THE EIGHT IMMORTALS OF THE TAOIST RELIGION 59 



of asceticism, die like ordinary men. Through what is 

 known as the "dissolution of the corpse P &? " the soul or 

 the spirit, phoenix-like rises into immortality. Henceforth 

 they become genii and frequent the mountain habitations. 

 When they have special missions on earth, they resume 

 human form with material equipments. But essentially 

 they are immaterial, an existence not dissmiliar from the 

 Hebrew conception of the angels. In fact they have many 

 of the qualities attributed to angels. This theory is affirmed 

 by the chief of the Eight Immortals Li-Tieh Kwai, ^ t$L 38 

 who was supposed to have died, and his body to have been 

 cremated by his disciple. 



This idea of immortality, however, is of more remote 

 origin than Taoism itself. As early as the twentieth century 

 B.C., we have accounts of emperors making sacrifices to 

 their deceased ancestors whose spirits were supposed to be 

 among them, controlling their welfare. But they were never 

 represented as having any of the magical elements which 

 later accrued to the theory due to Taoist influence. The 

 Taoists took up the idea and elaborated it, and made the 

 decided contribution of the spirits of genii being able to 

 return to the world, and to appear in the forms they used 

 to wear, and to do wondrous works. 



The second theory maintains that the genii do carry 

 away their physical body with them. In the Chinese lan- 

 guage, the genii are those who ever exist without getting old, 

 M fill ~& 3*. It is the same body, blood and flesh which 

 passes into the immortal state. A certain miraculous meta- 

 morphosis has taken place in the body as the result of quaf- 

 fing the mysterious draught, or swallowing the herbaceous 

 pills, and it never becomes old. The genii are men or women 

 alike a thousand years after their getting immortality with 

 the same physique and facial expressions and countenance. 

 In fact they are always represented as comely looking, robust 

 in health, and having the complexion of an infant. Though 

 their body is matter or matter metamorphosed, yet they can 

 rise above the clouds and wander without limitation. Here 

 is much resemblance between the genii and the Christian 

 belief of the risen Christ. Becoming genii is a kind of 

 resurrection carrying away the flesh spiritualized. This 

 theory is confirmed by the tradition that Hwang Ti, the 

 reputed first historical emperor of China 2697 B.C. ascended 

 to heaven in human form on a dragon at a place called 

 Ting-Hu ft W at the foot of the Ching mountains ffl III * 

 Taoist books on genii abound in accounts of persons who. 



* Tzu Yuan. 



