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Ts’ao
Kuo-chiu
Ts’ao
Kuo-chiu was connected with the imperial family of the Sungs,
and is shown with the tablet of admission to Court in his
hand. He became one of the Eight Immortals because the other
seven, who occupied seven of the eight grottos of the Upper
Spheres, wished to see the eighth inhabited, and nominated
him because “his disposition resembled that of a genie.”
The legend relates that the Empress Ts’ao, wife of the
Emperor Jên Tsung (A.D. 1023–64), had two younger
brothers. The elder of the two, Ching-hsiu, did not concern
himself with the affairs of State; the younger, Ching-chih,
was notorious for his misbehaviour. In spite of all warnings
he refused to reform, and being at last guilty of homicide
was condemned to death. His brother, ashamed at what had
occurred, went and hid in the mountains, where he clothed
his head and body with wild plants, resolved to lead the
life of a hermit. One day Han Chung-li and Lü Tung-pin
found him in his retreat, and asked him what he was doing.
“I am engaged in studying the Way,” he replied. “What
way, and where is it?” they asked. He pointed to the sky.
“Where is the sky?” they went on. He pointed to his
heart. The two visitors smiled and said: “The heart is the
sky, and the sky is the Way; you understand the origin of
things.” They then gave him a recipe for perfection, to
enable him to take his place among the Perfect Ones. In a
few days only he had reached this much-sought-after
condition.
In another version we find fuller details concerning this Immortal. A
graduate named Yüan Wên-chêng of Ch’ao-yang Hsien, in
the sub-prefecture of Ch’ao-chou Fu in Kuangtung, was
travelling with his wife to take his examinations at the
capital. Ts’ao Ching-chih, the younger brother of the
Empress, saw the lady, and was struck with her beauty. In
order to gratify his passion he invited the graduate and his
young wife to the palace, where he strangled the husband and
tried to force the wife to cohabit with him. She refused
obstinately, and as a last resort he had her imprisoned in a
noisome dungeon. The soul of the graduate appeared to the
imperial Censor Pao Lao-yeh, and begged him to exact
vengeance for the execrable crime. The elder brother,
Ching-hsiu, seeing the case put in the hands of the upright
Pao Lao-yeh, and knowing his brother to be guilty of
homicide, advised him to put the woman to death, in order to
cut off all sources of information and so to prevent further
proceedings. The young voluptuary thereupon caused the woman
to be thrown down a deep well, but the star T’ai-po Chin-hsing,
in the form of an old man, drew her out again. While making
her escape, she met on the road an official procession which
she mistook for that of Pao Lao-yeh, and, going up to the
sedan chair, made her accusation. This official was no other
than the elder brother of the murderer. Ching-hsiu,
terrified, dared not refuse to accept the charge, but on the
pretext that the woman had not placed herself respectfully
by the side of the official chair, and thus had not left a
way clear for the passage of his retinue, he had her beaten
with iron-spiked whips, and she was cast away for dead in a
neighbouring lane. This time also she revived, and ran to
inform Pao Lao-yeh. The latter immediately had Ts’ao
Ching-hsiu arrested, cangued, and fettered. Without loss of
time he wrote an invitation to the second brother, Ts’ao
Ching-chih, and on his arrival confronted him with the
graduate’s wife, who accused him to his face. Pao Lao-yeh
had him put in a pit, and remained deaf to all entreaties of
the Emperor and Empress on his behalf. A few days later the
murderer was taken to the place of execution, and his head
rolled in the dust. The problem now was how to get Ts’ao
Ching-hsiu out of the hands of the terrible Censor. The
Emperor Jên Tsung, to please the Empress, had a universal
amnesty proclaimed throughout the Empire, under which all
prisoners were set free. On receipt of this edict, Pao Lao-yeh
liberated Ts’ao Ching-hsiu from the cangue, and allowed
him to go free. As one risen from the dead, he gave himself
up to the practice of perfection, became a hermit, and,
through the instruction of the Perfect Ones, became one of
the Eight Immortals.
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