The story of Hongjun Daozu

By the usual telling, Hongjun appears while the dragon, phoenix and qilin clans are at war with one another. Another power was growing quietly in the west, and its lord Luohou used the confusion to set out the Zhuxian Sword Formation, meaning to seize the Dao of the whole world and setting off a war of Dao against demon.

The four swords of the formation hung one at each of its four gates. The sword-qi was bitter, demonic vapour filled the ground within and blotted out the daylight, and whoever entered was killed or maimed; for a time nobody could break it.

Hongjun left his palace at the news and went west to the formation with Yinyang Laozu, Qiankun Laozu, Yangmei and other great powers. The four took one gate each and struck at the same moment, meaning to take the divine swords out of the formation.

Inside, demonic vapour rolled like surf and sword-light crossed in every direction. Hongjun and his companions fought their way inward through several hard engagements and took the four swords down one at a time, then withdrew from the formation carrying them.

Seeing the formation broken and the Dao beyond his reach, Luohou set off a convulsion in the west, and at last fell in the decisive battle of Dao against demon. With that the war came to a close.

Afterwards Hongjun carried the four swords and the formation chart back to Zixiao Palace and sent out a summons to every quarter, calling the cultivators of the world to come and hear him. These were the three sermons of Zixiao Palace.

At the first sermon the hall was crowded. Hongjun sat upright on his mat and began to speak; his voice was like a great bell, and the listeners held their breath and did not dare to stir.

The Three Pure Ones, Nüwa, Jieyin, Zhunti, Dijun and Taiyi came in one after another and stood or sat to hear the Dao expounded, each of them grasping something of it, while the incense smoke in the hall never thinned.

When the three sermons were done, Hongjun brought out seven streams of Primordial Purple Qi. The Three Pure Ones, Nüwa, Jieyin and Zhunti received one each, and the last fell into Hongyun’s hands; he then distributed the supreme treasures he had gathered over the years, keeping only the Jade Butterfly of Creation.

Those who had received a treasure left the palace and cultivated without pause according to what they had understood. The Three Pure Ones, Nüwa, Jieyin and Zhunti became saints in turn, while the purple qi Hongyun carried drew pursuit and a killing.

With his six disciples become saints, Hongjun was left alone in Zixiao Palace. The hall was silent, the incense burned low, and only the warmth on the mat had not yet faded.

Again an unknown number of years passed. Hongjun let his own attainment merge little by little with Heaven’s Way, kept to Zixiao Palace, seldom concerned himself with the world outside, and the traffic in the hall grew thin.

Later, as the Investiture war between Shang and Zhou drew towards its end, Hongjun appeared on the battlefield without warning, took the still-quarrelling Three Pure Ones away one by one, and then vanished again.

A common expansion of the Longhan calamity says that as the killing-qi of the world spread across heaven and earth, Hongjun foresaw the calamity coming and quietly contacted Yinyang Laozu, Qiankun Laozu, Yangmei and several other quasi-saints, asking them to watch the west against a turn for the worse.

In the same telling, Yinyang Laozu, Qiankun Laozu and Yangmei each held a quarter, gathered their followers and watched the situation, and only when the Zhuxian Sword Formation had become a disaster did they appear with Hongjun on the western field to help break it.

The three sermons of Zixiao Palace are described differently in different versions, both in content and in order, and no single account is settled; all of them agree that the three built upon one another, that the listeners understood more each time, and that their cultivation deepened with it.

After the three sermons Hongjun set up a treasure-granting bluff outside the palace and gave out the Primordial Purple Qi, the four Zhuxian swords and everything else he had accumulated, calling each name in turn. The Jade Butterfly of Creation he kept; the six disciples took what suited the foundation each of them had, gave thanks and left.

Once outside, the six founded their own schools and reached sainthood by different roads — merit, the founding of a teaching, or the severing of the three corpses. The versions differ a little on the order, but none of them makes the six saints one with Heaven’s Way.

After Hongjun merged with the Dao, each of the six saints led a school; Hongjun kept deep within Zixiao Palace and, apart from the sermons and the end of the Longhan calamity, scarcely touched the world again until the closing days of the Investiture war.