reign of Tang, he began to reveal the mystery of his birth. From the place of perfect purity and constant reason, he received the essence of the sun; and transforming its five colours, he formed a ball as large as a bullet. At that time Yu-niu, [the precious woman,] was at noon day sleeping, and on receiving the ball in her mouth, swallowed it. Hence she conceived. She was pregnant eighty-one years, till the ninth year of Wu-ting, on the day Keng-shin, when the left side of Yu-niu opened, and she bore a son from under her ribs. When born, his head was white; his name Sao-tsi, [old child-sage.] He was below a Si [plumb] tree:—pointing to the tree he said, "That Si is my surname."
From the ninth year of Wu-ting, in the dynasty Yin, in the year of the cycle Keng-shin, in the ninth year of king Chao, of the kingdom Tsin—a space of 996 years, he remained in the world. Then in the west ascended the hill Kuen Lun, [the abode of immortal spirits.]
The work of Si-she-so, called Po-wo-shi, says, "In the third year of Wu-te,
