Chinese Occult Texts

In 213 BC, Ch’in Shih Huang Ti, the first Emperor of China ordered the destruction of all books throughout the Eighteen Provinces. This act was largely an attempt to rein in the literati so that they would not be able to contradict the new Emperor by citing precedent. The only books to escape the burning were texts on agriculture, medicine, construction and divination; even the writings of Confucius were not spared from the flames. While copies of the destroyed books were maintained in the royal library, this repository was itself unintentionally destroyed in the succession by the Han Dynasty.

Chinese texts pre-dating 213 BC have been re-compiled from hidden copies which suffered as they were moved from hiding place to hiding place, or were re-written from the memories of aging scholars. Such works are liable to be flawed and their methods untrustworthy, especially when it comes to knowledge of the Mythos; in fact, during the Song Dynasty, some books, considered imperfectly restored, were again consigned to the flames. Some original fragments have survived in the form of weather-beaten scraps but, by their fragmentary nature, are probably more dangerous and obscure than their use warrants, as the Keeper desires. New spells are designated by an asterisk: detailed explanations of these will be posted later.

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Bai Ze Tu

According to legend, the ‘Yellow Emperor’, Huang Di, performed all manner of wild tasks before flying off to Heaven on the back of a dragon (or perhaps, partly turning into a dragon for this purpose himself). One of his achievements is the writing of the mythical book, the Bai Ze Tu.

After capturing the monster Bai Ze atop Mount Dongwang, Huang Di forced the creature to describe all 11,520 types of monsters, shapeshifters, demons and other spirits that existed in the world and tell how to deal with them. Huang Di instructed his retainer (who accompanied him on this mission) to write all the information down, accompanied by pictures and this became the Bai Ze Tu.

After the Burning of the Books by Ch’in Shih Huang Ti in 213 BC and later, the destruction of his libraries at the beginning of the Han period, all record of this work disappeared and it is considered a lost book, or at least, an apocryphal one. The Keeper has the option of leaving things in this state if they wish, or else finding a copy could form the basis of an adventure in itself (in which case a SAN cost of 0/1 might be applicable for finding a copy at all!).

Chinese; attributed to Huang Di, pre-Warring States Period; No Sanity loss (or 0/1, see above); Occult +15 percentiles

Spells: None

The book would be immense, taking the form of a large rolled scroll (or series of scrolls) or else a folded, zig-zag panorama, profusely illustrated on both sides and bound between two boards of pear wood or tortoise shell. If the Keeper wished to make this work a suitable entrée to a Chinese campaign (making some obvious connexions about ‘Yellow Emperors’ and ‘Kings in Yellow’ for instance), this could be a major Mythos tome with the following attributes:

Chinese; attributed to Huang Di; pre-Warring States Period; Sanity loss: 1d4/1d8; Occult +8 percentiles; Cthulhu Mythos +8 percentiles; average 24 weeks to study and comprehend;

Spells: Contact Dimensional Shambler; Contact Flying Polyp; Contact Ghast; Contact Ghoul; Contact Hound of Tindalos; Contact Lloigor*; Contact Mi-Go; Contact Serpent Person; Contact Star Vampire; Enchant Taotie*; Lantern of the Fire Crows*; Rebuke Taotie*. Some kindly Keepers may wish to include some Summon/Bind spells for these creatures, as well as a range of spells for exorcising ghosts, or dealing with werewolves, or similar, if they see fit.

Baopuzi

The workbook of Chinese alchemist Ge Hong (AD 283 - 343); Baopuzi was a pseudonym which he often used. Written in the 3rd Century BC, this work is, in the main, a description of Lao Tze’s travels in the western districts and hinterlands of China and his successful conversion of the barbarians there to his way of thought. Along with this history are many instructions for the manufacture of talismans and charms, useful for protecting the traveller or for attracting fortune. These magical trinkets are said to be very efficacious in scaring off wild animals or bandits, exorcising ghosts, warding demons and detecting gold.

NB: This may be an expurgated or poorly translated version of the Pao Pu Tzu by Ko Hung (in fact, it’s obvious from the Romanisation of the Chinese that they are, at the least, very similar). Many of the stories and parables concerning Lao Tze are included in that other work and all of the spells listed here are included also. Baopuzi would seem to be an edited version, corresponding more closely with Taoist talismanic magic.

Chinese; Ge Hong, circa AD 315; Sanity loss: 1d2/1d4; Occult +8 percentiles

Spells: Enchant Coin Sword*; Enchant Taotie*; Golden Mantra*; Harmonious Chimes of the Bhodisattvas*; Lantern of the Fire Crows*; Octagonal Mirror of Fortune*; Octagonal Mirrors of Scrying*; Powerful Sutras of Kuan Yin*; any or all of the T’ai p’ing t’ao*

Book of Zhuang Zi

“...An immortal hermit with skin like ice, and gentle and shy like a young girl. He does not eat the five grains, but sucks on wind, drinks dew, climbs up on clouds and mist, rides a dragon and wanders beyond the four seas.”

-Zhuang Zi

A Taoist tract dating from the fourth century BC; it is noteworthy in that it describes the state of a person who has attained immortality. Ch’in Shih Huang Ti placed much faith in this text in his quest to attain eternal life, especially the ability of an immortal, through a concentration of spirit, “to protect creatures from sickness and disease as well as ensure good harvest”. It describes three classes of Immortals: Celestial Immortals who were able “to raise their bodies and souls high into the sky”; Terrestrial Immortals who inhabited the mountains and forests; and Corpse-free Immortals, who were able to slough off their bodies after death. It is likely that Ch’in Shih Huang Ti was attempting to become one of these last through the geomantic mysticism of his great tomb of terracotta warriors.

Chinese; Zhuang Zi, 4^th Century BC; Sanity loss: 1d6/1d8; Occult +6 percentiles

Spells: Contact Lloigor*; Divide Spirit & Flesh*; Elixir of Warriors*; Form of Air*; Ghost Gold*; any or all of the T’ai p’ing t’ao*

Chou-i t’san t’ung ch’i (‘Commentary on the I Ching’)

The oldest known work on Chinese alchemy, the text attempts to correlate the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching with known chemical compounds and discusses the combinations of these into more powerful mixtures with the ultimate goal of discovering an elixir of immortality. The theory is based mainly on the hopeful assumptions of numerological juxtapositions and has only the most tenuous connexions to chemical theory; however several important compounds such as sal ammoniac (ammonium chloride) and gunpowder are discussed.

Chinese; Author & date unknown; Sanity loss: 0/1d2; Occult +4 percentiles

Spells: Divination*

Honglou Meng (‘The Story of the Stone’, ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ or ‘A Dream of Red Mansions’)

In the waning days of the Ching Dynasty, no other novel impacted so forcefully upon the Chinese psyche as much as this bittersweet work by Tsao Hsueh-chin. The author began writing it after falling on impoverished times and it circulated in manuscript form, unpublished for many years, until a fan finished it off and donated the funds to finally have it printed. It concerns the lives of a group of young women and their male cousin who retire from the world into an idyllic garden, dotted here and there by poetically-named pavilions. There they court each other in an attempt to find ‘spiritual love’. Chief among these lovers are the frail and tragic maiden, Lin Tai-yu and the prodigal son, headstrong Chia Paoyu. Their relationship is ultimately doomed by the intervention of their families: Chia Paoyu is married off to another woman and Lin Tai-yu dies of grief.

While focussing on this doomed romance, the work is set against a harshly critical sketch of life under the Manchu overlords: the greed and corruption of the Court and the Government are heavily underscored. The Han peoples are portrayed as subtle manipulators of the failing Ching rulers, exploiting the bureaucracy for their own ends: it is little wonder that the novel made the Manchu Court nervous.

The book was a firm favourite of Shanghai’s courtesans and they used it as a model for the conduct of their profession: each would adopt the role of one of the female characters of the novel and meet their customer in that guise; having no other option, the men would invariably be cast as the romantic rebel, Chia Paoyu. Thus the tenor of the liaison would be set and the players would quote lines from the novel, re-enact scenes from it, or simply indulge in the sensuous pastimes of the book’s characters. The gentility and wit of the story created a complete context for the courtesans and their customers, even down to the ‘tragic end’ of the inevitable parting.

Chinese; Tsao Hsueh-chin (and Kao Ngo); 1791; No Sanity loss; Occult +1 percentile

Spells: None

I Ching

The I Ching, or ‘Book of Changes’, is one of the five noble books of Confucian thought. Legend has it that the Yellow Emperor derived the I Ching from observing the markings on the shell of a turtle while he was bathing in a river. The combinations of broken and unbroken lines led him to write 64 prophecies based on the interpretations of these sequences. Each series of lines (or hexagram) is composed of six stacked horizontal bars comprising yang lines (unbroken) or yin lines (broken), with a gap in the centre. These hexagrams fall into two different camps: either ‘fixed’ or ‘moving’, according to the interpretation. Contemplation of these 64 verses is said to aid in the process of attaining enlightenment and to allow the philosopher to better evaluate the world and his place within it. The writing is dense and abstruse, with a multiplicity of interpretations.

However, given the possibility of generating the hexagrams by ostensibly arbitrary systems, people came to believe that the book was a means of divination. Originally, yarrow stalks were tossed from a bamboo container and the way they fell determined which hexagram was pertinent to the questioner’s predicament. This mode of random determination was later replaced during the Han Dynasty by the better expedient of tossing six coins to determine the appropriate hexagram; the corresponding verse was thought to be pertinent to the questioner’s situation. Strict Confucians disdain this use of their sacred text as they believe that a person’s destiny depends upon their own good conduct and not upon outside forces; the divinatory use of the book became strictly a marketplace service peddled to the peasant Chinese...and to gullible foreigners.

In one of his rare scholarly moments, Aleister Crowley translated the I Ching into English complete with annotations designed to make the work relevant to his Thelemite theories of ‘magick’. It appeared in his esoteric publication “Equinox”, but was not published in a standalone format until 1974. Unlike many of his other translations, it fortunately does not attempt to ‘improve’ too much upon the original text.

Chinese; attributed to Huang Di; pre-Warring States Period; No Sanity loss; Occult +8 percentiles

Spells: None

English: Yi Ching; Aleister Crowley (trans.), 1974; No Sanity Loss; Occult +5 percentiles

Spells: None, unless the Keeper deems otherwise and feels that there’s any substance to Crowley’s crapulence.

Jiu Yang Zhen Jing (“Nine Yang True Classic”, or “Nine Yang Manual”)

Like Mishou, this is a mystical martial arts manual, revealing the esoteric and exoteric underpinnings of the philosophies behind those arts. Along with the Jiu Yin Zhen Jing (see below) it comprises a complete philosophical overview of the entire body of martial fighting; this text however, only explores the philosophical rationales behind the “hard” styles of combat, for example the Tiger, Leopard and Mantis forms.

Like the Mishou, excerpts of the original text have been separated out from the main work and distributed by dedicated students and other practitioners; it is extremely rare to encounter the entire text although rumours as to its whereabouts circulate wildly. As with most derivative transliterations, their efficacy is questionable, usually due to hidden agendas, misreading, and poor copying practises.

Chinese; unknown author and date; Sanity Loss 0/1D4; Occult +10 percentiles; Martial Arts +15%

Spells: Binding Steel*; Buddha’s Tears*; Elixir of Warriors*; Powerful Sutras of Kuan Yin*; Sword of Shang-ti*; War Drums of Lei-kung*; Ward of Steel*; any or all of the T’ai p’ing t’ao*

Jiu Yin Zhen Jing (“Nine Yin True Classic”, or “Nine Yin Manual”)

Like the Jiu Yang Zhen Jing, this text is an overview of the mystical traditions which underlie the codified teachings of martial arts in China, specifically those styles of fighting which depend heavily upon the practitioner’s qi, or spirit, often referred as the “soft” styles of combat.

As with its partner volume, extracts and quoted excerpts may be unearthed with some difficulty; finding the complete text is the basis of a quest unto itself. Interestingly, this volume is the source of legends surrounding the infamous ability to kill one’s enemy with the lightest touch, sometimes referred to as Dim Mak, the “Touch of Death”, rumoured to be the cause of Bruce Lee’s untimely demise.

(Source: Louis Cha, The Condor Trilogy)

Chinese; unknown author and date; Sanity Loss 1/1D6; Occult +10 percentiles; Martial Arts +10%

Spells: Distillation of the Elements*; Divide Spirit and Flesh*; Form of Air*; Harmonious Chimes of the Bodhisattvas*; Summon Dragons of Rain*; Touch of Yen Wang-yeh*; any or all of the T’ai p’ing t’ao*

Liao Chai Chih I (‘Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio’)

This is a kind of Taoist Arabian Nights written by Pu Sung-ling in 1679. It contains literally hundreds of stories involving spirits, demons, Taoist sorcerers and their interactions with humanity. Pu Sung-ling himself was too poor initially to print the work after its completion but it circulated in manuscript form for many years until one of his sons managed to amass the money needed for a print run; thereafter, it has remained in print and Pu Sung-ling has become renowned as the ‘Hans Christian Anderson of the East’. A 16-volume octavo edition of the Liao Chai Chih I was released in 1842 and Herbert Allen Giles translated 164 of the tales into English under the title Strange Tales from Ancient China.

Chinese: Liao Chai Chih I; Pu Sung-ling, 1679; No Sanity loss; Occult +3 percentiles

Spells: None

Chinese: Liao Chai Chih I, 16 volumes; Pu Sung-ling, 1842; No Sanity loss; Occult +3 percentiles

Spells: None

English: Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio; Herbert Allen Giles (trans.), 1880; No Sanity loss; Occult +1 percentiles

Spells: None

Mishou (‘Secret Hands’)

A martial arts tract compiled by Fu Ju (1203-1275), an abbot of the Shaolin Temple. He issued an invitation to eighteen kung fu masters to come to the temple and refine their respective martial arts forms. All these techniques were written down in this text which was then handed over to a Taoist priest named Shen Xiao for editing and safekeeping. The material was processed through an occult synthesis and many roots of the mystical, inner natures of the various martial forms sprang from this transformation.

The text was subsequently lost and disappeared from view. Later, in the Ch’ien Lung reign, a much condensed version was published, dispensing with the esoteric material and focussing on the basic movements and stances of the various styles. This version was in turn broken up into many smaller pamphlets and books concentrating and building on particular styles. The original Mishou is probably lost forever, but its basic truths are still in the world.

Chinese; Fu Ju & Shen Xiao, exact date unknown; Sanity loss: 0/1d3; Occult +5 percentiles; Martial Arts +5 percentiles

Spells: Binding Steel*; Distillation of the Elements*; Form of Air*; Ward of Steel*; any or all of the T’ai p’ing t’ao*

Monkey!

First published during the Yuan Dynasty by Wu Ch’êng-ên, these are the bawdy, rollicking tales of the quest of the King of Monkeys to ascend to a position of worship within the Buddhist hierarchy. After failing to win admiration in the Courts of Heaven, he is punished by Buddha and trapped beneath a mountain for 500 years, to await release at the hands of a Buddhist priest – Tripitaka - who accepts him as a disciple in his quest to recover some ancient scrolls from a temple in India. They are joined by a pig spirit – Pigsy – and a water monster – Sandy – and they travel extensively, using their magic powers to overcome many opposing forces, from demons to dragons. The book is a gentle parodying of all three faiths - Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism - and reveals magical beliefs common to all three. The first English translation was by Arthur Waley in 1942; it was widely known by other sinologists before this but disregarded as a ‘low work’ or at best, a child’s book.

Chinese; Wu Ch’êng-ên, (date); No Sanity loss; Occult +6 percentiles

Spells: None

English; Arthur Waley, 1942; No Sanity loss; Occult +3 percentiles

Spells: None

Pao Pu Tsu

“The worldly man blindly toils for wealth and fame and judges others by himself, so that he never believes that the motives of the ancients were honourable.”

-Ko Hung

Believed to be the oldest complete book on Chinese alchemy, Pao Pu Tsu comprises two parts: the first - Nei P’ien, the ‘Inner Part’ – consists of twenty chapters and deals mainly with such issues as the elixir of life, longevity, immortality and the manufacture of gold; the second part – Wai P’ien, the ‘Outer Part’ – is fifty chapters long and outlines many talismanic and alchemical formulae, along with essays on the life of Lao Tze, politics, economics and social relations. Pao Pu Tzu is a name by which Ko Hung was known for a short time and this has given rise to the notion that the other book Baopuzi is an edited version of this same work.

Many of the obscure recipes for ‘life-extending elixirs’ contained in Nei P’ien are based on compounds of arsenic, or mercury in its crude state as ‘red sand’ or cinnabar: these are probably deliberately false, meant to weed out the less knowledgeable of students. It is likely that the work contains some coded information which only the most perceptive students would penetrate and which would lead to true chemical formulae.

Chinese; Ko Hung, 3^rd Century BC; Sanity loss: 1d4/1d8; Occult +12 percentiles

Spells: Divide Spirit & Flesh*; Elixir of Warriors*; Enchant Coin Sword*; Enchant Taotie*; Form of Air*; Ghost Gold*; Golden Mantra*; Harmonious Chimes of the Bhodisattvas*; Lantern of the Fire Crows*; Octagonal Mirror of Fortune*; Octagonal Mirrors of Scrying*; Powerful Sutras of Kuan Yin*; any or all of the T’ai p’ing t’ao*

Pen Ts’ao Ching

“What is there in the mountains?

A mass of fleecy clouds upon the summits,

Only to be enjoyed by myself.

It is not worth presenting to you.”

-T’ao Hung Ching

This work is largely a tract on natural history, focusing upon plants and minerals of the Chinese mainland, not all of them factual. The focus is upon the usage of these naturally occurring resources as elements in healing and alchemical processes. The original author is unknown and the work was widely read by Chinese alchemists as a fragmentary reference, much like a Western herbal. In the Ming Dynasty, the famous alchemist, T’ao Hung Ching, rewrote and renamed the work, updating it, codifying it and commenting upon its effectiveness. The result is a much more potent work of materia medica and contains one of the few non-Mythos references to the Black Lotus as well as discussing the creation of a Six Demon Bag (q.v.).

Fragmentary: Chinese; Author unknown, later Han Dynasty; Sanity Loss: 1/1d4; Occult +6 percentiles

Spells: Create Six Demon Bag* Elixir of Warriors*;

Chinese: Pen Ts’ao Kang Mu; T’ao Hung Ching, Ming Dynasty; Sanity Loss 1d2/1d6; Occult +8 percentiles

Spells: Brew Liao Drug; Buddha’s Tears*; Create Six Demon Bag*; Enchant Taotie*; Elixir of Warriors*;

Shih Chi

Only occult in the loosest sense, the Shih Chi or ‘Historical Records’ are a prime source for sinologists of all stamps. From the earliest dynasties of Chinese rule, it was thought appropriate that each ruler cause to be written a summation of his reign by an impartial arbiter. This court-appointed historian had the unenviable task of documenting the reign of his master for the benefit of later generations, a task that inevitably led to him being the target of suspicion by the occupant of the Dragon Throne.

A condition of the writing of these works was that no-one, not even the Emperor himself, could force the scrolls to be opened and read; their contents could only be revealed by the Emperor’s successor and, as such, were greedily perused for clues as to how the previous reign could be improved upon. Thereafter, the works became general knowledge, accessible by courtiers and students alike.

Chinese; Various Contributors, continuing from the Warring States Period; No Sanity loss; Occult +1 percentile

Spells: None

Shih I Chi

An ancient work of Chinese history which, apart from several other mythical and legendary instances, recounts the creation of eight copper, two-edged swords by the King of Kou Chien. These weapons each had magical abilities and were entrusted to a presumably mythical temple dedicated to an ancient god, K’un Wu. The first sword, if pointed at the sun, could cause it to go dark; the second could divide water so that it would not close up again; the third, if pointed at the moon, could render it invisible; the fourth sword could cause the instant death of any birds which flew towards it; the fifth, if submerged into the sea, banished all fish to the lowest depths until the next tide; the sixth was a sure prevention against all attacks by wandering spirits if drawn at night; the seventh sword caused all monsters to flee from the sight of it and the eighth sword could cut gold or jade as easily as water. Enough verifiable facts within the text have led many to believe that the temple and the swords were created and still exist (regardless of their magical claims) and many have set out in quest of them using this reference.

This work is not easily found and is becoming increasingly rare. Despite its relatively benign contents, there is a legend associated with the book that individual copies have deadly guardians which will inevitably cause the death of those who possess it. Not a lot of hard evidence to support this claim is available, however.

Chinese; Author & date unknown; Sanity loss: 0/1d3; Occult +2 percentiles

Spells: any or all of the T’ai p’ing t’ao*

Ts’an T’ung Ch’i

"The aspirant should study ... thoughtfully and thoroughly, viewing ... from all angles. A thousand readings will bring out some points, and ten thousand perusals will enable him to see. At last, revelation will come to bring him enlightenment. Careful study will open the door to the secrets. Nature's Tao shows no partiality, but reveals to all who are worthy."

A treatise on alchemy, specifically the attainment of longevity and immortality, written by Wei Po-yang who lived in the province of Kiangsi around the year 121 AD. At that time he was offered a high position at the Imperial Court; however, he turned down the privilege in order to keep pursuing his alchemical aims. In the epilogue of his magnum opus he states that he is "a lowly man from the country of Kuei, who has no love for worldly power, glory, fame or gains, who wastes his days leading a simple, quiet, leisurely and peaceful life in a retreat in an unfrequented valley."

Later commentaries reveal that he took three disciples and a dog into that valley to brew the “Pill of Immortality”. While convinced of the faithfulness of one disciple, he is said to have been less sure of the other two. After concocting his elixir, he said that he would first offer it to the dog: if the animal survived, then the potion would have worked; if the dog died, there was a chance that the death would be temporary due to the toxic ingredients of the Pill, but afterwards a restoration would take place. The dog died instantly.

At this point, Wei P0-yang declared that to not take the elixir himself showed deplorable lack of faith in that to which he had devoted his life; therefore he took the potion and died. The trustworthy disciple too, took the mixture and fell dead. The remaining two disciples decided not to drink and returned to their village, there to purchase coffins and funeral trappings.

However, Wei Po-yang, the faithful disciple and the dog, sloughed off their temporary deaths and awoke to immortality. Loitering long enough only to send the untrustworthy followers an “I told you so” letter via a passing woodcutter, they ascended to the Home of the Immortals and, presumably, reside there to this day.

Chinese; Wei Po-yang, circa AD 150; Sanity loss: 0/1d3; Occult +5 percentiles

Spells: Divide Spirit & Flesh*; Ghost Gold*; Golden Mantra*; Buddha’s Tears*; Powerful Sutras of Kuan Yin*; any or all of the T’ai p’ing t’ao*

Tan chin yao chueh (‘Great Secrets of Alchemy’)

The best known of the Chinese alchemical treatises, this is the work of Sun Ssu-miao (AD 581 - after 673). With a heavy emphasis on the use of mercury, sulfur, cinnabar and arsenic, the book outlines formulae for elixirs to attain immortality, cure several diseases and, amongst other beneficial results, create precious stones. Again, there was probably a cryptic element of the work which would lead to real discoveries for the more perceptive of readers.

Chinese; Sun Ssu-miao, circa AD 650; Sanity loss: 0/1d3; Occult +2 percentiles

Spells: Ghost Gold*; Buddha’s Tears*; Powerful Sutras of Kuan Yin*; any or all of the T’ai p’ing t’ao*

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