Zixu Shangren 紫虛上人

In Chapter 62 of the Romance, when Xuande (Liu Bei) takes Fushui Pass by surprise, Liu Zhang, greatly alarmed, asks his civil and military officials for a plan to drive back the enemy and, on Huang Quan's advice, gives Liu Gui, Leng Bao, Zhang Ren and Deng Xian a great army of fifty thousand and has them march through the night to hold Luo County. On the march Liu Gui says that deep in Mount Jinping there lives a remarkable man whose Taoist title is Zixu Shangren and who knows men's life and death, high and low station, and suggests that they go and consult him; Zhang Ren replies that a true man leading troops against the enemy has no business consulting a man of the hills and wilds. Liu Gui does not give way, saying that the sage taught that 'the way of perfect sincerity makes it possible to know things in advance.' Romance, Ch. 62 §27–28

The four men lead fifty or sixty horsemen to the foot of the mountain and ask a woodcutter the way, then climb to the high summit he points out and come before a hermitage. A Taoist acolyte comes out to greet them, asks their names and leads them inside, where Zixu Shangren is seated on a rush cushion. When the four bow down and ask about their future, Zixu Shangren says that he, a poor Taoist, is a useless man of the hills and wilds, so how could he know good fortune from ill? Romance, Ch. 62 §29–30

When Liu Gui bows again and again and presses him, Zixu Shangren has the acolyte bring paper and brush, writes eight lines and gives them to Liu Gui: 'Dragon on the left, phoenix on the right, they fly into Xichuan. The young phoenix falls to the ground; the sleeping dragon rises to heaven. One gained and one lost—so Heaven's decree has it. Watch for the moment and act, and do not lose your life in the Nine Springs.' Romance, Ch. 62 §30

When Liu Gui asks further what the fortunes of the four of them will be, Zixu Shangren says, 'Fixed destiny is hard to escape—why ask again!' When Liu Gui tries to ask once more, he lets his eyebrows droop and closes his eyes as if asleep, and gives no answer at all. After coming down the mountain, Liu Gui says that the words of an immortal cannot be disbelieved, while Zhang Ren, asking what good it would do to heed the words of a mad old man, mounts his horse and rides on. Romance, Ch. 62 §30–31

On reaching Luo County, the four generals decide that Leng Bao and Deng Xian will set up two camps sixty li from the city while Liu Gui and Zhang Ren hold the city of Luo. The Romance does not bring Zixu Shangren on stage again after this, nor does it return to his eight lines. In Chapter 63, however, Pang Tong, hearing that the place is called Luofengpo (Slope of the Fallen Phoenix), says, 'My Taoist title is Fledgling Phoenix, and this place is called the Slope of the Fallen Phoenix; it bodes ill for me,' and tries to pull his troops back, but dies beneath a storm of arrows. Romance, Ch. 62 §32Romance, Ch. 63 §15–16