PureInsight | July 8, 2002
In the Han Dynasty, an old medicine man came to Runan City. His medicine could instantly heal all types of illnesses. Each time he sold his medicine to a customer, he would predict how the patient would vomit, or how long it would take for the patient to recover. Every time his prediction came true. Another unique thing about this old medicine man was the way he spent his income. His medicine was always sold at a fixed price. Because business was very good, he earned a very respectable daily income. However, the old man kept very little, leaving the majority of his income to the homeless on the street. That was not the strangest thing about the old medicine man. He hung a gourd above the door of the pharmacy store where he was seen only during the day. After sunset, the old man would suddenly disappear from the medicine store. There was nothing left but an empty pharmacy store with a gourd. No one knew where he went.
After a while, a low-ranking government official discovered the old man's secret. He found that the old man always jumped into the gourd after sunset. The official realized the old man was not an ordinary person, so he began to sweep the floor and prepare meals diligently for the old man day in and day out, hoping to become his disciple. The old man enjoyed his service heartily. The official persisted in providing his service for the old man for a long time without asking for anything in return, so one day the old man finally decided that the official truly longed for Dao. The old man told the official, 'Come to my place secretly after sunset when there is nobody around.' That evening, the official came to meet the old man. The old man told him, 'When you see me jump into the gourd, just follow me and you will be able to enter the gourd as well.' The old man immediately jumped into the gourd and disappeared. The official followed the old man without hesitation. Before he knew it, he was already inside the gourd.
Once he was in the gourd, he was surprised to find a wide world. There were colorful and magnificent Chinese pavilions and winding corridors. In addition, there were a few dozen servants attending the old man. The old man explained to him, 'I am a deity demoted to the human world to make up for a mistake I made. You have a lot of potential and a predestined relationship with me. That is the reason why we are having this conversation today.' The old man then took the official as a disciple inside the gourd.
One day the old man came to see the official and said that he had brought some wine with him and he left the wine downstairs. The official sent several servants downstairs to get the wine. However, none of the servants could lift the wine bottle. Even with the help of a few dozen men, they could not move the wine bottle. When the official told the old man that the wine he brought was too heavy to be carried upstairs, the old man went downstairs and brought the wine upstairs with one finger. The official drank the wine with the old man until dawn. It was a small bottle of wine. However, the wine bottle seemed to automatically refill itself. The old man then said, 'I am leaving the city in a few days. Would you like to come with me?' The official replied, 'I am determined to follow you, but how do I leave without telling the truth to my family?' The old man said, 'That is very easy.' The old man presented him a blue bamboo stick, and told him, 'After you return home, pretend to be sick and lay down. The day after tomorrow put the blue bamboo stick on the bed, and leave the house immediately without saying a word.' The official did as instructed. After he laid the bamboo stick on the bed, the bamboo stick turned into a dead body. His family thought he had died on the bed, and they had no choice but to bury his body.
In a trance, the official followed the old man to a distant place. First the old man placed the official inside a circle of tigers, who fiercely revealed their canine teeth, apparently planning to devour the man. But he had no fear in his heart, and the tigers did not harm him. The next day, the old man placed the official inside a house made of rocks. A giant rock was hanging from the ceiling with a grass rope. The giant rock could fall any second because many snakes were gnawing the grass rope. The official remained composed at all times. The old man smiled and said, 'Looks like you are real material for a deity.' Then the old man produced a plate of feces covered with maggots, and asked the official to eat them. The stench of the feces was more than he could bear. He just could not bring himself to eat the feces. The old man sighed deeply, and said, 'You cannot be a deity after all. The most you can be is a king in the human world and live for several hundred years.' It turned out that the maggot-covered feces was a magical potion that would bring immortality. The old man created the illusion of feces to test the official in his faith of the Dao.
Naturally the official was extremely disappointed for not passing the test, and he now had no choice but to return home. The old man passed him a bamboo stick to ride home on. The instant he got on the bamboo stick, he was already at the door to his house. Then the bamboo stick turned into a black dragon and flew away. When he entered the house, his family thought they saw a ghost and were terribly shocked. He told the story to his family, and went to dig up the grave. They found nothing but a bamboo stick in the coffin.
Although he felt he had left his family for only a day, it had been one year since he had left home. The official did not become a deity, but he had acquired some magic, which allowed him to help sentient beings and to walk 1,000 miles a day.
Source: No. 14 of Biographies of the Deities in A Complete Library of the Four Treasuries
Translated from:
http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2002/6/9/16395.html
