The Three Teachings Converge into One: The Path of the Mortal and the Saintly is the Same

Poetry:

The clouds of Langya lock the gate, and layers of illusionary arrays test the youth.

Without relying on sharpness, but on wisdom, one's mind understands the workings of nature and naturally comprehends the profound.

As Su Qingxuan followed Daoist Xuanqing up the steps, traversing the misty peaks of Langya Mountain. There, he saw gnarled pines and verdant cypresses, their branches twisting and turning, their canopies blocking out the sun. The mountain wind rustled through the trees, the sound of the pines like celestial music. Along the streams, exotic flowers and rare herbs exuded fragrance, dew clinging to the grasses, and moss covered the stones. The babbling brooks gurgled, their refreshing air invigorating. The stone steps, polished smooth by millennia of mist, were occasionally graced by the sight of cranes soaring overhead, their clear cries adding to the serene and otherworldly atmosphere of this Daoist mountain.

Master Xuanqing, dressed in a gray Taoist robe, moved with light steps. Sometimes he bent down to pluck the spiritual herbs by the stream, sometimes he looked up to point at the clouds in the mountains. His words were unrestrained and free, without the slightest air of a high-ranking person. Instead, he seemed like a carefree and playful old man from the mountains. He chatted with Su Qingxuan about the profound principles of Confucianism and Taoism, sometimes joking about the warm and gentle atmosphere of the Jiangnan water towns, and sometimes lamenting the desolate and bleak landscape of the northern frontier. He didn't seem like someone about to enter Qingxu Temple at all, but rather like a wandering immortal traveling with friends.

Reaching the mountainside, the clouds and mist suddenly thickened, obscuring the surrounding scenery completely; it became difficult to discern a person five steps away. Passing through a dense forest of ancient cypress trees, the view suddenly opened up, revealing a blue stone platform. Clouds and mist swirled in the center of the platform, as if a gate were hidden within, its upturned eaves appearing and disappearing—this was the location of Qingxu Temple. However, the temple gate was shrouded in layers of mist, making it difficult to distinguish between reality and illusion. Unlike ordinary Taoist temples, it seemed to be hidden within a dreamlike realm, exuding an aura of mystery and unfathomable power.

Su Qingxuan stopped on the bluestone platform and bowed to Daoist Xuanqing: "Daoist, is this Qingxu Temple?"

Master Xuanqing stroked his beard and smiled, his eyes narrowing slightly, a sly and mischievous glint flashing in them, completely devoid of the profound solemnity he had displayed during the earlier discussion. He paused deliberately, then his figure suddenly swayed, disappearing into the mist like a wisp of smoke, leaving not a trace of his presence, as if he had never been there at all.

Su Qingxuan was startled and quickly looked around. The clouds and mist were vast and the pine trees were silent. He was all alone and there was no trace of Daoist Xuanqing. He had cultivated Confucianism and Qi since childhood, and his hearing and eyesight were sharp. He had profound inner strength and could clearly perceive the chirping of insects and the movement of ants several feet away. However, he could not detect the Daoist's hiding place at all, which showed that the Daoist's cultivation was unfathomable.

Just as they were wondering, a gentle, ethereal voice came from all directions, seemingly from the clouds, from the forest, from their ears, and from their hearts. It was the voice of Master Xuanqing: "Young friend Su Qingxuan, I have set up a 'Three Talents Illusion Array' at the entrance of the temple. This array is based on the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and guided by the obsessions of the human heart. Illusions abound, making it difficult to distinguish between reality and illusion. Only those who break the array can see the true gate of Qingxu Temple; if you have any intention of retreating, you may leave now, and I will not stop you."

Upon hearing this, Su Qingxuan understood. The Daoist priest was not intentionally teasing him, but rather using the formation to test his Dao heart and enlighten his cultivation. He had come from afar to seek the truth and ask the Dao. Having experienced flood relief, burying dead in the border town, and discussing the Dao by the stream, his Dao heart had become even more steadfast. How could he possibly give up halfway and leave?

He immediately bowed towards the depths of the clouds and mist, his voice steady and clear: "Junior Su Qingxuan, aspires to seek the Dao and wishes to enter the formation to break the deadlock. I hope the Daoist Master will guide me."

As soon as he finished speaking, the clouds and mist in the center of the bluestone platform suddenly surged and swirled, transforming into a gate of light about ten feet wide. Within the gate, light and shadow shifted, and the atmosphere was obscure. Su Qingxuan no longer hesitated, shook his bag, and steadily stepped into the gate of light.

The moment he entered the formation, the surrounding scenery drastically changed. The celestial mountain mists vanished completely, replaced by towering, turbid waves, with surging floodwaters sweeping across the land. It was exactly the scene of the flood he had witnessed at Anfeng Dike: fields submerged, villages collapsed, tens of thousands of displaced people, their cries of hunger and cold echoing endlessly. The turbid waves crashed against the dike, as if they would swallow him up at any moment. In the illusion, the wind and rain were biting, and the waves pounded against his body, the sensation incredibly real. If it weren't for his unwavering Dao heart, he would have almost thought he had returned to the catastrophic flood.

Su Qingxuan's heart tightened, and he immediately activated the Confucian inner cultivation method. His righteous energy surged from his dantian, enveloping him in a warm, gentle light, attempting to dispel the illusion with his powerful internal force. But no matter how much he stirred his inner energy, the raging torrent continued to surge, the cries of the disaster victims remained piercing, and the illusion not only failed to dissipate but grew even more vivid. He recalled the method of using force to stop war in Hanshi Town, and with a light wave of his hand, his righteous inner energy transformed into a wave of air, striking towards the raging torrent. But the wave passed right through it, as if striking empty air, having no effect whatsoever.

He calmed his mind and used the principle of "investigating things to gain knowledge" to examine the illusions, observing the direction of the waves, sensing the breath of the wind and rain, and discerning the phantoms of the disaster victims, trying to find a flaw in the formation. However, this Three Powers Illusion Formation was based on the three powers of Heaven, Earth, and Man, and guided by the obsessions of the human heart. He was concerned about the suffering of the common people, and as his obsession arose, the illusions became more and more intense. No matter how hard he tried to examine them, resist them with his qi, or attack them with his martial arts, he remained trapped in the illusions of the flood and could not escape.

Before long, the illusion of the flood dissipated, and scenes of war and slaughter suddenly arose. The glint of swords in Cold Stone Town and the smoke of battle on the northern frontier appeared alternately. The fighting between the Green Bamboo Gang and the Crimson Tiger Hall, the ferocity of the Black Fiend Lord, and the tragic death of the garrison soldier Chen San flashed before his eyes. The sounds of weapons cutting through the air, the shouts of soldiers, and the cries of orphans intertwined, the stench of blood was pungent, and the killing intent was chilling. Su Qingxuan, with a Confucian heart upholding righteousness and a compassionate heart, tried to resolve the killing with his thoughts, but the illusions remained, haunting him and making it impossible for him to move an inch.

Immediately following, scenes of rampant plague and malevolent spirits appeared one after another: the eerie miasma of Anling Town, the summer heat epidemic of Pingchang Town, the eerie fragments in the ancient well, and the mournful cries of lonely souls in desolate villages. These images appeared in turn, chilling and corrosive, bewitching the mind and soul. Su Qingxuan tried his best, using mental techniques to nourish his qi, ancestral wood to soothe his soul, and copper seals to suppress evil. However, these illusions were neither evil spirits nor real objects, but rather manifestations of human obsession. The more he resisted, the stronger the illusions became, and he was unable to break the deadlock.

Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

Su Qingxuan sat cross-legged in the center of the formation, his clothes slightly damp from the illusory wind and rain. Though his face showed signs of fatigue, his eyes remained clear. For three days, he had racked his brains for a way to break the formation, trying everything from Confucian principles of investigation and knowledge to Daoist principles of emptiness, stillness, and simplicity, from martial arts and internal energy to the power of ancestral artifacts, but he still couldn't find the right approach. He gradually realized that perhaps this formation couldn't be broken by simply "breaking" it. His constant resistance, brute force attacks, and attempts to discern the truth were all clinging to "active" actions, which had only led him into the formation's trap.

On the morning of the fourth day, as a faint light appeared within the formation, Su Qingxuan closed his eyes and concentrated, trying to figure out how to break the formation. Suddenly, he felt the ancestral bronze seal he kept close to his body become slightly warm. The warmth was not a burning sensation, but a gentle and peaceful one, like the warm sun of spring, slowly seeping into his skin and flowing through his meridians to his heart.

In an instant, all the distracting thoughts in his mind vanished, all his obsessions dissipated, and his previously chaotic thoughts became clear and transparent, like the sun breaking through the clouds, like the calming waves of a cold pool. The "non-action yet nothing is left undone" and "following nature" spoken by Master Xuanqing in his three-day discourse on Taoism, the "impartiality and balance, neither excessive nor deficient" of the Confucian classic "The Doctrine of the Mean," and the "three teachings sharing the same origin, all laws returning to the heart" of the hermit in the rain, all intertwined and merged in his sea of ​​consciousness.

This realization further confirmed my previous thought: the Three Powers Illusion Array was not meant to be "confronted," but rather to be "followed." All things in heaven and earth have their own order of change, and the illusion of the array is also a natural evolution of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, just like the changing of the four seasons and the alternation of day and night. Forcibly breaking it is going against nature, and is an obsession and reckless action; only by seeing through the essence of the illusion, not clinging to the real and the unreal, not being trapped by joy or sorrow, following the flow of the array, acting according to one's heart, and going with the flow, can one escape the illusion.

The Taoist concept of "wuwei" (non-action) is not about passively avoiding the world or doing nothing, but rather about not acting recklessly or being attached to anything. It means grasping the laws of nature and following the way of things. It may seem like non-action, but in reality, it is all-encompassing. Similarly, the Confucian concept of "gewu zhizhi" (investigating things to attain knowledge) is not just about observing the form of external objects, but about observing things to understand the Tao, seeing the essence through appearances, seeing the true nature through illusions, and aligning one's true nature with the universe. This is the attainment of knowledge.

Having grasped this point, Su Qingxuan slowly rose, ceasing to circulate his inner energy, no longer deliberately observing, and no longer attempting to break the formation. He closed his eyes, relaxed his mind, letting the illusions within the formation flow freely, his steps moving at his own pace, following the spiritual energy channels of the formation, moving slowly forward. When encountering raging torrents, he traversed the waves; when encountering weapons, he sidestepped; when encountering plagues, he calmly accepted them, neither sad nor happy, neither resisting nor rejecting, like flowing clouds and running water, like a gentle breeze brushing against a mountain, completely in harmony with the natural flow of the formation.

In a short while, the surrounding illusions vanished, the clouds and mist slowly receded, and the bluestone platform reappeared before his eyes. Behind the platform stood an ancient and serene Taoist temple, its roof covered with blue tiles, its vermilion doors slightly ajar. Above the door were the three seal characters "Qingxu Temple," written with vigorous strokes and exuding Taoist charm—this was indeed the true gate of Qingxu Temple. The Three Realms Illusion Array had, through his "non-action" and compliance with nature, disintegrated without being attacked and dissolved on its own.

Su Qingxuan stood before the temple gate, his eyes sparkling with wisdom. His Confucian and Taoist aura became increasingly harmonious, and he had already grasped the true meaning of "doing nothing yet accomplishing everything" and "following nature."

Just then, Daoist Xuanqing's figure slowly descended from the clouds. He was still wearing that shabby gray Daoist robe, his hair disheveled, yet his entire being exuded Daoist aura, his eyes filled with astonishment and admiration. He strode to Su Qingxuan, his gaze landing directly on the boy's arms, his tone urgent and solemn: "Young friend, what exactly is hidden in your arms?"

Upon hearing this, Su Qingxuan reached into his robes and took out the small bronze seal. The seal was ancient and simple, with vigorous seal script. After ten thousand years, it was still warm and lustrous. The heat from breaking the formation had faded, and it had returned to calm, only faintly exuding an aura of harmonizing all things and stabilizing the three realms.

He bowed and replied, "This is an ancient seal passed down through my family, the Su family. Together with a piece of withered wood and a fragment of a Confucian classic, they are known as the three ancestral treasures of the Su family. I have always carried them with me. I only know that they were left by our ancient ancestors, but I do not know their specific origins."

Master Xuanqing took the small bronze seal, his fingertips lightly touching its surface as he examined it closely. He then probed the seal with his own Daoist energy, his eyes filled with even greater astonishment. He gently stroked the ancient seal script on the seal, and after a long while, he sighed softly before handing the bronze seal back to Su Qingxuan. His tone was profound: "This seal is no ordinary magical artifact, much less a common antique. I observe that its energy harmonizes the three realms (heaven, earth, and man), stabilizing the mind and dissolving attachments. It subtly aligns with the laws of heaven and earth, and implicitly possesses the power to unify all things. It is no coincidence that this seal resonates with your temperament and blends with the energy of Confucianism and Daoism. You must cherish it and study it carefully; a great opportunity will surely come your way in the future."

The Taoist priest spoke cryptically, not revealing the connection between the seal and the unification of the three religions or the secrets of the Su family's ancestors, only pointing out its extraordinary and profound nature, leaving it for Su Qingxuan to comprehend on his own. Upon hearing this, Su Qingxuan understood, knowing that this ancestral bronze seal contained a great secret, connected to the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth. He immediately and solemnly put away the seal, bowing respectfully to Taoist Priest Xuanqing: "This junior will remember the Taoist priest's teachings and will certainly study it carefully, so as not to fail this ancestral treasure."

Master Xuanqing stroked his beard and laughed heartily. He pushed open the vermilion gate of Qingxu Temple and stepped aside to let him pass: "Young friend, your Daoist heart is clear and your wisdom is extraordinary. You were able to suddenly comprehend the principle of non-action and naturalness within the formation and break my Three Powers Illusion Formation. This is truly rare. Now that the illusion formation is broken and the true gate is opened, please follow this old Daoist into the temple to study the profound principles of Confucianism and Taoism together and explore the path of the common mortal and the saintly."

Su Qingxuan nodded in agreement and steadily stepped into the Qingxu Temple's mountain gate. Ancient cypress trees stood tall within the temple grounds, incense smoke curled upwards, the halls were serene and tranquil, and the atmosphere was imbued with Taoist charm—a pure and peaceful place for cultivation was thus revealed before the young man. Having endured this trial by the illusionary array, his understanding of Confucianism and Taoism had deepened, his Taoist heart had become even more steadfast, and the harmonizing nature of the bronze seal in his bosom was beginning to manifest. In the future, as he sought to unite the three religions and explore the secrets of his ancestors, he would gain another subtle yet profound clue.

It is:

Illusory arrays may confuse the mind, but not the truth; by following the natural order and aligning with the Dao, one will naturally find the way.

The spiritual seal contains the intention of harmony, and Confucianism and Taoism can jointly comprehend the fundamental cause.