原文 Original Text

蓟达，字子训，齐国临淄人，李少君之邑人也。曾见比舍家抱一儿，从求抱之，失手而堕地，即死。其家素尊敬之，不敢有悲哀之色而埋之，谓此儿命应不成人，行已积日，转不能复，思之。子训因还，外抱儿还家。家人恐是鬼，乞不复用。子训曰："但取，无苦，故是汝儿也。"儿识其母，言笑如初。其家大惊。于是远近之人，皆谓蓟子训有起死之术。

Translation

Ji Da, styled Zixun, was from Linzi in the state of Qi — a fellow townsman of the famous alchemist Li Shaojun. One day he saw a neighbor carrying a baby and asked to hold it. His hands slipped. The baby fell to the ground and died.

The family had always revered Ji Zixun and did not dare show grief in his presence. They buried the child, telling themselves that perhaps this baby was fated not to grow up. But as the days passed, their sorrow deepened, and they could not stop thinking of their loss.

Ji Zixun returned. He brought the baby back from outside, alive. The family was terrified — "Is this a ghost?" they begged. "Please, we cannot use a ghost-child." Ji Zixun said: "Take him. There is no harm. This is your child."

The baby recognized its mother and laughed and cooed as before. The family was stunned. From that day, near and far, everyone said that Ji Zixun possessed the art of raising the dead.

👶 The Dead Child Motif In Chinese folk religion, the death of an infant is especially tragic because the child has not yet had a chance to accumulate karmic merit. Ji Zixun's ability to reverse this death is therefore not merely a magical trick — it is a cosmic intervention. He undoes what fate had decreed. The family's fear that the returned child might be a "ghost" (鬼) reflects a genuine folk concern: can a being that has died and returned truly be the same person? Ji Zixun's answer is reassuringly simple: yes.

The Ageless Man 不老之人

后子训去，人见之于长安东霸城。与一老公共摩挲铜人，相谓曰："适见铸此，而已近五百岁矣。"顾视见人而去，犹驾昔所乘驴车也。人见之呼曰："蓟先生小住。"子训行，若听徐步之，人马追之不能及。

Ji Zixun eventually left his hometown. Years later, people spotted him in the eastern part of Chang'an, standing before the great bronze statues of the Qin dynasty. He was rubbing the surface of one statue alongside an old man, and they were saying to each other: "We saw these being cast — and that was nearly five hundred years ago."

He noticed someone watching and turned to leave. He still rode the same donkey cart he had used decades before. A passerby called out: "Master Ji, wait a moment!" Ji Zixun kept walking. He seemed to be strolling at an easy pace, but no one — on foot or on horseback — could catch him.

⏳ The Bronze Men of Qin The bronze statues Ji Zixun touches are the famous "twelve metal men" (金人十二) cast by Qin Shihuang after unifying China in 221 BCE. By saying "we saw these being cast," Ji Zixun reveals that he is at least 500 years old. The detail is historically precise — the bronze men were a well-known landmark in Chang'an — and gives the tale a grounding in real geography that enhances its credibility.

Analysis 解读

Ji Zixun is a different kind of immortal from Magu or the Gourd Master. He does not dwell in celestial palaces or leap into gourds. He walks the streets of ordinary cities, rides a donkey cart, and talks to old men. His immortality is embedded in the mortal world — he is 500 years old, but he shops at the same markets, walks the same roads, and is recognized by ordinary people.

The power to raise the dead and the inability to age are presented as two aspects of the same quality: a detachment from the natural order. Ji Zixun does not obey the laws that govern ordinary beings. Babies die and return; bodies do not age; distances collapse when he walks. He exists in a parallel temporal stream, visible to the world but not bound by it.

Further Reading