8 Immortals Taoism
Osias Baptist
Traditionally, xian refers to entities who have attained immortality and supernatural or magical abilities later in life, with a connection to the heavenly realms inaccessible to mortals. This is often achieved through spiritual self-cultivation, alchemy, or worship by others.[2] This is different from the gods in Chinese mythology and Taoism, who were inherently supernatural.
Xian is also used as a descriptor to refer to often benevolent figures of great historical, spiritual and cultural significance. The Quanzhen School of Daoism had a variety of definitions about what xian means during its history, including a metaphorical meaning where the term simply means a good, principled person.[3]
Legends of so-called immortals were widely accepted by the ancient Chinese. Although the concept of immortals was not exactly the same through the ages, some general images persisted. Immortals usually live in clean and pure places such as high mountains; they do not eat cereals; they appear only to people who perform the proper religious practices or have the right kind of destiny. Some immortals also live in grottoes underneath the sacred mountains. They can freely change their appearance: sometimes they appear in the everyday world looking like ordinary men, to test young immortal aspirants. They move very swiftly and fly though the air, sometimes using wings. (1989:73-98)
They are immune to heat and cold, untouched by the elements, and can fly, mounting upward with a fluttering motion. They dwell apart from the chaotic world of man, subsist on air and dew, are not anxious like ordinary people, and have the smooth skin and innocent faces of children. The transcendents live an effortless existence that is best described as spontaneous. They recall the ancient Indian ascetics and holy men known as Rishi who possessed similar traits.[7]
Xian were thought of as "personal gods" who were formerly humans, and types of ascended humans who became them include "ascetics, scholars, and warriors".[8] Taoists would pray to them, and try to follow the examples the gods set while living.[8]
The Eight Immortals are an example of xian, and the role of xian also as folk heroes who can offer assistance to "worthy human followers" and whose existence fosters the relationship between the living and the dead. Sometimes, they and other xian were viewed as similar in nature to ghosts, rather than deities.[6][9] The Eight Immortals and other xian were thought to have powers linked to their tools that were ultimately of a single nature that can add to or subtract the lifespan of humans depending on the human's level of sin.[10]
Xian were also thought by some Taoists to be synonymous with the gods inside the body, and as beings that would sometimes cause mortals problems but could be fought with martial virtue and martial arts.[11] Xian could be good or evil.[12] Not all Xian are Taoist, but they are usually associated with Taoist adepts who have ascended to immortality and godhood through spiritual practice and mastery.[13]
Besides enlightened humans and fairy-like humanoid beings, xiān can also refer to supernatural animals, including foxes, fox spirits,[14] and Chinese dragons.[15][16] Xian dragons were thought to be the mounts of gods and goddesses[16] or manifestations of the spirit of Taoists such as Laozi that existed in a mental realm sometimes called "the Heavens".[15]
Shījiě xiān (Chinese: 屍解仙; pinyin: Shī jiě xiān) - "Escaped-by-means-of-a-stimulated-corpse-simulacrum Immortal", literally "Corpse Untie Immortal" - The lowest level. This is considered the lowest form of immortality since a person must first "fake" their own death by substituting a bewitched object like a bamboo pole, talisman, or a shoe for their corpse. There are also stories of Taoist cultivators slipping a type of Death certificate into the coffin of a newly departed relative, thus having their name and "allotted life span" deleted from the ledgers kept by the Sīmng (司命 - "Director of allotted life spans", literally "Controller of Fate"). Mortals who choose this route have to protect themselves from heavenly retribution by inacting the Ling bao tai xuan yin sheng zhi fu (Chinese: 靈寳太玄隂生之符; pinyin: Lng bǎo ti xun yīn shēng zhī f) - "Numinous Treasure Talisman of the Grand Mystery for Living in Hiding". [17]
However, this is not a true form of immortality. For each misdeed a person commits, the Director of allotted life spans subtracts days and sometimes years from their allotted life span. This method allows a person to live out the entirety of their allotted lifespan and avoid the agents of death. But the body still has to be transformed into an immortal one, hence the phrase Xiānsǐ hutuō (Chinese: 先死後脱; pinyin: Xiān sǐhu tuō) - "The 'death' is apparent, [but] the sloughing off of the body's mortality remains to be done."
These titles were usually given to humans who had either not proven themselves worthy of or were not fated to become immortals. One such famous agent was Fei Changfang, who was eventually murdered by evil spirits because he lost his book of magic talismans. However, some immortals are written to have used this method in order to escape execution.[17]
The 121 CE Shuowen Jiezi, the first important dictionary of Chinese characters, does not enter 仙 except in the definition for 偓佺 (Wqun "name of an ancient immortal"). It defines 僊 as "live long and move away" and 仚 as "appearance of a person on a mountaintop".
They are usually found in Taoist texts, although some Buddhist sources mention them. Chinese folk religion and writings on it also use them, such as in Northeast China with the fox gods or "huxian" common in the region.
The Three Sovereigns had similarities to xian because of some of their supernatural abilities and could have been considered such.[citation needed] Upon his death, the Yellow Emperor was "said to have become" a xian.[22]
During the Six Dynasties, xian were a common subject of zhiguai stories.[40] They often had "magical" Tao powers including the abilities to "walk...through walls or stand...in light without casting a shadow."[40]
The true sage is a quail at rest, a little fledgling at its meal, a bird in flight who leaves no trail behind. When the world has the Way, he joins in the chorus with all other things. When the world is without the Way, he nurses his Virtue and retires in leisure. And after a thousand years, should he weary of the world, he will leave it and [上] ascend to [僊] the immortals, riding on those white clouds all the way up to the village of God. (12)[42]
Lieh Tzu could ride the wind and go soaring around with cool and breezy skill, but after fifteen days he came back to earth. As far as the search for good fortune went, he didn't fret and worry. He escaped the trouble of walking, but he still had to depend on something to get around. If he had only mounted on the truth of Heaven and Earth, ridden the changes of the six breaths, and thus wandered through the boundless, then what would he have had to depend on? Therefore, I say, the Perfect Man has no self; the Holy Man has no merit; the Sage has no fame. (1)[43]
He said that there is a Holy Man living on faraway [姑射] Ku-she Mountain, with skin like ice or snow, and gentle and shy like a young girl. He doesn't eat the five grains, but sucks the wind, drinks the dew, climbs up on the clouds and mist, rides a flying dragon, and wanders beyond the Four Seas. By concentrating his spirit, he can protect creatures from sickness and plague and make the harvest plentiful. (1)[44]
Many conclusions can be reached on the basis of this story, but it seems that death is regarded as a natural part of the ebb and flow of transformations which constitute the movement of Dao. To grieve over death, or to fear one's own death, for that matter, is to arbitrarily evaluate what is inevitable. Of course, this reading is somewhat ironic given the fact that much of the subsequent Daoist tradition comes to seek longevity and immortality, and bases some of their basic models on the Zhuangzi.[46]
The "Xi shi" ("Sorrow for Troth Betrayed") resembles the "Yuan You", and both reflect Daoist ideas from the Han period. "Though unoriginal in theme," says Hawkes, "its description of air travel, written in a pre-aeroplane age, is exhilarating and rather impressive."[49]
We gazed down of the Middle Land [China] with its myriad people
As we rested on the whirlwind, drifting about at random.
In this way we came at last to the moor of Shao-yuan:
There, with the other blessed ones, were Red Pine and Wang Qiao.
The two Masters held zithers tuned in perfect concord:
I sang the Qing Shang air to their playing.
In tranquil calm and quiet enjoyment,
Gently I floated, inhaling all the essences.
But then I thought that this immortal life of [僊] the blessed,
Was not worth the sacrifice of my home-returning.[50]
Far and forlorn, with no hope of return:
Sadly I gaze in the distance, over the empty plain.
Below, I fish in the valley streamlet;
Above, I seek out [僊] holy hermits.
I enter into friendship with Red Pine;
I join Wang Qiao as his companion.We send the Xiao Yang in front to guide us;
The White Tiger runs back and forth in attendance.
Floating on the cloud and mist, we enter the dim height of heaven;
Riding on the white deer we sport and take our pleasure.[51]
The Ku-ye mountains stand on a chain of islands where the Yellow River enters the sea. Upon the mountains there lives a Divine Man, who inhales the wind and drinks the dew, and does not eat the five grains. His mind is like a bottomless spring, his body is like a virgin's. He knows neither intimacy nor love, yet [仙聖] immortals and sages serve him as ministers. He inspires no awe, he is never angry, yet the eager and diligent act as his messengers. He is without kindness and bounty, but others have enough by themselves; he does not store and save, but he himself never lacks. The Yin and Yang are always in tune, the sun and moon always shine, the four seasons are always regular, wind and rain are always temperate, breeding is always timely, the harvest is always rich, and there are no plagues to ravage the land, no early deaths to afflict men, animals have no diseases, and ghosts have no uncanny echoes.[56]
c80f0f1006