Tales of Immortals on Mount Hua 西岳华山志

Written by Wang Chuyi, a Taoist Priest of the Jin Dynasty.

His courtesy name was Ziyuan, and his style was Lianfeng Yishi. He shared the same name and lived at the same time as Wang Chuyi of the Quanzhen School but had a different courtesy name and title.

The original work consists of one volume, included in the Biographies category of The Dongzhen Section in the Daozang.

Tales of Immortals on Mount Hua

At the beginning of the volume is a preface by Liu Dayong written in the Guimao year of the Dading reign of Emperor Shizong of the Jin Dynasty (1183), which states: His friend Wang Ziyuan had long aspired to cultivate the Dao. As soon as his children’s marriages were completed, he resolved to abandon his home and enter Huashan to practice. He therefore drew upon his old collection of Records of Huashan, consulted local illustrated gazetteers and other works concerning Huashan, and compiled this book by selecting, supplementing and expanding relevant materials.

The book describes the peaks, caves, forests and valleys of Huashan; rocky niches, ponds and wells; streams, grottoes, pools and springs; palaces, abbeys and temples; medicine furnaces and divine altars; forests and ancient cypresses; as well as places where gods and spirits descended and appeared, and deeds of immortals who cultivated and practiced here.

Abstracts of the Four Treasures of the Library comments that this book “mostly records immortal legends of Huashan; it is essentially supplementary text to the Daozang, not a formal local topography. Hence it is classified under the Taoist school.”