Biographies of Divine Encounters with Immortals 神仙感遇传

Titled "Compiled by Du Guangting, the Guangcheng Master".

It is recorded as a ten-volume work in the Bibliography of the History of the Song Dynasty, while only five volumes of the existing version in the The Daozang have survived, and it is included in the Biographical Category of the The Dongxuan Section.

Biographies of Divine Encounters with Immortals

There is also an abridged two-volume version excerpted in the Seven Bamboo Slips of the Cloudy Satchel, which can serve as a reference for collation. This book compiles stories of mortal encounters with immortals throughout ancient and contemporary times, with a total of seventy-five existing tales, each titled after the name of the mortal who met the immortal.

The stories recorded are all Taoist supernatural legends, yet they are based on existing sources. The tale The Bearded Stranger is adapted from The Legend of the Bearded Stranger, a chuanqi novel written by Du Guangting himself. It narrates the story of the Three Heroes of the Mortal World with vivid plots, distinct character portrayals and concise writing, and has been widely circulated in later generations. The literary expression and grace of the other tales are also quite remarkable, embodying the profound cultural connotation of The Dao in Taoist culture.