Tag Archives: Immortals

BOOK: “Stories and Myths of Eight Immortals” Trans. by Li Yanjia and Nathaniel Hu

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Stories and Myths of Eight ImmortalsStories and Myths of Eight Immortals by Anonymous
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Available online – Internet Archives

This is a fine collection of stories about the adventures of the Eight Immortals (mostly as individuals, but with a few stories that feature the whole group.) There are twenty-eight chapters, but a few less than that of stories because the first chapter is an introduction to the Eight Immortals, and there are a couple of chapters at the end that discuss the origins of cultural artifacts associated with the Eight Immortals.

The stories are pulled from varied sources. I would give the stories a five, but this edition is loaded with grammatical mistakes — to the point of being distracting and unpleasant to read. It reads not like a present-day Google Translate translation, but rather as if it was being spoken by someone with an uneven (remedial to elegant) grasp of English. [Not everywhere, but enough to be problematic.]

The stories themselves are engaging, often have moral, and are quick reads (mostly a page, a few more than three pages.)

If you can tolerate reading through patches of bad grammar, this is not a bad collection of stories and information about the Eight Immortals, but if it’s too much to stomach, you might want to look elsewhere. The stories themselves are widely available, though not necessarily in English and, if so, not necessarily collected into a single volume. With editing, this would be an excellent collection of stories.

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“Drinking Alone in the Rainy Season” by Tao Yuanming [陶渊明] (a.k.a. Táo Qián, or 陶潜]

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Whatever lives must meet its end --
   That is the way it has always been.

If Taoist immortals were once alive,
   Where are they today?

The old man who gave me wine
   Claimed it was the wine of the immortals.

One small cup and a thousand worries vanish;
   Two, and you'll even forget about heaven.

But is heaven really so far away?
   It is best to trust in the Tao.

A crane in the clouds has magic wings
   To cross the earth in a moment.

It's been forty years of struggle 
   Since I first became reclusive.

Now that my body is nearly dead,
   My heart is pure. What more is there to say?

NOTE: This is the translation of Sam Hamill found in The Poetry of Zen (2004); Shambhala Publications: Boston, MA, p.24.

BOOK REVIEW: Tales of the Taoist Immortals by Eva Wong

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Tales of the Taoist ImmortalsTales of the Taoist Immortals by Eva Wong
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Amazon page

 

This book tells of the key events in the lives of forty Taoist immortals. While the title (specifically the word “tales”) might lead one to think that this is a book of stories, it is only so in the most general sense of the word “story.” Satisfying stories show a character confronted by barriers to obtaining some desired goal. That isn’t the case in the overwhelming majority of the “tales” in this book, and the few in which the individual is confronted with a challenge she usually uses her superpowers to magic the problem away. (To be fair, Taoist sages aren’t known for being ambitious and thus have few goals to chase after. There are more examples of individuals turning down high offices in these character sketches than there are characters attempting to obtain some objective.)

If you are looking to learn more about key figures in Chinese history and mythology, this book will serve your purpose through brief (2-3 page) character sketches that hit the highlights. However, if you are looking for something like the “Book of Chuang Tzu” with clever morality tales, that’s not at all what you’ll find in this book. There are a couple of exceptions, but they are rare nuggets.

Each of the 40 chapters provides one character sketch of life events with a brief bio at the end. The 40 chapters are divided into five parts by the class of individual being mentioned (i.e. the eight immortals, sages, magicians, diviners, and alchemists.) There is a line drawing (reminiscent of block print) for each of the chapters that depicts the immortal in action. The only ancillary matter is a brief introduction.

As I suggested, if one is looking for information about the lives of Taoist immortals, one may find this to be a good source—particularly if one doesn’t want to get bogged down in minutiae. The entire book is less than 200 pages. On the other hand, if one is looking for stories or morality tales, one will likely find this book leaves one wanting.

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