The Ancient Awl of 700 Years Hibernation and Quanzhen Meditation

Abstract

The famous Quanzhen master Qiu Chuji (1143-1227), according to the Zhenxian zhizhi yulu, once stated: "A person of old has said, 'First your thoughts stop. Second, your breathing stops. Third, your pulse stops. Fourth, there is complete cessation.' You enter into the great meditative trance and do not interact at all with things, [much like] the ancient awl of 700-years." This statement describes how mental activity, breathing, and pulse can be progressively brought to suspension while in meditation. But who/what is the source quoted here by Master Qiu, and what is "the ancient awl of 700 years"?

The source cited by Master Qiu cannot be traced definitively. However, several Buddhist sutras, including the Avatamsaka Sutra, use the term "Trance of Complete Cessation" to refer to a condition where the meditator appears as if dead. "The ancient awl of 700 years," refers almost certainly to Buddhist monk Huichi—a younger brother of the famous Huiyuan (334-416)—who in 1113 was allegedly found meditating inside a tree (for a duration of roughly 700 years!). Master Qiu thus seems to imply that a body can stay alive for centuries in a hibernating state reached through meditation.

Among the most useful sources for studying the teachings and practices of the early Quanzhen 全真 (Complete Perfection) School of Daoism is the Zhenxian zhizhi yulu 真仙直指語錄 (Record of Sayings That Are the Direct Instructions of the Perfect Immortals, DZ 1256), compiled and edited by a certain Xuanquanzi 玄全子, probably during the Yuan period (1279-1368). It is particularly illuminating for our understanding of Quanzhen methods of moral self-discipline and meditation. Divided into two scrolls (juan 卷), it contains first the teachings of Ma Yu 馬鈺 (1123-1184), Tan Chuduan 譚處端 (1123-1185), Liu Chuxuan 劉處玄 (1147-1203), Qiu Chuji 丘處機 (1148-1227) and Hao Datong 郝大通 (1140-1212)—all of whom were direct disciples of Quanzhen founder Wang Zhe 王嚞 (1113-1170). Second it presents the utterances of Yin Zhiping 尹志平 (1169-1251), an important leader of the movement and disciple of both Liu Chuxuan and Qiu Chuji.

Among these early Quanzhen masters, the figure revered most by posterity has almost certainly been Qiu Chuji. Perhaps most famous for his heroic journey to the Hindukush mountains (present day Afghanistan) undertaken at the summons of Genghis Khan,¹ he is honored as the founder of the Longmen 龍門 (Dragon Gate) branch of the Quanzhen school, to which most Daoist monks and nuns belong today. Among the utterances of Qiu Chuji recorded in the Zhenxian zhizhi yulu² we find the following statements, which are rather enigmatic:

A person of old has said, "First your thoughts stop. Second, your breathing stops. Third, your pulse stops. Fourth, there is complete cessation."³ You enter into the great meditative trance and do not interact at all with things, [much like] the ancient awl of 700-years.⁴

(1.13b-14a)

This passage raises several questions. First of all, who is this "person of old" that Qiu Chuji quotes? What exactly is meant by "complete cessation"? What is the "ancient awl of 700 years"? This last question seems the most puzzling.

As we shall see, the problem of the source of Qiu's quote is not easily resolvable despite certain promising clues appearing in Quanzhen literature of later periods. Regarding what Qiu (and his unnamed source) had in mind when speaking of "complete cessation" and the "great trance," our understanding can be aided both by older Buddhist sources and later Daoist discussions. As for what the "ancient awl of 700 years" is, the answer is almost certainly to be found in accounts of an alleged incident involving a Buddhist monk (Huichi 慧持) that occurred in 1113, and is recorded in several Chan Buddhist sources. This incident is in some ways reminiscent of what is said to have happened to a certain noteworthy Daoist figure (Tan Qiao 譚峭) during the 10^th century.

The "Person of Old" and "Complete Cessation"

Regarding the identity of the "person of old" Qiu refers to, the answer at first sight seems to lie in a cognate passage found in a different collection of his utterances, the Qiuzi yulu 邱祖語錄 (Record of Sayings of Patriarch Qiu).⁵ The passage reads:

Yunmen (emphasis added) said, "In the first meditative trance (dhyāna 禪) your thoughts stop. In the second meditative trance your breathing stops. In the third meditative trance your pulse stops. In the fourth meditative trance there is complete cessation." You enter into the great meditative trance and do not interact at all with things, [much like] the ancient awl of 700-years.⁶

(Zangwai daoshu, 11.288b)

Here, Qiu provides the name of the person he is quoting, the famous Chan Buddhist master Yunmen Wenyan 雲 門 文 偃 (864-949), founder of the Yunmen school that flourished during the Song period. His utterances are among those contained in celebrated gong'an 公案 (Jap. kōan) collections such as Wumen guan 無門關 (The Gateless Passage) and Biyan lu 碧巖錄 (The Blue Cliff Record), and there is also a collection devoted entirely to his utterances—Yunmen Kuangzhen chanshi guanglu 雲門 匡真禪師廣錄 (The Broad Record of Yunmen, the Meditation Master who Rectifies the Truth). However, I have not been able to trace the statements quoted by Qiu Chuji here to any of Master Yunmen's utterances recorded in Buddhist sources.

While it is possible that Qiu Chuji had access to sayings of Master Yunmen through sources that are not available to us today, it is also possible that Yunmen's name was embellished upon the text by somebody at a later period (though it is not readily apparent why this party would want us to regard Master Yunmen as Qiu Chuji's source). Qiu Chuji does not mention the name of Yunmen in Zhenxian zhizhi yulu, which is likely of Yuan period (1279-1368) provenance and is contained in the Ming dynasty Daoist Canon (Daozang 道藏) of 1445.

The Qiuzu yulu is not found in the Daozang, but rather is included in the Qiuzu quanshu 邱祖全書 (Complete Works of Patriarch Qiu), a larger collection of writings attributed or connected to Qiu Chuji, included in an early 19^th-century anthology called Daoshu shiqi zhong 道書十七種 (Seventeen Daoist Books; compiled by Fu Jinquan 傅金銓 during the Daoguang 道光 era [1796-1850]). Although Qiuzu yulu bears a postface by Pan Jingguan 潘靜觀 dated 1380 (Yongle 永樂 13), this date is not credible.

As discussed by Mori Yuria (1998) and Zhao Weidong (2014), Pan Jingguan was active during the 17^th century, and Zhao speculates that the correct date of his postface is not Yongle 13 but rather Kangxi 康熙 13 (1674). While it is conceivable that Qiuzu yulu, despite being published much later than Zhenxian zhizhi yulu, preserves Qiu Chuji's utterances with a comparable level of accuracy (viz., perhaps Qiu Chuji actually did name Yunmen, but Yunmen's name had dropped out in the Zhenxian zhizhi yulu), its credibility is compromised by the nature of much of its content.

As has been well pointed out by Mori, Qiuzu yulu contains statements that appear anachronistic or which seem incongruent with 12^th to 13^th century Quanzhen teachings on meditation.⁷ While roughly its final two folios (wherein our passage is found) consist of material cognate to that in Zhenxian zhizhi yulu (and thus seems to be of 13^th century provenance), the possibility that this material could also have been embellished by later editors seems great, given the nature of the rest of the text.

Further to be noted regarding the Qiuzu yulu version of our passage is that the four stages (1-thoughts stop, 2-breathing stops, 3-pulse stops, 4-complete cessation) are referred to as the four chan 禪 (dhyana; meditative trances). This terminology again points us squarely at Buddhism, with its long-established framework of meditation theory wherein the meditator's progress is said to unfold over four dhyanas.

Interestingly, in Xianfo hezong yulu 仙佛合宗語錄 (Record of Sayings of the Combined Traditions of the Immortals and Buddhas),⁸ a late Ming work by the influential self-professed Quanzhen Longmen internal al-chemist Wu Shouyang 伍守陽 (1573-1640; main text), with commentary by his cousin Wu Shouxu 伍守虛, we find a passage that uses the same Buddhist terminology to describe the same process, but in doing so cites a much earlier Buddhist source. The passage, which appears in Wu Shouxu's commentary, reads:

Therefore, when the Avatamsaka Sutra says, "In the second meditative trance breathing stops, in the third meditative trance pulse stops, and the fourth meditative trance is the Trance of Complete Cessation," it is speaking of a trance wherein breathing and pulse have both stopped.⁹

(Zangwai daoshu, 5.675a)

Wu Shouxu thus presents roughly the same scheme of meditative progress in the same terms (albeit not mentioning the first meditative trance) as does Qiu Chuji in Qiuzu yulu. However, as his source he cites a famous and influential Indian Mahayana Buddhist scripture—the Avatamsaka Sutra (Huayan jing 華嚴經; Flower Ornament Scripture),¹⁰ first translated into Chinese in the early 5^th century. Oddly, however, I have not been able to locate this quoted passage in any extant Chinese version of the Avatamsaka Sutra.

Have the suspension of breathing and pulse ever been considered necessary signs of progress in meditation within Buddhist circles? As is well known, Buddhist texts—including early Indian sources included in the Pali Canon—do speak of a progression of Four Meditative Trances (dhyana in Sanskrit; jhana in Pali; chan 禪 in Chinese). These are meditative trance states that Shakyamuni Buddha himself is said to have pro gressed through and beyond during his decisive meditation session under the Bodhi tree.

While sometimes the distinctive traits of the Four Meditative Trances are described as pertaining entirely to one's state of mind,¹¹ in some texts the suspension of breathing is said to occur when one progresses to the Fourth Meditative Trance.¹² One's condition while in the Four Meditative Trances is said to correspond to (and confer rebirth into) the condition of beings that dwell beyond the Realm of Desire (yujie 欲界), in the four highest heavens or Four Meditations Heavens (sichan tian 四禪天) within the Realm of Form (sejie 色界).

Beyond these Four Meditations are said to be the Four Formless Trances (si wuse ding 四無色定) that constitute even subtler mental states and which correspond to the heavens of the Realm of No Form. The Trance of Complete Cessation (miejin ding 滅盡定; Skt. nirodha-samapatti) in Buddhist literature typically refers to the meditative trance stage that surpasses even the Four Formless Trances. It is a trance state that can be entered by a so-called "non-returner" (buhuan 不還; Skt. anagamin)—one who has overcome ignorance and confusion to the point where there will be no more rebirths in the human realm (and thus nirvana is to be attained in the future while dwelling in one of the heavens). This trance state is characterized by a complete cessation of thoughts (Nakamura 2002, 401, 999)

In sum, then, the suspension of breathing is certainly attested to in Buddhist literature, but is associated with the Fourth Meditative Trance (and presumably beyond)—not the Second Meditative Trance. The Trance of Complete Cessation is a stage beyond the Fourth Meditative Trance, and even the Four Formless Trances. As far as the suspension of pulse is concerned, this is not to be readily found mentioned in association with the Four Meditative Trances (at least so far within my knowledge).

However, in early Buddhist literature one does find evidence that the Trance of Complete Cessation may well have entailed a suspension or dramatic slowing of both breathing and pulse, since apparently on more than one occasion a learned monastic disciple (a nun, in one documented case) of the Buddha had to respond to the question of whether there is any difference between the condition of a dead person and that of one who has entered into the Trance of Complete Cessation. The difference, it is explained, lies in the fact that the person in the Trance of Complete Cessation remains alive, retains bodily warmth, and does not physically decompose.¹³ One might surmise from this that the most accomplished meditation practitioners did enter into conditions that were hard for an outside observer to distinguish from death, meaning likely that both breathing and pulse were very difficult to detect.

In the Avatamsaka Sutra, one actually can find passages that use the term "Trance of Complete Cessation" (even though the specific state ments quoted [?] by Wu Shouxu are not there). Most noteworthy for us is the following passage:

It is comparable to the case of a monk who has self-control of mind, and has entered the Trance of Complete Cessation. All functioning of the six roots (thought, sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch) cease, and he is unaware of all speech. Because he is sustained by the power of trance, he does not enter final nirvana (he does not die).¹⁴

(Taishō Daizōkyō, 10 [no. 279], 324a)

According to this passage, mental functions (thoughts, emotions) are not all that is suspended in the Trance of Complete Cessation—so are the sensory capacities of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. A monk in this condition is thus said to be oblivious to anything said by anyone in his presence. Yet, he does not enter final nirvana—i.e., he does not die. The text seems to thus imply that he does not die despite being in a condition that resembles death—one wherein perhaps there is extreme retardation or suspension of breathing and pulse.

Thus, while extant versions of the Avatamsaka Sutra do not contain the specific statements quoted (?) by Wu Shouxu, we do find it implied in the Avatamsaka Sutra that the Trance of Complete Cessation is a condition at least somewhat resembling that described by Qiu Chuji in Zhenxian zhizhi yulu and Qiuzu yulu. If Wu Shouxu in fact did not find the statements in the Avatamsaka Sutra and is spuriously naming it as his source, the possibility emerges that his actual source was none other than Qiu Chuji. If so, one is left puzzled as to why he would not just name Qiu Chuji—the figure esteemed as founder of the Quanzhen Longmen Daoist lineage (Wu Shouxu's own tradition)—as his source.

A possible explanation here might be that a central thesis argued throughout the works of Wu Shouyang and Wu Shouxu is that all Heavenly Immortals and Buddhas practice the same true internal alchemy (i.e., that propagated by their own Quanzhen Longmen tradition) and are identical in their attainments. (This thesis is amply reflected in the title of their work Xianfo hezong yulu [Record of Sayings of the Combined Tradition of the Immortals and Buddhas]). In the internal alchemical system of Wu Shouyang and Wu Shouxu, the Trance of Complete Cessation, wherein breathing and pulse are suspended, is regarded as an effect that must be brought about at the culmination of the second stage of the regimen known as the Ten Months Nurturing of the Fetus 十月養胎; it is a necessary prerequisite for proceeding to the third stage (Three Years Suckling 三年乳哺) where one repeatedly in trance sends one's Sunny Spirit (yangshen 陽神) out of the body through the top of the head (Eskildsen 2011).

Wu Shouxu states elsewhere in his commentary that Quanzhen founder Wang Zhe was undertaking these "nurturing" and "suckling" stages while residing in his famous "Grave of the Living Dead Man" 活 死人墓, implying thus that he was indeed in a trance state outwardly resembling the condition of a dead person.¹⁵ While we can see from Qiu Chuji's statements in Zhenxian zhizhi yulu pretty clear evidence that a trance condition of respiratory and circulatory suspension was indeed being aspired to in the Quanzhen tradition from its early years, Wu Shouxu perhaps wanted to claim—by appealing to the authority of a famous and ancient Buddhist scripture—that the attainment of this trance was essential not only to the Quanzhen tradition, but to all who aspire to Immortality and Buddha-hood past and present.

His claim seems valid to the extent that some Buddhist sources (the Avatamsaka Sutra included) do describe the Trance of Complete Cessation as a condition where vital signs in the meditator are difficult to detect. However, the notion that the four basic meditative trances or dhyanas constitute a progression from 1) stoppage of thought to 2) stoppage of breathing to 3) stoppage of pulse to 4) complete cessation, cannot be traced to any extant Buddhist source, despite the fact that it is attributed to Master Yunmen in Qiuzu yulu and to the Avatamsaka Sutra in Xianfo hezong yulu. It could actually be of Daoist origin.

The Ancient Awl of 700 Years

So now, what is this "ancient awl of 700 years" that—according to Qiu Chuji—one resembles when one is in the "great meditative trance" and "do(es) not interact at all with things"? The answer to this question is actually rather simple. It is an allusion to an alleged incident recorded or mentioned in a number of Chan Buddhist sources. The oldest of these is Xuetang Xing heshang shiyi lu 雪堂行和尚拾遺錄 (Record of Anecdotes and Sayings Gleaned by Monk Xing of Snow Hall),¹⁶ compiled by Daoxing 道行 (1089-1151).¹⁷ There we read:

Dharma Master Huichi 慧持, when traveling to Mount Emei 峨眉山, entered into meditative trance inside a large tree by the roadside in Jiazhou 嘉 州 (near present day Leshan, Sichuan Province).

In the 4^th month of the 3^rd year of the Zhenghe 政和 era (1113) there was a ferocious wind and rain storm which shattered and toppled the tree. Officials policing the area for thieves happened by [and found Huichi]. They saw that his whiskers and hair covered his entire body, and his nails had grown out and encircled his body.

Regarding this very strange, they reported it to the royal court. An order was issued to carry [Huichi's body] to the capital. Then Xitian Zongchi 西天總持 (a learned monk present in the capital)¹⁸ brought [Huichi] out of his trance by ringing a metal chime. He then asked him, "You are a monk from what era?"

Dharma Master Huichi replied, "I am the younger brother of Dharma Master Yuan (Huiyuan 慧遠; 334-416) of the Donglin Monastery (on Mount Lu 廬山). I was on my way to Mount Emei. I don't know what year it is." He then asked, "Is Dharma Master Yuan here?"

[Xitian] Zongchi replied, "It has been 700 years since he passed away. How could he possibly be here?" [Huichi] said no more. [Xitian Zong]chi then asked, "Now that you are here, where would you like to go?" Master (Huichi) answered, "Chenliu County," and then went back into trance.

Emperor Huizong 徽宗 (r. 1100-1126) ordered an artist to paint a portrait of the Master [Huichi] and distributed copies of it. To go with it he composed three odes.

The first ode read:

The ancient awl of 700 years.Who knows what he experienced while in trance?How is this as good as returning to the West with one sandal[in the manner of Bodhidharma]?Birth and death is a vain labor; a tree became his skin.

The next ode read:

Hide a mountain in the marshes and also hide your body.If there is nothing under heaven that you hide,You can be intimate with the Way.Pass the message on to Zhuang Zhou,And stop all pondering and hesitation.He in these lines (the tree?)¹⁹Is not one who shoulders and carries off in a hurry.²⁰

The third ode read:

The body of a sentient being is not insentient.There and here, person and person are all bodies in trance.If you understand that enlightenment has no tree to begin with,You need not strive bitterly inquiring about Lu Neng

[Huineng 慧能, 638-713].²¹

[Chan Master] Sixin wrote a eulogy to the portrait that read:

In trance for 700 years,He deceives the village folk.Rising above with the single thought,He rampages throughout the realm under heaven.²²

(Taishō Zoku-zōkyō, 83 [no. 1576], 373c-374a)

The "ancient awl of 700 years" referred to in Emperor Huizong's first ode is of course the monk Huichi, who had been meditating inside the tree for roughly 700 years, oblivious to the outer world and the passage of centuries, and yet still alive. It seems that Qiu Chuji was familiar with this story and poem, and that he too was referring to this incredible phenomenon when he uttered his statements recorded in Zhenxian zhizhi yulu and Qiuzu yulu.

The term "ancient/old awl" (laogu zhui 老古錐) appears elsewhere in Chan Buddhist literature and is used to refer fondly and respectfully to an elderly monk. "Awl," a pointed tool used for piercing holes, here is a metaphor describing the sharp and vigorous manner in which a seasoned monk engages fellow monks and guides disciples (Nakamura 2001, 3:1757). However, in the case of Huichi as memorialized by Emperor Huizong, "awl" might also be taken as referring to how, for 700 years (!), Huichi's body had been lodged in the tree, much like an awl stuck in a piece of wood.

As for how exactly he came to be lodged and concealed inside the tree is not made clear by the wording of the text. Perhaps there was some sort of crevice or opening in the base of the trunk of what must have been a very large tree indeed, and the bark, branches or roots subsequently grew in a manner that covered his body as he sat obliviously—hence the poem's phrase, "a tree became his skin." Another intriguing question to which the text provides no clue at all is what happened to Huichi after he returned to his meditative trance after having been woken up and told of his brother's death and of how much time had elapsed. Could he still be alive and in meditative trance?

Additional interest is added to the episode owing to the identity of its protagonists. Huichi is said to be the younger brother of Huiyuan, one of the greatest figures in the early history of Chinese Buddhism, known—among other things—for establishing in 402 the White Lotus Society (Bailianshe 白蓮社), the first known organization in China devoted to the worship of the Amitabha Buddha (Amituofo 阿彌陀佛) for gaining rebirth in the Pure Land Sukhavati (Jile 極樂).

His name may well appear in the narrative in order to provide the reader with a sense of just how long Huichi had been in trance; many readers would have known who Huiyuan was, and that he lived many centuries before the reign of Song Emperor Huizong. That Emperor Huizong would be the one to write the odes in honor of Huichi is perhaps somewhat unexpected, since this Emperor is well known to have held a pronounced personal preference for Daoism, and to have in 1119 (six years after the Huichi incident) enacted oppressive policies against Buddhism.²³

There is in fact a tone of criticism in his first ode (if I am understanding it correctly), which seems to be saying that the 700 years had been spent somewhat in vain, and that he would have done better if he could have been like Bodhidharma, who had (according to Chan Buddhist legend) faked his death and attained immortality much in the manner of a Daoist Immortal who carries out what has been known as "liberation by the corpse" (shijie 尸解).

While it is thus yet another Buddhist figure whom Huizong extols over Huichi, this is a figure whom Daoists and other proponents of immortality cultivation were coming to embrace and extol as a veritable Immortal and expert of Embryonic Breathing (taixi 胎息) and/or the Inner Elixir (neidan 内丹) (Capitanio 2015; Eskildsen 2017). Huizong's Daoist leanings show forth more clearly in his allusion to Zhuang Zhou in the second ode, yet a close familiarity or affinity for the Chan tradition again shows forth in his allusion to the enlightenment verse of the Sixth Patriarch Huineng 慧能 (638-713).

In any case, Qiu Chuji's interest in the incident lies apparently in his perception that Huichi's condition in his 700-year trance is exactly that which one can enter into by practicing meditation in the manner that he himself endorses and describes by quoting the "person of old." By entering into states of increasingly deeper calm whereby thoughts, breathing and pulse successively become suspended, one enters into a state outwardly resembling death; yet, it is in this state resembling death that one is able to survive an incredibly long amount of time without nourishment.

Qiu Chuji would likely contend that Huichi's thoughts, breathing and pulse had been in suspension and that this is how he had survived for 700 years; it would seem to naturally follow that the same could be possible for a Quanzhen Daoist meditation practitioner of high attainment, though it is unclear whether Qiu Chuji would have actually expected or desired his followers to mimic the feat of Huichi.

The Hibernation of Tan Qiao

Although Qiu Chuji alludes to a story from Chan Buddhist lore as a precedent for the sort of death-resembling trance of respiratory and circulatory suspension that he endorses and describes (by means of a quote from a "person of old" who may have been Yunmen or some other Buddhist), there does exist a rather similar story about a famous Daoist that he might equally as well have alluded to for the same purpose. The story is about Tan Qiao 譚峭 (fl. 880-950), whom most credit with authoring the very interesting and influential 10^th century Daoist mystical-philosophical work, Huashu 化書 (Book of Transformations).²⁴

The story in question pertains to how credit for writing Huashu was stolen from Tan Qiao by Song Qiqiu 宋齊丘 (887-959),²⁵ a vain and un scrupulous high official of the Five Dynasties Wu 吳 (902-937) and Southern Tang 南唐 (937-975) kingdoms.²⁶ It is recorded in a preface (dated 1060) to Huashu by the prominent Northern Song Daoist Chen Jingyuan 陳景元,²⁷ which is today preserved in Tao Zongyi's 陶宗儀 Shuofu 說郛 (The Outer City Walls Enclosing All that has been Said; ca. 1370).²⁸ Chen Jingyuan relates there that he had been told the story by his teacher Zhang Wumeng 張無夢,²⁹ who in turn had heard it from his own teacher, Chen Tuan 陳摶 (d. 989).³⁰ The story that Chen Tuan told was as follows:

Tan Qiao, who had written Huashu when he was living in the Zhongnan mountains 終南山 (Shaanxi), was traveling toward Mount Mao 茅山 (Jiangsu). On the way there, in Jinling 金陵 (Nanjing), he met Song Qiqiu. He immediately recognized Song Qiqiu as somebody who had significant potential for attaining immortality, but who was too clever and crafty for his own good. Tan Qiao tried to reform Song Qiqiu by reciting for him a passage from his book that describes, among other things, how "children who play with their shadows do not understand that they get played by their shadows" 稚子弄影 不知為影所弄.³¹ Song Qiqiu did not understand the message being conveyed to him. Nonetheless, Tan Qiao then handed over his book to Song Qiqiu and requested him to compose a preface to it and to help with the proliferation and perpetuation of the book. Song Qiqiu consented, but then proceeded to get Tan Qiao drunk, sew him up inside a leather bag, and throw him into a deep pond. After this Song Qiqiu wrote a preface (preserved in Shuofu 42.27a [p. 700]) in which he claimed authorship for himself, and Huashu subsequently circulated under his name. The story, however, does not end here.

One day much later on, a hermit who was fishing at a pond discovered the leather bag and opened it. He found Tan Qiao in there still alive and snoring; his fingernails had grown to the point to where they en-wrapped his body ("his fingernails had enwrapped his body" 指甲已纏 體). The hermit shouted at Tan Qiao and woke him up, whereupon Tan Qiao told the hermit that Song Qiqiu had usurped his Huashu and had submerged him in the pond. He also asked the hermit whether Huashu was circulating in the world. The hermit replied that Huashu had in fact been in circulation for quite some time. Tan Qiao then remarked that if such was indeed the case, there was no need for him to return to human society; furthermore, the years that he had spent inside the leather bag had been most relaxing. He thus asked the hermit to sew him up in the leather bag and throw him into the pond again; the hermit complied.³²

The authenticity of this strange story (and the integrity of Chen Jingyuan's preface) has—justifiably—been called to question, and other sources variously indicate that Tan Qiao had walked away from his interview with Song Qiqiu quite unsubmerged and unharmed, or that—quite to the contrary—he was killed by Song Qiqiu.³³ Whatever the case, the story grabs our interest because it describes a Daoist active almost 200 years before the days of Huichi and Huizong who had been found alive after having survived for years (how many is not specified in this case) in a motionless state, oblivious to the passage of time. The phrase, "his fingernails had enwrapped his body" 指甲已纏體 in Chen Jingyuan's preface brings to mind the phrase "his nails had grown out and encircled his body" 爪申繞身 describing Huichi in the account of Xuetang Xing heshang shiyi lu. One important difference, perhaps, is that Huichi is specifically described as having been in a meditative trance (ding 定), whereas Tan Qiao's condition is described more as one of sleep—he was found snoring. Yet, one can surmise that his condition must have resembled the trance condition of "complete cessation" as described by Qiu Chuji in the sense that he could not have been breathing in any ordinary sense while underwater (though he apparently was breathing once the bag came out of the water, since he was snoring). One could further surmise that his pulse rate might have been greatly retarded as well.

While this story may of course well be only that (a story), it is interesting to note that in one particular essay in Huashu, entitled "Hibernation" (Zhecang 蟄藏; 1.3b), Tan Qiao (assuming he is the author) describes just the sort of state that he would have been in if he had been submerged in the sack under water, and provides us with a theory as to how such a thing could be possible. The essay reads as follows:

Among creatures there are those that are good at hibernating. Some of them can thereby resist great coldness. Some of them can thereby do away with great hunger. Some of them can live 10,000 years without dying. This is because their minds are dark, and do not know anything. Their spirits are at leisure, and do not go anywhere. Their qi is relaxed, and does not do anything. The myriad worries do not confuse them. Even if they were to seek death, they could not obtain it.³⁴

(1.3b)

Thus, we are told, hibernating animals exhibit remarkable tolerance to cold and hunger, and remarkable longevity, owing to their total absence of thoughts and utter stillness of mind and body. By saying that the qi of a hibernating animal "does not do anything," Tan Qiao is perhaps under the impression that they suspend their breathing and pulse. Anyway, one might reason by extension that a human being also might accomplish the same feat; by bringing all thoughts to a stop one can proceed to suspend breathing and pulse to enter the undying state of motionless oblivion—the condition of the "ancient awl of 700 years."

Conclusion

Who was this "person of old" that Qiu Chuji quoted? Where did Qiu Chuji get this theory on the progression toward the "great trance" condition of "complete cessation"? We do not know for sure. However, the belief in the attainability of such a condition through deep serenity is well reflected in the lore and theories of both Buddhism and Daoism. This belief, which was expressed by Qiu Chuji—arguably the greatest figure in the early history of the Quanzhen movement—came to be magnified in its importance by the late Ming period within the Quanzhen Longmen internal alchemy theories of Wu Shouyang and Wu Shouxu.

Whether or not one considers Chan master Yunmen or the Avatamsaka Sutra to be the "person of old" that Qiu Chuji quoted, it is undeniable that the meditation theory presented in the quote is strongly influenced by Buddhism. The quote describes a four-stage progression reminiscent of the classic Buddhist scheme of the four dhyanas 四禪 (indeed the term dhyana 禪 is used in the Qiuzu yulu version), and the term "complete cessation" miejin 滅盡 is one that in Buddhism from ancient times denotes an extremely advanced state of meditative trance (nirodhasamapatti 滅盡定). Qiu Chuji's familiarity and affinity for Chan Buddhism becomes even clearer when one realizes that "ancient awl of 700 years" is an allusion to a story about a Buddhist monk preserved in Chan sources.

Having said this, we have also noted that the four-stage scheme of meditative progression described by Qiu Chuji does not match in its contents the scheme of the four dhyanas as described in any Buddhist text. Also, while the Avatamsaka Sutra and some other very old Buddhist texts describe the Trance of Complete Cessation as a state that is difficult to distinguish from death, this is considered a level of trance far beyond the four dhyanas. This would suggest perhaps that there were alternative Buddhist theories on the four dhyanas and the Trance of Complete Cessation that were circulating orally, or which somehow did not survive for our scrutiny if they had been written down. Another strong possibility is that someone within the Daoist fold prior to Qiu Chuji had adapted and modified these theories.

The story of Tan Qiao's underwater sojourn and the essay "Hibernation" in his Huashu reflect that in Daoism prior to the time of Qiu Chuji there was the belief that it is possible to survive for years or centuries without nourishment in a state of mental oblivion wherein one's qi 氣 (breath; energy) is inactive—implying perhaps a state of respiratory/circulatory retardation or suspension. As I have discussed in a prior study, the notion that breathing can be brought to suspension amid the calm of meditation can be found in a number of first millennium Daoist texts. In Taishang Laojun xuwu ziran benqi jing 太上老君虛無自然本起經 (Most High Lord Lao's Scripture of the Original Arising; ca. 5^th-7^th century)³⁵ it is described how by emptying the mind of all thoughts and focusing attention toward one's heart, one enters a condition where one can no longer tell whether one is breathing, and whether one still has a body; one then experiences one's spirit hovering up above the heavens (Eskildsen 2015, 170-72, 289-90). In the "Marvelous Functions Lesson," an 8^th or 9^th century discourse on embryo respiration (taixi 胎息) contained in various versions in four different texts,³⁶ it is described how by calmly focusing one's mind inward and merging it with the qi in the lower Elixir Field (dantian 丹田), spirit and qi form an embryo that takes on a life of its own and begins to "breathe." One is then to guide this "embryo" on a circuit through one's body. While one does so, one's ordinary breathing apparently becomes suspended,³⁷ since breath ceases come out of one's nostrils (Eskildsen 2015, 268-70, 293-94.).

In regarding the suspension breathing and pulse as phenomena that should be expected to occur in meditation, Qiu Chuji was not unique among the Daoist masters of his time. His contemporary in the south, Chen Nan 陳楠 (d. 1213; regarded by posterity as the 4^th Patriarch of the Nanzong 南宗 lineage of internal alchemy), in the long poem Luofu cuixu yin 羅浮翠虛吟 (Song of Master Cuixu on Mount Luofu; transmitted, we are told, in the fall of 1212 to his disciple Bai Yuchan 白玉蟾 [1194-1229; Nanzong 5^th Patriarch]) states, "In the past after I had undertaken my training practice for one year, my six pulses³⁸ came to a stop and my qi returned its root."³⁹ Further on in the poem he states, "Make the hundred vessels all return to their source. When pulse pauses and the breath stops, the elixir forms for the first time."⁴⁰ Chen Nan thus states quite unequivocally that suspension of breathing and pulse are effects that must occur if the inner elixir is to ever be successfully concocted. Indeed, Chen Nan was one of the authorities that Wu Shouxu would cite (along with the "Avatamsaka Sutra"[?]) in maintaining that the Trance of Complete Cessation occurs at the culmination of the Ten Months Nurturing of the Fetus, and must occur if one is to become a Heavenly Immortal.⁴¹

In sum, while it has been widely noted and is undeniable that Qiu Chuji and his northern Quanzhen tradition drew significant inspiration from the Chan tradition (as did the Nanzong tradition of Chen Nan and Bai Yuchan), his theory on respiratory suspension, circulatory suspension and "complete cessation" also finds precedents and parallels within the lore and theories of Daoists prior to him and during his time. His theory, whatever its ultimate source was, was in its specifics different from anything we know of in received Buddhist literature. In the Quanzhen and Nanzong traditions of Qiu Chuji's time, and even more so in the Quanzhen Longmen tradition of the late Ming, the suspension and breathing of pulse—the Trance of Complete Cessation—would be emphasized in a way and to a degree unknown in Buddhism.