Lie Xian Zhuan — 平常生 (Pingchangsheng)

Lie Xian Zhuan — 平常生 (Pingchangsheng)

Paul Peng

Lie Xian Zhuan — 平常生 (Pingchangsheng)

列仙传·平常生

📖 Biographies of Immortals#21 of 70🌐 English & Chinese

原文 Original Chinese

谷城鄉平常生者,不知何所人也。數死復生,時人以為不然。後大水出,所害非一。而平輒在缺門山頭大呼言:「平常生在此!」雲復水雨五日必止。止則上山求祠之,但見平衣帔革帶。後數十年,復為華陰門卒。

Gu Chengxiang Pingchangsheng was a native of an unknown place. He died several times and then came back to life, but people at the time did not believe it. Later a great flood occurred, and many were harmed by it. Ping would then shout from the top of Quemen Mountain: "Pingchangsheng is here!" He said that after five days, the rain and floodwaters would cease. When they stopped, people went up the mountain to seek a shrine for him, but saw only Ping's robe, sash, and leather belt. Several decades later, he became again a gate guard in Huayin.

Like Laozi, who transcended ordinary existence and left behind only traces of his passing, Pingchangsheng embodied the Taoist ideal of the immortal who moves between life and death without attachment. His ability to command the floodwaters recalls the ancient Taoist reverence for water as the supreme force of nature — yielding yet irresistible.

The Yellow Emperor is said to have sought immortality through cultivation and inner alchemy; Pingchangsheng achieved a similar transcendence not through grand ritual, but through humble, repeated return — dying and living again as naturally as the seasons turn.

His final reappearance as a gate guard in Huayin echoes the story of Jie Zitui, another immortal who chose obscurity over recognition, vanishing into the mountains rather than accepting worldly reward.

平常生

原文 Original Chinese

谷城妙匹,譎達奇逸。出生入死,不恒其質。玄化忘形,貴賤奚恤。暫降塵汙,終騰雲室。

Gu Cheng Miao Pi was eccentric and extraordinary. He went from life to death, his nature never constant. His mystical transformation transcended form; he cared not for status or wealth. Temporarily descending into worldly filth, in the end he soared to the clouds.

This eulogy places Pingchangsheng among the great wandering immortals of the Lie Xian Zhuan. Compare the longevity cultivation of Peng Zu, who sustained his vitality through breath and diet over centuries, or the cosmic mastery of Rongcheng Gong, who absorbed the essence of heaven and earth — Pingchangsheng's power lay not in technique but in his indifference to the boundary between life and death itself.


Paul Peng — Zhengyi Taoist Priest, Longhu Mountain

About the Author

Paul Peng

Paul Peng is a Zhengyi Taoist priest from Longhu Mountain, Jiangxi — the ancestral home of the Celestial Masters' tradition. Ordained at 25 after a dream from the Celestial Master, he has practiced for 25 years under Master Zeng Guangliang. He is the curator of this store, which is officially authorized by Tianshi Fu. All items are consecrated at the temple by the resident priest team.

Read his full story →
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