Eight Daoist Immortals
八仙
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The Eight Immortals (八仙 ba xian, in Chinese) are eight colourful Daoist personalities well-known in Chinese popular culture for over seven hundred years. 仙 (xian) in Chinese means ‘those who have achieved longevity, immortality, and enlightenment’ and their artistic characterisation in extant dates back as early as the 3rd-century BCE, as ‘a male figure riding on a dragon’. Xian immortals can live on air and dew, fly without wings, and are resistant to the harmful effects of the elements. They possess many desirable traits in human society such as being free from anxiety, acting with spontaneity, and even forever having skin as smooth as that of a baby.
The Eight Immortals represent a wide spectrum of the society: male and female, rich and privileged and poor and downtrodden, old and young. They are Zhongli Quan (钟离权, or 汉钟离), Lv Dongbin (吕洞宾, or Lü Dongbin), Cao Guojiu (曹国舅), Han Xiangzi (韩湘子), He Xiangu (何仙姑), Lan Caihe (蓝采和), Li Tieguai (李铁拐), Zhang Guolao (张果老). Each of the Eight Immortals typically has specific emblems as his or her distinctive attribute. Zhongli Quan holds a fan or peach. Lv Dongbin has a sword. Cao Guojiu carries a clapper of several long, flat pieces of wood, or an official’s writing tablet in court, hu (笏). Han Xiangzi plays a bamboo flute. He Xian’gu, the only female among the eight, carries a stem of lotus flower or a long-handled bamboo colander. Lan Caihe has a basket of flowers. Li Tieguai leans on his iron crutch with a gourd often in his hand. Zhang Guolao, the oldest among the eight, is usually identified with his membranophone fish drum (渔鼓 yugu). These emblems can be used independently in decoration as the ‘Covet Eight Immortals (暗八仙 an ba xian)’.
Fig 1: porcelain dish, Qing dynasty (1644–1911), courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Fig 2-5: porcelain cup, Jiajing period (1522–66), Ming dynasty, courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Fig 6: stem porcelain cup, late 16th century, courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum, London
Fig 7: porcelain bowl, 1628–1660 (circa), courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum, London
Fig 8: porcelain dish with underglaze blue and overglaze enamelled decoration, Shunzhi period (1644–61), courtesy of the Sir Michael Butler Collection
Fig 9: porcelain bowl, Kangxi period (1662–1722), Qing dynasty, courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Fig 10-13: porcelain lantern, Kangxi period (1662–1722), courtesy of the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore
Fig 14-15: porcelain teapot, Kangxi period (1662–1722), Qing dynasty, courtesy of the Jie Rui Tang Collection
Fig 16-17: baluster jar, 17th-18th century, courtesy of Minneapolis Institute of Art
Fig 18: porcelain vase, 1701–1722 (circa), courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum, London
Fig 19: porcelain bowl, 18th century, courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum, London
Fig 20-21: wine vessel, Yongzheng period (1723–35), Qing dynasty, courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Fig 22-23: snuff-bottle, 1770–1796, courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum, London