Bao Pu Zi Nei Pian (抱朴子內篇) · Volume 5

或問儒道之先後。抱朴子答曰：“道者，儒之本也；儒者，道之末也。先以為陰陽之術，眾於忌諱，使人拘畏；而儒者博而寡要，勞而少功；墨者儉而難遵，不可遍循；法者嚴而少恩，傷破仁義。唯道家之教，使人精神專一，動合無形，包儒墨之善，總名法之要，與時遷移，應物變化，指約而易明，事少而功多，務在全大宗之樸，守真正之源者也。而班固以史遷先黃老而後六經，謂遷為謬。夫遷之洽聞，旁綜幽隱，沙汰事物之臧否，核實古人之邪正。其評論也，實原本於自然，其褒貶也，皆準的乎至理。不虛美，不隱惡，不雷同以偶俗。劉向命世通人，謂為實錄；而班固之所論，未可據也。固誠純儒，不究道意，玩其所習，難以折中。夫所謂道，豈唯養生之事而已乎？易曰：立天之道，曰陰與陽；立地之道，曰柔與剛；立人之道，曰仁與義。又曰：易有聖人之道四焉，苟非其人，道不虛行。又於治世隆平，則謂之有道，危國亂主，則謂之無道。又坐而論道，謂之三公，國之有道，貧賤者恥焉。凡言道者，上自二儀，下逮萬物，莫不由之。但黃老執其本，儒墨治其末耳。今世之舉有道者，蓋博通乎古今，能仰觀俯察，歷變涉微，達興亡之運，明治亂之體，心無所惑，問無不對者，何必修長生之法，慕松喬之武者哉？而管窺諸生，臆斷瞽說，聞有居山林之間，宗伯陽之業者，則毀而笑之曰，彼小道耳，不足算也。嗟乎！所謂抱螢燭於環堵之內者，不見天光之焜爛；侶鮋鰕於跡水之中者，不識四海之浩汗；重江河之深，而不知吐之者崑崙也；珍黍稷之收，而不覺秀之者豐壤也。今苟知推崇儒術，而不知成之者由道。道也者，所以陶冶百氏，範鑄二儀，胞胎萬類，醞釀彝倫者也。世間淺近者眾，而深遠者少，少不勝眾，由來久矣。是以史遷雖長而不見譽，班固雖短而不見彈。

Someone asked whether the Ru or the Way came first. Baopuzi answered: 'The Way is the root of the Ru; the Ru is the branch of the Way. It was said of old that the yin-yang school had many taboos and made men constrained and fearful; that the Ru were broad yet lacked essentials, toiling with little result; that the Mohists were frugal yet hard to follow, not to be practiced everywhere; that the legists were strict yet little kind, breaking humaneness and rightness. Only the teaching of the Daoists makes the spirit single-minded, makes every movement accord with the formless, wraps in the good of Ru and Mo, gathers in the essentials of names and law, shifts with the times, responds to the changes of things; its points are simple and easy to grasp, its tasks few and its results many—its work lies in preserving the simplicity of the great source and keeping to the origin of the true. Ban Gu, because Sima Qian put Huang-Lao before the Six Classics, said Qian was mistaken. Qian's wide hearing ranged the hidden and obscure, sifted the good and evil of things, and tested the crooked and straight of the ancients. His judgments truly took the natural as their root, his praise and blame aimed at the utmost pattern; he did not praise what was false, did not hide what was evil, did not echo to suit the age. Liu Xiang, a commanding scholar of his era, called it a true record—Ban Gu's appraisal cannot be relied upon. Ban Gu was indeed a pure Ru; he did not fathom the intent of the Way, and playing with what he was trained in, he is hard to bring to balance. What is called the Way—is it merely the business of nourishing life? The Changes says: the Way that establishes heaven is called yin and yang; the Way that establishes earth is called the soft and the hard; the Way that establishes man is called humaneness and rightness. It also says: the Changes contains four ways of the sage—were it not the right man, the Way would not run in vain. Again, of an age well ordered and at peace it is said to have the Way; of endangered states and disordered lords it is said to lack the Way. Again, sitting and discoursing on the Way one is styled one of the Three Dukes; when a state has the Way, poverty and baseness are held a shame. All that is said of the Way—from the two forms above down to the myriad things—there is nothing that does not come by it. Only Huang-Lao holds fast its root, while Ru and Mo manage its branches. Those the world now accounts possessed of the Way are, for the most part, broadly versed in past and present, able to gaze upward and examine below, to pass through changes and enter the subtle, to comprehend the cycles of rise and fall and understand the frame of order and disorder, no doubt in their hearts, no question they cannot answer—what need have they to cultivate the method of long life and admire the tracks of Chisongzi and Wangzi Qiao? Yet the scholars who peer through a tube, deciding by guesswork and speaking blind, hear of one dwelling among mountains and forests and following the work of Boyang, and revile and laugh at him, saying that is but a petty way, not worth the counting. Alas! One who hugs a firefly's candle within a ring of walls cannot see the blaze of heaven's light; one who keeps company with loach and shrimp in the water of a footprint does not know the vastness of the four seas; he prizes the depth of the rivers yet does not know it is Kunlun that spews them out; he treasures the harvest of the millets yet does not feel it is the rich soil that makes them fruit. Now men only know to exalt the arts of the Ru, and do not know that what perfects them is the Way. This thing the Way is what smelts the hundred schools, casts the two forms in a mold, wombs the myriad kinds, and brews the constant relations. In the world the shallow are many and the profound few; the few cannot overcome the many—this has been long. Thus Sima Qian, for all his strength, is not praised, and Ban Gu, for all his shortcoming, is not impeached.'

然物以少者為貴，多者為賤，至於人事，豈獨不然？故藜藿彌原，而芝英不世；枳棘被野，而尋木間秀；沙礫無量，而珠璧甚鮮；鴻隼屯飛，而鸞鳳罕出；虺蜴盈藪，而虯龍希覿；班生多黨，固其宜也。夫道者，內以治身，外以為國，能令七政遵度，二氣告和，四時不失寒燠之節，風雨不為暴物之災，玉燭表昇平之徵，澄醴彰德洽之符，焚輪虹霓寢其妖，頹雲商羊戢其翼，景耀高照，嘉禾畢遂，疫癘不流，禍亂不作，巉壘不設，干戈不用，不議而當，不約而信，不結而固，不謀而成，不賞而勸，不罰而肅，不求而得，不禁而止，處上而人不以為重，居前而人不以為患，號未發而風移，令未施而俗易，此蓋道之治世也。故道之興也，則三五垂拱而有餘焉。道之衰也，則叔代馳騖而不足焉。夫唯有餘，故無為而化美。夫唯不足，故刑嚴而奸繁。黎庶怨於下，皇靈怒於上。或洪波橫流，或亢陽赤地，或山谷易體，或冬雷夏雪，或流血漂櫓，積屍築京，或坑降萬計，析骸易子，城愈高而沖愈巧，池愈深而梯愈妙，法令明而盜賊多，盟約數而叛亂甚，猶風波駭而魚鱉擾於淵，纖羅密而羽禽躁於澤，豺狼眾而走獸劇於林，爨火猛而小鮮糜於鼎也。君臣易位者有矣，父子推刃者有矣，然後忠義制名於危國，孝子收譽於敗家。疾疫起而巫醫貴矣，道德喪而儒墨重矣。由此觀之，儒道之先後，可得定矣。”

(Baopuzi went on:) 'But things are prized when few and cheap when many—in human affairs, is it alone otherwise? Goosefoot and pulse spread over the wilds, yet the zhi flower seldom shows itself; thorn and bramble cover the fields, yet great trees thrust up only here and there; sand and gravel are measureless, yet pearls and jade disks are few; hawks and falcons fly in flocks, yet the luan and phoenix rarely appear; vipers and lizards fill the meres, yet the horned dragon is seldom seen. That Ban Gu's partisans are many is only what should be. This thing the Way—inwardly used to order the body, outwardly used to make a state—can make the seven governors keep their measures, the two qi declare their harmony, the four seasons not lose their measure of cold and warmth, wind and rain not become a violent blight upon things; the Jade Candle shows the token of risen peace, the clear sweet wine displays the tally of virtue fulfilled, whirlwind and rainbow cease their portents, the toppling cloud and the Shangyang bird fold their wings; the bright light shines on high, the fine grains all ripen, epidemics do not spread, calamity and disorder do not arise, steep ramparts are not built, shield and dagger-axe are not used; undiscussed yet fitting, unpromised yet trusted, unknotted yet firm, unplanned yet accomplished, unrewarded yet encouraging, unpunished yet reverent, unsought yet obtained, unbanned yet stopped; dwelling above yet men do not feel the weight, standing in front yet men do not feel the threat; the command not yet issued and the temper already shifted, the law not yet enforced and the custom already changed—this is roughly the Way's ordering of the age. Thus when the Way flourished, the Three August Ones and the Five Emperors ruled with hands folded and had to spare; when the Way declined, the last ages raced and galloped and it was not enough. Just because there was surplus, nonaction transformed beautifully; just because there was want, punishments grew stern and villainy multiplied. The black-headed folk resented below; the August Numina raged above. Now great waves ran over the land, now a fierce sun scorched the earth red, now mountains and valleys changed their shapes, now thunder came in winter and snow in summer, now blood ran deep enough to float a shield and corpses piled into high mounds, now surrendered soldiers were buried by the ten thousand, now men split the bones and traded children; the higher the walls the craftier the battering carts, the deeper the moats the subtler the cloud-ladders; the laws grew clearer and robbers grew more, the covenants grew frequent and rebellion grew worse—like wind and waves alarmed and fish and turtles roiling in the deep, nets fine-woven and winged birds restless in the marsh, jackals and wolves many and running beasts hard-pressed in the woods, the stove-fire fierce and small fish boiling to pulp in the cauldron. Ruler and minister traded places; father and son drew the knife; then loyalty and rightness won their names in endangered states and filial sons gathered praise in ruined houses. Epidemics rose and shamans and healers grew dear; the Way and virtue were lost and Ru and Mo grew weighty. Seen from this, which of Ru and the Way comes first and which after may be settled for certain.'

或問曰：“昔赤松子王喬琴高老氏彭祖務成鬱華皆真人，悉仕於世，不便遐遁，而中世以來，為道之士，莫不飄然絕跡幽隱，何也？”抱朴子答曰：“曩古純樸，巧偽未萌，其信道者，則勤而學之，其不信者，則嘿然而已。謗毀之言，不吐乎口，中傷之心，不存乎胸也。是以真人徐徐於民間，不促促於登遐耳。末俗偷薄，雕偽彌深，玄淡之化廢，而邪俗之黨繁，既不信道，好為訕毀，謂真正為妖訛，以神仙為誕妄，或曰惑眾，或曰亂群，是以上士恥居其中也。昔之達人，杜漸防微，色斯而逝，夜不待旦，睹幾而作，不俟終日。故趙害鳴犢，而仲尼旋軫，醴酒不設，而穆生星行，彼眾我寡，華元去之。況乎明哲，業尚本異，有何戀之當住其間哉？夫淵竭池漉，則蛟龍不遊，巢傾卵拾，則鳳凰不集，居言於室，而翔鷗不下，凡卉春翦，而芝蓂不秀，世俗醜正，慢辱將臻，彼有道者，安得不超然振翅乎風雲之表，而翻爾藏軌於玄漠之際乎？山林之中非有道也，而為道者必入山林，誠欲遠彼腥羶，而即此清淨也。夫入九室以精思，存真一以招神者，既不喜喧譁而合汙穢，而合金丹之大藥，釒柬八石之飛精者，尤忌利口之愚人，凡俗之聞見，明靈為之不降，仙藥為之不成，非小禁也，止於人中，或有淺見毀之有司，加之罪福，或有親舊之往來，牽之以慶弔，莫若幽隱一切，免於如此之臭鼠矣。彼之邈爾獨往，得意嵩岫，豈不有以乎？或云：上士得道於三軍，中士得道於都市，下士得道於山林，此皆為仙藥已成，未欲昇天，雖在三軍，而鋒刃不能傷，雖在都市，而人禍不能加，而下士未及於此，故止山林耳。不謂人之在上品者，初學道當止於三軍都市之中而得也，然則黃老可以至今不去也。”

Someone asked: 'In former times Chisongzi, Wang Qiao, Qin Gao, Laozi, Pengzu, Wucheng, and Yuhua were all True Men, and all held office in the world without at once fleeing afar; yet since the middle ages every student of the Way has drifted off without a trace into hidden seclusion—why?' Baopuzi answered: 'High antiquity was pure and simple; artifice and falsity had not yet sprouted. Those who believed in the Way studied it diligently; those who did not merely held silence. Words of slander never left the mouth; hearts of malice were not in the breast. So the True Men walked slowly among the folk, in no hurry to mount afar. In the degenerate custom of latter days men are shifty and thin, artifice deeper; the mysterious transformation is abandoned and the bands of perverse custom multiply. They neither believe the Way nor refrain from mocking it; they call the true a demonic error and the divine immortal a wild lie, some saying it deludes the masses, some that it disorders the flock—so superior men are ashamed to dwell among them. The far-seeing of old dammed what was still growing and guarded against the minute; seeing a countenance gone wrong they departed, by night not waiting for dawn; seeing the first sprout they moved, not waiting out the day. Thus when Zhao harmed Mingdu, Zhongni turned his carriage back; when the sweet ale was not set out, Musheng left by starlit night; when they were many and he few, Huayuan went away. How much more the clear-sighted and wise, whose calling differs at the root—what ties them to linger among such? When the pool dries and the pond is drained, the flood-dragon does not swim; when the nest topples and the eggs are gathered, the phoenix does not alight; when words are spoken in a chamber, the soaring gull does not come down; when the common plants are cut in spring, the zhi and the ming do not bloom. The custom of the age hates the upright; insolence and insult draw near—how could those who possess the Way not spread their wings aloof beyond wind and cloud, and turning hide their carriage-tracks in the dark and formless? In the mountains and forests there is no Way as such, yet one who would practice the Way must enter the mountains and forests—truly wishing to keep far from that stench and draw near to this purity. Those who enter the nine chambers to refine the thought and keep the True One to summon the spirits delight neither in clamor nor in joining defilement; and those who compound the great medicine of the golden elixir and refine the flying essences of the eight minerals (the base text writes "lian" with the metal radical and phonetic split apart) especially shun the glib fool and the seeing and hearing of the vulgar—for on that account the bright spirits do not descend and the immortal medicine is not completed: no small prohibition. Remaining among men, some shallow-seer may slander him to the officers and lay guilt upon him; or kin and old friends come and go and bind him with congratulations and condolences—better to hide from it all and escape such stinking rats. That they go off alone and afar, content among the peaks of Song—is it without cause? Some say: the superior man attains the Way amid the three armies, the middling man in the markets, the inferior man in the mountains and forests. In all these cases the immortal medicine is already made and they do not wish yet to ascend to heaven: though amid the three armies, blades cannot wound them; though in the markets, the harm of men cannot reach them; the inferior man has not yet come to this, and so he stays in mountains and forests. It is not that a man of the highest grade, just beginning to study the Way, should stay amid armies and markets to attain it—else Huang-Lao could have remained and never departed to this day.'

或問曰：“道之為源本，儒之為末流，既聞命矣，今之小異，悉何事乎？”抱朴子曰：“夫升降俯仰之教，盤旋三千之儀，攻守進趣之術，輕身重義之節，歡憂禮樂之事，經世濟俗之略，儒者之所務也。外物棄智，滌盪機變，忘富逸貴，杜遏勸沮，不恤乎窮，不榮乎達，不戚乎毀，不悅乎譽，道家之業也。儒者祭祀以祈福，而道者履正以禳邪。儒者所愛者勢利也，道家所寶者無慾也。儒者汲汲於名利，而道家抱一以獨善。儒者所講者，相研之簿領也。道家所習者，遣情之教戒也。夫道者，其為也，善自修以成務；其居也，善取人所不爭；其治也，善絕禍於未起；其施也，善濟物而不德；其動也，善觀民以用心；其靜也，善居慎而無悶。此所以為百家之君長，仁義之祖宗也，小異之理，其較如此，首尾汙隆，未之變也。”

Someone asked: 'The Way as root and source, the Ru as the last stream—I have received the charge; but what are the small differences now?' Baopuzi said: 'The teaching of rising and descending, bowing low and bending; the rites of wheeling and turning, three thousand; the arts of attack and defense, advancing and pressing; the measure of slighting self and prizing rightness; the business of joy, grief, ritual, and music; the strategy of ordering the age and aiding the custom—these are what the Ru attend to. Putting things outside and discarding knowledge; washing out scheming and shiftiness; forgetting wealth and setting rank at ease; damming up all urging and dissuading; not grieving at poverty, not glorying at success, not sorrowing at blame, not delighting in praise—this is the work of the Daoists. The Ru sacrifice to pray for blessing; the Daoist treads rectitude to avert evil. What the Ru love is power and profit; what the Daoist treasures is freedom from desire. The Ru is restless for name and gain; the Daoist embraces the One and alone keeps good. What the Ru discourse on is the registers and records of mutual scrutiny; what the Daoist practices is the teaching and warnings that dismiss feeling. This thing the Way: in what it does, it is good at cultivating itself to accomplish tasks; in its dwelling, good at taking what none contest; in its governing, good at cutting off calamity before it rises; in its giving, good at aiding things without deeming it virtue; in its moving, good at observing the people in order to use the heart; in its stillness, good at dwelling in heed without gloom. This is why it is the lord of the hundred schools and the forebear of humaneness and rightness. The pattern of the small differences is roughly thus; head and tail, high and low, there is no change.'

或曰：“儒者，周孔也，其籍則六經也，蓋治世存正之所由也，立身舉動之準繩也，其用遠而業貴，其事大而辭美，有國有家不易之制也。為道之士，不營禮教，不顧大倫，侶狐貉於草澤之中，偶猿猱於林麓之閒，魁然流擯，與木石為鄰，此亦東走之迷，忘葵之甘也。”抱朴子答曰：“摛華騁豔，質直所不尚，攻蒙救惑，疇昔之所饜，誠不欲復與子較物理之善否，校得失於機吻矣。然觀孺子之墜井，非仁者之意，視瞽人之觸柱，非兼愛之謂耶？又陳梗概，粗抗一隅。夫體道以匠物，寶德以長生者，黃老是也。黃帝能治世致太平，而又昇仙，則未可謂之後於堯舜也。老子既兼綜禮教，而又久視，則未可謂之為減周孔也。故仲尼有竊比之嘆，未聞有疵毀之辭，而末世庸民，不得其門，修儒墨而毀道家，何異子孫而罵詈祖考哉？是不識其所自來，亦已甚矣。夫侏儒之手，不足以傾嵩華；焦僥之脛，不足以測滄海；每見凡俗守株之儒，營營所習，不博達理，告頑令嚚，崇飾惡言，誣詰道家，說糟粕之滓，則若睹駿馬之過隙也，涉精神之淵，則淪溺而自失也。猶斥鴳之揮短翅，以凌陽侯之波，猶蒼蠅之力駑質，以涉昫猿之峻，非其所堪，袛足速困。然而嘍嘍守於局隘，聰不經曠，明不徹離，而欲企踵以包三光，鼓腹以奮雷靈，不亦蔽乎？蓋登旋璣之眇邈，則知井谷之至卑，睹大明之麗天，乃知鷦金之可陋。吾非生而知之，又非少而信之，始者濛濛，亦如子耳，既觀奧秘之宏修，而恨離困之不早也。五經之事，注說炳露，初學之徒，猶可不解。豈況金簡玉札，神仙之經，至要之言，又多不書。登壇歃血，乃傳口訣，苟非其人，雖裂地連城，金璧滿堂，不妄以示之。夫指深歸遠，雖得其書而不師受，猶仰不見首，俯不知跟，豈吾子所詳悉哉？

Someone said: "The Confucians descend from the Duke of Zhou and Confucius, and their canon is the Six Classics, which are roughly the means by which the age is governed and rightness preserved, the plumb line for standing oneself and for one's every move. Their use reaches far, their charge is noble, their affairs great and their wording beautiful—a system that states and families cannot alter. The gentlemen of the Way do not busy themselves with ritual teaching and pay no heed to the great bonds; they keep company with foxes and badgers in the grassy marshes, and mate with gibbons and monkeys among the wooded foothills. Solitary and banished, cast off, they neighbor on trees and stones. This too is the delusion of the man who ran east and forgot the sweetness of the mallow." Baopuzi answered: "To spread florid ornament is not what the plain and upright esteem; to attack the benighted and rescue the deluded was my satisfaction of former days. I truly have no wish to dispute with you again the worth of the pattern of things, or to measure gain and loss on the edges of wit and tongue. Yet to see a child fall into a well is not what a humane heart can bear; to see a blind man strike a pillar—surely that is not the doctrine of universal love? So let me set out the outline once more and roughly hold up one corner. Those who embody the Way to craft and perfect things, and treasure the Power to prolong life, are the followers of Huang-Lao. The Yellow Emperor could govern the age and bring it to great peace, and moreover ascended as an immortal; so he cannot be placed after Yao and Shun. Laozi both embraced ritual teaching in its entirety and enjoyed long sight; so he cannot be reckoned less than the Duke of Zhou and Confucius. Thus Confucius sighed that he ventured to compare himself to them, and was never heard to utter a word of fault or slander; yet the common folk of a latter age, who cannot find the gate, cultivate Confucianism and Mohism and revile the school of the Way—how does this differ from sons and grandsons cursing their own ancestors? This is failure to know where one came from, and it has already gone too far. A dwarf's hand cannot overturn Mounts Song and Hua; a Jiaoyao pygmy's shin cannot sound the great sea. Whenever I see the vulgar Confucians who stand guard by their stump, bustling about in what they have learned, not broadly versed in the pattern of things, instructing the obstinate and commanding the crafty, exalting and adorning evil speech to slander and interrogate the school of the Way, uttering the dregs and sediment of dregs—it is like catching sight of a fine horse through a crack: stepping into the abyss of the spirit, they sink and lose themselves. It is like the marsh quail flapping its short wings to mount the waves of the Lord of the Waters, like the gadfly with feeble strength and weak substance venturing the steepness where gibbons climb—this is not what they can bear, and suffices only to hasten their own distress. Yet they chirp away, penned in their narrow corner; their hearing does not match Music Master Kuang's, their sight does not pierce like Li Zhu's, and still they want to stand on tiptoe to embrace the three luminaries and puff out their bellies to rouse the thunder spirits—is that not blindness? Presumably once one climbs to the faint heights of the revolving heavens, one knows the utter lowliness of the well and the valley; once one sees the great light hung in the sky, one knows how paltry the wren that takes a fleck for gold must be. I was not born knowing this, nor did I believe it from youth; at first I was just as benighted as you, and only after gazing on the vast cultivation of the mysteries did I regret that I had not left my straits sooner. The affairs of the Five Classics have commentaries that shine them bare, so that even beginning students can be free of puzzlement. How much more so with the metal slips and jade tablets, the scriptures of the gods and immortals, whose words of utmost import are often not written down at all! Only after mounting the altar and smearing the blood of the covenant are the oral secrets transmitted; unless a man is of that kind, though he offer lands split into linked cities and a hall filled with gold and jade, they are not rashly shown to him. The purport runs deep, the drift runs far; even if one obtains the book without receiving it from a teacher, it is like looking up and not seeing the head, looking down and not knowing the heel—how could you comprehend it fully?"

夫得仙者，或升太清，或翔紫霄，或造玄洲，或棲板桐，聽鈞天之樂，享九芝之饌，出攜松羨於倒景之表，入宴常陽於瑤房之中，曷為當侶狐貉而偶猿狖乎？所謂不知而作也。夫道也者，逍遙虹霓，翱翔丹霄，鴻崖六虛，唯意所造。魁然流擯，未為戚也。犧腯聚處，雖被藻繡，論其為樂，孰與逸麟之離群以獨往，吉光坼偶而多福哉？”

Baopuzi continued: "Those who obtain immortality may rise into the Grand Purity, or soar in the Purple Empyrean, or go to the Mysterious Continent, or roost on Mount Bantong; they hear the music of the central heaven and feast on the nine numinous mushrooms; going out, beyond the inverted reflections they take the hands of Master Redpine and Xianmen; coming in, within jasper chambers they banquet Pingchang and Yangsheng. Why should they have to keep company with foxes and badgers and mate with gibbons and monkeys? This is called acting out of ignorance. As for this thing called the Way: it wanders free among the rainbows and soars through the crimson empyrean, vast across the six reaches, going only where it wills. To stand solitary, banished and cast off, is no sorrow at all. Sacrificial victims and fattened beasts are herded together; though they wear embroidered ornament, measure their pleasure against the free unicorn that leaves the herd and walks alone, or the Jiguang beast that forsakes its mate yet enjoys much blessing—which is better?"

抱朴子曰：神農四經曰，上藥令人身安命延，升為天神，遨遊上下，使役萬靈，體生毛羽，行廚立至。又曰，五芝及餌丹砂、玉札、曾青、雄黃、雌黃、雲母、太乙禹餘糧，各可單服之，皆令人飛行長生。又曰，中藥養性，下藥除病，能令毒蟲不加，猛獸不犯，惡氣不行，眾妖並闢。又孝經援神契曰，椒姜御溼，菖蒲益聰，巨勝延年，威喜闢兵。皆上聖之至言，方術之實錄也，明文炳然，而世人終於不信，可嘆息者也。仙藥之上者丹砂，次則黃金，次則白銀，次則諸芝，次則五玉，次則雲母，次則明珠，次則雄黃，次則太乙禹餘糧，次則石中黃子，次則石桂，次則石英，次則石腦，次則石硫黃，次則石臺，次則曾青，次則松柏脂、茯苓、地黃、麥門冬、木巨勝、重樓、黃連、石韋、楮實、象柴，一名托盧是也。或雲仙人杖，或雲西王母杖，或名天精，或名卻老，或名地骨，或名苟杞也。天門冬，或名地門冬，或名莚門冬，或名顛棘，或名淫羊食，或名管松，其生高地，根短而味甜，氣香者善。其生水側下地者，葉細似蘊而微黃，根長而味多苦，氣臭者下，亦可服食。然喜令人下氣，為益尤遲也。服之百日，皆丁肚倍吏於術及黃精也，入山便可蒸，若煮啖之，取足可以斷谷。若有力可餌之，亦可作散，並及絞其汁作酒，以服散尤佳。楚人呼天門冬為百部，然自有百部草，其根俱有百許，相似如一也，而其苗小異也。真百部苗似拔揳，唯中以治欬及殺蝨耳，不中服食，不可誤也。如黃精一名白及，而實非中以作糊之白及也。按本草藥之與他草同名者甚多，唯精博者能分別之，不可不詳也。黃精一名兔竹，一名救窮，一名垂珠。服其花勝其實，服其實勝其根，但花難多得。得其生花十斛，乾之才可得五六鬥耳，而服之日可三合，非大有役力者不能辨也。服黃精僅十年，乃可大得其益耳。

Baopuzi said: The Four Classics of Shennong say that the upper medicines make the body secure and lengthen the span of life, raising one to be a god in heaven, roaming up and down at will, commanding the myriad spirits; feathers sprout on the body, and the traveling kitchen arrives at once. They also say that the five numinous mushrooms, as well as cinnabar, jade slips, azurite, realgar, orpiment, mica, and Taiyi's surplus grain, may each be taken alone, and all let one fly and live forever. They also say that the middle medicines nourish the nature and the lower medicines expel disease, letting poisonous insects leave no hurt, fierce beasts make no trespass, evil vapors not circulate, and all baleful things withdraw together. And the Apocryphon of the Classic of Filial Piety says: pepper and ginger ward off dampness, sweet flag sharpens the hearing, sesame lengthens the years, and the Weixi mushroom wards off weapons. These are all the utmost words of the highest sages and the true records of the methods of the arts, bright and manifest in clear writing, yet the world will not believe them in the end—how lamentable! Among the medicines of immortality the highest is cinnabar, then gold, then silver, then the various mushrooms, then the five jades, then mica, then bright pearls, then realgar, then Taiyi's surplus grain, then yellow core within stone, then stone cassia, then quartz, then stone brain, then stone sulphur, then stone altar, then azurite, then pine and cypress resin, fuling, rehmannia, ophiopogon, tree-sesame, paris root, coptis, pyrrosia, paper-mulberry fruit, and xiangchai—also named Tuolu. Some call it the immortals' staff, some the Queen Mother of the West's staff; it is also named heavenly essence, also age-repeller, also earth-bone, also goji. Tianmendong, the asparagus root, is also named dimendong, yanmendong, thorn-spine, goat-lust, or guan pine. Grown on high ground, with short roots, sweet taste, and fragrant smell, it is best. Grown in low, wet ground by the water, with thin leaves like sedge and slightly yellow, and long roots with much bitterness and a rank smell, it is inferior but still edible. It tends to make the qi descend, however, and its benefit comes especially late. Taken for a hundred days it makes one sturdier than either zhu or Solomon's seal (the base text reads corrupt characters here, which should be emended to words like sturdier-than). Entering the mountains it can be steamed at once, or boiled and eaten; taken in sufficiency it can cut off grain. If one has the means to feed on it regularly, it can also be made into a powder, and its juice pressed out to make wine, which is especially good for taking the powder with. The people of Chu call tianmendong baibu, but there is separately a baibu plant whose roots likewise number about a hundred, alike as one, though the shoots differ slightly. True baibu shoots resemble smilax; it serves only to treat cough and kill lice, and is not fit to be taken as food—it must not be confused. Huangjing is also named baiji, yet it is not in fact the baiji suited for making paste. According to the materia medica, many drugs share names with other plants, and only the thoroughly versed can tell them apart; this must be examined in detail. Huangjing is also called rabbit-bamboo, also save-the-poor, also drooping-pearls. Eating its flower is better than its fruit; eating its fruit is better than its root; only the flowers are hard to get in quantity. Obtaining ten hu of fresh flowers yields only five or six dou when dried, and the daily dose can be three ge—something only a man with ample labor power can manage. Taking huangjing for merely ten years lets one gain its full benefit.

俱以斷谷不及術，術餌令人肥健，可以負重涉險，但不及黃精甘美易食，凶年可以與老小休糧，人不能別之，謂為米脯也。

(Continuing from above:) used to cut off grain, all of them are inferior to zhu, which taken as food makes one fat and strong, able to bear loads and tread dangerous ground; it is merely not as sweet and easy to eat as Solomon's seal. In a famine year it can be given to old and young to rest from grain, and people who cannot tell what it is call it dried rice.

五芝者，有石芝，有木芝，有草芝，有肉芝，有菌芝，各有百許種也。

The five mushrooms are: stone mushrooms, wood mushrooms, herb mushrooms, flesh mushrooms, and fungus mushrooms—each kind numbering a hundred or so varieties.

石芝者，石象芝生於海隅名山，及島嶼之涯有積石者，其狀如肉象有頭尾四足者，良似生物也，附於大石，喜在高岫險峻之地，或卻著仰綴也。赤者如珊瑚，白者如截肪，黑者如澤漆，青者如翠羽，黃者如紫金，而皆光明洞徹如堅冰也。晦夜去之三百步，便望見其光矣。大者十餘斤，小者三四斤，非久齋至精，及佩老子入山靈寶五符，亦不能得見此輩也。凡見諸芝，且先以開山卻害符置其上，則不得復隱蔽化去矣。徐徐擇王相之日，設醮祭以酒脯，祈而取之，皆從日下禹步閉氣而往也。又若得石象芝，搗之三萬六千杵，服方寸匕，日三，盡一斤，則得千歲；十斤，則萬歲。亦可分人服也。又玉脂芝，生於有玉之山，常居懸危之處，玉膏流出，萬年已上，則凝而成芝，有似鳥獸之形，色無常彩，率多似山玄水蒼玉也。亦鮮明如水精，得而末之，以無心草汁和之，須臾成水，服一升，得一千歲也。七明九光芝，皆石也，生臨水之高山石崖之間，狀如盤碗，不過徑尺以還，有莖蒂連綴之，起三四寸，有七孔者，名七明，九孔者名九光，光皆如星，百餘步內，夜皆望見其光，其光自別，可散不可合也。常以秋分伺之得之，搗服方寸匕，入口則翕然身熱，五味甘美，盡一斤則得千歲，令人身有光，所居暗地如月，可以夜視也。石蜜芝，生少室石戶中，戶中便有深谷，不可得過，以石投谷中，半日猶聞其聲也。去戶外十餘丈有石柱，柱上有偃蓋石，高度徑可一丈許，望見蜜芝從石戶上墮入偃蓋中，良久，輒有一滴，有似雨後屋之餘漏，時時一落耳。然蜜芝墮不息，而偃蓋亦終不溢也。戶上刻石為科斗字，曰得服石蜜芝一斗者壽萬歲。諸道士共思惟其處，不可得往，唯當以碗器著勁竹木端以承取之，然竟未有能為之者。按此石戶上刻題如此，前世必已有得之者也。石桂芝，生名山石穴中，似桂樹而實石也。

Stone mushrooms. The stone-elephant mushroom grows on famous mountains by the sea and on the edges of islands where there are piled stones; in shape it is like a flesh elephant with head, tail, and four legs, very like a living thing, clinging to large rocks, favoring high peaks and dangerous ledges, sometimes hanging upside down. Red ones are like coral, white ones like cut fat, black ones like lacquer, green ones like kingfisher feathers, yellow ones like purple gold, and all are bright and translucent like hard ice. On a dark night, three hundred paces away, one can see its light. Large ones weigh more than ten jin, small ones three or four jin; unless one has kept long purification to the utmost and wears the five Lingbao talismans of Laozi for entering the mountains, one cannot obtain sight of this kind. Whenever one sees any of the mushrooms, first lay the mountain-opening, harm-repelling talisman upon it, and it can no longer hide and transform away. Then slowly choose a propitious day, set out a libation offering of wine and dried meat, pray, and take it, departing by the Pace of Yu beneath the sun with breath held. If one obtains a stone-elephant mushroom, pound it thirty-six thousand strokes, take a square-inch spoonful three times a day; finishing one jin gives a thousand years, ten jin gives ten thousand years. It can also be divided for others to take. There is also the jade-fat mushroom, which grows on jade-bearing mountains and always dwells on precipitous spots; jade grease flows out, and past ten thousand years it congeals into a mushroom, shaped like birds or beasts, of no fixed color, mostly like dark mountain jade or pale water jade, bright as crystal. Obtained and ground to powder and mixed with the juice of heartless herb, in a moment it turns to water; taking one sheng gives a thousand years. The seven-brightness and nine-light mushrooms are all stone, growing between the high mountain cliffs overlooking water, shaped like dishes and bowls, no more than a chi across, with stems joining them, three or four cun high; those with seven holes are called seven-brightness, those with nine holes nine-light. Their lights are all like stars, and within a hundred paces their light can be seen at night, each light distinct, able to scatter but not to merge. One usually watches for them and gets them at the autumn equinox; pounded and taken in square-inch spoonfuls, on entering the mouth the body suddenly warms, the five flavors are sweet; finishing one jin gives a thousand years, gives the body light, makes the dark place it dwells in like moonlight, and lets one see at night. The stone-honey mushroom grows within the stone door of Mount Shaoshi. Within that door is a deep valley that cannot be crossed; cast a stone into the valley and half a day later its sound is still heard. More than ten zhang from the door is a stone pillar, upon which is an overhanging canopy stone, roughly a zhang in height and breadth. The honey mushroom is seen to drop from the stone door into the canopy; after a long while there is one drop, like the leftover dripping from a roof after rain, falling a drop from time to time. Yet the honey mushroom never stops falling, and the canopy never overflows. Upon the door, carved in stone in tadpole script, it says that whoever can take a dou of the stone-honey mushroom shall live ten thousand years. The various Daoists together ponder that spot and cannot reach it; the only thing to do is set a bowl on the tip of a strong bamboo or pole to catch it, yet in the end no one has managed. Judging by this inscription carved upon the stone door, men of a former age must already have obtained it. The stone-cassia mushroom grows in the stone caves of famous mountains, like a cassia tree but in substance stone.

高尺許，大如徑尺，光明而味辛，有枝條，搗服之一斤得千歲也。石中黃子，所在有之，沁水山為尤多。其在大石中，則其石常潤溼不燥，打其石有數十重，乃得之。在大石中，赤黃溶溶，如雞子之在其殼中也。即當飲之，不飲則堅凝成石，不復中服也。法正當及未堅時飲之，既凝則應末服也。破一石中，多者有一升，少者有數合，可頓服也。雖不得多，相繼服之，共計前後所服，合成三升，壽則千歲。但欲多服，唯患難得耳。石腦芝，生滑石中，亦如石中黃子狀，但不皆有耳。打破大滑石千許，乃可得一枚。初破之，其在石中，五色光明而自動，服一升得千歲矣。石硫黃芝，五嶽皆有，而箕山為多。其方言許由就此服之而長生，故不復以富貴累意，不受堯禪也。石硫丹者，石之赤精，蓋石硫黃之類也。皆浸溢於崖岸之間，其濡溼者可丸服，其已堅者可散服，如此有百二十，皆石芝也，事在太乙玉策及昌宇內記，不可具稱也。

(Continuing from above:) about a chi tall, roughly a chi across, shining and pungent in taste, with branches; pounded and taken, one jin gives a thousand years. Yellow core within stone is found everywhere, but is especially plentiful in the mountains of the Qin River. When it lies within a large stone, that stone stays ever moist and never dries; break the stone through several dozen layers and only then obtain it. Within the large stone it is red and yellow, molten and runny, like a chicken's egg within its shell. It should then be drunk at once; left undrunk it hardens into stone and is no longer fit to take. The proper method is to drink it while not yet hard; once congealed, it should be ground to powder and taken. In one broken stone there may be as much as a sheng or as little as a few ge, which can be taken in a single dose. Even if not much is had, take it in succession, and when all that has been taken before and after adds up to three sheng, one's span is a thousand years. If one only wishes to take more, the fear is merely that it is hard to get. The stone-brain mushroom grows within talc, shaped like the yellow core within stone, only not found everywhere. Break open a thousand or so large pieces of talc and only then may one piece be obtained. When first broken open it lies within the stone, five-colored, shining, and moving of itself; taking one sheng gives a thousand years. The stone-sulphur mushroom is found on all five sacred peaks, but is most plentiful on Mount Ji. The local speech there says that Xu You took it here and gained long life, so that he no longer let wealth and honor burden his heart and did not accept Yao's abdication. Stone-sulphur cinnabar is the red essence of stone, presumably of the same kind as stone sulphur. All these seep out between cliffs and banks; the moist ones can be formed into pills and taken, the already hardened ones can be taken as powder. Of this kind there are a hundred and twenty, all stone mushrooms; the matter is recorded in the Jade Slips of Taiyi and the Inner Record of Changyu, and cannot all be recounted.

及夫木芝者，松柏脂淪入地千歲，化為茯苓，茯苓萬歲，其上生小木，狀似蓮花，名曰木威喜芝。夜視有光，持之甚滑，燒之不然，帶之闢兵，以帶雞而雜以他雞十二頭其籠之，去之十二步，射十二箭，他雞皆傷，帶威喜芝者終不傷也。從生門上採之，於六甲陰乾之，百日，末服方寸匕，日三，盡一枚，則三千歲也。千歲之栝木，其下根如坐人，長七寸，刻之有血，以其血塗足下，可以步行水上不沒；以塗人鼻以入水，水為之開，可以止住淵底也；以塗身則隱形，欲見則拭之。又可以治病，病在腹內，刮服一刀圭，其腫痛在外者，隨其所在刮一刀圭，即其腫痛所在以摩之，皆手下即愈，假令左足有疾，則刮塗人之左足也。又刮以雜巨勝為燭，夜遍照地下，有金玉寶藏，則光變青而下垂，以鍤掘之可得也。末之，服盡十斤則千歲也。又松樹枝三千歲者，其皮中有聚脂，狀如龍形，名曰飛節芝，大者重十斤，末服之，盡十斤，得五百歲也。又有樊桃芝，其木如升龍，其花葉如丹羅，其實如翠鳥，高不過五尺，生於名山之陰，東流泉水之土，以立夏之候伺之，得而末服之，盡一株得五千歲也。參成芝，赤色有光，扣之枝葉，如金石之音，折而續之，即復如故。木渠芝，寄生大木上，如蓮花，九莖一叢，其味甘而辛。建木芝實生於都廣，其皮如纓蛇，其實如鸞鳥。此三芝得服之，白日昇天也。黃盧子、尋木華、玄液華，此三芝生於泰山要鄉及奉高，有得而服之，皆令人壽千歲。黃檀桓芝者，千歲黃，木下根有如三斛器，去本株一二丈，以細根相連狀如縷，得末而服之，盡一枚則成地仙不死也。此輩復百二十種，自有圖也。

As for wood mushrooms: pine and cypress resin that sinks into the ground for a thousand years turns into fuling; when the fuling is ten thousand years old, a small tree grows upon it, shaped like a lotus flower, called the wood Weixi mushroom. Seen at night it gives light; held, it is very smooth; burned, it does not catch fire; worn, it wards off weapons. Tie it to a chicken and mix it with twelve other chickens in one cage; from twelve paces away shoot twelve arrows—all the other chickens are wounded, but the one wearing the Weixi mushroom is never hurt. Gather it from the Gate of Life, dry it in the shade on a six-jia day for a hundred days, grind it to powder, take a square-inch spoonful three times a day; finishing one piece gives three thousand years. The root beneath a thousand-year kua tree is shaped like a seated man, seven cun long; carve it and it bleeds. Smear its blood under the feet and one can walk on water without sinking; smear it on a man's nose entering the water and the water opens for it, letting him stay on the bottom of the deep; smear it on the body and one becomes invisible—wipe it off to be seen again. It can also cure illness: for illness within the belly, scrape off and swallow one daogui; for swellings outside, scrape one daogui wherever it is and rub it on the swelling—it heals at once beneath the hand. If the left foot is ailing, scrape and smear it on the man's left foot. Scraped down and mixed with sesame to make a candle, at night it shines everywhere beneath the ground; where there are treasures of gold and jade, the light turns blue and droops down, and digging with a spade retrieves them. Ground to powder, finishing ten jin gives a thousand years. There is also a pine branch of three thousand years whose bark holds gathered resin shaped like a dragon, called the flying-joint mushroom; large ones weigh ten jin. Ground to powder and taken, finishing ten jin gives five hundred years. There is also the fantao mushroom: its wood is like a rising dragon, its flowers and leaves like crimson gauze, its fruit like a kingfisher; it is no taller than five chi and grows on the shady faces of famous mountains, on soil of eastward-flowing springs. Watch for it at the beginning of summer; obtained, ground to powder, and taken, finishing one plant gives five thousand years. The cancheng mushroom is red and shining; strike its branches and leaves and they ring like metal and stone; break them and they join again as before. The muqu mushroom grows parasitic on large trees, like a lotus flower, nine stems to a clump, sweet and pungent in taste. The jianmu mushroom grows in Duguang; its bark is like a tasseled snake and its fruit like a luan-bird. Obtained and taken, these three mushrooms lift one to heaven in broad daylight. Huangluzi, xunmu flowers, and xuanye flowers—these three mushrooms grow at Yaoxiang on Mount Tai and at Fenggao; whoever obtains and takes them gains a lifespan of a thousand years. The huangtanhuan mushroom: the thousand-year huang tree has, beneath its roots, something shaped like a three-hu vessel, one or two zhang from the trunk, joined by fine roots like strands; obtained, ground to powder, and taken, finishing one piece makes one an earthly immortal who does not die. Of this kind there are also a hundred and twenty varieties, for which there are separate illustrations.

草芝有獨搖芝，無風自動，其莖大如手指，赤如丹，素葉似莧，其根有大魁如鬥，有細者如雞子十二枚，周繞大根之四方，如十二辰也，相去丈許，皆有細根，如白髮以相連，生高山深谷之上，其所生左右無草。得其大魁末服之，盡則得千歲，服其細者一枚百歲，可以分他人也。懷其大根即隱形，欲見則左轉而出之。牛角芝，生虎壽山及吳阪上，狀似蔥，特生如牛角，長三四尺，青色，末服方寸匕，日三，至百日，則得千歲矣。龍仙芝，狀如升龍之相負也，以葉為鱗，其根則如蟠龍，服一枚則得千歲矣。麻母芝，似麻而莖赤色，花紫色。紫珠芝，其花黃，其葉赤，其實如李而紫色，二十四枝輒相連，而垂如貫珠也。白符芝，高四五尺，似梅，常以大雪而花，季冬而實。朱草芝，九曲，曲有三葉，葉有三實也。五德芝，狀似樓殿，莖方，其葉五色各具而不雜，上如偃蓋，中常有甘露，紫氣起數尺矣。龍銜芝，常以仲春對生，三節十二枝，下根如坐人。凡此草芝，又有百二十種，皆陰乾服之，則令人與天地相畢，或得千歲二千歲。

Among herb mushrooms there is the self-swaying mushroom, which moves of itself without wind; its stem is as thick as a finger, red as cinnabar, with plain leaves like amaranth, and a great tuberous root like a peck measure, with slender ones like twelve chicken eggs ranged around the great root on its four sides like the twelve branches, about a zhang apart, all with fine roots joined like white hairs. It grows upon high mountains and deep valleys, with no grass around where it grows. Obtain its great tuber, grind it to powder, and take it; finishing it gives a thousand years; taking one of the slender ones gives a hundred years, and it can be divided for others. Carrying its great root makes one invisible—to be seen again, turn left and draw it out. The ox-horn mushroom grows on Mount Hushou and on Wu Slope, shaped like a scallion, standing alone like an ox horn, three or four chi long and blue in color. Ground to powder, take a square-inch spoonful three times a day; at a hundred days one gains a thousand years. The dragon-immortal mushroom is shaped like rising dragons bearing one another, its leaves serving as scales and its roots like a coiled dragon; taking one piece gives a thousand years. The hemp-mother mushroom resembles hemp with a red stem and purple flowers. The purple-pearl mushroom has yellow flowers and red leaves, fruit like a plum but purple, twenty-four branches joined together, hanging down like strung pearls. The white-tally mushroom is four or five chi tall like a plum, always flowering in heavy snow and fruiting in late winter. The vermilion-herb mushroom has nine bends, each bend bearing three leaves, each leaf three fruits. The five-virtue mushroom is shaped like a storied hall, its stem square, its leaves each of one of the five colors unmixed; above is like an overhanging canopy, and within it there is ever sweet dew, with purple vapor rising several chi. The dragon-held mushroom always grows in pairs in mid-spring, with three joints and twelve branches, its lower root shaped like a seated man. All these herb mushrooms number a hundred and twenty varieties in addition; all, dried in the shade and taken, make one the equal of heaven and earth, or gain one or two thousand years.

肉芝者，謂萬歲蟾蜍，頭上有角，頷下有丹書八字再重，以五月五日日中時取之，陰乾百日，以其左足畫地，即為流水，帶其左手於身，闢五兵，若敵人射己者，弓弩矢皆反還自向也。千歲蝙蝠，色白如雪，集則倒縣，腦重故也。此二物得而陰乾末服之，令人壽四萬歲。千歲靈龜，五色具焉，其雄額上兩骨起似角，以羊血浴之，乃剔取其甲，火炙搗服方寸匕，日三，盡一具，壽千歲。行山中，見小人乘車馬，長七八寸者，肉芝也，捉取服之即仙矣。風生獸似貂，青色，大如狸，生於南海大林中，張網取之，積薪數車以燒之，薪盡而此獸在灰中不然，其毛不焦，斫刺不入，打之如皮囊，以鐵錘鍛其頭數十下乃死，死而張其口以向風，須臾便活而起走，以石上菖蒲塞其鼻即死。取其腦以和菊花服之，盡十斤，得五百歲也。又千歲燕，其窠戶北向，其色多白而尾掘，取陰乾，末服一頭五百歲。凡此又百二十種，此皆肉芝也。

Flesh mushrooms: this means the ten-thousand-year toad, which has horns on its head and, under its chin, eight characters of cinnabar script repeated in a second layer. Take it at noon on the fifth day of the fifth month, dry it in the shade for a hundred days; draw on the ground with its left foot and it becomes flowing water; wear its left hand on the body and it wards off the five weapons, and if enemies shoot at you, bow and crossbow bolts all turn back upon themselves. The thousand-year bat, white as snow, hangs upside down when it settles, because its brain is heavy. These two creatures, obtained, dried in the shade, ground to powder, and taken, give a lifespan of forty thousand years. The thousand-year spirit turtle has all five colors; the male has two bones rising on its brow like horns. Wash it with sheep's blood, then pry off its shell; roast it over fire, pound it, take a square-inch spoonful three times a day; finishing one whole specimen gives a lifespan of a thousand years. Walking in the mountains, if one sees little people riding carriages and horses seven or eight cun tall, that is a flesh mushroom; catch it and take it and one becomes an immortal. The wind-born beast is like a sable, blue, the size of a wildcat, born in the great forests of the Southern Sea. Spread nets to take it; pile several cartloads of firewood to burn it; the firewood is spent yet the beast in the ashes does not burn, its fur is not singed, hacking and stabbing cannot pierce it, and beating it is like beating a skin bag. Only after hammering its head with an iron hammer several dozen times does it die; dead, it opens its mouth to the wind, and in a moment comes alive and rises and runs off—stuff its nose with stone-grown sweet flag and it dies. Take its brain, mix it with chrysanthemum, and take it; finishing ten jin gives five hundred years. There is also the thousand-year swallow, whose nest faces north, mostly white with a bent tail; take it, dry it in the shade, grind it to powder, and taking one head gives five hundred years. All these number a hundred and twenty varieties besides; these are the flesh mushrooms.

菌芝，或生深山之中，或生大木之下，或生泉之側，其狀或如宮室，或如車馬，或如龍虎，或如人形，或如飛鳥，五色無常，亦百二十種，自有圖也。皆當禹步往採取之，刻以骨刀，陰乾末服方寸匕，令人昇仙，中者數千歲，下者千歲也。欲求芝草，入名山，必以三月九月，此山開出神藥之月也，勿以山佷日，必以天輔時，三奇會尤佳。出三奇吉門到山，須六陰之日，明堂之時，帶靈寶符，牽白犬，抱白雞，以白鹽一斗，及開山符檄，著大石上，執吳唐草一把以入山，山神喜，必得芝也。又採芝及服芝，欲得王相專和之日，支幹上下相生為佳。此諸芝名山多有之，但凡庸道士，心不專精，行穢德薄，又不曉入山之術，雖得其圖，不知其狀，亦終不能得也。山無大小，皆有鬼神，其鬼神不以芝與人，人則雖踐之，不可見也。

Fungus mushrooms may grow deep in the mountains, or beneath great trees, or beside springs; in shape some are like palaces, some like carriages and horses, some like dragons or tigers, some like human forms, some like flying birds, their five colors having no fixed rule—there are also a hundred and twenty varieties, for which there are separate illustrations. All should be gathered by going forth with the Pace of Yu, carved with a bone knife, dried in the shade, ground to powder, and taken in square-inch spoonfuls; they make one ascend as an immortal—the middling ones give several thousand years, the lowest a thousand years. To seek mushroom herbs, entering famous mountains must be in the third and ninth months, these being the months when the mountains put forth their spirit medicines; do not go on days when the mountain is adverse, but unfailingly at the Tianfu hour, and it is especially good when the three wonders coincide. Leave by the auspicious gate of the three wonders for the mountain; it must be a day of the six yin and the hour of the Bright Hall. Wear the Lingbao talisman, lead a white dog, carry a white chicken, take a dou of white salt, and the writ and talismans for opening mountains, set them on a large stone, and take a handful of Wutang herb into the mountain; the mountain god will be pleased and the mushroom is sure to be had. Also, for gathering mushrooms and for taking them, one wants days when kingly and ministerial qi are in sole harmony, the earthly branches and heavenly stems above and below engendering one another being best. Famous mountains have many of these mushrooms; only mediocre Daoists, whose hearts are not single-minded and pure, whose conduct is foul and virtue thin, and who moreover do not know the arts for entering mountains, though they get the illustrations do not know the shapes, and so in the end cannot obtain them. Every mountain, great or small, has ghosts and spirits; if those ghosts and spirits do not give the mushroom to a man, then even treading upon it he cannot see it.

又云母有五種，而人多不能分別也，法當舉以向日，看其色，詳占視之，乃可知耳。正爾於陰地視之，不見其雜色也。五色並具而多青者名雲英，宜以春服之。五色並具而多赤者名雲珠，宜以夏服之。五色並具而多白者名雲液，宜以秋服之。五色並具而多黑者名雲母，宜以冬服之。但有青黃二色者名雲沙，宜以季夏服之。皛皛純白名磷石，可以四時長服之也。服五雲之法，或以桂蔥水玉化之以為水，或以露於鐵器中，以玄水熬之為水，或以硝石合於筒中埋之為水，或以蜜搜為酪，或以秋露漬之百日，韋囊挻以為粉，或以無巔草樗血合餌之，服之一年，則百病除，三年久服，老公反成童子，五年不闕，可役使鬼神，入火不燒，入水不濡，踐棘而不傷膚，與仙人相見。又他物埋之即朽，著火即焦，而五雲以納猛火中，經時終不然，埋之永不腐敗，故能令人長生也。又云，服之十年，雲氣常覆其上，服其母以致其子，理自然也。又向日看之，晻晻純黑色起者，不中服，令人病淋發瘡。雖水餌之，皆當先以茅屋溜水，若東流水露水，漬之百日，淘汰去其土石，乃可用耳。中山衛叔卿服之，積久能乘雲而行，以其方封之玉匣之中，仙去之後，其子名世，及漢使者梁伯，得而按方合服，皆得仙去。

Mica also comes in five kinds, which most people cannot tell apart. The method is to hold it up to the sun and look at its color, examining it closely, and only then can one know. Merely looking at it in a shady place does not reveal its mingled colors. One with all five colors together but mostly blue is called cloud-blossom, fit to be taken in spring; all five colors but mostly red is called cloud-pearl, fit for summer; all five colors but mostly white is called cloud-liquid, fit for autumn; all five colors but mostly black is called cloud-mother, fit for winter; one with only blue and yellow is called cloud-sand, fit for late summer. A pure glistening white is called phosphor-stone, and may be taken long-term in all four seasons. The methods for taking the five micas: dissolve it into water with cassia, scallion, or water-jade; or with dew in an iron vessel, boiled down to water with dark water; or ground together with niter in a tube and buried to form water; or worked with honey into a curd; or steeped in autumn dew for a hundred days and pounded in a leather bag into powder; or eaten mixed with wudian herb and ailanthus blood. Take it for one year and the hundred illnesses are gone; take it steadily for three years and an old man returns to being a boy; take it five years without fail and one can command ghosts and spirits, enter fire unburned, enter water unwetted, tread thorns without injuring the skin, and meet the immortals face to face. Other things, buried, rot, and set alight, char; but the five micas, put into a fierce fire for a whole watch, never burn, and buried never decay—this is why they can give men long life. It is also said that after ten years of taking it, cloudy vapor constantly covers one overhead; to take the mother in order to reach the child is the natural order. Also, when examined against the sun, a piece that shows a dim pure black rising is not fit to take—it makes one ill with dripping sores. Even for taking in water, one must first use water dripped from a thatched roof, or east-flowing water, or dew, steep it a hundred days, and wash away the earth and grit before it can be used. Wei Shuqing of Zhongshan took it, and after long accumulation could ride the clouds and travel; he sealed his formula in a jade case, and after he departed as an immortal, his son Mingshi and the Han envoy Liang Bo obtained it, compounded it by the formula, and took it, and all departed as immortals.

又雄黃當得武都山所出者，純而無雜，其赤如雞冠，光明曄曄者，乃可用耳。其但純黃似雄黃色，無赤光者，不任以作仙藥，可以合理病藥耳。餌服之法，或以蒸煮之，或以酒餌，或先以硝石化為水乃凝之，或以玄胴腸裹蒸之於赤土下，或以松脂和之，或以三物煉之，引之如布，白如冰，服之皆令人長生，百病除，三尸下，瘢痕滅，白髮黑，墮齒生，千日則玉女來侍，可得役使，以致行廚。又玉女常以黃玉為志，大如黍米，在鼻上，是真玉女也，無此志者，鬼試人耳。

Realgar, for its part, must be that produced on Mount Wudu, pure and unmixed, red as a cock's comb and gleaming bright—only then can it be used. What is merely pure yellow like the look of realgar, without red light, is not equal to making a medicine of immortality, and can serve only to compound sickness-curing drugs. The methods of taking it: steam or boil it; or take it in wine; or first dissolve it to water with niter and then congeal it; or wrap it in dark intestine casing and steam it beneath red earth; or mix it with pine resin; or refine it with the three substances, drawing it out like cloth, white like ice. Taken, all these give men long life, expel the hundred illnesses, bring down the three corpse-worms, erase scars and marks, turn white hair black, regrow fallen teeth; after a thousand days the Jade Maidens come to attend and can be commanded, bringing the traveling kitchen. A true Jade Maiden always bears a marker of yellow jade the size of a millet grain upon her nose; one without this marker is only a ghost come to test the man.

玉亦仙藥，但難得耳。玉經曰：服金者壽如金，服玉者壽如玉也。又曰：服玄真者，其命不極。玄真者，玉之別名也。令人身飛輕舉，不但地仙而已。然其道遲成，服一二百斤，乃可知耳。玉可以烏米酒及地榆酒化之為水，亦可以蔥漿消之為臺，亦可餌以為丸，亦可燒以為粉，服之一年已上，入水不沾，入火不灼，刃之不傷，百毒不犯也。不可用已成之器，傷人無益，當得璞玉，乃可用也，得於闐國白玉尤善。其次有南陽徐善亭部界中玉及日南盧容水中玉亦佳。赤松子以玄蟲血漬玉為水而服之，故能乘煙上下也。玉屑服之與水餌之，俱令人不死。所以為不及金者，令人數數發熱，似寒食散狀也。若服玉屑者，宜十日輒一服雄黃丹砂各一刀圭，散發洗沐寒水，迎風而行，則不發熱也。董君異嘗以玉醴與盲人服之，目旬日而愈。有吳延稚者，志欲服玉，得玉經方不具，了不知其節度禁忌，乃招合得珪璋環璧，及校劍所用甚多，欲餌治服之，後餘為說此不中用，乃嘆息曰：事不可不精，不但無益，乃幾作禍也。

Jade is also a medicine of immortality, only hard to obtain. The Jade Classic says: take gold and your span is like gold; take jade and your span is like jade. It also says: take xuanzhen and your life has no limit. Xuanzhen is another name for jade. It makes the body fly and rise lightly—more than a mere earthly immortal. But the Way of it ripens slowly: only after taking a hundred or two hundred jin can it be known. Jade can be dissolved to water with black-rice wine and burnet wine, or melted to a paste with scallion juice, or made into pills, or burned to powder. Taken for more than a year, one enters water unwetted, enters fire unscorched; blades cannot cut, the hundred poisons cannot trespass. One must not use jade already worked into vessels—it hurts the man and gives no benefit; one must obtain unworked jade, which alone can be used, and white jade from the land of Khotan is especially good. Next, the jade within the bounds of Xushan ting in Nanyang and the jade in the Lurong waters of Rinan are also good. Master Redpine steeped jade in dark insect blood until it became water and took it, which is why he could ride the mists up and down. Jade filings, swallowed or taken in water, both keep men from dying. What makes it inferior to gold is that it makes one constantly feverish, like the state after cold-food powder. If one takes jade filings, one should once every ten days also take a daogui each of realgar and cinnabar, disperse it and wash in cold water, and walk against the wind—then there is no fever. Dong Junyi once gave jade liquor to a blind man to take, and in ten days his eyes were healed. There was one Wu Yanzhi whose ambition was to take jade; he obtained the formulas of the Jade Classic but incomplete, wholly ignorant of the measures and prohibitions, so he gathered scepters, rings, discs, and many pieces used in sword mountings, meaning to prepare and take them. Afterwards I told him these were of no use, and he sighed: in this work one cannot but be exact; not only is there no benefit, it nearly becomes a calamity.

又銀但不及金玉耳，可以地仙也。服之法，以麥漿化之，亦可以朱草酒餌之，亦可以龍膏煉之，然三服，輒大如彈丸者，又非清貧道士所能得也。

Silver, again, is merely inferior to gold and jade; by means of it one can become an earthly immortal. The method of taking it: dissolve it with wheat juice; or take it in vermilion-herb wine; or refine it with dragon grease. But three doses are required, each the size of a crossbow pellet, and it is not something a poor Daoist can obtain.

又真珠徑一寸以上可服，服之可以長久，酪漿漬之皆化如水銀，亦可以浮石水蜂窠化，包彤蛇黃合之，可引長三四尺，丸服之，絕谷服之，則不死而長生也。淳漆不沾者，服之令人通神長生，餌之法，或以大無腸公子，或雲大蟹，十枚投其中，或以雲母水，或以玉水合服之，九蟲悉下，惡血從鼻去，一年六甲行廚至也。

Pearls a cun or more across can be taken; taken, they give long life. Steeped in curdled milk they all dissolve like quicksilver; they can also be dissolved with pumice water or with honeycomb. Combined with baotong and snake-yellow, they can be drawn out three or four chi, made into pills, and taken; taken while cutting off grain, one does not die and lives long. Pure lacquer that does not stick, taken, makes one commune with the spirits and live long. The method of taking it: throw in ten of the great gutless gentlemen—that is, large crabs—or take it with mica water or jade water; the nine worms all come down, bad blood leaves by the nose, and in a year the traveling kitchen of the six jia arrives.

桂可以蔥涕合蒸作水，可以竹瀝合餌之，亦可以先知君腦，或雲龜，和服之，七年，能步行水上，長生不死也。巨勝一名胡麻，餌服之不老，耐風溼，補衰老也。桃膠以桑灰汁漬，服之百病癒，久服之身輕有光明，在晦夜之地如月出也，多服之則可以斷谷。

Cassia can be steamed to water together with scallion juice, or eaten mixed with bamboo sap, or taken mixed with the brain of Master Foreknower—that is, the tortoise. After seven years one can walk upon water, living long and not dying. Jusheng, also named huma (sesame), taken does not age, withstands wind and damp, and repairs decline. Peach gum steeped in mulberry-ash juice cures the hundred illnesses when taken; taken long, the body grows light and shines, in dark places like a risen moon; taken much, one can cut off grain.

檸木實之赤者，餌之一年，老者還少，令人徹視見鬼。昔道士梁須年七十乃服之，轉更少，至年百四十歲，能夜書，行及奔馬，後入青龍山去。槐子以新甕合泥封之，二十餘日，其表皮皆爛，乃洗之如大豆，日服之，此物主補腦，久服之，令人發不白而長生。玄中蔓方，楚飛廉、澤瀉、地黃、黃連之屬，凡三百餘種，皆能延年，可單服也。靈飛散、未夬丸、制命丸、羊血丸，皆令人駐年卻老也。

The red fruits of the ning tree, taken for a year, return the aged to youth and let one see clearly enough to behold ghosts. Long ago the Daoist Liang Xu took it only at seventy, turned ever younger, and at a hundred and forty could write at night and keep pace with a galloping horse; afterwards he departed into Mount Qinglong. Sophora seeds, sealed in a new jar with mud, after twenty-some days the skins all rot away; wash them until they are like soybeans and take them daily—this thing chiefly replenishes the brain; taken long, it keeps the hair from whitening and gives long life. The Xuanzhong Manfang—chu-feilian, alisma, rehmannia, coptis, and the like, some three hundred and more kinds—all can lengthen the years and can each be taken alone. Lingfei powder, Weijue pills, Zhiming pills, and goat-blood pills all keep men at their years and drive off age.

南陽酈縣山中有甘谷水，谷水所以甘者，谷上左右皆生甘菊，菊花墮其中，歷世彌久，故水味為變。其臨此谷中居民，皆不穿井，悉食甘谷水，食者無不老壽，高者百四五十歲，下者不失八九十，無夭年人，得此菊力也。故司空王暢太尉劉寬太傅袁隗，皆為南陽太守，每到官，常使酈縣月送甘谷水四十斛以為飲食。此諸公多患風痺及眩冒，皆得愈，但不能大得其益，如甘谷上居民，生小便飲食此水者耳。又菊花與薏花相似，直以甘苦別之耳，菊甘而薏苦，諺言所謂苦如薏者也。今所在有真菊，但為少耳，率多生於水側，緱氏山與酈縣最多，仙方所謂日精更生，周盈皆一菊，而根莖花實異名，其說甚美，而近來服之者略無效，正由不得真菊也。夫甘谷水得菊之氣味，亦何足言。而其上居民，皆以延年，況將復好藥，安得無益乎？

In the mountains of Li county in Nanyang there is a water called Sweet Valley. The reason its water is sweet is that on the hillsides around it sweet chrysanthemums grow all about, and the blossoms fall into it; over long generations the taste of the water has changed. The people dwelling beside this valley do not sink wells but all drink the Sweet Valley water, and of those who drink it none fails of long life—the oldest a hundred and forty or fifty, the lowest never short of eighty or ninety, none dying before their time. They have gained the strength of that chrysanthemum. Thus the Minister of Works Wang Chang, the Defender-in-chief Liu Kuan, and the Grand Tutor Yuan Wei, who all served as Administrators of Nanyang, whenever they came to office always had Li county send forty hu of Sweet Valley water each month for their drink and food. These several lords all suffered wind-numbness and dizziness, and all were cured; only they could not gain its benefit so greatly as the people living above the Sweet Valley, who from birth have eaten and drunk this water. Chrysanthemum and coix flower resemble one another, distinguished only by sweet and bitter—the chrysanthemum is sweet and the coix bitter, as the saying goes, bitter as coix. Nowadays true chrysanthemums exist here and there, only few; they mostly grow beside water, and are most plentiful on Mount Goushi and in Li county. What the immortals' formulas call sun-essence, renewal, and fullness are all one chrysanthemum under different names for root, stem, flower, and fruit. The accounts of it are fine, yet of those lately who took it most had no effect—precisely because they could not obtain the true chrysanthemum. If even the Sweet Valley water, which merely received the breath of the chrysanthemum, is so—what need to speak of more? And the people living above it all lengthen their years by it; how much more, if one takes good medicine besides, could there fail to be benefit?

餘亡祖鴻臚少卿曾為臨沅令，雲此縣有廖氏家，世世壽考，或出百歲，或八九十，後徙去，子孫轉多夭折。他人居其故宅，復如舊，後累世壽考。由此乃覺是宅之所為，而不知其何故，疑其井水殊赤，乃試掘井左右，得古人埋丹砂數十斛，去井數尺，此丹砂汁因泉漸入井，是以飲其水而得壽，況乃餌煉丹砂而服之乎？

My late grandfather, the Deputy Chamberlain for Dependencies, once served as magistrate of Linyuan. He said that in that county there was a Liao family, generation after generation long-lived, some past a hundred, some eighty or ninety; later they moved away, and their descendants in turn often died young. Others who came to live in their old house again did as of old, and for generation after generation were long-lived. From this it was realized that the house had caused it, though the reason was unknown; suspecting that the well water was peculiarly red, they tried digging beside the well and found several dozen hu of cinnabar buried by men of old, a few chi from the well. The juice of this cinnabar had gradually entered the well with the spring, so drinking that water gave long life—how much more so to refine cinnabar and take it oneself!

餘又聞上黨有趙瞿者，病癩歷年，眾治之不愈，垂死。或雲不及活，流棄之，後子孫轉相注易，其家乃齎糧將之，送置山穴中。瞿在穴中，自怨不幸，晝夜悲嘆，涕泣經月。有仙人行經過穴，見而哀之，具問訊之。瞿知其異人，乃叩頭自陳乞哀，於是仙人以一囊藥賜之，教其服法。瞿服之百許日，瘡都愈，顏色豐悅，肌膚玉澤。仙人又過視之，瞿謝受更生活之恩，乞丐其方。仙人告之曰，此是松脂耳，此山中更多此物，汝煉之服，可以長生不死。瞿乃歸家，家人初謂之鬼也，甚驚愕。瞿遂長服松脂，身體轉輕，氣力百倍，登危越險，終日不極，年百七十歲，齒不墮，發不白。夜臥，忽見屋間有光大如鏡者，以問左右，皆雲不見，久而漸大，一室盡明如晝日。又夜見面上有采女二人，長二三寸，面體皆具，但為小耳，遊戲其口鼻之間，如是且一年，此女漸長大，出在其側。又常聞琴瑟之音，欣然獨笑，在人間三百許年，色如小童，乃入抱犢山去，必地仙也。於時聞瞿服松脂如此，於是競服。其多役力者，乃車運驢負，積之盈室，服之遠者，不過一月，未覺大有益輒止，有志者難得如是也。

I have also heard that in Shangdang there was one Zhao Qu, ill with leprosy for many years; all treatments failed and he lay near death. Some said he could not live to be saved, and he was cast out and abandoned; later his sons and grandsons caught the sickness one after another, so his family provisioned him and led him away, delivering him into a mountain cave. In the cave Zhao Qu bewailed his misfortune, sighing and weeping day and night for a whole month. An immortal traveling past the cave saw him, pitied him, and questioned him in detail. Knowing he was no ordinary man, Zhao Qu knocked his head and declared himself, begging mercy; whereupon the immortal gave him a bag of medicine and taught him the method of taking it. Zhao Qu took it for a hundred days and more; the sores all healed, his complexion grew full and glad, his skin took on a jade luster. When the immortal passed by again and looked in on him, Zhao Qu gave thanks for the grace of being granted new life and begged the formula. The immortal told him: this is nothing but pine resin; this mountain holds much of it—refine it and take it, and you may live long and not die. Zhao Qu then went home; his family at first took him for a ghost and were sorely astonished. Zhao Qu then took pine resin for a long time: his body grew light, his strength a hundredfold; he climbed heights and crossed dangers all day without tiring; at a hundred and seventy years his teeth had not fallen and his hair had not whitened. Lying one night, he suddenly saw in the room a light like a mirror; asking those beside him, all said they could not see it. After a long time it gradually grew, until the whole room shone like broad day. Again at night he saw on his face two maiden spirits two or three cun tall, fully formed in face and body, only small, playing between his nose and mouth; thus for nearly a year, the maidens gradually grew larger until they came out to his side. He also often heard the sound of lutes and zithers, and would smile happily to himself. He lived among men three hundred-some years, his complexion like a small child's, then departed into Mount Baodu—surely an earthly immortal. At the time, hearing that Zhao Qu had taken pine resin thus, people vied to take it. Those with many laborers hauled it by cart and donkey, piling it full in their rooms; those who took it went no farther than a month, and feeling no great benefit stopped. So rarely does anyone with resolve manage it thus.

又漢成帝時，獵者於終南山中，見一人無衣服，身生黑毛，獵人見之，欲逐取之，而其人逾坑越谷，有如飛騰，不可逮及。於是乃密伺候其所在，合圍得之，定是婦人。問之，言我本是秦之宮人也，聞關東賊至，秦王出降，宮室燒燔，驚走入山，飢無所食，垂餓死，有一老翁教我食松葉松實，當時苦澀，後稍便之，遂使不飢不渴，冬不寒，夏不熱。計此女定是秦王子嬰宮人，至成帝之世，二百許歲，乃將歸，以穀食之，初聞谷臭嘔吐，累日乃安。如是二年許，身毛乃脫落，轉老而死。向使不為人所得，便成仙人矣。

Again, in the time of Emperor Cheng of Han, hunters in Mount Zhongnan saw a person without clothes, black hair growing over the whole body. The hunters saw it and wanted to chase and catch it, but the person leapt over pits and valleys as if flying, and could not be caught. Then they secretly watched for where it stayed, closed in, and caught it—it proved to be a woman. Asked, she said: I was originally a palace woman of Qin; when I heard that the rebels east of the Pass had come and the King of Qin had gone out to surrender and the palaces were burning, I fled in fright into the mountains. Hungry with nothing to eat and near starvation, an old man taught me to eat pine needles and pine nuts; at first they were bitter and astringent, but I gradually grew used to them, and thereafter they kept me from hunger and thirst, warm in winter and cool in summer. Reckoning it up, this woman was certainly a palace woman of the Qin prince Ziying; by the age of Emperor Cheng, more than two hundred years. Only when brought back and fed on grain did she—at the first smell of the stench of grain—vomit, settling only after several days. After about two years of this her body hair fell out, and she turned old and died. Had she not been caught by men, she would have become an immortal.

南陽文氏，說其先祖，漢末大亂，逃去山中，飢困欲死。有一人教之食術，遂不能飢，數十年乃來還鄉里，顏色更少，氣力勝故。自說在山中時，身輕欲跳，登高履險，歷日不極，行冰雪中，了不知寒。常見一高巖上，有數人對坐博戲者，有讀書者，俛而視文氏，因聞其相問，言此子中呼上否。其一人答言未可也。術一名山磷，一名山精。故神藥經曰：必欲長生，常服山精。

The Wen family of Nanyang tell of their ancestor: at the great disorders of the end of Han he fled into the mountains, hungry, in straits, and near death. A man taught him to eat zhu, and thereafter he could not hunger; after several decades he returned to his village, his complexion yet younger and his strength surpassing what it had been. He himself said that while in the mountains his body was light and apt to bound; he climbed heights and trod dangers the whole day without tiring, and walking in ice and snow he felt no cold at all. He often saw upon a high crag several men sitting facing one another at gambling games, and some reading; looking down they beheld the Wen man, and so he heard them ask one another: can this fellow be called up here? One of them answered: not yet. Zhu is also named mountain-phosphor, also mountain-essence. Thus the Classic of Spirit Medicines says: if you truly wish long life, always take mountain-essence.

昔仙人八公，各服一物，以得陸仙，各數百年，乃合神丹金液，而升太清耳。人若合八物，煉而服之，不得其力，是其藥力有轉相勝畏故也。韓終服菖蒲十三年，身生毛，日視書萬言，皆誦之，冬袒不寒。又菖蒲生須得石上，一寸九節已上，紫花者尤善也。趙他子服桂二十年，足下生毛，日行五百里，力舉千斤。移門子服五味子十六年，色如玉女，入水不沾，入火不灼也。楚文子服地黃八年，夜視有光，手上車弩也。林子明服術十一年，耳長五寸，身輕如飛，能超逾淵谷二丈許。杜子微服天門冬，御八十妾，有子百三十人，日行三百里。任子季服茯苓十八年，仙人玉女往從之，能隱能彰，不復食谷，灸瘢皆滅，面體玉光。陵陽子仲服遠志二十年，有子三十七人，開書所視不忘，坐在立亡。仙經曰：雖服草木之葉，已得數百歲，忽怠於神丹，終不能仙。以此論之，草木延年而已，非長生之藥可知也。未得作丹，且可服之，以自支持耳。

In days past the eight immortal lords each took a single thing and thereby became land-immortals for several hundred years each, then compounded the divine elixir and golden liquor and ascended into the Grand Purity. If a man combines the eight things, refines them, and takes them, he does not obtain their power, because the medicines' powers vanquish and fear one another in turn. Han Zhong took calamus for thirteen years: hair grew on his body, he read ten thousand words a day and could recite them all, and went bare-shouldered in winter without cold. Moreover, calamus for taking must grow on stone, an inch or more in nine joints, those with purple flowers being best. Zhao Tazi took cassia for twenty years: hair grew under his feet, he walked five hundred li a day, and lifted a thousand jin. Yimenzi took schisandra for sixteen years: his complexion was like a Jade Maiden's, he entered water unwetted and fire unscorched. Chu Wenzi took rehmannia for eight years: at night he saw light, and his hands could draw the cart-bow. Lin Ziming took zhu for eleven years: his ears grew five cun long, his body was light as flight, and he could leap over gorges of some two zhang. Du Ziwei took asparagus and kept eighty concubines, begetting a hundred and thirty sons, walking three hundred li a day. Ren Ziji took poria for eighteen years: immortals and Jade Maidens came to follow him; he could appear and vanish, no longer ate grain, his moxa scars all vanished, and his face and body shone like jade. Lingyang Zizhong took polygala for twenty years, begot thirty-seven sons, forgot nothing his eyes had once opened in a book, and could sit and vanish on the spot. The Classic of Immortals says: though one takes the leaves of herbs and trees and already gains several hundred years, if one slights the divine elixir, in the end one cannot become an immortal. Judged by this, herbs and trees merely lengthen the years; they are not the medicine of long life—this may be known. Before one can make the elixir, one may for the time being take them to sustain oneself.

或問：“服食藥物，有前後之宜乎？”抱朴子答曰：“按中黃子服食節度云，服治病之藥，以食前服之；養性之藥，以食後服之。吾以諮鄭君，何以如此。鄭君言，此易知耳，欲以藥攻病，既宜及未食，內虛，令藥力勢易行，若以食後服之，則藥但攻谷而力盡矣；若欲養性，而以食前服藥，則力未行，而被谷驅之下去不得止，無益也。”

Someone asked: "In taking medicinal substances, is there a proper before and after?" Baopuzi answered: "According to Zhonghuangzi's Rules for Taking Medicines, take medicines that cure illness before eating, and medicines that nourish the nature after eating. I asked Master Zheng why this is so. Master Zheng said: it is easy to understand. If you want to use a medicine to attack a sickness, it should be done while you have not yet eaten: the interior is empty and the medicine's force moves easily. If taken after eating, the medicine merely attacks the grain and its force is spent. But if you want to nourish the nature and take the medicine before eating, then before its force can move it is driven down by the grain and cannot linger, which gives no benefit."

或問曰：“人服藥以養性，雲有所宜，有諸乎？”抱朴子答曰：“按玉策記及開明經，皆以五音六屬，知人年命之所在。子午屬庚，卯酉屬己，寅申屬戊，丑未屬辛，辰戌屬丙，巳亥屬丁。一言得之者，宮與土也。三言得之者，徵與火也。五言得之者，羽與水也。七言得之者，商與金也。九言得之者，角與木也。若本命屬土，不宜服青色藥；屬金，不宜服赤色藥；屬木，不宜服白色藥；屬水，不宜服黃色藥；屬火，不宜服黑色藥。以五行之義，木克土，土克水，水克火，火克金，金克木故也。若金丹大藥，不復論宜與不宜也。

Someone asked: "When men take medicines to nourish the nature, it is said that some are fitting and some not—is there such a thing?" Baopuzi answered: "According to the Record of the Jade Slips and the Scripture of Enlightened Opening, both use the five tones and six affinities to know where a man's natal destiny lies. Zi and wu belong to geng; mao and you belong to ji; yin and shen belong to wu; chou and wei belong to xin; chen and xu belong to bing; si and hai belong to ding. What is obtained in one word is the note gong with earth. What is obtained in three words is the note zhi with fire. What is obtained in five words is the note yu with water. What is obtained in seven words is the note shang with metal. What is obtained in nine words is the note jue with wood. If one's natal destiny belongs to earth, one should not take green-colored medicines; if it belongs to metal, not red-colored medicines; if it belongs to wood, not white-colored medicines; if it belongs to water, not yellow-colored medicines; if it belongs to fire, not black-colored medicines. This is because of the meaning of the five phases: wood conquers earth, earth conquers water, water conquers fire, fire conquers metal, metal conquers wood. As for the great medicines of the golden elixir, fitting and unfitting are no longer discussed.

一言宮。庚子庚午，辛未辛丑，丙辰丙戌，丁亥丁巳，戊寅戊申，己卯己酉。

The one-word note is gong: gengzi and gengwu, xinwei and xinchou, bingchen and bingxu, dinghai and dingsi, wuyin and wushen, jimao and jiyou.

三言徵。甲辰甲戌，乙亥乙巳，丙寅丙申，丁酉丁卯，戊午戊子，己未己丑。

The three-word note is zhi: jiachen and jiaxu, yihai and yisi, bingyin and bingshen, dingyou and dingmao, wuwu and wuzi, jiwei and jichou.

五言羽。甲寅甲申，乙卯乙酉，丙子丙午，丁未丁丑，壬辰壬戌，癸巳癸亥。

The five-word note is yu: jiayin and jiashen, yimao and yiyou, bingzi and bingwu, dingwei and dingchou, renchen and renxu, guisi and guihai.

七言商。甲子甲午，乙丑乙未，庚辰庚戌，辛巳辛亥，壬申壬寅，癸卯癸酉。

The seven-word note is shang: jiazi and jiawu, yichou and yiwei, gengchen and gengxu, xinsi and xinhai, renshen and renyin, guimao and guiyou.