Introduction

Why would a Daoist write official documents to the Celestial Court? Why are there gods living inside the body? Why does a talisman look neither like writing nor like a picture? These questions may seem distant, yet they connect to how people in the past understood the body, ordered their world, and faced illness, parting, and fate.

I want to begin with questions like these and take you into the world of Daoism. We will start with an object, a gesture, or a story, then gradually understand the culture around it.

I. Why I Wrote This Book

I am Shixi Lin. My Daoist name is Lin Shiyi, and I belong to the fifteenth generation of the Wudang Sanfeng school, the generation named Shi. Writing and making things are ways I come to know the world, and I also value practical cultivation. I hope to bring what I have read and learned back into everyday life and experience it there.

Over the years, I have traveled alone across half of China and more than thirty countries overseas. I have learned amid different cultures, beliefs, and everyday lives, while continuing to study spiritual traditions of both East and West. The more I encounter, the more I find myself returning to particular people and events, asking where familiar accounts first came from and how they changed over time.

Writing this book continues that inquiry. When we think of Daoism, we readily think of immortals, talismans, alchemy, and longevity. I want to follow these familiar impressions further in, and look at what the people who left them behind read and did, and what hopes or hardships they were responding to.

II. From the Body to the Celestial Court

This book explores the gods within the body, practices for cultivating inner nature and life, and visions of becoming immortal. It also looks at talismans, ritual implements, and ceremonial steps that follow the stars, as well as the offices, documents, and order of the Celestial Court. We will meet historical and legendary figures, too, and see how the same name takes different forms in histories, Daoist writings, tales of the strange, and novels.

Some chapters begin with a character or an object; others follow the course of someone’s life. They share a concern with why these ideas and practices emerged, and how they entered people’s lives.

As I write, I will do my best to give the sources and contexts of these accounts, keeping documentary records, folk legends, and literary creations in their proper places. A story can remain moving, while the separate question of whether it happened in history is still worth asking.

III. Start with the Question That Interests You

You can read on through the contents, or open whichever chapter makes you most curious. Each begins with a concrete question. After reading, you can look back and see how it connects with the others.

When you come across an unfamiliar name or term, there is no need to memorize it right away. First follow the chapter to understand the context in which something happened, then get to know the ideas behind it. Reading a little more slowly may help reveal the original weight of these details.

I hope this book will stay with you as you ask one more question and look one layer deeper: from the body to the Celestial Court, from immortals on the page to people in everyday life, gradually getting to know this rich and enduring cultural world.