Comprehensive Mirror of Immortals 历世真仙体道通鉴

Abbreviated as Mirror of the Immortals.

Compiled by Zhao Daoyi, a Taoist priest of the Sacred Longevity Palace of Floating Cloud Mountain during the Yuan Dynasty.

The entire book consists of fifty-three volumes in the main compilation, five volumes in the supplement, and six volumes in the postscript, with a total of sixty-four volumes. It is included in the Biographical Category of The Dongzhen Section within The Daozang.

Comprehensive Mirror of Immortals

There is a preface by the author at the beginning, which states: Confucianism has Zizhi Tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), and Buddhism has Shishi Tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror of Buddhism), "only our Daoist school lacks such a work". Struck by this, the author collected and recorded the deeds of immortals and true practitioners who attained the Dao from ancient to modern times, and compiled this book to fill the gap for Daoism. The fifty-three volumes of the main compilation record a total of 745 immortals and true practitioners who attained the Dao, spanning from the Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan down to the end of the Northern Song Dynasty. Detailed accounts are given to those for whom there is abundant data in historical records and Taoist scriptures, such as the Yellow Emperor, Yin Xi, Zhang Ling, Ge Xuan, Tao Hongjing, Lü Dongbin, Chen Tuan, and Lin Lingsu. The five supplementary volumes include thirty-four Taoist figures from the Southern Song, Jin and Yuan dynasties, with a focus on the biographies of Wang Chongyang, the founder of The Quanzhen Dao, and his seven major disciples. The six postscript volumes mainly recount the deeds of female immortals who attained the Dao throughout the dynasties, recording a total of 120 female immortals.

It is claimed that the deeds of the immortals and true practitioners recorded in this book were all collected from various books, verified against classics and histories, and revised with reference to immortal biographies. Though it inevitably contains hearsay and legendary accounts, most of the content is well-documented and not fabricated, thus serving as a valuable reference for researchers of Taoist history.