Maming Sheng
He was a disciple of the transcendent and fangshi ("master of methods") Anqi Sheng, who transmitted a secret waidan external alchemical scripture to him.
Maming refined this elixir of immortality, but rather than take a full dose and immediately ascend to heaven, he only took half and lived for over 500 years as a secret dìxiān (地仙, "earthbound transcendent").
Furthermore, in Chinese Buddhism, Maming (馬鳴, "Horse-neigh") translates the name of the 2nd-century CE Indian Buddhist monk and polymath Aśvaghoṣa (from Sanskrit áśva अश्व, "horse" and ghoṣa घोष, "cry; sound"), so-called because when teaching the Dharma his words were intelligible even to animals.
Another source gives the revealed text's name as the Taiyang shendan jing (太陽神丹經, Scripture of the Divine Elixirs of Great Yang) (Penny 2008: 733).
He was born into a rich and highly placed family, but he had no fondness for glory and honor, instead devoting himself exclusively to the cultivation of arts of the Dao.
Having heard that Master Horseneigh [Maming sheng] possessed a Way to transcend the world [dushi 度世], Yin sought him out, and eventually obtained an audience.
Then he raised an altar facing west and bestowed on Yin the Scripture on the Divine Elixir of Grand Purity (Taiqing shendan jing 太清神丹經).
He was among humans for over three hundred years before finally, to the east of Level Metropolis Mountain, ascending to Heaven in broad daylight and departing.
Campany 2002: 274-275) For this "Green Citadel Mountain" (Qingcheng shan, 青城山), Mount Qingcheng (Dujiangyan City, Sichuan), some other sources give Qingtian shan (青天山, Green Heaven Mountain) (Campany 2002: 467) Besides the two Shenxianzhuan hagiographies, another set of traditions about Maming Sheng began to be recorded in the early 6th century.
It identified the "divine person on the road" who saved his life as Taizhen furen (太清夫人, "Lady of Grand Perfection"), named Wan (婉) and styled Bosui (勃遂), who was a high court official in the Three Heavens administration.
Maming learns the method of Taiqing jinye danjing (太清金液丹經, "Grand Purity Scripture on the Elixir of Potable Gold"), synthesizes the elixir on Mount Huayin, follows Anqi's instruction to take only a half dose in order to not ascend into the heavens at once, whereupon "he was no different from profane people, and no one realized he was extraordinary" (Campany 2002: 506).
During the reign of Latter Han Emperor Ling (168-189 CE), Grand Mentor Hu Guang (胡廣) heard that Maming had obtained the Dao, and inquired about the future of the dynasty—all of his predictions were eventually confirmed.
Later, when people started wondering about why Maming Sheng never seemed to age, in 180 or 181 CE (third year of the Guanghe 光和 era) he took the other half dose of the Daoist elixir and "ascended to the heavens in broad daylight" (Campany 2002: 506) Chinese Mǎmíng (馬鳴, "horse-neigh") is the name of both the transcendent Daoist master and the Sarvastivada Buddhist monk and author Aśvaghoṣa (c. 80-c. 150 CE).
The traditional biography of Aśvaghoṣa, which Kumārajīva (344-413 CE) translated into Chinese, has a story about when he lived in a central Indian kingdom that was besieged by the king of the Kushan Empire who demanded 300,000 gold pieces in tribute.
In Chinese Esoteric Buddhism, the Indian philosopher Nāgārjuna (c. 150 – c. 250 CE) is associated with techniques for divinations, spells, invisibility medicines, and sometimes with synthesizing Daoistic longevity-granting elixirs.
Together, the Nāgārjuna/Master Horse-neigh pair were considered as authorities on medicinal and alchemical recipes, as recorded in contexts of both Chinese Buddhism and Daoist Inner Alchemy (Steavu 2017: 442).
During the Tang dynasty (618-907), medieval texts began to depict the Buddhist patriarch Aśvaghoṣa as a local Chinese God of silkworms and sericulture.
When he left Vaishali to be reborn, all the horse people were overcome with emotion and cried out in grief, which is why he is "called 'Horse-neigh' (Aśvaghoṣa)."
