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Exemplarious translation:
＜太平廣記＞11.＜神仙＞11.＜泰山老父＞
泰山老父者，莫知姓字。漢武帝東巡狩，見老翁鋤於道旁。頭上白光高數尺。怪而問之。 老人狀如五十許人，面有童子之色，肌膚光華，不與俗同。帝問有何道術。對曰：「臣年八十五時，衰老垂死，頭白齒落。遇有道者，教臣絕穀，但服術飲水。并作神枕，枕中有三十二物。其三十二物中，有二十四物以當二十四氣，八毒以應八風。 臣行之，轉老為少，黑髮更生，齒落復出，日行三百里。臣今一百八十歲矣。」帝受其方，賜玉帛。老父後入岱山中。每十年五年，時還鄉里。三百餘年，乃不復還。
Fairies: The Old Father from Taishan Mountain (recorded in the encyclopedia Taiping Guangji)
Nobody knows the real name of the Old Father from Taishan Mountain. When emperor Han Wudi the Martial (r. 140-87 BC) came along during an hunting travel, he saw an old man working with a hoe besides the way. Over his head was a white gleam, several feet high. The emperor asked what wonderful event that could be. When the old man looked up, he seemed to be some fifty years old, but his face was fresh like that of a small boy, with a smooth and sleek skin. Again, the emperor asked and wanted to know what magic the old man used to look like this. The man said: "I am eighty-five years old, I am already weak and I will die soon, my hair is white and I have lost all my teeth. Once I met somebody experienced with magic, and he told me, to give up eating grain. I should better eat podophyllum and drink pure water. And he made me a magic pillar, containing thirty-two things. Twenty-four of these things corresponded with the Twenty-four Vapours, and the other eight poisons corresponded to the Eight Diseases. Following his advices, my aging became slower, black hair came out again, my teeth grow once more, and I was able to walk three hundred miles a day. I am now one hundred and eighty years old." The emperor got his receipt and bestowed him many jade and silk. Later, the old man went into the Taishan (Daishan) mountains. Every five or ten years, he came back to his home village, but more than three hundred years later, he did never come back again.
Translated by Ulrich Theobald.
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