佛祖統紀 36.150

36.150

The Perfected Lord Xu Xun of Xishan in Yuzhang ascended to heaven with his entire household. The Lord was born in Wu. In the second year of Chiwu, he took the perfected man Wu Meng as his teacher, who transmitted divine recipes to him; he entered Xishan to cultivate and refine them. In the first year of Taikang of the Jin dynasty, he became the magistrate of Jingyang in the commandery of Shu. The people submitted to his transformation to the point where there were no lawsuits. In a year of great pestilence, he marked bamboos on the riverbank and placed talismans in the water, having the sick drink it, and none were not cured. When he resigned from office and returned east, there were five young girls who presented him with precious swords. Hearing that the female teacher Zhan Mu of Danyang possessed the Way, he went to consult her, and she conferred upon him the precious scripture of the golden elixir together with the Zhengyi method of slaying evil spirits. The Lord compounded elixirs at Mount Huanglong in Aicheng. Once they were completed, he ascended Xiufeng to set up an altar and perform a jiao sacrifice to thank Shangdi. He then ingested the elixir and went to Xi'an County (now Fenning). The temple deity welcomed him and announced, 'Here is a flood dragon harming the people. Knowing that the Immortal Lord was coming, it has now fled to Ezhu to evade you.' The Lord took his sword, tracked its trail, and went after it; he commanded official soldiers to drive it out and executed it. Returning to the commandery seat of Yuzhang, he mixed several grains of the elixir with other medicines to sell them, having people take them themselves. Although many bought medicines, in the end not a single person took the elixir. The Lord sighed at how difficult it was to meet immortal talent in the world. He had hundreds of disciples; the Lord transformed charcoal into beautiful women and scattered them at night among the disciples. The next day he inspected them, and only ten were undefiled; they were the ones who later ascended in the highest rank. In this year, two immortals descended from heaven, and bearing the imperial decree of the Heavenly King, appointed him Chief Immortal of the Nine Provinces. The Grand Scribe's decree said, 'Xu Xun, you have cast off the record of sins from your previous lives of greed, killing, and failing to sacrifice to ancestors. In this life, by the merit of curing illnesses with talisman water and punishing evil, you yourself together with your family, kitchen, and residence shall soar into the void and return to heaven.' The two immortals bowed to the Lord and helped him ascend the dragon chariot. He commanded Chen Xun, Shi He, Zhou Guang, Zeng Heng, Huang Renlan, Xu Lie, and their mother (the Immortal Lord's elder sister), along with their retinue and immortal kin, forty-two persons in all, to ascend to heaven simultaneously; the chickens and dogs also took flight with them. (The Record of the Perfected Lord of Divine Merit and Wondrous Relief states: 'In this year, a heavenly decree had Shi Cen and Zhongli Jia mount chariots and ascend to heaven. The Lord's son-in-law Huang Renlan, together with his father Huang Wanshi, thirty-two persons in all, followed the Perfected Lord in ascending to heaven. In the second year of Yongchu of the Song, twenty-six persons ascended to heaven in broad daylight. In the first year of Dajian of the Chen, a heavenly decree summoned him to mount a chariot and ascend to heaven.')