Kou Qianzhi, Part 1

The Tobas were Hsien-pi (鮮卑), of whose origins we are not quite sure but who seem to have been Mongolian. These people, who may be Turks and whose language appears to have been of Turkish origin, were widely spread in what is now North China, Manchuria and Mongolia. The Tobas founded the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-543A.D.). That celestial master is Kou Qianzhi (寇謙之).

A native of Fengyiwannian (馮翊萬年), which is Lintongbei

(臨潼北) in the Chinese province of Shanxi, Kou was a great schemer who fabricated a mandate of Lao Tzu to found his north Tian-shi-dao (天師道), or his northern school of the Way of Celestial Master, and persuaded the Emperor Tai-Wu ti of the Northern Wei Dynasty to proclaim Taoism as the state religion of his domain. Tian shi-dao, also known as the Way of Five Pecks of Rice, was founded by Zhang Daoling (張道臨) during the late Han Dynasty (22-220 A.D.) Zhang called himself Celestial Master.

At first Kou wanted to be a xian (仙), or Immortal. He studied Taoist books but had not tried asceticism. One day, while he was still a teenager, Kou went to visit a maternal aunt, at whose home he met a houseboy, named Chen Kongxing (成公興). The youngster liked the houseboy so much that he asked his aunt to make the latter his own houseboy. She complied.

Then, on a summer night not long after Cheng had come to wait on Kou, a miracle occurred. Kou was puzzled by a very difficult mathematical problem. He was in deep thought when Cheng came to him and asked what the question was.

“That’s none of your business,” the young master said. “For you don’t know mathematics.”

Thereupon, the houseboy said, “Let me try.”

He solved the problem in no time. Stunned, Kou wanted to make Cheng his teacher. The houseboy insisted that the master be his teacher. As a result, Kou had to be Cheng’s teacher in name but his student in fact. A couple of months later, Cheng suggested that they go together to a remote mountain to practice asceticism in order to earn immortality. The suggestion was accepted, and they went to Mount Song or Songshan (嵩山).

Seven years after they had become ascetics, Cheng told Kou he was ready to achieve immortality.

“I’ll die at noon tomorrow,” the former houseboy said. “Please cleanse me then, and there’ll be someone coming to pick me up.” Then he said to his astonished student-in-fact: “You won’t be able to become an Immortal shortly, but you’ll have a great career as the teacher of an emperor.”

Cheng died as he had predicted. Immediately after he had been cleansed, two boys knocked at the door of their shack at Mount Song. They came to escort Cheng to Heaven to live among the Immortals. Cheng sat up and left with them. Kou then continued his self-training in preparation for the career the now Immortal had promised him.

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