Lan Caihe
Lan Caihe (Chinese: 藍采和; pinyin: Lán Cǎihé; Wade–Giles: Lan Ts'ai-ho) is a Chinese mythological figure and one of the Eight Immortals in the Taoist pantheon.
Properties
Lan Caihe is variously stated to have been a woman and an hermaphrodite. She is the strolling singer or mountebank of the Immortals. Usually she plays a flute or a pair of cymbals. According to popular belief, however, only one of the Eight Immortals, He Xiangu,was a woman, Lan Caihe being represented as a young person of about sixteen, bearing a basket of fruit. One writer states that though Lan Caihe was a man he could not understand how to be a man which may be why he has been supposed to be a woman.[1] It's said that in a drunken stupor Lan Caihe left the human world by riding on a celestial swan or crane into Heaven. One legend says that Lan Caihe became an Immortal by being transferred 500 years of magical powers by Sun Wukong.
Modern depictions
In the television show Jackie Chan Adventures, Lan Caihe was shown to be the Immortal who sealed away Dai Gui, The Earth Demon, and was portrayed as a man.
See also
References
- ↑ Myths and Legends of China Page 293
- Eberhard, Wolfram (1986). A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols: Hidden Symbols in Chinese Life and Thought. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London. ISBN 0-415-00228-1.
- Yetts, W. Perceval (1916). "The Eight Immortals". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.