Xuandu Dafashi

Xuandu Dafashi entered Taiqing Laozi’s gate and lived with his master at the Bajing Palace on Mount Shouyang. The Human Sect did not take in followers as the Chan and Jie Sects did; apart from Laozi himself, Xuandu was the only one constantly in attendance.

Xuandu heard Laozi expound the Dao each day and looked after the elixir furnace, the books and the banners of the palace. When Laozi was in seclusion the golden gate of the Bajing Palace stayed shut, and callers waited outside Xuandu’s cave for him to carry word inside.

While the three teachings were settling the investiture, Laozi came and went between Yuanshi and Tongtian, and Xuandu stayed in attendance at the Bajing Palace. After the Investiture List passed to Jiang Ziya, the Human Sect did not send down disciples in numbers as the other two did.

As the Shang–Zhou war grew, Laozi rode his green buffalo out of the Bajing Palace himself to break the Nine-Bend Yellow River, the Zhuxian and the Ten Thousand Immortals formations. Investiture of the Gods does not write Xuandu fighting in any of them; the Bajing Palace stayed under the care of the Human Sect.

After Yin Jiao turned against Zhou and blocked its army with the Sky-Overturning Seal, Randeng wanted to gather banners to hem the seal in, and Guangchengzi came to the Bajing Palace on that errand, standing outside Xuandu’s cave and not daring to enter unasked.

Xuandu Dafashi came out, heard Guangchengzi’s errand, and went back in to report it before Laozi’s mat. Laozi already knew why he had come, did not call him into the hall, and simply told Xuandu to fetch the Lihuo Flame-Light Banner.

Xuandu handed the banner to Guangchengzi and passed on Laozi’s word that he need not ask for an audience. Guangchengzi took the banner and left, hurrying back to Western Qi, where it was joined with the other banners to pin the Sky-Overturning Seal.

When the Investiture war ended, Laozi returned to the Bajing Palace and Xuandu remained in attendance. The book gives him no battle of his own afterwards, and records no end in which he leaves the Human Sect.

Later Honghuang novels carry on the line of the “first disciple of the Human Sect”, often having him manage the Bajing Palace while Laozi is in seclusion and carry his orders to the Heavenly Court and to humankind. These are modern Honghuang stories and not in the text of Investiture of the Gods.

Novels such as Fo Ben Shi Dao, which gather the Honghuang setting together with the Buddhist and Daoist schools, also keep Xuandu within the Human Sect line.