Chen Shouyi is the guardian of an unnamed Taoist temple deep in the Wushan Mountains. The temple has no statues or incense offerings, only faded murals on its walls: the Yellow Emperor asking Guangchengzi about the Dao, Yu the Great controlling the floods and dividing the land into nine provinces, and Celestial Master Zhang Tianshi exorcising demons at Mount Qingcheng. He has kept watch for ten years, until an ancient jade tablet engraved with the words “Mountains and Seas” appears.
A bald man from the Myriad-Character Dharma Wheel pursues him. Blood stains the jade, triggering a mechanism in the underground palace. There is no gold or silver inside, only a bloodstained scroll of the Cloud Cabinet’s Taoist Registers and a bronze compass engraved with the patterns of mountains and seas.
The moment Chen Shouyi touches the compass, his consciousness is pulled into five thousand years of Taoist history. He lives through the Yellow Emperor’s battle against Chiyou and witnesses Guangchengzi use the Dao to overcome ghosts and gods. He becomes a disciple of Zhang Daoling and experiences the founding of the Way of the Orthodox Unity Alliance. He passes through the Eastern Jin and the High Tang, seeing that behind the struggle between Buddhism and Taoism lies a deadly contest between China’s dragon veins and foreign faiths.
At last, he understands: The Classic of Mountains and Seas is not mythology, but Taoist history buried from view. Laozi’s journey west through Hangu Pass was not about “converting the barbarians”; it was about building the final barrier to protect China.
He has the legacy of five thousand years of Taoism and a life of only seventy years. Before he is forgotten, he must rekindle that flame.
Revere Heaven and honor the ancestors; respect the Dao and cherish virtue. This is the Dao engraved in the bones of the Chinese people.
