CERAMIC ART IN CHINA. 373 



Chau<r Kuo is said to havf flourished tuward the close of the sexeiith and 

 middle of the eighth eenturv. Leading an erratic life, he performed 

 woiidi'rful feats of necromancy. His constant companion was a white 

 mule which I'ould c-arry him thousands of miles in a single day, and 

 which, when he halted, he folded up and hid away in his wallet. 

 When heagain recjuired its services, he spurted water upon the packet 

 from his mouth and the animal at once resumed its i^roper shape. 

 According to Taoist legend, the Emperor Hsiian Tsung, of theT'ang 

 dynasty, repeatedly urged him to visit his court and assume a 

 priestly office there, but the ascetic wanderer rejected every offer. 

 He is reputed to have entered immortality about 740 A. D. without 

 suffering bodily dissolution. He is usually represented conjuring 

 his nuile from a wallet or gourd, or holding an instrument of music. 



Lii Tung-pin said to have been born A. D. 755. While holding oflice 

 at Te-hua, in modern Kiangsi province, he is reputed to have met 

 Chung-li Ch'iian (see ante) among the Lu Mountains, and was 

 instructed by him in the mj'steries of alchemy and the magic formula 

 of the elixir of life. Having expressed a desire to convert his fel- 

 low-men to the true belief, a series of temptations, ten in number, 

 was imposed upon him as a preliminary. These he successfully 

 overcame, and was thereupon invested with the formulas of magic 

 and a sword of supernatural power, with which he traversed the 

 Empire during a period of four hundred years, slaying dragons and 

 ridding it of various kinds of evils. In the twelfth century temples 

 were erected to him under the title of Ch'un Yang. Like Chung-li 

 Ch'iian, he is usually depicted as of martial bearing, armed with a 

 sword. 



Of Ts'ao Kuo-ch'in little is known. He is reputed to have been the son 

 of Ts'ao-pin, the great military commander, who largely contributed 

 to the establishment of the Sung dynasty upon the throne of China, 

 and the brother of the Empress Ts'ao of the same dynasty. He 

 would thus have lived in the eleventh century. He is usually 

 represented as a military officer, holding a pair of castanets. 



Li T'ieh-kuai, or T'ieh-Kuai-Hsien-Sheng, ;. e., "Li of the Iron Staff," 

 or "the gentleman of the Iron Staff." His birth is assigned to no 

 precise era; his name, however, is stated to have l)een Li, and he is 

 described as of commanding stature and of dignified mien. He was 

 entireh' devoted to the study of Taoist lore, his instructor having 

 been the philosopher Lao Tz'u himself, who for that purpose 

 descended at times from Heaven and at others summoned his pupil 

 to his celestial abode. "On one occasion, when about to mount on 

 high," saj-s the legend as given by Mayers (No. 718), "at his pa- 

 tron's bidding the pupil, before departing in spirit to voyage through 

 the air, left a disciple of his own to watch over his material soul 

 (/>'o), with the command that if, after seven days had expired, his 

 spirit {Imn) did not return, the material essence might l)e dismissed 

 into space. Unfortunately at the expiration of six days the watcher 

 was called away to the deathbed of his mother, and, his trust being 

 neglected, when the disembodied spirit returned on the evening of 

 the seventh day it found its earthly habitation no longer vitalized. 

 It therefore entered the first available refuge, which was the body 

 of a lame and crooked beggar whose spirit had at that moment been 

 exhaled, and in this shape the philosopher continued his existence, 

 supporting his halting footsteps with an iron staff." Li T'ieh-kuai 



