Tales of the Taoist Immortals (4 page)

The emperor tried again to invite Chang Kuo to the palace. This time he sent his personal secretary, along with a letter promising the Taoist that he would not be pressed into service. This time Kuo agreed to meet the emperor.

He entertained the emperor with his magic and told him stories of life in the immortal realm, but he never talked about himself.

After a while, the emperor got curious about Chang Kuo’s identity. He summoned his court diviner, a Buddhist named Yeh Fa-shan, and asked him, “What do you know about this man?”

Fa-shan replied, “My lord, I dare not disclose Chang Kuo’s identity, for if I do, I’ll die.”

“I will personally guarantee you will not die,” the emperor assured him.

Fa-shan then said, “If anything happens to me after I tell
you who Chang Kuo really is, you must take off your crown and your shoes and ask the lords of heaven to intervene and save me.”

When the emperor agreed, Fa-shan said, “Chang Kuo was originally a bat spirit. He attained human form by absorbing the essences of the sun and the moon.” The diviner tried to continue, but no words came from his mouth. Moments later, Fa-shan fell to the ground and died.

Shocked, the emperor immediately took off his crown and his shoes, went down on his knees, and begged the lords of heaven to save his diviner.

Chang Kuo appeared and said, “Sire, this man knew the consequences when he revealed the secrets of heaven.”

The emperor begged, “It was my fault that he died. Let me take the punishment.”

Moved by the emperor’s integrity, Chang Kuo allowed, “I will see what I can do.” He threw some water on Fa-shan’s body, and the diviner immediately sat up.

Not long after this incident, Chang Kuo asked for permission to leave the palace. The emperor sent him off with gifts of cloth and gold and two assistants. Kuo declined the cloth and gold but took the assistants. At the foot of Mount Heng, Kuo sent one of the assistants home and took the other with him into the mountains.

A year later, the emperor tried to invite Chang Kuo back to the palace. However, when the imperial messenger arrived at Kuo’s retreat, the master stopped his breath and died. Weeping, Kuo’s assistant lit the funeral candles and put his master’s body in a coffin.

After the emissary had gone, the lid of the casket flew open. The assistant peeked in and, to his shock, found that Kuo’s body had disappeared.

When news of Chang Kuo’s “disappearance” reached
the capital, the emperor ordered a shrine to be built on Mount Heng to honor the bat-spirit immortal.

C
HANG
K
UO
L
AO
lived during the T’ang dynasty (618–906
CE
). He wrote a treatise on astrology titled
Chang Kuo Lao hsing-tsung (Chang Kuo Lao’s Astrological System).
This system of celestial divination is still used widely by Chinese seers today.

5

The Immortal with the Iron Crutch

T’ieh-kuai Li

T’ieh-kuai means “Iron Crutch,” and Li got this nickname in an extraordinary way. He was an adept in the arts of longevity and spirit travel; it is said he learned them directly from Lao Tzu himself. Tall, handsome, and charismatic, Li was proud of his good looks and youthful vitality, which he maintained as a result of his practice.

One day, Li was invited to a gathering of immortals on Mount Hua. Before he sent out his spirit, he told his servant, “I will be leaving my body for seven days. Make sure that nothing happens to it while my spirit is gone. If I don’t wake
up after sunset on the seventh day, you can burn my body, gather your belongings, and go home.” With that, he closed his eyes, laid down, and sent his spirit to Mount Hua.

Six days passed, and Li had not returned. On the morning of the seventh day, the servant received a message from his brother, telling him that their mother was severely ill and would die soon. Li’s servant was caught in a dilemma. “I need to go home and see my mother before she dies,” he said to himself. “But the master told me to watch over his body for seven days.” He fretted for a long time and then decided, “Today is the seventh day and my master has not returned. It probably won’t matter whether I burn the body now or wait till after sunset.”

The servant built a pyre, placed Li’s body on it, and set the wood on fire. After making sure that the body was burned to ashes, he packed his belongings and went home.

That evening at sunset, Li’s spirit returned. When he saw the funeral pyre outside his house, he sighed and said, “It is the will of heaven.”

At that time, Li had not attained immortality and still needed a human shell to complete his cultivation. Fluttering around the town, his spirit found a beggar who had just died. The beggar was crippled and ugly, and, under normal circumstances, Li would have been too vain to choose so grotesque a shell. But he was desperate. If his spirit did not enter a body soon, he would lose his chance to complete his cultivation. So Li’s spirit hastily entered the body of the crippled beggar. From that time on, Li appeared as a crippled beggar leaning on an iron crutch.

Not much is known about T
’IEH-KUAI
L
I
except that he lived during the T’ang dynasty (618–906
CE
).

6

A Faithful Nephew

Han Hsiang

Han Hsiang was the nephew of the great scholar Han Yü. Although learned in the classics and talented at poetry and music, Hsiang had no intentions of entering the government.

While most young men of his age were busy studying for the civil service examinations, Han Hsiang was wandering around the mountains playing his flute and writing poetry. One time, while climbing up Mount Hua, Hsiang met the immortal Lü Tung-pin. Knowing the young poet was destined to become an immortal, Tung-pin taught Hsiang the arts of longevity and magic.

In the capital, Hsiang’s uncle Han Yü was worried over his nephew’s lack of interest in the government. One day, he called Hsiang to him and said, “It is your duty to use your talent to serve the emperor. You should stop drifting around and start preparing for the imperial examinations.”

Hsiang replied, “Our paths are different. You are destined to be famous in the realm of mortals and I am meant to escape the dust of the world.” He waved his hand and a flask of wine and two cups appeared on the table.

“Let us drink together, for this is my last day in the capital,” Hsiang told his uncle. “Beware of those in power. If we meet again, it will be on a snowy night at the frontier.”

At that time, Han Yü did not understand his nephew’s words.

Several days after Hsiang had left the capital, Han Yü was arrested for criticizing the emperor’s decision to enshrine Buddhist relics in the capital. Despite pleas from several influential ministers, the emperor had Yü demoted. The foremost scholar of the imperial academy was ordered to serve as a supervisor of courier service in a small frontier town.

Sadly, Han Yü made his way to the border. At Lan Pass, Yü was caught in a snowstorm. Night was falling and there was no shelter in sight. Just as he was giving up hope, Han Yü saw someone walking toward him. To his surprise, it was his nephew.

Han Hsiang approached his uncle and said, “Do you remember the conversation we had on my last night in the capital?”

Yü nodded. “I should have taken your advice and not criticized the emperor’s actions. But what has happened cannot be undone.”

Hsiang led Yü to an inn and ordered wine, and uncle and nephew talked long into the night. The next morning, as
Han Yü got ready to leave, Hsiang urged, “Uncle, do not despair. You will suffer hardships, but you will eventually be welcomed back to the capital.”

Han Yü embraced his nephew and asked, “Will we meet again?”

Hsiang replied, “That I do not know.”

Han Yü spent several years at the frontier. Then, as Han Hsiang had predicted, an imperial messenger arrived to invite Yü back to the capital. “The charges against you have been dropped,” said the emissary. “You are to return and be promoted.”

Han Yü returned to the capital to serve his emperor. He would eventually become one of the greatest poets, essayists, and scholars of China. Han Hsiang attained immortality, sought out his old friend Lü Tung-pin, and joined the company of the Eight Immortals.

H
AN
H
SIANG
lived during the T’ang dynasty (
618–906 CE
). His uncle, Han Yü, was one of the Eight Great Scholars of the T’ang and Sung dynasties.

7

The Wandering Minstrel

Lan T’sai-ho