~0~The o o o o o o 0 0 TAO of HEA[TH, i1<DNGEVITY, and , IMMORTALITY , The TAO of HEALTH, LONGEVITY, and IMMORTALITY The TAO of HEALTH, LONGEVITY, and IMMORTALITY The Teachings of Immortals Chung and Lii TRANSLATED B'll Eva Wong t Shambhala BOSTON & LONDON 2000 Shambhala Publications, Inc. Horticulrural Hall 300 Massachusetts :\\'enue Boston, I\lassachusetts 02115 wv.:w.sha111bhala.co111 © 2000 by Eva Wong All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. 9 8 6 First Edition Printed in the United States of America @ This edition is printed on acid-free paper that meets the American National Standards Institute Z39.48 Standard. Distributed in the United States by Random I-louse, Inc., and in Canada by Random House of Canada Ltd Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Chung-Lu ch'uan-tao chi. English. The Tao of health, longevity, and immortality: the teachings of immortals Chung and Lu / Translated by Eva Wong. p. cm. ISBN 1-57062-725-8 (alk. paper) I. Hygiene, Taoist. 2. Le, Tung-pin, b. 798. 3. Chung-Ii, Chl.•iin, 9th cent. I. Wong, Eva, 1951- II. Title. R:\ 781.CS 313 2000 613'.095 l '09021-dc2 I 00-040035 Contents Tm11slator's lutroductio11 The Teachings of the Tao As Transmitted by Chung and Lii The True Immortals 23 2 The Great Tao 31 3 Heaven and Earth 37 4 Sun and Moon 43 5 The Four Periods of Time 49 6 The Five Elements S7 7 Fire and \Vater 6S 8 Dragon and Tiger 71 9 The l\ledicines 7S 10 Lead and l\lercury 81 11 Extracting and Replenishing 87 12 The Waterwheel 9S 13 Returning to the Elixir Fields JOI 14 Refining the Body 109 15 !\loving to the Primordial Regions 117 16 Internal Observation 12S 17 Monsters and Obstacles 13S 18 Experiences and Feedback 143 v THE TAO OF HEALTH, LONGEVITY, AND IMMORTALITY Translator's Introduction IMMORTALS CHUNGLI CH'UAN AND LO TUNG-PIN The immortals Chungli Ch'uan and Lu Tung-pin are two of the most popular figures in Taoism and Chinese culture. Most people recognize them as characters belonging to a group called the Eight Immortals-Lu Tung-pin, Chungli Ch'uan, Chang Kuo Lao, Ho Hsien-ku, Han Hsiang Tzu, Ts'ao Kuo chiu, T'ieh-kuai Li, and Lan Ts'ai-ho. Stories of these eight colorful Taoists have fired the imagination of the Chinese through the centuries: I was familiar with these immortals and their exploits well before I began to study the Taoist texts and practice the Taoist arts. Of the eight, Lu Tung-pin, Chungli Ch'uan, Ho Hsien-ku, and Chang Kuo Lao had the most impact on the theory and practice of Taoism today. Chungli Ch'uan was an alchemist; along with Wei Po-yang, he is regarded as one of the founders of the alchemical arts of longevity and immortality. Lu Tung pin was a meditation master and the patriarch of several Tao ist sects that included both the northern and the southern schools of Complete Reality Taoism (Ch'uan-chen), the Ear lier Heaven \Vay (Hsien-t'ien Tao), and the Green City sect (Ch'ing-ch'eng) of Szechuan. Ho Hsien-ku was an alchemist and the patron of female Taoist cultivation: many practices of Translator's lntroductio11 female internal alchemy are attributed to her. Chang Kuo Lao is famous for his work on celestial divination: his system of astrology is still widely studied and used by modern Chinese diviners. This book is a translation of the text Chung-Lii ch'uan-tao chi (The Teachings of the Tao As Transmitted by Chung and Lil). The original text is collected in the Sung-shi wei-wen chi (Collected Literary Works of the Sung Dynasty) and is be lieved to have been written as an introduction to the Ling pao pi-fa (Scripture of the Definitive Methods of the Precious Spirit), a text for advanced practitioners. The text uses a conversation between Lil Tung-pin and Chungli Ch'uan to present the theory and methods of the art of health, longevity, and immortality. However, historically Chungli Ch'uan lived in the Han dynasty (206 scE-219 CE) and Lil Tung-pin lived in the latter part of the T'ang (618- 906 CE). How can two people who lived almost eight hundred years apart coauthor a book? I believe that there are two possible answers to this ques tion. The first is this: they met, and during the encounter, Chun gli Ch'uan transmitted his teachings to Lil Tung-pin. This an swer is based on the legends and stories of the two immortals. The second answer is that they never met. Lu Tung-pin took Chungli Ch'uan's teachings and revived and reinter preted them. This answer is based on the analysis of the his torical and philosophical background of the Chung-Lii ch'uan tao chi. We shall examine the ramifications of each answer in turn. Two stories stand out in the legends of Chungli Ch'uan and Lil Tung-pin. The first tells of the meeting between the two men. Legend has it that toward the end of the T'ang dynasty, Lil Tung-pin (who was then called Lu Yen) met Chungli Ch'uan when he was on his way to the capital to take the civil service examinations. At that time Lil was an aspiring 2 Tra11slator's lntrod11ctio11 young man hoping to get an appointment in the government and Chungli was an immortal visiting the mortal realm. The two met at an inn, and after an evening of drinking and talk ing, Chungli gave Lu a pillow as a parting gift. That night Lu Yen laid his head on the pillow, slept, and had a dream. He dreamed that he took the imperial examinations, passed them with distinction, and became a high-ranking official. However, as the dream unfolded, Lu saw himself embroiled in court politics and intrigues. Eventually, schemed against by unscru pulous and jealous ministers, he was exiled to the frontier, where he died, far from family and home. The next morning Lu woke up and realized that fame, wealth, and social prestige were illusions. He left the inn and followed Chungli Ch'uan into the mountains. Lti Yen, the Confucian scholar, became Lu Tung-pin (Lil, the Guest of the Cavern), the student of the Taoist arts of longevity and immortality. It was said that Lu eventually ascended to immortality after completing his training with Chungli Ch'uan, but before he left the mortal realm, he transmitted his teachings to students who later be came teachers and founders of some of the most important Taoist sects today. These students were \Vang Ch'ung-yang, the founder of the Northern School of Complete Reality Tao ism; Liu Hai-ch'an, the founder of the Southern School of Complete Reality Taoism; and Chen Hsi-yi, the patriarch of the Earlier Heaven Way. Today the practitioners of these sects, as well as those of the Green City sect of Szechuan, all claim Lti Tung-pin as their founding patriarch. The second story tells of an incident that happened while Lil Tung-pin was studying under Chungli Ch'uan. In this story the elder immortal, Chungli, offered to teach his student the method of turning stones into gold. When Lil realized that the effects were impermanent, he told his teacher that he would rather not learn a technique that could potentially de lude or harm people. Chungli Ch'uan then confessed that his student was more "enlightened'' than he was and predicted that Lu would surpass him in attaining the Tao. 3 Translator's !11troductio11 The first story is most likely an older tale. In it, Lti was portrayed as a deluded intellectual and Chungli was the teacher who "awakened" him from his illusions. The story appears in the literary works of Lil Yen himself, which are believed to have been collected no later than the Sung dy nasty (960-1279 CE). In the second story, Lti was still a student but was now recognized to have a stronger understanding of the Tao than his teacher. This story appears in Seven Taoist Masters, a novel about the seven students of Wang Ch'ung yang and the founding of the Northern School of Complete Reality Taoism. The style of the book suggests that it was written no earlier than the Ming dynasty ( 1368-1644 CE). Thus the second story was written at least four hundred years after the first one. ~foch has happened to the status of the immortals Chungli Ch'uan and Lu Tung-pin "between" the two stories. During the Sung and the Ming dynasties, Lu Tung-pin was trans formed from student to prominent teacher of the Taoist arts to high-ranking celestial immortal. He was deified and given the titles Shun-yang Ti-chun (Lord Emperor of Pure Yang), Fu-yu Ti-chun (Lord Emperor Protector, the Right Hand As sistant), and Lu-ti (Emperor Lu). Chungli Ch'uan, however, remained Hun-fang Hsien-sheng (Resident of the Cloud Chamber) and was given only the immortal title Cheng-yang Chen-jen (Realized Being of the True Yang). To put it simply, Lu eventually became a celestial immortal, the highest rank of Taoist immortals-he held the title of ti (emperor in the celestial realm)-while Chungli Ch'uan attained only spirit immortality, the level of immortality below celestial immor tality; he only held the title of chen-jen (realized being). Li.i's elevation in the community of immortals is evident in the tales surrounding the Eight Immortals. By seniority, Chungli should have been the leader of the group: he was the eldest, having attained immortality in the Han dynasty. The other seven immortals, including LU Tung-pin, attained im mortality during the T'ang and Sung. In order for Lil to end 4