Randeng Daoren

Randeng Daoren was a senior figure of the Chan Sect, high in seniority, who managed the affairs of the school under Yuanshi Tianzun and was addressed as elder-uncle by its disciples; he did not lightly involve himself in human quarrels.

Before the Investiture war, Jiang Ziya was sent down to serve Zhou, and Yuanshi sent Randeng with the army to help direct the Chan disciples against Jie attacks; he had a tent in the Western Qi camp.

The Jie disciples in the Shang camp set out the Ten Absolutes Formations one after another — Heaven Absolute, Earth Fierce, Wind Howl, Cold Ice and the rest, each of them deadly. Ordinary cultivators could not come near them, and the Western Qi army could neither advance nor retreat.

Randeng was given charge of breaking them. He surveyed the layout and the working of each of the Ten Absolutes in turn, assigned Chan disciples to enter formation by formation, each using what he was best at, and pressed the attacks in waves so that the formations never had a moment to recover.

In breaking the Heaven Absolute Formation, Randeng directed the fight from before it in person, sending his disciples in with their treasures. After several hard passages the fire inside was put down, and the master of the formation was killed in the melee.

The Ten Absolutes fell one after another, with heavy losses among those who had set them. Randeng directed the whole affair and never once left the front until all ten had been broken and Western Qi could move east again.

Zhao Gongming came down from Mount Emei to help Shang against Zhou, carrying twenty-four Sea-Stilling Pearls and the dragon-binding cord. He wounded one Chan disciple after another, and Randeng too was driven back by the light of the pearls.

Randeng and the Chan immortals fought Zhao Gongming, but once the Sea-Stilling Pearls came out their treasures were pinned one after another. Randeng was worsted in several exchanges, could not gain the upper hand, and had to give way for the moment.

Xiao Sheng and Cao Bao, two wandering immortals from Mount Wuyi, came to help on the road. Xiao Sheng raised the Treasure-Dropping Golden Coin and brought down first the Sea-Stilling Pearls and then the dragon-binding cord; Zhao Gongming killed Xiao Sheng with his whip and gave chase to Cao Bao and Randeng, who had the pearls.

Luya Daoren then gave Jiang Ziya the Seven-Arrow Book of Nails. Jiang Ziya set up an altar on Mount Qi and worked the rite as he had been taught, and Zhao Gongming died under the curse.

The Sea-Stilling Pearls passed through Cao Bao’s hands to Randeng, who kept the twenty-four pearls with him from then on. The Treasure-Dropping Golden Coin had always belonged to Xiao Sheng and Cao Bao and was never one of Zhao Gongming’s own treasures.

The Three Xiao ladies came to avenge their brother and set out the Nine-Bend Yellow River Formation. Randeng led the others before it, but light coiled through the formation and the immortals were trapped inside for a time and could not get out.

Laozi and Yuanshi Tianzun came to the formation themselves and entered the Nine-Bend Yellow River to bring the trapped disciples out. The Three Xiao fought in turn and fell, the Hunyuan Golden Dipper was taken, and the formation was broken.

With his followers falling one after another, Tongtian Jiaozhu set out the Zhuxian Sword Formation. Randeng went with the Chan company to Jiepai Pass and took part in the outer support, holding off attacks from beyond the formation.

While Laozi, Yuanshi, Jieyin and Zhunti went inside to take the swords, Randeng commanded the Chan disciples outside, held off the Jie survivors looking for an opening, and kept the four saints’ line of retreat clear.

After the Zhuxian Formation was broken and Tongtian Jiaozhu set out the Ten Thousand Immortals Formation, Randeng went with the Chan company to Tong Pass again and helped send the disciples into the formation in waves, directing it much as he had at the Ten Absolutes.

When the Ten Thousand Immortals Formation had been broken and Hongjun appeared to stop the fighting, Randeng withdrew from the field with the rest and stayed with the army, helping Jiang Ziya plan the remainder of the campaign until Chaoge fell.

When the Shang–Zhou war was over and Jiang Ziya read the charges from the roll at the investiture terrace, Randeng was not among those enfeoffed. He went back to the Chan Sect afterwards and resumed managing its affairs under Yuanshi.

In the later accounts that fold Buddhism into the Honghuang system, Randeng is usually matched with the buddha Dipankara, first among the twenty-four devas. That identity and the scheme of the twenty-four devas come from later Buddhist tradition and Honghuang novels, and are not in the text of Investiture of the Gods.

After this there is little record of Randeng in the world, though the affair of the Ten Absolutes and of the Sea-Stilling Pearls is still raised again and again by those who tell of the Investiture calamity.