The Ten Thousand Immortals Formation

T he last pass had fallen. At Tongguan the loyal general Yu Hualong and his five sons had held to the end and died to a man, and Jiang Ziya, who could not hate a brave enemy, had their bodies gathered and buried well before he turned to the sick and the wounded of his own camp. Then two of the immortals at his side, Huanglong Zhenren and Yuding Zhenren, told him what waited on the road ahead. It was not another wall to storm. It was the Ten Thousand Immortals Formation, and beyond it nothing — the last thing in the war, the array into which the entire host of the rival school of immortals had poured itself. Build the mat-halls, they said, and raise the awnings, and make ready to receive the masters of the three teachings; this one gathering would close the account of the age and burn off the killing-fate of the red dust. Ziya gave the order. He did not yet know how many of the beings he was about to watch die had names older than the dynasty he served. Ziya drove his troops into Tongguan, posted notices to reassure the people, and took inventory of the stores. Pitying the loyalty of Yu Hualong and his sons, who had died together for the Shang, he ordered their bodies collected and richly buried, and had the soldiers not yet recovered from the plague left at the pass to be treated. When this was settled, Huanglong Zhenren and Yuding Zhenren said to Ziya: "Ahead now is the Ten Thousand Immortals Formation. Let King Wu also rest a while at this pass; we will lead the disciples forward and have mat-sheds and awning-halls built along the road to welcome the masters of the three teachings. This single act will complete the number of the calamity and end the killing-fate of this red dust." Ziya, greatly pleased, ordered Yang Jian and Li Jing to build the mat-sheds.

They came to the awnings laughing. One after another the immortals of the orthodox school walked in clapping their hands, glad to see each other — Guangchengzi, Chijingzi, the Manjusri sage, Puxian, Cihang Daoren, Taiyi Zhenren, old Randeng at the head of them — and greeted Ziya with the same words, that today's meeting would at last complete the calamity of fifteen hundred years. Then, out in the field, Jinling Shengmu, who held the formation, saw the light of three flowers rise from Randeng's crown and knew the Kunlun side had arrived. She loosed a single thunderclap. The mist that had hidden the formation tore open, and the whole host of it stood revealed. The Kunlun immortals looked, and looked again, and could not take the measure of it — rank on rank, crowd behind crowd, every wandering adept of the five mountains and the three isles and the four seas, strange shapes and stranger faces, more of them than the eye could hold. Randeng shook his head. "Only today," he said, "do I learn how many the Jie teaching has. Our teaching you could count on your fingers." Ziya, with the two Zhenren and the disciples, came up to the mat-sheds, which were hung with flowers and colored silks and thick with incense. Soon the Daoists of the three mountains and five peaks came clapping their hands and laughing: Guangchengzi, Chijingzi, Manjusri Broad-Dharma Tianzun, Puxian Zhenren, Cihang Daoren, Qingxu Daode Zhenjun, Taiyi Zhenren, Lingbao Dafashi, Daoxing Tianzun, Julüsun, Yunzhongzi, Randeng Daoren. Seeing Ziya, they bowed and said, "Today's meeting completes exactly the calamity-number of one thousand five hundred years." Now Jinling Shengmu, within the Ten Thousand Immortals Formation, saw the three flowers above Randeng's crown rise into the sky and knew the disciples of the Jade Void had come. She sent out a thunderclap that shook the formation open; the mist rolled away and the Ten Thousand Immortals Formation appeared. The immortals on the shed stared and looked closely several times: throughout the Jie teaching, high and low, thronging and clustered, were all cloud-wandering Daoists of the five peaks, three mountains, and four seas, people strange and grotesque. Randeng nodded and sighed to the others, "Only today do I know the Jie teaching has so many kinds of people. Our teaching is no more than a handful you can count on the fingers."

Huanglong Zhenren said aloud what the others were thinking. Since the Primordial, he said, the Way had been kept narrow and honored alone; but the rival school had handed its teaching to anyone, to base creatures and beasts along with men, and all that effort was waste — they had never learned to cultivate nature and life together, and so not one of them would be spared the long grinding wheel of birth and death. It was, he said, a thing to grieve over. Against Randeng's advice the immortals went down for a closer look at the array — layered gate behind layered gate, the air above it stiff with the intent to kill — and agreed among themselves that here was no company of seekers but a crowd itching to fight. They had turned to go back when a bell rang in the formation and a Daoist named Ma Sui rode out singing to challenge them. Huanglong Zhenren told him to wait for the masters. Ma Sui answered with his sword, and in a single exchange threw a golden ring that closed around the immortal's head and would not come off; the pain drove the samadhi fire out of his own eyes, and his brothers half-carried him back to the awnings. The doomed, it turned out, could still draw first blood. Huanglong Zhenren said: "Fellow Daoists, since the time of Yuanshi the Way has been honored alone; but the Jie teaching has transmitted its doctrine without discrimination, reaching even to base kinds. Truly it is a pity — labor and heart and spirit spent in vain. Not knowing the twin cultivation of nature and life (性命雙修), they have wasted a whole lifetime's effort and cannot escape the suffering of the wheel of birth and death. It is deeply to be mourned." Against Randeng's counsel to wait, the immortals went down to view the Ten Thousand Immortals Formation: its gates layered one on another, its killing-air dense and grim. They shook their heads — every one bizarre, every one fierce, with no mind for cultivating the Way, only a mind to strive and kill. As they turned back, a bell sounded in the formation and a Daoist, Ma Sui, rode out singing and challenged the disciples of the Jade Void. Huanglong Zhenren stepped up and told him to wait for the sage-masters. Ma Sui attacked with his sword; at the first exchange he threw up a golden ring (金箍) that clamped Huanglong Zhenren's head. The pain was past bearing, and the three-samadhi true fire came out of his eyes; the immortals rushed him back to the mat-sheds.

“Only today do I learn how many the rival teaching has — and my own I could count on my fingers.”

Then Yuanshi Tianzun came to the formation. He sent the Old Man of the South Pole ahead of him on a crane, carrying a jade talisman, and when Ma Sui rose into the air to bar the road the old man only laughed and said the master was coming. Immortal music came up behind him and a strange fragrance spread over the ground, and Ma Sui, knowing there was nothing here to fight, dropped down out of the sky and went back into his own array. Yuanshi came on to the awnings. He looked at Huanglong Zhenren with the golden ring still biting into his skull, pointed one finger, and the ring fell away. Then he told the disciples what the day was for. Complete this calamity, he said, and go home — back to your own caves, to guard your nature and quiet your minds and cut away the three corpses, and never again come courting the trouble of the red dust. For the immortals who would live, there was no glory waiting on the far side of the formation. There was only permission to stop. Then Yuanshi Tianzun came to meet the Ten Thousand Immortals Formation, sending Nanji Xianweng, the Old Man of the South Pole, ahead with a jade talisman. The Xianweng came riding a crane through drifting cloud-light. Ma Sui looked up, saw who it was, and rose on his own cloud into mid-air to block the road. The Xianweng laughed: "Ma Sui, do not be reckless — the sage-master has come." Ma Sui made to contend, but behind came a strain of immortal music and a strange fragrance over all the ground; knowing he could not contend, he dropped his cloud and returned to his own formation. Yuanshi arrived at the mat-sheds. He said, "Huanglong Zhenren has the calamity of the golden ring," and called him forward; he pointed with his hand, and the ring came off at once. Then Yuanshi said: "Today you should all complete this calamity, each return to his cave-dwelling, guard your nature and cultivate your minds, cut off the three corpses, and never again court the troubles of the red dust."

Laozi arrived last, riding his flat-horned green ox, and let himself be helped up onto the shed. The house of Zhou, he said, is only eight hundred years of foundation, and even so I have had to come down into the red dust three times and four; you can see that the fate-number is not a thing anyone escapes — so what should gods or immortals or buddhas fear in it. Yuanshi agreed. The calamity of the mortal world, he said, not even the immortals outside the world can avoid, and still less our own disciples, whose bodies are caught in it; we have only come to finish this one turn of it. Then the two of them sat still and said nothing more. Near midnight the light of garlands and blessing-clouds gathered over the heads of the sages and rose, layer on layer, straight into the sky. Then, borne on a strain of immortal music and a strange fragrance, Laozi arrived. Yuanshi, knowing him near, went out with the disciples to meet him. Laozi got down from his flat-horned green ox and was helped up onto the shed. When the disciples had bowed, he clapped his hands and said: "The house of Zhou is no more than eight hundred years of foundation, yet I too have come three times and four turns into the red dust. You may see that the fate-number is hard to flee — what have gods, immortals, and buddhas to fear of it?" Yuanshi said: "The calamity of the dusty world, even the immortals beyond the world cannot avoid — how much less our disciples, who are subject to it in the body. We do no more than come to finish this one turn of the calamity." The two masters spoke, then sat in silence. About the second watch, garlands and blessing-clouds appeared above the heads of the sages, and endless auspicious vapor rose straight into the heavens.

Inside the formation Jinling Shengmu saw the blessing-clouds and knew the two uncle-masters had come, and thought her own master must come soon. At daybreak the sky filled with immortal music and the ringing of jade pendants, and Tongtian Jiaozhu himself left the Biyou Palace and came to the formation with his hundred thousand, and climbed the Eight Trigrams Platform and sat. It has come to the waning moon that cannot be made round again, he said. Since I have set out this Ten Thousand Immortals Formation, I will settle which of us is the greater and fix the one honored seat, and today the whole company of immortals gathers to complete the calamity. He sent the long-eared adept Dingguang out with a sealed letter to the two masters on the shed. Laozi read it through and gave back only one line. I understand, he said. Tomorrow I will come and break the Ten Thousand Immortals Formation. Within the Ten Thousand Immortals Formation, Jinling Shengmu saw the auspicious vapor and clouds and knew the two uncle-masters had arrived, and thought to herself that her own master must come soon. By daybreak the sky was full of immortal music and the ceaseless ringing of girdle-pendants: with his host of immortals, Tongtian Jiaozhu left the Biyou Palace and came in person to the formation. Jinling Shengmu led the immortals to receive him; he entered the formation-gate, mounted the Eight Trigrams Platform, and sat. When the ten thousand had made obeisance, she said, "Both uncle-masters are already here." Tongtian Jiaozhu said: "So be it. Now it is the waning moon that cannot be made whole. Having arrayed this Ten Thousand Immortals Formation, I must decide the victory with them, to fix the one honored seat. Today is the grand convocation of the ten thousand immortals, to complete the calamity-number." He ordered the Long-Eared adept Dingguang to carry a sealed letter to the two uncle-masters on the mat-sheds. Laozi read the letter and said only, "I understand. Tomorrow I will come and break the Ten Thousand Immortals Formation." The adept returned and reported to Tongtian Jiaozhu.

The next day the two masters led their disciples out to stand before it, and there was the whole formation to be seen at once — banners of blue and white and red and black, and a yellow standard trailing a thousand streamers of strange gold light that hid treasures the world has too few of; wandering adepts ranged by the four directions on their deer and their oxen; Shen Gongbao riding an eight-tiger car as marshal over the ten thousand; Jinling Shengmu in her seven-fragrance chariot; and at the center, on the kui-ox, out of the undivided chaos from before heaven and earth had color, the master of the Jie teaching himself, of the lineage of Hongjun. The verse that praises the sight ends where the war ends: the orthodox Law of Kunlun upholds the enlightened king, and the rivers and mountains, made one, belong to Western Zhou. The next day the two teaching-masters led their disciples down from the sheds to look upon the Ten Thousand Immortals Formation, and it was a formation worth the seeing. A mass of strange mist and gusts of cold wind; five-colored light and glowing auspicious cloud; ranged front and back, the mountain-dwelling adepts and the perfected; standing left and right, the cloud-wandering ascetics of the lakes and seas and the loose company of adepts. By the four quarters they stood in their robes and caps, with their long swords and their deer and oxen for mounts; blue and white and red and black banners streamed, and beneath a yellow standard a thousand strands of gold light hid treasures not to be found on earth or in heaven. There were Wuyun Xian and Jinguang Xian and Qiushou Xian and the rest; Jinling Shengmu rode in her seven-fragrance chariot, marshalling her ranks; Shen Gongbao rode an eight-tiger car as commander over the ten thousand immortals. On the kui-ox, out of the undivided chaos, before heaven and earth had their mystery and color, sat the Jie-teaching master of the lineage of Hongjun. The verse of praise ends: the true Law of Kunlun upholds the enlightened ruler, and the rivers and mountains, unified, belong to Western Zhou.

Laozi looked at the array a long moment and turned to Yuanshi. His teaching has all these disciples, he said, and as far as I can see he took them in by the sackful, root and no root together — how many of these could ever have finished the Way? This time the jade and the stone sort themselves out. Those who meet the calamity here spent their whole effort for nothing; it is a thing to sigh at. Then Tongtian Jiaozhu rode out on the kui-ox in a red robe with a sword in his hand, and there was no Daoist calm left in his face, only a hard glare. He greeted the two of them as elder brothers all the same. Laozi did not return the courtesy. You are shameless past all bearing, he said. After the Zhuxian Formation was broken you should have hidden yourself away and repented; instead you have gathered the immortals again into this evil thing, and you will not stop until jade and stone burn together and every living being in it is all but wiped from the world. Why insist on such ruin? Tongtian's answer was fury — that the Kunlun side indulged its own disciples' killing and then dressed the killing up in clever words, that he was a match for anyone, that the hatred between them could never be undone. Enough talk, said Yuanshi; you have built the thing, now show us what is in it. Tongtian went back in and threw up his first array within the array, three camps folded into one, and asked whether they knew it. Laozi laughed. It came out of my own palm, he said. It is the formation of the Great Ultimate, the Two Forms, the Four Images. What is difficult in that. Laozi, seeing the Ten Thousand Immortals Formation, said to Yuanshi: "His teaching has all these disciples. As I see it, he simply took them in without sorting kind from kind, gathering all indiscriminately, with no regard for the depth of their root-capacity — how are these the sort to attain the Way and become immortals? This round, jade and stone sort themselves out, and deep and shallow show plainly. Those who meet the calamity have used up their effort for nothing — it is worth a sigh." He had barely finished when Tongtian Jiaozhu came out of the formation on the kui-ox, in a great red gauze robe, a sword in his hand. Laozi saw that he had no air of the Way at all, only a face full of fierce light. Tongtian made his bow face to face: "Two elder brothers, greetings." Laozi said: "Worthy brother, you are shameless in the extreme. Not thinking to repent your faults, how can you hold the mastery of the Jie teaching? At the Zhuxian Formation the victory was already shown; you ought to have hidden your traces, mended your own conduct, and repented your past wrongs — only so would you befit a teaching-master. How can you cling to evil unreformed and again lead the host of immortals to lay out this evil array? You will only stop when jade and stone burn together and living beings are slaughtered near to extinction. Why must you make this karmic evil?" Tongtian said in anger: "You wrongly hold the mastery of the Chan teaching, presume upon your own strength, indulge your disciples in their reckless killing, and here you speak clever words to delude the crowd. In what one thing am I your inferior? You dare bully me. This hatred cannot be resolved." Yuanshi laughed: "No need to talk. Since you have set out this array, unfold a little of what is in you, and I will decide the victory with you." Tongtian went into the formation, and in a little while laid out a formation — one array of three overlapping camps, clustered together. He asked, "Do you two know this formation of mine?" Laozi laughed aloud: "This comes out of my own palm — how should I not know it? It is the formation of the Great Ultimate, the Two Forms, and the Four Images. What difficulty is there in it?"

Chijingzi asked to be the one to go in, and went. A Daoist met him inside the Great Ultimate array — long black beard, dark robe — and named himself Wuyun Xian, and after three or four passes brought out a Primordial hammer and knocked Chijingzi flat. Guangchengzi ran in to save him and was knocked down in his turn, and got up and fled to the northwest with Wuyun Xian close behind on Tongtian's order to take him alive. Guangchengzi rounded the shoulder of a hill with nowhere left to run — and there stood Zhunti Daoren, one of the two saints of the West, who let him pass and put himself in the pursuer's way with a smile. Fellow Daoist, he said, we two are guests bound by an old affinity. When Wuyun Xian struck at his head, a blue lotus bloomed on the saint's tongue and caught the blade; when he struck again, a white lotus caught it; a third time, a golden one. Zhunti did not fight back. He asked instead. Come west with me, he said, to the Land of Bliss; I am too full of mercy to make you show your true shape, which would turn a whole age of your cultivation to nothing — turn your head back now, while you still can. Wuyun Xian only cursed him and swung again, and the saint swept his whisk and left him holding a sword that was all hilt. So the breaking of the Ten Thousand Immortals began, and it began not with a killing but with an offer: the host of the rival heaven would not simply be destroyed. It would be emptied out, taken away one soul at a time into someone else's paradise, until there was almost no one left to call the school by its name. Laozi asked, "Who will go and try this Great Ultimate formation?" Chijingzi cried out, "Your disciple is willing to meet this formation," and leapt forth singing. From within the Great Ultimate formation a Daoist — long-bearded and black-faced, in a dark robe, a silk cord at his waist — sprang out and shouted, "Chijingzi, do you dare try my formation?" Chijingzi said, "Wuyun Xian, do not be headstrong; this is your place of death." Wuyun Xian, enraged, came on with his sword; Chijingzi met it. Before three or four exchanges, Wuyun Xian drew a Primordial hammer (混元鎚) from his waist and struck; with one blow he knocked Chijingzi down. As he moved to finish him, Guangchengzi cried out and came in with his sword to hold Wuyun Xian off; but after a few exchanges another blow of the hammer felled Guangchengzi too. Guangchengzi scrambled up and fled to the northwest, and Tongtian Jiaozhu ordered Wuyun Xian to give chase and take him. Wuyun Xian pursued; just as he was overtaking him, Guangchengzi rounded a hill-slope and met Zhunti Daoren coming toward him. Zhunti let Guangchengzi by and barred Wuyun Xian's road, all smiles: "Fellow Daoist, greetings." Wuyun Xian knew him for Zhunti Daoren and cried, "Zhunti Daoren, at the Zhuxian Formation the other day you wounded my master, and now you block my way — this is hateful indeed," and slashed at the crown of his head. Zhunti opened his mouth, and a blue lotus rose to hold the sword: "On my tongue a blue lotus can hold a sword; I and Wuyun have a great affinity." He said, "Fellow Daoist, you and I are guests bound by affinity; I have come on purpose to convert you to my West, to share the Ultimate Bliss — is that not fine?" Wuyun Xian cursed and struck again; Zhunti pointed a finger, and a white lotus held the blade. He struck a third time; a golden lotus held it. Zhunti said, "Wuyun Xian, I am of great mercy and great compassion, and cannot bear to make you show your true form, for if you did, it would disgrace a whole lifetime's cultivation and turn it to nothing. I only wish to raise the teaching-law of the West, and so I gently convert you — turn your head back quickly, I pray you." Wuyun Xian, in fury, cut at him again, and Zhunti brushed his fly-whisk once and left the sword in Wuyun Xian's hand nothing but a hilt.