Jen Wu (sp?) and the Five Dragons

[Alchemical Walrus]

I'm trying to track down a story, and I was wondering if anyone here could help in my search.

It started with me watching the following YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdI3Uoa6BOU

 

I don't know anything really about the speaker or his background, this is the first video I've seen by him.

 

But near the end of  his talk, he briefly mentions a story about an Emperor's son, named something like "Jen Wu Da Dei" (no idea if my attempt to spell that was anything near correct), who went into the Wudang mountains to cultivate and encountered five dragons who helped him traverse seven stages of consciousness.

The speaker says he will not go into the details of that story in this talk, however, so he provides no more details except those.

 

It's probably a long shot, but does anyone know where I can find this full story?? My attempts at Google-fu have thusfar been fruitless. From the vague description I've gotten so far, it seems to have thematic similarities to ʿAṭṭār's Conference of the Birds, and so I'm interested in finding this story to do a deeper analysis of it.

 

Also, as an aside, is there a better subforum for questions like this??

Edited June 5, 2018 by Alchemical Walrus

[Zhongyongdaoist]

You're asking about Zhenwudadi, "True Warrior Great Emperor", the Dark Emperor of the North:

 

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Xuanwu (玄武 "Dark Warrior" or "Mysterious Warrior") or Xuandi (玄帝 "Dark Deity"), also known as Zhenwu (真武) or Zhenwudadi (真武大帝 "True Warrior Great Deity"), is a deity in Chinese religion, and one of the higher-ranking deities in Taoism. He is revered as a powerful god, able to control the elements and capable of great magic. He is identified as the god of the north Heidi (黑帝 "Black Deity") and is particularly revered by martial artists. He is the patron god of Hebei, Manchuria and Mongolia. As some Han Chinese (now the modern-day Cantonese and Fujianese peoples) migrated into the south from Hebei and Henan with the Song dynasty, Xuanwu is also widely revered in the Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian provinces, as well as among the overseas diaspora. (Wikipedia article on Xuanwu)

 

as the article continues:

 

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One story says that Xuanwu was originally a prince of Jing Le State in northern Hebei during the time of the Yellow Emperor. As he grew up, he felt the sorrow and pain of the life of ordinary people and wanted to retire to a remote mountain for cultivation of the Tao

 

Xuanwu, or Zhenwu, is one of the Five Directional Emperors of Ritual Daoism, and his Five Dragons are important in his Cult, and for Daoist Ritual in General.  For example, this invocation is used in Daoist Rituals for Purification of the Sacred Space:

 

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My water is not ordinary water: it is the water of the perfect energies of the five dragons. My sword is not an ordinary sword: it is the sword with which the Heavenly Master beheaded the perverse ones; it is hard as steel smelted a hundred times, and it bears [the image of] the Dipper. I control the Dipper; I crouch under its bowl. The living water of the Celestial One penetrates everywhere in the four directions: in purity (i.e., heaven) there is no excess of water; in thickness (earth) there is no surfeit of filth. In heaven it forms the rain and the dew; on earth it produces the springs and the sources. In spring it flows, in winter it congeals; it runs at k'an (N) and stops at ken (NE). It is round or square, depending on the place; it is cold or warm, depending on the time. Here it is in my bowl: when I spray heaven, heaven becomes pure; when I spray earth, earth becomes potent; when I spray man, he lives forever; when I spray demons, they disappear. One spray: like frost. Two: like snow. Three sprays and four: the hundred perversities are eliminated, malicious demons swept away, and natural catastrophes subside. Long Life of the Southern Dipper; Longevity of Sun and Moon. (Ofuchi, 284a) (Jonh Lagerway, Taoist Ritual in Chinese Society and History, Macmillan, 1987, p. 95, Emphasis mine, ZYD.  As an aside the dust jacket of this book has a picture of XuanWu on its front cover.)

 

Also the article at the FYSK Daoist Culture Centre Database is very useful:

 

The Great Perfect Warrior Emperor

 

I hope this information is helpful.

 

ZYD

[Wu Ming Jen]

 

 

One day the Jade Emperor was in heaven when all of a sudden he saw, far away, below the clouds, five colored beams of light shooting up from earth to heaven.  He was very surprised and asked his prime minister “What is this?  Can you go take a look?”  The prime minister went to the edge of the clouds, and looked down to the earth.  He came back and reported: “The five streams of light come from a golden tree on Wu Dang Mountain in China.  They are the spirits of the five elements.  When they beam up the power of harmony is shooting straight through the universe all the way to heaven.”

"Wow," the Jade Emperor said, “I have all the treasure of the universe, but I’ve never seen this light.  I should go look at that.”  At that moment, ego and desire stirred in his chest, one of his 99 souls separated from him and went into a Queen’s belly to become a baby.  The Queen's baby was Prince of the pure happiness kingdom.  He was very powerful and very smart.  He knew all the books, wrote poems, and was interested in alchemy.  At 14 years old, the Prince didn’t want to become the next ruler of the kingdom.  So he rode off to Wu Dang Mountain to cultivate alchemy and immortality.  He had heard that Wu Dang was mystical and knew that Wu Dang had this golden tree.  When the Prince saw the beautiful and powerful tree and saw the light beaming from it, he got off his horse and started to kneel down to pray to the tree.  But the Prince's soul was the Jade Emperor's and when the Five Elements in the Tree saw that the Jade Emperor had come to kneel down they were scared and ran off to the edges of the universe as they could not have him kneel to them. They disappeared to the five corners of the universe.

The Prince spent 42 years in Wu Dang Mountain cultivating and meditating.  He was so dedicated to the art he didn't realize that he had accomplished the Tao and had become immortal.  Meanwhile, 42 years on earth was equivalent to 4.2 days in heaven.  And while the soul of the Jade Emperor was not complete, his heavenly work was not being done.  The heavenly immortals and gods wanted his soul back so that the Jade Emperor could be complete to administer heaven and keep it in order. So they got together with Kuan Yin Lao Mu to come up with a plan of how to bring him back. 

Kuan Yin Lao Mu came to his dream one night and said to him, "There is a bell by the cliff.  If you can throw a coin through the large coin that hangs in front of it and hit the bell three times, that means that you have a common affinity with the Tao and you can accomplish immortality."  When he woke up from the dream he thought that with all of his training he should easily be able to do that.  So the next day he came to the cliff.  He picked up three coins and threw one, two, three, but all three times failed; he could not hit the bell.  He thought, "Well, my common affinity with the Tao must be gone, I must have no common affinity."  But after forty two years he was so disappointed he decided to leave the mountain.  He came to a platform to comb his hair.  All of a sudden Kuan Yin Lao Mu, disguised as a young beautiful lady, showed up and said, "Can I comb your hair?  I'm lost in the mountains and I'm afraid I am being chased by tigers and animals. I want to stay with you. I can marry you. You can protect me here." 

But he said "I have spent forty-two years in the mountain cultivating Tao and I have never had a woman around, nor have I ever been touched by a woman.  So although I don't have a common affinity with the Tao, I still do not want anything to do with women."  The lady started crying and said, "I'm alone and I'm insecure here. You don't want me and I have nowhere to go." She ran to a high cliff and jumped, plunging down to the bottom.  The Prince said, "I have no common affinity with the Tao, but in the Tao they say that if somebody dies for you, you have to pay with your life.  She died for me, and I have nothing to give but my life."  So, he ran to the cliff and launched himself off.  As soon as he plunged down, five dragons of different colors appeared and held him in the clouds.  He turned his head to look and there was Kuan Yin Lao Mu standing in the cloud. Finally he understood that he had become immortal already.  The heavenly carriage came, the heavenly music played and the dragons and phoenix flew around, and took him up to heaven. 

His one soul went and reunited with the Jade Emperor's so that the Jade Emperor was complete again.  The Jade Emperor said the Prince was such a good warrior that he gave him the title Zhen Wu, Truth Warrior.  He put Zhen Wu in charge of 300,000 heavenly troops and of sweeping negativity and evil out of the universe every Wednesday and Sunday.  Zhen Wu is also called Xuan Tian Shang Di, Mystical Black Heaven God, and is one of the eight gods residing in the north or black direction. He is also known as the Big Dipper god and is in charge of the Big Dipper Palace or northern heaven.  He administers the north direction in cooperation with the Jade Emperor.  Zhen Wu has both titles: scholar and warrior, True Warrior.  September 9th of the Chinese Lunar Calendar is the day the Prince jumped off the cliff and the day that he went back to heaven, accomplished the Tao, and became the immortal Zhen Wu.   

Every year on Chinese lunar September 8th a very special ceremony is held in Wu Dang to celebrate this day of accomplishment.  On lunar September 9th there is a special ceremony morning, noon and evening to celebrate and pray for peace for the world.  Lunar September 10th is one more continuous day of ceremony.  This three day event attracts 20,000-30,000 people from China and the world to Wu Dang to celebrate.  This year (2008) Chinese lunar September 9th falls on October 7 so October 6, 7, 8 are special days for celebrating Zhen Wu's accomplishment.  Lunar September 9 is also the day Zhang San Feng, the Wu Dang Tai Chi creator, became immortal, and in Wu dang we celebrate both events on this day. I hope that someday you can come to Wu Dang on Lunar September 9th, to celebrate this huge event.

[Alchemical Walrus]

14 hours ago, Zhongyongdaoist said:

You're asking about Zhenwudadi, "True Warrior Great Emperor", the Dark Emperor of the North:

 

 

Thank you!! I figured my inability to find things was a result of my not being able to spell "Zhenwudadi".