Ye Qingxuan was born into a poor family and spent his days caring for his frail mother, making a living by copying books and studying the Mohist mechanical arts his father had left behind. He had never imagined cultivating immortality. Only when his mother became critically ill and he set out in search of medicine did he discover that cultivation in this world was never about becoming “unfeeling” to attain the Dao.
Confucian benevolence, Daoist naturalness, Mohist impartial love, and Buddhist compassion are all found in everyday life. The bonds of family, the steadfastness of friendship, the redemptive power of love, and the suffering of all living beings are all foundations of the Dao-heart.
He has no heaven-defying treasures, only a book called The Essentials of the Study of the Mind, which lets him overcome tribulations through emotion. There is no shortcut to ascension; he can only cultivate step by step while carrying the joys and sorrows of human life with him. From poor scholar to Sage of the Path of Emotion, Ye Qingxuan spends his life proving that immortals are not aloof beings who have transcended the mortal world. They are ordinary people who hold on to their mortal hearts and shoulder the burdens of all living beings, tempering their Dao-hearts amid everyday life and attaining the Great Dao through emotional trials.
This is a cultivation journey paved with domestic warmth and worldly affairs, and an epic of human life in which one proves the Dao through emotion and transforms people through the Dao.
