佛祖歷代通載 22.3

22.3

The False Tenth Transformation: Discrepancies in Lord Lao's Successive Descents and Births (The first transformation says: Laozi was born before the Five Movements. In the second transformation: Laozi was born amidst the Three Qi. The sixth transformation says: Lord Lao's surname was Li, his taboo name Hongyuan Yaoling, and his courtesy name Guangming. In the seventh year of Shanghe, the year being gengchen, on the third day of the ninth month, jiazi, at the mao hour, he was first born in the Northern Xuan Jade Country, on Mount Tiangang Lingjing, within Li Valley. On the evening when the Holy Mother Xuanling gave birth to him, three suns arose in the east, nine dragons spat water, the Moon Consort scattered flowers, and the Sun Boy radiated splendour. At five years of age, he embodied the Dao and congealed the true; at twenty, he possessed a golden countenance and jade visage, leaving his home and family to transcend worldly dust. Later, inspired by Yuanshi's descent to bestow teachings, he was granted the Yuyi Taizhang and the Taidong Zhenjing. Lord Yuqing, the Celestial Emperor of Ziwei, descended with a jasper carriage to welcome him, bestowing cinnabar seals and talismanic writings, making him the Latter Sage Sovereign Lord of the Golden Gate of Shangqing, holding dominion over the spirits and immortals of the ten heavens, rivers, and seas. The eleventh transformation says: In the first year of Qingzhuo, on the first day of the seventh month, Lord Lao entrusted his mysterious spirit and jade essence to descend into the Jade Maiden of Taiyuan for one thousand three hundred years, titled Laozi the Unsurpassed, and also titled the Dharma King of the Great Chiliocosm. The twelfth transformation says: In the first year of Qinghan, Lord Lao lodged with the Jade Maiden Feixuan of the Nine Heavens for eighty-one years, titled Laozi the Exalted. The thirteenth transformation says: In the first year of Qinghan, jiawu, on the ninth day of the ninth month, he descended into the Jade Maiden of Yuansu for seventy-three years, titled Laozi of the Nine Spirits. The tenth transformation says: In the gengchen year of Yang Jia, the eighteenth king of Yin, in the wuwu month, Laozi entered the mouth of the Jade Maiden Xuanmiao; after eighty-one years, on the fifteenth day of the first month of the gengchen year, the ninth year of Wu Ding, the Holy Mother split her left armpit, clasped a plum tree, and gave birth to him. As soon as he was born, he walked nine steps, and lotuses sprang from every step; nine dragons spat water; he was endowed with the seventy-two marks and eighty-one minor signs. Pointing to heaven with his left hand and to earth with his right hand, he said: 'Above heaven and beneath heaven, only the Dao is solely venerable; I shall expound the unsurpassed teaching of the Dao to universally deliver all beings.' It also says: Li Lingfei attained the true method of cultivating longevity; his wife, of the Yin clan of Tianshui, was sleeping during the day in Lai Township and saw the Taishang descend from heaven, transforming into a dark coin; she swallowed it and became pregnant, giving birth to a white-haired child after eighty-one years, named Laozi; born beneath a plum tree, he took Li ('plum') as his surname from the shoot).