Chapter 8 Chapter 6 Taoist Liu Mi——The Yuanhe Palace Change Is a Poisoning Incident

The great Confucian Han Yu was obsessed with black and white women in his later years.In order to bring back his lost youth, he stirred powdered sulfur into porridge and rice, and fed it to chicken chicks, which was named Huo Lingku.After a thousand days, cook and eat the next day.This kind of elixir with aphrodisiac effect made the master's old age be full of spring.However, he died in the fire spiritual library in the end.The poet Yuan Zhen is in love with the autumn stone obtained by refining boy's urine with the juice of acacia; Du Mu's longevity method is either fasting or vegetarianism;Even Bai Juyi couldn't resist the temptation of the pill.In the early years, Lushan failed to refine medicine, so he followed the famous Mao Xianweng to refine medicine with mica powder.After retiring to Luoyang at the age of sixty-six, Bai Juyi still guarded by the alchemy tripod, refining his jade liquid golden elixir: "The year of Yueshui is coming to an end, and the way of burning gold has not been completed. The cinnabar will not die, and the white hair must grow." However, He finally failed to do so.

There are also many famous ministers who like stalactites.From Song Jing, the virtuous prime minister in the Kaiyuan period, to Li Shi later, the history is endless.According to legend, when Li Shi was prime minister, he didn't care about his colleague Li Cheng.Once, Li Cheng deliberately asked him if he had eaten stalactites?Li Shi said that he has eaten a lot recently and feels very powerful.Li Cheng joked, I don't have breast strength.He borrowed the homonym of "milk" from "ru" to express his dissatisfaction with Li Shi for not supporting him. The most bizarre ending of all kinds of drug users is the absurd autopsy.The body dies in the autopsy, but the soul may not be able to ascend to immortality.There is already a sentence in "Take food to seek gods, and most of them are mistaken by medicine".The "Xuanjielu" in the middle Tang Dynasty said more clearly, "Taoist priests obey it, since Xi and Xuan, there is no one, and there is no immortal."

We have mentioned how Li Baochen, a Hebei hero, was poisoned by the magician's nectar and died tragically on the altar.Li Baozhen, a famous general in the middle Tang Dynasty, was his enemy for half his life.But on the point of seeking immortality, the two are the same. In his later years, Li Baozhen hired a charlatan named Sun Jichang.Since then, his mansion has been smoked and smoked, and it has not been scattered for years.The neighborhood where he lived was shrouded in a miasma of smoke, and passers-by covered their noses and hurried away, not daring to stay.However, Li Baozhen happily said goodbye to his colleagues, subordinates, relatives and friends, and prepared to soar in the daytime.After taking Dan Erwan Pills one after another, the myth of becoming immortal and ascending to immortality did not come true.At this time, Li Baozhen's abdomen was as hard as iron, and he was unconscious for several days.The family was at a loss and had already begun to prepare for the funeral.Someone gave him an enema with pig fat and laxatives, and excreted the so-called elixir in his abdomen, which saved his life.Unexpectedly, Sun Jichang actually said to Li Baozhen: Seeing that the time to ascend gracefully is coming soon, how can my lord give up halfway?

Li Baozhen who had just recovered his breath immediately took another three thousand pills and died instantly. Like the famous official Pei Du, people with an open-minded attitude of "chicken, pig, fish and garlic, eat whenever they meet; when they are born, old, sick and die, they can do it when they come" can be said to be rare at that time-the white jade smoke from the alchemy furnace concealed the decadent atmosphere The world that gradually emerges. After the promulgation of the edict of seeking immortality and medicine, the literati and bureaucrats responded very coldly.They pride themselves on being Confucianists.While chasing longevity, it paradoxically satirizes this pursuit.Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen are obsessed with alchemy, but this does not prevent them from using pen and ink to criticize this grotesque trend.Li He, a poetic ghost, tried to make medicine while waving his brush, and wrote the poem "Liu Che's mausoleum is full of stagnant bones, Yingzheng's coffin costs abalone", and satirizes Li Chun who made alchemy by borrowing the stories of Emperor Qin and Han Wu who couldn't seek immortality. . Regardless of whether they are addicted to alchemy or not, most of the scholar-bureaucrats are unwilling to openly cater to the emperor's whimsy about longevity, and get a bad reputation in the history books for being evil.They are even more afraid that the emperor may have an accident after taking the medicine, and they will be involved in the vortex of harming the nine tribes. Only the notorious Li Daogu didn't care. At that time, he was in crisis.A few years ago, when Li Daogu served as the observation envoy of Eyue, he extorted a lot of money.The reputation of corruption and violence spread like the wind throughout the land of Jingchu and even to Chang'an.After hearing about his various evil deeds, the admonitors who heard the rumors planned to impeach him one after another.Li Daogu, who was facing a catastrophe, thought hard, and finally saw an excellent opportunity to get out of the crisis from the imperial edict to seek medicine.As long as he responds to this edict and wins the favor of the emperor, the big problem will be solved. Under the careful planning of Li Daogu, the Taoist priest Liu Bi came to Chang'an City like a fairy riding a yellow crane, bringing the hope of immortality to the emperor.Li Chun, who was overjoyed, was completely overwhelmed by Liu Miyushu's fairy demeanor.Li Daogu's image in his mind suddenly lit up.The white slips to impeach Li Daogu flew over one after another, but Li Chun casually put them aside, as if he didn't see them.In his opinion, the admonishers just couldn't understand Li Daogu's catering to his desire for longevity, so they made use of it. A pile of white slips was soon covered with thick dust around the imperial case... Li Chun's fanatical pursuit of longevity made Liu Mi feel great pressure.The Taoist who has always made a living by cheating knows that he is facing the most powerful person in the world.Once the deception is exposed, his life is in danger.The cunning Liu Bi came up with a plan to delay the attack.He seriously asked Li Chun to release himself to eastern Zhejiang as an official, and go to Tiantai Mountain to look for the legendary fairy grass. Tiantai Mountain, which is 18,000 feet high and has a surrounding area of ​​800 miles, is located in the "point of the bullfight, where it should be placed on the platform, and the light will assist Zichen", hence the name.Countless magnificent myths for thousands of years have given this beautiful mountain in eastern Zhejiang a magical light: it is said that the Yellow Emperor worshiped Jiu Yuanzi as his teacher on the top of the mountain; Ren Xu saved the dragon at the foot of the mountain; the famous Ge Hong practiced on the mountainside Dan; Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty consulted Xu Ze, a Taoist priest in the mountains.Looking at the history of Tiantai Mountain, we can see Wang Yuanzhi, who is known as the immortal Zongbo, Xu Xiangu, the daughter of Xu Zhicai, the servant of the Sui Dynasty, and Ye Fashan, who was favored by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty because of his skill in enslaving ghosts and gods.Under the green pine and beside the white rock, there are traces of their practice everywhere.Liu Chen and Ruan Zhao of the Han Dynasty once lost their way on the road of collecting herbs with many mountains and rivers, and spent a day in the cave and a year in the world with the fairies in the mountains.One day, they finally remembered their old home in the world of mortals and walked out of the mountains of Tiantai Mountain.Liu Chen and Ruan Zhao pushed away their firewood doors, but found that the scenery remained the same, but nothing happened.His descendants of the seventh generation are also gray-haired.Only this old seventh-generation grandson still vaguely remembers it, so it is said that a long, long time ago, two ancestors never returned... Liu Chen and Ruan Zhao, who were homeless, had to turn around and leave, returning to Tiantai Mountain , to continue their fairy career.Two hundred years later, in the eighth year of Taikang in the Western Jin Dynasty, someone once met these two people on a certain path in Tiantai Mountain. Therefore, Sima Chengzhen, a descendant of the Maoshan School who received courtesy from several generations of emperors in the Tang Dynasty, when he wrote "Tiandi Gongfu Tu", listed Tiantai Mountain, which is separated from the divine light, as the sixth of the top ten caves, "the cave of Yuping in the upper Qing Dynasty". .If he is sent to Taizhou, thousands of miles away from Chang'an, Liu Mi can enjoy his life with the topic of finding medicine. In this way, the Taoist left Chang'an City again, and came to Tiantai Mountain, where the grass is fragrant and the stone is cold. Wielding a long whip, he drove the officials and people of Taizhou into high mountains and deep valleys to find the imaginary fairy grass.Tiantai Mountain, where immortals used to fly around, is now crowded with resentful herbal pickers.In a blink of an eye, more than a year has passed.Liu Bi got nothing.The lie is about to be exposed.The terrified Taoist felt he had nowhere to go and fled into the mountains in embarrassment.After Liu Chen and Ruan Zhao returned, "Bishan, bright moon and moss closed", there was no trace of the immortal.Traveling through mountains and rivers in a radius of 800 miles, there is no place for Liu Bi to live. When the East Zhejiang Observer caught the desperate Liu Mi in the depths of the valley, the 14th year of Yuanhe was still the 14th year of Yuanhe. Liu Bi, who was escorted back to Chang'an, thought that his career as a fairy had come to an end.Things took an unexpected turn.Li Daogu was worried that Liu Mi's deception would be exposed and he would suffer himself, so he agitated his tongue in front of the emperor and tried his best to excuse him.Bewitched by Li Daogu, Li Chun believed that the farce in Tiantai Mountain was just a small misunderstanding.Not only did he not punish Liu Mi, but he also left the Taoist priest who had been exposed for deception in Xingtang Temple to refine the medicine of immortality for him. The tragic paranoia finally turns the story from a farce to a tragedy. In my eyes, Liu Bi is a ghostly figure, haunting Li Chun lingeringly.For that period of history, he was not only an introduction or an inducement, but a symbol of the end of a dynasty, just like those owls that inhabited the pine and osmanthus trees inside and outside Chang'an City. Liu Bi lit the flame under the bronze cauldron.Now he can only sit by the copper cauldron of Xingtang Temple, which has been angry all the year round, working hard, and he no longer dares to look for fairy grasses that do not exist in fairy mountains overseas.In Chang'an, he is not lonely either.In the imperial capital, there are bluffers and swindlers everywhere.The monk Datong went in and out of the palace, spreading his supernatural powers of subduing tigers and dragons everywhere.Tian Zuoyuan boasted everywhere that he could turn rubble into gold, and cheated Li Chun of a piece of black yarn from the magistrate of Guo County. There is also a Taoist priest who claims to be more than three hundred years old and has a face of only twenty.For a time, there was an endless stream of people who came to ask for advice.One day, several dignitaries happened to come to visit.While exchanging greetings, the family members reported inside that the Taoist's son had just come from the countryside.The Taoist priest was displeased and shouted away his family members.Seeing this situation, everyone in the room expressed their opinion, why not?After hesitating for a moment, the Taoist summoned his son to meet the guests.A senile man with beard and hair like snow staggered into the hall.The Taoist said very sorry to everyone that his son refused to take the elixir, and he was rotten before he was a hundred years old.The dignitaries turned pale with fright, and couldn't help but worship the Taoist priest and regard him as a god in the world.Later, the person with good deeds inquired privately with relatives and acquaintances of the Taoist priest, only to learn a hilarious secret: the old man turned out to be the father of the Taoist priest. With a smile, it conceals how much absurdity the world has. The elixir refined by "Ding chasing the four seasons and the center, and the medicine sending the three yuan and eight trigrams", is just a pinch of fish belly white powder.Liu Mi put it in a porcelain bowl and respectfully offered it to Li Chun's imperial table.Although Tang Gaozong (Li Zhi) and Tang Xuanzong were keen on alchemy, they were very rational once the alchemy was made, and neither took it rashly.But Li Chun couldn't resist the temptation of the pill.At this time, Pei Lin, a housekeeper, stood up and said that according to the ancient practice, the monarch's medicines should be tasted first by the ministers, and they can only be taken if they are sure that there is no problem.Liu Mi, who donated the medicine, should take it for a year first to observe the efficacy of the medicine.But the anxious Li Chun was unwilling to wait even a year.The talkative Pei Lin was soon dethroned as Jiangling Ling—Chang'an emperor Li Chun died like Hebei hero Li Baochen. Twelve days later, Jingzhao Mansion received an order to execute Liu Mi. Several seasoned wardens gathered together to discuss how to carry out this order.In Chang'an, Liu Bi was very famous.They are a little worried.Prison guards know a lot of stories about Taoists casting spells to hide from their bodies. According to legend, Tang Xuanzong once asked Luo Siyuan for advice on the method of invisibility.But Taoists always have reservations.When practicing with Luo Siyuan, after Tang Xuanzong disappeared, no one knew where he was.But when the emperor practiced alone, he either showed a part of his clothes, or couldn't hide the corners of the Futou, and the palace people could always find him.Tang Xuanzong begged in every possible way, but Luo Siyuan did not give him the invisibility technique in the end.The impatient emperor was furious, and ordered Gao Lishi to wrap Luo Siyuan in an oilcloth, crush him alive and bury him in the soil.Ten days later, an eunuch returning to Beijing from Western Shu told Tang Xuanzong that he had met Luo Siyuan on the Shu Road.The Taoist priest on the donkey's back bowed far away, and told him with a smile: The emperor's joke is too cruel. The story of Mao Andao in Lushan Mountain has also been heard by many jailers.Once, two disciples went home to visit relatives.Before going down the mountain, he repeatedly told him not to show off his spells; otherwise, the spells would not work.After the two disciples went down the mountain, they heard that Han Huang, the governor of Zhenhai, always hated magicians, so they wanted to show off.If Han Huang can be subdued by the technique of hiding, the two of them will be famous all over the world in an instant.When they arrived at Zhenhai Jiedu Envoy Yamen, the two of them did not kneel down to salute, but went straight up the steps arrogantly.Han Huang was furious and ordered the officials to tie up the two daring warlocks.When they were about to hide and escape, they found that the spells really didn't work.Seeing that the situation was not good, the two had no choice but to drag Master into it.Han Huang, who was determined to kill all the warlocks, promised on the spot that as long as they confessed their master's name and address, they would be spared death.Before the two of them spoke, the officials guarding the gate had already reported to the court, and Mao Andao went to the gate to ask for an audience.Han Huang immediately ordered him to be called into Yamen.After taking his seat, Mao Andao said that he wanted to meet the culprit.Han Huang waved his hand and asked someone to take it.At this time, a group of tooth soldiers held swords and sticks and surrounded them.Mao Andao turned a blind eye and calmly asked Han Huang for a glass of water.Han Huang didn't give it to him.Mao Andao didn't care, picked up the stone inkstone on the desk, took a sip of ink, and sprayed it on the two disciples.In the blink of an eye, they turned into two black mice, running around in front of the court.Before Han Huang came back to his senses, Mao Andao had turned into a goshawk, grabbed a black mouse with one claw, soared into the sky, and disappeared into the depths of the white clouds in an instant. If Liu Qin escaped at the last moment like the legendary Luo Siyuan and Mao Andao, things would be troublesome.After some discussion, the jailers of Jingzhao Mansion secretly prepared black dog dung and black-bone chicken blood to break the sorcery. The cell hall was empty and gloomy, with only a few shattered lamps like beans, like will-o'-the-wisps.With the dim light, Liu Mi, who had just been carried in, saw a pile of tattered and rag-like objects in a dark corner.Before he could see what it was, the wolf-like jailers had roughly ripped off Liu Bi's clothes, and pinned him down on the ground, his face was stinging from the rough ground.Suddenly, he saw a blood-stained face facing him, ferocious and horrifying, and the whites of his eyes were already dimmed.Liu Mi recognized that it was the monk Datong.The tattered rags lying on the ground were his dead body. Liu Mi struggled in panic, trying to say something.But his mouth was tightly shut, and he could only make some whimpers of unknown meaning. The two executioners exchanged glances and raised their sticks knowingly... nothing happened.The muffled sound of the wooden stick hitting the flesh made people tremble.Liu Bi, whose veins were exposed, struggled in pain.The moxibustion scars left by the torture a few days ago are so eye-catching, like wriggling snakes, twisted to the extreme. People didn't hear the wailing and heavy breathing.Streams of dark red blood flowed down from the top of Liu Bi's head, swam across his neck, meandered down along the ridge, and soon intertwined with the snake-shaped moxibustion scars, forming a poignant picture. It seemed that the wardens were overthinking.Nothing happened.The executioner quickly dragged the cold corpse out of the corner gate—this was the final ending of the legendary Taoist Liu Mi, without any legends. From Li Er who sees the dragon but never sees the end, to Li Guang who shoots a tiger into a rock, Li Hao who talks to a tiger, and Li Hu who kills a leopard in Beishan, to "Song of Peach and Plum" and the old man with a white horse and a mane on Yangjiao Mountain, The dynasty has never lacked its own mythology.The Taoists used one myth after another to provide the theoretical basis for the rise of the Tang Dynasty, "the divine right of kings". At that time, Chang'an was still Daxing City in the Sui Dynasty, and Tang Gaozu Li Yuan was only Li Yuan, the Duke of Tang in the Sui Dynasty.A dynasty for himself and his descendants was beyond his imagination.The Maoshan Taoist priests in the south and the Louguan Taoist priests in the north both acted as the most enthusiastic writers and disseminators of the Li family myths with their genius foresight and courage, encouraging and cheering for the establishment of a new dynasty. Don't think that Taoist priests only rely on prophecy for political speculation.In the story of Li Yuan and the heroes of the world vying for thousands of miles of land, Taoist priests are everywhere.On the eve of the decisive battle against Huoyi, an old Taoist in white clothes in the Huotai Mountains pointed out the route for the Tang army to advance; when Princess Pingyang raised troops in Guanzhong, the Taoist Qihui who first proposed that "the way of heaven will be changed" sent a carload of food to the famous Detachment of Women. ; Qihui also personally led more than 80 Taoist priests to Pujin Pass, and welcomed the Tang army from Hedong into the pass... In Taoist Qihui, we see a profound insight into the situation and trend of the world.With such an ability, they can accurately predict the future amidst the great turmoil of dynastic changes.This mysterious brilliance has faded from the former Taoist Wei Zheng, who cannot foresee the future like Qi Hui.But Wei Zheng can firmly grasp the present.In New Dynasty he plays the watchman of moral principles with exaggerated seriousness. In my imagination, the Taiji Palace in the Zhenguan Dynasty was like a room full of mirrors.Wei Zheng is an ancient mirror engraved with simple and simple patterns, shining with a cold light.Now, the room full of mirrors is empty.When Tang Taizong heard that Wei Zheng died of illness, he said sadly: "Take copper as a mirror, and you can straighten clothes; take ancient times as a mirror, you can know the ups and downs; Guard yourself against your own mistakes. Now that Wei Zheng is gone, a mirror is dead." If Wei Zheng were a copper mirror, the mirror would not have the mysterious light phantom and the profound insight into the essence of the world.He is just an ordinary and clear copper mirror, which truly presents the mirror image to the emperor in front of the mirror. Another hundred years later, Li Mi, the immortal prime minister in the court, assisted the three mediocre emperors of Tang Suzong (Li Heng), Tang Daizong (Li Yu) and Tang Dezong (Li Shi), continuing the unique relationship between Taoism and the dynasty.By this time, the so-called moral principles had been abandoned for many years.The wisdom given to Li Mi by Taoism can only help him cope with difficult times. By the time Liu Bi appeared on the stage, the Taoist priest had already been reduced to a swindling clown in Chang'an.Wisdom is replaced by vanity, and greed dominates the soul——the role played by the ascetic is changing from masculine to feminine, from positive to negative, which is surprising.At this time when "the evil spirit is about to faint the Tang Sheji", the Taoist priests have lost the ability of their predecessors to foresee the future, and only know how to instigate the emperors to stay by the side of the alchemy furnace that is never extinguished all day long.Corresponding to this transformation is the exhaustion of the dynasty's vitality. The heroism among the desert, long river, and green mountains and green waters gradually subsided after the family entered Chang'an.If there is any wreckage left of those family myths about dragons and tigers, it is the dragon, lead, tiger and mercury in the alchemy.Beginning with Tang Taizong, Tang Gaozong, Wu Zetian, Tang Xuanzong... There have been people in the emperor's family from generation to generation hovering beside the alchemy furnace, refining in vain the panacea that soared in the daytime.Without thousand-year-old cranes, without Jiuchongyun, who can become a feather in the daytime and have the flying ability to go up to the poor and fall to the underworld? No one can look back at Chang'an from a certain angle in the Nine Heavens, so as to understand the mysteries of the joys and sorrows, the success or failure of success or failure. The jade leak is far away, coming from the gloomy Daming Palace, recording the moments after the end of life.The emperor Li Chun and the Taoist Liu Mi are like two entangled snakes, swimming together towards the deepest and darkest hell...Only the treasure box sealed with purple mud and jade locks still reveals the ghost of five colors in the depths of the curtain. Light. Elegant metaphors like dragons and tigers are replaced by bleak snakes.The mythical artistic conception disappeared without a trace, the magic degenerated into absurdity, and the bronze cauldron for smelting elixir is still placed in the corner of Xingtang Temple.The charcoal fire at the bottom of the cauldron was temporarily extinguished, and the bronze still had a scorching temperature. Soon, Li Chun's descendants will rekindle it.