The story of Jieyin Daoren

Jieyin Daoren held a barren stretch of the west, where yellow sand blew and little would grow. His followers were few; they chanted and sat in meditation all day, waiting on chance, and seldom had dealings with the central lands.

When Hongjun Daozu opened his seat at Zixiao Palace, the summons reached the west. Jieyin set out with Zhunti Daoren, crossed the sand for several days and arrived to hear him.

Only six mats had been laid in the hall, and by the time Jieyin and Zhunti came the seats were taken. Hongyun gave up his own mat first; then Zhunti objected that Kunpeng had no business in the front rank, and Kunpeng was made to leave, so that Jieyin and Zhunti could sit down side by side.

When the three sermons were done, Jieyin received a stream of Primordial Purple Qi from Hongjun and several treasures with it, then took his leave with Zhunti and started back for the barren west.

Home again, Jieyin and Zhunti founded a teaching where they stood, called the Western Sect, and sent word abroad inviting whoever had the affinity to come and cultivate. But few travelled through that barren country, and hardly anyone came.

In the first years of the Western Sect, Jieyin often went out with Zhunti across the sands, surveying the run of the earth-veins and looking for ground on which to extend their seat, in readiness for followers still to come.

By the middle of the Investiture war, with Shang and Zhou hard at each other and the Jie disciples falling one after another, Tongtian Jiaozhu angrily set out the Zhuxian Sword Formation beyond Jiepai Pass; the sword-qi was so severe that nobody dared approach.

At the news Jieyin went east with Zhunti. Before the formation they met Laozi and Yuanshi Tianzun, and the four agreed to take one gate each, strike at the same moment, and take the four swords together.

Entering, Jieyin unfurled the instrument he carried to shield himself. Jie disciples inside came at him with weapons; he drove them back and pressed towards the heart of the formation step by step.

Demonic vapour rolled and sword-light crossed. Jieyin and Zhunti fought their way forward through several engagements, and with Laozi and Yuanshi took the four swords down one at a time and carried them out.

Seeing the Zhuxian Formation broken, Tongtian Jiaozhu gathered the immortals of the Jie Sect again and set out the Ten Thousand Immortals Formation beyond Tong Pass; banners hid the sun, and the wandering Jie immortals stood rank behind rank in great force.

Jieyin and Zhunti came before it again and met Laozi and Yuanshi. The four attacked from separate quarters, blocking whoever came and breaking whatever stood in the way, and pushed inward step by step.

As resistance inside weakened, Jieyin took the chance to lead several disciples with an affinity for his teaching out of the formation, took them into his own house and carried them west, so that they should not die with what remained of the Jie Sect.

The Ten Thousand Immortals Formation fell at last. Tongtian Jiaozhu still meant to begin again, and Hongjun appeared to stop the fighting, calling Laozi, Yuanshi and Tongtian away; Jieyin and Zhunti left the field first with the disciples they had taken.

When the war was over and Jiang Ziya read the charges from the roll at the investiture terrace, Jieyin was not among those enfeoffed. He set out for home with Zhunti and their new followers, back to the barren west.

On the road he spoke to every wandering cultivator and Jie survivor he met and took in whoever was willing to follow. The Western Sect grew in numbers because of it, and was never as empty again.

Back in the west, Jieyin had his disciples raise new halls beside the old seat to house the newcomers. The Western Sect was several times the size it had been before the sermons, and the sound of chanting never stopped.

In the later accounts that fold Buddhism into the Honghuang system, Jieyin is usually matched with Amitabha, dwelling in the Pure Land of the West. That identification comes from later novelists gathering up various traditions; the text of Investiture of the Gods says no such thing.

The same line of accounts says the Western Sect gradually became Buddhism and that many of Jieyin’s disciples changed their titles; but the versions differ in detail and nothing about that transition is settled, each teller giving his own account.

After this there is little record of Jieyin in the world. Only the incense at the old Western seat continued, and those who came seeking the teaching still spoke of the sermons at Zixiao Palace and the day before the Zhuxian Formation, handing the stories down.