一切經音義 18.29

18.29

反魂 (The Shizhou ji says: "Juku Island lies in the Western Sea. On it there are large trees resembling the sweetgum of this country, their scent detectable for hundreds of leagues; they are named 'soul-returning trees' [反魂樹]. One cuts down the tree and boils it in a jade cauldron to extract the sap, and further simmers it over a slow fire until it resembles black tin so that it can be rolled into pills; it is named 'Fire-Startling Essence Incense' [火驚精香], also named 'Spirit-Shaking Pill' [震靈丸], also named 'Return-to-Life Incense' [反生香], also named 'Human-Bird Essence' [人鳥精], also named 'Death-Averting Incense' [却死香]—there are five names in all. When burned, its fragrant vapor is smelled far away; corpses lying on the ground, upon smelling the fragrance, instantly revive. In the third year of the Yanhe era of the Han, Emperor Wu visited the Anding Palace; the king of the Yuezhi in the western countries sent an envoy to present four ounces of soul-returning incense, bowstring glue, and a divine ferocious beast, yellow in color and very small, whose majesty subdued the hundreds of demons and malevolent spirits. The Emperor tested them in person, and all proved efficacious. Afterward, the Emperor treated them lightly, whereupon before he knew it, the envoy, the beast, and the rest were lost, no one knowing where they had gone, having secretly returned to the western countries").