南嶽總勝集 3.16

3.16

申泰芝。字廣祥。其先洛陽人也。因守官湖外世代寓居長沙。後散徙四方。其遠近欽慕。秦芝卜居邵州仁風村柳塘。數世皆修慈惠。自幼敻處。不與親友交。好讀書常清儉。遊息南岳。訪神仙之事。一夕於融頂遇真人。傳金丹火龍之術。婦煉丹雲山之北余胡之頂。積有年矣。大藥已成。功行俱備。而能乘虛神遊。隱顯出入綽有神異。人不可測。開元二十六年歲在戊寅八月十六日。明皇詔近臣曰。朕昨宵中秋夜寢夢有神人告朕言。湖南邵州雲山有道人。煉丹得仙。若禮遇之可為國歸。

Shen Taizhi's style name was Guangxiang. His ancestors were originally from Luoyang; having held office beyond the lakes, they had resided generation after generation in Changsha, and later dispersed to the four quarters. He was admired from near and far. Taizhi divined a residence at Liutang in Renfeng Village of Shaozhou. For several generations, his family had cultivated benevolence and compassion. From youth, he lived secluded and apart, not mingling with relatives or friends; he loved reading and was always pure and frugal. He traveled and rested at Nanyue, inquiring into matters of immortals. One evening atop Zhurong Peak, he encountered a Realized Person, who transmitted to him the arts of the golden elixir and fire dragon. He refined the elixir north of Yunshan atop Mount Yehu for accumulated years. The great medicine having been completed, his merits and practices were both fully accomplished; he was able to mount the void and roam in spirit, his appearance and disappearance displaying ample marvelous signs, unfathomable to mortals. On the sixteenth day of the eighth month, the *wuyin* year, being the twenty-sixth year of the Kaiyuan era, Emperor Minghuang decreed to his close ministers, saying: "Last night, during the Mid-Autumn night, I slept and dreamt that a divine being told me: 'At Yunshan in Shaozhou of Hunan, there is a man of the Dao who has refined the elixir and attained immortality. If you receive him with courtesy, he can serve as a refuge for the state.'"