南嶽總勝集 3.20

3.20

昔舜時有鳥如雀。自丹州來。吐五色之氣。氤氳如雲。名一曰憑霄。雀能群飛銜書砂珠輕細風吹塵。起名曰珠塵。今蒼梧之外山人採藥時。得青石圓如珠。服之不死。帶之身輕。元和末。仙人方回遊南嶽遇之七言贊曰。珠塵圓浮輕且明。有道服之得長生。王子年曰雲密峯。流洲岸亦有此珠。遊人嘗得服之不死。

Anciently, in the time of Shun, there was a bird resembling a sparrow that came from Danzhou. It exhaled a five-coloured vapour that billowed like clouds; its name was Pingxiao ('Soaring into the Heavens'). These sparrows could fly in flocks, holding in their beaks cinnabar sand and pearl dust that was so light and fine that when blown by the wind it rose as dust; it was called 'pearl dust'. Nowadays, when mountain people outside Cangwu gather medicinal herbs, they find blue-green stones as round as pearls; ingest them and one does not die, wear them and the body feels light. At the end of the Yuanhe era, when the transcendent Fang Hui travelled to Nanyue, he encountered it and composed a seven-character verse in praise: / 'The pearl dust, round and floating, is light and luminous; / One who possesses the Way and ingests it attains long life.' / Wang Zinian said that at Yunmi Peak and on the shores of Liuzhou there are also such pearls; travellers who have obtained and ingested them have not died.