Pa Hsein

The Eight Immortals of the Taoist tradition. Ordinary mortals who, through good works and good lives, were rewarded by the Queen Mother Wang by giving them the peaches of everlasting life to eat. They are:

TIEH-KUAI Li - of the Iron Crutch. A healer, Li sits as a beggar in the market place selling wondrous drugs, some of which can revive the dead.

CHUNG-LI CH'UAN - A smiling old men always beaming with joy, he was rewarded with immortality for his ascetic life in the mountains.

LAN TS'AI-HO - A young flute-player and wandering minstrel who carries a basket laden with fruit. His soul-searching songs caused a stork to snatch him away to the heavens.

LU TUNG-PIN - A hero of early Chinese literature. Renouncing riches and the world, he punished the wicked and rewarded the good, and slew dragons with a magic sword.

CHANG-KUO LAO - An aged hermit with miraculous abilities. Chang owned a donkey that could travel at incredible speed. The personification of the primordial vapor that is the source of all life.

HAN HSIANG-TZU - A scholar who chose to study magic rather than prepare for the civil service. When his uncle chastised him for studying magic, Han Hsiang-Tzu materialized two flowers with poems written on the leaves.

TS'AO KUO-CHIU - Ts'ao Kuo-Chiu tried to reform his brother, a corrupt emperor, by reminding him that the laws of heaven are inescapable.

HO HSIEN-KU - Immortal Maiden - A Cantonese girl who dreamed that she could become immortal by eating a powder made of mother-of-pearl. She appears only to men of great virtue.