60 THE EIGHT IMMORTALS OF THE TAOIST RELIGION 



passed into the immortal state in this manner. A parallel 

 to such belief is found in the Hebrew traditions of Enoch 

 and Elijah, both of whom having ascended to heaven with 

 their physical body. 



We will now take up the narration of the Eight Im- 

 mortals of the Taoists, the most popular of the hierarchy of 

 genii of that religion. In general, the belief in genii existed 

 in the Ts'in Dynasty two centuries B.C. In course of time 

 it flourished. The height of its popularity was reached in 

 the Yuan Dynasty 1206-1368 A.D. According to Chao Yih 

 a§ M in his book 1^ t& H # the legend relating to the Eight 

 Immortal personages as constituting a defined assemblage of 

 immortalised beings is traceable to no higher antiquity than 

 the period of this dynasty, although some, if not all of the 

 members of this group had been previously celebrated, and 

 venerated as genii. * 



The names of the Eight Immortals are as follow : 



1. LiT'ieh-kuai &$&$% 5. Ho Hsien-ku fa fill #£ 



2. Chung Li-Ch'iian & Kg fgg 6. Lii Yen S & 



3. Lan Ts'ai-ho M SR *n 7. Han Hsiang Tzu H M 3F- 



4. Chang Kuo 3£ £ 8. Ts'ao Kuo-chiu W M H 



II. 



The order of the Eight Immortals will be dealt with in 

 this treatise according to A Mission of the Eight Genii to 

 the East, with pictures, which forms the basis of the nar- 

 rative of the writer. Others have given a different order 

 which may be due to their regard for the Chinese mode of 

 arranging orders by official career and seniority in age. 

 Hence Chung Li-Ch'iian, a great general is first, Chang 

 Kuo-lao, the oldest, comes next; Han Hsiang-tzu and Lan 

 Tsai-ho are younger than the rest; while Ho Hsien-ku, the 

 youngest and a female, comes last. The order given in A 

 Mission of the Eight Genii to the East, according to the 

 times of their entering immortality seems to be more reason- 

 able. 



1. Li T'ieh-kuai $ ffi&. 



The Chief of the category of the Eight Genii was really 

 named Li Yuan, Tieh-Kuai being his pseudonym which he 

 named Li Yuan ^ ;£, T'ieh-Kuai being his pseudonym which 

 he assumed during his wanderings. No precise period is 

 assigned to his existence upon earth, though one tradition 

 placed him in the Yuan dynasty. He is represented to have 



*"W. F. Mavers : The Chinese Reader's Manual. 



