南嶽總勝集 3.21

3.21

劉元靖。武昌人。師王道宗傳正一籙。未幾道宗將告寂。以所有均遺諸門人。元靖惟收圖書。既葬於東山。晴夜有炁出墓中。高十數丈。元靖異之。遂開葬。及發棺但遺衣被而已。始知其師得道。元靖感悟。泛洞庭遊武陵。復入南岳。師曰。先生因魏夫人仙壇乃有卜居意。自壇東尋峻峯上十數里。見一石穴南向闢以為居。引泉環流。伐木誅茅。前建上閣。某局茶竈鑿石而成。使君韓曄遊此。命其閣曰會仙。常以柏葉醞酒雖絕粒煉氣而一飲斗餘。寶歷初。敬宗求方士。監軍呂令琮邀至譚州。先生曰。某有山妻侍妾。以牛肉為命。若以為術士恐將軍有罔上之名。因請彘肩自剸以蒜𦵔而食之。令琮愈疑因為摩足乞行。先生不得已上道。以十二月一日到京。便召於司政殿。敬宗問以神仙之事。師曰。無利無營。少私寡欲。修身出世之旨也。上不悅而難作。文皇放歸山。李訓欲用。董昌齡自交廣乘傳過岳下禮先生。先生曰。觀中丞王氣未動。不宜有此。行且徐之。齡昌因緩轡入商山。訓果興亂。朗州刺史唐伸妻病。求符於元靖。遂戒來者曰。此符當示使君。無先於夫人。使還伸已殂矣。夫人自愈櫓。嘗聞先生門人趙中閑曰。先生言董唐之事如目擊。中閑曰。先生在中山多年。境靜忽忽有所見。亦無指定之說。會昌三年。武宗奉玄元之教。將除佛寺。徵先生赴闕。及對見。武宗見神貌清古。改容欽敬。因問佛法傾烈祖之風。朕欲去之。先生對曰。釋氏久遠。將遏絕可漸革其弊。卒有變更。即繫眾害事。却不利於道門。又問金丹之術。先生對以至靈之物非深山獨往之士不可得。上曰師其得之耶。又對曰。如臣期欲得之。今實未有得得即陛下不可見矣。上賜縑百匹及米麥飴密。止于太清宮。時召入訪道。每有恩賜。先生立捨與監引勅使及諸門至望仙門則已空手矣。五年秋武宗微疾。將傳法籙。內臣以趙歸真有私累嗜貨財。推先生清淨可為帝師。遂召入內君靈符殿。武宗問受籙盟信歃血之事。先生對以至尊最重莫過於誠敬齋戒。陛下七日齋三日戒。自可朝玉帝矣。不合以金玉髮血為信斷髮歃血非常王之事金玦白璧非至尊之寶。當時以為中論。及事畢除銀青光祿大夫崇玄館大學士號廣成先生。別築崇玄館以居之。後乞還山。時上亦欲令茅山投龍遂許自茅山歸南嶽。武皇大漸。道者許元長趙歸真輩十餘人皆處極。法。上獨詔觀察使存問賜之束帛香茗等。初九真觀道士周混汗在岳中。事望亞於先生朝之未徵失生也。有衡岳觀道士毛太玄。嘗夢真官執錄自天降云。以混汗為大羅觀主。太玄因曰。劉先生曷不先徵乎。真官曰。劉君世業未盡。徵則役為仙官。更不為修行人矣。果如其說。先生自朝歸岳歎曰。吾今為地仙數百年。根不能脫身。為二帝所累。今已計不乃矣。大中五年冬十月。有雲鶴頻降。未幾去世。聞天樂浮空。及遷神日。惟杖屢在。弟子呂志真。亦得其道。

Liu Yuanjing was a man of Wuchang. He studied under Wang Daozong and was transmitted the Zhengyi registers. Before long, Daozong was about to pass away and divided all his possessions equally among his disciples; Yuanjing took only the diagrams and writings. After he was buried at Dongshan, on a clear night a vapour emerged from the tomb, several tens of feet high. Yuanjing marvelled at it and opened the grave; upon opening the coffin, there were only his clothes and quilt left behind. Only then did he realise that his master had attained the Way. Moved to awakening, Yuanjing sailed on Lake Dongting and travelled through Wuling, returning again to Nanyue. A master told him that because of Lady Wei's transcendent altar, he had thoughts of choosing a dwelling here. East of the altar he traced the steep peaks upward for several tens of li, where he found a stone cave facing south and opened it to make his residence. He diverted a spring to flow around it, felled timber and cleared weeds, and in front built an upper pavilion; his chess table and tea hearth were chiseled out of the stone. When the regional inspector Han Ye visited this place, he named the pavilion Huixian ('Meeting the Transcendents'). He often brewed wine from cypress leaves; although he abstained from grain and refined qi, in a single sitting he would drink more than a dou. At the beginning of the Baoli era, Emperor Jingzong sought out fangshi masters, and Army Inspector Lü Lingcong invited him to Tanzhou. The master said, 'I have a rustic wife and concubines who depend on beef for their livelihood; if you take me for an adept of the arts, I fear you will be accused of deceiving the sovereign.' He then requested a pig's shoulder, chopped it himself, seasoned it with garlic, and ate it. Lingcong became even more suspicious, and so rubbed his feet and begged him to go. Left with no choice, the master set out on the road. On the first day of the twelfth month he arrived at the capital, and was immediately summoned to the Sizheng Hall. Jingzong asked him about matters of the transcendents. The master replied, 'To be without profit and without striving, to lessen selfishness and diminish desires—such is the essence of cultivating the self and transcending the world.' The Emperor was displeased and grew hostile. Emperor Xuanzong [Wenzong] released him to return to the mountain. Li Xun wanted to employ him; Dong Changling, riding postal horses from Jiaozhou and Guangzhou, passed beneath the sacred peak and paid respects to the master. The master said, 'I observe that the Censor's royal qi has not yet stirred; it is not fitting to pursue this. You must proceed slowly.' Changling therefore slackened his reins and entered the Shang Mountains; Li Xun indeed raised a rebellion. The wife of Tang Shen, Prefect of Langzhou, fell ill and sought a talisman from Yuanjing. He then cautioned the messenger, saying, 'This talisman must be shown to the Prefect; do not present it to the lady first.' When the envoy returned, Shen had already expired; the lady recovered on her own. I once heard the master's disciple Zhao Zhongxian say that the master spoke of the affairs of Dong and Tang as if he had witnessed them with his own eyes. Zhongxian said, 'The master resided in the central mountains for many years; in the stillness of the place he would suddenly perceive things, yet he never made fixed declarations.' In the third year of the Huichang era, Emperor Wuzong revered the teachings of Xuanyuan and was about to abolish Buddhist monasteries; he summoned the master to court. When granted an audience, Wuzong saw that his spiritual appearance was pure and archaic, and changed his expression to show deference and reverence. He then asked, 'The Buddhist teaching overturns the ways of my glorious ancestors; I wish to eliminate it.' The master replied, 'The teachings of Śākya are ancient; if they are to be suppressed, their abuses can be gradually reformed. If there is a sudden upheaval, it will cause harm to many matters and will in fact be disadvantageous to the Daoist school.' The Emperor also asked about the art of the golden elixir; the master replied, 'That most numinous substance cannot be attained except by those who go alone into the deep mountains.' The Emperor said, 'Have you attained it, Master?' He further replied, 'I indeed hope to attain it, but at present I truly have not; had I attained it, Your Majesty would no longer be able to see me.' The Emperor bestowed one hundred bolts of fine silk as well as rice, wheat, and molasses, and lodged him in the Taiqing Palace. From time to time he was summoned to discuss the Way, and each time there was an imperial bestowal, the master immediately gave it away to the attending commissioner, the imperial envoys, and the guards at the various gates; by the time he reached the Wangxian Gate, his hands were already empty. In the autumn of the fifth year, Wuzong fell slightly ill and was about to receive the liturgical registers of the Dharma. The palace attendants, considering that Zhao Guizhen was encumbered by selfish concerns and fond of wealth, recommended the master as pure and suited to be the Emperor's preceptor. Thereupon he was summoned into the Lingfu Hall of the inner palace. Wuzong asked about the blood-drinking covenant for receiving the registers. The master replied, 'For the Most Venerable, nothing is weightier than sincere reverence, fasting, and purification. If Your Majesty fasts for seven days and maintains purification for three, you will naturally be able to pay court to the Jade Emperor. It is unfitting to use gold, jade, hair, and blood as pledges; cutting the hair and smearing blood are not the deeds of a normal monarch, and jade rings and white bi discs are not the treasures of the Most Venerable.' At the time, this was considered a well-balanced argument. When the ceremony was concluded, he was appointed Grand Master for Splendid Happiness with Silver and Blue Ribbon, Grand Academician of the Chongxuan Institute, and given the title Master Guangcheng. A separate Chongxuan Institute was constructed for him to reside in. Later he begged to return to the mountain. At that time the Emperor also wished to have dragon plaques cast into Maoshan, and so granted him permission to return from Maoshan to Nanyue. When Emperor Wuzong was critically ill, more than ten Daoists such as Xu Yuanzhang and Zhao Guizhen were all subjected to the utmost penalty of the law; the Emperor alone decreed that the surveillance commissioner visit and comfort [Yuanjing], bestowing bundles of silk, fragrant tea, and the like. Earlier, the Daoist Zhou Hunhan of Jiuzhen Abbey was in the sacred peak; his reputation was second only to the master's before the master was summoned to court. There was a Daoist of Hengyue Abbey named Mao Taixuan, who once dreamt that a true official descended from heaven holding a register, saying that Hunhan was made Abbot of the Daluo Abbey. Taixuan then asked, 'Why has Master Liu not been summoned first?' The true official said, 'Master Liu's worldly karmic ties are not yet exhausted; if he were summoned, he would be employed as a transcendent official and would no longer be a practitioner.' It turned out just as he had said. Returning from the court to the sacred peak, the master sighed and said, 'Now that I have been an earthly transcendent for several centuries, my roots have been unable to free my person, and I have been burdened by two emperors; now my plans are undone.' In the tenth month, the winter of the fifth year of Dazhong, cloud cranes repeatedly descended; before long he departed this world. Heavenly music was heard floating in the void. On the day his spirit departed, only his staff and sandals remained. His disciple Lü Zhizhen also attained his Way.