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Source: "Taoism, the road to Immortality", by John Blofield, Shambala Publications, Boston, 2000


The Pine Kernel Youth #8

        The Pine Kernel Youth was known to inhabit a grove of pines that

crowned a rock too steep for anyone to be able to climb up and pay

him reverence; but often and often he was seen standing negligently

on the very brink of that perpendicular slope smiling down at the

pilgrims toiling past its foot. Some held him to be a faery, the genie

of a hidden cave or spring; others declared they knew him to be

        servant to an Immortal who sat rapt in meditation, never appearing

in public lest visitors intrude upon his solitude. But as the years

passed by and former pilgrims to the temple lying further into the

mountains came again bringing marriageable sons and daughters who

had grown up in the meanwhile, it began to be whispered that the

Pine Kernel Youth was himself an immortal of great age, for his

appearance had never changed. Seen from a distance, he still looked

about 14; he had glossy black hair only partly concealed by a care-

lessly tied headcloth, a smooth white skin, cheeks touched with the

colour of ripe persimmons and a lithe figure clad in coarse blue

cotton. Whenever he appeared, people shouted friendly greetings,

whereat he would smile delightedly and nod his head, but he was

never heard to speak.

        The district magistrate, becoming curious about this youth, more

than once sent runners to question him, but none could find a means

of access to the pine-crowned spur; so, on the nineteenth day of the

ninth moon, he had himself arrayed in formal attire and carried in a

chair to the temple, as though to pay a birthday visit to the Goddess.

Ordering the chairmen to stop below the spur as though to rest, he

stepped down from his palanquin and stood gazing respectfully

towards the top of the cliff. There being no response, he lighted nine

sticks of incense, placed them in a rock crevice, made three respectful

bows and went forward towards the temple to complete his pilgrim-

age. The courtyard was thronged with worshippers, who hastily made

way for their magistrate to perform his devotions in comfort. When

he had done, the abbot hurried forward and begged His Honour to

accept 'a poor collation of cold spring-water and coarse vegetables'

in the privacy of a small pavilion reserved for distinguished guests.

The 'poor collation' turned out to be a veritable feast of mountain

delicacies, as the worthy magistrate had happily anticipated when

accepting the invitation.

        Taking a few cups of heated wine 'against the autumn chill', he

inquired whether there was any means of coming face to face with

the Pine Kernel Youth.

        'It is strange that Your Honour should ask,' replied the abbot,

'for he has sent to say that he is expecting you to honour his humble

abode and receive his thanks for burning incense to him while attired

in full official regalia. He was deeply touched by Your Honour's

condescension. Besides, it would hardly be fair not to give him a

        chance to reciprocate such a notable courtesy. On your way back,

dismount at the turn where the rivulet is carried through a pipe under

the pilgrim path. Send your bearers forward round the bend and,

choosing a moment when you are unobserved, enter the passage

between the dripping rocks and follow the track that winds round

and upwards from there. As it starts by taking you in the opposite

direction, no one has ever thought of seeking the Pine Kernel Youth

by that route, especially as the gap between the rocks is, ahem, not

always there!'

        Taking his leave a full hour before the general descent of pilgrims

began, the magistrate followed these directions and was amazed to

discover that the hidden track led through a magnificent cave beyond

which lay a most extraordinary landscape. In the foreground were the

expected gold and crimson tints of autumn; to the south lay a hilly

region where, for an inexplicable reason, the brilliant greens of sum-

mer lingered; to the east, the willow trees were actually clad in the

green haze that betokens spring leaves just on the point of burgeon-

ing; and, strangest of all, to the north lay a range of hills covered

with winter snow! As he stood lost in wonder and half afraid he had

drunk too many cups of heated wine, the Pine Kernel Youth suddenly

appeared. To do honour to the occasion, he was now attired in a

ritual hat and robe of elaborately patterned brocade, with a green

dragon spewing forth a stream of silvery white on one side and a

white tiger emitting a stream of molten cinnabar on the other; these

shimmering streams poured into a golden tripod depicted on the

skirts of the robe, from whence arose a cloud of rainbow-tinted mist.

Even an emperor might have been proud of a garment so exquisite

and rare.

        As the magistrate made to prostrate himself, the youth threw out

his arms to restrain him and together they entered a lacquered pav-

ilion with octagonal windows latticed with strips of painted wood

inset with squares of translucent mother-of-pearl.

        'Well,' remarked the youth in enchanting accents, 'I hardly ex-

pected the pleasure of entertaining Your Honour in my humble

abode, but then who could have imagined that a Confucian scholar

clad in his official regalia would condescend to offer incense to a

humble mountain man ? Had it not been for the pilgrims, I should

have leapt down to return your gracious bows. Since you have taken

the trouble to visit my insignificant dwelling, the least I can do is to

        ask what is your pleasure and see if my poor arts will enable me to

fulfil whatever wish lies nearest your heart. We mountain men have

no great talent in performing unusual feats, but if you would care for

some trifle as a memento of our meeting, such as a sweet little concu-

bine, an early promotion, a tablet of flawless jade for your official

cap, or an inexhaustible gourd of the best Persian wine, I am sure I

could manage that much.'

        'Your Immortality is exceedingly generous,' replied the magistrate,

blushing at the unerring accuracy with which the youth, judging

from the order in which he had mentioned these prospective gifts,

had read his mind. 'But if you will excuse my presumption, there is

a gift I should cherish even more than any of the delectable choices

you have offered, namely - '

        'No, no!' cried the youth in accents of distress. 'The secret of per-

petual youth is not within my power to bestow. That is to say, it

cannot be decorously imparted to Your Honour, unless you are

prepared to resign your office and enrol among the pupils of - er -

my Master.'

        To this the magistrate could not with propriety agree as, coming

from a family steeped for generations in the perfume of books, he was

in duty bound to remain in the imperial service. The spirits of his

ancestors would never brook his becoming a wandering Taoist. Yet

such was his eloquence that he prevailed upon the kind-hearted

youth to impart the secret he desired, though with such reluctance

that it was pitiful to witness his discomfort. The formula proved to

be so simple that the winning of immortality unexpectedly appeared

to be almost a trifling affair. All that was needed was to imbibe on

certain days of the lunar calender a decoction of herbs into which

had been stirred a spoonful of powdered cinnabar and a powder to

be made from pulverised lumps of the stalactite and stalagmite that

abounded in the cave through which he must return. Seven times

seven doses taken over a period of seven months would rejuvenate

the elderly, ensure perpetual youth and guarantee immense longevity,

provided that the adept's heart were set single-mindedly upon the

Way.

        'That I can promise,' cried His Honour, excited to the point of

rashness. Before returning to where the chairmen, now deeply con-

cerned over his long absence, were on the point of asking some pil-

grims to hurry to the city and report His Honour's disappearance, so

that someone would come to instruct them what next to do, the

magistrate broke off two lumps of the precious material he came

upon in the cave and concealed them in his sleeve. The processes of

pulverisation and infusion were entrusted to his Third Lady, a pretty

child recently acquired from poverty-stricken parents of reasonably

good family who had been eager to secure for her a comfortable

future. Supposing that he was suffering from constipation or some

other complaint too embarrassing to relate, she did not press him to

reveal the reason for his meticulous instructions, but set about follow-

ing them to the letter.

        For several months, all went well, with His Honour feeling younger

and stronger with every passing day. Who knows what thoughts

passed through his mind of the brilliant career lying before a capable

official to whom centuries would be less than years to other men ? Or

did he perhaps dally with the thought of adding considerably to his

modest household of three ladies ? All that can be known for certain

is that something presently diverted his heart from the Way; for the

first dose taken in the fifth of the seven months produced sweating

followed by nausea. The next dose caused his sudden collapse and,

within a day, his twin souls had parted from his body!

        The Third Lady being suspected by the senior wives of having

poisoned her husband, a thorough investigation was ordered, from

which it emerged that the departed had started taking doses of a

curious medicine since very soon after a brief but mysterious disap-

pearance while on his way back from the temple on the birthday of

the Goddess. Though the chairmen attested that one of them, fearing

to let His Honour stay alone by the wayside, had turned back to

keep watch over him and seen him vanish into a cleft between two

dripping rocks, a search revealed that there was no way of passing

through the cleft nor any other means of leaving the path in the

vicinity of the mountain stream. For lack of evidence, the case

against the Third Lady was dropped, though not without such

damage to her reputation as to cause her to take to a Buddhist nun-

nery and seek to expiate by her austerities whatever unknown crimes

had brought her dear husband to an untimely end.

        The story breaks off with the terse comment: 'Easy to say; hard

to do.'