Li Bai wanted to study the Dao under him?
Jiang She found it rather intriguing. He carefully studied the young man before him and couldn't help thinking of how Li Bai's life would rise and fall over the decades to come. The thought amused him, but also stirred his pity.
"If you study immortality and seek the Dao, does that mean you won't become an official later?"
Li Bai remained in a disciple's bow, observing the proper etiquette for meeting a master.
With a long sword on his back, he stood tall and unrestrained, handsome and extraordinary. His tone was humble, yet a proud, defiant spirit shone through. He spoke as though high officials and nobles meant nothing to him.
His spirits high, he declared:
"If I can become an immortal's disciple and learn the arts of cultivation, then what would being an official amount to, let alone the lords of the human realm?"
Several hundred zhang away, the Old Deer Mountain God had taken the form of a stooped old man and sat down to talk with another Earth Deity.
That Earth Deity was a Spirit Demon from the mountain who had gained spiritual form. His origins were lowly, and he had committed evils in his muddled, ignorant days. Unlike the Old Deer Mountain God, who had been born a spirit deer, he hadn't dared approach earlier.
"Did you see him? One stick of incense extended a mountain god's life by ten years. What level of cultivation does that take?"
"I saw him."
The Old Deer Mountain God still felt shaken.
Remembering what had just happened, he furrowed his brows, stroked his long beard, and said:
"I still don't know... How could we possibly see through a figure like that? He looked no different from an ordinary man, save for his lofty bearing. If he hadn't lit that stick of incense himself, I wouldn't have known someone like him had traveled to Lumen Mountain. I wouldn't even have known how to seek an audience."
After a pause,
the Old Deer Mountain God added,
"It was as though... he blended in with the light and dust."
The moment he said this, all around them fell silent.
The Earth Deity listened, rapt with longing. He leaned forward, his beastly body inching closer until the black fur on his cheek nearly poked the Old Deer Mountain God's nose.
"You've struck gold this time. You met a perfected master and gained ten years of heavenly life. That incense even had purple qi in it... By the way, what was that gentleman like? Was he easy to talk to?"
The Old Deer Mountain God stroked his white beard. With ten more years of life, he could take his time figuring out how to extend it further, and he was in a splendid mood.
He smiled.
"We only exchanged a few words. He seemed to have no taste for gold, silver, or other worldly things, and he could talk to ordinary folk just fine. He had a touch of returning to simplicity."
The Earth Deity savored the phrases "returning to simplicity" and "blending in with the light and dust."
They seemed to brim with immortal air. Though he hadn't met the man, he could already picture his calm, unassuming composure.
It made him yearn to meet him.
"If only I could ask an immortal to show me the way. What a pity I lack the fate for it."
"A pity indeed. A figure like that embodies the Dao in every gesture. That stick of pure incense wasn't something you could obtain just by asking for it. You've already been blessed with this chance encounter. That's a stroke of fortune."
The Earth Deity sighed deeply.
"I mustn't ask for more! I mustn't ask for more!"
As he spoke, the black fur on his cheeks drooped, and he lamented his own misfortune.
The Old Deer Mountain God stroked his beard, feeling regret as well. When he took human form, his beard and hair were all white, without a single black strand. That made it impossible for mortals to guess his age. With his manner and expression, he was the very image of an old immortal.
But now regret showed on his face.
He sighed. "That's how it is."
The Earth Deity was born a Spirit Demon and was especially perceptive about people's hearts. He had also known the Old Deer Mountain God for a long time, and they were very familiar with each other. One listen told him there was more to the story.
He hurriedly pressed:
"Did you ask him for something else, too?"
The Old Deer Mountain God was silent for a long time.
At last, he spoke.
"That young fellow from the Lu Family at the foot of the mountain seems to have been infected by some filthy thing... I overstepped and asked that gentleman to take a look. I'd meant to offer him the Ginseng King I'd been keeping hidden, but he wouldn't take it. He only said he'd be passing by anyway."
"And he agreed just like that."
The Earth Deity was astonished.
"Have you gone mad?!"
"You had the chance to make such a brazen request, and you used it for the Lu Family? That incense only extended your life by ten years. Won't you still die when those ten years are up? Why didn't you ask him for something for yourself?"
The Old Deer Mountain God felt some regret, too.
He thought of the debt of gratitude from several hundred years ago. Back then, he had only just gained intelligence when a hunter shot him in the leg and tried to haul him to the market to sell. Scholar Lu bought him. When the man saw him kneel and beg for mercy in human speech, he realized in shock that this was a spirit deer.
He applied medicine to the wound, released the deer into the mountains, and visited him from time to time.
The Old Deer Mountain God had gained spiritual form by chance back then. He knew nothing of the path ahead and understood no Daoist arts. Scholar Lu borrowed books and recited hundreds of Daoist scriptures. Only then did the deer get a chance to glimpse the Dao.
Ten years of reciting the Dao had forged a deep bond between them.
The Old Deer Mountain God had received his kindness and promised to watch over his descendants.
But eight hundred years had passed.
The times had changed. The land had gone from Han Land to Tang Land.
Scholar Lu had long since turned to dry bones in his grave. The Lu Family had risen and fallen, and most of the estate they had built up back then had been sold off.
His descendants didn't even know that Lumen Mountain had once had a mountain god who drove off evil spirits and disasters for the Lu Family, watching over them from generation to generation.
He had watched them be born, wailing, then watched them marry and have children. He had seen funeral rites, white mourning money tossed as people sang dirges, the new burying the old.
Eight hundred years, thirty-two generations of descendants.
He had watched over them enough, really.
After all, he had already learned firsthand how hard it was to seek the Dao.
He had witnessed the terror of the Dao's decline and the helplessness of the Five Decays of Heaven and Man. He had even seen companions exhaust their years and die in meditation.
By a twist of fate, he had been granted this opportunity.
He should have used it to seek the Dao.
The Old Deer Mountain God sighed deeply.
"This is the last time I'll watch over his descendants."
The Mountain Imp sat beside him in silence. He had been born a Spirit Demon in the mountains and had done evil in his ignorant early days. Later, people feared him and made offerings to him. The local county magistrate built a small shrine, and he received a tiny vein of earth energy and was granted the title of Earth Deity. He was nothing compared to the Lumen Mountain Deity.
His life span was short, at most two or three hundred years.
Before a master like that, one had to be extremely cautious even when making a single request. He ought to be content; there was no way he could ask again and again.
He had only one chance to seek the Dao, yet the Old Deer Mountain God had used it to ask a favor for the Lu Family.
The Mountain Imp Earth Deity was speechless, and felt a measure of admiration.
The leaves rustled in the wind. The two mountain gods and Earth Deities sat facing each other across a stone table, both silent. All they could hear was the wind stirring the leaves and the stream murmuring over its bed.
The Old Deer Mountain God changed the subject and brought up something else.
He deliberately set aside the heavy mood. With a mischievous smile, he picked out an amusing story to tell.
"When I appeared to thank that gentleman, I didn't know anyone else was nearby. I'm afraid I must have startled that mortal."
"Oh?"
"Actually, you and I should know who it was. In recent years, plenty of people have come seeking immortality and the Dao. We've seen them a few times."
"Someone who came to seek the Dao?"
"Exactly." The Old Deer Mountain God smiled. "It's so hard for mortals to seek immortality. They come to Lumen Mountain to look for immortals, never realizing there's a true immortal right beside them. It's rather amusing."
"He must know now," the Mountain Imp Earth Deity said.
"That mortal has quite a reputation for his talent in the world," the Old Deer Mountain God said. Living in the mountain and protecting the nearby villages, he had heard the man's name. "I've heard his poems are free and unworldly, as if written by an immortal banished from heaven."
"Is that so? What poem did he write?"
The Old Deer Mountain God nodded and recited one to his friend.
"Shu is rich in immortal mountains, yet none can match Emei's distant heights. I journeyed through them, climbed and surveyed—how could I take in every wonder? The azure vault opened against the sky... If I should meet the Goat-Riding Immortal, I'd clasp his hand and soar beneath the sun."
The Earth Deity understood the poem's meaning.
Every line spoke of carefree ease, every word of a desire to seek immortality.
The Earth Deity laughed.
"What a fine seeker of immortality."
The Old Deer Mountain God joined in the childlike amusement and speculated, "I wonder if that mortal will bow down and ask to become an immortal when he learns who that gentleman is."
The Mountain Imp Earth Deity said, "Of course he will."
"With such a great stroke of fortune, how could he let it slip by?"
The Earth Deity felt envious, too. He stroked his beard in thought and murmured, "That gentleman is so free-spirited. I wonder if he'd take this poet as his disciple."
The Old Deer Mountain God gazed at the fresh mountains after the rain and uttered a single word.
"Hard."
Next update tonight.
"Climbing Mount Emei," which Li Bai probably wrote when he was around twenty. The full poem:
Shu is rich in immortal mountains, yet none can match Emei's distant heights. I journeyed through them, climbed and surveyed—how could I take in every wonder? The azure vault opens against the sky; brilliant colors seem painted across it. Light as air, I admire the purple clouds and truly gain the art preserved in a brocade pouch. Among the clouds, I play a jade flute; upon the rocks, I pluck a precious zither. All my life, I have cherished a modest wish: from this day on, worldly delights are over. My face seems already veiled in the glow of clouds; suddenly, the burdens of the mortal world fall away. If I should meet the Goat-Riding Immortal, I'd clasp his hand and soar beneath the sun.
Baidu Baike's plain-language translation:
Shu has many immortal mountains, but none can rival the distant, lofty Emei. I tried climbing and touring this mountain, yet how could I take in all its wondrous and extraordinary sights? Its blue-green peaks stretch across the horizon, their colors vivid as if painted. Floating lightly to the summit to admire the purple clouds, it is just as if I have truly obtained the art of cultivating into an immortal. I play a jade flute among the clouds and strum a precious zither on the rocks. I have always cherished a desire to cultivate and seek immortality; from now on, I will put an end to worldly pleasures. My face seems already filled with the glow of clouds, and the entanglements of the mortal world suddenly vanish. If I should encounter the immortal Goat-Riding Immortal, I would join hands with him and soar beneath the sun.
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