NOTES

1    Wang Hanmin, Baxian yu Zhongguo wenhua (Beijing: Zhongguo Shehui Kexue Chubanshe, 2000), 36.

2    Wang Hanmin, Baxian yu Zhongguo wenhua, 37.

3    An example is the play “Zhongli of the Han Delivers Lan Caihe” (Han Zhongli dutuo Lan Caihe 漢鍾離度脫藍采和), which has been translated by Wilt Idema and Stephen H. West. See their Chinese Theater 1100–1450: A Source Book (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1982), 299–343. See ibid. for an analysis of the thematic structure of deliverance plays.

4    One of the best known examples is Tang Xianzu’s 湯顯祖 Lü Dongbin play Handan ji 邯鄆記. Xiuke Handan ji dingben (Taipei: Taiwan Kaiming Shuju, 1986).

5    On the place of the Baxian in traditional opera, see Idema and West, Chinese Theater 1100–1450, 300–308; Wang Hanmin, Baxian yu Zhongguo wenhua, chap. 5. Also see Chen Lingling, “Baxian zai Yuan-Ming zaju he Taiwan banxianxi zhong de zhuang-kuang” (M.A. thesis, Wenhua Xueyuan, 1978).

6    Numerous editions exist. See for example Si youji 四遊記, comp. Wang Jiquan (Harbin: Beifang Wenxue Chubanshe, 1985). Trans. Nadine Perront, Pérégrination vers l’est (Paris: Gallimard, 1993).

7    On the baxiancai, see Wang Jingyi’s Shenling huoxian: Jingyan baxiancai (Luzhou shi: Boyang Wenhua, 2000). The story of the Baxian’s crossing of the ocean appears first in the Yuan drama “Struggling over Jade Clappers, the Eight Immortals Cross the Vast Ocean” (Zheng yuban Baxian guo canghai 爭玉板八仙過滄海). On this play see Chen Lingling, “Baxian zai Yuan-Ming zaju,” 35–36. Paul R. Katz describes a Yuan dynasty mural with the Baxian guohai motif at the Yongle Gong 永樂宮 in Shanxi. See his Images of the Immortal: The Cult of Lü Dongbin at the Palace of Eternal Joy (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1999), 188–89. A modern example of a Baxian temple mural is described in Zeng Qinliang’s Sanxia Zushi Miao diaohui gushi tanyuan (Taipei: Wenjin, 1996), 302–4.

8    Three recent collections of Baxian stories collected in different parts of the Chinese mainland are: Baxian chuanshuo gushi ji, ed. Yu Hang (Beijing: Zhongguo Minjian Wenyi Chubanshe, 1988); Baxian renwu de chuanshuo, ed. Liu Xicheng, Xiao Rong, and Feng Zhi (Shijiazhuang: Huashan Wenyi Chubanshe, 1995); and Baxian de gushi, ed. Chen Delai and Liu Xunda (Taipei: Jiangmen Wenwu, 1995). There is considerable overlap between the books by Yu Hang and Liu Xicheng et al. Yu Hang’s book has also been republished in Taiwan by a certain Ouyang Jingyi as Baxian chuanqi (Banqiao: Kezhu Shuju, 1992) and Baxian de gushi (Banqiao: Kezhu Shuju, 1995).

9    In the nineteenth century, the novel The Eight Immortals Attain the Dao (Baxian dedao 八仙得道) by Wugou Daoren 無垢道人 appeared (Shenyang: Chunfeng Wenyi Chubanshe, 1987). A modern example is Chen Sanfeng’s Baxian chuanqi 八仙傳奇 (Xinzhuang: Mantingfang, 1994). An overview of Baxian-related novels is given in Han Xiduo’s 韓錫鐸 Baxian xilie xiaoshuo (Shenyang: Liaoning Jiaoyu Chubanshe, 1993).

10  Che Xilun lists six Baxian baojuan in his bibliography Zhongguo baojuan zongmu (Taipei: Zhongyang Yanjiuyuan Zhongguo Wenzhe Yanjiusuo Choubeichu, 1998), 1–2. Fairly easily accessible is “Precious Volume on the Eight Immortals’ Birthday Congratulations” (Baxian da shangshou baojuan 八仙大上壽寶卷), which is included in the collection Baojuan chuji, ed. Zhang Xishun et al., vol. 28 (Taiyuan: Shanxi Renmin Chubanshe, n.d.). An overview of Baxian motifs in folk art and folk literature can be found in Wang Hanmin, Baxian yu Zhongguo wenhua, chap. 4. See also Shan Man, Baxian xinyang (Beijing: Xueyuan Chubanshe, 1994).

11  Recent research provides a good overview of the Lü Dongbin lore and cult. See for example Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein, “Lü Tung-pin in Northern Sung Literature,” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 2 (1986): 133–69; Isabelle Ang, “Le culte de Lü Dongbin des origines jusqu’au début du XIVe siècle: Caractéristiques et transformations d’un Saint Immortel dans la Chine pré-moderne” (Thèse de doctorat, Université Paris VII, 1993); and Paul R. Katz, Images of the Immortal.

12  A close competitor in popularity may be He Xiangu, who has a number of baojuan to her name and appears occasionally as an independent deity in Taiwanese popular religion. In fact, she is certainly a better-known figure nowadays than Han Xiangzi, even though her role in late Imperial literature is less significant. She is the heroine of a recent martial arts novel by Xiao Yuhan 蕭玉寒, titled He Xiangu chuanqi 何仙姑傳奇 (Hong Kong: Xinghui Tushu, 1994).

13  I would like to acknowledge my indebtedness to two earlier researchers working on Han Xiangzi: Sawada Mizuho 澤田瑞穗, who published an essay on Han Xiangzi in 1968, and Chen Liyu 陳麗宇, who wrote an M.A. thesis on Han Xiangzi in 1988. Their studies provide the foundation for the following sections. See Sawada Mizuho, “Kan Shôshi densetsu to zoku bungaku,” Zhongguo xuezhi 5 (1968): 345–80; Chen Liyu, “Han Xiangzi yanjiu” (M.A. thesis, Taiwan Shifan Daxue, 1988).

14  Chen Keming, Han Yu nianpu ji shiwen xinian (Chengdu: Bashu Shushe, 1999), 526; Qian Zhonglian, Han Changli shi xinian jishi (Taipei: Xuehai Chubanshe, 1985), 1097. This translation follows (with minor modifications) that of Charles Hartman. See his Han Yü and the T’ang Search for Unity (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1986), 86–87. Cf. Erwin von Zach’s German translation in his Han Yü’s poetische Werke (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1952), 276–77.

15  Chen Keming, Han Yu nianpu ji shiwen xinian, 92; Qian Zhonglian, Han Changli shi xinian jishi, 98. Cf. von Zach’s translation, Han Yu’s poetische Werke, 294–95.

16  Youyang zazu, qianji, juan 18 (Taipei: Taiwan Xuesheng Shuju, 1975), 104. On this work see Carrie E. Reed, A Tang Miscellany: An Introduction to Youyang zazu (New York: Peter Lang, 2003).

17  Quoted under the title “Han Yu waisheng,” in Taiping guangji, juan 54 (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1986), 331.

18  Qingsuo gaoyi, qianji, juan 9 (Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, 1983), 85–87.

19  The following account is based mostly on Wu Yimin’s excellent overview of the history of daoqing, Zhongguo daoqing yishu gailun (Taiyuan: Shanxi Guji Chubanshe, 1997).

20  Wang Hanmin, Baxian yu Zhongguo wenhua, 109. See also Wu Yimin, Zhongguo dao-qing yishu gailun, 135, 176–81.

21  Li Xu, Jie’an manbi 戒庵漫筆, juan 5, 3a–3b, in Changzhou xianzhe yishu 常州先哲 遺書, comp. Sheng Xuanhuai 盛宣懷 (Taipei: Yiwen Yinshuguan, 1971). Quoted in Wu Yimin, Zhongguo daoqing yishu gailun, 85; Gao Guofan, Zhongguo minjian wenxue (Taipei: Taiwan Xuesheng Shuju, 1999), 411.

22  Quoted in Gao Guofan, Zhongguo minjian wenxue, 411. The scene in question occurs in chapter 64 of The Plum in the Golden Vase. Trans. Clement Egerton, The Golden Lotus, vol. III (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., 1964), 172.

23  Two editions of Han xian zhuan survive. One dates from the turn of the seventeenth century and is part of a Ming dynasty anthology by the name of “The Secret Book Box of Baoyan Hall” (Baoyan Tang miji 寶顏堂祕笈), a diverse collection of 226 works in 457 juan that share the quality of having been estimated “rare texts” by their editor. This editor is Chen Jiru 陳繼儒 (1558–1639), a somewhat eccentric and reclusive private scholar with interests in all fields of literature. We may surmise that when Chen picked up Han xian zhuan it must have struck him as quaint and “rare,” and therefore probably old. This would indicate the text came into being quite a while before Chen’s lifetime. The Baoyan Tang miji version can be found in Baibu congshu jicheng zhi 18, vol. 65 (Taipei: Yiwen Yinshuguan, 1965). A reprint of the same edition is included in Zangwai daoshu, ed. Hu Daojing et al., vol. 18 (Chengdu: Bashu Shushe, 1992–1994), 802–14. The second edition is in the anthology Shuofu 説学 compiled by Tao Zongyi 陶宗儀 (1316–1403), which would give us a date ante quem in the Yuan dynasty. However, the only Shuofu edition to contain Han xian zhuan is the somewhat dubious early Qing version in 120 juan edited by Tao Ting 陶珽. See Shuofu sanzhong, vol. 8 (Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, 1989), 5171–81. For an English translation of Han xian zhuan, see my “The Story of the Immortal Han (Han xian zhuan): An Annotated Translation” (MS, 1992). A modern Chinese rendering of the text can be found in Baixian chuanqi, ed. Yuan Lükun (Zhonghe: Jianhong Chubanshe, 1995), 437–62.

24  In Guben xiqu congkan chuji, vol. 47 (Shanghai: Shangwu Yinshuguan, 1954).

25  Identical songs include the Gumeijiu tune in chapter 27 of Han Xiangzi (= scene 35 of Ascension to Immortality) and the Zhuyunfei tune in chapter 13 (= scene 6). The “Goat-Raising Song” (Yangyangge 養羊歌) in chapter 14 seems closely based on its counter-part in the twelfth scene of the drama. Evidence from the novel The Plum in the Golden Vase shows that Ascension to Immortality was being performed at the end of the sixteenth century, i.e., in Yang Erzeng’s lifetime. In chapter 32, we witness the performance of four scenes from a drama named Han Xiangzi shengxian ji 韓湘子昇仙記. The translator David T. Roy identifies this title with that of a (now lost) northern drama by Lu Jinzhi 陸進之 (fl. 14th–15th cent.), but in my view this attribution is likely mistaken and we have here indeed a reference to the surviving southern-tradition work. See David T. Roy, trans., The Plum in the Golden Vase, or Chin P’ing Mei, vol. 2, The Rivals (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), 245, 538.

26  Dai Bufan, Xiaoshuo jianwenlu (Hangzhou: Zhejiang Renmin Chubanshe, 1980), 261–65. Dai also points out that a number of songs have close parallels to arias in the Qing anthology Piecing Together a White Fur Coat (Zhuibaiqiu 綴白裘), suggesting a common source. These close links of Han Xiangzi with stage adaptions of the Han Xiangzi theme support Andrew Plaks’s argument concerning the formative influence of drama, especially southern drama, on the genre of the novel in general. See his Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel—Ssu ta ch’i-shu (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987), 40–45.

27  Jinling: Jiuru Tang, 1623 (Van Gulik collection microfiche CH-1289). Another edition from the Tianqi reign period entitled simply Han Xiangzi survives in the Naikaku Bunko and is reproduced in Liu Shide et al., eds., Guben xiaoshuo congkan, series 34, vol. 4 (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1991). Also in Guben xiaoshuo jicheng, vol. 200:1/2 (Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, n.d.).

28  Che Xilun lists nine Han Xiangzi baojuan (Zhongguo baojuan zongmu, 101–102, 159, 203), though it is not clear whether these are really nine independent texts or whether some represent mere title variations. I have been able to collect three texts: (1) Han xian baozhuan 韓仙寶傳 (Taichung: Shengxian Zazhishe, n.d.); (2) Han Zu chengxian bao-zhuan 韓祖成仙寶傳 (Ciyi: Deshan Tang, 1890; Shanghai: Jinzhang Tushuju, 1930); (3) Xiangzi du Lin Ying baojuan 湘子度林英寶卷, in Duan Ping, ed., Hexi baojuan xuxuan, vol. 1 (Taipei: Xinwenfeng, 1994), 1–196.

29  Chen Liyu discusses various ballads on the Han Xiangzi theme. “Han Xiangzi yanjiu,” 131–62.

30  An overview of Han Xiangzi pieces in local opera traditions is given by Chen Liyu, “Han Xiangzi yanjiu,” 114–120. A Taiwan opera on Han Xiangzi’s deliverance of his wife (“Du qi” 渡妻) is included in Chen Xiufang, ed., Taiwan suo jian de beiguan shouchaoben, vol. 3 (Taichung: Taiwan Sheng Wenxian Weiyuanhui, 1981), 204–13.

31  Adeline Herrou, La vie entre soi: Les moines taoïstes aujourd’hui en Chine (Nanterre: Société d’ethnologie, 2005).

32  See my paper, “Han Xiangzi: A Story without a Cult,” presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association of Asian Studies (New York, 27–30 March 2003). My research on the history and current status of the religious cult of Han Xiangzi (and Han Yu) will be treated in more detail in future publications.

33  We have three dated texts by Yang Erzeng. “Shu Xianyuan jishi hou” is dated 7 October 1602. See Xinjuan xianyuan jishi (Taipei: Taiwan Xusheng Shuju, 1989), 650. A preface to his Tuhui zongyi 圖繪宗彝 gives the year 1607 (Wulin: Yibai Tang edition), and finally his preface to Hainei qiguan 海內奇觀 is dated the 9th moon of the year 1609. See Zhongguo gudai banhua congkan er bian, vol. 8 (Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, 1994), 23.

34  Shi Gufeng, “Hainei qiguan ba,” in Zhongguo gudai banhua congkan er bian, vol. 8 (Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, 1994), 1 (separate pagination at end of book).

35  “Xinjuan Hainei qiguan fanli,” in Zhongguo gudai banhua congkan er bian, vol. 8 (Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, 1994), 31.

36  “Hainei qiguan yin,” in Zhongguo gudai banhua congkan er bian, vol. 8 (Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, 1994), 1. On Chen Bangzhan see the Dictionary of Ming Biography, vol. 1, ed. L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang (New York: Columbia University Press, 1976), 176–78.

37  “Hainei qiguan tiyu,” in Zhongguo gudai banhua congkan er bian, vol. 8 (Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, 1994), 13.

38  This work was reprinted in 1989 by Taiwan Xuesheng Shuju in Taipei.

39  A work with this title is available in the Daoist collections Daozang jiyao (Chengdu: Bashu Shushe, 1995; vol. 5) and Zangwai daoshu (Chengdu: Bashu Shushe, 1992; vol. 7), though it is not clear how far this version overlaps with the one edited by Yang. Qing Xitai ascribes the Daozang jiyao and Zangwai daoshu editions to Hu Zhimei 胡之玫, a Jingming 淨明 Daoist of the early Qing period (Zhongguo Daojiao shi, vol. 4 [Chengdu: Sichuan Renmin Chubanshe, 1996], 193–94). However, Qing Xitai apparently was unaware of Yang’s edition of the text, of which a copy (dated 1604) is held at the library of Beijing University (see Daojiao wenhua cidian [Nanjing: Jiangsu Guji Chubanshe, 1994], 412). I have been unable to view this edition so far.

40  “Dong-Xi liang Jin yanyi xu,” in Dong-Xi Jin yanyi (Taipei: Guoli Zhongyang Tushu-guan, 1971), 3–12. Alternatively, see “Dong-Xi liang Jin yanyi xu,” in Ming-Qing zhang-hui xiaoshuo yanjiu ziliao, by Zhang Juling (Beijing: Zhongyang Minzu Xueyuan Keyanchu, 1980), 8–9.

41  This particular edition is (probably erroneously) attributed to the famous literatus Chen Jiru 陳繼儒 (1558–1639), complete with a preface by Chen dated to 1590. See Su Dongpo xiansheng chanxi ji 蘇東坡先生禪喜集 (Ming edition from the Wanli period held at the Fu Ssu-nien Library, Academia Sinica). On the textual history of this collection, see Mount Lu Revisited: Buddhism in the Life and Writings of Su Shih, by Beata Grant (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1994), 3.

42  Laozi daode jing 老子道德經 (Taipei: Yiwen Yinshuguan, 1965); Nanhua zhenjing chong-jiao 南華真經重校 (Taipei: Yiwen Yinshuguan, 1974); Kuaixue Tang manlu 快雪堂漫錄 (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1991). On the cult of Tanyangzi and Feng’s involvement in it, see Daria Berg, “Reformer, Saint, and Savior: Visions of the Great Mother in the Novel ‘Xingshi yinyuan zhuan’,” Nan Nü: Men, Women and Gender in Early and Imperial China 1, no. 2 (1999): 243–45. Yang Erzeng devotes a whole chapter of his collected hagiographies of female immortals to Tanyangzi. See Xianyuan jishi, juan 8, 507–88.

43  Jinling fanchazhi 金陵梵剎志. Earliest edition printed in 1607. For a modern reprint edition see Jinling fanchazhi, 3 vols. (Taipei: Guangwen Shuju, 1976).

44  The Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel, 45. See the hyperbolic statement in Han Xiangzi’s preface that Yang’s work “has the sternness of Record of the Three Kingdoms and the wondrous transformations of Water Margin, while lacking the cruel satire of Journey to the West and the indecent license of The Plum in the Golden Vase” (see below p. 6). This statement nicely corroborates Plaks’s claim that these four novels “defined and shaped the serious novel form in Ming and Ch’ing China.” The Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel, 4.

45  This point is actually disputed. For example, the Chinese scholar Fang Sheng argues (incorrectly, in my view) that in spite of the prevalence of neidan terminology in Han Xiangzi, the text’s emphasis actually lies on external, rather than inner, alchemy. See his “Ping Daojiao xiaoshuo Han Xiangzi quanzhuan,” Ming-Qing xiaoshuo yanjiu 16 (1990): 198–99.

46  The Taoist Experience (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1993), 11.

47  For a more complete overview of Daoism, a number of handy publications exist. See, for example, Livia Kohn’s Daoism and Chinese Culture (Cambridge, MA: Three Pines Press, 2001) and Isabelle Robinet’s Taoism: Growth of a Religion (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1997).

48  Trans. D. C. Lau, Tao Te Ching (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1963), 103.

49  Overviews of inner alchemy are provided in a number of Western-language publications. See Science and Civilisation in China, by Joseph Needham (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), vol. 5, part 5; Introduction à l’alchimie intérieure taoïste: De l’unité et de la multiplicité, by Isabelle Robinet (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1995); Daoism Handbook, ed. Livia Kohn (Leiden: Brill, 2000), chap. 16.

50  Wuzhen pian (Daozang 263.26). All references to texts in the Daoist Canon (Daozang) are by the number given the work in The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang, edited by Kristofer Schipper and Franciscus Verellen (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004). Here the reader will easily be able to find additional information about the texts in question. Yang mostly uses two commentators: Weng Baoguang 翁葆光 (fl. 1173–75) and Chen Zhixu 陳致虛 (fl. 1326–86). The Wuzhen pian has been studied extensively and has been translated a number of times. See, for example, Isabelle Robinet’s Introduction à l’alchimie intérieure taoïste: De l’unité et de la multiplicité (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1995), Thomas Cleary’s Understanding Reality: A Taoist Alchemical Classic (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1987), and Paul Crowe’s “An Annotated Translation and Study of Chapters on Awakening to the Real (ca. 1061) attributed to Zhang Boduan (ca. 983–1081)” (M.A. thesis, University of British Columbia, 1997). Fang Sheng lists some of Yang Erzeng’s direct borrowings from the Wuzhen pian and its commentaries. See his “Ping Daojiao xiaoshuo Han Xiangzi quanzhuan,” 197–98.

51  Plaks, The Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel, 21–22.

52  On the history and teachings of the Complete Perfection School, see Tao-chung Yao, “Quanzhen—Complete Perfection,” in Daoism Handbook, chap. 19; Stephen Eskildsen, The Teachings and Practices of the Early Quanzhen Taoist Masters (Albany: State University of New York, 2004).

53  See chapter 17.

54  For a concise overview of this history, see Judith Boltz’s A Survey of Taoist Literature: Tenth to Seventeenth Centuries (Berkeley, CA: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, 1987).

55  See Lu Xun, “Zhongguo xiaoshuo shilüe,” in Lu Xun xiaoshuoshi lunwenji (Taipei: Liren, 1992), 1–273.

56  Ibid.; see also Lu Xun, “Zhongguo xiaoshuo de lishi de bianqian,” in Lu Xun xiaoshuoshi lunwenji (Taipei: Liren, 1992), 533.

57  See the complete English translation by Anthony Yu, The Journey to the West (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977–83). On a Daoist reading of the Xiyou ji, see Ping Shao, “Monkey and Chinese Scriptural Tradition: A Rereading of the Novel Xiyou ji” (PhD dissertation, Washington University in St. Louis, 1997).

58  See Li Fengmao, Xu Xun yu Sa Shoujian: Deng Zhimo Daojiao xiaoshuo yanjiu (Taipei: Taiwan Xuesheng Shuju, 1997). Among English-speaking readers, the best-known didactic Daoist novel aside from The Journey to the West is Eva Wong’s translation of The Story of the Seven Perfected (Qizhen zhuan), published by Shambhala in 1990 under the title Seven Taoist Masters: A Folk Novel of China. In her introduction, the translator claims on stylistic grounds that this work was composed “during the middle part of the Ming dynasty” (p. xvi). And indeed there exist hints that a work of that name may have existed during the Ming (see Zhongguo tongsu xiaoshuo zongmu tiyao [Beijing: Zhongguo Wenlian Chuban Gongsi, 1997], 783). However, no such Ming version survives. Wong relied on a late Qing redaction that has no clear relationship with any text composed before the nineteenth century. The only scholar to have produced a thorough study of the text concludes that it is essentially a nineteenth-century work. Hence, while a fascinating work in its own right, it is irrelevant to the interpretation of the Han Xiangzi. See Die Sieben Meister der Vollkommenen Verwirklichung: Der taoistische Lehrroman Ch’i-chen chuan in Übersetzung und im Spiegel seiner Quellen, by Günther Endres (Frankfurt/M.: Peter Lang, 1985).

59  Lin Chen, Shenguai xiaoshuo shihua (Shenyang: Liaoning Jiaoyu Chubanshe, 1992), 83–84.

60  Yin Ming, “Jiaodian shuoming,” in Han Xiangzi quanzhuan (Beijing: Baowen Tang Shudian, 1990), 1–3. Yin may be echoing the dictum of the famous historian of Chinese literature Zheng Zhenduo 鄭振鐸 that the plot of this novel is very “fantastic and absurd.” Zheng definitely preferred Yang Erzeng’s more serious historical epic Dong-Xi Jin yanyi. See his Chatuben Zhongguo wenxueshi (Hong Kong: Shangwu Yin-shuguan, 1961), 918–19.

61  See his foreword in Han Xiangzi quanzhuan (Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, 1990). See also Yu’s entry “Han Xiangzi quanzhuan” in Zhongguo tongsu xiaoshuo jian-shang cidian (Nanjing: Nanjing Daxue Chubanshe, 1993), 182–85. This assessment is repeated almost verbatim (but without attribution) in Qi Yukun’s Mingdai xiaoshuoshi (Hangzhou: Zhejiang Guji Chubanshe, 1997), 204–5.

62  Fang Sheng, “Ping Daojiao xiaoshuo Han Xiangzi quanzhuan,” 204–5.

63  There are signs that the upsurge in interest among scholars in the People’s Republic of China in their nation’s religious traditions is also bringing Han Xiangzi to scholarly attention. In his recent study of religious themes in traditional novels, Wu Guang-zheng devotes a whole section to Han Xiangzi as a paradigmatic example of a novel arranged around the theme of the banished immortal. See his Zhongguo gudai xiaoshuo de yuanxing yu muti (Beijing: Shehui Kexue Wenxian Chubanshe, 2002), 113–22.

64  Among the Chinese-speaking public, the novel has remained popular ever since its first publication in 1623. Modern trade editions in the People’s Republic include: (1) Shenyang: Chunfeng Wenyi Chubanshe, 1987; (2) Zhengzhou: Zhongzhou Guji Chubanshe, 1989; (3) Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, 1990; (4) Beijing: Baowen Tang Shudian, 1990; (5) Chengdu: Bashu Shushe, 1999; (6) Beijing: Zhongguo Zhigong Chu-banshe, 2001. In Taiwan, we find the following editions: (1) Taipei: Fenghuang Chuban-she, 1974; (2) Taipei: Wenhua Tushu, 1983, 1992. An expensive, traditionally bound edition was produced by Tianyi Chubanshe (Taipei) in 1985. An interesting development is the appearance of a simplified retelling of the novel in modern Chinese. See Zhiheng Shanren 制衡山人, Shuang-Han wuyu 雙韓物語 (Taipei: Miaolun Chubanshe, 1994).

65  Mostly the Zhongzhou Guji Chubanshe and Shanghai Guji Chubanshe editions (1989 and 1990 respectively). As there is little variance between the Ming editions of Han Xiangzi quanzhuan and between those modern editions based on them, text-critical efforts could be kept to a minimum. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Qing and Republican period editions or modern editions based on them. These are often severely corrupted and should be avoided by the scholar.

66  See for example the reprint in the Guben xiaoshuo jicheng series (Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, 1990 ff.), vol. 200, pts. 1–2.

67  See “Dong-Xi liang Ji yanyi xu,” in Dong-Xi Jin yanyi (Taipei: Guoli Zhongyang Tushuguan, 1971), 6. Alternatively, see “Dong-Xi liang Jin yanyi xu,” in Ming-Qing zhanghui xiaoshuo yanjiu ziliao, by Zhang Juling (n.p.: Zhongyang Minzu Xueyuan Keyanchu, 1980), 9.

1    A paraphrase from the “Great Appendix” of The Book of Changes. The I-ching or Book of Changes, trans. Richard Wilhelm and Cary F. Baynes (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967), 326; The Text of Yi king, trans. Z. D. Sung (Taipei: Wenhua Tushu, 1983), 307.

2    Two well-known ancient myths reported respectively in the “Tianwen xun”(天文訓) and “Lanming xun”(覽冥訓) chapters of Huainanzi 淮南子. See Anne Birrell, Chinese Mythology: An Introduction (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993), 69–72, 97–98. Charles Le Blanc and Rémi Mathieu, trans., Philosophes taoïstes II: Huainanzi (Paris: Gallimard, 2003), 102, 278.

3    A paraphrase of a line in a poem by Sun Chuo 孫綽 (314–71). See Wenxuan 11:10a (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1977), 166. Cf. David R. Knechtges’s translation in Wenxuan or Selections of Refined Literature, vol. 2 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987), 253. Also see Erwin von Zach’s translation in Die chinesische Anthologie (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1958), 162.

4    The “six dragons” refers to the six yang lines of the qian 乾 hexagram in The Book of Changes. The sages are said to understand the meaning of these lines and be able to drive their carriage across the sky drawn by these “six dragons.” See Sung, The Text of Yi king, 3. Figuratively this can be understood to say that a correct grasp of the qian hexagram, representing pure yang (i.e., the pure beginning mentioned in the text), opens one’s mind to a holistic understanding of the universe. In a Daoist understanding, this complete clarity is a quality of the immortals, who of course also travel the Heavens in their free and easy wandering. In Daoist inner practice, the six dragons also refer to the pneumata of the human digestive system (see Daojiao da cidian [Beijing: Huaxia Chubanshe, 1995], 308), but the use of the term in the present context is surely on the more general level of The Book of Changes.

5    Hill of Cinnabar (Danqiu 丹邱) and Mysterious Garden (Xuanpu 玄圃) are names for the lands of the immortals used in ancient texts such as Huainanzi and Songs of the South.

6    A paraphrase of a verse from “Canto on Pacing the Void” (Buxu ci 步虛詞) by Emperor Yang of the Sui dynasty 隋煬帝. The Round Ocean 圓海 and the Fangzhu 方諸-Palace are features of the realms of the immortals. See Yuefu shiji 樂府詩集, juan 78 (Taipei: Taiwan Shangwu Yinshuguan, 1968), 888.

7    The last two sentences are a paraphrase of Bao Zhao’s 鮑照 (c. 414–66) poem “To the Tune of ‘Ascension to Heaven’” (“Shengtian xing” 升天行). See Wenxuan 28:23b (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1977), 405. Cf. von Zach’s translation in Die chinesische Anthologie, 506. Elixir scriptures and the Charts of the Five Marchmounts are sacred texts containing the secret recipes of immortality. These are believed to be stored in the lands of the immortals.

8    The sash was a sign of official rank. Taking it off indicates the rejection of worldly honors. “Flying duck shoes” (feifuxi 飛鳧舄) were said to have been worn by the immortal Wang Ziqiao 王子喬. See Max Kaltenmark, Le Lie-sien tchouan (Beijing: Université de Paris, Centre d’études sinologiques de Pékin, 1953), 112.

9    See Han Changli wenji jiaozhu (Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, 1998), 336–40. Xinyi Changli xiansheng wenji (Taipei: Sanmin Shuju, 1999), 529–36. The Twelfth Gentleman is Han Yu’s nephew, Han Laocheng 韓老成, the father of the historical Han Xiang.

10  See Han Changli shi xinian jishi, ed. Qian Zhonglian (Taipei: Xuehai Chubanshe, 1985), 1097–1100. The poem’s title indicates that it is dedicated to Han Yu’s “grandnephew Xiang.” It has been translated by Charles Hartman in his Han Yü and the T’ang Search for Unity, 86–87.

11  These four works are generally regarded as the most accomplished novels of the Ming dynasty. See Plaks, The Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel: Ssu ta ch’i-shu.

12  I.e., 28 June 1623.

1    “Yellow sprouts” and “white snow” are references to lead and mercury respectively. These are the key ingredients in the alchemical process and are associated in internal alchemy with yin and yang.

2    These two lines describe the vast changes affecting the world (fields turning to oceans) and the rapid passage of time, causing the death of even such long-lived trees as pines and cypresses. Emending cangtian 滄田 to sangtian 桑田.

3    These two lines evoke the setting of an immortal’s hermitage and, again, the rapid passage of time. The black ox is a common mount of immortals. Its appearance together with the white dog may be an allusion to a Tang poem by Yu Gu 于鵠 on the dwelling of a recluse. See Quan Tang shi, juan 310 (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1999), 3500. The chess game is one played by immortals; the human onlooker at such a game falls into a dreamlike state, and finds at the end of the game that by human reckoning years have passed.

1    The preceding is a lengthy literal quote (with some minor variations) from the topographical chapter (Dixingxun) of Huainanzi, a second century BCE text. With minor modifications, my translation follows that of John S. Major in his Heaven and Earth in Early Han Thought (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1993), 145–50. Cf. Charles Le Blanc and Rémi Mathieu, trans., Philosophes taoïstes II: Huainanzi, 161–64.

2    The “earth dragon” is an alternative name for the earthworm, while the “cloud mother” is the mineral mica. Found in the ground, both are ingredients in alchemical concoctions and serve here to indicate the mountains’ spiritual potential.

3    This description is a pastiche of classical crane lore. The preceding prose passage and the first four lines of the following poem draw primarily on the Physiognomical Crane Scripture (Xianghe jing 相鶴經), a brief third- to fourth-century text of which a version survives in Li Shan’s 李善 (630–89) commentary to Bao Zhao’s 鮑照 (c. 414–66) famous “Dancing Cranes Rhapsody” (Wuhe fu 舞鶴賦) in Selections of Refined Literature (Wenxuan 文選). Bao’s rhapsody itself is quoted in the line “a womb-born immortal bird,” which makes it likely that Yang Erzeng was using a copy of Selections. See Wenxuan, 14:8a–20a (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1977), 207–8; Erwin von Zach’s translation of Bao Zhao’s rhapsody in Die chinesische Anthologie, 208–10.

4    It is said that cranes cry to warn each other when the dew of autumn begins to fall and they need to prepare for their migration south.

5    A reference to Duke Yi of Wei of the Spring and Autumn Period, who was so fond of cranes that he had them ride in chariots usually reserved for high officials. See the Zuo Commentary to the Spring and Autumn Annals, second year of Duke Min (659 BCE). Legge, The Chinese Classics, vol. 5 (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1960), 126, 129.

6    The Tower of Jiangxia 江夏之樓 refers to the Yellow Crane Tower 黃鶴樓 at Snake Mountain 蛇山 in Jiangxia Prefecture (in the modern city of Wuhan 武漢, Hubei). Several stories circulate about immortals visiting this place, riding on cranes. The most famous is that of the innkeeper Xin 辛, who unbeknownst to himself had served wine to an immortal. The immortal reciprocated the favor by drawing a yellow crane on the wall of the inn. The crane often descended from the wall to dance for Xin’s guests; as a result, his business boomed and he became very rich. One day the immortal returned and flew off into the skies on the crane. Xin then named his inn Yellow Crane Tower.

7    An allusion to a line in a poem by the Tang poet Luo Yin 羅隱 (833–909). See Quan Tang shi, juan 665 (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1999), 7671; Luo Yin shiji jianzhu (Changsha: Yuelu Shushe, 2001), 331–34. South of Shaoxing 紹興 in the present-day province of Zhejiang 浙江 are located the Guiji Mountains 會稽山, to the east of which flows Ye Brook 耶溪, also known as Ruoye Brook 若耶溪, and in spite of the name a sizable river. Two peaks of these mountains are called Target Mountain 射白勺山 and White Crane Mountain 白鶴山 respectively. It is said that the crane of White Crane Mountain fetches the arrows shot by immortals at Target Mountain. See Hailu suishi 海錄碎事, juan 13 (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 2002), 688.

8    A reference to the collection Record of Assorted Remnants (Shiyi ji 拾遺記), attributed to Wang Jia 王嘉 (4th cent.). Juan 2 of this work reports that a barbarian nation sent two pairs of strange birds as tribute to the court of King Zhao of the Zhou dynasty (traditionally dated to the eleventh century BCE). However, in the received text of Record of Assorted Remnants the line alluded to in the present poem is not found, nor are the birds identified as cranes. The variant text apparently used by Yang Erzeng is an excerpt from Record of Assorted Remnants recorded in juan 916 of the tenth century encyclopedia Taiping yulan 太平御覽. See Shiyi ji (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1981), 55–56.

9    A reference to a passage in Zhuangzi speaking of the shortness of ducks’ legs and the length of cranes’ legs. See book 8 (“Pianmu”) of Zhuangzi; Xinyi Zhuangzi duben (Taipei: Sanmin Shuju, 2002), 109. Trans. Burton Watson, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu (New York: Columbia University Press, 1968), 99–100.

10  The immortal Wang Zijin 王子晉 (aka Wang Ziqiao 王子喬) ascended to heaven from Mount Koushi (in modern Henan) mounted on a crane. See the entry on this immortal in Liexian zhuan (trans. Max Kaltenmark, Le Lie-sien tchouan, 109–114). Text emendation: hou 猴 to be read as kou 緱.

11  Ding Lingwei 丁令威 of Liaodong 遼東 was an adept who became an immortal and ascended to Heaven in the shape of a crane. See Soushen houji 搜神後記, juan 1 (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1988), 1. Cf. the entry on Ding Lingwei in Yunji qiqian 雲笈 七籤, juan 110 (quoted from Dongxian zhuan 洞仙傳) (Beijing: Huaxia Chubanshe, 1996), 682.

12  In 383 the invading army of Fu Jian 苻堅 (337–85), the ruler of one of the barbarian northern kingdoms, was defeated by an army of the Jin dynasty at the Fei 月巴 River, by the foot of Mount Eight Lords 八公山 (in modern Anhui). As Fu’s army was routed, the soldiers were in such a state of terror that they mistook the grass and trees on Mount Eight Lords for Jin troops, and believed the cries of cranes to be the shouts of pursuing Jin units. See Herbert A. Giles, A Chinese Biographical Dictionary (London: Bernard Quaritch; Shanghai: Kelly & Walsh, 1898), 231; Jin shu, juan 113–14 (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1974), 2883–2939.

13  See Book of Songs, “Xiaoya,” “He ming.” Trans. James Legge, The Chinese Classics, vol. 4, 297.

14  The Heavenly Worthy of Primordial Beginning (Yuanshi Tianzun 元始天尊) is one of the Three Pure Ones (Sanqing 三清), the highest deities of the Daoist pantheon.

15  King Yama reigns over the underworld, the purgatory where the souls of the dead go to be judged.

16  In popular belief, the Old Man Under the Moon (Yuexia Laoren 月下老人) is responsible for bringing together those who are destined to become spouses. He is the patron deity of marriage.

17  Ceremonies and Rites (Yili 儀禮), chap. 11. Cf. John Steele, trans., The I-li or Book of Etiquette and Ceremonial, vol. 2 (London: Probsthain & Co., 1917), 20.

18  Literally Great Curtain-Raising General on the Left, title of an attendant to the Jade Emperor.

19  A key Daoist scripture (Daozang #331) used in visualization meditations and inner alchemy.

20  See Liezi, book 5 (“Tangwen”). Trans. A. C. Graham, The Book of Lieh-tzu (London: John Murray, 1960), 101.

21  This deity’s full title is Marshal Zhao of the Dark Altar of Orthodox Unity (Zhengyi Xuantan Zhao Yuanshuai 正—玄壇趙元帥). He is one of the four celestial marshals guarding the Daoist ritual arena. Among the common people he is better known as a deity of wealth (caishen 財神) named Zhao Gongming 趙公明, and is often portrayed in auspicious woodblock prints astride a black tiger.

1    A pun on Master Lü’s surname (呂) which is written in Chinese with two kou (“mouth” 口) characters, one on top of the other.

2    The “Daoist song” is the daoqing 道情, a popular performance genre of the late Imperial period that survives to the present day. The “fisher drum” (yugu 漁鼓) is long and fairly narrow bamboo tube, covered with leather at its ends and used to keep the song’s rhythm. Its name is derived from the fact that it supposedly was first made and used by fishermen. This instrument is often accompanied by the “clapper” (jianban 簡板), two long bamboo strips bound together so that they strike against each other. On the daoqing and its musical instruments see Wu Yimin, Zhongguo daoqing yishu gailun (Taiyuan: Shanxi Guji Chubanshe, 1997). Throughout this novel, the fisher drum, the clapper, and the singing of daoqing are trademarks of the itinerant Daoist.

3    Chunyang (Pure Yang) is another name of the immortal Lü Dongbin.

4    Bodao is the style of Deng You 登攸 (d. 326), a minister under the Eastern Jin dynasty, who abandoned his own son to save the son of his deceased brother. He explained that while he could have another child, his dead brother could not, and thus his brother’s only descendant had to take precedence. However, Deng You never had another son of his own. See Giles, A Chinese Biographical Dictionary, 723–24.

5    The “eight characters” (bazi 八字) are a combination of cyclical signs that identify a person’s year, month, day, and hour of birth. Establishing these eight characters is the first step in any astrological divination.

6    I.e., this new son will become the Han family’s main descendant.

7    A play on words: the name means literally, “Whenever he opens the mouth, something efficacious comes out.”

8    I.e., 11 March 780.

9    “Obtuse immortals” (wanxian 頑仙) is a tongue-in-cheek literary rather than a religious category. For example, a work on calligraphy from the Tang dynasty, the Fashu yaolu 法書要錄, notes that “a talented ghost usually excels an obtuse immortal.” See Peiwen yunfu 佩文韻府(Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Shudian, 1983), p. 698, sec. 2.

10  Emending Tang 唐 for Kang 康. Tang Ju 唐舉 and Xu Fu 許負 were famous physiognomists of the Warring States and Han periods respectively.

11  Reading mou 某 for dai 呆.

12  “Rootless water” (wugenshui 無根水) is a traditional Chinese medication.

13  Reading wang 王 for huang 黃. The reference here is not quite clear. If the emendation (which is also made in several modern editions of the novel) is correct, the “Pavilion of King Teng” refers to a banquet given by the King of Teng, a son of Emperor Gao of the Tang dynasty (r. 650–84). This feast was immortalized by Wang Bo 王勃 (649–76) in his famous prose piece “Preface to the Pavilion of King Teng” (Teng Wang ge xu 滕王閣序). See Guwen guanzhi, juan 7 (Tianjin: Tianjin Guji Shudian, 1981), 597–608; Le kou-wen chinois, trans. Georges Margouliès, (Paris: Librairie orientaliste, 1926), 148–55. As Wang Bo was considered a kind of wunderkind, this verse hints at precocious literary success, while the following verse speaks of failure. According to legend, a favorable wind brought Wang Bo in one night over a distance of 700 li so that he would make it in time for the feast.

14  This line refers to a famous story that exemplifies the vagaries of destiny. An impoverished scholar wanted to make a rubbing of a famous stele at Jianfu (Recommended Blessings) Monastery 荐福寺, planning to sell it so he could afford to sit for the civil service examinations. However, before he could put his plan into action, the stele was destroyed by lightning.

1    A reference to the way Emperor Gaozu 高祖 of the Tang came to marry his wife. Her father promised her to the man who could hit the eyes of two pheasants he had painted on a screen, an endeavor in which only Li Yuan 李淵, the future emperor, succeeded.

2    Zhang Jiazhen 張嘉貞 (8th cent.), a prime minister of the Tang dynasty, allowed Guo Yuanzhen 郭元振 to choose a bride from among his five daughters. As Guo found it impossible to decide, all five daughters hid behind a screen, holding red silk threads that were visible to Guo. By pulling on one of the threads, Guo obtained the attached bride—the third-born daughter.

3    Che Yin 車胤 (d. ca. 397 CE) was such a diligent (and poor) student that, unable to afford a lamp, he studied at night by the light of a bag of fireflies.

4    A quote from a famous poem by Wen Tianxiang 文天祥 (1236–83). See his “Guo Lingdingyang,” in Wenshan xiansheng quanji, juan 14 (Taipei: Taiwan Shangwu Yin-shuguan, 1968), 487.

1    Part of a poem attributed to Lü Dongbin. See Quan Tang shi, juan 858 (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1999), 9756.

2    This dialogue is a paraphrase of an exchange between the gods of the Yellow River and of the North Sea in Zhuangzi (chap. 17, “Autumn Floods”). Xinyi Zhuangzi duben, 217; Watson, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, 183.

3    Book of Documents, “Da Yu mo.” Cf. Legge’s translation, The Chinese Classics, vol. 3, 61–62.

4    In the above exchange, Han Yu poses his questions in a dualistic mode (being/non-being, mindful/mindless), while his two interlocutors reply with phrases, culled mostly from the recorded dialogues of Chan masters, meant to propel Han’s mind beyond its dualistic outlook. I would like to thank Dan Lusthans for his help with this dialogue.

5    Zhuangzi (chap. 19, “Dasheng”). Translation from Victor Mair, Wandering on the Way (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1994), 177.

6    The locus classicus for this division of immortals into five ranks is the Zhong-Lu chuandao ji 鍾呂傳道集 (Daozang #263.14), a work on internal alchemy supposedly composed by Zhongli Quan and Lü Dongbin, and transmitted by Shi Jianwu 施肩吾 (fl. 815). See Zhong-Lü chuandao quanji 鍾呂傳道全集 (Taipei: Ziyou Chubanshe, 1974), 116. Yang Erzeng’s direct source, however, appears to have been Weng Baoguang’s 翁葆光 (12th cent.) commentary to Zhang Boduan’s 張伯端 (ca. 983–1082) Wuzhen pian 悟真篇. With minor deviations, the above description of the five grades of immortals is a literal quote from Weng’s commentary. See Wuzhen pian jizhu ‘吾真 篇集註, shang juan:3a–3b (Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, 1989), 63–64.

7    A quote from Zhang Boduan’s Wuzhen pian. See Wang Mu, Wuzhen pian qianjie, (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1990), 3. For other translations see Paul Crowe, “An Annotated Translation and Study of Chapters on Awakening to the Real (ca. 1061) Attributed to Zhang Boduan (ca. 983–1081)” (M.A. thesis, University of British Columbia, 1997), 40; Robinet, Introduction à l’alchimie intérieure taoïste: De l’unité et de la multiplicité (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1995), 206; Thomas Cleary, Understanding Reality: A Taoist Alchemical Classic (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1987), 28.

8    These four lines are paraphrases of Wuzhen pian, stanza 7 (Wuzhen pian qianjie, 13). For translations, see Crowe, “Annotated Translation,” 44; Robinet, Introduction à l’alchimie intérieure taoïste, 211; Cleary, Understanding Reality, 39–40.

9    Another paraphrase of a stanza (no. 5) from Wuzhen pian (Wuzhen pian qianjie, 8). For translations, see Crowe, “Annotated Translation,” 42–43; Robinet, Introduction à l’alchimie intérieure taoïste, 209; Cleary, Understanding Reality, 36.

10  Analects 11.24. See Legge, The Chinese Classics, vol. 1, 246.

11  See Book of Songs, “Xiaoya,” “He ming” (Legge, The Chinese Classics, vol. 4, 297).

1    A reference to a famous story about a dreamer living a lifetime in the ant kingdom Southern Bough (Nanke), before awakening back in his real life. The Ming dramatist Tang Xianzu 湯顯祖 (1550–1617) based one of his most famous plays (Nanke ji 南柯記) on this theme, originally from a novella of the Tang period. The novella has been translated by E. D. Edwards. See Chinese Prose Literature of the T’ang Period, A.D. 618–906, vol. 2 (London: Arthur Probsthain, 1938), 206–12.

2    The locus classicus for the rhinoceros horn allusion is the Wenshi zhenjing 文始真經, where the curved shape of the horn is attributed to its impregnation with moonlight. See Wenshi zhenjing, juan zhong (Shanghai: Shanghai Shudian, 1985; reprint of Sibu Congkan edition), 11b-12a. In proverbial use, this expression is used to illustrate intense and long-lasting yearning like that of the rhinoceros that stared so long at the moon that its horn took on the moon’s shape. The reference to the oyster playing in the sunshine is not completely clear, but may have to do with the joy felt by a woman when discovering her pregnancy. The pearl’s growth within the oyster is a common metaphor for human pregnancy.

3    Analects 11.24. Cf. Roger T. Ames and Henry Rosemont, Jr., trans., The Analects of Confucius: A Philosophical Translation (New York: Ballantine Books, 1998), 148.

4    Ibid.

5    Analects 5.4. Cf. Ames and Rosemont, The Analects of Confucius, 96. Actually, in this passage Confucius criticizes people who use artful speech to dispute others—quite the opposite of what Xiangzi makes it out to be here.

6    These two terms have their source in a pun recorded in the fifth century work A New Account of Tales of the World (Shishuo xinyu 世說新語). See Richard B. Mather, Shih-shuo hsin-yü: A New Account of Tales of the World, 2d ed. (Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, The University of Michigan, 2002), 387.

7    The first two lines are taken from two poems by Han Yu. See von Zach, Han Yü’s poetische Werke, 69, 261. The last two lines refer obliquely to the pleasures of female beauty. Qian Zhonglian, Han Changli shi xinian jishi, 385, 978.

8    A quote from Kongcongzi 孑L從子, a third-century work. See Yoav Ariel, K’ung-ts’ung-tzu: The K’ung Family Masters’ Anthology (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989), 136.

9    A poem attributed to Lü Dongbin, entitled “A Warning to the World” (Jingshi 警世). See Quan Tang shi, juan 858 (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1999), 9702.462

10  See Ch’ien tzu wen: The Thousand Character Classic, ed. Francis W. Paar (New York: Frederick Ungar, 1963), 82–83.

1    Two paragons of respectability who would not be seduced by female charms. Liuxia Hui 柳下惠 lived in the seventh and sixth centuries BCE, Lu Zhonglian 魯仲連 in the third century BCE.

2    Refers to the story of a white dragon which, when swimming about in the form of a fish, loses an eye when shot at by the fisherman Yu Qie 豫且. The dragon accuses Yu Qie in front of the Celestial Emperor, demanding justice. But the emperor points out that fish are bound to be hunted by men, so if the dragon went about disguised as a fish, he alone was responsible for the risk he took.

3    A reference to a famous story in Zhanguoce 戰國策. See J. I. Crump, Chan-kuo Tse (Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, The University of Michigan, 1996), 177.

4    As a boy, Sunshu Ao 孫叔敖 (6th cent. BCE) came upon a double-headed snake lying on the road. Because he had heard that anyone seeing a double-headed snake must die, he expected his own death. Since he was concerned others might suffer his fate as well, he killed the snake and buried it.

5    One of the exploits of Liu Bang 劉邦 (247–195 BCE), the founder of the great Han dynasty.

6    The “pilgrim in search of the sutras” refers to the monkey Sun Wukong, the hero of the novel Journey to the West. The description of him as “iron-shod and bronze-headed” is a bit puzzling, as is the fact that Sun is here equated with a demon. However, in Journey to the West iron and bronze are used several times to describe Sun’s strength, for example when he is said to have a “head of copper and a brain of iron” (chap. 19). In chapter 32, Sun transforms himself into a vicious woodpecker with “red bronze-hard bill and black iron claws” and attacks his companion Zhu Bajie. Trans. Anthony Yu, The Journey to the West, vol. 2, 108.

1    An allusion to a Chinese proverb: Zhongnan jiejing 終南捷徑, “the shortcut through the Zhongnan Mountains.” In its original context it referred to ambitious men going into reclusion in the mountains merely to attract the attention of the powers that be. Based on a bon mot of the Tang dynasty Daoist Sima Chengzhen 司馬承禎 (647–735). See Liu Su 劉肅 (fl. 806–820), Da Tang xin yu 大唐新語 juan 10 (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1997), 157–158.

2    A disciple of Confucius who was ugly, yet very capable.

3    Part of this mythographical passage stems from Shenyi jing 神異經, a work of the Six Dynasties period falsely attributed to Dongfang Shuo 東方朔. My translation follows the emendations proposed by Zhou Ciji in his Shenyi jing yanjiu (Taipei: Wenjin Chubanshe, 1986), 66–68.

4    A quote from Chen Zhixu’s 陳致虛 (fl. 1326–86) commentary to Wuzhen pian. See Wuzhen pian jizhu, shang juan:4a–4b (Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, 1989) 65–66.

5    A reference to Wuzhen pian, stanza 6. See Wang Mu, Wuzhen pian qianjie, 11. Trans. Crowe, “An Annotated Translation,” 44; Robinet, Introduction à l’alchimie intérieure taoïste, 210; Cleary, Understanding Reality, 38. The frog in the well motif ultimately goes back to a parable in chapter 17 (“Autumn Floods”) of Zhuangzi. See Mair, Wandering on the Way, 161.

6    Quotations from stanzas 4 and 5 of Wuzhen pian. See Wang Mu, Wuzhen pian qianjie, 5, 8. Trans. Crowe, “An Annotated Translation,” 42, 43; Robinet, Introduction à l’alchimie intérieure taoïste, 207, 209; Cleary, Understanding Reality, 32, 36.

7    Master Lü’s explication of the two passages from Wuzhen pian is based mostly on Weng Baoguang’s commentary. See Wuzhen pian jizhu, shang juan:7b, 9a–9b (Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, 1989), 72, 75–76.

8    Another quote from Weng Baoguang’s Wuzhen pian commentary: Wuzhen pian jizhu, shang juan:10b (Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, 1989), 78. Cf. also the first verse of Wuzhen pian’s sixth stanza (Wang Mu, Wuzhen pian qianjie, 11). Trans. Crowe, “An Annotated Translation,” 44; Robinet, Introduction à l’alchimie intérieure taoïste, 210; Cleary, Understanding Reality, 38.

9    A reference to the famous story of Lü Dongbin’s affair with White Peony (Bai Mudan 白牡丹). For a description and discussion of this topos, see Paul Katz, Images of the Immortal (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1999), 189–90.

10  Daode jing, chap. 6. Trans. D. C. Lau, Tao Te Ching (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1963), 62.

11  This outline of sexual technique is a paraphrase of Exposition of Cultivating the True Essence by the Great Immortal of the Purple Gold Splendor (Zijin Guangyao Daxian xiuzhen yanyi 紫金光耀大仙修真演義), a key text in the Chinese sexual yoga genre. See Robert Hans van Gulik, Erotic Colour Prints of the Ming Dynasty (Tokyo: privately published, 1951). Trans. Douglas Wile, Art of the Bedchamber: The Chinese Sexual Yoga Classics, Including Women’s Solo Meditation Texts (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1992), 136–46.

12  Many of the trials suffered by Han Xiangzi are described in close imitation of those imposed on Du Zichun 杜子春 in the eponymous Tang dynasty novella. The difference is that Du Zichun failed the test, while Xiangzi successfully completes the elixir. See “Du Zichun,” in Taiping guangji, vol. 1 (Changsha: Yuelu Shushe, 1996), 78–80. Translated in E. D. Edwards, Chinese Prose Literature of the T’ang Period, A.D. 618–906, vol. 2 (London: Arthur Probsthain, 1938), 54–62.

13  Stanza 3 of Wuzhen pian. See Wang Mu, Wuzhen pian qianjie, 3. Trans. Crowe, “An Annotated Translation,” 40–41; Robinet, Introduction à l’alchimie intérieure taoïste, 206; Cleary, Understanding Reality, 28. Reading xiang 翔 for xiang 祥.

1    The Steps of Yu (Yubu 禹步) is a sequence of steps that is part of many Daoist rituals and is believed to produce great magical efficacy.

2    Excerpts from Han Yu’s famous essay on the Dao (“Yuan Dao”). My translation follows that given in Wm. Theodore de Bary, ed., Sources of Chinese Tradition, vol. 2 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1960), 376–79.

3    Ru 入 emended to ba 八.

4    See Mencius 6.2.3. Trans. Legge, The Chinese Classics, vol. 2, 437.

5    An allusion to Analects 14.46. Cf. Legge, The Chinese Classics, vol. 1, 293.

6    Ziyu was a disciple of Confucius, who was of pleasant demeanor, but did not live up to his promise. This citation is lifted from the writings of the Legalist philosopher Han Feizi (juan 50, “Xianxue”). Cf. the English translation by W. K. Liao in The Complete Works of Han Fei Tzu, vol. 2 (London: Arthur Probsthain, 1959), 303.

1    A quote from the Analects of Confucius (10.18). Cf. Ames and Rosemont, The Analects of Confucius, 141; Legge, The Chinese Classics, vol. 1, 236.

2    A play on a famous passage in Zhuangzi, chap. 17 (“Autumn Floods”). Trans. Watson, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, 187–188.

3    The preceding four lines of verse allude to the process in inner alchemy of engendering an immortal embryo within oneself. The egret and the turtle are thus boasting of their alchemical accomplishments.

4    A reference to Yang Xiong’s 揚雄 (53 BCE–18 CE) essay “Admonition against Wine” (Jiuzhen 酒箴). Only a part of “Admonition against Wine,” or “Wine Rhapsody” (Jiufu 酒賦), has survived. See Yang Xiong ji jiaozhu 揚雄集校注, ed. Zhang Zhenze (Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, 1993), 153–56.

5    Jiying is the style of Zhang Han 張翰 (3rd cent. CE), a poet who resigned his official position because he was homesick for the dishes of his home in Songjiang (Jiangsu). See Giles, A Chinese Biographical Dictionary, 22.

6    The Immortal Ge is Ge Xuan 葛玄. See his hagiography in the Shenxian zhuan, trans. Robert F. Campany, To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), 152–59. The identity of the “graduate Zhang” is not clear.

7    The two lines refer to sexual affairs and their dire consequences. The first alludes to the birth of the famous concubine Baosi 褒姒, who contributed to the downfall of a king. She was conceived when her mother came into contact with dragon saliva. The allusion in the second line is obscure, but would again seem to refer to a defeat because of infatuation with a woman (“brocade petals”).

8    Lüzhu 綠珠, the concubine of Shi Chong 石崇 (249–300), killed herself by jumping off a tower to escape the unwanted attentions of a powerful suitor. Shi Chong himself was executed, in part because of his refusal to surrender Lüzhu. In the next line, the Pavilion of Linchun refers to the private abode of Chen Shubao 陳叔寶 (553–604), the last emperor of the Chen dynasty, who was known for his infatuation with his harem.

9    Emending yi 异 for fang 方.

10  These lines refer to the attempted assassination of the first emperor of Qin by Zhang Liang 張良 (d. 185 BCE) and the suicide of Xiang Yu 項羽 (232–92 BCE).

1    A quote from the “Pearl-gathering Song” (Caizhuge 採珠歌) in Zhang Boduan’s Wuzhen pian. See Wang Mu, Wuzhen pian qianjie, 189–90. Cf. translations by Crowe, “An Annotated Translation,” 120; Cleary, Understanding Reality, 171–72.

2    Xu You is a famous recluse of the mythical age of Emperor Yao. He avoided any distractions in his secluded life. Someone gave him a gourd to use as a ladle, so he wouldn’t have to drink brook water from his cupped hands. But when he noticed that he liked the pleasant sound made by the wind whistling through the gourd, Xu threw it away so as to rid himself of this disturbance of his senses. See Giles, A Chinese Biographical Dictionary, 312.

3    An allusion to the ancient philosopher Yang Zhu, who was said to have advocated “not giving up a single hair to benefit the world.” See chapter 7 (“Yang Zhu”) of Liezi. Trans. A. C. Graham, The Book of Lieh-tzu, 148–49.

4    A pun: the characters zhuo and wei put together give the character han, Han Xiangzi’s real surname.

5    Part of a poem attributed to Lü Dongbin. See Quan Tang shi, juan 858 (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1999), 9757.

6    Wuzhen pian, zhong, 20. See Wang Mu, Wuzhen pian qianjie, 60. Cf. translations by Crowe, “Annotated Translation,” 61; Robinet, Introduction à l’alchimie intérieure taoïste, 226; Cleary, Understanding Reality, 79.

1    Wuzhen pian, shang, 11. Wang Mu, Wuzhen pian qianjie, 19–20. Cf. translations by Crowe, “Annotated Translation,” 48–49; Robinet, Introduction à l’alchimie intérieure taoïste, 214–15; Cleary, Understanding Reality, 47.

2    The last two lines are a quotation from a poem by Su Shi 蘇軾 (1037–1101). Su Dongpo quanji, qianji, juan 6 (Taipei: Shijie Shuju, 1964), vol. 1, 106.

1    Wuzhen pian, shang, 13. Wang Mu, Wuzhen pian qianjie, 22. Cf. translations by Crowe, “Annotated Translation,” 50; Robinet, Introduction à l’alchimie intérieure taoïste, 216; Cleary, Understanding Reality, 50.

2    By sitting on the (wooden) gate with two stalks of grass on his head, Zhang Qian represents the Chinese character cha 茶 (tea), which consists of the components “grass,” “man,” and “wood.” I have been unable to solve the other riddles.

3    A paraphrase of a passage from The Book of Changes. See Sung, The Text of Yi king, 337; Wilhelm and Baynes, The I-ching or Book of Changes, 355.

1    Wuzhen pian, shang, 14. Wang Mu, Wuzhen pian qianjie, 24. Cf. translations by Crowe, “Annotated Translation,” 51; Robinet, Introduction à l’alchimie intérieure taoïste, 217; Cleary, Understanding Reality, 52.

2    “Cloud-water” (yunshui 雲水) is a traditional term for an itinerant monk.

3    Mengzi, Gaozi shang, 10. Trans. Legge, The Chinese Classics, vol.2, 412–413.

4    Cf. Wuzhen pian zhong, 60. Wang Mu, Wuzhen pian qianjie, 125. Cf. translations by Crowe, “Annotated Translation,” 85; Robinet, Introduction à l’alchimie intérieure taoïste, 242; Cleary, Understanding Reality, 118.

5    This poem, ascribed to Han Xiang, is recorded in Quan Tang shi, juan 860 (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1999), 9785.

6    Analects 9.11. Cf. Legge, The Chinese Classics, vol. 1, 220.

7    Analects 15.11. Cf. Legge, The Chinese Classics, vol. 1, 298.

8    Mount Shouyang was famous for its hermits.

9    The following song (and the whole goat episode) is predicated on a pun: the vital yang 陽 energy (of the yin/yang dualism) has the same pronunciation as the Chinese word for goat (yang 羊). Thus, when talking of goats, Han Xiangzi is really expounding how to harness and nourish one’s yang forces.

1    An anonymous lyric. See Quan Song ci, ed. Tang Guizhang (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1965), 3742–43. Yi and Zhou are two famous loyal ministers of Chinese antiquity. Yuan-ming is another name of the poet Tao Qian 陶潛 (365–427), a paradigmatic recluse. The juxtaposition extols the contemplative over the active life. The reference to Tao Qian’s return home is an allusion to his rhapsody “The Return” (Guiqulai 歸去來). See Wenxuan 45: 19a–20b (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1977), 636–37. Trans. James Hightower, The Poetry of T’ao Ch’ien (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970), 268–70.

2    淳于髡, a famous profligate of the fourth century BCE.

1    This summary consists largely of (subtly altered) excerpts from Han Yu’s biography in Xin Tang shu, juan 176 (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1975), 5255–69. Han Changli wenji jiaozhu, 739–56.

2    Analects 16.6. Cf. Legge, The Chinese Classics, vol. 1, 312.

3    Zhang Sengyou 張僧繇 (6th cent.) was famed for painting extremely lifelike pictures. Legend has it that on one occasion he painted two dragons on a temple wall, but deliberately left them without eyes lest they come alive. And indeed, when someone added the eyes, the wall collapsed and the dragons soared into the sky.

4    His infatuation with a concubine led to his ruin. Shi Chong 石崇 (3rd cent.) is also frequently mentioned as a proverbially rich man.

1    Wu Zixu 伍子胥 (Wu Yun 伍員, d. 484 BCE), a minister of the State of Wu during the Spring and Autumn Period. See Giles, A Chinese Biographical Dictionary, 892–93.

1    Elder Gold Cicada is the earlier incarnation of Tripitaka, the fictionalized monk Xuan-zang in Journey to West (Xiyou ji). See chapter 12 of that novel. The Journey to the West, trans. Anthony Yu, vol. 1 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977), 256–81.

2    Han Changli wenji jiaozhu, 612–17. Xinyi Changli xiansheng wenji, 970–76. The translation follows that of J. K. Rideout in Anthology of Chinese Literature, ed. Cyril Birch (New York: Grove Press, 1965), 250–53. The last paragraph does not appear in the original version of Han Yu’s memorial. It is an excerpt from Sima Guang’s 司馬光 (1019–1086) monumental history of China, the Zizhi tongjian 資治通鑑. See Zizhi tongjian (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1982), juan 240, 7759.

1    As Han Yu looks back at the gates of Chang’an, he is resentful of the corruption (the crooked wood of the bow) that did injury to him (the bowstring).

2    Han Yu’s troubles are compared here to those of the Duke of Zhou, who was accused of being disloyal to the Zhou king. In fact, when the king was gravely ill, the duke had secretly offered his own life to the ancestors in exchange for the king’s health. This offer was recorded and locked away in a metal-bound coffer. The king recovered at first, but then died not long after. After the king’s death the duke acted as regent and was slandered by enemies who implied that he was grabbing power for himself. Eventually he was vindicated, when the new king after his ascension to the throne opened the coffer and made public this evidence of the duke’s devotion to the dynasty. See The Book of Documents, trans. Legge, The Chinese Classics, vol. 3, 351ff.

3    The last two lines are from a poem by the Tang poet Wang Wei (701–61). See G. W. Robinson, Poems of Wang Wei (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973), 104; Tony Barnstone, Willis Barnstone, and Xu Haixin, Laughing Lost in the Mountains (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1991), 65.

4    A poem by Wen Tingyun 溫庭筠 (ca. 812–70). See Wen Feiqing shiji 溫飛卿詩集 , juan 8 (Taipei: Taiwan Xuesheng Shuju, 1967), 248.

5    The surname Han 韓 is pronounced the same as han 寒, “cold.” The boatman understood (or pretended to understand) Master Han (Han laoye 韓老爺) as Master Cold (han laoye 寒老爺). A close equivalent of the latter might be Old Man Winter.

6    See Paar, Ch’ien tzu wen, 42.

7    This is the beginning of a series of double entendres. The character du 渡 can mean both “to ferry across” and “to deliver, to save, to bring salvation.” The two meanings are closely related in the Buddhist context, where the salvational activity of bodhisattvas is often described metaphorically and depicted iconographically as a ferry carrying souls to the other shore of the Pure Land. This section of the novel employs the same metaphorical tool.

8    Another double entendre: the word for “repair” (xiu 修) is the same as that for “cultivate, cultivation.”

9    Erlang 二郎 is a deity well-known for his battles with river-dwelling dragons.

1    A quote from the Yizhou shu 逸周書. Trans. J.I. Crump, Chan-kuo Ts’e (Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, The University of Michigan, 1996), 88.

2    A play on words: Sizhen 似真 means “seems true.” The surname Jia 賈 is a homonym of jia 假 (false), which is written with a different character. The innkeeper’s name can thus be read as “false, but seeming true.”

3    Dou shi jia 都是賈 can be read as “all share the surname Jia,” or as “all are false,” i.e., illusions.

4    “Pulling out branches in the cold” (han tui zhi 寒退枝) is a pun on Han Yu’s name (Han Tuizhi 韓退之). The first three phrases allude to the preparatory stages of Daoist cultivation.

5    This dialogue is based on wordplay using the homonyms yuren 漁人(fisherman) and yuren 愚人 (fool).

6    In fact, this phrase is not as modest as it sounds. It connotes freedom from restraint and limitations and was often used by famous poets to refer to themselves.

7    A quote from a poem by the Tang dynasty Chan master Chuanzi Decheng 船子德誠. See Shi Puji 釋普濟 (1179–1253), Wudeng huiyuan 五燈會元 juan 5 (Taipei: Guangwen Shuju, 1971), 436.

8    “Cold fish” (hanyu 寒魚) is a pun on the name Han Yu 韓愈.

9    The foregoing four lines are from Yang Fu’s 羊孚 (ca. 358 or 373–403) “Ode to Snow” 雪讚. Translation by Richard Mather, Shih-shuo hsin-yü: A New Account of Tales of the World (Ann Arbor, MI: Center for Chinese Studies, The University of Michigan, 2002), 151–52.

10  An allusion to a poem by Lu Chang 陸暢 (Tang dynasty). See Quan Tang shi, juan 478 (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1999), 5477.

11  The foregoing lines elaborate on two lines from a poem by Zheng Gu 鄭谷 (fl. 886). See Quan Tang shi, juan 675 (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1999), 7792.

1    Trans. Z. D. Sung, The Text of Yi king, 1.

2    Following the Wilhelm and Baynes translation (The I-ching or Book of Changes, 294).

3    Bian Zhuang 卞莊 and Feng Fu 馮婦 are two famous men of valor from the Spring and Autumn Period. Of Feng Fu it is specifically reported that he wrestled with tigers.

1    Chen Keming, Han Yu nianpu ji shiwen xinian, 526; Qian Zhonglian, Han Changli shi xinian jishi, 1097. Translated by Charles Hartman in his Han Yü and the T’ang Search for Unity (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986), 86–87.

2    A quote from Han Yu’s “Discourse on Teachers” (Shishuo 師説). See Han Changli wenji jiaozhu, 42–44; Xinyi Changli xiansheng wenji, 75–79. Translated in Sources of Chinese Tradition, ed. Wm. Theodore de Bary et al. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1960), 374–75.

3    Han Changli wenji jiaozhu, 573–75; Xinyi Changli xiansheng wenji, 555–58. Translation by J. K. Rideout, in Anthology of Chinese Literature, ed. Cyril Birch (New York: Grove Press, 1965), 253–55. I have made minor modifications to Rideout’s translation.

4    An allusion to Mencius, 5A:7. See Legge, The Chinese Classics, vol. 2, 363–64.

1    The Great Learning, 3.2. Cf. Legge, The Chinese Classics, vol. 1, 362.

2    A play on elements of Han Xiangzi’s name. The two characters of Zhuowei (卓韋) put together become the surname Han 韓. The combination of the two characters used to write Mumu (沐目) results in the character xiang 湘. Hence these names are a hidden reference to Han Xiang(zi) himself.

1    Wordplay: the Chinese term for “fisher drum” (yugu 漁鼓) is a homonym of yugu 愚鼓 (stupid drum, drum of stupidity).

2    Sanskrit: “wisdom.”

3    The legend of the Immortal of the Rotten Axe-handle (Lanke Xianzi 爛柯仙子) tells of a certain Wang Zhi 王質 (4th cent.), who went to cut wood in the mountains. There he came across two immortals playing chess. Captivated by the game, he did not notice the passing of time. When he finally came out of his trance, many years had passed and the handle of his ax had rotted away. A sort of Rip van Winkle story.

4    The foregoing two sentences are quoted from a poem by the Song dynasty “Daoist of the Clear Brook,” Qingxi Daoshi 清溪道士. See Daojiao da cidian 887.

1    An allusion to a famous episode of the fourth century. A wife was about to murder her husband’s new concubine, when she was so struck by her beauty that she said, “Dear child, even I feel affection for you as I look at you; how much more must that old rascal!” She lowered her knife and befriended the concubine. See Shih-shuo hsin-yü: A New Account of Tales of the World, second ed., trans. Richard B. Mather (Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 2002), 377–78.

1    This refers to an ancient belief that the sphex (a kind of wasp) catches earworms and carries them to its nest where they change into young sphexes. In fact, the worms serve as food for the wasp larvae.

2    A reference to the story of Dou E 竇娥, who is unjustly accused of a crime. Snow falling in summer is a sign from Heaven proclaiming her innocence, and condemning her accuser and her corrupt judge. Subject of a famous play by Guan Hanqing 關漢卿 (c. 1240–c. 1320) entitled “The Injustice to Dou E” (Dou E yuan 竇娥冤).

3    The whole poem is an assemblage of famous cases of injustices wrought by slander.

4    An allusion to the Analects of Confucius (9.5). See Legge, The Chinese Classics, vol. 1, 218.

5    Following the emendation proposed in the Shanghai Guji edition (p. 275).

1    From The Book of Odes. See Legge, The Chinese Classics, vol. 4, 445. The fish and the kite are examples of naturalness, i.e., natural grace.

1    These are all references to examples of misfortunes following one after another. The last line refers to a famous story of an impoverished scholar who wanted to make a rubbing of a famous stele at Jianfu Monastery, planning to sell it so he could afford to sit for the civil service examinations. However, before he could put his plan into action, the stele was destroyed by lightning. This story is also alluded to in chapter 2. See above page 37.

2    See “Jingming zongjiao lu,” in Daozang jiyao 道藏輯要, vol. 5 (Chengdu: Bashu Shushe, 1995), 225. The text is also included in the collection Zangwai daoshu 藏外道書, vol. 7 (Chengdu: Bashu Shushe, 1992–1994), 826.

3    The Hemp Maiden (Magu 麻姑) is a famous immortal.

4    The Bird Nest Chan Master (Niaoke Chanshi 鳥窠禪師) was an eccentric but highly respected Buddhist monk named Daolin 道林 (741–824), who made his home in a pine tree.

1    Wuzhen pian, shang, 6. Wang Mu, Wuzhen pian qianjie, 10–11. Trans. Crowe, “Annotated Translation,” 43–44. Cf. Robinet, Introduction à l’alchimie intérieure taoïste, 210; Cleary, Understanding Reality, 38.

2    A quote from the morality book Taishang ganying pian 太上感應篇. Cf. translation by James Legge, “The Thaî-shang Tractate of Actions and Their Recompense,” in The Texts of Taoism vol. 2 (reprint, New York: Dover Publications, 1962), 235.

3    Wuzhen pian, shang, 5. Wang Mu, Wuzhen pian qianjie, 8. Trans. Crowe, “Annotated Translation,” 43; Robinet, Introduction à l’alchimie intérieure taoïste, 209; Cleary, Understanding Reality, 36.

4    A paraphrase of Wuzhen pian, shang, 7. Wang Mu, Wuzhen pian qianjie, 13. Trans. Crowe, “Annotated Translation,” 45; Robinet, Introduction à l’alchimie intérieure taoïste, 211; Cleary, Understanding Reality, 40. Reading tufu 土釜 for erfu 二釜.

5    Trans. Lu-ch’iang Wu and Tenney L. Davis, “An Ancient Chinese Treatise on Alchemy Entitled Ts’an T’ung Ch’i,” Isis 18(1932):251.

6    Wuzhen pian, zhong, 25. Wang Mu, Wuzhen pian qianjie, 13. Trans. Crowe, “Annotated Translation,” 65–66; Robinet, Introduction à l’alchimie intérieure taoïste, 228; Cleary, Understanding Reality, 82.

7    The last two sentences are a quotation from Xue Shi’s commentary to Wuzhen pian. See Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian san zhu (Daozang #142). Zhengtong Daozang, vol. 4 (Taipei: Yiwen Yinshuguan, 1977), 2839.

8    A paraphrase of Wuzhen pian, shang, 4. Wang Mu, Wuzhen pian qianjie, 13. Trans. Crowe, “Annotated Translation,” 41–42; Robinet, Introduction à l’alchimie intérieure taoïste, 228; Cleary, Understanding Reality, 82.

1    Wuzhen pian, zhong, 13. Wang Mu, Wuzhen pian qianjie, 49. Trans. Crowe, “Annotated Translation,” 58; Robinet, Introduction à l’alchimie intérieure taoïste, 223; Cleary, Understanding Reality, 71.

2    Wuzhen pian, shang, 4. Wang Mu, Wuzhen pian qianjie, 5. Trans. Crowe, “Annotated Translation,” 42. Cf. Robinet, Introduction à l’alchimie intérieure taoïste, 207. The novel’s text has yu 于 instead of fei 非. This translation follows Crowe’s rather than Robinet’s interpretation of this passage.

3    Wuzhen pian, shang, 7. Wang Mu, Wuzhen pian qianjie, 13. Trans. Crowe, “Annotated Translation,” 44. Cf. Robinet, Introduction à l’alchimie intérieure taoïste, 211; Cleary, Understanding Reality, 39–40.

4    Daodejing 4. Cf. Lau, Lao Tzu: Tao te ching, 60.

5    These are rearranged excerpts from a long poem by the Tang poet Bai Juyi 白居易 (772–846). The complete poem can be found in Quan Tang shi, juan 437, 4871. The translation follows (with some modifications) that of Howard S. Levy in his Translations from Po Chü-i’s Collected Works (New York: Paragon Reprint Corp., 1971), 97.