According to the Hsiu hsiang Pa Hsien tung yu chi, epithets of Lan Caihe include "the Red-footed Great Genius," Ch’ih-chiao Ta-hsien incarnate. Lan was also called the "foot-stomping immortal,"Hartman, Charles. “ Stomping Songs: Word and Image.” Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR), vol. 17, 1995, pp. 1–49. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/495552. which was a reference to the genre of music that Lan performed, "stomping songs," which are described further below. Lan Caihe is a wandering musician. This immortal's musical instruments appear in depictions in art and have an important role in stories about Lan Caihe. Lan's musical instrument is the clapper (sometimes translated as castanets), of which there are many types in China. The type used by Lan were sometimes said to be , or else the , which are apparently both types of . Usually clappers are wood or bamboo, but some legends say Lan's were jade.Amy G. Poster, Layla S. Diba, Brooklyn Museum of Art. Journey through Asia: Masterpieces in the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Brooklyn Museum of Art, 2003. Page 76.Holm, David. “The Death of Tiaoxi (The 'Leaping Play'): Ritual Theatre in the Northwest of China.” Modern Asian Studies, vol. 37, no. 4, 2003, p. 877. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3876530. Lan's clappers were three chi longChen Yaoting. Gou Bo, translator. "The Eight Immortals." Taoist Culture & Information Centre. n.d. Retrieved January 29 , 2009. URL (about 72 centimeters; the length of a chi varies from one time period to the next). Others of the Eight Immortals also carry castanets, including Cao Guojiu, and Zhang Guolao.Stacey Pierson. Song Ceramics: Art History, Archaeology and Technology. University of London, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, School of Oriental and African Studies, 2004. Page 108. Because of this, sometimes archaeologists dispute which of these immortals is being represented by a figure identified only by its holding castanets. Lan Caihe sometimes uses cymbals as well. Sometimes Lan uses a flute, but a flute is more common in depictions of the Immortal Han Xiangzi. Some art of the Eight Immortals show more of them holding instruments, so presence of an instrument is not a certain method to distinguish one immortal from another.Emblems in Chinese art. The third row shows the emblems of the Eight Immortals, in which Lan Caihe's basket of flowers appears second from the right. In most art of the Eight Immortals, Lan can be recognized as the one that carries a basket of fruit and/or flowers.Laufer, B. “ The Chinese Gateway. ” Leaflet, no. 1, 1922, p. 5. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41415013. Sometimes Lan carries the basket in hand, and other times, slung on a hoe over the shoulder. This basket is Lan's distinctive emblem, and is connected to how Lan is the patron of florists. Lan's basket contains plants and medicinal herbs associated with longevity, including: the magic fungus (lingzhi mushroom, Ganoderma lucidum), which resists decay, and in Traditional Chinese medicine is used to prolong life;W. Percival Yetts. The Eight Immortals. The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. London. 1916. Page 781-782. URL sprigs of bamboo and pine, which as evergreen plants, symbolize longevity; flowering and leafless plum, because they show vitality in blooming in early spring from seemingly lifeless branches; chrysanthemums; and heavenly bamboo (Nandina domestica) with red berries. As with the emblems of each of the Eight Immortals, sometimes Lan's basket is depicted by itself. As a motif, Lan's basket is popular in decorations for the Chinese New Year, and represents riches and abundanceDenis Low. Chinese snuff bottles: from the sanctum of enlightened respect. Asian Civilisations Museum, 2007. Page 30. Lan's flower basket, along with the emblems of the rest of the Eight Immortals, appear in such places as on a Qing dynasty 19th century imperial dragon robe.Wu, Yi-Li, and 吳一立 . “The Gendered Medical Iconography of the Golden Mirror, Yuzuan Yizong Jinjian 御纂醫宗金鑑, 1742.” Imagining Chinese Medicine, edited by Vivienne Lo et al., vol. 18, Brill, LEIDEN; BOSTON, 2018, p. 124. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctvbqs6ph.12. Lan Caihe wears feminine or masculine clothing at different times.Eva Wong. Tales of the Taoist Immortals. Page 31-32. Sometimes Lan Caihe wears gender-ambiguous clothing. During Lan Caihe's initial mortal existence as a homeless musician, Lan wore a tattered blue gown or dress. This long blue gown is called lan shan (襕衫), which is traditional attire for men since the Tang dynasty.Chinese Literature, Essays, Articles, Reviews, Volumes 17-19. Coda Press, 1995. Page 35.Jie Yu. "Ming Dynasty Hanfu." Perfect Costume 天衣無縫 (blog). Created November 7 , 2011. Retrieved January 1 , 2020. URL The gown was fastened with six black wooden buttons, and a waist-belt more than three inches wide. (Some English sources mistranslate this part of the description as a "wooden belt.") Lan wore a shoe on one foot, the other foot bare. The one bare foot is also associated with the 5th-6th century Buddhist monk, Bodhidharma, for whom it symbolized survival beyond death. (Bodhidharma was seen after his own death, walking along carrying a shoe. Then, when people opened his grave to check if his body was there, they found his grave contained only his other shoe.)Alan Watts. The Spirit of Zen. New York: Grove Press. 1958. Page 32. It's possible that imagery of these two unrelated figures came to be conflated in art. In Lan's case, the one bare foot may represent freeing the soul, as well as disregard for convention. Having a shoe on only one foot could also have a purpose in the genre of music Lan performed, "stomping songs," which are described further below. Early life as a mortal Scholars believe that only three members of the Eight Immortals are based on real people who historically existed: Lü Dongbin, Zhongli Quan, and Zhang Guolao.National Geographic Society (U.S.). National Geographic Essential Visual History of World Mythology. National Geographic Books, 2008. Page 340. Scholars generally don't believe that Lan Caihe is based on an actual historical person. However, one view is that this immortal may have been based on an actor whose stage name was Lan Caihe, and otherwise went by Xu Jian, during the Five Dynasties period ( 907-960 CE).金乃逯. 中国文化释疑 (Explaining Doubts in Chinese Culture). 北京语言文化大学出版社, 1999. Page 65. In The Eight Immortals Cross the Sea In a story written by an anonymous author during the Ming dynasty (c. 14th-15th centuries), The Eight Immortals Cross the Sea (八仙過海; bā xiān guò hǎi), the Eight Immortals chose to all test their talents by ride across an ocean, not upon clouds as they all usually did, but by each placing their personal emblem upon the surface of the sea, and standing upon them to ride across the sea. (This is the origin of the proverb "The Eight Immortals cross the sea, each reveals its divine powers" (八仙過海，各顯神通; bā xiān guò hǎi, gè xiǎn shén tōng). This saying indicates a situation where everybody shows off their skills and expertise to achieve a common goal.) Lan Caihe rode across the sea upon their musical instrument, the jade clappers. During this, the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea spied and envied the clappers. The Dragon King stole the instrument and imprisoned its owner. This started a war between the Eight Immortals and the dragons. Eventually the Eight Immortals rescued Lan and the clappers, and defeated the dragons by pushing a mountain into the sea, which ruined the dragons' undersea palace, and killed many. Guanyin, the Bodhisattva of mercy, showed up to bring peace. As part of the compromise, Guanyin gave the clappers to the dragons, to make up for their fatalities.E.T.C Werner. Myths and Legends of China. Page 303-305. Lan Caihe doesn't receive attention outside of Lan's presence in the group of the Eight Immortals.Werner, E.T.C. "Pa-Hsien." A Dictionary of Chinese Mythology. Wakefield, NH: Longwood Academic, 1990. . Pages 345-346. O’Brien, Joanne, and Kwok Man Ho, eds. The Eight Immortals of Taoism. New York: Meridian, 1990. . Page 28. Yuan Yishan () ( 1190-1257 CE) was a poet whose hao was Hao Wên. In his collected works and biography, yi shan xian sheng wen ji (), Yuan mentions Lan Caihe in some of his poems. In one sad passage, Yuan compares himself unfavorably with two cultural figures: Yetts, W. Perceval. “ More Notes on the Eight Immortals. ” The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland'', no. 3, 1922, pp. 397–426. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25209911.
According to the Hsiu hsiang Pa Hsien tung yu chi, epithets of Lan Caihe include "the Red-footed Great Genius," Ch’ih-chiao Ta-hsien incarnate. Lan was also called the "foot-stomping immortal,"Hartman, Charles. " Stomping Songs: Word and Image.” Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR), vol. 17, 1995, pp. 1–49. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/495552. which was a reference to the genre of music that Lan performed, "stomping songs," which are described further below. Lan Caihe is a wandering musician. This immortal's musical instruments appear in depictions in art and have an important role in stories about Lan Caihe. Lan's musical instrument is the clapper (sometimes translated as castanets), of which there are many types in China. The type used by Lan were sometimes said to be , or else the , which are apparently both types of . Usually clappers are wood or bamboo, but some legends say Lan's were jade.Amy G. Poster, Layla S. Diba, Brooklyn Museum of Art. Journey through Asia: Masterpieces in the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Brooklyn Museum of Art, 2003. Page 76.Holm, David. “The Death of Tiaoxi (The 'Leaping Play'): Ritual Theatre in the Northwest of China.” Modern Asian Studies, vol. 37, no. 4, 2003, p. 877. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3876530. Lan's clappers were three chi longChen Yaoting. Gou Bo, translator. "The Eight Immortals." Taoist Culture & Information Centre. n.d. Retrieved 29 January 2009. URL (about 72 centimeters; the length of a chi varies from one time period to the next). Others of the Eight Immortals also carry castanets, including Cao Guojiu, and Zhang Guolao.Stacey Pierson. Song Ceramics: Art History, Archaeology and Technology. University of London, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, School of Oriental and African Studies, 2004. Page 108. Because of this, sometimes archaeologists dispute which of these immortals is being represented by a figure identified only by its holding castanets. Lan Caihe sometimes uses cymbals as well. Sometimes Lan uses a flute, but a flute is more common in depictions of the Immortal Han Xiangzi. Some art of the Eight Immortals show more of them holding instruments, so presence of an instrument is not a certain method to distinguish one immortal from another.Emblems in Chinese art. The third row shows the emblems of the Eight Immortals, in which Lan Caihe's basket of flowers appears second from the right. In most art of the Eight Immortals, Lan can be recognized as the one that carries a basket of fruit and/or flowers.Laufer, B. " The Chinese Gateway. " Leaflet, no. 1, 1922, p. 5. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41415013. Sometimes Lan carries the basket in hand, and other times, slung on a hoe over the shoulder. This basket is Lan's distinctive emblem, and is connected to how Lan is the patron of florists. Lan's basket contains plants and medicinal herbs associated with longevity, including: the magic fungus (lingzhi mushroom, Ganoderma lucidum), which resists decay, and in Traditional Chinese medicine is used to prolong life;W. Percival Yetts. The Eight Immortals. The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. London. 1916. Page 781-782. URL sprigs of bamboo and pine, which as evergreen plants, symbolize longevity; flowering and leafless plum, because they show vitality in blooming in early spring from seemingly lifeless branches; chrysanthemums; and heavenly bamboo (Nandina domestica) with red berries. As with the emblems of each of the Eight Immortals, sometimes Lan's basket is depicted by itself. As a motif, Lan's basket is popular in decorations for the Chinese New Year, and represents riches and abundanceDenis Low. Chinese snuff bottles: from the sanctum of enlightened respect. Asian Civilisations Museum, 2007. Page 30. Lan's flower basket, along with the emblems of the rest of the Eight Immortals, appear in such places as on a Qing dynasty 19th century imperial dragon robe.Wu, Yi-Li, and 吳一立 . “The Gendered Medical Iconography of the Golden Mirror, Yuzuan Yizong Jinjian 御纂醫宗金鑑, 1742.” Imagining Chinese Medicine, edited by Vivienne Lo et al., vol. 18, Brill, LEIDEN; BOSTON, 2018, p. 124. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctvbqs6ph.12. Lan Caihe wears feminine or masculine clothing at different times.Eva Wong. Tales of the Taoist Immortals. Page 31-32. Sometimes Lan Caihe wears gender-ambiguous clothing. During Lan Caihe's initial mortal existence as a homeless musician, Lan wore a tattered blue gown or dress. This long blue gown is called lan shan (襕衫), which is traditional attire for men since the Tang dynasty.Chinese Literature, Essays, Articles, Reviews, Volumes 17–19. Coda Press, 1995. Page 35.Jie Yu. "Ming Dynasty Hanfu." Perfect Costume 天衣無縫 (blog). Created 7 November 2011. Retrieved 1 January 2020. URL The gown was fastened with six black wooden buttons, and a waist-belt more than three inches wide. (Some English sources mistranslate this part of the description as a "wooden belt.") Lan wore a shoe on one foot, the other foot bare. The one bare foot is also associated with the 5th–6th century Buddhist monk, Bodhidharma, for whom it symbolized survival beyond death. (Bodhidharma was seen after his own death, walking along carrying a shoe. Then, when people opened his grave to check if his body was there, they found his grave contained only his other shoe.)Alan Watts. The Spirit of Zen. New York: Grove Press. 1958. Page 32. It's possible that imagery of these two unrelated figures came to be conflated in art. In Lan's case, the one bare foot may represent freeing the soul, as well as disregard for convention. Having a shoe on only one foot could also have a purpose in the genre of music Lan performed, "stomping songs," which are described further below. Early life as a mortal Scholars believe that only three members of the Eight Immortals are based on real people who historically existed: Lü Dongbin, Zhongli Quan, and Zhang Guolao.National Geographic Society (U.S.). National Geographic Essential Visual History of World Mythology. National Geographic Books, 2008. Page 340. Scholars generally don't believe that Lan Caihe is based on an actual historical person. However, one view is that this immortal may have been based on an actor whose stage name was Lan Caihe, and otherwise went by Xu Jian, during the Five Dynasties period ( 907–960 CE).金乃逯. 中国文化释疑 (Explaining Doubts in Chinese Culture). 北京语言文化大学出版社, 1999. Page 65. In The Eight Immortals Cross the Sea In a story written by an anonymous author during the Ming dynasty (c. 14th–15th centuries), The Eight Immortals Cross the Sea (八仙過海; bā xiān guò hǎi), the Eight Immortals chose to all test their talents by ride across an ocean, not upon clouds as they all usually did, but by each placing their personal emblem upon the surface of the sea, and standing upon them to ride across the sea. (This is the origin of the proverb "The Eight Immortals cross the sea, each reveals its divine powers" (八仙過海，各顯神通; bā xiān guò hǎi, gè xiǎn shén tōng). This saying indicates a situation where everybody shows off their skills and expertise to achieve a common goal.) Lan Caihe rode across the sea upon their musical instrument, the jade clappers. During this, the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea spied and envied the clappers. The Dragon King stole the instrument and imprisoned its owner. This started a war between the Eight Immortals and the dragons. Eventually the Eight Immortals rescued Lan and the clappers, and defeated the dragons by pushing a mountain into the sea, which ruined the dragons' undersea palace, and killed many. Guanyin, the Bodhisattva of mercy, showed up to bring peace. As part of the compromise, Guanyin gave the clappers to the dragons, to make up for their fatalities.E.T.C Werner. Myths and Legends of China. Page 303-305. Lan Caihe doesn't receive attention outside of Lan's presence in the group of the Eight Immortals.Werner, E.T.C. "Pa-Hsien." A Dictionary of Chinese Mythology. Wakefield, NH: Longwood Academic, 1990. . Pages 345–346. O’Brien, Joanne, and Kwok Man Ho, eds. The Eight Immortals of Taoism. New York: Meridian, 1990. . Page 28. Yuan Yishan () ( 1190–1257 CE) was a poet whose hao was Hao Wên. In his collected works and biography, yi shan xian sheng wen ji (), Yuan mentions Lan Caihe in some of his poems. In one sad passage, Yuan compares himself unfavorably with two cultural figures: Yetts, W. Perceval. " More Notes on the Eight Immortals. " The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland'', no. 3, 1922, pp. 397–426. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25209911.
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January
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,
January
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17-19.
17–19.
D
November
R
,
November
D
January
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,
January
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5th-6th
5th–6th
R
907-960
907–960
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14th-15th
14th–15th
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345-346.
345–346.
R
1190-1257
1190–1257
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