C4 THE EIGHT IMMORTALS OF THE TAOIST RELIGION 



Chung-li practised, according to the formulae. Suddenly 

 his apartment was filled with clouds of diverse colours, 

 music struck up, and a celestial stork called to him to ride 

 away to the region of immortality. Thenceforth he became 

 an Immortal, and we will later see how he transmigrated 

 Lu Tung-ping to this order. 



According to Mayers, Chung Li-Chuan was the first and 

 greatest in the category of the Eight Immortals, said to have 

 lived during the Chow Dynasty w T hen he attained to posses- 

 sion of the elixir of immortality. He appeared from time to' 

 time thereafter on earth as the Messenger of Heaven. 



3. Lan Ts'ai-ho W&m- 



This character has much been disputed about as regards 

 sex. According to Mayers, he is usually reputed to have 

 been a female. It is stated that she wandered about in 

 a tattered blue gown, with one foot shoe-less, wearing in 

 summer an inner garment of wadded stuff, and in winter 

 sleeping midst snow and ice. In this guise the weird being 

 begged a livelihood in the streets, waving a wand aloft and 

 chanting a doggerel verse denunciatory of fleeting life, and 

 its delusive pleasures. * 



The popular belief seems to show that only one of the 

 Eight was a woman, that is Ho Hsien-ku. Lan is always 

 represented as a stripling of about sixteen, bearing a basket 

 of fruits. According to A Mission of the Genii to the East, 

 he was the Eed-footed Great Genius # J9£p ^ fill incarnated. 

 Though he was a man, he could not understand how to be a 

 man, (that, perhaps is the reason why he has been supposed 

 to be a woman). He led a wandering life, carrying a musical 

 instrument of wood #i $£ , being two pieces of wood connected 

 by a string of more than three feet in length. When drunk, 

 he would rave like a lunatic uttering extempore rhymes, any 

 money he got he strung together, and either gave it to the 

 poor or spent it in liquor at the public-house. He was 

 often seen, but he never grew old. One day he was drinking 

 with Li T'ieh-kuai at W. Vk and they conversed about Tao. 

 Suddenly music was heard in the air and surmounting a 

 white stork he ascended on high. Twelve ballads of Lan 

 Tsai-ho are preserved in this work. A translation of the 

 second of these will give a glimpse into the nature of all. 



*W. F. Mayers : The Chinese Reader's Manual. 



