the year gengzi, the twelfth of the eighth month at the hour of you. His mother née Xie drew water at the river, and the Marshal crawled into the wave's heart and got a floating raft near the side and was saved; his father Liu Fu poled and met him: "What a wonder — and lucky not dead." Being poor, he was sent to serve the Perfected Man Luo as a reading-companion, and grew skilled in the Five-Thunder palm-formulas, summoning wind and seizing rain, answering the knock at once; and having saved the people and aided the state, the folk of the little hamlet proposed to sacrifice to him; the Marshal, saying "this is for a name," fled it; and the folk wrote his virtue and made an altar of his name and there burned incense and prayed, and it was as prayed, swifter than the floating chime-stone. Then the Eastern Capital had great drought, and the sovereign, raising anxious eyes and inclining his ear, sighed for the whole registered folk, and said: "Pray only at Lord Liu's shrine, and it must answer to the seeking." The sovereign followed it, and it was proven numinous indeed; and that autumn was a great harvest, and the emperor, glad, by rescript made him TRUE LORD OF DARK-TRANSFORMING MERCIFUL SUCCOR. And the King-Thearch too, by that same rescript, charged him with the affairs of the King's Bureau.

The Two Marshals Wang and Gao — 王高二元帥

The Unofficial-History Tradition says: Wang, tabooed name Tie (Iron); Gao, tabooed name Tong (Copper). Wang was born south of Rong-city; Gao bred north of Jiyong; the two Marshals each roamed in office in the Central Xia and met at bridled Luo, and clasping hands rejoiced; and finding their years the same — both of King Li's time, the year renxu, the last winter month, the twenty-eighth at the dusk-hour — they swore the bond of gold-and-orchid, not of one breath yet dear as of one milk. At the time both Marshals served the King of Han; strongly they remonstrated and were not heard, and would leave; Gao said: "You go — but what joy have I to stay?" — and cast it off and went with him, and both came to no salary.

One day Gao went out; Wang asked after him, and a man said: "He took the road over the Southern Ridge." Wang, startled: "A tiger's den!" — and would go meet him blade in hand; a man stopped him: "It is life-and-death itself." He went straight on as if there were nothing; and Gao, come back, asked after Wang's going, and a man said: "For you he crossed the Southern Ridge." Wang ran to him; a man again stopped him: "It is I that shall go — how dare I be after?" So Gao met no tiger, but Wang met one. Wang said: "Little worm — where is my friend?" — and by main strength slew it. Then Gao came back, and Wang met him: "I took you for dead in the tiger's mouth." Gao said: "Not so — I sought you by the road, and met Robber Zhi, who took me for you and seized me; I fought hand-to-blade with the tiger and caught it, but never got you — and turned back." The two, glad, went home hand in hand; and men said: "A very Copper-and-Iron friendship — in all things be like this." The Jade Thearch, holding that the savage beast could not sunder their hearts, then enfeoffed the two Marshals CHIEFS OF TIGER-HILL, to show it for a lesson.

The Marshals Tian Hua and Bi — 田華畢元帥

In the country of Dongxiang, one surnamed Tian, named Hua, was the god of the Due-East Two-Seven. Thunder stored in the earth lodged as embryo in the thousand-year stone-milk of the fields, gathering breath, and was born; at his birth in plain daylight a thunderbolt out of the empty air, fire-light lit the sky, and wind and rain came sudden. The Marshal sat knee-locked, a great serpent ringing him without, a swarm of bees feeding him nectar for breath. Grown, he took Tian (Field) for his surname from the field, and Bi from the caltrop; he refined himself below the Lulu crag. When Nüwa mended heaven with the five-colored earth and by a hundred devices could not close it, the Marshal aided her with the essence of wood-and-fire, shattered the marrow of the dark-essence stone, breathed the breath of the south, and at dawn cast and smelted it, its roar shaking heaven and earth, and so stopped the sky's leak; and he refined besides the five-colored fire-hail, and on the wind-and-thunder ranks aided Xuanyuan to strike Chiyou dead. Xuanyuan bowed him to the office of Dragon-Master; the Marshal said: "I am a man of the outer parts — how should I lose myself in the common ruck?" — and shook out his robe and hid in the realm of Huaxu, and thence was named Hua.

Then to the age of the Tang clan, when ten suns came forth together and the red earth ran a thousand li, the host of star-officers urged him to take up, in Heaven's stead, the office of controller; and the Thearch shook the hibernating awake and stirred the sluggish, to set a heart for heaven and earth and in the great furnace forge destiny; and he received the Thearch's rescript, drove the thunder-car, held up the lightning-pennons, cloud-road and wind-gallop, sun-and-moon for candle, riding the Dragon's-Tail official, the Basket-and-Wing minister; and thereupon rain and shine came in season. Down to the end of Han, when fiends and demons ran riot and lewdness broke out a hundred ways, the Jade Thearch enfeoffed him MARSHAL BI OF THE THUNDER-GATE, by rescript to have charge of the aid of the Twelve Thunder-Courts, aiding the Highest Thearch of the Dark Heaven to slay the plague and drive the ghosts; above to govern heaven-and-earth's flood-and-drought, below to arraign the horde of goblins, going out and in to strike the un-humane and un-righteous sorts.

The Marshals Tian and Lü — 田吕元帥

Marshal Lü's father was the essence of the Azure Dragon, and the Marshal his son. Of old the Azure Dragon, driven off by the True Lord of Mercy-and-Succor, hid in the Yellow-Sand Cave of western Shu, and secretly spying the beauty of the Pang daughter, took her to wife; and half a year gone, and with child, the True Lord sought him out, and the Dragon transformed; and the woman too, startled, hid in a field. The True Lord's flying-sword pointed at the Pang woman's belly, and the embryo dropped — a child's body with a dragon's head. At that moment thunder-rain came sudden; the husband said: "'See the dragon in the field' — is it not so?" The True Lord, having pressed the father, could not bear to break the embryo and so reach the son; he reared and cherished it, and gave it Tian (Field) for surname and Yu (Rain) for tabooed name. At six he was sent as disciple under the Perfected Man Zhang, serving day by day untiring; and Zhang, by memorial, styled him Quanling. After the Perfected Man Zhang paced-the-void, the curtain and the heaven-thunder-command and the several Laws were not with him; the Marshal secretly looked upon it in his heart, and copied it in Purple-Flower Mountain.

Suddenly he thought upon the origin whence his body came, and could not find it; the old Daoist admonished him: "Your sire was of the prime-metal stuff, and your mother is the old dame of Longyou, she of the one closed eye." The Marshal wept and took her on his back and served her, laboring untiring; and not many years on he asked his mother the reason of her parting from his father, and the mother told it out; and the Marshal, thinking on it day and night, said: "This one errand — though my father's crime was his lawlessness, yet the True Lord pressed my father into what pit, and sundered my mother to what home? It is enough for grief. To think it and not requite it is unfilial; to have a grievance and not vent it is unmartial; to walk and not decide is no true man. What manner of man is this, that with arts should rob my father — and how shall I not exhaust what I have learned and wipe my father's shame?" So he started up and tore the curtain for a banner, snapped a pole for a battle-axe, spat water for fog, struck the command for thunder, and treading the void went through the Grand Void, everywhere asking the True Lord's going and staying; and just then twelve little fiends of the Void-Death barred the road; the Marshal in wrath spread his banner-veil in the tent, and fought them without cease.

The Jade Thearch summoned and marshalled him in person: "The True Lord clears harm for the people; he may not be made a fiend-foe. The Twelve Void-Deaths may not be put to the blade. Do you loose your grievance with the Marshal, and be willing to follow the whip-and-drum through the Three Realms, to bring down the fiend-veil and the crooked." — MARSHAL Whose office is thus; and therefore with the left he grips the thunder-command, with the right the yellow standard, and is ranked at the left of the Screen-Bearer.

Marshal Dang — 黨元帥

The Marshal was a man of Huaizhou, of deep clear study and refined attainment — his face black, but his heart not black: within, he sheltered no kinsman; without, he shunned no foe. Serving as Radiant-Examination Commissioner of Jin, in a time when punishments were left unfixed and turned on whoever came in, when the higher post saw only what the lower post had cooked, the Marshal alone judged with a level heart, unswayed by favor, and incorrupt and clear-eyed besides, seeing true and false as if laid bare: in his court there were no wronged prisoners, among the people below no word of grievance. Within three years the ward-lanes were singing of him:

Dang or no Dang — he sees your five organs!
The case once on the roll, he holds the very sun:
the Black Judge, at whom men and ghosts both weep —
the What-Family Chancellor, father-and-mother of the people.

For Dang was his surname, black his look; and "he of the What family" hides his tabooed name — What (He) being his father's tabooed name; hence "the What-Family Chancellor." His mother, née Chen, bore the Marshal in the dingwei year of Yuanyou, the ninth month, the day dingmao, at the hour of wei; and at that hour men saw some twenty or thirty children, banners and pennants shading the road, drums and music along the dike, carrying a little boy hither; and being asked, they answered: "The blessing-star of a whole road!" He enjoyed a span of ninety-seven years. The Jade Thearch enfeoffed him: the Marshal with the caltrop-mace in his grip examines and collates, and searches all-under-heaven's evils and trespasses.

Marshal Shi — 石元帥

The Unofficial Records say: the Marshal was a man of Xiangxi, tabooed name Shen, born in the seventh year of King Xuan of Zhou, the third month, the fourth day, at the hour of shen — and at that hour wind and rain came sudden, and a dragon hung from the dark sky; wherefore the countrymen cried to his father Wenfu and his mother née Han: "The babe is DRAGON-SEED!" The Marshal was quick by nature and clean; grown, he roamed within the passes and took his training under Master Guanyin, and built his hut on the sunny side of Mount Mei. It fell just then that the red earth ran a thousand li, the hundred trees yellowed and dropped, and the scaled things could not find a foot of water to beat their fins in; and the old woodcutters, shoulders bared and faces sweating, gathered at his hut complaining: "Of the black-haired people of Zhou there will not be a remnant left!" The Marshal, grieved, said: "My shame is only that I am no dragon. Those wrigglers — viper-kind and snake-kind — can stretch from their torpor and toss the waves, breathe out vapor and make cloud, and work sweet rain for all-under-heaven; and I, who hold the pure in me, cannot come up to one of them? Then a hill of darnel, and an ox's spittle, were enough to grieve for." Brooding he thought: "Of old there was the prayer of Yelin — and what was that? Was it not the paring of nails and the shaving of hair? Only sincerity moves Heaven; there has merely been no sincerity." So he bathed and changed his robes, set the bright incense in the burner and laid his offering reverently in the bowl, bowed twice, and prayed; and the people followed him. Of a sudden the rain came drenching and sudden, till it stood three feet on the ground. And then they remembered: the Marshal, at his second bow, had not risen — and knew not that he had transformed. Presently travelers reported: the Marshal was riding a horse eastward, with plumed standards and feathered dispatches, a train of a hundred and more; and he said to his followers: "Give my thanks to all of them. I bear the Jade Thearch's rescript, and cannot stay — only let them not blame me." The Highest Thearch enfeoffed him CHIEF OF THE FIVE THUNDERS, to administer the affairs of awe, blessing, and the striking-down.

Marshal Fuying — 副應元帥

The Marshal was stern and whole by nature, his eye unblinking and his heart no rolling stone, lending no man a borrowed countenance. Failing the examinations young, he bent his will to hard conduct in a mountain corner. By night a nine-tailed fox-sprite, in the guise of a delicate girl, knocked at his door to enter, offering her hundred charms for one glance; the Marshal read on as before. She opened vermilion lips to sell one favor; the Marshal read on as before. Next day she tapped the window and murmured low; the Marshal shut the door and that was all. The fiend, since beauty could not besot him, then thought fright might shake him, and conjured herself a chimei-goblin — bell eyes and spiral horns, dragon lips and tiger mouth, a body of dry firewood and the tread of a giant, feet planted on the table, hands heaving at the rafters, eyes and nose spurting flame. The Marshal's color never changed; he sat and said: "Are you not she who opened my door at midnight and offered herself? What is your fright to me — and am I one to be frightened?" — and he took the cinnabar he pointed his texts with and flung it at her. The fiend gathered in her shape, became a serving-maid, and begged pardon: "You, sir, are a heaven-god. One day the heaven-edict will make you Marshal-Examiner of Demons — only forgive your handmaid's trespass." The Marshal said: "Wash yourself and go — that will do." The maid gathered her lapels and withdrew. And soon the Jade Thearch sent down his decree and received the Marshal, conferring the office of Correcting-the-Realm with the Golden Mirror. The Marshal was of the folk at the foot of Mount Tai, of the left-over line of Lord Fuhe; his mother, née Ouyang, gathered the finest breath of the Central Marchmount and brought him down to the common world in the ninth year of Qianfu — a renyin year, a renyin month, a renyin day, at the hour of yin. The Marshal's other style is Taiyu.

Panhu — 槃瓠

Panhu the dog-god is the ancestor of the Man peoples of Changsha and Wuling today; his temple stands at Mount Wu in Luxi county. By the record: Gaoxin suffered the trouble of the Quanrong, and offered his young daughter to whoever could take the head of the Quanrong general Wu. Now the Thearch kept a dog named Panhu; and it went into the mountains and brought a man's head in its jaws to the palace gate — and it was General Wu's head indeed. The Thearch rejoiced greatly; but Panhu being a beast, he could not wed him to the girl, and would have rewarded him otherwise. The daughter heard of it, and held that a pledge must not be broken, and begged to go. The Thearch, having no choice, gave her to him. Panhu took the girl on his back and bore her into a stone chamber of the southern mountains; and after three years they had begotten six sons and six daughters, who divided into six surnames — Lan, Hu, Hou, Pan, Yu, and Zhu — which to this day are found by the sea near Guangfu, called in the common speech the Yu-guests. When Panhu died, the sons and daughters wed among themselves; the mother returned and laid the matter before the Thearch, who sent to fetch the children: their clothing was mottled-bright, their speech thick-tongued; and their line spread and trailed wide — the Man of Wuling today are they. To this day the country custom eats no dog-flesh; and the temple has awesome numen.

Marshal Yang — 楊元帥

A mortal Marshal — yet Marshal Yang was invested with the EARTH-GODHEAD: how so? By singular favor. And why the favor? Because the Marshal could serve as the Sovereign Earth's ears and eyes. Why does he grip a halberdier's arms? Because the Sovereign Earth, at the Square Marsh, receives the Green Thearch and walks the way of heaven, wielding the hard-congealed: presiding over the going-forth at the greeting of the winter, over the entering-in at its meeting — the season being the cold, the number the refractory, the breath the stored; holding the stern-killing, gripping the autumn frost. And the Marshal being of martial strength, he grips the halberdier's arms, making the kill his awe, wrenching what other men cannot wrench: this is the meaning of the Highest Thearch's rescript to the Marshal. And what are his labors? Below, to search the baleful filth of the five quarters; in the dark, to check the crosswise-and-loose of the twelve Kings of Yama; in the yang, to true the crooked and straight of the world's prisons; in the yin, to mirror the goblins of sea and marchmount — chief of the Ruined Prefecture's gate of the dead: a most vast charge. And by what practice did the Marshal come to this? By KEEPING THE LAW. When the Marshal was Chamberlain-of-Justice of the Han court, he tried a thief of the sovereign's own playthings by the stolen goods, and when the emperor would have him killed at court, he would not hear it; he tried a favorite who had insulted the officials' images, and had him flogged to death, and when the emperor sent gifts to buy a pardon, he would not hear it; he tried a corrupt clerk among the Thrice-Venerable, and when the terrace-ministers begged by their power, he would not look at them; he tried an old friend cashiered for bending the law, who bribed him with a thousand in gold — and he never blinked: "Would you dirty me too, and have someone to share the blame?" Such, in the main, was he. Now the Marshal was valiant and strenuous long years together, as merciful withal [as stern]; sharing the affairs of Yangzhou, examining men and ghosts, judging the baleful and the stubborn, collating the passes of Ox-Head and Horse-Face, laying open the stores of crag-forest and water-kingdom — nothing was beyond him. At the Marshal's birth the neighbors started up crying that a FLYING TIGER had come; and then the goodwife of the Yang house, née Xu, bore the Marshal, in the gengshen year, the tenth month, the sixteenth day, at the hour of hai. Such is the meaning of the Marshal's tabooed name BIAO, "Tiger-Streak" — and such a hero of men was he.

Marshal Gao — 高元帥

The Marshal received his breath of the essence of the Primal-Beginning Grand Unity, and lodged as embryo in the house of Gao Chun of Cangzhou; his mother née Mei; born in a jiazi year, the eleventh month, a jiazi day, at the hour of zi — a ball of fire-light outshining the sun. His father and mother, taking it for uncanny, cast him into the river; the Medicine-Master Celestial Worthy took him up for a disciple. His face was like crown-jade; his Law-name Yuan; and he was given the immortal simples and sent to roam the world. Where the gibbon's skull was split (the gibbon, struck by a pellet, sought healing, and the Marshal trepanned it), where the serpent's womb was blocked (the Marshal opened it and brought the young forth), where the crane's crown was staved (the crown was sunken, and he raised it with the heads of toad and cicada), where the tiger's throat was stuck (poisoned by a toad, and he dissolved it with serpent-bone) — every strange sickness healed under his hand.

Then he met an immortal tree — a chu-oak hollow at belly and waist, its mouth dripping blood-water without cease; and the Marshal pitied and patched it, with the dew of the qiong-flower and the bark of the heaven-joined tree, till the hollow was as nature made it. He did not know a DIVINE WORM had died within. It spoke through a man, saying: "Truly your art is a great begetter of life among the living. Can you drive sickness out from elbow and armpit, from under the nails, to give the world life?" — "I can." So it tested him with the moxa-of-ghosts method of succor: "In the southeast an old cypress — can you make it live?" — "I can": with the sweet dew of Guanyin's pure vase he watered it, and it sprouted. "In the northwest one whose belly is burst — can you close him?" — "I can": with pain-easing simples blent in divine water, a spell to change belly and bowels, a mantle of flesh-growing powder — and he was whole. "The houses of the officers now lack sons — can you quicken the wombs?" — "I can": with purple-quartz and yang-rousing stones, then the parasite-born divine powder, and in secret the birth-transforming divine talisman. The divine worm, thinking no test could exhaust him, secretly slew a man with the golden silkworm-gu, and said to the Marshal: "What now? To heal ONE life is to kill several herbs — that is quickening one and withering a hundred. And womb-and-child hang on the power of Heaven: you would wrench fate — where life was not certain, you wound a certain death. And how did you keep faith with ME, who had lodged my life in the hollow of that oak? It held no engine of death — and what did it owe to you, that you must force your healing on it and choke me dead? It had done you no kindness — and what was my feud with you? Where then is your 'humaneness of universal succor,' even-handed to both?" The Marshal stood wordless, and sighed: "Truly, one cannot be whole on both sides." Then for the woman and the man both dead by his physic, in every place where his virtue was felt and had withered, he thanked them, and with the art of returning-life he revived both; and roaming all within and beyond the quarters, those he brought to life were very many. The Jade Thearch, pitying — "his humaneness has been bitter labor indeed" — and judging him fit to be the Thearch's own heart toward creatures, a maker-of-destiny, enfeoffed him with the office of MARSHAL GAO, SENDER-DOWN OF BIRTHS, OF THE NINE HEAVENS.

Marshal Ma, the Numinous Officer — 靈官馬元帥

Trace the old Marshal's beginning and end: three times in all he manifested his holiness. He was of origin a transformation-body of the Thus-Come Utmost-Wondrous Auspice — Miaojixiang; and because, in destroying the Grave of the Scorched-Fire Ghost, he wounded mercy, he was sent down among the common; and so with five balls of fire-light he cast into the womb at the house of Ma, of the Golden Mother, his face bearing three eyes — whence his tabooed name, THREE-EYED NUMINOUS RADIANCE (Lingguang). Three days after birth he could war: he cut down the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea to purge the water-plague; then he stole the Great Thearch of Purple Tenuity's golden spear, and lodged his numen with the King of the Fire-Demons' princess as her boy; on his hands were written LING on the left and YAO on the right, so he was named again NUMINOUS-BLAZE (Lingyao). He took his training under the Celestial Worthy of Great Grace, Utmost Mercy, and Wondrous Joy, who schooled him in the heaven-writ — all the arts of wind, thunder, dragons and serpents, drilling ghosts and settling the people — and nothing did he take up without mastering it; and there was conferred on him the GOLDEN BRICK, three-cornered, of transformations without edge. Then he received the Jade Thearch's rescript to subdue the gods of wind and fire and make them the envoys of his wind-wheel and fire-wheel; he brought down the Hundred-Plus Holy Mother, and five hundred fire-crows came to his service; he subdued the Great King Black-Dragon and took his feathers for wings; he cut down the dragon of the Yangzi river for a blessing to the people — through peril upon peril: LOYALTY at its height. The Thearch conferred on him the seal at his left and the sword at his right, to hold the affairs of the Southern Heaven: HONOR at its height. He was granted the feast of qiong-flowers, the Golden-Dragon crown-prince pouring the wine: FAVOR at its height.

But mark: the crown-prince's insolence angered the Marshal, and he BURNED THE SOUTHERN HEAVEN GATE, routed the heaven-generals one and all, and went down into the Dragon Palace; warring there with Lilou and Shikuang, and with the two gods Harmony-and-Union beside, he flogged the Golden Dragon to vent his wrath. Then, driven to it, he transformed once more into a wrapped embryo — five brother-jades and two gentle orchids, borne together of the left-over body of the Ghost-Child Mother (Hariti); and for his mother's sake he entered hell, ran the sea-treasuries, paced the Numinous Terrace, crossed Fengdu, entered the ghost-cave; he WARRED WITH NEZHA; he stole the immortal peaches; he stood against the GREAT SAGE EQUAL TO HEAVEN — till Śākyamuni the Buddha made the peace between them: FILIALITY at its height. Afterward he returned to the left of the Bodhisattva's seat: WISDOM at its height. The Jade Thearch, for merit and virtue level with heaven and earth, made him by rescript a Marshal under the Dark Thearch's command, favored him with the West, and set him to answer the prayers of the people below for wife and wealth, sons and salary — a hundred knocks, a hundred answers; and even the shaman-houses' pleas against wrong and oppression all enter his hearing, and are memorialized straight to the Heaven-Gate, with the thunder's keenness and the wind's pace.

Marshal Wen the Trusted-Protector — 孚祐温元帥

The Marshal was surnamed Wen, named Qiong, styled Ziyu, a man of Dong'ou commandery of the Later Han — the Wenzhou of eastern Zhe today — his family long of White-Stone Bridge, his forebears hidden or shown by turns. His father, tabooed name Wang, made the classics his trade and passed the illumined-classics examination, yet was wanting an heir, and held that unfilial; with his wife, née Zhang, tabooed name Yi, styled Daohui, he prayed to the Sovereign Earth. Then one night she dreamed a gold-armored god, a great axe in his hand, holding on his palm a bright pearl, who gave it to the lady Zhang, saying: "I am a god of the Six Jia, a general of the Jade Thearch. I would lodge in a mother's womb and take substance as a man — will the mother have me?" The lady Zhang assented: "A womanish soul, unlearned — if a sage and worthy deign to gather here, how should I refuse the command?" The god laid the pearl in her bosom, and she woke; and thereby she held the numen twelve months, blessing-cloud winding the house and strange fragrance thick at her seat; and he was born under Emperor Shun of the Later Han, in the first year of Han'an, xinsi, the fifth month, the fifth day, at the hour of wu. At the bathing, the midwife-sister said: "This boy has talisman-writ on his left ribs, twenty-four seal-graphs; and on his right ribs, sixteen — such as no man can read." Presently the vermilion tracery hid itself; and after the jade ring of the dream's divine gift they named him QIONG, styled Ziyu — "Jade-Son."

Divinely bright from childhood: at seven he studied the pacing of heaven's stars; at ten he was through the Confucian classics and traditions, the masters and histories and heaven-patterns, nothing unmastered; at nineteen he sat the examination and failed; at twenty-six he shot the illumined-classics strategy — and failed again. Of a sudden he sighed: "A man born who cannot bring his lord to grace and his people to bounty — dead, he should help the Thearch slay the treacherous and destroy the crooked, to pay what I purpose." And he left this gatha: Filial-brotherliness the root, loyalty the head; broad humaneness, forbearing pardon; stand the body without lean. Then cultivate the clear-and-pure, contract with the true-and-dark. Who serves my Way — what fear he shall not rise immortal? I follow at the left and right of whoever calls. — In the pent grief of that hour, suddenly he saw an azure dragon drop a pearl before him; he stooped, took it, held it in his mouth — and it slid to his belly; and the azure dragon straightway danced, blotting the sun, leaping gold. The Marshal wrenched it to a RING, snapping the tail off in his hand — and on the sudden he was transfigured: face blue, hair red, blue-indigo his body, ape-fierce; grasping the fierce tablet he roved and sat and stood, heroic-keen, valiant-fierce. Whereat he showed the gold-covenant jade-graphs: "WHOEVER CAN WALK MY LAW AND CHANT MY GATHA, in mercy and grace to people and creatures, to fell the fiend-sprites, heal sickness, and drive the crooked — I will manifest and answer. This word shall not be forgotten."

The Prefecture-Lord of Mount Tai, hearing his awesome fierceness, summoned him for a god-aide of the Marchmount; and his massed strength and hidden merit received the Jade Thearch's rescript: he was enfeoffed GREAT GOD OF THE KANG-METAL STAR, and again GENERAL WINGED-NUMEN RADIANT-IN-ARMS, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF HORSE AND FOOT, granted a jade ring for his grip, a qiong-flower spray, and a golden tablet whose seal-script read NO BARRIER IN THE EMPYREAN-HAN — four graphs; in his left hand the jade ring, in his right the iron tablet; with business he passes out and in the Heaven-Gate to memorialize at court. And by the Thearch's further mandate he went down to the Five Marchmounts as fierce general of the Marchmount Prefecture, head of the whole line of gods, first of the Marchmount ranks — for only the Marshal may bow at the Golden Gate-Towers — patrolling and inspecting the Five Marchmounts, enfeoffed by court after court, with blood-offering among the people of Dongjia in Wenzhou, who revere and fear him. Later, in the years of Ningzong of the great Song, the thirty-sixth-generation Celestial Master in the succession of Han, the Flying-Clarity Perfected Man Lord Zhang, first wielding the law of talisman-summons, employed the Marchmount gods — and he got place at the head of the TEN GRAND GUARDIANS, with the name GRAND GUARDIAN WEN THE FIRST; and being summoned, a temple was raised, and he has stood wing-and-aid since.

Written at the charge of the Southern Marchmount, by the Daoist of the Southern Marchmount Lou Ruoxu, holding the Marchmount's rank, at the command of the Immortal Duke and Primal Lord of Purple Void. Enfeoffed: MARSHAL WEN, COMMANDER OF THE EASTERN MARCHMOUNT'S SOLDIERY, GRAND INSPECTOR OF ALL-UNDER-HEAVEN, MEMORIALIST-IN-HALL OF THE FIVE MARCHMOUNTS, URGENT-FETCHER OF CRIMINAL CASES, LEFT KANG-METAL WINGED-NUMEN RADIANT-IN-ARMS THUNDER-KING PROTECTING MARQUIS BEFORE THE JADE SOVEREIGN'S HALL.

Marshal Zhu — 朱元帥

The Marshal was surnamed Zhu, tabooed name Yanshi, his Law-title Tiyuan. Of old his embryo lodged on the crest of Mount Kunlun; he was nursed in a guihai year, the tenth month, a guihai day — the essence of the six breaths, black haze unbroken through the four seasons, knotted into form: indigo-blue his body, silkworm brows, huge eyes, feeding on rose-mist for milk and sucking dew for broth. Grown, he made his birth-caul a BAG: whom he bagged, in seven days they melted to iron-water; and he spread the six breaths for six killing-gods, at whose rising a dark pall curtained the sky, sun and moon lightless; the people, good and simple, all suffered his venom, and the world was near turning one long Chaos again. Then the Jade Thearch, hating the people's harm, went to seize and slay him; but the Marshal's bag was matchless — nothing that was not a thing-in-his-bag — and the Dark Heaven himself, sent against him, could not for the kinship of the northern Kan-body come near: for the evil breath beat men back. The Grand Clarity aided with the Fan of Free-Wandering to fan his fiend-miasma away; the Heaven-Lord Xie was bidden enter the bag with the fire-virtue star and burn the sack through — and the Marshal could do no more. The Thearch took him, pointed the sword at him: "If you can follow my wandering, you shall not spread over men. Only the faithless scorners of the Way and its Law shall you keep in your bag, for a warning to the time to come; and I can receive you into a Marshal's office, to search out the slanderers of sages and worthies." The Marshal bowed to the precept — and with the gold mallet at his left and the black bag at his right, his awe is manifest.

Marshal Zhang — 張元帥

At Ninghai county in Shandong there was one surnamed Zhang, named Chun — the Marshal's father; his mother, née Huang, dreamed a gold-armored god and bore the Marshal, whence his name JIAN, "Sturdy," born in the guimao year of Empress Wu, the eighth month, a guimao day, at the hour of you. Quick and keen in childhood, clear-spirited grown, his face like a Numinous Officer's, fine-whiskered, sharp of judgment in the histories; he rose by the examinations to prefect, deep-versed in the affairs of men: his ear heard the case, his mouth untangled the wrong, his brush signed, his bans fell, judgment stood on the instant — and the people were not wronged. Humane, straight, hard, and stern was he. Then the sovereign set her heart on young men of beauty, and decreed a levy of them by the thousand for the choosing — the lotus-face conscription past all supplying; and the Marshal, in shame at it, seeing the times thick with sores and plagues so that none passed the choosing, reported it, and the country-folk gained peace thereby, and made him a living shrine and sacrificed. The Jade Thearch, holding him unbending and unfawning — of the tribe of the loyal — and quick-tongued in supply — of the tribe of the sturdy — set him straightway in the office of Flying-Sturdy Requital; the Marshal shares the Heaven-Gate as its heart-and-spine, is praised besides with Exhausted-Loyalty, granted the PLAGUE-MALLET, given besides the Second Lad's golden helm, with joint charge of the pox and measles, and a special commission to GUARD THE CHILDREN as an officer of the Controller of Destinies. Let makers-of-blessing mark him well.

Marshal Xin Xinggou — 辛興茍元帥

In the bounds of old Yongzhou there is Divine-Thunder Mountain: at the waking-of-insects the thunder-breath flares — in the second month, at mao, under the command of Zhen — the god of the Thunder-Gate's spread drums, whose awe-breath flashes and blazes, and nothing does not break before it; and in summer and autumn the thunder stores itself in the earth, taking the shape of CHICKENS, entering the stream-crags. Then, in the eighth month, a man of Yong surnamed Xin, named Xing, styled Zhenyu, whose mother was née Zhang — the house poor, and he selling firewood to feed his mother, toiling utterly — went to Thunder Mountain to cut wood, and deep in a hidden crag came on five of the chicken-shaped ones. Glad at heart — "here's the makings of a dish for her table!" — he took them home and gave them to his mother. The mother, just then at her meal, took off her inner garment and gave it him; he penned four in the chicken-coop, spread the garment over them, and would boil the one. The divine chicken spoke with a man's voice: "I am THUNDER — I may not be eaten. I beg the grace of one cut spared." The old woman would not allow it — and the thunder burst crashing up, and the mother's gall broke, and she fell dead kneeling.

The Marshal, back from selling firewood with sweet wine, took his mother's body in his arms and wept: "What end is mine, that it comes to this!" — and wiping his tears he saw on her back the gold-scorched mark: THE BREATH OF THE MINGLED ONE, THE FLOWER OF THE GREEN THEARCH: WHERE MY WRIT OF AWE FALLS, NONE DARE WITHSTAND; I CLEAVE THE EVIL AND SLAY THE CROOKED; I ALONE COMMAND DESTINY. — and he knew it was the thunder. Weeping he arraigned it before the sky: "My mother was no evil and no crooked thing. Why did you not smite the crooked, and smote my MOTHER? — you, who pardon all-under-heaven's evildoers, you CHICKEN-named thing!" And he penned the thunder-chickens all together and went to mallet them; and the thunder, smothered under the inner garment, could not thunder — only, nothing could smash them. Its heroic breath charged the void, and lightning-rain and wind-haze came together, poised to strike down — yet grieving that it was for his mother's sake, it pitied him, and changed into a Daoist, who came forward and bowed: "Filial son — you alone fear not the thunder, and have mastered the thunder instead. We thunder-gods, in error, wounded your mother, and your mother bears the wrong. We beg to be wholly at your command, in amends of our crime." — and he offered him TWELVE FIRE-ELIXIRS to eat. The Marshal thereupon changed his form: goblin-headed and beaked of mouth, wings at his two shoulders, left hand a spike, right hand a mallet, feet treading the five drums — and he ascended, transforming, with his mother's body, and was gone. The Heaven-Thearch, moved by the height of his filial love, welcomed and enfeoffed him: MARSHAL GOU OF THE THUNDER-GATE, sharing with Marshal Bi the affairs of the five quarters, going and coming on heaven's errands, to shear away the crooked demons and ghost-evils of the dark world and the bright.

Marshal Tie — 鐵元帥

At the end of Yin, when demon-kings walked the world in the flesh, wasted the Central Flower with their burdened numina, and glutted their venom in fantastic crags and gorge-hollows, coiling knotted in and out, their fiend-curtains in the Grand Void — the Jade Thearch, hearing the memorial of the Perfected Man Grand Unity, decreed the Six Ding to enter the womb through a dream upon the lady Yan of Stone City: a mother and NO father; wherefore IRON — Tie — was made his surname, and Head — Tou — his name. Born in the year bingwu of Shang Xin, the fifth month, the seventh day, at the hour of yin, the Marshal from childhood was warlike-valiant: his breath shoved mountains, his gall dropped out of heaven-and-earth, his strength felled nine oxen. He slew the crow-and-hare at the sunny side of the Shui-ying; brought down the fire-horse north of the Dark Mountain; wiped out the demon-ghosts in the Wildfire Temple; seized the fiend-fox below the Purple-Void Tower; and cut the numinous serpent and the dark tortoise, that muddied the He and roiled the flood, at the islet of Zhuohun. Just then the Dark Thearch, for the business of the two trades of Kan and Li, was splitting the clouds with his hands beneath the nine heavens, and met the Marshal's valor as it shoved sea and mountain; whereat he trod the tortoise-and-serpent, and invited the Marshal to pace the void and ascend with him, enfeoffing him MARSHAL FIERCE-ARDENT, with a share in the trust of the Dark-Dark.

Marshal Yin, the Grand Year — 太嵗殷元帥

The Marshal was the son of KING ZHOU of Shang. His mother, Queen Jiang, one day walking in the palace garden, saw on the ground a giant's footprint, and set her own foot in it — and conceived; and at his birth the Marshal came wrapped naked in a BALL OF FLESH. At that time the king's love was all on the consort Daji, who lied in her report to the king: "The central palace has borne a MONSTER." The king ordered it cast out in the narrow lane — and ox and horse, seeing it, dared not tread it. The king ordered it thrown out in the wilds: crows and ravens shaded the sun above it, a white doe gave it suck. It happened the Perfected Man Shen of the Golden Cauldron's transformation passed by, and saw blessing-cloud hazing and purple vapor steaming, fine rays rising on four sides; and coming near to look — a ball of flesh. "This is an IMMORTAL EMBRYO," he said; and with his sword he cut the ball open and took out an infant boy, and carried him home to the Water-Curtain Cave, and begged the immortal maid He to nurse and rear him. His Law-name was JINDINGNAO, his right name JIN-NEZHA; and for his casting-out in the wilds, his milk-name was YIN JIAO — "Yin of the Outskirts."

At seven, playing in the rear garden with his nurse, she said: "You are not my son. You are King Zhou's son. Because he listened to the side-consort Daji's word, he made you out a monster — and your mother was flung from the tower and died." The Marshal wept with feeling, went straight to the Perfected Man, and set out his whole wish to avenge his mother's death. The Perfected Man said: "My child is young — you cannot go." The Marshal begged hard. The Perfected Man said: "If you truly have this vow-strength, to avenge your mother is filial thought indeed. But first go to the Heaven-Consort's Eight-Treasure Cave and fetch what treasure shall serve you — then you may go." The Marshal went and fetched the yellow battle-axe and the golden bell, and showed the Perfected Man, who said: "And why these?" He answered: "These are good for slaying fiends and putting down the benighted." At that the Perfected Man said nothing, but his face carried a faint smile — his meaning gave assent, only fearing the boy too young to put out his strength; and he sent him to fetch the war-books to school him: first ride the sea-horse down the mountain and take two strongmen for lieutenant-commanders. The Marshal, at the command, subdued the Xuan-beast and the Raven-General and brought them back; and the Perfected Man bade him go again to Broom Mountain and take twelve strongmen more — only then might he war on Shang. The Marshal, not knowing the "strong crew" were the TWELVE MOURNING-GATE WAILING-GHOST SKULL-GODS, went and slew them to the last, and hung their heads strung at his chest, and returned. The Perfected Man said: "These bones are no common thing: they can help the battle-line — one rattle, and ghosts weep and gods start, men's heads swim and their hands soften, and they break without a fight."

Thereupon he pointed the Marshal to aid King Wu in the smiting of Zhou. At Muye, leading Lei Zhen and the rest in the van, he showed his awe and slew the men of Shang, till the front ranks turned their spears on their own and the blood floated the pounding-pestles. First at the chase, he reached the Star-Plucking Tower — and there stood DAJI, who was of old a fiend-pheasant, that in the days the kingdom fell had bewitched the lord's essence and drunk men's blood by night; seeing Zhou beaten, she would have shown her numen and made off, but the Marshal's awe terrified her into gathering in her shape, and he took her and brought her before the King of Zhou, who ordered her put to death. Daji loosed all her fiend-loveliness to dazzle the eye, till none could bear to be her slayer. But the Marshal, holding fast his loyal indignation and his filial right, was not to be wasted on beauty: he clove her with the axe. The fiendish scattered, the light transformed — a wisp of black smoke, and gone. The Jade Thearch, hearing there was in him the mind of filial right and the valor of fiend-slaying too, summoned and enfeoffed him: GRAND-YEAR MARSHAL YIN, ROVING-INSPECTOR COMMISSIONER OF THE NINE HEAVENS OF THE EARTH-BUREAU, OF UTMOST VIRTUE, WIELDER OF THE POWERS OF KILLING-AND-FELLING.

The Ghost-Slaying True Lord Zhang — 斬鬼張真君

The Lord was surnamed Zhang, named XUN; his wife née Liu, his concubine née Liu the willow. A presented-scholar of Xuanzong's time, he held office as magistrate of SUIYANG. Meeting the upheaval of An Lushan, when Shi Siming and the rest heaped disorder on disorder and the four outskirts ran to ruin, the Lord bore up a lone city, meeting each turn as it came, bound by no old rules: three hundred battles and more, front and rear, a hundred fights and a hundred masteries, the bulwark of the state — and of the army's weapons and gear, not one but was taken from the enemy. Only, the Lord's nature was hard-ardent: at each burst of wrath his hair stood and his teeth cracked loose. See him first seizing drum and standard with the city at his back; then slaying Siming's men with the wormwood-stalks; gathering the ten thousand arrows with the straw men from the eastern wall; whole in warlike awe as he sat at meat on the field of open battle; bright in loyal right in the weeping at the ancestral temple; discerning the bonds of man within the way of Heaven; knowing the general's command in the hour of General Thunder; steeling the soldiers' will by the killing of his concubine and the steaming of her bones; pouring out chaste right in the vow that his angry ghost would slay the rebels — to this day General Ji's bitten finger stands witness to the pledge; the ranks netting sparrows, roasting rats, eating bark, and never deserting; unbent by the traitors' press, railing on, unkneeling, at the sawing asunder. Alas! — hard-frozen constancy, blazing to heaven and outshooting the sun: truly one lone loyalty of heaven and earth from of old. Under Tang and Song he was enfeoffed through the ages: TRUE LORD OF TREASURE MOUNTAIN, LOYAL-AND-QUELLING, RADIANT-PROTECTION, BLESSING-AND-VIRTUE.

Marshal Kang — 康元帥

The Marshal, bearing the essence of the dragon-horse, was born at the bounds of the Yellow River; his father Kang Qu, his mother née Jin; nursed in the ninth year of the Humane Sovereign's Blazing Virtue, a gengshen year, the wuyin month, the gengchen day, at the wuyin hour. Born merciful and kind: he hurt no embryo, broke no fledgling, oppressed no orphan or widow, trod on no living green; even the gnat, the crawling dull thing, the worm and ant, he would not lightly kill; he fed them the leavings of his red rice and watered them with the lees of his pure wine. Once a crane-chick, seized by a falcon, fell wing-broken; he took it in and fed it; and after, the stork brought the herb-of-long-life in its beak to repay him. The Lord's neighbors and the blue-haired multitude brought him their sick from the four quarters, and called him ABLE-IN-HUMANENESS; and the sound of it was heard in heaven. The Heaven-Thearch enfeoffed him by the very name the people gave: MARSHAL HUMANE-AND-HOLY, to hold the altar-commands of the four quarters; and the Marshal, gold axe in his left hand and melon-mace in his right, turns about the Jade Seal in his charge.

Marshal Tian of the Wind-Fire Court — 風火院田元帥

The Marshal was three brothers: the eldest Tian Gouliu, the second Tian Hongyi, the youngest Tian Zhibiao; their father tabooed name Juan, their mother surnamed Diao, tabooed name Chunxi — folk of the land of Taiping. Xuanzong of Tang being skilled in music, in the Kaiyuan era the Marshals served at summons as music-masters, wardens of the pitch-pipes, and excellent above all in song and dance: one beat of their drum, and the peach and plum broke bud; one play of the flute, and the sound stopped the drifting clouds; one lift of the voice, and the red plum split its calyx; one turn of the mode, and the light of dawn rose on the world — so they taught Yunu and Huanu till song and dance were perfected. Later, attending the imperial feast at the height of wine, the emperor INKED THEIR FACES BLACK and bade them sing and dance; and they delighted the sovereign's countenance greatly — and were gone, none knew where. And again, when the emperor's mother lay sick, in her closed-eye swoon the three Marshals came lightly dancing, drum and fife in contest, pipa and strings hand over hand — and presently her spirit freshened, her body eased; she woke in a sweat, and her sickness rose from her. The emperor, delighted, made the verse of "crab-apple spring's waking, tall candles shining red," and enfeoffed them with a marquisate.

Down to the Han-line Celestial Master's day: treating the plague-ghosts of the Dragon Palace sea-treasury, who strutted shamming while his law could not conclude them, he begged the Marshals' schooled hands; and the Marshals built a DIVINE SHIP, marshalled a hundred myriad lads for the drum-race prize-snatching play, and the capital rang with the mock and clamor of it — till the plague-ghosts came OUT TO WATCH, and the Celestial Master's law cut them off and sent them away, and the sickness was wholly melted. To this day the first month keeps a custom left of it. The Celestial Master, seeing their divine strangeness, established them by law to aid the Dark Altar, decreeing the two immortals HARMONY-AND-UNION to help make the Way's law manifest — no discord they cannot join, no jaw-ache they cannot loose; and on the Celestial Master's protecting memorial, the Bright Emperor of Tang enfeoffed: GRAND COMMANDANT TIAN OF THE HEAVEN-CHARGING WIND-FIRE COURT, MARQUIS RADIANT-ARDENT; the Second Commandant Tian, MARQUIS RADIANT-PROTECTION; the Third Commandant Tian, MARQUIS RADIANT-PEACE. Their sage father, Marquis EXCELLENT-CROSSING; their sage mother, the District Lady Diao; the Third Uncle, Marquis RADIANT-CROSSING, and the Third Aunt, the Lady of Jin; the three Grand Commandants Dou, Guo, and He; Miss GOLDEN-FLOWER, Miss PLUM-FLOWER, Miss WIN-GOLD; the holy monk WANHUI; the OLD MAN WHO SETTLES MATTERS; Lord He's three-times-nine attendant-scholars; Marshal Pan, Harmony-and-Union of the Capital; Marshal Zi, Harmony-and-Union of Heaven; Marshal Liu, Harmony-and-Union of Earth; the two immortal envoys Yang and Geng of the Dipper; Sun Xi the dream-sender and dream-reporter; the Blue-Robed Lad; and the holy host of the Ten Linked Bridges — above the bridge and below it, on the scaffold and beneath — of joy and play and laughing song and dance, the Red Maids and Powder Lads; the hundred-myriad holy host of the three troupes of Yueyang — and so on.

Marshal Meng — 孟元帥

The Marshal — there was one surnamed Meng, named Shan, whose humane right and filial mercy no age will wear away; to this day he pays men their heart's wish. Look at one matter of his time as prison-officer and you may divine the whole. Now the law does not pardon prisoners: that they cannot be moved by trust and right is the common knowing. But the Marshal, at the waning of winter, thinking on his own kin, was stirred by the weeping of the hundreds within the bars, each yearning for their own: "Have you alone no mother? — and no seeing her again." Grieving that they carried the lap-and-knee longing, he wept, and made a covenant with the prisoners, and the prisoners wept and covenanted with him: on the twenty-fifth of the last month he released them to go; by the fifth of the first month they would return — and not one failed. So the Marshal made it his rule. Long after, he said within: "And why? One thought of kin is FILIAL; keeping the tryst four seasons is RIGHT; trusty, filial, and righteous — such men may be spoken to of goodness." So he tried them: "If a pardon went out, would you be good again?" The prisoners wept: "Whose heart is dead? We erred once — would we err again? But the word of prisoners is empty talk." The Marshal said: "Change your minds, and I release you all." The prisoners wept: "That would be the wheel turning at King Yama's own hall! But once we are gone, how do YOU escape? To live at the price of your death — better die ourselves." The Marshal said: "With one death to give life to a hundred lives — what is there to weigh?" The prisoners all wept: "What guilt is yours? Death is OUR portion. You dealt with us so generously that we might go look upon our kin — no kindness could top it; and now you would go out to death to double our crime? Even the mole-cricket and the ant cling to life; how could our hearts bear such a thing? We will not." One prisoner wept: "Sir, this talk of yours makes the very bones shudder." The Marshal said: "True words indeed." The prisoners, choking: "If you will do it, this word of ours: better be crushed to pieces than fail you." The Marshal wept too: "I have my own plan of escape." They asked; he said: "Do not ask." The prisoners said: "If both may truly be kept whole, we obey — only do not torment yourself." They bowed to him and went their ways little by little; and he blessed them: "Heaven favor the good! Let none come back to the bonds; and may your houses flourish!" — But the prefect Lord Teng learned of it and flogged and berated him: "Eight hundred prisoners — if ONE fails to return, there's no life left you!" — and sentenced him to hunt them. The Marshal thought: "Death I'd not grudge — but to fail the charge is another matter"; and pacing long, he thrust a lance in the kiln to kill himself — three times he leapt at it, and a WHITE HARE thrice knocked the lance over. Suddenly a bushy-browed elder said: "There is a rescript above: the Marshal is forever to be the Prefecture-Lord's command." — and hurrying out, there were carriages and horses, banners and soldiery to receive him; and he bowed afar to the Jade Thearch's rescript as MARSHAL OF [FENG]DU. Thereafter a spray of qiong-flowers was added to his cap; and the Marshal not yet having loosed the lance from his hand, the YELLOW-DRAGON LANCE was added too — and so the enfeoffment is known. The matter reached the prefecture; the Grand Prefect too sent up a writ; and at our Zhao-Song's founding his temple was imaged, with the added style of GENERAL, and the encomium:

A General! — gathering the numina of Guangxi;
upholding right! — giving life to eight hundred of the black-haired.
Moving those bond-men to paint their faces and follow the new:
his right mantled one whole quarter — all worthy of the fief and the lingering incense.
He widened the very jail — vast! — into an empty cage.
His father was the flood-wide — seedling and heir of heaped goodness;
his mother, née Guo, carried on the flying fame of Tai-Si.
Make bright that conduct, to whet ten thousand men:
all we his people — let none come within the bonds again.

Born the twelfth of the eighth month, wushen; died in the winter of gengchen. Reverently his beginning and end are joined and recorded.

The Dhyāna-Master Huiyuan — 慧遠禪師

The monk Huiyuan was of the Jia clan by origin, a man of Loufan in Yanmen. Bookish from his tender years, he traveled to study with his mother's brother of the Linghu clan, and so was young among the students at Xu and Luo, ranging the Six Classics entire, finest of all in Zhuang and Lao; and his nature's measure was broad and grand, his wind-mirror bright and clean, so that even seasoned Confucians and the flower of the notable yielded to his depth. At twenty-one he wished to cross the Jiang eastward and join the covenant of Fan Xuanzi; but Shi Hu being dead and the Central Plain in bandit-tumult, the southern roads were stopped, and his purpose could not go through. At that time the śramaṇa Shi Dao'an had founded a temple on Mount Heng of the Taihang, spreading and praising the image-Law, his fame ringing wide; Yuan went to him, and at one meeting bowed his whole reverence, deeming him truly his master. Hearing An expound the Prajñā-sutra, he broke through and woke; and with his younger brother Huichi he cast the hairpin, dropped the tress, gave over his life, and took the training. Once in the Way, he stood keen and apart from the crowd, ever minded to gather up the guide-ropes whole, making the great Law his own burden; he chanted with refined thought and held the texts by night on into day; poor and wayfaring, without means, his wadding ever short, while the brothers' grave reverence never slackened first or last. The śramaṇa Tanyi would supply him the cost of lamp and candle; and Lord An heard it and said glad: "The man of the Way truly knows men!" At twenty-four he took the preaching-seat; and once a hearer, at his lecture, pressed hard the sense of the Real Mark, back and forth till the hour shifted, doubt and darkness only thickening — until Yuan drew the meaning of ZHUANGZI for a like-kind figure, and the puzzled man understood clear. After this Lord An made Huiyuan the one exception, not forbidding him the worldly books. An had disciples besides, Fayu and Tanhui, both bright-lit of talent and clean-quick of purpose, and both yielded him precedence. Later he followed Lord An south to Fan-Mian; and in the ninth year of the false Qin's Jianyuan, when the Qin general Fu Pi raided Xiangyang and Dao'an, held by Zhu Xu, could not get away, he parted and dispersed his followers each whither they would, and each received his counsel and charge — but to Yuan not one word. Yuan knelt: "I alone am without instruction and exhortation — I fear I am outside the reckoning of men." An said: "For such as YOU — what is there left to worry over?"

So Yuan with some tens of disciples went south to Jingzhou, lodging at the Shangming temple; later, meaning for Mount Luofu, he reached Xunyang — and seeing Mount Lu's clear stillness, ample to rest the heart, he first dwelt at the Dragon-Spring vihāra. The place was far from water; Yuan struck the ground with his staff: "If here we may roost and stand, let a spring start from the rot!" — the words done, clear flow welled up, and deepened into a brook. Soon after, Xunyang parching in drought, Yuan went to the pool-side and recited the Sea-Dragon-King Sutra; suddenly a giant serpent rose from the pool into the sky, and in a little, great rain — and so the year was saved; and they named the vihāra for it DRAGON-SPRING TEMPLE. When Tao Kan governed Guangzhou, a fisher in the sea saw a divine radiance flare evening after evening, brighter through the ten-day; marveling, he told Kan, who went and looked: it was an image of King AŚOKA's making; he received it home and sent it to the Cold-Brook temple at Wuchang. The temple-master Sengzhen, once at Xiakou, dreamed by night the temple burning — while over this image's shrine dragon-gods stood ringed; he woke and galloped back: the temple was burnt indeed, and the image-shrine alone stood. Yet when Kan shifted his garrison and — the image being of awesome numen — sent bearers to fetch it, some tens of men lifting it barely to the water, the boat capsized and sank at the loading; the envoys, afraid, turned back; and it could not be had. But when Yuan founded his own temple and it stood complete, he prayed with his whole heart and reverently invited — and it came drifting-light of itself, going and returning without let. Whereat he led the assembly in walking the Way, dusk and dawn unslackened, and Śākyamuni's remaining transformation flourished here anew. From the time Yuan chose his dwelling on Lu's slopes, thirty and more years, his shadow never left the mountain, his footprint never entered the common world: at every parting from a guest, his walking stopped at TIGER STREAM for its boundary. He ended in the twelfth year of Yixi of Jin, on the third day of the eighth month, his springs-and-autumns eighty-three.

The Dhyāna-Master Kumārajīva — 鳩摩羅什禪師

Kumārajīva — which is rendered "Lad-of-Long-Life" — was a man of India, excellent in sutra, vinaya, and treatise, his transforming walking through the Western Regions; and roaming east to Kucha, the king of Kucha made him a golden lion-throne to seat him. At the time Fu Jian sat his usurped title within the passes; the king of the Outer Kingdoms' Front Division and the king of Kucha's younger brother came together to court before Jian, and being received, told him: the Western Regions teem with rare treasures — send troops to settle them and take their inner submission. In the thirteenth year of Jian's Jianyuan, the first month, the Grand Astrologer memorialized: a star has appeared in the field of the outer kingdoms — there must be a man of great virtue and wisdom about to enter and aid the Central Kingdom. Jian said: "We hear the Western Regions have a Kumārajīva — is this not he?" — and sent to ask for him. In the eighteenth year, the ninth month, Jian sent the ardent general Lü Guang with seventy thousand troops west against Kucha; and at the setting-out Jian feasted Guang at Jianzhang and said: "The thearch-king answers Heaven and governs; to cherish the black-haired as his children is the root — no coveting their LAND drives this campaign: precisely for the sake of a man who carries the Way. We hear the Western Regions have Kumārajīva, deep in his understanding of the marks of the Law, fine at the hidden yin-and-yang, the lodestar of after-learners. We long for him. If you subdue Kucha, send Jīva by the post-relay at the gallop."

Before Guang's army arrived, Jīva told the king of Kucha, Bo Chun: "The kingdom's fortune is waning. A mighty enemy comes from the sunrise: receive them with reverence, and do not strive against their edge." Chun would not follow, and gave battle; Guang broke Kucha, slew Chun, and set up his brother Zhen as lord. Having got Jīva, Guang carted him along home; and midway they camped below a mountain, the men already at rest, when Jīva said: "We must not stay here — we shall be left wretched. Move the army to the high ground." Guang took no heed. That night, sure enough, great rain: the flood burst sudden, the water deep several zhang, the dead by thousands — and Guang began secretly to marvel at him. Jīva said: "This is a doomed and dying ground; we must not linger. Reckon the count and press the move: the middle way holds blessed soil where we may stay." Guang followed. At Liangzhou came word that Fu Jian had been slain by Yao Chang; Guang's three armies wore plain-white and made the great mourning south of the wall — and thereupon he took the usurped style beyond the passes, naming the year Great Peace. In Great Peace's second year, at Guzang, a great wind. Jīva said: "An ill-omened wind: there will be treachery and revolt — but it will settle itself without labor." Presently Liang Qian and Peng Huang rebelled one on the other's heels, and soon were wiped out. In Guang's Dragon-Flight second year, Juqu Nancheng, a Hu of the Lushui at Linsong in Zhangye, with his brother Mengxun, revolted, and raised the Grand Warden of Jiankang, Duan Ye, for their lord. Guang sent his son by a concubine, the prefect of Qinzhou, Grand-Origin Duke Zuan, with fifty thousand to chastise them; and the talk of the time held Ye's rabble a flock of crows against Zuan's ringing name — victory certain. Guang asked Jīva, who said: "Watching this march, I see no gain in it." And Zuan was routed at Heli; and soon Guo Nen made rebellion in his turn, and Zuan, trusting his main force and returning light, was beaten by Nen and barely got off with his body.

Guang's Director of the Secretariat, Zhang Zi, a man of letters whom Guang prized, fell sick; Guang sought healing far and wide. An outland Daoist, one Luocha, claimed he could cure him, and Guang, glad, gave lavishly. Jīva knew the man spoke false, and told Zi: "Cha cannot do it — vain waste of adornments. The dark reckonings are hidden things, but we may prove them by a sign" — and he took five-colored silk threads and knotted them to a rope, burned it to ash, and cast the ash on water: "If the ash rise from the water and turn rope again, the sickness will not be healed." In a moment the ash gathered on the surface and rose — a rope in its former shape. Cha's treatment did nothing; days later, Zi died. And in a little Guang died too; his son Shao took the seat; days on, Guang's bastard son Zuan slew Shao and stood himself, styling the year Xianning. In Xianning's second year a sow farrowed a pig one body and three heads, and a dragon came out of the eastern-chamber well and lay coiled before the hall; by daybreak it was gone. Zuan took it for a lucky wonder and named the hall Dragon-Soar; and soon a black dragon climbed the Nine-Palace gate of Dangyang, and he named that Dragon-Rise Gate. Jīva memorialized: "These days the hidden dragon comes out roaming and the sow-fiend shows a portent. The dragon is a yin kind: it goes out and in by season — and its appearing again and again is calamity breeding: there will surely be a below-plotting-against-above revolt. Curb yourself and mend your virtue, to answer Heaven's warning." Zuan would not have it — and playing at chess with Jīva, taking a piece, he said: "I behead the Hu slave's head." Jīva said: "You CANNOT behead the Hu slave's head. The Hu slave will behead a man's head." He spoke with intent; Zuan never woke to it. Guang's younger brother Bao had a son named Chao, small-styled HU SLAVE; and Chao in the end slew Zuan and cut off his head, setting up his own elder brother Long as lord — and only then did the age prove Jīva's word.

Jīva was stranded at Liang years on end; Lü Guang and his son, holding the Way in no honor, left his deep understanding smothered with nothing to unfold. Fu Jian was dead and could never meet him. And when Yao Chang in his turn usurped within the passes, he too clasped hands toward that lofty name and begged him earnestly — but the Lüs, deeming Jīva's wisdom and counsel too apt to become Chang's brain, would not let him east. Chang died; his son Xing took the throne and sent again to beg with urgency. In the third year of Hongshi, the third month, a tree grew joined-at-the-trunk in the courtyard of the ancestral temple, and the leek-fields of Xiaoyao Garden changed to scallion-grass — taken for lucky wonders: "a man of wisdom shall arrive." In the fifth month Xing sent the Duke of Longxi, Shide, west against Lü Long; by the ninth month Long's memorial of surrender came up — and only then could they receive Jīva into the passes, in that year's twelfth month, the twentieth day, to Chang'an. Xing waited on him with the rites of a Teacher of the State, most favored and honored. — And of old the bhikṣu BEIDU, the Cup-Crosser, in Pengcheng, hearing Jīva was at Chang'an, sighed: "I and this fellow parted in play three hundred years gone and more; dim and far, no term of meeting — we must wait our encounter in the life to come."

A few days before his end, Jīva felt the four elements unquiet, and spoke three turns of divine spell with his own mouth, bidding his outland disciples chant them for his saving; but before their strength could tell, he felt the peril turn; and forcing his sickness, he took farewell of the assembled monks: "By the Law we met — and my heart is not yet spent; now we part for the after-world, and what words can hold the ache of it? I, dim and unfit, was set — absurdly — to serve as translator. Of the sutras and treatises I have put forth, three hundred scrolls and more, only the one Ten-Recitations Vinaya I had not yet pruned of its excess; keeping its root-sense, I trust there is no divergence there. Only may all I have translated and proclaimed run on to later ages, and be spread and carried together. Now before you all I take my sincere and truthful oath: IF WHAT I HAVE TRANSMITTED HOLDS NO ERROR, THEN WHEN MY BODY IS BURNED, LET THE TONGUE NOT SCORCH NOR CRUMBLE." — In the eleventh year of Hongshi, the twentieth day of the eighth month, he ended at Chang'an — the fifth year of Jin's Yixi. In the Xiaoyao Garden, by the outland rite, they burned the body: the fuel died, the frame was crumbled — ONLY THE TONGUE LAY UNCONSUMED.

The Dhyāna-Master Buddhayaśas — 佛陀耶舎禅師

Buddhayaśas — rendered "Awakening-Fame" — was a man of Kashmir, of brahmin stock, his family servants of the outer paths. A śramaṇa came begging food at their house; the father in anger had him beaten — and straightway the father's hands and feet cramped and lamed, and he could not walk. He asked the shaman-diviner, who answered: "You sit under the offense of a worthy man; ghosts and gods have done this." So he invited that śramaṇa and confessed with his whole sincerity, and within days he was healed; and thereupon he had Yaśas leave the family as that monk's disciple, being then thirteen. Once, following his master far afield, they met a tiger in the waste; the master would have fled; Yaśas said: "This tiger has fed full; it will not touch men." In a moment the tiger left; and going on they found the leavings of its kill — and the master privately marveled. At fifteen he was memorizing sutras at twenty and thirty thousand words a day; but the temple where he lodged was ever out on alms-rounds, and his recitation lapsed, till an arhat, prizing his keenness, begged food for him daily. At nineteen he had memorized the sutras of the Great and Small Vehicles by the hundred myriad words... at twenty-seven he at last received the full precepts.

Later he came to the kingdom of Shale, whose king lay ill; at the merit-feast the crown prince saw him with delight and kept him in the palace for his support. Kumārajīva, arriving after, took instruction from Yaśas, honoring him greatly. When Jīva went on to Kucha and was seized by Lü Guang, Yaśas stayed ten years and more, then went east to Kucha in his turn, where the Law's transforming flourished greatly. Jīva, then at Guzang, sent to invite him; he would go, and the people of the kingdom held him back — he stayed a year or so more. Then he told a disciple: "I mean to go find Kumārajīva. Pack in secret and set out — let no one know." The disciple said: "I fear that by tomorrow the pursuit will be on us, and we shall only be brought back." So Yaśas took a bowl of clear water, cast a drug into it, spoke a spell of some tens of words over it, and washed the disciple's feet with it; and they left that night. By dawn they had gone several hundred li. He asked the disciple: "What did you feel?" — "Only the sound of a rushing wind, and the tears standing in my eyes." Yaśas gave him spelled water again to wash his feet, and they rested. Next day the pursuers, hundreds of li short of them, turned back. He came to Guzang — but Jīva had already entered Chang'an. Hearing that Yao Xing had forced women upon Jīva and urged him against the Law, he sighed: "Jīva is like fine silk floss — how could they cast him into a thorn-thicket!" Jīva, learning he was at Guzang, urged Yao Xing to bring him; Xing did not yet consent. Presently Xing commanded Jīva to translate the scripture-treasury; Jīva said: "To spread and proclaim the Law's teaching, the letter and the sense must both come through round and whole. This poor man of the Way can recite the text, but has not yet mastered its principle to the bottom. Only Buddhayaśas plumbs the hidden reach of it, and he is now at Guzang. I pray you summon him by edict: let every phrase be thrice weighed, and then set down — so the subtle words will not fall, and a thousand ages may take their trust from it." Xing consented and sent to invite him with rich gifts. He would take none of it, and laughed: "The bright summons has come down — I ought to gallop. But the almsgiver's courtesy to a scholar is generous indeed; and if it should prove with me as it proved where Kumārajīva stands, I dare not, in conscience, hear the command." The envoy returned and told it all, and Xing sighed at his scrupulousness; and when he reached Chang'an, Xing came out himself to greet and inquire, and built him a new lodge apart in the Xiaoyao Garden. The fourfold offerings he would not receive: he went at the hour on his alms-round, one meal, and that was all.

Yaśas had memorized the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya; the false Metropolitan Commandant Yao Shuang begged him to bring it forth; and to TEST Yaśas, they had him recite a Qiang census-register and a pharmacopoeia — some fifty thousand words; after one day they took the texts and checked him against them: not one character wrong; and the assembly bowed to the strength of his memory. So in the twelfth year of Hongshi he translated and brought forth the Four-Part Vinaya, forty-four scrolls in all, and the Longer Āgama and the rest; the Liangzhou śramaṇa Zhu Fonian rendered it into the speech of Qin, and Daohan took it down with the brush. In the fifteenth year, at the closing of the seat, Xing offered Yaśas ten thousand bolts of cloth and silk; he took none of it. Daohan and Fonian received a thousand bolts each; and five hundred famous-virtue śramaṇas were all richly gifted. Yaśas afterward took his leave and returned to the outer kingdoms; and in Kashmir he obtained the Ākāśagarbha Sutra in one scroll and entrusted it to merchant-travelers to carry to the monks of Liangzhou. What became of him at the last is not known.

The Dhyāna-Master Dharmodgata — 曇無竭禅師

The monk Tanwujie — rendered "Law-Valor," Dharmodgata — was surnamed Li, a man of Yellow-Dragon in Youzhou. A śrāmaṇera from boyhood, he practiced austerities, kept the precepts, recited the sutras, and was prized of his teacher-monks. Having heard how Faxian and the rest walked in their own persons to the Buddha's kingdoms, he was stirred to the vow that forgets the body; and in the first year of Yongchu of Song he gathered like-minded śramaṇas — Sengmeng and the rest — and bearing banners, canopies, and the vessels of offering, set out for the far West. First they came to the kingdom of Henan, then out by the Haixi commandery, into the Flowing Sands, to Gaochang, and passing through Kucha and Shale and the kingdoms between, they climbed the Sorrowing Range and crossed the Snow Mountains, and came at last to Kashmir, and worshipped the Buddha's alms-bowl. He stayed a year and more, learning the Brahmic writing and Brahmic speech, and obtained one copy of the Sutra of the Prophecy Conferred on Avalokiteśvara in the Brahmic text. Then west again to the Sindh-Nadī river — "Lion's-Mouth" on its western bank they entered the kingdom of the Yuezhi, and worshipped the Buddha's flesh-crown bone, and saw the self-boiling-water boat. Then they came south of Mount Daṇḍaka to the Stone-留 temple, where dwelt three hundred monks and more, mingling the study of the Three Vehicles; and Wujie stayed in this temple and received the great precepts. Then on toward the bounds of Middle India: the road empty and waste, only rock-honey carried for provision; and though again and again they passed through peril and thorn, he held his mind knotted on the Avalokiteśvara Sutra he carried, and never once let it lapse. Nearing Śrāvastī, in the open wild they met a herd of mountain elephants; Wujie called the Name and gave himself over — and a LION came out of the forest, and the elephants panicked and fled. Crossing the Ganges after, they met a herd of wild oxen, bellowing as they came, about to do the men harm; Wujie gave himself over as before — and a great vulture came flying, and the wild oxen scattered in fright, and so they were delivered. Afterward, from South India, he took ship over the sea and reached Guangzhou; and the Sutra of the Prophecy Conferred on Avalokiteśvara that he translated and brought forth is handed down today in the capital. What became of him at the last is not known.

The Dhyāna-Master Buddhabhadra — 佛馱跋陀羅禪師

Buddhabhadra — rendered "Awakened Worthy" — was of the Śākya clan by origin, a man of Kapilavastu, of the seed of King Amṛtodana — Sweet-Dew-Rice. Losing father and mother young, his grandfather's kinsman Jiupoli, hearing his keenness and grieving his orphan-bareness, took him home and had him ordained a śrāmaṇera. At seventeen, with several fellow-students, he made memorization his work: what took the others a month, Xian finished reciting in one day; and his master sighed: "Xian in one day is a match for thirty men." Full-ordained, he trained with keen diligence, broad in the assembled sutras, and won his name young by dhyāna and vinaya. He roamed Kashmir with his fellow-student Saṃghadatta, sharing quarters years together; and Datta, though he yielded to his bright talent, had not yet fathomed the man. Then, in a shut room behind barred doors, sitting in dhyāna, Datta suddenly saw Xian come in, and asked startled whence he came; he answered: "I went a moment to Tuṣita, to pay reverence to Maitreya" — and with the words, vanished. Datta knew then he was a saint; and later, seeing Xian's divine transformations again and again, he asked with reverent heart, and learned he had attained the fruit of the Non-Returner.

Xian was ever minded to travel the quarters and spread the transforming, observing the customs of many lands; and just then the Qin śramaṇa Zhiyan came west to Kashmir, and seeing the Law-assembly clear and pure, sighed as he gazed east: "My comrades yonder have the will to the Way, and no true craftsman to meet them: there is no road for their waking." He asked the assembly of that kingdom who could flow the transforming into the eastern land; and all said: Buddhabhadra is the man. Yan pressed his invitation to the utmost; and Xian in pity consented: quit the assembly, took leave of his master, wrapped his provisions, and went east. Three years walking and hastening, threading cold and heat, he crossed the Onion Range and passed six kingdoms, whose lords, honoring his far transforming, poured out their store to support him. At Jiaozhi he took ship and followed the sea; and by one island he passed, Xian pointed his hand at the hill: "We should stop here." The shipmaster said: "Travelers grudge their days; fair wind is hard to come by — we cannot stay." — and ran on two hundred li and more; and of a sudden the wind turned and blew the ship back to that very island. Then all knew his divinity, and took him for master to a man, hearing his word for going or staying. Later, a fair wind rising, the whole company would set out; Xian said: "Do not move." The shipmaster held back — and those who had first set out capsized and were lost, all at once. And in the black of a certain night he suddenly bade the whole fleet sail; none would obey; Xian rose himself and drew in the cable, and the one ship sailed alone — and presently the pirates came, and those who had stayed were plundered and slain to a man.

In time he came to Donglai commandery in Qingzhou; and hearing Kumārajīva was at Chang'an, went to him. Jīva rejoiced greatly, and they discoursed the marks of the Law together, opening the dark subtleties, with many wakenings gained. But the Qin lord Yao Xing, whole-hearted for the Buddha's Law, was supporting three thousand monks and more, who came and went about the palace gates, thick in the business of men; Xian alone kept the still, apart from the crowd. Then he said to a disciple: "Yesterday I saw five ships of my homeland set sail together." The disciple passed it to outsiders; and the old monks of the passes all held it a display of wonders to bewitch the crowd; and Sengdao, Daoheng, and the rest said: "The Buddha did not permit the telling of one's own attainments. You foretell five ships that have not come — empty, unreal; and your followers trade delusions, raising this and that among them. This offends the vinaya and cannot dwell with principle: it is fit you leave betimes, and by no means stay." Xian said: "My body is a drifting duckweed — going or staying is the lightest of things. Only it galls me that what my breast holds is not yet spoken: for THAT I am sorry." So with his disciples Huiguan and the rest, forty and more, he set out, spirit easy and countenance unchanged; and the discerning of the truth all sighed together, and clergy and lay who came to see him off were a thousand and more. Yao Xing, hearing of his going, was grieved, and said to Daoheng: "The śramaṇa Buddhabhadra came bearing the Way, wishing to proclaim the bequeathed teaching; his sealed words were not yet uttered — deep is the pity of it. How, for the fault of one word, shall ten thousand men lose their guide?" — and decreed him pursued and recalled. Xian told the envoy: "Truly I know the grace of the summons — but I cannot presume to obey it." — and traveled by night with his companions, pointing south for the Lu Marchmount. The śramaṇa Shi HUIYUAN, who had long worn his wind-fame, rejoiced at his coming as at an old friend with canopies inclined together. Yuan held that Xian's expulsion was his followers' doing, and that the "hanging record" of the five ships fell within the closed circle of intent — no offense against the vinaya; and he sent his disciple Tanyong with letters to the Yao sovereign and the monks of the passes to dissolve the expulsion; and then begged Xian to bring forth the dhyāna-number scriptures. Xian's will was on roving transformation, dwelling nowhere for ease; after a year or so on the mountain he went west again to Jiangling — and there met a foreign fleet: on inquiry, it was the five ships of India, the very ones he had seen. The gentry and commons of the whole region came racing to do him honor; their offerings he received not at all; bowl in hand he begged his round, asking nothing of noble or mean. At that time Yuan Bao of the Chen commandery was Adjutant-Historian to the Grand Commandant, Wu of Song, then south on campaign against Liu Yi, and Bao came with the府 to Jiangling. Xian with his disciple Huiguan came to Bao begging food; Bao, no reverent believer, received them thinly, and before they had eaten their fill, withdrew the meal. Bao said: "It seems you are not yet satisfied — stay a little longer." Xian said: "The almsgiver's giving heart has its limit — therefore what was set out is already spent." Bao called the servants to add rice — and the rice indeed was all gone. Bao was deeply shamed; and asking Huiguan after, "What manner of man is this śramaṇa?" — Guan said: "His virtue's measure is high and far, past the fathoming of the common." Bao sighed and marveled, and reported it to the Grand Commandant, who begged to meet him, honored him greatly, and furnished his support complete; and presently the Grand Commandant returned to the capital and begged him along, lodging him at the Daochang temple. He ended in the sixth year of Yuanjia, his springs-and-autumns seventy-one.

The Dhyāna-Master Beidu, the Cup-Crosser — 杯渡禪師

Beidu — the Cup-Crosser — none knew his surname or name: he would ever cross the waters riding a wooden CUP, and men so named him. At first he was in Jizhou, careless of the fine points of conduct, his divine strength towering, and the age could not fathom his source. Once in the north he lodged a night with a household that kept a golden image; Du stole it and carried it off. The householder woke to it and pursued: there was Du walking slowly ahead — yet galloping horses could not catch him. At the Mengjin river he floated the wooden cup on the water, leaned on it, and crossed — no wind, no oar, light and swift as flight — and in a moment reached the bank, and made for the capital. He looked then perhaps forty: girt with a rope, tattered, scarce covering his body; his talk surfacing and sinking, his joy and anger never even; now he would knock the ice in bitter frost and bathe, now go up the mountain in shoes, now walk barefoot through the market. He carried one rush basket — a chuan — and nothing more. Once, lodging with the man of the Way Fayi at the Yanxian temple, and being given a room apart... he made later for the Guabu river, and on the bank asked the ferryman to carry him; the man refused; whereat he folded his feet in the cup again, glancing about and chanting, and the cup of itself streamed straight over to the north bank; and he made for Guangling.

There he came on the villager Li's house keeping the Eight-Precept fast — strangers to him — and walked straight into the fast-hall and sat, setting his rush basket mid-court. The company, seeing his mean look, kept no reverence toward him; and Li, finding the basket in the way, would have moved it to the wall — and several men together could not stir it. When Du finished eating he picked it up and went, laughing: "The Four Heavenly Kings — at Li's house!" A serving-lad had peeped into the basket: within were four little boys — several inches tall, faces and eyes clean-fine, garments fresh and white. They sought him after and knew not where he was; then days later he was seen under the Menglong trees of the western bounds, sitting; and Li bowed and begged him home, and supported him a hundred days. Du held no strict fast — wine he drank and flesh he ate; at spiced mince he was one with the common run. The hundred houses made him offerings; some he took, some not. Liu Xingbo of the state of Pei, Inspector of Yanzhou, sent to invite him; he came shouldering the basket. Xingbo had men lift and look: ten and more could not raise it; and when he looked himself — one ruined patch-robe and a wooden cup. Later he returned to Li's house another twenty days and more. One clear dawn he said suddenly: "I want a kasaya — have it ready by midday." Li set about it; by noon it was not done; Du said: "I step out a moment" — and by dark had not returned; and the whole district smelled a strange fragrance, and doubting some marvel, sought him everywhere: there under the north cliff he had spread the ruined kasaya on the ground and lay on it, dead; head and foot LOTUS-FLOWERS had sprung, flowers of utmost freshness and scent — which withered in a single evening. The town buried him together. Days later a man came from the north: he had seen Du, basket on shoulder, walking toward Pengcheng. So they opened the coffin together: only the shoes remained.

At Pengcheng he met the white-robed layman Huang Xin, deep in faith toward the Buddha's Law. Du bowed... begged him home. The house was poor to the bone — barley-rice, no more; and Du took it sweetly and content, and stayed half a year. Suddenly he said to Xin: "Find me thirty-six rush baskets — I have a use for them." He answered: "Here I can get ten at most; being poor, I cannot buy the rest, and fear I cannot furnish it out." Du said: "Only search — search your house through; there should be enough." Xin searched to the walls — thirty-six he found, and ranged them in the court; and though the count was there, many were split and ruined — yet as Xin looked them over one by one, all were new-whole. Du sealed them close, and then bade Xin open: money and silk to the brim of them all — reckon it a hundred myriads or so; and the knowing said it was what Beidu's divided bodies had received in gifts in other lands, brought round now to be given to Xin. Xin took it — and spent it all on works of merit. A year or so, and Du took his leave; Xin made him up provisions for the road; next dawn the provisions lay untouched, and where Du was none knew.

Later, roaming east into Wu commandery, he saw an angler and begged a fish of him; the angler gave him a rotten one; Du turned it over and over in his hand and cast it back to the water — and it swam off alive. He saw a netsman and begged fish again; the netsman raged and cursed and gave nothing; Du picked up two pebbles and tossed them in the water — and in a moment two WATER-OXEN were battling in the man's net, and the net was rent to ruin, and then no oxen to be seen — and Du had vanished too. Walking on to the Song river, he laid his rain-hat upside-down on the water, rode it, and crossed to the bank; passed through Kuaiji and Shan, climbed the Tiantai mountains, and after some months returned to the capital, roaming and resting nowhere fixed, coming when summoned or not coming. At that time there was in the southern provinces a Chen household of some substance; Du went to them and was welcomed richly; and word came that in the capital there was ANOTHER Cup-Crosser; and the Chen father and his five sons, not believing it, went to the capital to see — and it was in truth their own Beidu, shape and mark one and the same. They laid before him a box of honeyed ginger, with a knife, frankincense, hand-towels and the rest; and the Du of the capital ate the honeyed ginger to the last piece, the other things lying before his knees. The father and sons, fearing it was their own Du, left two brothers in the capital to watch him and three went home — and their home Du sat as before, with incense, knife, and towels before his knees likewise; only he had not eaten his honeyed ginger — that was the difference. But he said to Chen: "The knife is dull — sharpen it for me." Presently the two brothers came home saying the capital Du had moved to the Lingjiu temple. — One day the home Du suddenly asked two sheets of yellow paper and made to write a letter — wrote no characters — and folded the two together back to back. Chen asked: "What deed of contract is my superior writing?" — and Du did not answer; and none ever fathomed it.

Then Zhu Lingqi of the Wu levies, returning from an embassy to Goguryeo, was blown off course, and after nine days came to the edge of an island. On the island was a mountain, mighty and high; and going in for firewood they found a man-made path. Lingqi took some men along it, begging as they went; ten li and more, they heard the chime-stone and smelled incense-smoke, and together called the Buddha's name and bowed. In a moment a temple appeared, most radiant and fair, adorned as with the seven treasures, and they saw ten and more STONE MEN; they bowed together, turned back — heard the sound of the chant-leader; returned to look again: still stone men. They said one to another: "These are holy monks; we are men of sin, unfit to see them" — and confessed with all their hearts; and going again, they saw TRUE MEN, who set food for Lingqi and his company — the taste of it vegetable, but fragrant past the food of this world; and when they had eaten, they knocked their heads and bowed and begged a speedy return home. One monk said: "This place is two hundred thousand li and more from the capital. But let the heart be whole, and you need not fear the length of it." — and asked Lingqi: "Do you know the man of the Way Beidu?" He answered: "Very well." The monk pointed then to a north-wall alcove where hung a flask, a tin staff, and a bowl: "That is Beidu's lodging-place. Now I trouble you with this bowl for him, and a letter laid in its case." — and there was besides a green bamboo staff, and he said to Lingqi: "Only cast this staff into the water before your ship; board, and sit still: no labor of yours is needed — you will go swiftly of yourselves." So they took their leave; a śrāmaṇera was sent to see them to the gate, who told them: "Take THIS road, and in ten li you reach your ship — no need of the old path." They went as he said; some seven li west and they were at the ship — exactly as shown; and they boarded and sailed FROM THE MOUNTAINTOP, passing over the treetops, seeing no water at all; in three days they were at Shitou on the Huai — and the bamboo staff was gone. The ship entered the Huai and came to the Vermilion Sparrow — and there they saw Beidu astride the great ferry's rail, striking it with a whip and crying: "Horse! Horse! Why won't you go!" — the watchers a crowd. Lingqi and his men bowed to him from the ship afar; and Du came down himself to the ship, took the letter and bowl, opened the letter and looked — its characters none could read — and laughed his great laugh: "So I'm summoned back, am I?" He took the bowl and flung it into the clouds, and caught it coming down: "I have not seen this bowl four thousand years!" — Du lodged mostly at Fayi's, the Yanxian temple; and the age, holding the bowl a thing of wonder, went crowding to see it.

When Yu Chang's slave-girl fled with stolen goods and four hunts could not take her, they asked Beidu; he said: "She is dead — in an empty grave-mound by the Jincheng river." They went and looked: exactly so. Kong Ningzi, then Gentleman-Attendant of the Yellow Gate, lay sick of dysentery at home and sent to beg Du, who finished his spell and said: "The hurt is past mending: I see four ghosts, all wounded and hewn." Ningzi wept: "When Sun En rose in rebellion, my household was broken by the soldiery; my two parents and my uncle all died in that cruelty." — and Ningzi died indeed. And Qi Xie's wife, of the Humu clan, ill past all physicians, called monks to a fast; and at the fast-seat a monk urged fetching Beidu; he came, spoke one spell, and the sick woman was healed on the spot; and Qi Xie bowed down and served him as master, and wrote the record of him — his divine wonders from first to last past full recording. In the third year of Yuanjia, the ninth month, he took leave of Xie and went east, leaving a myriad of cash in goods with Xie, begging him to lay out a fast; so they parted; and at Redhill Lake he sickened and died; and Xie laid the fast, and brought the body back and buried it at Fuzhou Mountain by Jiankang. And in the fourth year, one Shao Xin of Wuxing, a great server of the Law, caught the wasting-cold sickness, and none dared look in on him; he wept and called on Guanyin — and suddenly saw a monk come in, who said he was Beidu's disciple, and said: "Grieve not: my master is coming soon to see you." He answered: "Du died long since — how should he come?" The man of the Way said: "Come? What is hard in that?" — and from the end of his girdle took out a wrapped pinch of powder and gave it him to swallow, and the sickness eased that hour. And there was besides Du Sengai, who dwelt below the southern ridge and had served Beidu of old; his son fell sick to the utmost, and he yearned: "If only Du were here, with his divine spell!" Next day suddenly Du came in, speech as ever; spelled the sick boy — healed. And in the fifth year, the third month, Du came again to Qi Xie's house; Lü Daohui heard and looked on him — Du Tianqi too — and in a little a monk at the gate called Du, and he took his leave: "This poor man of the Way turns now toward Jiao and Guang, and comes no more." Qi Xie and the rest bowed him earnestly away — and from that time his traces ceased; though the age still tells of those who saw him: once he showed his form on the Luo water, and the crowd all started; and he told Qiu Xi and the rest: "The year comes on great ill-fortune. Cultivate blessing-work with all your might. The man of the Way FAYI has virtue in plenty — go join him, restore the old temple, and turn the calamity away."

The Dhyāna-Master Lord Bao — 寶公禪師

The śramaṇa Lord Bao was a scholar of the high towers of Songshan. One dawn, going from Linlü toward White-Deer Mountain, he lost his way; and the day nearing mid-morning, he suddenly heard a bell, and following the sound went forward, over cliff on barred cliff, climbing and hastening — and saw a temple standing alone in deep forest, its triple gate due south, blazing-bright; and coming to the gate he read the placard: TEMPLE OF NUMINOUS SECLUSION. Outside the gate were five or six dogs, big as oxen, white-coated and black-muzzled, some leaping, some couched; they rolled their eyes at Bao, and Bao in dread turned to go — when in a moment a Hu monk came from without. Bao hailed him: no answer, no turn of the head; straight in at the gate he went, and the dogs followed in. A long while after, Bao saw men entering little by little; he went in: the buildings stood round on four sides, every door shut fast. He came to the lecture-hall — couches and the high seat in solemn order, no one there — and sat on a couch in the southwest corner. After a time he heard a sound in the eastern bay, and looking up in wonder saw an opening like a well-mouth — and great bhikṣus, one after another, came FLYING DOWN through the hole, till there were fifty or sixty, who took their seats in order; and they fell to asking one another: "Today at the fast-hour, where did you eat?" One said Yuzhang; one Chengdu; Chang'an; Longyou; Jibei; Lingnan; the Five Indias — no place they had not been, each move a thousand, ten thousand li and more. Last of all one monk came down from the sky, and the company pressed him: "Why so late?" He answered: "Today at the Bi'an temple east of the wall of Xiangzhou, Jian the dhyāna-master was holding his lecture-assembly, and stick by stick they set up their theses; and there was one young man whose keen questions came edge on edge, words like a rising storm — most worth the watching; before I knew it, the hour ran late." Now Bao had SERVED JIAN as his own reverend; and hearing this, he hoped for a share of the talk, and rose, settling his robe, and said to the monks: "Jian is my own master!" — and the monks looked straight at him; and in an instant the Numinous-Seclusion temple was lost from where it stood: Bao alone under a scrub-oak, nothing anywhere — only cliff-valley, and the birds wheeling and flocking in their clamor. He came out of the mountains and asked the Reverend-Director Shang, master of the Law; and Shang said: "That temple was built by the Master Fotucheng in the days of the Stone Zhao — years long and far. Worthies and saints dwell in it — no seat of the common. Now it sinks, now it hides, shifting without fixed place; and mountain walkers still hear its bell."

The Dhyāna-Master Zhizao — 智璪禪師

The monk Zhizao, of lay surname Zhang, was a man of Qinghe. At twenty-two both parents died; he took a sickness that ran through months, physic without avail; then he dreamed a god came to his body and sucked and drew it out, three nights in turn, and he mended by degrees; whereat he sought to leave the common world. Hearing that the conduct of ZHIZHE — the Wise One of Tiantai — towered past the crowd, a true guide of the age, he took boat down the swollen stream straight for the Tiantai peaks, bowed his breast, and received the Way; and was set to walk the Lotus Repentance. On the twenty-seventh day, in the first watch, the repentance ended, he was going to his dhyāna-couch to sit — and saw a NINE-HEADED DRAGON burst from the ground and mount the empty sky. At dawn he told the Wise One, who said: "This is the sign: the nine paths of the living hear the Lotus Sutra, and in the age to come break the ground of ignorance and enter the emptiness of the Law-nature."

In the fourth year of Zhide of Chen, dwelling at the Baolin temple, he walked the Lotus samādhi. On the first day, at the first watch, someone as it were came shaking the door-leaf. Zao asked: "Who are you, shaking my door in the night?" — and a long-drawn voice answered: "I've come to LOOK AT THE LAMP." Time after time it came, question and answer as before. Now the temple had a great-virtue elder, the dhyāna-master Huicheng, who heard the whole of it in the night and told his disciples: "That hall has always had a great fierce ghost. Now that I hear this voice — the ghost has come to TAKE the man." Toward first light Master Cheng knocked at the door and called; Zao had no moment to answer; and Cheng circled the hall crying aloud: "Alas! alas! The man is finished!" Zao opened the door and asked his meaning; he answered: "You LIVE? I said the ghost had done for you in the night — that was my mourning." On the second night the ghost came into the hall, pounding the walls and beating the pillars, round and round east and west. Six lamps burned in the hall: Zao put out five and kept one, walked the practice, sat dhyāna, recited the sutra, level-hearted and unafraid; and through the third seven-day it was ever so. When the practice was nearly ended, he saw a blue-robed lad praising: "Excellent! excellent!" — and with the word, unseen. He ended at the temple in the twelfth year of Zhenguan.

The Dhyāna-Master Dazhi — 大志禪師

The monk Dazhi, son of the Gu clan of Kuaiji, gave up his family and left it, serving the Wise One of Tiantai as master. The Wise One, seeing his form and spirit free-scattered and set high beyond things, named him DAZHI — Great Resolve. He recited the Lotus Sutra in plain lone stillness, his voice clear and turning, till hearers forgot their weariness. Later, at Sweet-Dew on the Lu Marchmount, he walked the dhūta practice: at times he flung his body before savage beasts — and they all shied off and away; when his grain was gone he strung his life on cakes and fruit alone; seven years so, dhyāna and chant unresting. Late he held the seat of the Fulin temple; and meeting the Daye years' proscription and casting-out of the Buddha's teaching, in grief that the great Law lay trampled he put on MOURNING-CLOTH, and in the Buddha-hall wailed three days, resolved to cast off body and frame in witness to the right teaching. He went to the Eastern Capital and sent up a memorial: "I pray Your Majesty raise and prosper the Three Jewels; and this poor man of the Way shall then burn one arm on the Song Marchmount, in payment of the state's grace." The emperor allowed it. So the great fast was spread and the crowds gathered; the master, three days without grain, mounted the high scaffold, wrapped his arm in cloth, soaked it with wax, and lit it like a torch: the light lit the crags, blazing bright. The crowd, watching that bitter practice, felt the pain enter their marrow — but Zhi's face and color never changed: now reciting the sutra-text, now praising the Buddha's virtue, now preaching the Law to the crowd, voice upon voice unbroken. The burning done, he came down from the scaffold, sat cross-legged, entered stillness — and in seven days was gone.

The Dhyāna-Master Xuanzang — 玄奘禪師

The monk Xuanzang, first-named Yi, was surnamed Chen, a man of Goushi in Luozhou. Zang lost both parents and was netted young in stark hardship; he followed his elder brother, the Master Changjie, to dwell at the Jingtu temple, who fed him the refined principles and the subtle treatises besides. At eleven he was reciting the Vimalakīrti and the Lotus; at the Eastern Capital's standing ordinations he took his place in course; and from then stood tower-straight and unbending, no companion of the vulgar, yearning for the great Law. Later he came to Chang'an, dwelling at the Zhuangyan temple — still not his heart's aim; westward he crossed the Sword-Gallery and reached the Shu capital, receiving the sutras and treatises, never forgetting at one hearing. In the fifth year of Wude, at twenty-one, champion of the academies, he preached the Heart-Treatise for the śramaṇas — never glancing at the text, glossing without end; and the time called him the DIVINE MAN. He roamed then through Jing, Yang, and the provinces, calling on the neighbors of the Way; came again to the capital, and among the many foreigners learned their scripts and tongues to the full, taking in days of walking and sitting what others took years for — and waited only for his hour.

In the third year of Zhenguan, famine falling, the edict loosed clergy and lay to follow the harvests out the four ways — and BY THIS he got his going to the Western Regions to fetch the scriptures. Coming to the kingdom of Kashmir, the road turned peril — tigers and leopards, no way through. Zang, at a loss, locked the door of his cell and sat; and at evening, opening it, there sat on the couch an old monk — head and face running sores, body of pus and blood — come from none knew where. Zang bowed and begged with all his diligence; and the monk taught him by mouth the HEART SUTRA, one scroll, and bade him recite it. Whereat mountain and stream ran level, the road opened through; tigers and leopards hid their forms, demons and ghosts sank their traces — and so he came to the Buddha's kingdom, and took of the scriptures six hundred and more parts. In the nineteenth year of Zhenguan he returned to the capital, and the edict set him at Yuhua to translate the scripture-treasury.

All his life long Zang had vowed for birth with MAITREYA; and roaming the West he heard how the brothers Asaṅga and Vasubandhu were both born to that heaven, and prayed again and again, and had his plain provings; and at Yuhua, at every gap in the work, there was no hour he did not vow it. In the first year of Linde he told the translation-monks and his disciples: "The conditioned is bound for grinding-away — foam and shadow; how should this shaped stuff stand long? My year sixty-five, I shall surely end at Yuhua. Whoever has doubts in sutra or treatise, ask now, quickly." The hearers startled: "How can the master know?" — "I know it of myself." So he went to take leave of the Buddha and the assembled monks; and lying sick he saw ever a great LOTUS, fresh and white, coming to him; and saw the Buddha's marks; and bade the monks read out the titles of all he had translated — seventy-three parts in sum, one thousand three hundred and thirty scrolls — and carried his own gladness of it; and summoned all his followers who had the bond, saying: "The impermanent is upon me — come quickly, and let us see one another." At the Jiashou hall, with the fragrant-wood bodhi-image, he made his parting with the temple monks, his testamentary memorial done; then silently held Maitreya in mind; lay on his right side, feet doubled, right hand propping his head, left hand on his thigh — firm and unmoving; breath ceased, spirit departed; and for two months his color and countenance were as in life. He was buried at Bailu-yuan, the White-Deer Plain.

At the first, when Zang was setting out for the West, at the Lingyan temple there stood a PINE; Zang stood in the court and stroked its boughs: "I go west to seek the Buddha's teaching. You, grow WESTWARD; and when I return, turn back east — so shall my disciples know it." He gone, its boughs pointed west year by year, growing some zhang; then one year they suddenly turned east; and his disciples said: "The Teaching-master is come home!" — and went west to meet him; and Zang was indeed returned. To this day the crowd calls it the CROWN-STROKED PINE.

The Dhyāna-Master Yuangui — 元珪禪師

The monk Yuangui, surnamed Li, a man of Yique, mastered the dhyāna-essentials through, entering the dark subtleties deep, and built his hut at Pang-Wu on the Marchmount. There came one in a lofty cap, his suite thronging, who styled himself before the master; and Gui, seeing his form grand and his keen air beyond the common, said: "Well come, humane one — and why?" He said: "Can the master truly know me?" Gui said: "I look on Buddha and living beings as equal — I see you with one eye; why should I sort and know?" He answered: "I am the GOD OF THIS MARCHMOUNT. I can make life and death for men. How can the master 'one-eye' ME?" Gui said: "You can make life-and-death for men? I am at root unborn — how then will you kill me? I look on my body as one with empty space; I look on myself and you as one. Can you destroy space? Destroy yourself? Even could you destroy space and yourself, I am the unborn-and-unperishing — and you, who cannot even so much, how will you make MY life and death?" The Marchmount god bowed his head and bowed again: "I too, among the gods, count as bright-wise and upright — but how should I have known the master's wisdom and eloquence so vast? I beg the right precepts of you: let me cross this world, and lend my awe to blessing." Gui said: "You beg the precepts — then you are al­ready precepted. Why? Outside the precepts there is no precept — what precept should there be?" The god said: "This principle — I heard it and went dim. I only beg the master precept my body: let me be a disciple of the gate."

Gui, refusing in vain, spread the seat, burned the incense, took the censer, squared the table: "I lay on you the FIVE PRECEPTS. If you can keep them, answer CAN; if not, answer NOT." The god said: "Ears washed; leaning to listen; heart emptied to take the teaching." Gui said: "Can you not lust?" The god said: "I am wedded, though." — "Not that. I mean: no netting of desires." — "I can." — "Can you not steal?" — "What do I lack? How should there be stealing and taking?" — "Not that. I mean: not to feast on offerings and bless the wicked; not to take neglect of offerings and curse the good." — "I can." — "Can you not kill?" — "The very handle of it is in my grip — how can there be no killing?" — "Not that. I mean: no overflow, no error, no muddling of the doubtful." — "I can." — "Can you not lie?" — "I am upright — how should I be false?" — "Not that. I mean: that first and last accord with the heaven-heart." — "I can." — "Can you keep from the ruin of wine?" — "That I have strength for."

Gui said: "Such are the Buddha's precepts." And he said further: "Hold them WITH mind, but be bound to no track by mind; act for creatures WITH mind, but with no mind that imagines a self. Who can be so — though he were born before heaven-and-earth, he is no ESSENCE for that; though he die after heaven-and-earth, no OLD MAN for that; changing all day and never moved by it; still and silent all day and never at rest. Grasp this, and though you wed, it is no wife; though you feast, no taking; though you wield the handle, no power; though you work, no doing; though you are drunk, no stupor. If you can be mindless toward the ten thousand things, then netted desire is no lust; blessing the wanton and cursing the good, no theft; overflow, error, and muddling, no killing; first-and-last athwart heaven, no lie; stupor and riot and overthrow, no drunkenness. THIS is called no-mind. No mind — then no precepts; no precepts — then no mind; no Buddha, no beings, no you — and no I. And where there is no I and no you — WHO could be precepted?" The god said: "My spirit-power is second to the Buddha's." Gui said: "Your spirit-power — five CAN and five CANNOT. The Buddha's — seven can, three cannot." The god shifted uneasy off his mat, knelt reverent: "May I hear them?" — "Can you constrain the Highest Thearch, make the eastern heavens march west with the seven luminaries?" — "I cannot." — "Can you seize the earth-gods, fuse the Five Marchmounts, and knot the Four Seas into one?" — "I cannot." — "These are your CANNOTS. — The Buddha can empty every mark and complete the wisdom of the ten thousand dharmas — and cannot on the instant destroy the FIXED KARMA. The Buddha can know the natures of the whole herd of being and the affairs of a hundred-million kalpas — and cannot TRANSFORM AND GUIDE THE BONDLESS. The Buddha can ferry measureless sentient beings — and cannot EMPTY THE WORLD OF BEINGS to the last. These are the three cannots. And fixed karma itself does not hold fast forever; the bondless is a matter of the one term; the world of beings at root neither waxes nor wanes. There is no one who can be master of a single dharma. Dharma with no master — that is called no-dharma; no-dharma and no master — that is called no-mind. And as I understand it, the Buddha too has NO spirit-power: he can only, by no-mind, pass through all dharmas." The god said: "I am truly shallow and dim; I never yet heard the teaching of emptiness. The precepts the master has laid on me, I shall hold and walk. And now let me requite the master's mercy: I beg to be commanded to some worldly work, to show forth my little powers — so that the five ranks of men, those with the first-risen mind and those not yet risen, the believing and the not-yet-believing, may look on my god-traces and know there is Buddha, there is god, there is can and cannot, there is the self-so and the not-self-so." Gui said: "No-doing is; no-doing is." The god said: "The Buddha himself sets gods to guard the Law! Master, would you cross the Buddha? Command me anything." Gui, driven to it, said: "The eastern crag is the temple's screen — bare, waste, treeless; the northern ridge has trees, but they stand at the back, no shelter. Can you move the northern trees to the eastern ridge?" The god said: "The command is heard! Only, in the dark of night there will be wind and storm, shaking and thunder-motion — let not the master be alarmed." — and bowed, and took his leave; and Gui saw him out and watched: pennoned guards like a king's progress, and he was gone. That night, sure enough, wild wind roared its thunder, cloud galloped, lightning shook; ridgepoles heaved, stout roofs rocked toward falling; the settled monks' galls quaked, the roosting birds cried mad; and Gui told the assembly: "Fear nothing, fear nothing — the god keeps covenant with me." At first light it cleared calm: the pines and junipers of the north crag had MOVED, one and all, to the eastern ridge, planted in ranked files, a forest. Gui told his followers: "After I am gone, tell no one abroad. If it become a byword, men will make a goblin of me." He ended in the fourth year of Kaiyuan.

The Dhyāna-Master Tongxuan — 通玄禪師

Tongxuan, surnamed Li, a man of the northeast of Taiyuan — his movements past all measuring. Above seven feet tall, his form and color purple-dark; brows long past his eyes, mustache and beard as painted, hair blue-black and coiling. Free-roaming and self-possessed, bound by nothing, yet ranging all of old and new, piercing to the marrow both Confucian and Buddhist learning. In the spring of the seventh year of Kaiyuan he came from Dingxiang to the Gao homestead at Yu county, and there COMPOSED HIS TREATISE, unfolding wide the HUAYAN — not passing the courtyard door for nearly three years, eating each day ten jujubes and one cake of cypress-leaf, needing nothing else. Once, carrying his treatise and the sutra to the Han homestead, he met a TIGER in the road; Xuan stroked its back, loaded his sutra and treatise upon it, and it carried them to the earthen alcove. And in the writing of the treatise the room had no lamp or candle: each night he took the brush, and from his mouth two horns of white light came forth, a foot and more long, blazing clear. Two young women of gracious face and quiet elegance brought him food daily in a hamper before his alcove; and when Xuan had eaten they cleared the vessels and withdrew — five years through, paper and ink supplied without fail; and when the treatise was done, they vanished and appeared no more. The treatise he made is forty scrolls, binding up the letter and sense of the eighty-scroll sutra; and next the Treatise Resolving Doubts, four scrolls. One day, as the villagers sat drinking, Xuan came and said to them: "Live well, all of you — I am going now." The villagers, startled, took it for a remove elsewhere; but he said: "I am ENDING." They wept and clung and followed him to the earthen alcove; he said: "Going and staying are the constant way." The villagers went down the slope, looked back — cloud and mist dark over the place; and at the hour of zi, solemn where he sat, he passed in the alcove, a white light rising from his crown clean through the Grand Void. It was the eighteenth year of Kaiyuan, the twenty-eighth of the third month; his allotted years ninety-six. At dawn some men climbed the mountain: the alcove-room within brimmed full of SNAKES AND VIPERS, and none could go forward; they laid their case to them together, and the snakes scattered; and young and old, mourning after him, bound the bier and bore him north of the great mountain, walled the stone for a tomb, and buried him.

The Dhyāna-Master Yixing — 一行禅師

The monk Yixing, of lay surname Zhang, a man of Julu, first named Sui. Set apart from his earliest years, keen and bright, he read nothing twice — it was already recited dark. He served the dhyāna-master Pulin as master. Once one Lu Hong brought his own composition to the temple; Yixing read it at one look and lost not a word of it; and Hong said startled to Lin: "This is not one YOU can teach. Loose him to roam and study." So Yixing plumbed the GREAT EXPANSION — the Dayan — and thenceforth his seeking-out stopped at no thousand li. He came once to the Guoqing temple of Tiantai: a stream ran before the gate, and Yixing stood between gate and screen; within the court a monk was laying out counting-rods, their click-click sounding; and presently the monk said to his followers: "Today a disciple comes to seek my art of reckoning — he should be at the gate already. Is there no one to show him in?" — and moved one rod more, and said: "The water at the gate ought to turn and run WEST — then the disciple arrives." Yixing took up the word and entered, bowed his head, begged the Law — and the master poured his art into him to the last of it; AND THE WATER BEFORE THE GATE TURNED AND RAN EAST AGAIN. From this his name shook near and far.

Xuanzong heard and summoned him within: "What is your power?" — "Only a fair memory." The emperor sent for the palace registers, and showed him; one leafing-through, and he covered the book and recited from memory as a thing long conned, sheet after sheet; and Xuanzong, before he knew it, came down off his couch and bowed to him, calling him "Sage," sighing long. Thereafter he was summoned to answer without fixed times; his castings of weal and woe were as a pointing palm, his words full of profit. In the ninth year of Kaiyuan the Grand Astrologer memorialized that the Linde calendar had drifted loose — eclipses failing their times again and again — and the emperor decreed the master to make the new calendar. He took the mandate, pushed the numbers, stood the methods to answer them, and composed the KAIYUAN GREAT-EXPANSION CALENDAR. And in the tenth month of guihai Yixing finished the YELLOW-ROAD INSTRUMENT — the ecliptic armillary — and the emperor wrote its inscription with his own hand, and decreed it set in the Wucheng hall to show the hundred officials: its gauge was the image of the round heaven, with the ranked lodges and the red-road degrees full told; water poured to drive the wheel, it turned cold of itself, one day-and-night to one turning of heaven; outside were bound two rings threaded with sun and moon, made to run their courses — each day heaven traveling one round east, the sun west one degree, the moon thirteen degrees; a wooden case for the level ground, half the instrument sunk beneath, whereby dark and light, new moon and full, kept their measure; and two wooden figures stood on the plate, one before a drum to watch the quarter-hours, striking it of itself at each quarter, one before a bell to watch the double-hours, ringing it of itself at each hour — all by hidden wheel and axle, interlocked and mutually held. The age called it DIVINE WORK. Xing Hepu said to the Grand Astrologer Yin Yin: "Is not Master Yixing a very sage? Luoxia Hong of Han, who made the calendar, recorded: 'After eight hundred years this will err by one day; then a sage shall arise to set it right.' Now the term of the error is full — and Yixing has made the Great-Expansion to correct the schools' confusion. Old Luoxia's word was no lie!" — and Yin held it deeply so. Yixing once called on the Daoist Yin Chong to borrow Yang Xiong's Grand Mystery Classic; days later he came again and returned the book. Chong said: "That book's purport is deep and far — I have hunted it years on end and cannot fathom it. Try a longer study, sir — why return it so fast?" Yixing said: "I have plumbed its sense." — and drew out his own Great-Expansion Mystery Chart and a scroll of Resolved Meanings to show him; and Chong sighed in submission: "This is a latter-born YAN HUI!"

Now when Yixing was young his family was poor, and a neighbor, DAME WANG, helped them time and again — some hundreds of thousands in all; and Yixing ever thought to repay her. In mid-Kaiyuan, standing in Xuanzong's favor with no word refused — before long it fell that Dame Wang's son was taken for manslaughter, the case not yet closed; and the dame begged Yixing to save him. Yixing said: "Ask gold and silk, mother, and I repay you tenfold. But this is the sovereign's law — hard to bend for feeling's sake. What can I do?" Dame Wang jabbed her finger and cursed him roundly: "What good was ever KNOWING this monk!" Yixing followed her, begging pardon; she never looked back. Then Yixing turned it in his heart. In the Armillary Hall of his temple labored some hundreds of workmen; he had one chamber emptied and a great JAR moved in; then chose in secret two servants of the house, gave them a cloth sack, and said: "In such-a-quarter there is a waste garden. Lie hidden there from noon to dusk; when THINGS come in — they will be seven — take them all. Lose one, and you taste the rod." They went as told; at the you-hour, sure enough, a herd of PIGS came; they netted every one and returned. Yixing, overjoyed, had them put in the jar, capped it with a wooden lid, sealed it with six-one clay, and wrote Sanskrit characters on it in vermilion, some tens — his disciples could not fathom it. At dawn a palace envoy beat at the gate, an urgent summons; at the side-hall Xuanzong met him: "The Grand Astrologer memorializes that last night the NORTHERN DIPPER did not appear. What omen is this? Master — have you a way to turn it?" Yixing said: "In the Later Wei they lost Mars once; but that now the Thearch-star should vanish — this the ages have not seen. Heaven is giving Your Majesty great warning. Let one common man or woman fail of their place, and frost flies and drought reddens. What answers a stirring so sharp? — the burying of the exposed dead, at the least. But in the house of Śākya, the wrathful mind wrecks all goodness, and the MERCIFUL mind conquers every demon. As your servant crookedly sees it: nothing matches a GREAT AMNESTY under heaven." Xuanzong followed it, and the envoys went out with the tallies: amnesty to all-under-heaven — and so Dame Wang's son too came within the pardon. Yet she never knew it was Yixing's strength; nor did he count it merit, nor speak of it. And that same evening the Grand Astrologer memorialized: one star of the Dipper showed; and in seven days they were whole again.

The emperor once asked: "How long runs the state's portion? Is there any halt or hardship ahead?" Yixing said: "The luan-carriage has a ten-thousand-li journey; and the Altars end in fortune." The emperor, startled, pressed the reason; he would not answer, but withdrew, and sent in a small golden box: "Open it at WAN-LI — Ten Thousand Li." One day the emperor opened the box and looked: a few slips of DANGGUI — the herb "should-return." When Lushan's revolt drove the court to Chengdu, and they came to the TEN-THOUSAND-LI BRIDGE, he suddenly understood; and before long he did return. And Zhaozong was first enfeoffed PRINCE OF JI — "Auspicious" — and with Zhaozong the Tang went out: so "the Altars END IN JI."

At the close of Kaiyuan, Pei Kuan was governor of Henan, deep in faith toward the Law, serving the dhyāna-master Pulin as master and calling on him morning and evening. One day Kuan called on Lin; Lin said: "I have a small matter on hand — bide a while and rest." Kuan withdrew his suite and waited in an empty room; and he saw Lin wash and sweep the main hall clean, burn incense, and sit in state — and hard upon it came a knocking at the gate, voice on voice: "The Celestial Master — the reverend YIXING — is come!" Yixing entered, went to Lin, made reverence; the rite done, he leaned to his ear and spoke low, his look all deference; Lin only nodded: "So be it; nothing amiss." The speech done, he bowed again; bowed, spoke again — thrice so — and Lin only: "Yes, yes; nothing amiss." Yixing's words ended; he came down the steps, went into the south hall, and shut its door with his own hand. Then Lin called his disciples, unhurried: "Strike the bell: YIXING IS PERFECTED-AND-GONE." They ran to look: it was as he said. After the extinction, Pei Kuan wore hempen mourning; on the burial day he walked on foot out of the city to see him go. His springs-and-autumns were forty-five. The emperor wept him with grief upon grief, three days' court suspended; the shrine-coffin stood three seven-days, and his face was as in life. The emperor composed the stele himself, wrote it on the stone, paid five hundred thousand from the Privy Purse, and built his stupa at Bronze-Man Plain. His posthumous title: DHYĀNA-MASTER OF GREAT WISDOM.

The Dhyāna-Master Śubhakarasiṃha — 無畏禪師

The monk Wuwei — "Fearless," the Tripiṭaka Śubhakarasiṃha — was a man of India by origin, who YIELDED A KINGDOM to leave the family; in the Way's virtue and name the crown of India; wherever he came to preach, strange signs attended. When first he came from India, the office led him to audience with Xuanzong, who looked on him with reverent trust: "Master, you have come from no small distance — you must be weary. Where would you rest?" The Tripiṭaka advanced: "In India I heard of the Vinaya-Master DAOXUAN of the great Tang's Ximing temple, first of all holders of the discipline. I would lodge in dependence on him." Xuanzong allowed it. Now Xuan's keeping of the prohibitions was hard and bitter, his burning-and-cultivation refined and spotless; while the Tripiṭaka drank wine and ate flesh, his word and act rough and easy, blundering in drunk again and again, brawling, fouling mat and bedding — till Xuan could hardly stomach him. Then in the middle of one night, Xuan, catching a LOUSE, was about to cast it to the ground — and the Tripiṭaka, half-drunk, cried out voice upon voice: "Vinaya-master! Vinaya-master! You're dashing a CHILD OF BUDDHA to death!" — and Xuan knew then this was no common man, and set his robe straight and did him reverence, and served HIM as master.

While he was in Luoyang there was a giant serpent, a zhang and more high and fully a hundred feet long, of aspect most strange, that came coiling out below the mountains, and the folk of Luo all saw it. Wei spoke to it: "This serpent means to burst the waters and drown the city of Luo." — and he expounded the sense of the Buddha's books to it; and the serpent came every evening riding wind and dew as if it leaned to listen. Wei rebuked it: "You are a SERPENT. Dwell deep in the mountains, at peace in your place. Why would you loose your venom on the world? Go quickly — and no harm to living men." The serpent heard, and as with a look of shame bowed itself to the earth; and in a little, died. — And afterward An Lushan seized Luoyang and razed the ancestral temples to the last: the very thing his word had sealed.

In the tenth year of Kaiyuan, the seventh month, drought. The emperor sent an envoy with the summons: the Fearless One is begged to pray for rain. Wei took a bowl brim-full of water, stirred it with a little knife, chanting his spell over it some turns — and there rose from the bowl a thing like a curl-horned dragon, lifting its head at the water's face; he spelled it away: a white vapor steamed up off the bowl. He said to the envoy: "Go home quickly — the rain is at hand." The envoy galloped out — and in the turn of an eye wind and thunder shook and flashed; the envoy hurried in to report with the skirts of his court-robe already soaked through; and the long rain fell a whole day before it rested. — And once, when soaking rains had overrun their season, the decree bade Wei stop them: he kneaded five CLAY CRONES of mud, set his spell-words on them with scolding and curses — and that very hour it cleared. — Once, crossing the Dragon River, he had a camel-load of sutras; it went under the water, and Wei, fearing the sutras lost, went straight in after it — whereat the DRAGON KING invited him down into his palace to preach the Law, and kept him three nights before he came out; and of the Sanskrit bundles the beast had carried, not one character was wet. Such, and many, were his divine wonders.

The Dhyāna-Master Vajrabodhi — 金剛智禪師

The monk Vajrabodhi — in the flower-speech, "Diamond Wisdom" — was a man of the kingdom of Malaya in South India. At a few years old he was reciting ten thousand words a day, one look of the eye a transmission to the heart, unforgotten his life long. At sixteen he woke through to the Buddha's principle, and shaved and dyed and left the family; following his master he roamed the kingdoms, and in mid-Kaiyuan reached Guangfu — Canton — and thereafter followed the court to Luoyang. That year, from the first month clear to the fifth, no rain: prayers at marchmount, river, and numinous shrine went unanswered; and the decree set Zhi to raise the altar and pray. He used the Amoghāṅkuśa — the Unfailing Hook — by the bodhisattva-law, raising at his lodging an altar four cubits deep, and painted with his own hand the image of the Bodhisattva of the Seven Koṭis — Cundī — setting the term: when the eyes of the image opened at the point of light, rain would follow. The emperor set the dhyāna-master YIXING to watch it closely and reverently. On the seventh day, the blaze glaring, heaven without one film of cloud, past noon the brows and eyes of the image OPENED — and on the instant a northwest wind rose, tiles flew, trees tore, cloud burst and rain poured, and far and near were awe-struck; the altar-ground broke through the roof in a torrent, and the place became a way of water by morning. The gentry and commons of the capital all said Zhi had caught a DRAGON, that burst the roof and flew; and the seekers come to stare at the spot were thousands upon ten-thousands of men a day.

Now the emperor's twenty-fifth princess, whom he loved past the rest, lay long sick beyond saving, and was moved to lie at the outer lodge of Xianyi — eyes shut, speechless, ten days and a month already; and the decree bade Zhi confer on her the precept-law. This was mid-second-month. He chose two palace-maids of seven years, faces veiled in scarlet silk, laid on the ground, and had Niu Xiantong write a decree and BURN IT — at the place of King Yama. In the time of a meal, the two maids rose together and stood: the King had commanded the princess's dead nurse, the lady Liu, to escort the princess's spirit back as a ghost-bride — and thereupon the princess sat up, opened her eyes, and talked as ever. The emperor, hearing, waited for no out-runners but galloped to the lodge himself; and the princess said: "The dark reckoning is hard to bend. The King has sent me back only to see my sovereign father's face this little while" — and after half a day at last she went for ever. And from that hour the emperor first turned to him with worship.

The honored consort Wu, beloved beyond the six palaces, laid on him gift after gift of precious playthings; Zhi urged her: "Cast quickly the image of the Vajra-Longevity Bodhisattva." And he urged the Prince of Hedong to paint the image in the Vairocana stupa. And he told his disciples: "These two — their span is not for long." In a few months both were as he said. In the twentieth year, renshen, the eighth month, he charged his followers: "When the white moon stands full, I go." Then he bowed to the Buddha Vairocana, circled him seven rounds, withdrew — and in stillness transformed.

The Dhyāna-Master Jianyuan — 鑑源禪師

The monk Jianyuan — whence he came none can tell; his plain conduct discerning-bright. He preached the Huayan sutra at Excellent-Gathering; the fast fed a thousand daily, yet in his granary-baskets the rice and millet stood only some hundreds of hu — drawn on and never drained, summer through autumn, and never once was want declared: so far did the dark answering reach; and afterward the provings were many. The dhyāna-master Huiguan saw three hundred monks and more, lotus-lamps in hand, mount the empty air and go, clear-told as streaming stars. In mid-Kaiyuan, Lord Cui, Duke of Ji, suspecting goblin-fraud, went into the mountain himself and slept there, having first set a ban about the mountain, thirty li to each face, against all fire; and on the third night a hundred lamps and more appeared, with red radiance a thousand feet, may be; the Duke started up and made reverence, sighing: "Never was the like!" Then from among the pines came forth a GOLDEN HAND, seven feet long, may be; and two bodhisattvas, yellow-gold and white-gold, flashing; and again, on the cypress before the court, by daylight, one lamp appeared, bright as the sun; a glazed-crystal mountain spread crosswise three li, may be; one precious pearl, a zhang round, glittering lovely; from the western ridge's mountain-gate hung a great rainbow bridge, and on the bridge Brahmic monks, old men, and lads came out among one another, with two torches blazing in mid-air as if welcoming and escorting, crossing and re-crossing; below, four bodhisattvas stood paired two and two, their whole-body light sixty or seventy feet high, may be; and behind the great pine-wood there suddenly showed a temple-placard, three seal-characters: THE THREE LEARNINGS; and under a lamp hung two broidered ribbons; and between the eastern woods a golden mountain came out by night; and when the moon stood at zi-wu, lamps of two colors, gold and silver, ranged themselves by the grave-side of the master Zhixuan. Wei Gao, Prince of Southern Kang, each third month came to the temple to spread the great fast of the Three Hundred Bodhisattvas — and the bodhisattvas showed their forms.

The Dhyāna-Master Lancan — 嬾残禪師

Lancan — "Lazy-Leftovers" — was a labor-monk of the Southern Marchmount temple at the start of Tianbao of Tang: when the meals were done he would gather what was LEFT and eat it; lazy by nature and fed on leavings — hence the name. By day he did the whole temple's single-handed work; by night he lay down among the herd of oxen — and never a look of weariness, full twenty years. At that time Li Mi — the Marquis of Ye that would be — read books in the temple, and watching what Lancan was, said: "No common thing, this man." Listening to his midnight Sanskrit chanting ring through the mountain woods — and Lord Li had an ear, and could tell fortune from ruin in a sound — he said: "The sutra-voice grieves first and after gladdens: this is a BANISHED MAN, and his hour of going home is near." He watched for midnight and went to him in secret, laid himself at the cell door, gave his name, and bowed. Lancan cursed him mightily, and spat up at the sky: "This is a TRAP for me!" Lord Li only grew more reverent, and bowed on. Lancan was just then raking open a dung-fire of cow-chips and eating the ROAST TARO out of it; a long while, and he said: "Sit on the ground." — and broke off the half of the taro he was eating and handed it up. Lord Li received it in both palms and ate it to the last bite, and gave thanks. And he said to Lord Li: "Guard your tongue. TEN YEARS A CHANCELLOR — take it and go." The lord bowed again and withdrew.

A month on, the prefect came to sacrifice at the Marchmount and dress the road with full strictness — when at midnight, wind and thunder, and one peak-side came down: the mountain stair-road was barred by a great rock. They noosed it to ten oxen and hauled — and it would not come; hundreds of men with drums and shouting heaved — strength spent, rock the faster. Lancan said: "No need of man-power. Let me try it away." The crowd all laughed at the madman; Lancan said: "Why the sneering? Try first, then judge." The temple monks, laughing, allowed it; and he stepped ONTO the rock and it MOVED — turning, wheeling, thundering down; the sound like the thunderbolt; and the mountain road stood open. The temple monks bowed round him in a ring; the whole prefecture cried "Utmost Saint!"; the prefect honored him as a god. Lancan went quiet — and the will to leave was in him. Now beyond the temple the tigers and leopards had suddenly banded, killing daily, and no way to stop them; and Lancan said: "Give me a switch, and I'll drive them off for you." The crowd said: "The great ROCK you could shift — the tigers should be easy taming." So they gave him a bramble-stick, and followed on his heels to watch: scarce out the gate — one TIGER took him up in its jaws and away. Lancan gone, the tigers' track ceased too. And Lord Li, in the end, was ten years chancellor.

The Dhyāna-Master, the Monk of the Western Regions — 西域僧禪師

The nameless monk of India — of which India none has settled — was ugly and mean of face; wrapped in a robe of gandha-hue with a loose-stitched hem, worn hide sandals, an iron staff dragging, he walked his transforming through the capital. When WEI GAO was born, and was three days old, his family called the monks to the fast; and this monk came uncalled. The Wei house-servants all bristled at him, and sat him on a broken mat in the courtyard. When the meal was done, the Wei family bade the nurse bring out the infant, begging the assembled monks to look on his life-span; and the Hu monk of himself mounted the steps and said to the babe: "LONG PARTED — and you keep well?" And the babe — as with a look of joy. The company all marveled; the child's father said: "This boy is three days born. Master, why do you speak of 'long parted'?" The Hu monk said: "This is not for the almsgiver's knowing." The father pressed him hard; and the monk said: "This child is the after-body of ZHUGE WULIANG — of Kongming. The Martial Marquis, at the Eastern Han's close, was chancellor of Shu; the men of Shu received his bounty long. Now he has come down to the world, and shall be marshal at Shu's own gate; and the Shu people's blessing is at hand. I, in a former year, in Sword-Gate, was in friendship with this child; hearing now that he was born to the Wei house, I came — not counting it far." The Wei family, marveling at the word, took WULIANG for the boy's style. And afterward Wei Gao, from Metropolitan Commandant of the Left, came to hold the military governance of Jiannan, mounting office on office to Grand Commandant and Director of the Secretariat, EIGHTEEN YEARS in Shu — the tally, to the last stroke, of the Hu monk's word.

The Dhyāna-Master Benjing — 本淨禪師

The monk Benjing — whence he came is not settled — was of a Way-breath high and unbending. Hearing that the Min ranges were thick with Chan lineages, he went through them calling on each; and hearing besides that Mount Huotong at Changxi held many cavern-prefectures of the divine immortals — only the mountain suffers no common vulgar man — Jing entered the mountain and knotted thatch for a cell. Beside the cell was the rock-den of a venomous dragon, that came writhing out, its changes and appearings without constant shape; Jing called and summoned it — and it was tamed to his hand. And the savage tigers that crossed the paths and did harm, so that woodsmen dared not go deep — Jing stroked their heads and bound them with warning, charge upon charge, and the tigers laid back their ears and left. Once on a clear night nine men in caps and kerchiefs, jackets and riding-breeches, asked lodging; he took them all into the hermitage; at dawn they took their leave — and together transformed into CRANES, crying clear in the empty sky as they went. Of Jing's end, at the last, nothing is known.

The Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha, King of the Earth-Store — 地蔵王菩薩

His office holds the dark world; Teaching-Lord whom the Ten Kings Yama of the Earth's stages lead in court-audience with full rite. By tradition he was Fu Luobo of Rājagṛha — the Law-name Maudgalyāyana — who served the Thus-Come as master, saved his mother from among the thronged hungry ghosts, and founded the triumphant assembly of the ULLAMBANA — and after his death became the King of the Earth-Store, with the thirtieth day of the seventh month kept as the day of his birth, and the gentry do him worship. Some say: the Dizang of Nine-Flower Mountain in Qingyang today is he. By the tradition: a monk of the kingdom of SILLA, in Tang times, crossed the sea and dwelt on Mount Jiuhua; at ninety-nine he suddenly called his followers and took farewell; there was only heard the mountain crying and stones falling; presently he sat cross-legged in a box-shrine; and after three years, opened to be entered in the stupa, his face was as in life; and as they bore him, his moving bone-joints sounded like a GOLDEN CHAIN — wherefore he is called the GOLD EARTH-STORE, Jin Dizang. And by this one may know the error of those who tell it the other way.

The Dhyāna-Master of the Song Marchmount Who Subdued the Monk[-God] — 嵩岳伏僧禪師

The reverend STOVE-BREAKER-FALLEN — Pozaoduo — of the Song Marchmount dwelt hidden on Songshan. The mountain had a temple of great numen, wherein was set one STOVE, and the sacrifices at it knew no empty day. The master entered the temple and struck the stove with his staff: "This is mud and tile compounded. Whence comes the holiness? Whence rises the numen?" — and struck it three blows more; and the stove toppled, broke, and FELL. In a little, a man in blue robes laid his bow before the master: "I am at root the god of this stove, long under the retribution of karma. Today, favored with the master's preaching of the unborn Law, I am freed of this birth. I come on purpose to bow my thanks." — bowed again, and was gone. In a while the followers asked: "What scripture-purport did the stove-god obtain, that he was born straight into heaven?" The master said: "I only said to him: you are mud and tile compounded. No other doctrine at all." The followers stood wordless. A long silence; the master said: "Do you understand?" — "We do not." — "The nature that is there from the root — WHY do you not understand it?" The monks then bowed; and the master said: "BROKEN! FALLEN!" — and at that the company greatly woke to the dark purport.

The Dhyāna-Master Zhixuan — 知玄禪師

The State-Master Wuda — Knowing-the-Dark, Zhixuan — chanced on a monk in the capital, then sick with the kāmalā disease; none knew his strangeness, and all shunned him in disgust; Zhixuan watched by him and tended him without one look of weariness. At parting the monk said to him: "Hereafter you will meet calamity. Come find me then in western Shu, at Chalong Mountain in Pengzhou — two pines for the mark." Afterward Xuan dwelt at the Anguo temple; Yizong himself graced his Law-seat and bestowed a seat of aloeswood; the favor ran very rich — and of a sudden there grew upon his KNEE A HUMAN FACE: brows, eyes, mouth, teeth all complete. Fed with food and drink, it opened its mouth and swallowed like any man; physicians availed nothing. Remembering the old word, he went into the mountains to seek; and there were the two pines amid the smoke-cloud — the pledge held true. He hastened to the place: a Buddha-temple, radiant and stately; the monk stood at the mountain's shade, received him with great gladness; and at evening he lodged, and told him what he suffered. "No harm," said the monk. "The mountain has a spring: at dawn wash it, and you are whole." At first light a lad led him to the spring-side; and just as he cupped the water, the SORE cried out in a man's voice: "Do not wash yet! You are deep-read and learned — have you read the Western Han history?" — "I have." — "And having read it, do you not know Yuan Ang's slaying of Chao Cuo? You are Yuan Ang; I am Chao Cuo. Cuo was cut in two at the waist at the eastern market — how deep was that wrong! Ten lives running I have sought requital on you — but through ten lives you have been a monk, keeping the precepts so cleanly that revenge found no gap. NOW you have received favor and luxury past measure; the heart of name-and-gain has stirred; therefore I could harm you. But the Honored KANAKA — the monk you tended — has washed me with the samādhi-water of the Law; from this hour I am your enemy no more." Zhixuan's soul stood loose of his body; he cupped the water in haste and washed: the pain pierced to his marrow; he swooned, and revived — and the sore was healed away. He looked back for the temple-buildings: wilderness — nothing to be seen. Whereat he raised a hut on the spot, which grew at last a great temple. Zhixuan, moved by the wonder — that a wrong heaped through the ages, save for a meeting with the holy, could never have been loosed — composed thereupon the Method of Repentance in three scrolls, taking its sense from the samādhi-water's washing of the karmic wrong: named the WATER REPENTANCE.

The Blue-Robed God — 青衣神

The Blue-Robed God is Master CANCONG — the Silkworm-Thicket. By the tradition, Cancong was first Marquis of Shu, later styled King of Shu; he would wear a BLUE ROBE and make his circuit of the outskirt wilds, teaching the people the business of the silkworm; and the countrymen, moved by his virtue, raised him a shrine and served him; and his shrines spread over the western lands, and none is without numinous proof; and the custom calls him, in sum, the Blue-Robed God. Blue-God county — Qingshen — likewise took its name from this. Xie Fangde of Song has a poem on the silkworm:

The mouth is fed, the body kept, all leaning on the mulberry;
a kingly Way completed at the last, its bounty flowing long.
It spits its silk, and envies not the spider's cunning;
hurried with leaves, it keeps the Weaving-Girl at her shuttle.
Thrice rising, thrice asleep — the season's turning wheel;
one life, one death — the constant of heaven's charge.
But wait until the cocoons are offered, the basins reeled —
FIRST for the lord and king it makes the dragon-robes.

The Immortals of Nine-Carp Lake — 九鯉湖仙

The Nine-Carp immortals were the nine sons of the wife, née Lin, of Assistant-Prefect He of Xianyou county, Xinghua prefecture, Fujian — all BLIND, save the eldest lord blind in one eye only. Their father one day looked on them in great anger and would have made away with them; the mother, knowing it, speedily had the nine sons led away in flight to the mountains northeast of Xianyou, where they cultivated and refined — the NINE-IMMORTALS MOUNTAIN it is named; and dwelling then by the lakeside they refined the elixir; and the elixir perfected, each MOUNTED A RED CARP and was gone. Hence the lake is named Nine-Carp; the temple stands above the lake, of utmost numinous proof; and at each great examination-year the scholars of the several prefectures PRAY FOR DREAMS there, trusting it as milfoil and tortoise. Huang Mengliang of our dynasty, moved by the matter, made a regulated verse in record:

The men long since immortal, the carp turned dragons —
and who was it built the immortals' palace above the lake?
The stone keeps their elixir-stove where the water chatters;
cloud locks the rose-gem towers in the dim beyond.
The bluebird comes and goes, as ever, with the night moon;
the jade peach opens and falls, of itself, in the spring wind.
This journey is not for the dream of Handan —
rather, at the bridge of Pei, to meet the Master of the Stone.

The Celestial Master Zhang — 張天師

The Celestial Master is ZHANG DAOLING of Han, eighth-generation grandson of Zifang — Zhang Liang. Born in the Jianwu years of Guangwu at Mount Tianmu in Wu, he studied the arts of long life, hid on North Mang Mountain; Zhangdi and Hedi summoned him again and again — he would not rise. At length, roaming the famous mountains, he came east to Yunjin stream in Xing'an, climbed high, gazed, and said: "There is an OTHER-REALM here." Following the flow along, at Yunjin cavern there was a crag; he refined the elixir within it three years, and blue dragon and white tiger wheeled circling above it; the elixir perfected, he ate of it — being then sixty, and his face grew ever younger; and he obtained besides the secret writings, piercing the divine transformations, driving out the fiend-ghosts. Afterward, from Cloud-Terrace Peak in Shu, he ascended to heaven; and the scripture-registers, talisman-chapters, seal, and SWORD he left were handed to his sons and grandsons. By the fourth generation the line flourished anew and dwelt again on this mountain; age after age has honored it; and his descendants inherit the title PERFECTED MAN generation by generation, dwelling at DRAGON-TIGER MOUNTAIN in Guixi county of Guangxin prefecture, Jiangxi.

The Palace-Attendant Wang — 王侍宸

The Palace-Attendant was surnamed Wang, named Wenqing, a man of Linchuan of Song times; "Palace-Attendant" was his office. Born with the bone-marks, a man of the Way prized him as a vessel; grown, he roamed the four quarters, his goings ranging wellnigh the whole of space. He met a strange man who conferred on him the Law of the Way: he could summon WIND AND THUNDER. Huizong of Song styled him FEATHERED GUEST OF THE GOLDEN GATE, Palace-Attendant of the Ningshen Hall, his favor the crown of that age — and of all bestowals he took not one thing. When Yangzhou lay under great drought and the edict begged rain, the Palace-Attendant took up the sword, spurted the water, and said: "I BORROW THREE FEET OF THE YELLOW RIVER." Days later Yangzhou memorialized: rain had come — and the water all YELLOW AND TURBID. Wonder upon wonder he showed; in the great Yuan a shrine was first raised — it stands today within the prefectural city of Jianchang — its numinous answering ever brighter; and those who come with beast and silk to beg its power stand strung along the road unbroken.

The Master of Kuang-Fu on the Lu Marchmount — 廬山匡阜先生

The Master was surnamed KUANG, named Su, styled Junping, a man of southern Chu, titled Master of Kuang-Fu. Born divine, with the will-beyond-things while yet a boy, in King Wu of Zhou's time he took Old Dan for master and gained the way of long life; he knotted his thatch above TIGER STREAM on the Southern Barrier Mountain and hid there — nothing in his room but one couch set up and a few rolls of bamboo-book. King Wu summoned him again and again: he would not rise. He met a youth who handed him the immortal formula, and attained the Way. When Emperor Wu of Han made his southern progress and climbed to sacrifice at Tianzhu, he made the ordered offering toward him; and after, having shot the flood-dragon in the Xunyang river, he enfeoffed the Master besides GREAT BRIGHT DUKE OF THE SOUTHERN POLE. His Way so high that dragon and tiger crouch to it, his virtue so weighty that ghosts and gods revere it, the Master could SUBDUE THE FIVE PLAGUE ENVOYS and make them his under-officers; and command was given to raise his shrine at the old hermitage by Tiger Stream; the warden Huan Yi moved the Master's shrine to the mountain-mouth; he can press down the gods of the plague-department; and for every flood, drought, and pestilence, prayer to him is answered.

The Immortal Master Huang — 黃仙師

The Immortal Master was surnamed Huang, seventh of his line, a man of Shanghang in Tingzhou, Fujian; his trade the shaman's arts: he could whip and flog ghost-demons, drive and expel the fiend-uncanny. The Master's temple stands southwest of the Shanghang county seat — of old it stood in the stone gorge at Zhongliao camp, and was moved here after. By the tradition: of old a mountain-sprite, a stone-fiend, did harm there; the shaman HUANG THE SEVENTH quelled it with his talisman-law, and thereupon HID HIS BODY INTO THE STONE and came not out; and in the shadowed gleam of the rock-wall is a man's shape, which gazed upon is the very image of the Immortal Master. A man of former days has a poem:

Not spirit-carved is this, nor ghost-incised —
it knows to breed the mist, knows to breed cloud.
Since first the Immortal Master went into the hilltop stone,
the plants have furred it soft through how many springs?

The North-Pole Bureau for Expelling the Crooked — 北極驅邪院

The LEFT JUDGE is YAN ZHENQING of Tang. Dezong commanded Zhenqing to arraign Li Xilie; his kin feasted him farewell at Changle slope; the Duke, in his cups, leapt to the fore-pillar and said: "Early in life I met a Daoist — Tao Bapa — who gave me a knife-tip measure of the jade-rose-cloud elixir; to this day it has not failed. And he said: at seventy there is a strait for you; and past it, good fortune; another day, wait for me at Mount LUOFU. Is not this that very strait?" The Duke came to Daliang; Xilie had him strangled and buried south of the wall. When Xilie fell, the household opened the coffin: his look and state as in life, his whole body gold-colored, nails grown out through the backs of his hands, beard and hair several feet long. They bore him home and buried him north of Yanshi. — Afterward a merchant came to Mount Luofu, and two Daoists were at chess beneath a tree. One said: "Who comes here?" He answered: "Your small guest is a man of Luoyang." The Daoist smiled: "Then may I trouble you to carry one letter to my house." — sent the lad for paper and brush, and wrote it. The traveler, returned, came to North Mountain; and the sons and grandsons of the YAN house took the letter and cried out in alarm: "The late Grand Master's OWN HAND!" — they opened the tomb, unclosed the coffin: EMPTY. And later Bai Yuchan said it: Yan Zhenqing is Left Judge of the North-Pole Bureau for Expelling the Crooked.

The Crown Prince Nezha — 那叱太子

NEZHA was of origin a great Luo-heaven immortal under the Jade Sovereign's own canopy: his body six zhang tall; upon his head a GOLDEN WHEEL; THREE HEADS, NINE EYES, EIGHT ARMS; his mouth spitting blue cloud, his feet treading the coiling rock; his hand grasping the Law's statutes; and at his one great shout, cloud descends and rain follows, and heaven-and-earth quake and flash. Because the world below was thick with demon-kings, the Jade Thearch ordered him down among the common; and so he was lodged as embryo with LI JING, the Pagoda-Bearing Heaven-King, in the womb of his mother the Lady Suzhi — the eldest born being Junzha, the second Muzha, and the Master the third of the womb.

Five days from his birth, the Master, transforming, BATHED IN THE EASTERN SEA: his foot trod the Crystal Palace, and he flipped and went straight up into the Precious-Pagoda palace. The DRAGON KING, for the trampling of his hall, raged and demanded battle. The Master — SEVEN DAYS OLD — was able to give it: he battled and slew NINE DRAGONS. The old dragon, past all shift, wailed to the Thearch; the Master knew it, and cut off the fight at the very under-side of the Heaven-Gate — and the dragons died. Then, unlooked-for, at the Thearch's altar he drew the Thus-Come's bow and arrow and shot dead the son of LADY STONE-RECORD — Shiji Niangniang — and Stone-Record raised her soldiery. The Master took his father's altar-pestle, the demon-queller, and warring westward slew her. But his father, because Stone-Record was chief-and-leader of all the demons, raged that the killing would draw the whole demon-soldiery on them; whereupon the Master CUT OFF HIS FLESH AND CARVED OUT HIS BONES AND RETURNED THEM TO HIS FATHER — and clasping his true numen, went begging wholeness of the WORLD-HONORED at his side. And the World-Honored, for that he could subdue the demons, thereupon broke lotus-caltrop for his BONES, lotus-root for his FLESH, lotus-fiber for his SHANKS, lotus-leaf for his ROBES — and gave him life; and conferred on him the secret purport of the Wheel of the Law, and gave him with his own mouth the three characters MU ZHANG ZI, the Elder-Son of Wood.

Thereupon he could be great and be small; strain through rivers and enter seas; move the stars and turn the Dipper. One SHOUT of his, and heaven topples, earth caves; one BREATH, and golden light mantles the world; one CLANG of his [ring], and dragon obeys, tiger follows; one FLICK of his spear, and Qian spins, Kun turns; his EMBROIDERED BALL flung up, and mountains crack, seas split. So the demon-kings — the OX Demon King, the LION Demon King, the GREAT ELEPHANT Demon King, the HORSE-HEAD Demon King, the WORLD-SWALLOWING Demon King, the GHOST-CHILD-MOTHER Demon King, the NINE-HEADED Demon King, the DUOLI Demon King, the HEAVEN-FLIPPING Demon King, the five hundred yakṣas, the seventy-two fire-crows — were subdued by him to the last; down to the striking of the RED APE and the quelling of the fiend-dragon. For the demons have an end — but the Master's numinous power is broad and great, his transformations without bound. Therefore at the assembly on the Numinous Mountain he was made HEAVEN-PIERCING GRAND MASTER, AWESOME-NUMINOUS RADIANT GREAT GENERAL; and the Jade Thearch — the King-Thearch — enfeoffed him FIRST GENERAL-COMMANDER OF THE THIRTY-SIX, chief-and-leader of the heaven-marshals, GARRISONING THE HEAVEN-GATE FOREVER.

The Five Thunder Gods — 五雷神

The Thunder-God temple stands eight li southwest of the seat of Leizhou prefecture, Guangdong. Of old the countrymen would make thunder-drums and thunder-carts of hempen cloth and set them in the temple; and if any ate fish together with pig's flesh, he was thunder-struck on the spot. The old record says: at the beginning of Chen Tianjian, a man of that province, one CHEN, hunting, took an EGG a full foot round, and carried it home; and suddenly one day it split open in a thunder-crash, and a boy was born from it, with writing on his hand: LEIZHOU. Afterward he was reared and named WENYU; the country custom called him THE THUNDER-SEED; and he became in time the prefecture's own Inspector; and dead, he had numen, and the countrymen shrined him. In shaded rain there are lightning-glows and roaring sounds that come out of the temple itself. Song and Yuan enfeoffed him by turns to the kingly rank, the temple styled MANIFEST-THUNDER, renamed in Deyou AWESOME-TRANSFORMING. The State-History Supplement says: at Leizhou in spring and summer there is much thunder; in autumn the thunder lies hidden in the EARTH, its shape like a PIG, and men take and eat it. And at Waw-House Mountain in Yazhou there is a THUNDER-CAVE: cast in tile or stone, and thunder cracks that instant to answer the hand.

The Lightning-Mother — 電母神

By tradition, when the Duke-King of the East was at pitch-pot with the Jade Maiden, and the toss went wide and was not caught — for every miss HEAVEN LAUGHED FOR HIM; and the light that streams from heaven's opened mouth — that is the LIGHTNING of today.

The Wind Earl — 風伯神

FEILIAN is he. Ying Shao says: Lian is a divine bird that can raise the wind-breath — body like a deer, head like a sparrow, horned, tail like a serpent, big as a leopard: the god who is the Earl of the Wind.

The Rain Master — 雨師神

SHANGYANG is he. Shangyang is a divine bird of ONE LEG, able to be great and be small: one in-suck of his, and the vast deeps may be drained dry — the god who is the Master of Rain.

The Sea God — 海神

HAIRUO is he. By tradition, the First Emperor of Qin built a stone bridge, wishing to cross the sea and view the place of the sun's rising, and the sea-god DROVE THE STONES for him. The First Emperor begged the god to show himself; the god said: "Make no likeness of my form." The First Emperor consented — but when they met, his clever men of the suite sketched and drew the god's form; and the god in wrath said: "The Thearch has broken faith. Be gone — quickly!" His temple stands today in Wendeng county.

The Tide God — 潮神

ZIXU is he — Wu Zixu: men see his plain chariot and WHITE HORSES riding out upon the tide.

The Water God — 水神

Called YUQIANG; and the RIVER EARL, Hebo.

The Wave God — 波神

Called CHUANHOU, the Queen-of-the-Stream.

The Three Water-Prefectures of the Yangzi River — 洋子江三水府

By the History of the Five Dynasties, the House of Yang, holding the Jiang, enfeoffed MADANG as the UPPER WATER-PREFECTURE — its temple on the sunny side of the mountain; CAISHI as the MIDDLE WATER-PREFECTURE — its temple below Caishi hill, enfeoffed King, the Song augmenting it KING MANIFEST-NUMEN, COMPLIANT-HOLY, LOYAL-AIDING PACIFIER OF THE JIANG; and JINSHAN as the LOWER WATER-PREFECTURE — its temple within the Jinshan temple. All three temples our dynasty styles GODS OF THE WATER-PREFECTURE: on the water's face, in mid-river, one call and they answer; boatmen passing must furnish beast and silk and pray; and now the officers offer the sacrifice at the seasons of the year.

Grandfather Xiao — 蕭公爺爺

The Lord was surnamed Xiao, tabooed name Boxuan: dragon brows and dragon-coiled hair, fine mustache and whiskers, a face like a boy's. Young, he was hard-upright and self-kept, laughing and speaking nothing lightly, good to the good and hateful to the evil, and the ward-lanes all took him for their pledge-surety. He died in the Xianchun years of Song — and became a god, descending upon lads-in-trance to tell beforehand of weal and woe, hitting like a sprung trigger; and the country-folk together raised his temple at Taiyang Isle in Xingan county, Linjiang prefecture, Jiangxi: guarding the ships, saving the people, answering every prayer, his blessing wetting the ten directions. In the great Yuan his son XIAO XIANGSHU, dead and numinous, was joined in the temple's sacrifice; at our August Ming's Hongwu beginning an officer was sent with the proclamation-offering; and in the seventeenth year of YONGLE his grandson TIANREN died, and showing wonder upon wonder was shrined here too, and by edict enfeoffed MARQUIS OF THE WATER-PREFECTURE, NUMINOUS-PIERCING, BROAD-CROSSING, MANIFEST-RESPONSE, GOOD-PROTECTION — greatly working his awesome numen upon the Nine Jiangs, the Eight Rivers, the Five Lakes and the Four Seas.

Grandfather Yan — 晏公爺爺

The Lord was surnamed Yan, named XUZAI, a man of Qingjiang town, Linjiang prefecture, Jiangxi: thick brows and coiling whiskers, his face like BLACK LACQUER. All his life he hated evil as a man snatches his hand from scalding water; and if any had the least ill in him, men would say — "and shall Lord Yan not KNOW of it?" Such was the reverent dread he was held in. At the great Yuan's beginning, chosen for talent into office as Hall-Chief of the文錦 Brocade Bureau, he fell sick, turned home, boarded the boat — and quietly died. His men laid him out with every rite; and before they reached his home, the village-folk had already SEEN him — outriders clearing the road across the open wilds, robe and cap as ever — and all hailed him with honor; and a month later, when the death came home to them, they were amazed and stricken: the day they had seen him WAS the very day of his death. They opened the coffin and looked: NOTHING there at all. So it was a release-by-the-corpse. The elders, knowing he had become a god, raised his temple and sacrificed. He shows his numen on river, lake, and sea: whenever wind and wave rage and the merchants knock and cast themselves on him, straightway the water-road runs safe and sure, the boat rides steady-laden, cable and hawser hold fast, wind falls quiet and wave lies still, and what was purposed goes through. At our August Ming's Hongwu beginning he was by edict enfeoffed MARQUIS MANIFEST-RESPONSE WHO LEVELS THE WAVES.

The Road-Opening Divine Lord — 開路神君

The Road-Opening Divine Lord is the FANGXIANG-SHI of the Rites of Zhou. By tradition, when the Sovereign Xuanyuan roamed the nine bounds, his first consort LEIZU DIED UPON THE ROAD, and he set the next consort, Haoru, to watch over her, and BOUGHT THE XIANG — the masked one — to ward the night: such was its beginning. The custom names him the GOD OF THE PERILOUS ROAD; one name, GENERAL OF THE FIELD-PATHS; one name, the ROAD-OPENING DIVINE LORD. The god's body is a zhang and more tall, his head three feet broad, his beard three feet five inches long, his beard RED and his face BLUE; on his head the gold crown of bound hair, on his body the red war-robe, on his feet black hide boots; in his left hand the jade seal, in his right the square-heaven painted halberd. He goes BEFORE THE COFFIN at its going-out: he can press down every baleful star and evil ghost into hiding — the lucky god of the moving bier, handed down to the after-ages.

The Rite-Craft "Calling Lüling" — 法術呼律令

In the Thunder Department there is a god named LÜLING — "Statute-Command" — a MASTER RUNNER, swift in the race as the thunder itself. Therefore the talisman-spells say: SWIFTLY, SWIFTLY, AS LÜLING [AS THE STATUTES COMMAND]! — handed down to the after-ages; and the Daoist, the Buddhist, and the shaman streams, summoning marshals and generals, wind and thunder, city-god and altar — wherever the talisman goes out from the brush, all use it.

The Two Generals of the Door — 門神二将軍

The DOOR-GODS are the two generals of Tang, QIN SHUBAO and HU JINGDE. By the tradition: Tang Taizong lay unwell; outside the sleeping-gate bricks were flung and tiles rattled, ghosts and goblins howling and calling; through the thirty-six palaces and seventy-two courts, no night was quiet. Taizong dreaded it and told his assembled ministers; and QIN SHUBAO stepped from the ranks and memorialized: "Your servant all his life has killed men like splitting melons and heaped corpses like piling ants — why should he fear the wangliang-goblins? Let your servant, with HU JINGDE, stand in full war-harness at the gate and wait." Taizong allowed the memorial; that night indeed there was no alarm; and Taizong, delighted — yet reckoning it hard that the two should watch every night unsleeping — commanded a painter to figure the two men's true forms: full-harnessed, the jade axe in hand, whip, chain, bow, and arrow at the girdle, hair bristling with wrath, exactly as in life; and hung them at the left and right doors of the palace apartments; and the crooked hauntings ceased. The after-ages have followed it since — and so they stand for ever as the GODS OF THE DOOR. The little lyric of the JOURNEY TO THE WEST has the line: "Heroes both, bold spirits, meritorious ministers of old — come down at last to a thousand years as Door-Wardens, ten thousand ages as Gods of the Gate." — handed on to the after-ages.

The Heaven-Kings — 天王

By the Buddhists' Source-Streams there are: the Heaven-King VIRŪḌHAKA; the Heaven-King VIRŪPĀKṢA; the Heaven-King DHṚTARĀṢṬRA; and the Heaven-King VAIŚRAVAṆA. Of old, when Tang Taizong rose with Gaozu in the righteous soldiery, a god descended before him styling himself the HEAVEN-KING VAIŚRAVAṆA, [and with him] the disorder was settled; among his under-generals was one PIG-HEADED AND ELEPHANT-TRUNKED; hence wherever they turned, the work succeeded. And when he took the throne, he decreed that all the public prefectures of all-under-heaven should sacrifice to him; and at the beginning of Tiansheng it was decreed that every commandery set his shrine, and Buddha-temples be built withal, all bearing HEAVEN-KING on their name-boards: this is how the Heaven-Kings came to be founded everywhere.

[Colophon line of the edition:] THE TREASURED-BLOCKS GRAND COMPENDIUM OF THE GODS SOUGHT OUT FROM THE SOURCE-STREAMS OF THE THREE TEACHINGS — the scroll ends.

The Editor's Postface — 後序 (Ye Dehui, 1909)

The postface of the collated reprint, found only in that edition; translated here as the historical apparatus of the received text.

When the blocks of the Grand Compendium of the Gods from the Source-Streams of the Three Teachings were newly cut, it happened that Prefect Yan Bo, entering the capital on recommendation, passed through Changsha, and I presented him a first-impression sample copy. The Prefect corrected its errors for me in many places, and I revised them following him one by one. The Prefect said that the Yuan-edition Illustrated Extensive Record of the Search for the Gods, in the former and latter collections, which he had once seen in the factory-quarter shops of the capital, was the old copy stored in the Mao family's Pavilion-of-Drawing-from-the-Ancients — the head of the scroll bore the Mao seals — and among its god-portraits the Buddhists were by no means so many as this; what this copy adds is taken in the main from the two Biographies of Eminent Monks of Liang and Song. He said further that my preface's phrase "not fit to be taken as canonical authority" sat uneasily with the right sense of it; for the Prefect delights in speaking of Buddhist principle and is versed in the inner canon, and his meaning was that the deeds and origins of the several monks are plain and traceable, and ought not be swept aside wholesale.

Now by my examination: this book is the Yuan-edition Illustrated Extensive Record of the Search for the Gods, enlarged and recut by men of the MING — which may be proven from the August-Ming reign-titles within the book itself; and the records of the several monks rest entire upon the Divine Monks' Lives composed by imperial order in the YONGLE reign, their phrasing nowhere altered. When I called it "not fit for canonical authority," it was only because it issues from the miscellaneous schools and the talk-collections, and crosses the Sage's rule of "not speaking of prodigies" — no more.

I have moreover examined the beginnings and ends of the several gods: there are those whose transmission is most ancient and yet remains, in the end, past verifying. Thus the Thearch-Lord of Eastern Flower and the Queen Mother of Western Numina are the Duke-King of the East and the Queen Mother of the West of the Record of the Assembled Immortals (the Queen Mother matter is cited in scroll 56 of Li Fang's Taiping guangji of Song; see further the Classic of Mountains and Seas, the Tradition of Mu Son of Heaven, and the Liezi). The Highest Thearch of the Dark Heaven is the god Xuanwu — see Duan Chengshi's Youyang zazu of Tang. The Thearch-Lord of Zitong is Zhang Ezi — see Cui Hong's Springs-and-Autumns of the Sixteen Kingdoms, the Later Qin record; in Tang times he had a temple — see the collected poems of Li Shangyin (which hold a poem inscribed at the Zhang Ezi temple) and the collected prose of Sun Qiao (which holds a sacrificial text to the Zitong Divine Lord). The Great Thearchs of the Three Origins are the Three Officials — see Tao Hongjing's Zhen'gao of Liang; Zhou Fang of Tang painted the Three Officials' images — see the Xuanhe Catalogue of Paintings of Song Huizong. That the Eastern Marchmount presides over men's spans — see the Later Han History, the tradition of the Wuhuan, and the arts-tradition of Xu Man. That the god of Mount Tai has a son — see the Wei History, the tradition of Duan Chenggen; and a daughter, wedded as the Wife of the Eastern Sea — see Zhang Hua's Bowu zhi of Jin; the Song enfeoffed his son Duke of Blazing Numen, with a temple north of the Jiankang wall — see Zhang Dunyi's Traces of the Six Dynasties of Song (scroll twelve, temples). The True Lord Who Aids the Holy, Mao Ying, is the Great Lord Mao — see the Shangshu diyanqi (cited in scroll 661 of the Taiping yulan) and the Traces of the Six Dynasties (immortals). The Five Marchmount gods' surnames — see Dongfang Shuo's Classic of the Divine and Strange. The Five Saints are the Wutong — see Tao Hongjing's Yunji qiqian (which says the Five Powers immortals were born on the ninth of the first month) and Liu Zongyuan's Longcheng lu of Tang (some say written by Wang Zhi of Song under Zongyuan's name); Wuyuan has their temple, granted its name-board in the third year of Daguan, and in the fifth year of Xuanhe enfeoffed the Marquises Tongkuang, Tongyou, Tongze, Tonghui, and Tongji; in Qiandao and Chunxi enfeoffed onward to eight characters — see Wang Xiangzhi's Yudi jisheng of Song (the Huizhou immortals-note, which cites besides the enfeoffing patent: "in the land east of the Jiang the elders hand it down that they were five brothers, whose light and numen have shone a thousand sacrificial years"); Lin'an has a temple — see the Xianchun Gazetteer of Lin'an (scroll 73). Xu Zhenjun's slaying of the flood-dragon — see Zhang Zhuo's Chaoye qianzai of Tang (cited in Taiping guangji 131); the matter of the two dragons bearing his boat — see the Tradition of Xu Jingyang (cited in the Yudi jisheng, Nankang army, immortals). The Three True Lords Mao are Mao Ying and his brothers Gu and Zhong — see the Record of the Assembled Immortals (Taiping guangji 31) and the Inner Tradition of Lord Mao (Taiping yulan 41). Lord Cui of the Prefecture was the Tang magistrate of Fuyang; in the Chunhua era of Song the people raised his temple north of the capital wall — see the Origins of Things and Affairs (the Lord's name was Yuan, styled Ziyu; Li Xinchuan's Chaoye zaji of Song holds him the Cui Ziyu of Eastern Han; the Yudi jisheng, at the note on the Manifest-Response Abbey of the capital-in-progress, and Lou Yue's Gongkui ji, in the stele-record of that abbey, argue him a man of Tang); the Cizhou temple is of especial numinous manifestness, and the age hands down that Gaozong of Song rode its CLAY HORSE over the Jiang — see the Xuanhe yishi of a Song hand; the warrant-bearing tiger-arrest — see Yuan Haowen's Yishan ji of Jin, the stele-record of the Lord Cui temple. The Three Wu-Guest True Lords, surnamed Tang, Ge, and Zhou, had a shrine at Lin'an of Song, from the ninth year of Qiandao — see the Xianchun Gazetteer. The Shrine-Mountain Great Thearch Zhang Bo — see the Siming Gazetteer, with Gao Tong's record of the King Zhang temple and his record of the King's deeds (cited in Yudi jisheng 24, Guangde army, immortals); the enfeoffment as True Lord with grandfather, brothers, sons, and sons' wives augmented, in the Baoyou years of Song — see the Xianchun Gazetteer. The Martial-Ardent Thearch of Changzhou, Chen Guoren — see the stele of the Minister of Works Lord Chen's giving of his dwelling for a temple, by the monk Dexuan of Tang Tianbao (Complete Tang Prose 915; the Traces of the Six Dynasties, scroll twelve, writes the name Gaoren). The Martial-Solemn Thearch Jiang Ziwen — see Gan Bao's Soushen ji of Jin. The Silkworm Maiden likewise appears in the Soushen ji. The brothers of Lord Jiang of Hangzhou, of the Broad-Blessing temple — see Wu Zimu's Mengliang lu of Song. Shen Tu and Yu Lei — see Ying Shao's Fengsu tongyi of Han and Wang Chong's Lunheng. ZHONG KUI — see the Tang record inscribed on Wu Daozi's painting of Zhong Kui (cited in the supplement to Shen Kuo's Bitan of Song). The Five Plague Envoys are the gods of the five plagues — see Chen Liang's Suishi guangji of Song. The Stove God's surname, wife, and daughters — see the Youyang zazu. The God of Blessing, Yang Cheng — written also with the other graph — prefect of Daozhou of kindly governance — see the Yan-Lord Classified Essentials (cited in Yudi jisheng 58, Daozhou officials). The goddess Zigu, Li Jing's concubine He Liqing — see the Xianyi lu (cited in scroll four of Chen Yaowen's Tianzhong ji of Ming). The gods of the Five Quarters — see the Six Tomes and the Grand Duke's Golden Casket (cited in Taiping guangji 291 and Taiping yulan 882). That the Bodhisattva Guanyin took a woman's body — see the Northern Qi History, the tradition of Xu Zhicai; the age hands down that her father was King Miaozhuang, who begot three daughters, Miaoqing, Miaoyin, and Miaoshan, and that the Bodhisattva is Miaoshan — see the Brief Tradition of the Bodhisattva Who Observes the World's Sounds written out by the Lady Guan, wife of Duke Zhao of Wei of the Yuan (printed in the bingwu year of Dade). The Heavenly Consort had a temple at Lin'an of Song; the matter is carried in Ding Bogui's temple-record — see the Xianchun Gazetteer (scroll 73). The Ghost-Slaying True Lord Zhang is ZHANG XUN of Tang, martyred in An Lushan's calamity: because his tradition holds the words "dead, I shall be a wrathful ghost, to slay the rebels," the people sacrifice to him to expel the baleful — see Xie Yingfang's Bianhuo bian of Yuan. The Nine-Carp immortals are the nine He brothers — see Yudi jisheng (135, Xinghua army, immortals). The Left Judge of the North-Pole Bureau for Expelling the Crooked is Yan Zhenqing of Tang, martyred in Li Xilie's calamity, of whom the age hands down that he loosed from his corpse and went off immortal — see the Seventeen Matters of the Bright Emperor by a Tang hand (cited in the former collection, scroll 30, of the Brocade Garden of Ten Thousand Flowers) and Qin Zaisi's Record of Marvels of the Five Dynasties (cited in Yudi jisheng 99, Huizhou immortals). The Immortal Master Huang's quelling of the mountain-essence and stone-fiend — see Yudi jisheng (132, Tingzhou antiquities). The Three Water-Prefectures of the Yangzi river were enfeoffed in the false Tang's Baoda years and augmented in Dazhong-Xiangfu of Song — see Ma Duanlin's Wenxian tongkao of Yuan, under wanton and miscellaneous shrines. The Road-Opening Divine Lord is the Fangxiang-shi of the Rites of Zhou — see the Basic Annals of Xuanyuan composed by Zhenzong of Song.

Of all the foregoing, some are men the histories and traditions do not know; some are men who existed, without the deeds here told of them. In the main they serve the lettered man's flourish of the brush and stock the talker's edge of the fly-whisk: what earlier men embroidered into being and later men rehearsed upon the borrowed thread. Yu Chu's nine hundred stand ranked as one school of small-talk — a school which, set among the nine streams, is not for that discarded. As for the divine monks come from strange domains, and the feathered guests who issued so thick from the Xuanhe court — the Central Plain being sundered since, men's forgeries multiply; to pass them and yet preserve them, to preserve and yet not adjudicate — THAT is the purport of my cutting of this book.

Composed by DEHUI, in the first year of Xuantong, the year jiyou, on the fifth day after the Standing-of-Summer [1909].

Colophon

This is a complete English translation of the 三教源流搜神大全 (Sanjiao yuanliu soushen daquan) in seven fascicles — the Ming illustrated compendium of the Chinese pantheon, grown from a Yuan-era Extensive Record of the Search for the Gods (畫像搜神廣記) and enlarged under the Ming, whose stratum shows in the text itself: the Zheng He enfeoffment of the Heavenly Consort (1409), the Yongle-17 (1419) enfeoffment in the Grandfather Xiao entry, monk-lives drawn from the Yongle Divine Monks' Lives, and a verse quoted from the Journey to the West in the door-gods entry. To our knowledge no complete translation into any Western language has previously existed.

The translation was made directly from the Chinese of the Wikisource transcription of Ye Dehui's Xiyuan collated reprint of 1909, whose lacunae are there supplied from the Qing edition of the "Western-Marchmount Tianzhu-Kingdom blocks" (西嶽天竺國藏板) — the supplied passages are marked in place. The source is unpunctuated throughout; all sentence-division, paragraphing, and emphasis are the translator's. The printed editions face each entry with a woodblock portrait; the portraits are preserved in the scan witnesses and are not reproduced here. The reprint's own preface survives only as page-images and awaits transcription; its scholarly POSTFACE by Ye Dehui, found only in that edition, is translated above in full as the historical apparatus of the received text. Rare or doubtful graphs are kept rather than silently corrected, and the compendium's conflations, duplications (one entry is printed twice in fascicle three), and inconsistencies are translated as they stand — they are evidence, not error to be repaired.

Prepared for the Good Work Library by the Tianmu Anglican Church with AI-assisted research, transcription, and translation.

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Source Text: 三教源流搜神大全

The complete Chinese text in seven fascicles with the 1909 postface, from the Wikisource transcription of the Xiyuan collated reprint; wiki markup other than the editorial supplement-notes has been removed, and the text is otherwise as received.

卷一

==儒氏源流==
至聖文宣王魯曲阜昌平鄉關里其先宋人也大聖曾大父曰孔防叔避宋華督之難徙居于魯生伯夏伯夏生叔梁紇長子曰孟皮字伯尼有疾不任継嗣次子則先聖是也魯襄公二十一年冬十一月庚子日乃先聖誕生之日有二龍繞室五老降庭五老者五星之精也毋願氏之房聞奏鈎天之楽空中有聲云感生聖子故降以和楽笙鏞之音故先聖之生大非凢同而質甚異而首秀圩頂故因名丘字仲尼史記孔子生而叔梁紇沒乃塟於防山孔子為兒之時嬉戯常以師陳俎豆設禮先聖身長九尺腰𤄃十圍凡四十九表胸有文曰制作定世之符反首洼面月角日準坐如龍蹲立如鳳跱望之如仆就之如昇耳垂珠庭龜脊龍形虎掌胼脇參膺河目海口山臍林背翼臂斗唇注頭龍鼻阜脥堤眉地足谷竅雷聲澤腹昌顔均頤輔喉駢齒眉有一十二彩目有六十四理其頭似堯其顙似舜其項類臯陶其肩類子產自腰以下不及禹三寸有大聖之德學極天人道窮秘奧龜龍術負之書七政五緯之事抱犠黄帝之能堯舜周公之美魯定公以先聖為中都宰一年四方諸侯皆則焉九年始為邑宰十年為司空十一年為司徒攝行相事十四年誅魯大夫亂政者少正卯與聞國政三月粥豚羔者弗餙賈男女行者別於道塗不拾遺四方之客至乎邑者不求有司皆予之以歸而大聖雖道高德廣生而知之亦學琹于師襄學禮于老聃時去魯四十年魯哀公十一年先聖自衛反魯刪詩書定禮楽成六藝晚而喜易讀之緯編三絕為之彖象文言繫辭以發其秘告弟子於洙泗北門々徒三千傳徒六萬賢有七十二人昔者先聖未生時有麟吐玉書於闕里其文名曰水精子継周衰而素王顏氏異之以繡綾繁麟角信宿而麟去至哀公十四年西狩太野叔孫氏車子鋤商獲獸以為不祥先聖視之曰麟也胡為来哉反袂拭面泣涕沾衿叔孫聞之然后取之而繫角之綾尚存先聖曰吾道窮矣乃因魯史而作春秋文加褒貶而修中興之告麟見而天告先聖之亡徵也先聖病夢坐兩楹之間子貢請見曰子方負杖逍遥於門曰賜汝何来晚也先聖因嘆曰太山頹乎梁木壞乎哲人萎乎因以涕下子貢曰天下無道久矣莫能宗予后七日不起年七十三以魯哀公十六年夏四月己丑塟於魯城北哀公十七年立廟於舊宅守陵廟百户弟子皆服心喪三年畢相訣而去則哭各盡哀或復畱唯子貢廬於塚者六年然后去弟子於廟藏先聖衣冠琴瑟車書弟子及魯人往從塚而家百有餘室因命曰孔里魯世々相傳嵗時奉祠於塚子孫世襲不絕後

高皇過魯以大牢祀孔子有詩賛曰

穆々前庭 聖徳斯尊 肅々衣冠 聖澤斯存

漢祖崇儒 躬拜闕里 太牢之祀 百代伊始

聖朝崇奉追封尊號

大成至聖文宣王 聖室鄆國夫人

聖父封斉國公 聖母封魯國太夫人

==釋氏源流==
釋迦牟尼佛姓利利父净飯天毋清净妙位登補處生兜率天上名曰勝善天人亦名護明大士度諸天眾說補處行亦於十方界中現身説法普耀経云佛初生剎利王家放大智光明照十方世界地湧金蓮華自然捧雙足東西及南北各行於七歩分手指天地作獅子吼聲上下及四維無能尊我者即周昭王二十四年甲寅嵗四月八日也至四十二年二月八日年十九欲求出家而自念言當復何遇即於四門遊觀見四等事心有悲喜而作思惟此老病死終可厭離是夜子時有一天人名曰净居於牎牖中义手白太子言出家時至可去矣太子聞已心生歡喜即逾城而去於檀特山中脩道始於阿藍迦藍處三年學不用處定知非便捨復至欝頭藍佛處三年斈非非想定知非亦捨又至象頭山同諸外道日食麻麥経於十六年故経云以無心意無受行而悉摧伏諸外道先歴試邪法示諸方便發諸異見令至菩提故普集経云菩薩於二月八日明星出時成佛號天人師時年三十矣即穆王三年癸未嵗也既而於鹿野苑中為憍陳如等五人轉四諦法輪而論道果説法住世四十九年後告弟子摩訶迦葉吾以清净法服涅槃妙心實相無相微妙正法的将付於汝汝當護持并勅阿難副貳傳化無令断絕而說偈言

法本法無法 無法法亦法

今付無法時 法法何曾法

爾時世尊説此偈已復告摩訶迦葉吾将金𫃵贈伽黎衣傳付於汝轉授補處至慈世佛出世勿令朽壞摩訶迦葉聞偈頭面礼足曰善哉善哉我當依勑恭順佛故爾時世尊至拘尸那城告諸大衆吾今皆痛欲入涅槃即往凞連河側娑羅双树下右脇累足泊然圓寂復從棺起為毋説法持示双足化婆耆并説無常偈曰

諸行無常 是生滅法

生滅滅已 寂滅為楽

時諸弟子即以香薪競茶毗之燼後金棺如故爾時大眾即於佛前以偈

讚曰

凡俗諸猛熾 何能致火爇

請尊三昧火 闍羅金色身

爾時金棺從坐而㪯高七娑羅樹徃反空中化火三昧須臾灰生得舍利八斛四斗即穆王五十二年壬辰嵗二月十五日也自世尊滅後一千一 十七年教至中夏即後漢明帝夜夢金人身長大項有日月光以問群臣或曰西方有神其名曰佛陛下所夢得無是乎於是遣使往天竺問其道得其書及沙門以来沙門云佛長一丈六尺黄金色項中佩日月光変化無窮無所不故能通萬物而大濟群生云

==道教源流==
金闕玄元太上老君聖紀按洞玄靈寳元始上帝真教元符經道君告皇帝曰昔天地未分陰陽未判濛洪杳冥溟涬大梵寥廓無光結空自然中有百千萬重正氣而化生妙無聖君歴尊號曰妙無上帝自然元始天尊一號天寶丈人經九億九萬九千九百九十億萬刼次結百千萬重正氣而化生妙有聖君自称妙有大帝虚皇王晨大道君一號靈寳丈人經八億八千八百八十億刼次結百千萬重道氣化生混沌聖君紀號至真大帝萬変混沌玄元老君一號神寶丈人老君雖累世化身而未誕生之也迨商第十八王陽甲時分神化氣寄胎於玄妙玉女八十一年暨第二十二王武丁庚辰嵗二月十五日卯時誕於楚之苦縣瀬鄉曲仁里姓李名耳字伯陽謚曰聃著道徳二経旨又按老君聖紀経太上老君居太清境乃元氣之祖宗天地之根本於至寂至虗之内大初太始之先惟数御運布氣融精開化天地所歴成壞一仪不可量計其化身周遍塵沙世界亦非筭数紀極開闢之後觀世代之澆淳随時立教代為帝師建立法度或流九天或傳四海自三王而下歴代帝王咸宗奉焉是知天上天下道氣之内皆老君之化也垂億萬之法無不済度盖百姓日用而不知也老子曰吾乃生乎無形之先起於太初之前行乎大素之元立於太渺之端浮游幽虛之中出入杳冥之門故葛玄序道德経云老子體自然而然生乎太無之先起乎無因之初經歴天地始終不可稱載又云世人謂老子降於殷代老子之號始於無数刼甚杳杳冥冥渺邈久遠矣開闢已前復下為帝師代代不絕人莫能知之按老子傳記自開闢之前下至殷湯代代為王者師皆化身降世當殷湯甲午十七年庚申始示誕生之跡自太清當道境乗太陽日精化五色玄黄大如弹丸時玉女晝寝流入口中吞之有孕懷八十一嵗至武丁九年庚辰剖玉女左腋而生生而白首號曰老子生於李樹之下指樹曰此吾姓也自殷武丁九年庚辰下至秦昭王九年西昇崑崙計九百九十六年矣

按李石續愽物志云唐高祖武徳三年晋州人吉善行於羊角山見白衣父老呼善行曰為吾語唐天子吾為老君即汝祖也高祖因立廟高宗追尊玄元皇帝明皇註道徳眞經今斈者習之兩京及諸州各置玄元皇帝廟京師號玄元宮諸州號紫極宮改西京為太清宮東京為太微宮皆置斈生尊號曰大聖祖高上大道金闕玄元天皇大帝

宋國朝會要曰宋真宗大中祥符六年八月十一日制謹奉上尊號曰

太上老君混元上徳皇帝

宋仁宗御讃 大哉至道 無為自然 刼終刼始 先地先天

今光㸃㸃 永刼綿綿 東訓尼父 西化金僊

百王取則 累聖攸傳 衆教之祖 玄之又玄

==玉皇上帝==
按聖紀所載云徃昔上世有國名號光嚴妙楽其國王者名曰净徳時王有后名寶月光王乃無嗣尝因一日作是思惟我今将老而無太子身或崩滅社稷九廟委付何人作是念已即便勑下詔諸道衆於諸宮殿依諸科教懸諸旙盖清净巖潔廣陳供養六時行道徧祷真聖已經半載不退初心忽夜寳月光燁皇后夢太上道君與諸至真金姿玉質清净之傳駕五色龍與擁大景旌蔭明霞盖是時太上道君安坐龍輿抱一嬰見遍身毛孔放百億光照諸宫殿作百寶色幢節前道浮空而来是時皇后心生歡喜恭敬接礼長跪道前曰道君言今王無嗣願乞此子為社稷主伏願慈悲哀愍聽許爾時道君荅皇后曰願特賜汝是時皇后礼謝道君而乃収之皇后収已便従夢歸斍而有孕怀一年于丙午嵗正月九日午時誕于王宫當生之時身寶光秋充滿王國色相妙好觀者無厭幼而敏慧而慈善于其國中所有庫藏一切財寶盡皆散施穷極困苦鰥寡孤独無所依告飢饉癃殘一切衆生仁爱和遜歌謠有道化及遐方天下仰従歸仁太子父王加慶賞爾之後王忽告崩太子治政俯念浮生告勑大臣嗣位有道遂捨其國於普明秀岩山中脩道功成超度過是劫已歴八百劫身常捨其國為群生故割爱㪯道於此後經八百劫行薬治病亟救眾生令其安楽此劫盡已又歴八百劫廣行方便啓諸道藏演説灵章恢宣正化敷揚神功𦔳國救人自幽及顕過此已後再歴八百劫亡身殞命行忍辱故捨已血肉如是脩行三千二百劫始證金僊號曰清净自然斍王如来

宋真宗實録曰大中祥符七年九月上對侍臣曰自元符之降朕欲與天下臣庶同上玉皇聖號至天僖元年正月辛丑朔帝詣太初殿恭上玉皇大天帝聖號曰

太上開天执符御曆含真体道昊天至尊玉皇大天帝

格聯

符握昊天罄覄載咸沾化育

帝臨玉闕統神人悉在鈞陶

==聖祖尊號==
御製靈遇記曰景徳初王中正遇司命真君傳薬金法上之四年十一月降劉承規之真舎五年始奉上徽號曰

九天司命天尊宋真宗實録曰大中祥符五年十月十七日上夢景徳四年先降神人傳玉皇命云今汝祖趙有名此月二十四日降如唐真元事至日天尊降延恩殿閏十月己巳加號

聖祖上霊髙道九天司命保生天尊

==聖母尊號==
唐武后光宅二年九月甲寅追尊

聖母曰先天太后 祖殿在亳州太清宮是也

國朝會要曰天僖元年三月六日冊上聖祖母尊號曰

元天大聖后

先是大中祥符五年制加上聖祖母號候兖州太極觀成擇日奉上至是詔王旦等行冊禮

==東華帝君==
東華帝君純習在道氣凝寂湛体無為将欲啓廸玄功生化萬物先以東華至真之氣化而生木公於碧海之上蒼靈之墟以主陽和之氣理於東方亦號王公焉與金毋皆挺質太元毓神玄奥於東方溟漠之中分大道醇精之氣而成形與王毋共理二氣而育飬天地陶鈞萬物凡天上天下三界十方男子之登仙得道者悉所掌焉居諸方之上按塵外記方諸山在東海之内其諸司命三十五所以録天上人間罪福帝君為大司命緫統之山有東華臺帝君常以丁卯日登臺四望學道之者凡仙有九品一曰九天真皇二曰三天真皇三曰太上真人四曰飛天真人五曰靈仙六曰真人七曰靈人八曰飛仙九曰仙人凡此品次昇天之時先拜木公后謁金毋受事既訖方得昇九天入三清拜太上而觀元始故漢初有四五小児戲於路中一児詩曰着青裙入天門揖金毋拜木公時人皆莫知之唯子房往拜焉曰此東王公之玉童也昔元始告十方天人曰吾自造言

混沌化生二儀役御陰陽始封皇上元君自東華扶桑大帝等校量水火定平刼数中皇元年太上於玉清瓊房金闕上宫授帝寶經花圖玉訣使傳後學玉名合真之人故玄綱云東華不秘於真訣是也紫府者帝君校功行之所夫海内有三島而十州列其中上島三洲謂蓬莱方丈瀛州也中島三洲謂芙蓉𨶗苑瑤池也下島三洲謂赤城玄関桃源也三島九洲鼎峙洪濛之中又有洲曰紫府踞三島之間乃帝君之别理統轉靈官職位較量群仙功行自地仙而至神仙神仙而至天仙天仙而轉真聖入虛無洞天凡三遷也皆帝君主之釋之名也東華者以帝君東華至真之氣化而生也分治東極居東華之上也紫府者職居紫府統三十五司命遷轉洞虛官較品真仙也陽者主東方少陽九氣生化萬𣉰也帝君者位東方諸天之尊君牧衆聖為生物之主易曰帝出乎震是也故曰東華紫府少陽帝君又真教元符経云昔二儀未分溟涬濛洪如鷄子玄黄之中生自然有盤古真人移古就今是曰盤古乃是天地之精自號元始天王游行虛空之中又有太元聖母化生天脊膐中経百刼天王行施聖母遂生天皇號上皇元年始世三萬六千嵗受元始上帝符命為東宮大帝扶桑大君東皇公號曰元陽又考之仙經或號東王公或號青童君或號東方諸或號青提帝君名號雖殊即一東華也

君聖朝至元六年正月日上尊號曰

東華紫府少陽帝君

==西靈王母==
西王母者乃九靈大妙龜山金母也號太虚九光龜臺金母曰吾乃西華之至充妙洞虛陰之極尊在昔道氣凝寂湛体無為将欲啟廸玄功化生萬物先以東華至真之氣化而生木公焉木公生於碧海之上蒼靈之墟以主陽和之氣理於東方亦號曰東王公焉又以西華至妙之氣化而生金母焉金母生神於伊川厥姓縱氏生而飛翔以主元毓玄奥於眇莾之中分大道醇精之氣結而成形與東王公共理二氣而養育天地陶鈞萬物矣柔順之本為極陰之元位配西方母飬群生盖主天下三界十方女子之登仙得道咸所隸焉所居崑崙之圃扶風之苑其山之下弱水九重洪涛萬丈飛飈車羽輪不可到也周穆王三十五年命八駿使西巡狩至崑崙賔謁祠見之待白壁重錦以為主壽事時王母以瑤池珎饗紫府瓊漿九天仙樂與穆王燕於瑤池穆王國政不治宗廟荒廢歸至人間國已危矣

王母云{声色不止神不清 思慮不止心不寧}

{心不寧𠔃神不灵 神不灵𠔃道不成}

==后土皇地祗==
天地未分混而為一二儀初判陰陽定位故清氣騰而為陽天濁氣降而為陰地為陽天者五太相傳五天定位上施日月参差玄象為陰地者五黄相乗五氣凝結負載江海山林屋宇故曰天陽地陰天公地毋也世界畧所謂土者乃天地初判黄𡈽也故謂𡈽母焉廟在汾陰宋真宗朝大中祥符五年七月二十三日誥封后土皇地祗其年駕幸華陰親祀之今揚州玄妙觀后土祠也殿前瓊花一株香色柯葉絕異非世之常品也

真宗皇帝封曰

承天効法厚徳光大后𡈽皇地祇

==玄天上帝==
按混洞赤文所載文帝乃元始化身太極别体上三皇時下降為太始真人中三皇時下降為太元真人下三皇時下降為太乙真人至黄帝時下降為玄天上帝開皇初刼下世紫雲元年嵗建甲午三月初三甲寅庚午時符太陽之精托胎化生净楽國王善勝夫人之腹孕秀一十四月則太上八十二化也净楽囯者乃奎娄之下海外囯上應龍変梵度天玄帝產母左脇當生之時瑞雲覆囯異香芬然地土変金玉瑞應之祥兹不備載生而神靈舉措隱顕年及十嵗経典一覧悉皆黙会仰觀俯察靡所不通潜心念道志氣太虛願輔上帝普福兆民父王不能抑志年十五辭父母欲尋幽谷内煉元真遂感玉清聖祖紫虚元君傳授無極上道元君告玄帝曰子可越海東遊歴於翼軫之下有山自乾元起跡盤旋五萬里水出震宫自有太極便生是山應顕定極風天太安皇崖二天子可入是山擇衆峯之中冲高紫霄者居之當契太和昇舉之後五百嵗當龍漢二刼中披髮跣足攝離坎真精歸根復位上為三境輔臣下作十方大聖方得顕名億刼與天地日月齊并是其果滿也告畢元君昇雲而去玄帝乃如師語越海東遊歩至翼軫之下果見師告之山山水藏沒皆應師言乃入觀覧果有七十二峯之中有一峯聳翠上凌紫霄下有一嵓當陽虛寂於是玄帝採師之誡目山曰太和山峯曰紫雲峯嵓曰紫霄嵓遂即居焉潜虛玄一黙會萬真四十二年大得上道於黄帝紫雲五十七年嵗次甲子九月初九日丙寅清晨忽有祥雲天花自空而下迷漫山谷繞山四方各三百里林峦震響自作歩虚仙楽之音是時玄帝身長九尺面如滿月龍眉鳳目紺髮美髯頠如氷清頂帶王冠身披松羅之服跣足拱手立于紫霄峯上須臾雲散有五真群仙降于玄帝之前導蓯甚盛非凡見聞玄帝稽首祗奉奉迎拜五真曰予奉玉清玉帝詔以子功滿道備昇舉今聞子之聖父聖母已在紫霄矣玄帝俯伏恭諾五真乃宣詔畢可特拜太玄元帥領元和遷校府公事賜九徳偃月金晨玉冠瓊華玉簪碧理寶圭素銷飛雲金霞之帔紫銷龍衮丹裳羽属絳綵之裙七寳銖衣九光朱履飛紅雲舄佩太玄元帥玉冊乾元宝印南北二斗三台龍劔飛雲玉輅丹轝緑輦羽盖瓊輪九色之節十絕靈旙前嘨九鳳後吹八鵉天下玉女億乗萬騎上赴九清詔至奉行玄帝再拜受詔易服訖飛昇金關按元洞玉曆記云至五帝世来當上天龍漢二刼下世洪水方息人民始耕殷紂主淫心失道矯侮上天生靈方足衣食心叛正道日造罪孽悪毒自横遂感六天魔王引諸神鬼傷害衆生毒氣盤結上衝太空是時元始天尊説法於玉清圣境天門震開下見悪氣彌塞天充於是妙行真人叩誠求請願救群黎元始乃命玉皇上帝降詔紫微陽則以周武伐紂平治社稷隂則以玄帝收魔間分人鬼當斯時也上賜玄帝披髮跣足金甲玄袍皂纛玄旗統領丁甲下降凡世與六天魔王戰於洞陰之野是時魔王以坎離二炁化蒼龜巨蛇変現方成玄帝神力攝於足下鎖鬼衆於酆都大洞人民治安宇宙清粛玄帝凱還清都面朝金闕元始教命以玄帝功斉五十萬刼徳並三十三天九霄上頼於真威十亟仰依於神化有大利施於下民積圣德遍之于玉曆按遵簡籙當亜帝真不有徽崇何以昭徳特賜尊號拜玉虛師相玄天上帝領九天採訪使圣父曰浄楽天君明真大帝圣母曰善勝太后瓊真上仙下蔭天関曰太玄火精含隂将軍赤靈尊神地軸曰太玄水精育陽将軍黑靈尊神並居天一真憂之

格聯

紫極騰輝瑞映八方世界

玄天著德恩覃十部閻羅

又

殿向橋東開潢漾水声豋貝帝

地泛坊左聳欝蒼山色映蒲團

==梓潼帝君==
按清河内傳余本吳會間人生於周初后七十三代{今改為化字}帝君曰吾一十七世為士大夫身未常虐民酷吏週人之急済人之乏容人之過憫人之孤性烈而行察同秋霜青天于白日之不可犯后西晋末降生於越之西嶲之南両郡之間是時丁未年二月初三日誕生祥光罩户黄雲迷野居處地府近海里人請清河叟曰君今六十而獲貴嗣童稚时不喜嬉戯毎慕山澤徃徃語言若有隱㫫晝誦群書夜避衆子自笑自楽身体光射居民祈禱則余嗤訕長嘨曰土木而能衣人之衣食人之食享之而有應謗之而有禍我為人而焉無靈乎自后夜夢或為龍或為王者天符或為水府漕自恠而不甚信為吉兆三農𠍴旱嘉禾無甦舞雩祝神恬然無験余思日寐中夢治水府今夕当験夜徃水際以夢中官凾牒河伯而驚覺尤恐忸怩不能忽爾之間阴雲四合風飛雷震一吏稽首余前曰運判徙居余曰非我也我乃張户老之子名亞{緣水府得達故字霈夫}吏曰奉命促子余曰家人如何吏曰先到治所余惶懼未决吏揖上一白驢而去俛首里閈風雨聲中頓失鄉地到一山連劍嶺而撑忝宫星也若鳳凰之偃下有古湫引余入一巨宂門有一石筍吏曰民之禱雨祝此石而有應名曰雷柱吾方褰衣入宂吏又曰君記周室為人七十三化陰徳傳家而迄今否余方大悟若夢覺也吏曰君在天譜得神之品於人世界有知之者晋不日有中興之兆君可尋方而顕化余曰謝天使響報也入宂則若堕千仞之壑近地而足不沾若騰身虛空有王者之宫中有禁衛余入遂見家人悉都其間改日作儒士徃咸陽講姚萇之故事清河内傳焚香者切記廟在劔州梓潼縣唐玄宗幸蜀神迎於萬里橋追封

左丞相僖宗播迁亦有陰助之功加封順濟王

宋太祖初得蜀也以仁取之以仁守之亦爾神陰騭㫫相有以輔吾仁也

靈應廟神加封聖號

忠文仁武孝徳聖烈王 聖后恊應徳惠妃

聖父顕慶慈祐仁裕王 聖母昭徳積慶慈淑妃

聖子嗣徳王 聖婦善助顕懿夫人

聖子昌徳王 聖婦順助惠懿夫人

聖孫紹應昭靈侯 聖孫婦淑應夫人

聖孫承應宣靈侯 聖孫婦惠應夫人

佐神英惠忠烈翼濟福安王{即報喜太尉也}

左右桂禄二藉仙官

聖朝延祐三年七月七日加封聖號

輔元開化文昌司禄宏仁帝君

帝君殿在九曲之處盖九曲水来朝九折而去經行山腹路成曲其殿有降筆亭亭中以金索懸一五色飛鵉鵉口𠾑筆用金花牋数百番常畱筆下筆墨皆具亭門本府差官封鎻甚嚴以防欺偽之弊降筆訖其亭内有銅鐘自鳴廟吏聞於本府本府差官啓鑰取書以觀報應其降筆多勸人以忠孝為本詐逆曦僭偽蜀王之日具犧牲設俎豆潔粢盛親諧帝君廟設祭甫欲行礼黑風驟起滅燭撒香逆曦震懼俯伏殿下須臾開明視祝板已碎作兩片矣帝君奉

玉帝旨佐南斗注生由是求嗣者多禱焉

上天聖號

金閣昊天檢校洞照通真先生九天開化主宰靈應大天帝上僊無皇君統僊班證佛果聖號

混天内輔三清内宰大都督府都統三界陰兵便行冝事管天地水三界獄事收五嶽四瀆真形虎符龍券緫諸天星耀判桂禄二籍上僊元皇真人司禄職貢舉真君湏編脩飛僊列籍掌混天造化輪廻救苦天尊九天定元保生扶教開化生宰長楽永祐靈應大帝定慧證果伽釋梵鎮如来佛

饒一着添子孫之福壽 退一歩免隙駒之易過

忍一言免駟馬之難追 息一怒養身心之精神

神霄小吏谷雷讚曰

妙哉斯編 誠哉是言 遵守行之 福祐自天

==三元大帝==
三元大帝乃是元受真仙之骨受化更生再甦為人父姓陳名子檮又曰陳郎為人聦俊美貌於是龍王三女自結為室三女生於三子俱是神通廣大法力旡邊天尊見有神通廣法顕現旡窮即封為

上元一品九氣天官紫微大帝即誕生之符始陽之氣結成至真處玄都元陽七寶紫微士宫𦁕主士宮諸天帝王士聖髙真三羅萬象星君

中元二品七氣地官清虚大帝九土无極世界洞空清虚之宮𦁕主五岳帝君并二十四治山九地土皇四維八極神君

下元三品五氣水官洞陰大帝洞元風澤之炁晨浩之精金靈長楽之宮𦁕主九江水帝四瀆神君十二溪真三河四海神君毎至三元日三官考籍大千世界之内十方国土之中上至諸天神仙升臨之藉星宿照臨囯土分野之簿中至人品考限之期下至魚龍変化飛走万類養動生化之期並俟三官集聖之日録奏分别随業改形随福受報随刼轉輪随業生死善悪随縁無復差别宜悉知之

上元一品天官賜福紫微帝君{正月十五日誕生}

中元二品地官赦罪青靈帝君{七月十五日誕生}

下元三品水官觧厄暘谷帝君{十月十五日誕生}

==東嶽==
泰山者乃群山之祖五嶽之宗天帝之孫神靈之府也在兖州奉符縣今泰安州是也以梁父山為儲副東方朔神異經曰昔盤古氏五世之苗裔曰赫天氏赫天氏曰胥勃氏胥勃氏曰玄英氏玄英氏子曰金輪王金輪王弟曰少海氏少海氏妻曰彌輪仙女也彌輪仙女夜夢吞二日覺而有娠生二子長曰金蝉氏次曰金虹氏金虹氏者即東岳帝君也金蝉氏即東華帝君也金虹氏有功在長白山中至伏羲氏封為太嵗為大華真人掌天仙六籍遂以嵗為姓諱崇其太嵗者乃五代之前旡上天尊所都之地今之奉高是也其后乃水一天尊之女也至神農朝賜天符都官號名府君至漢明帝封泰山元帥掌人世居民貴賎高下之分禄科長短之事十八地獄六案簿籍七十五司生死之期聖帝自堯舜禹湯周秦漢魏之世只有天都府君之位按唐會要曰武后垂拱二年七月初一日封東岳為神岳天中王武后萬嵗通天元年四月初一日尊為天斉君玄宗開元十三年加封天斉王宋真宗大中祥符元年十月十五日詔封東嶽天齊仁聖王

至祥符四年五月日尊為帝號

東嶽天齊仁聖帝

淑明皇后

聖朝加封大生二字餘封如故

帝五子

宣靈侯

惠靈侯 和惠夫人

至聖炳靈王 永泰夫人

居仁盡鉴尊師

佑靈侯 淑惠夫人

帝一女

玉女大仙即岱岳太平頂玉仙娘娘是也

==至聖炳靈王==
炳靈者聖帝第三子也唐太宗加威雄将軍至宋太宗封上呉炳靈公大中祥符元年二月二十五日封

至聖炳靈王

==佑聖真君==
佑聖真君者真君姓茅諱盈本長安咸陽人也自幼出家叅訪名山洞府遇王君賜長生之術得道稱為天仙至漢明帝朝儀朔三年天書忽降皆玉篆龍文云大帝保命真君與聖帝同簽生死共管陰府之事宋太宗封佑聖真君至真宗加封

九天司命上部賜福佑聖真君

==南嶽==
南嶽衡山衡州衡山縣是也以霍山為儲副東方朔神異經云神姓崇諱覃南嶽主於世界星辰分野之地兼鱗甲水族龍魚之事大中祥符四年五月二十五日追尊帝號

司天昭聖帝 景明皇后

聖朝加封大化二字餘封如故

卷二

==西嶽==
西嶽華山在華州華陰縣是也以太白山為儲副東方朔神異經云神姓善諱壘西岳者主管世界金銀銅鐵五金之属鋾鑄坑冶兼羽毛飛鳥之事大中祥符四年五月五日追尊帝號

金天順聖帝 粛明皇后

圣朝加封太利二字餘封如故

==北嶽==
北嶽恒山在定州曲陽縣是也以崆峒山為儲副東方朔神異經云神姓晨諱萼北嶽者主於世界江河淮済無虎豹走獣之類蛇虺昆虫等属大中祥符四年五月五日追尊帝號

安天玄聖帝 静明皇后

聖朝加封大真二字餘封加故

==中嶽==
中嶽嵩山在西京河南府登封縣是也以少室山為儲副東方朔神異経云神姓惲諱善中嶽者主於世界地澤川谷溝渠山林樹木之属大中祥符四年五月五日追尊帝號

中天崇聖帝 正明皇后

聖朝加封大寕二字餘封如故

==四瀆==
江 江瀆楚屈原大夫也唐始封二字公宋加四字公

聖朝加封四字王號

廣源順濟王

河 河瀆漢陳平也唐始封二字公宋加四字公

聖朝加封四字王號

霊源弘濟王

淮 淮瀆唐裴説也唐始封二字公宋加四字公

聖朝加封四字王號

長源廣濟王

濟 濟瀆楚伍大夫也唐始封二字公宋加四字公

聖朝加封四字王號

清源漢濟王

==泗州大聖==
泗州僧伽大師世謂觀音大士應化也推本則過去阿僧祇弥伽沙却值觀世音如来従三惠門而入道以音聲為佛事作以此有縁之衆乃謂太師自西國来唐高宗時至長安洛陽行化歴吳楚間手執楊枝混于緇流或問師何姓即荅曰我姓何又問師是何國人師曰我何國人尋於泗上欲構伽藍因宿州民賀跋氏舍所居師曰此本為佛宇令掘地果得古碑香積寺即齊𥞆龍建所創又獲金像衆謂然燈如来師曰普光王佛也因以為寺額景龍二年中宗遣使迎大師至輦轂深加礼畢異命住定薦福寺帝及百官咸稱弟子與度惠儼惠岸木义三人御書寺額普光王寺三月三日大師示滅敕令就薦福寺漆身起塔忽真氣滿城帝祝送師帰臨淮言訖異香騰馥帝問萬廻曰僧伽大師是何人邪曰觀音化身耳乾符中謚證聖大師

==五聖始末==
按祖殿靈應集云五顕公之神在天地間相與為本始至唐光啓中乃降于兹邑面藉莫有登載故后来者無所考㨿惟色悼耄口以相傳言邑民王喻有園在城北偏一夕園中紅光燭天邑人麋至觀之見神五人自天而下導從威儀如王侯状黄衣皂縧坐胡床時喻而言曰吾授天命當食此方福祐斯人訪勝尋幽而来至止我廟食此則祐汝亦無憂喻拜首曰惟命言訖禅雲四方神昇天矣明日邑人来相宅方山在其東佩山其西左環杏庠右繞蛇城南北兩潭而前坐石大溪出來萦紆西下兩峰特秀嶢然水口良然佳處也乃相與手来斬竹薙草作為華屋立像肖貌掲䖏安靈四遠聞之鱗集輻湊自是神降格有功於國福祐斯民無時不顕先是廟號上名五通大觀中始賜廟額曰靈順宣和年間封兩字侯紹興中加四字侯乾道年加八字侯淳熈初封兩字公甲辰間封四字公十一年加六字公慶元一年加八字王嘉泰二年封兩字王景定元年封四字

王累有陰助于江左封六字王六年十一月告下封八字王 理宗改封八字王號

第一位顕聦昭應靈格廣濟王 顕慶恊惠昭助夫人

第二位顕明昭列靈護廣祐王 顕惠協慶善助夫人

第三位顕正昭順靈衛廣惠王 顕濟恊佑正助夫人

第四位顕直昭佑靈貺廣澤王 顕佑恊濟喜助夫人

第五位顕德昭利靈助廣成王 顕福恊爱静助夫人

王祖父啓佑喜應敷澤侯 祖母衍慶助順慈貺夫人

王父廣惠慈濟方義侯 母崇福慈濟慶善夫人

長妹喜應賛惠淑顕夫人 次妹懿順福淑靖顕夫人

至有吏下二神者盖五公既貴不欲以禍福驚動人之耳目而委是二神司之歟

黄衣道士 紫衣員覺太師

輔靈翊善史侯 輔順翊惠卞侯

翊應助順周侯 令狐寺丞

王念二元帥 打拱高太保

打拱胡百二檢察 都打拱胡靖一緫管

打拱黄太保 打拱王太保

金吾二太使 掌善罰悪判官

大猷甞觀鍾山所作神傳知安樂公之名本於雲居惜其未詳大猷昨竊取廪建昌特徃訪問住山遇老具述其事云昔有司馬頭佗至山之南曰瑶田見道瑢禅師謂瑢曰吾尋此山凡十五載自南嶽襲其岡而来若獲勝地願與禅席闡揚佛告是夜夢五神人来曰求珠當入九重之渊欲寳必登萬仞之巔上有優游平地固偉然黎明司馬命樵人開道登山見一白鹿銜花前導自橫嶺而上又数百歩地平如掌忽見五神人曰此處乃弟子眷属所居弟子受仸無用今願捨此續仸慧命如有所缺弟子願給備之瑢随即其地治基建寺后三日復見五神人現前瑢問曰舍此何徃神荅曰后山枯木是可居也瑢一日徃謝之神人果從枯榧樹中出瑢問曰安楽否神人曰弟子舉族安楽從此山神及樹皆得安楽之名瑢乃馬祖時人也唐憲宗元和初寺成名曰龍昌僖宗中和三年有洪覺禅師道膺入山開堂演法常有五老人来聽一日洪覺問曰公何人對曰山前檀越言訖而行洪覺令人觀其所徃至山側小池遽入其中遂不見至今人呼為五龍池云

癸巳紹定六年三月三日宋承節郎張大猷謹書

按胡升撰星源志所載云升為童時尚見之一小碑載其事因婺源與徳興争祖廟輦之去今不知所存或曰本朝神祠見於會要姓氏皆可考惟此神無姓氏何耶升曰莫之為而為者此所謂鬼神也周禮小宗伯兆五帝於四郊漢儀祠五祀宋朝明堂五方帝位于吴天之側從之五人帝五官神皆五行真氣也盖五行為天地間至入之極必有為之主宰者故曰元冥曰祝融曰勾芒曰神辱曰后土皆指水火金木土而言之物今五神之降于此豈非黙助五行之造化以福生民乎或者又以五聖為五通非正神也吁名實不辨典故不知徒肆為議論亦妄矣盖本朝政和元年正月詔毁五通及右将軍如已淫祠至宣和五年我五聖適有通貺等侯之封前后十餘年間黜彼之邪崇此之正昭然甚明尚可得而並論之乎亦緑鄉曲前輩偶傳會佛有六通弟子五通之説以啓后人之疑每嵗四月八日本縣啓建止善無碍大齋四方并海外来者輻輳齋宿極嚴非有形驅勢迫而使之然本朝褒封勅告並藏縣庫嘉泰二年中屡頒降御書扇五柄並置專局在廟收藏

宋廸公郎國史實録遍校文字胡升謹書

==萬廻虢國公==
萬廻虢國公者虢州閿鄉人也姓張氏唐貞觀六年五月五日生生而癡愚至八九嵗方能語嘨傲如狂鄉黨莫測一日令家人先帰云有勝客至是日三藏玄奘自西國還訪之公問印度風境了如所見奘作禮圍繞稱是菩薩有兄萬年父征遼左母程氏思其音信公曰此甚易爾乃告母而徃至暮而還及持書隣里驚異其童興寺沙門大明少而相狎公來徃明師之室属有正諫大去明崇儼夜過寺見公左右神兵侍衛崇儼駭之誥但言與明師厚施金繒作禮而去咸享四年髙宗召至内武后賜錦袍玉帶時有扶風僧蒙願者甚多靈迹先在内每曰廻来廻来及公至又曰替到當去旬日而卒景雲二年十二月八日師卒于長安不禄夀年八十時異香氤氲舉体宋時特贈司徒虢國公喪士官給五年正月十五日窆于京師香積寺

==許真君==
許遜字敬之南昌人呉赤烏二年正月念八日降生母先夢金鳳啣珠墜於懷中而有娠父許粛祖父世慕至道真君弱冠師大洞真君呉猛傳三清法愽通經史舉孝亷拜蜀旌陽縣令也以晋亂棄官與呉君同遊江左會王敦作亂二君乃假符呪謁敦欲止敦而存晋也一日同郭璞候敦々蓄怒而見曰孤昨夢将一木上破其天禅帝位果十全乎請先生圓之許曰此夢非吉矣曰木上破天是未字明公未可妄動又令璞筮之曰予成問夀曰若起事禍将不久若住武昌寿不可測敦怒曰卿夀幾何曰予壽盡今日敦令武士執璞赴刑二君同敦飲席間乃隱形去至盧江口召舟過金陵舟師辞以無人力駕舡二君曰但載我我自行舡仍戒舟師曰汝宜堅閉户隠若聞舟行聲慎勿潜窺於是入舟須刻間舟師聞舟摇撼木葉聲逐潜窺見二龍駕舟在紫霄峯頂既知其窺委舟而去二君曰汝不信吾教今至此柰何遂令舟師舟隱此峯頂教服靈草授以神仙術舟之遺跡今尚存真君後在豫章遇一少年容儀脩整自稱慎即真君與之話知非人類既去謂門人曰適少年乃蛟蜄精吾念江西累遭洪水為害若不剪除恐致逃遁遂舉道眼一覷見蜃精化一黄牛於洲北真君謂弟子施太玉曰彼黄牛我今化黑牛仍以白巾與闘汝訊之當以劔截彼俄頃二牛奔逐太玉以劍中黄牛之左股因投入城西井中黑牛亦入井蜃精徑走蜃精先在潭州化一聦明少年人多珍寶娶刺史賈玉女常旅遊江湖必多獲寶貨而歸至是空歸且云被盗所傷湏臾典報云有道流許敬之見使君賈出接坐真君曰聞君得佳婿畧請見之慎卽托疾不出真君厲聲曰蛟精老魅焉敢遁形蛟乃化本形至堂下命空中神殺之又令将二児来真君以水噀之即成小蜃妻賈氏幾爱父母力懇乃止令穿屋下丈餘地皆有水際又令急移俄頃官舍沉没為潭踪跡皆宛然除蜃後於東晋太康二年八月一日於洪州西山舉家白日上昇真君自飛昇之後里人與真君族人就其地立祠以所遺詩一百二十首寫竹簡之上載之巨筒令人探取以决休咎名曰聖籤宋徽宗政和二年五月十七日上尊號曰神功妙濟真君改觀為宫賜額曰玉隆萬壽帝因看書于崇政恍然似夢見東華門北有一道士戴九華冠披絳童服導從者甚衆至丹墀起簡揖帝帝乃問曰卿是是何人不詔而至對曰吾為許旌陽權掌九天司職上帝詔往按察西瞿耶國經由故國復問曰朕患安息瘡諸薬不能愈真君有薬否即取小瓠子傾薬一粒如緑豆大呵呪抹於瘡上覺如流酥灌体入骨清凉遂揖而去行数歩復囬顧曰吾敝舍久已寥落頤聖皇舉眼一看為幸帝豁然而覺詔畫像如夢中所見者賜上清儲祥宫崇奉詔真君遺跡去處未有宫觀即取本属官銭建造如宫觀只因損壞如法脩換無常住即撥近便官田供辨聖朝崇奉加至道玄應四字餘封如故

詩曰 從来世代出神仙 爭似旌陽拔宅登

屈指筭来千載後 應當還有鳳珠吞

格聯

三尺龍泉追残幽壑千年魄 一根鉄柱鎻定西江萬古秋 收孽鲛贈

==寶誌禪師==
寶誌禅師宋元嘉中見形於東陽鎮古木鷹巢中朱氏聞巢中児啼遂收育之因以朱為姓施宅為寺焉公自少出家依于鐘山道林寺常持一錫杖懸刀尺及鏡拂之類或掛一両尺帛数日不食無饑容時或歌吟詞多讖記士庶皆共事之齊建元中武帝謂師惑衆收付建康獄既久人見其入市及檢獄如故建康尹以事聞帝延於宮中之後堂師在華林園忽一日重著三布帽亦不知於何所得之俄豫章王文惠太子相継薨齊亦以此貴矣由是禁師出入梁高祖即位下詔曰誌公迹拘塵垢神遊冥寂水火不能燋濡蛇虎不能侵懼語其佛理則𠴢聞以上談其隱淪則遯仙髙者豈以俗士常情空相拘只何其愚陋至於此自今勿得復禁師或一日封帝食鱠帝曰一不知味二十餘年師何為爾師乃吐出小魚鱗尾依然今建康尚有鱠残魚是也皇后郗氏崩数月帝常追悼之晝則悶々不楽宵則耿耿不寐居寝殿聞外騷窣聲視之乃見蟒蛇盤躃上殿睒睛呀口以向於帝帝大驚駭無所逃遁不得已蹶然而起謂蛇曰朕宫殿嚴警非爾蛇類所生之處必其妖薛孽欲祟朕耶蛇為人語啓帝日蟒則昔之郗氏也妾以生存嫉妬六宮其性慘毒怒一發則火熾矢射損物害人死以是罪謫為蟒耳無飲食可實口無窟宂可庇身饑窘困迫力不自勝又鱗甲有蟲唼嚼肌肉痛苦其劇若加錐刀焉蟒非常蛇亦復變化而至不以皇居深重為阻耳感帝平昔眷妾之厚故托醜形骸陳露於帝祈一功徳以見拯拔也帝聞之嗚呼感激既而求蟒不見明日大集沙門於殿庭宣其由問善之最以贖其言師對曰非禮佛懺滌悃欸不可帝乃然其言搜索佛經録其名號兼親抒睿思灑聖翰撰悔文共成十卷皆採摭佛語削去閑詞為其懺禮又一日聞宫室内異香馥郁良久轉美初不知所来帝因仰視乃見一天人容儀端麗謂帝曰此則蟒後身也蒙帝功徳已得超昇利天今呈本身以為明驗也慇懃致謝言訖而去此見梁武懺序師于梁天監十三年冬将卒忽告衆僧令移寺金剛神像出置于外乃密謂人曰菩薩将去矣未及旬日無疾而終舉躰香䎡在世九十七年帝以銭三千萬易定林寺前岡獨龍阜以葬師求定公主以湯沐之資造浮圖七級於其上帝命陸倕製銘錫玻黎珠以飾塔表南唐保大七年加號妙覺塔名應世宋太宗太平興國七年舒民柯萼遇老僧徃萬嵗山指古松下掘之得石篆乃寳公記聖祚綿遠之文於是遣使致謝謚曰寶公妙覺治平初更謚道林真覺大師按建康實録聞善寺有誌公履唐神龍初鄭克俊取之以歸長安今洗鉢池尚在塔西二里法雲寺基方池是也

==盧六祖==
盧六祖名惠能廣東韶州府人學仸見曹溪水香遂於其地擇一道塲求之地主但云只得一袈裟地足矣地主從之遂以袈裟鋪設方圓八十里今南華山六祖道塲是也從坐化自唐宣宗時至今六百有餘年肉身俱存香烟薰馥面如漆光至元丙子年漢軍以利刃鑽其腹見心肝如生人於是不敢犯衣鉢盡載之北今已發回有宣宗御賜袈裟織成淡山水有西天鉢非銅鉄非木石有西天履非革非木竟不知何物有法華經十六七葉有佛齒以小銀合載之元有一孽龍據深潭為民害六祖曰只怕尔變小其龍果變小遂以鉢盂載之在寺中乾枯帰隨後其龍尚存久矣

==三茅真君==
太玄真人内傳畧曰真人姓茅咸陽南関人也聖祖諱喜字拱倫仕秦荘㐮王為廣信侯其父乃廣信侯弟六子諱祚字彦英有三子長子諱盈字叔申次子諱固字季偉小子諱衷字思和盈年十八棄家恒山讀老子書及周易傳採取山术而餌服之積六年夜夢太玄玉女把玉扎而携之曰西城王君得真道可為師矣明辰敬到西城斉戒三月卒見王君駕神龙之駢翱翔於綉岩之陰於是越艱難絕阻不覺以前君乃使衛官見攝将遠王君洞臺之中親侍旦夕执巾履之役如是十七日王君見君謹密使主領衣書神籙之章復三年乃命駕造白玉龜山請王母於清琳宫君時從焉西王母曰緫真今乃挾肉人以登靈臺不亦劳乎王君笑而不荅因曰君起再拜自陳願賜長生之術王母曰吾昔先師元始天王及扶桑大帝君時乃閒居於希林之臺積霄之房説玄玄之道見遺以要言所謂玉佩金璫之道太極玄真之経也君拜受所言王母勅玉君一一觧釋玄玄之経又自敕出金璫之文以口告於君也受命言訖玉君将初帰西城桉而行之三年之中色如女子目有流光面生玉澤王君又賜君九轉还丹二剤及神方一首告之曰道已成可以反矣復百年求我於南岳州将授汝仙在於呉越也於是辞師乃帰時年四十九君父母尚在見之大怒曰為子不孝不親供養尋逐妖亡流走四方欲杖罰之君長跪謝曰盈受命應當得道今道已成不可杖擊恐三官考察非小故也父不信於是操杖向君適於舉杖杖卽摧折成数叚数叚皆飛揚如弓矢之發中壁壁穿中柱柱䧟父悟不敢打怒乃止父又曰汝言得道能起死人否君曰死人有罪重積悪不可復生有夭寿短折者則可令起也乃召社公問此村中已死誰可召還促約所関由使発遣之至日入之後社公来白事云某甲已决了便可發出於是掘地搌棺舉而出之三日能坐語言了了如此發数人家皆遂生活鄉里遠近咸稱君為神明之君後十餘年君父俱死行丧 如禮中弟固漢景帝時舉孝廉累遷至武威太守弟衷少以節行顕名從梁國為孝王上賔宣帝地節二年遷雒陽令後拜為五更大夫轉西河太{{另2|守固是時為執金吾並当之言卿相父老及童幼相送者有数百人時君亦在座自言雖不作二千石卿相亦有神霊之職来年四月三日当之官諸君乃能来顧如今日会集否衆賔皆相然至期日門前数頃地忽自平治旡復寸芥皆青縑屋々下容数百人坐遠近翕赫相語来者塞道皆今案主盃奇殽異乗金石絲竹聲動天地莫不醉飽反辞去里人曰盖欲以此道誘勸二弟之追慕也言訖乃登羽車浮空而去二弟乃休官棄家以漢元帝永光五年三月六日渡江見兄於東山遂與相見於是並教二弟服青牙始生咽氣液之道各賜九轉还丹一劑拜而服之仙道仙道成君乃啓王君重賜玄水玉液丹芝使二弟清濟服薬食芝畢復與二弟心齋三月請青童方諸宫書名今簡詣西城洞宫朝見㧾真上宰次詣行山之朱臺詣太虚赤真人帰方諸請地仙三真之業造赤城受真変神符又之羅霍求華旌繍旛又工登九宫詣金闕之下受聖君之書是以季偉有地真上仙定録神君之號思和有司三宫保命仙君之位焉漢平帝时元壽二年八月己酉天皇大帝授君以神玺玉童太微天帝賜君以八龍錦典紫羽華衣太上大道真君賜君以今虎真符流金之鈴今闕聖君賜君以四節燕胎流明神芝長曜靈飛夜光洞章使拜而食之五帝君循大帝之命授君位為太玄真人領東衙上卿司命神君治宫赤城正神之度也|郋園校刊本此處文字缺頁，據西嶽天竺國藏板清刊本補足。}}

==薩真人==
薩真人名守堅蜀西河人也少有濟人利物心嘗學醫誤用藥殺人遂棄醫道聞江南三十代天師虚静先生及林王二侍宸道法歩徃師之至陜行囊已盡見三道人來問堅何所徃堅告以故道人日天師羽化矣復問王侍宸曰亦化矣再問林靈素曰亦化矣薩方悵恨一道人曰今天師道法亦髙吾與之有舊應當為作字可往訪之吾有一法相授日間可以自給遂授以呪棗之術曰呪一棗可取七文一日但呪十棗得七十文則有一日之資矣一道人曰吾亦有一法相授乃雷法也真人受辞用之皆驗一日凡呪百餘棗止授七十文為日用餘者復以濟貧及到信州見天師投信舉家皆哭乃虚靖天師親筆也信中言吾與王待宸林天师遇薩君各賜一法授之矣可為参録奏名真人後法愈大㫫嘗経潭州人聞神語曰真人提刑来日至次日人伺之只見真人携甕笠至有提㸃刑獄之牌人異之継至湘陰縣浮量梁見人用童男童女生祀本處廟神真人曰此等醒神即焚其廟言訖雷火飛空廟立焚矣人莫能救但聞空中有云頭法力常如今日自後廟不復興真人至龍興府江邊濯足見水有神影方面之巾金甲左手拽神右手執鞭真人曰爾何神人也荅曰吾乃湘陰廟神天善神真人焚吾廟後今相随一十二載只候有過則復前讎今真人功行已高聀隸天樞望保奏以為部将真人曰汝兇悪之神坐吾法中必損吾法其神即立誓不敢背盟真人遂奏帝収係為将其應如響後真人至涪州忽一日諸将現形環侍告曰天詔将臨召真人帰天樞領位真人方起身而立即化後舉棺輕如常木衆異而開視則已空棺且知真人得屍解之道也

==袁千里==
袁勝字千里南豊人王待宸㛓氏子也育斬勘雷法髣髴舅氏端平間寓戴顛家一日謂戴顛曰吾逝矣可焚我言而卒戴焚之火及屍煙熖中有旗現金字曰雷霆第三判官袁千里也

==傅大士==
傅大士名翕婺州義烏人也自幼聰慧通二教之書自號善慧大士梁普通元年遇天竺三僧嵩頭佗語曰尔弥勒化身遂令自鍳拎於乃見圓光宝盖即悟前因因問脩道之地頭陀指松山下雙梼木曰此可矣大士於此剏庵大通三年置寺雙梼間即今雙林寺有法華經梁武帝所賜鐵犂耕鉢水晶数珠七佛銅冠至今存焉大士雖出家者流而不髠或以為有先知能兑徳士之冠服云又有餘虎岩在義烏城南二十五里雲黄山頂猛獸縱橫大士斉竟每持餘飯飼之自兹伏匿因是立名飯化石青白而紫可作数珠昔有陶氏嘗資給大士大士祝之曰佗日化石青紫色可琢数珠不意啇自兹授記唯此一家能之相傳他人放效石即裂碎両浙有忠献王往婺州發大士塔取骨殖丕龍山舉之不動即其地建龍華寺以骨殖塑大士像于塔矣

==崔府君==
崔府君者乃祈州鼓城人也父譲世為巨農純良徳義鄉里推重年将知命未立継嗣譲與妻議之曰我平日所為常存済物之心今何無嗣不若與汝共発虔誠祷於北岳妻從其言同詣北岳祠下禱祝祈嗣畢帰邸中安下是夜夫妻夢一仙童手擎一合崔譲問之童曰帝賜合中之物令君夫妻吞之言訖舉合盖視之見美玉二枚夫妻各吞其一忽然而覺自後有娠腹懷十月滿足於隋大業三年六月六日降生一子神彩秀美異於常人幼而從學日誦千言不窺群子之戯因名子玉凡事過人鄉人咸為積善之家天賜也時唐太宗貞覌七年詔舉天下賢良赴都朝廷任用府君亦在内焉各賜縣令出身惟府君除潞州長子縣令正直無私洞察秋毫郡人皆言知縣晝理陽間夜断陰府時五月初間知縣省喻邑人此月望日及望後一日無得殺生及獵射如犯者官中决断陰府理問時有善者朱蹇哥等二人潜出廓外射得兎一隻入城門吏搜住执於庭下問人曰爾等故犯欲以縣庭受刑陰府受罰其人云乞於陰府受罰以為陰理将遠言訖各放还家是方就枕有一黄衣吏喚二人至于公庭一所廳上却見崔知縣王者冠服檢諸人罪状或促其寿或隋其子孫或减其食禄汝輩善惡自當裁之令還本家遂驚而覺其人乃異之忽一日門吏報曰鵰黄嶺有猛虎攔路傷人公遣首吏孟完賫符牒至山廟拘虎其虎出自㗸符牒隨吏而至公庭崔公責之曰汝乃異類所食者有分定輙敢違其天意食啖人命罪當如何其虎聞之觸階而死自此邑人生祠而祀之時潞州太守奏申朝廷貞觀十七年府君遷磁州滏陽縣令整太宗陰府君在之事决楊叟二子負債之寃後遷衛州衛縣令與奕棋人楊叟同赴任所西南五里有河時夏月水汎漂渰民田公于河上設壇以詞奏于上帝少頃間有一頭蛇浮于水面而卒水漸散去郡人亦立生祠祀焉有一日公與楊叟奕棊公忽起楊叟亦起公云爾見否忽有黄衣数輩执符而言曰吾奉上帝命云云次有玉珪玉带子服冠簪秀衣五岳衛具又有百餘人皆拜畢而立奏簫韶絲竹之音楽復有一神取白馬至府君曰汝輩少待之遂呼二子曰吾将去世矣無得大慟取紙筆寫百字銘以訓其子二子泣拜而授命言訖而卒在世六十四年矣後玄宗值禄山兵乱帝夜夢神人告之曰願陛下駕不可別此方賊不久而滅矣又何避之於是帝問姓名曰臣乃磁州滏陽縣令崔子玉帝驚而覺焉後果如其言駕歸闕下建廟封霊圣護国侯至唐武宗天下洪水漲溢祷之乃止加封

護囯威應公宋真宗東封岱岳加封上號

護囯西斉王至宋高宗之避狄難自鎮走鉅鹿馬斃冒雨獨行暮宿老嫗家嫗與帝澤衣洗足進粝飯且告曰當借一遊騎早去約五皷以包一處肩置焉帝請行稍前迈三歧路惑焉忽見白馬帝異之躡其後脫至靈祠下有土撫之汗如雨因宿夢青衣方袍人杖擊地輙其亟行驚起遲明発眠紙亭祝板題云磁州都土地崔府君俄聞珓㺽聲乃登殿覩像如夢中所見寂無人唯几上有合内有酒食帝食之将出焉白馬復前導至斜橋谷馬忽不見益異之而從臣耿南仲将民兵数千来迎及南渡駐蹕於杭州帝首為立廟焉賜廟額曰顕衛

==普庵禪師==
普庵禪師名印肅袁州宜春縣溥化村父余慈母胡氏當宋徽宗政和五年十一月二十七日辰時生年六嵗夢一僧㸃其心曰他日當自省既覺以意白母視之當心有一㸃紅茔大似之櫻珠父母因此從寿𨺚院賢和尚出家年二十七嵗落髮越明年受戒師容貌魁奇智性巧慧賢師噐之勉令誦経師曰嘗聞諸佛元旨必貴了悟于心数墨廵行無益于事遂辞賢遊湖湘謁大溈牧庵忠公因問万法帰一一帰何處忠公竪起拂子師遂有省後帰受業院癸酉嵗有隣寺慈化者請衆住持寺無常住師布衾紙衣晨粥暮食禅定外唯閱華嚴経論一日大悟遍躰汗流喜曰我今親契華嚴経遂述頌曰

描不成團揆不開 何湏南岳又天台

六根門首無人會 惹得胡僧特地来

自此之後発為言句動悟幽顕有不期然者一日忽有僧名道存冒雪至師目擊而喜曰此乃吾不請友矣遂相與寂坐交相問荅或咲或謁僧曰師再来人也非久當大興吾教乃指雪頌而行師乃掩隱南嶺其號曰普庵忘懷于世因四縣廵檢丁君驥與長者刘汝明同請出山願助营費重為慈化脩建佛殿師辞不獲竟從請至則慕道向風者衆師乃隨宜為説或書頌與之有病患者折草為薬與之即愈或有疫毒人跡不相徃来者師與之頌咸得十全至於祈晴伐恠木毁淫祠靈應非一由是工役大興富者施財貧者施力巧者施藝寺宇因兹鼎新延以数千里之間開路建橋楽為善事皆師之化或問師脩何行而得此師乃當空畫云還會麽其人云不會師云止〻不須説其直機無辨多如此而歌頌讚語遍傳人間如證道歌判源録已盛行於時忽一日索筆書頌於方丈西壁云

乍雨乍晴寶象明 東西南北乱雲深

失珠無限人遭刼 幻應權機為汝清

枯木敕度頌畢示衆曰諸佛不出世亦無有涅槃入吾室者必能無契矣善自護持無令退失索浴更衣跏趺而寂時則乾道五年七月二十一日也享年五十五僧臘二十八年十一月一日全身入塔是時四衆云集悲號之聲振動山盡師之終始大槩如此

普庵寂感妙済正斍昭貺禅師

圣朝大徳四年嵗次庚子秋七月加封

大徳二字餘封如故

==呉客三真君==
昔周厲王有三諫官唐周也王好畋獵失政三官諫曰先王以仁義守國以道徳化民而天下咸服未開禽荒也屡諫弗聽三官棄聀南遊於呉呉王大悦會楚兵侵呉王甚憂之三官進曰臣等致身以死事大王自有安邦之謀但大王無慮耳三官迎敵各用神策楚囯皆降呉王遷賞三官拜辞奏曰臣等客臣也不敢受賜后知厲王薨宣王立復歸周囯宣王錫受甚厚仍其爵位后救太子靖王降五方使者及非灾橫禍宣王遷三官於東兖撫治安慰民受其賜啇請其資所至無乏其國大治三官既昇加封侯號

唐宏字文明孚靈侯{七月二十一日誕} 葛雍字文度威靈侯{三月十三日誕}

周斌字文浹靈侯{十月初二日誕}

宋祥符元年真宗東封岱岳至天門忽見三仙自空而下帝敬問之三仙曰臣奏天命護衛玉駕帝封三仙曰

{{另2|上元道華唐真君 中元護正葛真君 下元定志周真君一同判岱既冥司|郋園校刊本此處文字缺頁，據西嶽天竺國藏板清刊本補足。}}

{{另2|讚曰應變之聖道徳之君辭周寄呉濟世救民周而烈極呉封客臣宋遇真宗天門顕身帝親問之方得其因唐葛周氏天地水神上奉玉招保駕聖明御製妙讚勑載姓名祠封泰頂號建三靈|郋園校刊本此處文字缺頁，據西嶽天竺國藏板清刊本補足。}}

卷三

==昭靈侯==
昭靈侯南陽張公諱路斯隋之初家于潁上縣百社村年十六中明至第唐景龙中為宣城令以才能稱夫人石氏生九子自宣城罷㱕常釣于焦氏臺之陰一日顧見釣處有宫室楼殿遂入居之自是夜出旦㱕一輒寒而湿夫人令問之公曰我龍也蓼人鄭祥遠者亦龍也與我争此居明日當占使九子助我頭有絳綃者我也青綃者鄭也明日九子以弓矢射青綃者中之怒而去公亦逐之所過為谿谷以達于淮而青綃者投于合淝之西山以死為龍穴山九子皆化為龍而石氏塟関洲公之兄為馬歩使者子孫散居潁上其墓皆存焉事見于唐布衣趙耕之文而傳于淮潁間父老之口載于歐陽文忠公之集古録云自景龍以来潁人世祠之于焦氏臺乾寜中刺史王敬嶤始大其廟有宋乾徳中蔡州大旱其刺史司超聞公之靈築祠干祷既雨翰林學士承旨陶穀為記其事盖自淮南至于陳蔡許汝皆奔走奉祠景徳諫議大夫張秉奉詔益新穎上祠宇而熙寕中司封郎中張徽奏乞爵號詔封公昭靈侯石氏柔應夫人廟有宂䕜徃々見変異出雲雨或投器咒宂中則見于池而近嵗有得蜕骨于地者金聲玉質軽重不常今藏廟中元祐六年秋旱甚郡守龙圖閣斈士左朝奉郎蘇軾迎致其骨于西湖之行祠與吏民禱焉其應如響乃益治其廟宇也

==義勇武安王==
義勇武安王姓関名羽字雲長蒲州觧良人也當漢末與涿郡張飛佐刘先主起義兵后於南陽卧龙崗三謁茅庐聘諸葛孔明宰割山河三分天下囯号為蜀先主命関公為荆州牧不幸吕蒙設計公乃不屈節而亡追贈大将軍塟于玉泉山士人感其徳義嵗时奉祀宋真宗祥符五年十月十七日夜有神人自空而降奏曰臣乃上天直符使者玉帝有勅后八日有圣祖軒轅降于宫闕言訖而去帝次日與群臣𲁤之洒掃宫室設祭礼至日圣降于延恩殿帝拜於前圣曰吾徃昔人皇氏也其后為軒轅即汝趙宋之始祖也吾以汝善脩囯政抚育下民而来言訖圣昇天矣帝大異之帝與群臣𲁤之圣降之跡山存天香未散群臣賀曰陛下圣德所感圣祖降于宫關帝詔天下梵宫並建圣祖宝殿至祥符七年觧州刺史表奏云塩池自古生塩收办宣課自去嵗以来塩池减水有虧課程此係災変敢不奏聞帝遣使持詔至觧州城隍庙祈祷焉使夜夢一神告曰吾城隍也塩之患乃蚩尤也徃昔蚩尤與軒轅帝争戦帝殺之于此地塩池之側至今尚有近跡近聞朝廷創立聖祖殿蚩尤大忿攻竭塩池之水颯然而斍得此报应廻奏于帝上與群臣議之王欽若奏曰地神見报當設祭以祷之帝遣吕夷簡持詔就塩池禱之祭畢是夜夢一神人絨服金甲持劍怒而言曰吾乃蚩尤神也奉上帝命耒此塩池於民有功以囯有益今朝廷崇以軒轅立庙于天下吾乃一世之讎也此上不平故竭塩池水朝廷若能除毁軒轅之殿吾令塩池如故若不從竭絕塩他五穀不收又使西戎為边境之患言訖而去夷簡颯然而斍其夢中之事囬奏於帝々亦夢之王欽若奏曰蚩尤乃邪神也陛下可遣使就信州龙虎山詔張天師可收伏此怪帝従之乃遣使詔天師至闕下帝曰昨因立圣祖軒轅殿致蚩尤怒涸絕塩池之水即今為患召卿断之天師奏曰臣舉一将最英勇者蜀関将軍也臣當召之可討蚩尤必成其功言訖師召関将軍至矣現形於帝前帝云蚩尤竭絕塩池之水将軍奏曰陛下圣命敢不従之臣乞会五岳四瀆名山大川所有阴兵尽徃觧州討此妖鬼若臣與蚩尤对戦必待七日方勦除得伏願陛下先令觧州管内户民三百里内尽閉戶不出三百里外尽示告行人勿得徃来待七日之期必成其功然后開門如徃恐觸犯神鬼多致死亡帝従之関将軍乃授命而退遂下詔觧州居民悉知忽一日大風阴暗白晝如夜阴雲四起雷奔電走似有鐵馬金戈之声聞空中叫噪如此五日方且雲收霧散天晴日朗塩池水如故皆関将軍力也其護囯祚民如此帝加其功遣王欽若賫詔徃玉泉山祠下致享以謝神功復新其庙賜庙額曰義勇追封四字王号曰武安王宋徽宗加封尊号曰 崇寧至道真君

格聯

正氣雷行天自三国迄今弥久弥光不数孫權曹操

英風泉在地通八閩尽処随叩随匝何湏蜀郡荆州

百戰戦荆州忠義万年心尚赤 三分安漢鼎英雄千載胆犹寒

正氣不磨想去时还復天地 忠魂常在至今日犹壮山河

生前壮氣吞吴魏未許三分 死後名高壓太華徳垂万古

兄弟情親豈忘彼一时盟誓 君臣義重不枉了素讀春秋

{一片丹心垂竹帛 千年高誼頌桃园}

{庙貌丹青古 威名嵗月深}

==清源妙道真君==
清源妙道真君姓趙名昱従道士李珏隐青城山隋煬帝知其賢起為嘉州太守郡左有冷源二河内有犍為老蛟春夏為害其水汎漲漂渰傷民昱大怒時五月間設舟船七百艘率甲士千餘人民萬餘人夾江鼓譟声振天地昱持刃入水有頃其水赤石崖奔吼如雷昱右手持刃左手持蛟首奮波而出時有佐昱入水者七人即七聖是也公斬蛟时年二十六嵗隋末天下大乱棄官隱去不知所終後因嘉州江水漲溢蜀人見青霧中乘白馬引数人鷹犬弹弓獵者波面而過乃昱也民感其徳立廟於灌江口奉祀焉俗曰灌口二郎太宗封為神勇大将軍明皇幸蜀加封赤{{另2|城王|郋園校刊本此處缺二字，據西嶽天竺國藏板清刊本補足。}}宋真宗朝益州大乱帝遣張乖崖入蜀治之公詣祠下求助於神果{{另2|克之|郋園校刊本此處缺二字，據西嶽天竺國藏板清刊本補足。}}奏請于朝追尊聖号曰

清源妙道真君

==威惠顕聖王==

祠山聖烈真君姓張諱渤字伯奇武陵龍陽人也父曰龍陽君母曰張媪其父龍陽君與媪遊於大湖之陂正晝無見風雨晦寘雲盖其上五祥青雲雷電並起忽失媪處俄頃開霽媪言見大女謂曰吾汝祖也賜以金丹已而有娠懷胎十四个月當西漢神雀三年二月十一日夜半生長而奇偉寬仁大度喜怒不形於色身長七尺降隼美髯髮垂委地深知水火之道有神告以地荒僻不足建家命行有神獸前導形如白馬其聲如牛遂與夫人李氏東游呉会稽渡浙江至苕雲三白鶴山山有四水會流其下公止而居焉於白鶴得柳氏於烏程桑坵得趙氏為烏程桑坵得趙氏為侍人王九弟五子一女八孫始於呉興郡長興縣順靈鄉發跡役陰兵自長興荆溪疏鑿聖瀆長十五里岸高七丈至十五丈緫三十里志欲通津於廣徳也復於後村畢宅保小山楓樹之側為掛鼓壇先時與夫人李氏密議為期每餉至鳴鼓三聲王即自至不令夫人至開河之所厥後因夫人遺飱於鼓乃為烏啄王以鳴鼓而餉至泊王詣鼓壇乃知為烏所誤及夫人至鳴其鼓王反以為前所誤而不至夫人遂詣興功之所見王為大豨役陰兵開鑿瀆河王見夫人変形未及遂不與夫人相見聖瀆之功息矣遁於廣徳縣西五里橫山之頂居民思之立廟於山西南隅夫人李氏亦至縣東二里而化時人亦立其廟聖瀆之河涸為民田即浴兵池為湖灌溉瀕湖之田僅萬頃掛鼓之壇禽不敢棲蟻不敢聚云唐天寶中禱雨感應初贈水部員外郎橫山改為祠山昭宗贈司農少卿賜金紫景宗封廣徳侯南唐封為司徒封廣徳公後晋封廣徳王宋仁宗封靈済王至寧宗朝累加至八字王至理宗淳祐五年改封正佑圣烈真君至咸淳二年十二月十二日準告加封

正佑聖烈昭徳昌福真君{二月十一日誕生}

封正寜昭助靈惠順聖妃{李氏二月初二日誕生}

封恊應濟惠慈昭廣懿夫人{趙氏}封恊順承済慈佑廣助夫人

王祖顕慶休昭遠靈惠侯 王祖母顕應起家昭靈夫人

==祠山張大帝==
祠山聖烈真君姓張諱渤字伯奇武陵龍陽人也父曰龍陽君母曰張媪其父龍陽君與媪遊於大湖之陂正晝無見風雨晦寘雲盖其上五祥青雲雷電並起忽失媪處俄頃開霽媪言見大女謂曰吾汝祖也賜以金丹已而有娠懷胎十四个月當西漢神雀三年二月十一日夜半生長而奇偉寬仁大度喜怒不形於色身長七尺降隼美髯髮垂委地深知水火之道有神告以地荒僻不足建家命行有神獸前導形如白馬其聲如牛遂與夫人李氏東游呉会稽渡浙江至苕雲三白鶴山山有四水會流其下公止而居焉於白鶴得柳氏於烏程桑坵得趙氏為侍人王九弟五子一女八孫始於呉興郡長興縣順靈鄉發跡役陰兵自長興荆溪疏鑿聖瀆長十五里岸高七丈至十五丈緫三十里志欲通津於廣徳也復於後村畢宅保小山楓樹之側為掛鼓壇先時與夫人李氏密議為期每餉至鳴鼓三聲王即自至不令夫人至開河之所厥後因夫人遺飱於鼓乃為烏啄王以鳴鼓而餉至泊王詣鼓壇乃知為烏所誤及夫人至鳴其鼓王反以為前所誤而不至夫人遂詣興功之所見王為大豨役陰兵開鑿瀆河王見夫人変形未及遂不與夫人相見聖瀆之功息矣遁於廣徳縣西五里橫山之頂居民思之立廟於山西南隅夫人李氏亦至縣東二里而化時人亦立其廟聖瀆之河涸為民田即浴兵池為湖灌溉瀕湖之田僅萬頃掛鼓之壇禽不敢棲蟻不敢聚云唐天寶中禱雨感 應初贈水部員外郎橫山改為祠山昭宗贈司農少卿賜金紫景宗封廣徳侯南唐封為司徒封廣徳公後晋封廣徳王宋仁宗封靈済王至寧宗朝累加至八字王至理宗淳祐五年改封正佑圣烈真君至咸淳二年十二月十二日準告加封

正佑聖烈昭徳昌福真君{二月十一日誕生}

封正寜昭助靈惠順聖妃{李氏二月初二日誕生}

封恊應濟惠慈昭廣懿夫人{趙氏}封恊順承済慈佑廣助夫人

王祖顕慶休昭遠靈惠侯 王祖母顕應起家昭靈夫人

王父慈應潜光儲祉衍靈侯 王母慈惠嗣徽聖善夫人

九弟

靈貺普済昭助侯 靈德昭惠嘉懿夫人

善利通貺靈助侯 善徳助惠正懿夫人

順戒孚應顕助侯 順徳衍惠昭懿夫人

康衛昭應廣助侯 康徳順惠顕懿夫人

靖鎮豊利宏助侯 靖徳淑惠靈懿夫人

休應豊澤孚助侯 休徳敷惠靖懿夫人

明済福謙善助侯 濟徳綏惠昌懿夫人

昭祐通済信助侯 昭徳静惠明懿夫人

嘉惠予直順助侯 嘉徳柔惠光懿夫人

五子

承烈顕済啓佑王{五月十五日生} 承祀賛福元穆恊應夫人

嗣應昭佑公{正月初四誕生} 嗣嬪翊福昭穆夫人

濟美崇祐公{三月十五日誕生} 濟順保福恭穆夫人

紹休廣祐公{十二月十二日誕生} 紹姒崇福交穆夫人

善継孚祐公{正月十一日誕生} 善行敷福瑞穆夫人

一王女

淑顕柔嘉令儀夫人{王婿李夫人本廣无像位醮筵及祠祭呼云}

八王孫

第一位永福侯 第二位衍祚侯

第三位衍祐侯 第四位衍澤侯

第五位衍瑞侯 第六位衍渥侯

第七位衍慶侯 第八位衍惠侯

佐神丁壬二聖者

打拱方使者封恊靈侯

==掠刷使==
按幽怪録云杜陵韋元方外兄裴璞任邠州新平縣尉元和五年璞卒于官長慶初年元方下第将客于隴右出開遠門数十里抵偏店将憩逢武吏躍馬而来騎從数十而貌似璞見元方若識而急下馬避之入茶邸垂簾于小室中其從御散坐簾外元方疑之亦造其邸及褰簾入見真裴璞也元方驚喜拜之曰兄去人間復效武職何也從吏之糾々焉裴璞曰吾為陰官職受武士故武飾耳元方曰何官曰隴右三川掠刷使耳曰何所司耶曰吾職司人剩財而掠之元方曰何謂剩財璞曰人之轉貨求丐也命当即叶忽遇物之稍稀或主人深願所得乃踰数外之財即謂之剩故掠之焉元方曰安知其剩而掠之璞曰生人一飲一酌無非前定况財寳乎陰司所籍其獲有限獲而踰籍陰吏乃刷而掠之也元方曰所謂掠者奪之於囊耶竊之於懷耶璞曰非也当数而得一一有成数外之財為吾所運或令虚耗或索横事或買賣不及常價殊不関身尔始吾之生也常謂啇勤得財農勤得穀士勤得禄只歎其不勤而不得也夫覆舟之啇旱嵗之農屡空之士豈不勤乎而今乃知勤者徳之基學者善之本徳之與善乃立身之道耳亦未足以邀財而求禄也子之逢吾亦是前定合得白金二斤過此遺子又当復掠故不厚矣子之是行也故甚厚而分甚薄於涇殊无所得諸鎮平々尔人生有命時不參差以道静覌旡復躁撓勉之哉璞以公事須入城中陰冥限数不可違越遂以白金二斤授之揖而上馬元方固請曰間別多年忽此集会欵言未幾又隔晦明何遽如此璞曰本司觧暑置在汧隴間吐蕃将来慮其侵軼当與陰道京尹共議会盟雖非遠圖聊亦紓患亦且安邊之計也我馬已駕来期不遙事非早謀不可為備且去且去上馬数歩遂不復見顧其所遺乃真白金也悵然而西所歴之獲旡差其説彼楽天知命者盖知事皆前定矣俄而吐蕃軍騷動朝廷知之又虞其叛思援臣以為謀宰相蒞盟相囯崔公不欲臨境遂為城下之盟卒如其説也

==㳂江遊奕神==
翰苑名談云陳堯咨泊舟三山磯有老叟曰来日午有大風舟行必覆宜避之来日天晴萬里無片雲舟人請觧䌇公曰更待之同行舟一時離岸公托以事日午天色恬然俄而黑雲四起於天降大風暴至折木飛沙怒涛若山同行舟多沉溺公驚嘆又見前叟曰某實非人乃江之遊奕将也以公他日當位宰相固當奉告公曰何以報徳叟曰吾不求報貴人所至龍神禮當衛護願得金光明経一部某乗其力薄有遷職公許之至京以金光明経三部遣人詣三山磯投之夢前叟曰本袛祈一公賜以三今連陞数秩再拜而去矣

==常州武烈帝==
忠佑武烈大帝姓陳諱果仁字世威常州晋陵人也聖祖暠字元皎仕陳為羽林郎洪州建昌縣令父季明字玄渙仕陳為江州司馬領南道採訪使尋拜給事中帝於梁太清三年己巳三月望日午時誕英姿照人有鼎角匿犀之異衆皆奇之八嵗能屬文十三徧讀諸史人皆咸為再生東家丘陳大帝天康元年舉進士第對策玉階年甫十有八上曰朕與卿太丘之後家世自兹不堕特授監察御史遷江西道廵察大使帝智勇絕人精深韜畧有經濟天下之志仕陳二十有五載事親以孝事君以忠徳惠萬民威名滿天下後主失政遜于隋遂亟上印綬㱕隱不仕以田園為終老計隋髙祖累詔不起煬帝南遊江都群盗並起帝聞其名詔令討盗俾除民害義不可辞奉命而起大業五年授秉義尉平長山以叛寇鞫其真偽各得其情衆悦服仕至朝請大夫九年正月奉詔平江寜楽伯通叛徒十萬授銀青光禄大夫十三年改號義寧恭帝全號奉詔平東陽奕世幹賊衆二十萬隋王勅之召入拜大司徒大業末沈法興起兵呉興乃帝室之父意欲倚帝為重帝輸忠貫日抗節凌秋確乎不移法興謀據常郡包藏禍心陽為依附實欲加害時賊帥李子通集衆数萬屯江北與法興陰為應援震帝威勇不敢渡至唐高祖武德二年庚辰五月十八日法興詐稱疾亟走告于帝不得已徃問疾飲酒中毒馳㱕時有高僧凛禅師以醫名世亟召之治療其法當於閴寂無人處水滌腸去毒帝室沈氏宗伉儷之義深切痛心至池上潜窺而觸之帝自知不可為遂嘱付凛禅師及軫張二妃俾施所居第并南帑為精舍東第為崇仟覌言訖而薨享年七十有二法興聞之意欲陰謀得志豈知帝英爽如在忠節愈勵一日黑雲蔽空風雨晦冥忽見形威發一神矢射薨法興寇衆四清其護國威靈有如此者唐天子欲旌其功乃下詔詢訪本郡耆老故陳司徒耆老故陳司徒身備八絕何謂耆老等條奏曰忠孝文武信義謀辨是謂八絕事唐封忠烈公継封福順武烈王後周加以帝號宋宣和四年賜廟額曰福順一武烈顕靈昭德大帝

武烈沈后 軫后 妃賛幽張夫人 神眷

神父啓靈侯

神母懿徳段夫人 神継母嘉徳伊夫人

神長子賛惠濟美侯

次子恊應濟順侯 神孫處士

佐神柴大尉名克宏封翊靈将軍

==楊州五司徒==
英顕司徒茅許祝蒋呉五姓是邦血食久矣載在南史及梁書王琳列傳云王琳會稽山陰人也本兵家破景有功能軽身下士所得賞物不以入家其麾下萬人多江淮人也累立大功仕至特進将軍會陳将呉明 徹来寇境帝遣領軍将擊破胡等出牧秦州令琳共為經畧琳謂破胡曰軍士嚴整切勿湏戰破胡不從遂戦軍大敗琳單騎而獲免還至彭城帝令更赴壽陽進封為巴陵王陳将呉明徹進兵圍之堰肥水灌城晝夜攻擊城内水氣浸人皆患腫死者甚衆城䧟琳被執百姓泣而從之呉明徹恐其為変殺之哭者聲如雷傳首建康縣之於市琳故将吏朱瑒等乃求以首呉明徹亦夢琳求首並為啓陳主而許之于是與開府儀同主簿劉韶慧等持其首還于淮南權瘞八公山側義故會塟者数千人瑒等乃閒道北㱕別議迎接尋有揚州人茅知勝等五人密送塟至建業即五神也五神居揚州日結為兄弟好畋獵其地舊多狼虎人罹其害山溪畔遇一老婦五神詢問竭然無親饑食溪泉五神請于所居之廬拜呼為母侍養未久或出獵而㱕不見其母五神曰多被虎噉俱奮身逐捕山間有虎迎前伏地就降由此虎患始息後人思其徳義立廟祀之凡所祈禱随求随應廟今在江都縣東興鄉金匱山之東至隋煬帝時曾護駕有功封號司徒唐加侯號宋至紹定辛卯逆賊李全数来寇境禱于神不吉以神像割破之不三日全被戮于新塘肢体散落猶全施于神者乎賊平帥守趙公范親率僚属致享祠下以荅神貺撤其廟而增廣之録其陰助之功奏請于朝賜廟額曰英顕加封至八字侯後平章賈公似道来守是邦有祷于神者遇旱㬋則飛雨憂淋潦則返照救焚則熖滅欲雪則瑞應其護國祐民無時不顕復為奏請加封王號

第一位靈威忠惠翊順王 第二位靈應忠利輔順王

第三位靈助忠衛佐順王 第四位靈佑忠濟助順王

第五位靈勇忠烈孚順王

==蒋荘武帝==
建康府蒋荘武帝諱子文楊州人也漢末為秣陵尉逐賊至鍾山下擊傷額而死焉及呉先主之初其故吏見子文於道乗白馬執白羽扇侍從如平生故吏見而驚走子文追謂之曰我當為土地神以福爾下民為吾立廟不尔使虫入人耳為灾呉王以為妖言後果有虫入人耳死者甚衆醫巫不能治云尔不祀我當有大火是嵗数有火灾又云不祀我當有大疫呉主患之封中都侯加印綬立廟于鍾山更名曰蒋山表其霊異晋蘇峻之難帝夢蒋侯曰蘇峻為逆當助共誅之後果斬峻加封相國太元中符堅入寇望見王師部陣齊整又見八公山生草木皆類人形憮然有惧色初會稽王導聞堅入寇以威儀鼓吹求助於蒋山神及堅望之若有助焉杜祐通典云宋高帝永初二年普禁淫祠自蒋子文以下皆絕加至相囯大都督中外諸軍事封蒋王齊永明中崔慧景之難迎神還臺以求福助事平乃進帝號復新廟宇於庙首門為灵光門中門為興善門外殿曰帝山内殿曰神居梁武帝常祠而不應遣使典焚其廟未及中途忽風雨大振動宫殿帝權祠之乃止南唐謚曰荘武帝更修廟宇徐鉉奉勑撰碑備載其事因宋朝會要曰開宝八年廟火雍熈四年重建景祐二年陳公執中增修請于朝賜廟額曰惠烈

==蠶女==
高辛時蜀有蚕女不知姓氏父為人所掠惟所乗馬在女思父不食謂母因誓於衆曰有得父還者以此身嫁之馬聞其言驚躍振迅竟至其营不数日父乃乗馬而㱕自此馬嘶鳴不肯断母以女誓衆之言告父父曰誓於人不誓於馬安有人而偶非類乎能脫我之難功亦大矣所誓之言不可行也馬跑父怒欲殺之馬愈跑父射殺之曝其皮於庭皮蹶然而起捲女飛去旬日皮復棲於桑上女化為蚕食桑葉吐絲成蠒以衣被於人服一日蚕女乘雲駕此馬謂父母曰上帝以我心不忘義授以九天仙嬪

==威濟李侯==
侯姓李諱禄安吉州長興縣童荘人也於宋徽宗崇寧三年正月十八日甲申生長而異稟性質顓語不妄發鄉社之人遇有休咎禍福之将至輙能前知而告戒之年十八當宣和三年三月忽預告鄰里鄉社云吾将徃山東膠西為國家幹事恐湏数年方㱕遂端坐而逝遠近相傳莫不異之其後数有靈跡見于本鄉如年穀之豊凶蚕麥之得失皆以傳之巫覡殆若印劵契鑰不差毫釐於是父老相率為立香火之地而祠祭之至寧宗開禧三年十一月三日通直郎知長興縣趙準状申濟惠顕應實跡所陳中州備申朝廷賜廟曰顕應至理宗宝慶元年本縣寄居朝散郎賜緋魚袋陳昂等列状云諸路州縣境内有因雨暘水旱祈祷感應實有利惠及民例湏保明聞奏更乞特賜封爵以彰神之功烈以慰一方士民之望奉勑封威濟侯

==趙元帥==
姓趙諱公明鍾南山人也自秦時避世山中精脩至道功成欽奉玉帝旨召為神霄副帥按元帥乃皓廷霄度天彗覺昏梵炁化生其位在乾金水合炁之象也其服色頭戴鐵冠手執鐵鞭者金遘水炁也面色黑而鬍鬚者北炁也跨虎者金象也故此水中金之義躰則為道用則為法々則非雷霆旡以彰其威泰華西臺其府乃元帥之主掌而帥以金輪稱亦西方金象也元帥上奉天門之令策役三界廵察五方提㸃九州為直殿大将軍為北極侍御史昔漢祖天師脩煉仙丹龍神奏帝請威猛神吏為之守護由是元帥上奉 玉旨授正一玄壇元帥正則萬邪不干一則䋃一不二之職至重 天師飛昇之後永鎮龍虎名山厥今三元開壇傳度其趋善建功謝过之人及頑冥不化者皆元帥掌之故有龍虎玄壇實賞罰之一司部下有八王猛将者以應八卦也有六毒大神者以應天煞地煞年煞月煞日煞時煞也五方雷神五方雷神五方猖兵以應五行二十八将以應二十八宿天和地合二将所以象天門地户之闔闢水火二营将所以象春生秋煞之徃来驅雷得電喚雨呼風除瘟剪瘧 禳災元帥之功莫大焉至如訟冤伸抑公能使之觧釋公平買求財公能使之宜利和合但有公平之事可以对神禱無不如意故上天聖號為高上神霄玉府大都督五方之廵察使九州社令都大提㸃直殿大将軍主領雷霆副元帥北極侍御史三界大都督應元昭烈侯掌士定命設帳使二十八宿都緫管上清正一玄壇飛虎金輪執法趙元帥

格聯

入化出神凛々威光耀日

駕風鞭電英々殺氣凌霄

==杭州蒋相公==
神姓蒋世為杭州人生宋建炎間楽賑施每秋成糴穀預儲貴則賎糶如無價嵗歉或損壞予饑者死之日祝其二弟曰湏存仁心力行好事里人相與塑氣像以報人心所趍靈應如響祈卜者肩相摩咸淳初賜廟額曰廣福六年安撫潜説友請于

朝封神及二弟皆列侯曰孚順孚應孚祐侯

==增福相公==
李相公諱詭祖在魏文帝朝治相府事白日管陽間决断邦囯冤滯不平之事夜判陰府是非枉錯文案兼管隨朝三品以上官人衣飯禄料及在世居民每嵗分定合有衣食之禄至後唐明宗朝天天成元年贈為神君增福相公

==蒿里相公==
蒿里趙相公者乃長安蒿里村人也世本農桑耕鋤為業公習科斈登第為人鯁直旡私累陳諫事不聽公乃觸階而死郡人立其祠今在長安西二十里有墳亦在至唐睿宗延和年封公為直列侯俗呼為相公也

==靈泒侯==
李琚本衛州三用人也周世宗朝為将善騎射於囯有功後因病至重有問疾者甚衆公無別語告衆曰我授山東漆河将軍也言訖公卒焉後人立祠于此至唐玄宗開元年封為靈泒将軍至宋真宗大中祥符八年封為靈泒侯

==鍾馗==
明皇開元講武驪山翠華還宮上不悅因痁疾作晝夢一小鬼衣絳犢鼻跣一足履一足腰懸一搢一筠扇盗太真繍香囊及上玉笛繞殿奔戯上前上叱問之小鬼奏曰虚者望空虚中盗人物如戯耗即耗人家喜事或處上怒欲呼武士俄見一大鬼頂破帽衣藍袍繫角帶起䩔朝靴徑捉小鬼先刳其目然後擘而啖之上問大者爾何人也奏云臣鍾南山進士鍾馗也因武徳中應舉不捷羞㱕故里觸殿階而死是時奉旨賜緑袍以塟之感恩祭祀與我主除天下虚耗妖孽之事言訖夢覺痁疾頃瘳乃詔畫工呉道子曰試與朕如夢圖道子奉旨恍若有覩立筆成圖

卷四

==神茶欝壘==
東海度朔山有大桃樹蟠屈三千里其卑枝向東北曰鬼門萬鬼出入也有二神一曰神茶一曰欝壘主閱領衆鬼之出入者執以飼虎於是黄帝法而象之因立桃板於門户上畫神茶欝壘以禦凶鬼此門桃板之制也 盖其起自黄帝故今世畫神像於板上猶於其下書左神茶右欝壘以除日置之門户也

==五瘟使者==
昔隋文帝開皇十一年六月内有五力士現於凌空三五丈於身披五色袍各執一物一人執杓子并𤮴子一人執皮袋并劍一人執扇一人執鎚一人執火壺帝問太史居仁曰此何神主何災福也張居仁奏曰此是五方力士在天上為五鬼在地為五瘟名曰五瘟春瘟張元伯夏瘟劉元達秋瘟趙公明冬瘟鍾仕貴搃管中瘟史文業如現之者主國民有瘟疫之疾此為天行時病也帝曰何以治之而得免矣張居仁曰此行病者乃天之降疾無法而治之於是其年國人病死者甚衆是時帝乃立祠於六月二十七日詔封五方力士為将軍青袍力士封為顕聖将軍紅袍力士封為顕應将軍白袍力士封為感應将軍黒袍力士封為感成将軍黃袍力士封為感威将軍隋唐皆用五月五日之后

匡阜真人遊至此祠即收伏五瘟神為部将也

==司命竈神==
按酉陽雜俎云竈神姓張名单字子郭状如美女夫人字卿忌有六女皆名察即六癸女也白人罪状大者奪紀二三百日小者奪筭二一百日故為天地督使下為地精己丑日二出卯時上天禺中下行署此日祭得福其属神有天地嬌孫天地大夫天地都尉天地長兄硎上童子突上紫官君大和君王池夫人凡治竈於屋中央口向西竈四邊令去釜九寸以塼及細土構之立亦勿令穿柝神竈之法也竈神以壬子日死不可用此日治竈當以五月辰日猪頭祭竈令人治生萬倍用犬祭竈凶敗雞毛入竈中至非禍犬骨入灶出狂子正月己巳日白雞祭竈宜蚕五月己丑日祭竈吉四月丁已日祭竈主百事大吉之兆

==福神==
福神者本道州刺史楊公諱成字昔漢武帝爱道州矮民以為宫奴玩戯其道州民生男選揀侏儒好者每嵗不下貢数百人使公孫父母與子生别有刺史楊公守郡以表奏聞天子云臣按五典本土只有矮民無矮奴也武帝感悟省之自後更不復取其郡人立祠繪像供養以為本州福神也後天下士庶黎民皆繪像敬之以為福禄神也

==五盗将軍==
世畧曰五盗将軍者即宋廃帝永光年間五盗寇也於一方之地作乱為盗后於景和年帝遣大将張洪破而殺之于新封縣之北其五人又作怪盗于此祭之者皆呼為五盗将軍也 杜平 李思 任安 孫立 耿彦正

==紫姑神==
紫姑神者乃萊陽縣人也姓何名媚字麗卿自幼讀書办利于唐垂拱三年寿陽刺史李景納為妾其妻姤之遂陰殺之於厠自此始也紫姑神死於正月十五日故顕靈於正月也

==五方之神==
武王伐紂都洛邑天大雨雪甲子朔五神車騎止王門之外欲詣武王王曰諸神各有名乎軍師姜尚稱之尚父荅曰南海之神名祝融北海之神名玄冥東海之神名勾芒西海之神名蓐收河伯馮修使謁者以名召之神皆驚而見武王王曰何以教之神曰天伐殷立周謹來受命各奉其使武王曰子嵗時无廃礼焉按傳共工氏子曰尤主社為后土神少昊子曰重主木為勾芒神顓頊子黎主火為祝融神少昊第二子該主金為蓐收神少昊第三子熈主水為玄冥之神也

==南華荘生==
荘子本姬姓名周因先世宗父名暘楚荘王第三子也封睢州蒙縣為下楚父暘恬退養髙雖貴倨而未有也夫人若敖氏生子志羊弱冠力于儒林無冠冕志妻閭氏續因平王伍子胥之难更姓以楚荘之荘為荘姓愿子孫無忘乃祖意也乃隱姓名雜處于蒙縣之陽随父母雙亡居喪以礼昭王聞其賢而聘之羊乃身負耟妻持筐又遷于蒙成之東生在荘周々與妻王氏躬耕鑿妻紡績日覌魚詢友為樂夜討黄廷経卷及南華経卷遺世周以放達為宏規以全真為内事柳盗蹠聞之不犯其門却孫武之金而不受逃赧王之聘而不起前妻野死哭而不哀次妻憂死歌而不哭遊秦関而師老聃受仙丹而㸃骷髅南遊汨羅而會閶闔大夫于龍王之殿東遊瀛海而覔周太史于弅山之陽秦蹇叔棄令尹而相從于羽化長荘士叩秦関而覔父于仙臺廣成子之為契尹寄生之為遊萬花谷中採薬不徑岩上寃丹指㸃三男仕籍㸃化妻骸以返陽登層岩而感蝴蝶之梦思人生如梦踞虎豹而嘆覌魚之楽舊事如新既而臨雲海以思故鄉之遊子由子南棊輩分襟永决反故土而聚骨肉之欣荘業荘覌荘六輩携手帰仙

滿門雲水為家瀛州上明月為朋老君以其徒之與有道也述其首末以聞于

天帝封為恊天翊運全真保氣護國庇民慈惠無量大徳玄帥

==觀音菩薩==
觀音乃鷲𡽹孤竹國祗树園施勤長者第三子施善化身來生於北闕國中父妙荘王姓婆名伽母伯牙氏曩者父母以無嗣故祝于西岳香山寺天帝以其父子好殺故奪其嗣而與之女長曰妙清次曰妙音三曰妙善惟妙善生時異香滿座霞光遍室幼而聰達便欲了人間事至九嵗力阻父命誓不成𡛸後因長次二女招及二郎俱不當肯父乃強妙善畢偶無柰善何始禁于後園中善守净彌篤再捨入汝州龍樹縣白雀寺為妮暗命僧頭夷優寺化喻弗從乃阨以苦行妙善朝吸水暮聽釋晨焚掃書柴炊毫無难色誠感天使三千八部天龍持護伽藍掃地東海天王掃厨六丁上香遊奕㸃燭伽雀進茶飛猿進菜白虎𠾑柴飛瓊毛嫱滋花八洞神仙献菓夜々中風雷喧嚇鬼神走動衆妮惧而復命于父々遣五城兵馬忽必力驅兵園寺焚之而妙善口叩靈山世尊歯嚙玉指噴血成紅両滅火救寺五百僧咸無恙焉必力再火再息三火三息無奈奏聞父怒命必力綑押妙善入法塲陰以母肯救之盖深爱三女之慈順欲其完聚成婚以攝國政也殊意妙善色不変而志愈堅乃囚以冷宫日夜宫娥父母苦勸妙善不聽反失語激父々大怒立賜必力斬訖土神忙奏玉帝賜以紅光罩體刀砍刀断鎗刺鎗截乃賜紅羅絞死彼時一虎跳入負屍而去父曰不孝兒當得悪報盖不知天使猛虎負善入於黑松林中正所以完善之果念也第善一時昏夢真靈妖妖杳〻不知去處一童子手執幢幡請曰閻君有命迓公主耳善曰何曰聞公主大慈惠十王躬候于歩天橋善如命只見鬼門関上牛首跪門夜丫秉燭鉄頭掃途入見一剮割獄刑問之曰以罰不忠不孝者流見一舂磨刑曰以罰賎五穀草管生物者流見一柱銅鍋刑曰以此待豪強也善曰法網何密曰奚啻於是目今獄有刀林以刑以報過口業者氷床以報恣耳目者有抉目括舌刑以報唆呪者又有抽腸刑以報腹劍舌劍者以至推人於穽者以奈河報以笞士女者以鞭鎚報以大壓小者以石壓繒繳禽獸者以虎蛇報以生前過富貴者餓鬼報以籠絡人者以鎗報諸獄果報不可勝数殊謂天眼之不昭〻而冥々可漏網耶已而諸地王閻長接于金橋之上绵盖經朦紫雲佈地玉輦相迎歌女侍側善謝之曰妾否徳敢辱寵招諸王曰聞大慈悲愿侍経筵少啟萬一善曰阿彌善哉々々殊意合手一誦而天花亂墜地擁金蓮鉄獄銅枷盡為齊粉而八千餘部之地獄悉空矣凡諸造業者皆脫離地獄歩天堂焉時諸判官奏曰有陽即陰有善即有愿非地獄也何以待𠒋人則 陽間造悪者将何以警那此補陽化之所不及未可少也爾來大慈悲説法而地獄頺矣似此久留則鐵無堅獄天帝聞之有責至矣急請邀反陽也諸閻車送于孟婆亭而别命獄卒引至黑松林還魂善醒曰吾已昇天界矣奈何復至此乎沉吟芳草不知去向已而釋伽如來駕雲和南而揖因戯之曰草蘆中堪容並你吾與聊生也善曰柰何以披毛之語凟我耶釋曰戯女心且堅矣愿帶徃香山可乎善不荅曰非别吾釋迦是也特示女去䖏善稽首稱謝曰何處曰越國南海中間普陀岩是女去處吾代呼地龍化一座蓮臺度洋而过于是白虎為之咬木加藍推開福地八部龍王日夜湧潮四部天王為之柱石善坐普陀岩九載功成割手目以救父病持壷甘露以生萬民左善才為之普照右龍女為之廣徳感一家骨肉而為之修行普昇天界

玉帝見其福力遍大千神應通三界遂從老君妙楽之奏封為

大慈大悲救苦救难南無靈感覌世音菩薩賜宝蓮花座為

南海普陀岩之主賜

父妙荘王為善勝仙官

母伯牙氏為勸善菩薩

大姐妙清為大善文殊菩薩青獅騎座

次姐妙音為大善普賢菩薩白象騎座

==王元帥==
襄陽洛里姓王名悪字東誠父諱臣早逝母邵氏遺胎而生帥于貞覌時丙申年七月庚申日申時帥幼孤不讀有膂力性刚暴質直市中有不平者直與分憂鋤硬撻橫國人服其公且其武第多執性不容人分曲直故含恩者衆而仇之不盡泯焉時扶風内名黑虎者與帥同姓遂借其威名強淫人之室女凡殊姿者先搂而後嫁謂之試先紅莫敢誰何後帥聞其冒余醜也怒殺之鄉儔與貭於廷帥不跪官枉之而犴焉帥髮倒豎曰污塗留他則甚余一一殲之以除民害闊歩摳衣而上官惧唯々曰衆隸胥等逢拽力救而釋之得無恙遂至荆襄間有古庿為江恠所占顕靈本方里逓年六月六日會主俻牛羊猪各十牢酒十釀免瘟否則人物流血而疫逓會貧苦者幾至鬻男女以徇之悲声盈耳帥悪而燒之廟像両燼恠風大作適值薩真人托薬救瘟以來遂作法反風而滅妖境籍以安諸土主述事以奏

玉帝敕封谿洛王元帥錫金印如斗内篆赤心忠良四字管天下都社令凡有方士奏入者雷厲風行察有大过者立搥之官民不敢少干以私第帥多在天門用事不諳人民隱伏兼以性烈一承天命即拘其冤令人骨悚世人勿犯之可也

==謝天君==
天君姓謝諱仕荣字雷行于貞覌初一輪火光如斗直射入山東火熖山界謝恩其父韓其母也帥性烈貌悪不屈於豪亦不敗于法為山陰令時寮東役督司以催科故嚇帥以千金帥密拾其賍报督怒之無從也因責以苦辯諸若水銀盔甲帥以錫餙者應勒以鼓革牛膠帥以敗蔽敗甲為膠而皮者為甲鼓奏進督害之不足又申以将才陰䧟以把隘帥即夜率数兵以襲砍而塞虜心賊又乗敗以襲我虚帥又先移塞以伏弩侍之竟保無虞盖役愈苦而才愈辯事愈險而功愈奇赤心烈節炳于天日誠不虚

玉帝之寵於耳目臣也宜受聀于火徳天君执金鞭架火輪頭頂道冠以司亢陽之令

==大奶夫人==
昔陳四夫人祖居福州府羅源縣下渡人也父諫議𧫛拜户部郎中母葛氏兄陳二相義兄陳海清嘉興元年蛇母興災吃人占古田縣之靈気穴洞於臨水村中鄉人已立廟祀以安其靈逓年重陽買童男童女二人以賽其私愿耳遂不為害時覌音菩薩赴会帰南海忽見福州悪気冲天乃剪一指甲化作金光一道直透陳長者葛氏投胎時生於大暦元年甲寅嵗正月十五日寅時誕聖瑞氣祥光單躰異香繞闥金鼓声若有群仙護送而進者因諱進姑兄二相曾授異人口術瑜珈大教正法神通三界上動天将下驅陰兵威力無邊遍勑良民行至古田臨水村正值輪祭会首黄三居士供享心悪其妖思靖其害不忍以無辜之穉啖命于茶毒之口敬請二相行法破之奈為海清酒醉填差文券時刻以致天兵陰兵未應悞及二相為毒気所吸適得瑜仙顕靈憑空擲下金鍾罩覆仙風所照邪不能近兄不得脫耳進姑年方十七哭念同気一糸匍徃閭山斈法洞王女即法師傳度驅雷破廟罡法打破蛇洞取兄斬妖殊料蛇禀天宿赤翼之精金鍾生気之靈與天俱盡豈能歿得第殺其毒不敢肆耳至今八月十三起乃蛇宿管度多興風雨霖雹暴至傷民稼穡蛟妖出沒此其証 也後唐王皇后分娩艰难幾至危殆妳乃法到宫以法催下太子宫娥奏知唐王大悅敕封都天鎮囯顕應崇福順意大奶夫人建廟于古田以鎮蛇母不得為害也聖母大造于民如此法大行于世專保童男童女催生護幼妖不為災良以蛇不盡殲故自誓曰女能布悪吾能行香普勑今人遂沿其故事而宗行之法多騐焉

圣父威相公 聖母葛氏夫人

圣兄陳二相公 聖姊威靈林九夫人{九月初九日生}

圣妹海口破廟李三夫人{八月十五日生}

助娘破廟張蕭刘連四大聖者 銅馬沙王

五猖大将 催生聖毋 破產靈童

二帝将軍

==天妃娘娘==
妃林姓舊在興化路寕海鎮即莆田縣治八十里濱海湄洲地也母陳氏嘗夢南海覌音与以優鉢花吞之已而孕十四月始免身得妃以唐天寶元年三月二十三日誕々之日異香聞里許経旬不散幼而頴異甫週嵗在襁褓中見諸神像乂手作欲拜状五嵗能誦覌音経十一歲能婆娑按節楽神如會稽呉望子蒋子文事然以衣冠族不欲得此聲于里閈間即妃亦且韜迹用晦櫛休自嘆而已兄弟四人業商徃來海島間忽一日妃手足若有所失瞑目移時父母以為暴風疾急呼之妃醒而悔曰何不使我保全兄弟旡恙乎父母不觧其意亦不之問暨兄弟贏勝而歸哭言前三日颶風大作巨浪接天弟兄各異船其長兄船飄沒水中耳且各言當風作之時見一女子牽五两{舡蓬桅索也}而行渡波濤若平地父母始知妃向之瞑目乃出元神救弟兄也其長兄不得救者以其呼之疾而神不及護也懊恨無已年及笄誓不適人即父母亦不敢強其醮居無何儼然端坐而逝芳香聞数里亦猶誕之日焉自是徃徃見神於先後人亦多見其輿從侍女擬西王母云然尤善司孕嗣一邑共奉之邑有某婦醮于人十年不字万方高禖終無有意者卒禱於妃即產男子嗣是凡有不育者随禱随應至宋路允廸李富從中貴人使髙麗道湄洲颶風作船幾覆溺忽明霞散綺見有人登檣竿旋舞持柁甚力久之獲安济中貴人詰于衆允廸李富具列对南面謝拜曰夫此金簡玉書所不鯨鯢腹而能宣雨露於殊方重譯之地保君綸不辱命者聖明力哉亦妃之靈呵護不浅也公等誌之还朝具奏詔封靈惠夫人立廟於湄洲致守香火百家斵樸梓材丹臒張矣我 國初

成祖文皇帝七年中貴人鄭和通西南夷禱妃廟徵應如宋歸命遂敕封護國庇民妙靈昭應弘仁普済天妃賜祠京師日尸祝者遍天下焉夫妃生而稟純靈之精懷神妙之慧死而司胤無闕司海則海則水不揚波其造福於人豈浅鮮哉余嘗考之興化郡詩併採之費鼂采碑記因畧為之傳者如此

==混炁龐元帥==
帥姓龐名喬字長清漢江渡口父龎定母姚氏生於漢献初癸丑年十一月癸亥日丑時世雖駕心行菩提待凡徃來客旡不平等一夕客重陽日夜渡㱕急頓遺百金於舡次日泣而訢其情帥出其封帖如也客願委一不受又除夕前二日幼媍孤行晚告以渡柰一日雪禁無有行者氏無處帥留之而火其鬻其食凛然尺寸清冽次日雪愈其人踪絕矣又次日帥忙于應接其父披蓑揭竽而渡媍從之至岸而反江風大作舤掀而渡覆矣帥見而忙跳遊于波随逝随沒势若浮梗直至父處深入而負之至崖而力竭矣無如狂瀾者何則帥沒而父亦堕矣帥失媍在復俱沒負之以出如是者三盖除夕時鬼夜出沒呌寃取替乃帥固一六之精以坎為府麻沸濤不能俾之殆而向所渡之氏者非他迺自在覌音化身佛也以故父亦無恙第帥已出險方嗚々然抱父以泣而数十鬼泣曰余今年當取代無柰為孝子所攘予無輪廻日矣帥聞而鞭之不獲明日又如是泣陰風䬃々出鬼哭慘人呪父以赢弱之貭蹈于薄滂之後其幾死者屡矣帥不得已以香塵貼于掌中以火薰其上祝于天而

玉帝聞而怜之敕為混炁元帥手執金刀惟天門之出入是命以降陰魔除陽惡秋毫不爽

==李元帥==
帥諱封乃南海上飛航𢽉也素剛直絕膂力因鄰有不戴天之寃者帥不平而殺之逃于海神庙中遇五鬼咀嚼又入曰天神到了也帥曰汝何有知曰予等奉神龍命愿為除水恠焉當以金刀贖随于地窖取刀而化帥曰異哉亦奇遇也倏爾顆賊牽羊醞醮神帥擒降之跳艛而入啟其中皆美男女珠宝等類帥命盡釋之錫金玉遣因誓其醜曰女無刼徃来商宦客無刼民間女而專擊倭與寇之民害者聴衆唯々一日操艇于洋一巨恠翻風捲浪而起帥不知為江豕也曰之豈神命者耶跳浪而刳之涉洋如歩沙渚已而黑䬃倒旋驚涛騰空飛花濺天中隱逆鱗而剌鬣象嘴而牛鼻身巨如山一尾九火有餘状如山川之尾盖鱷也傍子十数尾奇鱗異族交翼如黑雲然帥曰前而非也飛而入立其背直刺而出並戮其子與及其餘風浪頃息若平江焉夜神謝曰女功槎客無涯矣余當白之玉帝以酬萬一玉帝乃敕為元帥李先鋒之聀委二将軍為翼帥盖生於錦江口隋帝壬午年五月五日午時托胎於李芳之妻孫氏云

==劉天君==
雜記傳曰帥諱後東晋人也生於岷江漁渡中嵗坎庚子八月十二日酉時母謝氏取水于江而帥匍入于波心得浮槎近傍而済其父刘福公掉而迎之曰何異也而幸不死適貧送于羅真人為侍讀因精于五雷掌訣招風捉雨隨叩響應済民助囯環堵之民議祀之帥曰是為名也而逃之民書徳因壇其字而脩焚祈祝于其間一如所祷捷于浮殸継而東京大旱上蒿目而耳之嗟咨遍編户焉且曰惟禱于刘君之祠必荅所視上從之果訓靈焉時秋大穩帝悅而敕之為

玄化慈済真君焉

王帝而亦以其敕者

敕之以掌王府事

==王高二元帥==
野史傳曰王諱鉄高諱銅王生榕城之南高產薊雍之北二帥各遊仕于中夏而相与遇于覊洛至握手歡焉審其嵗皆周厉時壬戌季冬月廿八日晡時遂盟以金蘭不同気而親若一乳時二帥皆仕于韓王力諫而不聽也欲去之髙曰女行塞吾何楽也竟棄之而偕徃終不祿焉一日高出也王詢之人曰逕南嶺焉王驚曰虎穴也伊何之以刃迎之人止之曰生死以之也直行而若無有状乃高反而咨王之去住人曰為女过南嶺矣王奔之人亦止之曰為予行也而敢後也乃高不遇虎而王遇之王曰小䖝将吾友何之力殺之已而高返王迎之曰吾以女死于虎口髙曰非也余覔女路值柳盗跖以為子受擒于彼手刃虎戦而捉之竟言未有獲女也而返二人欣然携手而㱕人曰真銅鐵友也凡事当類此玉帝以為猛獸不能携其心也遂二帥因封為虎丘長以示訓

==田華畢元帥==
東鄉間姓田名華者乃正東二七神也雷藏地中寄胎於田間千年石乳鍾氣而生誕時白晝憑空霹靂火光照天風雨驟至帥膝坐大蛇圍其外群蜂哺英以喘至長遂因田為田指蓽為畢脩鍊于漉瀘岩下時女媧氏五色土補天百計不成帥助木火之精霹碎玄精之石髓嘘噀南之氣𪺉曙鑄之治聲吼天地乃塞天漏又鍊五色火雹風雷陣上助軒轅擊死蚩尤軒轅氏拜以龍師之聀帥曰余方以外人豈以碌々自損拂衣而隱于華胥之境因名華焉厥至有唐氏十日并出赤土千里衆星官喻以代天工司者帝震蛰起滞為天地立心洪爐造命乃奉帝旨駕雷車擁電旆雲路風馳日月秉燭官騎龍尾臣箕翼是時雨暘時焉流及漢末妖魔縱橫奸淫百出

玉帝封以雷門畢元帥之聀敕掌十二雷庭輔

玄天上帝誅瘟役鬼上管天地潦涸下糾群魅出沒中擊不仁不義等輩

==田吕元帥==
吕元帥之父乃蒼龍之精帥其子也昔蒼龍為慈済真君所逐隱入西蜀黃沙洞暗窺龎氏美文而妻焉半載有寄真君覔至而尤化乃氏亦驚匿於田中真君飛劔指龐氏之腹而胎落固孩身而龍首也爾時雷雨暴至夫謂見龍在田非耶真君旣逼其父不忍破其胎以及其子也育撫之因田其姓雨其諱也六嵗時送徒于張真人帳下日侍不倦因表而字之曰全靈自張真人歩虚後而帳與天雷令等法不俱焉帥竊覿以心帥之倣錄于紫華山中忽然思身所出之原弗得也老道士誡之曰而翁元金之貭而母則隴右老嫗而隻瞑是也帥泣負而事之服劳不倦不数載咨母所以别父之故乃母云々帥日夜思之曰此一行也雖而父不法之過而真君以逼父於何䖏䧟母仳离于何歸足恨也自思不報非孝也有恨不洩不武也行而不断非夫也伊何人斯挟術而刼而父而亦何不磬所斈而雪父耻耶遂突起而裂帳為旗折竿為戚噴水為霧擊令為雷憑虚而行于太虚中遍詢真君行藏正值十二小妖截路空亡帥怒展旗幔于帳已而與戦不觧

玉帝親召而帥之曰真君為民除害弗可妖仇也十二空亡不可刃也其與帥釋其恨而愿随鞭鞞於三界行在以降妖幔邪元帥之聀因而以左執雷令右執黄旄而上列於負屏之左

卷五

==黨元帥==
帥懐州人澄深精研第貌黑而心不黑内不庇親外不避仇任晋昭察使時留刑無定惟人所入上任見下任奸帥獨平心不照兼以亷明真偽如見犴廷無冤獄下民無怨辭三載中而閭謡之曰黨不黨見五臟案臨籍秉天日黑判官人鬼泣何家宰相民考妣盖黨其姓黑其貌歸藉者其諱而何其翁之諱也故曰何家宰相母陳氏生帥于元祐丁未年九月丁卯日未時主時人見有二三十兒童旗旛蔽路鼓樂沿堤扛一小兒以來人問之荅曰一路福星也享壽九十七

玉帝封之帥以蒺黎槌掌考校察天下悪過焉

==石元帥==
野録曰帥相溪人氏諱神毓於周宣王七年三月初四日申時々風雨驟至龍掛冥表鄉人號乃父文甫若母韓氏曰阿兒龍種也夫帥性敏净長遊関中受業於関尹子結廬於眉山之陽適當令赤土千里百木黄落鱗不得尺水以鼓其鬣樵叟輩袒肩汗顔相與聚訴于廬曰周于黎民靡有孑遺帥愀然不曰愧不龍耳彼蠢茲若虺若蛇且以伸蛰揚波吐氣成雲為天下作甘霖柰何含淳而且不及一焉則丘稗而牛唾足恨也抑鬱而思曰昔有葉林之禱何為也哉夫非剪爪髡髮者乎惟誠動天亦弗誠耳遂沐浴更衣明馨于爐薦虔於盂再拜而祝民從之倏雨漓驟至彯地滿三尺殊憶帥之再拜不起而不知其化矣已而行人報曰帥乘馬東行旄儀羽檄族擁百餘謂從者曰為我謝諸而輩也余奉

玉帝敕莫能留耳幸勿予責

上帝封為五雷之長典威福擊伐事

==副應元帥==
帥性嚴整目不瞬而心匪石不假人顔色幼科不第而苦志厲行於山僻間夜有九尾狐精托幼婉行状叩扉以入献百媚以求一盼帥讀而然啓朱唇以求一售帥讀而然次日敲牎低語帥閉户而已妖以色不迷恠可駭遂幻為魑鈴眼而螺角龍唇而虎口乾柴身巨人履足踏于几手抬于榱火熖眼鼻如噴帥色不変乃坐而言曰女非夜半之啓門自献者耶何嚇余耶余豈而嚇者耶遂以所㸃易之硃以擲之妖歛形作丫環而謝曰君天神也異日天詔為竟察魔帥幸宥婢愆帥曰女洗而行可矣嬙歛衽而退已而

玉帝降旨迎帥授以金鑑糾邦之聀帥盖泰山下人氏副賀公之遺脉母歐陽氏萃中嶽之秀而降凡于乾符九年壬寅年壬寅月壬寅日寅時帥别號泰宇

==槃瓠==
槃瓠狗神今長沙武陵蛮之祖廟在盧溪縣之武山按髙辛氏有犬戎患募能得犬戎呉将軍頭者妻以少女時帝有畜狗名曰槃瓠遂入山啣人首闕下果吳将軍頭也帝大喜犬槃瓠畜類不可妻欲他報之女聞以為信不可失請行帝不得已從之槃瓠得女負入南山石室中踰三年生六男六女分為六姓藍胡侯盤余竹至今廣福近海有之俗名余客槃瓠死男女自相婚配母㱕以状白帝使迎置諸子衣裳爛斑言語侏𠌯其後滋蔓今武陵蛮是也至今土俗不食犬肉廟有威靈也

==楊元帥==
凡帥也楊帥特以地袛授之何曰寵異也何寵異日以帥能為后衹任耳目也曰手執武士何故曰后祇為方澤承青帝行天道操堅凝以尸其出迎夬逅以尸其入于時為凉於数爲逆于氣為藏持粛殺握秋霜惟帥則武力執武士以殺為威掣人之所不能掣此則上帝所以敕帥之意也曰将安効勤曰下察五方之㐫穢幽按十二閻君之橫縱陽糾人間囹圄之曲直隂鑑海嶽之魅魑為隤府碙門之長至巨任也然則帥何脩以至此曰守法耳帥時任漢廷尉長案盗主玩器者以賍究帝欲廷殺之不聽案以妄倖侮官像者以笞殺帝以賫赦之而不聽案三老中之賍吏者臺臣以勢請之而不顧案故友以撓法罷者賄以千金而不瞬目日汝汚累欲人共分謗耶凡此其大較也夫帥勇力精進久若慈雖與共楊州事察人鬼断㐫頑校牛頭馬首之関剖岩林水國之藏無不可然帥生時鄰驚喴有飛虎至者已而楊公家婆徐氏毓帥於庚申年十月十六日亥時焉此則帥諱名彪之意而人豪杰如此

==高元帥==
帥受炁於始元太乙之精托胎於蒼州髙春公家母梅氏甲子年十一月甲子日子時生下一團火光曜日父母以為恠投之江藥師天尊抱之為徒貌如冠玉法名員授仙剤以遊世凡猿劈腦{猿遭弹求醫帥破馿}蛇破胎{帥破出之}鶴完頂{鶴頂䧟帝以蟆蝉等頭以起之}虎硬喉{遭蝉蜍毒帥以蛇骨化之}諸奇症随手安痊適遇一仙木樗腹而腰口血水瀝々不止帥怜而補之仍以瓊花之露及天合之皮而孔如天然不意神虫死其中也乃托于人言曰信而術亦大造中之生々人也汝能去病于肘腋随甲之下以活世耶曰可即制以灸鬼之法以済曰東南一古栢女生之乎曰可以覌音净壷甘露滋之而萌生曰西北一腹裂者女合之乎曰可即以去痛之藥調以神水咒易以腹腸蒙以生肌之散而痊曰今士大夫之家乏姙文胎之乎曰可即以紫英陽起等石継以寄生神散密推化生神符神虫思無以窮其投者密以金蚕殺氏謂帥曰今如何夫醫一生即殺数草是活一而枯百也况胎孕乃權于天汝欲以命扭是未必生而傷一死也汝何能全予托命于抱樗之中彼非有死機也亦何頼于女而強醫之欝予以死彼未徳而余之何仇女亦得以普済之仁両無偏耶帥語塞而嘆曰信不能兼也女與媍両以醫死諸在々感徳枯謝之遂和以回生之術両甦之遍遊于方内外生之甚衆

玉帝憫其為仁亦苦矣以為足為帝之心為物造命者遂封以

九天降生髙元帥之聀

==靈官馬元帥==
詳老帥之始終凡三顕聖焉原是至妙吉祥化身如來以其滅焦火鬼墳有傷於慈也而降之凡遂以五團火光投胎于馬氏金母面露三眼因諱三眼靈光生下三日能戦斬東海龍王以除水孽継以盗紫微大帝金鎗而寄靈于火魔王公主為兒手書左靈右耀復名靈耀而受業於太惠盡慈妙樂天尊訓以天書凡風雷龍蛇䤋鬼安民之術靡取不精乃授以金磚三角変化無邊遂奉玉帝勑以服風火之神而風輪火輪之使收百加聖母而五百火鴉為之用降烏龍大王而羽之翼斬楊子江龍而福于民屡歷艱險至忠也帝授以左印右劍掌南天事至顕也錫以瓊花之宴金龍太子爲之行酒至寵也殊憶太子傲侮怒帥火燒南天關遍敗天将下走龍宫中戦離婁師曠偕㕥和合二神仍笞金龍以洩其憤至不得已又化為一包胎而五昆玉二婉蘭共產於鬼子母之遺軆又以母故而入地獄走海藏歩靈臺過酆都入鬼洞戦哪吒竊僊桃敵齊天大聖釋佛為之解和至孝也後復入于菩薩座左至慧也玉帝以其功徳齊天地而敕元帥于玄帝部下寵以西方領以荅下民妻財子禄之祝百叩百應雖至巫家寃枉祈禱之宗悉入其卻直奏天門雷勵風行焉

==孚祐温元帥==
帥姓温名瓊字子玉後漢東歐郡人今浙東温州是也世居白石橋祖宗世隱顕父諱望業儒斈明經中科第迺歉於嗣以為非孝也同妻張氏諱偯字道輝禱於后土時夜夢金甲神持巨斧手托一顆明珠以惠張氏云我乃六甲之神玉帝之将欲寄母胎托貭為人母還肯麼張氏諾曰女流無識聖賢顕萃何取方命其神委珠于懷而醒張氏因而含靈一十二月祥雲繞室異香馥座已而誕生於後漢順帝漢安元年辛巳五月五日午時時沐妊姊曰此兒左脇有符文二十四篆右脇有文符十六篆人莫能識已而隱其朱畫乃以其所夢神惠玉環名之曰瓊字子玉幼而神明七嵗斈歩天星十歲通儒經傳子史天文等靡所不通十九嵗科第不中二十六嵗明經射策亦不中忽然嘆曰男子漢生不致君澤民死當助帝誅奸滅邪以醻吾志遂畱偈云孝弟為本忠羕為先寛仁容恕立身無偏便脩清浄契合真玄若奉吾道何憂不仙吾随左右呼召立欝抑閒忽見蒼龍堕珠于前卧拾而含之流于腹其蒼龍直舞障日騰金帥扭為環截尾于手突然幻変面青髮赤藍身猱猛簡遊衍坐立英毅勇猛因顕金盟玉字曰有能行吾法誦吾偈者慈惠民物以伐妖精治病驅邪吾當顕應斯言不忘泰山府君聞其威猛召為佐嶽之神積力陰功受

玉帝勅旨封為亢金大神又封為翼靈照武将軍兵馬都部署賜以玉環一握瓊花一朶金牌一面内篆無拘霄漢四篆左手執玉環右手執鉄簡有事出入天門朝奏又奉帝旨令下五嶽為岳府猛将衆神之宗嶽班之首惟帥能拜金闕廵察五嶽累朝封爵血食於温州東嘉之民敬而畏之後王巨宋寧宗年間有嗣漢三十六代天師飛清真人張君始持符召之法役用嶽神而得位十太保之列首温太保之名召之立廟後翼賛云

南嶽道士婁若虚奉南嶽領秩仙公紫虚元君命書于誌

封

東嶽統兵天下都巡檢五嶽上殿奏事急取罪人案玉皇殿前左亢金翊靈照武雷王佑侯温元帥

==朱元帥==
帥姓朱諱彦矢法號為躰元昔胎寄於崑崙山頂毓於癸亥年十月癸亥日時乃六氣之精黑霾四時不散而成形藍青其躰蚕眉巨眼飧霞為乳吸露為漿旣長遂以胎元為袋々人物七日化為鉄水布六氣為六殺神時發陰翳幔空日月無光民無良善並痛其毒天下幾長為混沌世矣爾時玉帝悪其民害也捉殺之帥最袋為雄無不為囊中物者命玄天親譴亦不北坎比躰之故而莫能近盖悪氣逼人也太清助以逍遙扇以扇其妖氛命謝天君以火徳星入其囊以燒其槖帥無能為也帝獲以劍指之曰汝能從我遊无以遍及人也獨於不信道法者以之處囊中焉以警将來吾能受汝元帥之聀以察詆侮聖賢帥唯々受戒乃左金鎚右皂袋而威顕

==張元帥==
山東寧海縣有張姓名純帥乃父也母黄氏梦金甲神而生帥因名徤誕於則天癸卯嵗八月癸卯日酉時帥幼而聦俊長而神清貌似靈官美髭精鑒史由科弟官至刺史深諳人間事耳听政口辨寃筆僉禁立断而民不冤焉且仁直刚羕時上鍾意於年少俊士詔貢以千計選應連花不給之後帥恥之以時多疽疫無中選者報囯人頼以安焉作生祠而祀之

玉帝以為不曲不阿忠之属也且才辨于給徤之属也直以飛揵報應之聀帥之以共天門寄心膂又褒以盡忠錫以瘟槌加以二郎金盔以兼理痳痘役專以保童為司命之官也作福者詳之

==辛興茍元帥==
古雍州界地有神雷山至驚蟄時雷氣發揚于二月為卯於令為震雷門布鼓之神威氣閃赫無物不折至夏秋雷藏地中作鷄状入于谿岩内旹八月雍民新姓名興者字震宇母張氏家貧賣薪以養母至慇苦一日徃雷山采薪計值幽岩中成鷄形者五帥喜心曰可以為進膳資耳竟獲以帰進之母々適餔掇内衣授之納于鷄柵者四随以内衣覆其上而欲烹其一神鷄作人言曰予雷耳不可啖也乞宥一剮之恩嫗弗允則雷霹靂而起母破膽昏跪焉帥賣薪携醴以入抱母屍而哭曰予何極也抑至此邪乃拭淚目其背有金痕曰混一之氣青帝之英威令所加莫予敢攖劈悪誅邪惟吾司命乃知雷也盖泣而訴之昊曰母非悪非邪也胡不以殛邪而殛母耶矧宥天下之為悪者鷄名也遂並柵之雷鷄而搥之乃雷為内衣所掩竟不能震第莫為砕耳英氣冲虚而電雨風霾交至欲下擊状哀其為母故而怜之遂変為道士進而揖曰孝子獨不畏雷而反制雷吾雷神悞以傷而母而母以怨也余等愿惟而所命以謝厥罪因奉十二火丹啖之帥遂易形妖其頭喙其嘴翼其両肩左尖右槌脚踏五鼓而昇化母屍而去天帝感其至孝也迎而封之為

雷門苟元帥與畢帥共五方事徃來行天剪幽明中邪魔鬼悪

==鐵元帥==
維殷末世魔王現世負靈者胎生版蕩于中華恣毒者以幻化嶮巇于谿谷出沒盤結妖帳太虚玉帝聞太乙真人奏詔六丁入胎於石城顏氏之夢有母無父因以鐵為姓而頭其名生于商辛丙午年五月七日寅時帥 幼而武勇氣排山岳膽落天地力倒九牛殺殺烏兎于水頴之陽降火馬于陰山之北殲魔鬼于野火廟中擒妖狐于紫虚楼下浮江亂何截靈蛇玄亀于涿混之渚玄帝方以坎離二業故而闢雲手九天之下正值帥之勇推山海乃踏亀蛇邀帥歩虚以同昇封為猛烈元帥分任玄冥之寄矣

==太嵗殷元帥==
帥者紂王之子也母皇后姜氏一日后遊宮園見地巨人足跡后以足踐之而孕降生帥也肉毬包裸其時生下被王寵爱妃名妲己冒奏王曰正宫產恠王命棄之狹巷牛馬見而不敢践其體王又命投之于郊烏鴉蔽日白鹿供乳適金鼎化身申真人經過但見祥雲靄々紫氣騰々毫光四起真人近而視之乃一肉毬曰此仙胎也将劍剖毬得一嬰児即抱㱕水濂洞求乳母賀仙姑哺而育之法名唫叮呶正名唫哪吒又緑其棄郊之故而乳名殷郊年将七歲同乳母後園遊翫母曰汝非吾子乃紂王子因听信偏妃妲己之言将汝為妖汝母墜楼而死帥感泣竟見真人具道欲報殺母之仇真人曰吾兒年幼不可去也帥堅請去真人日汝果有此愿力報母亦孝思也但即徃天妃八宝洞中取何宝物為使方可前去帥往取黄鋮鉞金鐘而見真人曰取此何也荅曰此物好誅妖昏是時真人口中不語臉帶微笑意許如此只恐年幼不能奮力令徃取兵書訓汝先乗海馬下山收二強人為副帥領命即收贙神鴉将带帰見真人又命再徃掃箒山收得十二強人方可征商帥不知強夥乃十二喪門哭鬼骷髅神帥即徃盡戮之懸首掛頸胸而回真人曰此骨非他也能助陣一敲鬼哭神驚人頭昏悶手軟不戦自退於是指帥助武王而伐紂至牧野率雷震等前鋒顕威殺商士前徒倒戈自戮血流標杵當先趕至摘星楼上正值妲己元是妖雉亡國日迷主精夜吃人血後見紂敗欲顕聖化去被帥威嚇歛形擒見周王命戮妲大挺妖容炫目無忍殺者帥抱忠憤孝義不荒於色劈斧誅之妖散光化道黑烟而沒

玉帝聞有孝義之思又有斬妖之勇遂召勅封

地司九天遊奕使至徳太嵗殺伐威權殷元帥

==斬鬼張真君==
公姓張名廵妻劉氏妾柳氏唐玄宗時進士出身官拜睢陽令遭安禄之変史思明等叠天亂四郊版蕩公負孤城臨機應変不依古法前後三百餘戦百戦百克保障軍中器械無一不取之敵者第公性刚烈每羕發髮竪歯落則見其始以背城奪旗鼓継以艾蒿殺思明收萬矢於東草出奇之際整威武于坐食野戦之場明忠義於泣廟之餘識人倫於天道之頃知将令於雷将軍之時堅士志于殺妾蒸骸之表洩貞義於厲鬼殺賊之詞至今霽将軍噛指于鄰以示信諸軍伍羅雀炙鼠木食而不携然不屈于畔𨒫之逼罵不跪於鋸觧之吁嗟堅貞凛冽曜天射日真古天地一孤忠哉後唐宋歷封為

宝山忠靖景佑福徳真君

==康元帥==
帥負龍馬之精而生於黃河之界父康衢母金氏毓時仁皇炎徳九年真庚申戊寅月庚辰日戊寅時帥生而慈惠不傷胎不折夭不虐孤寡不履生氣雖蟁頑蠢動而䖝蟻者不輕殺焉食以残紅飲以醇漿時有鶴雛為隼所得折翼而下卧收而哺之後鸛含長生草而報公之鄰里蒼生之士處以病者四方謂之能仁聲聞于天〻帝亦以民之所稱者封之曰

仁聖元帥以掌四方都社令焉帥乃左執金斧右執瓜鎚與玉璽相周旋

==風火院田元帥==
帥兄弟三人孟田茍留仲田洪義季田智彪父諱鐫母姓刁諱春喜乃太平囯人氏唐玄宗善音律開元時帥承詔楽師典音律猶善于歌舞鼓一擊而桃李甲笛一㺯而响遏流雲韻一唱而紅梅破綻蕤一調而庶明風起以教玉奴花奴盡善歌舞後侍御宴以酣帝墨塗其面令其歌舞大悅帝顏而去不知所出復縁帝母感恙瞑目間則帥三人翩然歌舞鼙笳交競琶絃索手已而神爽形怡汗焉而醒其疴起矣帝悅有海棠春醒髙燭照紅之句而封之侯爵至漢天帥因治龍宫海藏疫鬼𢔒徉作法治之不得乃請教手帥〻作神舟統百萬兒郎為鼓競奪錦之戯京中謔噪疫鬼出覌助天師法断而送之疾患盡銷至今正月有遺俗焉天師見其神異故立法差以佐玄壇勅和合二仙助顕道法無和以不合無頥恙不觧天師保奏

唐明皇帝封冲天風火院田太尉昭烈侯

田二尉昭佑侯 田三尉昭寕侯

圣父嘉済侯 聖母刁氏縣君 三伯公昭済侯 三伯婆今夫人 竇郭賀三太尉

金花小姐 梅花小娘 勝金小娘

萬回圣僧 和事老人 何公三九承士

都和合潘元帥 天和合梓元帥 地和合柳元帥

斗中楊耿二仙使者 送夢報梦孫喜 青衣童子

十連橋上橋下棚上棚下歓喜耍咲歌舞紅娘粉郎圣衆

岳陽三部兒郎百萬圣衆云〻

==孟元帥==
帥有姓孟名山者仁義孝慈萬古不磨至今賞人心愿者覌其為獄官釋因一事足卜其槩夫囚法所不貸至不可以信義感易知也帥以残冬思親動闤門数百之泣皆切慕親曰而獨無母乎無相見也帥哀其懷膝下想遂泣與囚約囚亦泣與帥約至今冬廿五日而釋来正初五而還果不爽一焉帥遂以為例焉久之私心謂曰囚何斯乃一念思親孝也信而四時義也既信義孝且義可語善矣因戯之曰倘赦行女等復善麽囚泣曰誰而死心耶等輩一悞安肯再悞第所謂囚人虚談耳帥日汝改慮余尽釋之囚泣曰是閻王殿上輪廻耳第予去君奚以脫等以汝活汝且以等死等活不如死帥曰以一死活百人之命何慮焉衆囚皆泣曰君何辜吾死分也夫君寛待以覿而親思莫加焉又為出死以重厥罪夫蝼蟻惟貪生亦奚忍其心至此乎不為也一囚人泣曰君言此徒令人心骨悚耳帥曰真言哉囚𠰸哽而言曰君母為然只此言令人碎身难報也帥聞之亦涕曰予自有脫計衆問之帥曰勿問囚曰誠両全愿听甚勿自苦也皆拜之各漸々而去最祝之曰愿天相吉人無為縲且世其昌乎不意府主滕公知而笞叱之曰八百囚缺一無生還也譴之捕焉帥思曰死何怨弟復命難矣躊蹰久刺鎗于窰自殺凡三踴躍而白兎三倒其鎗忽龎眉者曰上有敕帥恒為府君命也急而出則車馬旗士引焉遥拜

玉帝敕為⿰曹阝都元帥遂後於其帽上加瓊花一朶時帥尚未釋其鎗于手即加黄龍鎗焉乃知封也事聞于府時太府亦申文于上乃

趙國初亦像其廟而加以将軍號焉並賛之曰将軍兮萃廣西之靈仗義兮生八百之蒼黎感諸奴兮畫面以從新義被一方兮皆可封之餘馨恢厥犴兮廣哉乎于空囹厥父其浩兮亦積善之苗裔母郭氏兮紹太姒之蜚音昭彼行兮以礪萬人凡吾民兮無入于徽懲生于戊申八月十二日而沒于庚辰冬也謹并其始終以録

==慧遠禪師==
釋慧遠本姓賈氏鴈門楼煩人也弱而好書随舅令狐氏遊學許洛故少為諸生慱綜六經尤善荘老性度弘偉風鑒明拔雖宿儒英達莫不服其深致年二十一欲度江東就范宣子共契值石虎已死中原寇亂南路阻塞志不獲從時沙門釋道安立寺於太行恒山弘讚像法聲甚張聞遠遂徃歸之一靣盡敬以為真吾師也後聞安講波若經豁然而悟便與弟慧持投簪落䰂{音采}委命受業既入乎道厲然不群常欲緫攝綱維以大法為己任精思諷持以夜續晝貧旅無資緼纊常闕而昆弟恪恭終始不懈有沙門曇翼每給以燈燭之費安公聞而喜曰道士誠知人矣年二十四便就講説嘗有客聼講难實相義徃復移時彌增疑昧遠乃引荘子義為連類於惑者曉然是後安公特聼慧遠不廢俗書安有弟子法遇曇徽皆風才照灼志業清敏並推服焉後随安公南遊樊沔偽秦建元九年秦将符平寇并襄陽道安爲朱序所拘不能得去乃分遣徒衆各随所之皆被誨約遠不蒙一言遠乃跪曰獨無訓勗懼非人例安曰如汝者豈復相憂遠於是與弟子数十人南適荊州住上明寺後欲徃羅浮山及屆潯陽見廬峰清净足以息心始住龍泉精舍此處去水本遠遠乃以杖扣地曰若此中可得栖立當使朽壞抽泉言畢清流涌出浚矣成溪其後少時潯陽亢旱遠諳池側讀海龍王經忽有巨蛇從池上空湏臾大雨遂以有年因號精舍為龍泉寺焉陶侃經鎮廣州有漁於海中見神光每夕豔發經旬彌盛怪以白侃侃徃詳視乃是阿育王像即接㱕以送武昌寒溪寺寺主僧珎嘗徃夏口夜夢寺遭火而此像屋獨有龍神圍遶珎覺馳還寺寺既焚盡唯像屋存焉侃後移鎮以像有威靈遣使迎接数十人舉之至水及上船船又覆沒使者懼而反之竟不能獲及遠創寺既成祈心奉請乃飄然自輕徃還無梗於是率衆行道昏曉不怠釋迦餘化於斯復興自遠卜居廬阜三十餘年影不出山迹不入俗每送客遊履當以虎溪為界以晋义熈十二年八月初三卒春秋八十三

==鳩摩羅什禪師==
鳩摩羅什此云童壽天竺人也善經律論化行於西域及東遊龜茲{音丘慈}龜兹王為造金師子座以處之時符堅僭號関中外國前部王及龜兹王弟並來朝堅堅引見二人說堅云西域多產珎奇請兵徃定以求内附至堅建元十三年正月太史奏云有星見外國分野當有大徳智人入輔中國堅曰朕聞西域有鳩摩羅什将非此耶遣使求之至十八年九月堅遣驍将呂光率兵七萬西伐龜茲臨伐堅䬻光於建章謂曰夫帝王應天而治以子爱蒼生為本豈貪其地而伐之正以懷道之人故也朕聞西域有鳩摩羅什深觧法相善閑陰陽為後斈之宗朕甚思之賢哲者國之大寳若尅龜茲即馳驛送什光軍未至什謂龜茲王白絓曰國運衰矣當勍敵從東方來宜恭承之勿抗其鋒純不從而戦光逆破龜茲殺純立純弟震為主光既獲什載與俱還中路置於山下将士已休什曰不可在此必見狼狽宜徙軍隴上光不納是夜果大雨洪潦暴起水深數丈死者数千光始密而異之什謂光曰此㐫亡之地不宜淹畱推遷揆数應速言㱕中路必有福土可居光從之至凉州聞符堅已為姚萇所害光三軍縞素大臨城南於是竊號関外年稱大安大安二年正月姑臧大風什曰不祥之風當有奸叛然不劳自定也俄而梁燕彭晃相継而反尋亦殄滅至光龍飛二年張掖臨松瀘水胡沮渠男成及弟蒙遜反推建康太守段業為主遺庶子秦州刺史大原公纂率眾五萬討之時論謂業時鳥合纂有威聲勢必全尅光以訪什什曰觀察此行未見其利既而纂敗績於合黎俄又郭黁{奴昆切}作亂纂委大軍輕還為黁所敗僅以身免光中書監張資文章士光甚器之資病光廣求救療有外國道叉自云能差資疾光喜給賜甚重什知叉言詐告資曰叉不能為徒煩費耳冥運雖隱可以事試也乃以五色絲作繩結之燒為灰以投水中灰若出水還成繩者則疾難愈湏更灰聚浮出復繩本形既叉治無效少日資亡頃之光又卒子紹襲位数日光庶子纂殺紹自立稱元咸寧咸寧二年有猪生子一身三頭龍出東廂井中到殿前蟠卧比旦失之纂以為美瑞號大殿為龍翔殿俄而有黑龍升於當陽九宮門號為龍興門什奏曰比日潜龍出遊豕妖表異龍者陰類出入有時而今屡見則為災生必有下人謀上之変宜尅已修徳以答天戒纂不納與什慱戯殺棊曰斮胡奴頭什曰不能斮胡奴頭胡奴将斮人頭此言有旨而纂終不悟光第保有子名超超小字胡奴後果殺纂斬首立其兄隆為主時人方驗什之言也什停凉積年吕光父子既不弘道教故蘊其深觧無所宣化符堅已亡竟不相見及姚萇僭有関中亦挹其高名虚心要請吕以什智慧神觧恐為萇助不許東入及萇卒子興襲位復遣敦請弘始三年三月有樹連理生于廟廷甚茂漸変為茞以為美瑞謂智人應入至五月興遣隴西公碩徳西伐吕隆隆軍大破至九月隆上表㱕降方得迎什入関以其年十二月二十日至長安興待以國師之禮甚見優寵初杯度比丘在彭城聞什在長安乃歎曰吾與此子戯别三百餘年杳然未期遲有遇於來生爾什未終少日覺四哭不寜乃口出三番神呪令外國弟子誦之以自救未及致力轉覺危殆於是力疾與衆僧告別曰因法相遇殊未盡心方復後世惻愴何言自以闇昧謬克傳譯凡所出經論三百餘卷惟十誦一部未及刪繁存其本旨必無差失願凡所宣譯流傳後世咸共弘通今於衆前發誠實誓若所傳無謬者當使焚身之後舌不焦爛以弘始十一年八月二十日卒于長安是歲晋義熙五年也卽於逍遙園依外國法以火焚屍薪滅形碎惟舌不灰爾

卷六

==佛陀耶舎禅師==
佛陀耶舎此云覺名罽賔人婆羅門種世事外道有一沙門從其家乞食其父怒使人打之父遂手脚攣躄不能行止乃問於巫師對曰坐犯賢人鬼神使然也即請此沙門竭誠懺悔数日便瘳因令耶舎出家為其弟子 時年十三常随師遠行於曠野逢虎師欲走避耶舎曰此虎已飽必不侵人俄而虎去前行果見餘㱴師密異之至年十五誦經日記二三萬言所住寺常於外分衛廢於誦習有一羅漢重其聦敏恒乞食供之至年十九 誦大小乗經數百萬言年二十七方受具戒後至沙勒國時國王不豫請僧齋會太子見而悅之請畱宫内供飬羅什後至復從舎受學甚相尊敬後羅什徃龜茲為吕光所執舎停十餘年乃東適龜兹法化甚盛時什在 姑臧遣使要之欲去國人畱之停嵗許後語弟子云吾欲尋羅什可密装衣發勿使人知弟子曰恐明日追至不免復還耳耶舎乃取清水一鉢以薬投中呪数十言與弟子洗足即便夜發比至旦行数百里問弟子曰何 所覺耶答曰唯聞疾風之響眼中淚出耳耶舎又與呪水洗足住息明日國人追之已差数百里不及行達姑臧而什已入長安聞姚興逼以妾媵勸為非法乃歎曰羅什如好綿何可使入棘林中什聞其至姑臧勸姚興 迎之興未納頃之興命什譯出經藏什曰夫弘宣法教宜令文義圓通貧道雖誦其文未善其理唯佛陀耶舎深達幽致今在姑臧願詔徵之一言三詳然後著笔使微言不墜取信千載也興從之即遣使招迎厚加贈遺 悉不受乃笑曰明旨既降便應載馳檀越待士既厚脫如羅什見處信未敢聞命使還具説之興歎其慎重至長安興自出候問别立新省於逍遙園中四事供養並不受時至分衛一食而已耶舎先誦曇無德律偽司隸 校尉姚爽請令出之乃試耶舎令誦羗籍薬方可五萬言經一日執文覆之不誤一字衆服其強記即以弘始十二年譯出四分律凡四十四卷并出長阿含等涼州沙門竺佛念譯為秦言道含筆受至十五年解座興䞋耶舎布絹萬匹悉不受道含佛念布絹各千匹名徳沙門五百人皆重䞋施舎後辭還外國至罽賓得虚空藏經一卷寄賈客傳與涼州諸僧後不知所終

==曇無竭禅師==
釋曇無竭此云法勇姓李氏幽州黄龍人幼為沙彌便修苦行持戒誦經為師僧所重嘗聞法顕等躬践佛國乃慨然有忘身之誓遂以宋永初元年招集同志沙門僧猛等共賫旙盖供養之具遠適西方初至河南國仍出海西郡入流沙到髙昌即經歷龜茲沙勒諸國登愁嶺度雪山進至罽賔國禮拜佛鉢停嵗餘學梵書梵語求得觀世音受記經梵文一部復西行至辛頭那提河縁河西入月氏國禮拜佛肉髻骨及覩自沸水船後至檀特山南石畱寺住僧三百餘人雜三乗學無竭停此寺受大戒復行向中天竹界路既空曠唯賫石蜜為粮雖屡經危棘而繫念所賫觀世音經未嘗蹔廢将至舍衛國中野逢山象一群無竭稱名㱕命即有師子從林中出象驚惶奔走後度恒河復值野牛一群鳴吼而來将欲害人無竭㱕命如初尋有大鷲飛來野牛驚散遂得免之後於南天竺随舶汎海達廣州其所譯出觀世音受記經今傳于京師後不知所終

==佛馱跋陀羅禪師==
佛䭾跋陀羅此云覺賢本姓釋氏迦維羅衛人甘露飯王之苗裔也幼喪父母從祖鳩婆利聞其聦敏兼悼其孤露乃迎還度為沙彌至年十七與同學数人俱以習誦為業衆皆一月賢一日誦畢其師歎曰賢一日敵三十夫也及受具戒修業精懃慱斈群經多所通達少以禅律馳名常與同學僧伽達多共遊罽賔同䖏積載達多雖服其才明而未測其人也後於密室閉户坐禪忽見賢來驚問何來答云蹔至兜率致敬彌勒言訖便隱達多知是聖人未測深浅後屡見賢神変乃敬心祈問方知得不還果常欲遊方弘化備觀風俗會有秦沙門智嚴西至罽賔覩法衆清净乃慨然東顧曰我諸同輩斯有道志而不遇真匠發悟莫由即諮詢國衆孰能流化東土僉云佛䭾跋陀其人也嚴既要請苦至賢遂愍而許焉於是捨衆辭師裹粮東逝歩驟三載綿歷寒暑既度䓗嶺路經六國國主矜其遠化並傾懷資奉至交阯乃附舶循海而行經一島下賢以手指山曰可止於此舶主曰客行惜日調風難遇不可停也行二百餘里忽風轉吹舶還向島下衆人方悟其神咸師事之聽其進止後遇便風同侣皆發賢曰不可動舶主乃止既而有先發者一時覆敗後於闇夜之中忽令衆舶俱発無肯從者賢自起收纜唯一舶獨發俄爾賊至畱者悉被抄害頃之至青州東萊郡聞鳩摩羅什在長安即徃從之什大忻悦共論法相振發玄微多所悟益時秦主姚興專志佛法供養三千餘僧並徃來宮闕盛修人事唯賢守静不與衆同後語弟子云我昨見本鄉有五舶俱發既而弟子傳告外人関中舊僧咸以為顕異惑衆僧道恒等謂曰佛尚不聽說已所得法先言五舶将至虚而無實又門徒誑惑互起同異既於律有違理不同止宜可時去勿得停畱賢曰我身若流萍去畱甚易但恨懷抱未伸以為慨然耳於是與弟子慧觀等四十餘人俱發神志從容初無異色識真之衆咸共歎息道俗送者千有餘人姚興聞去悵快乃謂道恒曰佛賢沙門挾道來遊欲宣遺教緘言未吐良用深慨豈可以一言之咎令萬夫無導因勅令追之賢謂使曰誠知恩旨無預聞命於是率佀宵征南指廬岳沙門釋慧遠久服風名聞至欣喜傾盖若舊遠以賢之被擯過由門人若懸記五舶止說在同意亦於律無犯乃遣弟子曇邕致書姚主及関中衆僧觧其擯事遠乃請出禅数諸經賢志在遊化居無求安住山嵗許復西適江陵遇外國舶主既而訊訪果是天竺五舶先所見者也傾境士庶競來禮事其有奉施悉皆不受持鉢分衛不問豪賎時陳郡袁豹為宋武帝太尉長史宋武南討劉毅豹随府届于江陵賢将弟子慧覌詣豹乞食豹素不敬信待之甚薄未飽辭退豹曰似未足且復少畱賢曰檀越施心有限故今所設已罄豹即呼左右益飯飯果盡豹大慙赧既而問慧覌曰此沙門何如人覌曰徳量高遠非凡所測豹深歎異以啓太尉太尉請與相見甚崇敬之資供備至俄而太尉還都請與俱歸安止道場寺以元嘉六年卒春秋七十有一

==杯渡禪師==
杯渡者不知姓名常乘木杯渡水人因目之初在冀州不修細行神力卓越世莫測其由嘗於北方寄宿一家家有一金像渡竊而将去家主覺而追之見渡徐行走馬逐之不及至于孟津河浮木杯於水憑之渡河不假風棹輕疾如飛俄而及㟁達于京師見時可年四十許帶索繿縷殆不蔽身言語出沒喜怒不均或嚴冰叩凍洗浴或著履上山或徒行入市唯荷一蘆圌{音傳}子更無餘物嘗從延賢寺法意道人䖏意以别房待之後欲徃瓜歩江於江側就航人告渡不肯載之復累足杯中顧盼言詠杯自然流直渡北㟁向廣陵遇村舍李家八關齋先不相識乃直入齋堂而坐置蘆圌於中庭衆以其形陋無恭敬之心李見蘆圌當道欲移置墻邊数人舉不能動渡食竟提之而去笑曰四天王李家于時有一豎子窺其圌中有三小兒並長数寸面目端正衣裳鮮潔於是追覔不知所在後数日乃見在西界蒙龍樹下坐李禮拜請還家百日供養渡不甚持齋飲酒噉肉至於辛鱠與俗無異百家奉上或受不受沛國劉興伯為兖州刺史遣使要之負圌而來興伯使人舉視十餘人不勝伯自看唯見一敗衲及一木杯後還李家復得二十餘日清旦忽云欲得一袈裟中時令辦李即經营至中未成渡云蹔出至暝不返合境聞有異香疑之為怪䖏〻覔渡乃見在北巖下敷敗袈裟於地卧之而死頭前脚後皆生蓮華極鮮香一夕而萎邑共殯塟之後数日有人從北來云見渡負蘆圌行向彭城乃共開棺韡履存焉既至彭城遇有白衣黄欣深信佛法見渡禮拜請還家家至貧但有麥飯而已渡甘之怡然止得半年忽語欣云可覔蘆圌三十六枚吾湏用之答云此間止可有十枚貧無以買恐不盡辦渡曰汝但檢覔宅中應有欣即窮檢果得三十六枚列之庭中雖有其数亦多破敗比欣次第熟視皆已新完渡密封之因語欣令開乃見銭帛皆滿可堪百許萬識者謂是杯渡分身他土所得䞋施廻以施欣欣受之皆為功徳經一年許辭去欣為辦粮食明晨見粮食具存不知渡所在後東遊入呉郡路見釣魚師因就乞魚魚師施一餒者渡手弄反覆還投水游活而去又見網師更從乞漁網師瞋罵不與渡乃拾取两石子擲水中俄而有两水牛𨷵其網中網既碎敗不復見牛渡亦已隱行至松江乃仰盖於水中乗而渡㟁經涉會稽剡縣登天台山数月而返京師少時遊止無定請召或徃不徃時南州有陳家頗有衣食渡徃其家甚見迎奉聞都下復有一杯渡陳父子五人咸不信徃都下看之果如其家杯渡形相一種陳設一合蜜薑及刀子薰陸香手巾等渡即食蜜畺都盡餘物宛在膝前其父子五人恐是其家杯渡即畱二弟停都守視餘三人還家家中杯渡如舊膝前亦有香刀子等但不噉蜜薑為異爾乃語陳云刀子鈍可為磨之二弟還都云彼渡已移靈鷲寺一日忽求黄紙两幅作書書不成字合同其背陳問上人作何券書渡不答竟莫測其然時呉部民朱靈期使高麗還值風舶飄經九日至一洲邊洲上有山山甚高大入山採薪見有人路靈期乃将数人随路告乞行十餘里聞磬聲香烟於是共稱佛禮拜須臾見一寺甚光麗多是七寶莊嚴又見十餘石人乃共禮拜還反行少許聞唱導聲還住更看猶是石人靈期等相謂此是聖僧吾等罪人不能得見因共竭誠懺悔更徃乃見真人為靈期等設食食味是菜而香美不同世食竟共叩頭禮拜乞速還至鄉有一僧云此間去都乃二十餘萬里但令至心不憂不速也因問靈期云識杯渡道人不答言甚識因指北壁有一壺掛錫杖及鉢云此是杯渡住䖏今因君以鉢與之并作書著函中別有一青竹杖語靈期云但擲此杖置舫前水中開船静坐不假勞力必令速去於是辭别令一沙彌送至門上語云此道去行十里至船不須從先路去也如言西轉行七里許至船即具如所示唯開舫從山頂樹木上過都不見水經三日至石頭淮而住亦不復見竹杖所在舫入淮至朱雀乃見杯渡騎大航蘭以捶捶之曰馬馬何不行觀者甚多靈期等在舫遥禮之渡乃自下舫取書并鉢開書視之字無人識者渡大笑曰使我還耶取鉢擲雲中還接之曰我不見此鉢四千年矣渡多在征賢寺法意處時世以此鉢異物競徃觀之有庾常婢偷物而叛四追不擒乃問杯渡云已死在金城江邊空塚中徃看果如所言孔甯子時為黄門侍郎在家患痢遣信請渡渡呪竟云難差見有四鬼皆被傷截甯子泣曰昔孫恩作亂家為軍人所破二親及叔皆被痛酷甯子果死又有齊諧妻胡母氏病衆治不愈後請僧設齋齋座有僧勸迎杯渡既至一呪病者即愈齊諧伏事為師因作傳記其從來神異不可備記元嘉三年九月辭諧入東畱一萬銭物寄諧倩為營齋於是別去行至赤山湖患病而死諧即為營齋并接屍還塟建康覆舟山至四年有呉興卲信者甚奉法遇傷寒病無人敢看乃悲泣念覌音忽見一僧來云是杯渡弟子語云莫憂家師尋來相看答云渡死已久何容得來道人云來復何難便衣带頭出一合許散與服之病即差又有杜僧哀者住在南崗下昔經伏事杯渡兒病甚篤乃思念恨不得渡與念神呪明日忽見渡來言語如常即為呪病者便愈至五年三月渡復齊諧家吕道惠聞而視之杜天期也須臾門上有一僧喚渡便辭去云貧道向交廣之間不復來也齊諧等拜送慇勤於是絕迹頃世亦言時有見者一日見形洛水上衆皆大驚語丘熙等年當大㐫可勤修福業法意道人甚有徳可徃就之脩立故寺以禳災禍

==寶公禪師==
沙門寳公者嵩山高楼士也旦從林慮向白鹿山因迷失道日将隅中忽聞鐘聲尋響而進巖岫重阻登陟而趨乃見一寺獨據深林三門正南赫奕輝煥前至門所看額靈隱之寺門外五六犬其大如牛白毛黑喙或踴或卧廻眸盼寳寳怖将返須臾見胡僧外來寳喚不應亦不廻顧直入門内犬亦随入良久寳見人漸次入門屋宇四周房門並閉進至講堂惟見床榻高座儼然寳入西南隅床上坐久之忽聞東間有聲仰恍見開孔如井大比丘前後從孔飛下遂至五六十人依位坐訖自相借問今日齋時何䖏食來或言豫章成都長安隴右薊北嶺南五天竺等無䖏不至動即千萬餘里末後一僧從空而下諸人競問來何太遲答曰今日相州城東彼㟁寺鑒禅講會各各竪義有一後生聦俊難問詞音鋒起殊為可覌不覺遂晚寳本事鑒為和尚既聞此語望得參話因整衣而起白諸僧曰鑒是寳和尚諸僧直視寳頃之已失靈隱寺所在寳但獨於柞木之下一無所見唯覩巖谷禽鳥翔集喧亂及出山以問尚統法師尚曰此寺石趙時佛圖澄法師所造年嵗久遠賢聖居之非凡所住或沉或隐遷徙無定今山行者猶聞鐘聲

==智璪禪師==
釋智璪俗姓張氏清河人年二十二親俱逝染疾經嵗月醫薬無効夢神就璪身次第吸嗽{音朔}三夜稍痊遂求離俗聞智者軌行超群為世良導即泛舸豊流直指台岫伏膺受道乃遣行法華懺悔第二十七日初夜懺訖還就禅床如欲安坐乃見九頭龍從地湧出上昇虚空明旦諮白智云此是表九導衆生聞法華經将來之世破無明地入法性空爾陳至徳四年住寳林寺行法華三昧初日初夜如有人來摇動户扇璪問之汝是何人夜來摇户即長聲答云我來看燈爾頻經数過問答如前其寺内先有大徳慧成禅師夜具聞之謂弟子曰彼堂内從來有大悪鬼今聞此聲必是鬼來取人也天将欲曉成師扣户而喚璪未暇得應便繞堂唱云苦哉苦哉其人了矣璪即開户問意答云汝猶在耶吾謂昨夜鬼已害汝故此嗟耳第二日夜鬼入堂内搥壁打柱周遍東西堂内六燈璪即滅五畱一行道坐禅誦經坦然無懼於三七日中事恒如此行法将訖見一青衣童子称讚善哉言已不見以貞覌十二年卒于寺

==大志禪師==
僧大志會稽頋氏子發家出家師事天台智者智者見其形神洒落高放物表取名大志誦法華經索然閑静音聲清轉聽者忘疲後於廬山甘露行頭陀行有時投身猛獸彼皆避去飡粒若盡惟以餅果継命而已如是七載禅誦不休晚住持福林寺會大業中屏除佛教慨大法陵遲遂衣著孝衣於佛堂中慟哭三日擔捨形骸申明正教幾往東都上表曰願陛下興降三寳貧道當然一臂於嵩岳用報國恩帝許之遂設大齋士衆通集師絕粮三日登大棚中布裹其臂灌之以蠟如炬燃之光照巖岫晃然大明衆見苦行痛入心髓而志形色不変或誦經文或讚佛徳或為衆説法聲聲不絕燒已下棚跏趺入定七日而卒

==玄奘禪師==
釋玄奘本名禕姓陳氏洛州緱氏人也奘失怙恃少羅窮酷随兄長捷法師住静土寺授以精理旁兼巧論年十一誦維摩法華東都恒度便預其次自爾卓然梗正不偶欲慕大法後達長安住荘嚴寺又非本望西踰劔閣既達蜀都受諸經論一聞不忘武徳五年二十有一為諸學府雄伯沙門講揚心論不窺文相而誦注無窮時曰神人後又遍遊荊揚等州訪諸道隣復還京輦廣就諸蕃徧學書語行坐尋授数日慱通惟候機會貞觀三年會灾下敕道俗随豊四出由斯得徃西域取諸經𠐦行至罽賔國道險虎豹不可過奘不知為計乃鎻房門而坐至夕開門見一老僧頭靣瘡痍身躰膿血牀上獨坐莫知由來奘乃禮拜勤求僧口授多心經一卷令奘誦之遂得山川平易道路開通虎豹藏形魔鬼潜跡遂至佛國取經六百餘部以貞觀十九年還京師下敕令住玉華翻譯經藏奘生常已來願生彌勒及遊西域又聞無著兄弟皆生彼天又頻祈請咸有顕證後至玉華但有隙次無不發願麟徳元年告翻譯僧及門人曰有為之法必歸磨滅泡影形質何得久停行年六十五必卒玉華於經論有疑者今可速問聞者驚異師曰此事自知遂徃辭佛及諸僧衆既卧疾常見大蓮花鮮白而至又見佛相命僧讀所翻經論名目已緫有七十三部一千三百三十卷自懷欣悦緫召門人有縁並集云無常将及急來相見於嘉壽殿以香木樹菩提像骨對寺僧辭訣并遺表訖便黙念彌勒右脇累足右手支頭左手䏶上堅然不動氣絕神逝两月色貌如常乃塟於白鹿原初奘将徃西域於靈岩寺見有松一樹奘立於庭以手摩其枝曰吾西去求佛教汝可西長若吾㱕即却東廻使吾弟子知之及去其枝年年西指約長數丈一年忽東廻門人弟子曰教主㱕矣乃西迎之奘果還至今衆謂此松為摩頂松

==元珪禪師==
釋元珪姓李氏伊闕人大通禅要深入玄微卜廬于嶽中龐塢時有峩冠者部曲繁多稱謂師珪覩其貌偉精爽不倫謂之曰善來仁者胡為而至曰師寜識我耶珪曰吾覌佛與衆生等吾一目之豈分别識也对曰我此嶽神也吾能利害生死於人師安得一目我哉珪曰汝能生死於人吾本不生汝焉能死吾視身與空等視吾與汝等汝能壊空與汝乎苟能壞空及沒吾則不生不滅也汝尚不能如是又焉能生死吾耶嶽神稽首再拜曰我亦聦明正直於餘神豈能知師有廣大之智辨乎願受正戒令我度世助其威福珪曰神既乞戒即既戒矣所以者何戒外無戒又何戒哉神曰此理也我聞茫昧止求師戒我身為門弟子珪辞不獲即為張座焚香秉爐正几日付汝五戒汝能奉持即嚮曰能不能即曰否神曰洗耳傾听虚心納教珪曰汝能不媱乎神曰亦娶也曰非謂此也謂無羅欲也神曰能曰汝能不盗乎神曰何乏我也焉有盗取哉曰非謂此也謂饗而福淫不供而禍善也神曰能曰汝能不殺乎神曰政柄在躬焉能不殺曰非謂此也謂有濫誤混疑也神曰能曰能不妄乎曰吾本正直焉能有妄曰非此謂也謂先後不合天心也神曰能曰能不遭酒敗乎神曰力能珪曰如上即佛戒也又言以有心奉持而無心拘軌以有心為物而無心想身能如是則先天地生不為精後天地死不為老終日変化而不為動寂黙而不為休悟此則雖娶非妻也雖享非取也雖柄非權也雖作非故也雖醉非惛也若能無心於萬物則羅欲不為婬福淫禍善不為盜濫誤混疑不為殺先後違天不為妄惛荒顛倒不為醉是謂無心也無心則無戒無戒則無心無佛無衆生無汝及無我無我無汝孰能戒哉神曰我神通亞佛珪曰女神通十句五能五不能佛則七能三能神悚然避席啓跪頗恭曰可得聞乎曰汝能㑦{音戾}上帝東天行而西七曜乎曰不能又曰汝能奪地祗融五嶽而結四海乎曰不能珪曰是為吾不能也又曰佛能空一切相威萬法智而不能即滅定業能知群有性窮億劫事而不能化導無縁佛能度無量有情而不能盡衆生如是為三不能也定業亦不牢久無縁亦謂一期衆生界本無増减亘無一人能主有法無主是謂無法無法無主是謂無心如我觧佛亦無神通也但能以無心通達一切法耳作用冥見有情前也若有心有作作用必不普周焉嶽神曰我識浅昧未聞空義願師授我戒我當奉行更何業因可拘塵界我願報慈徳珪曰吾觀身無物觀無常法窟塊然更有何欲神曰師必命我為世間事展我少小神功使已發心初發心未發心不信心必信心五等人目我神蹤知有佛有神有能有不能有自然有非自然者珪曰無為是無為是神曰佛亦使神護法師寧隳叛佛耶随意垂誨珪不得已而言曰東巖寺之障也莽然無樹北岫有之而背非屏擁汝能移此樹於東嶺爭神曰已聞命矣又曰我必昏夜風雨擺搖震運願師無駭即作禮辭去珪門送而觀之見儀衛如王者之行仗其夕果有暴風吼雷奔雲震電隆棟壮宇岌礘将圯定僧膽動宿烏聲狂互相敲磕{苦盖切}物不安所乃謂衆僧曰無怖無怖神與我契矣詰旦和霽則北巖松栝盡移東嶺森然行植焉珪謂其徒曰吾歿後無令外知若為口實人将妖我也以開元四年卒

==通玄禪師==
通玄姓李氏太原東北人也舉動之間不可量度身長七尺餘形貌紫色眉長過目髭鬚如畫髮紺而螺慈放曠自得靡所拘絆而該愽古今洞精儒釋開元七年春自定襄而至盂縣之高家造論演暢華嚴不出户庭幾于三載每日食枣十顆栢葉餅一枚餘無所湏嘗賫其論并經徃韓氏荘中路遇一虎玄撫其背以所負經論搭載去土龕中虎弭耳前行又造論之時室無脂燭每夜秉翰於口两角出白色光長尺餘炳然二女子韶顔都雅每日饋食一奩于龕前玄食已徹器而去凡經五載至於紙墨供送無虧論成泯然不現所造論四十卷緫括八十卷經之文義次決疑論四卷一日鄉人聚飲之次玄來謂之曰汝等好住吾今去矣鄉人驚怪謂為他適乃曰吾終矣皆悲泣戀慕送至土龕曰去住常也鄉人下坡廻頋其䖏雲霧昏暗至子時儼然坐亡龕中白色光從頂出上徹太虚即開元十八年三月二十八日也報齡九十六達旦數人登山見其龕室内蛇虺填滿莫得而前相與啟告蛇虺交散少長追感結輿迎于太山之北甕石為墳而塟之

==一行禅師==
釋一行俗姓張氏鉅鹿人也本名遂早嵗不群聦㸃明利讀書不再已暗誦矣師事普霖禅師時有盧鴻者持其文至寺一行一覽之即無遺忘鴻驚謂霖曰非君所能教也當縱其遊學一行因窮大衍自此求訪不下数千里嘗至天台國清寺見門前有流水一行立於門屏間聞院中僧於庭布筭其聲簌簌既而謂其徒曰今日當有弟子求吾筭法已合到門豈無人導達耶即除一筭又謂曰門前水合却西流弟子當至一行承言而入稽首請法盡授其術而門水復東流矣自此聲振遐邇玄宗聞之召令入内謂曰卿何能對曰善記覽玄宗因召掖庭取宫人籍以示之周覽既畢覆其本記念已熟如素所習讀数幅之後玄宗不覺降榻為之作禮呼為聖人嗟嘆良久尋乃詔對無恒占其灾福若指于掌言多補益玄宗開元九年太史上言麟徳曆寢踈日食屡不效帝詔可禅師更造新曆奉詔推数立術以應之撰開元太衍曆一行於癸亥十月制黄道儀成帝自為之銘詔安武成殿以示百官其儀準員天之象具列宿赤道度数注水注水激輪冷其自轉一晝夜而天運一周外絡二輪綴以日月令得運行每天東行一周日西行一度月行十三度以木櫃為平地令儀半在地下晦明朔望有準立木二於地平其一前置鼓以候刻至一刻則自擊之其一前置鐘以候辰至一辰則自撞之皆略施輪軸交錯相持称為神功邢和璞謂太史令尹愔曰一行禅師其聖人乎漢之洛下閎造大衍曆記云後八百嵗當差一日則有聖人以糾正之今年期差滿而一行師造大衍曆以糾数家之謬則洛下閎之言不誣矣愔深以為然一行又嘗諳道士尹崇借楊雄太玄經数日復詣崇还其書崇曰此書意旨深遠吾尋之積年尚不能曉吾子試更研求何遽見还也一行曰究其義因出所撰大衍玄圖及義訣一卷以示崇々大嗟伏謂人曰此後生顏子也初一行幼時家貧隣有王姥前後済之約数十萬一行嘗思報之至開元中一行承玄宗敬遇言無不可未幾會王姥兒犯殺人獄未具姥請一行求救一行曰姥要金帛當十倍醻也君上執法难以情求如何王姥戟手大罵曰何用識此僧一行從而謝之終不顧一行心計渾天寺中工役数百乃命空其室内徙一大甕於中密選常住奴二人授以布囊謂曰某方其角有廃園汝徃潜伺従午至昏當有物入來其数七者可尽掩之失一則杖汝如言而徃至酉後果有群豕至悉獲而㱕一行大喜令寘甕中覄以木盖封以六一泥朱題梵字数十其徒莫測詰朝中使扣門急召至便殿玄宗迎問曰太史奏昨夜北斗不見是何祥也師有以禳之乎一行曰後魏時失荧惑若今帝星不見古所無者天将大警於陛下也夫匹夫匹婦不得其所則隕霜赤旱盛徳所感乃能退舍感之切者其在塟枯出繫乎釋門以瞋心壞一切善慈心降一切魔如臣曲見莫若大赦天下玄宗從之命中使持節大赦天下於是王姥兒亦在赦中然終不知一行之力也一行亦不自以為功而言之至其夕太史奏比斗一星見凡七日而復帝嘗問國祚幾何有畱難否行曰鑾輿有萬里之行社稷終吉帝驚問其故不答退以小金合進之曰至萬里即開帝一日發合視之盖當歸少許及禄山亂駕幸成都至萬里橋忽悟未幾果㱕昭宗初封吉王唐至昭宗而滅故終吉至開元末裴寬為河南尹寬深信佛法師事普霖襌師日夕造焉或一日寬詣霖霖云方有少事未暇欵語且請遲廻休息寬乃屏賔從止於空室見霖潔滌正堂焚香端坐坐未久忽聞扣門連聲云天師一行和尚至矣一行入詣霖作禮禮訖附耳密語其貌絕恭霖但頷云無不可者語訖復禮禮訖又語如是者三霖唯云是是無不可者一行語訖降階入南堂自闔其户霖乃徐命弟子云速聲鐘一行和尚滅度矣左右疾走視之一如其言滅度後寬服縗經塟之日徒歩出城送之春秋四十五帝哭之哀甚輟朝三日停龕三七日行容貌如生帝親製碑書于石出内庫銭五十萬建塔銅人原謚曰大慧禪師

==無畏禪師==
釋無畏三藏本天竺人讓國出家道徳名稱為天竺之冠所至講法必有異相初自天竺至所司引謁於玄宗玄宗見而敬信焉因謂三藏曰師不遠而來故倦矣欲於何方休息耶三藏進曰臣在天竺時嘗聞大唐西明寺宣律師持律第一願徃依止焉玄宗可之宣律禁戒堅苦焚修精潔三藏飲酒食肉言行麤易徃徃乗醉喧競穢汚茵席宣律頗不能甘之忽中夜宣律捫虱将投于地三藏半醉連聲呼曰律師律師撲死佛子耶宣律方知其為異人也整衣作禮而師事焉在洛時有巨蛇高丈餘長且百尺其状甚異蟠遶出於山下洛民咸見之畏語曰此蛇欲決水瀦洛城即說佛書義其蛇至夕則駕風露來若傾聽狀畏責之曰爾蛇也當居深山中用安其所何為将欲肆毒於世耶速去無患生人其蛇聞之若有慙色遂俯于地頃而死焉其後安禄山據洛陽盡毀宗廟果符其言開元十年七月旱帝遣使詔無畏請雨畏持滿鉢水以小刀攪之誦呪數番即有物如虯龍從鉢中矯首水面畏咒遣之白氣自缽騰涌語詔使曰速歸雨卽至矣詔使馳出頃刻風雷震電詔使趨入奏御衣襟已透濕霖雨彌日而息又嘗淫雨逾時詔畏止之畏捏泥媪五軀向之作咒語叱罵者卽刻而霽嘗過龍河以一槖駝負經没水畏懼經失遽隨之入水於是龍王邀之入宮講法為留三宿而出所載梵夾不濕一字其神異多類此

==金剛智禪師==
釋跋日羅菩提華言金剛智南印度摩賴耶國人也生数嵗日誦萬言目覽心傳終身不忘年十六開悟佛理乃削染出家從師歷遊諸國至開元中達于廣府後隨駕洛陽其年自正月不雨迨于五月嶽瀆靈祠禱之無應乃詔智結壇祈請於是用不空鈎依菩薩法在所住䖏起壇深四肘躬繪七俱胝菩薩像立期以開光明日定随雨焉帝使一行禪師謹密候之至第七日炎氣爞爞{徒冬切}天無浮翳午後方開眉眼即時西北風生飛瓦拔樹崩雲泄雨遠近驚駭而結壇之地穿穴其屋洪注道場質明京師士 庶皆云智獲一龍穿屋飛去求觀其䖏日千萬人初帝之第二十五公主甚鍾其爱久疾不救移卧於咸宜外館閉目不語已經旬朔有敕令智授之戒法智使牛仙童寫敕一紙焚於琰摩王食頃琰王令公王亡保母劉氏護送公主鬼婦於是公主起坐開目言語如常帝聞之不俟駕馳徃外館公主曰冥数難移今王遣回略覲聖顔而已可半日間然後長逝自爾帝方加㱕仰焉武貴妃寵異六宮荐施寳玩智勸貴妃急造金剛壽命菩薩又勸河東郡王於毘盧遮那塔中繪像謂門人曰此二人者壽命非久經数月皆如其言至二十年壬申八月命門人曰白月圓時吾當去矣遂禮毘盧遮那佛旋遶七帀寂然而化

==鑑源禪師==
釋鑑源不知何許人素行甄明後講華嚴經號為勝集日供千人粥食其倉簟中米粟纔数百斛取之不竭沿夏涉秋未嘗告匱冥感如此後多徵應有慧觀禪師見三百餘僧持蓮燈凌空而去歷歷如流星焉開元中崔冀公寜疑其妖妄躬自入山宿預禁山四方面各三十里火光至第三夜有百餘支燈現兼紅光可千餘尺冀公蹶然作禮歎未曽有時松間出金色手長七尺許有二菩薩黄白金色閃爍然復庭前栢樹上晝現一燈其明如日橫布玻瓈山可三里所寶珠一顆圓一丈熠爚可爱西嶺山門懸大虹橋橋上梵僧老叟童子間出有二炬爛然空中如相迎送交過之狀下有四菩薩两两偶立放通身光可高六七十尺復見大松林後忽有寺額篆書三學字又燈下垂繡带二條東林之間夜出金山月當子午金銀二色燈列於知鉉師墳側韋南康臯每三月就寺設三百菩薩大齋菩薩現相焉

==嬾残禪師==
嬾残者唐天寶初衡嶽寺執役僧也退食即收所餘而食性嬾而食残故號嬾残也畫專一寺之工夜止群牛之下曾無倦色已二十年矣時鄴侯李泌寺中讀書察嬾残所為曰非凡物也聽其中宵梵唱響徹山林李公情頗知音能辨休戚謂嬾残經音先悽惋而後喜悅必謫堕之人時将去矣候中夜李公潜徃謁焉塱席門通名而拜嬾残大詬仰空而唾曰是将賊我李公愈加謹敬唯拜而已嬾残正撥牛糞火出芋㗖之良久乃曰可以席地取所㗖芋之半以授焉李公捧承盡食而謝謂李公曰慎勿多言領取十年宰相公又拜而退居一月刺史祭嶽脩道甚嚴忽中夜風雷而一峰頹下其縁山磴道為大石所欄乃以十牛縻絆以挽之又以数百人鼓噪以推之物力竭而石愈固更無他途可以脩事嬾残日不假人力我試去之衆皆大笑以為狂人嬾残曰何必見嗤試可乃已寺僧笑而許之遂履石而動忽轉盤而下聲若震雷山路既開寺僧皆羅拜一郡皆呼至聖刺史奉之如神嬾残悄然乃懐去意寺外虎豹忽爾成群日有殺傷無由禁止嬾残授我箠為爾盡驅除之衆皆曰大石猶可推虎豹當易制遂與之荆挺皆躡而觀之纔出門見一虎啣之而去嬾残既去虎亦絕蹤後李公果十年為相也

==西域僧禪師==
釋天竺亡名僧者未詳何印度人也其貌惡陋纒乾陀色縵條衣穿革屣曳鐵錫化行于京輦當韋臯之生也纔三日其家召僧齋此僧不召自來韋氏家僮咸怒之以弊席坐于庭中既食韋氏命乳母出嬰兒請群僧視其壽胡僧忽自升階謂嬰兒曰别久無恙乎嬰兒若有喜色衆皆異之韋氏先君曰此子生纔三日吾師何故言别久耶胡僧曰此非檀越之所知也韋氏固問之胡僧曰此子乃諸葛武侯之後身耳武侯當東漢之季為蜀丞相蜀人受其賜且久今降於世将為蜀門帥宜蜀人之福吾徃嵗在劍門與此子友善今聞降生韋氏吾故不遠而來韋氏異其言因以武侯字之後韋臯自少金吾節制劍南軍累遷太尉兼中書令在蜀閒十八年果契胡僧之語也

卷七

==本淨禪師==
釋本淨未詳何許人道氣髙抗聞閩嶺多禅宗識歷徃參之又聞長溪霍童山多神仙洞府然山中不容凡俗淨乃入山結茅為室室側有毒龍石穴其龍天矯而出變現無恒遂呼召之而馴擾焉又諸猛虎横路為害樵者不敢深入淨撫其頭誡約叮嚀虎弭耳而去嘗清宵有九人冠幘袴褶稱寄宿盡納諸菴内明旦告辭偕化爲鶴鳴唳空中而去淨後罔知其終

==地蔵王菩薩==
職掌幽冥教主十地閻君率朝賀成禮相傳王舍城傅羅卜法名目犍連嘗師事如來救母於餓鬼群叢作盂蘭勝會歿而為地藏王以七月三十日為所生之辰士人禮拜或曰今青陽之九華山地藏是也按傳新羅國僧唐時渡海居九華山年九十九忽召徒衆告别但聞山鳴石隕俄跏趺坐於函中泊三稔開将入塔顔貌如生舁之動骨節若金鎻焉故曰金地藏以是知傳者之誤

==嵩岳伏僧禪師==
嵩岳破竈堕和尚隱居嵩山山有廟甚靈惟安一竈祭無虚日師入廟以杖擊竈云此泥瓦合成聖從何來靈從何起又擊三下竈乃傾破堕落湏臾一青衣人設拜師前曰我本此竈神久受業報蒙師說無生法得脫此生特來禮謝再拜而去少頃徒衆問師竈神得何經旨便得生天師曰我只向伊道是泥瓦合成别無道理為伊衆無語師良久云會麽衆云不會師曰本有之性為什麽不會衆僧乃禮拜師曰破也堕也於是其衆大悟玄旨

==知玄禪師==
悟達國師知玄與一僧邂逅京師時僧患迦摩羅疾人莫知其異也皆厭惡之知玄視候無倦色後别僧謂知玄曰子後有難可徃西蜀彭州茶隴山相尋有二松為誌後玄居安國寺懿宗親臨法席賜沉香為座恩渥甚厚忽膝生人靣瘡眉目口齒俱備每以飲食餧之則開口吞啖與人無異求醫莫效因憶舊言乃入山相尋見二松於烟雲間信所約不誣即趋其䖏佛寺煥儼僧立于山陰顧接甚歡天晚止宿知玄以所苦告之曰無傷也山有泉且濯之即愈黎明童子引至泉所方掬水間瘡忽人語曰未可洗公曾讀西漢書不曰曾讀既曾讀之寧不知袁盎殺晁錯乎公即袁盎吾晁錯也錯腰斬東市其寃何如哉累世求報於公而公十世為僧戒律精嚴報不得其便今汝受賜過奢名利心起故能害之蒙迦諾迦尊者洗我以三昧法水自此不復為寃矣時知玄䰟不住體急掬水洗之其痛徹髓絕而復蘇其瘡亦旋愈回顧寺宇莾不復見因卓菴其䖏遂成大寺知玄感其異思積世之寃非遇聖賢何由得釋因述懺法三卷盖取三昧水洗寃業之義名曰水懺

==青衣神==
青衣神即蠶叢氏也按傳蠶叢氏初為蜀侯後称蜀王嘗服青衣巡行郊野教民蠶事鄉人感其徳因為立祠祀之祠庙遍於西土罔不靈騐俗槩呼之曰青衣神青神縣亦以此得名云宋謝枋得蠶有詩云

詩曰

養口資身頼以桑 終成王道泽流長

吐絲不羨蜘蛛巧 飼葉頻催織女忙

三起三眠时化運 一生一死命天常

待看献繭盆繅后 先與君王作衮裳

==九鯉湖仙==
九鯉仙乃是福建㒷化府仙遊縣何通判妻林氏生有九子皆瞽目止有大公子一目不瞽其父一日見之大怒欲害之其母知斍速命人引九子逃至仙遊縣東北山中修煉名曰九仙山又居湖側煉丹丹成各乗赤鯉而去故湖名九鯉廟在湖上最靈驗每大比嵗各郡中士子祈夢于此信若蓍蔡

本朝黄孟良感其事賦詩一律以紀之云

詩曰

人已登仙鯉化龍 伊誰湖上構仙宫

石遺丹竈潺湲裹 雲鎻瓊楼縹渺中

青鳥去來猶夜月 碧桃開落自春凨

此行不為邯郸夢 擬向邳橋遇石公

==張天師==
天師者漢張道陵也子房八世孫光武建武間生於呉天目山斈長生法術隠北邙山章帝和帝累召不起久之徧遊名山東抵㒷安雲錦溪升高而望曰是有異境縁衍流而之云錦洞有岩焉煉丹其中三年青龙白虎旋遶於上丹成餌之時年六十容貌益少又得秘書通神変化驅除妖鬼後於蜀之云臺峯升天所遺経録符章并印劍以授子孫其四代日盛復居此山歴代重之今其子孫世袭真人居於江西廣信府貴溪縣之龍虎山

==王侍宸==
侍宸姓王名文卿宋時臨川人侍宸其官也生有骨相有道者器之長而遊四方履歷幾遍宇宙嘗遇異人授以道法能召風雷宋徽宗号為金門羽客凝神殿侍宸宠冠當時賜賚一無所受時揚州大旱詔求雨侍宸為仗劔噀水曰借黄河水三尺后数日揚州奏得雨水皆黄濁屢見顕異大元時始建祠今祠在建昌之府城内是也靈應益著執牲帛而乞靈者絡繹於道也

==廬山匡阜先生==
先生者姓匡名續字君平南楚人号匡阜先生生而神靈兒时便有物外志周武王時師老聃得長生之道結茅南障山虎溪之上隱焉室中無所有為置一榻簡書数篇而已武王屡徵不起遇少年傳以仙訣得道漢武帝南廵狩登祀天柱嘗望秩焉継而射蛟潯阳江中復封先生為南極大明公道髙龙虎伏徳重鬼神欽先生能伏五瘟使者為部将更命立祠於虎溪旧隱郡守桓伊迁先生祠於山口能押瘟部之神凡水旱疠疫祷之皆應焉

==黃仙師==
仙師姓黄行七福建汀州上杭人也業巫術能鞭撻鬼魔驅逐妖怪師廟在上杭縣治之西南舊在鍾寮塲石峡中後遷於此相傳昔有山精石妖為害巫者黄七公以符法治之因隠身入於其石不出石壁隠映有人影望之儼若仙師像昔人有詩云

詩曰

非是神刓非鬼劃 解生烟霧觧生雲

仙師一入山頭石 草木蒙茸度㡬春

==北極驅邪院==
左判官者唐顔真卿徳宗命真卿問罪李希烈親族餞于長楽坡公醉跳躑前楹曰吾早遇道士云陶入入授以刀圭碧霞丹至今不衰又曰七十有厄即吉他日待我于羅浮山得非今日之厄乎公至大梁希烈命縊殺之塟于城南希烈敗家人啓柩見貌状如生徧身金色瓜甲出手背鬚山長数尺歸塟偃師北山后有商人至羅浮山有二道士奕棋樹下一曰何人至此荅曰小客洛陽人道士笑曰願寄一書達吾家遣童子取紙筆作書客還至北山顔家子孫得書驚曰先太師親筆發塚開棺已空矣后白玉蟾云顔真卿為北極驅邪左判官

==那叱太子==
那叱本是玉皇駕下大羅仙身長六丈首带金輪三頭九眼八臂口吐青雲足踏盤石手持法律大噉一聲雲降雨從乾坤爍動因世間多魔王玉帝命降凡以故托胎于托塔天王李靖母素知夫人生下長子軍叱次木叱師三胎那叱生五日化身浴於東海脚踏水晶殿飜身直上寳塔宫龍王以踏殿故怒而索戦師時七日即能戦殺九龍老龍無柰何而哀帝帥知之截戦于天門之下而龍死焉不意時上帝壇手搭如來弓箭射死石記娘〻之子而石記興兵帥取父壇降魔杵西戦而戮之父以石記為諸魔之領袖怒其殺之以惹諸魔之兵也帥逐割肉刻骨還父而抱真靈求全于世尊之側世尊亦以其能降魔故遂折荷菱為骨藕為肉系為脛葉為衣而生之授以法輪密旨親受木長子三字遂能大能小透河入海移星轉斗嚇一聲天頺地塌呵一氣金光罩世鍗一响龍順虎從鎗一撥乾旋坤轉綉毬丟起山崩海裂故諸魔若牛魔王獅子魔王大象魔王馬頭魔王吞世界魔王鬼子母魔王九頭魔王多利魔王番天魔王五百夜义七十二火鴉盡為所降以至於擊赤猴降孽龍盖魔有盡而帥之靈通廣大變化無窮故靈山會上以為通天太師威靈顯赫大将軍王帝即封為三十六員第一緫領使天帥之領袖永鎮天門也

==五雷神==
雷神廟在廣東雷州府之西南八里昔鄉人嘗将麻布造雷鼓雷車置廟中有以魚彘肉同食者立為霆震舊記云陳天建初州民陳氏者因獵獲一卵圍及尺餘携㱕家忽一日霹靂而開生一子有文在手曰雷州后養成名文玉鄉俗呼為雷種后為本州刺史歿而有靈鄉人廟祀之陰雨則有電光吼聲自廟而出宋元累封王爵廟號顕震徳祐中更名威化國史補雷州春夏多雷秋日則伏地中其状如彘人取而食之又雅州瓦屋山有雷洞投以瓦石應手雷震也

==電母神==
相傳東王公與玉女投壺裊而脫誤不接者天為之笑開口流光今之閃電是也

==風伯神==
飛廉是是也應劭曰廉神禽能致風氣身似鹿頭似爵有角尾似蛇大如豹風伯之神也

==雨師神==
商羊是也商羊神鳥一足能大能小吸則溟渤可枯雨師之神也

==海神==
即海若是也相傳秦始皇造石橋欲渡海觀日海神為驅石始皇求神相見神曰莫圖我形始皇從之及見左右巧者描畫神形神怒曰帝負約可速去今庙在文登縣

==潮神==
即子胥人見其素車白馬乗潮而出

==水神==
謂禺强河伯

==波神==
謂川后

==洋子江三水府==
五代史楊氏據江封馬當為

上水府庙在山之陽

采石為

中水府庙在采石山下封王宋加顕靈順聖忠佐平江王

金山為

下水府庙在金山寺内三廟

本朝俱称水府之神水面江心一呼即应舟人過者必具牲帛以祷今有司嵗時致祭

==蕭公爺爺==
公姓蕭諱伯軒龍眉蛟髮美髭髯面如童少年為人剛正自持言笑不苟善々悪々里閈咸為之貭平歿於宋咸淳間遂為神附童子先事言禍福中若發机鄉民相率為立廟江西臨江府新淦縣之太洋洲保舡救民有禱必應福澤十方

大元時以其子蕭祥叔死而有靈合祀于廟

皇明洪武初嘗遣官諭祭永楽十七年其孫天任卒屢著靈異亦祀于此詔封為水府靈通廣済顕應美佑侯大著威靈于九江八河五湖四海之上

==晏公爺爺==
公姓晏名戍仔江西臨江府清江鎮人也濃眉虬髯面如黒漆平生嫉悪如探湯人少有不善必曰晏公得無知乎其為人敬惮如此

大元初以人才應選入官為文錦局堂長因病㱕登舟即奄然而逝從人歛具一如礼未抵家里人先見其揚騶導於曠野之間衣冠如故咸重称之月餘以死至且駭且愕語見之日則即其死之日也啓棺視之一無所有盖尸觧云父老知其為神立廟祀之有靈顕于江河湖海凢遇風波洶涛商賈叩投即見水途安妥舟航穏載䋲纜堅牢風恬浪静所謀順遂也皇明洪武初詔封顕應平浪侯

==開路神君==
開路神君乃是周禮之方相氏是也相傳軒轅皇帝周遊九垓元妃螺祖死於道令次妃好如監護因買相以防夜盖其始也俗名險道神一名阡陌将軍一名開路神君其神身長丈餘頭廣三尺鬚長三尺五寸鬚赤靣藍頭載束髮金冠身穿紅戦袍脚穿皂皮靴左手執玉印右手執方天画戟出柩以先行之能押諸凶煞悪鬼藏形行柩之吉神也畱傳之於後世矣

==法術呼律令{令平声}==
雷部有神名曰徤兒善走與雷相疾速故符呪云急急如律令勅畱傳後世道釋巫流召帥将風雷城隍社可画符出筆皆以用之

==門神二将軍==
門神乃是唐朝秦叔保胡敬徳二将軍也按傳唐太宗不豫寝門外抛磚弄瓦鬼魅號呼三十六宫七十二院夜無寜静太宗懼之以告群臣秦叔保出班奏曰臣平生殺人如剖瓜積屍如聚蟻何懼魍魎乎願同胡敬徳戎装立門以伺太宗可其奏夜果無警太宗嘉之謂二人守夜無眠太宗命画工圖二人之形像全装手執玉斧腰带鞭鍊弓箭怒髮一如平時懸于宫掖之左右門邪祟以息後世沿襲遂永為門神西遊記小詞有本是英雄豪傑舊勳臣只落得千年称户尉萬古作門神之句傳於後世也

==天王==
按釋氏源流有毘畱勒義天王有毘畱愽義天王有提頭頼吒天王有毘沙門天王昔唐太宗從高祖起義兵有神降於前自称毘沙門天王頭同乃定乱其手将有猪首象鼻者故所向成功及即位詔天下公府皆祀之天聖初詔諸郡置祠仍建佛寺俱以天王為額此天王之所由普建也

藏板三教源流搜神大全卷終

後序

三教源流搜神大全刻成適閻伯太守以薦舉入都道過長沙余以初印樣本相贈太守為勘正其譌誤多處余一一從而校改大守謂元板畫像搜神廣記前後集昔在京師廠肆所見者卽毛氏汲古閣舊藏卷首有毛氏印記諸神圖像釋氏無此之多此本所增大都取之梁宋兩高僧傳又謂余序文不足為典要之語於義未安太守喜言佛理又通内典意謂諸僧事蹟來厯分明不可一概末槃耳余按此書明人以元板畫像搜神廣記增益繙刻卽可以書中皇明年號證之而諸僧記載悉本永樂御製神僧傳一書文句都無所改竄余謂其不足為典要者以其出於雜家說部違於聖人不語之訓而已嘗考諸神始末有流傳極古而終屬無稽者如東華帝君西靈王母卽東王公西王母見集仙錄{宋李昉太平廣記五十六引王母事又見山海經穆天子傳列子諸書}玄天上帝卽玄武神見唐段成式酉陽雜俎梓潼帝君卽張惡子見崔鴻十六國春秋後秦錄唐時有廟見李商隱詩集{集有題張惡子廟詩}孫樵文集{集有祭梓神君文}三元大帝卽三官見梁陶宏景真誥唐周昉畫三官像見宋徽宗宣和畫譜東嶽主人壽命見後漢書烏桓傳方術許曼傳泰山神有子見魏書段承根傳有女卽嫁為東海婦者見晋張華博物志宋封其子為炳靈公立廟建康府城北見宋張敦頤六朝事迹{十二廟字門}佑聖真君茅盈卽大茅君見尚書帝驗期{宋李昉太平御覽六百六十一引}六朝事迹{十神仙門}五嶽神姓名見東方朔神異經五聖卽五通見梁陶宏景雲笈七籤{云正月初九日五通仙生}唐柳宗元龍城録{或云宋王銍撰託宗元名}婺源有廟宋大觀三年賜額宣和五年加封通貺通佑通澤通惠通濟侯乾道淳熙累封加八字見宋王象之輿地紀勝{十二徽州仙釋注又引加封告命云江東之地父老相傳謂兄弟之五人振光靈于千禩}臨安有廟見宋潛說友咸淳臨安志{七十三}許真君斬蛟見唐張鷟朝野僉載{太平廣記百三十一引}其二龍御舟事見許旌陽傳{輿地紀勝南康軍仙釋引}三茅真軍即茅盈及其弟固弟衷見集仙録{太平廣記三十一引}茅君内傳{太平御覽四十一引}崔府君為唐滏陽令宋淳化中民于京城北立廟見宋高宗承事物紀原{府君名瑗字子玉宋李心傳朝野雜記謂即東漢之崔子玉王象之輿地紀勝行在所顕應觀注宋樓鑰攻塊集顕應觀碑記辨其為唐人}磁州廟尤靈顕世傳宋高宗乘廟中泥馬渡江見宋人撰宣和遺事其賫牒拘虎事見金元好問遺山集崔府君廟碑記呉客三真君姓唐葛周宋臨安有祠乾道九年曹善見咸淳臨安志祠張大帝渤見四明圖經高同所作張王廟記及王之行狀{輿地紀勝二十四廣德軍仙釋引}其封真君并祖父以下兄弟子孫子婦加封在宋寳祐間見咸淳臨安志常州武烈帝陳果仁見唐天寶僧徳宣撰司徒陳公捨宅造寺碑{全唐文九百十五 六朝事迹十二廟宇門果仁作杲仁}蒋荘武帝子文見晉干寳搜神記蠶女亦見搜神記杭州蒋相公兄弟廣福廟見宋呉自牧夢梁録神茶鬱壘見漢應劭風俗通王充論衡鍾馗見唐人題呉道子畫鍾馗記{宋沈括筆談補引}五瘟使者即五瘟之神見宋陳靚嵗時廣記司命竈神姓名子女見酉陽雜俎福神楊成一作陽城為道州刺史有惠政見晏公類要{輿地紀勝五十八道州官吏引}紫姑神為李景妾何麗卿見顕異録{明陳耀文天中記四引}五方之神見六韜及太公金匱{太平廣記二百九十一太平御覽八百八十二引}觀音菩薩為女身見北齊書徐之才傳世傳其父為妙荘王生三女妙清妙音妙善菩薩即妙善見元趙魏公管夫人所書觀世音菩薩傳略{元大德丙午刊}天妃宋臨安有廟事載丁伯桂廟記見咸淳臨安志{七十三}斬鬼張真君為唐張巡巡殉安禄山之難因本傳有死為厲鬼以殺賊之語故民間祀以逐厲見元謝應芳辨惑編九鯉湖仙為何氏九兄弟見輿地紀勝{一百三十五興化軍仙釋引}北極驅邪院左判官為唐顏真卿本殉李希烈之難而世傳其尸解仙去見唐人明皇十七事{錦繡萬花谷前集三十引}五代秦再思紀異{輿地紀勝九十九惠州仙釋引}黄仙師治山精石妖見輿地紀勝{一百三十二汀州古迹引}洋子江三水府偽唐保大中封宋大中祥符加封見元馬端臨文献通考淫祠雜祠開路神君為周禮之方相氏見宋真宗御製軒轅本紀以上所舉或史傳不知其人或有其人而無其事大都供文人之藻翰資揮麈之談鋒前人附會而言之後人因緣而述之虞初九百列小說一家斯固并九流而不廢者也至神僧來自異域羽客多出宣和事隔中原人多詐偽過而存之存而不論是則余刻是書之旨也宣統元年己酉嵗立夏後五日徳輝撰

Source Colophon

Source witness: the Chinese Wikisource transcription of 三教源流搜神大全 (retrieved 2026-08-28), whose base is Ye Dehui's 郋園 collated reprint of Xuantong 1 (1909), with lacunae supplied per its own editorial notes from the 西嶽天竺國藏板 Qing edition; the scan of a Qing woodblock printing is filed beside it on Wikisource as a second witness, and the reprint preface exists there only as page-images. The transcription carries a partial proofread flag; obvious variant graphs are retained as received and reconciled only in the translation, as noted in the colophon. Interlinear small-print notes of the source appear in braces in the source layer below and as parentheses in the translation.

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