72 THE EIGHT IMMORTALS OF THE TAOIST RELIGION 



which is invisible but present everywhere. When that 

 moment comes to pass in which the family is scattered, and 

 the body is sent to perdition, you may not even 'bring a 

 yellow dog out of the east gate.' I am ashamed of it; I am 

 afraid of it." Thereupon he dispensed with all his wealth 

 in the form of alms to the poor, also he took farewell leave of 

 his family and friends, put on his Taoist garb, and alone- 

 spent the rest of his life in the mountains. In the course of 

 a few years, during which time he trained his spirit, and 

 purified his nature %. &> M t£ his heart became identified 

 with Tao, and his body vanished with his spirit. Once he 

 was visited by Chung and Tung-pin, who asked him what 

 he was about. He answered that he had no other intention 

 than to cultivate the Tao. The two visitors said "where is 

 Tao?" He replied by pointing to the sky. Again they en- 

 quired saying, "where is the sky?" He pointed to his heart, 

 and Chung-li smiled and said, "the heart is heaven, and 

 heaven is the Tao. You know the origin of things." He 

 was then introduced into the Class of the Immortals. 



The SI If BE supplies another tradition which will be 

 related in passing. Ts'ao was the son of the Prime Minister, 

 and brother of the Empress. From his childhood he had 

 been handsome, and of a taciturn nature, and was favoured 

 by the Emperor and the royal Consort. One day he begged 

 to be allowed to become a priest. This was granted with a 

 gold medal from the emperor as a keep -sake. On reaching 

 the bank of the Yellow Eiver, he was unable to pay his fare, 

 and he gave the ferryman his gold medal instead. This was 

 observed by Lii Sung-yen (Lu Yen) who took him to be a 

 disciple and he entered immortality. 



IV. 



It has been observed that the Eight Immortals as a 

 group were not mentioned earlier than the Yuan 7C Dynasty ; 

 and when mentioned it was in connection with a drama, 

 entitled "The Eight Immortals' celebration of Si-wang-mu's 

 IS 3E # birthday." The words run as follows: — 



The super-human beings were one day discussing how 

 they might do honour to Si-wang-mu or elsewhere called 

 Chin-mu ^ "BJ: on her birthday, she being chief of the female 

 genii or spirits as Lao-tzu was lord of the male ones. It was 

 agreed that a scroll should be their present, and at the 

 suggestion of Lli Yen they decided to have it written by 

 Lao-tzu. But it was quite a problem how to persuade 

 the Lao-kung ^g Q to condescend to attend to this task; 

 and Tieh-kuai, who was his former disciple, was entrusted 



