THE EIGHT IMMORTALS OF THE 

 TAOIST RELIGION* 



PETER 0. LING. 



Prefatory Remarks. 



It is a well-established fact that the Chinese, of all the 

 existing races of the human family, constitute the most 

 ancient nation on earth, having an historic existence of no 

 less than four thousand years. In an old people like this, it 

 is not wonderful to find an almost incredible amount of 

 myths, legends, and traditions. China is a land abounding 

 in legendary accounts which time immemorial has hatched 

 into shape. The majority of these are so obscured by hazy 

 antiquity, that it is futile to search into their genuineness 

 from an historical point of view. In such circumstances it is 

 wise to rest content with what tradition has to say, or what 

 vulgar literature has to yield, without persisting on their 

 historical accuracy. 



It is in this spirit that we are to make a quest into the 

 lives of the Eight Immortals, commonly known as the Eight 

 Genii of the Taoist religion in China. That they being men 

 once, and yet were immortal, points infallibly to the con- 

 clusion that they are creations or rather accretions wrought 

 by ages of time. 



The writer of the present treatise has made a thorough 

 attempt to investigate into the veritable lives of the so-called 

 Eight Genii, and has thus far obtained only a meagre 

 knowledge of them. Some dozen Taoist priests have been 

 consulted; but they unanimously show a reticence with 

 regard to the actual lives of these beings. What they can 

 furnish is only the names of the "Immortal Eight," the 

 belief that they were very happy beings, living a visionary, 

 ecstatic life in some region, preferably the high mountains 

 or some isolated island beyond the reach of man, or a vague 



*Mr. H. E. Hobson (late Commissioner of Customs) occasionally 

 offers the students of St. John's University a prize for the best essay 

 on some given isubject. Last year Mr. P. C. Ling's essay on the 

 Eight Immortals gained it. Mr. Ling is an undergraduate of the 

 University. — Ed. 



