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Translator's note:
I’m excited to present this translation of Ma Gu, another story from the 女仙 nüxian, Women Transcendents, section of the Taiping Guangji (太平廣記). I wanted to present a translation of this because it's full of fun stuff: dragons, fantastical clothing, a traveling kitchen and more! I once again translated with help from my tutor Glynis Jones. We used the text from ctext which can be found here.
Once I decided to translate this story I started digging into it more. I wanted to find more context and see if anyone else had translated the story. While I did not find another translation of Ma Gu, I learned that To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth: A Translation and Study of Ge Hong's Traditions of Divine Transcendents by Robert F. Campany contains a translation of a related text, Wang Yuan (王遠). This is an academic translation with a lot of introductory material, many footnotes, and comments after each story.
The Wang Yuan section of the TPGJ which Campany used as the basis for his translation is longer than Ma Gu, but contains a section that significantly overlaps the Ma Gu section of the TPGJ that is the basis for this translation. We were able to use Campany’s translation to help clear up some things that were confusing, and further understand the Daoist content of this story.
We also looked at some other versions of the Ma Gu story, including this rubbing, for additional context.
Thanks to Rae, and Anne for providing feedback on this translation in progress. And thanks to daemuth the coder of AOYeet which I used to format this into HTML.
Cast/Glossary
Cai Jing(蔡經): a student of Wang Yuan’s
Dou(斗): an unit of volume one dou = ten sheng or ~10 liter
Lin (麟): a mythical stag-like beast
Ma Gu(麻姑): a female transcendent, and associate of Wang Yuan
Penglai (蓬萊): a mythical island of transcendents
Sheng (升): a unit of volume ~1 liter
Wang Yuan (王遠) styled Fangping (方平): Transcendent who quit his job at court to go wander around
Xiao (簫): an end-blown flute
Zhang (丈): Unit of length, about 10 feet or three meters
Magu
In the time of Emperor Huan of Han (r146-168) there was a transcendent named Wang Yuan, styled Fangping. He descended to visit the household of Cai Jing. Before he arrived, the family heard the sounds of metal drums, xiao, people, and horses. When Wang Fangping reached the house everyone saw that he was wearing a cap from distant travels. He was dressed all in red, carrying a tiger’s head as a bag, with multicolored silk ribbons, and a sword at his belt.[1] He appeared to be middle-aged with a sparse yellowed beard. He rode a flying carriage, driven by five dragons, each a different color. Flying banners, segmented streamers, and flags led the way and followed after him. He was grand and majestic, like an important general.
The drummers and flutists all rode down from the sky on lin; they gathered in the air above the courtyard. They were each over a zhang tall, and did not walk following the path[2].
Just as they arrived, the officials all hid, and no one knew where they were. Only Fangping was visible. Jing’s parents and siblings all saw him. He sat alone for a long time even though people were visiting.
Jing’s family did not know who Ma Gu was.
[Fangping sent] a message that said, “I respectfully greet Ma Gu. I have not been among people for a long time. Now that we are gathered here, can you come talk to us for a short time?”
After a bit a messenger returned from afar. The messenger was not seen, only these words were heard. “Ma Gu pays her respects. Without my noticing, more than five hundred years have gone by since we last met. The honorable and lowly have their place, they cultivate honor not rank. I am troubling your messenger to come and carry this message. I climb the mountain and then come down, but first I have received a command, and must go to Penglai. Now I will go for a short while, and like this return. Afterwards I will meet you in person. I want to come.” Then the messenger left.
Four hours passed in this way, then Ma Gu arrived. The sounds of people, horses, xiaos, and drums preceded her arrival, as they had for Wang Fangping. She was followed by half as many officials as Fangping. Cai Jing’s whole family saw her arrive.
She was an appealing young woman, and appeared about 18 or 19 years old. She had a bun on the top of her head and the remaining loose hair hung down to her waist. Her clothing was covered in texts, but they weren’t made of brocade or lace[3] but shining multicolored silk that dazzled the eye–words could not describe it. She entered and paid her respects to Fangping, who respectfully rose to greet her.
After everyone was seated again, Ma Gu and Fangping beckoned forward a traveling kitchen. All the dishes were gold and all the cups jade; there were delicacies and rare foods, many made from fruits and flowers; the fragrant breezes wafted inside and out. They broke apart pieces of cured meat and feasted on it like Bai Ling[4]. The gathered transcendents reported that the four divinities[5] undertook the roasting. According to Bai Ling it was suitable to use them like mo. Roast mo is seen in Gan Bao’s In Search of the Supernatural.[6] The meat was announced as cured lin.[7]
Ma Gu herself said this: “Since I entered your service, I have seen the East Sea become fields and mulberry groves three times. When I was just at Penglai, the water was again shallow, coming halfway up the travelers meeting there. I wonder if the sea will return to hills and dry land once again.”
Fangping smiled and said, “The sages all say that the sea will once again become flying dust[8].”
Ma Gu wanted to see Cai Jing’s mother, sisters, and nieces. Cai’s younger brother’s wife had just given birth to a child a few days earlier. When Ma Gu saw her she knew this. Ma Gu said, “Alas, stop there and don’t come forward.”
Then she asked for a small amount of raw rice. When she received the rice she cast it and scattered it on the ground. When they looked at the rice, it had all changed to genuine pearls!
Fangping smiled and said, “Ma Gu is young and I am old, thus I no longer enjoy performing these crafty and cunning transformations.”
Fangping said to Cai Jing’s family, “I want to give you folks some ale[9]. This ale has just come from the celestial kitchen. Its taste is rich and strong, and it's not suitable for ordinary people to drink. Drinking it might cause their guts to rot. It should be mixed with water to make it more mild, it’s not strange to do so.” With that, he mixed one sheng of ale with one dou of water and presented one sheng to Jing’s family. After a long time, the wine was finished and Fangping said to his attendants, “There’s not enough, go far away and get some more.” He gave them 1000 coins and told them to find Madame Yuhang and request this ale. Soon the messenger returned having obtained one oil-bag of ale, about five dous’ worth. The messenger passed along Madam Yuhang’s words: “I fear that this earthly ale is not good enough for you to honor and drink.”
Also Ma Gu had bird claws [for hands]. When Cai Jing saw them, he thought,“My back itches often. If I could get her to use her claws to scratch my back, that would be great.”[10]
Fangping already knew what Jing was thinking, so he caused Jing to be led along and whipped. Fangping said to Jing, “Ma Gu is a divine person, how can you think that her claws can be used for scratching your back?!” The whip hitting Jing’s back could be seen, but not a person holding the whip.
Fangping told Jing: “I whip you so you don’t think such frivolous things.”
That day Cai Jing’s neighbor Chen Wei was taught to use a talisman to summon ghosts and demons, as a means to save governments and people from illness.
Cai Jing also made his escape via the path of molting, like a cicada.[11] Afterwards Jing always followed Wang Fangping, traveling mountains and seas.
Perhaps it happened that after a short time Jing returned home, and Fangping had another book to give Chen Wei. Much of it was written in seal script or perhaps perfected writ.[12] The writing was large, spacious and still. Chen Wei treasured it for generations.
After the feast, Fangping and Ma Gu ordered their carriages to drive into the sky and departed. The xiao and drums followed their path like before.
Bibliography
Bumbacher, Stephan Peter. “On the Shenxian Zhuan.” Asiatische Studien 54, no. 4 (2000): 729–814.
Campany, Robert F. To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth: A Translation and Study of Ge Hong’s Traditions of Divine Transcendents. University of California Press, 2019.
Geng, Qiongke, and Yongfeng Huang. “A Goddess with Bird’s Claws: An Exploration of the Image of Magu.” Religions 14, no. 7 (July 23, 2023): 944. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14070944.
“Magu (Deity).” In Wikipedia, November 13, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Magu_(deity)&oldid=1257089806.
McNair, Amy. The Upright Brush: Yan Zhenqing’s Calligraphy and Song Literati Politics. University of Hawaii Press, 1998.
Yan, Zhenqing. “麻姑仙壇記.” In The National Palace Museum Collection. Accessed March 10, 2025. https://digitalarchive.npm.gov.tw/Collection/Detail/24615?dep=P.
[1] Wang’s outfit is a sign of high office in the realm of transcendents
[2] Campany has here: “did not walk as humans do”
[3] The terms here are 錦 (jin) and 綺 (qi) which is hard to translate succinctly. Jin can refer to any kind of multicolored silk including woven and dyed patterns. Qi similarly refers to a variety of monochrome patterned silk, including brocade and lace. Both of these are very expensive and labor intensive fabrics.
[4] We weren’t able to find any other references to Bai Ling (柏靈) so we aren’t sure its a name, could also be translated literally as cypress spirit(s)
[5] This can refer to four mythical creatures (Dragon (龍) in the East, the Lin (麟) in the West, the Turtle (龜) in the North, and the Phoenix (鳳) in the South) or four divine emperors.
[6] “搜神記,” a fourth-century book of stories about supernatural beings.
[7] This bit is confusing! It’s not the version of this story that Campany translated, so I can’t get help m that. I think it's trying to justify eating Lin, which are sacred and not usually eaten. It’s a bit like eating a unicorn. I can't seem to make it make more sense.
[8] Daoist cosmology believed that landscapes changed over time and that seas could become land and then sea again, as in this passage.
[9] The term here is 酒 (jiu) which is more commonly translated as “wine”, but during this period would probably have been a low-alcohol grain-based drink, so “ale” seemed like a better translation.
[10] This literally says “When a back is itchy, if a person could use those claws to scratch it, that would be great.” So it’s unclear whose back is being scratched. Given what happens next Cai Jing’s back seems plausible, but it’s not definitive.
[11] Based on other accounts of Cai Jing this seems to be an unusual form of shijie (尸解), a process where a person seems to die but really becomes a transcendent.
[12] 真書, a celestial writing system that was impossible for ordinary mortals to read.
(no subject)
Date: 2025-03-13 03:34 am (UTC)And the seas turning to land and land to sea just me think of geological time, and how that does in fact actually happen.
(no subject)
Date: 2025-03-14 12:07 am (UTC)I also really enjoyed the footnotes. Thanks for sharing this!
(no subject)
Date: 2025-12-01 03:23 pm (UTC)