What Do the Eight Immortals Represent? (Tao Mythology Pa Hsien)

The Taoist tale of the Eight Immortals may be seen depicted in Chinese artwork rather often. For more than a thousand years, they have been shown as a topic in almost every kind of artistic medium that is used in China. They have been photographed singly, in groups of three, and with all eight of them gathered together.

One of the most popular subjects of representation in China is the Eight Immortals, also known as Pa Hsien, who are part of the Taoist religion. Their portraits can be found everywhere, including on porcelain vases, teapots, teacups, fans, scrolls, embroidery, and so on. They can also be found in groups. Porcelain, earthenware, roots, wood, and metals are all used to craft representations of them. The concept of happiness is often represented metaphorically by the phrase “Eight Immortals.” As a result of its association with this custom, the number eight is now considered fortunate, and those individuals or things that number eight in total are honored accordingly. Thus, we read of reverence being shown to the “Eight Genii Table” (Pa Hsien Cho), the “Eight Genii Bridge” (Pa Hsien Ch’iao), the “Eight Genii Vermicelli” (Pa Hsien Mien), and the “Eight Genii of the Wine-cup” (Tin Chung Pa Hsien)—wine-bibbers of the T’ang dynasty who were celebrated by They are frequently featured in romantic narratives and are the focus of admirers’ undivided attention. They are “the embodiment of the concepts of perfect but imagined bliss which inhabits the imaginations of the Chinese people,” and we see these ideas embodied in them. Only three of them (Chung-li Ch’üan, Chang Kuo, and Lü Yen) are known to have existed in real life; the other two are only mentioned in legends or romantic stories. They symbolize elderly people, young people, males, females, government servants, military personnel, the wealthy, the impoverished, the suffering, the cultured, and the aristocratic. They also serve as a representative sample of the early, middle, and later periods of history.

It is quite unlikely that the tale of the Eight Immortals dates back any farther than the Sung dynasty (which lasted from 960 to 1280 A.D.), and it is more likely to have originated during the Yüan dynasty (1280–1368). However, it would seem that at least some of the individuals in the group had been honored as Immortals in the Taoist stories in the past. Typically, their biographies will be organized in the order of their formal eminence or the order in which they entered the world. In this section, I follow the format that was adopted in Hsiu hsiang Pa. Hsien tung yu chi, in which the Immortals are described in the order in which they attained that status.