南嶽總勝集 3.30

3.30

練師聶紹元。幼而雅好。詩書老莊文列。一日詣金陵。師方外高明昭受戒籙。是夕夢入一城。宮府嚴肅。中有朱衣者。按几謂紹元曰。此司祿之所也。可自開籍。籍云。聶紹元十八入道。二十受上清畢法。二十二往南嶽。遂掩卷。而悟久之。自金陵還問政山。築室以居。不偶世俗。自號無名子。世多以鍊師稱之。每侍母極懃瘁。一日晨起沐浴曰。我伯祖戒云。吾家世世宜修煉可率勵。勿忘太上教。俄有四鶴集于屋。又神光從空而下。望見者疑為火所焚。即之則𨵙然無他。但紹元已化矣。四鶴與神光亦冉冉而去。詰旦莊隸來云。鍊師與三道士衣緋綠乘者。從者數輩。悉冠帶南去。鍊師回首曰。我往南嶽矣。

The Daoist Master Nie Shaoyuan was elegant and refined from youth, fond of poetry, the classics, the texts of Laozi, Zhuangzi, Wenzi, and Liezi. One day he went to Jinling to receive the precepts and registers from the transcendent master Gao Mingzhao. That night, he dreamed of entering a city whose palaces and government halls were solemn and majestic. Inside was a man in red robes leaning on a desk, who said to Shaoyuan, "This is the Office of Emoluments. You may open the register yourself." The register said: "Nie Shaoyuan enters the Dao at eighteen, receives the complete rites of Shangqing at twenty, and departs for Nanyue at twenty-two." Thereupon he closed the scroll, and remained enlightened for a long time. Returning from Jinling to Mount Wenzheng, he built a lodge to dwell in, not conforming to worldly customs, and gave himself the sobriquet "Master Wuming." People of the world mostly addressed him as Daoist Master. Whenever attending his mother, he was exceedingly diligent and spent. One morning he bathed and said, "My grand-uncle's admonition said: 'Our family should cultivate and refine ourselves generation after generation; be earnest and disciplined, and never forget the teachings of the Grand Supreme!'" Soon four cranes gathered on the house, and a divine radiance descended from the sky. Those who saw it from afar suspected it was being consumed by fire; when they approached, all was silent and untroubled, but Shaoyuan had already transformed. The four cranes and the divine radiance also drifted slowly away. The next morning, estate laborers came and said, "The Daoist Master and three Daoists wearing crimson and green rode in chariots, followed by several attendants, all capped and robed, heading south. The Daoist Master looked back and said, 'I am departing for Nanyue!'"